Rose looked on in horror as the scene before her unfolded. An electric charge was surrounding the Doctor and Steph. She reached out her hand towards the Doctor, but suddenly received a massive shock to her hand as it passed an invisible barrier of electricity. She retracted it in pain.

The Doctor and Steph stood motionless and stiff, immersed inside a memory.

A man and a woman stood facing a dark circle. Both wore tattered materials, their faces solemn and weak. The woman held a small bundle in her arms, her tender movements ensuring the bundle would remain undisturbed. The man turned to face the woman and placed his hands on the bundle. He pulled back the cloth to reveal a tiny baby, no more then a couple of weeks old. He bent down and kissed the child on the forehead, whispering words as he did. He stood back up again, and the woman cradled the baby softly in her arms, singing silently.

The man watched the woman for a while, and then touched her cheek. She looked up at him in a desperate longing. He nodded and turned back to face the dark circle before them. The woman handed the baby to him, her eyes lingering on the child with a deep sadness inside them.

The man placed the woman and his hands on the baby's forehead, and together they whispered a single word.

"Atlantis."

A bright spark of electricity suddenly came out of the man's hand and struck the baby on the back of the neck, just behind the ear. It let out no cry of pain though, only gurgling in response. The man reached out towards the dark circle, placing the child inside its unseen depths. It slowly disappeared into the nothingness.

The memory faded away.

Rose watched as the charge of electricity that had built up around Steph and the Doctor slowly disappear. She sighed in relief as he opened his eyes. But relief quickly turned into fear as the Doctor backed away from Steph in horror. Steph's arms remained limp beside her, her eyes closed, her expression soft.

The Doctor stood away from her, his eyes reflected shock as he shook his head in belief.

"Not…possible…" He whispered.

Rose immediately raced to his side.

"What is it? What did you see?" Her voice raced in fear.

The Doctor just continued to stare and shake his head.

"You saw my parents place me in a portal to go to Earth. I'm an alien from another planet, aren't I?"

Steph's eyes opened, and Rose stepped back in shock at the expression in her eyes. Instead of the bright, happy eyes of a fourteen year old, they showed countless centuries of pain.

OO

No one spoke for several minutes. The Doctor stood facing Steph with a blank expression. He had quickly recovered from the initial shock, and was now just watched her. Rose stood next to the Doctor, unsure of what to make of the situation. Steph had closed her eyes again, almost as if she thought it was all a dream and wanted to wake up. But it was no dream.

The Doctor spoke first.

"I'm sorry." He said with a deep sadness in his eyes.

Steph opened her eyes.

"It's not your fault." She replied blankly.

Rose winced. Steph spoke as if there was nothing inside her. It was like there was nothing left but a shell. Her tone was blank and expressionless; no emotion. It scared Rose to think that the bubbly teenager had changed into this. Just one memory had seemed to simply destroy her from the inside out.

"What's not your fault?" Asked Rose, almost afraid of the answer.

"They're dead. They sent me here to save me." Answered Steph.

"From what?" Asked Rose, glancing from the Doctor to Steph.

"The end." Answered the Doctor.

In his heart, the Doctor knew all too well the feelings Steph was going through.

OO

"And here I was, afraid of aliens and I'm one myself." Muttered Steph bitterly as she sat in the jump seat inside the TARDIS next to Rose.

The Doctor had offered to take Steph back to see her adoptive parents, but she refused. All Steph wanted to do was cry. Cry for the real family she had never known, cry for the world she had lost. She just wanted to buckle down and be alone. She wanted to know why her real parents had sent her to Earth, why they would give her up to complete strangers on an entirely different planet. There were so many questions running through her head, she could barely concentrate.

The Doctor had taken her back inside the TARDIS in order to take a complete body scan to find out exactly what Steph was.

"An Electant." He said at last.

"What?" Asked Rose, standing up from her seat and walking to the Doctor's side.

The Doctor turned back to Steph, who eyed him off, wary of the next bombshell he was going to drop.

"You see, I always thought I knew, but it was so long ago." His voice drifted off.

"Knew what?" Steph slowly rose from the jump seat to face the Doctor.

"You are an Electant. A being of pure electricity." He answered.

"Uh huh," Steph raised an eyebrow. "Does this look like electricity to you?" She pointed at her body.

Rose took a long look at the girl before her.

"Looks pretty human to me." She concluded.

"Yes…Well…My knowledge about the Electants is extremely limited, apart from their recent history." The Doctor sighed.

Steph's eyes lit up. For a second Rose thought she could see the bright teenager behind the oldness.

"What happened?" Steph asked.

"As far as I know, the Electants were an extremely private race, living in their own private part of the galaxy for thousands of years. In fact, I don't think anyone even realised they were there until the war." The Doctor's expression was thoughtful, his mind wandering.

"The war?" Steph gulped. She wasn't really sure if she really wanted to know what had happened, but she knew she must.

"Yeah…An Electant was captured and their race was discovered. Very soon, almost every single race in the universe wanted to know your secrets."

Suddenly Steph realised everything.

"In order for me to be electric, I must have some sort of way of keeping electricity flowing throughout my system, which means it must replicate itself or be continuously making more…Just like a…"

"Cyl." Rose finished for her.

"And you don't have the protection of many thousands of Ethae, willing to sacrifice all to save you." Added the Doctor.

"Of course! They would have been hunted to extinction from races desperate to discover how our bodies work." Steph finally understood everything.

"Which is why the Ethae are after you." Realised Rose.

"I'm almost exactly like a Cyl, only pure electricity. I would be like a sort of new food source."

"Yep. Out of all the planets in the universe, the Ethae manage to tract the very last Electant to Earth." The Doctor leaned back in the jump seat.

"Wait…Last?" Steph turned to the Doctor.

He looked up at her in conern.

"As I said, I only know recent history, and when I mean recent…this was about 5000 years ago."

"5000??" Repeated Rose in astonishment.

"That's how long ago the war was. The war between the Electants and the rest of the galaxy. They lost, which meant they were hunted to extinction." Steph's voice faded away as the reality of it all sunk in.

"I'm so sorry Steph." The Doctor stood again and placed a hand on her shoulder.

Steph looked up at him, tears slowly forming inside her eyes. But she had one more defence to fall back amongst all this confusion.

"But…I look human…How could I be an Electant anyway?"