AN: An anonymous reviewer asked about Jack. That hasn't been forgotten, but it's still in the hands of the TARDIS. She's the one looking for him, and she hasn't told them where he is.
Chapter 36
Staring at the sphere, Rose's determination to be the Doctor's anchor in this storm wavered a bit. He was projecting more anxiety than she'd felt from him since the TARDIS had given them an empathic connection, and considering they'd faced down the Devil since then, that said a lot about whatever he saw. She reached out for him, but though she could tell he was close, he was too far away for her to tell him anything.
Mickey stood by the door—and the impossibility of that hadn't escaped Rose. She looked ahead, and the knot of timelines had twisted into a nexus of golden light that pulsed like it was trying to tear itself apart.
The steady hum in the room changed pitch, and she watched Rajesh get more agitated by the minute, as he tried and failed to make contact with Yvonne.
A loud bang shook the entire room. "It can't be," Rajesh murmured. He, Rose, and Mickey jogged toward the sphere, staring up at it. Maybe that had just been a fluke…
Another bang put paid to that notion.
Rajesh put on his glasses. "It's active!" He ran to his computer terminal while the banging continued. "We've got a problem down here," he yelled over the comms. "Yvonne, can you hear me?"
Rose and Mickey watched the sphere vibrate in midair. Whatever was inside that thing was looking to get out, that much was clear.
"Yvonne, for God's sake. The sphere is active! The readings are going wild! It's got weight, it's got mass, an electromagnetic field. It exists!"
When Yvonne stayed silent, Rose had a feeling they were dealing with a situation of their own. She had said the ghost shift was cancelled; if it had started back up again, that would explain why the Doctor was so on edge.
Suddenly he pushed one thought over their bond. It's Cybermen.
The banging on the sphere turned ominous, rather than creepy. Cybermen!
She must have made some sound of distress, because Mickey put his hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him, and he grinned back. "It's all right, babe. We've beaten them before; we can beat them again. That's why I'm here. The fight goes on."
His presence in this universe suddenly made sense. The last time she'd seen her best mate, he'd been in the parallel universe, taking on the Cybermen. Mickey and Jake and their friends must have tracked this sphere… or the ghosts… across the Void.
The sphere seemed to be breaking apart from the inside, and Rose grabbed Mickey's hand. Each time it rattled and shook, she expected Cybermen to come marching out.
"We had them beaten, but then they escaped," Mickey told her. "The Cybermen just vanished. They found a way through to this world, but so did we."
Rose shook her head, even though the evidence was standing in front of her. "The Doctor said that was impossible."
"Yeah, it's not the first time he's been wrong," Mickey reminded her matter-of-factly.
"What's inside that sphere?" she asked.
"No one knows. Cyber Leader, Cyber King, Emperor of the Cybermen. Whatever it is, he's dead meat."
Rose took in the changes in Mickey since the last time she'd seen him. He looked taller somehow, but she guessed that was because he'd finally found the confidence he'd been lacking most of his life. "It's good to see you."
He smiled, and for a second she saw the old, happy-go-lucky Mickey. "Yeah. It's good to see you too."
The screech of metal on metal grated on Rose's ears. Mickey tossed off his lab coat and ear piece and stared up at the sphere in anticipation.
"Here we go."
The sphere cracked open down the middle, and the top half slowly lifted up. Rose watched in trepidation as light shone out from the crack.
"I know what's in there, and I'm ready for them," Mickey said as the sphere continued to open. "I've got just the thing." He ran over to the platform underneath the sphere and pulled a large gun out from under it.
"This is going to blast them to hell," he told Rose and Rajesh, taking his place beside them again.
Rajesh looked at him in utter confusion. "Samuel, what are you doing?"
"The name's Mickey. Mickey Smith. Defending the Earth." He primed the weapon and aimed it at the sphere.
The sphere finally opened completely, and four figures rose out of it. Mickey took half a step back, his weapon still up. "That's not Cybermen."
In Rose's mind, it was much, much worse. Four Daleks had entered the room. "Oh, my God." She remembered what the Doctor had said about sending pictures over their bond and gave it a shot. His responding anger and dread told her it had worked.
"Location, Earth. Life forms detected. Exterminate!" The Daleks repeated their favourite word in chorus as the three humans took three steps back.
"Daleks!" Rose shouted above the din, and the hated mechanical voices stopped.
"You're called Daleks." Mustering all her courage, she walked slowly toward the black Dalek in the middle of the group and looked right into its eyestalk. "I know your name. Think about it; how can I know that?"
Rose slipped out of her lab coat and tossed it on the floor, hoping to convey a sense of command. "A human who knows about the Daleks and the Time War. If you want to know how, then keep us alive. That's all I'm asking. Me and my friends."
"Yeah, Daleks," Mickey chimed in. "Time War. Me too."
"Yeah. And me," Rajesh agreed.
The Dalek's eyestalk rotated as it looked at each of them in turn. "You will be necessary," it decided, before turning to its cohorts. "Report. What is the status of the Genesis Ark?"
"Status, hibernation," the Dalek on its right answered.
"Commence awakening. The Genesis Ark must be protected above all else."
"The Daleks. You said they were all dead," Mickey said, quietly enough that the Daleks wouldn't hear.
"Never mind that," Rose said having watched one of the Daleks place its plunger on a port outside the metal container they'd brought with them. "What the hell's a Genesis Ark?"
The black Dalek turned back toward them. "Which of you is least important?"
Rose's breathing sped up. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Which of you is least important?"
Mickey was looking at her, but she kept her attention focused on the Dalek, shaking her head in answer to their question. "No, we don't work like that. None of us."
The Dalek vibrated with frustration. "Designate the least important!" it insisted.
"This is my responsibility," Rajesh said and stepped forward.
Rose grabbed at his arm. "No, you don't." They all knew what was likely to happen to the least important.
Rajesh shook her hand off and placed himself directly in front of the black Dalek. "I… Ah, I represent the Torchwood Institute." He took his glasses off and straightened his back. "Anything you need, you come through me. Leave these two alone."
"You will kneel."
"What for?"
"Kneel."
Rajesh turned back toward Rose and Mickey and knelt on the floor. One of the bronze Daleks Rose had started to think of as a minion to the black Dalek rolled toward him.
"The Daleks need information about current Earth history," the black Dalek explained.
Rajesh looked at it over his shoulder. "Yeah, well, I can give you a certain amount of intelligence but nothing that will compromise homeland security."
"Speech is not necessary. We will extract brainwaves."
"Don't— I—" He looked around wildly as three of the Daleks rolled toward him, their plungers extended. "I'll tell you everything you need!"
Rose watched in horror as the plungers covered Rajesh's face and sucked, the man's cries for help fading after a minute. Mickey started to rush at them, but she grabbed his arm and yanked him back, hiding her face in his shoulder so he wouldn't be able to attack the Daleks, and so she wouldn't have watch Rajesh die.
When their plungers released Rajesh, his skull was blackened and shrivelled up. "His mind spoke of a second species invading Earth infected by the superstition of ghosts," the black Dalek said.
"You didn't need to kill him," Rose said angrily.
"Neither did we need him alive." The utterly pragmatic answer chilled Rose.
"Dalek Thay, investigate outside," the black Dalek ordered.
"I obey."
Rose's mind whirled as she watched one of the bronze Daleks roll out of the sphere room. Since when do Daleks have names?
DWDWDWDW
Beeping caught the Doctor's attention, and he looked down at Addy's computer terminal. The repeating announcement that the sphere had activated added another layer of bad to what was already bad. Rose was in that room with the sphere, and who knew how many Cybermen were inside?
The Cyber Leader was still looking at his invasion force when the Doctor started talking. "But I don't understand. The Cybermen don't have the technology to build a Void ship. That's way beyond you. How did you create that sphere?"
"The sphere is not ours."
"What?" The simplest answer was often the correct one, but in this case, it opened up a world of dangerous possibilities. He knew of only a few races who had experimented with travel through the Void.
"The sphere broke down the barriers between worlds. We only followed. Its origin is unknown."
"Then what's inside it?" he asked, both hearts pounding furiously.
"Rose is down there," Jackie said, speaking his worst fear out loud.
Cold fear broke through from Rose, and the Doctor raked his hands through his hair. Whatever was in the sphere—and he had a horrible suspicion he knew what it was—she was deathly afraid of it.
She reached across their bond and sent him an image he would recognise anywhere. The Doctor clenched his jaw against the desire to shout at the sick mind who had designed this. Cybermen and Daleks both, and Rose trapped where he couldn't get to her.
"What's down there?" Jackie asked. "She was in that room with the sphere. What's happened to Rose?"
The Doctor glared at her, unwilling or unable to give voice to the reality.
But when Jackie put her hands to her mouth and choked back a sob, he pushed off the wall and moved to rest a hand on her back. "I'll find her," he promised. "I brought you here, I'll get you both out, you and Rose. Jackie, look at me. Look at me," he insisted, and she finally lifted her head. He stared into her eyes, letting her see how much he meant what he was saying. "I promise you. I give you my word."
The Cyber Leader marched into Yvonne's office. "You will talk to your central world authority and order global surrender."
"Oh, do some research," she said haughtily. "We haven't got a central world authority."
"You have now. I will speak on all global wavelengths. This broadcast is for humankind," he said, and the Doctor realised the Cybermen were transmitting this message live.
He tuned out when the Cyber Leader started the tired old Cyberman recruitment speech and used the time to pull out his 3D glasses. As he'd suspected, the Cyberman was covered in Void stuff.
The amount of Void stuff now present in this universe would make the whole multiverse unstable, even if he managed to seal the breach. Unless there's a way to remove the infection before I cauterise the wound…
He tucked the glasses away and went over the window to stare down at London. The first hint of flames appeared just below them in Tower Hamlets, and he looked over his shoulder at the Cyberman.
"I don't think this is going quite as you expected."
Jackie and Yvonne turned around, and a moment later they were joined at the window by the Cyber Leader. "I ordered surrender," he said when more fires broke out, and there would have been confusion in his voice if he hadn't been stripped of all emotion.
"They're not taking instructions." The Doctor poured all of his anger and fear into his words, glad to finally have an outlet. "Don't you understand? You're on every street. You're in their homes—you've got their children! Of course they're going to fight."
The crashing metallic sound of Cybermen marching healed the approach of another squadron. "Scans detect unknown technology active within Sphere chamber."
"Cybermen will investigate," the Cyber Leader ordered.
The Doctor, Jackie, and Yvonne stood in the corner while the Cybermen headed for the sphere room. "Doctor, whatever's down there, could it help us?" Jackie whispered.
He looked at her and let her see his anger and helplessness. Her lips quivered again, but she pressed them together and nodded.
"Units open visual link," the Cyber Leader ordered. On the desk, Yvonne's laptop turned on, displaying the corridor near the sphere room. "Visual contact established."
As the Cybermen walked around the corner, the Doctor recognised the Dalek's faint hum. He gathered his restraint and managed not to curse when it rolled into view.
"Identify yourselves," it demanded.
The two Cybermen stopped in the doorway. "You will identify first."
"State your identity," the Dalek insisted.
"You will identify first."
"Identify!"
"That answer is unacceptable and illogical. You will modify."
The sneer in the Dalek's voice was obvious. "Daleks do not take orders."
"You have identified as Daleks."
"Outline resembles the inferior species known as Cybermen."
"Rose said about the Daleks," Jackie whispered in his ear. "She was terrified of them. What have they done to her, Doctor? Is she dead?"
Rose wasn't dead. He'd know if she was dead. But that didn't mean they weren't planning to kill her as soon as this little exchange was over.
The Doctor wheeled around to face Jackie. "Phone," he demanded through gritted teeth, not wanting to capture the attention of the Cybermen. Jackie just looked at him, but when he repeated himself, she pulled her mobile from her pocket and gave it to him.
His fingers shook as he punched in Rose's number. Timelines were crystallising in a way that left very few chances for a happy ending for anyone. The possibility of losing Rose when they were already bonded was… unpleasant, at best. A provisional bond could be dissolved, but breaking one by force would be painful.
The phone rang once, then twice, and then it connected. "She's answered. She's alive," he said for Jackie's sake. And free enough to be able to answer, he added for his own. Then the next question came to mind. "Why haven't they killed her?"
"Well, don't complain!"
"They must need her for something," he explained to Jackie, listening to the conversation between the Daleks and the Cybermen through the phone connection.
"We must protect the Genesis Ark," a Dalek announced.
"The Genesis Ark?" he repeated, wracking his memory for such a device.
Holding the phone to his ear with his shoulder, the Doctor reached into his pocket and found his 3D glasses again. The single Dalek staring down the Cybermen carried just as much Void stuff as the Cybermen, if not more, and the first inklings of an idea stirred in the back of his mind.
"Our species are similar, though your design is inelegant," one of the Cybermen stated.
"Daleks have no concept of elegance."
"This is obvious. But consider, our technologies are compatible. Cybermen plus Daleks. Together, we could upgrade the universe."
"You propose an alliance?"
"This is correct."
The Cybermen might have taken the tone for interest, but the Doctor was intimately familiar with the scorn of a Dalek. If you were convinced you were genetically superior to the rest of the universe, why would you ally yourself with anyone?
"Request denied."
Both Cybermen raised their weapons arms. "Hostile elements will be deleted." They fired multiple shots at the Dalek, but none of them came close to piercing the polycarbide shell.
"Exterminate!" the Dalek called out. Two seconds later, both Cybermen lay dead in the corridor.
The Doctor watched uneasily as the Cyber Leader marched around the room angrily. "Open visual link," he ordered. The computer monitor flickered once, and then a new visual link was established, this time to the inside of the sphere room. "Daleks, be warned. You have declared war upon the Cybermen."
The Doctor swallowed hard when he saw Rose standing behind the Daleks.
"This is not war," the black Dalek retorted. "This is pest control."
"We have five million Cybermen. How many are you?"
"Four."
"You would destroy the Cybermen with four Daleks?" the Cyber Leader said disbelievingly.
"We would destroy the Cybermen with one Dalek."
If he was a betting man (and if the situation wasn't so serious), the Doctor would have placed money on the Daleks. He had yet to meet a species who surpassed them for cruel efficiency.
"You are superior in only one respect," the Dalek continued.
"What is that?"
The Doctor moved so he was standing in front of the webcam and made eye contact with Rose. Even on the tiny laptop monitor, he could see her take a breath of relief. He gave her a half smile, then casually paced across the room.
"You are better at dying. Raise communications barrier!"
The signal on the phone went dead, and he handed it back to Jackie. "Lost her." Rose's courage and pride radiated over their bond, and he let her optimism balance his suddenly dark predictions.
The Doctor watched as the Cybermen at the top of the tower began making preparations for conversions and fighting the Daleks. A union between the Cybermen and the Daleks was definitely a whole different variety of bad, but a war between them was only marginally better.
"Quarantine the Sphere chamber," the Cyber Leader ordered. "Start emergency upgrading. Begin with these personnel."
"No, you can't do this!" Yvonne cried as they dragged her away. "We surrendered! We surrendered!"
"This one," the Cyber Leader said, indicating for the Doctor to be brought forward. "His increased adrenaline suggests that he has vital Dalek information."
The Doctor watched as Rose's mother was dragged off toward the conversion chambers. "Stop them!" she cried out. "I don't want to go! You promised me! You gave me your word!"
"I demand you leave that woman alone," the Doctor said, trying to pull free. "I won't help you if you hurt her." He looked past the Cybermen to Jackie. "Jackie, don't fight. I'll think of something."
DWDWDWDW
Rose had known the Doctor was still alive even before her phone rang, but seeing him on the screen, whole and in one piece, allowed her to relax just a bit. As long as they were both alive…
"Wait!" one of the bronze Daleks shouted, just after the screen went blank. "Rewind image by nine rells. Identify grid seven gamma frame. This male registers as enemy."
Rose was confused for a moment, but then she remembered what the Doctor had told her, that Daleks could see in four dimensions. They can tell he's a Time Lord.
They zoomed in on the image of the Doctor when he'd looked directly at her, and she smiled again.
The black Dalek's eyestalk spun around to look at Rose. "The female's heartbeat has increased."
"Yeah, tell me about it," Mickey said sardonically.
"Identify him."
"All right, then, if you really want to know." She nodded proudly toward the screen. "That's the Doctor." All four Daleks rolled backward at least two paces, and she smiled a real smile for the first time since she'd entered the sphere room. "Five million Cybermen, easy. One Doctor? Now you're scared."
"Cyber threat irrelevant," a Dalek minion said. "Concentrate on the Genesis Ark."
"Why are we being kept alive?" Mickey asked.
Something about the way the Daleks were surrounding the Genesis Ark, trying to wake it up, triggered Rose's memory. "They might need me."
"What? What is it?"
Instead of answering, Rose stared at where the Daleks were connected to the Genesis Ark. If they were feeding it artron radiation, then she was currently the biggest power source in the room—the biggest source in the building, outside of the TARDIS.
DWDWDWDW
After Jackie was taken and he was left in the office, the Doctor sat staring into space. Just five hours ago, he'd been with Rose at the bazaar, planning for the future and looking forward to a visit with Jackie.
Now Rose was trapped in a room with four Daleks, Jackie had been taken to be converted by Cybermen, and he was alone again.
"You are proof," the Cyber Leader said.
The Doctor looked at him wearily. "Of what?" he asked, not following the non sequitur.
"That emotions destroy you."
"Yeah, I am," he agreed readily.
A faint whooshing caught his attention, and he looked behind the Cyber Leader into the ghost room. The faint outline of six humanoid figures was appearing through the Void.
"Mind you, I quite like hope. Hope's a good emotion. And here it comes."
Six people dressed in full combat gear broke through. Three of them turned on the spot, taking out the Cybermen behind them. The others kept their weapons trained on the Cyber Leader.
Seeing what was coming, the Doctor dove into the corner of the room and covered his head with his hands. A moment later he heard the unmistakable pop of the Cyber Leader's head exploding, and he stepped tentatively out of the office.
"Doctor? Good to see you again."
The point man took his mask off, and the Doctor blinked in confusion. "Jake?"
"The Cybermen came through from one world to another, and so did we."
This was—that was—why do humans insist on acting like crossing the Void is like taking a Sunday drive?
He pulled out his 3D glasses again, looking at Jake as he shouted out orders to his squad. Of course, all of them were covered in Void stuff. Only now he knew they were carrying Void stuff into their world too, destabilising the multiverse even more.
When Jake was done giving his orders, the Doctor started in on him. "You can't just, just, just hop from one world to another. You can't."
"We just did. With these," Jake said, tossing him a round disc with a yellow button at the centre.
"But that's impossible," the Doctor said, staring at the device in the palm of his hand. "You can't have this sort of technology."
"We've got our own version of Torchwood. They developed it. Do you want to come and see?"
Jake punched the button on his chest, and the Doctor realised a moment too late that they were all linked. "No!" he shouted, not wanting to go anywhere until he'd rescued Rose and Jackie.
Fourteen seconds later, they reappeared in a room that was the mirror image of the one they'd just left, well, a mirror image if the ghost room had been the site of a major battle. The lights were dimmed, and debris littered the floor.
"Parallel Earth, parallel Torchwood," Jake said. "Except we found out what the Institute was doing and the People's Republic took control."
Frankly, the Doctor didn't care what the people in this world had done. The people in his life were counting on him to save them, and he couldn't do it from the other side of the Void.
"I've got to get back. Rose is in danger, and her mother." There was an ache in his head where his bond with Rose reached for her.
"That'd be Jackie," a man said, and the Doctor looked over to see Pete Tyler enter the room with two more operatives. "My wife in a parallel universe. And as for you, Doctor, at least this time I know who you are."
Looking at Pete was almost painful, with the way the timelines danced around him. But he seemed to be in charge, and that meant he could send him home.
"Right, yes, fine, hooray. But I've got to get back, right now."
But Pete only heard the order, not the panic in his voice. "No, you're not in charge here. This is our world, not yours. And you're going to listen for once."
The Doctor was stunned speechless. Pete led him to the parallel version of that blank white wall. I wonder… From his universe, he'd been able to sense how thin the walls of the worlds were at this point. From this side, could he…?
He pressed himself against the wall as tightly as he could. The ache in his head eased when his mind found Rose on the other side of the Void. It was just the faintest trace of her, but it was enough to soothe the clawing emptiness.
If Pete thought his behaviour was strange, he didn't comment. Instead, he just started talking to the Doctor's back while he stayed pressed against the wall.
"When you left this world, you warned us there'd be more Cybermen. So we sealed them inside the factories."
"Except people argued," Jake said. "Said they were living. We should help them."
The Doctor turned and leaned his back against the wall, still close enough to feel Rose and the TARDIS, but facing Pete and Jake. He looked at Pete, guessing how the man would have felt about helping the Cybermen when they'd taken his wife from him.
Pete took over the story. "And the debate went on. But all that time, the Cybermen made plans. Infiltrated this version of Torchwood, mapped themselves onto your world, and then vanished."
"When was this?"
"Three years ago."
The Doctor shoved his hands in his pockets and started pacing aimlessly, staying as close as possible to the wall. It wasn't the knowledge that time passed differently that concerned him; that was really nothing new. But if the Cybermen had been planning this for over three years, then they had probably planned for every contingency.
"It's taken them three years to cross the void, but we can pop to and fro in a second. Must be the sheer mass of five million Cybermen crossing all at once," he mused.
Pete huffed in amusement. "Yeah, Mickey said you'd rattle off that sort of stuff."
The Doctor raised his eyebrows and looked from Pete to Jake. "Oh, where is the Mickey boy?"
"He went ahead first," Pete said. "Any chance to go and find Miss Rose Tyler."
The faintest reminder of old jealousy sprang up, but he squashed it ruthlessly. "She's your daughter," he told Pete instead. "You do know that? Did Mickey explain?"
"She's not mine. She's the child of a dead man."
The Doctor rolled his eyes, but he didn't argue—not yet.
"Come look, Doctor." Pete beckoned him toward the windows.
The Doctor leaned back against the wall and shook his head. "Tell me about it," he invited instead.
Confusion furrowed Pete's brow, but he nodded slowly. "It's a world of peace. They're calling this The Golden Age," Pete said.
That phrase rang a bell. "Who's the president now?"
"A woman called Harriet Jones."
"Oof. I'd keep an eye on her."
"But it's a lie," Pete said, uninterested in his commentary on Harriet Jones. "Temperatures have risen by two degrees in the past six months. The ice caps are melting. They're saying all of London will be flooded. That's not just global warming, is it?"
"No." That was exactly what he'd feared would happen if people continued to cross the Void willy-nilly. Without the Time Lords to stabilise the connection, all dimensions would eventually collapse.
"It's the breach."
"I've been trying to tell you. Travel between parallel worlds is impossible. Then the Daleks break down the walls with the sphere." It was always the Daleks.
Pete cocked his head. "Daleks?"
"Then the Cybermen travelled across, then you lot. Those discs." He pointed to the yellow button on Jake's chest. "Every time you jump from one reality to another, you rip a hole in the universe. This planet is starting to boil," he said, pointing wildly toward the window. "Keep going and both worlds will fall into the Void."
"But you can stop it?" Pete asked desperately. "The famous Doctor. You can seal the breach?"
Only one problem with that… "Leaving five million Cybermen stranded on my Earth."
Pete shook his head. "That's your problem. I'm protecting this world, and this world only."
The words were callous, but the Doctor knew they came from a man who'd been hardened by loss. Maybe his compassion could be reawakened if he finally got something back.
The Doctor pursed his lips. "Hmm. Pete Tyler. I knew you when you were dead." Pete blinked, the odd comment hitting him just as the Doctor had hoped. "Now here you are, fighting the fight—alone." He levelled a gaze at the other man. "There is a chance, back on my world… Jackie Tyler might still be alive."
"My wife died." Pete's voice was cold, but the Doctor saw both grief and hope in his eyes.
Of all the timelines swirling around Pete, the only thing he could see clearly was a meeting between this world's Pete and his Jackie. "Her husband died. Good match."
But Pete refused to discuss it. "There's more important things at stake. Doctor, help us."
"What, close the breach?" he asked incredulously. The Doctor beat his head lightly against the wall. "Stop the Cybermen? Defeat the Daleks? Do you believe I can do that?"
Pete smiled for the first time since the Doctor had arrived in his world. "Yes."
The simple earnestness of the reply bolstered the Doctor's flagging hope. "Maybe that's all I need." He grinned. "Off we go, then!"
Jake handed the dimension hopper back to him, and with a quick nod, he hit the button that sent them all back to the Doctor's world.
DWDWDWDW
Mickey casually turned away from the Daleks and held out a round disc with a yellow button in the middle. "I could transport out of here, but it only carries one, and I'm not leaving you."
Rose smiled, and then pressed her lips together in pain when her bond with the Doctor suddenly stretched until it was the thinnest of threads.
Mickey put a hand on her shoulder and bent down to look her in the eye. "What's wrong?"
After taking a few deep breaths, she thought she could speak without whimpering in pain. "Something's happened to the Doctor." Her mind reached and pulled in ways she'd never felt before.
Mickey eyed her doubtfully. "How can you tell?"
She bit her lip; this was not how she'd imagined telling her friends she was engaged. "We've got a bond," she said as quietly as possible, not wanting the Daleks to overhear. Mickey looked at her blankly, so she tapped the side of her head. "Only now it's almost gone."
Her mate accepted that without a word. "Well, what's it feel like? Is he dead?"
The stretching sensation eased slightly; the Doctor was there again. "No… it's more like he's just really, really far away."
"That'd be Jake then," Mickey told her. "I sent him a message earlier when the action started, and he said he was gonna take the Doctor back to our world, show him what's going on there."
Rose's tension eased a little. "That makes sense."
Mickey pointed over his shoulder at the Genesis Ark. "Have you figured out what's going on here?"
She nodded. "Whatever's inside that Ark is waking up, and I've seen this happen before. The first time I saw a Dalek, it was broken. It was dying. But I touched it." Rose remembered the way her palm had burned when she'd laid it against the Dalek, and how quickly that one touch had revived it. "The moment I did that, I brought it back to life."
Mickey still looked confused, so she tried to explain it a little better. "See, the Doctor said, when you travel in time in the TARDIS, you soak up all this background radiation. It's harmless. It's just there. But in the Time War, the Daleks evolved so they could use it as a power supply."
"I love it when you talk technical," Mickey said, a playful smirk on his face.
"Shut up," she told him, irritated he wasn't taking this seriously.
He bobbed his head, and she looked over his shoulder at the Genesis Ark. "If the Daleks have got something inside that thing, and it needs waking up…"
They stared at the device in the middle of the room, the pulsing hum in the background suddenly loud in the absence of conversation.
"They need you," Mickey said after a moment.
Rose blinked and looked at him. "You've travelled in time. Either one of us would do."
"But why would they build something they can't open themselves?"
"The technology is stolen," the black Dalek answered.
Rose realised their conversation hadn't been as private as she'd thought. Glad I didn't say anything about Bad Wolf or my changed DNA then.
"The Ark is not of Dalek design."
"Then who built it?" Rose asked.
"The Time Lords. This is all that survives of their home world."
Rose could think of several reasons the Daleks would've stolen Time Lord technology, and none of them were good. "What's inside?"
All four Daleks circled the Ark with their plungers out. "The future."
DWDWDWDW
The return trip through the Void took only eleven seconds, and the knowledge that travel between the worlds was becoming easier worried the Doctor, because it meant the walls had unravelled almost completely.
The Doctor took a deep breath as soon as they were back in his universe, feeling the bond he shared with Rose snap back into place. He could tell his absence had affected her just as strongly, and the TARDIS as well.
The Doctor shoved his hopper into his pocket and jogged over to Yvonne's desk. "First of all, I need to make a phone call. You don't mind?"
His hearts were beating a quick staccato as he dialled Jackie's number. Please pick up, please pick up!
"Oh, my God, help me," she begged him.
He'd never been so glad to hear her voice. "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."
The Doctor pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yeah, that helps."
"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 Doctor set the phone back in the cradle and looked at Pete. "Jacqueline Andrea Suzette Tyler."
"She's not my wife."
The Doctor rocked back on his heels and smirked; did Pete realise his arguments were getting weaker and weaker? "I was at the wedding. You got her name wrong."
He left a startled looking Pete to ponder over yet another similarity between this world's Jackie and the Jackie he'd known.
It was time for the next phase of his plan. He hopped over to Jake and took the weapon from him, turning it over in his hands while he explained what he was going to do. "Now then, Jakey boy, if I can open up the bonding chamber on this thing, it'll work on polycarbide."
"What's polycarbide?"
"Skin of a Dalek."
Jake and Pete looked on while he used the sonic to adapt the weapon. "What exactly is a Dalek?" Jake asked.
"One of the most purely evil races in the galaxy," the Doctor answered, his lips drawing into a thin line. "A mutated creature living inside a large metal shell that somewhat resembles a pepper pot. Equipped with a plunger and a death ray—and don't underestimate the plunger arm. Currently holding Rose hostage." He hoisted the retrofitted weapon, hefting it slightly to get a feel for its balance.
"I'm sorry, Doctor, but I don't quite understand how you're planning to get anywhere near the Daleks with this," Pete said.
"Ah, that's where I make good on a little promise I made to the Cybermen. They're trying to find a way to get rid of the Daleks themselves."
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend," Pete said, his mouth twisted into a grimace.
"Something like that, yeah." The Doctor handed the weapon back to Jake and pulled a piece of paper out of Yvonne's desk, attaching it to a pointer he found.
Jake and Pete looked at each other and he knew they thought he was crazy, but they shrugged in resignation. "Excellent. Follow me, but stay out of sight."
The Doctor led the way toward a corridor that wasn't being kept secure by Jake's group. Holding a finger to his lips, he told Pete and Jake to be quiet, and he peeked around the corner.
Three Cybermen stood at the end of the hallway, and he took a deep breath and slowly stuck his makeshift flag out, following it cautiously. "Sorry. No white flag. I only had a sheet of A4. Same difference."
The Cybermen hit their chests in unison, then marched toward the Doctor with their right arms extended. "Do you surrender?"
The Doctor placed his flag over his shoulder and swaggered toward the Cybermen. "I surrender unto you," he said, coming nose to nose with one of the robots. "A very good idea."