There's still a line. You got lucky: from what you can see, the 'upgraders' or whatever are made out of spare parts. It makes sense, but your guess is that it's going to be a lot slower. Which would explain the line.

And that's odd enough, itself: Everyone seems to be in a trance. You have to wonder how they got this way...

Or you would, if you had time. Apparently you were just waiting for a higher level escort, because a new Cyberman stomps over before saying, "You are unprogrammed, you will follow to the Cyberleader. Follow."

Again, you don't have much choice. But now that you're closer, everything is loads worse. Apparently the trance doesn't keep them forever. The machinery was hiding it before, but, now that you're here, you can hear that the air is filled with screams.

It's a long walk at a slow pace, and by the end you realize that you're terrified.

And then you overhear something you shouldn't have.

Jack has been at a computer this whole time, monitoring you and talking you through it. Since Tosh was elsewhere, he didn't realize that he had to turn off more than just his own com.

"Captain Harkness, bad news," you hear The Brigadier say, "We've got some glitches with the computer bomb. To make one that size, it would fry the brains of every living thing down there."

"There has to be another way," your dad says.

"I'm sorry, Jack. There's nothing else we can do."

"Then what's plan B? These things are people, dammit!"

"Jack," you hear The Doctor say, "Sometimes you can't save everyone."

By the time you get that far into the conversation, you realize you missed something important. You're about to get upgraded. You only have a second to react before they guide you away from the main control.

"NO!" you shout, lunging forward, phone in hand, to try and install the virus before...

It's too late. You vaguely register something about being incompatible and deletion before you feel electricity burn through you.

Then everything goes dark.

When you next open your eyes, your head is pounding and the ground is spinning and you feel like you just thrown into a power line.

Oh. Right.

You sit up with a wince, the com and mobile both fried. You have no idea how long you were out, but... You were just shoved in a corner. Only a few people are left in the lines you saw.

You'll have to stop them... But there's only one way to do that, now.

You really will have to be upgraded.

But that means leaving Ianto. Because you don't know if you'll be able to come back.

Leave the love of your life and your dad, or everyone in the world dies.

The choice leaves you in tears.

The problem is you don't have much time. The internal struggle has a timer as the line of people dwindles. Every few minutes takes another life. And you just can't face that.

"Goodbye, love. Bye, dad," you whisper, pulling yourself together. "I love you."

Even though you know that they can't hear you, it helps you steel yourself.

Time to die.

Even you have no idea how you sneaked into line. Even more baffling is how you sat there, without earplugs, and listened to everyone's screams and the shriek of metal without breaking the blank expression on your face.

But you do know how you kept your goal.

You lost everything that you held dear in those few moments you gave yourself, allowing your mind to focus one one thing and one thing only: Destroy the inhibitors.

You didn't even feel the pain as you were given a metal body. Everything was already numb and cold. The emotional inhibitor didn't make a difference. A command is not an emotion.

Before they can stop you, you've got the flash drive out of your old body's pocket. Had you had emotions, that would have registered as surreal - and probably terrifying - but the chip blocks that and you've already wasted too much time.

You then hurtle through the crowd, pushing the heavy, uncoordinated piece of junk they gave you as fast as it can go, and manage to get the virus in just as they start chanting, "Delete, delete, de-"

You weren't quite prepared for the horror you feel once the chip breaks.

Something happens as the air is suddenly filled with new metallic screams, these of the 'upgraded' who realize what they've become.

And yours is amongst them.

Things become a blur as you end up in what would have been breaking down in tears, were you able to cry. Before you know how they got there, Jack, The Doctor, and Owen burst in and search for you, crying out your name. You try to cry out, "DAD" but the sound is unfamiliar.

He hears it anyway. And suddenly you wish he hadn't.

His face crumples.

"Jacque, I told you to leave-" he tries to say, but you cut him off.

"I heard you over the com," you hear yourself say in a choppy monotone, "The bomb would not have been ready and even if it had more would have died. I had no choice."

He doesn't seem to realize he's crying. And, if you still had your heart, it would break right then and there. Because your dad never cries.

Somehow, they get you out of there, leaving UNIT to get the rest cleaned up and corralled into some sort of mass-freeze while you head to the hub. As they start getting into the car, you make one request; "Don't let Ianto see me."

Your dad just nods, getting in back with you as you shut down, only barely noticing him telling tosh to get Ianto out of there before you pull up.

Then he holds your hand the entire way back.