There was a long pause. Kate stood at Ryan's side. She had
turned her back on the Doctor. She didn't know if it was because he had chosen
to leave her in New York, but he was talking nonsense, almost destroying her
memories of the almighty Time Lord of old.
‘Don't you see?’ rebelled Jack, turning to his UNIT
sidekicks, ‘If the Doctor does this there'll be no hope left.’ He tried to make
them see sense. ‘I've known the Doctor
for a hell of a long time. Together, we've fought the Daleks, Slitheen, and the
Master, so I know what he's capable of.’
‘You're not alone, Captain.’ argued Kate. ‘I have
encountered the Doctor many times, but never once has he chosen to act like
this.’
‘Like what?’ squirmed the Doctor. He wasn't sure what she
was getting at. ‘I'm interested, please…I want to know.’
‘My father, the Brigadier, spoke of you as a mad man in a
box; a clever man, of enormous wisdom and kindness. But he was always sure of who you were. Your character was always
good. You always did the right thing. Until now…’ she muttered.
‘Why do you think that is!’ shouted Clara. She was beginning
to get really rather annoyed with Kate. She was challenging him. It was almost
as if she wanted him to die.
‘Because it seems the Doctor expects us to deal with the
threat of the Cybermen ourselves!’ cried Kate. ‘But not without good reason,’
she added.
‘Of course, there'd have to be a reason. And we would all go
along with it because it was the Doctor.’
‘That's not so!’ shouted Jack. His voice was louder than the
level of vibrations on the surface. On top of them, Cyber Kings continued to
crush anything that lay in their path. The city was already in ruins. ‘I trust
the Doctor with my life. He's a man of his word!’
‘So what's wrong with him?’ yelled Ryan. The lights suddenly
flickered and then went off. A match was lit. It was the Doctor, willing to
explain all.
‘The rift is open,’ he said first. ‘Strange creatures,
ghouls, and goblins have all come through to terrify, haunt, and cause trouble
across planet Earth. But the rift has shaken up the planet, and Cardiff can't
stop it. UNIT may be able to contain it.’
Ryan listened in, as did Kate, intrigued.
‘Now…I have a plan,’ he said, sternly, ‘but for it to work,
we need a diversion.’ He looked up at Kate. ‘I need you to gather your men and
try to contain the rift. Do whatever you have to do to stop it functioning, and
when you do, let me know.’
Kate nodded. She wasn't sure how she was going to stop it,
but the Doctor had put his trust in her for the first time so far, and she was
ready to believe that he could still pull this off, whatever his plans were.
She knew he had one, and that it would work, but to what extent, she wondered?
With Ryan they headed up on to the surface of Cardiff city,
both stopping in bewilderment when they saw the surface for themselves. What
was Cardiff was practically flattened. They glanced at each other and began to
scramble over the rubble on their journey to UNIT H.Q.
‘I didn't think they'd so readily believe you,’ whispered
Jack, checking that both Kate and Ryan had left the hub altogether. ‘I mean,
you're not going to do as they suggested, are you?’ he asked.
The Doctor didn't know where to begin. He felt uneasy, as
though the action he'd take to stop the Cybermen would result in him not being
able to go on, at least not in this body, and that frightened him. He had no
intention of becoming a Cyberman.
‘I have no choice,’ he said. He wasn't happy with the
decision he had made, but knew that if Kate and her friend really did trust
him, that they too would do all they could to stop the rift if they had the
means. ‘They were right,’ he said, of both Kate and Ryan.
‘So you're going to give yourself up?’ asked Clara. ‘But you
said how dangerous it would be to do so?’
‘It's the only way,’ he answered. ‘The Cybermen can't go on
like this, and I can't let them.’
‘He's right,’ Jack agreed. ‘It's not just Cardiff the
Cybermen have invaded, It's the entire planet.’ He didn't like what he was
saying, but Jack knew that it was the truth. ‘Think of what they've done to the
rest of the Earth.’
None of them liked to think about it. They all knew the
devastation the Cybermen had most likely caused. But they couldn't dwell on
that. They had to make their farewells with the Doctor. Without him standing by
them, they stood very little chance against the invaders.
Jack gazed at the Doctor, with the match in his hand. This
was it, he was sure. The Doctor was going to his doom. He wasn't sure how to
say goodbye, so he saluted instead. Doing so meant more to him than a kiss of
regret and despair. Then it was Clara's turn.
She didn't want it to end like this. She was sure the Doctor
didn't either. She ran into his arms, and he held her tight. ‘Please don't go.’
she sobbed, trying to hold back the tears, ‘Without you, I may never know why
so many odd things keep happening.’ She tried to stop him, to make him see why
not leaving her mattered. ‘You said there was more to me, and that my life
mattered. You said you had met me before, but wouldn't elaborate. Tell me,
please…before you go.’
The Doctor let her go. ‘I'm sorry,’ he said, apologetically,
‘but I can't.’
He walked off into the darkness. The match was the last
Clara saw of him as it disappeared down a hall leading to the exit from the
hub. Stepping out into the open, the Doctor saw chaos. He was reminded of home,
the war, and the Daleks.
Cyber Kings marched across hills in the distance, moving on
to the next city. In what little of a street there was, the Doctor heard
vehicles closing in. It was UNIT, and in one truck, he saw Kate. She pulled up
beside him.
‘Need a lift?’ she asked.
The Doctor jumped in. ‘You were right,’ he acknowledged,
‘I'm going to do what you said.’
‘Are you sure that by giving them the TARDIS, the Cybermen
will leave?’ Kate asked.
The Doctor knew that the Cybermen would take his ship and
kill him. They would continue to obliterate the Earth. Nothing could stop them
so easily.
‘I hope so,’ he found himself saying, eventually. ‘And
besides, hope is all we have.’
~~~
The Doctor was being driven back towards the TARDIS. He was
in a UNIT jeep accompanied by Kate. For miles around, the tall buildings and
long streets had disappeared leaving only piles of rubble, dirt, smoke, and
small fires.
‘Do you see what you've put off for so long?’ she said to
him. ‘This is why we need you to do what you've got to do.’
‘I only hope what I have in mind actually works,’ he told
her, ‘and I mean really,’ he said, staring back at her.
‘This is you we're talking about,’ Kate said, reassuringly,
‘you can do it. I know you will.’
As the jeep rattled along, they finally came to a stop. The
car in front leading the convoy pulled over, and the Doctor and Kate clambered
down from their seats. Ahead of them were both the rift and the TARDIS, and
they both suddenly became aware of the danger they faced.
‘This may be difficult,’ mumbled the Doctor. He moved closer
towards the rift fighting the fierce gusts of winds. ‘I hadn't anticipated
this.’
The TARDIS had become as one with the rift. It was slowly
being consumed by its power and greed. Kate struggled to get closer towards
him, pulling him aside. ‘That's not a problem,’ she told him. She was confident
all would go to plan.
‘Why's that then?’ he asked. ‘What have you got that'll do
the trick?’ He spun around to face her, eager to learn of the answer.
‘Why you of course,’ Kate smiled. ‘You're brilliant!’
‘Ha-ha!’ he nodded. ‘Yes…you're quite right, of course!’
To reach it would require the Doctor to risk his life, in
attempting to fight the forcefulness of its desire, and he had to be quick. The
Cyber Kings had been alerted to UNIT's activities, and they were coming their
way.
‘Hurry Doctor!’ urged Ryan, climbing down from a jeep. ‘We
haven't very long until the Cyber Kings reach us!’
But the Doctor wasn't entirely sure how to respond. It was
as though UNIT didn't recognise the risks involved. To jump through a rift in
time and space could be incredibly tricky. Not only was it an unpredictable
anomaly but it was an incredibly dangerous phenomenon. But as he looked back at
Ryan, and past him at the Cyber Kings, he knew he hadn't long to come up with
another brilliant idea. Fighting the forcefulness of the winds, he pushed forward,
leaving Kate to her work, and made a jump towards his ship.
The rift enveloped him, sealing him inside a bubble-like
container. The TARDIS pulsated with energy. It was powerful stuff. It was
re-acting to the Doctor. It was burning his clothes, setting fire to his hair.
Falling through its doors, he rolled about manically. With the fire out, he set
the controls, and quickly dematerialised.
‘That's better!’ he declared. ‘Now, to do some serious who-ha about this tricky situation!’ He
moved about getting his breath back for a moment when he noticed the state of
his clothes. ‘I should have known,’ he murmured. ‘The rift can be like a
furnace, hot on the inside as well as out!’
‘What's his plan?’ asked Ryan, speaking with Kate in the
street. They kissed passionately as the Cyber Kings approached.
‘Ours,’ Kate replied. ‘I think it’s safe to say we can trust
him.’ She kissed him again, when the first of another new skirmish in Cardiff
broke out. The Cybermen knew of the Doctor’s presence and soon realised UNIT
was working with him to bring them down.
~~~
A Cyber ship monitored the destruction on Earth from space.
It was there that the Cyber controller had received the Cyber leader’s
transmission.
A Cyber unit was meeting with him to discuss unfolding
events on the planet. Reaching his lair, the shielding to the chamber hissed
and fell back revealing the Cyber controller staring back at the unit.
‘What have you to report?’ bellowed the controller. ‘Have
you any further news of the Doctor and his TARDIS?’
The Cyber unit moved forward. ‘Ground forces have used force
against us, but cannot stop the Cyber Kings.’
The controller stood up and faced the Cyber unit. ‘Have
there been any further sightings of the Doctor?’ it demanded.
The Cyber unit shook its head. ‘The Doctor cannot be
located,’ it answered. ‘His whereabouts is unknown.’
Violent gusts of wind filled the controller's lair. The ship
began to rattle and shake and slope. Suddenly, and without a moment's pause,
the blue box put in an appearance, almost on queue.
‘What is happening?’ shrieked the controller, as his
surroundings shuddered to a halt. The familiar blue box of the TARDIS had
landed on the Cyber ship, and the Cybermen on board arrived in drones to deal
with him. Exiting his ship, he gazed up at the controller. He was enormous.
‘Well, well, well…’ he said, surprisingly, ‘I didn't expect
to find you up here.’ he frowned. ‘In fact, I'd like to know what you're doing
here.’
The controller refused to answer.
‘Ah, I see,’ said the Doctor. ‘Who am I to ask such things?’
He paused, thinking things through. ‘But then again,’ he mumbled, ‘Who are you
to the Cybermen?’ He walked around a little, stretching his legs. ‘Because you
see,’ he said, foolishly, ‘I think you're just a puppet, pulling the Cyber
Kings’ strings. I think that if you were really involved, you'd be down on the
surface with an army of your own!’
‘Enough!’ demanded the controller. He turned to his guards.
‘This man is the Doctor, a danger to the Cybermen. He must be deleted!’
~~~
2016 would forever be known as the year the Cybermen
invaded. Planet Earth would never be the same again. Huge mechanical creatures
wiped out entire cities, leaving many people without homes, and the necessary
facilities need to survive. The world had seen better days.
Following the destruction of Cardiff city, the Prime
Minister had called a secret meeting. In it, he demanded an explanation as to
what was going on. He had called on the assistance of UNIT to stop the Cyber
Kings but they had been of little use, and failed him.
When Jack Harkness had offered his services, he felt the
situation may change somewhat, given who he was. But it seemed that even the
legendary Torchwood Captain couldn't thwart the Cybermen. Surrounded by his
associates, he demanded the whereabouts of the Doctor.
Aboard the Cyber ship, the Cybermen slowly gathered around
the Doctor who suddenly felt very nervous. This was a new experience,
'Nervousness'.
‘Now hold on,’ he said. ‘There's something I ought to say.’
The controller stepped forward, granting him his last
request.
‘I've just arrived aboard your ship and caused something of
a stir. But if you think about it, and you will,’ he said, knowingly, because
he knew the Cybermen were logical, ‘I've just pulled out from the rift with all
the power it holds. So if I were to say that this ship was reaching out for the
power of yours, you'd want to do something about it before it was too late!’
Alarm bells suddenly rang out as the Doctor slipped away
aboard the TARDIS. The Cyber ship began to tumble and spin.
‘Stop the Doctor!’ ordered the controller. ‘He must remain
on board!’ But the Cybermen were too late. As they reached for the doors, they
were struck down by the energy the TARDIS had soaked up. The Doctor watched the
mayhem on the scanner, safe within the confines of his ship. The Cybermen were
helpless, falling about as the ship tumbled and fell into oblivion. The power
of the rift had drained the Cyber ship using the TARDIS as a conductor, a
miscreant in space and time.
The rift on Earth had just about been contained by UNIT
forces when it suddenly disappeared. It had left Kate and Ryan speechless.
Within moments, the Cyber Kings that towered over them began to fall collapsing
all around them, useless.
Jack and Clara had risen from the hub. They knew that the
Doctor had done what he did best, he had saved the planet. The vibrations
caused by the Cyber Kings marching across Cardiff had stopped. It was all over.
But Cardiff would never be the same again.
The Doctor watched as the rift appeared in space, soaking up
the Cyber ship and then closing once more. He set the controls for Earth and he
soon materialised on the surface. Kate and Ryan were both taken aback. Once the
TARDIS had touched down in the only street left standing, the Doctor emerged to
greet his friends.
‘You see!’ said Kate, ‘We knew you could do it!’ She gave
him a hug, celebrating his return. ‘But how did you do it?’ she asked.
‘It was all the doing of the rift,’ explained the Doctor.
‘Its powerful energy clung to my ship and used it as a conductor.’ He saw Clara
heading his way with Jack marching alongside her, pleased to see him. ‘You see,
the rift feeds on the power of anything it finds,’ added the Doctor, ‘and the
Cyber ship controlled the Cyber Kings here on Earth. It's where the Cyber
leader called on the support of the Cyber fleet, and when they finally realised
what had happened, they couldn't stop it.
‘Well done Doctor!’ Clara congratulated him. ‘You did it, as
I reckoned you knew you would.’ She gave him a cheerful kiss. ‘Well done!’ she
went on. ‘Now you can tell me what you wouldn't tell me before you left.’ The
Doctor didn't like to admit that he knew full well what she was referring to.
Jack shook the Doctor by the hand. He was a little shocked
to discover what had happened to the city, but reckoned it would all be back to
normal before long.
‘But what about the creatures that came through the rift?’
demanded Ryan. He wasn't about to let the Doctor disappear without explaining
where they'd got to.
‘They must have fled the Earth when they realised the rift
was their only chance of returning to where they came from.’
‘You mean they returned to the rift before it closed?’ asked
Kate. The Doctor gave her a reassuring smile as an answer. ‘What about the
Cybermen? Will they ever return?’
The Doctor couldn't be sure. Arriving on an Earth far ahead
in the future had taught the Doctor to remember his place in the universe. The
Cybermen had become so powerful that they too had been seen as unpredictable
and unstoppable. The Doctor didn't like to think that they could ever return
from the rift, but he resisted the urge to respond with 'who knows'.
‘Where to next then?’ asked the Doctor, turning to Clara,
’Somewhere far away from all of this, no doubt but the question is, where?’
‘Time will tell,’ Clara reminded him. ‘You said so
yourself!’
It was time to leave. The Cybermen had been defeated and
planet Earth would never know of the Doctor's intervention. As Clara had said,
“Only time would tell.”, until they would next face the threat of the Cybermen.
Aboard the TARDIS, the controls were set.
‘It's time,’ said the Doctor, ‘for somewhere out of the
ordinary. What do you think?’ he asked Clara.
She hopped around to where he stood at the console. ‘I'm in
complete agreement,’ she answered.
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