We were all hanging out in the TARDIS enjoying stories of the past adventures we'd been on together and laughing.
"And that weird munchkin lady with the big eyes? Do you remember? - the way she looked at you! And then she opens her mouth and fire comes out!" the Doctor said laughing with me at the memory.
"I thought I was gonna get frazzled!" I told him.
"Yeah! One minute she's standing there, and the next minute - rawwwh!" we both mimiced fire coming out of our mouths, killing ourselves laughing.
"Yeah... where- where was that, then? What happened?" Mickey asked us.
"Oh, it was on this um... uh, this uh... planet thing, asteroid. It's a long story, you had to be there." The Doctor told him.
"Um... what're you doing that for?" I asked him. Mickey had his finger on a button on the console.
"'Cos the Doctor told me to..." he told me.
"When was that...?" I asked him.
"About half an hour ago..." he said.
"Um. You can let go now." The Doctor told him. Mickey let go and I laughed lightly.
"Well, how long's it been since he could've stopped?" Rose asked us.
"Ten minutes? Twenty? ... Twenty-nine?" The Doctor said, his voice getting lower and lower.
"You just forgot me!" Mickey said, getting angry and Rose held his hand.
"No, no, no! I was just- I was just... I was calibrating. I was just... no, I know exactly what I'm doing." The TARDIS console exploded, violently. Sparks and flames flying everywhere. The Doctor and I scrambled to our feet and frantically tried to operate the console.
"What did you do to her?" I asked him, getting angry before looking at the monitor. My eyes widened at what it read.
"What's happened?!" Rose asked us.
"The time vortex is gone!" I called to them.
"That's impossible." The Doctor told me.
"It's gone!" I repeated for him. He moved to me and looked at the monitor, which confirmed what I'd told him.
"Brace yourself! We're gonna crash!" he called out. We crashed and we were all thrown backwards while gas masks fell from the ceiling. All the light in the TARDIS had gone out and it was very dark. "Everyone all right? Hunter? Rose - Mickey?"
"I'm fine. I'm okay, sorry." Mickey said as we all stood slowly. I looked up at the rotor and the console.
"She's dead. The TARDIS is dead." I said placing my hand on the console. I felt arms wrap around my waist and I turned into the Doctor, laying my head on his chest.
"You can fix it? Right?" Rose asked.
"There's nothing to fix. She's perished." The Doctor told her. "The last TARDIS in the universe... extinct."
"We can get help, yeah?" Rose asked.
"Where from?" I asked her.
"Well, we've landed - we've gotta be somewhere." Rose told us.
"We fell out of the vortex, through the void, into nothingness. We're in some sort of no-place... the silent realm... the lost dimension..." The Doctor explained to her.
"Otherwise known as London!" Mickey called to us, laughing. I looked up at the Doctor before following him. "London, England, Earth. Hold on..." He jumped down off the low wall and picked up a paper our of of a dustbin and looked at the cover. "First of February this year - not exactly far-flung, is it?"
"So, this is London." The Doctor said as we looked around.
"Yep." Mickey said.
"Your city." he asked again.
"That's the one." Mickey told him proudly.
"Just as we left it." The Doctor said again.
"Bang on." Mickey said with a grin.
"And that includes the zeppelins?" I asked him looking into the sky.
"What the hell...?" Mickey asked looking at them.
"That's beautiful." Rose said smiling.
"Okay. So, it's London with a big international zeppelin festival." Mickey said.
"This is not your world." The Doctor told us.
"But if the date's the same...it's parallel, right? Am I right? Like a parallel Earth where they've got Zeppelins, am I right? I'm right, aren't I?" Mickey asked excitedly.
"Must be." The Doctor told him.
"That's the first time you've said that to him." I said and he gave me a slight look, making me smile.
"So, a parallel world where-" Rose dropped her sentence for us to finish.
"Oh, come on. You see it on films. Like an alternative to our world were everything's the same but a little bit different, like... I dunno - traffic lights are blue, Tony Blair never got elected..." Mickey told her.
"And he's still alive..." Rose said looking at a poster behind me. I looked and my eyes widened at the sight of my dad, Pete Tyler - a successful businessman, holding a bottle of Vitex. "A parallel world and my dad's still alive..." Rose said. I saw her move past me in the corner of my eye and followed her with the boys at my back.
"Don't look at it, Hunter, Rose. Don't even think about it. This is not your world." the Doctor told us.
"But he's my dad... and..." Rose said touching the poster and jumping back as it moved. Dad's poster said 'trust me on this' before winking and giving the thumbs up. "Oh, that's weird. But he's real!"
"Trust me on this."
"He's a success! He was always planning these daft little schemes, health-food drinks and stuff. Everyone said they were useless. But he did it." Rose said happily. I grasped Rose by the shoulders and forced myself to look away from the poster.
"Rose, if you've ever trusted me, then listen to me now." I told her but she kept staring at the poster. "Stop looking at it!" Rose reluctantly met my eyes again. "Dad's dead. He died when you were six months old. That is not our Pete. That is A Pete. For all we know, he's got his own Jackie - his own Rose and Ashlee. His own daughters who are someone else, but not us." I told her and I saw her eyes start to wander back to the poster, but she turned back to me. "We can't see him. Not ever." She gave me a tiny nod and Mickey touched her shoulder comfortingly. The poster of Dad was still repeating the same line over and over: 'trust me on this'
The Doctor and I were inside the dark TARDIS, trying to find a way to revive her when the doors opened. I looked up and saw Mickey and rounded on him.
"I told you to keep an eye on my sister!" I yelled at him.
"She's all right-" Mickey said dissmisseivly.
"She goes wandering off - parallel world, it's like a gingerbread house! All those temptations calling out." the Doctor argued with him.
"Oh, so it's just Rose then? Nothing out there to tempt me?" Mickey asked looking at me.
"We never said that Mickey, that's why we have to stay with one other person at all times." I told him.
"If I could just get this thing to-" The Doctor said behind me before he kicked the TARDIS console hard in frustration. I shook my head and walked with him slowly over to a chair.
"Did that help?" Mickey asked him.
"Yes." He told him.
"Did that hurt?" Mickey asked him.
"Yes. Ow." he said sitting down and rubbing his foot.
"Well you shouldn't have kicked her." I told him but he just gave me a look.
"So why did the TARDIS die?" he asked me.
"We're not meant to be here. The TARDIS draws its power off the universe, but it's the wrong universe. It's like diesel in a petrol engine." The Doctor explained to him.
"But... I've seen it in comics. People are hopping from one alternative world to another - it's easy." Mickey told us.
"Not in the real world." I told him. "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, took it all with them. The walls of reality closed, the worlds were sealed. Everything became that bit less kind."
"Then how did we get here?" Mickey asked us.
"I dunno. Accident? Should've been impossible - now we're trapped." I said leaning against the console.
"What's that?" the Doctor asked. I followed his gaze to see a tiny green light glowing beneath the console.
"What?" Mickey asked him.
"Is that a reflection?" I asked him. We all crouched, staring at it.
"It's a light! Is it? Is that a light? I think that's a light! That's all we need!" the Doctor said excitedly removing the grilling. "We've got power! We've got power! Ha!" The Doctor got right underneath the console and pulled out some of the internals. "It's alive!"
"What is it?" Mickey asked.
"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. But with one little ounce of reality tucked away inside." I told him smiling at the small glowing object.
"Enough to get us home?" Mickey asked.
"Not yet." the Doctor told him. He picked up the power cell and sat back on the small set of stairs under the grilling. "I need to charge it up."
"We could go outside and latch it up to the national grid!" Mickey suggested.
"Wrong sort of energy. It's gotta come from our universe." I told him.
"But we don't have anything." Mickey said and I smiled at him.
"There's us..." We told him and then we blew gently on the power cell and it glowed brightly. The Doctor turned to me beaming with joy.
"We just gave away ten years of our life. Worth every second!" The Doctor said before giggling. The light faded.
"It's going out - is that okay?" Mickey asked us.
"It's on a recharging cycle." the Doctor said as the cell glowed brightly and faded again and again. "It'll loop round, power back up and be ready to take us home in - oh - twenty-four hours?" the Doctor then kissed me deeply before we seperated and smiled.
"So, that gives us twenty-four hours on a parallel world?" Mickey asked him.
"Surely! As long as we keep our heads down. Easy. No problem." The Doctor said tossing the power cell in the air and caught it again. "Let's go and tell her." We walked until we could find Rose on the Thames Embankment sitting on a bench.
"There you are! You all right? No applause, I fixed it!" The Doctor said showing her the power cell. "Twenty-four hours, then we're flying back to reality." We sat on the bench next to her but she didn't even glance at us, lost in her own thoughts.
"What is it?" I asked her.
"My phone connected. There's this... Cybus Network, it finds your phone. It gave me Internet access." Rose told me and I had to look away from her.
"Rose, whatever it says, this is the wrong world." the Doctor said holding my hand.
"We don't exist." Rose said.
"What do you mean?" I asked her.
"There's no Ashlee and Rose Tyler. We were never born. There's Pete, my dad, and Jackie... he still married mum... but they never had kids." she said.
"Give me that phone." The Doctor said but Rose pulled it away from him.
"They're rich. They've got a house and cars, and everything they want. "But they haven't got us." she said. She was close to tears. She suddenly stood and walked away from us before turning back to us. "I've gotta see him."
"You can't." the Doctor said.
"I just wanna see him." Rose said.
"I can't let you!" he told her.
"You just said twenty-four hours!" I told him. I stood up and walked to her.
"You can't become their daughter, that's not the way it works! Mickey, tell them." the Doctor said.
"Twenty-four hours, yeah?" Mickey asked.
"Where're you going?" The Doctor asked. asked.
"Well, I can do what I want!" Mickey called to him.
"I've got the address and everything." Rose told him as we walked away.
"Stay where you are, both of you! Rose, Hunter, come back here! Mickey, come back here right now!" The Doctor called to us.
"We just wanna see him." I told him. I knew the dangers, I could protect Rose just fine on my own.
"Yeah, I've got things to see and all." Mickey said.
"Like WHAT?" The Doctor yelled at him.
"Well, you don't know anything about me, do ya? It's always about Rose. I'm just a spare part." Mickey called to him.
"I'm sorry. I've gotta go." Rose told him and we walked away from him.
"Go on then. No choice, is there? You can only chase after one of us, and it's never gonna be me, is it?" I heard Mickey say as Rose and I walked away from them.
"Back here in twenty-four hours!" The Doctor called out and I could hear him running to us.
"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." I told the Doctor.
"She was such a great woman. God, she used to slap him!" Rose said making me laugh.
"And then she died. She tripped and fell down the stairs. It's about five years ago, now. We were still in school." I said.
"I never knew." The Doctor said.
"Well, you never asked." I reminded him.
"You never said!" he told me.
"That's Mickey. I s'pose I- we just... take him for granted. Do you think she's still alive, his gran?" Rose asked us.
"Could be. Like we said, parallel world - gingerbread house. We need to get out of here as fast as we can." the Doctor told her. A short alarm sounded and everyone around us suddenly froze. We looked around at us, confused.
"What're they all doing?" Rose asked.
"They've stopped..." I said. I noticed everyone was wearing earpieces, which flashed and beeped quietly.
"It's the earpieces... like Bluetooth attachments, but everyone's connected together." The Doctor said and Rose's phone beeped at us. She took it out of her pocket and I looked over her should at it.
"It's on my phone. It's automatic, look. It's downloading. Is this what they're all getting?" The Doctor looked over her other shoulder and put on his specs. Rose scrolled through the daily downloads on her phone. "News... international news... sport... weather..."
"They get it direct. Downloaded right into their heads." I said looking up at them.
"TV schedules, lottery numbers..." Rose continued.
"Everyone shares the same information." I said walking away from them and looking at the earpieces.
"Daily download published by Cybus Industries." The Doctor said and I saw him looking at the phone. Everyone around us chuckled, and then went on their merry way. I stared, completely nonplussed as the crows carried on as though nothing had happened. "You lot, you're obsessed. You'd do anything for the latest upgrade."
"Oi... not my lot. Different world, remember..." Rose told us.
"It's not SO far off your world. This place is only parallel." the Doctor told her pressing a few buttons on her phone. "Oh, look at that. Cybus Industries owns just about every company in Britain, including Vitex. Mr Pete Tyler's VERY well connected." Neither of us replied to him. I just hung off his arm smiling innocently as Rose pulled her puppy-dog eyes, and we would continue doing this until he gave in. "Oh, okay. I give up. Let's go and see him." The Doctor said tossing Rose's phone back to her.
We watched as an expensive car pulled up outside Pete and Jackie's house. We were crouched in some nearby bushes, watching.
"They've got visitors." The Doctor said.
"February the first - mum's birthday. Even in a parallel universe, she still loves a party." Rose said and I smiled.
"Well, given Pete Tyler's guest list, I wouldn't mind a look. And there is one guaranteed way of getting inside." The Doctor said waving the psychic paper around.
"Psychic paper!" I said.
"Who do you wanna be?" He asked us.
We followed several waiters and waitresses and entered the party from the kitchens, all of us holding trays of refreshments, dressed up in the same garb.
"We could've been anyone." Rose complained.
"Got us in, didn't it?" the Doctor asked her.
"You're in charge of the psychic paper. We could've been guests. Celebrities. Lord Doctor, Lady Hunter, Dame Rose. We end up serving. I had enough of this when I was human." I told him smiling as a guest took a drink from my tray.
"If you wanna know what's going on, work in the kitchens." the Doctor told me and I rolled my eyes. We retreated slightly to the side of the room so we could watch the proceedings - groups of important people chatting and laughing, photographs being taken. "According to Lucy, that man over there-"
"Who's Lucy?" I asked him.
"She's carrying the salmon pinwheels." he said nodding over to a young waitress at the other side of the room.
"Oh, that's Lucy, is it?" I asked him.
".. Yeah! Lucy says, that is the President of Great Britain." the Doctor finally finished.
"What, there's a President, not a Prime Minister?" Rose asked.
"Seems so." the Doctor said.
"Or maybe Lucy's just very thick." I said.
"Now, now, be nice." he said and I gave him a look as we moved on our way with the trays.
"Excuse me! Thank you very much. Thank you - if I could just have your attention, please?" I followed the voice to see my dad, Pete Tyler, standing at the top of the stairs making a speech.
"Pete! Go on, Pete!" a man from the crowd called.
"Thank you very much!" he said and I smiled.
"It's about time you did some work. I thought you liked them young!" everyone laughed at the joke. I looked next to me to see Rose and the Doctor before looking at dad.
"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." The crowd chortled at him and he smiled and put his thumb up. "Trust me on this... So, without any further ado - here she is. The birthday girl... my lovely wife... Jackie Tyler." I watched as this worlds Jackie, my mum, descended the staircase, smiling at the crowd as everyone applauded and cheered and snapped photos.
"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." this made everyone laugh with her. "Pardon me, Mr President!" I turned to the black man and saw him smile before I looked at her. "So, yeah! Get on with it - enjoy, enjoy." more people cheered as dad took mums hand and they descended the rest of the stairs to mingle with the crowd.
"You can't stay. Even if there was some way of telling them." The Doctor mumbled to us.
"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." Rose said.
"She's got us! Those two haven't! All these different worlds, not one of them gets it right." I told her giving her a hug.
"Rose!" We looked up shocked as we heard a series of barking and yelps. "There's my little girl!" a dog pottered over to her and she picked her up. "Come to mummy, come to mummy! Yes, good girl! Good girl, aren't you?" I stared shocked. I looked to the Doctor and he burst out laughing, and I gave him a look which quickly sobered him.
"Sorry." he said sheepishly.
"You better be." I told him.
A little later the Doctor grabbed my hand and we detached ourselves from the crowds and walked down a corridor. We almost walked past a dark, empty room with the door slightly ajar, but backtracked as I noticed a laptop open on the desk inside. I nodded to the door for him to check to make sure we weren't followed as I walked into the room. I heard him shut the door behind him as I lifted the screen and smiled. I hacked into the computer and found a presentation of some sort and played it for both the Doctor and I to hear and understand what was happening.
"The most precious thing on this Earth is the human brain, and yet we allow it to die. But now Cybus Industries has perfected a way of sustaining the brain indefinitely within a cradle of copyrighted chemicals. And the latest advances in synapse research allows cyber-kinetic impulses to be bonded onto a metal exoskeleton. This is the ultimate upgrade. Our greatest step into cyberspace."
"Doctor..." I said horrified. I looked to him and I was certain if I looked in a mirror my face would match his perfectly.
"Cybus." he said and without a moment's hesitation, we dashed from the room. the doctor and I waded our way through the crowd to Rose and the three of us went to a window and looked outside at the figures approaching us. "It's happening again." he said in a hushed tone, not wanting people to panic.
"What do you mean?" Rose asked us.
"We've seem them before." he told her and they got closer.
"What are they?" she asked.
"Cybermen." I told her as several windows were smashed so they could get in, which elicited screams from the crowd. I watched as the humans cowered as the Cybermen stepped through full length windows. They had everyone in the room circled with no way out and the President's communication device bleeped.
"Mr Lumic." he said and I recognized the name. "I forbade this."
"What are they? Robots?" Rose asked us.
"Worse than that." The Doctor told her.
"Who were these people?" The President asked him.
"They're people?" Rose asked, shocked.
"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." The Doctor told her.
"Why no emotions?" she asked.
"Because it hurts." I told her.
"I demand to know, Lumic - these people - who were they?" The President asked him again.
"We have been upgraded." One of the Cybermen said.
"Into what?" The Doctor asked it.
"The next level of mankind. We are Human Point Two. Every citizen will receive a free upgrade. You will become like us." it answered him.
"I'm sorry." The President said approaching it. "I'm so sorry for what's been done to you. But listen to me - this experiment ends. Tonight."
"Upgrading is compulsory." The Cyberman said.
"And if I refuse?" the President asked.
"Don't." The Doctor and I quickly told him.
"What if I refuse?" the President asked again.
"We're telling you, don't." the Doctor told him.
"What happens if I refuse?" He asked ignoring him.
"Then you are not compatible." The Cyberman said.
"What happens then?" The President asked, challenging it.
"You will be deleted." The Cyberman grasped the President by the neck and engulfed him in electric-blue light and was killed. I grabbed Rose's hand as the Doctor grabbed mine and we all ran out through one of the broken windows.
"There's nothing we can do!" I told her. Rose pulled away from me and tried to go back.
"Mum's in there!" she yelled at me and I pulled her towards me again.
"She's not mum! Come on!" We ran up a slope, only to be greeted by another row of Cybermen. We quickly changed direction and ran around the side of the house. We saw Pete leap out of the window and continued running away.
"Quick! Quick!" Rose called to him and I saw him run after us out of the corner of my eye. we ran until we reached the front of the house.
"Pete, there's no way out!" The Doctor yelled.
"The side gates!" Pete told him and we ran in the direction he indicated. "Who are you? How do you know so much?"
"You wouldn't believe it in a million years-" I told him. We skid to a halt as we were met by another row of Cybermen and were forced to change direction only to be met by two figures running towards the house, holding guns.
"Who's that?!" Rose asked.
"Get behind me!" Mickey said and we all stood/crouched behind Mickey and the other man as they fired their guns at the onslaught of Cybermen. The Cvbermen stopped marching and Rose began fussing with her boyfriend's coat.
"Oh my God, look at you..." Rose said releived. She pulled him into a tight hug and his face made me think this wasn't our Mickey. "I thought I'd never see you again!" the other Mickey pulled away from her and made a face.
"Yeah, no offence, sweetheart, but who the hell are you?" he asked her.
"Rose!" We turned to see another Mickey, our Mickey, running down to us. "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 and I smiled at him.
"It's Ricky." Ricky said.
"Well would you look at that. The whole time you've been calling Mickey Ricky you haven't been that far off." I told him.
"But there's more of them..." Mickey said and we looked around them in fear.
"We're surrounded..." Rose said holding onto Mickey as tightly as possible. Ricky raised his gun but I pushed it down.
"Put the guns down. Bullets won't stop them." I told them. the other man ignored me and fired a rally and I pushed his gun aside angrily. "No! Stop shooting, now!"
"We surrender! Hands up..." The Doctor told us and we all put our hands up. "... there's no need to damage us, we're good stock. We volunteer for the upgrade program. Take us to be processed."
"You are rogue elements." the Cyberman said.
"But we surrender." the Doctor said, shocked.
"You are incompatible." the Cyberman told us.
"But this is a surrender!" I shouted.
"You will be deleted."
"But we're surrendering! Listen to me, we surrender!" the Doctor shouted looking at all of them.
"You are inferior. Man will be reborn as Cybermen but you will perish under maximum deletion." the Cybermen raised their arms and reached towards us. "Delete. Delete. Delete!"
TO BE CONTINUED