Deadly Games

[The 11th Doctor]

Faintly, eleven heard Susan's question. Slowly, he stood.

"These things...these are...people. They're monsters now. Pity them. This wasn't their fault any of it. It was the Daleks. The Daleks did this. And they will. TARDIS or no TARDIS, they will pay."

Suddenly, a familiar sound, a sound that, even know shook the Doctor to his core. A sound of hate, of envy, the shrill sound of the Dalek war-cry.

"IN-TRU-DERS!!EX-TER-MIN-ATE!" cried a shrill, mechanical voice.

Eleven whirled around. A old pre-paradigm Dalek stood in a doorway adjacent to the hall where Eleven and Susan stood. It's travel machine was brown with a slightly rusted dome. It's plunger-like arm was rusted frozen. It's blaster however, was perfectly operable, and was swinging between Susan and The Doctor, as if choosing which one to kill first. It settled on The Doctor.

"You are The Doc-tor, the en-emy of the Great Para-di-gm Emperor himself. Ka Far-aq Gatri!! You will be ta-ken to the Paradigm Emperor."

In a split second, the Doctor realized what must have happened. He had assumed the Paradigm Daleks had killed the last of the original Skaro Daleks upon emerging from the Paradigm. There must have been more, and the new Daleks must have founded their own empire, using their predecessors as servants, slaves, and grunt men.

What irony. The Daleks lording over the Daleks

Eleven noticed the whir of the Dalek building up energy for a blast. It only needed him. Susan was a bug to be crushed. He had a second, maybe more, counting on how old and uncared for the travel machine was. He darted at the Dalek, and it's travel machine swiveled to face the sudden movement, incredibly fast for a centuries-old travel machine.

It fired. Eleven attempted to jump out of the way, but the blast hit him on the arm. Pain shot through him. As the Dalek aimed again, Eleven spoke, gritting his teeth. He hoped Susan was gone by now.

"Wait. Your Paradigm emperor would be mad if you brought back the Doctor dead, wouldn't it? It needs me alive to have it's revenge. It would punish you for my death.

The Dalek paused, contemplating this.

[Susan Foreman]

“These things… these are… people,” her grandfather told her. Susan looked over at him briefly, and then back to the creature underneath the glass dome. “They’re monsters now. Pity them. This wasn’t their fault any of it. It was the Daleks,” he informed. He sounded so different from her own grandfather – the version she knew – and yet it was undeniably the same person. This Doctor seemed to be more emotional. What happened to him? she wondered quietly. “The Daleks did this. And they will, TARDIS or no TARDIS, they will pay.”[/color]

Susan backed away from the glass dome and took a step towards him curiously. “Grandf—”

Her eyes widened and she clamped a hand over her mouth as she heard the Dalek’s shriek. Susan looked behind her, watching as the Dalek trundled into the doorway. She took a step backwards, fear quite evident on her face. “IN-TRU-DERS!” it screamed. Susan was beside her grandfather in a second, clutching his arm tightly. “EX-TER-MIN-ATE!”

“E-exterminate? Grandfather! What is it?” she asked quietly, watching as the blaster moved between the two. She felt ice in her stomach when it settled on her grandfather.

“You are the Doc-tor, the enemy of the Great Para-di-gm Emperor himself.”

Paradigm: noun – the perfect example or archetype of something.

Great Paradigm Emperor: noun? – something that sounded very, very bad to Susan Foreman.

She dropped her hands from him, stepping away from her grandfather. She could find a way out – she should be used to dangerous situations, right? But nothing had ever threatened to kill him before. Not around her.

Susan jumped as the Dalek fired the laser at the Doctor. She ran beside him. “Are you all right?” she asked, looking at the patch of jacket that had been burnt from the Dalek’s laser.

“Wait. Your Paradigm emperor would be mad if you brought back the Doctor dead, wouldn’t it? It needs me alive to have it’s revenge. It would punish you for my death,” the Doctor said. Susan looked over at the Dalek, and then back to her grandfather.

“I’m not leaving you while I’m alive,” Susan said. She had tried to make her voice determined, but it failed as her voice wobbled with fright.[/size][/font]