DnDoc, Artificial Intelligence #7 - The Shell
I don't know exactly how to content warning this except that I found it rather distressing to write. I am however pretty proud of it and it feels like a proper Doctor Who cliff-hanger. Last part should be up tomorrow around this time.
There were twelve of them in total, the Doctor had reported, which was actually slightly less than Rogue had feared. They had to take out six each, and they had extremely fancy space guns with which to do it. He reckoned the Doctor would be able to take out two immediately as the TARDIS opened the doors. Rogue had given him the two guns and kept the one to himself. His had slightly smarter laser beams and they could curve if you released your shot with the right sort of spin, a bit like a tennis racket. He was ninety percent confident this would enable him to take out his first two in one motion.
After that they were going to have to duck, and, depending on how the dispatched Cybermen fell, jump at the same time. Then Rogue had scripted some more manoeuvres and they had practiced without the guns in their hands to make sure they knew what they were doing. As he stood with the Doctor at the end of the walkway, he was certain that he'd given him the best possible shot to save somebody he loved.
"Doctor," said Rogue, "If it all goes wrong-"
The Doctor kissed him to shut him up. When he leaned away again he said, "I know what happens when things go wrong. I'm more than prepped for that."
Then before Rogue could say anything else, the Doctor called out to the TARDIS to open the doors. It was time to put this plan to action.
The doors flew open and whacked against the inner walls, leaving a huge gaping portal into the darkness. In the light bursting outward from the console room, the Doctor and Rogue each shot two Cybermen - the Doctor two at once and Rogue's in quick succession - then they turned their shoulders and ducked past their next oncoming foes, flinging closed the TARDIS doors as they went. Occasionally Rogue barked an instruction, but the Doctor's focus was as sharp as a Cyberman's laser. They danced around their enemies, calmly pulling the triggers when they got good shots, and rarely missing their target.
The travellers and the Cybermen both used the TARDIS as a strategic hiding place, keeping its bulk between themselves and their opponents when they needed to regroup. At one point, there were no Cybermen to Rogue's left or right, only the hissing and stomping of Cyber movement on the other side of the TARDIS. Rogue pointed to the Doctor, then held up two fingers, then he pointed to himself, then held up one finger. He'd obviously have preferred to take two of the last three himself and only ask the Doctor to concentrate on one, but given their respective number of guns it was clearly the safest way.
They sprinted around to the other side of the TARDIS and Rogue shot his Cyberman. But there was another one right next to it. In the split second it took to notice this, the second Cyberman reached out with the steel bars of its metal hand and grabbed at Rogue's arm. Rogue slipped away just in time, but he grunted as he did so, winding himself with the extra effort of generating momentum from nowhere. The Doctor, having just taken out the Cyberman on his side, whirled around to see what had happened and figure out what adjustments to make. That was all it took for the one remaining Cyberman from Rogue's side to cross the distance to the Doctor and seize its stationary, startled quarry.
The Doctor railed against it, trying to get a shot off. But it was such close range that he had some serious disadvantage on his ranged attacks and he just ended up shooting the back of the TARDIS. The Cyberman used its other hand to knock the gun away, and it held the Doctor's other wrist so tightly that there was no way for the Doctor to direct his fire with the remaining gun. His cheekbones closed in around his eyes in a grimace, whether from the likely broken wrist or from knowing he was beaten, Rogue knew not.
But there was only that one Cyberman left, and it was much too preoccupied trying to keep the Doctor still to worry about Rogue. Rogue raised his gun and fired, but the Cyberman threw itself and the Doctor forward, landing crudely on top of him and crushing the air out of him, quite possibly crushing more bones too. Rogue shot again, but the Cyberman rolled them both away, then dragged itself and the Doctor back to their feet. It finally got what it wanted now, the Doctor positioned right in front of it and trapped in multiple metal vices. Even the Cyberman's leg was wrapped around the Doctor, its foot jamming down on top of his.
The Cyberman had a hostage.
Rogue put his gun on the ground then stood up with his hands raised in surrender.
"No!" the Doctor screamed.
Rogue shook his head. "I'm so sorry. I don’t know why I thought the two were on your side and the one on my side. I'm sorry."
"Rogue, no," said the Doctor. "Go back in the TARDIS."
Rogue swallowed an enormous lump. "No." His voice was so shaky. "Doctor, I'm getting the feeling only one of us is going to get to save the person he loves. And you know what, it's my fucking turn. Cyberman, what do you want from me? What will make you let him go?"
The Cyberman's voice was predictably electronic. "There is a shell ready for you. Step inside. We will move to our next target."
Rogue looked around. Between a couple of fallen Cybermen suits there was something still standing tall. It wasn't a Cyberman, so he had barely even registered it in the midst of battle. It was perhaps double the width of a Cyberman, though the same height, and the silhouette was very like a Cyberman - just doubled. It was a Cyberman suit, open like a closet door, waiting for him to lock himself inside.
There was a metallic whack behind him and Rogue looked round to find the Cyberman wrestling the Doctor back into submission after an escape attempt. Just at that moment, the door opened at the far end of the giant hall again, and more of the horrible silver monsters started to file through. Backup had arrived. Rogue had considered backup, but if there'd been backup, they'd have had no chance, so he hadn't been able to factor that into a plan that had presupposed there was some sort of hope of getting out of this.
He took a step towards the shell.
"ROGUE!" the Doctor shrieked, heaving against the Cyberman's arms. He'd lost hold of both guns now. It could crush him when it wished. Didn't they all hate the Doctor anyway? Rogue was a little surprised they weren't just knocking their nemesis out of the world. But maybe a hostage situation was the most optimal, the most efficient way to get him to do what they wished. After all, if they'd had the Doctor as a hostage from a start, they'd be up eleven Cybermen compared to what they were now.
Rogue closed the distance between himself and the shell, but when he got there, he didn't see the shadow of the Cyberman he was to become. Filling up the empty space in front of him he saw Art.
Art smiled at him. "Well, Rogue, you gave him a chance. Now come here."
Art waved him forwards as if welcoming him in for a hug. Rogue turned around so that he was facing towards the Doctor, one last time before he went back to Art.
"You have to keep living!" he shouted. The tears were like rivers bursting their banks down the Doctor's face. Rogue broke. His knees began to tremble, juddering violently. He screamed, "I love you!"
Then he stepped backwards, into the shell.
The darkness of the room melted away as death came for him and he saw memory after memory of the last few months of his life. He remembered the feeling of running on fumes as he hunted down the TARDIS through the streets of Glasgow, of the sonic cloud and the fear he'd felt in the dead forest and at the Loch o' the Lowes. He remembered the sonic cloud playing music, himself playing music with The Earthlings, singing that Linkin Park song to Ruby in eighteenth century Scotland, awe at the storm of music raging around him in a fight between two Gods. He remembered the panicked anxiety in the chaos of the Mushroom Planet and the dim, quiet, midnight calm of the Time Window.
Then slowly darkness encroached back across his vision, all those feelings fading to reveal this most barren of dimensions, full of metal men who knew only strategy and efficiency. For one fleeting moment he felt the memory of the Doctor's warmth against him, but then that too was going. Going, going…
