Jace:

"Mum, it's us! We're back!" Rose shouted as we went into the Tyler flat, and Jackie came running out to greet us.

"Oh, I don't know why you two bother with those phones. You never use them!"

The girl who was once my elder laughed as dad came in behind, closing the door. "Shut up, come here!"

"Oh, I love you!"

"I love you!"

"I love you so much! And you you little cutie!" She forced me into the hug, before dad tried to make his way past. Not that Jacks was going to let him. "Oh no, you don't. Come here!" And then she kissed him. "Oh, you lovely big fella! Oh, you're all mine."

Safe to say he was suitably mollified by this stage, trying to get free. "Just, just, just put me down!"

This was definitely something I'd tease him about, if I couldn't get rid of this horrid feeling of dread, and the colours here were different. They were running, like there was something diluting them with neon, washing away the usual pastels of nature. Last time I'd seen this was in the other universe, with Parallel Jackie. But we couldn't get back there, Mickey was there forever and we'd never see him again.

I hadn't wanted to leave the TARDIS, but Rose pointed out that dad would get a lot of grief from Jackie if she didn't get to see me, which was a fair point, so I'd let her bully me into it, and I was regretting this. It didn't feel right and I was really feeling sick.

I came back into the conversation late, as a man made of static came into the room, the noise making bile rise in my throat, and I backed away retching, before following dad out of the flat to the tarmac, where more and more of them were, the colours of this world even more faded now, everywhere the ghosts touched, the colours slightly faded into their static and replaced it with the brighter, harsher one.

"They're everywhere!"

"Jace, look out!" Then one of them walked through me, the contents of my stomach finally deciding to leave as I vomited violently over the floor, breathing hard as dad held me up.

Jackie had followed us out, and looked at all the static ghosts around us. "They haven't got long. Midday shift only lasts a couple of minutes. They're about to fade."

Dad was staring at her in horror, holding me close as I reached the stage of just shaking after being sick. "What do you mean, shift? Since when did ghosts have shifts? Since when did shifts have ghosts? What's going on?"

"Oh, he's not happy when I know more than him, is he?"

This, this was impossible, this couldn't right! "But no one's running or screaming or freaking out."

"Why should we?" She asked, then glanced at her watch. "Here we go. Twelve minutes past."

She lead the way back to the flat, and we took over the telly, while I nursed a cup of tea and some pain pills, and saw a Ghostwatch programme presented by the bloke from Cash in the Attic, the weather telling us where there were a lot of ghosts, someone married one, there were adverys for things. Even Eastenders!

"When did it start?"

"Well, first of all, Peggy heard this noise in the cellar, so she goes down-"

Jackie, we meant the Ghosts, not the story line. First original one they'd had in years. "No, I mean worldwide."

She blinked a little. "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. It took us time to realise that we're lucky."

"What makes you think it's granddad?" Rose asked her mum softly.

"It just feels like him." Jacks shrugged. "There's that smell, those old cigarettes. Can't you smell it?"

But she shook her head, curled on the armchair. "I wish I could, mum, but I can't."

Jackie was desperate to get her daughter to "You've got to make an effort. You've got to want it, sweetheart.

Dad frowned a little now. "The more you want it, the stronger it gets."

"Sort of, yeah."

"Like a psychic link." I nodded, understanding now. "Of course you want your old dad to be alive, I'd want my other one too, and Katie, but you're wishing him into existence. The ghosts are using that to pull themselves in." I didn't really remember mum, she was sort of just there. Which was why a lot of me wanted to try and find my real one, to know why she left me there.

Jackie stared at me in horror. "You're spoiling it."

You poor woman... "I'm sorry, Jackie, but there's no smell, there's no cigarettes." Dad told her firmly. "Just a memory."

" But if they're not ghosts, what are they then?"

"Yeah, but they're human!" Jacks tried again. "You can see them. They look human."

Rose gave that one to her mother. "She's got a point. I mean, they're all sort of blurred, but they're definitely people."

I shook my head, still seeing the colours of this world fading, draining away like blood down a drain. "Maybe not. They're pressing themselves into the surface of the world. But a footprint doesn't look like a boot, and neon isn't pastel." They all stared. "Synaethesia, guys. The world is pastel, but neon is taking over."

They left it at that, and we went back to the TARDIS, where Rose started to look through a paper as dad made something. I changed shoes and took something to stop my stomach lurching and churning. "According to the paper, they've elected a ghost as MP for Leeds. Now don't tell me you're going to sit back and do nothing."

And dad popped up from below the console, wearing a rucksack, and holding something that distinctly looked like a hosepipe that he'd used to fix the shower. When he broke it. "Who you going to call?"

"Ghostbusters!"

"I ain't afraid of no ghosts." He ran back out, starting to put three metal cones out, linked by wires on the grass. "When's the next shift?"

Jackie had returned, not looking happy about our meddling. "Quarter to. But don't go causing trouble. What's that lot do?"

Would she actually understand?"Triangulates their point of origin."

"I don't suppose it's the Gelth?" Rose asked, as I welded a few things together. Sonic hands, never without a use.

"Nah. They were just coming through one little rift." Dad replied, doing more things that I didn't actually understand. "This lot are transposing themselves over the whole planet. Like tracing paper."

Jackie was getting angry now. "You're always doing this. Reducing it to science. Why can't it be real? Just think of it, though. All the people we've lost. Our families coming back home. Don't you think it's beautiful?"

Dad and I stared at her. "I think it's horrific. Rose, give us a hand. Jace, stay there, make sure no one steals the cones for a footy goal or something."

I did as he said, rubbing my eyes wearily as I waited, and shivered at the coming of more of the static, the way it was draining this world, taking the very light and power of it. But where was it going? Why were they bleeding this world, trying to come through when they were so, so wrong, so different? I could see the turn of this words and hear, seeing and hearing the music it made as it did, and I knew, deep, deep in my bones that this was wrong, that we didn't fit, these ghosts and us. Like a chunky key for a key card lock.

Dad ran back out, and I activated the cones on his nod, and looked back into the TARDIS where Rose was with her mother. "What's the line doing?"

"It's all right." She called back. "It's holding!"

"Here we go!"

"The scanner's working. It says delta one six." That was fairly normal, but then the ghosts started to appear again, and one got caught in the trap.

Dad grinned at it, holding me close as I shivered again. "Come on then, you beauty!" It started writhing, and I copied, feeling like there were thousands of red hot fire ants crawling over my skin, at the same time as icy water being dropped down my spine. Horrific. "Don't like that much, do you? Who are you? Where are you coming from? Whoa!" It tried to break through the field and I tried to move back, but I was held too tight to move. "That's more like it! Not so friendly now, are you? I said so! Those ghosts have been forced into existence from one specific point, and I can track down the source. Allons y!"

We ran back in there, and I got us moving, while dad kept nattering to himself, well and truly distracted by his own saying. The TARDIS was the only place I felt safe now, the only place where the colours were still the same, pure and unfaded. "I like that. Allons y. I should say allons y more often. Allons y. Watch out, Jacey Smith, Rose Tyler. Allons y. And then, it would be really brilliant if I met someone called Alonso, because then I could say, allons y, Alonso, every time. You're staring at us."

"My mum's still on board."

"If we end up on Mars, I'm going to kill you." Jackie told us as we turned to stare at her, seeing her still sat on the bunk on the wall.

But then we already landed in the location, and we were immediately surrounded by armed troops as dad and I watched on the scanner. "Oh well there goes the advantage of surprise. Still, cuts to the chase. Stay in here, look after Jackie."

"I'm not looking after my mum."

Uh, she was your responsibility, just like dad was mine. "Well, you brought her."

Jackie didn't like that. "I was kidnapped!"

"Doctor, they've got guns."

"And I haven't, and neither does Jace. Which makes us the better people, don't you think? They can shoot us dead, but the moral high ground is ours."

We then stepped out the TARDIS, and woman ran in on high heels as we raised our hands. "Oh! Oh, how marvellous. Oh, very good. Superb. Happy day."

She started clapping and the soldiers joined in. "Er, thanks. Nice to meet you. I'm the Doctor and this is my daughter Jace."

"Oh, I should say. Hurray!" OK, she was annoying me now.

"You, you've heard of us, then?" I asked cautiously, and held my stomach again as I got another wave of the nausea from the thing, the colours in here even more faed, draining away, only up.

The woman nodded, still grinning. "Well of course we have. And I have to say, if it wasn't for you, none of us would be here. The Doctor, his, well, his 15 year old, but Time travel, and the TARDIS."

They applauded again, and dad looked both flattered and worried. "And you are?"

"Oh, plenty of time for that." She smiled. "But according to the records, you're not one for travelling alone. The Doctor, his daughter and their companion. That's a pattern, isn't it, right? There's no point hiding anything. Not from us. So where is she?"

"Yes. Sorry. Good point. She's just a bit shy, that's all." Dad reached behind us, through only a slightly open door to grab one of the blondes. "But here she is, Rose Tyler." Except it was Jackie. "Hmm. She's not the best I've ever had. Bit too blonde. Not too steady on her pins. A lot of that." Mimed talking. "And just last week, she stared into the heart of the Time Vortex and aged fifty seven years. But she'll do."

Jackie stared at him. "I'm forty."

Oh, dad, you were dead meat after this. "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. Allons y. But not too fast. Her ankle's going."

"I'll show you where my ankle's going." She muttered darkly as we started walking.

"It was only a matter of time until you found us, and at last you've made it." Smiley woman told us, opening doors to a massive warehouse area. "I'd like to welcome you, Doctor, Jaclyn. Welcome to Torchwood."

Dad was staring at everything, knowing a lot more than I did, but even I knew that none of this was human. "That's a Jathar Sunglider."

"Came down to Earth off the Shetland Islands ten years ago."

That didn't sound good. "What, did it crash?"

She shook her head. "No, we shot it down. It violated our airspace. Then we stripped it bare. The weapon that destroyed the Sycorax on Christmas Day? That was us. Now, if you'd like to come with me. 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."

"For the good of the what?" Jackie asked quickly.

"The British Empire."

OK, even Jackie knew this. "There isn't a British Empire."

"Not yet. Ah, excuse me. Now, if you wouldn't mind." A soldier handed the woman a very, very big gun. "Do you recognise this, Doctor?"

To which he did. "That's a particle gun."

She nodded her approval. "Good, isn't it? Took us eight years to get it to work ."

"It's the twenty first century." I told her softly, getting ready to defend us with a sonic pulse if they got violent. "You can't have particle guns."

The woman wasn't really paying much attention. "We must defend our border against the alien. Thank you, Sebastian, isn't it?" He agreed. "Thank you, Sebastian. I think it's very important to know everyone by name. Torchwood is a very modern organisation. People skills. That's what it's all about these days. I'm a people person."

And, of course, dad went off topic. "Have you got anyone called Alonso?"

"No, I don't think so." She frowned for a moment, looking at him. "Is that important?

"No, I suppose not. What was your name?"

"Yvonne. Yvonne Hartman." I then grabbed a black plastic thing with a handle on top, knowing what it was. "Ah, yes. Now, we're rather fond of these. The Magnaclamp. Found in a spaceship buried at the base of Mount Snowdon. Attach this to an object and it cancels the mass. I could use it to lift two tonnes of weight with a single hand. That's an imperial ton, by the way. Torchwood refuses to go metric." Well.

Jackie smirked a bit, nodding to them. "I could do with that to carry the shopping."

Except Yvonne barely looked at her. "All these devices are for Torchwood's benefit, not the general public's."

"So, what about these ghosts? Static men, I'm calling them, as they hurt me like white noise does."

"Ah yes, the ghosts. They're er what you might call a side effect."

Seriously? "Of what?"

"All in good time, Jace. There is an itinerary, trust me."

And then the TARDIS was driven past on the back of a truck. "Oi! Where are you taking that?"

Yvonne looked at us like we were idiots for a moment. "If it's alien, it's ours."

Oh, this was getting ridiculous. "You'll never get inside it."

"Hmm! Et cetera."

Rose then peeked out of the TARDIS, and we nodded a little to her. She was going to explore while we got the guided tour. "All those times I've been on Earth, I've never heard of you. You never found Jace before."

"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. And your daughter is rather good at keeping hidden, she's slippery." Oh yes, and it was going to stay that way.

"1879." Dad realised. "That was called Torchwood, that house in Scotland."

Yvonne nodded. "That's right. Where you encountered Queen Victoria and the werewolf."

"I think he makes half of it up." Jackie sighed from behind us.

"Her Majesty created the Torchwood Institute with the express intention of keeping Britain great, and fighting the alien horde."

"But if I'm the enemy, does that mean that I'm a prisoner?"

She nodded with a grin. "Oh yes, so is Jace. But we'll make you perfectly comfortable. And there is so much you can teach us. Starting with this." We were lead into another room, this one with a large, dark sphere. "What do you make of that?"

It was wrong, it was so, so wrong, and I got lost in watching it, so when I felt dads arms wrap around me, I fought him, throwing him back with a blast of sound waves, before aiming them at the dark sphere, covered in what looked like a form of radiation now, and the colours were avoiding it, like there was nothing there, but suddenly there was nothing, and a blindfold was over my eyes, and my hands behind my back in what felt like lead gloves.

"Fascinating, isn't it?" A man asked as I started to calm again, the vision of the sphere in my head going as I realised I'd just given away my biggest secret to the enemy. "It upsets people because it gives off nothing. It is absent. Your daughter can't see the sound, her synaesthesia is trying to get rid of the absence, and so its making her want to shatter it." Yeah, I still had the itch to do that.

"Well, Doctor?" Yvonne asked, and I could taste her voice, bitter and sour.

Dad knew, holding me so tight that I felt like I could snap. "This is a Void Ship."

"And what is that?"

"Well, it's impossible for starters." He replied, and I didn't want him to let go of me, to just stay here now. "I always thought it was just a theory, but it's a vessel designed to exist outside time and space, travelling through the Void."

The man who told us about my synaesthesia spoke again, sounding even more confused. "And what's the Void?"

Even I knew that, after dad went through and explained it to me. "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, our, people called it the Void. The Eternals call it the Howling. But some people call it Hell. For Jace, it's just empty, and wrong."

"But someone built the sphere. What for? Why go there?"

Dad sighed, trying to think. "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."

Yvonne sounded smug now. "You see, we were right. There is something inside it."

"Oh, yes."

"So how do we get in there?"

I growled softly, breaking free of dad, following my nose forward. Metallic. Blood. I knew that smell, I knew it, but without the colours, I couldn't tell. "We don't! We send that thing back into Hell. How did it get here in the first place?"

Yvonne spoke and I turned to look at her, trusting my other senses without the colours. "Well, that's how it all started. The sphere came through into this world, and the ghosts followed in its wake."

"Show us."

I started walking, turning left. "No, Jace." So I backtracked and went right. Either one. They took the blindfold off me when we got to the top floor, but kept on the shackles. They were lucky I couldn't use my voice, or I'd take down the whole city. There was a large, blank white wall at the far end, but I could see the pastel colours of our world, our universe, being slowly sucked into it, and splatters of the bright neon everywhere, but even they were getting pulled in. This was going to rip apart our world and they couldn't see that. "The sphere came through here. A hole in the world. 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?"

She shrugged a little. "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."

Oh, you were kidding. "You built a skyscraper just to reach a spatial disturbance? How much money have you got?"

"Enough."

"Hold on a minute." Jackie said, looking out of a window. "We're in Canary Wharf. Must be. This building, it's Canary Wharf."

Yvonne shrugged. "Well, that is the public name for it. But to those in the know, it's Torchwood."

Dad was still struggling to understand all of this. "So, you find the breach, 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!"

"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." To me that just sounded lonely. "Look, you can see for yourself. Next Ghost Shift's in two minutes."

You had to be kidding me. "Cancel it."

She shook her head. "I don't think so."

"I'm warning you, cancel it."

"Oh, exactly as the legends would have it. The Doctor, lording it over us. Assuming alien authority over the Rights of Man. Guess your daughter is just the same."

"Let me show you. Sphere comes through." I walked to a glass wall, prepared for a small amount of vocal sound, but only humming. I couldn't, I couldn't sing. I used it, and the wall cracked. "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" I touched it lightly with the shackles, and it shattered.

She still didn't believe me. "Well, in that case we'll have to be more careful. Positions! Ghost Shift in one minute."

Dad moved me away from the glass, looking daggers at her. "Miss Hartman, I am asking you, please don't do it. Jace has been scared since she stepped out of the TARDIS, and she isn't the type to scare easily."

"We have done this a thousand times."

"Then stop at a thousand!"

Why wouldn't this woman listen, I mean, I knew she was blonde, but so was Rose and I! "We're in control of the ghosts. The levers can open the breach, but equally they can close it."

"Okay." I gave up, walking back into her office, sitting awkwardly on a chair as dad came to stand behind me. Yvonne was really confused now. "Never mind. As you were."

She could tell we were trying to reverse psychology her, but she was letting herself be slowly sucked into it. "What, is that it?"

I shrugged, having trouble with my wrists. My bones were always to fragile, its why I broke so easily. "No, fair enough. Said our bit. Don't mind us. Any chance of a cup of tea?"

A woman from the lever room spoke up. "Ghost Shift in twenty seconds."

"Mmm, can't wait to see it."

"You can't stop us, Doctor, Jace."

Dad made a small face behind me. "No, absolutely not. Pull up a chair, Rose. Come and watch the fireworks."

"Ghost Shift in ten seconds. Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two-"

And then we finally got her to crack. "Stop the shift. I said stop."

"Thank you."

"I suppose it makes sense to get as much intelligence as possible." She agreed softly. "But the programme will recommence, as soon as you've explained everything."

Oh, well we'd better be good at explaining the dangers that outweigh the good, then. "We're glad to be of help."

She looked skeptical though. "And someone clear up this glass. They did warn me, Jace. They said you like to make a mess. Guess that comes from growing up on the streets." Oh, thanks for that. "So these ghosts, whatever they are, did they build the sphere?"

"Must have." Dad sighed. "Aimed it at this dimension like a cannon ball."

"Yvonne? I think you should see this." Her laptop suddenly started speaking, Rajesh from downstairs. "We've got a visitor. We don't know who she is, but funnily enough, she arrived at the same time as the Doctor and Jace."

Yvonne turned her laptop to us, and we saw Rose with the man. "She one of yours?"

Dad shook his head. "Never seen her before in my life."

"Good. Then we can have her shot."

That went well then. "Oh, all right then. It was worth a try. That's, that's Rose Tyler."

Rose waved on the screen. "Sorry. Hello."

"Well, if that's Rose Tyler, who's she?" She asked, pointing to Jackie.

"I'm her mother."

Now Yvonne looked at dad with raised eyebrows. "Oh, you travel with her mother? We thought your daughter was a bit weird."

Jackie didn't like that herself. "He kidnapped me, and she's letting him!" Hey!

"Please, when Torchwood comes to write my complete history, don't tell people I travelled through time and space with her mother."

And then she hit him around the back of the head. "Charming."

"I've got a reputation to uphold."

But then the Ghost shift started again. "Excuse me? Everyone? I thought I said stop the ghost shift. Who started the programme? But I ordered you to stop! Who's doing that?" Levers were moving, slowly creeping up. "Right, step away from the monitors, everyone. Gareth, Addy, stop what you're doing, right now. Matt, step away from your desk. That's an order! Stop the levers! Andrew!" They grabbed at them as she kept shouting orders.

"What's she doing?"

"Addy, step away from the desk." Yvonne shouted at the pretty black woman, sat working stoicly. "Listen to me. Step away from the desk."

But no sound was going into her ears, at all. "She can't hear you. They're overriding the system. We're going into Ghost Shift. It's the ear piece. It's controlling them. I've seen this before. Sorry. I'm so sorry." I hummed again, and three of the workers screamed before collapsing.

She stared at me. "What happened? What did you just do?"

This... This was horrible. "They're dead."

"You killed them."

"Oh, someone else did that long before we got here."

Yvonne started asking questions the second Jacks stopped. "What are those ear pieces?" We told her to stop. "But they're standard comms. devices. How does it control them?" Why wasn#t she listening?! "But what are they?" She pulled one off the woman, and a rope of gray matter came with it. "Urgh! Oh, God! It goes inside their brain."

Not the important part right now. "What about the Ghost Shift?"

"Ninety percent there and still running. Can't you stop it?"

Dad and I were talking together now, but I couldn't help. I was still held by the lead shackles over my hands. Soundproof metal. "They're still controlling it. They've hi-jacked the system. It might be a remote transmitter but it's got to be close by. I can trace it. Jackie, stay here!"

He tracked the way with the sonic, the blue spirals lighting the plain white walls. We found an empty floor, and dad paused before walking in. "What's down here?"

"I don't, I don't know." Yvonne admitted, looking a lot less cool, calm and collected. "I think it's building work. It's just renovations."

"You should go back."

But not that freaked. "Think again." We went through. "What is it? What's down here?"

"Ear pieces, ear pods. This world's colliding with another, the colours blending, merging mixing before one is taking over another, both draining away into the Void like paint in a sink, and I think I know which world."

Figures appeared behind plastic curtains, and I backed away quickly, dad holding me tight. "What are they?"

No, no, no, no... "They came through first. The advance guard." The then started ripping through the plastic, stepping through as the soldiers started shooting. "Cybermen!"

They escorted us back to the lever room, and dad slowly worked on my shackles, having trouble because he couldn't use the sonic. "Get away from the machines. Do what they say. Don't fight them!"

But the Cybers killed them anyway, leaving the levers alone as Jackie moved closer to us, handing dad a bobby pin to undo the lock. God my hands were sweaty. "What are they?"

"We are the Cybermen. The Ghost Shift will be increased to one hundred percent." The levers rose even higher.

"Here come the ghosts."

All the static men appeared again, more of the neon bleeding through, but at the same time everything was being sucked slowly towards the blank white wall. "But these Cybermen, what've they got to do with the ghosts?"

Dad glared at her, more scared for us than angry. "Do you never listen? A footprint doesn't look like a boot."

"Achieving full transfer."

"They're Cybermen." I breathed, feeling my stomach lurch again. Oh god... "All of the ghosts are Cybermen. Millions of them, right across the world."

Yvonne put her hand to her mouth in horror. "They're invading the whole planet."

You stupid woman! "It's not an invasion. It's too late for that. It's a victory."

The computers then started tell us that the Sphere was activated. How was this possible? Dad was having the same thought. "But I don't understand. The Cybermen don't have the technology to build a Void Ship. That's way beyond you. How did you create that sphere?"

"The sphere is not ours."

Huh? "What?"

"The sphere broke down the barriers between worlds. We only followed. Its origin is unknown."

"Then what's inside it?"

Jackie grabbed my hand and I looked back at her. "Rose is down there."

Yeah, and we were up here. Being slowly drained of everything as the Void sucked the life out of this universe, slowly trying to fill the emptiness inside it. And maybe, just maybe, it would succeed.