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She said his name. She said his name.
The Doctor stared her in amazement and disbelief all rolled into one. But … but how did she know? She had only known it in the dream… or was it a dream? Maybe it hadn't been. It was a well-known fact that Time Lords could share dreams, but it only happened when one found his or her mate, and when they would fall asleep, their minds would connect with their mate, establishing a mental link with them because of this they would be able to speak to each other in each other mind's which would explain why he had thought he had heard Sophie's voice in his mind. Besides that, when you did share a dream with your mate, all of the things that happened in actually happened but only mentally.
It was rare for a Time Lord to find a mate in a human, but it did happen. Just not often. Though this was a plausible explanation to why Sophie knew his name, he had a hard time believing it was true. Besides the name thing, she made no indication that she even had the dream.
Well that's what he told himself until he saw her reaction to the sonic. He had to keep himself from gasping when he saw her flashback to that part of the dream and his eyes had snapped to hers. He saw the way her eyes darkened, making her blue eyes darker than they were. He could see her trying hard not moan and saw her cross her legs tightly as if she was trying to hide something and he figured she was. She was probably getting wet from just even thinking about that part of the dream. The thought of it made the Doctor force back a growl as he met his eyes on her as he used the sonic to enable the ear-pods. She had obviously known he was looking at her and she met his gaze head on. He could see the lust in her eyes and he had to force back another growl. Finally he broke his gaze to continue to speak to the others in the van, who hadn't noticed the staring the contest between them or they were at least pretending not to notice. The staring was pretty obvious.
He did in fact heard the other Sophie's mumble, staring at him intently.
"Man he's so hot when he's angry."
And he did hear his Sophie growl lowly at her alternate's comment causing him to smirk.
She was jealous.
He wanted to talk to her about everything, but there was just no time especially when they got out of the van and were walking along the street where all the people were marching towards the same direction. All of them watched with bemused expressions on their faces except for his Sophie, who was looking at the people with a sad look in her eyes. Something the Doctor couldn't but smile softly to himself at. That was his Sophie, his mate.
Now that he knew that the dream hadn't been just a dream, he couldn't help but feel so much lighter then he realized that Sophie probably thought it was just a dream making his hearts feel heavy again.
"What the hell…?" Jake muttered, snapping the Doctor out of his thoughts.
"What's going on?" Rose asked, looking over at him.
He looked away from Sophie to look back at Rose. "It's the ear-pods," he answered. "Lumic's taken control."
"Can't we just … I dunno, take them off?" She reached up to one man that had walked by her and went to take the ear-pods but the Doctor stopped her, giving her a warning glare.
"Don't!" he told her loudly. "Cause a brainstorm. Human Race – for such a intelligent lot, you aren't half susceptible. Give anyone a chance to take control and you submit. Sometimes I think you like it. Easy life."
"I wouldn't," Sophie said softly. "It may be an easy life, but not having control of yourself sounds horrible."
"Then that makes you one of the good ones," The Doctor said just as softly and she met his eyes.
"Do you think you can help them?"
"I'm definitely going to try, Sophie, you can be sure of that," he told her seriously, taking a chance to squeeze her hand reassuringly.
"I wouldn't expect anything less." She smiled at him, squeezing his hand back.
"Good." The Doctor smiled back at her, a comforting silence coming over them. Rose was glaring at the both of them but neither noticed too engrossed in one another.
"Hey." Came Soph's hushed voice.
The Doctor turned to see his mate's alternate with Ricky and Jake, peering around the corner in a crouched position.
"I hate to break the Dophie moment, but you really need to see this."
"Dophie?" The Doctor repeated with furrowed eyebrows and a titled head as him, Sophie, Pete, Mickey, and Rose headed their way.
"Couple name," Sophie said with a blush, looking straight ahead. "You know … like Bragalina."
"Ah." The Doctor nodded with his own blush. They joined in peering around the corner with the Preachers. A row of Cybermen marched alongside the people under the control of the ear-pods, still heading in the same direction.
"Where are they going?" Rose asked, staring at them.
"I don't know," The Doctor told her with a frown. "Lumic must have a base of operation."
"Battersea," Pete said and the group looked at him. "That's where he was building his prototypes."
"Is there a reason why he's doing this?" Sophie questioned. "I mean, you don't try to do something like this without a reason."
"He's dying. This all started out as a way of life by keeping the brain alive. At any cost."
"The thing is," Rose started off saying to the Doctor. "I've seen Cybermen before, haven't I? That head – those handle shapes in Van Statten's museum."
"Ah, there are Cybermen in our universe," he said as he nodded, looking over at Rose and his mate, forgetting the others for the moment "They started on an ordinary world just like this, then swarmed across the galaxy. This lot are a parallel version, and they're starting right from scratch right here on earth."
Rose and Sophie nodded.
"What are you three on about?" Pete demanded.
Luckily, they didn't have time to answer that because Ricky interrupted,
"Nevermind that."
"Yeah, we need to get out of the City," Soph said in agreement as the Cybermen were fast-approaching down the street.
"Okay, split up – Mrs. Moore, you look after that bloke." Ricky gave a look to either Pete or the Doctor, earning a protective glare from both Sophie (for the Doctor) and Rose (for both of them) but he ignored both, "Jake, distract them, go right, Soph and I will go left, we'll meet back at Bridge Street. Move." He and Soph ran off in one direction while Jake went left.
Mickey turned to Rose. "I'm going with them," he told her. He gave her a quick brief kiss before running off after Ricky and Soph.
"Come on, let's go," Mrs. Moore ordered and they ran with the Cybermen marching towards them.
The Doctor kept Sophie close to him by grabbing her hand in a tight grip. The last thing he wanted was for her to get hurt.
"There!"
They ran down a side alley with some of the Cybermen in pursuit.
Before I knew it, the Doctor, Mrs. Moore, Rose, Pete, and I were croched down, hidden behind a pile of rubbish and dustbins. I was beside the Doctor, my hand in a firm grip with his, and because of all the people hiding there, I had to press against his side which of course I didn't mind but it didn't help that I was thinking about the dream. The Cybermen turned towards the dustbins and my grip on the Doctor's hand tightened as I tensed up against the Doctor's side. His thumb brushed against the back of my hand comforting as he used his free to bring out the sonic.
'He just had to bring that out, didn't he?' I grumbled in my head, missing the Doctor's smirk.
He pointed it in the direction of the Cybermen in their direction. It beeped and they went on their way. The Doctor put up the sonic and Rose let go of Pete's hand which I just noticed she was holding onto. They shared a glance and I could tell that Pete was slightly bewildered by the way she was behaving towards him. Nice Rose, make him more suspicious of us than he already was. We stood up to our feet wearily and watched as the Cybermen marched off in the distance.
"Go," The Doctor whispered, squeezing my hand. We creeped out from behind the dustbins and ran in the other direction.
-0-
We made it to the street where we were going to meet up with Jake, Soph, Ricky, and Mickey. We didn't have to wait for long until Jake came running over to us.
"I ran past the river," he told us. "You should've seen it, the whole City's on the watch. Hundreds of Cybermen all down the Thames."
I winced and the Doctor noticed and he gave my hand a squeeze. I curled my fingers through his and squeezed back. I noticed not for the first time how well they fit together. Like a puzzle.
It was then that Mickey and Sophie came running down the street, but Ricky was nowhere in sight. Jake turned towards them, face a lit.
"There they are!"
As they got closer, I could see that Soph had tears streaming down her face as she glared at Mickey. And I knew that something bad had happened to Ricky.
Jake noticed the tears on Soph's face too and his face fell. "What happened?"
"Why don't you ask him?" Soph spat and Mickey flinched.
"I'm sorry. The Cybermen. He couldn't…" His face was so sad and my heart broke.
"Are you Ricky?" Jake demanded. When Mickey didn't answer, he yelled, "ARE YOU RICKY?!"
"Mickey, that's you, isn't it?" Rose asked hesitantly.
He nodded and she threw her arms around him. Though I knew she was happy that it was Mickey, I couldn't help but glare at her. She could at least she pretend that she was upset about Ricky. I was even though I hadn't know the alternate version of Mickey for long. Jake and Soph were silent.
As Rose pulled away from him and kept her arms around Mickey, he looked over at Jake sadly. "He tried. He was running…" Jake turned away and he went after him, "And Soph…she tried to pull him up but … there was too many of them."
"Shut it," Jake snapped and though he wasn't facing anyone, I knew that his face was confronted in pain. It was hard to lose someone especially someone who you were really close. I may have been young when I lost my parents, but I could remember feeling horrible every day when I was growing up without having a mother and father. Sarah Jane, I loved her like a mother, but it just wasn't the same. I wouldn't regret any moment I spent with my aunt though. Never.
"There was nothing I could do."
Jake spun around angrily, glaring at Mickey. "I said just SHUT IT. Don't even TALK about him. You are NOTHING, you are."
Mickey's eyes were red and shining with tears and so were Jake's.
"Nothing." Soph went up to Jake and stood beside him, gripping his hand and squeezing it while leaning against his side causing him to pull her closer.
"We can mourn him when London is safe," The Doctor said calmly as he let go of my hand to wrap an arm around my waist. It was a firm, protective grip. "But now, we move on."
All of us nodded miserably. I sighed sadly as I absentmindedly grabbed the Doctor's other hand, playing with his fingers as we moved on.
Before long, we walked up a slope which overlooked the river. A large factory stood on the other side. I figured that this was Battersea.
"The whole of London's been sealed off, and the entire population's been taken inside the place," The Doctor said, staring at the factory. He still had a protective arm around my waist, not letting me go as if he was afraid if he did, I would disappear. It made me feel warm all over… Not that kind of warm, mind out of the gutter. "To be 'converted.'" He sounded disgusted as he said the word converted and I couldn't blame him.
"We've gotta get in there and shut it down," Rose pointed out.
"How do we do that?"
The Doctor gave a shrug at Mickey's question. "Oh, I'll think of something."
I giggled. "Oh come on, Doctor." I nudged him in the side, "You and I both know, you're just making this up as you go along."
The Doctor grinned at me cheekily making my heart flutter. "Yuuup," he drawled out, giving me a wink, "But I do it brilliantly."
Rose smirked and I laughed and Mickey couldn't help but nod in agreement.
-0-
"That's a schematic of the old factory," Mrs. Moore told us with her laptop out, showing us a 3D motel on the screen as we were crowded around the laptop on a bench.
All of us were there besides Jake and Soph, who stood off to the side next to each other, quietly talking and not really listening to what Mrs. Moore was saying.
"Look." She pointed to the map, "Cooling tunnels…underneath the planet…big enough to walk through."
The Doctor had his glasses on, the ones that made him more handsome than he already was, as he peered at the screen, indicating to it, "We go under there and up into the control centre."
Mrs. Moore nodded, "Mm."
"There's another one in," Pete spoke up and we all looked over at him. "Through the front door. If they've taken Jackie for upgrading, that's how she'll get in…"
Jake and Sophie finally came up to us.
"We can't just go strolling up," Jake said as Soph crossed her arms over her chest.
"Or, we could…with these…" Mrs. More took some ear-pods out of her bag and the Doctor took one of the pieces, examining it. "Fake ear-pods."
"Like the ones you gave me," Soph said, pointing to the ones on her ears.
Mrs. Moore nodded, "Yeah, they're dead. No signal. Put them on, the Cybermen would mistake you for one of the crowd."
Pete nodded confidently. "Then that's my job."
"You have to show NO emotion," The Doctor told him seriously. "None at all. Any sign of emotion would give you away."
"How many of those do you got?" Rose asked Mrs. Moore suddenly.
"Just two sets."
"Okay." Rose nodded. "If that's the best way of Jackie…I'm coming with you." She got up and stood next to Pete.
He looked over at her with narrowed eyes. "Why does she matter to YOU?"
"We haven't got time." Rose turned to the Doctor, "Doctor, I'm going with him, and that's that."
He stared at her, "No stopping you, is there?"
"Nope."
The Doctor threw the ear-piece at her and she caught it before grabbing the other one in Mrs. Moore's hand, handing Pete the other two. "Tell you what … we can take the ear-pods at the same time," he said. "Give people their minds back. So they don't walk into that place like sheep. Soph? Jakey?" He took Soph and Jake further up the hill. He wasn't gone for long and he returned with Soph and Jake. The Doctor looked over at Mrs. Moore with a charming smile, "Mrs. Moore… would you care to accompany me into the cooling tunnels?"
"How could I refuse an offer of cooling tunnels?" Mrs. Moore said sarcastically.
The Doctor took off his glasses and put them up. "We attack on three sides – above –between – below. We get to the control centre, we stop the conversion machines."
I made a split second decision. I didn't want to stand here and do nothing and if the Doctor wasn't going to give me a job to do, I would give me one myself.
"I'm going to go with Rose and Pete," I said and the Doctor's head snapped towards me.
"No, no, you're not, you'll stay here," he ordered firmly.
"Well, I'm not going to stay here and do nothing, Doctor." I crossed my arms over my chest. "I want to help."
He opened his mouth to protest but he was cut off by Soph.
"We don't have time for this," she said, rolling her eyes. "Just let her go, Doctor. If she's anything like me, you won't convince her not to do something."
"But there's no more of those dead ear-pods," he finally protested weakly.
"She can use mine." Soph took off her ear-pods and handed them to me.
"See, problem solved," I told the Doctor, putting them in.
The Doctor sighed heavily. "Fine, fine, you can go." He stared at me, eyes meeting mine, "You stay with Pete and Rose. And remember, show no emotion." The way he was looking at me reminded me so much of the dream that it made me shiver internally.
I nodded, "Got it."
He opened his mouth to say more to me, but Mickey's voice interrupted him,
"What about me?" He was standing a little ways from the group. I knew that he had been there, but the others looked at him as if they just noticed him there. Once again forgotten.
"Mickey!" The Doctor said loudly, looking wrong footed. "You can … ahm…"
"What, stay out of trouble," he snapped. "Be the tin dog. No, those days are over. I'm going with Jake and Soph." He headed over towards the couple.
"We don't need you, idiot." Jake glared at him
Mickey finally snapped, "I'm not a idiot! Got that?!" Jake and Soph looked startled while I smiled proudly. He took a deep breath, let it out, and spoke again calm now, "I'm offering to help."
"Whatever," the blonde guy muttered, "Come on, Soph." He walked away with my alternate and Mickey close behind.
"Mickey?" The Doctor called. Mickey turned back around and he continued, "Good luck."
"Yeah. You too." Mickey looked at Rose, "Rose, I'll see you later."
"Yeah, you better."
Then Mickey turned to me and I couldn't help but feel as if he wasn't going to be coming back.
"See you, Sophie," he said to me softly.
I smiled at him as I nodded, "You too."
"If we survive this, I'll see you back at the TARDIS." The Doctor had those intense eyes as he smiled at Mickey. The ones that he always seemed to get when he knew something that we didn't know or something that he figured out.
Mickey nodded, "That's a promise." He walked away again, a confidence spring in his step. But then he looked over at his shoulder at Rose and the Doctor as they hugged. He looked so sad. I stared at him and he seemed to notice as he met my gaze. I gave him a sad look. He stared at me for a few more moments before turning to catch up to Jake and Soph.
I stared after him when I felt a tap on my shoulder and I turned around. It was the Doctor.
"Good luck," he told me softly.
"Same to you." There was a moment of silence and since we had a little bit of time, I decided to take a chance to mention the name thing, "Look, about what I said…" I started off quietly but the Doctor cut me off by grabbing my hand.
"We'll have time to talk about that later," he said softly, kissing the back of my hand. "After all of this is over, yeah?"
"Yeah." I bit my lip, hesitating on what I was going to do next. In the end, I decided to take a chance. I kissed his cheek. He took in sharp intake of breath as I did this. I let it linger for just a few seconds before pulling away. "Good luck," I told him.
He stared into my eyes for a moment and nodded, "You too." He kissed the back of my hand one last time before going to follow Mrs. Moore.
I stared after him, not noticing Rose glaring at me. I wouldn't have been able to anyway because when I turned to face her and Pete, the glare was gone.
"Come on," Rose said. She and Pete walked off first and I followed after glancing one last time at the spot where the Doctor had once been.
TBC...
In...
The Last Part of Age of Steel, Part 3...
Now these tiny little moments with Rose being jealous is there for a reason which you'll see in the next part, let's see you can guess what she does.
As you can see in the beginning with the Doctor's POV, the dream wasn't just a dream. It actually happened which is why it felt so real to the both of them and why Sophie had the bruises and everything. Now I don't exactly know if it is a known fact that Time Lords can share dreams with their mates but let's just say for the story's sake it is one. As for their talk ... you'll see what happens. Anyway, please leave reviews and tell me what you think of the second part of Age of Steel! Love you guys! ;)
P.S. Here's something fun... if you could pick five songs that fit the Doctor and Sophie, what would they be? Want the name of the song and who the song is by :)