Tori lit a lamp, then sat on a bench and crossed her arms. Rory saw the look she was giving him and flinched a bit. He felt like he was in trouble. He reminded himself to ask Amy later if she was related to a Victoria Planck.
"So," she said, "I think you owe me some answers." Rory sat across from her and removed his helmet. The plume on his helmet was fringed and faded. He looked up at the ginger girl. She raised her eyebrow as if to say, "Well?"
"Uhm, you know that story," said Rory, "About the centurion and the box? Well, it's true. I'm him." Tori rolled her eyes. "You don't have to make fun of me," she said. "I'm not!" said Rory. Explaining all this was going to be harder than he thought. He wondered how the Doctor did it.
"See, the universe used to be so much bigger," said Rory, "But, it was erased from time and it never existed. I think. Not sure exactly, that part has always been a bit fuzzy..." Tori was frowning. "But the sky, " he said, gesturing above him, "Used to have loads of stars-" At this Tori scoffed. "Oh you're not one of those nutters who believes in stars, are you?!" Now it was Rory's turn to be annoyed. "Are you going to listen?" he asked. Tori sighed. "Sorry," she said.
"Okay, so the sky had loads of stars," Rory continued, "And some of these star systems had alien life. Most were friendly, but some weren't. And all those guys seemed to be bent on destroying the Earth for some reason..." He trailed off. He had always thought it was odd how Earth was always the target...
"But, there was this one man called the Doctor, who protected us. And one day all his enemies formed an alliance to defeat him, but it sort of backfired, and they erased the universe," said Rory, "Those tin men we saw? They're bad guys. Aliens called Cybermen. Somehow they survived being erased from time."
"And you?" asked Tori, "Are you an alien? I mean you can't be human... You have a gun in your hand!" "No, I'm human. But, I'm made of plastic," said Rory bluntly. "What?!" said Tori, looking more than a little disturbed. "Well, I died," said Rory, "And I turned into a plastic Roman. It's very distracting."
Tori stared at him for a moment, then laughed and sat back. "Rory the Roman," she said, "The lone centurion and his box... Is there anything else I should know?" Rory thought about it. "There are lizard people living under Earth's crust," he said. Tori's eyes grew wide and Rory laughed to himself. He began to see why the Doctor liked this.
CLANG! The metal roof of the bombshelter vibrated as something above it stuck the surface. "What was that? They followed us?!" said Tori frantically, "Why? What do they want?" CLANG! CLANG! Rory frowned. The Doctor had told him about the Cybermen once... almost 2,000 years ago. He shut his eyes as he strained to remember. CLANG!
"Uhm..." he said, "Well, I remember once I killed this one Cyberman with a sword... He was looking for another body to... Upgrade." CLANG! "So these survivors, they're broken and old. There aren't many of them. They're probably looking to rebuild their legion..." CLANG! "But they're so stupid on their own... The Doctor said they need a..."
"What?" said Tori. Rory was staring at her now with a look of fear in his eye. "What do they need? A brain?" Rory nodded. "They need a leader," he said slowly, "And I'm not compatible." Tori's expression darkened as she began to understand. "They want me?" she said.
Before Rory could answer, the hair-raising screech of metal being ripped apart pierced the air and sunlight streamed into the bomb shelter. They saw a rusted metal face through the hole in the roof. "W-w-we have found the girl she will be the new cyber-r-r-r controller we will conquer-r this world."
