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clean-bands-dirty-stories · 4 years

Text

Breathe ~ the Doctor (part 7)

A/n: The word count got messed up because I did a passage that I added later and forgot to add it before I deleted it, so I didn’t do it this time. I have no idea how long it is, but I figure it’s long enough? Lol

Warnings: PTSD flashbacks, grief, overwhelming emotional pain, death, loss, depression, physical pain (mostly just a sort of headache), slight disassociation.

MASTERLIST

Suddenly the Doctor's arm shot out and that little light from earlier shot forward like a super charged energy beam, beaming into the head of one Cyberman and surging into the head of every Cyberman around them. They all melted, the same way the Daleks did when Rose was imbued with the power of the TARDIS. They were erased from time itself.

A car pulled up, honking behind them, and they all surged in. Mickey grabbed Y/n to the surprise of most people, and he realized why when he sat down and didn't see the Doctor. He almost raced out again, but then Rose and the Doctor joined him just as he stood, so he sat down again and they sat on either side of him, Pete on Rose's other side.

When they were safe and going, Rickey turned toward the Doctor from the front seat. "What the hell was that?"

The Doctor held up the little light from the TARDIS. It was a crystal. Y/n hadn't looked closely enough before now. "Little bit of technology from my home," he explained.

"It stopped glowing," Mickey pointed out, worried. "Has it run out?"

"It's on a vitalizing loop," the Doctor assured. "It'll be up and running in a few hours."

"So we don't have a weapon anymore?" Rickey groaned.

Jack, which seemed to be the name of Rickey's gun happy friend - reminded Y/n of another Jack but this wasn't the time to think about that - huffed, "We've got weapons. May not work on those metal things but..." Y/n tuned them out.

He fell into his memories, escaping this conversation and this world for just a second. He returned to the TARDIS, trying to think of times he and the Doctor had spent laughing or cuddling or eating together and listening to himself and the Doctor tell stories Y/n shouldn't know. Thinking about those stories though, the one Y/n shouldn't know, set off other memories he shouldn't have.

There's a soft breeze. People talk quietly. The sun is warm, but not like on Earth where it's harsh unless it's the morning or evening, when they sun is not completely in the sky yet. It's just a nice warmth, that tickles your skin and fills your insides, like drinking a warm drink on a cold day. Comfortable. I feel a peace. This is my safe place. This is where I go when everything else gets too hard. Too much. This is where I got to be alone. The sun smiles at me, and kisses me on the cheek, and promises to keep me safe.

"You okay, dad?" I turn and there is a child. Young, and small, but not so much that she doesn't recognize the state I'm in. That she can't see that I'm upset.

I smile at her anyway. "Much better now that you're here." She smiles and approaches me. Her hands reach up, but hesitate. "May I?"

Shaking my hand, I reached up and hold her by the wrists to stop her. "You don't want to do that, Darling. It really is nothing. Just having a rough day is all."

Her smile is persistent though. "I don't want to see, silly. I want to show. I've been thinking about a story recently, and I was wondering... could I try and show you? Let you picture it as I do? It might cheer you up. You love stories."

Despite everything, I find myself smiling. "I would love that." She reaches up and takes hold of either side of my face and I relax into her touch as she fills my mind with details of the story she wants me to see.

"Y/n?" He looked over, blinking as he faded away from the best memory he could muster. The Doctor was looking at him, like what he knew what had just happened. Y/n gave him a sheepish wince, but the Doctor shot an understand, sympathetic smile in return. It's okay, he seemed to be saying. "It happened again, hm? You go into memories when you zone out like that don't you?" Y/n nodded. "Well, that's understandable. We're here though. Got to get out and walk. Come on!" Y/n did as he was told, and soon they were walking through the streets of an alternative London, racing against time to save the day.

So, the usual.

Rather suddenly there was a loud beeping sound and people began to stop one by one, only this time they didn't say frozen like before. They turned and began walking in the same direction.

"What's happening?" Rose asked.

"It's the earpods," the Doctor explained. "Lumic's take control."

"Why don't we just take them off?" She asked, starting toward the nearest person.

"Don't," the Doctor commanded, pulling her to a stop. "They're connected to the brain still." He sighed, shaking his head. "The human race. For such a smart lot, you are far too simple. Given the chance, you submit. Sometimes I think you like it. Easy life."

Y/n smirked. "I mean, you can control me anytime you want Doctor. I'd more than just like that."

Before the Doctor could respond - and from the smirk on his face, Y/n got the idea it would be quite the response indeed - Jack called them over. They went to see that it wasn't just the street they were going down. People were coming out of their homes even, all headed the same direction. "Where are they going?" Rose wondered.

"I don't know, Lumic must have a base of operations." The Doctor bit his lip, not pleased with all of the people he couldn't save just yet.

"He's got a factory," Pete told them. "That's where he's been holding a base for ages now. I can take you there, easy."

Rose looked at the crowd, her face sad. "Why is he doing this?"

"He's dying," Pete answered. "This all started out as a way of prolonging life. Keeping the brain alive. Conquering death. At any cost."

"The thing is, I've seen Cybermen before haven't I?" Rose spoke up. "The head? Those handle shapes, in Vanstaten's museum."

"Well yes, there were cybermen in our universe," the Doctor explained. "They started on an ordinary world just like this, then swarmed across the galaxy."

Y/n bit his lip for a second. "If we hadn't come here, do you think they would have won this time? No Timelords to stop them if the TARDIS hadn't pulled us here."

Before the Doctor could say anything, Pete had something to say. "What are you three going on about?"

There was no time to respond though. Rickey stood up, turning around. "Nevermind that. Come on we have to get out of the street. We need to split up. Mrs. Moore, you go that way. Jake, distract them and go right. I'll go left and we'll meet back at Woodlyn street. Move!"

"I'm going with him," Mickey told the Doctor and Rose before giving them a nod and taking off after Rickey, leaving the others to follow Mrs. M as they'd been told. They all ran, the Doctor in the lead, ducking and swerving to avoid those same lines of Cybermen trying to box them in. They turned a corner at one point and ducked behind a bunch of bins, realizing they couldn't win with the running thing. They'd get boxed in just like last time. The Cybermen got close. Too close. So close that Y/n's whole body tensed, as he readied himself to throw his body in the way of his friends. Then the Doctor raised his screwdriver, clicked a button, and the Cybermen turned away like magic.

Then they were gone

Everyone stood and Y/n grabbed the Doctor's face, smacking one on him. "You're a genius, you are."

Light up like a Christmas tree with a grin, the Doctor gave a wink. "Let's be on then." They all took off again, heading to the meet up point.

First came Jack, talking about how much of the city was on the moves. Then, came Mickey. Or, Rickey... Only or, even though it should have been and because they left together. Except now there was only one of them. "Which one are you?" Jack asked.

"I'm sorry." Immediately Y/n realized which one it was. This man was soft and tender. Not as brave or as strong. It was Mickey. For the first time, Y/n realized that he was glad Mickey was the way he was. Rickey was too trigger happy, and too aggressive. Things would have been hell traveling with him. Mickey might be a bit of a coward, but he was a good man and that counted for something. More than he was given credit for. "The cybermen came and I couldn't..."

Jack got suddenly very upset. "Are you Ricky? Are you Ricky?" There was something to his voice that made Y/n sick. It was the same panic he'd heard in his own voice every time he thought he'd lost the Doctor. Oh Jack...

Rose stepped forward. "Mickey that's you, isn't it?"

Reluctantly, Mickey answered, "Yeah." There was a pause and then Rose and Y/n both surged forward to wrap the man in a hug. Everyone seemed surprise to see Y/n do it, but no one said anything about it. If he secretly cared about Mickey and had up until this moment refused to admit it, that was up to him. It absolutely wasn't the case, but even if it was it wasn't anyone else's business alright? Mickey turned to Jack. "He tried, he was running, but there were too many of them."

"Shut it," Jack snapped, turning away.

"There was nothing I could do," he begged Jack to understand.

"I said shut it!" Jack snapped. "Don't even talk about him. You're nothing, you are. Nothing."

Y/n glared at Jack. "Don't talk about him like that."

Again, everyone was too shocked to do much about it, except the Doctor who spoke up in the quiet. "We'll have time to mourn him when London is safe. Until then, we move on."

So they did.

Pete lead the way to the factory he'd mentioned earlier and they stood on a hill, looking at it, trying not to think about how many people were walking to their deaths inside. Y/n stood tall, his hands clenching into fists. "This is horrible," he whispered.

No one responded, just stood in silence and looked at the factory with equally upset looks. After a while the Doctor said, "The whole of London's been sealed off and the entire population's inside that place to be converted." He said the last bit in a mocking tone. It would have made Y/n smile if he hadn't been so angry.

"We've got to get in there and shut it down." Rose's tone was hard. Steely. It fit Y/n's mood perfectly.

"How do we do that?" Mickey asked.'

"Oh I'll think of something," the Doctor drawled in a much lighter tone than everyone else. Y/n forced himself to calm. The Doctor had to have a clear head for stuff like this. He couldn't be boggled down by anger. He didn't express dark, heavy emotions. Once he did, once he released them, they controlled him and drove him too far every time. His strengths was his smarts, and he needed an awake mind for that - being boggled down by red anger wouldn't do any of them any good. Y/n would be the same, if it wasn't for the whole thing with his mum... It didn't stop him from being just a little irritated all the same.

Mickey ruined his anger a bit. "You're just making it up as you go along."

Y/n scoffed, but the sound was too soft. Almost a laugh. "Well yeah. Despite what you think, he's not an all knowing genius. That's what he's got us for. He needs help."

"I do it brilliantly even when I'm alone," the Doctor declared. Y/n shot him a look and the Timelord actually smiled. "I will say, better with friends though. Much better."

Mrs. M pulled their attention over to look something she said could help. She showed them the old schematics of the building. Most importantly: tunnels, underneath the building, that were big enough to move through and could give easy access inside.

The Doctor declared his plan: Under and then up, to the control center.

Pete had his own ideas. "There's another way in. Through the front door." They all looked at him and he continued to explain himself. "If they've taken Jackie for an upgrade, then that's how she'll get in."

"We can't just go strolling up." Jack was getting frustrated, and Y/n could honestly understand.

Mrs. M was a level headed one though, like the Doctor. Unlike him, she was an enabler. "Well we could've. With these," she admitted, reaching into her bag to pull something out. "Fake ear pods. Dead. No signal." Pete took two. "You put them on, the Cybermen would mistake you as one of the crowd."

"Then that's my job," Pete declared.

"You'd have to show no emotion," the Doctor warned. "None at all. Any sign of emotion would give you away."

To Y/n's horror, Rose spoke up. "How many of those are there?"

"Just two sets," Mrs. M responded.

"Okay. If it's the best way of finding Jackie..." She looked at Pete, smiling at him. "I'm coming with ya." She stood to her feet, taking a pair."

"Why does it matter to you?" Pete asked.

"No time," Rose dismissed. "Doctor, I'm going, and that's that."

The Doctor gave her a desperate expression. Y/n felt his insides shrivel. He couldn't lose her now. They'd only just begun. They had so much time. Not yet! He was frozen though, slowed by that damned anger, too focused on all of the emotions he'd felt in one day. He couldn't think of a way to stop her, so what was the point of saying anything at all? "There's really no way to stop you?" The Doctor asked softly, speaking what Y/n was thinking.

"Nope," Rose declared immediately.

"Tell you what," the Doctor sighed. "We can take the ear pods out at the same time. Give people their minds back, so they don't walk into that place like sheep. Jakey boy!" He surged forward and Jake followed.

Y/n turned to Rose. "I can't even go with you. I could... Would you let me take your place?" He asked, quiet and breathless.

Rose smiled, raising a hand up to touch the side of Y/n's face. "I know I'm stubborn and difficult. I know I'm a little muddle a lot of the time. I'm sorry Y/n, for things with your mum. I'm sorry I drove you to do that. But I-"

"Have to," Y/n finished, nodding. "Yeah, I know." He nodded and turned as the Doctor turned back to the group after giving Jack his part of the mission.

"Mrs. Moore! Would you mind accompanying me in the cooling tunnels? Above, below, we can stop the converter machines."

"I would love to," Mrs. Moore responded, shaking the Doctor's hand.

Y/n hesitated, giving Mickey long enough to jump in, "What about me?"

"Mickey," the Doctor realized. Y/n sighed as he realized the man had forgotten Mickey again. "You can, um..."

"What, stay safe? Tag along? Be the tin dog?" Y/n winced at the memory of K-9. Had he been holding onto that ever since then? "No, those days are over. I'm going with Jack.

"I don't need you, idiot," Jack seethed.

"I'M NOT AN IDIOT!" Mickey screamed back. "You got that?" He calmed a little. "I'm offering to help." Jack dismissed him, moving on and allowing it hesitantly. Mickey perked up when he saw Y/n smiling at him. They exchanged nods and then everyone went their separate ways after a few goodbyes, and a good farewell from the Doctor to Mickey. Y/n sort of drifted after the Doctor, realizing he hadn't actually been given a job either. The whole thing with Mickey had distracted from it. Did the Doctor want him to come?

"Aren't you coming?" the Doctor asked Y/n. He nodded, moving again more purposefully. He warmed a little realizing that the Doctor had just assumed immediately that Y/n was coming along with him. The three of them moved toward the head of the tunnel, opening it up and climbing down. The Doctor skipped the last few wrungs so Y/n braced himself and just dropped from the top, landing hard but well. He had learned long ago how to land. "Show off," the Doctor mumbled. Y/n winked.

They were distracted by Mrs. M who mumbled, "It's freezing."

The Doctor looked around. "Any sign of a light switch?"

Like an angel sent from heaven, Mrs. M reached into her bag and pulled out three headlamps. "I've got these. A device for every occasion."

"Ooh," the Doctor cooed as the trio placed the gear on their head, turning it on to light up the tunnel. "Haven't got a hot dog in there have you? I'm starving."

Mrs. M just chuckled but Y/n smirked. "You want want meant-"

"Hush now," the Doctor interrupted. Y/n and Mrs. M both let out a bursting laugh that cut off as they remembered where they were, and that the tunnel echoed.

"Better than what he wanted though," Mrs. M reasoned. "Of all the things to wish for - mechanically recovered meat? Isn't that a bit fitting?"

The Doctor smiled at the irony. "I know, it's the Cyberman of food, but it's tasty." Y/n smirked but didn't say anything - not that it wasn't obvious by the other two's face they knew what he was thinking.

Mrs. M reached in her bag again and pulled out another set of three, but this time they were better than the last if you asked Y/n. "Proper torches," Mrs. M announced proudly.

The Doctor looked down the tunnel, raising his torch. "Let's see where we are." They all nearly had a heart attack when his light hit a a Cyberman, back against the wall. There was another next to the first, and then another and another after the second, stretching to far down the tunnel that they turned a corner and went out of sight. "Already converted, just put on ice," the Doctor whispered. His voice pitched up when he pipped, "Come on." And they did, Mrs. M in between the Doctor who lead, and Y/n who followed behind her. He paused only a second to knock on one of the Cybermen to test if it would react. Nothing. "Let's go slowly," the Doctor decided. "Keep an eye out for trip systems."

Therefore, the journey down the tunnel of seemingly endless Cyberman began.

Eventually the silence got unbearable. Y/n began humming, trying to keep his mind distracted from the fear in his body. He liked fear, it came him ready and awake. It was good for running and dodging. Not, one would say, walking slowly down a dark tunnel with countless machines that could kill you with one touch. Y/n tried to keep them countless too. He forced himself not to count each and every one he walked by. Tried not to think about how many people had been killed so that metal murder machine could be there now. He tried to channel that fear that was so useful when he had to move fast and be smart, into forcing himself to stay slow and occupied.

Mrs. M wasn't a fan. "Could you not?"

Y/n did stop, because he was always about what other people needed more than anything, but he quickly got antsy. He found out pretty soon that he had been subconsciously counting the machines, and the tally picked up in his head the second he wasn't distracted with trying to think of what tune to hum next. So, he busied himself with a different sense, planting his free hand along the wall that wasn't lined with Cybermen, focusing on the feel of the stone to reorient his mind instead. Mrs. M grunted and Y/n offered a terse, "I can't sit in silence. Not like this."

Before Mrs. M could shoot something back, the Doctor piped up. "How did you get into this, then?" For a second Y/n thought the Doctor meant him, but then he clarified, "Rattling along with the Preachers I mean. I know your story Y/n."

Mrs. M sighed. "Oh, I used to be ordinary."

"As we all did," Y/n sympathized, nodding his head.

He instantly worried she might take offense as he had technically interrupted her, but she just nodded. "Indeed. I even worked at Cybus Industries, back then. 9-5." Her voice changed, and Y/n realized she was recalling that past with a sort of bittersweet wistfulness that dropped into relief. "Until one day, I find something I'm not supposed to. A file on the mainframe. All I did was read it." That made Y/n chuckle a bit. That is how it always started, wasn't it? One accident. One moment that you made a decision to answer a question you had, a curiosity that was bugging at you, and then everything changed. "Then suddenly I've got men with guns knocking in the middle of the night. A life on the run. Then I found the Preachers. They needed a techie, so I just sat down and taught myself everything."

"What about Mr. Moore?" the Doctor asked, taking Y/n by surprise. Though... he shouldn't have been surprised, thinking about it. The Doctor might pretend not to care or think of those things, but that's probably what mattered to him most. Having love and a home and a family. Something he'd never get, really. Not as the last Timelord. Not with Y/n, or anyone else anymore.

Mrs. M spoke, pulling Y/n from his thoughts. "Well he's not called Moore. I got that from a book, Mrs. Moore." The Doctor and Y/n both shot her a look and she returned a soft, amused smile. "It's safer not to use real names. But he thinks I'm dead. It was the only way to keep him safe. Him and the kids."

Y/n's heart broke at that. "I can't imagine that. I'm sorry."

"Oh it's fine," Mrs. M dismissed. "Anyway, what about you two? Any family, or...?"

"Oh who needs family?" the Doctor scoffed, putting on the same front he always did when people got too close to things that hurt too much to talk about. Y/n grew quiet, thinking about how his own response probably would have been something similar. "I've got the whole world on my side."

Mrs. M nodded. "And you, Y/n?"

Having had the realization of him similarness to the Doctor, Y/n didn't make the same move. They might have a similar backstory, but Y/n didn't have to act the same about it. "I had one, once. Not- not really much of a family, even then. Very small, and quite broken." He was silent for a moment. "They're gone now. All of them." He shook his head. "Look at me getting all sad and sentimental." He sighed. "What's your real name, Mrs. Moore?"

She hesitated a moment. "Angela Price." There was a hesitation. "Don't you dare tell a soul."

"Not a word," the Doctor vowed.

After a few seconds, Y/n started humming again. This time, Mrs. Prince didn't give him lip for it.

Thought, it could have been because of her mild panic over something else. "Doctor," she breathed urgently, jumping forward, closer to the Timelord. "Did that one just move?" Y/n looked over her head to see the arm of one of the Cybermen bent, where they'd all been stood at attention, limbs straight and ready to be activated.

"It's just the torchlight," the Doctor whispered.

"No way," Y/n argued. "That arm is bent. None of them were bent." As if in response to him, the same Cybermen turned to look at Y/n, its body beginning to turn and take up more of the hallway, making it harder to pass.

That kicked the Doctor into action. "They're waking up. RUN!" They all took off, going as fast as their legs could carry them. They made it to the end of the tunnel that echoed with the sound of hundreds of marching men and the sonic screwdriver working at hyper speed to unlock the lid. Y/n knew it was too late when the lid was finally removed, Mrs. Price's voice mixing with all the others sounds as she began to panic and rush.

The Doctor made it out, and then Mrs. Price. Y/n was only halfway up the ladder when his ankle was grabbed and he was ripped off the ladder and onto the ground. His name was screamed. There was the sound of electricity and pain shot up Y/n's body, like earlier with his mum, except this time he wasn't held mute by shock.

He screamed.

"Close it, it's too late!" the Doctor instructed. The lid fell back into place and the sonic screwdriver sounded, muffled this time by the metal.

The tunnel went silent.

Only for a moment though. Realizing the path up the ladder was sealed, the Cybermen moved back down the tunnel and out of sight, their footsteps fading into the distance. When he was sure they were gone, Y/n pushed himself to his feet, shaking off the pain he'd felt moments ago. He climbed the ladder and knocked three times on the metal hatch. There was a second where Y/n thought they'd maybe left him behind. Perhaps the Doctor thought he'd be fine on his own. The risk was too great. They didn't know if the Cybermen would even leave. Perhaps they'd left him.

Then there was the wonderful sound of the sonic screwdriver, and the lid lifted. Y/n scrambled out of the hole and the Doctor replaced the lid. Once finished, the Doctor turned and pulled Y/n to his feet, hugging him tightly. "I have to stop worrying you like this," Y/n joked weakly.

"I wasn't worried," the Doctor reassured. "It's just nice to see you okay. Even though I knew I just... I like seeing you okay."

Y/n smiled softly. The moment wasn't to last though, because Mrs. Price was not satisfied with what had just happened. "I'm sorry what the bloody hell was that?"

Pulling away from the Doctor's embrace - as much as he didn't want to - Y/n turned to her with a sheepish smile. "Long story but in short terms, he's an alien and I can't die. Get the confusion out now."

Mrs. Price glared at Y/n. "Don't lie to me."

Y/n nodded. "Fair enough. You wouldn't believe the truth then." Mrs. P went to argue but Y/n held up a hand. "No time for explanation, especially with how much it's take to get you to believe us. Let's just go and we can tell you about it later." Mrs. Price hesitated but then nodded, letting it go for now.

They began walking further into the factory to get to their goal and stop the converter machines, but were stopped by yet another Cyberman. "You have not been upgraded."

Quite impressively, Mrs. Price stepped forward, reaching into her bag like Marry Poppins. "Upgrade this," she spat, and threw a small rectangular device at the thing. It stuck to the Cyberman's check and went off, spirals of electricity shooting out and across the metal body. The Cyberman collapsed, unresponding.

Amazed, the Doctor breathlessly asked, "What the hell was that thing?"

"Electromagnetic bomb," Mrs. Price answered. "Takes out computers; I figured it might stop a Cyber suit."

"Well, you figured right," the Doctor complimented.

"He doesn't say that often," Y/n pointed out. "Enjoy it while you can."

"Let's have a look. Know your enemy," the Doctor continued in a rush. He didn't like to admit that he wasn't goo enough about recognizing other people's smarts. To be fair, practically no one could measure up to his intelligence, so it only made sense to Y/n that with such an example as himself everyone else seemed rather plain. Y/n pushed that thought away, reminding himself the Doctor thought no one plain or small. He had always looked at humans and seen a wonder. It's why he was so confused by their occasional stupidity.

The Doctor took out his screwdriver, kneeling next to the Cyberman. He ran the tool along the circle in the middle of the Cyberman's chest. "The other ones didn't have that logo," Y/n noticed softly.

"Different than these ones," the Doctor reminded. "Not much different, but it can be said that Lumic doesn't seem the man to turn down the opportunity to slap his name on anything and everything he can. Even humanity... he's shoved them in metal suits, taken away their hearts and turned them into a brand."

Y/n glared. "What kind of person can be okay with that, just to keep himself alive?"

"Worst of humanity," the Doctor mumbled as he pulled off the front plate finally. "Just as bad as the best is good, which is saying quite good. Humanity is cool that way." He changed the subject, flipping the lid over and showing the wiring on the back. "Heart of steel," he told the other two, as if guiding them through the build. "But look." He reached into the inside of the Cyberman, pulling out stringy bits that were so thin and white they were almost see through."

Mrs. Price looked at the Doctor with a gloomy expression. "Is that flesh?"

The Doctor hummed. "Central nervous system." He put the bits back inside. "Artificially grown then threaded through the suit so it responds like a living thing. Well- it is a living thing." He looked deeper and leaned closer. "Ooh, but look." His finger rested against a sort of square hard drive looking thing that was stuck into the top of the chest. "Emotional inhibitor. Stops them feeling anything."

That made Mrs. Price jerk. "But, why?"

Returning to looking at the two humans, and not the metal thing that used to be, the Doctor began to explain, "Still got a human brain. Imagine its reaction if it could see itself. Realize itself inside this thing. It would go insane."

Y/n rose a hand to cover his mouth. Not because he was crying, but because he was so disgusted on how the understanding had come to him so easily. How he had forgotten what it was like to not understand, and not see. What it was like to look and for once not know what was going on. How it had gone through his mind for a second and he hadn't wept or screamed or ached, but simply acknowledged until the Doctor had said that last bit out loud. As if understanding, the Doctor reached over and placed his free hand on Y/n's shoulder.

"So they cut out the one thing that makes them human," Mrs. Price realized softly.

"Because they have to," the Doctor confirmed, leaning away from the machine with a dark expression.

To the group's horror, the Cyberman spoke. "Why. Am I cold?" The voice was still electronic and processed, but it was hesitant. Broken. Slow wit a pause between each word. Unsure, Y/n realized.

"Oh my god it's alive." Mrs. Price leaned away. After what the Doctor had just said-

"It can feel," Y/n whispered, his voice full of regret and pain as his hand dropped to rest on the metal chest of the poor creature.

"We broke the inhibitor." The Doctor leaned close, trying to be in the Cyberman's line of sight. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

The machine didn't respond to that. Instead it repeated, "Why so cold?"

Skipping past that question, the Doctor asked instead, "Can you remember your name."

"Sally." It seemed to have begun to struggle with each syllable, like speaking was hard. Y/n's head was filled with a woman's face, eyes blinking as her head swam and she stumbled, words fumbling as she tried to orient herself and understand what was happening in all the sudden confusion she felt out of nowhere. "Sally Phelan."

"You're a woman," Mrs. Price realized aloud.

"Where's Garret?"

Suddenly, a man's face. His features were so clear it was like Y/n was seeing him in person. Or, had at one point. He was smiling, his arms open for a hug, his head tilted endearingly. "Not far." Y/n winced as he answered, knowing he was right even though he didn't know why or how.

"He can't see me," Susan suddenly insisted. It was still slow, like she was half asleep, but Y/n could somehow see the expression that would have been on her face had she still been able to make it. Nearly hear the inflections in her voice, had she still been able to expression such things. "It's unlucky the night before."

Y/n closed his eyes, turning away. His rose his hand to his head, feeling a sudden painful pressure behind his skull. There was a thrumming and pulsing and then a hand on his shoulder, but this hand was smaller than a Cyberman's. Softer and warmer. He looked over to see Mrs. Price, who had a concerned expression on her face. Y/n saw a glint of silver behind her as she went to stand, about to encourage Y/n to do the same. But it was all too late. Mrs. Price's shoulder planted immediately into the waiting hand of a Cyberman and her body was covered in those coils of electricity, and she fell, dead.

"No, you didn't have to kill her!" The Doctor wailed, face full of pain as he shot to his feet.

"Binary vascular system detected," the Cyberman answered without a hint of regret. It looked at Y/n, who stood next to the Doctor, taking his hand silently. "I have seen you die. You have died twice now, we have killed you. Yet you live. You are both unknown upgrades. You will be taken for analysis. There were three Cybermen in total, around them, and they began marching. The two men had no chance to grab Mrs. Price's body, and even if they had what was the point?

So, they left her and they marched to whatever was next.

The walk was silent and grim. They were directed to what seemed to be Central Control. They turned the corner to see familiar faces, and to vent his heavy heart the Doctor drawled, "I've been captured! But don't worry, Rose and Pete are still out there." His voice was laced in sarcasm as he and Y/n approached the two previously mentioned, who should be far from where they were now. "Oh well never mind." He shook his head, making it clear he was only teasing. "Are you okay?" He asked Rose.

"Yeah," she offered, but her face said differently. Her eyes drifted to Y/n then shot away very quickly, her face twisting with pain. He felt his own features contort with confusion. What had she seen to upset her so much, and why was there the sense it had something to do with Y/n? "But they got Jackie," she continued. "And..." she hesitated, before deciding to continue. "Y/n, I met your other half. In this world. Um, I know... why your mum said you were missing."

There was something horrible about that. "How did you know it was me?"

"Your mum was... in line. After we were identified, I tried to save her but... then this other Cyberman came up. Said he was her son. He said-" She cut off, but Y/n looked at her earnestly. Despite everything, he had to know. "She's been rejected for upgrading. They... they put her in the incinerator."

Y/n looked at the ground. "I'm sorry about Jackie."

Rose didn't seem sure how to respond to that. Didn't know if Y/n was mad at her for telling him about this universe's Y/n and his mum. Pete responded for her. "We were too late," he lamented. It was more fitting than saying nothing, or dismissing it as okay when it so very much wasn't At first Y/n worried Pete blamed himself but then he added, "Lumic killed her," and it was immediately clear his anger was not self directed.

The Doctor took charge there. "And where is the famous Mr. Lumic?" He demanded, turning around the room, looking for the man they'd all heard so much about but had not had the chance to see. "Don't we get the chance to meet our lord and master?"

One of the Cybermen stepped forward. "He has been upgraded."

"So he's just like you?" The Doctor's voice had dropped to a deadpan.

"He is superior," the Cyberman corrected. "The Lumic unit has been designated Cybercontroller."

This memory came sudden and without warning. Y/n's vision was wiped and he was seeing something else.

"Oh come on love, you can't expect me to be able to control everything."

"You can make it snow but you can't turn the heating down a little in your own ship?"

Immediately he knew something was wrong. Because that was his own voice, coming from where he was speaking now. He was himself... but he didn't know this memory. He was talking to a man as well that he didn't recognize. The man had longer hair than the Doctor's. A bit floppier. His chin was broad, his shoulders wider. His eyes were darker, not in color but in age, like he'd seen more. Lived longer. That thought occurred to Y/n because the Doctor was the one man who had the eyes of one who had lived so long that it was impossible anyone had reached further back. Had seen more. Had been through enough to even come close to that depth and age and darkness. Yet this man... surpassed that easily. And all with a smile, tottering around in a tweed jacket and a bow tie.

Y/n moved closer to the man, reaching out and running a hand along his jaw. "I miss when you wore a proper tie. I can't pull on this thing like I used to."

The man blushed. "Well, bow ties are cool. Had to switch it out no choice. I've got to look cool now, don't I?"

"Of course you do." And then they kissed, and Y/n thrown back into the present with confusion as to what the hell he'd just seen, and also tripping over himself internally to try and catch himself up to what he'd just missed, because they were mid conversation and Y/n had not a single clue what was going on in his head or out of it.

The Doctor was rambling, going on and on about how someone could do something to stop Lumic. Speaking in generals, and talking on and on and getting rather specific. Y/n saw him look several times in the same spot and followed the Doctor's eyes to see a camera. What... was going on? His brain was processing too slowly, understanding what was being said a second after it had been said. And with how much the Doctor was saying and how fast he was saying it, Y/n just couldn't keep up.

He closed his eyes, raising his hands to knees the base of his palms against his eyelids, trying to massage away the tension building mildly behind his skull. It began to fade and his mind began to right as Rose spoke up. "It's for you," she said.

"Like this," the Doctor responded, catching the phone as she threw it to him and plugging it into a port in the desk. And Y/n didn't have time to understand because suddenly he was full of agony. Not physical pain, but an internal poison that coursed through his blood and seeped into his muscle and shelled around his bone. Searing torture of a million minds screaming out all at once as they realized what they were. What had happened to them. A human, cold, surrounded by the dark, realizing they'd been ripped from their body and shoved into a machine. And it hurt. Oh, it hurt so much. IT HURT.

Y/n's knees gave out and he bent forward, pressing his forehead to the cold ground to seek some reprieve from the boiling heat just under his skin and the pain bouncing around in his head. He screamed and screamed and heard nothing else until finally the pressure faded and lessened and eased enough for his vision to clear. To his surprise, they'd moved. His hands had been pried off his head and he had been forced to his feet. It seemed he'd been dragged by Rose and the Doctor, who each had one of his arms around their shoulders. He was sure he'd been screaming, but it seemed that he had instead just woken up from knocking out cold entirely.

"I'm sorry Y/n I don't know what's happening but this building is collapsing and I don't know how far your immortality goes. Please come round, we have to climb this ladder and I can't carry you any further," the Doctor was begging. "PLEASE Y/N!"

Y/n forced his feet underneath him, standing shakily on his own. He nodded wordlessly, feeling dizzy and lightheaded. The Doctor and Rose shared terrified expressions but climbed the ladder anyway. Pete has already gone up and Rose was next. "Go," Y/n told the Doctor.

"No." The Doctor had the same look as when Rose had set her mind to going with Pete to save Jackie, and Y/n knew he didn't have energy to put to waste, so he just climbed. It was painful and draining and he almost stopped with no room for the Doctor, but Rose called his name and he forced himself to take a few more steps further up the swaying ladder. The Doctor got on and the balloon lifted off. Everything else faded as Y/n closed his eyes, resting his forehead against he stung by his face, focusing all his might on keeping on the ladder.

Finally, there was an electronic scream, and then everything else faded into silence. Y/n realized what he couldn't before. His mind had been full of faces. Hundreds and hundreds - maybe millions - of faces. All crying out. All horrified as they realized they were no longer human. No longer in their bodies. The same feeling that he had sensed in Sally in the hallway with Angela Price and the Doctor. That same sensation, but on such an astoundingly larger scale that it had mushed together in pure agony, blinding him and knocking him unconscious because Y/n was only human. He could handle memory, but the first hand shared pains of so many? He couldn't handle that.

When they landed, Y/n didn't y'all to anyone. He looked away from them until they backed off and then he shoved his hands in his pockets and made his way to the TARDIS, far ahead of the others. The wind whipped around him and the cold seeped into his skin like London air always did at night, and he aches for the lives lost. He mourned all of the faces that were in his head now. All the lives lost. All of those voices calling out for him, pleading for mercy. For reprieve. Begging for safety and release from the terrible thing eating them up slowly, starting at the edges and working it's way to their core, consuming every detail of them.

Finally, Y/n understood what the Doctor felt watching Gallifrey buen and fall. He didn't just see it, but he felt it. He internalized it and his heart throbbed with an understanding he wished he wasn't capable of. Far, far too many lives lost because one man was incapable of stopping it all from crumbling to the ground.

When he got to the TARDIS, he surged inside to his room, this time refusing to answer the door when several people knocked. The TARDIS light up again, alive and thrumming, and Y/n felt something course through him that was both new and so very familiar. Like the feeling of the weight of your hair, but only noticing after you cut it. Something that had been there for ages but only now he was seeing and recognizing. A warmth spread through his whole body and he heard a voice, clear as day in his head.

“I’m sorry.”

For some reason, Y/n wasn’t afraid. That wasn’t much of a mystery either though. Even though it made no sense and should be impossible and he should be shocked and confused and maybe even worried, he knew who was speaking to him, and he was okay with it. “It’s okay,” he mumbled, suddenly exhausted. “I forgive you.”

The walls of the TARDIS thrummed and Y/n knew she understood he was telling the truth.

“You need to let them in.”

Y/n looked at his lap. “I can’t, don’t you understand? I-” He squeezed his eyes tight, and he felt the feeling of sadness and regret, but not from him. What he felt was so, so much deeper than just sadness. It was... emptiness. Deep and eroding, like it was wrapping him in a darkness so deep he couldn’t tell the difference between his eyes being closed or open. So dark he couldn’t see his hand even if it touched his face. Like that, but a feeling. A feeling that seemed to change the world, sapping all of the color and muting all the sound, like it was far away. In the distance. Out of reach. He saw all those faces as they filtered through his mind. and he wanted to cry. He wanted to scream. But all he could do was limply stare at his lap and feel emotions that threatened to destroy him. “How can I explain?” It was hard to speak, to think enough past the numbness that seemed to be very quickly making it hard to do anything.

“They’ll understand.”

Instead of opening the door, Y/n just sat there. Suddenly there was a click and the door opened slowly, and Y/n turned slowly to see that the TARDIS had unlocked the door herself. “No,” Y/n moaned. “No!”

“Y/n?” Came from down the hall. “Rose, the door is opened!”

“NO!” Y/n screamed, curling away from the door and pulling a pillow off the bed to cover his face. He curled into himself, his body coiled impossibly rigid.

Despite his protest, he knew that the Doctor and Rose were in the room with him. Rose sat next to him on the bed, the Doctor kneeling in front of him. “Please,” Rose begged, sounding as if she was already crying. “I watched too many people I care about die today. I lost Mickey, and my dad... Please don’t shut me out Y/n. I can’t care it.”

“And it’s always about what you can handle, isn’t it Rose?” Y/n shoved the pillow away from him, turning to her with empty anger in his eyes. There was no life or fire behind it, and it was that which hurt far more than what he’d said.

The Doctor grabbed either side of Y/n’s face to force their eyes to meet. The Doctor searched Y/n’s face, then closed his eyes and began to search Y/n’s memories. He gasped, jerking back and letting his hands drop as he stepped back. “That’s impossible.”

“What?” Rose rushed. “What’s going on?”

Y/n sighed, rubbing his forehead. “The TARDIS... when you brought me back that day, the TARDIS was using you to do it. She was trying to create something specific. I don’t get it, but she... she put things into me that should destroy me, but because I’m immortal, it doesn’t. She put a piece of herself into my construct. It’s why I can see the Doctor’s past. She can see all of time and space, of course she could look into a person’s past and recognize it. She knows what happens, everywhere, always, at all times. She knows everything, and everyone, and she’s put the tiniest piece of that in me. But she wasn’t in complete control, because she was working through you. So she didn’t just give me pieces of the Doctor, she implanted chunks of him inside of me. Not like... I can’t understand half of what I see sometimes, but I can see everything. I can sometimes everyone. Or, sort of. On a smaller scale. A mass of people. If the Doctor is connected to someone, say, Cybermen... if his pain was similar enough to them, those pieces of him and the pieces of the TARDIS inside of me merge together, and I can see them. I can see them as they go insane, crumbling under a pressure so great that they combust and explode and crumble. Imagine that - an emotional so great for one person that it makes the wires they’re made of blow and they self destruct. Now imagine that in the thousands, in the millions. All compounded and shoved into one body. One mind. One soul. Imagine the loss that person would feel when it was suddenly silent. When they were suddenly alone, empty, and could feel the loss of all of those people on an individual level. Could see their faces, and knew their personalities. To have them erased in the most violent way... emotional and mental destruction. Going insane to death.

Rose covered her mouth. “Oh my god.”

The Doctor moved closer. “I... can take it away.” There was so much pain in his voice. An aching as he faced a goodbye he couldn’t handle.

Y/n caught his wrist, stopping him. “When I agreed to be your companion, I knew the risks. I knew that this life could kill me. Or worse. I could be suspended forever in every single disease in the entire universe and locked away, sick and in pain, forced to die slowly. I could get shoved into a metal suit with my soul stripped away, turning more people into things just like me. I could be one of the empty children, forever searching for my mummy, y skin replaced with leather and incapable of dying, but far, FAR from human. Lost. Floating. Nothing. I saw it time and time again, and even fell at the feet of a fate far worse than death several times. I was ripped apart by a werewolf after the throne and put back together again because my life has been cemented in time to withstand anything, always. A fixed point. And I choose that life, Doctor. I choose unfathomable pain and loss and heartbreak. I choose emptiness and darkness and a void of emotion that threatens to consume me. I accept being impossible, and the incredible weight it will put on me forever because it hurts - GOD, it hurts - but it will never kill me as it should, because I’m only some mortal human.”

The Doctor looked like he was about to cry. “Why?” He demanded softly.

Y/n didn’t answer with words. He stepped forward, grabbing the Doctor by the back of the neck and pulling him into a kiss. A kiss that was infused with so much deep, resounding love that it made the Doctor shiver. When they parted, their foreheads rested together and they breathed quickly to catch up on all the air their lungs were demanding. “I can’t die, and I refuse to be lost. Without me, you will always end up alone. There will always be a time when you look around, and there will be no one to look to. You will lose everything you care about. Everyone you hold dear. And the TARDIS saw that and rebelled, because it’s too much pain, too much loneliness, to expect just one person to carry. You won’t ever bare the weight of the universe on your shoulders alone, Doctor. Not ever again. Not as long as you let me be here to help you. I will stay by your side until you tell me to go, and no one but you will remove me from that spot. Not pain. Not hope or happiness or dreams come true. There is nothing that can take me away but you.”

The Doctor melted, his shoulders sagging and his facial expression fracturing into part pain, part relief. The look of a man who had been on his own for far too long and was finally accepting that maybe, just maybe, there was a chance to start over again. “You would do that for me?”

Rose stood, raising a hand to stroke the side of his face. “You do it for us. Its our honor to lessen that burden. To return the favor.”

He rested his forehead on Y/n’s chest. “Please don’t go. Don’t ever go.”

“Never,” Y/n promised. “I promise.”

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secret-kkh-fics · 4 years

Text

History Repeats | Chapter 15

Due to this not being posted anywhere else yet, please like but DON’T REBLOG my fics.

Chapter Summary:

Once again in Van Statten’s underground bunker, Rose must make a terrible decision when she comes face to face with the Dalek once more. How will she be able to stop the massive slaughter ahead?

Dalek

The Lone Dalek

“What’s that, then?!” the Doctor said in surprise. He was leaning in, squinting at the console screen in confusion. There was a persistent beeping sound, almost like a warning.

“What is it?” Rose asked him, attempting to look too. As usual, she couldn’t understand a thing, since the writing was all in Gallifreyan, but the screen was flashing red. “That doesn’t look good, yeah?”

“I don’t know. Maybe we should take a look.” Immediately, he began to race around the console, hitting buttons and flicking switches. Pausing with one hand on a lever, he looked up at her curiously. “What do you think it is?”

She looked back up at the screen. “Um… I don’t know. It’s not a problem with the TARDIS, is it?”

“No, it’s from outside,” he told her.

“Some sort of distress signal?” she guessed.

“Could be. Let’s find out.” As he spoke, the TARDIS gave one final lurch, and they landed. He took one last look at the screen before instantly headed for the door and she followed him out.

“So, what is it? What’s wrong?” she asked. “Is it a distress signal?”

“I don’t know, but it’s certainly some kind of signal, drawing the TARDIS off course…”

He began to look about, and Rose’s stomach lurched as she did the same. She knew this place. It was Van Statten’s Museum. Oh god, the Dalek. She didn’t know if she was ready for this. She didn’t know if she was ready to face a Dalek again. Or if she could even stop the devastation this one Dalek caused.

She felt sick.

“What is this place?” she asked, despite the nausea. “Where are we?”

“Earth, Utah, North America. About half a mile underground.”

“Right, underground base. Not ominous at all,” she muttered. “And when are we?”

“2012.”

“That’s so close,” she said. “That’s… what, only seven years away? I should be…” She tried to do the maths in her head. She was twenty-three, so it would make her 30. No! No, she was nineteen! Biological time. Why was her age so confusing now? “Twenty-six.”

Still looking around as she spoke, the Doctor found a light switch and turned it on, flooding the halls with light and illuminating the sick, alien museum. Many glass cabinets were spaced throughout the enormous room.

“Blimey, this place is huge!” she exclaimed. “Look at this stuff. Is that alien?”

“Yeah. A big old alien museum. Someone’s got a hobby.” They began to walk down the row, looking in the cases. “They must’ve spent a fortune on this. Chunks of meteorite, moon dust… That’s the milometer from the Rosewell Spaceship.”

“Look! That’s a Slitheen arm!” she cried, pointing it out. “That’s from a Raxocorocofalipatorian! Look at it, it’s been stuffed! How on earth did they even get it? Do you think it’s from when we bombed Downing Street?”

“Most likely,” the Doctor said. Then something else grabbed his attention and he quickly approached the case. “Oh, look at you!” he said to it.

Rose followed him over, staying a step behind him as she looked at the case he was. Inside was the head of a Cyberman. Her heart began to beat rapidly in fear as she gazed at it. This had been the first place she had ever seen a Cyberman. At the time, she could never fully comprehend just how terrible they were. Looking at it, it almost looked a little silly. The design was different to they Cybermen she knew. The head rounder and skinnier, the ‘handles’ on the side were thicker and ribbed. It didn’t look as aggressive and intimidating as the ones from the other dimension, but she knew that they were probably just as deadly.

“I don’t like that thing…” she found herself saying.

“Mmm, with good reason,” he said quietly. “This is an old friend of mine… Well, enemy. The stuff of nightmares reduced to an exhibit. I’m getting old.”

“Well, yeah. That kind of happens when you’re 900 years old and jump about time willy-nilly.”

“Oi! I’m actually still pretty young for my species, thank you very much. Time Lords can live for thousands and thousands of years! Well, if they’re carful, which most of them are… were.”

Sensing his mood dropping as he thought of his people, Rose went with her favourite tactic of distraction. “So, where do you think the signal is coming from?”

“I’m not sure,” he said, still staring at the Cyberman head. “Everything here looks like it’s well and truly dead. The signal’s alive. Something’s reaching out… Calling for help.” He gently reached up, and before Rose could say anything to caution him, he tapped the glass.

Instantly, alarms went off and men with guns ran into the room so fast she’s surprised they hadn’t come in earlier simply from just hearing them talk. There were at least a dozen of them, and within a few seconds, they were completely surrounded, guns pointing directly at them.

“If someone’s collecting aliens, that makes you Exhibit A,” she commented. The Doctor just gave them a tight-lipped smile as if to say ‘oops’. Rose frowned. “No, really. I don’t trust this place. Might be a good idea to not let them know…”

Knowing what Van Statten was like, knowing what he was doing to that Dalek as they spoke, she could just imagine what he would do if he ever found out that the Doctor was alien when they weren’t in the middle of a crisis. She could practically see the Doctor strapped to an angled, upright table, his shirt stripped off and writhing in pain as they tortured and experimented on him.

Again, she felt so worried that it made her feel sick. She wanted out of this place as soon as possible. Taking the Doctor’s hand, the attempted to calm herself, telling her self that she was over reacting and imagining things. The Doctor would be fine. He was last time.

She just had to deal with the Dalek, and everything would be okay.

Everything was okay.

One of the armed men grabbed a radio and spoke to someone. “Sir, we have two intruders on Level Sub 53. One male, one female. They look like civilians, but we’re not sure how they got down here undetected. Can’t see anything on them.”

After a moment’s pause, the radio made a static sound as a reply came through. “Alright, check them. I’ll make sure the boss is informed.”

“Yes, Sir.” He turned to a couple of the other men. “Search them.”

The two men came over to them, instructing them to hold their hands over their head and began to pat them down. Rose was reluctant to let go of the Doctor’s hand, but complied. She would be worried that they would find the alien tech that the Doctor carried on him, like the sonic screwdriver and more, but this had happened enough times in her past that she knew by now that anything in his trans-dimensional pockets wouldn’t be felt or picked up on any scans. The only thing they found in Rose’s pockets was her phone, which, after a brief glance at her messages, was handed back to her.

“People still have these?” the man who’d grabbed it asked, staring at it like it was an old relic.

“I miss those things,” another guy commented. “Trusty old phones, like bricks. I used to have a Noikia, my wife accidentally backed over it with the car. Perfectly fine! These days you drop your phone on the ground and it’s unusable!”

“I got my dad a new phone,” someone else said. “Fell out of his back pocket into the toilet. Won’t work anymore and he’s sitting there wondering why.”

“Humans,” the Doctor sighed quietly. “Make something better and you’re still not happy with it. Still, that’s how you evolve.”

Rose smirked, but her attention was diverted by someone’s radio going off.

“Attention all personnel. Bad Wolf One, descending. Bad Wolf One, descending.”

“What’s that, then?” she asked. “What’s Bad Wolf?”

“It’s one of our choppers,” the man replied. “The big boss’s chopper. He’s just arrived. He’s the one who’s going to decide what to do with you.”

“Right… and he named his helicopter after a fairytale?” She knew that they were her words, and she realised that she was probably the one to put the words in his head, but it was Van Statten, and she felt that wanker deserved all the teasing he could get.

“I wouldn’t make light of him, if I were you,” the man warned her. “He’s got a short temper. I heard that when he fires people, he has their memories erased and just leaves them out on the street in a random place around the country, and they’re just left there with nothing and no clue who they are.”

“Charming,” the Doctor grumbled sarcastically.

“Palmer, come in,” a voice crackled through the radio, cutting off any more conversation.

“Palmer here,” the man in charge answered.

“Bring the intruders to Mr Van Statten’s office. He wants to see them.”

“Yes, sir.” He looked up at them. “Right you two, follow us. And no funny business.”

“Funny business? Me?” the Doctor said innocently. Rose could only grin and shake her head.

Silently, they were led from the museum and into a lift, only a couple of the guards with them now. The lift went up ten or so floors before they were led out, down the corridor. Van Statten’s PA met them outside and escorted them into the lavish office. On the back wall was a large painting of Van Statten, she instantly recognised the style of a famous contemporary painter but couldn’t for the life of her put a name to the artist. It was clearly a recreation of one of the lady’s most famous paintings. And sitting at his desk in front of the gaudy, self-gratuitous painting was the man himself, taking an alien artefact from Adam.

“…Paid $800,000 for it,” he was saying.

“What does it do?” Van Statten asked, taking it from him.

“W-well, you see, the tubes on the side must be to channel something. I think maybe fuel-”

“I really wouldn’t hold it like that,” the Doctor said, cutting him off.

“Shut it,” the PA commanded harshly.

“Really, though. That’s wrong,” he continued.

“Is it dangerous?” Adam asked.

“No. Just looks silly.” He leaned forward to put his hand out for the item, but paused when they heard the sound of multiple guns cocking. Van Statten held up a and to stay them, then cautiously handed it over. The Doctor looked pleased as he lay it out flat on his palm and brought his other hand up to stroke the top. “You just need to be…” As he ran his fingers over it, it lit up and sounds came from it, like someone running their finger around a wine glass. “…delicate.”

Everyone looked impressed by his talent, and he just looked smug.

“Oh, that’s beautiful,” Rose said. “Can I…?”

Before anyone could protest, the Doctor handed it over to her. She hadn’t gotten the chance to play one quite like this, but the Doctor had taken her somewhere where she’d played something similar. With the most gentle of touches, she ran her fingers over the top, going through the scales. And then she began to play a tune. It was an easy, beautiful tune. One that she had heard almost every day for years. The song of the TARDIS. Even when she was no longer with them, the song stayed in her heart and she would often wake up in the morning with the tune dancing through her head.

She was so engrossed in playing the instrument, she didn’t see the Doctor’s brow furrow.

“It’s a musical instrument!” Van Statten said in wonder.

The Doctor nodded. “And it’s a long way from home.”

“Here, let me,” he said. He held out his hand and Rose handed the instrument back, trying to hide a pout of disappointment. Unfortunately, it was his.

She wondered if she could convince the Doctor to come back for it for her.

They watched as he took the instrument and odd, static-like sounds came out as he pressed too hard.

“I did say ‘delicate’,” the Doctor told him. “It reacts to the smallest fingerprint. It needs precision.” Van Statten listened to the Doctor’s advice and soon a few ringing notes came from it. “Very good,” he congratulated him. “Quite the expert.”

“As are you.” He suddenly callously tossed the instrument behind him and all eyes followed it as it clattered to the ground. Rose could tell by the look in the Doctor’s eyes that this was the exact moment he decided he did not like this man. “Who exactly are you?”

“I’m the Doctor. And who are you?”

“Like you don’t know,” Van Statten snarked. “We’re hidden away with the most valuable collection of extra-terrestrial artefacts in the world and you just stumbled in by mistake.

“Pretty much sums me up, yeah.”

“You’d be surprised by how often it happens,” Rose put in.

“Question is, how did you get in?” He walked around the desk, so he was standing closer to them. “53 floors down with your little cat burglar accomplice.” He leered down at her and Rose scowled. “Quite the collector yourself, she’s rather pretty.”

“She has a name, you know,” she snapped at him. “It’s Rose, and she’s gonna slap you if you don’t use it.”

“Ooh, and she’s spunky too. I like her. Hey, little Lord Fauntleroy, we might have found you a little English girlfriend.”

“Yeah, no thanks,” she muttered, shooting a glare at Adam. The Doctor looked between them with raised eyebrows, looking highly amused.

“Ah, this is Mr Henry Van Statten,” Adam introduced the smug man.

“What, and he can’t introduce himself?” she snarked. “And who’s he when he’s at home anyway? Other than some smug, rich twat with a hobby as weird as stamp collecting?”

Adam frowned in surprise at her comment, but soldiered on regardless. “Mr Van Statten owns the internet.”

“Oh, I see… That would be impressive if that was how the internet actually worked. No one can own the internet.”

“And let’s just keep the whole world thinking that way, right kids?” Van Statten said. Rose just rolled her eyes.

“So, you’re an expert on just about everything except the things in your museum,” the Doctor observed. “Anything you don’t understand, you lock up.”

“And you claim greater knowledge?”

“I don’t need to make claims, I know how good I am.”

“And yet, I captured you,” Van Statten said smugly. “Right next to the Cage. What were you doing down there?”

“You tell me.”

“The cage contains my one living specimen.”

“And what’s that?”

“Like you don’t know.”

“Show me”

“You wanna see it?”

The exchange was so quick, each man rapidly coming back with their reply in a way that reminded Rose of men showing off their toys.

“Blimey, just whip them out and measure them already!” she huffed jokingly.

“Rose!” the Doctor said, aghast.

“What, we both know you’d win,” she said to him with a smirk. “He’s clearly compensating for something.” This drew a small guffaw from the Doctor and Van Statten glared at her. Oh, she had hit the nail on the head.

“Goddard, inform the cage. We’re heading down,” Van Statten said to his assistant. He turned to Adam. “You, English. Look after the girl. Canoodle or spoon or whatever it is you British do.”

“No, thanks!”

“And you, doctor with no name…” He nodded towards the lift. “Come and see my pet.”

“Yeah, I don’t think so,” Rose said. “I’m going with him.”

“Nope. You’re staying up here. I don’t just let anyone see my pet, and he’s the expert. So, the mouthy teen stays here.”

“Aww, but you said you liked me,” she pouted teasingly as they walked out the door.

The Doctor grinned, enjoying it probably more than he should. “Behave, you.”

“Never.”

He shot her one last brilliant grin before he turned and climbed into the elevator with the others, leaving just her and Adam in the room. She turned to face him expectantly, and for a moment, Adam just stood there, awkwardly hitting a fist into the palm of his hand. The expression he wore was clearly one of someone who had no clue what to do or say.

“Blimey, you’re a clever one, aren’t ya?”

“Oh, thank you!” he said, brightening up.

“That was sarcasm, Mate. Come on, you’re babysitting me. What are we going to do for entertainment?”

“I… Um, how-how about I show you my workroom?” he asked. “It’s no museum or Metaltron, but there’s some pretty cool things in there.”

“Metaltron?”

“It’s what Mr Van Statten has called his living specimen. See, no one knows what it is, and since we can’t get it to communicate we have no way of knowing. The alien seems to be a living creature, but it’s encased in this large, metal structure. So… Metaltron.”

“Ah, I see,” she said, trying not to laugh imagining a Dalek’s reaction to being called a Metaltron.

“Anyway, it’s ah… this way.” He led her out of the office into the hall, and into another elevator, making a belated introduction and small talk. They went down a few floors, along another few corridors, and finally into his small, cluttered workspace. “Sorry about the mess,” he said. “Mr Van Statten sort of lets me do my own thing, so long as I deliver the goods…”

Rose looked about the space, taking in all the objects around the room. She was quite pleased to find that she recognised a lot of them or could at least roughly identify what most of them were. She could also see quite a few objects she was sure were from Earth, and even something she knew was from the 51st century. She wasn’t sure if it fell through a rift, or if it had been dropped by a Time Agent, but she knew exactly what it was… and she should probably get it out of the hands of this greedy, arrogant git.

“What do you think this is?”

His voice caught her attention, and she turned around to see him holding something out to her. As she took it off him, she could see it in his eyes. That look that was practically begging her to ask him what it was so he could explain his ‘amazing’ theories to her and show off just how smart he was. She remembered how last time, even though she hadn’t had a clue what half of this stuff was, she had still played ignorant so he could show off. It was something she had sometimes done with the Doctor, just so she could listen to the sound of his voice and see how excited he got while explaining things. She had wanted to see Adam get that excited and passionate about something he clearly loved. But this time, she knew better. She knew what he was really like, and she had later realised that he had been rather condescending to her, just because she wasn’t ‘smart’. Well, she wasn’t going to let that happen again.

“Hmm….” She studied the chunk of metal carefully. “It’s porous, which would make it lighter than it would be if it where solid… Naturally occurring. But it’s been shaped. These bits are clearly broken and torn,” she traced her fingers around the edges, “but this part is smoothed flat, like it’s been worked. It’s an odd metal… definitely not from Earth. The colour is off from anything we have, and the pattern in the metal is an effect we’ve only seen on meteorites. Actually, there isn’t a metal like this in our entire galaxy, so it’s from somewhere beyond the Milky Way. It’s undoubtedly from a spacecraft of some kind, but I’m not sure which bit. The lightness of the material would definitely be good for flight, but probably not sturdy enough for the hull.”

“You-you don’t think it’s from a hull of a spacecraft?” he asked, baffled.

“No. Spacecraft, definitely. Hull… probably not. Then again… if they crashed, might be why.” She gently placed it back down on his desk.

“Oh.” He seemed quite put out, not only that he hadn’t been able to explain what it was, but also that she seemed to know more than he had about it. It brought a small smile to her lips. “You, ah… you seem to know a lot about… well, this stuff. Usually I have to try and convince people that aliens are real and that I’m not just a crazy person.”

“Are you kidding me?” she said. “After everything that happened back home? Aliens crashing into Big Ben, the Christmas spaceship, Cybermen and Daleks in the streets?!” She wondered if he would pick up on the memory of the Daleks and realise what it was Van Statten was hiding down in his basement, but he didn’t react at all. Still, that was all six or seven years ago for him, there had to be something more recent he would remember. Oh! It was 2012! “Everyone disappearing into thin air at the Olympics?!”

“In Bejing?”

“No, the London Olympics!”

“…Th-the Olympics haven’t happened yet. They’re a few months away.”

“Right. Right, yeah. They are, aren’t they. Still, how could you not know about all these things?!”

“Seems America missed the memo,” he said, rolling his eyes. “They didn’t get a lot of what we did back home. And they thought the Cybermen were a big practical joke, like a flashmob or terrorist group or something. I was actually on a plane to Japan for a foreign exchange programme. Totally missed it… But I was there that first Christmas, that one with the spaceship. One moment there’s aliens on TV, the next I’m waking up, standing on the edge of the roof with my mum and no idea how we got there.” Rose nodded. “What about you? Where were you that Christmas?”

“Oh, I was on the ship. So was the Doctor. He fought single combat to get them to leave Earth and won.”

“I… wow. Okay. Are-are you and he…”

“Yep,” she replied, nodding enthusiastically.

She knew what he was asking. If they were involved. And they may not be yet, but they hopefully would be in the future. And she was most definitely emotionally involved with him. And she was going to stop that boy’s train of thought right there.

He was obviously perplexed by this idea and a little put out to have his attempts of possible flirting shut down. She just continued to glance around the room.

“So, how did you end up here anyway? Doing a job like this?”

“Van Statten has agents all over the world looking for geniuses to recruit.”

“Oh, okay. So, you’re a genius?”

“Sorry, but yeah. Can’t help it. I was born clever.”

See. Smug, arrogant, condescending git. The Doctor was incredibly intelligent, but he didn’t rub it in everyone’s faces quite like that. It made her want to knock him down a peg.

“Why does a genius have a hairdryer in with a crate of guns?”

“What?”

“That one,” she said, pointing to the device that very clearly was not a gun. “I’m pretty sure that one’s a hairdryer.”

His brow furrowed. “How can you tell?”

She went over and pulled the crate out, grabbing it for a closer inspection. “Well, for one thing, this is a switch, not a trigger. These dials here are for temperature and pressure. And both sides are covered with vents and grates… It’s clearly not meant to have something fired out of it, and wants to prevent anything getting in. Plus, it just… generally looks like a hairdryer…”

“Oh.” Being shown up was making him at a loss for words, and Rose was loving it. She enjoyed watching as he looked about, practically searching for a way to try and one-up her. “You wanted to be down there looking at the alien with your doctor friend, right? Well, if you’re a genius, it doesn’t take long to patch in on the comms system.”

Trying not to roll her eyes, Rose smiled and relented. “Oh, alright then. Let’s have a look.” She came around to stand beside him at the desk, watching over his shoulder as he tapped at the keys and hacked into the camera down in the ‘cage’.

“To be honest, it doesn’t really do much. The alien. It’s weird. It’s kind of… useless. It’s just like this… great big pepper pot.”

The feed flicked up and despite herself, Rose felt herself tense up at the sight on the screen. In the middle of the room, chained up, was a Dalek. Just one regular Dalek. The first she had ever seen. Back then, she had been so naïve and had no kind of clue what creature Van Statten had imprisoned in his basement. But now she did. She had seen the horrors they had caused. The people this one would kill if she let it out. The billions of people they had killed over the course of 90 years on Satellite Five. Canary Wharf…

She despised this thing for what it was. For the things she knew it would do.

It could stay down there and rot for all she cared.

She didn’t care that that horrible man was torturing it. She didn’t. It deserved it. It deserved whatever was happening to it for all the pain it had and would cause. She didn’t care. She didn’t. It deserved it. It did…

It-it could rot here forever for all she cared… She wasn’t going near it this time.

Suddenly, she was no longer in Adam’s workroom. She was down in the cage, looking at the Dalek as time passed rapidly around her. She watched as days and months of torture was inflicted upon it. She watched as Van Statten shouted at it, demanding it talk to him and be a good pet. She watched as it screamed in agony, its hatred for mankind growing even stronger than it had already been. She watched as it bided its time. As a terrible storm raged, destroying the levels above ground and sending a powerful lightning strike right down through the bunker’s electrical system, giving the Dalek enough of a boost to recharge its systems and heal itself. It wasn’t perfect, still damaged and broken from years’ worth of torture and experiments, but its gun worked, and it was strong enough to break free. She watched as the Dalek moved its way through the bunker, killing everyone in sight. As it found its way up to the surface and out into the world. She watched as it made its way across Utah, across South Western America, killing billions before the military were able to bring it down with a nuke. So much of America decimated, the land radiated and uninhabitable for decades to come. All because of one brutal creature. All because she didn’t show it the compassion and mercy she should would almost anything else.

Rose gasped as she came back to herself, leaning heavily on the desk, her eyes fixed on the screen.

“We have to go!” she gasped. “We have to get down there!”

“We’re not supposed to-”

“They’re torturing it! I don’t care if it’s a Dalek or not! It’s wrong and we have to stop it!”

“Wait, that’s a Dalek?!” he cried as she ran from the room.

“Hold it right there!” a guard said firmly as Rose charged into the room, Adam jogging in after her, trying to keep up.

“Level three access,” he panted, flashing his ID. “Special clearance from Mr Van Statten.”

He walked past her and led her into the cage. On their way, they passed Simmons. After seeing the possible timeline where he spent years upon years torturing that Dalek, she felt herself fill with rage, and before she could stop herself, she lashed out and slapped him.

“Fucking sadistic tosser!” she hissed at him. Immediately, every guard in the room was up in arms, heading towards her with their guns drawn. Thankfully, they were stayed by Adam, who held up his hand to stop them. He looked at Rose questioningly, his expression almost screaming for her to apologise. Instead, she just looked back at Simmons. “You’re worse than that creature in there,” she told him. And then she turned and pushed past Adam into the cage.

“What was all that about?” he asked as the door closed.

“I don’t condone torture,” she said shortly. “No matter how vial the victim is.”

Adam wisely said nothing, and she turned around to face the Dalek. Her heart pounded in fear, her mind racing with all the times she had gone up against them. What she knew they could do. What she knew this one would and could do. Still, she faced the chained creature and smiled sympathetically. It really looked roughed up, many of it’s domes crushed in and one of its panels pryed open. Thick chains surrounded it, keeping it teathered to four posts.

“Hello,” she said. “Are you alright? Are you in pain?” The Dalek just stared at her. She had no idea what it was feeling, with its unexpressive casing, or if it was even feeling anything at all. “My name’s Rose. Rose Tyler. I’m going to help you. Okay? My friend and I, we’re going to help you.”

“YES,” it said.

“Good. Then let’s get you out.”

“Rose, I don’t think-”

“YES… I AM IN PAIN,” the Dalek cut Adam off. “THEY TORTURED ME. BUT THEY STILL FEAR ME. DO YOU FEAR ME?”

Hesitantly, she looked it up and down, then shook her head. “Not right now.”

The Dalek lowered its eyestalk pathetically, really putting on a show. “I AM DYING.”

It almost made her laugh. Last time she met this Dalek, she had no idea what it was, nor how dangerous it was. It had played innocent and she had lapped it up in her naivety. She never realised just how much the Dalek was putting it on.

“No, don’t be silly,” she said playing along. “We can help.”

“I WELCOME DEATH. BUT I AM GLAD… THAT BEFORE I DIE… I MET A HUMAN WHO WAS NOT AFRAID…”

It was at this point, that Rose could no longer hold in her laughter. Adam balked at her reaction, too stunned to know what to do as she doubled over.

“Sorry, sorry. I’m sorry,” she said, gasping for air. “I couldn’t hold it in any longer.”

“I don’t get it…” Adam said, looking entirely lost. It was clear it was something he didn’t like feeling.

“It was just putting on the ‘poor little me’ act so strong, I couldn’t keep a straight face,” she said with a grin. Then she turned back to the Dalek. “I’m not like these other humans. I know what you are. I know what your species has done. What you do. I know that your lot commits genocide everywhere you go because you think you’re superior. But I have seen all of your existence before. I’ve wiped you from existence before. Daleks are monsters… but you don’t deserve this. Nothing deserves this. So, I’m going to get you out of here.” She began looking about for some controls or some way to let it out. “My friend and I will take you somewhere you can’t hurt anyone. Somewhere you can build a life and do… whatever it is Daleks do when they aren’t planning or committing invasions and genocide.”

“THAT IS MY PURPOSE!”

“Yeah, well, not anymore. You know there’s no more Daleks left, right? Not anywhere else in the universe!” She wasn’t entirely sure if it was true, but she knew that the Doctor had once been utterly convinced of it. “You don’t have any higher authority. You have no objective. And no weaponry. But you have your life. So, I suggest you take it.” When she couldn’t see any controls nearby, she walked over to one of the pillars chaining it up and started looking over it. “Okay, how do I get you out of here…?” She tug on the chains, looking about for a lock or some kind of release switch. “Adam, can you do something? I can’t touch it, or it will be able to repair itself, including its weapons and probably go on a killing spree.”

“Rose, I don’t think this is such a good id-”

“What do you think you’re doing?” The door burst open, and the horrible torturer guy rushed in, glaring at her.

“Getting this Dalek away from you!” she growled. “It might be one of the most instinctively evil creatures I know of, but it still deserves better than what you’ve done to it!”

“Get away from there!” he ordered her, stalking over to her in a few strides and grabbing her wrist away from the chains.

“Let go of me!” she hissed, trying to pull away from him. She tugged as hard as she could, and he let her go, sending her flying backwards… right into the Dalek. She could feel the cool metal under her hand heat up to the point of burning, and she jumped back, looking at it in panic. “Shit!”

“GENETIC MATERIAL EXTRAPOLATED,” it said. “INITIATE CELLULAR RECONSTRUCTION!”

Right before them, the Dalek began to repair itself, gaining strength enough to burst out of the chains like it was no more than silly string, sparks flying around the room, making Rose scoot back as far as she could until she hit Adam’s legs. He grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet, eyes still glued to the Dalek.

“What the hell have you done?!” the horrible guy cried.

“That was your fault!” She shouted back. “I said I couldn’t let it touch me! Now everyone is in danger, you fucking moron!”

The Dalek moved over to the man, its plunger extended out threateningly.

The man scoffed. “Watcha gonna go? Sucker me to death?” In the next instant, the plunger shot out, encompassing the man’s nose and mouth, almost sucking it in and the sounds of the man’s muffled screams and crunching bones filled the room. Rose couldn’t even bring herself to pretend he deserved that fate.

She grabbed Adam by the arm and pulled him out of the room. “It’s killing him!” she shouted at the men in the outer room. “Do something!” Someone immediately closed and locked the door behind her and Adam, and she rushed over to the man at the intercom.

“Condition red!” he called into it. “Repeat, condition red! This is not a drill!”

“What’s happening, Bywater?” Van Statten responded.

“Metaltron has broken loose. It’s killed Simmons.”

“Do whatever you can to keep it contained, we’ll video through soon.”

Rose paced anxiously as the Bywater began hurriedly tapping and keys and flicking switches. It was minutes later that the video flickered to life and she heard the Doctor’s voice, making her rush to the screen.

“You’ve got to keep it in that cell,” he ordered.

“I’m sorry, Doctor. It was my fault. I didn’t mean to touch it, but he pushed me and I fell on it. And then it said it was absorbing genetic something or other and then it was breaking loose!”

“Rose, it’s fine. That wasn’t your fault,” he assured her. “What’s important is making sure that thing doesn’t get out.”

“I’ve sealed the compartment,” Bywater said, sliding up beside her. “It can’t get out. That lock’s got a billion combinations.”

“The Dalek’s a genius. It can calculate a thousand billion combinations in one second flat.”

A quick glance at the screen showed them that the Dalek was on its way over to the entry pad and she turned back to the screen.

“Van Staten, you need to evacuate this base, right now! Get everyone out!” she told him firmly.

“She’s right,” the Doctor said.

Van Staten shook his head. “We need all essential manpower to keep it contained.”

“God damn it, you can do that without everyone here!” she shouted. “That thing is going to kill everyone! No amount of ‘manpower’ is going to stop it. It’s gonna cut through everyone like butter! If you don’t evacuate now, they are all going to die.”

Van Sataten just snorted. “I think my men can handle it.”

“No, they can’t. I’ve seen these creatures almost completely domninate many species – including you humans - countless times throughout history. My own people didn’t even truly beat them, and by the end of the war, we were experts in killing Daleks!”

“This facility is-”

“Van Staten,” she cut over top of him. “What are you going to do? Listen to the advice of some who’s battled these deadly things and actually knows what they’re talking about, or are you going to put billions of people in danger because you’re a spoilt, rich manchild who can’t tell an alien blaster from a hairdryer and don’t want to admit how dangerous your precious little alien ‘toys’ are? No? Didn’t think so. So shut the fuck up and evacuate this entire damn base right now!”

Van Staten stared at her, offended and dumbfounded, while the Doctor full on beamed at her and Van Staten’s assistant attempted to hide a snigger.

At that moment, though, the Dalek found the right code and the door opened. The milliary personel lined up to shoot and she scooted back to the exit with them.

“Open fire!” Bywater commanded. Together, he and the woman who went with them last time began shooting at the Dalek.

“Alright! Alright! Get everyone out!” they heard Van Staten order. “Just don’t shoot it!”

“Everyone, come on!” she called to them.

“Rose, get out of there!” the Doctor told her.

“Don’t bother trying to hold it off, it won’t work! Just run, damn it!” She grabbed the two soldiers by the sleeves, tugging them with her.

“De Maggio, make sure that the civilians get out alive. That’s your job, got that?”

De Maggio nodded. “You two, make sure you stick with me!”

Right then, a voice came over the speakers. ‘Emergency evacuation – please exit the base! Emergency evacuation – please exit the base!’ The halls began to fill with the sound of footsteps as people made their way to the nearest exit.

Rose smiled even as the power failed around them and the alarm stopped. Because this time as she ran, several people ran along to safety beside her.

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