Rose's heart was pounding inside her chest, adrenaline rushing through her veins. It was a feeling she had lived for, every since her leather jacket clad Doctor had taken her by the hand and whispered "Run."
She tried to gain some semblance of control over her breathing, in turn causing her heart rate to skyrocket. She bit her lip, attempting to heed herself from creating any more sound than necessary. Her view from the air ducts was greatly obscured. She was partially grateful for this, as it meant whoever had just entered the room would have a difficult time finding her. Unfortunately, it also resulted in Rose having absolutely no idea what was happening to Amy.
Rose gritted her teeth together in frustration. Is this how the Doctor feels? She mused, feeling serious empathy for how agitating it was when everyone you met somehow ended up in life threatening trouble.
Amy was being awfully quiet, Rose realized. Too quiet. If it was anything (or anyone) extraterrestrial, Amy would be screaming by now. It had to be human, and hopefully a non threatening human.
Exhaling her bated breath, Rose's arm pushed the lid of the ducts upwards gingerly with only the tips of her padded fingers. She shuddered as her pointer finger got caught on a loose hanging piece of metal, slicing her finger. Heated pain reawakened her senses, and her finger instantly fell to her mouth to catch the scarlet liquid seeping through the fresh gap in her skin.
Maneuvering her body as inconspicuously as humanly possible in such a cramped area, Rose managed to lower her right palm to the floor. Her left one followed subsequently, and she crawled her way from the duct.
Rose's stood up carefully, her caramel eyes widening to round circles on her face when they were met face with the eyes of her unwanted guest.
The woman before Rose and Amy was in her early thirties, mousy brown hair dusting along the edges of her face. Her lips were pursed disapprovingly, but other than that, her face showed no sign of emotion at all.
She looked vacant, Rose shivered involuntarily, the entire situation giving her the creeps. It was then that Rose noticed the earbuds, beeping quietly in the woman's ears.
"Shit!" Rose swore under her breath, Amy letting out an unidentifiable sound, blood beginning to run down her chin as she spit it up in disgust. Her boots kicked at the lady, missing completely, but the intent was appreciated by Rose nonetheless.
Hoping it wasn't too late for the woman with the earbuds, Rose gently gripped both pods with each of her thumbs and pointer fingers. She pulled carefully, allowing the ear pods to slid from the insides of the woman's ears. She breathed a sigh of relief as the pods came off naturally, and were not followed by gooey brain innards like that one time the Doctor had done a similar act.
The woman's gaze, however, remained distant. Rose sighed and decided to give up for a moment and go assist Amy, who's screaming was getting unbearable to listen to.
"I'm really sorry," Rose apologized sympathetically, and Amy glared in response. She spat the blood that was pooling in her mouth upwards, and the gesture was greatly
unappreciated by Rose.
"Oi! I'm going as fast as I can," Rose defended, irate. She wiped Amy's chin with the sleeve of her shirt before continuing to untie her, working to restore Amy's ability to talk.
Eventually, Amy's limbs were freed and the bleeding in her mouth had reduced considerably. She had to hand it to Rose. Despite the girl's inexperience, she really was helpful in a crisis.
"What's in her ear? Why isn't she saying anything? Did she put me here?" Amy asked, firing off questions of confusion to no one in particular.
Rose looked uneasy, unsure of what to say. Amy not knowing what the ear pod was left a sick taste in her mouth. Everyone had an ear pod before Cybus industries revealed themselves to be supporters of an invasion of metal men. Even today some people wore ear pods from rivaling companies, although Cybus had been shut down years ago.
Maybe the Doctor was right… Maybe Amy wasn't exactly who she said she was.
"They're earpods… You know… Like Cybus industries? That company that tried to stuff everyone in mental suits from a few years ago…. They nearly got my mum." Rose's words were partially honest, as the cybermen had in fact, murdered a Jackie Tyler.
"Metal suits?" Amy said, before it dawned on her. The thick metal boots resembled those creatures the Doctor had told her about. She had only seen them a few times, but they were tangled up in some of Amy's most terrifying memories. For all the tangled confusion that was her mind and past, Amy still remembered the terror of fighting a cyberman, the day of the big bang. But Cybus industries? Ear pods? Amy was sure she would have remembered something like that.
"Guess they weren't as popular over in Scotland…" Amy lied, trying to cover up her confusion.
"No… They were," Rose said, trailing off. She was fairly sure that Cybus industries had sold earpods to at least everyone in the UK, probably America as well, and definitely Japan. There's no way anyone couldn't have at least heard of what an ear pod was unless they lived underground.
Refocusing their attention back on the woman in the room with them, the two girls noticed that she had begun mumbling phrases to herself.
"Are you okay?" Amy asked, at the same time Rose asked for the lady's name.
"You. Will. be. Deleted-d-d-d," The woman's monotone voice tapered off. Rose's palms began to sweat as she remembered the clanging the woman had produced upon entering the room. She looked downwards, trying to make as little motion as possible. The woman's legs had both been replaced with intense gleaming metal boots.
"Deleted?" Amy said incredulously. "How can she delete us? She doesn't even have a gun."
"I don't know," Rose said quietly, pulling a loose piece of her blonde hair behind her ears that was obscuring her vision.
"Byran. I. Love. You. I. Will. Come. Home. Soon." The woman spoke again, still in monotone, but this time, Rose caught a glimmer of something in her eyes… a glimmer of emotion. A glimmer of love. Rose broke out into a haphazard smile, hope igniting her. The woman was partially converted, that much was obvious, but she could feel… There was hope.
"Byran? Who's Byran?" Rose said, trying to keep the woman's brain on the topic of her loved one and not the urge to delete every non conformist she came in contact with.
"Byran? Who is Byran? He. Will. Be Deleted." The woman's mind was slipping away. Fear rattled Rose's senses awake, and Rose hated herself for loving the adrenaline rush.
"No he won't. You love Byran right? Who is he to you? Why do you love him? Focus on that, think about how you felt the moment you first saw him." To Rose's surprise, it was Amy who spoke this time, not missing a beat.
"Yes, exactly! Remember how you felt, exactly how you felt!" Rose and Amy shared a look, as if to say to each other in surprise: Wow, you're good at this for someone who's never helped out with an alien invasion before.
Neither of them really understood, or gave much thought to the other one's look of surprise.
"I. Felt…" The woman trailed off. "I. Felt. Fear. I was afraid to be a mother all on my own.. And so young," Her voice was slipping back into a pattern of normality. Rose smiled excitedly, and girls offered each other a satisfied grin.
"So Byran's your son.. Why did you name him that? How old is he?" Amy and Rose's question kept the woman preoccupied in her thoughts, the internal conflict inside her beginning to be made visible on the outside.
"My granddad's name was Byran… He died just days before Byran's birth...I loved my granddad he… He used to make the best hot cocoa… Tasted so wonderful… I…" The woman's voice cracked, tears spilling from her emerald colored eyes. Rose placed a hand on the woman's shoulder kindly.
"It's okay, you're safe now. Now tell me, Miss, I'm Rose, this is my friend Amy. We can help. What's your name?"
"Paula Herbert," the woman said in between nervous sobs. Her body was shaking in residual fear.
"What did they do to you, Paula?" Amy asked quizzically. "Who did this to you?"
Paula's lower lip quivered reluctantly. "My son! I need to talk to my son!" She demanded, her eyes bugging out of their place within her skull. Rose whipped out her cellphone, handing it to the woman.
"It's okay, Ms. Herbert, you can use mine. Do you know his number?"
Paula sniffed, nodding towards Rose gratefully. "Yeah," she said, her voice still trembling. She struggled to even it out, so she wouldn't worry Byran. She typed in the number carefully.
Slowly, Paula regained composure as the rings of the phone came after one another, counting down to the moment when she would speak to her son for what might have been the final time. A single glistening tear rolled down her face.
"Byran?" She said, her voice animated just from hearing his voice on the other end of the line. "Byran oh my god, I can't talk long-"
"You can talk as long as you need," Rose countered, but the woman spoke over her.
I love you Byran! Byran, whatever you do, don't leave the house. I'll be home soon okay sweetheart? You'll be okay, just stay at home okay? Mummy will be home soon… I love you!" She clicked to end the call, and Rose realized then why she had to keep the call short.
Her expression grew placid once again. Her features rigid. If the shoulder Rose was touching was not warm underneath her palm, she would have thought she was dead.
"We are not yet converted. It seems I have made a mistake. We must go be converted, or we will be deleted," her tone was low, emotionless even. Rose's eyes moistened.
"She's clearly only partially converted… Her emotional inhibitor must be seriously defective," Rose thought aloud, before remembering that she was not supposed to have any serious knowledge of alien life on Earth. "I mean… I think so… I saw it on tv or something. It's like how they beat the cybermen. They switch on emotions." She hoped she sounded clueless enough for Amy to buy into it.
Amy, thankfully, didn't seem to catch on to Rose's slip up, and just continued staring at Paula. Her eyes felt as if they were boring holes into the woman's head as they gazed intensely, trying to make sense of what was going on.
"There's gotta be something we can do to help her!" Amy exclaimed, frustrated that she and Rose could do nothing while the emotions of a mother of a young boy were sucked right out from under them.
The Doctor would know what to do, Amy thought, her internal tone almost one of anger.
"The Doc-" Rose started, biting her lip hard as she realized her mistake. "I'm sorry Amy… But, I don't think there's anything we can do. We just have to prevent this from happening to anyone else." Rose's tone was grave, her eyes intense. It was then that Amy realized just how old and experienced Rose's eyes felt compared to the rest of her. She didn't look at Amy the way Amy would expect a twenty something year old shop girl to.
Amy did a double take, her heart skipping a beat for a moment. Was Roe about to say "The Doctor"? She brushed the thought from her mind. God I must really be losing it, she mused nervously. I'm even hearing things now.
"If you do not come with me to be processed then I shall call my masters and you will be deleted." Paula hardly needed to pause for breath.
Amy scowled, swinging her arm upwards violently to smack Paula square in the face.
"Oww!" Paula yelped, pain reeling across her face. "Ow." Her voice was smaller this time. It wasn't just her face that hurt, it was everything. Her entire body was at war, combating the cybernetic intruder.
Rose squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, trying to asses the situation. She remembered what the Doctor had said, the first time they encountered the cybermen. Immediately, he had surrendered and allowed the cybermen to abduct them, which they kindly refused to do before explaining that certain death was in store instead. In this case, the woman before her seemed fairly harmless, but a part of Rose's mind wondered if she should arm herself.
Back at the mansion, in a locked room that only she and the Doctor knew how to enter, there were Torchwood worthy weapons, the crowned jewel of the room being the heavy loaded gun that Rose had brought to her original dimension to blow the Daleks to smithereens.
The Doctor and Rose had sparsely talked about Rose's clear change in attitude towards arming herself after her years spent without him. When the proper Doctor had left Rose with the human Doctor in Pete's world, claiming that he was hardened from being born in battle and she needed to fix him again, Rose had always wondered if maybe, he meant it the other way round.
If he had, he wasn't wrong. Rose had been hardened from her time alone, basically leading the parallel UNIT and Torchwood. When the human Doctor joined her, it had taken Rose months to finally lock away all the guns for good. The proper Doctor had been right in a way. Rose and the human Doctor reminded each other day in and day out that there is always another way.
"Paula, could you take us to who made you this way?" Amy asked, shoving Rose from her thoughts.
"I don't- I…" The woman gasped for breath. "I don't... "
"It's okay." Rose pat the woman on the shoulder. "We need to get her out of here," she said, turning to Amy. "I'll explore, try to find out what's going on. If you travel through the air ducts, you end up in the girl's room. Honestly you can't miss it. You can escort her out of the store. You'll both be safe outside, just get far away from here. Is that alright?"
Amy looked at Rose as if she'd gone mad. "Are you insane? I don't want to just sit outside uselessly."
Rose glanced at the redhead apprehensively. "Are you sure? It won't be safe."
Amy's eyes seemed to light up at the thought.
"Safe?" Her eyebrows raised. "Who said anything about safe?"
They shared a look for a moment, a terse meaningful look in which both girls were realizing how the Doctor felt when he acquired a new companion.
"Geronimo," Amy said, her smile only widening when she heard Rose exclaim:
"Allons-y!"