Hearing the Prime tell them that someone told them how to disable the TARDIS's not something either expected on this adventure, but really, they didn't expect this kind of adventure, either.
The Prime then informed Theodore that since they have confirmed that he is not who they're looking for, they have no reason staying here.
Their target long gone, the other Cybermen confirming the casualties to their Prime, meant their worst fear came true, with the decapitated Cyberman brought to the Prime.
The Prime's about to call the others to leave with the remains of the fallen Cybermen, but Theodore and Lila halted them, wanting answers.
"I think there's something lost in the data stream, here, Prime, what happened?" Lila spoke up, annoyed at the vagueness from the Prime and them showing fear's something alarming that needed answers.
Turning its whole body towards Lila as she stood next to Theodore, the Prime informed her that they guarded something for many upgrades (years, centuries, hard to say with Cybermen linguistic) under the pretense it was dangerous.
Dangerous enough that the Cybermen upgraded themselves to defend it from intruders.
"Until now," Theodore summed that something happened that changed the Cybermen's optics and the Prime confirmed that something did, leading them to hide the dangerous object somewhere that no one would find it, even went far as deleting every known data entry in the Cybermen brains, everything the Cybermen knew would've thrown off anyone.
Sharing looks with Lila, Theodore swallowed his fear, before informing the Prime that someone did find what the Cybermen hid, telling the Prime how he came to find the head of the decapitated Cyberman somewhere on Earth, how someone dug deep for whatever the Cybermen hid.
Whatever the Cybermen hid, it's long gone, now, meaning whoever they're looking for has it with them.
"Then the silence looms," the Prime monotonously said, showing vague emotions in its sentence.
Brows raised, Theodore and Lila processed what the Prime said, before Theodore asked the Prime what it meant, and the Prime told him.
"Many upgrades ago, we picked up on a sound. We studied it. We began fearing it. Now, it is becoming quiet. The silence looms," the Prime informed Theodore of what the Cybermen dealt with before this, that one sound became enough to cause fear among them, lasting through upgrades.
Crossing her arms as she's processing what they said, Lila's miffed, asking the Prime, "So, what happens when the silence… er… comes?"
The Prime then said something that isn't known in the Cybermen circles, "Death will follow."
Baffled, Theodore gestures, asking the Prime what sound could've scared the Cybermen that much and the Prime told him something unexpected.
A ticking sound.
A sound that penetrated even the cold steel bodies, the Prime said they started picking up on the sound what's akin to centuries to them, and they became terrified of what happens when the ticking finally stops.
Very interesting that Theodore wanted more answers for, but he refrained, wanting to know what exactly the Prime and the Cybermen tried hiding, and the Prime wouldn't tell him outright.
"You and your people would've turned us into Cybermen, you would charge into battle against the Daleks, what could this thing be that terrifies you to your core?" Theodore gestures as he makes a grand statement to the Prime, trying to compel the Prime to tell him what they guarded before trying to hide on Earth, before that failed, and the Prime only told him that they were told it was dangerous.
They treated it as such.
"Usually, you would "delete" anything that's a danger to you," Lila pointed out the contradictory nature of the Cybermen guarding something dangerous to them before the Prime sharply told her in a monotone voice that it was much more dangerous for them to destroy the object than to guard it.
It crossed their data banks more than once, but they knew better than to try, something Theodore easily picked up on, that he then wanted to know who told them about it, that convinced them to do this, as he pointed out that no Cybermen would've taken initiative from anyone who isn't them, and the Prime wouldn't tell him, either.
It wasn't the typical "the Prime won't tell him because" either, like the Prime physically couldn't tell him who informed them on the whereabouts on the object that they agreed so dangerous, that they're willing to abandon the entire Prime Directive just to obtain and hide it.
When asked what the object was that made them so scared, the Prime still wouldn't tell him, saying it's quote: a dangerous object that cannot be destroyed by normal means.
Crossing his arms bitterly, Theodore leaned on the fact that the Cybermen wouldn't do something on this, which the Prime agreed that they don't, but this was the exception, not the rule.
"Well, if it was that dangerous, I'm surprised you didn't just call me," Theodore pointed at himself, emphasizing that there's someone who would know dangerous and for all intents and purposes, the enemy of the Cybermen, still an enemy, but a known one.
"It was not permitted. We could not contact you. If we did, would you have believed us?" The Prime brought up a limitation imposed on them, preventing them from attempting contacting their sworn enemy for help.
Yes, it would seem out of character that Theodore might've not believed them enough to venture out of his way to help them.
Uncrossing his arms, Theodore balked at this while Lila stepped forward as she raised her finger, attempting to understand the Cybermen.
"So, someone came to you, to get this thing, to hide it, and they wouldn't call him?" Lila summed what happened and the Prime let out an almost reverb, "Correct."
Her chestnut eyes blinking, Lila's confused, as she looked at the Prime before asking another question, "You never associate with non-Cybermen, though, what was different?"
In their very core, they never associate and they certainly don't abandon their directive because someone told them about some unknown object that they protected but hid it when the heat got too hot, this isn't the atypical behavior, and the Prime agreed with Lila's points, but said along the lines of that this was different, dire, and for once, they willingly abandoned their directive to do it, something almost unheard.
Unable to get anything from the Cybermen and unable to read their minds because of their upgrades destroying the seldom human parts of them, it left Theodore in a peculiar situation as he's unable to get answers.
"I know you. You wouldn't just listen to anyone. You hardly listened to me!" Theodore tried to reason with the Prime, doing everything in his father's playbook just to get his foot through the door, force the Prime into admitting who talked them into doing this, because it sure as hell wasn't anyone on the roster, and they'd sure as hell tell him.
It was a good attempt, but the Prime refused to answer, saying that due to the dire situations, it deleted everything relating to who contacted them, only keeping enough information about what they're protecting, deleting everything pertaining to what it is exactly.
The Prime informed Theodore that his attempts won't work, it made sure that the sensitive information was deleted from their memory banks, only for Lila to tell it that whoever they're after got what the Cybermen hid, making it a moot point.
"We have disabled it. It cannot be removed," the Prime tells the two in its own way that the Cybermen weren't green, they disabled what they protected per the agreement, and made sure that none of the Cybermen held keys on how to remove it.
Leaving their enemy unable to harvest it from them, if their enemy went through the armada.
It's clear that none of this's getting them anywhere, that even if Theodore tried to wear them down or lock them in a logic loop, the Cybermen held true to their end of the bargain, they won't tell him a thing of who they're after, what they protected and hid, who told them all this, and how that person knew how to disable the TARDIS.
Exhaling sharply as he sees there's no other inherent reason, Theodore asks the Prime if that they are not enemies in this instance, if he and his companion can leave, with their TARDIS, be on their way.
They won't cause any trouble for the Cybermen if they don't cause them any and that's something the Prime agreed with, that it already lost a sizable amount to the enemy as is, it can't afford losing any more against the Doctor.
"But if you must, take your ilks' bodies with you and leave the bodies of the colonists alone while you're at it," Theodore tells the Prime that they're welcome to take their fallen brethren for scrapping, but leave the colonists' dead bodies alone for their families.
The Prime agreed with his term and surprisingly didn't turn on him and Lila, it ordered the Cybermen to stand down, and allowed Theodore and Lila to double back to the freezer where Al met them, freed from the disablement.
Didn't get any word in, just went.
Only when they returned home, did they spend time talking about this bizarre situation, Al's shocked as any of them that someone gave Cybermen the components to lock him, and Theodore inquired how that's possible.
"I honestly don't know, kid. Believe me, when the Council sentenced my kind to death, they made sure blueprints and commands got the fire first," Al's baffled as he hung around the kitchen island while Lila cooked herself and Theodore something to eat.
When the Council deemed him and his brethren mistakes, they made sure that the paperwork got burnt first, before they settled on the machines, and only because of Medi, he survived, his brethren, however, weren't fortunate.
As she's cooking, Lila pointed out, "Well, Layne stowed away books, didn't he?"
Layne, the short Time Lord who helped Theodore rebuild Al to his proper visage and had parts to do it, he would've had what Al mentioned.
Blinking, Al wondered before saying, "I doubt it. Layne's not an idiot. He's already on thin ice. Leaking sensitive information like that's asking for his head. Leaking information to the Cybermen, the Council would've executed him and "delete" him for the records like he never existed."
Leaving Theodore to wonder as he sat at the kitchen island, "What about the second machine that was stolen?"
Seemed strange, doesn't it?
Scratching the side of his face, Al says he doesn't know what became of it, it never showed up on his radar in their travels, but he's certain that it wouldn't have the paperwork in the console, he didn't have it, the Council took it out.
Medi had to guess on a lot of things.
"What about the ticking sound or whatever, anything on that?" Lila asked Al about the strange sound that vexed the Cybermen into becoming scared, which Al said he heard rumblings of it many times, but never found anything concrete.
All he knows, it was a sound, but none of the Doctors ever picked up on it and not even Al could and he scanned every nook and cranny.
"I'm sensing a theme in this," Theodore clasped his hands together as he's deep in thoughts.
Finishing up their dinner, something simple but filling, Korean styled fried chicken, Lila assures Theodore that he'll figure it out, for now, they need something to eat.
Theodore agreed with her as she served him two plump pieces, fried to perfection, with the fixings, as she says.
On his mind, more questions, little answers.
THE END