CJ:

Why, why, why, was I in a Victorian dress? He wasn't even sure that was where we landed, and he knew I hated dresses! But I walked out with him wearing a TARDIS blue dress with a purple wrap to shield myself from the snow through a archway.

It was a market, and there were people everywhere as a bobby nodded to us as dad looked at a little kid running about. "You there, boy. What day is this?"

"Christmas Eve, sir, miss." Oh, Miss. Right yes, I looked young again, of course. New appearance, kept confusing me.

"What year?"

He frowned at us. "You thick or something?"

Meanie. "Oi. Just answer the question, Mr."

"Year of our Lord 1851, sir."

Dad nodded a little, putting his hands in his pockets. "Right. Nice year. Bit dull."

"Doctor! Doctor!" Of course someone had to start shouting then. Wouldn't be us if there wasn't. We ran towards the voice, a dark red voice laced with yellow fear that led to a woman in an alley way.

"Don't worry, don't worry. Stand back. What have we got here?" Something shoved the door, snarling. "Okay, I've got it. Whatever's behind that door, I think you should get out of here." She shouted for the Doctor again. Really? "No, no. he's standing right here."

Dad waved. "Hello."

The woman was then looking horrified. "Don't be stupid. Who are you and the child?"

"I'm the Doctor, this is my daughter Calliope, Callie."

"Doctor who?"

He said the usual. "Just the Doctor."

"Well, there can't be two of you." You wanna bet? But then another man then ran up."Where the hell have you been?"

The man tried to take charge right away, and dad was staring at him. "Right then. Don't worry. Stand back. What have we got here then?"

OK, this was too much. "Hold on, hold on. Who are you?"

"I'm the Doctor. Simply, the Doctor. The one, the only and the best." Definitely with a big enough ego to be dad. "Rosita, give me the sonic screwdriver."

"The what?"

"Now quickly, get back to the TARDIS." I don't think dad could look more bewildered or gormless. "If you could stand back, sir. This is a job for a Time Lord." Hiya, we were just in Time Lords! OK, my internal monologue was far too full of jokes.

The doors then burst open and an animal with Cyberman-style head was visible. "Oh, that's different." I muttered at the same time as the other two, holding out my hand, dad and the other guy pointing screwdrivers.

"Allons-y." Wow, this was going so well, where was the other me?

"I've been hunting this beast for a good fortnight. Now step back, sir, Miss."

The creature leaped away, landing on the opposite wall, furry body with metal hands and feet. Metal skeleton too, I could shatter it. "Some sort of primitive conversion, like they took the brain of a cat or a dog. Good thing we made Rain human again."

Other Doctor, as I didn't really think he could be dad, he had the wrong voice, looked at his friend. "Well, talking's all very well. Rosita?" The woman held out a large coil of rope. "Now, watch and learn." He managed to lasso the loop around the thing in one try. Try and do that, dad. "Excellent. Now then, let's pull this timorous beastie down to earth." Uh, he used that to describe Rose, not some Cybershade thing.

Except it climbed higher, pulling him with it. "Or not, love."

"I might be in a little bit of trouble." We could see that.

Dad was enjoying this. "Nothing changes. I've got you." Except now he was off the ground too.

"You idiots!" Rosita and I shouted, and I tied the shawl around myself, ready to free run up the wall after them. Why did dad always need rescuing, not the Companions?

"Perhaps if you could pull?" The other guy asked him.

He just rolled his eyes. "I am pulling. In this position, I couldn't not pull, could I?"

The creature started climbing again. "Then I suggest you let go, sir."

"I'm not letting you out of my sight, Doctor. Don't you recognise me?"

"No, should I?" Probably, if you were actually my dad. "Have we met? This is hardly the right time for me to go through my social calendar. Argh!"

They were then pulled up and I sprinted after them, getting quickly frustrated with the full skirts. How did I wear even bigger ones for 30 years?! But I managed to unravel the rope, just as they were about to be pulled out, and Rosita came up with an axe. Not bad. But the men stood up, laughing and hugging. "Well, I'm glad you think it's so funny. You're mad. Both of you. You could've been killed. Dad!"

With that, he hugged me. "Nice move, Callie."

"Oh, I should introduce Rosita." Other Doctor was still laughing. "My faithful companion. Always telling me off."

Dad smiled at her, still holding my hand. "Well, they do, don't they? Rosita. Good name. Hello, Rosita."

The woman frowned a little. "Huh. Now I'll have to go and dismantle the traps. All that for nothing. And we've only got twenty minutes till the funeral, don't forget. Then back to the TARDIS, right?"

"Funeral?" I questioned, fixing my wrap.

"Oh, long story. Not my own, not yet. Oh, I'm not as young as I was."

Dad then got cryptic, and basically didn't make sense. "Well, not as young as you were when you were me."

"When I was who?"

Which confused him. "You really don't recognise me? Or Callie? CJ?"

The guy shook his head. "Not at all."

"But you're the Doctor. The next Doctor. Or the next but one. A future Doctor anyway. No, no, don't tell me how it happened. Although, I hope I don't just trip over a brick. That'd be embarrassing. Then again, painless. Worse ways to go. Depends on the brick." What were you on about?

"You're gabbling, sir. Now might I ask, who are you, exactly? With your pale as snow daughter?" Um, did he basically just call me Snow White? My least favourite Princess? I loved Mulan and Merida.

At which point he quickly started to think of a back up plan. "No, I'm, er, I'm just. Smith. John Smith, this is my 17 year old daughter, Calliope Jace. But we've heard all about you, Doctor. Bit of a legend, if I say so myself." Seriously?

The other man got flustered. "Modesty forbids me to agree with you, sir. But yes. Yes, I am. Calliope Jace? Jace, a name I love as much as my own." Right... So he knew Jace, but not Calliope?

"A legend with certain memories missing. Am I right?" I asked him softly, leaning into my dad.

"How do you know that?"

Dad looked from him to me. "You've forgotten her. Even this new face."

He nodded sadly. "Great swathes of my life have been stolen away. When I turn my mind to the past, there's nothing."

"Going how far back?"

"Since the Cybermen. Masters of that hellish wall-scuttler and old enemies of mine, now at work in London town. You won't believe this, Mister Smith, Miss Calliope, but they are creatures from another world."

Such a shock that our voices went dead. "Really. Wow."

Not that the guy realised we were using intense sarcasm. "It's said they fell onto London, out of the sky in a blaze of light. And they found me. Something was taken. And something was lost. What was I like, in the past?"

Dad frowned a little. "I don't think I should say. Sorry. Got to be careful with memory loss. One wrong word-"

"It's strange, though. I talk of Cybermen from the stars and you don't blink, Mister Smith, neither you nor your daughter."

"Ah, don't blink. Remember that?" Dad, what were you talking about? "Whatever you do, don't blink? The blinking and the statues? Sally and the angels? No?" OK, I was confused.

The other Doctor was looking at him warily. "You're a very odd man."

"Hmm, I still am. Something's wrong here."

And then something clicked in his brain. "Oh, the funeral! The funeral's at two o'clock. It's been a pleasure, Mister Smith, Miss Callie. Don't breathe a word of it."

Hmm, sounded fun. "Oh, but can't we come with you?"

"It's far dangerous, especially for a lady such as your daughter. Rest assured, I shall keep this city safe. Oh, and, er merry Christmas, Mister Smith, Callie."

"Merry Christmas, Doctor." Dad smiled, shaking his hand. And then we followed him at a short distance.

They were headed to a graveyard, and I frowned when I saw something hiding, a dark grey flash, and there was a solemn crowd, following the carriage. "The late Reverend Fairchild, leaving his place of residence for the last time." I heard the man up ahead. "God rest his soul. Now, with the house empty, I shall effect an entrance at the rear while you go back to the TARDIS. This is hardly work for a woman."

Rosita shook her head, her curls shaking. "Oh, don't mind me saving your life. That's work for a woman, isn't it?"

"The Doctor's companion does what The Doctor says. Off you go." Since when does that actually work?

As he went for the back door, we went to the front, my hands easily getting through the crappy locks, and we let the new guy in through the other door with a smile. "Hello."

He stared at us. "How did you get in?"

"Oh, front door. I'm good at doors, sir." I laughed, my blue eyes bright, before I narrowed them at the screwdriver in his hand. "Er, do you mind my asking, is that your sonic screwdriver?"

"Yes. I'd be lost without it."

It really wasn't anything special. Just a normal screwdriver. "But that's a screwdriver. How's it sonic?"

The man hesitated, before tapping it lightly on the door handle. "Well, er, it makes a noise. That's sonic, isn't it? Now, since we're acting like common burglars, I suggest we get out of plain view."

That was a good point, and we retreated into the house, looking through things. "This investigation of yours, what's it about?"

"It started with a murder."

"Oh, good." We both frowned a little at dad. "I mean bad, but whose?"

"Mr Jackson Lake, a teacher of mathematics from Sussex. He came to London three weeks ago and died a terrible death."

Really? "Cybermen?"

He shrugged a little as I looked around, messing with things. "It's hard to say. His body was never found. But then it started. More secret murders, then abductions. Children, stolen away in silence." Great, I had to regenerate into a kid, didn't I?

Dad wrapped his arm around me at that, getting worried. "So whose house is this?"

"The latest murder." The supposed new regeneration of my dad replied. "The Reverend Aubrey Fairchild, found with burns to his forehead, like some advanced form of electrocution." Lovely image, ta.

Right, but there were tonnes of religious people at this time. "But who was he? Was he important?"

The man frowned at me. "You ask a lot of questions, you and your father." Yeah, we were good at it.

"We're your companions." Dad grinned, looking pleased. Really?

He hesitated again, before looking up at us. "The Reverend was the pillar of the community, a member of many parish boards. A keen advocate of children's charities."

Huh. "Children again. But why would the Cybermen want him dead? And what's his connection to the first death, this Jackson Lake?"

"It's funny. I seem to be telling you both everything, as though you engendered some sort of trust. You seem familiar, Mister Smith, Miss Callie. I know your faces. But how?" Well, yeah. There might be a reason.

But then dad frowned, moving closer to him. "I wonder. I can't help noticing you're wearing a fob watch."

"Is that important?"

"Legend has it that the memories of a Time Lord can be contained within a watch." Really? Cool. "Do you mind?" The man handed dad the watch. "It's said that if it's opened-" And then it was opened, and everything fell out from inside. Maybe not. "Oh. Maybe not."

"It was more for decoration."

Right, back on subject then. "Yeah. Anyway, alien infiltration."

"Yes. Just look for anything different. Possibly metal. Anything that doesn't seem to belong. Perhaps a mechanical device that could fit no earthly engine." Dad and Isurreptitiously scanned with our sonic things, my hands and his screwdriver. "It could even seem to be organic, but unlike any organism of the natural world. Shush! What's that noise?"

"Oh, it's just us, whistling. I wonder what's in here, though." I smiled, opening a writing desk and took out two metal cylinders that resonated my sonic abilities. "Ah. Different and metal, you were right.They are infostamps. I mean, at a guess. If I were you, I'd say they worked something like this." I pressed on end and imaged were projected out of the other. Cool. "See? Compressed information. Tons of it. That is the history of London, 1066 to the present day. This is like a disc, a Cyberdisc. But why would the Cybermen need something so simple? They've got to be wireless. Unless, they're in the wrong century. They haven't got much power. They need plain old basic infostamps to update themselves. Are you all right?"

"I'm fine."

Dad could see that he wasn't. "No, what is it? What's wrong?"

He was staring at the thing in my hand. "I've seen one of these before. I was holding this device the night I lost my mind. The night I regenerated. The Cybermen, they made me change. My mind, my face, my whole self. And you were there, with a girl with long ash hair. Who are you both?" Trust me, that ash hair was very annoying, it was so frizzy and curly.

"Friends. We swear."

"Then I beg you, John, Callie. Help me."

Dad smiled, taking my hand tight. "Ah. Two words we never refuse. But it's not a conversation for a dead man's house. It'll make more sense if we go back to the TARDIS." Then he rectified this for himself. "Your TARDIS. Hold on. I just need to do a little final check. Won't take a tick. There's one more thing I cannot figure. If this room's got infostamps, then maybe, just maybe, it's got something that needs infostamping." And opened a door to show a Cyberman behind the door. "Okay." And closed again. "I think we should run."

The door was smashed down and I grabbed the new Doctor, pulling him away. "Run, Doctor! Now, Doctor!" More appeared, and dad started to lead them up the stairs, before grabbing an umbrella, and realised that wasn't going to help, so I threw him a sword like our first Christmas together.

"Thanks, Callie. I'm a dab hand with a cutlass. You don't want to come near me when I've got one of these with my daughter at risk. This is your last warning. No? Olay, this is really your last warning! Okay, I give up.Listen to me properly. Whatever you're doing stuck in 1851, I can help! I mean it. I'm the only person in the world who can help you! Listen to me!" You expected a Cyberman to listen, really? "I'm the Doctor. You need me. Check your memory banks. My name's the Doctor, and that is my daughter Calliope Jace Smith. Leave this man alone. The Doctor is me!" Dadgot a foot onto the leading Cyberman's chest and pushed them back downstairs. "The Doctor, remember? I'm the Doctor! You need me alive. You need the Doctor and the Seer, and that's us!"

But then they threw something at him, and I let rip a note that knocked it aside, moving forward, but fell to the side as the New Doctor activated the infostamp and beamed it at the Cyberman, knocking them down and their heads exploded. Sweet.

"Infostamp with a Cyclo-Steinham core." Dad breathed, pulling me closer. "You ripped open the core and broke the safety. Zap! Only the Doctor would think of that."

"I did that last time."

You poor man... "Come here. You'll be okay. Let me just check."

He was incredibly confused. "You told them you were the Doctor. Why did you do that? The Doctor doesn't have a daughter, I know that I don't." Uh, hi, I was right here, and we did a DNA test.

"Oh, I was just protecting you. And you do, I know your history."

"You're trying to take away the only thing I've got, like they did. They stole something, something so precious, but I can't remember. What happened to me? What did they do? Was it my daughter, and I forgot her? My own child, Calliope?" Well, it would explain where future me was.

"We'll find out. You and us together." I smiled, putting my hand on his shoulder. This dress was really restricting me.

We headed out, going back to where Rosita was waiting for the future Doctor, and she hugged him. "Doctor!I thought you were dead!"

He smiled a little, and patted her back. "Now then, Rosita. A little decorum." Huh. Dad always loved hugs.

"You've been gone for so long. He's always doing this, leaving me behind. Going frantic."

"Yeah, tell me about it." I sighed. "Got left for ages in a tiny flat because he was saving the world."

"What about the TARDIS?"

The woman grinned, her dark eyes glinting. "Oh, she's ready. Come on."

This was going to be interesting. "I'm looking forward to this."

They lead the way to the stables, and there were no horses, just stalls that were converted into his living space. "You were right though, Rosita. The Reverend Fairchild's death was the work of the Cybermen."

"So, you live here?" I asked, looking around as I hummed to myself, the lights flickering slightly. Loved messing with fire.

"A temporary base, until we rout the enemy." He agreed. "The TARDIS is magnificent, but it's hardly a home." It was our home.

Dad had paused at that, looking over at him. "And where's the TARDIS now?"

His head jerked through the doors. "In the yard." Right.

"Er, what's all this luggage?"

"Evidence. The property of Jackson Lake, the first man to be murdered." How did you even get hold of it? "Oh, but my new friends are fighters, Rosita, much like myself. He faced the Cybermen with a cutlass. I'm not ashamed to say, he was braver than I. He was quite brilliant." I was scanning the luggage at this point, trying to find something. There was something bugging me here. "Are you whistling again, Miss Callie??"

Ah, right. "Yes. Yes, I am, yeah. Yeah." I mouthed shush to Rosita as I relaxed my hands, the softly blue light stopping as I took a suitcase from the pile.

"That's another man's property."

Your point? "Well, a dead man's." I opened it, tucking my long dark hair behind my ear to look inside it. "How did you two meet, then?"

Rosita smiled a little. "He saved my life. Late one night, by the Osterman's Wharf, this creature came out of the shadows. A man made of metal. I thought I was going to die. And then, there he was. The Doctor." The she paused, frowning a little. "Can you help him, sir, Miss? He has such terrible dreams. Wakes at night in such a state of terror." I'd heard that, hearing my dad screaming in the night. He didn't think I could hear him, but I could, and it made me wonder what truly happened in his past, and how bad it had been while I was gone.

"Come now, Rosita. With all the things a Time Lord has seen, everything he's lost, he may surely have bad dreams."

Dads eyes glazed over for a moment, and I could see his own nightmares in his eyes. "Yeah. Oh, now. Look. Jackson Lake had an infostamp."

"But how?" The new dad asked, frowning at me as I took it out. "Is that significant?"

"Doctor, the answer to all this is in your TARDIS." I told him softly, and I saw that he was watching me carefully. "Can I see it? Me and my dad?"

He smiled brightly at me. "Miss Smith, it would be my honour." The guy lead us through into the yard, and we looked up to see a delicately patterned, mostly blue, hot air balloon. "There she is. My transport through time and space. The TARDIS."

This, this was so weird. "You've got a balloon."

"TARDIS." He corrected. "T A R D I S. It stands for Tethered Aerial Release Developed In Style. Do you see?"

Dad raised his eyebrows, getting a little confused. "Well, I do now. I like it. Good TARDIS. Brilliant. Nice one. And is it inflated by gas, yeah?"

He nodded. "We're adjacent to the Mutton Street Gasworks. I pay them a modest fee. Good work, Jed."

The man slapped a guy on the shoulder and handed him a big five pound note. "Glad to be of service, sir."

Since when did dad carry money? He made Rose buy chips all the time. "You've got quite a bit of money."

"Oh, you get nothing for nothing." He smiled. "How's that ripped panel, Jed?"

"All repaired. Should work a treat. You never know, maybe tonight's the night, Doctor. Imagine it, seeing Christmas from above."

"Not just yet, I think. One day, I will ascend. One day soon."

The guy left, and dad wrapped his arm around as I shivered in the cold night. "You've never actually been up?"

"He dreams of leaving, but never does." Rosita agreed.

"I can depart in the TARDIS once London is safe. And finally, when I'm up there. Think of it, John, Callie. The time and the space."

He smiled, resting his head on top of mine, kissing my silky waves. "The perfect escape. Do you ever wonder what you're escaping from?"

The guy sighed. "With every moment."

"Then do you want us to tell you?" I asked him softly, hugging my arms around myself. "Because I think I've worked it out now. How you became The Doctor. What do you think? Do you want to know?"

We went back to sit in the stables, and I huddled under dads coat as he explained. So cold. "The story begins with the Cybermen. A long time away, and not so far from here, the Cybermen were fought, and they were beaten. And they were sent into a howling wilderness called The Void, locked inside forever more, by an amazing girl called Calliope Jace Smith, at the cost of her freedom. But then a greater battle rose up, so great that everything inside the Void perished, letting the girl out of her prison. But, as the walls of the world weakened, the last of the Cybermen must have fallen through the dimensions, back in time, to land here. And they found you."

"I fought them, I know that. But what happened?"

I took a breath. "At the same time, another man came to London. Mister Jackson Lake. Plenty of luggage, money in his pocket. Maybe coming to town for the winter season, I don't know. But he found the Cybermen too. And just like you, exactly like you, he took hold of an infostamp."

The other man shook his head. "But he's dead. Jackson Lake is dead. The Cybermen murdered him."

You poor guy. "You said no body was ever found. And you kept all his suitcases, but you could never bring yourself to open them. Dad told you the answer was in the fob watch. Can I see?" He handed it to me, and I ran my thumb over it, the case plain except for two initials. "J L. The watch is Jackson Lake's."

"Jackson Lake is you, sir?" Rosita asked.

"But I'm the Doctor."

"You became the Doctor because the infostamp you picked up was a book about one particular man." Dad picked it up and I saw all of his faces. "The Cybermen's database. Stolen from the Daleks inside the Void, I'd say, but it's everything you could want to know about the Doctor."

The image got to number ten, and there was me with him, ash blonde and broken. So broken. "That's you, and the girl." I had a name, poppet.

"Time Lord, TARDIS, enemy of the Cybermen." I laughed a little. "The one and the only. You see, the infostamp must have backfired. Streamed all that information about my dad right inside your head."

Which didn't help him at all. "I am nothing but a lie."

Dad shook his head, moving closer. "No, no, no, no, no. Infostamps are just facts and figures. All that bravery. Saving Rosita, defending London town, hmm? And the invention. Building a TARDIS. That's all you."

"And what else? Tell me what else."

Oh God. "You said it felt like I could be the thing missing, but Mr Lake, I can't be. The Dalek's and the Cybermen don't know enough about me. To them, to them, Callie Smith is just a ball of noise that can fry them in their shells. Trust me, I'm not the thing you think is missing. There's something more, isn't there?"

"I demand you tell me, sir. Tell me what they took." He shouted at dad, and I flinched at the sound.

Dad shook his head, holding me tighter. "Sorry. Really, I am so sorry, but that's an awful lot of luggage for one man. Because an infostamp is plain technology. It's not enough to make a man lose his mind. What you suffered is called a fugue. A fugue state, where the mind just runs away because it can't bear to look back. You wanted to become someone else, because Jackson Lake had lost so much."

A church bell tolled the hours. "Midnight. Christmas Day." Rosita muttered.

"I remember. Oh, my God." Jackson started sobbing. "Caroline. They killed my wife. They killed her."

The infostamp beeped. The button on the end was lit up and there were more of them in a trunk. "Oh, you found a whole cache of infostamps."

"But what is it? What's that noise?"

"Activation." I breathed, getting quickly to my feet, nearly falling over in the stupid dress. "A call to arms. The Cybermen are moving!" We ran outside, seeing shadows dancing on the wall in a marching formation. "Oh, god. It's kids..."

Dad ran forwards, trying to get them to listen. "Can you hear me? Hello? No? Mister Cole, you seem to have something in your ear. Now, this might hurt a bit, but if I can just-" A Cybershade growled nearby, and I knew that I was pinpoint accurate enough with my voice to just fry that things brain. "Ah. They're on guard. Can't risk a fight. Not with the children, Callie, cool your voice."

"But where are they going?"

"They all need a good whipping, if you ask me." Jed told us. "There's tons of them. I've just seen another lot coming down from the Ingleby Workhouse down Broadback Lane." You big headed egotist, they were children!

"Where's that?"

Rosita lead the way, and we watched the children being walked past, and followed them to a sewage works, opened by a Cyberman. "You will continue. You will enter the Court of the CyberKing. March. That is an order. March!"

The shades stopped the kids from scattering, and dad held me tighter. "That's the door to the sluice. All the sewage runs through there, straight into the Thames."

"Yeah, that's too well guarded. We'll have to find another way in." I muttered, but then more Cybermen snuck up behind us."Whoa! That's cheating, sneaking up. Do you have your legs on silent?" I asked, genuinely curious.

A woman was with them, and we could see we were surrounded. "So, what do we have here?"

"Listen. Just walk towards me slowly. Don't let them touch you." Dad told her, but I could see she wasn't going anywhere. No one would willingly stand near metal men in this time.

"Oh, but they wouldn't hurt me, my fine boys. They are my knights in shining armour, quite literally." Lovely.

Dad couldn't stop trying. "Even if they've converted you, that's not a Cyber speech pattern. You've still got free will. I'm telling you, step away."

She smiled at him, her dark eyes full of wonder at what they were supposedly doing for her. I didn't understand how people could want a way off this planet. "There's been no conversion, sir. No one's ever been able to change my mind. The Cybermen offered me the one thing I wanted. Liberation."

"Who are you?"

"You can be quiet." She snapped at Rosita, and I readied myself to attack someone. "I doubt he paid you to talk. More importantly, who are you, sir, with such intimate knowledge of my companions."

Dad glared at her now. "I'm the Doctor, this is my daughter Callie."

The Cybermen didn't agree. "Incorrect. You do not correspond to our image of the Doctor, and the Doctor's daughter is deceased." Really? I was stood right here.

"Yeah, but that's because your database got corrupted." I told them, correcting the data, adding myself before throwing it to the thing. "Oh, look, look, look. Check this. The Doctor's and his daughters infostamp.Plug it in. Go on. Download."

"The core has been damaged. This infostamp would damage Cyberunits."

"Oh, well. Nice try, CJ." Dad sighed as it was repaired, and they realised who we were. "Hello."

"You will be deleted."

I was moved behind him, and dad stood taller. "No, no. Oh, but let me die happy. Tell me, what do you need those children for?"

The woman seemed confused by what was being said, like it was obvious. "What are children ever needed for? They're a workforce."

"But for what?"

"Very soon now, the whole Empire will see. And they will bow down in worship."

He nodded a little, reasoning it out. "And it's all been timed for Christmas Day. Was that your idea, Miss ?"

"Hartigan." The woman supplied when dad asked. "Yes. The perfect day for a birth, with a new message for the people. Only this time, it won't be the words of a man."

I spoke up from behind dad. "The birth of what?"

"A birth, and a death. Namely, yours. Thank you, Doctor, Calliope. I'm glad to have been part of your very last conversations. Now, delete them."

They stepped forward, but Jackson Lake came to our rescue, destroying them with infostamps. "At your service, Doctor, Miss Callie."

Miss Hartigan started shouting, but I pulled dad away, shouting at everyone to run, though Rosita paused to punch the lady in the face, before we had to stop in an alley to let the men catch their breaths. I loved running. "That stronghold down by the river. We need to find a way in."

"I'm ahead of you. My wife and I were moving to London so I could take up a post at the university. And while my memory is still not intact, this was in the luggage. The deeds. Fifteen Latimer Street. And if I discovered the Cybermen there, in the cellar, then-"

Awesome. "That might be our way in. Brilliant."

"There's still more." He said before dad and I started to run again. "I remember the cellar and my wife, but I swear there was something else in that room. If we can find that, perhaps that's the key to defeating these invaders. So, onwards!"

The cellar wasn't far away, and there was a Cyberman that was quickly destroyed before we ran to a high tech machine in the middle of the room. "It must've been guarding this. A Dimension Vault. Stolen from the Daleks again." More of the shitty pepper pots stuff, great. "That's how the Cybermen travelled through time. Jackson, is this it? The thing you couldn't remember?"

Jackson shook his head. "I don't think so. I just can't see. It's like it's hidden."

Dad looked up from what he was doing. "Not enough power. Come on! Avanti!"

Next was into the sewers, that I let my skirt drag through easily, because I was sick of the thing by now, and Rosita wanted answers. "What do the Cybermen want?"

"They want us. That's what Cybermen are." I told her softly. "Human beings with their brains put into metal shells. They want every living thing to be like them."

And then we found the children, all working hard in a horrific machine that would only bring pain. "It's an engine. They're generating electricity, but what for?"

"Power at ninety percent" dad told me, holding my arm tight. "But if we stop the engine, the power dies down, the Cybermen'll come running. Ooo. Hold on. Power fluctuation. That's not meant to happen."

I opened my colours wider, seeing the power flowing in different directions all around, but occasionally it would go somewhere else. "It's going wrong. Like, like the software is rewriting itself. Changing, moving, growing. It's sentient."

And the the control panel went bang, and I closed my eyes quickly to stop them being blinded, dad covering my eyes. "Whoa! What the hell's happening? It's out of control."

"It's accelerating. Ninety six percent, ninety seven." I told him, seeing the numbers without looking. "The who place is singing with it."

"When it reaches a hundred, what about the children?"

Just the right question, Rosita. "They're disposable. Come on!"

A klaxon sounded as we reached the bottom, and Lake and Rosita worked on destroying the Cybermen. "Right. Now, all of you, out! Do you hear me? That's an order! Every single one of you, run! Come on, Little Loves, leg it!" I shouted, helping kids to get down from the machines. "Rosita, get them out of sluice gate. Once you're out, keep running. Far as you can! Come on, come on, come on."

She got them moving, and we kept chasing the kids out, before I looked around to see Jackson staring at a young boy trapped up high. "That's my son. My son. Doctor, Callie, my son!"

"What?"

"They took my son. No wonder my mind escaped. Those damned Cybermen, they took my child! But he's alive, Doctor. Frederick!" You poor man...

I went to climb up to him. "Come on!"

"No, he's too scared. Stay there! Don't move! I'm coming." But an explosion knocked him down. "I can't get up there. Fred!"

"They've finished with the motor." I shouted at him, seeing the dark blue rumble of what was going on. "It's going to blow up."

"What are we going to do, Callie, Doctor? What are we going to do?"

I drew the cutlass dad had at the house, and grinned. "Come on, Jackson. You know me." Then I grabbed a rope, unravelling it with sound before it went up, getting it to land on the platform by the boy. "Oh, that's it. Hello, my name's Callie, sweetheart." I put him onto my hip, holding him tight. "Now, hold on tight. Don't let go." Then we swung back down, and gave the small oneback to his father. "Merry Christmas."

At which point dad grabbed me, carrying me as we ran back to their house. "Head for the street."

"Come on, Doctor. Hurry up!" They called, but he grabbed something, me still on his back as we went.

And over the street, there was a massive steampunk Cyberman over London, so big that the skies bent around it. "It's a CyberKing." I breathed, knowing it on sight. I had to fight so many of these in the parallel universe. "It's a ship. Dreadnought class. Front line of an invasion. And inside the chest, a Cyberfactory, ready to convert millions." I looked at the man, holding his kid close."Just head south. Take him south. Go to the parkland."

"But where are you going?!"

"To stop that thing." We shouted, dad putting me down. "Jackson, you've got your son. You've got a reason to live. I'm not a kid, I know the risk. Dad couldn't stop me if he tried."

So then we were running, grabbing things we needed to go up in the balloon, before Jed turned up. "Oh, good man. Jed, wasn't it? Jed, I need your help!"

"I'm not going out there."

Right, how much did I have in my purse... "I'll give you five pound notes."

Which got his attention. "Er. All right. What do you want me to do?"

"The TARDIS is going to fly." I grinned, cutting my skirts shorter to actually fit into the basket of the balloon as dad put on another bandolier of infostamps.

He did as we said, but stared at us as we jumped into the basket. "You're flaming bonkers. Begging your pardon, Miss." Oh shut up.

"It's been said before. Now give me." He handed dad the Dimnsion thingy, resonating at a bright, bright pastel colour that faded to blue each time it reached a little distance away from itself. "Not enough power. Come on! Jed, let her loose."

"Ever flown one of these before?"

"Nope, never. Sonic manipulations can help our directions."

He paused for a moment. "Can I have my money now?"

"Oh, get on with it."

He untied it all, and we floated up, throwing out sandbags to get the balloon to go faster. When we reached the right height, the CyberKing turning to see us. "Excellent. The Doctor. Yet another man come to assert himself against me in the night. Even your daughter is submissive against you, with her great power."

I sat on the end of the basket, reaching out to her. "Miss Hartigan? We're offering you a choice. You might have the most remarkable mind this world has ever seen. Strong enough to control the Cybermen themselves."

"I don't need you to sanction me." She smiled.

"No, but such a mind deserves to live." Dad shouted next. "The Cybermen came to this world using a Dimension vault. I can use that device to find you a home, with no people to convert, but a new world where you can live out your mechanical life in peace."

"I have the world below, and it is abundant with so many minds ready to become extensions of me. Why would I leave this place?"

You stupid woman. "Because if you don't, we'll have to stop you. Please, Miss Hartigan."

"What do you make of me, sir, young Miss? An idiot?"

"No. The question is, what do you make of me?" Dad asked, pulling me back into the basket as we told them to kill us. "You make me into this, in front of my Callie."

And then he grabbed the infostamps into her before I could, and she just sat there smiling sweetly. "Then I have made you a failure, in front of your child. Your weapons are useless, sir."

You stupid woman. "He wasn't trying to kill you. All it did was break the Cyber-connection, leaving your mind open. Open, I think, for the first time in far too many years. So you can see. Just look at yourself. Look at what you've done." Her eyes returned to normal, and the Cybermen were staring at her. "I'm sorry, Miss Hartigan, but look at what you've become." Then she screamed, electricity dancing around the whole thing before they all exploded, even her.

Which lead to the part of the plan I didn't understand, how the hell were we going to stop it from falling and crushing even more people to death? Until dads gizmo beeped. "Ooo, now you're ready." Then he aimed it at the CyberKing, swirls of energy surrounding it, dragging it back into the papery white of the Void.

At which point I could hear the gold and purple cheers and applause below us, everyone knowing who we were as we did it. We waved back, and dad rang the bell, sending sparks of little silver stars into the night until we landed, going back to the market place to find Jackson and Frederick. "The city will recover, as London always does. Though the events of today will be history, spoken of for centuries to come."

"Yeah. Funny that." I muttered, knowing it didn't happen like that. How did they forget a CyberKing?

"And a new history begins for me." The man sighed, looking at Rosita and Fred, playing. "I find myself a widower, but with my son and with a good friend."

Rosita was brilliant, absolutely brilliant. "Now, take care of that one. She's marvellous."

"Frederick will need a nursemaid and I can think of none better." Jackson agreed. "But you're welcome to join us. We thought we might all dine together at the Traveller's Halt. A Christmas feast in celebration, and in memory of those we have lost. You won't stay?"

Um, didn't really eat publically. "Like I said, you know us."

He watched us for a moment carefully. "No I don't think anyone does. Especially not your daughter."Then saw the real TARDIS underneath the archway. "Oh!And this is it. Oh! Oh, if I might, Doctor, Miss Callie. One last adventure?"

Now, that would be fun. "Oh, be my guest."

He walked inside, and his shock was brilliant. "Oh. Oh my word. Oh. Oh, goodness me. Well. But this is, but this is nonsense."

"Well, that's one word for it."

"Complete and utter, wonderful nonsense. How very, very silly. Oh, no. I can't bear it. Oh, it's causing my head to ache. No. No, no, no, no, no, no" And then he ran back out. "Oh! Oh, gracious. That's quite enough. I take it this is goodbye."

I nodded, holding the tatters of my skirt. "Onwards and upwards."

"Tell me one thing. All those facts and figures I saw of the Doctor's life, you were never alone. All those bright and shining companions, before and after Calliope. But not any more?" Dad shook his head. "Might I ask why not?"

"They leave." He told him softly, putting a hand on my shoulder, more for his own support. "Because they should. Or they find someone else. And some of them, some of them forget me. I suppose in the end, they break my hearts."

Jackson looked at him for a moment. "That offer of Christmas dinner. It's no longer a request, it's a demand. In memory of those we've lost."

"Oh, go on then." I sighed. "Well, as long as I get some wine."

"Really?"

Dad nodded now, holding me closer. "Just this once. You've actually gone and changed my mind, well, Callie's mind, which is saying something. She said yes to food. Not many people can do that. Jackson, if anyone had to be the Doctor, I'm glad it was you."

Jackson grinned. "The feast awaits. Come with me. Walk this way."

"We certainly will. Merry Christmas to you, Jackson." I laughed.

"Merry Christmas indeed, Doctor and Miss Callie."