Apocalypse Rising (Book One)

The Parting of the Ways

"We've got incoming!" Jack shouted as they clung to the TARDIS console.

"Rose, that one there!" the Apocalypse ordered, pointing to a lever.

Rose pushed it down, and the TARDIS shuddered a little, but wasn't destroyed. Jack grinned. "The extrapolator's working!" he cheered. "We've got a fully functional forcefield!" He laughed. "Try saying that when you're drunk!"

"And for my next trick," the Apocalypse added, piloting the TARDIS.

They began to materialize, and a Dalek appeared inside. "Rose, get down!" the Apocalypse shouted when it turned around. "Get down, Rose!"

"Exterminate!" the Dalek called, turning.

Rose dropped down to her knees as the Dalek fired, and Jack fired his defabricator at the Dalek. It was destroyed instantly, and Rose took a deep breath as the Apocalypse headed over to the Dalek. "You said they were extinct," Rose told her softly. "How come they're still alive?"

"One minute, they're the greatest threat in the Universe," Jack told her. "The next minute, they vanished out of time and space."

"They went off to fight a bigger war," the Apocalypse told him. "The Time War."

"I thought that was just a legend!" Jack breathed.

"I was there," the Apocalypse told him, sitting on her heels. "The Doctor and I, we were both there. The war between the Daleks and the Time Lords, with the whole of creation at stake. My people were destroyed, my husband and brother with them, but they took the Daleks with them, too. I almost thought it might have been worth it." She shook her head. "Now it turns out they died for nothing."

"There's thousands of them now," Rose told her. "We could hardly stop one. What're we going to do?"

"Well, it's no good stood round here chin wagging," the Apocalypse replied, getting up to her feet. "You're turning me into a human. You gossip all day. The Daleks have got the answers. Let's go and meet the neighbors!"

"You can't go out there!" Rose called, running after her.

"Exterminate!" the Daleks cried. "Exterminate! Exterminate!"

The Apocalypse watched the rays stop a good few meters away from the TARDIS. "Uh huh? Is that it?" she asked with a grin. "Useless! Nul points!" She gestured Rose and Jack out. "It's all right. Come on out. That forcefield can hold back anything."

"Almost anything," Jack corrected.

The Apocalypse sighed. "Yes, but I wasn't going to tell them that. Thanks."

"Sorry," Jack apologized.

The Apocalypse turned around to the Daleks. "Do you know what they call me in the ancient legends of the Dalek Homeworld?" she asked. "The Earth Shaker, the wife of the Oncoming Storm. You might've removed all your emotions, but I reckon right down deep in your DNA, there's one little spark left, and that's fear. Doesn't it just burn when you face me?" No Dalek spoke. "So. Tell me. How did you survive the Time War?"

"They survived through me!"

Rose's eyes widened when lights came on to reveal a huge Dalek casing, a blue one-eyed mutant sitting inside for all to see. "Rose, Captain," the Apocalypse told them as she approached. "This is the Emperor of the Daleks."

"You destroyed us, Apocalypse," the Emperor accused. "The Dalek race died in your inferno, but my ship survived, falling through time, crippled, but alive."

"I get it," the Apocalypse began.

"Do not interrupt!" a Dalek shouted at her.

"Do not interrupt!"