Doctor Who?

The Mutant Planet

"So, here's a mystery for the magnificent Doctor on high, 'Who controls the Galactic Senate?' Who declared that the Time Lords be exiled from the universe?" He kicked the Doctor in the gut, causing him to collapse to his feet. "Well? Which creatures are so terrible that they would infiltrate and control the entire galaxy?" The Doctor knelt, face down, forcing lungful after lungful of poisoned air into his body.

"I can't hear you!" The Doctor took a knee to the cheek which threw him onto his side. He had barely enough energy to keep his hearts beating.

The cloaked man crouched down and grabbed the Doctor's cheeks, forcing his face towards his own. He stayed there for a while, staring into the Doctor's eyes, reading the blank look on his face, before throwing it into the dusty floor.

"The Daleks Doctor, the Daleks. Oh yes, they've been manipulating the entire galaxy, and no-one has noticed."

"Apart from the Terrorist sect that is." The Doctor managed to mumble out.

"What's that Doctor?" The cloaked man sharply turned to look at him. "A sarcastic quip, is it? I can see that the threat of death does not worry you."

"Death doesn't scare me, not anymore." He surged life force into his left leg, bringing his knee up to chin height. "All that scares me, is what I can become." He dragged the right leg up, into a limp crouch. "And at the moment, it doesn't look like I'm much of a threat to the galaxy."

"Not yet. But I tell you who is a threat to the galaxy."

The Doctor narrowed his eyes, finally willing his body to push against gravity and stand upright. He felt pain in every joint as his body screamed at him to stop, to lie down, be still, accept death.

"Them," said the cloaked man, nodding towards the planet's surface, "they have the entire control of the Galactic Senate, the trade, the weaponry, any vital decision made by any planet, they get the final vote."

"And?"

"Doctor, you must be blind. What do you think they've been doing?"

"The Androvax Conference."

"Oh, and now he remembers! Yes Doctor, you're on the right lines."

"Wait a minute, you were there!"

"Took you long enough to figure it out, why did you think the debris materialised there."

The Doctor stood in thought again, his rough burnt fingers attempting to sooth his temples. Then he stopped and looked up. "No. Don't tell me-"

"Yes Doctor, every single one."

"They were behind it?"

"Oh yes, the assassination of the President Z.B, the destruction of Cheem, the Jaytac 7 Hosts, who slaughtered thousands."

Then a blow hit the Doctor; it had been the Daleks behind everything, and he'd let them. In his mind, it was just the nature of the universe, mother nature claiming what was rightfully hers. Maybe he was needed, maybe he was part of that nature. But the suffering at the hands of the Daleks had to end. No more.

The cloaked man smiled beneath his hood, so chillingly it would give even the toughest monster nightmares.

But the Doctor wasn't smiling. "The Daleks must be destroyed."

"Must they now-"

"Don't mess around with me! I have to rid the universe of that filth, disgusting, xenophobic, genocidal FILTH!" Then he realised why the hooded man had brought him here. He looked down at the sack, its contents spilling out slightly. The corner of a powerful box could be seen. A box which had never been used, which could never be used, only when the moment came. Had it come now?