Chapter 24 - Doomsday

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Content Warning: This chapter will delve a bit more into graphic detail of the Cybermen conversion process, along with depictions of blood. It starts about halfway down after Lyssa, Jackie, and Yvonne are pulled from the room, and references to it continue throughout the chapter thereafter, as well as brief references in the next chapter. 

If this is a concern for you, please feel totally free to skip this chapter. I've included a brief summary of what happened at the bottom, and you can PM me if you have questions. Do what's right for you, your mental health comes first.

The Doctor frowned, eyes hardening as he glanced at the lines of Cybermen marching across the room. There weren't many things worse than an army of Cybermen. But even a few Daleks could be devastating, and there were thousands inside the sphere. If Lyssa didn't know how this was going to end, she probably would have called it the end of the world. 

It still might be, if things got even worse.

Jackie swallowed hard, turning to the Doctor. "Rose... she was in the room with that sphere. What's happened to her?" she asked tearfully.

The Doctor shook his head, leaning against the far wall. "I don't know." He crossed his arms, glowering at the Cybermen, but when Jackie began to cry he softened, crossing over to her. "But I'll find her," he promised her. "I brought you here, I'll get you both out of here. You and your daughter. All right, Jackie? Jackie, look at me," he urged gently until she looked up at him, eyes red and swollen. "I promise you. I give you my word."

The poor woman nodded slowly, more in resignation than acceptance, before turning to Lyssa.  "Lyssa? Will Rose be all right?" she asked quietly, voice tremulous. "I know you can't tell us everything, but please. Just - will Rose be all right down there?"

Lyssa forced a weak smile. "Rose is clever, Jackie. She knows how to stay alive. They won't kill her." She looked away guiltily when the woman gave her a grateful smile, wincing when she caught the eyes of Yvonne, who was sitting at her desk watching her with narrowed eyes. She met her gaze evenly, crossing her arms over her chest. 

One of the Cybermen, presumably the Cyberleader, broke away from its troop, marching over to Yvonne and towering over her desk. "You will talk to your central world authority and order global surrender," it commanded.

She rolled her eyes, not showing the slightest bit of fear. "Do your research," she snapped. "We haven't got a central world authority."

"You have now," the Cyberman informed her ominously. "I will speak on all global wavelengths."

Lyssa crept closer to the Doctor as he pulled out his 3-D glasses and plopped them on, inspecting the lines of Cybermen. He glanced at her, jaw clenching slightly, before slipping them off, reaching out to give her hand a brief reassuring squeeze.

"This broadcast is for human kind," it began. "Cybermen now occupy every land mass on this planet. But you need not fear. Cybermen will remove fear. Cybermen will remove gender and class and color and creed. You will become identical. You will become like us." 

Lyssa glanced out the window as it finished its chilling speech, fighting back a shudder as it joined them. She kept her attention below, feeling pride welling up at what she saw. Rather than complying with the Cybermen, people were trying their best to stop them. Running and screaming, fighting back in whatever way they could. A few brave souls were throwing whatever they had at the Cybermen in an attempt to damage them, and several soldiers managed, after taking severe casualties, to hit a Cyberman and send it up in flames.

"I ordered surrender," the Cyberleader stated, seemingly struggling to process the "illogical" events happening far below.

"They're not taking instructions," the Doctor said bitterly, watching as one mother tried to flee, carrying her six year old son with her. "Don't you understand? You're on every street, you're in their homes. You've got their children. Of course they're gonna fight," he spat. 

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