Assembly of the Daleks (Rina)

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At the mention of methanogenesis, the Overseer stopped abruptly, also realizing that he had Rina’s hand in his. Perhaps trivial observations were meant to stay discreet.

“Katharina, you’re very perceptive, my dear,” the Overseer chortled, a toothy grin beginning to settle onto his face once more. “They teach humans some truly endearing things now, don’t they? Methanogenesis… Well, that process was the basis of all Nirnian life forms, which were essentially a remarkable combination of archaea and humanoid… They’re extinct now, sadly. Terrible plague wiped them out ages ago. And questions are my specialty, so don’t feel obligated to keep them all suppressed and whatnot. Onwards!"

As the pair approached the cave entrance, a sudden swooping sensation arose in the pit of the Overseer’s stomach. He tried not to grimace; something was abnormal, astray from what he had experienced last time on this planet. His keen sixth sense was beginning to surface.

“Wait,” the Overseer instructed Rina, motioning for her to halt with a wave of his right hand, his voice about ten notches more serious. “There’s something wrong. This cave is vacant, but yet I can distinctively see the glow of healthy Nirn crystals… They’re not meant to be unattended…”

The curious Time Lord took a few cautious steps forward, his eyes darting rapidly from Rina’s passive expression to the gaping alcove that marked the cave entrance.

“Is there anybody in there?” the Overseer called, throwing his voice to the best of his ability. “I come bearing no weapons or hostility of any kind!”

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Rina smiled as he stopped and called her perceptive, then he proceeded to tell her about the native inhabitants. A combination of archaea and humanoid? Katharina felt the long-suppressed scientific part of her mind itching with curiosity. Rina frowned and looked at the rocky expanses. How awful it must have been to be Nirnian and watch everyone around you die from a plague. And then to die… Rina shivered, trying to brush the unpleasant thought away. She returned to his earlier words. She didn’t think she was perceptive just for knowing about methanogenesis. Before she could formulate a question, he tugged on her hand gently to urge her onwards.

“Onwards, to victory!” she chirped, glancing down at their hands. “I went to university for a year,” Rina said, in regards to his comment about the endearing things that humans (and Dulcians) were taught on Earth. “I was a double-major. Molecular biophysics and theoretical physics,” she explained with a small shrug. Her parents couldn’t have gotten angry with her for dropping out of university – they were, after all, Dulcian – but they had been rather disappointed when Rina declared she’d much rather be a baker than spend another few years at Oxford.

She simply hadn’t been clever enough, but she remained quiet on this point, not wanting to make the Overseer uncomfortable. After all, she knew that she always felt obliged to disagree with people when they said they weren’t smart enough to do something. She smiled at him as they continued to the cave entrance. He began to slow down, and Rina peered curiously at it. Hadn’t the Overseer mentioned that the caves were hubs for intergalaxy transport? It seemed rather… empty.

The Overseer motioned for her to stop, so she did, stepping a bit closer to him. There was something serious and grave about his demeanor that didn’t settle well with Katharina. “Perhaps everyone’s out for lunch?” she suggested, feeling quite the part of the fool. She let go of his hand as he walked towards the entrance of the cave. Although he told her to wait, she walked after him.

“Do you think there’s something hostile in here?” Rina asked, stepping curiously into the cave. “You said it was empty…”

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Out to lunch. That was classic, even for a Time Lord with relatively little exposure to human humor. The Overseer continued to halt Rina, his eyes rapidly darting from her to the vacant cavern ahead.

“Only one way to know for sure,” the Overseer reasoned. “I’ll lead, you follow.”

With Rina clutching his arm, he entered the cave warily. He could make out the faint outline of the crystals’ soft glows, but something about them was off. It took the Overseer perhaps a minute to realize what the duo would be dealing with, but by then, it would be too late. Damn. Damn, damn, damn.

“Rina! Out! Now!” the Overseer shouted, his breath already starting to labor in intensity. “I should’ve known… Stupid, stupid me!”

The Time Lord began to wheeze; he subsequently fell to his knees. He met Rina’s shocked expression with equally panicked eyes.

“That cave… is not dormant by accident,” he said meekly, his energy and vigor beginning to wane. “Now I understand… those crystals are unrefined. When Nirnian crystals are harvested, they have an incubation period that last for 48 hours… the workers here forgot to seal the entrance. Oof!”

He had attempted to scramble to his feet; this feat had obviously failed, and he crumpled back to the rocky ground in a heap.

“Unrefined Nirnian crystals emit harmful radiation, and I fear I may have just received a full blast,” he forced. He must look rather pathetic being curled up in a fetal position like this; the radiation was tearing at him more and more with each passing second. “And this radiation reacts very poorly with some of my body chemicals... Humans and Dulcians lack this chemical… Therefore, they’re unaffected by the radiation… Stupid, stupid me! I need the TARDIS. Get me over there… Actually, don’t bother, just follow me…”

The trek back to the TARDIS was an arduous one; the Overseer staggered and fell twice. He relied heavily on Rina’s shoulder for the duration of the short trip; thankfully, he didn’t end up breaking it. When he finally scrambled into the TARDIS once more, he fumbled for the control column, using the railing on the side of it to brace himself from failing. He felt his body begin to erupt into spasms. Pain shot through him in rapid intervals, as if his entire interior was physically being eroded away. He was finding it difficult to breathe, and he sputtered his next few sentences, his voice straining direly to be as serious as he could muster it to be.

“Rina, stay back!” he shouted hoarsely. “You don’t want to be near me right now… Trust me, you don’t… It’s going to start soon, I can feel it…”

He looked up at Rina with a pallid, pained expression; she wouldn’t see him in this form for very much longer.

“I’m terribly sorry… That trip was cut short… Our time was cut short. I would’ve traveled every reach of the universe with you, you know… You and I would’ve explored everything. But of course, danger lurks around every corner, and it’s just unfortunate that I ended up its next victim…”

He hacked up a cough, interrupting his monologue, and then promptly continued from where he had left off.

“Rina, it was a pleasure to meet you, but I’m afraid my time has expired. The radiation, coupled with my body reacting poorly against it, is steadily killing my cells… You were unharmed because of your lack of the chemical inside your body… Consider it a blessing; this is truly a painful process… I’ve been through it twice before… You see, Time Lords have a certain way of cheating death… but it comes at a cost.”

As the previous sentence was uttered, the Overseer felt a certain warmth blossom in his stomach. Bracingly, he glanced downward at his hand. It was beginning to shimmer a bright reddish color, akin to strawberries in the summertime.

“You won’t be seeing me again, Rina. But you’ll still be able to travel in the TARDIS… imagine that.”

A massive spasm of pain washed over him, causing the ailing Time Lord to fall to his knees once more, grimacing profusely.

“I’ve long prepared for this moment... it's just a shame you have to witness it so soon,” the Overseer said softly, staring at Rina’s distant form, his vision finally beginning to blur. More flashes of bright red began to wash over him. He felt the warming sensation spread to his limbs, fingers, and finally his face. “Farewell…”

With one final, graceful breath, the Overseer initiated the process. Red, sparkling dust began to shoot out of him like a bottle of pop shaken to its fizzing over point. It lashed out and away from him with a violent force as his physical features began to blur. The red pigmentation soon gave way to many other colors, ranging from blue and green to white and magenta. The spectacle, while probably marveling to Rina, caused the Overseer to become awash with both physical and mental pain as his entire cellular structure was being rewritten.

Finally, the process stopped. The colors receded. The Overseer stood stock-still, his new form having now been fully assembled. Gingerly, meeting the stunned expression plastered onto Rina’s face, he began to examine himself. Two legs, excellent. Two arms. His hair had certainly grown, though, as it was currently tickling his neck. It was blonde in color and unkempt in appearance. After what seemed like ages, the Overseer strode over to the TARDIS’ control column and switched on its reflectionary beam. A youthful, long-haired male with bright blue eyes stared back at him. He nodded to himself as he switched off the beam. Not bad, regeneration. Not bad.

“Oh, hello,” the Overseer said, turning to Rina and affixing his new found gaze to her gaping mouth. “Do I look alright?”

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Rina stumbled backwards as the Overseer yelled at her to get out of the cave. She shook her head quietly, walking back to him as he wheezed and fell to his knees. “O-Overseer?” she asked nervously, hoping this was one of his silly moods and he was just teasing her again. The panic in his eyes dashed her hopes and she swallowed thickly, crouching down in front of him. She didn’t seem to have been affected by whatever it was giving him so much pain, and she felt a flash of guilt. “How can I help? I must be able to help. You can’t die. You can’t,” she insisted, her hands trembling.

When the Overseer fell over after trying to get to his feet, she felt the last of her hope get stomped into the ground and spat upon. She knelt over him, running her fingers through his short dark hair. “I’m sorry,” she murmured, the guilt coursing through her. It wasn’t her fault directly, but… she could have at least done something to prevent it? Perhaps insist they leave when he first noted something was wrong? Oh, this is why her parents frowned on curiosity. It got people killed.

She picked herself up and helped the Time Lord to his feet. Although by no means strong compared to a human or Time Lord, Rina was at least able to carry some of his weight. She could feel her hearts breaking as he stumbled and she wished desperately she could trade places with him. She wasn’t very keen on pain at all, but she wanted it for herself instead of making him bear the burden alone. She had hoped that inside the TARDIS there would be some sort of magic button to alleviate the radiation from his poor body, but instead he seemed to fumble around.

“I don’t want to stay back,” she said quietly, wiping her eyes. “It isn’t your fault, Overseer. Please don’t apologize,” Rina said, unable to take her eyes from him. He just looked so hurt that she couldn’t stand it. She was doing all she could just to avoid sobbing like some sort of idiot from the expression on his face and the panic in his eyes. He was scared, and rightfully so. Rina had never been on the edge of death, not even when she’d been shot. His death was more frightening than staring at the Daleks as they joyfully declared they were going to be exterminated.

She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t watch her friend just die. “We can still travel together. You and me,” she said, taking a step closer nervously. “And I’ll make you vanilla cupcakes each day,” she promised, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand again. This just wasn’t fair. His time couldn’t have expired. She shook her head gently. “A cost? I don’t understand what you’re saying, I just… I’m…” Katharina trailed off, not wishing to sound selfish by telling him that she was frightened.

If she was scared, how must he be feeling? Certainly at least twice the amount of fear that she was. She took a deep breath, watching as he began to glow a red color. She still wasn’t sure what he was talking about, but it was obviously very important or he wouldn’t be wasting precious energy to tell him. She clung to each word. She stepped closer once more when he fell to his knees, still keeping her distance out of respect. She wanted desperately to ignore his warnings and to rush over to him and cradle him.

And then Rina was glad she wasn’t anywhere near him. He erupted in a brilliant light show. Reds, blues, greens, and a whole throng of other colors. It would have been beautiful, too, if it hadn’t been her friend in the middle of all this. When the colors began to fade and she could see the outline of him again, she hurried forwards. It didn’t matter to her if those colors were some sort of poison to the Dulcians, because she was quite adamant that she’d at least be there for him if he weren’t dead yet. And, as the colors receded completely, Katharina saw that he was anything but dead.

Right?

He stood still, staring back at her. Her jaw unhinged a bit, the clever bits of her mind turning into mush. There was a stranger in front of her, staring back at her, in her friend’s clothes – her dead friend’s clothes – but there wasn’t a corpse. Vaguely, she remembered the Overseer saying something about changing forms instead of dying, and she supposed that’s what his mentions that while he would be gone, she would still have someone with her in the TARDIS. Still… this was a bit… foreign of a concept.

As he rather cheerfully strode over to the console, Rina moved to where he’d been standing and examined it, feeling as though she’d just been told the punch-line without hearing the joke. “Overseer…?” she asked finally, meeting his eyes curiously. This went way beyond the FOXo genes. But of course she wouldn’t be able to properly understand this. She had been raised among humans, treated as a human, and taught as a human.

When he answered her – and asked her if he looked alright – Rina stared at him, dumbfounded. How could he be so casual about dying? She swallowed and walked over to him, staring up at him curiously. Her eyes were still teary, but she was certain that once she got over her shock she’d be quite fine and tear-free. She brushed her fingers against his cheek. “More than alright,” she told him, running her fingers through his hair. “Oh, I’m just so glad you’re alive! I could… I could… I’m just so happy!” she said, hugging him as tightly as she could. “You’re brilliant! And wonderful! And… and… do you still know me? You do, right? I don’t know how this whole… change… thing works,” Rina admitted, still clinging tightly to him.

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Before he could even acquaint himself with his new body, the Overseer felt it being embraced both profusely and passionately. Perhaps the Dulcians were incapable of feeling sadness in addition to not being able to experience anger? That would certainly be a new marvel of species.

“I hope it’s me,” the Overseer stated, his new voice a few pitches higher than his old one. “But I’ll assume my regeneration was a success, considering I’m being embraced right now… You know, for a Dulcian, you have quite a strong grip. And why wouldn’t I recognize you, Rina? Our adventures have just begun.”

He flashed her a smile. This smile was quite different from the large, toothy grins his previous incarnation displayed; the grin was slightly more curved. The Overseer then began to stagger a bit; the second, lesser-evil phase was beginning to start.

“Rina, as much as I want to hug you, I’m starting to feel the after-effects of this regeneration. I’m becoming fatigued and confused. It’ll pass in about 24 hours, but I’ll need to rest for a while. But first…” The Overseer grimaced at the gray vest and matching undershirt he was wearing. “I’d like to change. Feel free to roam about, but don’t touch the control column. See you in a day!"

Posture unwieldy, the Overseer limped towards his bedroom. He could easily administer a couple of sedatives himself; he had a decent knowledge of Time Lord remedies.