The Creator and the Predator

The Doctor stepped into the dimly lit room. "Hello?" he said, looking around the room, unable to see anything but a blue light near the far wall. "Is anybody in here?" he persisted. Still only silence greeted him. He stepped forward toward the blue light, then stopped as he heard the croaking, crackling voice that drew his attention in the first place.

"Who are you? Come closer," demanded the familiar sounding voice. The Doctor gulped in horror.

"Oh, no, not you again!" he shouted, taking a defensive stance.

"Is it you?" the voice asked. "It must be! When is it not you?" it insisted.

"Well, whenever it's not a Dalek," joked the Doctor, attempting to hide the hatred and fear rising within him.

"Indeed…" agreed the voice, chuckling. The flick of a switch was heard, and the room lit up, revealing a crippled old man with a cybernetic hand, a wheelchair shaped like the bottom half of a Dalek, and no real eyes, instead a mechanical eye in the center of his forehead. "I suppose you'd thought you'd seen the last of me, hadn't you, Doctor?!"

"You really think I'm that naïve? There's always an escape pod or backup support systems, with you, Davros," said the Doctor, pacing around the man in the wheelchair.

"I'll admit, while you're naïve to certain scientific facts, you do learn from some of your errors," spoke Davros, swiveling around to face the pacing Time Lord. "Your face," noted the mad scientist, "is even younger than the last one. I don't approve. It is too boyish and innocent. That, I'm sure we both agree, doesn't fit you at all."

"Well, it's a better face than yours!" joked the Doctor, with just an edge of anger in his voice.

"Another thing, you joke more than you used to as well, perhaps to cover some pain?" guessed Davros. "Perhaps," he reasoned, "something to do with one of those humans you take along on your journeys?"

"Nope, no, that's absolutely not going to happen! Not again!" said the Doctor defensively, realizing his error too late.

"Ah, something did happen! To Miss Noble, I presume? She was your latest warrior," Davros taunted. "You'd best be careful, Doctor. I'm sure you wouldn't want anything to happen to the people you are presently traveling with."

"Enough about me, let's talk about you!" said the Doctor, changing the subject. "So, you used your escape pod or Emergency Temporal Shift or whatever, and ended up here in this underground bunker. What then? I suppose you've built some sort of Dalek production line, then?" asked the Time Lord. "Going to e-merge," he continued, now imitating a Dalek, "and take your right-ful place as the su-preme pow-er of the u-ni-verse!"

"Indeed… and it is not wise to mock me, Doctor! For my Dalek production line is closer than you think!" he shouted, flicking another switch on his chair, causing the wall behind him to slide up, revealing a large control room full of Daleks.

The Doctor could see several of the bronze-colored travel machines already active, and training their weapons on him. "EX-TER-MI-NATE!" they chanted, "EX-TER-MI-NATE! EX-TER-MI-NATE! EX-TER-MI-NATE! EX-TER-MI-"

The Daleks were interrupted by a flash of light as five larger Daleks with smoother designs and fitted with longer, more powerful energy weapons materialized. There were five red Drone Daleks led by the white Dalek Supreme, who himself was flanked by a blue Strategist Dalek.

"What is the meaning of this intrusion?!" demanded Davros, swiveling back around, then stopping once he noticed who he was addressing. "Well, my creations have certainly taken some creative liberties with their modifications to my original prototype."

"DAV-ROS! YOU ARE TO BE EX-TER-MI-NA-TED FOR CRIMES A-GAINST THE DA-LEKS!" bellowed the Supreme, glaring down at Davros with its orange and blue eyes.

"I supplement the Daleks!" snapped Davros. "Look! I have created production lines for you!"

"PRO-DUC-TION LINES THAT USE AN IN-FE-RI-OR, LESS POW-ER-FUL DE-SIGN OF CA-SING, WHICH ARE THEN FIT-TED WITH GE-NE-TIC-AL-LY IM-PURE A-BO-MI-NA-TIONS THAT DO NOT DE-SERVE TO BE AD-DRESSED AS DA-LEKS!" the white Dalek retorted. "THEY, AND YOU, SHALL BE EX-TER-MI-NA-TED!"

"PRO-TECT DAV-ROS!" screeched the bronze Daleks, who opened fire on the larger Daleks. Taken by surprise, the pure Daleks quickly aimed their weapons at the Daleks of Davros, but for one it was too late. A Drone Dalek had its insides blasted when three of the bronze Daleks concentrated their fire on its neck section, destroying the creature inside.

"WE WILL NOT FALL TO THESE… THESE SINS A-GAINST OUR PU-RI-TY!" ordered the Dalek Supreme, "EX-TER-MI-NATE THEM! EX-TER-MI-NATE! EX-TER-MI-NATE!" With that, the genetically 'pure' Daleks opened fire, quickly dispatching their bronze counterparts, with one Drone suffering some minor casing damage. Unbeknownst to them, the Doctor had slipped away in the carnage, to fight against them another day.

"Listen! I can help you! I can offer you my services! My production lines! You need me!" insisted Davros.

"THE DA-LEKS NEED HELP FROM NO ONE! WE ARE SU-PREME!" the white Dalek boasted.

"PER-HAPS SUCH AN A-GREE-MENT HAS ME-RIT," suggested the blue-cased Strategist Dalek.

The Supreme Dalek swiveled his dome to look the Strategist sharply in the eyestalk. "EX-PLAIN," it demanded.

"THESE CA-SINGS ARE POW-ER-FUL, BUT OUR RE-CENT WARS HAVE DRAINED OUR DA-LEK-A-NI-UM STOCKS! THE OLD CA-SINGS, THOUGH NOT AS POW-ER-FUL, ARE STILL RE-SIS-TANT TO MOST WEA-PON-RY, AND THE SMAL-LER SIZE MEANS WE CAN BET-TER CON-SERVE MA-TE-RI-ALS!" explained the Strategist Dalek.

The Dalek Supreme remained silent a moment in contemplation, before turning back to Davros. "VE-RY -E-VER, YOU ARE NOT NE-CES-SA-RY. YOU CAN, AND SHALL BE, EX-TER-MI-NA-TED!"

"I am dying anyway! The emergency temporal shift I used to jump here was meant for Daleks! My cells are already deteriorating! I am no threat to you!" said Davros. "Besides, I know how the machine works, and it will save you time if you allow me to teach your Scientist Daleks how it functions!"

"YOUR AR-GU-MENT IS… LO-GI-CAL," agreed the Dalek Supreme. "YOU SHALL COME WITH US!"

Davros nodded, and glided across the floor to the Daleks. The five were then teleported up to the Dalek ship, along with the production lines around them.

Back in the TARDIS, the Doctor watched the events unfold on the scanner. He pounded the button to switch off the scanner, prompting a pained worble from the time machine. "Sorry, dear," he sighed.

His thoughts turned to his conversation with Davros. He still felt guilty over what happened to his previous companions during his last incarnation, and he knew he would give his lives (well, life now) to save his current ones. Maybe, he thought, I should let them see me a little less…

Author's Note: (BE WARNED: THERE ARE SPOILERS FOR THE Doctor Who EPISODE, The Magician's Apprentice. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.) Ever since the surprise return of Davros in The Magician's Apprentice, I've had the guy stuck in my brain. Today, I started wondering about writing a story featuring him. I thought about what it should be about, and then I remembered that my favorite Doctor, Matt Smith, never encountered him. From there, the story just wrote itself. I'm very happy with how it turned out, and how it evolved from one scene where the Doctor and Davros converse into a more complete story in its own right.