The trio crept down the corridors of the lower levels of the power plant warily, trying to avoid detection. Having had to exit the cooling tunnels faster than expected, they were still a ways away from the control centre and it was making Terry feel on edge. They were far too exposed for comfort in the brighter and wider corridor where they might easily run into a Cyberman from around the numerous twists and side passages.
They had made it about halfway to the control centre by Terry's estimate when her prediction finally came true. The Doctor and Mrs. Moore flinched as a Cyberman suddenly rounded a corner right ahead of them and cut off their path.
"You are not upgraded." The Cyberman declared as soon as it saw them.
"Yeah?" Mrs. Moore spat as she dug into her bag quickly. "Well, upgrade this."
She threw a small rod of copper wire she'd pulled out of her bag at the Cyberman. The rod stuck onto the metal plate on the Cyberman's chest and instantly, the Cyberman jerked and spasmed as its joints sparked while it was electrocuted until finally the Cyberman collapsed in a heap at their feet.
"What the hell was that thing?" The Doctor asked, amazed and impressed as he peered down at the incapacitated Cyberman.
"Electromagnetic bomb." Mrs. Moore explained with great satisfaction. "Takes out computers, I figured it might stop the cyber-suit."
"You figured right." The Doctor marveled before grabbing his sonic and crouching down beside the fallen Cyberman. "Now, let's have a look. Know your enemy."
He began sonicing the circular panel over the Cyberman's chest, which was embellished with the Lumic Corporation's 'L'.
"A logo on the front. Lumic's turned them into a brand." The panel clicked open and the Doctor pulled it away with a grunt. Terry meanwhile wrinkled her nose, already knowing what would be inside and not in the slightest bit keen to see it up close. "Heart of steel, but look."
The Doctor reached into the Cyberman's chest and carefully peeled away a piece of the white mushy matter that was threaded into the electronics.
"Is that flesh?" Mrs. Moore asked with no small amount of horror.
"Hmmm." The Doctor hummed in the affirmative as he held up the mass with his fingers while Terry grimaced.
"Central nervous system. Artificially grown then threaded throughout the suit so it responds like a living thing. Well," he corrected himself, "it is a living thing."
He paused as he noticed something else inside the Cyberman's chest. "Oh, but look. Emotional inhibitor. Stops them feeling anything."
He pointed out the metal chip imbedded in the Cyberman's chest and Mrs. Moore frowned.
"But why?" She asked.
"They still have a human brain." Terry explained quietly. "Imagine if you woke up and saw yourself inside one of these things."
"You'd go insane." The Doctor agreed and Mrs. Moore looked stunned.
"So they cut out the one thing that makes them human." She realized.
"Because they have to." The Doctor nodded, before the trio all flinched as the Cyberman suddenly spoke.
"Why am I cold?"
Terry's hearts dropped to her stomach. Even knowing this was coming, she wasn't prepared for just how heart-wrenching it was to hear the broken person inside the dying Cyberman suit.
"Oh, my God." Mrs. Moore breathed in almost equal horror. "It's alive. It can feel."
"It gets worse." Terry mumbled while the Doctor realized, "We broke the inhibitor."
Sympathy and apology flooded his expression as he stared down at the Cyberman. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
"Why so cold?" The Cyberman asked again.
"Do you remember your name?" The Doctor questioned, avoiding the Cyberman's question.
"Sally. Sally Phelan."
Mrs. Moore flinched and she whispered, "You're a woman."
"Where's Gareth?" The Cyberman asked and Terry's hearts clenched tightly in pain. This just got harder and harder.
"Who's Gareth?" Mrs. Moore asked.
Terry's hand closed around the edge of Doctor's suit. He glanced back at her before looking back at the Cyberman as Sally explained, "He can't see me. It's unlucky the night before."
Understanding flooded the Doctor and Mrs. Moore, and the Doctor reached back to grasp Terry's hand in comfort while Mrs. Moore whispered, "You're getting married."
"I'm cold. I'm so cold." Sally moaned.
"Doctor." Terry whispered and the Doctor nodded.
"It's all right." The Doctor murmured soothingly to Sally. "You sleep now, Sally. Just go to sleep."
He soniced the Cyberman's chest cavity and Sally's electronics all powered down. Mrs. Moore shook her head while the Doctor withdrew his sonic grimly.
"Sally Phelan didn't die for nothing." The Doctor murmured determinedly. "Because that's the key. The emotional inhibitor. If we could find the code behind it, the cancellation code, then feed it throughout the system into every Cyberman's head, they'd realise what they are."
He looked at Terry, who just leant her head against his shoulder tiredly. She really was old now, she realized. Every new loss of life seemed to wear down her wearied soul. The Doctor understood this and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders tightly even as he looked over at Mrs. Moore as the older woman spoke up.
"And what happens then?"
"I think it would kill them." The Doctor admitted softly.
Terry lifted her head and she looked back at the Doctor as he stared at her with a conflicted gaze. "Could we do that?"
Terry exhaled deeply in an almost regretful sigh while Mrs. Moore pointed out seriously, "We've got to. Before they kill everyone else. There's no choice, Doctor. It's got to be done."
She started to get up when Terry suddenly broke away from the Doctor and lunged at her.
"Angel!" The Doctor cried in alarm while Terry shoved Mrs. Moore aside just before a Cyberman could touch her and electrocute her. The two women tumbled down at the Cyberman's feet, where Terry kicked the Cyberman in the knees to knock it off balance before it could reach down and try to finish what it had started.
"Move, move!" Terry yelled at Mrs. Moore, who hastily crawled out of the way with the Time Lady as Terry scrambled away from the recovering Cyberman.
"Terry!" The Doctor pulled Terry upright, grasping her tightly against his chest as they faced the Cyberman who stopped as it stared right at them.
"Sensors detect a binary vascular system. You are an unknown upgrade."
Terry grabbed Mrs. Moore, putting the woman between her and the Doctor as they found themselves slowly surrounded by more and more Cybermen who were arriving on the scene even as the first continued to speak.
"You will be taken for analysis."
"Mrs. Moore, whatever you do, don't move out from between us." Terry warned the older woman as the trio were escorted away by the Cybermen. Mrs. Moore nodded shakily, still reeling from her close brush with death while the Doctor shook his head.
"That was reckless!" He scolded Terry telepathically and Terry just shrugged at him.
"Maybe. But it saved her life and I won't ever regret that."
The Doctor had no response for that and it was in silence that they marched on under the Cybermen's watchful gazes.
As they were led into the control room, Terry spotted two familiar faces standing in the centre of the room amongst a squadron of Cybermen. The Doctor spied them too and he called out sarcastically as the trio were led over to join the others, "I've been captured, but don't worry, Rose and Pete are still out there. They can rescue me. Oh well, never mind."
He loosened his bowtie as he spoke (to Terry's disappointment) while Terry hugged Rose in relief.
"You okay?" She asked her friend quietly. Rose nodded weakly.
"Yeah. But they got Jackie."
Terry's expression didn't change but she did hug Rose a little bit tighter.
"We were too late." Pete added in a haunted voice. "Lumic killed her."
The Doctor glanced at the heart-broken pair for a second before he turned and called loudly, "Then where is he, the famous Mr. Lumic? Don't we get the chance to meet our Lord and Master?"
"He has been upgraded." A Cyberman on their right answered and the Doctor scoffed.
"So he's just like you?" He asked scathingly.
"He is superior." The Cyberman corrected. "The Lumic Unit has been designated Cyber Controller."
A sudden noise by the door had all the Cybermen turning to stand at attention as the main doors to the control room slid open. Terry released Rose and moved to stand with the Doctor grimly as a Cyberman was wheeled in on an enormous machine that resembled a cross between the inside of a coffee machine and a wheelchair.
"This is The Age of Steel and I am its Creator." Lumic announced proudly, his voice twisted into the Cybermen's characteristic monotone.
"Well, it'll be a pretty short age, I'm afraid." Terry called, drawing everyone's startled gaze.
"What?" Mrs. Moore asked while the Doctor glanced between her and Lumic thoughtfully.
"Who are you?" Lumic demanded and Terry smirked.
"Oh, me? I'm just a nobody, a plain old Jane, you'll never have heard of me or likely hear of me again. But one of my few talents is betting. I've almost never lost a bet, you see. The trick, if you're curious, is to know when you are beaten. And you, Mr. Lumic, are beaten."
"You are mistaken." Lumic answered and Terry's smirk turned just a little evil.
"That's what they all say."
Terry reached across the Doctor and slid her hand into his coat. He jumped and stared at her in surprise as she extracted his glasses before he grinned when Terry perched them on her nose.
"Are you willing to make a bet on that, Mr. Lumic?"
Before Lumic could answer, an alarm rang throughout the ship. The Cybermen all looked around in apparent confusion while Lumic demanded, "Report! Report!"
"The transmitter has been destroyed. The humans are escaping the factories." One of the Cybermen reported.
Terry grinned while the Doctor crowed, "Ah, that's our friends at work. Good boys! Mr. Lumic, I think that's a vote for free will."
"I have factories waiting on seven continents." Lumic retorted. "If the ear pods have failed, then the Cybermen will take humanity by force. London has fallen. So shall the world. I will bring peace to the world. Everlasting peace and unity and uniformity."
"And imagination?" The Doctor countered derisively. "What about that? The one thing that led you here, imagination, you're killing it, dead!"
Lumic stared hard at the Doctor. "What is your name?"
"I'm the Doctor."
"A redundant title." Lumic answered shortly. "Doctors need not exist. Cybermen never sicken."
"Yeah, but that's it. That's exactly the point!" The Doctor exclaimed, striding toward Lumic impatiently. "Oh, Lumic, come on, you're a clever man. I'd call you a genius, except I'm in the room and then there's my angel over there."
He waved back toward Terry, who grinned while the Doctor went on.
"But everything you've invented, you did to fight your sickness. And that's brilliant. That is so human. But once you get rid of sickness and mortality, then what's there to strive for, eh? The Cybermen won't advance. You'll just stop."
He nodded at all the Cybermen standing around the room.
"You'll stay like this forever. A metal Earth with metal men and metal thoughts, lacking the one thing that makes this planet so alive. People. Ordinary, stupid, brilliant people."
"You are proud of your emotions." Lumic commented and the Doctor nodded.
"Oh, yes."
"Then tell me, Doctor. Have you known grief, and rage, and pain?" Lumic questioned and the Doctor's light smile dropped as it was instead replaced by a darkness that Terry and Rose recognized.
"Yes. Yes I have." The Doctor answered shortly.
"And they hurt?" Lumic asked and the Doctor nodded.
"Oh, yes."
"I could set you free." Lumic pointed out in his emotionless monotone. "Would you not want that? A life without pain?"
The Doctor scoffed. "You might as well kill me."
"Then I take that option." Lumic announced.
"It's not yours to take!" The Doctor shot back. "You're a Cyber Controller. You don't control me or anything with blood in its heart."
"You have no means of stopping me." Lumic answered confidently. "I have an army. A species of my own."
The Doctor groaned but he was interrupted as Terry snorted in a very unlady-like manner.
"Oh dear… give a man a tin head and he thinks he's God." She shook her head while Lumic turned his head toward her.
"You again." He commented monotonously and Terry nodded.
"Yes, me again." She peered at him over the tops of the Doctor's spectacles. "You know, Lumic, you don't surprise me. You were the most ordinary man once too, but you have long forgotten that. You've been on this pedestal high up in the air for so long that you don't even recognize the monster reflected back at you in the mirror."
Terry looked right at the Cyberman with utter disgust etched onto every one of her features.
"You are, in short, an egotistical maniac who has no idea the power the most ordinary person has when they have someone they love and want to protect."
"Do you refer to yourself?" Lumic asked condescendingly and Terry smiled mirthlessly.
"I suppose I might be one of those people who will do whatever it takes to protect the people I love. But I'm afraid I'm a genius like my partner here," she gestured at the Doctor.
"And so we are both susceptible to the same flaws. We think we can make the world turn on a whim and we run around thinking we're saving the world. But ordinary people, ordinary people change the world. Sometimes, all it takes is an ordinary man - or woman - or even an idiot."
Terry peered around, apparently without much thought but her bespectacled gaze fixed onto the security camera facing her way from the far corner of the room as she continued to speak.
"If that person were to find, say, the right numbers… one might even call them the right codes… like, say, the code behind the emotional inhibitor. The code right in front of him, maybe. Well, he could change the world, couldn't he? Because anyone knows how to use computers these days. Everyone can get past firewalls and passwords, can't they? Conclusion? Even an idiot would know how to find something encrypted in the Lumic Family Database, under say, Binary nine, wasn't it, Pete?"
"Uh… yeah." Pete was startled to be addressed so suddenly but he still nodded while Terry beamed at him.
"See? Even an idiot could find that code in this day and age. Might even find a cancellation code. Don't you agree, Doctor?"
"Oh, yeah." The Doctor quickly picked up the tirade while Lumic watched them with as much confusion as a Cyberman was capable of feeling. "And I'd say he'd keep on typing and carry on fighting. Anything to save his friends."
"Your words are irrelevant." Lumic finally seemed to tire of their little act but the Doctor cut across him blithely.
"Yeah, talk too much, that's my problem. Lucky I got you that cheap tariff, Rose, for all our long chats on your phone." The Doctor also glanced directly at the security camera as he spoke and Terry smirked.
Lumic had no idea what the two Time Lords were talking about but he had had more than enough of them. "You will be deleted!"
"Oh, delete is the most useless button on the keyboard." Terry interjected dismissively. "Well, unless you're trying to remove those ghastly Beatles remakes, then it is very important. But otherwise, who uses such a horrid button to remove all traces of something that might have the potential to be brilliant? I'll tell you who: a true idiot. Because only a real idiot like you Lumic would want to erase something purely because you didn't like it. Meanwhile, a truly smart guy would want to share and build something incredible. Conclusion? A clever man's favourite button would be 'send'."
Terry looked at the security camera again as she spoke.
"Ah, but let's not forget, angel," the Doctor added. "Don't you remember how he seduced all those ordinary people in the first place?"
"Oh, I couldn't forget." Terry answered as Rose's phone beeped.
"Made every bit of technology compatible with everything else. Moron."
The Doctor nodded sagely before turning as Rose called out, "It's for you."
"Worked for us though, didn't it?" The Doctor pointed out nonchalantly as he took Rose's phone. "Otherwise I wouldn't be able to do this."
The Doctor shoved it down into the docking station he'd wandered over to and the phone slid right in. Just as Lumic himself had designed it to be.
*A/N As part of my summer special week, updating every day this week with an extra chapter this month for some of my stories! Hope you enjoy this small surprise and happy summer but stay safe!