All your darkest dreams are gonna
come for you, come for you
Welcome to the panic room
You'll know I wasn't joking when you see them too
The Doctor, Amy, and Alice ran to the laboratory. Bracewell stood at his desk, hunched over a stack of papers. Daleks rolled through the place. Alice wished the nervous feeling at the sight of the things would disappear, as it was getting quite annoying.
"All right, Prof. Now, the PM's been filling me in. Amazing things, these Ironsides of yours. Amazing. You must be very proud of them," the Doctor said, accusingly.
"Just doing my bit," Bracewell said, facing the group and straightening proudly.
"Not bad for a Paisley boy," Amy joked.
"Yes, I thought I detected a familiar cadence, my dear," Bracewell replied. He looked at Alice. "Are you alright ma'am? I promise you that my Ironsides won't hurt anyone helping the Allied cause."
"Right, mate," she said, nodding.
"How did you do it? Come up with the idea?" the Doctor continued.
"How does the muse of invention come to anyone?" Bracewell argued.
"But you get a lot of these clever notions, do you?" the Doctor accused.
"Well, ideas just seem to teem from my head. Wonderful things, like. Let me show you. Some musings on the potential of hypersonic flight. Gravity bubbles that can sustain life outside of the terrestrial atmosphere. Came to me in the bath," said the scientist.
"And are these your ideas or theirs?" the Time Lord questioned.
"Oh no, no, no. These robots are entirely under my control, Doctor," Bracwell said.
A Dalek rolled up to them, carrying a tray of tea. Bracewell smiled at it.
"Thank you. The perfect servant, and the perfect warrior," he finished.
"Professor Bracewell, sir, these things are dangerous," Alice said. "I'm certain I've met them before. And that it was the worst day of my life."
"I am tremendously sorry, Ms Pond. But you must have my Ironsides and whatever horrid creature you met mixed up," Bracewell said.
"I don't know what you're up to, Professor, but whatever they've promised, you cannot trust them. Call them what you like, the Daleks are death," the Doctor said.
"Yes, Doctor. Death to our enemies. Death to the forces of darkness, and death to the Third Reich," Churchill said, entering.
"Yes, Winston, and death to everyone else too!" the Doctor cried. The Dalek with the tea tray rolled over to the Doctor.
"Would you care for some tea?" the Dalek asked. The Doctor knocked the tray from the Dalek's plunger. The Dalek rolled backwards slightly.
"Stop this! What are you doing here? What do you want?" the Doctor roared.
"We seek only to help you," the Dalek replied.
"To do what?" the Doctor demanded.
"To win the war," the Dalek replied.
"Really? Which war?" the Doctor shouted at the machine.
"I do not understand," said the Dalek.
"This war, against the Nazis, or your war? The war against the rest of the Universe? The war against all life forms that are not Dalek?" the Doctor shouted.
"I do not understand. I am your soldier," cried the Dalek.
"Oh, yeah? Okay. Okay, soldier, defend yourself," the Doctor spat. He picked up a huge spanner and started hitting the Dalek.
"Doctor, what the devil?" Churchill demanded, shocked.
"You do not require tea?" the Dalek asked, continuing to be hit with the spanner.
"Stop him! Prime Minister, please," Bracewell pleaded.
"Doctor! Calm down. Please," Alice said. He ignored her. He ignored everyone.
"Doctor, what the devil? Please, these machines are precious!" Churchill cried.
"Come on. Fight back. You want to, don't you? You know you do!" the Doctor growled at the machines.
"I must protest!" Bracewell said.
"What are you waiting for? Look, you hate me. You want to kill me. Well, go on. Kill me." When the Dalek didn't move, the Doctor struck it again and screamed at it, "Kill me!"
"Doctor!" Amy shouted.
"Please desist from striking me. I am your soldier," the Dalek said.
"You... are... my... enemy!" he roared, striking the Dalek in between words. He had called himself a madman before, but now he truly seemed mad. "And I am yours. You are everything I despise. The worst thing in all creation. I've defeated you time and time again. I've defeated you. I sent you back into the Void. I saved the whole of reality from you! I am the Doctor. And you are the Daleks!" the Doctor shouted, kicking the machine. As soon as he said it, Alice got the feeling that something was going to go very, very wrong.
"Correct. Review testimony," the Dalek said. It sounded proud. It turned to one of its own kind, and the Doctor's voice rang through the room.
"I am the Doctor. And you are the Daleks."
"Testimony. What are you talking about, testimony?" the Doctor asked. He sounded afraid.
"Transmitting testimony now," the Dalek said.
"Transmit what, where?" No answer. And then,
"Testimony accepted," the Dalek said.
"Get back, all of you!" the Doctor warned, pushing the Ponds backwards.
"Marines! Marines, get in here!" Churchill yelled. Two Marines come running through the door. As soon as they set foot in the room, a burst of light fires out of each of the Dalek's guns. The Marines scream in agony, skeletons visible for a fraction of a second before they crumpled to the ground. Alice gasped.
Fire. People dead everywhere. Buildings in ruins. But not any buildings like she had ever seen. Alien buildings. A city in a dome. Robotic cries of "Exterminate" everywhere. A Dalek yelling, "The Doctor is located! The Doctor is located!"
"Stop it, stop it, please. What are you doing? You are my Ironsides," Bracewell said. She was back in the laboratory. He sounded a bit hysterical, and had good reason too.
"We are the Daleks," the machines replied.
"But I created you," Bracewell said.
"No," the Dalek said simply. It fired another shot, this one hitting Bracewell's hand, blowing it off and revealing a metal interior that sparked and spluttered. "We created you," the Dalek finished.
"Victory. Victory. Victory," chant all the Daleks as blue light fills the base and they teleport away.
"What just happened, Doctor?" Amy asked.
"I wanted to know what they wanted. What their plan was. I was their plan," the Doctor said, quietly. He stood still only for a moment before rushing off.
"Hey!" Amy yelled. The Ponds ran after the Time Lord.
...
"'Testimony accepted.' That's what they said. My testimony," said the Doctor.
"Don't beat yourself up, you were right!" Amy said.
"So what do we do now?" Alice asked. "Is this what we do now? Do we chase after them?"
"This is what I do, yeah, and it's dangerous so the two of you wait here," he said.
"What, so you mean we've got to stay safe down here, in the middle of the London Blitz?" Amy asked.
"Safe as it gets around me," the Doctor said. Churchill walked up to them.
"I want to help," Alice said.
"We both want to help!" Amy agreed.
"No. I couldn't live with myself if one of you got hurt. Anyway, Alice, you can't come. You panic everytime you see a Dalek," the Doctor shot at them. "Bye." He darted into his TARDIS and ran off.
"Well, what does he expect us to do now?" Amy demanded of Churchill.
"KBO, of course," the PM. "Keep buggering on."
...
"Prime Minister!" She handed him the paper. "Signal from, RDF, sir. Unidentified object. Hanging in the sky, Captain Childers says. We can't get a proper fix though. It's too far up." Breen left, looking worried.
"What do you think?" Churchill asked the Ponds excitedly. "The Doctor's in trouble and now we know where he is."
"Yep. 'Cause he'll be on that ship, won't he?" Amy said, smiling.
"Right in the middle of everythin'," Alice agreed.
"Exactly!" Churchill said.
...
Back in the war room, there were a few problems. The lights across London had all switched on. Everyone was scrambling around, trying to turn the lights back off.
"The generators won't switch off. The lights are all on across London," the man said.
"Has to be them. It has to be the Daleks," Amy said.
"Germans can see the city," Alice breathed. "That's clever. Bad, but clever."
"We're sitting ducks. Get those lights out before the Germans get here," Churchill said.
"Confirm. Squadron 224 and 56 mobilised. Emergency. Emergency," someone else said.
"109? 109, confirm," said a third.
"Thousands will die if we don't get those lights out now," Churchill said.
"German bombers sighted over the Channel, sir. ETA ten minutes, sir," said a fourth person.
"Here they come. Get a message to Mister Attlee. War Cabinet meeting at 0300 hours. If we're all still here," Churchill said.
"We can't just sit here. We've got to take the fight to the Daleks," Amy said.
"How? None of our weapons are a match for theirs," Churchill said.
"Oh God, we must have something," Amy said.
"If we can get up there, we can outwit them. Robots think different," Alice muttered.
"604 Blenheim squadron, stand by," a man said.
"Oh," Alice said after a moment. "Oh." She frowned. "Well, no." Another hesitation. "Well, yes." A second hesitation. "Well, sorta."
"What?" Amy asked. Along with the whispering voice, Alice said,
"Bracewell."
"A gift from the Daleks," Amy said, realising.
...
The three of them ran to the laboratory. Bracewell was leaning against his desk, a pistol in his hand, staring into the barrel.
"Bracewell! Put the gun down!" Churchill barked.
"My life is a lie, and I choose to end it," the scientist said.
"Bracewell, mate, please," Alice said, running over to him.
"My life is a lie," Bracewell repeated.
"Hey, what's your first name?" Alice asked him.
"Does it matter?"
"A little," Alice said.
"Edwin," Bracewell said.
"Right then, Edwin. If you want this, I won't stop you. None of us will. But the Daleks have turned the lights on all over London. We need to stop them, and we need your help," Alice said.
"But those monsters... My Ironsides! They made me?" Bracewell said, voice weak. "I can remember things. So many things. The last war. The squalor and the mud and the awful, awful, misery of it all. What am I? What am I?"
"You're Edwin Bracewell," Alice said. "Does it matter if you're human or alien or cyborg?"
"What you are, sir, is either on our side or theirs," Churchill said, firmly. "Now, I don't give a damn if you're a machine, Bracewell. Are you a man?" Amy joined Alice.
"Listen. I understand. Really. I do," Amy said softly. "But there's a spaceship up there lighting up London like a Christmas tree. Thousands of people will die tonight if we don't stop it. And you are the only one who can help us take it down." She took the gun from him. "So end your life on your own time, Paisley Boy."
"I'm the only one?" Bracewell asked.
"You're alien technology, mate! And pretty damn good tech, I'd reckon," Alice said. "Clever as the Daleks. Bit of a flaw on their part, if you ask me, but no complaints from anyone, I think."
"So start thinking!" Amy cried. "What about rockets? You got rockets? Because you said gravity whatsits, hyper-sonic flight. Some kind of missile."
"This isn't a fireworks party! We need proper tactical-" Churchill cut himself off with a gasp. "A missile! Or..."
"A rocket?" Alice suggested, dryly.
"We could send someone up there, you say?" the PM asked, ignoring Alice.
"Yes, well, with a gravity bubble. Theoretically, it's possible that we could actually send something into space," Bracewell said.
"Bracewell, it's time to think big," Churchill said.
...
"More Nazi bombers approaching in strike formation. Incendiary bombs have hit the East End of London," said one of the men in the map room. He introduced himself as Captain Childers a few minutes ago. But it had really gone over Alice's head. She couldn't stay standing still, chalk full of anxiety and energy, she paced the map room, much to Churchill's annoyance.
He was probably also put off by her incessant asking of Bracewell to help, and constantly being shut down.
Amy leaned up against the map table, drumming her fingers impatiently, while Churchill puffed on his cigar and occasionally shot an unhappy look at Alice. Suddenly, Bracewell bursts in, holding lots of scientific equipment.
"At last. Are they ready?" the PM said.
"I hope so. But in the meantime, this will pick up Dalek transmissions," Bracewell said.
Bracewell's rigged radar scanner picked up a picture of a group of Daleks and the Doctor. Alice stopped her pacing to watch.
"We are the paradigm of a new Dalek race," the first Dalek said on screen.
"It's him. It's the Doctor," Amy said.
"Scientist, Strategist, Drone, Eternal, and the Supreme," the first Dalek continued.
"Which would be you, I'm guessing. Well, you know, nice paint job," the Doctor said. "I'd be feeling pretty swish if I looked like you. Pretty supreme."
"He's got company. New company. You've got to hurry up," Alice said. The phone range. Bracewell answered it.
"Yes? Right. Right, thanks. Ready when you are, Prime Minister," Bracewell said.
"Splendid," Churchill said.
"Spaceship's exact coordinates located," Bracewell said.
"Go to it, Group Captain. Go to it," Churchill commanded.
"Broadsword to Danny Boy. Broadsword to Danny Boy. Scramble. Scramble. Scramble," someone said.
"Question is, what do we do now? Either you turn off your clever machine or I'll blow you and your new paradigm into eternity," the Doctor said.
"And yourself," the Dalek Supreme said.
"Occupational hazard," the Doctor said, holding out a Jammie Dodger.
"Scan reveals nothing. Tardis self-destruct device non-existent," a different Dalek said. The Doctor eats his biscuit.
"All right, it's a Jammie Dodger, but I was promised tea," the Doctor said. An alarm sounded throughout the spaceship
"Alert. Unidentified projectile approaching. Correction, multiple projectiles," the Blue Dalek said.
"What have the humans done?" The Dalek Supreme asked.
"I don't know," the Dalek said.
"Explain. Explain. Explain," the Dalek Supreme said.
"Danny Boy to the Doctor. Danny Boy to the Doctor. Are you reading me? Over," the squadron leader said. The Doctor's face split into a grin.
"Oh ho! Winston, you beauty," the Doctor said, then the video cut out. Alice fidgeted with the dials, trying to bring the picture back, but to no avail. Instead, she settled for a radar, showing the pilots and the Dalek ship, with the Doctor's voice playing in the back.
"Danny Boy to the Doctor, come in. Over," the pilot repeated.
"Loud and clear, Danny Boy!" the Doctor shouted. "Big dish. Side of the ship. Blow it up! Over."
"Exterminate the Doctor!" the Supreme Dalek said. He has to make it out, Alice thought, starting to worry. She wasn't given long, thankfully, because Churchill began talking again.
"You heard him, Group Captain! Target that disk!" Churchill shouted into the radio. "Send in all we got!"
"Broadsword to Danny Boy, target that dish and stop that signal. Over," the captain said.
"Understood, over. You can count on us. Over," Danny Boy replied.
"Oh, good luck lads!" Breen said, smiling infectiously.
"Okay, chaps, let's put London back under cover of darkness."
"Give 'em hell for me!" Alice said. Amy laughed. Silence for a moment, watching the dots move around. Then,
"We've lost Jubilee, sir. Over." Breen's face fell. Alice bowed her head. Churchill's jaw clenched. The dot signalling Jubilee disappeared.
"Beam still active, sir," Captain Childers said.
"Send them in again!" Churchill cried. Silence again. Then,
"Flintlock's down, sir and the dish seems to be protected. Over." Another dot disappeared from the screen, leaving just one left. Silence for a while, the mood tense as they watched Danny Boy's dot circle around the spaceship. Then Danny Boy's moved towards the ship. Breen groaned. A few more seconds of silence and then Childers said,
"Direct hit, sir!" Everyone cheered. No one was sure how it happened, but it had happened. London was back under the safety of darkness.
But the fight wasn't over yet. The Dalek ship was still there. Danny Boy knew it. He was circling the ship, waiting. The Doctor hadn't come back yet, but the Ponds had to believe he was alive. The mood in the bunker had fallen again, fear closing in. But strangely, Danny Boy's dot turned and moved away from the ship. They all watched the monitor, baffled, missing the sound of running footsteps until they heard the sound of a punch.
Bracewell toppled to the ground with a groan. Above him stood the Doctor, shaking his hand. Everyone stared at the Time Lord, confused and shocked.
"Sorry, Professor. You're a bomb. An inconceivably massive Dalek bomb."
"What?" Bracewell asked, failing to stand up.
"There's an Oblivion Continuum inside you, a captured wormhole that provides perpetual power. Detonate that and the Earth will bleed through into another dimension," the Doctor said quickly. He pulled open Bracewell's shirt, took out his sonic and pointed it at the Professor's chest. The "skin" opened up and revealed a metal structure, a large blue glowing core in the middle, split into five sections. One of them turned a pale yellow.
"Well?" Amy asked as the Doctor scanned the bomb.
"I don't know. I don't know. I don't know," he said. "Never seen one up close before."
"So what, they've wired him up to detonate?" Amy asked.
"No, no, not wired him up. He is a bomb. Walking, talking," he mimed an explosion, "Pow! Exploding. The moment that flashes red."
"Cut a wire or something, maybe?" Alice suggested, quietly. "There's always an off switch."
"Yes, yes, but it's not going to be a wire! That's not helping," the Doctor said, standing up.
"It's incredible! He talked to us about his memories. The Great War," Churchill said.
"Someone else's thoughts implanted in a positronic brain," the Doctor said.
"Edwin, tell me about your life," Alice said suddenly.
"I really don't think this is the time, Miss Pond," Bracewell said.
"No, no, no. I want to hear about it," Alice said. "Who are you, Bracewell?"
"My family ran the post office," Bracewell said, shakily. "It's a little place just near the abbey. Just by the ash trees. Used to be eight trees, but there was a storm."
"And your parents? What were they like?" Alice prompted.
"Good people, kind people," Bracewell said. The yellow light turned orange. Alice started to panic, but held it together. "They died, of course. Scarlet fever."
"I'm sorry," Alice said.
"It's okay. We all have our time, no?" Bracewell said.
"I suppose," Alice said. "How'd you feel, afterwards? Did it hurt?" The first light turned red. The next
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