Chapter Thirty-Two: Rise Of The Cybermen

She woke in his arms. In their sleep, they had curled into one another, her head on his chest, his hand on her bare back. She could hear his hearts beating softly, feel his breaths tickling her hair. She wanted nothing more than to stay like that for the rest of her life.

And then something exploded nearby.

The pair of them sat bolt upright, eyes wide, clutching the covers to their chests. "That sounded like the console room," Alex realised.

The Doctor set his jaw. "Get dressed."

***

Five minutes later, they were skidding into the console room, where the time rotor had gone dark.

"Christ..." Alex whispered.

Footsteps echoed in the corridor behind them and Rose and Mickey ran in. "What's happened?" Rose asked.

"The time vortex is gone," the Doctor murmured, stunned. "That's impossible. It's just gone..." The TARDIS jolted violently, nearly knocking them all off their feet. "Brace yourselves! We're going to crash!"

Something hit them with tremendous force—one second they were standing there and the next they were crashing into the grating. All the lights shut off, leaving them in the pitch black.

"Everyone alright?" the Doctor called. "Kez, Rose, Mickey?"

"I'm fine," Rose replied. Her voice came from somewhere to his right.

"I'm okay," Mickey added. "Sorry, yeah."

Light blossomed on the other side of the console, a swirling, glowing orb of silver energy appearing in Alex's hand. "Yeah, me too. But what about the TARDIS?"

The Doctor put a hand to the grating next to him and visibly paled. "She's dead," he realised. "The TARDIS is dead."

Rose glanced between him and Alex worriedly. "You can fix her though?"

"There's nothing to fix," he told her, shaking his head in shock. "She's perished. The last TARDIS in the universe, extinct."

The light flickered—suddenly Alex was at his side, her hand in his.

"But we can get help, yeah?" Rose was starting to panic.

The Doctor met her eyes, dejected. "From where?"

She shrugged desperately. "Well, we've landed. We've got to be somewhere."

"We fell out of the vortex, through the void, into nothingness." His voice was hollow. "We're in some sort of no place. The silent realm. The lost dimension."

Mickey opened the doors, letting in a flood of natural light. "Otherwise known as London." The others shared a look, Alex extinguishing her energies, then joined him outside. "London, England, Earth. Hold on—" He picked up a discarded newspaper, reading the date. "First of February, this year. Not exactly far-flung, is it?"

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "So this is London."

"Yep."

"Your city."

"That's the one."

"Just as we left it."

"Bang on."

"And that includes the Zeppelins?"

They all followed his gaze upwards to see hundreds of airships in the sky. Rose stared. "That's beautiful."

"What the hell?" Mickey frowned. "So it's London with a big international Zeppelin festival."

The Doctor shook his head. "This is not your world."

"But if the date's the same, it's parallel, right?" Mickey realised. "Am I right? Like a parallel Earth where they've got Zeppelins. Am I right? I'm right, aren't I?"

"Must be," the Doctor agreed, nodding.

"So a parallel world where..." Rose trailed off, seeing a familiar face on a nearby advert. She froze.

"Oh, come on, you've seen it in films," Mickey said, oblivious. "Like an alternative to our world where everything's the same but a little bit different, like... I don't know, traffic lights are blue, Tony Blair never got elected."

"And he's still alive," Alex said, taking her sister's hand and squeezing it. "A parallel world and our dad's still alive."

The Doctor's eyes had widened. "Don't look at it. Don't even think about it. This is not your world."

"But he's my dad and—" She touched the screen and it started to move.

Pete Tyler winked. "You can trust me on this."

She blinked. "Well, that's weird. But he's real. He's a success. He was always planning these daft little schemes. Health food, drinks and stuff. Everyone said they were useless. But he did it."

"Rose, if you've ever trusted me, then listen to me now." The Doctor put his hands on her shoulders. "Stop looking at it. Your father's dead. He died when you were a year old. That is not your Pete, that is a Pete. For all we know, he's got his own Jackie, his own Rose, his own Alex. His own daughters who are someone else, but not you. You can't see him. Not ever."

***

The Doctor looked up as the TARDIS door opened. His eyes widened when he realised Mickey was alone. "I told you to keep an eye on her."

"She's alright," Mickey dismissed.

"She goes wandering off? Parallel world, it's like a gingerbread house, all those temptations calling out," the Doctor reasoned.

Mickey raised an eyebrow. "Oh, so it's just Rose then?" The Doctor had the grace to look sheepish. "Where's Alex?"

"She was hungry," the Doctor replied, then groaned. "If I could just get this thing to—!" He kicked the console.

"Did that help?" Mickey asked.

"Yes," the Doctor replied stubbornly.

"Did that hurt?"

"... Yes. Ow."

Walking back in with a triple-decker ham sandwich, Alex rolled her eyes. "You're an idiot." He stole a bite of her sandwich, and she pouted. "Hey!"

He made a face. "Is there mayonnaise in that?"

She raised her eyebrows. "Er, duh! What kind of ham sandwich doesn't have mayonnaise?"

"Oh, that is disgusting!" he complained. "I'm gonna be having words with your mother!"

"Mmm, good luck with that," she reminded him.

"You can say that again." He shook his head, sighing. "We're not meant to be here. The TARDIS draws her power from the universe, but it's the same universe. It's like diesel in a petrol engine."

"But I've seen it in comics," Mickey protested. "People go hopping from one alternative world to another. It's easy."

"Not in the real world," the Doctor said, then tilted his head. "Well, not anymore. It used to be easy. When the Time Lords kept their eye on everything, you could hop between realities, home in time for tea. Then they died, and took it all with them. The walls of reality closed, the worlds were sealed. Everything became that bit less kind."

Mickey frowned. "Then how did we get here?"

"Dunno. Accident? Should've been impossible. Now we're trapped."

"What's that?" Alex said suddenly, putting her now-empty plate down on the jump seat. "Is that a light?"

"What?"

The Doctor followed her gaze. "It's a light! That's all we need. We've got power! We've got power!"

Alex darted across the console room, pulling up the grating. "Come here, you." She stretched to grab the light, bringing it back up the ladder. "I think it's alive!"

The boys crouched on the grating, each of their faces bathed in a warm green glow from the light. "What is it?" Mickey asked.

"It's nothing, it's tiny," Alex replied, sitting on the top step. "One of those insignificant little power cells that no one ever bothers about, and it's clinging onto life, with one little ounce of reality tucked away inside."

Mickey raised an eyebrow. "Enough to get us home?"

The Doctor shook his head. "Not yet. We need to charge it up."

"We could go outside and lash it up to the National Grid."

"Wrong sort of energy," the Doctor said. "It's got to come from our universe."

"But we don't have anything..." Mickey frowned.

Alex beamed. "There's me." Her hands started to glow around the cell, and as the light of her energy brightened, so did that of the power cell.

"It's going out," Mickey realised, his eyes wide. "Is that okay?"

"It's on a recharging cycle, the Doctor explained. "It'll loop around, power back up, and be ready to take us home in... ooh, twenty-four hours?"

"So that gives us twenty-four hours on a parallel world?" Alex smiled.

"Shore leave," the Doctor said brightly. "As long as we keep our heads down. Easy. No problem. Let's go and tell her."

***

They found Rose sitting on the back of a bench on the Embankment, staring into space.

"There you are!" the Doctor exclaimed. "You alright? No applause, I fixed it. Well, Kez did. Twenty-four hours, then we're flying back to reality."

"Rose?" Alex asked, reading her sister's numb expression. "What's wrong?"

She hesitated. "My phone connected. There's this Cybus Network, it finds your phone. It gave me Internet access."

"Rose, whatever it says, this is the wrong world," the Doctor tried, looking pained.

"We don't exist," she said bluntly, her eyes on Alex.

The ginger stared. "What do you mean?"

"There's no Alex or Rose Tyler," Rose explained. "We were never born. There's Pete and Jackie... He still married Mum, but they never had kids."

"Give me your phone." The Doctor tried to prise it out of her hand, but she moved it away almost absently.

"They're rich," she continued. "They've got a house and cars, and everything they want."

"But they haven't got us..." Alex swallowed, making a decision. It was time to stop running from the things that scared her. "I want to see them."

The Doctor met her eyes, his eyes full of concern. "You can't."

"I just want to see them."

Rose nodded, taking her hand. "Yeah, and me."

"I can't let you," the Doctor sighed.

"You just said twenty-four hours!" she protested.

"You can't become their daughter, that's not the way it works," he stressed. "Mickey, tell them!"

But Mickey was already backing away in the opposite direction. "Twenty-four hours, yeah?"

"Where're you going?" the Doctor demanded. While he was distracted, Alex and Rose headed off, knowing he'd follow.

***

Five minutes later, the Doctor had indeed caught up with them.

"Mickey's mum just couldn't cope," Rose was saying. "His dad hung around for a while, but then he just sort of wandered off. He was brought up by his gran..." She trailed off, reminiscing. "She was such a great woman. God, she used to slap him!"

"And then she died," Alex continued. "She tripped and fell down the stairs. About five years ago now. We were still in school."

"I never knew," the Doctor sighed, taking her hand.

"You never asked," she pointed out.

"He never said!"

"That's Mickey," Rose nodded. "I suppose I—we—just take him for granted. Do you think she's still alive, his gran?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Could be. Like I said, parallel world, gingerbread house. We need to get out of here as fast as we can."

All around them, an electronic bleeping filled the street. Everyone stopped dead in their tracks, their faces blank. Their earpieces flashed on and off.

"Er..." Alex frowned, waving her hand in front of the nearest man's face. "What're they all doing?"

"They've stopped," the Doctor said, sounding just as mystified. "It's the earpieces. Like Bluetooth attachments, but everyone's connected together."

Rose's phone buzzed in her hand and she checked it. "It's on my phone. It's automatic, look. It's downloading. Is this what they're all getting? News, international news, sports, weather."

"They get it direct," Alex realised. "Downloaded right into their heads."

"TV schedules, lottery numbers," Rose continued.

"Everyone shares the same information," the Doctor mused. "A daily download published by Cybus Industries."

According to Rose's phone, the next download was a joke. Everyone around them laughed, then continued on their way like nothing had happened.

The Doctor shook his head. "You lot, you're obsessed. You'd do anything for the latest upgrade."

"Oi, not our lot," Rose complained. "Different world, remember?"

He raised an eyebrow. "It's not so far off your world. This place is only parallel." He took Rose's phone and did a search. "Oh, look at that. Cybus Industries, owners of just about every company in Britain, including Vitex. Mr Pete Tyler's very well connected."

"Well..." Alex nudged him, giving him a pleading look.

Eventually, he sighed. "Oh, okay, I give up. Let's go and see him."

***

Which is how they ended up crouched in the bushes near the edge of the Tyler estate as a limousine pulled up outside the house. "Oh, they've got visitors," the Doctor said.

"February the first," Alex told him. "Mum's birthday. Even in a parallel universe, she still loves a party."

He raised his eyebrows. "Well, given Pete Tyler's guest list, I wouldn't mind a look. And there is one guaranteed way of getting inside." He pulled a black wallet out of his pocket.

"Psychic paper," Rose grinned.

"Who do you want to be?"

***

Alex sighed, shifting her wings uncomfortably under the tight black button up she now wore. In her left hand, she carried a tray of canapés aloft. "We could have been anyone," she complained.

"Got us in, didn't it?" he reminded her. "It's only for a few hours."

She shot him a look. "It bloody better be."

"Seriously, if you wanna know what's going on, work in the kitchens," he told her. "Now, according to Lucy, that man over there—"

Alex narrowed her eyes, even as Rose joined them. "Who's Lucy?"

The Doctor pointed discreetly at a pretty young woman across the room. "She's carrying the salmon pinwheels."

"Oh, that's Lucy, is it?" Rose raised her eyebrows.

"Yeah, anyway, Lucy says, that is the President of Great Britain," the Doctor finished. He was pointed to a stately man conversing nearby.

Alex blinked, distracted. "What? There's a President, not a Prime Minister?"

He shrugged. "Seems so."

"Or maybe Lucy's just a bit thick," Rose suggested, rolling her eyes.

The Doctor rolled his eyes, but before he could say anything, the tapping of metal against glass echoed through the hallway. Pete Tyler stood halfway up the stairs, greeting his guests. They all turned to look, Rose and Alex wearing similar expressions of longing.

"I'd just like to say thank you to you all for coming on this, this very special occasion," Pete was saying. "My wife's thirty-ninth."

The crowd laughed. "Don't believe that one," someone shouted from the back.

Pete smiled. "Trust me on this." He cleared his throat. "And so, without any further ado, here she is, the birthday girl: my lovely wife, Jackie Tyler."

Jackie appeared at the top of the stairs, coming down to join him. She looked wonderful, all dolled up in a little black dress with her hair done up the way she never had a chance to have it back home. "Now, I'm not giving a speech," she said, smiling at the guests. "That's what my parties are famous for. No work, no politics, just a few good mates and plenty of black market whiskey." Everyone laughed. "Oh, pardon me, Mr President. So, yeah, get on with it. Enjoy, enjoy!"

"You can't stay," the Doctor said quietly, seeing the girls staring at the happy couple. "Even if there was some way of telling them."

"'Course we can't," Alex said, biting her lip. "We've still got Mum at home. Our real mum. We couldn't just leave her, could we? It's just... They've got each other. Mum's got no one."

"She's got you two," the Doctor pointed out. "Those two haven't. All these different worlds, not one of them gets it right."

"Rose!" Jackie exclaimed. "There's my little girl! Come to mummy, come to mummy!" The three of them turned to see her scooping up a small dog, cooing at it with a huge grin.

The Doctor burst out laughing, then stopped, seeing Rose's glare. "Sorry."

***

Later, Alex was alone. She'd emptied her tray of nibbles and gone into the staff quarters to refill, but since there was no one there, she'd taken a few minutes to herself. It was weird, being in a world where she didn't exist. Like she was no one.

Something smashed outside, and she looked up, instantly alert. In a second, she flitted through the house to find the Doctor and Rose. Half a dozen tall metal humanoids had broken in, surrounding the guests.

The President's phone rang, cutting through the silence, and he answered the call via his earpieces. "Mr Lumic."

"Mr President," a tinny, rasping voice greeted. "I suppose a remark about crashing the party would be appropriate at this point."

"I forbade this," the President reminded him, bristling with restrained anger.

"These are my children, sir. Would you deny my family?"

Rose frowned, confused. "What are they? Robots?"

"Worse than that," the Doctor muttered, his whole body tense.

"Who were these people?" the President demanded.

"Doesn't matter," Lumic replied.

Alex stared. "They're people?"

"They were, until they had all their humanity taken away and were turned into Cybermen," the Doctor explained. "That's a living brain jammed inside a cybernetic body, with a heart of steel. All emotions removed."

"Why no emotions?" Rose asked.

The Doctor met her eyes. "Because it hurts."

"I demand to know, Lumic," the President insisted. "These people, who were they?"

"They were homeless and wretched and useless until I saved them and elevated them and gave them life eternal," Lumic answered. "And now I leave you in their capable hands. Goodnight, sir. Goodnight, Mr President." The call ended.

The lead Cyberman stepped forwards. "We have been upgraded."

Alex narrowed her eyes. "Into what?"

"The next level of mankind," the creature replied monotonously. "We are human point two. Every citizen will receive a free upgrade. You will become like us."

"I'm sorry," the President told it. "I'm so sorry for what's been done to you, but listen to me. This experiment ends tonight."

"Upgrading is compulsory."

The President raised an eyebrow. "And if I refuse?"

"Don't," the Doctor warned.

"What if I refuse?" the President repeated.

"I'm telling you, don't!"

"What happens if I refuse?" the President demanded.

"Then you are not compatible," the Cyberman informed him.

"What happens then?"

"You will be deleted." The Cyberman clamped his hand down on the President's shoulder and electrocuted him. As his body fell to the floor, the room exploded with screams, turning swiftly to chaos. The Doctor grabbed Rose and Alex's hands and ran, heading through one of the broken windows onto the lawn.

"There's nothing we can do!" he exclaimed.

Rose hesitated. "My mum's in there!"

"She is not your mother!" Come on!"

A row of Cybermen stood across the lawn, blocking their path. They turned back, heading around the side of the house. Pete leapt through the window, following them.

"Pete, is there a way out?" Alex demanded, shedding her black button up and flexing her wings.

"The side gates," he replied, the perception filter obscuring his vision. "Who are you? How do you know so much?"

The Doctor shook his head quickly. "You wouldn't believe it in a million years." Another row of Cybermen marched towards them, blocking their way in both directions.

Suddenly, two armed figures ran towards them. Rose frowned. "Who's that?"

"Get behind me!" a very familiar voice yelled. The four of them did as they were told as the two figures opened fire on the Cyberman, but the bullets did nothing except stop them in their tracks.

"Oh, no, that's not fair," Alex complained, her eyes wide as she recognised the face of Jake Simmonds. "That's not fair!"

"Oh my God, look at you," Rose sighed, hugging Mickey tight. "I thought I'd never see you again!"

Mickey pushed her away, making a face. "No offence, sweetheart, but who the hell are you?"

Then the real Mickey came running up to them. "Rose! That's not me. That's like the other one."

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Oh, as if things weren't bad enough, there's two Mickeys."

"It's Ricky," the duplicate replied.

"But there's more of them," Mickey realised, seeing the Cybermen on all sides.

"We're surrounded," Rose said, her eyes wide.

"Put the guns down," Alex ordered. "Bullets won't stop them."

Jake started shooting again, but the Doctor disarmed him, throwing the gun down. "No! Stop shooting now! We surrender! Hands up." He turned to the Cybermen. "There's no need to damage us. We're good stock. We volunteer for the upgrade program. Take us to be progressed."

"You are rogue elements," one of the Cybermen decided.

The Doctor blinked. "But we surrender."

"You are incompatible."

"But this is a surrender!"

"You will be deleted."

His eyes widened desperately. "But we're surrendering! Listen to me, we surrender!"

"You are inferior. Man will be reborn as Cyberman, but you will perish under maximum deletion." The Cybermen raised their arms as one, marching closer. "Delete, delete, delete."

And as a breeze stirred the air around them, Alex's eyes began to glow. 

~~~