"You are not compatible and will be deleted." The first said in a metallic monotone. Evie gulped.

"Doctor…" She hissed as the Cyberman took a step towards them. "Do something!"

"I'm a little busy." He said his voice cracking with emotion, showing how worried he was.

"Delete… delete…" The Cybermen were chanting.

Without thinking about what she was doing, Evie whipped the gun from the holster and pointed it at the nearest metal man. She pulled the trigger and a jet of green light shot from the gun, hitting its target square in the chest. Quickly, she aimed and fired at the other two, or where she thought they were, her heart thudding in her chest.

Evie hadn't realised that her eyes had been closed during the split second where she'd decided what to do and taken action. Opening one eyelid, she looked nervously in front of her. To her surprise and delight she had hit all three of her targets. The Cybermen lay in a heap on the ground.

"Now who needs protecting?" She asked the Doctor smugly, taking a step towards the pile of metal in front of her.

The Doctor grabbed her arm roughly, pulling her back and moving in front of her. Scanning the Cybermen quickly with the sonic screwdriver, his face was blank. He didn't answer, just keep scanning them.

The teenager was annoyed. She'd just saved them from deletion, which didn't sound particularly pleasant, and here he was angry with her for it. Putting the gun back in its holster at her waist, she crossed her arms, scowling.

"If you want me to just let you die next time say so and I won't waste my energy." She snapped.

When the Doctor still didn't react, Evie felt a wave of uncertainty rush over her. Like when you were so sure of something, which turned out to be completely wrong. The Doctor straightened up and returned to working on the key pad, still not speaking or even looking at her. OK, so he didn't like guns, but surely he hadn't left her with much of a choice.

Feeling a mixture of insecurity, frustration and despondency at the Doctor apparently distancing himself from her, Evie bent down to take a closer look at the Cybermen lying on the ground at her feet. Their heads were round, or as close to round as a head could be, coming to almost a point in the middle. Pipes connected this middle point to where the ears should be, boxing the head in. Their eyes were just black circles, with a tear drop shape in one corner. They had a slit of a mouth, also black.

Evie stared into the eyes, shuddering slightly. The tear drops freaked her out. How could something with tears in its eyes be… well… like that... talk about deleting people who weren't compatible. What did that mean, anyway? 'You are not compatible and will be deleted.' Why weren't they compatible… no one had even asked her any questions.

"OK, OK…" She muttered, having enough of the Doctor's silent treatment. "I'm sorry for shooting them, but I didn't want to be deleted. I've already died once today, surely that's enough for anyone. I won't use my gun again unless you say it's alright."

"Don't be facetious." The Doctor muttered, making Evie grin. At least he was talking to her again.

"I don't even know what facetious means." She told him smirking.

"Flippant, silly, foolish, inappropriate, inane, frivolous." He rattled off synonyms for the word without looking at her. Evie rolled her eyes.

"Thanks for the dictionary lesson." She joked, leaning casually against the wall beside where he was working. "Now… aren't you going to thank me for saving your ass?" The Doctor just raised his eyebrows, so Evie changed tack quickly, not wanting him to go silent on her again. "Why were they saying we weren't compatible? What does that mean?"

"We aren't compatible with their idea of the perfect species." He told her quickly. "All species need to be upgraded in the Cymbermen's perfect world. We were probably being held ready for upgrading, but we escaped, making us incompatible."

Evie nodded, taking in the information he was giving her slowly. Once again she was feeling out of her depth. She suddenly realised that the Doctor hadn't really told her what they were doing here, or why. Surely a load of Cybermen, who didn't particularly seem to be doing much except trying to delete her, weren't enough to bother him. It wasn't as though they were trying to take over the universe or anything. Were they?

"Doctor…" She wasn't entirely sure how to phrase her next question without annoying him. He already seemed irritated by her and Evie knew that was her own fault. The teenager was suddenly shy of the man who had barely looked at her for about ten minutes. When they'd started out on this adventure she'd looked up to him, almost like a big brother or a father figure. She'd thought that the feeling was mutual. Now she realised she hardly knew him. At all.

"Mmm?" He turned and looked straight into her eyes, as though he could hear how she was feeling in her voice.

"What are we doing, exactly?"

"That, Evie Jones, is the killer question."