Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

Nightmare in Silver – Part One

It had been a week, seven days exactly, since the…traumatic events of Metebelis II. 'Trauma' was really an over-statement; with the exception of a couple of nightmares, the two Whovians had dealt with the whole experience surprisingly well. That very morning…if you could call it 'morning' on the TARDIS, where time seemed to have lost all meaning…the two of them were having breakfast in the kitchen. "Where d'you think the Doctor is?" asked Laura, after swallowing a spoonful of Weetabix.

Her best friend merely shrugged and gave a non-committal grunt, distracted by her phone and her own bowl of shredded, compressed wheat. Both she and Laura had made a pact to try and eat more healthily whilst travelling on the TARDIS; between the balanced diets and all the running, their appearances had drastically changed. Laura's weight had slowly melted away, leaving her with a figure still short and curvy, but less rounded. Charlotte had more energy to spare, which helped when they ended up on two consecutive adventures, and her muscles were far more toned.

Laura lifted another mouthful to her lips, and noticed a movement in the corner of her eye. Glancing over she froze, holding the spoon aloft, seeing a spider crawling along the table towards them. It was one of the creepy, long legged, small bodied ones that always made her and Charlotte cringe. Charlotte noticed the spider too and felt a shudder run down her spine…out of all the spiders it could have been, those were the worst in her opinion. She looked at Laura, expecting to see her going pale, looking fearful.

Instead, Laura's reaction surprised her. The same girl who used to freeze and whimper if a spider crawled onto her person, actually put down her spoon and carefully scooped the spider into her cupped hands. "Come on, little guy; you don't belong in here". Charlotte stared as she walked to the open doorway and released the spider onto the wall of the corridor, before coming back inside, wiping her hands off on her trousers.

"Whoa…who are you and what have you done with Laura?"

"Ha, ha, very funny" Laura deadpanned, "Well, after dealing with those giant spiders last week, the rest are…pretty tiny in comparison. I thought I'd still be scared of them but…I don't think I am so much, anymore".

Charlotte beamed at her. "That's great! Wish I could say the same. Every spider I see now just creeps me out" she sighed. It was strange how one event could trigger such a role reversal – now she was the one nervous around spiders, whilst Laura was up and letting them crawl into her hands!

"It's okay, Charlotte, you'll get over it" Laura smiled confidently. They finished eating their breakfasts and then went in search of the console room. The Doctor was already there, of course, looking at something on the scanner.

"You stalking Clara's timeline again?" asked Charlotte, with an amused smirk. The Doctor jumped and hastily protested, "It's not stalking – I mean, no, I was just...anyway, where do you want to go today?"

"Hmm…I dunno, really. Isn't it your turn to choose, Laura?"

"I think it's Clara's turn, actually. We're back to Wednesday after all". No sooner had Laura spoken, than the phone began ringing…the phone on the outside of the phone box.

"You really need to rewire that" Charlotte commented as the Doctor went to answer the phone. He made a dismissive 'I'll sort it later' gesture and flung the door open to reveal a beautiful nebula…which he promptly proceeded to ignore, taking the phone and pressing it to his ear. "Hello, this is the Doctor speaking…oh, hello, Clara! We were just talking about y- what?" A frown creased his brow as he listened… "Are you sure…okay, okay…wait, they want to what?"

Suddenly, Charlotte realised what was probably going on. She hurried over and tugged the Doctor's sleeve; at first he brushed her off, but she tugged again, more insistently. "Hang on, Clara" – the Doctor pressed the phone to his shoulder – "Charlotte, I'm trying to"-

"She wants to bring the kids, doesn't she" Charlotte said hastily. There was a long pause.

"…Episode?"

"Yup…can you just tell her 'no'?"

"To the kids coming? Why, because it's not safe?" he guessed.

"No, cos they're annoying" she replied bluntly, "…and because it's not safe. I'm just not in the mood to deal with an irritating teenager".

The Doctor looked worried, silently asking what was wrong…Charlotte just gestured to the phone, reminding him that he was in the middle of something. He lifted it to his ear again and said, "Sorry about that, Clara. Listen, I don't think…uh…right". He winced and looked at Charlotte again. "Um…she heard what you said".

Charlotte promptly face-palmed in frustration; she gestured for the Doctor to hand her the phone. "Hey, Clara, I'm sorry about that. I didn't mean it".

"It's okay. Look, I know Angie can be kind of frustrating at times…but give her a chance. She's going through a lot".

That doesn't give her the right to be a brat Charlotte couldn't help thinking. Aloud, she remarked "Do you really think it's a good idea for them to come on a trip? You know how dangerous it can get".

"I know, and I want to say 'no', but…Charlotte, they have photos. They're going to show them to Mr Maitland if I don't say 'yes'".

"So put your foot down! Tell your boss his kids are trying to blackmail you. I mean, who do you think he's gonna believe?"

Clara hesitated… "I just don't want to have them constantly bugging me about it. They'll never let up on this, I just know it".

"Which is the whole point of putting your foot down" Charlotte pointed out, "Exercising your authority; you can't give kids that age an inch, or they'll take a mile…" she sighed and reluctantly added, "If you really want them to come…well, it's up to the Doctor".

She handed the phone back to him. "Clara? The kids can come, on one trip mind you" he decided, "Besides, I've got a brilliant idea for where we can go!"

/

Thus it was, after picking up Clara and her young charges, the TARDIS materialised on what two of the occupants knew was an anti-gravity moon themed ride. The Doctor, Clara and the kids stuck their heads out of the door, and then all six of them stepped out of the TARDIS. "Well, here we are" the Doctor announced, arms outstretched, "Hedgewick's World! The biggest and best amusement park there will ever be, and we've got a golden ticket" he grinned, showing it off, "Eh? Eh? Fun" he beamed.

"Fun?" asked Clara, doubtful – it looked rather dilapidated to her, and deserted. Behind her, Angie scoffed in childish contempt. "Your stupid box can't even get us to the right place. This is like a moon base or something" she said dismissively.

"Then how are we breathing?" inquired Charlotte. Angie just ignored her. Who were these two women anyway? Friends of Clara, she gathered, but how come they'd only visited that one time in March? It was July now!

"It's not the moon" the Doctor protested, his face falling as he realised that his companions and guests didn't exactly share his enthusiasm.

"Actually, I think it does look like the moon" Artie commented, "Only dirtier".

"The moon's covered in dust, it's already dirty. Plus, I'm pretty sure it doesn't have fake looking rocks or a control panel on it" Charlotte pointed out.

"Charlotte's right. This isn't the moon, guys, it's a Spacey Zoomer ride" the Doctor explained… "Or it was".

Just then, a door opened in one of the larger 'fake looking rocks', and a man wearing a tall top hat poked his head out. "Psst, excuse me? I don't suppose you happen to be my lift off planet? Dave's Discount Interstellar Removals?" he asked hopefully.

"Fraid not" Clara answered for them.

"They were meant to be here six months ago. Well, that's Dave for you, see? Unreliable" the man sighed.

"Stay where you are!" A new, female voice commanded; the man gulped and ducked back into whatever room was inside the rock. A rag tag group of soldiers, led by a no nonsense looking blonde, ran into the area and of course, aimed guns at them all. "Throw down your weapons and identify yourselves" the captain ordered immediately.

"No, no weapons" the Doctor said hastily, waving the golden coloured ticket, "Golden ticket. Spacey Zoomer. Free ice cream?"

"Who are you?" the captain frowned at the odd man. "This planet is closed, by Imperial order".

"How's this?" he asked, jumping down from a fake boulder and whipping out the psychic paper.

The captain's eyes widened slightly when she read…or thought she read…what was on there. "Oh…Welcome, Proconsul. I wish they'd told us you and your aides were coming. Any news of the Emperor?" she inquired, much to his bewilderment.

"Oh, the Emperor….No, no" the Doctor shook his head slightly, "None that you'd, err"-

"We pray for his return. If there is anything you need, my platoon is at your service".

"Right, righty-oh. Carry on, captain".

The captain stepped back and saluted, before turning to her motley group. "Platoon, let's move out! On the double. Two, three, four. Two, three, four. Two, three, four" … the group hurried away in a decidedly less than disciplined fashion. Then the same man from before stuck his head out again and asked, "Have they gone?"

"Yeah, they've gone" Laura nodded.

"Uniforms give me the heebie-jeebies" he explained, stepping out of the room and beckoning for them to follow him, "Come on. They can't stop me being here, but they don't like it".

He led the six of them away from the Spacey Zoomer ride, to a view of the whole park…or rather, what was left of it. "Ha, ha! You see? I told you it was amazing" the Doctor smiled, but it soon faded… "Well, it used to be".

They could just about imagine how the park must have looked in its heyday – but now, with the coasters in massive disrepair and grass growing up between cracks in the concrete, it looked as forlorn and abandoned as you could get. "It closed down" their new guide commented, rather unnecessarily, "Wish I'd known that before I landed here. But let me show you my collection. Come along. Follow me. This way. This way in, come on" he said, leading them to one of the buildings still standing.

They went down some steps into a well-furnished room, lit with hanging chandeliers and filled with waxwork figures. "Welcome to my show" the man announced grandly, "Webley's World of Wonders. Miracles, marvels and more await you. I am Impresario Webley", he paused to cough, "You see before you waxwork representations of the famous and the infamous. Anybody here play chess?"

The Doctor immediately raised his hand, a hopeful smile on his face…Webley instead turned to Artie and asked, "Perhaps you, young man?"

"Actually, I'm in my school chess club" the boy admitted proudly.

"Ah, follow me" Webley beckoned; the Doctor lowered his hand again, pouting. Charlotte supressed a snigger at the look on his face and patted him on the shoulder as she passed. They followed Webley to the next room, which contained two chairs and a table with a chess set on it. "Now, let demonstrate to you all the wonder of the age, the miracle of modernity" Webley declared, walking over to something on the opposite chair, draped in satin cloth.

"We defeated them all a thousand years ago, but now he's back, to destroy you. Behold, the enemy!" With a flourish, he whipped away the cloth to reveal a –

"Cyberman! Get down!" the Doctor cried out in alarm, tugging both Clara and Charlotte into a crouch. Laura remained standing, knowing it wasn't a threat – the kids stayed standing because they didn't know what was going on.

"No need to panic, my young friends" Webley smiled in amusement, as a rather embarrassed Doctor got to his feet, realising that the Cyber wasn't attacking them. "We all know there are no more living Cybermen. What you are seeing is a miracle. The six hundred and ninety ninth wonder of the universe, as displayed before the Imperial court, and only here to destroy you at chess" he explained.

The Doctor pulled out his sonic and scanned the slightly tarnished silver robot. "Careful, now" Webley cautioned, "An empty shell, and yet it moves. How?" he asked them.

Angie, looking rather bored, sarcastically suggested "Magic".

"That may well be, young lady" nodded Webley; they couldn't tell if he was humouring her or just oblivious to the sarcasm, "but a single penny wins you five Imperial shillings, if you can beat this empty shell at chess".

"I haven't got a penny, but I've got a sandwich" Artie said hopefully, holding it up. Webley decided it was better than nothing. "Alright, take a seat" he agreed, taking the sandwich. Artie grinned excitedly and sat down opposite the robot, eager to see if he could beat it.

"It is free of all devices, and yet it has never been beaten. Would you like to make the first move, young man?"

Artie looked over the board thoughtfully, and moved his king's bishop's pawn one space. The Cyberman jerked a hand forward and picked up it's King's pawn, moving it two spaces. The Doctor looked over Artie's shoulder as he made his next move, and hurriedly advised "Oh no, Artie. No, don't do that, it"- the boy didn't listen and moved his piece anyway…leaving the board open for the Cyberman to move its Black Queen and end the game. "That's a fool's mate" the Doctor sighed. He would have won that.

"If you can tell me how it works, I'll give you a silver penny" Webley offered.

"I think…you do it with mirrors?" Angie guessed, only half-seriously.

"Since when do mirrors make a robot move?" Charlotte muttered. Clara shot her a pointed look; she didn't know why Charlotte was being so passive-aggressive towards Angie, but she wanted it to stop. What had Angie done to her, apart from being a bit stand-offish?

"Well, let's see, hey?" the Doctor suggested brightly, scanning the Cyberman again. "Low tech…It's a puppet. Monofilament strings, which means the brains are in…" He crouched down and opened a door in the Cyberman's chair, revealing a small man squeezed inside, holding a control box.

"Hello" the man greeted with a sheepish grin.

"Hello".

"I'm the brains".

"Hello".

"Give us a hand" he said; the Doctor helped him out of the cramped space. He straightened and stretched, and introduced himself. "They call me Porridge. Oh, it's good to be out of that box".

Webley turned to Angie and pretended to pull a coin from behind her ear. "For you, miss, an Imperial penny" he smiled, handing it to her.

Laura frowned slightly. "Wait…but the Doctor's the one who worked it out" she reminded them, "Shouldn't he get the penny?"

"Let her keep it" the Time Lord said generously, "It'll be a souvenir…" He was about to suggest that Artie get a souvenir as well, but then he noticed a small swarm of tiny, silvery bugs crawling and slithering across the floor. Before he could investigate them, Webley was calling for them to come and have a look at the rest of his waxwork collection.

"I have not one, but three Cybermen in my collection" Webley announced proudly, pulling the shrouds off two other robots in an exhibit labelled 'The Great Enemy'. The Doctor immediately stepped up and scanned them, not wanting to take any chances. The Cybermen had been stripped of all organic components and were totally inactivated…but there was a huge difference between being inactive…and being patient.

Meanwhile, Angie spotted a waxwork of a tall, rather pompous looking man…with a suspiciously familiar visage. "Is that the King?" she asked innocently.

"Emperor" corrected Porridge, "Ludens Nimrod Kendrick, etc, etc, the forty first. Defender of Humanity, Imperator of known space".

"He looks a bit full of himself" Clara remarked, as she and her friends came over to have a look.

"Don't say things like that about the Imperial family. You can end up on the run for the rest of your life" Porridge warned them.

Artie frowned. "They don't sound very nice".

"Yeah, you said it" agreed Charlotte, "Even rulers should be able to take criticism…in fact, they should be used to it".

Porridge cleared his throat and changed the subject. "If the kids want to ride the Spacey Zoomer, then I can operate the gravity console" he offered. They all trouped back up the steps…Angie lingered behind, holding up the penny she'd received from Webley and comparing the picture on it to the wax Emperor. "Angie!" her brother called impatiently. Angie sighed and put the coin in her pocket, hurrying to catch up.

/

The two kids were soon having the time of their lives on the amusement park ride, bouncing up and floating down in micro gravity, giggling and cheering. "Wow!" Artie hollered in delight

"Smile!" called Clara, holding up her phone, "Say, 'Spacey Zoomer'!"

"Look at us! We're flying!"

"Having a good time?!" the Doctor called to them, grinning happily. He couldn't help it, he liked kids; he liked it when they were happy…and he hoped, because even he'd noticed Angie's attitude, that perhaps having fun like this might cheer her up a bit. Porridge switched off the anti-gravity and the kids came back down to the ground, smiles wreathing their faces.

"I think that's the most fun I've had in my whole life" Artie happily told the Doctor and Clara. They both smiled at him, and then looked expectantly at Angie, wondering what she thought.

"It was", she caught herself, "Okay".

The Doctor just smiled, hiding his disappointment. He knew she'd been enjoying herself, but she didn't want to admit it…was that just a teenager thing? He was pretty sure it was just a teenager thing. He walked off a little ways, pulling out his sonic and scanning the air with it.

"Clara, I think outer space is actually very interesting" Artie informed his nanny, who gave him a quick one armed hug.

She looked over at the Doctor and her friends and declared, "Right. Wonderful day out, Doctor, but time to get the kids home" – After all, Charlotte was right, things did tend to escalate during adventures.

No sooner had she thought this, than things started to escalate. "Yeah, err, no" the Doctor said awkwardly, "Not quite ready to leave just yet".

"Why not?" asked Clara, pausing at the door of the TARDIS.

"I dunno. Reasons" he replied, distracted.

"What reasons?"

"Insects" he declared, "Funny insects. I should add them to my funny insect collection".

"You collect funny insects?" Clara asked disbelievingly. Well, actually she wouldn't put it past him, but that seemed a bit out there even for the Doctor.

"Yeah, I'm starting to, right now".

Angie frowned at the notion that they'd have to stay in the rundown park for even longer. "Well, what are we supposed to do then?"

"Maybe some of the other rides are still working" Artie suggested reasonably.

"Err, Doctor, can I talk to you for a minute?" Charlotte asked all of a sudden; she quickly walked over and stood up on a nearby rock, so she could sling an arm around his shoulders. "Were you going to suggest that the kids stay in Webley's room? The room with the two Cybermen in it, and another in the next room?" she inquired, giving him a look that he'd learned to interpret as 'You're an idiot sometimes'.

She had a point; leaving the kids alone with Cybermen, even supposedly deactivated Cybermen (since they never really were) probably wasn't the best idea. "Should we take them home?" he asked immediately. After all, the last time he hadn't listened to her, they'd nearly been turned into crispy zombies.

Charlotte bit her lip, hesitant. "I…I dunno. I know everything works out…I guess if they just stay with us we can keep an eye on them".

"Okay" he nodded; she pulled her arm away and he spun on his heel, clapping his hands together. "Porridge, do you mind giving this lot a tour? If there's anything worth taking a tour of, that is. None of you wander off, understand? Now, I'm not just saying don't wander off, I mean it. Otherwise you'll wander off and the next thing you know, somebody's going to have to start rescuing somebody".

"From what?" asked Angie.

"Nothing" he backtracked, "Nobody needs rescuing from anything. Don't wander off. I'm off to look at wax and funny insects" he rambled, walking off without giving Porridge a chance to agree.

"Hang on; are we supposed to just wait here?" Clara called after him.

"I won't be long!"

Laura turned to Porridge and politely asked, "Um, would you mind showing us around a bit? I mean…I know it's ruined but we can pretend it's a ghost tour…or something".

Angie looked dismayed. "I don't want to walk around a broken down old theme park" she complained, "Why can't we just explore inside the Doctor's phone box?"

"There won't be much to see in there" Porridge commented, nodding at the TARDIS. Before Angie could retort that it was bigger on the inside, Clara quickly interjected, "We'll just have a quick look round and then we'll come back to the TARDIS, okay?"

"I'd like to look around" Artie mentioned, turning to his big sister and pleading, "Come on Angie, we're on a different planet! Don't you want to see a bit more of it?"

"There's nothing to see" she grumbled, but protested no further. Porridge led them back to the main part of the park and they ventured forth…despite the fact that they were nowhere near the Cybermen, as far as Charlotte and Laura knew, the dilapidated rides and darkened sky gave them both a deep feeling of foreboding. Doubts danced about in Charlotte's head – Should we have left the kids in the TARDIS? Should I suggest going back? I don't know how we can stop the Cybermen from kidnapping them…but it's not like it really seemed to affect them much…

/

Back in the chess room, Webley took a drink from his hip flask and a bite of Artie's sandwich. "Total takings for the day, one sandwich…" he said as he rearranged the chess pieces back into the correct places, "Better than no sandwich, of course; not as good as two sandwiches, or even a chicken"-

Suddenly, the Cyberman's hands grabbed his wrists, startling him. "That's a bit odd" he said shakily, trying to pull away, but the Cyber had his hands in a death grip. "That's not funny. Give me my hands back!" he cried…and stared fearfully as lots of tiny silver bug-like robots swarmed out of the Cyberman's empty eye-sockets and down its arms, across to his arms, skittering up towards his face as the Cyberman rasped the words, "Upgrade in progress!"

Webley screamed as the robots seemed to burrow into his skin and invade his very mind. Just then the Doctor rushed in, having heard him screaming, sonic screwdriver at the ready. "Hold on!" he cried, flashing the robots with the sonic in an attempt to deactivate them. Webley shuddered as if being electrocuted; the Cyberman suddenly let him go and he staggered backwards, clutching his head.

Concerned, the Doctor took a step towards the man…but then Webley stiffened, and straightened up, lowering his hands. One side of his face was covered in metal circuitry, a miniature conversion…Webley stared at the Doctor with blank eyes, and without a word, he disappeared in a flash of light.

/

Porridge did his best to give a tour of the dilapidated rollercoasters, buildings and booths…of course, there was only so much one could say about what something used to be. He was relieved when the little boy, Artie, asked if he knew the names of any of the stars they could see in the incredibly clear sky. That was a topic he was well versed in; he pointed out particularly bright stars and traced his finger over constellations. Artie was fascinated; his sister, not so much.

"I hate the future" she grumbled, scowling at her mobile phone, "It's stupid. There's not even phone service. What are we even doing here?"

Clara sighed and told her, "We're just waiting for the Doctor to do…whatever it is he's doing. Do you want to borrow my phone?" she offered generously.

"Don't be stupid, your phone won't have any service either".

"Good point" Charlotte interjected, before Clara could explain the universal roaming feature, "Guess you'll have to do without a phone for a few hours; shock, horror" she said sarcastically. Clara frowned at her, and Angie just rolled her eyes, but Charlotte wasn't finished. "You know, we didn't have to bring you along with us. You asked to come; the least you can do is pretend to be interested".

"Why should I listen to you?" Angie scoffed, "And you did have to let us come, or we'd have shown our dad pictures of Clara time travelling with you two and her boyfriend". That last comment made Clara splutter, eyes wide in surprise. They thought she – and the Doctor – no!

"Yes, because he totally wouldn't think you'd just Photo-Shopped them" Charlotte retorted, with even more sarcasm layering her voice. Angie couldn't think of a good response, so she merely scowled at Charlotte and walked off a little way, holding her phone up in a vain attempt to get a signal. Clara felt like she should say something about the way Charlotte was acting towards Angie, but she was too preoccupied with the girl's 'boyfriend' comment.

To get her mind off that, Clara followed Charlotte over to Laura, Porridge and Artie. "Mr Porridge, was this really the biggest amusement park ever?" the young boy was asking just as they came over.

"In the universe, they say" the little man nodded, "Hedgewick bought the planet cheap. It'd been trashed in the Cyberwars".

"The what-wars?" asked Artie, "I've never heard of them".

"No, I suppose you wouldn't have. We were fighting the Cybermen…actually; we were getting creamed by the Cybermen".

"You mean those silver robots? What did they do?"

Porridge hesitated, trying to think of a way to phrase it all that was kid friendly…not an easy task. "The Cybermen…are always upgrading themselves. That's why it was so hard for us to beat them; sometimes we fought to a draw, but then they'd fix all their weaknesses and get the upper hand back again".

"But you did beat them, right? Cause Mr Webley said there were no Cybermen around anymore".

"Yeah, we got rid of them…you really don't want to know how" Porridge warned him grimly.

"Yes, I do. I can handle it, I'm thirteen" the boy insisted stubbornly, putting on a brave face. Clara knew better, however; if Artie heard anything alarming or scary, he'd end up having nightmares about it.

She quickly intervened and suggested, "Artie, why don't you go talk to your sister, see if you can get her to stop being such a grump".

He didn't exactly look enthusiastic about this prospect. "Nothing can cheer Angie up when she gets like this" he reminded his nanny…but he could tell that she was just trying to stop him finding out how the Cybermen were stopped. He still wanted to know, but he decided to humour her, since she'd been so nice to bring them to outer space. Maybe the Doctor could explain it when he got back.

Once Artie was out of earshot, Clara couldn't help but ask curiously, "So, err, how did you defeat the Cybermen?"

Porridge sighed, and pointed up at a dark, blank patch of sky, like a shadowy island in a near infinite sea of starlight. "Look up there. That corner of sky? What do you see?"

Nothing" she replied, "It's just black. No stars, no nothing".

"It used to be the Tiberion Spiral Galaxy. A million star systems, a hundred million worlds, a billion trillion people. It's not there anymore. No more Tiberion Galaxy. No more Cybermen. It was effective" he explained solemnly.

Dismayed, Clara murmured, "It's horrible".

"Yeah, I feel like a monster sometimes".

"Why?"

"Because instead of mourning a billion trillion dead people, I just feel sorry for the poor blighter who had to press the button and blow it all up" Porridge admitted. Clara almost asked who that person was, but then realised that she didn't actually want to know.

"Porridge?" Artie called over; he and Angie were standing a little way away, and he was pointing at a building that appeared to be occupied. "What's that over there?"

"Oh, that's the barracks for those soldiers" he called back.

"Can we go there?" asked Angie. It had to be less boring than this.

"What about the Doctor?" Laura wondered.

Charlotte pulled out her phone and remarked, "I'll ring him".

/

At first, the Doctor just stared dumbly at the now empty space, previously occupied by Webley. He shook off his surprise and turned to the Cyberman in the chair, taking care to keep his distance. "Good morning, sleepy head" he muttered, looking at the readings from the sonic, "Don't have much battery left, do you? You've been inactive for a heck of a long time".

"The…Cyber…men…will…rise" it intoned, or at least attempted to.

The Doctor's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Rise from where? What are you planning?" he demanded.

"The…Cyberiad will…emerge. This…planet…will be our base".

"How many Cybermen are on this planet?"

"Thousands. Millions. The Cyberiad will conquer the galaxies".

"I'm assuming that this 'Cyberiad' you keep going on about is a warship" the Doctor surmised…the Cybermen made no indication to the negative (or the positive, for that matter) so he took it as a yes. "So, back in the war the Cybermen picked out an abandoned theme park planet – can't fault your real estate choice, I'd love to live on a theme park planet, although perhaps not one quite so bashed up. You stored as many of your soldiers here as possible to escape the end of the war and now you're planning a grand comeback, is that about right?"

"Information…incorrect" the Cybermen intoned, "The planet was not abandoned when the Cybermen arrived".

The Doctor's eyes narrowed at this piece of information, and the implications therein. "You've been taking your time" he remarked, "Of course, judging by the state of your power cells, you and your buddies have been using up all your energy just keeping yourselves from shutting down completely. Oh, and you've also been developing these little beauties" he smiled, scanning the mites that were skittering about on the chess table, crawling over the pieces but otherwise not doing any harm. "Not even Cybermats now, eh? Cyber-mites, very clever" he admitted.

"The Cyberiad has been waiting. The Cyber-mites are designed for infiltration and partial conversion".

"Yes, I've already had a demonstration. Tell me, do you know who I am?"

There was a long pause. "…You are the Doctor. You are an enemy of the Cybermen".

"Guilty as charged" the Doctor smirked, but then his face and voice went hard, "So you know that I'm going to stop you. There are people on this planet who are important to me…I won't let you harm them, or anyone else. The rise of the Cybermen isn't going to happen today, nor ever".

"It is inevitable. It will begin".

The Doctor ignored the Cybermen and focused instead on the little Mites. "Hello, little guys. Now, there's a local transmat link open to your home. If I can just find the frequency…" he fiddled with the sonic; there was a flash of light around him and he suddenly found himself somewhere else; a sterile, metallic room. "Hey, that really shouldn't have worked" he remarked in surprise.

There was movement in the shadows and Webley stepped forward, the partial conversion now covering nearly all of one side of his face. "Welcome, Doctor" he greeted, in an as yet unaltered voice.

"Webley…I'm sorry" he apologised, knowing that there was no way to reverse the process. The man said nothing, so the Doctor decided to ask another question. "I forgot to ask your chess buddy. What are all the Cybermen waiting for?"

"We needed children, but the children had stopped coming" Webley explained, tapping into the Cybermen hive mind, "You brought us children. Hail to you, the Doctor, saviour of the Cybermen!" he cheered. The Doctor's eyes widened in alarm, and he backed away a few steps. Now he realised why Charlotte had wanted to keep Angie and Artie away from the Cybermen in Webley's collection. He had to get out of here and warn them!

Straightaway, he attempted to reverse the polarity of the transmat, but it had apparently shut down upon his arrival. "Don't try to teleport back out" Webley advised, "The Cyber-mites transmatted you here themselves" he explained, resting his hand on a low, circular table and allowing some of the Mites to crawl into his palm.

He had to keep Webley talking until he could figure out a way out of here. "What did Cybermen need children for?" he asked, trying to press down his anger at the thought of innocent young lives being harmed in any way.

"As the battle raged between humanity and the Cyberiad, the Cyber-planners built a Valkyrie, to save critically damaged units and bring them here, and one by one, repair them" he informed the Doctor, apparently going for the full history lesson.

"The people who vanished from the amusement park, they were spare parts for repairs".

"We've upgraded ourselves. The next model will be undefeatable".

"Nothing's undefeatable, and you still haven't answered my question".

"We needed children to build a new Cyber-planner" Webley explained, "A child's brain, with its infinite potential, is perfect for our needs. But we no longer need the children. The Cyber-mites have been scanning your brain, Doctor. It's quite remarkable".

"Also completely useless to you" the Doctor pointed out, "Cybermen use human parts. I'm not human. You can't convert non-humans".

"Well, that was true a long time ago" Webley conceded, "But we've upgraded ourselves. Current Cyber-units use almost any living components" he revealed, before tossing his handful of Cyber-mites at the Doctor's face. Caught off guard, the Doctor didn't have time to throw up strong enough shields; he screamed as the Mites drilled themselves into his skin and telepathic control signals into his brain, taking him over.

The Cyber-planner straightened up, and began investigating it's…his…new form. "Incorporated" he stated; like Webley, his voice was not yet monotone and robotic. "Yes. Ah. Unfamiliar pulmonary set-up, nervous system hyperconductive, remarkable brain processing speed… Ho, ho. Amazing" he remarked. It was strange to use such terminology…almost as if he had emotions. That would soon be taken care of…without warning, the original consciousness reasserted itself, with a burst of neural activity from the pain receptors.

"Get out of my head!" the Doctor screamed angrily, clutching his skull. He fought for control against the Cyber-Planner…then his phone buzzed in his pocket, distracting him. The Cyber-Planner regained control, and searched for the primitive communications device. The two options on the screen were 'Accept' and 'End Call'. He debated which one to press for a moment, and then clicked 'Accept', and holding the phone to his auditory sensor…no, it was called an ear, wasn't it?

The ringing ceased, and a human female voice spoke from the communications device. "Hey, Doctor, is everything okay?"

"Everything is fine" the Planner replied, having decided to pretend to be the Doctor, so as to catch the humans off guard.

"Okay…listen, we're gonna go visit the…err…the castle, so we'll be there if you need us".

"Understood…I'll be there very soon" he replied, before pressing 'End Call'.