~revised~
Chapter XVIII
Mira
"Mickey! Come back!" Mira heard the Doctor yell so loudly that she instinctively covered her ears. She looked at him for a second and watched his attempts to free himself from the various cables he was wrapped in. The next moment she was up on her feed and out of the door. The place outside had become quite crowded by now – too crowded. No sign of Mickey. She ran around the TARDIS and tried to spot him somewhere, but the crowd had swallowed him.
"Where is he?" the Doctor asked as he looked around as well, standing in the door.
"Gone. Hell knows where." She shrugged and turned her head to him. Great. The look in his eyes was anything but good.
"You really had to encourage her to go after her dad? What have you told her when I was in the TARDIS?"
"Excuse me? I haven't encouraged anyone."
"No? What was it then, telling her there isn't anything bad that could happen?"
"I told her the truth! This is a bloody parallel world and not about time travel. She's not about to see someone from her past or future or mess with history!"
"But he's not her dad!"
"That's what I've told her. And so did you. By the way, she didn't seem too impressed by you telling her to stay here!"
"Oh, you're so sure about that?"
"Well, she didn't stay, did she? And, most of all, you told Mickey to have an eye on her. NOT ME! I have even told her, whilst you were in the TARDIS, that she shouldn't rush it!"
"Does this matter now? She's off and about to mess with EVERYTHING!"
"Oh for God's sake! There is nothing to mess with, because it's a dammed PARALLEL UNIVERSE!"
"Yeah, right. Probably running into another version of her is not messing it? Can you image what that could do to her?"
"Oh. That's it." She threw her hands in the air. "So now you're concerned? But werewolfs, Krillitanes, and clockwork-robots in the 52nd century are fine for her mental health? And yes, I can imagine, because I've actually met myself once!"
"Yeah, now I am. And if I tell her not to go, then you DON'T encourage her."
"Oh, says who?"
"Me. Doctor, Timelord, nine-hundred and six years!"
"Oh! Guess what? And I disagree! Mira Rhodan, human, mutant, fifteen-hundred and ninety six years old!"
"And what exactly qualifies you to say anything about parallel worlds? Hm?" Oh, he could get sarcastic, she noticed.
"Besides the fact that I'm older than you and have been in parallel worlds before?" She could do sarcasm herself. "A degree in hyper-physics, I've promoted in higher-dimensional mathematics, I..."
"You two are so awesome!" she suddenly heard a voice. As she turned her head she saw a boy, about twelve years old, standing next to them, holding one of these mobile-communication devices up as if recording them. At least she assumed that was what he was doing, the gesture was somehow universal.
"Hey! Stop it!" she said perplexed after staring at him for a moment. The child was seemingly unimpressed.
"Oi! Didn't you listen?" the Doctor tried it now himself, with a slightly confused look on his face.
"I did," the boy said and finally lowered the device. "That's cool. You're two loons who think they're aliens, aren't you? I really have to put that on YouTube."
"YouTube? What's that?" she asked.
"Oh, really?" He looked at her as if she was some sort of exotic animal.
Well, she definitely had her own thoughts on the matter. Most likely it was some positronic or planet-wide network were one could upload videos to.
"Yeah, really. Or do you know about Terra-Network or Nathan? No? You know what? Highly likely your poor behaviour is to blame on your parents, but nevertheless: Yes. We actually are aliens. Not loons. And guess what? Everywhere in orbit there are our satellites with thermal-weapons. Satellites that are able to trace and locate your little communication device."
"My what?" Now he was outright laughing at her.
She hadn't really expected him to be impressed, at least not by much. But that reaction? He had no respect for anyone.
"Your mobile phone," the Doctor provided helpfully.
"Oh God," she sighed in frustration. "Phone. So, one word of advice: Get lost and delete what you've just filmed. Before putting it anywhere. And next time you should be more careful about whom you film. We are everywhere."
He finally put his mobile away and went off.
"What's wrong with them these days? Happy-slapping, filming people without asking..." she said to the Doctor. Well, at least she was used to the filming-part, besides the fact that the boy obviously had now idea who she was.
"Don't know. It's your lot." The Doctor answered and scratched his neck as he looked after the child.
"My lot? These are surely not my people. Anyway. Arguing about who's fault it is that Rose ran off won't lead us anywhere. We need to find out where this Pete lives."
Doctor
They were walking through London. Mira who had asked some Taxi-Drivers for Peter Tyler's address.
"I really didn't encourage her," Mira suddenly said. "At least that wasn't my intention. I just wanted to give her all the facts. Give her a choice. I just can't stand it when other people are keeping things from me or tell me what to do because they think they know what's best for me."
So, that was what it's all about, he thought. "But maybe sometimes they do?" he asked and looked at her. She turned her head and met his glance with scepticism.
"No they don't. It's not up to others to make such – any - decisions for me. That's patronising and degrading."
"Maybe. Or maybe it's about trust?"
"Trust?" She stopped and turned her whole body to him now. He also stopped. "That's trust for you?"
"Well, there's more to it, but yes, I guess it's a part of it."
"Really? Good to know." She went on, arms crossed. It was cold, he had to admit, and she had left her jacket in the TARDIS. It wasn't that cold for him, but she was slightly shivering.
"Do you want my jacket?" he asked.
"No, thanks."
"Sure?"
"Yeah. Not that I can catch a cold or something like that."
He shrugged and they went in silence for a while. He suddenly doubted that she would ever ask for any help, or even accept it. Finally, he took his jacket off after all. His coat would be a bit long for her anyway, and he couldn't watch her shivering like that. He put it over her shoulder and she didn't protest but wrapped herself in it.
"Thank you."
"So, what means trust for you then?" he couldn't let go of this topic.
"Don't know?"
"Well, that's not an answer," he said after she had been quiet for a few moments.
"Maybe you're just asking the wrong person. I normally don't need to trust. I know if someone's telling the truth, lying to me or deceiving me."
She had a point there, he had to admit, even though it sounded somewhat sad. What was life without trust? "Do you trust me?"
"What?" she said a bit startled. "I... I don't know. We hardly know each other."
As if that wasn't a thing that couldn't be helped. "Well, if you..." He was suddenly interrupted by the sound of an alarm. "What's that?" Everyone around them froze to the spot. He looked around. Indeed, every single one.
"What are they doing?" Mira asked.
"They've stopped..."
"Don't you say!"
He looked at her, eyebrows raised. She had asked and she had gotten an answer "It's the earpieces," he finally said. He stepped up to a man and took a closer look at the little devices. They were flashing and beeping. He pulled the Sonic out of the Jacket that was still draped around Mira's shoulders and gave the little device a quick scan. "It's like Bluetooth attachments, but they are all connected together."
"What for?"
"Some sort of data transmission." He was still scanning with his sonic. "Information, directly downloaded into their brains!"
"Effective.."
"Yeah, probably. Everyone gets the same information."
Mira flipped her fingers right in front of the man's face. He didn't react in any way. "Well, I actually rather prefer reading or listening over this... Effective or not," she said. Suddenly the crowd around them started to laugh and then moved on. "Strange."
"Yeah," he replied and watched as the crowed walking on as if nothing had happened. He looked around and his eyes fell on someone. "Rose!" She was sitting on a bench, looking at her phone and lifted her head as she heard him shouting her name. He was really glad to see her, despite everything that had happened. He almost expected her to run away again, but she just sat there and looked at him with sadness all over her face.
"Rose! What happened? You all right?" He had planned to tell her off but something in her eyes stopped him.
"My phone connected. There's this... Cybus Network, it finds your phone. It gave me internet access," she said quietly.
"Rose, whatever it says, it's not your world. Nothing to worry. We will be off in about twenty-four hours. I found this little energy cell and..." He showed her the power crystal, but she didn't actually look.
"I don't exist," she said.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"There's no Rose Tyler. I was never born. There's Pete, my dad, and Jackie... he still married mum... but they never had kids," she explained. "They're rich. They've got a house and cars, and everything they want. But they haven't got me." He could almost see tears in her eyes.
"That's what I've tried to tell you, Rose" Mira said quietly. She was sitting on Rose's left side, he on her right. "They might look the same, but they can be completely different. This is not your universe."
"I've gotta see him," Rose said stubbornly.
"Rose...," he tried it again.
"I just wanna see him," she interrupted him. "Besides, he is quite connected with this Cybus Industries. Have you watched the people? Must've been News. I received it with my mobile. Cybus Industries owns just every company in Britain, including Vitex."
"Well..." All right, she had a point here. He was now definitely curious enough. A company that almost owned everything, this strange way to receive News...
"All right, I give up. Fine. We go see him. Just seeing, got that?" She smiled slightly at him. "And later we talk!"
"Fine," she said, apparently not totally convinced and put her phone away. "Listen. I'm sorry. I really am. It was just stupid and... and childish. I didn't know what I was saying. I.. Actually, I did know. But I didn't want that." She looked at him out of huge eyes.
He eyed her. Something had happened with her since they were here. She seemed to be serious about it. And a bit lost, judging from the expression on her face. It was a bit like the look he sometimes saw on Mira's face when she felt unobserved. Lost and out of place. He put his arm around Rose's shoulders. Not everything was forgotten and forgiven, but maybe they really could work it out later.
Mira
She was crouching next to the Doctor in some bushes, still wrapped in his jacket. Rose was also there. So, that would be Pete's house. It was really big, rather a mansion than a house. There was some sort of party going on, the house was crawling with visitors.
"They've got visitors," the Doctor stated the obvious.
"February the first - mum's birthday. Even in a parallel universe, she still loves a party," Rose answered.
Mira looked at her from the side. Rose had apologised to the Doctor. Being in this universe, being confronted with her dad who wasn't her dad had obviously made her reconsider a few things. Her apology had been sincere – although Mira doubted that she and Rose would become best friends in the near future. At least between Rose and the Doctor things seemed to be back to normal.
"Well, given Pete Tyler's guest list, I wouldn't mind a look. And there is one guaranteed way of getting inside," the Doctor replied and waved with his psychic paper.
"So, this is us keeping our heads down?" Mira asked and looked at him with one brow raised.
"Yeah," he answered and looked at her the same way. "Undercover. Worked at the school, didn't it?"
…
Not much later they were all inside Pete's Mansion. Maybe not exactly the way Rose would have liked it – they were in disguise as waitresses and waiter. Rose and her were wearing black, knee-long dresses with short sleeves and black boots. The Doctor looked quite good in this black suit, she had to admit, but Rose was complaining again. At least it was warm in here.
"We could've been anyone," Rose said under her breath to the Doctor as she offered a tablet with food to the guests.
"So, who for example? Guests? Without knowing anyone? Or anything, as for that? Would be a tiny bit suspicious, wouldn't it?" Mira whispered back and earned a toxic look from Rose.
"Got us in, didn't it?", the Doctor intervened.
"You're in charge of the psychic paper. We end up serving. I had enough of this back home," Rose couldn't let go of the topic.
Mira rolled her eyes before she shot a quick look at the tray with glasses full of champagne that the Doctor was holding. Would it be too inappropriate to have one or two of them? It would make the situation a bit more bearable. Not that the alcohol in there would have much effect on her. It was a poison after all – at least that her cell-activator considered it to be one - and she would have to drink a whole bottle of Vodka to get even close to being drunk.
"If you wanna know what's going on, work in the kitchens," the Doctor answered nonchalantly. For the next minutes the three of them were doing their jobs – although it was a bit weird for her. It really had been a while since she was able to be somewhere on Earth without being recognised. And now she was here amongst all these humans, serving them and no-one had ever heard of her. Normally she had been a guest to such events. Not much later, they gathered again in a corner of the room.
"According to Lucy, that man over there...," the Doctor started and nodded over to an older man with grey hair and a distinct air of power surrounding him.
"Who's Lucy?" Rose interrupted with that tone in her voice. All right, everything back to normal.
"She's carrying the salmon pin wheels," the Doctor answered all innocently and nodded over to another waitress.
"Oh, that's Lucy, is it?"
"Yeah! Lucy says, that is the President of Great Britain," the Doctor answered, still oblivious.
"What, there's a President, not a Prime Minister?" Rose asked.
"Seems so."
"Or maybe Lucy's just a bit thick," Rose replied before walking away.
Oh hell. Maybe she really should look for some alcohol in the kitchen. "Talk to her," she whispered in his ear. Or I will, she added silently.
"Excuse me! Thank you very much. Thank you - if I could just have your attention, please?" Pete stood on the stairs and addressed the whole room. He really looked like on his poster, Mira thought. The Doctor and she now had Rose in their middle. No need for her to make a fuss. "Thank you very much!" Pete continued as the guests were applauding. "Um, I'd just like to say, er, thank you to you all, for coming on this er, this very special occasion. My wife's... thirty-ninth."
No one really seemed to believe that.
"Trust me on this...," he tried his best to entertain his guests and he wasn't bad at it. Quite a lot people in here really liked him, Mira noticed. "So, without any further ado - here she is. The birthday girl... my lovely wife... Jackie Tyler."
Jackie was coming down the stairs, dressed in a... Well. Nothing she would wear herself anytime soon, Mira decided. Not that she had quite as big... assets as Jackie to fill that dress.
"Now, I'm not giving a speech - that's what my parties are famous for, no work, no politics, just a few good mates and plenty of black-market whisky," Jackie said, standing next to her husband. After a final applaud and laugh from their guests they mingled with them.
"You can't stay. Even if there was some way of telling them," the Doctor warned Rose.
"Course I can't. I've still got my mum at home, my real mum. I couldn't just leave her, could I. It's just... they've got each other. Mum's got no one. "
"She's got you! Those two haven't!" he said and sighed. "All these different worlds, not one of them gets it right."
There was definitely some truth to that, she thought.
"Rose!" Jackie suddenly yelled. For a moment her heart almost stopped. But then, from up the stairs, a dog was yapping. "There's my little girl!" Jackie continued until finally a small dog came down the stairs, only to be picked up by Jackie. Great. In this universe Rose was one of these overbred little barkers. She looked over to Rose. The expression on her face was just priceless, although she felt very sorry for the girl. The Doctor didn't seem to bother that much as he just burst out laughing. "Sorry," he said as he had gathered himself again.
…
Later she followed the Doctor as he was sniffing around. At least that was what they were here for. Rose was talking to her father.
"Oh, positronic interface," she said as they peered into a room with a blue glowing screen on a desk.
"Computer," the Doctor corrected her. Again. Whatever. She closed the door behind her and waited with her hand on the door handle as the Doctor was scanning the screen with his sonic device. She refused to think of it as a screwdriver. It was definitely one of the most advanced pieces of equipment she had ever seen, and that meant something for someone as old as she.
"Anything interesting?" she asked, still keeping watch.
"I think so," he answered and a presentation started. It didn't take long until she got what this was all about.
"Oh bloody hell," she whispered. Upgrading humans. Not that humans hadn't had the weirdest ideas before, and basically she wouldn't care if they would only do this to volunteers. But it didn't give the impression that this was purely voluntarily.
"This is the ultimate upgrade. Our greatest step into cyberspace," they heard a voice explaining the presentation.
"Upgrade? Well, that's certainly one way of looking at it...," she said. "They're not planning on upgrading everyone on this planet?" She looked at the Doctor who had his eyes still on the screen and a horrified expression on his face.
"Cybus...," he just said, turned on his heels and was out.
"Wait!" She ran after him "What's with Cybus? They're behind it, obviously, but...," she trailed of. They were now back with the guests, and there was no need to stir everyone up.
"Rose!" he came to a halt and all three of them turned to the nearest window.
"Something's happening," Rose said, somehow out of breath. Now Mira could see it for herself. Huge robots were outside and heading for the building. They were as tall as the battle robots she knew from her universe – at least the ones in human form – but after she had seen the presentation she knew that those weren't actually robots.
"What are they?" Rose asked.
"Cybermen," the Doctor answered gravely. The next second they backed away from the windows, because the Cybermen didn't bother to use the doors. They just smashed the windows, showering them all in glass shards. She looked around. They were surrounded. The robots – Cybermen – weren't carrying any visible weapons, but they could very well be hidden in their arms. But one thing was for sure: She herself definitely didn't have a weapon. Not even a force-field to protect her and the others. And none of the other mutants, like Gucky, at her side, who was one of the best telekinetics ever who would have just smashed these Cybermen. After making them turn two or three loops underneath the ceiling.
"What are they? Robots?" Rose wanted to know.
"No. Unfortunately not," Mira whispered to her.
"Who were these people?" the President demanded.
Who would have guessed that? The President seemed to know what was going on. He was listening to an answer over his earpieces.
"They're people?" Rose asked, now turned to the Doctor.
"They were. Until they had all their humanity taken away. It's a living brain jammed inside a cybernetic body. With a heart of steel. All emotions removed," he answered, the distaste and disgust clearly audible in his voice. And even a hint of pity for the poor souls.
"Why no emotions?" Rose asked. She really could ask questions, Mira noticed.
"Because it hurts," he just said. And he was right. There were no emotions. They were alive, somehow, more or less. But that was it. Alive. Vegetating. Intelligent but everything that had made them human, separated them from an actual robot, was gone.
"We have been upgraded," one of the Cybermen said in a poorly modulated voice.
"Into what?" the Doctor had taken a step forwards and was now standing next to her. She looked over to him and saw something in his eyes. A bit like the expression she had seen back at the swimming pool. Of course she had been further away then, but even before seeing it up close she had decided that she would never have him as an enemy.
"The next level of mankind. We are Human Point Two. Every citizen will receive a free upgrade. You will become like us," the Cybermen answered.
"Surely not," she whispered.
She felt the Doctor's hand on her arm. "Don't!" he whispered, shaking his head warningly at her. Fine. It was pointless anyway, right now there was nothing they could do. Not even flee.
"I'm sorry," the President addressed the Cybermen. "I'm so sorry for what's been done to you." Well, a bit late for that, Mira thought. "But listen to me - this experiment ends. Tonight."
Oh yeah. Give them their bodies back, hm? She bit her lip to not accidentally say anything.
"Upgrading is compulsory," the Cyberman said unimpressed.
"And if I refuse?" the President asked. Mira shook her head slightly. No time for bravery now.
"Don't," the Doctor told him.
"What if I refuse?" the President was ignoring him.
"Don't! You're not exactly in the position to...," she tried it herself.
"What happens if I refuse?" If there had ever been anyone really stubborn, than it was him.
"Then you are not compatible."
"What happens then?" Now the President sounded outright challenging, and that was also reflecting in his posture. He was daring, she had to admit. Or outright stupid. Probably a bit of both.
"You will be deleted," the nearest Cyberman announced and lifted his arm. He grabbed the President by the shoulder and she could see some sort of electric-blue lightnings. Dead by electrocution. Not her preferred way to die. Actually, second point right after burning to death on her personal list of ways how not to die. She obviously wasn't the only one with that opinion as immediately panic broke out. People were screaming and running around blindly in fear with Cybermen killing everyone they could manage to touch. The agony of the dying persons echoed in her mind.
"Out!" she yelled and freed herself of the Doctor's grip. She grabbed Rose's hand and pulled the girl with her to one of the broken windows. There was nothing they could do in here. Not that it was much saver outside, but they had no choice. She expected to be greeted by gunfire or something, it would have been stupid not to surround the building. But as said, no chance in here.
"Doctor!" Rose yelled and tried to free herself.
"There's nothing we can do!" he said and was suddenly ahead of them as they jumped through the window frame.
"My mum's in there!" Rose pulled at her hand, but Mira didn't let go of her.
"She's not your mother! And we can't do anything to help the people in there!" she said to Rose.
"But..."
"Come on!" the Doctor yelled and took Rose by her other hand. They just started to run again, only to find a line of Cybermen not ten yards in front of them. She let go of Rose's hand and they changed direction to run around them. They were surrounded, just as she had expected it. Right now, Pete leaped out of the window.
"Quick! Quick!" Rose called him. He ran over to them and they ran to the front of the house. She could now hear the stomping of the Cybermen everywhere. It was hopeless to escape by foot as they had no idea how many of them were here. And how far they were scattered. And, most of all, how good their vision was in the dark. They had floodlights, hadn't they? So probably their vision wasn't that good at all. But who built robots – or casings – without infrared-vision? What sort of an upgrade was that?
"There's no way out!", the Doctor obviously came to the same conclusion.
"What do you know about them?" she asked hastily. "Their vision in the dark, to start with..."
"Don't know. Different universe. Anything's possible..."
"The side gates!" Pete said and they followed him. "Who are you? How do you know so much?" Pete asked as they were running.
"You wouldn't believe it in a million years...," the Doctor answered. They ran around a corner and skidded to a halt as another row of Cybermen was blocking their way. They changed direction once more as two figures came into sight. Two figures carrying guns.
"Who's that?" Rose yelled.
"Get behind me!" one of the figures said. He looked a bit like Mickey, but something was weird about him. Mira couldn't quite figure it out as they hurried to get behind them. They were firing at the Cybermen. At least they stopped marching, although it didn't seem to have any further effect on them.
"Oh my God, look at you...," Rose said and gave Mickey a big hug. "I thought I'd never see you again!"
"Yeah, no offence, sweetheart, but who the hell are you?" Mickey said, looking at her in bewilderment and pushing her away from him.
"Rose!" They all could hear and turned their heads. There was another Mickey. Obviously the right one this time. How did he get here? "That's not me. That's like... the other one."
"Oh, as if things weren't bad enough - there's two Mickey's!" the Doctor said.
"It's Ricky," the other Mickey said.
"Could we just spare that for later? I really don't want to rush, but...," Mira threw in. They were surrounded now, bathed in dazzling floodlight which didn't make it any easier to see what was going on. "We're surrounded."
Ricky and and the other guy were raising their guns.
"Put the guns down. Bullets won't stop them," the Doctor said to them.
"Sure?" she asked as they started to shoot.
"Yes! Stop shooting, now!" he yelled as he pushed the other guy's gun aside angrily. "We surrender! Hands up...," he continued, now addressing the Cybermen. "... there's no need to damage us, we're good stock. We volunteer for the upgrade program. Take us to be processed."
Great. Mira looked around once more. No other options, obviously. They all raised their hands.
"You are rogue elements," one of the Cybermen said.
"What!?" Mira couldn't help herself.
"But we surrender," the Doctor tried it again.
"You are incompatible."
"But you'll strip us of any emotions, so what does it matter if we're rogue now? We surrender!" Mira tried to reason with them. They must listen to logic, mustn't they?
"You will be deleted."
"But we're surrendering! Listen to me, we surrender!" the Doctor said urgently.
"You are inferior. Man will be reborn as Cybermen but you will perish under maximum deletion." The Cybermen were raising their arms.
"Delete. Delete. Delete!"
Thanks to Queen of Supernatural Lovers, AxidentlGoddess, 10th Squad 3rd Seat, bored411 and Shan-OM for their reviews :-)
