Chapter 13

Stood on Lambeth bridge, cars whizzed by the group as they chatted about where they landed. The Doctor perplexed tugging on his ear and scratching his hair. Nova meanwhile stood on the pedestrian path overlooking the water peering down as a small tour boat passed under the bridge, she waved cheerfully at them, gaining a few waves back from the tourists.

"First of February this year not exactly far flung, is it?" Mickey said smacking a discarded newspaper down showing the Doctor, who seemed to furrow his eyebrows in deep thought.

The Doctor looked up at the passing by zeppelins in the sky, noticing mickey had not seen those yet.

"So this is London." The Doctor said with a playful twinkle in his eye turning to look at Mickey.
"Yep" Mickey retorted crossing his arms.
"your city"
"Yep"
"Just as we left it?" The Doctor smirked as Mickey started to loose his patience.
"Bang on" Mickey said setting down the newspaper on the bridge ledge.
"And that includes the zeppelins?" The Doctor finished sarcastically as he gestured upwards.
Nova looked up in awe as a giant Zeppelin soared past in the sky, advertising some form of drink.
"Woah" Rose shouted as she leaned over the ledge of the bridge peering upwards.
"Okay, so its London, with a big international zeppelin festival" Mickey pouted trying to continue as he hated to be wrong, Rose rolled her eyes at him before continuing to peer around 'London'

"This isn't their world is it?" Nova asked the Doctor.
"Mhm yes, correctamondo!" The Doctor said spinning on the heels of his sandshoes to look at nove pointing finger guns at her.

"But if the date is the same, its wrong its parallel right? Like a parallel earth where they've got like big, massive zeppelins." Mickey started excitedly.
"Am I right? Am I right?"

"Must be" The Doctor seemed unimpressed by Mickeys need for validation but ignored it.

"So, a parallel world where…" Rose trailed off as she started at an advertisement for vitex light, cherry flavour starring Pete Tyler, her deceased father in their universe.

"Oh, come on. You've seen it on films. Like an alternative to our world where everything's the same but a little bit different, like, I don't know, traffic lights are blue, Tony Blair never got elected" Mickey continued not noticing what everyone was staring at.

"And he's still alive." Rose said rather breathlessly.

"A parallel world and my dad's still alive." She continued a bit more enthusiastically.
Nova held onto Rose's hand that was resting on the ledge of the bridge, looking at her sympathetically.

"Don't look at it, Rose. Don't even think about it. This is not your world." The Doctor said quite sternly but with a hint of sadness lingering in his voice.

She walks down the bridge until they reach a large interactive screen showing the same advert they saw on the zeppelin. She touches the screen which triggers the short film.
"Tr-trust me on this" The advert starts.

"Look at him" She smiles tearing up, pride filling her heart. "He is a success He was always planning these daft little schemes. Health food, drinks and stuff. Everyone said they were useless. But he did it." She said her hand pressed against her fathers advert.

"Rose, if you've ever trusted me, then listen to me now. Stop looking at it. Your father's dead. He died when you were six months old. That is not your Pete. That is a Pete. For all we know, he's got his own Jackie, his own Rose. His own daughter who is someone else, but not you. You can't see him. Not ever." The Doctor said pulling her gently away from the screen into a small hug which rose resisted at first before settling into his arms, causing a jealous scowl from Mickey.

Nova meanwhile not paying too much attention was doodling circles with a rock she found on the floor scratching it against the metal bridge.

"oi" The Doctor said telepathically, causing Nova to throw the rock into the water with a small plop.

"Lets head back to the Tardis, I bet I can try and kick start the old girl"

-

"I told you both to keep an eye on her" The Doctor reprimanded a guilty looking mickey and Nova who had both gotten distracted getting snacks and ice cream they had accidently lost track of Rose in the parallel London.
"She's all right" Mickey stuttered
"She goes wandering off, yeah? Parallel world? Like a giant gingerbread house, all these temptations calling out to her?" The Doctor said sternly snatching a snack out of mickeys hand and helping himself to one.
"Oh so its just ROSE, rose, rose… nothing to tempt me? Nothing wrong if WE wander off?" Mickey said guesting to himself and Nova who was sat silently leaning against the Tardis pipes licking her ice cream.

"Don't pull me into this, I'm just a child after all" Nova said playfully getting shot a dirty look from the arguing pair.

"Well, I don't know, I can't worry about everything. If I could just get this thing to" The Doctor kicks the console in frustration causing the Tardis to whir in frustration.

"Did that help?" Nova giggled
"Yes" The Doctor replied holding his foot in his hand hopping on one leg.
"Did it hurt" Laughed Mickey.
"Yes.. ow"

Nova took it upon herself to wander off around the Tardis.
"Not in the real world. It used to be easy. When the Time Lords kept their eye on everything, you could hop between realities, home in time for tea. Then they died, and took it all with them. The walls of reality closed, the worlds were sealed. Everything became that bit less kind." She heard the Doctor say as she pattered off down the corridors, that seemed eerily quiet to her, no the usually lively humming but quiet, she could hear her own foot steps so clearly as she trailed her hand down the walls of the Tardis as she walked.

As she reached the library she felt a low humming resonate through the floor and walls, a small bit of power had managed to come back to the Tardis, she smiled happily as she decided to run back to the main console room.

"She's alive!" Nova shouted as she made an entrance into the console room.
"just about!" The Doctor chirped happily as hew was fussing with a power cell.
"What was it?" Nova asked at the same time as Mickey but a second out of sync.
"It's nothing. It's tiny. One of those insignificant little power cells that no one ever bothers about, and it's clinging onto life, with one little ounce of reality tucked away inside."

"Is it enough for us to get back to our universe, back home?" Nova asked

"Not quite yet, I need to try and charge it up…" The Doctor trailed off in thought.

"But can we try and lash it up to the national grid?" Mickey asked.

"Wrong sort of energy, its got to come from our universe."

"Our universe?" Nova asked.

"But we don't have anything do we? Like have you got a spare battery somewhere for your Tardis? Does it run on batteries speaking of which how does it run?" Mickey asked.

"Would regeneration work?" Asked Nova.

The Doctor pondered on this, "Yes, but seems a waste of one… unless I tried to just channel it quite right."

"Aren't you on your tenth regeneration? Wouldn't that be a waste… I'm only on my first let me-" Nova said trying to strain and force some regeneration energy.

"STOP THAT!" The Doctor said holding both of her arms getting to eye level with her.
"Don't you ever, ever. Do that. Unless you need to."
She kept trying ignoring him.
"Stop it, you don't know how to even channel it yet you have never regenerated and at this rate you'll blow up the entire bloody ship.
She hesitantly stopped.. "What do you suggest then.."

"I can control it much better than you can." He said whirling a green energy around his hand, he blows on it and it gets brighter.
"I just gave away ten years of my life, worth every second" He said looking at her.
"But you don't be as reckless as me"

"Its going out, is is that okay?" Mickey asked who was stood awkwardly beside them watching their mini timelord argument.

"It's on a recharging cycle. It'll loop round, power back up and be ready to take us home in, oo, twenty four hours?" He said looking at his wrist at an invisible watch that wasn't actually there, his usual chirpy personality snapped back into place.
"So that gives us 24 hours stuck here?" Nova asked.
"As long as we keep our heads down. Easy. No problem. Let's go and find Rose and tell her."

-

Tracing their steps down the embankment, they found Rose sat on a bench eating a packet of salt a vinegar crisps messing around with her little rhinestone embezzled flip phone.

The Doctor carrying the charging power cell in hand carefully puts it in the inside pocket of his trench coat.

"There you are. You all right? No applause. I fixed it. Twenty four hours, then we're flying back to reality." He said excitedly before looking at her and cocking his head slightly "What is it?"

"My phone connected. There's this Cybus Network. It finds your phone. It gave me Internet access." She said not even looking up at the trio, looking rather forlorn.

"Rose, whatever it says, this is the wrong world." The Doctor reminded her trying to cheer her up.

"I don't exist." She said quietly.

The doctor scuffled his feet slightly "What do you mean?" He said sitting beside her.

"here's no Rose Tyler. I was never born. There's Pete, my dad, and Jackie. He still married mum but they never had kids."

"Right, that is it.. give me the phone" He said trying to snatch it off her.

"They're rich. They've got a house and cars, and everything they want. But they haven't got me. I've got to see him." She said getting up, as the Doctor tried to grab onto her hand.

"You cant!" he shouted

"I JUST WANT TO SEE HIM"

"I cant let you…" The Doctor said quietly to her.

"YOU JUST SAID 24 HOURS!"

"You cant just become their daughter that's not the way it works, mickey tell her…"
Mickey started storming off which at first confused the Doctor causing him to let go of rose which caused her to shuffle away.

"Twenty four hours yeah? Well I can do what I want" Mickey said as he began to walk off.

Rose started jogging off too.
"Stay where you are, both of you. Rose, come back here! Mickey, come back here right now!"

"Yeah and I've got things to see and all"

"Like what?" The Doctor asked getting frustrated that he couldn't get the two humans to listen to him, he didn't want to loose either of them right now.

"Well, you don't know anything about me, do you? It's always about Rose. I'm just a spare part."

Rose started to get away faster from the Doctor now.

"Go on, then. There's no choice, is there? You can only chase after one of us. It's never going to be me, is it?"

The Doctor flustered and frustrated just huffed "Back here, twenty four hours!" As he began to chase after Rose, pulling Nova along with him.

-

Army soilders patrolled along the street with cornered off sections as they ushered people about and reminded everyone of a curfew in the background.

"Mickey's mum just couldn't cope. His dad hung around for a while, but then he just sort of wandered off. He was brought up by his gran. She was such a great woman. God, she used to slap him! And then she died. She tripped and fell down the stairs. It's about five years ago now. I was still in school." Rose said quietly chewing on the side of her cheek.

"I never knew" He replied softly

"You never asked, That's Mickey. I suppose I, we just take him for granted."

"Do you think she's still alive his gran then?" Nova asked them both.
"Could be, like I said parallel world, gingerbread house, we all need to get out of here as fast as we can." The Doctor explained.

Suddenly a beeping sound emitted in the air and everyone stops what they're doing frozen still, including the policeman and soldiers ushing people around. Like they were frozen in time, not even blinking.

"What what's going on?" Nova asked waving her hand in front of the police mans face.

"They've stopped…" The Doctor said inspected the ear piece in the police mans ear.

The large ear piece flashes.

"It's the earpieces. Like Bluetooth attachments, but everyone's connected together." He said thinking.

"It's on my phone. It's automatic, look. It's downloading. Is this what they're all getting? News, international news, sports, weather…" she said scrolling through her phone using the little trackpad.

"They must get it direct, right into their heads then?" Nova said poking at the oblivious police officer.

"Everyone shares the same information. A daily download published by Cybus Industries." The Doctor continued as he began to piece things together in his head, something wasn't quite right here.

The next download going through the ear pieces is a joke, the people laugh all at once, causing Nova to flinch back from the policeman and step behind the Doctor, as they finish laughing they continue about their business as if nothing had happened.

"You lot, you're obsessed. You'd do anything for the latest upgrade" The Doctor said as he patted Nova on the head reassuring her as she let go of his trench coat that she hid behind.

"Oi, not my lot. Different world, remember."

"t's not so far off your world. This place is only parallel. Oh, look at that. Cybus Industries, owners of just about every company in Britain, including Vitex. Mister Pete Tyler's very well connected. Oh, okay. I give up. Let's go and see him." The Doctor said warily knowing that this is probably a bad idea.

xox

The night sky was aglow with bright city lights and the stars littered with bright satellites and flying advertisements, the wind bit at Nova's cold hands as they watched a black limo drive past the house they were watching.

The trio were sat squatting near a tree in the large gardens of the mansion, The Doctor noticing that Nova had begun to shiver, draped his trench coat around her shoulders that made her look even smaller than she was as it brushed against the floor slightly.

"They've got visitors…" The Doctor said.

"February the first. Mum's birthday. Even in a parallel universe, she still loves a party." Rose joked, as the limo just pulled outside the large white house.

"Well, given Pete Tyler's guest list, I wouldn't mind a look. And there is one guaranteed way of getting inside." He said flashing the pad of paper at Rose.
"Psychic paper." Rose said excitedly
"Who do you want to be?" The Doctor asked Rose before turning to Nova.
"I Think you might be a little young for this get together…" He pondered a little "Maybe you should stay out of sight and just stay nearby and keep warm" He told her causing Nova to protest.

In the back entrance of the caterers quarters the Doctor flashed the psychic paper at the main organiser for food.

"An' what time do you call this? We are short staffed already!" A rather large ginger woman shouted with a east London accent, then she peered behind the Doctor looking at the child.
"wot? Couldn't find a babysitter? Unbelievable" she huffed throwing clothes at the bewildered pair.
"You!" she said pointing to a startled Nova, "Yes miss?" Nova said surprised
"Stay out of sight and be quiet, children must be seen and not heard and hardly seen at all" Then she turned back to the Doctor and Rose "I will keep her behind here, you better hurry up and get changed I'm not a charity"

xox

As the Doctor and Rose charted around dressed as waiters, Nova was sat bored in the kitchen, occasionally helping fill up drinks and placing them on trays for the waiters to come and pick up to take to the party room. Nova noticed even the staff had the ear pieces in, she couldn't help but wonder what exactly they were and why they felt eerily similar to something she had read about.
After an hour or so of behaving, she told the boss that she was going to have some fresh air outside.
"If you stay out there too long I will lock you out" The woman replied haughtily and Nova couldn't tell if she was joking or not.
After the kitchen emptied of staff, Nova pretended to slip out the backdoor but instead crept around the main part of the house.

She shuffled past staff hurrying around carrying food, she was so small they didn't pay her much attention. She could hear the party down the corridor, loud, glasses chinking together and lots of chatter. She could feel the Doctors uneasiness and it made her a little restless.

Something didn't feel quite right in the air, and she knew he felt it too.
She slipped into a computer room that was lit by a blue screen, just then she felt hands reach the chair behind her back, she let out a small startled cry.

"Hush now Nova, I felt you sneak off I came to check on you" The Doctor said in Gallifreyan to her, then he noticed something on the screen in front of her and furrowed his brows.

Nova often thought that Gallifreyan sounded quite musical almost like someone singing a nursey rhyme or at least she felt that way when the Doctor used it with her, albeit she didn't always completely understand yet. It seemed as though the Doctor was just happy to use the words to someone who understood them but she could see pain hidden behind his eyes and she wasn't quite yet sure why.

She felt the atmosphere in the room change as the Doctor choked on his breath, he had put on his glasses and began to look around the computer.
Nova begun to pay attention to what the Doctor was looking at.
"This is the ultimate upgrade. Our greatest step into cyberspace." The computer spoke monotone and static repeating an advertisement.

"Cybers… cybermen!" He said packing.

Cybermen… Nova thought she remembered them faintly in a class the Doctor had taught her a while ago, she knew they were bad news.
The Doctor grabbed hold of her hand tightly as he paled in complexion slightly.
They ran into the main party room, where rose was holding a tray of champaign looking outside the window of a balcony staring at oncoming stomping robots.

Bright lights flooded the house from vans of cybermen parked outside marching towards the house, Rose and the Doctor looked at each other before running to another window to look at them.

"Its happening again" The Doctor said sadly peering out of the window.

"What do you mean?" Rose said panicked

"What are they?" She asked

"Cybermen" The Doctor replied stoically.

The cyberman crashed through the building, breaking the French windows in the other wall, and herding the humans into a corner in the room. Startled screams and cries as they forced them into one side of the room, the Doctor pushed Nova behind him but they were already surrounded.

The presidents telephone rings, "Mister Lumic" He says calmly.

Nova whispered to the Doctor and he just squeezed her slightly, they couldn't hear what the phone call was saying.

"what are they again? Robots?" Nova asked trembling slightly as she could feel the Doctor try to maintain his composure, it wasn't often she felt him this nervous.
"Worse than that" He said solemnly, he felt scared for the first time in a while, that he couldn't protect them both.

"Who where these people" They hear the president say to the man on the phone call.

"These were people?" Rose asked

"They were, until they had all their humanity taken away. That's a living brain jammed inside a cybernetic body, with a heart of steel. All emotions removed." He said trying to explain to them both.

"Why no emotions?" Nova asked.

"Because… it.. hurts" The Doctor said clenching his teeth trying to listen to the phone call in the middle of the drawing room surrounded by cybermen.

"WE HAVE BEEN UPGRADED" The cybermen said united.

"Into what?" The Doctor asked them.

"The next level of mankind. We are Human point two. Every citizen will receive a free upgrade. You will become like us." The cyberman said who had stood in front of the president.
His mouth lit up blue every time he spoke.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for what's been done to you but listen to me. This experiment ends tonight." The president told the cyberman.

"Upgrading is compulsory." The cyberman continued

"And if I refuse?" The president said looking directly at the cyberman.

"Don't." The Doctor said coldly.

"What if I refuse?"

"I'm telling you, don't." The Doctor pleaded again.

"What happens if I refuse?" The president said but louder to the cybermans face.

"Then you are not compatible." The cyberman said tonelessly.

"What happens then?"

"You will be deleted." The cyberman said with a lack of inflection as it put his hand on the President's neck, blue spark emit from the cyberman and electrocute the president he shuddered to the ground and contorted in agony before dying. The Doctor grabs Rose and Nova and runs. As the cybermen are distracted with grabbing the other guests as the guests scream as they get grabbed and electrocuted.

He grabs them both, throwing Nova over his shoulder and grabbed Rose with the other hand jumping out of one of the ground floor broken windows they escape into the dark cold garden only to be met by marching cybermen. Leagues of them approaching the house so they run back around to the back of the house. Rose's father escaping with them.

"Pete, is there a way out?" The Doctor said running out of breath.

"The side gates. Who are you? How do you know so much?" Pete asked suspiciously as they carried on running to the side gates.

"You wouldn't believe it in a million years."

More Cybermen appear marching to cut them off. But then floodlights lit up the lawn as two armed figures come running towards them.

"Who's that?"

"Get behind me!" Ricky the mickey of this universe shouted as he held up a gun towards the cybermen positioning himself in front of them. Shooting the cybermen with normal guns, the bullets just ricochet off their armour.

"I thought I'd never see you again!" Rose said hugging Ricky confusing him for Mickey.

"Yeah. No offence, sweetheart, but who the hell are you?" He said pushing her off.

"Rose! That's not me. That's like the other one." Mickey said running across the lawn to them.

"Oh, as if things weren't bad enough, there's two Mickey's." The Doctor joked.

"It's Ricky." He said coldly.

" But there's more of them." Mickey said pointing to the currently haulted cybermen

"We're surrounded." Rose screamed.

"Put the guns down. Bullets won't stop them." The Doctor said trying to push the guns down but one of Rickys friends, Jake starts shooting. The Doctor bats the gun down to stop him.

"No! Stop shooting, now. We surrender! Hands up. There's no need to damage us. We're good stock. We volunteer for the upgrade program. Take us to be processed." He said raising his hands up in the air facing the cybermen getting everyone to follow suit and cop y him.

"you are rogue elements." The cyberman at the front says.

"But we surrender." The Doctor said panicking as he tried to think of a new plan.

"You are incompatible."

"But this is a surrender." The Doctor repeated confused as to why this wasn't working.

"You will be deleted." It said stepping towards him hands reached out.

"But we're surrendering! Listen to me, we surrender!" The Doctor pleaded as he tried to push Nova further back.

"You are inferior. Man will be reborn as Cyberman, but you will perish under maximum deletion." The cyberman stated as it stepped towards the group shouting "Delete. Delete. Delete!