Child of Earth

By Lumendea

Chapter Five: Skye: War of the Metalkind

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any of the spinoff material and I gain no income off of this story, just the satisfaction of playing with the characters.

AN: I've ended up giving this episode a different tone. In the original it was very staunchly anti-violence of any kind, but with the Doctor there things are a bit greyer. Given Sarah Jane's history and especially her augment with the Doctor to destroy the Dalek it always seems odd to me for them to have her be so pacifistic in the show. But hey that's probably just because it is a kid's show while this is rewriting it to be more Doctor Whoish. There will be one more chapter for this episode as it is the start of the new series.

….

Rose stared at the metalkind as she listened to the rapid pace of the others retreating behind her. She disliked the knowledge that Meyers was with them, but had faith that the Doctor would protect the others. Rose doubted that whatever toy Meyers had to take over humans would work on the Doctor.

"You are flesh just as the weapon," the metalkind growled.

"Your war is not my concern right now," Rose answered as calmly as she could with her sword at the ready. "I have no desire to harm you, but between a soldier and an innocent child it is not a difficult choice." She raised her chin and eyed the metalkind with an open expression. "Surely you can appreciate that."

It was difficult for Rose to read anything from the metalkind. The structure of its face and body where metal and gave her no indication of what it was thinking or feeling. She'd never seen a cyberman, but based on the stories this was similar in appearance though a dark brown color rather than silver. Rose reminded herself as they stared at each other that it was a living thing, sentient and worried for its own.

"The Doctor is disarming Skye, she won't be a weapon," Rose promised seriously. "Please just wait and then you can verify for yourself. We won't let her be used to destroy you."

"You are flesh," the metalkind repeated. "You will not betray your own."

"Letting an innocent child be killed would be a betrayal far greater," Rose replied sharply before she breathed out slowly. "When was the last time your species tried talking?"

"What?"

"When was the last time you tried to peacefully end this war?" Rose questioned calmly. "Have you ever tried to just stop fighting?"

"We have fought for generations to avenge the destruction of our children."

"And how many children have died thanks to that quest for revenge?" Rose pointed out sadly. "On Earth we have a saying: an eye for an eye and the world goes blind. You may be trying to avenge wrongs, but the fleshkind who did those things are dead and gone. All you and Meyer's fleshkind are doing is torturing your own children now."

The metalkind glared at her and shifted as he fired his weapon. Gritting her teeth, Rose dodged the first blast and flinched as it exploded against the wall behind her and deflected the second blast up to the ceiling. It hit one of the lights causing it to explode in a shower of sparks.

"We are in a nuclear power plant!" Rose snapped. "Do you have any concept of what that means!?"

"Irrelevant," the metalkind intoned seriously. "Destruction of this plant will ensure destruction of the weapon."

With those words the metalkind began to turn towards one of the tanks. Rose had no idea what it was going to do, but a shiver of fear and worry raced up her spine.

…

The Doctor and the others rushed into what looked like a break room with sets of protective coverings hanging on hooks along one wall. There was a refrigerator and a table with chairs. The whole space was dotted with personal effects, but the Doctor ignored all of these when he spun around and picked up Skye. He set the girl on the edge of the table with her feet hanging off. Not losing a moment, he brought his device up equal to Skye's heart and began pressing buttons again.

"We're almost done Skye," the Doctor told her gently. "You alright?"

"It stings a little," Skye admitted softly, rubbing her chest.

"Sorry about that, but it will be over soon and you won't have to worry about being used to hurt anyone."

"That's good," Skye agreed with a small smile before it fell away. "What about Rose?"

"Oh Rose can take care of herself," Clyde offered from across the room as he shut the door once everyone, including Meyers, was inside. "She's a real ace."

"I hurt that metalkind," Skye reminded the Doctor sadly. "I didn't mean to."

"I know," the Doctor answered with a pensive look.

"Will Rose hurt him?"

"She'll avoid it I'm sure," Sarah Jane said. She moved over and put a comforting hand on Skye's shoulder. "Clyde is right, Rose is very good at dealing with the unusual. She'll protect herself and she'll avoid hurting the metalkind if she can."

"If she can?" Skye pressed and an uncomfortable expression crossed the Doctor's face.

"Sometimes Skye even if you don't want to hurt someone or something you need to in order to protect someone else," the Doctor tried to explain. "If they want to harm others or kill other people then sometimes in the process of stopping them you may have to hurt them."

"Isn't that bad?"

"Usually," the Doctor agreed darkly earning him a worried look from Sarah Jane. "But why you do something matters as much as the action itself. Good intentions can help make bad things happen and bad intentions can accidently lead to good things."

"So you can do something bad for a good reason?" Skye clarified with a tilt of her head.

"The universe is a big and complicated place where anything, even that is possible," the Doctor agreed.

"And you destroying the metalkind will save our people," Meyers added with an eager expression.

"Don't," the Doctor warned her with a sharp look her way. "Have you even tried a good way to end this war? Have you sat down to talk about it? Have you considered what happens if you use a child to destroy your enemies?"

"We will be free."

"And monsters before yourselves and the whole galaxy," the Doctor said. "And what will they do with you, someone who is all too happy to throw a child at your war. No Meyers, I don't think you've tried talking enough yet. War hurts, it's meant to hurt so you avoid it and try to end it, but not by ripping open greater wounds."

"Who are you to interfere!?" Meyers demanded as she stormed up to him.

"I'm the Doctor," he answered calmly. The Doctor stood up and turned towards Meyers, setting the device down on the table next to Skye and staying in front of the girl. "And there won't be any genocide today."

"This is survival!" Meyers shouted.

"It always is, once you can convince yourself of that you can justify anything. Even growing a child, trying to ensure its loyalty by playing the part of the mother and then using her to destroy an entire species. Survival is a very good excuse," the Doctor intoned darkly as the temperature in the room began to drop. "But it is just an excuse."

Meyers reached for her necklace with a murderous expression. The Doctor made a move towards her, but the kids were faster with Rani knocking Meyers back into the wall. Clyde held her still for a moment while Luke grabbed at the necklace and with one quick movement broke the clasp and pulled it away.

"Looks like the self-defense lessons with Rose are already paying off," Clyde quipped to Rani with a smug look at the three shifted back.

"Give that back!" Meyers snapped at Luke, shifting her gaze towards him. "You horrifying waste of flesh."

"Don't speak to my son like that," Johnny cautioned Meyers with a dark look of his own.

"You need this don't you?" Luke moved further back and allowed Rani and Clyde to stay guarding Meyers. "Not to control anything, but this is a power source."

"An intelligent flesh then," Meyers conceded. "And yet betraying your own kind."

"It takes more than a similar genetic structure and physical build to be the same kind," Luke intoned seriously before a small smirk appeared on his face. "Honestly the person here most like me is probably Skye. I was made to destroy the world by an alien too." Meyers' lips tightened at the words and Luke shook his head as he handed the odd round pendant to his father. "Yeah, you really aren't as original as you think."

…

Leaping forward, Rose swung her sword up through the gun and braced herself as it sliced through the heavy metallic covering. The weapon sparked and the metalkind dropped it in alarm. Bolts of energy blasted outward and Rose gasped as she jumped away quickly.

The metalkind did not move fast enough and the field of energy surged up his legs. His body convulsed for a moment before the energy vanished and he collapsed back on the ground. Rose stepped carefully towards the unmoving figure as dread settled in her stomach at the idea that she'd killed it. As she looked down at the figure from above him, it suddenly moved and grabbed one of the unfamiliar items from its harness and tossed it towards Rose. Leaping back, she tried to avoid the strange cylinder as it opened with a hiss. Rose sucked in a greedy breath and held it as a strange gas poured out of the object.

It was on its feet and moved past her without looking her way as Rose fell back against the wall. Heavy footfalls echoed down the hallway and Rose staggered after it and to escape the gas. It took her only a moment to realize that the gas was sinking after the initial release. Her chest burned and her eyes watered as Rose grabbed the stair rails and hauled herself up towards the second floor. She only made it halfway before the burning made it impossible to hold her breath any longer and she gasped frantically.

A foul taste hit her tongue and Rose gripped the bars as a wave of dizziness threatened to overwhelm her but forced herself to keep moving. Coughing lightly, Rose tried to force whatever gas she might have inhaled out, following the path of the upper floor in the direction the metalkind had gone. She felt slow and sluggish, but Rose kept putting one foot in front of the other and followed the heavy footfalls of the metalkind. Up ahead she could see another staircase leading down to the main floor and sighed in relief, forcing herself to move faster. She had to find the Doctor and Skye before the metalkind did.

….

"You need to stop this," Meyers shouted. Her eyes fixed on Skye who was squirming as the device beeped. "You'll harm the child."

"I know what I'm doing," the Doctor answered calmly. "And I will not stop so you can use her."

With a snarl Meyers lashed out at Clyde, scratching at the boy's face with her long vicious looking nails. Clyde dodged the attempt calmly and Rani shifted forward to bring her knee up against Meyer's gut. The woman grunted and stumbled back as the teenagers stayed firmly between her and Skye though they made no offensive moves towards her. The Doctor glanced back at them as the device in his hand began beeping at a faster speed.

"Just stop it," Rani snapped to her. "We don't want to hurt you, just stop it."

"You are destroying my life's work!" Meyers shouted back with wide angry eyes. "Stop, I am begging you, just stop." Meyers looked to Skye and her expression softened. "Skye, my precious daughter. Please, don't you want to help us, don't you want to be a hero and save our species."

"Don't listen to her Skye," Sarah Jane said. She kept her hand on Skye's shoulder, earning her a dark look from Meyers. "Peace is the responsibility of adults, not the burden of children."

A field of energy began to surround Skye and for a moment Meyers looked hopefully until the energy turned a soft blue color. Skye moved her hand and watched as the energy flickered and spun off of her fingertips before vanishing into the air. The glow faded away a moment later and a quizzical look appeared on Skye's face.

"I feel, I feel different," Skye announced. Her words earned a smile from the Doctor while Meyers released a cry of despair and sank to the floor.

"Did you get it?" Clyde asked eagerly, turning his attention away from the Doctor.

"He destroyed your genetic programming," Meyers told Skye sadly. She climbed to her feet and moving towards Skye as the others kept a close eye on her.

"You mean, I'm not a weapon?" Skye asked the Doctor eagerly as she jumped off of the table with a wide smile.

"She's not even a peashooter now," Meyers despaired. "I have lost my daughter."

"You never had one," Johnny told her as he wrapped a protective arm around Skye.

"Look out!" Rose shouted from the hallway right before the door to the room burst open and the metalkind came marching into the room.

"The weapon is…" the metalkind looked at Skye and stopped. "Disarmed."

"I told you that," Rose told the metalkind as she came into the room on its heels, panting slightly and half collapsing against the wall. "Now just calm down and-"

The metalkind turned its attention to Meyers who straightened up with flashing eyes. Before anyone could move, it lunged forward and grabbed her. A swirling blue portal began to open around them.

"I saved some energy for you!" the metalkind growled before they both vanished into the portal leaving a stunned room behind.

"Well…" Rose started to say, "That was… unexpected…"

"Rose?" the Doctor asked in worry as her knees began to buckle.

"It got off some kind of gas," Rose admitted with an uneasy laugh. "But I don't think it was trying to kill me."

Her knees gave out and Rose started to fall. Luke caught her right arm and Clyde her right. The Doctor crossed the room in a moment and tilted her head back to look in her eyes. His posture relaxed after a moment and a soft chuckle escaped him even as the boys asked him with worry what was happening.

"Alright Rose," the Doctor chuckled. "Skye you're done. It's Rose's turn now." He led her over to the table and to her surprise, gripped her waist and lifted her up onto the table. "Jeopardy Friendly," he muttered.

"Trouble Magnet," Rose managed to force out with a sleepy smile that made the Doctor grin at her.