"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!" The Doctor started laughing as he and Rose sat on the jump seats, laughing about some story.
"I thought I was gonna get frazzled!" Rose squealed.
"Yeah! One minute she's standing there, and the next minute - rawwwh!"
"Yeah... where- where was that, then? What happened?" Mickey asked as he stood next to me, pushing a button on The TARDIS console.
"Oh, it was on this um... uh, this uh... planet thing, asteroid. It's a long story, you had to be there. Um... what're you doing that for?" He nodded at the button.
"'Cos you told me to... "
"When was that...?"
"About half an hour ago..." I mumbled.
"Um. You can let go now." He smirked before Mickey let go and Rose sniggered.
"Well, how long's it been since he could've stopped?" I asked.
"Ten minutes? Twenty? ... Twenty-nine?"
"You just forgot me!"
"I didn't." I mumbled, squeezing his shoulder.
"No, no, no! I was just- I was just... I was calibrating. I was just... no, I know exactly what I'm doing." The Doctor said.
...
"FLO!" I felt myself being pulled up. I opened my eyes to be faced with The Doctor looking franticly at me.
"What happened?" I asked.
"The last TARDIS in the universe... extinct." The Doctor whispered. "We crashed."
"We can get help, yeah?" Rose asked.
"Where from?"
"Well, we've landed - we've gotta be somewhere."
"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 doorway. We followed out after him to be faced with London, by the Thames. "London, England, Earth. Hold on..." He jumped off the wall and over to a bin, taking out a newspaper and looking at it. "First of February this year - not exactly far-flung, is it?"
"So, this is London."
"Yep."
"Your city."
"That's the one."
"Just as we left it."
"Bang on."
"And that includes the zeppelins?" I asked, looking up at the sky, full of zeppelins.
"What the hell...?" Rose muttered.
"That's beautiful." I whispered.
"Oh will you shutup saying everything's beautiful?" Rose muttered.
"Okay. So, it's London with a big international zeppelin festival." Mickey shrugged.
"This is not your world." The Doctor said, glaring at Rose.
"But if the date's the same..." Mickey said confused, before working it out. "It's parallel, right? Am I right? Like a parallel Earth where they've got Zeppelins, am I right? I'm right, aren't I?"
"Must be."
"So, a parallel world where-" Rose began.
"Oh, come on. You see it on films. Like an alternative to our world were everything's the same but a little bit different, like... I dunno - traffic lights are blue, Tony Blair never got elected..."
"And he's still alive..." Rose whispered, staring at a poster with a man on, holding a bottle of pop. "A parallel world and my dad's still alive..." She walked over, with us following, her eyes never leaving her father's image.
"Don't look at it, Rose. Don't even think about it. This is not your world." The Doctor said sternly.
"But he's my dad... and..." She reached out and touched the poster. The picture of Pete sprung to life, saying 'trust me on this'. "Oh, 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." The Doctor grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her round, looking into her eyes.
"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."
...
"I told you to keep an eye on her!" The Doctor said angrily aas Mickey walked into The TARDIS.
"She's all right-"
"She goes wandering off - parallel world, it's like a gingerbread house! All those temptations calling out."
"Oh, so it's just Rose then? Nothing out there to tempt me? Or Flo?"
"Well, I don't know, I can't worry about everything... if I could just get this thing to-" He kicked the console in frustration before grabbing his foot.
"Did that help?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Did that hurt?"
"Yes. Ow." He sighed. "We're not meant to be here. The TARDIS draws its power off the universe, but it's the wrong universe. It's like diesel in a petrol engine."
"But... I've seen it in comics. People are hopping from one alternative world to another - it's easy."
"Not in the real world. 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, took it all with them. The walls of reality closed, the worlds were sealed. Everything became that bit less kind."
"Then how did we get here?" I asked.
"I dunno. Accident? Should've been impossible - now we're trapped."
"What's that?" I asked as I looked through the grating, spotting a tiny green light underneath the console floor.
"That there - is that a reflection?" The Doctor asked, crouching down and pulling up the grating. "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! Mickey, we've got power! Ha!" I chuckled.
"It's alive!" The Doctor popped up through the flooring, holding a little green power cell that looked like a shell.
"What is it?"
"It's nothing. It's tiny. One of those insignificant little power cells that no one ever bothers about, and it's clinging onto life. But with one little ounce of reality tucked away inside."
"I'm sorry but that is beautiful!" I laughed.
"Enough to get us home?"
"Not yet." The Doctor whispered. "I need to charge it up."
"We could go outside and latch it up to the national grid!" Mickey suggested.
"Wrong sort of energy. It's gotta come from our universe."
"But we don't have anything.
"There's me..." The Doctor blew gently on it, and it started to glow brightly. "I just gave away ten years of my life. Worth every second!" He giggled as the light started to fade.
"It's going out - is that okay?" I asked.
"It's on a recharging cycle. It'll loop round, power back up and be ready to take us home in - oh - twenty-four hours?"
"So, that gives us twenty-four hours on a parallel world?" Mickey asked curiously.
"Surely! As long as we keep our heads down. Easy. No problem."
"Let's go and tell her." I sighed as we got up and headed for the door. Outside, Rose sat on a bench by the Thames.
"There you are! You all right? No applause, I fixed it!" The Doctor said as him and Mickey sat on the bench and I stood opposite. He leant over and showed her the power cell. "Twenty-four hours, then we're flying back to reality." He glanced down at her mobile. "What is it?"
"My phone connected. There's this... Cybus Network, it finds your phone. It gave me Internet access." Rose began.
"Rose, whatever it says, this is the wrong world."
"I don't exist."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"There's no Rose Tyler." She snapped at me before turning back to The Doctor. "I was never born. There's Pete, my dad, and Jackie... he still married mum... but they never had kids."
"Give me that phone." The Doctor said.
"They're rich. They've got a house and cars, and everything they want. But they haven't got me." She got up and started to walk off. "I've gotta see him."
"You can't." The Doctor said as he and Mickey stood up.
"I just wanna see him."
"I can't let you!
"You just said twenty-four hours!" Rose whined angrily, like a child.
"You can't become their daughter, that's not the way it works! Mickey, tell her."
"Twenty-four hours, yeah?" Mickey asked, beggining to head the other way.
"Where're you going?"
"Well, I can do what I want!"
"I've got the address and everything." Rose called.
"Stay where you are, both of you! Rose, come back here! Mickey, come back here right now!" The Doctor shouted, looking at both of them.
"I just wanna see him."
"Yeah, I've got things to see and all."
"Like WHAT?"
"Well, you don't know anything about me, do ya? It's always about Rose. I'm just a spare part." Mickey walked off and I started to follow.
"Flo!" The Doctor exclaimed.
"Go on then." I nodded at Rose. "No choice, is there? You can only chase after one of us, and it's never gonna be me, is it?"
"Back here in twenty-four hours!" The Doctor said, running after Rose.
"Yeah. If we haven't found something better." I mumbled to myself before catching up with Mickey.
...
"Am we all right to get past?" Mickey asked the soldier.
"Yeah. No bother. Curfew doesn't start 'til ten."
"There's a curfew?" Mickey asked.
"Course there is. Where've you been living, mate? Up there with the toffs?" The soldier asked, nodding at the zeppelins.
"We wish." I chuckled as the soldier lifted up the barrier for us. "See ya."
...
Mickey knocked on the door three times.
"Who's that there?" His nan called from inside before opening the door. Who is it? I know you're there. Shame on you, tricking an old lady. I've got nothing worth stealing." She jabbed out her walking stick. "And don't think I'm gonna disappear! You're NOT gonna take ME."
"Hi." Mickey whispered.
"Is that you?"
"It's me. I came home."
She reached out to him. "Ricky?"
"It's Mickey."
"I know my own grandson's name. It's Ricky. Now, come here." Mickey leaned forward, hugging her before she pushed him away and whacked him on the shoulder.
"Ow!"
"You stupid boy." She slapped him again. "Where've you been?"
"Ow! Stop hitting me!"
"It's been days and days! I keep hearing all these stories. People disappearing off the streets. There's nothing of it on the download." She pointed at a pod in her ear. "But there're all these rumours, and- and whispers. I thought that God had disappeared you!" Mickey glanced at her staircase, where the carpet was ripped.
"That carpet on the stairs, I told you to get it fixed, you're gonna fall and break your neck."
"Well, you get it fixed for me."
"I should' a done way back. I guess I'm just kinda useless."
"Now, I never said that."
"I am, though. And I'm sorry, gran. I'm so sorry.
"Don't talk like that. Do you know what you need? A nice sit down and a cuppa tea. You got time?"
"For you, I've got all the time in the world."
"You say that, but it's all talk. It's those new friends of yours. I don't trust them."
"What friends are they?" I asked.
"You've brought a friend with you?" His nan asked. "She better not be one of those lot. Don't pretend you don't know, Ricky. You've been seeing them. Mrs 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." A blue van drew up sharply behind us with a skid. "Get inside!" A young man jumped out of the van and grabbed me and Mickey by the collars.
"I've been looking for you two everywhere!" He snapped before pushing us into the van and slamming the door before it drove off.
"Ricky, you were the one who told us - you don't contact your family 'cos it puts them in danger! Remember that Jake - you said!" 'Jake' snapped at Mickey.
"Yeah. Ricky said that. Course I did, just testing.
"I saw them. I taped them! They went round Black Friars gathering up the homeless like a child-catcher. They must've took four dozen."
"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?" The woman driving called back, from her ID hanging on the mirror, her name was Mrs Moore.
"I dunno, who?" Mickey asked.
"Cybus Industries!" Jake and Mrs Moore said.
"And now we've got evidence!" Mrs Moore said. "Bad news is, they've arrested Thin Jimmy. So that just leaves you." She said to Mickey.
"Leaves me what?"
"The Number One. Top of the list. London's Most Wanted." Jake said, pleased.
"Okay, cool." Mickey nodded before frowning at me.
"Say that again?" I asked.
...
We hopped out the van outside of a house, with one light on.
"There's a light on. There's someone inside the base." Jake said. "Mrs Moore - we've got visitors."
...
Jake and Mrs Moore burst into the kitchen with guns aimed at two copies of me and Mickey, with us behind Jake and Mrs Moore nervously.
"What the hell are you doing?" Mickey's copy, who I presume was Ricky asked.
"What're you two doing there?" Jake asked.
"What are we doing HERE?" Ricky raised his eye brow. "What are we doing THERE?" He pointed a finger at us whilst my copy just smiled.
...
"He's clean. No bugs." Jake said to Rickey as he finished scanning Mickey.
"I told you he was safe." My copy, who I found out was called Mo said as I sat on the work surface with her.
"But this is off the scale." Ricky said, ignoring Mo. "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?" Mrs Moore asked.
"Your name is Mickey, not Ricky?" Ricky asked.
"Mickey. Dad was Jackson Smith. Used to work at the key cutters in Cliffton's Parade. Went to Spain, never came back."
"I told you they're safe!" Mo said, rolling her eyes.
"But that's MY dad. So... we're brothers?" Ricky asked.
"Be fair. What else could it be?"
"I don't know. But he doesn't just look like me, he is exactly the same. There's something else going on here, Jake."
"So, who are you lot?" I asked.
"We are the Preachers. As in Gospel Truth. You see?" Ricky pointed at his ears. "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. But target Number One is Lumic, and we ARE going to bring him down."
"From your kitchen?" Mickey asked innocently.
"Have you got a problem with that?" Ricky asked.
"No, it's a good kitchen." Mrs Moore's laptop bleeped.
"It's an upload from Gemini."
"Who is Gemini?" I asked.
"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."
...
"How did you know we were safe?" I muttered to Mo as we drove in the van.
"In this parallel world," She began. "The Doctor wasn't the last time lord, it was The Corsair. I travelled with him when I was 17 years old. We ended up in your parallel world, and I saw people I knew, all a bit different." She sighed. "I left a couple of years later, and joined the Preachers, I've been in your shoes before."
"Right then." I muttered.
...
"I've identified the address. It belongs to Peter Tyler. The Vitex millionaire." Mrs Moore said to me and Mickey.
"Pete Tyler?" Mickey asked.
"He's listed as one of Lumic's henchmen. A traitor to the state."
"But... but... we've gotta get in there." Me and Mickey jumped out the van, sprinting down the field towards The Doctor and Rose being cornered by metal robots.
"Rose!" Mickey shouted as we reached them. "That's not me. That's like... the other one."
"And the other me." I said breathlessly, nodding at Mo.
"Oh, as if things weren't bad enough - there's two Mickey's!" The Doctor exclaimed.
"It's Ricky."
"But there's more of them..." I said, nodding at the robots.
"We're surrounded..." Rose whispered.
"Put the guns down. Bullets won't stop them." The Doctor told Jake as he started firing. He moved forward and pushed the gun away. "No! Stop shooting, now!" He turned to the Cybermen, moving closer to me. "We surrender! Hands up..." We put our hands up. "There's no need to damage us, we're good stock. We volunteer for the upgrade program. Take us to be processed."
"You are rogue elements." One of the Cybermen replied.
"But we surrender!"
"You are incompatible."
"But this is a surrender!" I shouted at them.
"You will be deleted."
"But we're surrendering! Listen to me, we surrender!"
"You are inferior. Man will be reborn as Cybermen but you will perish under maximum deletion. Delete. Delete. Delete!"
a/n - Ok, I know there was hardly any Flo/Doctor dialogue in this chapter but you're gonna love the end of the Age Of Steel, I'm so excited!
Please Review!