Return to the Planet of Hate (11/9/Emilie/Rose)

[Deleted]

When Skaro first returned to the sky, The Doctor thought it curious. How did an entire planet seep out of the Time Lock? Had it even been locked away in the first place, or just cleverly hidden away from him?

Nevertheless, after his last encounter with the Daleks, Emilie by his side, The Doctor decided it was time for a proper investigation. The last thing he wanted was the Daleks to return to their home world and repopulate it.

However, he didn't calculate the risks. Skaro's return was a brand new point throughout time and space. That made it the perfect place for time to become very thin. The rules were easier to bend, intentionally or not.

Meanwhile, the task at hand, "Okay! Now remember Emilie, this is Skaro at the moment it first returned into our universe. This is not a safe place by any stretch of the imagination. Stick to me, and do not, do not wander off for any reason unless I say to do so specifically." He didn't like to drag Emilie on too many serious missions, no, their travels were much more fun when they were purposeless.

Landing on the war torn planet, The Doctor flipped on the scanner, "No signs of sentient life. Oh, and look, no acid rain. Lovely, let's have a look around?" He moved toward the door, "Come along Gunnar."

[Deleted]

Already, Emilie wasn't entirely certain just how much she would be obeying her Doctor. The 'not wandering off' bit rarely worked out well, which was why she was so glad he rarely remembered to remind her.

But at the same time, the Doctor was right. This was incredibly serious. And she could never guarantee that the next time they were separated wouldn't be the last. So if he wanted her to stick close? Well, stick close Emilie would.

She'd already lost contact with her Doctor before. There was no way Emilie wanted that to happen again. She'd only recently gotten over the nightmares.

"No signs of sentient life. Oh, and look, no acid rain. Lovely, let's have a look around?" He moved toward the door, "Come along Gunnar."

"On your six," she chirped, bouncing after him.

Serious problem to investigate or not, Emilie figured the Doctor could use some cheering up. Maybe she would suggest hot chocolate later. Or ice cream.

Although ice cream was dangerous.... So hot chocolate.

[The Ninth Doctor (Retired)]

A echoing, groaning roar echoed through the forest. Within an ancient building of blue-grey granite, strobing lights appeared and vanished in time with the roaring.

Cautiously, a door opened. A tall man, handsome as a Greek god, but blue eyed and blonde, emerged. He wore a white toga-like outfit, with a heavy necklace of beaten gold and four rectangular panels of a blue stone.

---

"Afraid we're gonna have to take a raincheck on Dangle, you two," the Doctor called, glaring at the console display. "The TARDIS scanner picked up something, and automatically diverted to investigate."

Dangle was, of course, reknowned throughout the human-occupied galaxy - in the 54th century, at least - as the premier resort world. A archapelago world, close enough to it's young blue star to maintain a constant average temperature of 76 degrees farenheit, it boasted more miles of white sand than any world short of Arrakis.

"'Course, it's probably just as well. My luck, we'd get there the same time as the Lovely Angels. And that'd wreck your vacation..."

The TARDIS engines changed pitch, signaling the beginning of the rematerialization sequence.

---

The tall man stared, astonished, as a figure began to flicker in and out of visibility. It was large - taller and broader than a man - and had the likeness of a rectangular blue box.

"I believed, Great One," the man whispered, his hand stealing to the four stone panels that rested against his heart. "But until now, I never believed..."

---

The engines came to a rest. There was silence in the control room, except for the slow rhythm of the eternally-rising time rotor. And the tapping of keys, as the Doctor checked their coordinates - slow at first, but with increasing animation and agitation.

"This can't be right! It can't be!"

But the coordinates didn't waver.

D5-Gamma-Z-Alpha.

Skaro.

[Deleted]

”Thas' alright.”

Rose’s hair bounced as she skipped over to the console, bracing her palms against the metal and leaning in like the instruments might tell her something about where they were going instead. They wouldn’t, of course, but there was something to be said about watching the Doctor work. She loved it. So did Jack, from what she could tell, but then... he loved everything.

But soon the dings and beeps and whirs disinterested her, being no more easily deciphered than Greek, and she flounced away from the controls again. She recognised the rematerialisation hum, and she leant over the railing to look down at the landing below, the doors all but calling out. With a cheeky look back over her shoulder at the two of them, she dashed down the metal steps, two at a time, ready to hit them the second the TARDIS deposited them.

She didn’t have to wait long.

”This can’t be right! It can’t be!”

Looking back over her shoulder Rose studied the Doctor sharply, even as her hand reached out to nudge the door open. Orange light filtered into the control room, and she blinked, looking out at the world that stretched before them.

“W-why not, Doctor…?”

It didn’t look friendly. Angry colours streaked the sky, and thick, oppressive clouds encased the atmosphere. She didn’t back away from the doors, to either her credit or stupidity, but her forehead furrowed, a sharp eye sweeping the horizon for signs of life.

“Doctor? Where are we…?”

* * *

[The Ninth Doctor (Retired)]

“W-why not, Doctor…?”

Spinning, the Doctor strode across the deck. "Because it's dead! The whole planet! Dead!"

It didn’t look friendly. Angry colours streaked the sky, and thick, oppressive clouds encased the atmosphere. She didn’t back away from the doors, to either her credit or stupidity, but her forehead furrowed, a sharp eye sweeping the horizon for signs of life.

“Doctor? Where are we…?”

"You are in the Temple of Kalann, oh Queen of the Lilies." The speaker was a tall man with the build of a Greek statue and shoulder-length blonde hair held by a golden circlet. He wore a white toga and a golden pectoral with four blue stones in it, arranged in a rectangle.

The Doctor emerged from the TARDIS, taking in the granite half-ampitheater, eyes wide and mouth agape. "This... this is..." he was saying, "...impossible. This is impossible."

The man in the toga watched him, eyes filled with a mixture of fear and curiousity. "She... she is the Queen of the Lilies, is she not?"

"What?" the Doctor asked, turning suddenly. "Where are we? Waht is this place?"

"It... it is the... the Temple... of Kalann..." the man stammered. "She... she called you... named you... is it true? Are you the Doctor?"

"Yeah, that's me," the Doctor answered, voice testy. "What do you mean 'Temple of Kalann'... oi! Stop that!"

The man in the toga sank to his knees, then groveled at the Doctor's feet. "You have come! Our faith is rewarded! The Doctor has returned to Skaro!"

---

Elsewhere...

++TEMPORAL DISTORTION WAVE DETECTED++
++PATTERN CONSISTENT WITH PREDATOR-CLASS TIME CAPSULE++
++INITIATING BOOT SEQUENCE++

(OOC: Eleven and I have a bit of a plan, so I hope you don't mind my reinterpretation of your description of Skaro...)

[Deleted]

"Afraid we're gonna have to take a raincheck on Dangle, you two," the Doctor called, glaring at the console display. "The TARDIS scanner picked up something, and automatically diverted to investigate."


"That's a shame. I was looking forward to watching you two swim."

Wisely, however, Jack said nothing on the subject of the 'Lovely Angels'. He was more preoccupied with the ever increasing amount of agitation the Doctor was exhibiting.

Despite the furor with which the Doctor declared the planet dead, the lovely humanoid just outside seemed to say otherwise just as emphatically.

"Doc, I can't say I ever took you for someone who required 'on your knees worship'. Guess I'll have to keep that in mind."

Shaking his head a little with an amused smirk as he left the TARDIS, Jack hesitated slightly at the name Skaro. He'd heard of this planet.

"What year is it?"

[Deleted]

"On your six."

The Doctor looked back to Emilie, he rather liked that phrase. She'd been using it now and then. Chuckling a bit, The Doctor refocused on their current situation. He wasn't sure why he'd taken so long to get back here, it was probably all the sore memories that resided here on Skaro.

Times like when he'd failed to prevent their creation, when he and Romana had returned hundreds of years later and Davros returned from beyond. Destroying Skaro's sun. The list was almost as infinite as the size of the TARDIS. Regardless, he'd come back for one reason only, to figure out how it had returned from the Time Lock, and, if he could, figure out how to put it back without disturbing the Lock itself.

"The city where the Daleks should be just up ahead, I was there once, when I was much younger." They popped out of the small, near destroyed forest around them before The Doctor's eyes nearly popped out of his skull.

"What!?"

There was no city ahead of them. A temple, one like he'd never seen before, but a temple all the same, "That's, new." Looking to Emilie again, The Doctor made a decision, "We're going up there to investigate Emilie. Stay with me, and if you see something suspicious, anything at all, tell me right away."

[Deleted]

Following in the Doctor's shadow, Emilie a shivered a little at the feeling of Skaroan air. There was a familiar chill to it. The same foreboding tingle she had felt the very first time she met the Daleks and the Doctor.

Something unknown. Something not right. Something very, very dangerous.

The trees reminded her of contorted statues. Bleach bone white and - having run into one - definitively petrified. Every now and then, Emilie could make out char marks on the rocks and the trees-that-were-now-rocks-too.

Emilie did not bat an eye at being told the Doctor had visited this planet before. It seemed almost obvious that he would have, given the relationship he had with the Daleks. But, that being said, the Doctor being shocked by a landmark? That did say something.

"We're going up there to investigate Emilie. Stay with me, and if you see something suspicious, anything at all, tell me right away."

"Just watch your step, Doctor," Emilie requested as they altered their course. "Personally, I would rather not meet the Dalek Parliament again any time soon."

[The Ninth Doctor (Retired)]

The man in the toga sank to his knees, then groveled at the Doctor's feet. "You have come! Our faith is rewarded! The Doctor has returned to Skaro!"

The Doctor stared down at him in shock, which quickly faded as a new voice broke into the scene.

"Doc, I can't say I ever took you for someone who required 'on your knees worship'. Guess I'll have to keep that in mind."

"You!" the Doctor said, addressing the groveling man in the toga, "Stop that!" Then he spun, glaring at Jack. "And you! This is no time for..."

"Oh, I don't mind Lord Doctor," the man said, quickly.

The Doctor's jaw clicked shut. For a moment he simply looked from Jack to the man and back, then rolled his eyes and massaged the bridge of his nose. "What is it with you?" he said in tones of infinite patience.

"He is well named, Lord Doctor."

The Doctor looked up again, then down at the man. "'Well named'?" he echoed. "What is his name?"

The man looked stunned. "There is only one man that travels with you, Lord Doctor. The King of Just War, although his name among the gods is 'the Divine Gift'."

The Doctor mulled that over for a moment. "Divine gift..? Queen of the Lilies..? Wait..." Comprehension dawned. "Ian? And Susan?"

The man, still kneeling, nodded. "Yes! Two of the three Divine Children of the Lord Doctor!"

---

Elsewhere...

++BOOT SEQUENCE COMPLETE++
++ACCESSING COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK++
++COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK OFFLINE++
++ACTIVATING SPY DRONES++

---

It was Jack that brought him back into focus, with a simple question: "What year is it?"

Glad for something else to think about - something other than the absurdity of this sudden situation - he looked back at Jack. "Doesn't matter, does it? Not for this. 'Cos we're on Skaro."

[Deleted]

* * *

”Queen of the Lilies? Well, mate… a girl could get used to that.”

She looked back to the Doctor, a bewildered smile on her face, product of being all but worshipped and the distinct glee she took at Jack’s particular brand of humour, but her smile faltered at the look on the Doctor’s face. Something was wrong. And the not the everyday sort of wrong, the type they saw on nearly every adventure; it was far worse than that.

“Doctor…?” There was a tremour of uncertainty as she watched him converse with the kneeling man. Shifting her focus to Jack, his reaction beginning to cool as well, she raised her eyebrows in deep confusion and mouthed the words “Who’re Susan and Ian?”

One word brought the whirring of her regrettably human brain to a halt. Skaro. She knew that word. Before she’d even met Jack, she’d learnt that word, and though she didn’t grasp the complete weight of it, she knew what is meant.

Daleks.

A faltering step backward let her lean against the railing of the TARDIS control room, and she was quiet a long moment. When she spoke up, her voice was soft, remembering the advice he’d given her regarding the Daleks.

“Are we running, then, Doctor?”

* * *

((Don’t mind at all! In the words of my saviour, Tim Gunn, “Make it work.”))

[Deleted]

One of these days, the Doctor would finally realize there was always time for flirting. At the rate they were going now thought, it would not be until after Jack had died.

Still, no reason not to redouble his efforts.

"Oh, I don't mind Lord Doctor," the man said, quickly.

That earned a bright smile, although it only took a few moments for Jack to feel a bit confused and just a tad curious. He kept silent at Rose’s question, not wanting to assume too much aloud.

"Doesn't matter, does it? Not for this. 'Cos we're on Skaro."

“It matters, Doctor, because in my time, Skaro was known to have been destroyed for centuries, and I would rather we not go through another ‘Volcano Day’ here of all places.

“Are we running, then, Doctor?”

Ah, there was a point, and a very solid question. Jack would like to know the answer to that as well.

[Deleted]

"Just watch your step, Doctor," Emilie requested as they altered their course. "Personally, I would rather not meet the Dalek Parliament again any time soon."

The Doctor had to agree. They'd had their monthly fill of Daleks already. Being on Skaro practically guaranteed that they'd likely see a few or even more of them. He hoped that wasn't the case, but he wasn't awfully lucky when it came to traveling on Skaro.

The temple ahead of them was an oddity for The Doctor, "This just doesn't make sense. This has to be a Thal temple, but it looks as if the planet is already past the Kaled-Thal War. So how could it still be here?" He clarified to Emilie what that meant, "Before there were Daleks, there were the Kaled, you remember Davros. And there were Thals. They had an ongoing war, and when Davros completed his work on the Daleks, they wiped everyone out. No one but the Daleks survived."

They were close enough now that The Doctor could make out figures. They were all humanoid, some in traditional temple looking garb. Closer still, The Doctor could see the other three.

Two men and a girl. The girl had blonde hair, and one of the men looked to be dressed in regular 21st century clothing. The last one though, he made it a dead giveaway. Leather jacket, dark pants, t-shirt. As he did each time before, The Doctor lost any and all color in his face. It had happened again.

His eyes shot to Emilie. He couldn't tell if she'd noticed him yet. He almost didn't want her to. They could turn around right now and leave.

Wishful thinking. It was too late now. They had to either have been noticed, or Emilie had to have noticed the younger Time Lord up ahead. They were headed for big trouble now.

[Deleted]

The name ‘Thal’ did not mean much to Emilie, but any species that warred against the Kaleds (which she now knew to be the precursors and inventors of the Daleks) must not be entirely horrible. Must they?

The only reason she did not ask for clarification was that Emilie was confident the Doctor would explain. And mere seconds after the question had formed in her head, that was precisely what the Doctor did.

Only now Emilie was just as curious as to how a Thal temple could exist on a world after the time they were wiped out.

At first, all she was focused on was how well kept the temple was given what time this must be relative to Skaro. It not only had not been razed, but it appeared to be maintained at least to an extent. Then she saw the people, rows of togas reminiscent of Rome, and Emilie looked to the Doctor to verify if these were his ‘Thals’.

Seeing his expression, Emilie looked back to the knot of people, focusing to try and figure out why her best friend looked as if he had seen a ghost.

And promptly stumbled over her feet.

She caught herself by throwing out her arms and hugging the Eleventh Doctor in a poorly disguised attempt to regain balance and hide her discomfit. But she couldn’t breathe.

It was him. He was here and she was here, but... just... what?

Emilie was having trouble forming coherent thought, much less any sound other than the squeak when she had fallen.

The Doctor didn’t have to tell her. She knew that there was no going back. No matter how much she wanted to do so. Maybe she should be happy since she had never been able to say goodbye properly either – the Valeyard’s inadvertent kidnapping meant her departure as completely unintentional as it was irreversible.

“Doctor?”

Her voice was loud enough to be heard by both men to carry that title, but even Emilie was not sure which of them she was asking for.

[The Ninth Doctor (Retired)]

”Queen of the Lilies?" Rose mused with a smile. "Well, mate… a girl could get used to that.”

The priest beamed at her words. "They are your due, o Queen of the Lilies. O blessed Daughter of the King of Just War and the Queen Who Wanders the Heavens. O radiant Grand..."

"Oi!" the Doctor roared, sounding more embarrased than angry. "That's enough of that, that is!"

The priest blinked in surprise, but lapsed into silence. Then Jack asked the obvious question: "What year is it?"

"Doesn't matter, does it?" the Doctor snapped. "Not for this. 'Cos we're on Skaro."

“It matters, Doctor," Jack snapped back, "because in my time, Skaro was known to have been destroyed for centuries, and I would rather we not go through another ‘Volcano Day’ here of all places."

The Doctor stopped, glaring at Jack for a moment. "Yeah. I know. I was the volcano."

He seemed on the verge of saying more, but stopped as Rose's voice broke in. “Are we running, then, Doctor?”

"No."

The word hung in the air, a universe of meaning packed into a single syllable. The Doctor looked from Jack to Rose to the robed priest and back. "No," he repeated. "Skaro shouldn't be here. And I need to know why it is."

At that, the priest clapped his hands and bowed once more. "It is said, Lord Doctor, that our world lives because - in the Time Before Time - you defeated the Destroyers and gave Skaro as a home to the Thals forever."

The Doctor massaged his forehead, feeling a migrane coming on. "That's... that's a unique way of looking at..."

"Doctor?"

His words trailed away at the sound of his name. That wasn't Rose, he thought, turning to see who called.

There. Behind the other Thals, peering in through the open door of the temple. A familiar brunette in a fire-engine red jacket, and a young-looking man dressed like a nerdy school teacher.

The headache got fractionally worse.

"Emilie?" he asked, startled. "And..." He paused again, staring at the young-looking man with the old, old eyes. "Bugger all," he finally muttered, rubbing his forehead. "I've bloody well gone and done it again."

[Deleted]

* * *

There were more. Honorifics, that was. Her smile widened impossibly – if only her mum could hear this, she wouldn’t believe it – and she raised an eyebrow bemusedly as the Doctor cut off the speaker. She was in the middle of trying to sort out who in the world might call her parents by those names, when a single syllable shook her from her thoughts.

”No?”

Her disbelief was sharp, her inherent terror nearly as palpable. She didn’t understand the Daleks, not like the Doctor did, and she knew they wouldn’t all be like the first she’d met. They certainly wouldn’t all have her DNA.

But if the Doctor said no, then no. She felt the familiar surge of need to make him proud, as well as he own stubbornness welling inside her, saying they’d manage this one like that had all the others. After all it was him and her, throughout space and time. Ok: her, and him, and occasionally Jack. And no one was –

”Emilie?

The unfamiliar name rankled, and Rose followed the doctor’s line of sight in confusion to spot someone – a girl – running toward them, accompanied by another man.

”…Wot?!”

* * *