Continued from Into the Dalek ― I
__________

"A good Dalek?" Clara blinked, her and Lucas sitting on a set of steps that lead to the upper level of the console room as they listened to the Doctor and Lexi's story.

"There's no such thing." The Doctor shook his head, him and Lexi leaning against the console as they looked at their companions.

"That's a bit inflexible." Clara raised an eyebrow as she and Lucas got to their feet, setting their (now) empty coffee cups aside. "Not like you. I'd almost say prejudiced."

The Doctor considered her. "Do I pay you? I should give you a raise."

Clara snorted. "You're not my boss. You're one of my hobbies."

"And what a fun hobby you can be." Lexi giggled, shooting her husband a wink as they headed for the doors.

"Definitely, boss." The Doctor winked back.

"At least we know the flirting hasn't changed all that much." Lucas muttered to Clara as they followed the Couple of Time, Clara laughing in agreement.

***

"That was quick." Journey remarked as the Doctor and Lexi reentered the lab, their companions now with them.

"This is gun girl." The Doctor pointed at her as Clara and Lucas looked around. "She's got a gun, and she's a girl. This is a sort of boss one. Are you the same one as before?"

"Yes." Morgan nodded slowly.

"I think he's probably her uncle, but I may have made that up to pass the time while they were talking. This is Clara, not my assistant. She's, er, some other word."

"I'm his carer." Clara said promptly.

"Yeah, my carer. She cares so I don't have to."

Lexi sighed before gesturing at Lucas. "And this is Lucas. He is not my carer, but he is my friend and dutiful voice of reason when I am incapable of doing so." She then gestured at Journey and Morgan. "Lucas, Clara, meet Lieutenant Journey Blue and her uncle, Colonel Morgan Blue. I do apologize for the Doctor, he tends to be like this."

"Can you blame me, love?" The Doctor asked before opening the security doors of the chamber where the Dalek was being kept.

"Not really." Lexi shrugged, looking pointedly at the Dalek.

"Doc...tor." The Dalek said.

"Hello again." The Doctor nodded.

"Will you... help me?"

"Will you?" Clara asked.

"A Dalek so damaged, it's turned good." The Doctor nodded. "Morality as malfunction. How do I resist?"

"Daleks must die." The Dalek said. "Daleks must die!"

"Alright..." Lucas said slowly. "So what the hell are we supposed to do with a moral Dalek?"

"We get inside its head." The Doctor answered.

Lucas and Clara looked to Lexi, but said woman just shook her head. "Yeah... that wasn't a metaphor."

***

"These are nanocontrollers." Journey said soon after as she was putting bracelets on Clara's and Lucas's wrists, the three of them standing by the moleculon nanoscaler. "Once we're miniaturized, they take over the molecular compression. When the mission's over, hit the button." Clara and Lucas both nodded, making Journey frown at them. "Are you sure you both understand?"

"Why wouldn't we?" Clara asked.

"Because this is a dangerous mission, and you two look like school teachers."

"We are school teachers." Lucas raised an eyebrow, him and Clara glancing down at their clothes. Clara wearing her red patterned button down blouse, skinny jeans and brown ankle boots; and Lucas wearing his grey vest over a grey-blue checked button down shirt, nice jeans and grey sneakers.

Looking back up, Clara tilted her head as she look to Journey. "So, Journey Blue?"

"Blue, yes." She nodded. "Problem?"

"No." Clara shook her head. "I just met a soldier called Pink."

Journey smiled when she saw Clara's look. "Lucky fella."

"Lucky?"

"From the way you smile." Journey nodded at Clara before flicking her gaze over to Lucas, giving him a small smile. "Do you have someone who makes you smile?"

"Oh, I do. Sort of." He told her, not looking up as he adjusted the strap of his nanocontroller. "But she's not here right now."

"What about you?" Clara asked Journey. "Who makes you smile, or is nobody up to the job?"

She scowled a bit at that. "My brother. But he burned to death a couple of hours ago, so he's really letting me down today. Excuse me."

As Journey walked away from Clara and Lucas, the Doctor noticed two other soldiers were joining them. "What are those ones for? I don't need armed babysitters."

One of them, Gretchen, narrowed her eyes. "We're not babysitters."

"We're here to shoot you dead if you turn out to be a Dalek spy." The other one, Ross, nodded.

The Doctor scoffed slightly. "Well, that's a relief. I hate babysitters."

"Okay, listen up." Journey said as everyone then got into the nanoscaler and sat down on the benches. "Now, remember, do not hold your breath when the nanoscaler engages. You'll feel like you want to, but you must keep breathing normally during the miniaturization process."

"Why?" Clara frowned.

"Have you ever microwaved a lasagna without pricking the film on top?" Lexi questioned from where she sat next to the Doctor, looking up from the nanocontroller around her own wrist.

"It explodes?"

The Doctor nodded. "Don't be lasagna."

"Nanoscaler engaging in five, four, three, two..." Morgan counted down. "Nanoscaler engaging now."

"Nanoscaling in progress." Lexi squeezed her eyes shut, gripping the Doctor's hand tightly as the nanoscaler shrunk. A moment later, the computer announced, "Nanoscaling complete."

"Lovely." Lexi mumbled, opening her eyes.

"Nanoscaling successful." Morgan's voice came through the communicator. "Everyone okay in there?"

"We made it." Journey answered. "Nobody popped."

"Whoa." Clara looked around, eyes wide as the nanoscaler they were all in was picked up by a mechanical claw and carried to the Dalek. "I can't believe this!"

"No." The Doctor agreed as he looked through the glass bottom, seeing the Dalek. "Neither can I."

The nanoscaler was then injected into the Dalek's eyestalk, and the Doctor reached out towards it. The surface of the nanoscaler that was pressed against the Dalek wobbled, the Doctor's hand going through with a squelching sound, making said Time Lord pull his hand back.

"We'll be following you all the way, Rescue One." Morgan's voice came over. "Good luck, all of you."

"Integration complete." The computer announced. "Dalek levels steady."

***

The Doctor lead the way out of the nanoscaler and into the 'field' that was the membrane of the Dalek's eye. Everyone crossed through, it seeming to be a cross between floating and swimming. They came out the other side into what looked like a corridor.

Clara blinked as she wobbled out. "That was... weird."

"Something tells me that won't be the weirdest thing we see today." Lucas remarked as he wobbled out next to her.

Clara smiled slightly at that before tilting her head as she looked around. "What are these lights?"

"Visual impulses traveling towards the brain." The Doctor answered.

"Beautiful."

"Welcome to the most dangerous place in the universe." The Doctor said dryly.

***

"Entering the cranial ledge now." Journey's voice reported over the communicator as Morgan watched a schematic of the Dalek on a monitor, a glowing dot representing the position of everyone inside.

***

"Here." Journey said, weapon out as she peeked over the edge of a ledge.

"Oh, my God." Lucas mumbled as they all looked down at wires that lead to a center glowing unit: the Dalek's brain.

"Behold, everyone!" Lexi announced. "The belly of the beast."

"It's amazing." Clara looked around.

"It's huge." Ross agreed.

"No, Ross, we're tiny." Gretchen shook her head.

"We're the little ones." Lucas said, glancing to the Doctor and Lexi. "So how big is that living part compared to us right now?"

The Doctor looked up and around. "You see all those cables?"

Lucas looked up and nodded. "Yeah."

"They're not all cables." Lexi said, gasping playfully and making Lucas laugh.

"Does it know we're here?" Ross asked.

"It's what invited us in." Journey pointed out.

The Doctor then crouched down, pointing at banks of vertical lights around the inside of a part of the ledge. "Now, this is the cortex vault, a supplementary electronic brain. Memory banks, but more than that. This is what keeps the Dalek... pure."

Gretchen frowned. "How are Daleks pure?"

"Dalek mutants are born hating. This is what stokes the fire, extinguishes even the tiniest glimmer of kindness or compassion. Imagine the worst possible thing in the universe, then don't bother, because you're looking at it right now. This is evil refined as engineering."

"Doc...tor?" The Dalek's voice echoed around them.

"Oh, hello, Rusty!" The Doctor looked up and around. "You don't mind if I call you Rusty? We're going to need to come down there with you. Medical examination and all that."

"What, with all those tentacles and things?" Gretchen's eyes widened.

"How close do we have to get?" Journey asked.

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Well, you know, we're never going to insert a thermometer from up here."

Journey then nodded at Ross, said man taking aim before firing a metal hook on a cable into the floor. He then prepared to shoot the other end of the cable down into Rusty's brain.

Lexi turned, eyes widening when she saw what Ross was doing before running over. "No, stop! No, no, no, no, stop, stop!"

"You idiot!" The Doctor snapped, rushing up behind Lexi as she snatched the gun away from Ross before he could fire again.

"We need a way down." Journey scowled. "The only way -"

"This is a Dalek, not a machine!" Lexi snapped, cutting her off. "It's a perfect analogue of a living being, and you just hurt it. What do you think it's going to do now?"

Just then, a droning could be heard, everyone looking around for the approaching danger.

"Okay, we definitely have incoming." Lexi said as Ross took the gun back from her.

"What?" Gretchen frowned. "What is it?"

"Antibodies?" Clara guessed.

"Dalek antibodies." The Doctor nodded, grabbing Lexi's hand as floating metal spheres came around the corner and surrounded Ross. "Any attempt to help him, or attack, those things will identify you as a secondary source of infection. Stay still!"

The antibodies surrounding Ross then opened to reveal a big blue eye.

Lucas frowned. "But if the Dalek wants us in here, why is it attacking?"

"I know you're not a biology teacher, Lucas, but come on." Lexi told him quietly. "Can anyone control their antibodies?"

"Ross, stay calm." Journey told him as the man's eyes darted from antibody to antibody. "We're going to get you out of this."

"Can you?" Clara asked the Doctor.

The Doctor reached into his pocket and pulled out some sort of pill/capsule. "Ross, swallow that."

Ross caught what the Doctor tossed him. "What is it?"

"Trust me."

Ross nodded and swallowed it. "Now what?"

One of the antibodies then aimed a very bright beam at Ross, making him scream.

"Ross!" Journey screamed as Ross was disintegrated.

"Oh, my God." Clara gasped as the antibody sucked up what remained. "What's it doing?"

"The hoovering." The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver as the antibody's blue eye turned red and flew off. He examined the screwdriver, then smiled. "Gotcha."

"What did you give him?" Lucas asked.

"Oh, just a spare power cell, but I can track the radiation signature. I need to know where they dump the bodies."

Journey's eyes widened. "I thought you were saving him!"

"He was dead already. I was saving us." The Doctor shook his head before grabbing Lexi's hand again. "Follow me and run."

"Run!" Clara grabbed Lucas's hand as they began running after the Doctor and Lexi, all of them running away from the antibodies and towards where the Doctor was tracking the signal with his sonic.

"They've dumped him in here." The Doctor said as they all stopped above a large circular pipe. "Organic refuse disposal. We need to get in there."

"Why?" Lucas made a face, looking down.

"Those antibodies won't give up until we're inside." The Doctor replied, nodding at the antibodies Journey and Gretchen were shooting at. "I'd rather go in alive than dead."

"You don't know where it goes!" Journey warned.

"Yes, I do! Away from here! Now, in, in, in!"

Lexi then took a deep breath before jumping in without another word, Lucas doing the same.

"I can hold them off." Gretchen began as Clara went down after Lucas.

"No, you can't." The Doctor shook his head as Journey went in, Gretchen going after her.

The Doctor tried one last time to use his sonic screwdriver on the antibodies, but to no avail. He then looked back to see that everyone had gone, nodding in satisfaction when he saw they had before jumping down the pipe himself.

━━ { ⋆｡˚ 🌟 ˚｡⋆ } ━━

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