Chapt 5
Charcoal's growing suspicion was causing her to become quite paranoid. She was convinced that behind every corner was some shadowy demon ready to jump out at her and in her mind every movement was the flick of a gun. Most of the time it was just her reflection in dusty windows, but she still felt uncomfortable, as everyday that she stayed there, she became more sure that she had been there before. The would look at a shop and get a misty image in her head of herself going into it, or look down a street and be sure that she had walked down there before. Sometimes she could say the name of the next road before she got to it, or recall the series of shops in a row she hadn't walked past yet. But she still didn't meet a living soul. There weren't even any animals, but another odd thing was that although the place was deserted, it wasn't run down or dilapidated. To charcoal, it looked like the town was very well cared for, with the plants all in perfect condition and the grass nicely cut. It was as if some unseen force was protecting and looking after the empty planet. Or maybe the planet was looking after its self.
The Doctor and Rose were standing at the end of the pier looking out to sea. All around them raged a furious storm, with icy cold wind cutting through their clothes and stinging rain glancing off their faces. Every time a wave hit the pier the whole construction shuddered, as if it was sighing. Rose looked over at the Doctor. His eyes were fixed on the horizon and he was frowning slightly, as if trying to work out a difficult problem. Another massive wave crashed into the pier, making it groan and sway. Rose stepped away from the railings.
"Can't we go somewhere else?" She pleaded, "There may be Cybermen here but surely we'd be much safer on dry land?"
Still the Doctor didn't look away from the raging sea. Rose turned to look back down the pier. The roller coaster hung against the dark sky like a giant metal skeleton and the boarded up windows of the little booths that in summer months would hold side-shows looked equally as neglected. Rose shivered as the rain started to come down harder and a streak of lightning lit the sky in the distance. She had no idea why the Doctor was so fixated with this place. Why couldn't they be in a nice warm coffee shop?
"C'mon then," said the Doctor, turning away from the turbulent water as a roll of thunder crashed far away, "Let go and see if we can find a nice coffee shop."
Together he and Rose traipsed back along the wooden planks held above the sea on thin metal poles, until they got the promenade. Within five minutes of getting into the back streets they found an old fashioned coffee shop. In side was all decked out to look like a Victorian parlour. The Doctor nodded at it approvingly, before leading Rose to a table hidden from view in the far corner. After ordering a cup of hot chocolate for Rose and a steaming mug of tea for himself, the Doctor leant back in his armchair and began frowning again.
"Penny for your thoughts?" asked Rose, sipping from her mug.
The Doctor sighed. "It doesn't make sense." He said at last, "I mean, if the cyberman had killed Suki, wouldn't her body still be in the garden? What would they gain from taking it with them? And supposing they did take her alive, why her? There are any number of more important people that they could 'upgrade', so why an ordinary fifteen year old girl?" He shook his head, as if trying to clear it from all of the unanswerable questions buzzing about inside it.
"Well," began Rose, frowning like the Doctor had done, "Maybe she'd found out something that she shouldn't have?"
"Like what? They're not the type to kill someone just because she found out that they were there." The Doctor picked up his mug and drank.
"There is something else…" said Rose, her conversation with Mrs Jones coming back to her, "Suki's mother said that Suki was sci-fi mad, and that she was always wishing that she could be abducted by aliens. Do you think that that is just a coincidence?"
The Doctor looked at Rose with something close to admiration in his bright eyes. "Have you ever considered being a detective?" he asked teasingly, "But seriously, if Suki was pro-aliens then it would be only too easy for the cybermen to convince her to help them…" The Doctor suddenly stopped, gasping suddenly, a horrified recognition dawning on his face. "Uh oh, if they're going to do what I think they are then soon it's not going to be Suki we've got to worry about."
The Doctor sprang up, dropped a few coins onto the table, then hurried out of the coffee shop. Rose followed suit, smiling at the waitress before following the Doctor into the storm.
Chapt 6
Suki stared around the massive room. The ceiling was high and the walls and floor were made of metal sheets. The room was empty apart from the huge Cybermen that stood around the walls, watching her impassively. Suki felt very small and insignificant beside these metal monsters, but all the same, she knew that she was in some way important to them. She followed the first cyberman to the front on the room. Suddenly it spun around to face her.
"Look at my brothers Suki Jones, do you see them moving?"
Suki gazed around the room, half expecting to see a twitch of a limb or the turn of a head, but nothing stirred. She turned back to the Cyberman.
"No, I can't."
"No. They are not moving because they are not yet alive. They are still merely bodies of metal, but soon, with your help, they will become living organisms."
Suki looked at the metal bodies, standing like old suits of armour. She frowned. "What do you mean, soon will be living organisms?"
"I will tell you when the time is right. But I have another plan in mind. These Cybermen bodies are heavy and inefficient. We can not run, nor move quickly. In this way only, the human body is more efficient."
Suki began to back away slowly. She looked into the empty eye sockets and started to realise what she had got herself into. She had fallen in with the bad guys, picked the wrong sideWhatever this alien robot was, it was mad, and it seemed like it was planning to create an army. The Cyberman continued to speak.
"That is what I want. I want a new generation of cybermen who can move like humans. I am going to upgrade the upgrades. I am going to perfect the world!"
Suki had backed to the door by this time. She tugged on the handle but it wouldn't budge. She turned back to the mad cyberman.
"I remember what it was like to move without the restriction of metal. I need to be free of this prison. I thought the cybermen would be perfect, but we have just as any faults as the humans!"
Suki cowered against the wall as the metal creature began to shudder and wheeze in a bad imitation of laughter. "What do you want with me? Who are you?" She screamed at it.
"Cybermen do not have names. My human name was John Lumic. And you are my experiment."
The sky was beginning to get dark before Charcoal stopped wandering the streets in a daze. She stood on a familiar street corner and looked up at the glowing street lamp. It was the only one that was on, all the rest were dark. She frowned. That was odd. How come only one light was getting electricity, and was it coincidence that it was the one that she was standing under? She started to walk along the street. Suddenly the light behind her flicked off and the one in front of her lit up. Charcoal froze. She took a step backward and the light in front turned off and the one behind turned on. Was it some kind of sensor? She started to run along the street. Everytime she passed under a light it turned on, and after she had moved on, it turned off.
After a while Charcoal slowed down. She still knew where to go, but not where she was. She paced along another road, Kingston Avenue, she knew before reading the sign. Suddenly she turned to face a house. There was a plaque beside the door that read The Hope house. She didn't know why, but her mind was telling her to try the door handle. She did and the door swung open. With her heart pounding Charcoal stepped inside. Everything was so familiar that she almost cried out. She recognised the grandfather clock standing in the hall, and the bookshelf in the sitting room.
The sitting room was a place of great interest to Charcoal. She walked over to the mantelpiece and looked at all of the photos in frames lined up along it. Most of them were of two little girls, one, who was older, with golden hair and huge eyes. Her eyes didn't match, one was chocolate brown and the other was ocean blue. The other was younger, with dark hair and eyes and a cheeky grin. In some of the photos was an older man and woman, the man with blue eyes and blonde hair, the woman with dark eyes and black hair. In one of the photos, when the girls looked older, the woman looked the same, but the man had changed completely. His hair had turned ginger and his eyes green, in fact his entire face had changed shape. Charcoal backed away slowly. She knew who these people were.
She looked at the blonde girl. She now knew exactly where she was, and why the writing and the streets had been so familiar. That little girl had been Charcoal seven hundred years ago and those two people had been her parents and her little sister.
"Oh my god," whispered Charcoal, backing away slowly, "I'm on Gallifrey. I'm home."