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A/N Part 3 of the 'Invasion of the Cybermen' story. Thank you for all the love on the last chapter.

Happy Reading!

Invasion of the Cybermen: TARDIS

Previously

Rose nodded and took the Doctor's hand as the two of them walked out of the shop and into an alleyway behind it. There was no ship there, just an old Police Box.

The Doctor was unfazed as he reached into his pocket and pulled out an odd, shield-shaped locket on a chain. Rose watched in fascination as he inserted it into a slot on the door of the police box where the lock should have been. That seemed to unlock the box and the Doctor looked at Rose with a smile.

"Come on then," he said. Rose stepped forward uncertainly. The Doctor stood to the side, watching her with a smile as he let her go in first.

Rose stepped inside and felt her mouth fall open. A loud gasp escaped her. She was looking at the most unbelievable sight in the world.

Her mouth was open and she didn't even attempt to shut it. She looked at the Doctor who was watching her with a wide grin that was bordering on smug. He looked exceedingly pleased with himself. She stumbled back out of the door. It was still just a box. She walked around it a few times, just to be sure.

She finally realised that her mouth was open and snapped it shut. The Doctor was still watching her with the same infuriating grin. Rose straightened herself up and walked inside the box again. It was a spaceship, alright.

But unlike the Cybermen's mechanical and utilitarian interior, this was decorated lavishly. It reminded Rose of one of those parlours in posh mansions that you would see on old period dramas. Absently, she was reminded that this particular decor was from the Romantic Era. It definitely suited the dandy appearance of the Doctor.

There was a central console with a huge column in the centre. There was an array of knobs, levers and switches decorating the mushroom shaped console. Several smaller screens around the console were flashing numbers and data; some of which she could read and some that she couldn't. A bigger scanner which seemed to be hanging from above the console read: "London, Earth 2005 A.D."

"Okay," Rose exhaled slowly. "You have a spaceship that is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside." She tried and failed to keep the awe and slight fear out of her voice.

The Doctor chuckled at the forced calm in her voice. "It's called the TARDIS. T-A-R-D-I-S. Time and Relative Dimension in Space," he explained as he walked up to the console.

Rose nodded, still a bit stunned. "It flies, does it?" she asked, wondering how that worked. Surely someone would notice a police box flying about in the sky. Or was it maybe like Harry Potter's bus that only wizards could see?

"No," he said. "It disappears in one place and reappears in another." He seemed to be deriving far too much amusement from her reaction.

Rose shook herself slightly and turned to the Doctor. "Are you gonna call these UNIT people now?" she asked him, determined to not let him keep being so smug.

"Not just yet," he said, frowning at one of the screens.

"What's wrong?" Rose asked as she walked up to him and saw the screen. There were swirly symbols on it that made no sense to her. She guessed that it must be his language. He really was an alien. An alien who had an alien language. She took another deep breath to calm herself down. Again.

"There are seven Cybermen in their spaceship," he said, frowning slightly. "Including the Cyber Controller and the Cyber Leader."

"How'd you know?" Rose asked curiously.

"I counted when we got cornered," he said. "And I also did a scan now. The two I got rid of would have made a crew of nine."

"Is that unusual?" Rose asked, guessing from his frown.

He nodded seriously. "They attack in numbers significantly larger than this," he said.

"Maybe they were waiting for reinforcements," Rose suggested, logically. "They were sending a summoning signal, weren't they?"

The Doctor looked at her and nodded slowly. He had to confess that she was raising a valid point. "It is possible," he admitted.

"So, what do we do now?" she asked him, when he fell into deep thought again. "Stab them like the other two?"

He shook his head immediately. "Not if I can help it," he said through gritted teeth.

"Why not?" Rose demanded.

"I am not about to murder them in cold blood," he said sharply.

"They are the ones invading my planet. It's not murder, it's self defence," Rose snapped back, not ready to be deterred. He glared at her and Rose flinched at the anger in his eyes. But she stubbornly refused to back down. "What about those two that you did kill?" she demanded.

"I had no choice. It was necessary," he said angrily. "But I don't kill if I can help it."

Rose stared at him for a moment and then nodded. It was fair, she supposed. And she really had no right to ask him to kill for her planet. And killing anyone, even a bunch of tin robots, made her stomach turn. "Okay then, if not kill them then what can we do?" she asked. "How do we stop them?"

He exhaled roughly and frowned slightly. "I'm not sure," he admitted. "There are several ways, of course."

"Such as?" Rose prodded.

"Gold is their weakness," he said. "It's non-corrosive, and chokes their respiratory systems," he explained.

"Is that why you used the gold knives?" Rose asked.

He nodded. "Unfortunately, I only have one more of those," he said, showing her the last knife. "Gold is effective but it's a very delicate metal. Those two knives broke when I used it to severe their circuitry," he said.

"So, we can't stab our way through. What else?" Rose asked as she examined the delicate (yet deadly to the Cybermen) knife. "Do you have anything else that might be gold?" she asked.

He frowned slightly. "I did have some gold dust but I gave it away to a friend of mine. Just recently, as a matter of fact," he said.

"Okay," she said. "Anything else, apart from gold?"

"Electromagnetic bombs are effective but very messy," he said, walking around to the other side of the console.

"You wouldn't happen to have any of those lying about, would you?" she asked him, knowing the answer.

"No," he admitted.

"How do those UNIT people fight Cybermen then?" Rose asked curiously.

The Doctor scowled slightly. "They use gold-tipped bullets. They are quite effective," he said darkly.

Rose nodded, thinking over his words carefully. So, it was just him that had a problem with violence. But she remembered the lethal intensity with which he had killed those two Cybermen. He had moved as quickly as a cat and his kills had been clean and methodical. He hated to kill but could kill like a trained soldier. He was an oxymoron in himself and confused the hell out of her.

"What's the best way then?" she asked him.

"The Cybermen are all linked via the Cyber controller. If we could damage him, then the rest should shut down," he considered.

"Which one was the Cyber Controller?" Rose asked.

"The big, ugly one with the blackened brain. Think of him like the mainframe for all the others," he explained.

"Hold on," Rose said. "You're saying that just damaging the controller will damage all of them?" she asked him incredulously. That sounded very, very unlikely. Surely the Cybermen were more advanced than that if they had teleports and stuff.

"Not usually, no," he said, guessing her line of thought accurately. "No, but there is such a small number of cybermen in their crew."

"How is that relevant?" Rose asked.

The Doctor sighed. "Such a small number means that they may be original Mondasian Cybermen. Which means that they were converted willingly and therefore it is very likely that they established a connection via the Cyber controller," he explained.

"How sure are you about this?" Rose asked him bluntly. "About them being original Mondasian, I mean?"

He looked at her seriously. "Sure enough," he said, trying not to let his doubts show. It was just a possibility. For all he knew, they were newer Cybermen and weren't linked at all which meant that damaging the Controller wouldn't do anything. Except perhaps antagonise them even more.

He didn't tell Rose all that, though. No point in frightening the human girl. But she had been surprisingly resilient through all of this.

Rose nodded, not completely sure why she was trusting him so easily. Her personal issue with trust (or lack thereof) was her mum's primary worry when it came to her. Jackie meant well, but more than a year had gone by but Rose was in no way back to her old self. Ignoring the jumble of her own thoughts, Rose focused on the Doctor.

"Okay, so do we just go back up to the ship and damage the Controller?" she asked him.

The Doctor was all set to agree but he paused as he remembered his earlier doubts. "Let's take the TARDIS. It will be safer and quicker," he said. And that way, we have an escape, he added silently.

Rose watched in fascination as the Doctor whirled around the console, twisting dials and pressing buttons. The huge column in the centre began to move up and down and a wheezing noise filled the room. Rose couldn't help the giggle of excitement that bubbled through her as the console moved slightly.

The Doctor was moving around the console, a childish glee on his face. He looked at Rose and winked as he pulled a lever. Rose gasped loudly as the ceiling became transparent and she saw the night sky outside.

"Oh, wow," she murmured. "This is just..." she laughed. "Brilliant!"

The Doctor felt immensely pleased at the air of obvious delight that shone from her. Maybe after all this, he could ask her to come with him. So soon after Grace had refused him, he felt a bit worried that Rose might refuse as well. And his life was dangerous. But her wonder at the universe was so refreshing and he had missed that.

Maybe that was what this new regeneration needed. A fresh start in the universe, seen through the bright, young eyes of one Rose Tyler. Not to mention her mystifying absence of timelines. In all his lives, he had never met anyone whose timelines he couldn't see (apart from his own, of course).

Was it just him? Or was she equally puzzling to other Time Lords? He made a small note to ask Romana or one of his other friends about it. He saw her looking at the inky sky with awe and he smiled.

Even with her mysterious absence of timelines, she was still just a human from Earth. An ominous peal of laughter rang in his ears that sounded suspiciously like his seventh self. Passing it off as an effect of a new regeneration, he focused on piloting the TARDIS onto the Cybermen's ship.

"Won't they detect your ship landing into theirs?" Rose asked him.

He grinned at her question. She was good. "Very good, Rose. Yes, they will. Or at least, they would have but I managed to do quite a lot of damage to their systems earlier. I doubt they are looking at any new arrivals right now. Plus, we just escaped and they won't be expecting us to saunter back in now, would they?" he asked her.

"No, suppose not," Rose nodded.

The Doctor smiled. "Not to mention the fact that if they did indeed come to Earth for invading, then their priority will be to fix the teleport," he grinned.

Rose returned his grin with a bright one of her own. "So, let's hurry on and stop them, yeah?" she asked.

His grin widened impossibly and he gave her a short bow. "Ms. Tyler," he said, offering his hand. "If you will so oblige."

Rose almost giggled at his posh tone but managed to keep her face straight as she inclined her head. "As you were, Doctor," she said, placing her hand in his.

Both their lips twitched and they burst into laughter. They calmed themselves down and the Doctor opened the doors of the TARDIS with a flourish that made Rose giggle again. They stepped out of the TARDIS. And found at least five different guns pointed at them by the Cybermen.

"Ah," the Doctor said.

A/N End of Part 3. Thank you for reading.

Apologies to anyone who was expecting UNIT to be in this story. For their first adventure, I just wanted it to be the Doctor and Rose. UNIT might appear in later adventures.

So, how was it? Let me know.

Did you guys see the Series 7 trailer? It was awesome!

And in related news, David Tennant has been dethroned as my favourite Doctor by Colin Baker. My top 5 Doctors now are: Colin Baker, David Tennant, Patrick Troughton, Peter Davison and Sylvester McCoy. Not to say that I don't love the others.

Anyway, see you with the final part of the "Invasion of the Cybermen" next Thursday.

Cheers x