Chapter Six: A Glimpse of the Future?
Snow fell gently as the Doctor waited for Rose to join him outside. As the tip of her polished black boot appeared from beneath the hem of her full skirts, he remembered another day in another lifetime when he'd taken Rose to Victorian England.
She smirked at him when she closed the door behind her. "Yeah, but this time you meant for us to be in England," she teased. "Not Naples."
"True." The Doctor took her gloved hand and brushed a kiss over knuckles, before tucking it in his elbow and leading her away from the TARDIS.
Rose placed her other hand on his arm and looked up at him. "All right Doctor, you told me London, winter of 1851, but you wouldn't tell me anything else. Come on, why are we here?"
The Doctor nodded at the courtyard they'd just entered. It was filled with stalls and people buying and selling. On their right, a man hawked bunches of mistletoe, and somewhere, they heard a voice offering hot chestnuts.
Rose put her hand over her mouth and turned in a circle. The festive atmosphere was obvious, but if there had been any doubt, a choir stood on the edge of the courtyard singing "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen."
The Doctor waited until her shining eyes met his again. Then he leaned down and brushed a kiss against her cheek. "Merry Christmas, Rose Tyler."
Rose turned her head and kissed his jaw, then pulled back and shot him an impish smile. "Does that mean we landed on Christmas and there's real snow?"
The Doctor rolled his eyes. "If this is the thanks I get for trying to give you a nice holiday…"
Rose's chuckle was cut off by a very familiar shout coming from an alleyway.
"Doctor!"
She raised an eyebrow. "A nice holiday?" she repeated drily.
The Doctor shook his head furiously. "Rose, I swear—"
"Doctor!"
"Tell me later!" Rose told him as they started running towards the cry.
After a few twists in the alleyway, a young black woman burst out of a building in front of them and closed the door firmly behind her. Whatever had been chasing her threw itself at the door, making it rattle on its hinges.
"Oh, that's not going to hold it long," Rose muttered.
"No, it's not," the Doctor agreed. He glanced at the other woman, wide-eyed with panic. "Don't worry," he told her, looking between her and the shaking door. "Stand back," he improvised. Then he looked at the door. "What have we got here?"
His time senses were tingling; they were hovering right on the edge of a must-not-happen.
The creature on the other side of the door snarled and beat at the door again. The Doctor nodded once. "Okay, I've got it," he told the woman without looking away from the door. "Whatever's behind that door, I think you should get out of here."
"Doctor!" she hollered again, as if he weren't right in front of her.
"No, no. I'm standing right here." The Doctor looked at her over his shoulder and waved cheerfully. "Hello."
She looked him up and down, then shook her head impatiently. "Don't be stupid. Who are you?"
"He's the Doctor," Rose interjected before he could.
The woman looked at the two of them, her eyebrow arched. "Doctor who?" she challenged.
The Doctor blinked and tugged on his ear. He was used to getting that question from people who'd never met him before, but usually people who were calling out for him in an emergency knew who he was.
"Just… the Doctor."
"Well there can't be two of you," she retorted.
Footsteps echoed behind them, and the woman sighed in relief. "Where the hell have you been?"
A man skidded to a halt in front of them, the coattails of his buff frock coat flapping behind him. "Right then," he said, only a little out of breath. "Don't worry. Stand back. What have we got here then?"
"Hold on, who are you?" Rose demanded.
The man straightened up and smiled at her. "I'm the Doctor," he declared. "Simply, the Doctor. The one, the only and the best."
Rose had no idea who this man was, but she was positive he was not the Doctor. The familiar feel of his mind, the faint echo she felt when there were two Doctors nearby… she got none of it from this man.
But then he turned to the other woman and held out his hand. "Rosita, give me the sonic screwdriver," he ordered.
"The what?" she and the Doctor asked in unison.
The man ignored them. "Now quickly, get back to the TARDIS."
Rose and the Doctor both sucked in a breath. Sonic technology was one thing, but… Rose reached out for the ship, trying to feel a second TARDIS. All she could feel was their own ship.
"Back to the what?" the Doctor demanded.
Rather than answer, the man put his hand on the Doctor's chest and gently pushed him out of the way. "If you could stand back, sir. This is a job for a Time Lord."
"Job for a what lord?" Rose gasped.
Her shock was momentarily forgotten when the doors burst open and the creature leapt out—a shaggy dog-like animal with a head like a Cyberman.
"Oh, that's different," the Doctor said, just as the other man said, "Oh, that's new."
Rose fumbled in her reticule, trying to retrieve her own sonic screwdriver. But both men had their devices out and pointing at the creature before she could even lay her hands on it.
"Allons-y!" they shouted together.
Curiouser and curiouser, Rose mused, watching the two men.
The Cyber-creature tilted its head, like an animal studying their prey.
"I've been hunting this beast for a good fortnight," the not-Doctor said. "Now step back, sir."
Before anyone could do as this man asked, the Cyber-creature leapt over them and landed on the opposite wall, high above their heads.
"Some sort of primitive conversion," the Doctor mused, "like they took the brain of a cat or a dog."
"Can they do that?" Rose asked.
He shrugged. "Theoretically."
The stranger scowled at them both. "Well, talking's all very well. Rosita?"
Rose watched as the other woman ran over with a large coil of heavy rope in her hands. "I'm ready."
The man who was not the Doctor took it from her. "Now, watch and learn," he ordered Rose and the Doctor.
He adjusted his hold on the rope and Rose realised it was a lasso. She glanced up the wall at the creature and back down at the man, knowing immediately what he was going to do. It was exactly the sort of ridiculous plan the Doctor would think up.
Oi!
The Doctor's indignation was forgotten when this new man managed to lasso the Cyber-creature on his first try.
"Excellent. Now then, let's pull this timorous beastie down to earth."
The Doctor shot a glance at Rose, who had her hands on her hips. One look and he knew that if this was his future self, and he'd just used the same term to refer to a Cyber-creature that he'd once used in reference to Rose, he would be paying for it later.
He was almost grateful when the Cyber-creature kept moving, pulling this other man along behind him. He skidded along the ground, trying to stop himself, but the Cyber-creature was stronger.
"Or not," the Doctor said.
"I might be in a little bit of trouble," the other man admitted as he reached the wall and was carried up it.
The Doctor grabbed onto the rope, some eight feet behind the stranger. "Nothing changes," he said, going along with the notion that this man was a future regeneration. He braced himself against the wall. "I've got you."
The beast looked down at them, and the Doctor got a sinking feeling that he'd just made a tactical error. Then it tossed its head and climbed higher.
"Or not," the Doctor muttered as his feet left the ground.
Rose watched the Doctor soar through the air, dragged along by the Cyber-creature.
"You idiots!" Rosita shouted, and Rose couldn't argue.
Rose sighed. "If I didn't know better, I'd think he really was the Doctor."
Rosita barely spared her a glance. "He's gone up there without any idea of how to get down, like always."
Rose nodded; she was very familiar with the sequence of events. She raised an eyebrow when Rosita grabbed an axe.
"There's only one thing to do. Chase after him and save his hide, yet again."
Rose grinned. "Oh, Rosita, I like you," she said warmly.
"I don't even know you," Rosita retorted. "Who the hell are you, and who's that man you're with who says he's the Doctor?"
Rose blinked. She had no idea who these people were or how they knew about sonic screwdrivers and the TARDIS. That man was not the Doctor, she knew that. And yet… They know all about him, but nothing about me?
She ignored the knot in her stomach and glanced up the wall to where the men hung in the distance. "That thing has jumped through the window," she said, taking in the building as she did.
Rosita hoisted her skirts and took off running, axe still in hand. "And then it's going to go out the window on the other side, and those idiots will fall to their deaths."
"Not if I have anything to say about it," Rose muttered, chasing after the other woman.
oOoOo
The Doctor watched the ground fall away as they were dragged up the wall by the Cyber-creature. He could feel Rose's exasperation and knew he'd better find a way to make it back to Earth with minimal damage.
"Perhaps if you could pull?" the other man suggested through gritted teeth.
"I am pulling," the Doctor protested. "In this position, I couldn't not pull, could I?"
The Cyber-creature leapt through a window, and the Doctor winced when the rope tugged through his fingers, leaving rope burn on the palms of his hands.
For a moment, they were simply dangling in mid-air. The other man looked down at the Doctor. "Then I suggest you let go, sir."
The Doctor shook his head. The whole ridiculous adventure had made him almost certain this was a future regeneration. Who else would try something like this? He wondered briefly where Rose was, but then it clicked. Rosita must be Rose.
"I'm not letting you out of my sight, Doctor. Don't you recognise me?"
The man frowned, confusion cutting deep furrows in his forehead. "No, should I? Have we met? This is hardly the right time for me to go through my social calenda-ahhhhh." The other Doctor's sentence cut off on a scream as they suddenly started racing up the side of the building again.
Hold on, Doctor, Rose told him. Rosita and I have a plan.
The Doctor groaned as he was yanked through the window frame, bumping his shoulder against the stone casement. Believe me, I'm not letting go.
He grunted when he hit the floor hard enough to make his teeth rattle. The Cyber-creature raced across the abandoned warehouse, dragging both men along the floor behind it.
The Doctor scanned their surroundings quickly. He spotted the window on the opposite wall, and noted with some concern that their current trajectory was heading straight for it.
"It's going to jump!" he shouted.
"We're gonna fall!" the other man yelled, clearly having reached the same conclusion.
The Doctor frantically tried to get the rope untangled from his arm, but it was pulled so tight by the tension from the creature running that he didn't have any luck.
Any update on that plan of yours, Rose?
We've got you covered, she promised.
A moment later, the Cyber-creature jumped out the window. The Doctor watched the window get closer and closer, and was nearly braced for the inevitable flight and the painfully abrupt landing when an axe swung through the air and cut through the rope.
The Doctor landed flat on his back, staring dazedly up at the ceiling. Rose's worried face came into view, and he blinked up at her.
"Hello."
She shook her head and held out her hand, and he let her pull him to his feet. A moment later, she had him wrapped in a tight hug.
"If you ever lecture me on looking before I leap…" she mumbled.
The Doctor chuckled breathlessly. "Point taken," he admitted. He could feel the strained muscles in his back and legs complaining about his recklessness. He squeezed her once, then stepped around her to hold out his hand to the other Doctor.
The man looked at it for a moment, then disregarded it, pulling the Doctor in for a hug. The giddiness of the moment returned, and they both laughed.
Rosita dropped the axe on the floor, and a metallic clang echoed in the empty room. The Doctors looked at her, glaring down at them with her hand on her hip, and they broke into a new fit of laughter.
Rose rubbed at her temple. "Come on, you two," she said. "Let's get out of here and see if we can't figure out what that thing was and why it was in London."
The Doctor nodded and put his hand in the small of her back as she led the way towards the stairs she and Rosita had climbed only a few minutes before.
Behind him, the other Doctor was still giggling over their misadventure.
"Well, I'm glad you think it's so funny," Rosita snapped as they reached the ground. She spun and pointed at both men. "You're mad. Both of you. You could've got killed."
"But evidently we did not," the other Doctor said brightly.
The insouciant dismissal almost made the Doctor think this was a previous regeneration that he'd somehow forgotten. He hadn't been that devil-may-care in a very long time. As they gathered around a fire burning in a barrel, the Doctor studied his counterpart carefully.
Unaware of his musings, the other Doctor continued. "Oh, I should introduce Rosita." He rested his hand lightly on Rosita's shoulder. "My faithful companion. Always telling me off."
The Doctor nodded slowly, but his mind was twisting, trying to process that. If Rosita was Rose regenerated, why would he call her a companion? He narrowed his eyes and stared at his counterpart. There was no love in his eyes when he looked at Rosita; nothing more than respect and friendship.
"Well they do, don't they?" he said belatedly. He smiled at Rosita. "Hello, Rosita. Nice to meet you, for the first time."
Rosita huffed and rolled her eyes at him, which the Doctor supposed was fair enough, since in her way of thinking this was the first time they'd met.
"Huh. Now I'll have to go and dismantle the traps," she snapped at the other Doctor, who studiously avoided looking at her. "All that for nothing. And we've only got twenty minutes till the funeral, don't forget." She walked off, presumably to undo the traps. "Then back to the TARDIS, right?" she called out over her shoulder.
"Funeral?" the Doctor asked his future regeneration.
The other man rotated his arm, clearly still feeling the effects of being dragged across the floor. "Oh, long story. Not my own, not yet." He groaned and reached under his coat to massage at his sore shoulder. "Oh, I'm not as young as I was."
The Doctor narrowed his eyes. A Time Lord's physiology should have started repairing itself as soon as the injury was incurred. He could hardly feel the aches anymore.
But then, he's older… "Well, not as young as you were when you were me," he mused.
The other man had bent over and rested his weight on his knees, but that comment brought his head up. "When I was who?"
The Doctor frowned. "You really don't recognise me?"
The other Doctor straightened up, a smile on his face. "Not at all."
Rose had watched the entire conversation with growing irritation. The Doctor was so caught up with this man he thought was a future regeneration that he hadn't noticed she was trying to get his attention.
Finally, she abandoned telepathy and went for the far less subtle method of hissing his name. "Doctor!"
He blinked down at her. "What?"
Rose started to answer, then glanced at the man who claimed to be the Doctor. That's not you, she told her Doctor silently, wanting to keep a few of their cards close to the vest. The other man didn't seem dangerous, but just in case…
The Doctor's mouth fell open, and he looked from Rose to the other man and back again. But he says he's the Doctor. He has a sonic screwdriver and a TARDIS. And Rosita… she could be a future you.
I can't feel him in my head. No familiarity, and no echo like I get when there are two of you.
He snapped his mouth shut. There really was no arguing with that point, after all. And come to think of it, he hadn't felt anything from Rosita, either. It hadn't occurred to him because he'd never personally experienced that echo.
The other man looked at the two of them, confusion on his face. "No, I don't recognise you," he repeated, more slowly this time. "And in fact, I don't recall you introducing yourself before we were unceremoniously dragged up the side of the wall. Who are you, sir? And who is your companion?"
The Doctor tugged on his ear. If this wasn't himself, then… He looked at Rose, and she nodded slightly.
"Oh, I'm… I'm just Tyler. John Tyler. But I've heard all about you, Doctor. Bit of a legend, if I say so myself."
Rose nudged him in the ribs for that bit of arrogance, and he shot her a grin.
"And this is my wife, Rose."
The man turned to Rose, and not a hint of recognition sparked in his eyes. Any doubts the Doctor might have had were banished when he saw that—he might forget himself, might forget his own past, but he could never forget Rose. Even his first incarnation had known somehow that she was significant to him, from the very moment they met.
The man who wasn't the Doctor bowed to Rose, who inclined her head in return. Then he turned back to the Doctor, addressing himself to the one he considered his equal.
"I apologise for not recognising you, sir," he said. "But great swathes of my life have been stolen away. When I turn my mind to the past, there's nothing."
The Doctor studied the other man. The bleakness in his eyes didn't come from a lost memory.
"Going how far back?" he probed. Perhaps this was why the TARDIS had suggested coming to this Christmas?
"Since the Cybermen."
Rose and the Doctor both sucked in a breath. They hadn't seen Cybermen since the near disaster at Canary Wharf.
"Masters of that hellish wall-scuttler and old enemies of mine, now at work in London town." He looked around the alleyway, as if not wanting to be overheard. "You won't believe this, Mr. and Mrs. Tyler," he said confidentially, "but they are creatures from another world."
The Doctor rocked back on his heels and tried to look shocked. "Really. Wow."
You're absolutely positive he isn't me? the Doctor asked Rose, despite being certain himself only a moment before.
She nodded. I can always tell when there are two of you nearby. Right now… nothing. She looked at the other man, then back at the Doctor. I don't know how he knows so much about our life, but he isn't you.
The telepathic exchange only took a few seconds, so they didn't miss the rest of the other man's story.
"It's said they fell onto London, out of the sky in a blaze of light." He paused, and the same bleakness the Doctor had noticed before returned. "And they found me." He looked into the fire crackling in the barrel, clearly trying to cast his mind back to those lost memories. "Something was taken. And something was lost."
A new explanation for this man's confusion and memory loss crept into the Doctor's mind. The bleak sorrow, the gaps in his memories…
Before he could really consider the possibility, the other man looked up at him, hope shining in his eyes. "What was I like, in the past?"
Rose reached around the Doctor and rested her hand on the other man's arm. "You know we can't tell you that, Doctor," she said gently. "Memory loss is so fragile. One wrong word, and we could ruin your chances of recovering them at all."
The other man nodded, seeming to accept Rose's explanation without argument. "It's strange, though," he mused. "I talk of Cybermen from the stars and neither of you blink."
Rose smiled at him, a soft, teasing smile. "Well, we did say we knew you," she pointed out.
The other man nodded absently, then jolted. "Oh, the funeral! The funeral's at two o'clock. It's been a pleasure, Mr. and Mrs. Tyler." He backed up, pointing a warning finger at him. "Don't breathe a word of it."
"Oh, but can't we come with you?" the Doctor asked as the other man started to turn away.
He shook his head. "It's far too dangerous. Rest assured, I shall keep this city safe." He started to run off, then turned and grinned at them, suddenly the whimsical man they'd met. "Oh, and, er Merry Christmas, Mr. and Mrs. Tyler."
The Doctor rocked back on his heels. "Merry Christmas, Doctor," he called after the other man.
Rose raised an eyebrow, and he shrugged. "Well, he thinks that's his name," he pointed out. "What else am I supposed to call him?"
She sighed. "True. Hopefully we can help him find his lost past."
"And solve the mystery of what the Cybermen are doing in Victorian London," the Doctor added grimly.
Rose shivered. "That's why I've had that skin-crawly feeling the whole time we've been here, isn't it? This isn't supposed to be happening, and if we don't stop it, it'll rewrite the whole future."
The Doctor nodded. "Including several fixed points. Imagine… Imagine no Dunkirk," he offered. "No R101 or Titanic. All those fixed points collapse if history is rewritten to this extent."
Rose rubbed her hands over her arms, chilled despite the woollen cloak she wore. Then she took the Doctor's hand. "Well then, we'd better get after him, hadn't we?"
It wasn't hard to catch up with the other Doctor. The funeral procession was only a few streets away, but despite his preoccupation with the service, the other man could be seen slinking towards the back of the dead man's house after the procession moved down the street.
Taking advantage of the fact that it's bound to be empty during the funeral, the Doctor realised as he and Rose followed the other man.
Bit morbid. Rose shuddered.
The Doctor shrugged. But practical, he pointed out.
The other man and Rosita were standing by the corner of the house, watching the funeral procession leave. "The late Reverend Fairchild, leaving his place of residence for the last time," he said as the black funeral carriage rolled by. "God rest his soul. Now, with the house empty, I shall effect an entrance at the rear while you go back to the TARDIS. This is hardly work for a woman."
Rosita and Rose both huffed at the same time. "Oh, don't mind me saving your life. That's work for a woman, isn't it?"
The Doctor quickly grabbed Rose's hands before she could clap and give them away.
The other man stopped and looked at his companion, clearly baffled by her argument. "The Doctor's companion does what the Doctor says."
Rose snorted, and the Doctor stilled when the other man's head whipped around, following the sound. He didn't seem to see them, however, because he turned back to Rosita.
"Off you go," he ordered.
The Doctor looked down at Rose, then nodded after Rosita. Keep an eye on her, he requested. Follow her back to this TARDIS of theirs. I'll search the house with our friend here.
Rose nodded. She stretched up and pressed a kiss to the Doctor's cheek. Be careful, she said sternly. If there are Cybermen in London…
He smiled, then brushed a tender caress over the bond. Of course, love. You take care, too.
Rose hurried after Rosita, and the Doctor turned back to the house in question. The other Doctor was heading for the back door, but he opted for the front door. Sometimes that was the least obvious way to break into a place.
Inside the house, he used the sonic again to lock the door behind him. Faint scratching noises caught his ear, and he followed them back to the back door.
He pulled the door open and tried not to smirk at the gobsmacked expression on the other man's face. "Hello."
"How did you get in?" the other man asked, almost indignantly.
The Doctor jerked his thumb in the direction of the front door. "Oh, front door. I'm good at doors." He spotted something in the other man's hands and blinked rapidly. "Er, do you mind my asking, is that your sonic screwdriver?"
A relieved smile crossed the other man's face. "Yes." He held up the old-fashioned screwdriver. "I'd be lost without it."
"But that's a screwdriver." The Doctor's gaze flicked from the screwdriver to the other man's face. "How's it sonic?"
A frown furrowed the other man's brow. "Well, er, it makes a noise." He tapped it against the side of the door jamb. "That's sonic, isn't it?" Before the Doctor could respond, he glowered at him. "Now, since we're acting like common burglars, I suggest we get out of plain view."
Fair point. The Doctor stepped back so the other man could enter the house. He was still stuck on the revelation that the sonic screwdriver was nothing more than a generic screwdriver, and he tried to redirect his thoughts by asking a question.
"This investigation of yours, what's it about?"
The other man darted over to a desk and pulled a drawer out. "It started with a murder," he said as he rifled through the papers.
"Oh, good."
The rustling stopped, and the Doctor realised what he'd said. "I mean, bad," he amended, and the other man's shock faded. "But whose?"
He went back to rummaging through the drawers, picking up a pocketbook and throwing it back down immediately. "Mr Jackson Lake, a teacher of mathematics from Sussex. He came to London three weeks ago and died a terrible death."
"Cybermen?" the Doctor asked.
The other man sighed and looked at him wearily. "It's hard to say. His body was never found. But then it started. More secret murders, then abductions. Children, stolen away in silence."
The last was said slowly, deliberately, as if the words were too painful to bear. Then he spun away from the desk and picked up a book, flipping through the pages with shaking hands.
"So whose house is this?" the Doctor asked, partly to distract the other man from whatever melancholy grief had momentarily taken hold of him.
"The latest murder."
The Doctor turned and leaned back against the desk while he listened to the description.
"The Reverend Aubrey Fairchild, found with burns to his forehead, like some advanced form of electrocution."
The method of murder was intriguing, but the Doctor still felt like there was something he was missing. "But who was he? Was he important?"
The other man looked up suddenly, a furrow between his brows. "You ask a lot of questions."
The Doctor shrugged and spread his hands out in front of himself. "I'm your companion."
The other man gave a soft, amused huff before continuing with his explanation. "The Reverend was the pillar of the community, a member of many parish boards. A keen advocate of children's charities."
"Children again," the Doctor mused, feeling like they were circling around the truth. "But why would the Cybermen want him dead? And what's his connection to the first death, this Jackson Lake?"
While the Doctor rattled off the questions, the other man turned slowly and walked towards him, his eyes squinting perplexedly. "It's funny," he whispered when the Doctor stopped talking. "I seem to be telling you everything, as though you engendered some sort of trust. You seem familiar, Mr. Tyler. I know your face. But how?"
"I wonder." A detail that had previously escaped him jumped out at the Doctor, and his hearts lurched at the possibilities it presented. "I can't help noticing you're wearing a fob watch."
Maybe this is just a human version of my future self, and Rosita is a fobbed Rose.
Of course, the last time he and Rose had used the Chameleon Arch, the bond had remained intact. But technology didn't always work the way it was supposed to. Perhaps this time, something had gone wrong. His true self might be buried so deeply in his own mind that even Rose couldn't detect it, and likewise between himself and Rosita.
Memories had seeped through that time, in the form of dreams. If this was truly him, that would explain why he knew certain words, like sonic screwdriver, but didn't have the actual device to go along with it.
The other Doctor looked down at his watch, then back at the Doctor, eyes wide. "Is that important?"
The Doctor straightened and stepped towards the other man. "Legend has it that the memories of a Time Lord can be contained within a watch." He kept his voice soft and steady, but the other man still started breathing more heavily. The Doctor held out his hand, hoping he would comply. "Do you mind?"
The other man swallowed hard and pulled the watch out of his pocket. The Doctor took it and held it up between them.
"It's said that if it's opened—" He flipped open the watch cover, but no golden light streamed out of it. Just gears and works. "Oh. Maybe not."
The other man sighed, his features relaxing. "It was more for decoration."
The Doctor nodded. "Yeah."
Truthfully, he wasn't overly disappointed that his theory had been proven wrong. The notion of Rose regenerating was still unproven. If this man was a future regeneration, but Rosita wasn't Rose…The Doctor shuddered.
The possibility that the grief of losing her had broken his mind and stolen his memories had occurred to him, but without the Time Lord consciousness hidden away in the watch, it was a moot point.
He reached for the reassuring presence of Rose in his mind as he spun away from this man who was apparently not him. He could feel her curiosity, and he knew that she and Rosita must be having an interesting talk, back at this mysterious TARDIS.
"Anyway, alien infiltration," the Doctor said briskly, pacing around the room.
"Yes," his companion agreed, equally willing to leave the conversation behind. "Just look for anything different. Possibly metal. Anything that doesn't seem to belong. Perhaps a mechanical device that could fit no earthly engine."
The Doctor smirked and pulled out his sonic screwdriver so he could scan the room. Definitely not an earthly device.
The other man kept rambling as he rummaged through the drawers. "It could even seem to be organic, but unlike any organism of the natural world. Shush! What's that noise?"
The Doctor flipped his screwdriver and slid it back into his pocket before he turned around. "Oh, it's just me, whistling." He pursed his lips and whistled, trying to mimic the hum of the sonic.
The other man scowled and closed a drawer more forcefully than was necessary. The Doctor nodded, then pointed at the desk behind him. "I wonder what's in here, though."
He pulled open the drawer he'd just unlocked and sucked in a breath. Whatever he'd expected to find locked away in the roll-top desk, it wasn't a stash of Dalek info stamps.
"Ah. Different and metal, you were right." He pulled out two of the metal cylinders. "They are info stamps," he explained, then realised his mistake almost immediately. "I mean, at a guess," he backtracked, waiting for the suspicion to disappear from the other man's face. "If I were you, I'd say they worked something like this."
He pressed the smaller end of one, and it projected images onto the wall from the other end. "See? Compressed information. Tons of it."
The Doctor put on his glasses as William Shakespeare's face flashed across the wall. "That is the history of London, 1066 to the present day. This is like a disc, a Cyberdisc. But why would the Cybermen need something so simple? They've got to be wireless. Unless, they're in the wrong century. They haven't got much power. They need plain old basic info stamps to update themselves."
He suddenly realised that his companion had been uncharacteristically silent as he babbled. Looking to his left, he saw the other man slumped in a chair, staring at the other info stamp he held in his hands.
"Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," he said, but his hoarse voice said otherwise.
"No, what is it?" The Doctor knelt in front of him and saw the same grief on the other man's face that had appeared before. "What's wrong?"
The other man took a deep breath and straightened his shoulders. "I've seen one of these before. I was holding this device the night I lost my mind. The night I regenerated."
The word hung in the air for a few moments, the Doctor trying to piece together who exactly this man was, and the other man lost in his memories.
"The Cybermen, they made me change. My mind, my face, my whole self. And you were there." He reached out and pressed his hand to the Doctor's face. "Who are you?"
The Doctor looked at this man who was not himself, but had somehow gotten pulled into his life. "A friend. I swear."
"Then I beg you, John," he sobbed. "Help me."
"Ah. Two words I never refuse." The Doctor smiled reassuringly, then jumped to his feet. "But it's not a conversation for a dead man's house. Rose and Rosita are waiting for us back at your TARDIS."
But there was one thing still nagging at him—why were there info stamps in a Victorian reverend's house?
"Hold on," he told the other man, still sitting down. "I just need to do a little final check. Won't take a tick." He jogged around the room, opening all the doors. "There's one more thing I cannot figure. If this room's got info stamps, then maybe, just maybe, it's got something that needs info-stamping."
He was looking back over his shoulder at the other man while he opened one last door, and when he turned to check what was on the other side, his hearts started racing. A Cyberman looked back at him, still as a statue but obviously active.
"Okay." He slammed the door shut and ran for the other man. "I think we should run."
Behind him, he heard the door break down. The other man still hadn't moved yet, and the Doctor grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him to his feet.
"Run, Doctor! Now, Doctor!"
The metal clomping of a Cyberman followed them as they ran. "Delete."
The Doctor slammed a door shut behind him, then locked it with the sonic screwdriver. At least if the Cyberman had to knock it down, that would slow it down some.
He grabbed the other man by the shoulder and started hurrying him down the hallway. They'd only gone a few steps when another Cyberman appeared in front of them.
"The Doctor will be deleted."
The Doctor spun back around, taking them into the open entry room of the house. The Cyberman he'd locked in the living room knocked the door down just as they arrived.
"Delete."
There were only two directions to go, and one of them was not an option. "Stairs!" the Doctor yelled, pushing the other man towards them. "Can't lead them outside!"
He reached blindly into the umbrella stand at his side and grabbed the first thing he laid his hands on. Holding it up, he realised it was just an umbrella—not really surprising to find in an umbrella stand.
He opened it, then flung it away from himself and grabbed a sword off the wall instead.
Doctor! What are you doing?
The Doctor grinned at the oncoming Cyberman. Oh, just engaging in a duel with a Cyberman, he said blithely. Nothing to worry about.
"Delete."
Rose restrained her worry as much as she could, and the Doctor focused on the two Cybermen closing in on him.
"I'm a dab hand with a cutlass," he warned, pointing the sword first at one, then at the other. "You don't want to come near me when I've got one of these."
Both Cybermen took another step, clearly not seeing a threat in a simple metal sword.
The Doctor gulped and waved the sword again. "This is your last warning. No? Okay, this is really your last warning!" The Cybermen were only a step away from him, and he whirled around and raced up the stairs. "Okay, I give up."
"Delete."
He stopped at the first landing, shielding the human man from the Cybermen. "Listen to me properly. Whatever you're doing stuck in 1851, I can help!" A Cyberman tried to reach for him, and he parried the metal arm with the cutlass. "I mean it. I'm the only person in the world who can help you! Listen to me!"
The metal-on-metal clang of a sword fight filled the room, but the metal body of the Cyberman protected them from harm, just as had been originally intended.
The Doctor retreated under the constant advance of the Cybermen. His hearts raced as he tried to find some way out of the situation he'd trapped himself and his companion in, but despite his words to Rose, he truly didn't know how he was going to get out of this.
"Delete."
The Doctor caught one more blow with the sword and used all his strength to keep that arm from coming down to kill him.
"I'm the Doctor," he growled. "You need me. Check your memory banks. My name's the Doctor. Leave this man alone. The Doctor is me!"
The Doctor was practically lying down on the stairs, and that gave him the leverage to lift up a foot and kick the Cyberman down the stairs. It collided with the other Cyberman, sending them both staggering back a few steps.
They quickly regained their balance and started climbing the stairs again. "Delete."
"The Doctor, remember?" the Doctor yelled, scrambling up a few steps. "I'm the Doctor! You need me alive. You need the Doctor, and that's me!"
Once again, the Doctor held a Cyberman back with nothing but the sword. If he couldn't push them back down, they were cornered.
The Cyberman finally broke through his hold, shoving him back and making him trip on the last stair. The Doctor sprawled on the floor and looked up at the advancing Cyberman.
"Delete."
Their emotionless directive sounded almost victorious this time. The Doctor scooted back across the floor, his eyes darting back and forth, but there was no way out.
Just as he reached for Rose to tell her how sorry he was, a bright light flashed behind him. The Doctor looked over his shoulder and saw the other man, holding the info stamp and pointing the beam of energy directly in the Cybermen's faces.
The Doctor quickly scrambled to his feet and out of the way, knowing what was about to happen. Sure enough, the two Cybermen fell to their knees with their heads in their hands. A moment later, their heads exploded.
He panted a few times, willing his hearts to slow and sending a reassurance of safety to pass over the bond to Rose. Then he looked at the other man, who was staring at the device in his hands.
"Info stamp with a Cyclo-Steinham core. You ripped open the core and broke the safety."
Who was this man, who came up with solutions that only he would think of?
The other man didn't share any of his exultation over their incredible escape. Instead, he was staring at the info stamp as if it were radioactive.
"I did that last time," he murmured, once again lost in his missing memories.
The Doctor put his hands on the other man's shoulders and looked into his eyes. "Come on," he said bracingly. "You'll be okay."
His companion shrugged him off. "You told them you were the Doctor. Why did you do that?"
The Doctor tugged on his ear. "Oh, I was just protecting you," he lied.
"You're trying to take away the only thing I've got, like they did," he accused, gesturing at the destroyed Cybermen behind them. "They stole something, something so precious, but I can't remember." He swallowed a few times to choke back the tears, then looked into the Doctor's eyes. "What happened to me? What did they do?"
"They stole something."
A pit opened in the Doctor's stomach. He'd seen the confusion and grief on his companion's face from time to time this afternoon, but the abject despair in his eyes was new. Something had indeed been taken from him, and whatever it was, it had broken his mind so completely that he had retreated into a different life—into the Doctor's life.
But until he knew the details, the Doctor knew his companion wouldn't accept that truth. Instead, he offered the only reply he could.
"We'll find out," he said sincerely. "You and me together."