Phil was lying face down on the floor, he had been left where he fell, his head throbbing.

He could hear muffled voices and could interpret some of what was being said.

"How do you recommend we kill it?"

"Gold won't work. It will just kill the boy."

"Solvent?"

"That works with the real deal, but this snake shit doesn't have a chest unit. Remember? Parasitic? It is using his entire body to function."

"Oh. Yeah." There was a pause. "Steamroller?"

"Are you out of your damn mind?!" There was a scuffle, most likely a punch. "We can't kill the fucking kid!"

"Why not? He is of no use to us."

"But he came the the Doctor. And so he leaves with the Doctor."

"Yeah, that Doctor... why can't he sort this thing out for himself."

"Funnily enough I think he is just a little bit more preoccupied with trying to rid us of an army of fucking Cybermen."

"So he doesn't really care about the boy then."

"Oh just shut your mouth, all you do is talk shit."

"Who do you reckon they are?" Pause "them two."

"I don't know. But we'll find out soon enough."

Phil was hauled up onto the table, and was thrown next to Dan.

Dan's face was pale, his lips with a purple hue. His eyes were flickering in time with the flash of the snake that was curled across his back.

"What do you want with me?" Phil asked, shocking the other two, who thought he was still unconscious.

"Nothing. You were just in our way on the floor." The taller man grunted, most likely the leader of the two.

"Do you know what that... thing is?" Phil said as he ran his fingers slowly down the machine. It was cold, yet it was humming. It had grown, and

now had legs that were like needles, where in Dan's skin.

"Yes. It is a weapon, they have used it on us before. It goes unnoticed until they want it to begin, you cannot feel it, see it or even hear the

damn things until they decide to activate it. You can remove them.." He turned around and pulled the back of his shirt up, revealing a mass of

scars and ridges "but it is painful beyond belief. Removing them without considerate blood loss or scarring is unlikely."

Phil gulped, imagining Dan's skin damaged and disfigured to that extent. "What does... what does it feel like?"

"The control or the removal?"

"Both."

"Whilst being controlled you have no feeling, you are numb to pain. The only organ you can control is your eyes, you can see the pain and

hatred in everyone else's eyes as you go about the Cybermen's doing. Some lose hope and think that they must kill you to rid of the beast, yet

others simply stare as you crush everything they had. The removal is excruciating, it wants to hang on to you and slowly suck the life from your

body, yet it also wants to take over others. As soon as it loses contact with your skin, your whole surface burns, it feels as though you have

been tossed into a furnace. Then you are still, cold. After what seems like hours of nothingness, you can finally open your eyes and be free. The

people that hated you when you were defenceless the the robots;' wants, they still feel the same way. The men who saw you, mindless, killing

and destroying their families and homes, never forgive you." He was shivering, his lip quivering. "The sooner we rid of this thing, the better. For

everyone."

"How will you rid of it, the same way they removed it from you?"

"That is the problem. I do not know how they removed mine, nor can I find out. The army swept through our camp less than three weeks ago,

killing almost two thirds of us. The men who died knew. And of course they left no documents, if they had the Cybermen could have used it and

made their slave driver snakes resistant to our means."

Phil began to shake, they didn't know how to save Dan. They didn't know.

...

ANNOUNCEMENT! - ONE CHAPTER TO GO AND THEN THE STORY IS COMPLETE! XX