The Little Street Girl

by MyLadyOfStories

Jace is a street girl, and has been for 2 years. She ran from her foster parents when she was 12, and never looked back. Jace was doing well, living anonymously as a boy until the spaceship crashed into Big Ben. And then everything changed when the Doctor found her. He gave her a home.

18. Not An Idiot

Jace:

Dear Diary

Dad said it would be anidea to start writing things down, because we didn't know how much the human side of my memory would everremember. Possible infinite life span, but finite memory. The hardest part is remembering to speak English, as he says I keep speaking French. 31 years of it, and it stuck.

Reinette... She was my best friend, even closer to me than Rose, or Mickey. And now... Now she was gone, but at the same time she was gone long before I ever was conceived. Me ever meeting her was an accident, and I gave her a friend as much as I had her. Lady Belle Voix... She was gone, and now I was Jace again. Not that I minded.

I haven't sung since then, since she died, and I didn't know when I was going to again. My voice was something sheloved, and maybe... Maybe it died with her.

I put down my pen and then looked at dad and Rose, laughing on the console, Mickey just pressing a random button. "And that weird munchkin lady with the big eyes? Do you remember? the way she looked at you! And then she opens her mouth and fire comes out!"

"I thought I was going to get frazzled!"

"Yeah." Dad was giggling, his eyes bright and twinkling. "One minute she's standing there, and the next minute roar!"

Mickey was hanging on to their every word. "Yeah. where was that, then? What happened?"

And as usual they weren't valuing him like they should. "Oh, it was on this er, this er planet thing. Asteroid. It's a long story, you had to be there."

"Er, what're you doing that for, Mickey?" I asked him, getting to my feet, carefully avoiding getting my heels stuck in the grated floor.

"Because your dad me to."

Which was news to my dad. "When was that?"

Mickey frowned a little. "About half an hour ago." Oh, dad!

"You can let go now."

"Well, how long's it been since I could've stopped?" We both looked at dad, and I brushed down my skirt, used to the feeling of my legs now. I was an 18th Century French woman.

He made a small face. "Ten minutes?" I looked at him sharply. "Twenty? Twenty nine?"

And our friend finally realised what had happened. "You just forgot me!"

"No, no, no. I was just, I was, I was calibrating. I was just. No, I know exactly what I'm doing."

Then the time rotor blew up.

"What's happened?"

I grabbed the monitor, looking through everything, the swirls still making perfect sense to me, like they always did. "The time vortex is gone. That's impossible. It's just gone. Brace yourself! We're going to crash!"

We landed hard, and I crashed into dad, and he held me close as the gas masks dropped, the power leaving, not even enough left over for the TARDIS to tell me the time. No colours. "Everyone all right? Jacey? Rose? Mickey?"

"I'm fine." Mick nodded. "I'm okay. Sorry. Yeah."

"She's dead." We breathed, staring at the console. "The TARDIS is dead."

Rose looked between us. "You can fix it?"

I shook my head sadly, trying to press some form of energy into her, but there was nothing. "There's nothing to fix. She's perished. The last TARDIS in the universe. Extinct."

She looked horrified for a moment. "We can get help, yeah?"

"Where from?" Dad asked, keeping hold of my hand as I kept trying. "Jace, stop, it won't work. It's OK."

"Well, we've landed." I told him softly, having to think about not speaking French. "We've got to be somewhere."

But he shook his head. "We fell out of the vortex, through the void, into nothingness. We're in some sort of no place. The silent realm. The lost dimension."

"Otherwise known as London." Mickey called from the door. "London, England, Earth. Hold on." He kept going out, picking up a discarded newspaper as we followed after him. "First of February this year not exactly far flung, is it?"

"So this is London." Mickey agreed with me. "Your city."

He grinned at me. "That's the one."

"Just as we left it." The man agreed with me. "And that includes the Zeppelins?"

Now Mickey finally saw them. "What the hell?"

One of them passed overhead, and Rose gasped as she watched it go. "That's beautiful."

"Okay, so it's London with a big international Zeppelin festival."

Dad finally realised. "This is not your world."

"But if the date's the same, it's parallel, right?" He asked us, and I nodded with a small smile. "Am I right? Like a parallel Earth where they've got Zeppelins. Am I right? I'm right, aren't I?"

Dad agreed with him, holding my hand so tight. "Must be."

Rose was a little confused. "So, a parallel world where-"

"Oh, come on. You've seen it on films." Her boyfriend was explaining. "Like an alternative to our world where everything's the same but a little bit different, like, I don't know, traffic lights are blue, Tony Blair never got elected."

"And he's still alive." she was staring at an advert for Vitex Lite, cherry, with a random guy on it. "A parallel world and my dad's still alive."

"Don't look at it, Rose." Dad told her. "Don't even think about it. This is not your world."

She was shaking her head. "But he's my dad and" The advert told us to trust him on something. "Well, that's weird. But he's real. He's a success. He was always planning these daft little schemes. Health food, drinks and stuff. Everyone said they were useless. But he did it."

"Rose, if you've ever trusted me, then listen to me now. Stop looking at it. Your father's dead. He died when you were six months old. That is not your Pete. That is a Pete. For all we know, he's got his own Jackie, his own Rose. His own daughter who is someone else, but not you. You can't see him. Not ever."

And then we left Mickey with her, and went back into the TARDIS, both working hard on the console, trying to get her to do something, anything. Until Mickey came back in. "I told you to keep an eye on her."

He shrugged a little. "She's all right."

"She goes wandering off. Parallel world, it's like a gingerbread house. All those temptations calling out." Dad snapped, and I frowned a little. I may be in my 40's now, but there was still things out there to temp me. If mum and dad were still around?

"Oh, so it's just Rose, then? Nothing out there to tempt me and Mickey?" I asked dad with a raised eyebrow.

That made him sigh a little. "Well, I don't know, I can't worry about everything. If I could just get this thing to-" He kicked the console.

"Did that help?" I asked him sarcastically.

"Yes."

"Did that hurt?"

"Yes." He started hopping, rubbing his toes. "Ow."

"You idiot." I sighed, rubbing my eyes, my make up coming away a little before fixing itself. I'd changed since I'd last been in the TARDIS. "We're not meant to be here. The TARDIS draws it's power from the universe, but it's the wrong universe. It's like diesel in a petrol engine."

Mickey frowned a little. "But I've seen it in comics. People go hopping from one alternative world to another. It's easy."

Dad shook his head, pulling me onto the jump seat next to him. "Not in the real world. It used to be easy. When the Time Lords kept their eye on everything, you could hop between realities, home in time for tea. Then they died, and took it all with them. The walls of reality closed, the worlds were sealed. Everything became that bit less kind."

That didn't sound promising. "Then how did we get here?"

"I don't know." He admitted, playing with the ring on my hand. He never could sit still. "Accident? Should've been impossible. Now we're trapped. What's that?" A tiny green light was reflecting onto Mickey's face and my long pianist fingers. "That, there. Is that a reflection? It's a light! Is it? Is that a light? I think that's a light. That's all we need. We've got power! Jacey, Mickey, we've got power! Ha!"

He dove under the main console, pulling things apart to get to something that was showing light, that was showing that the TARDIS was still alive somehow, that one tiny part was holding on. "It's alive!"

Mickey was staring at it in confusion. "What is it?"

"It's nothing. It's tiny." I laughed, taking it out of his hand. "One of those insignificant little power cells that no one ever bothers about, and it's clinging onto life, with one little ounce of reality tucked away inside."

"Enough to get us home?"

"Not yet." Dad told him, smiling brightly. "I need to charge it up."

His face lit up for a moment. "We could go outside and lash it up to the National Grid."

"Wrong sort of energy. It's got to come from our universe."

"But we don't have anything."

"There's me." I sighed, going to sing, to put my own life energy into it, but something stopped me, remembering Reinette singing along with me. So I turned on my colours, using my sonic manipulation to put some energy into it.

Dad frowned a little, but took it back and put something into it himself, breathing on it softly. "I just gave away ten years of my life. Worth every second."

The light dimmed a little. "It's going out. Is that okay?"

"It's on a recharging cycle." He explained to me. "It'll loop round, power back up and be ready to take us home in, oo, twenty four hours?"

Huh... "So that gives us twenty four hours on a parallel world?"

"Shore leave." Dad nodded a little. "As long as we keep our heads down. Easy. No problem. Let's go and tell her." He took my hand, and then lead me outside, still holding the power cell. "There you are. You all right? No applause. I fixed it." No, we fixed it. "Twenty four hours, then we're flying back to reality. What is it?"

She held up her phone. "My phone connected. There's this Cybus Network. It finds your phone. It gave me Internet access." Really?

"Rose, whatever it says, this is the wrong world."

"I don't exist".

Wait, what? "What do you mean?"

"There's no Rose Tyler. I was never born. There's Pete, my dad, and Jackie. He still married mum but they never had kids." She looked at me. "And Jaclyn Monroe was never born. Lucie Miller-Monroe never met the Doctor. No Jace." My. My mum? She was here?

Dad wasn't happy. "Give me that phone."

"They're rich. They've got a house and cars, and everything they want. But they haven't got me. I've got to see him. Jace probably feels the same."

He didn't even look at me. "You can't."

She shook her head a little. "I just want to see him."

"I can't let you."

"You just said twenty four hours!"

The Doctor was really not happy. "You can't become their daughter, that's not the way it works. Jace, Mickey, tell her."

Mum... "Twenty four hours, yeah?" I asked him, putting my bag over my shoulder, getting ready to put my headphones in. 30 years of no Green Day. How did I survive?

"Where're you going? Jaclyn!"

"Well, I can do what I want." I smiled. "I'm 40 odd years old, dear Father, and I can look after myself."

Rose was backing away too, as Mickey followed me. "I've got the address and everything."

It was not my dads day. "Stay where you are, all of you. Rose, come back here! Mickey, come back here right now! Jaclyn, come on, now!"

"I just want to see him."

"Yeah, I've got things to see and all. Don't worry, Jace will look after me!" Yeah, or just leave you as I track down the old person my mum would probably looking after.

Dad stared at him. "Like what?"

"Well, you don't know anything about me, do you? It's always about Rose, even Jace has been an after thought recently, since she stopped being a little kid. I'm just a spare part, and she's become one too."

"I'm sorry. I've got to go."

I stared dad down, still backing away. "Go on, then. There's no choice, is there? You can only chase after one of us. It's never going to be me or Mickey, is it?"

He hesitated, before running after Rose. "Back here, twenty four hours!"

"Yeah. If I haven't found something better." Mickey muttered, taking my hand lightly as he used to. Well, still did in his time line. Time was funny like that, both life and death to my kind, keeping us alive, but without access to the Time Vortex was poison, like a drug we couldn't live without. It nearly killed me.

But Mickey was still fond in my memory, and I remembered that he always felt left out, apart from when I was there, because I knew how it felt to be left out, to look into something from the outside. We reached wherever he was going, and we passed an army roadblock. "Are weall right to get past?"

The soldier nodded. "Yeah. No bother. Curfew doesn't start till ten."

"There's a curfew?"

The guy looked at me strangely, though I was used to men staring. "Course there is. Where you been living, mate? Up there with the toffs? You look like one, see how you're dressed."

From street girl to French Aristocracy... "I wish." I smiled sweetly. "See you."

Mickey's grip on my hand got tighter when he knocked on the door, an old West Indian woman calling from inside. "Who's that there?" The door opened, and the woman having a white stick and a weird pair of earpods. "Who is it? I know you're there. Shame on you, tricking an old lady. I've got nothing worth stealing. And don't think I'm going to disappear! You're not going to take me."

Oh, now she seemed awesome. "Hi."

"Is that you?"

"It's me." Mickey agreed. "I came home. I brought a friend."

"Ricky and Jackie?" Excuse me? I didn't exist here. And My name may be Jaclyn, but I hated Jackie.

But my friend found it hilarious. "It's Mickey. And Jace."

The woman didn't look impressed. "I know my own grandson's name. It's Ricky, and his girlfriends name is Jackie. Now, come here." Mickey hugged the woman, as I stared. Girlfriend?! I was here, and I was apparently Mickey's girlfriend. What the hell?!

"Okay, I'm Ricky. Of course I am. Ricky, that's me." He smiled, just happy to be able to hug his gran. Before she slapped him. "Ow!"

"You stupid boy. Where have you been?"

"Ow! Stop hitting me!" Safe to say Mickey had an authoritarian upbringing.

"It's been days and days! I keep hearing all these stories. People disappearing off the streets. There's nothing official on the download but there're all these rumours, and, and whispers. I thought that God had disappeared you, leaving this poor girl alone! I've always said, she's the best thing that ever happened to you, she's been amazing, this gorgeous woman."

My so called boyfriend looked behind the woman at the staircase. "That carpet on the stairs, I told you to get it fixed. You're going to fall and break your neck." Oh God...

She smiled at him. "Well, you get it fixed for me."

"I should have done way back." He sighed, shaking his head. "I guess I'm just kind of useless."

"Now, I never said that."

Mickey was really sad now, I could see the mellower tones in his usually light blue voice, now green and yellow. "I am, though. And I'm sorry, gran. I'm so sorry."

The Old woman shook her head a little. "Don't talk like that. Do you know what you two need? A nice sit down and a cup of tea. You got time?"

"For you, I've got all the time in the world. Come on, Jacks." Great, I'd become a middle aged blonde... Never mind. I was 45, so yeah. I was a middle aged blonde woman. Perfect.

"Oh, you say that, but it's all talk." She shook her head, backing away a little. "It's those new friends of yours. I don't trust them."

OK, that sounded interesting. "What friends are they?"

She shook her head at me. "Don't pretend you don't know, Missus. You've been seeing them. Missus Chan told me. Driving about all helter skelter in that van."

"What van's that, then?"

"You know full well! Don't play games with me." His Gran snapped at the pair of us, as a van came closer. For gods sake. "Get inside."

But then someone jumped out of it, grabbing me and Mickey. "I've been looking for you two everywhere!" And then we were in the van, and he started to drive off. "Jackie, you were the one who told us you don't contact your family because it puts them in danger. Well, Ricky's family, sorry." So I didn't have family then, ok. I was enjoying working this out, actually.

"Yeah. Jackie said that." I nodded a little. "Course I did, just testing."

The man was nodding. "I saw them. I taped them. They went round Blackfriars gathering up the homeless like the child catcher. They must've took four dozen."

A woman in the drivers seat started to speak, and I looked at her, memorising her vocal patterns. "The vans were hired out to a company called International Electromatics. But I did a protocol search. Turns out that's a dummy company established by guess who?"

"I don't know. Who?"

"Cybus Industries!" Who were they when they were at home?

"Well, now we've got evidence." What evidence?

Blonde Lady Driver nodded from the front. "Bad news is, they've arrested Thin Jimmy. So that just leaves you, Jacks."

OK, now what did that mean? "Leaves me what?"

"The Number One."

Man who grabbed us grinned a little brighter. "Top of the list. London's Most Wanted."

OK... Dad was going to kill me... "Okay, cool. Say that again?"

But then we reached the base of their operations, and he was distracted. "There's a light on. There's someone inside the base. Missis Moore, we've got visitors." They both grabbed guns and I internally rolled my eyes. Guns, ugh. "One, two, three, go!"

They burst in, leaving us to stare in horror as there were two familiar shapes stood looking at us, though myparallel had much lighter hair, a silvery blonde compared to my own ashen gold. "What the hell are you doing?"

"What're you doing there?"

"What are we doing here?" Parallel Mickey asked, walking a little closer as punk Rock me opened her hands a little. Right, still with an ability but what type? Still sound, or something else? "What are we doing there?"

Then the two others turned their guns on us. Best not to stop them yet, don't want her to know we're the same, sort of. They got to work scanning us, and I made sure they didn't pick up on the tracker in my bag, or the fact that everything in my bag was under a perception filter to look normal. "Theyclean. No bugs."

They were both circling us, and I was transfixed by my double, seeing how she was so, so similar. "But this is off the scale. He's flesh and blood. How did that happen?"

"Well, it could be that Cybus Industries have perfected the science of human cloning, or your father had a bike. And with Jackie, we, well, we don't know anything but you were dumped by that Lucie woman when you were left with her." Wait, Lucie wasn't her mum? She was so similar to me, but I was sure she was my mum. Dad was my birth dad, we'd already worked that out... But I was 57% Time Lord, where did that extra 7% come from?

"And your name is Mickey, not Ricky. You're Jace not Jackie, but we're both Jaclyn?"

"Mickey. Dad was Jackson Smith. Used to work at the key cutters in Clifton's Parade. Went to Spain, never came back."

"I'm Jaclyn, Jace, grew up with my mum Lucie until she, my stepdad, and my little sister died in a car crash. Then I spent years on the street until my real dad found me."

Jackie stared at me. "Lucie was never my mum, which means if we're sisters, she's not yours too."

Jake, as we'd learnt his name was, shook his head a little. "Be fair. What else could it be? You're still tracking down that curly haired blonde woman Lucie told you about." What? OK, this parallel was a bit different. I hoped, I'd already learnt I Harry wasn't my dad, I didn't want to lose Lucie too.

"I don't know. But she doesn't just look like me, she is exactly the same, apart from the hair. There's something else going on here, Jake."

"So, who are you lot?" Mickey asked as I looked at them with the colours, my synaethesia helping to memorise slight differences in our voices, to help later on. And with how Jackie was looking at us, she was doing the same. Sounds, Girl of Colours, but was she the Bad Wolf?

Ricky raised an eyebrow, wrapping an arm around his girlfriend. So weird, he was still like my big, but younger, brother. "We? We are the Preachers. As in Gospel Truth. You see? No ear plugs. While the rest of the world downloads from Cybus Industries, we, we have got freedom. You're talking to London's Most Wanted, my Jacks, but target Number One is Lumic, and we are going to bring him down."

Oh, perfect. I had a purpose and nothing would stop me from fulfilling it. "From your kitchen?"

"Have you got a problem with that?"

"No, it's a good kitchen." Mickey, don't be scared of parallel us, we were better. We didn't live in a house without wifi.

Mrs Moore looked up from her computer in the corner, a special dongle in the side. "It's an upload from Gemini."

"Who's Gemini?"

They ignored us. "The vans are back. They're moving out of Battersea. Looks like Gemini was right. Lumic's finally making a move."

"And we are right behind him. Pack up, we're leaving." Then we went quickly, and they all checked their weapons, bar Mickey, though Jackie and I didn't have one. They knew what she was then, but was she a Time Lord or just Human Plus?

But then we got to wherever they wanted us to be, and we were hiding in some bushes, outside a swanky party. "I don't know what they're doing, but this seems to be the target. Big house, fair bit of money. Now we have got to find a way to get in."

Back in the van, Mrs Moore was back on the laptop, after Jackie did something to it for her before she found what she was looking for, "I've identified the address. It belongs to Peter Tyler, the Vitex millionaire."

"Pete Tyler?" Mickey and I questioned, because I met him, before I got eaten by a reaper and came back when he was dead, and he was really nice.

"He's listed as one of Lumic's henchmen." The couple told us, and I shivered at the idea of intimacy. "A traitor to the state."

Mickey frowned a little, and I took his hand as I saw the fear in his voice. "But we've got to get in there."

"Now, shut it, duplicate. That's what I just said." A ramp was dropped down from the back of the lorry. "What are they doing?" Heavy feet started to march down it and onto the gravel, bold and black as Jackie and I flinched at each one. "What the hell are they?" Yeah, I'd like to know too.

Then they attacked the party, and I saw Rose and dad come running out, so Ricky and Jake started to shoot at them, as Jackie and I both aimed a sonic blast at them, only that managing to knock them back..

"Oh my God, look at you." Then Rose hugged Ricky and dad hugged me tight. "I thought I'd never see you again!"

He stared at her, as my parallel glared and pulled her off. "Yeah. No offence, sweetheart, but who the hell are you?"

Mickey grabbed her. "Rose! That's not me. That's like the other one. Like Jace."

"Oh, as if things weren't bad enough, there's two Mickey's. At least I have two Jace's."

"It's Ricky."

"It's Jackie."

Oh, come on, not the important part. "But there's more of them."

"We're surrounded."

Dad took charge, still holding me. He was scared to lose me, that was a comfort. "Put the guns down. Bullets won't stop them. Neither will the sonic blasts, Jace's." Jake was still shooting but we stopped him. "No! Stop shooting, now. We surrender! Hands up. There's no need to damage us. We're good stock. We volunteer for the upgrade program. Take us to be processed."

The metal men stared at us. "You are rogue elements."

Oh God no... "But we surrender."

"You are incompatible."

"But this is a surrender."

"You will be deleted."

"But we're surrendering!" Dad shouted, putting me behind me as Ricky did the same with Jacky. "Listen to me, we surrender!"

They didn't care though. "You are inferior. Man will be reborn as Cyberman, but you will perish under maximum deletion." They held out a deadly arm towards us. "Delete. Delete. Delete!"

But then dad aimed at the power cell at them, and our combined energies shot out and they all fell back, Ricky staring at us. "What the hell was that?"

"We'll have that instead. Run!"

Mrs Moore then sounded the van's horn. "Everybody, in!"

"I've got to go back." Pete said, going to run back. "My wife's in there."

"Anyone inside that house is dead." Dad told him sternly and forced me towards it. "If you want to help, then don't let her die for nothing. You've got to come with us right now."

"Come on! Get a move on!" Mrs Moore shouted again as Jackie, Ricky and Jake got inside, followed after by Pete.

Rose was still staring out at the house. "Rose, she's not your mother."

She nodded a little. "I know."

"Come on." I pulled her into the van and Mrs Moore shook her head.

"Finished chatting? Never seen a slower getaway in my life!"

Jackie, the double of me, stared at what was still in dads hand. "What was that thing?"

"Little bit of technology from our home."

I took it out of his hand, pressing more sonic energy into it carefully, feeling the power want to make me sing, but I couldn't. "It's stopped glowing. Has it run out?"

He shook his head, kissing mine. "It's on a revitalising loop. It'll charge back up in about four hours. You, however, need more than that. You're sleeping when we get back."

Ricky sighed. "Right. So, we don't have a weapon anymore. Jackie and the double, they weren't enough. I've seen her take down whole buildings and she barely moved them." Actually, that was a good point. Maybe her voice, our voice, but I couldn't. Not after Reinette.

But Jake picked up his gun. "Yeah, we've got weapons. Might not be one of those metal things, but they're good enough for men like him. Have Jackie shatter his spine." Oh, now that was a lovely image.

"Leave him alone." Rose told him. "What's he done wrong?"

"Oh, you know, just laid a trap that's wiped out the Government and left Lumic in charge."

Pete raised an eyebrow. "If I was part of all that, do you think I'd leave my wife inside?"

"Maybe your plan went wrong." Jackie shrugged. "Still gives us the right to execute you, though. I like the idea of shattering a spine, always wanted to try it."

I glared at all of them, getting angry. "Talk about executions, you'll make me your enemy. And take some really good advice. You don't want to do that. Because I can do everything she can, maybe more, because I've had training on what we are."

Ricky shrugged, Jackie sitting on his lap. "All the same, we have evidence that says Pete Tyler's been working for Lumic since twenty point five."

"Is that true?"

The couple both nodded. "Tell them, Mrs M."

She spoke up from the front, driving the getaway car. "We've got a government mole who feeds us information. Lumic's private files, his South American operations, the lot. Secret broadcasts twice a week."

"Broadcast from Gemini?" Knew it. The tones from that message they got, the waves went back to him. Like I said, training.

"And how do you know that?"

Pete nodded. "I'm Gemini. That's me."

Ricky didn't look impressed. "Yeah, well you would say that."

"Encrypted wavelength six five seven using binary nine." They were all staring now. "That's the only reason I was working for Lumic. To get information. I thought I was broadcasting to the Security Services. What do I get? Scooby Doo and his gang. They've even got the van."

Mickey shook his head. "No, no, no. But the Preachers know what they're doing. Jackie said she's London's Most Wanted."

Now my double blushed herself. "Yeah, that's not exactly-"

"Not exactly what?"

"I'm London's Most Wanted for parking tickets."

Pete rolled his eyes. "great."

"Yeah, they were deliberate. I was fighting the system. Park anywhere, that's me. Besides, I barely even exist. Never had a home, I only have a juvie record when I was caught shop lifting, that's when I got a name. Jaclyn, and I became Jackie."

"Good policy." Dad beamed, holding my hand tighter as he remembered that I'd once been on the streets. "We do much the same. I'm the Doctor, by the way, if anyone's interested. I'm Jace's dad."

Our unnatural blonde waved next. "And I'm Rose. Hello."

Parallel father Tyler stared at her. "Even better. That's the name of my dog. Still, at least I've got the catering staff on my side."

"I knew you weren't a traitor." She smiled at him. Not your dad...

"Why is that, then?"

She shrugged a little. "I just did."

He sighed, rubbing his eyes wearily. "They took my wife."

"She might still be alive." Rose pointed out, but that wasn't good either apparently.

"That's even worse. Because that's what Lumic does. He takes the living and he turns them into those machines."

"Cybermen." Dad corrected. "They're called Cybermen. And I'd take those ear pods off, if I were you. You never know. Lumic could be listening." He indicated for me to zap them while he kept talking. "But he's overreached himself. He's still just a businessman. He's assassinated the President. All we need to do is get to the city and inform the authorities. Because I promise you, this ends tonight."

We got out of the van in the city, and looked around as people were walking in lines like zombies. "What the hell?" Jake asked, walking towards someone as I saw all the signals controlling them, telling them where to go.

Rose looked at the both of us. "What's going on?"

Could she not tell? "It's the ear-pods. Lumic's taken control."

"Can't we just, I don't know, take them off?"

She went to, and I saw quite how in depth the signal was going. "Don't! Cause a brainstorm. Human race. For such an intelligent lot, you aren't half susceptible. Give anyone a chance to take control and you submit. Sometimes I think you like it. Easy life."

"Hey, Come and see." Jake called, and we followed, seeing more people around the corner, as well as a squad of Cybers.

"Where are they all going?"

"I don't know." Dad admitted. "Lumic must have a base of operations."

But Pete knew. "Battersea. That's where he was building his prototypes."

This was ridiculous, why would you do this to people without their permission, it was horrific. "Why's he doing it?"

"He's dying. This all started out as a way of prolonging life, of keeping the brain alive at any cost."

Then I remembered what the Cybermen were, looking back at dad. "The thing is, I've seen Cybermen before, haven't I? The head. Those handle shapes in Van Statten's museum, back when I was 14."

He nodded a little, looking like he wished that I was still that age. Hey, I was French, ish.. "Ah, there are Cybermen in our universe. They started on an ordinary world just like this, then swarmed across the galaxy. This lot are a parallel version, and they're starting from scratch right here on Earth. Mondas point 2."

"What the hell are you two on about?" Pete asked, not looking impressed.

"Never mind that. Come on, we need to get out of the city. Okay, split up. Mrs Moore, you look after that bloke. Jake, Jackie, distract them." He kissed my double and she held him tight. "Go right, I'll go left. We'll meet back at Bridge Street. Move."

Mickey looked at us now. "I'm going with him." He kissed Rose before running after.

"Come on, let's go."

We started to run too, before I stumbled to a stop, my heels not very useful as we saw more Cybermen patrols. "There!" We ducked down a side street, before hiding behind a load of rubbish bins, and Jackie and I transmitted a signal to scramble them, and they marched on. "Go."

Bridge Street wasn't too far away, but we still spent a while waiting for Mickey and Ricky, but only one of them turned back up. "Here he is! Which one are you?" Jake asked him after a brief pause.

"I'm sorry. The Cybermen. He couldn't." Mickey. I knew that voice and so did Jackie, as she sobbed, starting to cry as she realised she'd lost the only person she cared about.

"Are you Ricky?" Jake asked him again, as Mrs Moore held my double up, holding her as she cried. "Are you Ricky?"

But Rose knew her man. "Mickey, that's you, isn't it?"

"Yeah." She hugged him as dad hugged me, and I thought about how we looked more like brother and sister than father and daughter. Maybe if I changed, like he did, I'd be younger again. But it would only be my appearance. "He tried. He was running. There was too many of them."

Jackie glared at him through her tears, black eyemake up streaming down her face. "Shut it."

Mickey still tried, thinking she was more like me, but we were nothing alike. She wasn't Lucie's daughter, and I had to be, dad was with her. "There was nothing I could do."

"I said just shut it." She screamed, her voice making the windows around us rattle, even cracking. "Don't even talk about him. You're nothing, you are. Nothing. He's gone..."

Dad shook his head a little. "We can mourn him when London is safe. But now, we move on." He lead the way to where the Cybermen were going, keeping us all hidden. They'd been using Battersea. "The whole of London's been sealed off, and the entire population's been taken inside that place. To be converted."

Rose was staring in there, and other me was more determined than ever, to avenge her lost love. "We've got to get in there and shut it down."

"How do we do that?"

What else? "Oh, Dad'll think of something."

Micks stared at the pair of us. "You're just making this up as you go along."

"Yep." We grinned. "But we do it brilliantly."

Mrs Moore then joined us, using her Cybus Industries laptop, making me wonder why she'd joined the Preachers. "That's a schematic of the old factory. Look. Cooling tunnels underneath the plant. Big enough to walk through"

"We go under there and up into the control centre?" I asked, kneeling down and looking, memorising the colours and how they moved.

"There's another way in." We all looked at Pete. "Through the front door. If they've taken Jackie for upgrading, that's how she'll get in."

Jake stared at him. "We can't just go strolling up."

Mrs Moore held something up. "Or we could, with these. Fake ear pods. Dead. No signal. But put them on, the Cybermen would mistake you for one of the crowd."

"Then that's my job."

Did he get how hard that would be? "You'd have to show no emotion. None at all. Any sign of emotion would give you away."

"How many of those you got?"

"Just two sets."

"Okay." Rose nodded. "If that's the best way of finding Jackie, then I'm coming with you."

Pete stared at her. "Why does she matter to you?"

She didn't bother explaining. "We haven't got time. Doctor, Jace, I'm going with him, and that's that."

"No stopping you, is there?" She smiled and agreed. "Tell you what. We can take the ear pods at the same time. Give people their minds back so they don't walk into that place like sheep. Jakey-boy, Jackie-Jacks? Lumic's transmitting the control signal. It must be from over there." Dad waved the sonic in the general direction, and we both flinched. Always did it wrong...

"On the zeppelin, you see, dad?" He nodded, looking sheepish. "Great big transmitter. Good thing Lumic likes showing off. Reckon you could take it out?"

Jackie nodded, clicking her knuckles. "Consider it done. Sonic pulse should be enough."

"Mrs Moore, would you care to accompany me and my daughter into the cooling tunnels?"

"How could I refuse an offer of cooling tunnels?"

I nodded, determined to avenge those already lost. "We attack on three sides. Above, between, below. We get to the control centre, we stop the conversion machines."

Mickey nodded a little. "What about me?"

Dad hesitated. "Mickey. You can er"

"What, stay out of trouble? Be the tin dog? No, those days are over. I'm going with Jake and Jackie."

"We don't need you, idiot. I'm the one with sonic manipulation and a voice that shatters windows."

"I'm not an idiot! You got that? I'm offering to help."

They rolled their eyes. "Whatever."

I hugged him tight. "Mickey. Good luck."

"Yeah, you too, be safe, Jacey. Rose, I'll see you later."

She nodded, looking awkward. "Yeah, you'd better."

"If we survive this, I'll see you back at the TARDIS."

"That's a promise. I promised to look out for Jace, for Jacks." Aw, that was cute.

We said goodbye to Rose and made out ways down the tunnels, and I hugged my arms around myself. "It's freezing."

Dad took off his jacket, putting it around my shoulders as we walked. "Any sign of a light switch?"

"Can't see a thing." Mrs Moore sighed, shivering herself. "But I've got these. A device for every occasion."

She handed us both a torch on a headband, but I smiled, pressing my hand to the cold stone, knowing the right resonation before the entire tunnel was bathed in a light blue glow. "All stone has a natural phosphorescence. You just have to listen to it."

The smile I got from dad told me he was proud, but he was worried about the Cybers down here. Unactive, at least for now though. "How did you get into this, then, rattling along with the Preachers?"

"Oh, I used to be ordinary." She replied, walking along in front. "Worked at Cybus Industries, nine to five, till one day, I find something I'm not supposed to. A file on the mainframe. All I did was read it. Then suddenly I've got men with guns knocking in the middle of the night. Life on the run. Then I found the Preachers. They needed a techie, so I, I just sat down and taught myself everything. Jackie taught me a bit, what with her being a hacker. Trying to find the song she came from, she says." A curly haired song, she sounded nice.

There had to be more, she was so maternal toward Jackie. "What about Mr Moore?"

She sighed a little. "Well, he's not called Moore. I got that from a book, Mrs Moore. It's safer not to use real names. But he thinks I'm dead. It was the only way to keep him safe. Him and the kids. Same age as Jackie by now, about 19, 20. She acts so much older." Because she probably was. "What about you? Got any family, or?"

"Oh, who needs family? I've got the whole world on my shoulders and the lights of sound in my eyes. Go on, then. What's your real name?"

"Angela Price. Don't tell a soul."

Dad grinned, taking my hand lightly. "Not a word."

But then the Cybers started to wake up, dark grey and stiff and we were running, up a ladder and through a trapdoor. "Get up! Quick! Quick!"

We beat them, and I deadlocked it on impulse before another Cyberman cam up behind us. But Mrs Moore had an electromagnetic bomb, and it collapsed in a haze of sparks. "Now, let's have a look. Know your enemy. A logo on the front. Lumic's turned them into a brand. Heart of steel, but look."

"Is that flesh?" She asked horrified, as dad picked it up, and I muttered to myself in French as we looked, memorising how the colours fitted together inside. Know the weaknesses.

"Hmmm. Central nervous system. Artificially grown then threaded throughout the suit so it responds like a living thing. Well, it is a living thing. Oh, but look." He touched something lightly. "Emotional inhibitor. Stops them feeling anything."

Our friend frowned a little. "But why?"

"It's still got a human brain. Imagine its reaction if it could see itself, realise itself inside this thing." I whispered softly. "They'd go insane."

"So they cut out the one thing that makes them human."

Dad nodded, wrapping an arm around me. "Because they have to. And Jace, English." Damn, I kept speaking French.

But then the thing started speaking again. "Oh, my God. It's alive. It can feel."

"We broke the inhibitor." I breathed, seeing that the colour had drained from it. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"Why so cold?"

"Can you remember your name?" Dad asked her.

There was a hesitation. "Sally. Sally Phelan."

"You're a woman."

"Where's Gareth?"

Mrs Moore frowned a little. "Who's Gareth?"

"He can't see me. It's unlucky the night before."

Oh, oh God... "You're getting married."

She sounded so, so tired... "I'm cold. I'm so cold."

"It's all right. You sleep now, Sally. Just go to sleep." I pressed my hand to the front of the cold metal, and I turned her off. I had a plan. "Sally Phelan didn't die for nothing, because that's the key. The emotional inhibitor. If we could find the code behind it, the cancellation code, then feed it throughout the system into every Cyberman's head, they'd realise what they are."

"And what happens then?"

We both looked at dad. "I think it would kill them. Could we do that?"

Mrs Moore nodded. "We've got to. Before they kill everyone else. There's no choice, Doctor, Jace. It's got to be done."

But then she stood up, and the Cyber behind her killed her. "No! No, you didn't have to kill her!"

"Sensors detect a binary vascular system in you both, as well as a genetic match." Yeah, he was my dad. "You are unknown upgrades. You will be taken for analysis."

The Cyberman took us to the main room, where Rose and Pete were. So dad decided to be annoyingly sarcastic. "We've been captured, but don't worry, Rose and Pete are still out there. They can rescue us. Oh well, never mind." But then he went serious, looking at Rose. "You okay?"

She nodded. "Yeah. But they got Jackie."

"We were too late. Lumic killed her."Pete agreed, looking like he was in shock.

"Then where is he, the famous Mister Lumic?" I asked, getting ready to take this building down on all of us, just to protect everyone else around us. "Don't we get the chance to meet our Lord and Master?"

A Cyber just turned to us. "He has been upgraded."

Oh, now that was interesting. "So he's just like you?"

"He is superior. The Lumic Unit has been designated Cyber Controller."

A door opened and then he came out in an ungraded wheelchair. "This is The Age of Steel and I am its Creator."

Except for our awesome buddies! At that precise moment they got everyone out from under their control, and they ran screaming from the building. "That's our friends at work. Good boys and girl! Mister Lumic, I think that's a vote for free will.!

"I have factories waiting on seven continents. If the ear pods have failed, then the Cybermen will take humanity by force. London has fallen. So shall the world.I will bring peace to the world. Everlasting peace and unity and uniformity."

Oh come on! "And imagination?" Dad questioned. "What about that? The one thing that lead you here, imagination, you're killing it dead!"

"What is your name and the name of your offspring?"

"I'm the Doctor."

"I'm Calliope, or Jace. CJ, I might become." That sounded good and it linked my human and Time Lord life.

Lumic wasn't impressed though. "A redundant title. Doctors need not exist. Cybermen never sicken, nor they in need of offspring."

How did he not see this? "Yeah, but that's it. That's exactly the point! Oh, Lumic, you're a clever man. I'd call you a genius, except I'm in the room, and even then my daughter is. But everything you've invented, you did to fight your sickness. And that's brilliant. That is so human. But once you get rid of sickness and mortality and children, then what's there to strive for, eh? The Cybermen won't advance. You'll just stop. You'll stay like this forever. A metal Earth with metal men and metal thoughts, lacking the one thing that makes this planet so alive. People. Ordinary, stupid, brilliant people."

"You are proud of your emotions, of your child."

"Oh, yes. I couldn't be prouder." Awh.

"Then tell me, Doctor. Have you known grief, and rage, and pain? The loss of a child?"

He told me, about my siblings that died in the war... "Yes. Yes I have."

Lumic was trying to bait him, to make him want the emotions to stop. "And they hurt?"

Dad nodded again. "Oh, yes."

"I could set you free. Would you not want that? A life without pain? A life where your child will never die."

I growled softly. "You might as well kill me."

"Then I take that option."

"It's not yours to take." my dad told him sternly, holding me close. "You're a Cyber Controller. You don't control me or anything with blood in its heart." Or hearts

But it didn't matter to him. "You have no means of stopping me. I have an army. A species of my own."

"You just don't get it, do you? An army's nothing. Because those ordinary people, they're the key. The most ordinary person could change the world. Some ordinary man or woman, some idiot. All it takes is for him to find, say, the right numbers. Say the right codes. Say, for example, the code behind the emotional inhibitor. The code right in front of him.Because even an idiot knows how to use computers these days.Knows how to get past firewalls and passwords. Lnows how to find something encrypted in the Lumic Family Database, under er. What was it, Pete? Binary what?"

Pete frowned a little. "Binary nine."

I finally got what dad meant. "An idiot could find that code. Cancellation code.And he'd keep on typing.Keep on fighting. Anything to save his friends."

"Your words are irrelevant."

"Yeah, talk too much, that's my problem." Dad grinned. "Lucky I got you that cheap tariff, Jacey, for all our long chats.On your phone."

"You will be deleted."

This guy really didn't get this, did he? "Yes. Delete, control, hash. All those lovely buttons. Then, of course, my particular favourite, send. And let's not forget how you seduced all those ordinary people in the first place."

Then my phone beeped and I looked at the code. "By making every bit of technology compatible with everything else. It's for you." I shoved the phone in the docking station, and the code transmitted, appearing on every screen like a virus.

Cybermen everywhere started clutching their heads in pain, and I saw one that managed to see how they looked. "I'm sorry."

"What have you done??"

"We gave them back their souls. They can see what you've done, Lumic, and it's killing them!"

Then we ran out as things started to explode, the exit blocked by writhing Cybers. "There's no way out!"

"Rose?" I looked at my phone. "Rose, can you hear me? Head for the roof!"

"It's Mickey. He says head for the roof." I put it to my ear. "Next time, call the right number, sweetie, this is Jace."

We made a break for the metal stairs, fires coming out behind us. But Mickey was driving azeppelin. "Mickey, where'd you learn to fly that thing?"

"Uh, this is your double, twin. You'd be surprised at what I can do. I knew how to hotwire a car, and I'm about 40." So was I!

Pete was staring at it. "You've got to be kidding."

"Jacey, Rose, get up."

We grabbed hold of the ladder, and Mickey was laughing on the other end. "Hold on tight, we're going up! Welcome to Mickey Smith's Airline. Please enjoy your flight. Woo!"

"We did it! We did it!"

Something heavy pulled at the ladder, nearly making us lose their grip. Cyber Lumic. Dad threw his sonic down to the person at the bottom, Pete."Pete! Take this! Use it! Hold the button down! Press it against the rope. Just do it!"

"Jackie Tyler. This is for her!"

The rope finally gave way, and Lumic fell, being engulfed by the exploding power station. We made it.

DW

I put the power cell on the console and grinned back at dad who hugged me tight as the TARDIS came back to life, telling me everything I usually saw. "You little beauty. Your voice, it'll come back. I promise. It hurts, she's your first loss, but you'll get used to it. God, I wish that you didn't have to..."

"Thank you..." I breathed, so glad I had him, to not be alone, the only of my kind. "We need to go.Rose? We've only got five minutes of power. We've got to go."

But Mickey came to our rescue, well, dads rescue as he hated what he was wearing. Apparently posh suits were cursed. "Here it is. I found it. Not a crease."

He beamed. "My suit! Good man."

I turned to the two natives left. "Now then, Jackie, Jake, we've got to run. But one more thing. Mrs Moore. Her real name was Angela Price. She's got a husband out there, and children. Find them. Tell them how she died saving the world."

"Yeah, course we will."

"Off we go, then."

Mickey hesitated. "Er, thing is, I'm staying."

I stared at him. "You're doing what?"

"You can't." Rose told him, looking as horrified as I felt. No, I couldn't lose him!

"It sort of balances out, because this world lost its Ricky, but there's me. And there's work to be done with all those Cybermen still out there. Someone needs to look out for Jackie, like I did for you Jace, get her to stop hating."

I shook my head. "But you can't stay."

"Jace, my gran's here. She's still alive. My old gran, remember her?" He looked at Rose who nodded. "She needs me."

Please... "What about me? What if I need you?" His ex asked him, looking hard.

"Yeah, but Rose, you don't. It's just you and him, isn't it. We had something a long time ago, but not anymore. Even Jace cared more about me than you, and the Doctor still went with you over his daugher."

"Well, we'll come back." I told him, my eyes filling with hot, salty tears. "We can travel anywhere. Come and see you, yeah?"

Dad shook his head, taking my hand. "We can't. I told you, travel between parallel worlds is impossible. We only got here by accident. We, we fell through a crack in time. When we leave, I've got to close it. We can't ever return."

"Doctor." Dad shook his hand, before putting my phone in there.

"Take Jace's phone. It's got the code. Get it out there. Stop those factories. And good luck, Mickey the idiot."

He grinned a little. "Watch it."Then he went into the TARDIS, and then Rose followed. "Thanks, Jacey. We've had a laugh though, haven't we? Seen it all, been there and back. Who would have thought, me and you off the old estate, flying through the stars. The little street girl that outran the police when they came for her, and I let hide in my flat." My mouth dropped. "Yeah, I knew you were there. The room was too clean."

"Thank you. Thank you for being there, and I hope you find what you need in life here." I told him with a watery smile before I hugged him tight. "I'll miss you, and I know she will too. You're not an idiot, never were."

Mickey smiled, hugging me back. "Go on, don't miss your flight."

So then I got back into TARDIS, and didn't look back as we left him. Left him to be brilliant.