"You say it's called a Dalek?" Lydia asked, pouting her lips. "It looks like a failed attempt at a housekeeping machine." She crossed her arms skeptically, looking at the funny squat robot in front of her. Chains crisscrossed across its metallic husk, bolting it down to the floor.

"The funny little plunger and whisk would make you think that, wouldn't it?" said the Doctor, glaring at the monstrous, alien thing. His dark eyes narrowed at the sight of the Dalek, and Lydia assumed that he'd come across it many times before.

Most likely in less… desirable situations.

"UnBOLT mE this inSTANt!" screamed the Dalek in its strange, warped tone. Its strange eye glowed menacingly; this was the first time it had spoken did Lydia arrived at the scene. "You are noTHING but a HuMAAAAN!"

"All bark and no bite?" Lydia cooed, smiling in spite of herself. She strode up to it, tapping her manicured nails against her arms, tilting her head as she got a closer inspection of the strange thing.

"Don't touch it," the Doctor warned, and Lydia rolled her eyes.

"I'm not stupid," she said. She bent down next to it, a foot of space between them. "Next to werewolves, how terrifying can this be?"

"They can be horrifying," the Doctor said. "The most dangerous creatures in the entire universe. If its weapons were in working order, it would kill you without a second thought." Anger boiled over in his words, growing more hot and venomous with each sentence. "They were manufactured to kill."

"ReLEAse! ReLEAse!" the Dalek commanded.

Lydia stood up, spinning on her heel to face the Doctor. Compared to her combination of newly bought Macy's clothing, the Time Lord's attire was shabby and disorganized at best. Black leather jacket, black shirt, black pants—you'd think he was in mourning.

Perhaps he was.

"So what are you going to do with it?" she asked, tossing her strawberry blonde curls over her shoulder. "Kill it? Leave it?"

"It's powering down," the Doctor replied, "against its will, of course. It was acting up like before you got here."

"Did something change?" Lydia asked, "for that to happen?"

"Yes," said the Doctor, taking one step toward her. He towered over her, making her seem small and insignificant next to his alien otherworldliness.

But Lydia Martin knew that she was anything but that.

"What was it?" she asked, though she already knew the answer. Peter Hale's words echoed in her head. It seemed like so long ago since her engulfment into insanity due to him.

"Somehow, it was you," the Doctor said. "Your presence caused that Dalek to malfunction somehow."