Author's Note: Hey guys, thanks for the positive reviews, here's chapter three!

War, Wisdom and Innocence

Thankfully, and to the Doctor's great relief, the second tunnel wasn't quite so long; it was apparent to him now that they were heading deep into what appeared to be a recently built planetary base, there were numerous airlocks along the way and the metal floor beneath their feet was worn down, clearly many people had once used this walkway. Now... now it was empty. The Doctor didn't dare think of how it had come to be so.

But he could imagine.

What awaited the trio behind the final air lock was another circular metallic room, well lit and filled with technology that the Time Lord had only ever dreamed of; the mother computer was in the centre, hexagonal in shape with a large antenna that stretched to the top of the dome, the controls flashing intermittently. Three people stood, hunched over the controls, unaware of the new arrivals.

"Father!" Kura cried and raced forward, an elderly looking gentleman with curly grey hair looked up from the computer in shock but his expression turned to one of relief when his sky blue eyes fell upon those of his daughter; he met her half way across the room, wrapped his slender arms around her and lifted her off her feet enthusiastically. Whatever his age, the man was doing well, but there were dark lines of worry etched into his face that even seeing his daughter safe and sound could not remove. They were the lines belonging to a man who had the weight of the world resting upon his shoulders. A man who had been forced to fight.

The Doctor knew how he felt.

A small cough from behind the happy pair brought everyone back to the moment, the old man turned back to his two partners, a young male and female, who appeared to be less than enthralled that Kura had returned; from what the Time Lord could read from their faces, they weren't particularly impressed to see the Cyberman either, and when they'd seen him... well, their startled expressions made the traveller wish he'd got a camera.

"Who the hell are you?"

The man who had asked the question had shoulder length black hair and dark skin, he was tall and well-built too, wearing an outfit quite comparable in condition to Kura's, as was the young woman's standing beside him; his startled expression had turned into one of distrust and curiosity, fair enough he probably hadn't a seen a stranger in a while, but that was no reason to be rude. Kura's father raised his head at the question and his eyes widened at the sight of the Time Lord, Kura let go and stepped back, standing between the two conflicting groups.

"Father, this is the Doctor..."

The time traveller didn't think that the man's eyes could get any wider, it just wasn't possible, but it was certainly apparent that Kura wasn't the only one who knew about his existence; although the weight of Kura's introduction was lost on the pair behind, the blonde female with the green eyes looking quite disgruntled.

"Who cares?" she barked, her arms folded protectively against her chest and looking clearly disinterested, "everyone on this damn rock is medically qualified."

Kura glared in her direction, and the Doctor cowered a little as he saw Zak still beside him clench his fists; the relationship between the Cyberman and the teen was growing ever more confused, questions formed in his head but he batted them away, one thing at a time Doctor...

The elderly man waved away the woman's interruption, "No, no, no Calita; not a Doctor..." Oh not this again, thought the traveller, "the Doctor! The last of the Time Lords! The legendary time traveller! The –"

Kura cleared her throat and her father stopped mid-sentence, he looked at her inquisitively as she shook her head warningly. "Already been through this, Dad."

"Well what's he doing here?" Calita interrupted again, her tone less than friendly. Clearly the fact that he was a Time Lord was not all that impressive; the man beside her wasn't particularly fazed either.

"Thank you, that's precisely what I want to know!" cried the Doctor, gesturing to Calita, "What am I doing here?"

The old man had not taken his eyes off Kura, clearly trying to ask her why she had not told him these things; for a moment the Doctor thought that perhaps Kura could hear everyone's thoughts, but then he realised that the man's expression was pretty much readable. The girl shuffled her feet and blushed under his gaze, "I thought you should tell him," she whispered, "he needs to understand, I don't think I'm the right person."

Kura's father nodded his head and shifted his blue eyes to the Doctor once more, "my apologies, Doctor, where are my manners? My name, Sir, is Professor Metis Atropos..."

Now it was the Doctor's turn to be amazed, he almost said "The Professor Atropos?" But decided against it, all the repetition was getting on his nerves. Still, his face must have given away what he was thinking because Metis chuckled, Kura beamed beside him, proud of her heritage.

"I can see you've heard of me. Professor Atropos, winner of the Universal Noble Peace Prize 2167..." his smile faded, "how ironic that you and I should be so alike. Two men so desperate to bring about peace, and yet are forced to fight against their will."

Yeah, that's how the Doctor felt.

"But you won that award for the scientific lunar base on Athena, the first moon of Carmentis. How did you come to be here, fighting the Cybermen?"

"Where do you think you are Doctor? This is Athena, or what remains of her anyway."

The Time Lord's hearts sank, he remembered hearing about Athena years ago when it had first been opened; it was a first in this part of the galaxy, a scientific research centre and school focusing on producing peace-promoting artefacts and substances and the teaching of talented individuals. Once the most peaceful place in the Universe, Athena had become a place of war...

"It is arguably our fault that we are in the position you see today..."

"Well, some of us are more to blame than others" added Kura, bitterly; her eyes darted to Calita and the man beside her who returned her gaze with sneers.

"Yes, thank you Kura, leave Seth and Calita out of this." He looked sternly at his daughter for a moment, "If it is anyone's fault, it's mine." Then he turned back to the Doctor and began his story.

"This base has been a home to many scientists and students ever since I moved here with Kura in the year 2155, over the years we have developed our experiments, broadened our understanding of the universe and strived to improve life for everyone. About three years ago we began researching the entity known as the void and the theory of parallel universes..."

The Doctor did not like where this was going.

"Then, a year ago we finally built 'The Gate', a portal that the group of scientists leading the research experiment believed would allow us to open a rift connecting this universe and the void, and then one day hopefully, the worlds beyond it. Six months ago, they perfected it... and one month ago, they used it..."

***

"Father, please listen to me."

Kura was finding it hard to keep up with Metis, he was pacing along the corridor with such determination and focus that his daughter found herself tripping over her own feet as she fought to remain ahead of him. She wanted him to look at her; she wanted him to grasp just how important the situation was.

"Father –"

"Kura!" Metis stopped dead in his tracks causing Kura to stumble backwards; she looked up to see him frowning down upon her, his sky blue eyes stormy with vexation. "This has got to stop; I am fed up of having this conversation with you..."

"But Dad –"

"No! The experiment has to go ahead, the council have already put it forward to the Carmentian governors, we can't back down now... if we do, they'll halve this place's funding. You know I'm already in trouble with them; I can't afford to make the situation any worse. I know you're worried about the risks, but Seth and Aegle know what they're doing... so do the rest of the team; are you sure this isn't just because you're jealous? I know how much you wanted to work on the project, but you knew you couldn't, it may be too dangerous with your condition..."

The very suggestion that Kura was jealous of those two was repugnant to her, no, of course she wasn't jealous! Seth, Aegle and almost every other student on this damn base made her life a misery, all of them adamant believers that she was only at the school because her dad was the Head Scientist. As for her 'condition'...

"Stop calling it that, Dad! And anyway, that's not important, don't you get it? I wanted to work on that project because I wanted to understand more about the void! I never wanted to open it! You don't know what's the other side, you don't know what could be waiting for us when the gate is opened! They did it too, Dad; the humans at the Battle of Canary Wharf... don't you remember the stories about the ghosts??"

"They could have been just that, Kura, stories!"

"But Dad!"

Unfortunately for Kura, she was cut off in her protests when sirens sounded above them, the shrill sound ringing through the metal tunnels; a voice spoke over them as those present in the corridors desperately tried to cut out the ear splitting noise.

"Can Professor Atropos please come to the Gate immediately!"

It felt as though something was lodged in Kura's throat, her eyes caught her father's and they exchanged worried expressions before both shot off towards the desired location; Kura just hoped that it wasn't too late, she had studied the contents of the void, she knew all too well about the Time Lord who had sealed away a monstrosity... and she wanted to keep it that way.

She and her father approached the lab and entered to watch a crowd of six or seven students and professors turn to register their entrance. Calita was there and she sneered at the sight of Kura, "only authorised personnel are allowed in this room, we wouldn't want to aggravate your condition, would we Kura?"

The teen snarled at the blonde, she was tall, thin and tanned and would always have her long golden locks covering a side of her face; that really annoyed Kura, then again, everything about Calita annoyed Kura, even that mole above her lip. When she'd finally finished eyeing Kura up and down, she simply flicked her blonde curls from her eyes and beamed at Professor Atropos expectantly, clearly waiting for him to dismiss his daughter.

Much to Calita's disgust, Metis shook his head.

"Kura can stay, she won't move any closer to the device – now, what seems to be the problem?" He paced over to the group of scientists who were huddled around the large controls, Kura hanging back at the door receiving more dirty looks from the blonde but gritting her teeth to hold back a curt reply.

"It's our sensors, Professor," Aegle said, his voice was edgy, excited, "they've picked up something, something in the void..."

Kura felt her chest tighten, her stomach churned and her heart rate increased. That could not be good...

"Something in the void?" Metis was trying to look as though he was giving his fullest attention to the readings being processed on the control screen but his eyes flitted to his daughter from time to time, watching her body become tense, knowing what this would be doing to her.

"Yes'sir," Seth answered, "we're picking up at least eighteen individual signals... and whatever is the other side of that gate... is alive. They locked onto the signal we emitted about an hour ago as we prepared to run the experiment, they've not tried to contact us but they're certainly waiting for some kind of interaction, their signals became clearer when we opened the first time lock. We just wanted to the go ahead from you, whether we should continue or not..."

Everybody in the room looked to Metis, the seven students eager to press on... and Kura, there was Kura, shaking her head only the tiniest bit, her eyes pleading with him to reconsider. But when her father simply returned her gaze half-heartedly, and when he sighed and closed his eyes, she knew what his answer would be; he had to do this, he was under too much pressure, nothing bad would happen, she was just jealous, bla bla bla...

She'd heard it all before, he just found new ways of saying that she was delusional, that the accident that she'd had when she was younger had damaged her, that her 'condition' was the cause of her paranoia...

But Kura had read every file on the events that had lead to the sealing of the void, she knew what was waiting, and they were letting them through.

"Dad, please..."

But it was too late, Aegle had already pressed down the controls necessary to open the Gate that was standing in the centre of the room; it was a giant metal archway, with two antennae either side from which two huge bolts of blue electricity were shot directly into the centre of the Gate. The bolts appeared to hit something, like a glass panel, but where they had struck there was now a tear suspended in the air, like a rip through fragile fabric; the hole grew, stretching upwards until it was a seam that gradually tore itself open, revealing a blinding light.

Everyone gasped, shielding their eyes from the dazzling light; Kura pulled down her goggles, desperate to remain looking at the hole in reality, the hole that should not be possible. She was searching, searching for some kind of life, some kind of movement.

She didn't have to search for long.

Silhouettes were emerging from the light, blurred at first but growing ever more solid as the hole increased in size; Calita cheered, so did Seth and Aegle and all the other students, thrilled that on their first run, they had found life within the void. Metis had backed away, he was now standing beside his daughter, his hand holding hers; he could feel her trembling, she was terrified, but she never pulled her gaze away from the approaching figures.

They were close now, almost distinguishable, so close to passing through; Aegle had stepped forward, his curly ginger hair swaying in the powerful current of air created by the Gate, his hand was extended to the visitors.

Kura could see them now, their suits of armour reflecting the dazzling light of the void, they were just as frightening as she had pictured them.

Her grip tightened on the old man's hand, "Father... we have to go."

"What?"

"We have to leave, right now."

One of the void dwellers was passing through the thin layer of permeable matter that separated the Void from reality, a silver hand slipping through, extended and open; Aegle took hold of it and began to shake it as the rest of the creature appeared.

"On behalf of Athena, first moon of Carmentis, I would like to welcome you -"

Aegle never finished his sentence, he was dead on the floor in seconds; screams filled the room, Metis gasped, more creatures were passing through the Gate, they could not be stopped. Someone pressed the alarm, sirens sounded, the entire lab was in uproar; Kura didn't wait a single second longer, she turned and ran from the room, pulling her father with her, the others not far behind.

Echoes filled the corridor: "Delete! Delete!"

"What were those things?" Metis was looking at his daughter desperately, Kura didn't turn to face him, she just kept running.

"Cybermen, Dad. They were Cybermen."

***

Everyone in the room was silent, Metis had stopped talking, his face solemn and guilty; Calita and Seth were finally looking bashful and Kura, well Kura didn't seem to be there any more, not in spirit anyway...

She'd moved away from her father as he'd spoken and had edged her way back to the Doctor and Zak who had placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, her eyes had glazed over but she had raised her own hand to stroke the Cyberman's metal fingers; the Time Lord was incredulous, he couldn't believe that such sensible, intelligent people had actually thought that opening the void had been a good idea...

Sometimes it felt like the Doctor was the only being in the entire universe who ever saw sense; he felt like making this known, his blood boiling just thinking about the stupidity of these people.

Well, maybe not Kura...

Kura....

Of course! There was Kura, the girl who had warned them against opening the void in the first place, who knew the damage that the Cybermen were capable of creating... and yet here she was in some kind of bizarre relationship with one of them!

Metis caught the expression on the Doctor's face, telling him that he was not yet satisfied, that there was much more that he needed to know.

Be patient Doctor, our story isn't finished yet..."

I know that this doesn't cover everything, but if i'd explained how Zak came to be in this chapter as well then this chapter would have been at least twice the size it is now. I used the flashback to make sure the whole chapter wasn't just Metis blabbing on to the Doctor. Kura's character is beginning to develop well, in my original plans she didn't have what they're describing as a 'condition' but then i realised that it will make more sense in the long run. Don't worry, a lot will become clear in the next chapter :)