Chapter 9

Doomsday Reloaded

'Now I know it's been over ten years since the battle of Canary Wharf, so some of you might not be up to date with the details,' Pete said as he started the meeting. 'Some of you know, or know of the Doctor and Rose. For those of you who don't, the Doctor and his team led the assault against John Lumis at Battersea, and fought the Daleks and Cybermen at Canary Wharf.'

'So, it was you who saved London,' Alice Dimaggio said with obvious admiration. 'Alice Dimaggio by the way. I'm head of Psychology.'

'Er, yeah, we kinda know that,' Rose said sheepishly. 'We know everyone here, and you all used to know us.'

'Eh?' Mickey said. 'How can you know them? You've never been here before. In Torchwood I mean.'

'Not in this time line, no. We're outside of our own time line and we need to get back in it,' John explained. 'So Craig was telling us that Blue Watch jumped over to the other universe and secured the Lever Room. What else do you remember?'

'I brought you back here to meet Pete. He wanted to show you what was happening here,' Jake recalled.

'When we jumped back, you called Rose's mother on the phone. She was in a staircase, running from the Cybermen,' Pete told them with a hint of sadness in his voice.

Rose thought it was strange that he'd said "Rose's mother" instead of "Jackie". She had a horrible feeling that something wasn't right. 'So did Mum come back here with ya when the Doctor closed the breach? Y'know, back to the Mansion?'

Pete raised an eyebrow in surprise. 'That's a bit of a personal question.'

'Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry. It's just . . .'

'Don't you remember? We found your mother in the stairwell, but I'm afraid the Cybermen had found her first.'

'No. That's not right. That's not how it happens. She's supposed to come back here with you,' Rose said, tears welling in her eyes again. First it was no kids, now it was no mother as well.

John reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze. 'I promise you, I will fix this. I just need to work out what's gone wrong.' He turned back to Pete. 'Please . . . Carry on.'

'We went to the warehouse to see what the Daleks were up to, and you picked up a couple of clamps. The Daleks were trying to get that ark thing outside,' Pete continued.

Mickey chipped in with his own recollection. 'Yeah, but somethin' happened while we were in the lift to the top floor. There was a massive explosion that rocked the building. We thought the lift was going to fall.'

Pete nodded. 'That was enough for me. When we got to the top floor, we evacuated. You sent Rose over here so that she would be safe while you closed the breach over there, but she jumped back and we never saw you again . . . until today that is. Tell me, has the breach opened again? Are they coming back through?'

John was speed reading the mission logs on a tablet PC. 'Eh? Oh, no. The breach is still closed. Have there been any universe threatening events since that day? Y'know, an oncoming darkness, stars going out?'

'Er, no. The biggest threat we've had was from an Egyptian god called Sutekh. I lost some good people on that one, not to mention some ancient monuments.'

'What happened?' Rose asked, remembering her part in that mission. It was strange, because she remembered John getting a message from her that must have come from an alternate time line like this one, but had no recollection of it.

'This Sutekh character started using pyramids to warp the fabric of space. Thousands were killed by earthquakes and volcanoes, we had no choice. We had to launch missiles at the pyramids to stop them.'

'What about Sutekh? How did you get past his mental powers?' John asked.

'You know of Sutekh?' Pete asked in surprise. 'We hadn't come across anything like him before. We were desperate, we had no choice . . .'

'What did you do?' Rose asked quietly.

Alice cleared her throat as though she were reluctant to speak. 'One of our senior agents, Duncan Prescott, volunteered for a suicide mission. He said he'd faced impossible odds before when he was in the SAS. I hypnotised him to believe that the alien weapon he carried would neutralise Sutekh.'

'And it didn't?' John asked.

Alice shook her head, and Andy continued the story. 'The weapon was a decoy. The real weapon was a warp star in his backpack with a remote detonator. Sutekh made Duncan point the weapon at his own head. That laugh will haunt me to my grave.'

'And you triggered the warp star,' John said.

'Yeah. He went the way any SAS soldier would want to go, in a blaze of glory,' Andy said with pride.

'The world media thought a volcano on Hawaii had erupted, which we didn't argue with. There was a crater a mile wide where Sutekh had been standing moments before,' Pete finished.

Rose wiped a tear from her cheek. 'Poor Duncan.'

John summarised what he knew. 'Do you know what the explosion was that rocked the lift?'

'Not a clue,' Pete answered. 'Although you thought it might have been the Cybermen blowing up the Genesis Ark in the warehouse.'

'Did I now? And when you got to the top floor, did anyone see any Daleks flying about outside the windows?' John asked

'No,' Mickey replied. 'You were surprised when the skies were empty.'

'And you say Rose never came back to this universe. Pete, you didn't get a call from me asking you to save her?'

'No. Like I said, we never saw you again. We didn't know what had happened to you.'

'Well then Rose, I think it's about time we found out,' John said with his enthusiastic smile.

'Wha? You mean we're goin' back to the old universe?' He nodded. 'But the breach is closed. How are we goin' to open it?'

He gave her that "dribbled down her uniform" look. 'We go back to a time when it was open and put it all right again.'


The TARDIS landed with a gentle "clomp", and they shut down the Time Rotor. They had changed into the black uniforms of Special Operations agents, and had two plasma cannons, all courtesy of Pete Tyler.

'So we're actually here, back in the old universe. I never thought I'd be back here again, especially on the day where my life changed forever,' Rose said.

'Are you okay?' John asked her. She seemed a bit melancholy.

'Yeah . . . It's just that if I go up to the lever room and take a safety line, well, I'd never have been trapped in "Pete's World". I'd have been travellin' this universe with you.'

'Do you want to do that?' he asked, hoping that he knew his wife well enough to anticipate her answer.

'No,' she said without hesitation. 'Because if I did that, then we wouldn't be married. Our wonderful kids would never have been born, and I wouldn't know that I had a little brother who I love to bits. Nah, a few years of depression is a small price to pay for all that.'

He kissed her lovingly on the lips. 'Right. So let's get it back then.' They put on their respirator masks and prepared their weapons. Now they were indistinguishable from members of Blue Watch, who would be jumping in any minute now.

They stepped out of a filing cabinet in an office and looked around. Chairs had been knocked over, and papers were scattered across desks and the floor. The Cybermen had obviously been here and cleared everyone out.

'So, you go and rescue your mum, while I'll go to the warehouse and try and prevent the explosion that wasn't part of our time line,' John said.

'Was it the explosion that changed it do you think?'

'Not on its own, no. But something has changed in the Cybermen which has given them the upper hand, so be careful.'

'I will, and I want you back in one piece as well.'

She saw his eyebrows waggle through the visor of his mask. 'See you later.'

He saw her eyes sparkle with humour, and he could imagine her giving him her teasing smile. 'Not if I see you first.'

They left the office and went their separate ways. Rose was heading for the north corner staircase, where she knew her mother would be trying to avoid being caught by the Cybermen. She would have to find her and protect her so that she could meet up with Pete.

John was heading for the east staircase, where he could get to the basement warehouse which extended out from the base of the tower. They both felt the Doctor's presence in the building as he jumped back from "Pete's World". That started the stopwatch and they knew how long they had to correct the time line.

He was using his sonic screwdriver to monitor the mobile phone network, and tuned in to Jackie's phone.

['Oh, my God, help me,'] he heard Jackie plead.

['Jackie, you're alive. Listen . . .']

['They tried to download me but I ran away!']

['Shush. Listen, tell me. Where are you?']

['I don't know. Staircase.']

['Yeah, which one? Is there any sort of sign? Anything to identify it?']

['Yes, a fire extinguisher,'] he heard Jackie say and had a little chuckle to himself. That was SO Jackie.

['Yeah, that helps,'] he heard himself say. He could see himself rolling his eyes in his mind's eye.

['Oh, wait a minute. It says N3.']

['North corner, staircase three. Just keep low, we're trying our best.']

['No, don't leave me.']

['I've got to go. I'm sorry.']

The line disconnected, but the sonic detected something else. Another signal on the carrier wave. Someone else was listening to the conversation.

['Unit Ten Five Two. Proceed to north corner staircase three. Find the female designated Jackie and delete,'] the new Cyberleader ordered.

['I obey,'] Ten Five Two responded.

"So that's how they know where she is", John thought to himself. ['Rose. The Cybermen tapped into the mobile network. They know where Jackie is. Be careful.']

['Okay Love. I'm just entering the stairwell now.']

Rose could hear her mother running down the stairs two floors below. She heard Cybermen enter the stairwell three floors down, and Jackie turn and head back towards her. As Rose turned the corner, Cyberman Ten Five Two entered the stairwell and started down the stairs.

'Delete!' Ten Five Two announced.

'No, please. You can't,' Jackie cried.

'Oi, Metal Mickey,' Rose called out as she pulled back the slider on the bonding chamber. 'Delete this.' She pulled the trigger and a beam of pure white light blew the Cyberman apart.

When the smoke cleared, Jackie could see a woman in a black uniform and respirator mask. 'Oh thank you. Who are you?'

'I'm a Special Operations Agent. Your daughter and the Doctor are through that door and along the corridor. I'll cover your back, now move!' Rose said, her voice muffled through the mask.

'Rose is alive? Thank God . . . Er, do I know you? You seem very familiar.'

'No, you don't know me M . . .' She nearly said "Mum". 'Mrs Tyler. Now get a shift on. There are more Cybermen on the way up.'

Jackie pulled the door open and ran into the corridor to eventually meet Pete and fulfil her destiny.

['Mum's safe. I'm headin' up to phase two,'] she thought to John.

['Roger that. I'm in the warehouse. It looks like the Cybermen are messing with the Jathar Sunglider.']

John ducked down between crates and boxes as he made his way towards the Sunglider. Because the Doctor had negotiated a truce, the warehouse was full of Cybermen, Torchwood soldiers, and a couple of Blue Watch agents. With their masks on, John couldn't tell who they were.

He knew the Daleks were on their way with the Genesis Ark, so he had to move fast. He could see two Cybermen on a scissor lift, who had removed an access cover from under the saucer shaped craft, and were working on the power plant. One of them was in the process of removing a thick cable from a coupling.

The scissor lift suddenly started to descend.

'You really ought to call the RAC you know,' John said as he operated the lift control. 'The Repairers of Astronomical Craft people. They'd tell you that disconnecting the feedback inhibitor will cause the fusion reactor to go into overload. I don't know, talk about a bunch of cowboys. Anyone would think that you wanted it to explode.'

'Raise the platform. We must complete our work,' one of the Cybermen said.

'I don't think so,' John said, sonicking the controls to lock them. 'The Daleks are the only beings here who can give you a fight. But you didn't know that, so what's changed your response.'

'Raise the platform!'

Before John could respond, the doors of the warehouse opened, and the Cult of Skaro entered. 'Ah, that's my cue to leave. Nice talking to you, gotta go.'

He dived over a crate and scrabbled across the floor to the stairwell door. He looked back, and saw the Doctor reach a couple of magna-clamps out of a storage bin and crawl back through the door. The roof of the warehouse started to slide open, and the Genesis Ark started to rise.

['The Daleks are heading outside. I'm on my way up,] John thought to Rose.

['Okay, see you soon.]

John started to run up the stairs, and couldn't help wondering how many steps there were. Twenty four per floor. Forty five floors. That was one thousand and eighty steps . . . Too many!

'What kept ya?' Rose said cheekily as he made it to her landing.

'Oh, you know,' he said breathlessly. 'Ran into some old friends, got chatting about old times.'

'There are four Cybermen on the next floor up. They must be the ones I see on the surveillance footage.'

'Right, come on. Originally, something stopped them getting to the lever room, and now it doesn't. And I've got an idea what it is.'

A Cyberman was waiting at the top of the stairs, with one of the plasma cannons in its hands.

'Come with me. We have to destroy the Lever Room,' it said to the four Cybermen on the stairs.

'And how would you know that Cyberman? Or should I say Yvonne?' John asked from the stairs below.

The four Cybermen looked over the handrail and pointed their arm lasers at John and Rose. 'Delete! Delete!'

'Not yet,' the Cyberman with the cannon said. 'I want to hear what this human has to say.'

John and Rose walked up the stairs to the landing below the Cybermen. 'Yvonne Hartman. I knew you when you were human. You were cold and heartless then. Being upgraded to a Cyberman must have been a marriage made in heaven for you.'

'Wha? That used to be the woman who was in charge here?' Rose asked. She was reminded of a Cyberman telling Pete that it used to be Jackie Tyler.

'Identify yourselves,' Cyberman Hartman demanded.

John pulled off his respirator mask with a "hiss" and "shflop". 'Surprise!' Rose followed his lead and removed hers also.

'Doctor Smith . . . and his companion, Rose,' Cyberman Hartman said.

'Did you notice Rose? She said "Doctor Smith", not "The Doctor". You see, I wondered how the Cybermen seemed to know what was going to happen next once Yvonne had been upgraded. She wasn't psychic, and the Cybermen certainly haven't got time travel.'

Rose followed his reasoning and realised where it was leading. 'You don't mean . . .'

'Yep. But tell me, when did you take up residence in her mind? Was it before she was director of Torchwood, or after?'

'She was so ambitious anyway. It was easy to infiltrate the Institute and progress her career to the top. And now to reap the reward . . . Delete them.'

The Cybermen raised their arms and turned towards John and Rose. Rose's Special Operations training kicked in. She shouldered John to the side and crouched down so that the Cybermen were all in a line, and only the nearest one could get in a shot. Not that it could get a shot in, because Rose blasted it in the chest. As that one fell forward, she shot the second, and the third, and then the fourth. By the time she had done that, the door at the top of the stairs was closing, and Cyberman Hartman had gone.

Cyberman Hartman hurried through the door from the stairwell, the sounds of disintegrating Cybermen coming through the closing door. She turned towards the Lever Room and found a plasma cannon in her face.

'You're not the only one who can cheat by travelling through time,' John said with a grin. 'Me and my gob again, eh Rose. I told you the Daleks tried to detonate a reality bomb, and when you left Ralpachan you travelled across the void to that moment and traced them back to this moment.'

'Yes Doctor. Five million human minds all linked together in indestructible bodies. A perfect host for me.'

'Ah, so that's why the Cybermen wanted the Daleks out of the picture. They were the only ones who could offer any resistance,' Rose realised.

'Yes Rose, and with a linked consciousness, another of us will enter the Lever Room and destroy it.'

'Ah, yes. They could,' John agreed. 'But they don't have time travel, do they? And while we've been having this little chat, the Doctor and Rose have been busy. Right about now, you should be feeling an irresistible urge to go to the Lever Room.'

'I take it you are referring to Void Stuff. But Yvonne Hartman was upgraded in this universe,' Cyberman Hartman said smugly.

'Yeah, I know. And that suit she's wearing is a remarkable bit of engineering. I'd even say it was brilliant, and that's praise indeed coming from me. Do you know it was designed by John Lumic and built by Cybus Industries?'

'So? What of it?'

'There isn't a Cybus Industries in this universe.'

'What?'

Cyberman Hartman started to slide past John and Rose, down the corridor towards an opening into the Lever Room on the right. She tried to raise her laser arm to shoot at them, but was rotated around and disappeared through the opening.

'Ooh, John. I'm gettin' butterflies in my stomach. It's like someone's tuggin' my belt,' Rose said.

'Yeah. Don't forget we've got a bit of Void Stuff on us as well. We'd better get into the TARDIS before we all get pulled in.'

The tall, grey cabinet was down the corridor, and they went with the gentle tug towards it. John put his key in the lock and pushed the door inwards, into the cathedral-like interior. Rose noticed that the TARDIS had started to creep down the corridor. She stood in the doorway and looked through the opening into the Lever Room, where she could see the bright light of the breach.

'Rose, hold on! HOLD ON!' she heard the Doctor call out in desperation. She wiped a tear from her cheek and closed the door, realising that any moment now she would lose her grip on the lever and change her life forever.

In stealth mode, the TARDIS slowly faded from this universe.