The Doctor and The Nightingale {1}

the age of steel 6.4

Mickey was just about hacked into the transmitter controls. "Almost there" he said.

"Not bad work" Jake commented. The Cyberman behind them flexed it's hand and started moving towards them. Jake turned around. "It's moving! You said it was dead!"

"My sonic said it was dead" Nova sassed. "Must have been a bad reading then"

"A robot's still a big robot" Mickey said. The three of them backed up as the Cyberman marched towards the window. "Wait a minute. Hey, Cyberman, over here. Come on, you brainless lump of metal. Come and have a go!" Mickey lured the Cyberman over, and it began marching towards them. The Cyberman swung it's arm and Mickey ducked out of the way. The Cyberman smashed it's fist into the transmitter control panel, and electrocuted itself.

"Mickey! You did it!" Nova cheered as she pulled him into a hug. "See? You're not useless! You're incredibly clever!"

"Thanks, Nova" When their hug ended, Mickey went back to typing. "Hold on, I've logged on to Cyber Control" The monitor showed that their friends were safe. "They're alive! The Doctor, Rose, and Tate, there they are!"

"Never mind them. What the hell is that thing?" Jake asked, referring to Cyber-Lumic.

"Shh!" Nova hushed Jake, touching a finger to his lips. "Mickey, can you get some sound?" Mickey did what she asked and brought up sound just in time to hear Cyber-Lumic say.

"I will bring peace to the world. Everlasting peace"

______

In the control room, the screams of people could be heard. Their earpods were deactivated. "That's my friends at work. Good boys! And, of course, my Supernova. Mister Lumic, I think that's a vote for free will" The Doctor said, clicking his tongue with a wink.

"I have factories waiting on seven continents. If the ear pods have failed, then the Cybermen will take humanity by force. London has fallen. So shall the world" Cyber-Lumic said. "I will bring peace to the world. Everlasting peace. And unity and uniformity"

"And imagination? What about that? The one thing that lead you here, imagination, you're killing it dead!" 

"What is your name?"

"I'm the Doctor"

"A redundant title. Doctors need not exist. Cybermen never sicken"

"Yeah, but that's it. That's exactly the point! Oh, Lumic, you're a clever man. I'd call you a genius, except I'm in the room. 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. 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"

"Oh, yes"

"Then tell me, Doctor. Have you known grief, and rage, and pain?"

"Yes. Yes I have"

"And they hurt?"

"Oh, yes"

"I could set you free. Would you not want that? A life without pain?"

"You might as well kill me"

"Then I take that option"

"It's not yours to take. You're a Cyber Controller. You don't control me or anything with blood in its heart"