Author's Note: Hey guys! This story is now cross-posted to AO3 under the same title and pen name. I also wanted to thank you all for the support so far. What began as a tiny kernel of an idea has really taken its own life, and it's been a blast to write. This chapter is no different, with Barty receiving a few more surprises he truly isn't prepared for...

Every clang forward matched the double-beating of his hearts in his newfound alien body as he backed away slowly before hitting against the blue police box.

"W-what are they?" Donna asked, frightened.

Barty swallowed as the Doctor's memories showed him images of horror involving these metallic robots and answered, his mouth suddenly dry, "Cybermen."

The metallic robots continued to clang towards them, unyielding, when Barty suddenly remembered something—he was a wizard. He could take on these robots easily enough with a flick of his wand.

What little confidence he had gained from this thought quickly disappeared, for as Barty dug through the trench coat he was wearing, he found nothing that resembled a wand, only coming up with some metal pen with a blue tip.

"What?" he said, sputtering in utter bafflement. "What?"

As the Cybermen were closing in on them, Barty continued to gawk at the metal pen in sheer disbelief.

"WHAT!?"

It was then that Barty realized that he no longer had magic. He was no longer a pure-blood, let alone a wizard in general. He was nothing more than a mere alien, both literally and figuratively, within the body he resided in now.

'I'm an….an inferior subspecies of Muggle alien?' The sheer comprehension of it filled him with absolute disgust. Upon glimpsing that the Cybermen were drawing nearer, however, his hearts fluttered and he decided to deal with the matter of his lack of magic later.

Throwing caution to the wind, he began to pound on the doors to the Time Lord's ship in panic.

"I know that you heard me think that you were nothing but a useless piece of junk, but I take it back! Please! Just help me out!"

When the blue box did nothing but hum a little taunt inside his head, he was about to respond to it with a snide remark of his own, when Donna grabbed his arm, pointing to their left.

"Over there!"

Sure enough there was a door that Donna pulled him over to, but as she turned the handle it was locked. Turning around, Barty swallowed thickly as he could see the exposed circuitry stretching around the Cybermen's abdomens. They were gaining on him and Donna, and there was no way out. They were trapped.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Use the thing—the sonic!" shouted Donna, snapping Barty out of his trance.

"Er….what?"

"Sonic it already!" she repeated anxiously, pointing at the metal pen in his hand.

"This is a pen!" he argued. Was this Muggle dim? How could a pen possibly help them out?

"Has your amnesia come back or something? Press the button!" Donna shouted at him.

"This is a pen!" he repeated, becoming hysterical as the Cybermen were now only standing two feet away from them. Just as Barty pressed the side button to prove his point, instead of some sort of ink-lined tip pointing out, there came a sudden blue light from the end of the device and the door clicked open.

Though Barty was surprised by this, Donna had enough sense to open the door and grab Barty by the scruff of his shirt as she flung him inside the unknown room before following suit, locking it shut.

As Barty landed on the floor, the Doctor's ginger companion turned on him furiously.

"What is wrong with you!? We could've died out there and you….I've never seen you panic like that before! What are those things anyways that they froze you up so bad?"

"I….I wasn't scared of them!" Barty argued indignantly, pushing himself to his feet as he leaned back against a desk behind him.

"Oh really? Don't you lie to me, mister! I know that look. I've had it myself many times before. Remember that giant flippin' wasp last week? Yeah? You had the exact same look I did then just now. Stop lying to me and tell me what's the matter with you today, Doctor."

Once Donna finished her rant with her hands on her hips, Barty couldn't help but think, 'Giant wasps? What in the world does this barmy Doctor get up to?' He was about to voice this aloud, when he saw Donna look as though she could threaten to blow out smoke out of her nose like a worked up Hungarian Horntail, demanding to hear nothing else but some sort of answer from him. 'Er…right. Better play the part while I'm at it.'

After all, how hard could it be? He had disguised himself as the famous ex-Auror Mad-Eye Moody for an entire year. Surely this Doctor fellow couldn't be any more difficult; especially when not only didn't he have to take a swig of the disgusting Polyjuice Potion every hour since he now resided in the Doctor's body, but his memories were ripe for the picking as he shared his brain, as well.

"Those things are called Cybermen. They're cybernetic humanoids devoid of all emotion," explained Barty, automatically relying on the Time Lord's memories of the adversaries to speak for him, although not really quite comprehending what he was saying. "They're futuristic beings created to achieve immortality by converting humans into what they believe to be superior cybernetic models, circuitry and all. And just so we're clear, I wasn't scared of them in the slightest," he added adamantly.

"Well, when you put them that way, I certainly am," said Donna.

"Don't worry. We just have to wait until the hallway clears up and we can head back to the TARDIS…..if it quits being stubborn, that is," Barty said bitterly as he finally managed to calm himself down.

"Head back to the TARDIS?" Donna questioned. "What do you mean? We only just got here."

"Yes. And we're leaving as soon as we can."

"But, Doctor, shouldn't we figure out why these Cyber….thingies are here? They look dangerous."

"It's not my problem," said Barty.

"Why not? Aren't you the one who always sticks his nose into other people's business involving alien weirdness?" Donna remarked, eyeing him curiously.

"Yeah, well, it's different this time," said Barty, scratching the back of his neck and looking up at the paneled ceiling.

"You are scared of them, aren't you?" Donna pressed.

"No! I am not!" Barty told her crossly.

It was half true, about the Cybermen not scaring him. Sure they caught him off guard, but nothing could beat the frightening chill of a dementor—especially when he had been so close to receiving the unfavorable Kiss itself mere moments ago…

Repressing a shudder and trying his best to drive the image of the dementor from his mind, Barty took to examining the room they were in.

The windows were all covered with tattered white curtains, of which sunlight was streaming through the many holes dotting upon it. From those snippets of sunlight, Barty could see that the room was a gaudy turquoise color, with spats of red decorated upon it. Along one wall were what seemed to be ovens and filthy metal tables spotted with strange substances. On another wall were cabinets with its glass broken, revealing vials and beakers of all sorts and little bits of machinery he could not identify.

"Augh….what is that awful smell? It smells like something died in here," said Donna, scrunching up her nose and covering it with her hand.

Sure enough as Barty sniffed the air, he not only got a whiff of the foul smell as well, but something else….something fuzzy relating to time….'and blood?'

Noticing that his hand was sticking to something on the desk, Barty lifted it up and found a paper that showed medical results and sure enough, it had red substances splattered upon it, as well. Turning to face the walls again, the red dots he noticed were not decoration as he thought it was before but more blood spatters.

Eyes widening, he set the paper down and went over to what he thought had been ovens but were actually containment stores. As he looked them over, he noticed that the awful stench was coming from there. Though Donna shook her head fearfully of what was possibly hidden inside it, Barty used the sonic device to open the containment door anyways. What happened next made Donna scream in terror and Barty jump back in alarm.

As soon as the metallic door swung down, they discovered a body inside it—completely dead. What's more was that while a white sheet covered it fully—'Thank Merlin'—the corpse seemed to have been operated on in a highly grotesque manner judging by the blood stains seeping through the cloth.

"Doctor!" said Donna in a hoarse, frightened voice.

Donna pointed a shaky finger towards the cabinets, and as the afternoon sun bathed the room in a flash of light, Barty recognized they were filled with hearts and brains mixed with bits of circuitry. A wave of nausea hitting him, Barty also noticed that the metal table must've been an operating table with bile staining it. Twisting around, he saw there was a door leading out to a connecting room behind them and he motioned over to it.

"Let's head in there."

It wasn't a suggestion. They bolted through the door and closed it shut behind them, leaving behind the monstrosities of the cyber operation room as quickly as possible.

Another wave of nausea hit Barty, this one more intense than before, and he scrambled over to the nearest place to retch—with this room being windowless and lined with nothing but blue-glowing chambers with mist inside them—the trash can in the corner being the best place to relieve himself.

"Okay, I don't blame you at all. That was completely sick!" shrieked Donna, a shade paler than before as she watched Barty bent double over the trash can.

"What kind of sick joke is this?" Barty muttered, eyes watering.

His senses felt way more enhanced than ever before, as though everything was turned up to an eleven. His head was spinning. While trying to rid his nose of the foul-smelling room he'd just been in, a force pressed down against his mind. He shut his eyes tight, trying to clear away his jumbled-up thoughts, but try as he might, it was difficult.

"Doctor?"

Barty ignored the ginger. He couldn't take it anymore. He slumped down to the floor, clutching at his head as every sense stung him like multiple stunning curses on all corners. He could smell so much—not just the repulsive nature of the room they had been in and the metallic nickel and copper and circuitry of the one they were in now, but he could also smell the very fabric of time and space itself. They were on earth in the year 2008, over thirteen years into his future….

What is, what was, what could have been, what must be—the many nuanced layers of every single potential in the world and the very universe itself entangled and intertwined one another like a web in front of his vision. It was like a great big ball made of wibbly wobbly stuff—time itself. And this giant web of an infinite amount of potentials of varying timelines could have overwhelmed Barty to the point of insanity if he could even manage to decipher it.

'How does the Doctor handle all of this?' Barty thought with his eyes screwed tight, jaw clenched. All these immense pressures were practically suffocating him.

"Doctor?"

Donna's voice rang out among his ears, reverberating against them. But not only was her voice echoing against his eardrums, so were the mechanical whirs and clangs and sparks and stomps…..as well as the double-beating of his two hearts….

He bit back a scream, for he could feel so much. The pumping of his hearts, every single nerve and synapse processing, the working of all his internal organs….he panicked for a moment when he did not sense lungs within his body. He began to breathe short, quickened breaths, making sure that he was still alive….

"Doctor!?"

He opened his eyes back up and saw Donna rush over to him fearfully. He forced himself to straighten up, swaying slightly, as Donna cautiously hovered her arm around him, unsure of how to help.

"I'm fine….fine!"

Barty shook off the nauseous, dizzying feeling that had just struck him. It felt as though he was getting used to this body for the first time, which he basically was. There was so much more to it than he realized, far more than met the eye, and it greatly unnerved him. He grew a shade paler than before. 'Maybe this won't be as easy as I thought it would.'

"You sure?" asked Donna in concern. "Doctor, you aren't acting like yourself today. You're acting pretty weird….more so than usual. It's like you're not yourself at all."

'You can say that again,' Barty thought wryly, hearts thrumming as he now caught sight of all the glowing chambers surrounding them. His eyes widened when he noticed Donna standing inches away from a menacing, great big red button.

"Donna," he began slowly, reaching out an arm towards her.

"What is it?"

Barty cursed inwardly as Donna jumped in panic and accidentally backed into the button right behind her. He didn't hesitate as he grabbed her hand.

"Run!"

And not a moment too soon, for as the glass doors to the chambers slid open with the mist encompassing the room, newly-created Cybermen began to march out of them.

Not wanting to go back to the revolting operating room from before, Barty pulled Donna into the safest place they had been in thus far.

"A broom closet?" said Donna.

"Not happy? Go ahead. Go back out there and let those Cyber….things take you!" snapped Barty after he locked the door shut. "Trust me, it would be no loss at all!"

"Oi! Don't you go talking to me that way, Spaceman!"

Barty didn't have the energy to argue with her. Instead, he focused his efforts on finding a way out of this sickening place entirely and getting back home. How he was to do so, he hadn't a clue. Perhaps the Doctor's spaceship will be more lenient on him now, maybe sense the redheaded companion was in danger and save them both? But what then?

He was sure that the ship still wouldn't be keen in responding to his commands, no matter what destination he input on the control console. Even then, the bloody thing was connected to his very thoughts, practically could sense his apprehension of this unfamiliar place he'd found himself in, but all it did was continue to hum some sort of taunt in the back of his mind.

'Shut up!' he thought in retaliation, clamping his hands over his ears, trying to fruitlessly drown out the noise. He only became more incensed when he sensed the TARDIS giggling at his increasing agitation. It was as though the blue police box were enjoying him being on edge.

He let out a shout of irritation as he kicked a bucket full of cleaning supplies on the floor, sending liquid floor cleaner and a mop sprawling over.

"I did not sign up for this!" he shrieked out loud as he tugged at his hair and began pacing around, his body tense.

One minute, he was coming off the maze in the Third Task with Harry Potter, nearly had the boy in his grasp, when everything fell apart and he found himself face-to-face with the scariest thing alive in the Dementor's Kiss….then he was saved.

But was he really saved? After all, while these Cybermen were certainly not as terrifying compared to the decaying nightmare that was a dementor, they were still horrific to face. What's more is that Barty was beginning to have second thoughts about Lord Voldemort having sent him here. Now that he'd begun to think about it, this couldn't have been the work of Voldemort at all—for one thing, Voldemort certainly abhorred all things Muggle and these pieces of machinery were no different from other objects he rejected.

No, there was something larger at hand here, he thought to himself as he scanned the room, ignoring the startled Donna who looked at him uneasily. And whatever it was and whoever was behind it, he wanted out. Now.

Forget having the power of time at his fingertips. He would rather be a wizard than a Time Lord any day of the week if the intense pressures and weights, both physical and mental, were anything to go by so far.

"Up here," he finally said, climbing atop of the metal racks littered with boxes and stacks of more, organized cleaning supplies.

"A vent? You want us to climb inside a vent?" Donna replied incredulously.

"I'm sure it's big enough for the both of us to fit inside it," said Barty, aiming the sonic screwdriver up at the vent. The hinges immediately popped open and he grabbed onto the edges of the metal grate, hauling himself inside it with great ease.

"A vent?" repeated Donna.

"Listen, there are still those Cybermen out there surrounding us at all corners. By all means, go ahead and go out there if you can stomach it, but I certainly won't. Now are you going to come up here or not?" he told her, thoroughly irate. He had half a mind of leaving the foolish Muggle behind.

Donna looked back at the door as though weighing her options before she began climbing up the metal shelving.

"Fine. But once we get back safely to the TARDIS, you are going to be hearing more from me, Alien Boy," fumed Donna, reaching out a hand to pull herself up.

"Looking forward to it," Barty muttered as he grabbed her hands and helped her inside the vent.