Everyone was in the cells again. Tysar looked regretful. “I’m sorry, Doctor,” she said. “I let my people’s hatred of the Daleks cloud my judgement.”
“Don’t be silly, Tysar,” replied the Doctor. “You actually gave me enough time to get the information I needed.”
“Yeah, but now there’s a Dalek that can use magic!” argued Tysar.
“There’s quite a few flaws in the Daleks,” remarked the Doctor. “One of them is their impatience.”
“Doctor?” asked Bea, overhearing the whole thing.
“The Daleks are trying to exterminate all non-Daleks as quickly and as painfully as possible,” explained the Doctor. “Their plans require tight timetables.”
“But magic isn’t something you learn in a day!” argued Calliope. “Any witch worth their salt will tell you that to hasten learning magic leads to disaster!”
“Hence why Bea hasn’t used as much magic as you, Coilzette, Shannon, Nora, or Ssylphiel in their daily lives,” observed the Doctor.
“W-Well, yeah, but-,” stammered Bea, feeling called out.
“The Dalek Sorcerer doesn’t have the experience you do,” continued the Doctor. “And they all forgot rule two of keeping their most dangerous prisoners locked up.” She was looking at the force field emitters. Tysar looked up as well.
“…Wait, are those things expo-?!” Tysar face palmed. “…Don’t expose your force field emitters when one of them is an engineer that knows what they’re doing!” she groaned. “That’s basic!” She got to work rewiring the emitters at her cell door. The Doctor did the same with hers.
“And they thought taking away my sonic screwdriver would hamper me!” she chuckled.
In a central chamber, Davros and Anacassandra were meeting. “Davros, so far, we’ve been stuck here,” hissed Anacassandra, “doing nothing! You promised that your Daleks would conquer Serpentia, yet it still stands!”
“You are impatient!” retorted Davros. “My Daleks are dedicated to victory! To that end, we will wait!”
“My sister’s dratted city has stood as a blight against our Divine Right for too long!” insisted Anacassandra. “We must attack now! I’ve had my slaves construct a war machine-!”
“Your slaves didn’t get the chance to build it,” purred the Dalek Sorcerer as it glided into the room.
“…How do you know?” asked Anacassandra.
“They were no longer necessary to Dalek plans,” explained the Dalek Sorcerer.
“…You fool! I still needed a slave force!” snarled Anacassandra.
“They were slow! Weak! You blunted their potential!”
“I TOOK THE STRONGEST OF ALL THE LESSER RACES AND GAVE THEM PURPOSE!”
“You didn’t dispose of them when you were done! Even gardeners cull the weakest of their plants!”
“I presume there’s a reason why you’re telling us this,” grunted Davros, “so get to the point.”
“I would have thought the Chief Scientist of the Kaleds,” taunted the Dalek Sorcerer, “would have enjoyed the chance to puzzle something out. …Oh, very well. It is time to depart.”
“Depart?!” argued Anacassandra. “But-!”
“There’s still loose ends to tidy up!” protested Davros.
“Yes, there are at least two,” agreed the Dalek Sorcerer, “but they can be tidied up at the same time. Tell me, Anacassandra, when was the last time a member of the Divine Races had been killed?”
“We cannot be killed! We are superior in all-!”
“Spare me the propaganda and stick to history, please. Even YOU learned that you Divine folk have a vulnerability, hence why you personally act the way you do.” Anacassandra was taken aback.
“…It’s not supposed to be propaganda!” she hissed. “…But it was during the Ages of Chaos and War. It took an incredible amount of energy to kill one of us.”
“A blade containing the energy of all 54 of your gods…multiplied by 54,” purred the Dalek Sorcerer. “It’s considered a great effort to kill one that is supposed to the gods’ living means of granting prayers. …Not so for us!”
“What?” asked Anacassandra. 53 Daleks then arrived.
“Whenever one of the Divine Folk was killed,” remarked the Dalek Sorcerer, “it sent a bright, destructive light across the area, did it not? It took ages for the resulting pollution of that light to fully fade away. …Daleks blink in that kind of an explosion!” It then created a magic circle and chose runes from its sensor spheres, then the circle and runes were copied until the resulting circles numbered 54. The circles then hovered in front of all the Daleks’ gunsticks! Davros realized what was going on, but it was too late! The doors shut!
“WAIT!” he called. “YOU CANNOT DO THIS! I AM STILL HERE!”
“You survived a nuclear warhead before, Davros,” purred the Dalek Sorcerer. “Perhaps you’ll survive another one! As for you, Anacassandra…EXTERMINATE!” All the Daleks screamed their battle cry and fired on Anacassandra. Anacassandra screamed in absolute agony as she glowed. The light enveloped the room and Davros screamed in agony as well.
The Doctor had freed everyone by the time the Daleks’ betrayal unfolded. The instant the Daleks shot Anacassandra, Ssylphiel, Coilzette, and Bea collapsed, clutching their hearts like they were going through a heart attack! It passed quickly, but it woke them up! “…They couldn’t have!” realized Lukas.
“Lukas?” asked Calliope.
“…They did!” gasped Bea.
“Could someone fill their doctor in?” asked the Doctor.
“The Daleks…successfully killed…Anacassandra!” panted Coilzette.
“The only time…the Divine Folk…have a heart attack…” explained Ssylphiel as she leaned against the wall anc caught her breath, “…is when one of us is killed. No one’s been able to kill any Divine Folk since the Ages of War and Chaos.”
“From what I heard,” explained Lukas, “there was always a destructive light and a horrible aura that broke people down physically whenever one of the Divine Folk is killed.”
“A destructive-?” The Doctor’s eyes widened. “Lukas, is there a mushroom shaped cloud that follows that light?!”
“Th-That’s what the legends said!” replied Lukas.
“A nuclear explosion!” breathed Tysar.
“You Divine folk are living atom bombs!” yelped the Doctor. “This place has deadly levels of radiation!” Just then, a communications terminal buzzed and the Dalek Sorcerer’s voice came through.
“Is there a doctor in the house?” it asked. The Doctor accepted the call.
“You used Anacassandra like an atomic bomb, didn’t you?!” she accused.
“Guilty as charged,” replied the Dalek Sorcerer. “Rest assured, my fellow veteran, the radiation has been contained and the room which she was executed in has been fully decontaminated. But you may want to tend to your patient. He’s not looking too well. …At least, not by YOUR standards.”
“Evacuation ship now fully occupied!” reported the Dalek Saucer Commander.
“Coordinates for multiversal return established!” called the Dalek Pilot.
“Engage universal egress!” ordered the Dalek Supreme.
“Objection!” called a Drone Dalek. “The Doctor still lives!”
“The Doctor will be delayed by her mission objective!” replied the Dalek Supreme.
“The Doctor will return to our universe in pursuit of us!” argued the Drone Dalek.
“She won’t get that chance,” replied the Dalek Sorcerer as it glided onto the bridge. “She’s too busy with her patient. By the time she searches for us, we’ll be beyond her reach.”
“The Doctor is too devious!” insisted the Drone Dalek. “She must be exterminated immediately!”
“Dalek Sorcerer, destroy this dissenter!!” ordered the Dalek Supreme.
“I obey,” replied the Dalek Sorcerer. One shot was all it took to destroy the Drone Dalek.
“Takeoff within three rels!” reported the Dalek Saucer Commander. “All Daleks at their stations!”
“Engage!” ordered the Dalek Supreme.
The Doctor and her friends looked outside to see a Dalek ship lifting off. “…You know, I have to wonder why the saucer shape was deemed the best shape for a Dalek ship,” remarked Tysar.
“…Drat!” groaned the Doctor. “They knew I had a mission to complete! I bet the Sorcerer is laughing up its metaphorical sleeves!”
“Doctor, there’s no way the Daleks are telling the truth about Davros surviving a nuclear explosion,” said Tysar.
“Are these…nuclear explosions really that dangerous?” asked Calliope.
“Do you know about atoms?” asked Tysar.
“The things that make up all forms of matter?” asked Bea. “Yeah, it’s common knowledge here. Magic has to work with them.”
“Has magic ever split an atom before?” asked the Doctor.
“…No one’s ever attempted it,” replied Calliope.
“Good, because radiation sickness is nothing to joke about. I contracted it on my first visit to the Dalek homeworld of Skaro.” They arrived at the room and saw nothing but a naga’s skeleton…and a ruined man. His skin was horribly burned, he had no legs, his eyes looked like blackened pits, he had no hair, his left arm ended in a stump, and his right hand was as burned as his body. All the Doctor needed to visualize was a blue camera in his forehead, a throat microphone implant, a metal brace over his skull, wires in his skull to operate the equipment, and a black Dalek skirt with silver sensor spheres with a back support and controls for the man to operate. “…Davros!” she shuddered.
“Doctor, there’s no way anyone can survive that kind of explosion!” said Shannon.
“Davros did,” replied the Doctor. “And Daleks just blink at ground zero of a nuclear explosion.” She checked the readings of the room. “…It’s decontaminated. Come on!” She opened the door with the sonic screwdriver she retrieved. Everyone entered the room and examined the carnage. Ssylphiel picked up the naga’s skull.
“…She could have been so much better,” she sighed.
“…Sh…Shan…” came a voice.
“Did you say something, Doctor?” asked Tysar.
“That was a man’s voice,” replied the Doctor. “And I’m not a man right now and that was too wounded to be Lukas.
“Sh…Shan!” came the voice again. Everyone looked to the source of the voice…and saw Davros reaching out!
“That’s not possible! He was at ground zero!” protested Tysar. The Doctor looked up to see the abandoned Bronze Dalek casing.
“…Help me wire him up!” directed the Doctor.
“Where is Shan?!” strained Davros.
“…Shan?” asked the Doctor. “Is that a Kaled woman’s name? Davros, you’re the only Kaled here!” Davros was trying to say something else, but no words could be coherently formed.