The TARDIS materialised on a playground and Rose ran out, carrying a huge red backpack. Violet and the Doctor followed and they set off for the flats on the Powell Estate, also known as Rose's home.
"Mum, it's us! We're ba-ack!" Rose sang as she walked into her flat. Her mother- blonde, chavvy and in her 40s- came to greet them.
"Oh, I don't know why you bother with that phone! You never use it!" She scolded, but anyone could have told that she was happy to see her daughter.
The younger blonde grinned, "Shut up, come here!" They hugged tightly while Violet and the Doctor tried to slip past unnoticed, but Jackie saw them.
"Who's she?" She looked at Violet after having given the Doctor a kiss on the lips, despite his protests.
"Oh, mum, this is Violet. She's travelling with us! Violet, this is my mum, Jackie Tyler." Rose introduced them and they awkwardly shook hands, the older with a slightly cold look on her face.
"Are you keeping my Rose and the Doctor apart, then?" She asked jokingly, but Violet saw the honesty shine through.
"On the contrary." She smiled and joined Rose in the living room.
"I've got LOADS of washing for ya!" She dropped the backpack into her mother's arms. "And - I got you this!" Rose showed her a tiny ornate bottle with a grin. "It's from the market on this asteroid bazaar. It's made of um..."
"Bezoolium." Violet helped her while the Doctor flipped through random magazines.
"Bezoolium. When it gets cold, yeah, it means it's gonna rain - when it's hot, it's gonna be sunny! You can use it to tell the weather!" Rose told her, excited.
"I've got a surprise for you and all." Jackie didn't give the gift any recognition.
"Oh, I get her Bezoolium - she doesn't even say 'thanks'." Rose said, but wasn't really mad.
Guess who's coming to visit? You're just in time," Jackie checked her watch. "He'll be here at ten past! Who do you think it is?"
"I don't know." Rose deadpanned.
"Oh go on, guess!" Her mother urged her.
"No, I hate guessing. Just tell me."
"It's your grandad. Grandad Prentice. He's on his way. Any minute!" She was very excited at the fact, but Rose just stared at her. "Right, cup of tea!"
"Why aren't you happy? Don't you like him?" Violet asked quietly, standing next to the girl.
"Grandad Prentice - that's her dad. But he died like, ten years ago. Oh my God. She's lost it." They went into the kitchen with the Doctor, and Rose addressed her.
"Mum?" The three of them stood in the doorway. "What you just said about grandad..."
"Any second now." She smiled.
"But... he passed away. His heart gave out. Do you remember that?" Her daughter asked gently.
"Course I do!"
"...Then how can he come back?"
"Why don't you ask him yourself?" Jackie checked her watch again. "Ten past. Here he comes." Out of nowhere, a figure- like a shadow, blurred out but humanoid- appeared and stood next to Jackie. She went to say something but Violet was already running outside, her companions following after a moment.
"They're everywhere!" She breathed. And they were. Like ordinary people, they stood everywhere, but nobody was alarmed by their presence.
"Doctor, look out!" Rose shouted as a ghost walked right through him.
Jackie joined them, "They haven't got long. Midday shift only lasts a couple of minutes. They're about to fade."
"What do you mean, SHIFT? Since when did ghosts have shifts? Since when did shifts have ghosts? What's going on?" The Doctor was genuinely confused, as was Violet.
"Oh, he's not happy when I know more than him, is he?" Jackie joked.
"But no one's running or screaming or freaking out or…" Violet continued to look around, baffled.
"Why should we? She looked at her wrist-watch once again. "Here we go. Twelve minutes past."
Just as quickly as they came, the ghosts disappeared. Both Time Lords were completely confused.
Rose, The Doctor, Violet and Jackie sat in the living room, in front of Jackie's TV.
"On today's Ghostwatch, claims that some of the ghosts are starting to talk, and there seems to be a regular formation gathering around Westminster Bridge."
After pointing his sonic screwdriver at it, the Doctor changed the channel.
"And tonight we're expecting very strong ghosts. From London, through the North and up into Scotland. "
Different channel.
"So basically, Eileen, what you're telling me is, that you are in love with a ghost."
"He's MY ghost and I love him, 24/7!"
"Well, no one needs me anymore!"
"My ghost was pale and grey until I discovered... Ectoshine!"
"Et le President d'aujourd'hui, quelle est-"
"Listen to me, Denn Watts. I don't care if you HAVE come back from the grave. Get out of my pub! The only spirits I'm serving in this place are gin, whisky and vodka. So, you heard me - GET OUT!"
Violet shook her head. "They're everywhere. All over the world…"
"When did it start?" The Doctor asked.
"Well first of all, Peggy heard this noise in the cellar, so she goes down-" Jackie started.
"No, I mean worldwide."
"Oh! That was about two months ago. Just happened. Woke up one morning, and there they all were - ghosts, everywhere. We all ran round screaming and that, whole planet was panicking... no sign of YOU, thank you very much... then it sort of sank in. Took us time to realise that... we're lucky."
"What makes you think it's granddad?" Rose asked suddenly.
"Just feels like him. There's that smell, those old cigarettes. Can't you smell it?" Jackie looked at her.
"I wish I could, mum, but I can't."
"You've got to make an effort. You've got to WANT it, sweetheart." The woman told her daughter.
"The more you want it, the stronger it gets?" The Doctor summed up.
"Sort of, yeah."
Violet nodded, getting where he was going, "Like a psychic link. Course you want your old dad to be alive, but you're wishing him into existence. The ghosts are using that to pull themselves in."
"You're spoiling it." Jackie glared at her.
"I'm sorry, Jackie, but there's no smell, there's no cigarettes. Just a memory." The Doctor defended her.
Rose looked confused. "But if they're not ghosts, what are they, then?"
"Yeah, but they're human! You can see them - they LOOK human!" Jackie exclaimed, not wanting to lose what was left of her dad.
"She's got a point. I mean, they're all sort of blurred, but they're definitely people." Her daughter agreed.
"Maybe not. They're pressing themselves into the surface of the world." The Doctor thought out loud.
"A footprint doesn't look like a boot." Violet added.
Rose strode into the TARDIS, where the Doctor was standing under the flooring of the console, holding a newspaper.
"According to the paper, they've elected a ghost as MP for Leeds." She read. "Now don't tell me you're gonna sit back and do nothing."
The Doctor popped up from underneath the grilling. He was wearing a strange rucksack and holding an odd-looking device.
"Who're you gonna call?" He asked in the style of the 'Ghostbusters' theme tune.
"Ghostbusters!" Rose shouted, laughing.
"I ain't afraid of no ghosts." The Doctor said with a huge smile, still in the style of the TV show. He left the TARDIS and Rose and Violet followed, laughing loudly.
Jackie waited outside and watched as he placed three cone-shaped devices in a triangle shape.
"When's the next shift?" The Doctor asked her.
"Quarter to. But don't go causing trouble. What's that lot do?" She pointed at the devices.
"Triangulates their point of origin." He said simply.
"I don't suppose it's the Gelth?" Rose asked thoughtfully.
"Nah." He dismissed. "They were just coming through one little rift. This lot are transposing themselves over the whole planet. Like tracing paper."
"You're always doing this. Reducing it to science. Why can't it be real?" Jackie said, clearly upset. "Just think of it, though... all the people we've lost- our families coming back home. Don't you think it's beautiful?"
The Doctor paused his work and looked up. "I think it's horrific."
Jackie looked shocked, but said nothing.
"Rose, Violet- give us a hand." The Doctor beckoned them. He started unwinding a cable all the way back into the TARDIS and Violet plugged it into the console while all three women followed.
"As soon as it becomes activated, if that line goes into the red, press that button there. If it doesn't stop..." He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and tossed it at Violet, "You know what to do. "If it goes into the blue, activate the deep scan on the left."
"Hang on a minute, I know..." Rose pointed at a button on the console. It's that one." She guessed.
"Mm, close."
She pointed to another, "That one?"
"You just blew us up." Violet laughed and pushed the Doctor out of the door. "I know what to do. Go on, the ghost shift is gonna start soon."
The Doctor looked at her with a mock-sour face, making Rose giggle. None of them noticed the way Jackie looked at them.
"What's the line doing?" The Doctor shouted from outside.
"It's all right, it's holding!" Rose replied.
"You even look like him." Jackie, who had been standing off, contemplating Rose, said.
"How d'you mean?" Rose looked at the doors leading outside and smiled, "I s'pose I do, yeah."
"You've changed so much." Her mother stated. At that point, Violet left to go outside, not wanting to get caught up in a private argument.
"Come on you beauty!" The Doctor shouted, facing the triangle. A ghost appeared in the centre. As it does, the cones connected each other with blue electricity over top of the ghost, trapping it insid. The Doctor held out a pair of 3D glasses to Violet and put a pair on himself. When he bent down to adjust on of his devices, the ghost started to shudder and let out a groan.
"Don't like that much, do you?" The Doctor grinned. After receiving a shock from the ghost, he stumbled backwards but continued to grin. "That's more like it! Not so friendly NOW, are you?"
Suddenly, the ghost disappeared and the Doctor and Violet grabbed the equipment and moved it back into the TARDIS as quickly as they could.
Once inside, the Doctor threw his coat over the railing. "I said so! Those ghosts have been FORCED into existence for one specific point! And I can track down the source. Allons-Y!" He pulled down a lever as Violet moved his coat away.
"You always forget to take off the brakes." She laughed and flipped a switch of her own.
"Hey! She likes it, don't you?" The Doctor stroked the TARDIS but frowned when she told him that she really didn't. He got back on track quickly and twiddled with some buttons.
I like that. 'Allons-y'. I should say 'allons-y' more often. 'Allons-y'. Watch out, Rose Tyler! Allons-y! And THEN, it would be really brilliant if I met someone called Alonzo. Because then I could say, 'allons-y, Alonzo'! Every time! You're staring at me." Rose had been watching the Doctor with a smirk on her face as he rattled on like he usually did.
"My mum's still on board." She said quietly.
"If we end up on Mars, I'm gonna kill you." Her voice sounded, and Violet laughed at his horrified face.
The group watched soldiers surround the TARDIS on the monitor after they had landed.
"Oh, well there goes the advantage of surprise. Still! Cuts to the chase. Stay in here, look after Jackie." The Doctor told Rose and Violet as he went for the door.
Violet scoffed, "What? Stay here while you have all the fun? As if."
"I'm not looking after my mum!" Rose exclaimed.
"Well, you brought her!" The Doctor countered, having accepted Violet's coming.
"I was kidnapped!" Jackie said.
"Doctor, they've got guns." Rose blocked the door for the Doctor and Violet.
"And we haven't. Which makes us the better people, don't you think?" He moved her smoothly out of the way by the waist, and Violet noticed his hands lingering for just a second longer than needed. "They can shoot us dead, but the moral high-ground is ours."
And with that, he opened the door and the two Time Lords stepped through it. Both raised their hands as the soldiers released the safety catches on their guns- all trained on them.
"Oh! Oh, how marvellous." A woman, estimated late 30s and blonde, started clapping. "Oh, very good. Superb. Happy day!"
The soldiers did the same and both Violet and the Doctor lowered their hands hesitantly, not knowing what to make of the unusual reception.
"Um. Thanks. Nice to meet you. I'm... the Doctor." He said, disturbed.
"Oh, I should say! Hurray!" They started clapping again.
"You... you've heard of me, then?"
The woman nodded with a huge smile on her face, "Well of course we have. And I have to say, if it wasn't for you, none of us would BE here. The Doctor and the TARDIS! Although, we don't know her." She gave Violet a pointed look.
"Violet." She said simply, and they all started clapping again. Finally, she gestured for silence, completely confused.
"And… you are?"
"Oh, plenty of time for that. But according to the records, you're not one for travelling alone. The Doctor and his companion. Except, that," She pointed at Violet, "Isn't her. We have records of a Rose Tyler." She said.
"Yes! Sorry. Good point. She's just a bit shy, that's all." He opened the TARDIS door and pulled out Jackie. "But here she is: Rose Tyler. She's not the best I've ever had. Bit too blonde. Not too steady on her pins. A lot of that." He mimed chatting. "And just last week, she stared into the heart of the Time Vortex and aged fifty-seven years. But she'll do."
"I'm 40!" Jackie exclaimed.
"Deluded. Bless. I'll have to trade her in. Do you need anyone? She's very good at tea. Well, I say very good, I mean not bad. Well. I say not bad... anyway! Lead on. But not too fast. Her ankle's going."
"I'll show you where my ankle's going." Jackie hissed as they followed the woman obviously in charge.
"It was only a matter of time until you found us. And at last you've made it. I'd like to welcome you, Doctor." She pushed open a doorway into a huge factory floor. There were scientists working on alien artefacts all over the place. "Welcome... to Torchwood."
"That's a Jathar Sunglider." The Doctor motioned at what was above.
"Came down to Earth off the Shetland Islands ten years ago."
"What, did it crash?" He asked.
"No, we shot it down. It violated our airspace." She said as if it were no big deal at all.
"You stripped it bare!" Violet exclaimed, outraged. There were living beings on that, and she doubted that they had taken care of them- they were most likely dead.
"The Torchwood Institute has a motto: "if it's alien, it's ours". Anything that comes from the sky - we strip it down, and we use it. For the good of the British Empire." The woman, who's- Violet noticed- name tag read 'Yvonne', said.
"For the good of the what?" Jackie raised her eyebrows.
"The British Empire."
"There ISN'T a British Empire." Jackie frowned and Violet wandered off, seeing an alien device she wanted to inspect. She did so, and recognised it as a piece of Dalek technology. She shivered involuntarily at thoughts of the Time War but was pulled out of it when Yvonne, the Doctor and Jackie came up behind her.
"So, what about these ghosts?" The Doctor asked.
Yvonne nodded, "As yes, the ghosts. They're... what you might call a side effect."
"Of what?"
"All in good time, Doctor. There is an itinerary, trust me." Just then, the TARDIS was driven in on the back of a truck.
"Oi! Where're you taking that?" Jackie spotted it.
"'If it's alien, it's ours.'" Yvonne repeated Torchwood's motto.
"You'll never get inside it." The Doctor smirked.
"Hm! Et cetera." She retorted.
They were in a corridor, walking alongside Yvonne and flanked by armed soldiers, much to the Doctor and Violet's disgust.
"All those times I've been on Earth, I'VE never heard of you." The Doctor commented.
"But of course not. You're the enemy. You're actually named in the Torchwood Foundation Charter of 1879 as an enemy of the Crown." Yvonne said matter-of-factly.
"1879... that was called Torchwood, that house in Scotland." He thought back.
"That's right. Where you encountered Queen Victoria and the werewolf." She nodded.
"I think he makes half of it up." Jackie added.
"Her Majesty created the Torchwood Institute with the express intention of keeping Britain great. And fighting the alien horde." Yvonne explained.
"But if I'm the enemy, does that mean that I'm a prisoner?" The Doctor asked conversationally.
"Oh yes." She smiled. "But we'll make you perfectly comfortable. And there is so much you can teach us. Starting with this." She scanned her ID against a digital lock and the door they stood before opened.
"Now, what do you make of that?" She pointed at a huge sphere with a dark golden, metallic colour. A man, Indian, straightened his jacked and approached the Doctor, who was staring at the sphere with an open mouth.
"You must be the Doctor. Rajesh Singh. It's an honour, sir." Rajesh held out his hand but the Doctor was too focused on the sphere, while Violet subconsciously started edging backwards.
"What IS that thing?" Jackie asked.
"We got no idea."
"But what's wrong with it?"
"What makes you think there's something wrong with it?" The scientist questioned.
"I dunno... just feels weird." The Doctor moved forwards and up the steps that lead up to the sphere.
"Well, the sphere has that effect on everyone. Makes you wanna run and hide. Like it's forbidden." Yvonne started.
"We tried analysing it using every device imaginable. But - according to our instruments - the sphere doesn't exist. It weighs nothing. It doesn't age. No heat. No radiation. And - has no atomic mass." Rajesh continued.
"But I can see it!" Jackie exclaimed.
"Fascinating, isn't it? It upsets people because it gives off... nothing. It is... absent." He told her.
"Well, Doctor?" Yvonne urged him to give them the answers they had been searching for for months.
"This is a Void Ship."
"And what is that?" She asked, slightly irritated.
"Well, it's impossible for starters. I always thought it was just a theory, but... it's a vessel designed to exist outside time and space. Travelling through the Void." He sounded a little worried, and Violet knew it was rightful.
"And what's 'the Void'?"
"The space between dimensions. There's all sorts of realities around us, different dimensions - billions of parallel universes all stacked up against each other. The Void is the space in-between. Containing absolutely nothing. Imagine that - nothing. No light, no dark, no up, no down. No life. No time. Without end. My people called it the Void, the Eternals call it the Howling. But some people call it Hell." He explained to them.
Rajesh frowned. "But someone built the sphere. What for? Why go there?"
"To explore. To escape. You could sit inside that thing and eternity would pass you by. The Big Bang... end of the universe, start of the next, wouldn't even touch the sides. You'd exist outside the whole of creation." The Doctor said.
"You could use it to hide from a war." Violet said, a really bad feeling coming over her. The Doctor's head snapped up.
"You don't think that…" He trailed off, too terrified to speak the words.
"It's a possibilty." She nodded solemnly. None of the humans understood what they were talking about. "That thing needs to go back. Where did it come through?"
The Doctor and Violet strode off, him walking into the wrong direction.
"Doctor." Violet called out to him, prompting him to turn around and head in her direction. She never had been one to go into a situation blind.
They were in a well-lit room with a large, completely bare, white wall on one end, and windows on the other. A few desks stood in between, where people were working. Violet noticed their earpieces beeping and thought back to the world she had been trapped in. But it couldn't be, could it?
"The sphere came through here. A hole in the world." Yvonne presented. "Not active at the moment. But when we fire particle engines at that exact spot, the breech opens up."
"How did you even find it?" The Doctor asked, running his hand along the wall.
"Well, we were getting warning signs for years. A radar black-spot. So we built this place. Torchwood Tower. The breech was six hundred foot above sea level. It was on the only way to reach it." The woman said lightly.
"You built a skyscraper just to reach a spatial disturbance? How much money have you got?" He raised his eyebrows.
"Enough." The chef of Torchwood told them.
"Ever thought about donating?" Violet commented, putting her feet up on the desk she was sitting at.
"Hold on a minute..." Everyone turned to Jackie, who stood, looking out of the windows, "We're in Canary Wharf! Must be! This building, it's Canary Wharf."
"Well, that is the public name for it. But to those in the know, it's Torchwood."
"So, you find the breech, probe it, the sphere comes through. Six hundred feet above London, bam. It leaves a hole in the fabric of reality. And that hole, you think, 'Oh, shall we leave it alone? Shall we back off? Shall we play it safe?' Nah, you think, 'let's make it BIGGER!'" The Doctor joined them.
"It's a massive source of energy. If we can harness that power, we need never depend on the Middle East again. Britain will become truly independent. Look, you can see for yourself. Next Ghost Shift's in two minutes." Yvonne said as if she was in the right, not understanding the danger of what she was doing.
"Cancel it." He said simply.
"I don't think so."
"I'm warning you, cancel it." He glared at the woman.
"Oh, exactly as the legends would have it. The Doctor, lording it over us. Assuming alien authority over the rights of Man." Yvonne provoked him.
"Let me show you." The Doctor told her. He took out his sonic crewdriver and held it to the glass that sectioned Yvonne's office off from the rest of the room.
"Sphere comes through." He activated the sonic and made a hole into the glass, effectively cracking and splintering the rest of the glass.
"But when it made the hole, it cracked the world around it. The entire surface of this dimension, splintered. And that's how the ghosts get through. That's how they get everywhere. They're bleeding through the fault lines. Walking from their world, across the Void, and into yours. With the Human Race hoping and wishing and helping them along! But too many ghosts, and..."
He placed his fingertip lightly on the glass, and the whole thing fell shattering to the ground.
"Well, in that case we'll have to be more careful." Yvonne brushed it off. "Positions! Ghost Shift in one minute." She told the staff.
"Ms Hartman, I am asking you - please, don't do it." The Doctor pleaded.
"We have done this a thousand times." She said.
"Then stop at a thousand!" He shouted, furious.
"We are in control of the ghosts. The levers can open the breech, but equally they can CLOSE it." At that point, Violet stood up.
"Hello, me again. I've very quiet, I know. Sorry about that. But you just made him raise his voice, and I can garantee you that's a bad place to stand. Cancel it." She said with a condensending stare at the woman.
"No."
They stared at eachother for a few moments. Violet couldn't believe her stupidity- she was putting two entire dimensions at risk! She glared for a few seconds before backing off.
"Okay." She smiled.
"Sorry?!" Yvonne frowned, confused.
"Oh, never mind. You're right, it'll be fun."
"What, is that it?" She asked.
Violet went back to the empty desk she sat at before and returned to her position. "Come on, Rose. Doctor. Pull up a chair. Do you have any alcohol?" She asked the man behind her.
"Ghost Shift in twenty seconds." The woman with the blinking earpieces announced.
"Great! Oh, it's gonna be brilliant! Right, Doctor?" She looked at him enthusiastically. He grinned and sat down next to her.
"Yeaaah." He dragged out.
"You can't stop us." Yvonne narrowed her eyes at them.
"You won't even notice us. Quiet as mice, we are." Violet stared her in the eyes with a large grin on her face.
"Ghost Shift in ten seconds. Nine... eight..." Yvonne looked at them uneasily, close to breaking. The girl raised her eyebrows-
"Seven... six... five... four... three... two..."
And she broke.
"Stop the shift. I said stop." She sighed.
"Wasn't that hard, was it?" Violet smiled a real smile that time.
"I suppose it makes sense to get as much intelligence as possible. But the program will recommence, as soon as you've explained everything." She looked at the Doctor.
"I'm glad to be of help." He told her truthfully.
"And someone clear up this glass." She told no one in particular before turning back to the Doctor. "They did warn me, Doctor. They said you like to make a mess." She dissapeared back into her office and Violet giggle, earning her a nudge from the Doctor as they followed her.
"So these ghosts, whatever they are - did they build the sphere?" Yvonne sat at her desk, a laptop before her, while Violet and the Doctor on the other side of the desk with their feet on it's surface. Jackie stood by the window.
"Must have. Aimed it at this dimension like a canon ball." He told her, but looked at Violet, who was very uneasy in her seat and fidgeting with her bracelet.
"Yvonne? I think you should see this. We've got a visitor. We don't know who she is, but funnily enough, she arrived at the same time as the Doctor." Rajesh's voice came through the laptop and Yvonne turned it around to reveal Rose and the scientist on the screen.
"She one of yours?" She asked.
"Never seen her before in my life." He shook his head.
"Good! Then we can have her shot." Yvonne smiled.
"Oh all right then, it was worth a try. That's... that's Rose Tyler." He sat up, taking his feet off of the table.
"Sorry." Rose waved into the webcam. "Hello!"
The Doctor waved back with a grin.
"Well, if that's Rose Tyler, who's SHE?" Yvonne motioned to Jackie.
"I'm her mother." The woman in question replied proudly.
"Oh, you travel with her mother?" She smirked.
"He kidnapped me."
The Doctor leaned forward, "Please, when Torchwood comes to write my complete history, don't tell people I travelled through time and space with her mother..."
"Charming." Jackie said sarcastically.
"I've got a reputation to uphold!" He told her.
Violet was going to comment, but the sounds of the ghost shift machine started up, and Yvonne addressed her staff.
"Excuse me? Everyone? I thought I said stop the ghost shift." The three workers with the blinking earpieces ignored her, typing away. The Doctor and Viole exchanged glances, having seen that before.
"Who started the program? But- I ordered you to stop! Who's doing that?!" She pointed at the leaver which was rising by itself.
"Step away from the monitors, everyone." She ordered.
When nobody did, she panicked, "Gareth, Addy - stop what you're doing, RIGHT NOW. Matt. Step away from your desk. That's an order! Stop the levers!"
Two scientists rushed over to the levers and struggled to push them down.
"What's she doing?" The Doctor walked up to a darker skinned woman.
"Addy? Step away from the desk." Yvonne said. The Doctor clicked his fingers, but the woman didn't react.
"They're overriding the system." Violet examined one of the computers and turned to stare at the empty wall.
"We're going into Ghost Shift." The Doctor said with a hint of panic in his voice. He turned back to the woman.
"It's the ear-piece controlling them. I've seen this before." He took out his sonic screwdriver and stood behind her.
"Sorry. I'm so sorry." He told her sincerely. He held the sonic to the earpiece, deactivating it. The three workers screamed in pain before slumping over the desk.
"What happened? What did you just do?" Yvonne demanded.
"They're dead." He told them and typed a few things at a computer and was going to move to the other, but Violet beat him there.
"You killed them." Jackie accused.
"They were already dead." Violet told her while typing.
"But he killed them!" She insisted.
Violet growled lowly, "Shut up, Jackie! Not the time!"
She focused on the computer but still heard Yvonne pull out one of Addie's earpieces. She sighed and turned to them.
"They're still controlling the system. Hi-jacked it, the override is deadlock-sealed. You have to find the source." She told them, mainly the Doctor. He nodded and ran off, sonic screwdriver held out in front of him.
Violet watched as the scientists tried to pull down the levers, but it was no use. The light got brighter and everyone squinted.
For a while, they just stood and waited- there was nothing anyone could do, but soon Violet heard Cybermen approaching. They led the Doctor and Yvonne back into the rift chamber and the Doctor shouted,
"Get away from the machines - do what they say, don't fight them!" The Cybermen killed one of the scientists anyway, and Violet pushed through the Cybermen, towards the Doctor. Once she made it past, she cowered into the Doctor's arm, making him frown at her in concern.
"What are they?" Jackie squeaked, terrified. The Doctor didn't answer, he just held his scared companion while she shook.
"We are the Cybermen. The Ghost Shift will be increased to one hundred percent." One of them answered, clamping a fist over its chest, making the lever rise again, beginning the Ghost Shift.
"Online." A computer announced.
"Here come the ghosts." The Doctor said, melancholy. He watched rows upon rows of Cybermen advance out of the hole.
"These Cybermen - what've they got to do with the ghosts?" Jackie asked the man who took her daughter into similar things all the time.
"Do you never listen? A footprint doesn't look like a boot!" He replied, frustrated.
"Achieving full transfer." A Cyberman said.
"They're Cybermen. All of the ghosts are Cybermen." The Doctor said. "Millions of them. Right across the world."
"They're invading the whole planet." It dawned on Yvonne.
"It's not an invasion, it's too late for that. It's a victory." He said seriously.
A computer beeped and said, "Sphere activated. Sphere activated. Sphere activated. Sphere activated."
"What I don't understand is Cybermen don't have the technology to build the Void Ship, that's WAY beyond you. How did you create that sphere?" The Doctor asked.
"The sphere is not ours." One of them said.
"What?" He asked, stunned.
"The sphere broke down the barriers between worlds. We only followed. Its origin is unknown." It repeated.
"But that would mean that..." He trailed off.