CHARLOTTE ::: DW¹

viii. charlotte and the cybermen part two

"Maybe that's the key..." she began, "the emotional inhibitor. Find the cancellation code behind it, then feed it through the system, into the Cybermen's heads... they'll realize who they are." Charlotte blinks, for a flash it felt as if someone else said that. She brushes it off quickly as something she somehow remembered from TV.

"And what happens then?" Asked Moore, her attention driven to the plan.

"I think it would kill them," the Doctor answers grimly. "Could we do that?"

"We've got to." Moore looks at the two of them. "Before they kill everyone else. There's no choice, Doctor. It's got to be done."

While she stands up from the ground, Charlotte and the Doctor's gazes were directed elsewhere- her somber one at the face of the Cyberman and his troubled one at her. They both immediately left their dazes when a Cyberman grabs Moore's shoulder from behind.

Charlotte shot up immediately in shock (she thought the Cyberman would come later). The Cyberman electrocuted Moore and pushed her to the ground soon after.

"No! No, you didn't have to kill her." The Doctor shouted at it lividly.

As the Cyberman spoke, two additional Cyberman marched in from the corridor. As one stands in front of the Doctor, the other stands behind Charlotte... ready to transport them elsewhere in the station. Beginning to lead them away, down the corridor they just came from, she looks back at Ian and Moore.

The Doctor, who looks at the Cybermen disgustingly as they led them away, also sent a last look to Moore as well.

---

The Cybermen led the Doctor and Charlotte through the Battersea corridors and to the control room. In which are much more Cybermen all facing Rose and Pete (who sit beside the computers).

"We've been captured," he began when they entered the room, "but don't worry, Rose and Pete are still out there. They can rescue us." Charlotte in tow, he groups up with them. "Oh well, never mind. You okay?" He asked Rose.

"Yeah." She answered, standing away from where Pete sat down on a bench. "But they got Jackie."

Charlotte bit the inside of her lip, as much as she wished to have said something earlier, she knew she couldn't have.

"We were too late. Lumic killed her." Pete glanced around as he leaned forward in the chair, his elbows resting on his knees.

"Then where is he, the famous Mister Lumic?" Asks the Doctor to the Cybermen, turning around and looking to all the Cybermen. "Don't we get the chance to meet our Lord and Master?"

One of the Cybermen stands still in their spot. "He has been upgraded," it told the Doctor.

Charlotte stares at the Cyberman with an abhorred look in her eyes. "He's just like you then..." she states.

"No," It denied. "He is superior. The Lumic Unit has been designated Cyber Controller."

All the Cybermen in the room stand to attention as a large metal door, with the Cybus Industries logo built on top of it, slides open.

Pete stands up from his chair, and they all turn to watch as a Cyberman with wires coming out from in between its torso and arm joints rolls up on an upgraded wheelchair. Instead of metal covering the brain from view, Charlotte saw their brain with a light shining in the center.

From the sides of the wheelchair, steam pushed to Lumic's head. "This is The Age of Steel," it announces. "And I am Its Creator."

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