Inevitable
The Doctor and Yaz had backed away slowly, but Ashad had stopped moving. He stood still, looming in the flickering emergency light, his form half-shrouded in smoke. The rasp of his metallic wheezing filled the silence. His neck jerked. Unnaturally stiff. Something beneath his skin shifted, the silver threading of the Cyberium glimmering faintly beneath the exposed flesh of his neck.
He stared at his own hands, one fused with jagged plating, cables woven into skin, the other still warm, still flesh. A flash of confusion crosses his face. The Doctor almost felt sorry for him as he recognised his own botched conversion. A sick sense of satisfaction also bubbled, glad that this monster was trapped in a horror of his own making.
“No. No. This is wrong."
His voice fractured; half human, half synthesised distortion. He raised his hands, staring at them as if they were foreign. The remaining elements of his jaw clenched. His face twitched, his half-metal mouth unable to express the depth of his rage. The Cyberium stirred inside him, threading through his nerves, his mind. Whispering. Commanding. Ashad staggered forward, clutching his head.
"Why do you resist me? Why am I not whole?" Ashad pleaded.
Yaz turned to the Doctor, wide-eyed.
“What’s happening to him?”
“The Cyberium. It’s clearly disappointed that Ashad here is not a perfect little Cyberman.”
Ashad spasmed, like something inside him was rejecting him as much as he rejected his own humanity. He fumble forward, breaths ragged, teeth gritted in fury.
“You promised me ascension! Perfection! You chose me!” Ashad screamed, punching his metal fist into a wall.
The impact shook the room. The Doctor instinctively threw out an arm to steady Yaz. The Time Lord watched, silent, still, calculating. Yaz swallowed hard, her torchlight trembling slightly in her grip.
“What’s going on? Why’s he acting so weird?”
“It’s like when you first met me, immediately after I regenerated. He’s just been converted. His brain is adapting - synapses and neural pathways rewriting, reorganising. It takes time for the changes to settle. But worse, the Cyberium is a lot. Too much for a human - or a semi-human - to cope with.”
“So, like, a post-conversion Cyberium induced psychosis?”
“Succinctly put.”
Ashad roared in frustration. The Doctor knew she needed to act but she was transfixed.
"You think I am flawed. That I am unfinished. We wanted perfection. I am not that. But I am not a mistake. I am an evolution."
His human eye flickered and the Doctor could sense the rage boiling inside him like molten metal. He slammed his metal hand against his chest, forcing himself upright as though demanding the Cyberium recognize him.
"No. This is not failure. This is fate."
He lifted his gaze to the Doctor and Yaz, his breath steadier now. His fear warped into something calculated. Something worse. The Doctor’s stomach dropped as she recognised the look. The manic certainty of a zealot.
Ashad stood tall. Imposing. His voice was low and seething; utterly convinced of his own purpose.
"No one hates humans more than I do. I know how they think. How they fight. How they fear. That makes me stronger. Human hatred and Cyberium computation combined. We are optimised for glory.”
The Doctor glanced at Yaz, realising the danger her partner was in. She couldn't let her be his first victim. She needed to get Yaz out of here while she still could. There was only one exit. One shot.
"You call me an abomination. I call myself the future."
The air was thick, crackling with static as Ashad straightened, his half-metal face illuminated by the flickering emergency lights. The Doctor’s stomach twisted as she saw the calculation in his remaining human eye. The way the Cyberium was settling inside him, symbiotic. The shift from identity crisis to purpose.
"The humans… must be converted. A new Cyber Empire will rise."
The Doctor’s breath caught as she realised she’s waited too long. She turned to Yaz. The only human left in the building. Ashad made the connection at the same time, tilting his head sharply toward Yaz. His gaze locked onto her. The way a predator locks onto prey.
The Doctor jumped into action. She grabbed Yaz’s wrist and yanked her towards the door.
"Yaz, run!"
They bolted. Their slamming feet caused a cacophony against the metal floor. The hall is longer than the Doctor remembers. Or maybe it’s just her pounding hearts, her rising panic, her absolute certainty that if Ashad reached them, he will take Yaz from her. Forever.
Behind them, metal scraped against concrete. A mechanical groan. The Doctor didn’t believe Ashad was at full capacity yet, but he was moving. Faster than he should have been. Faster than they expected. She pushed Yaz ahead of her, offering a morsel of protection. Ashad lumbered after them, his steps uneven but gaining momentum. The corridor felt like it was stretching out before them. Her mind whirred with calculations. The lift was too far if Ashad got any faster. Panic rose in the Doctor as she updated her calculations
29% chance of getting to safety… 17% chance… 11% chance.
The Doctor whipped out her sonic, silently praying she was in range. The panels shuddered, screeching apart.
"Get in!"
Yaz stumbled into the metal cage, slamming her hand against the lift controls. The doors stuttered. Yaz manically mashed the button in a fruitless attempt to speed the closure of the doors. Ashad was close. With a cruel smile he raised his mechanical arm, pointing his wrist blaster at Yaz.
A laser beam burst before the Doctor or Yaz can react. It hit the wall an inch from Yaz’s head, causing a shower of sparks. The Doctor pressed herself against Yaz, desperately trying to protect her from the inevitable next blast. But it didn’t come. Ashad looked down at the blaster confused. Realising it needed time to recharge, Ashad resumed his furious charge towards the lift.
In a burst of desperation, the Doctor aimed her sonic at the lift doors. A high-pitched shriek ripped through the air, the wiring in the lift shorting out violently. Sparks rained down as the doors finally, mercifully, slammed shut.
Then, a thunderous impact shook the entire lift. A metallic clang. A dent in the door.
"You cannot escape."
The lift jerked to life, groaning as it dragged itself upward. The Doctor and Yaz stumbled with the motion, Yaz bracing herself against the railing. For a moment, neither moved. Their ragged breathing was the only sound.
"We need to stop him, Doctor."
The Doctor’s grip on the railing tightened. Her knuckles whitened. She had been dreading this conversation since the moment she realised the truth. She cast her eyes down to her boots, unable to meet Yaz’s expectant gaze.
"We can’t." The Doctor said solemnly.
Yaz straightened in surprise. She took a step towards the Doctor, whose eyes remained locked on her boots.
"Of course we can! He’s trapped down there, right? We send UNIT in. We end this before it ever begins! We have a chance to prevent all that death, all that destruction-"
The Doctor exhaled slowly, turning to press her forehead against the cold, metal wall. Her hearts were still hammering. She hated this part. Hated having to say it. It was just too much. Especially today.
"No, Yaz. We can’t prevent any of it."
Her voice was small. Defeated. She forced herself to turn back and look at Yaz.
"It’s a fixed point. A temporal nexus. Ashad and the Cyber-Empire have to happen."
"What?"
"Like Rosa Parks. It’s written. It can’t be changed."
"Doctor- billions of people are going to die!"
Yaz threw her arms up, incredulous.
"And if we stop him, billions more could suffer! Time will unravel."
The Doctor’s voice grew sharp. A subtle warning to Yaz not to push her. The brunette shook her head, her frustration boiling over. She took another step towards the Doctor.
"That’s not good enough! We know what he’s going to do! We’re just supposed to let it happen?!"
The Doctor went rigid. She was fraying at the edges. She knew why Yaz was arguing with her. Who wouldn’t? She sympathised. It’s a bitter pill to swallow. But she could feel her hackles rising. She didn’t want to snap at Yaz.
"There has to be something-"
"Yaz!"
The word ripped out of her, sharper than intended. Yaz flinched, just slightly, but it was enough to make the Doctor’s stomach drop. But she couldn’t stop now. The weight of it crushed her.
"Do you not think I want to stop him?! He helped destroy my planet! Killed my people! I have lost so much - so much - at his hands!"
Her chest heaved. The wound inside her had been ripped open again, and Yaz was once again in the firing line. Her anger and her heartbreak bleeding from her.
The Doctor took a breath and tried to police her tone. It wasn’t fair to Yaz. Not that this was fair to her. She was quieter now, but still trembling with fury at the universe itself.
"I told you the first time we met him, Yaz. I don’t always win. And this…This is one of those times. We have to let him go."
Silence. Yaz swallowed hard, still staring at her. The lift shuddered, climbing slowly, but it felt like it wasn’t moving at all.
The Doctor wanted Yaz to yell at her. Wanted her to argue. Wanted her to do anything but give her this look of anger, hurt and something else unspoken. But Yaz didn’t yell. She just spoke. Softly.
"There has to be something. One thing. One small thing we can make a little better without dire consequences.”
The Doctor sagged against the railing. She hated this. Hated feeling helpless. Hated feeling like she was letting Yaz down. Her shoulders sank as she remembered how she snapped at her. Again. Like the bad old days when she’d shut Yaz out. Yaz hadn’t deserved that - not then, not now.
"I’m sorry, Yaz." The Doctor’s voice cracked "For loads of things. For snapping at you. For freaking out. For the stupid bloody fabric of the universe that apparently demands this sacrifice just so time itself doesn’t unravel."
Yaz exhaled, her expression still guarded, but some of the sharpness softened. She reached out, gently taking the Doctor’s hand.
"It’s okay. I get it. Sort of. I know you’d do something if you could." Yaz paused, trying to find the right words. "It just… it feels like if we don’t stop him, we’re kind of responsible for everything he does."
The Doctor sighed. Classic Yaz. She had such a big heart. Of course she was going to put all those lives on her conscience. The blonde reached up, brushing a strand of hair from Yaz’s face before cupping her cheeks gently with both hands.
"Oh, Yaz, love. You can’t put that on your shoulders."
"You do." Yaz’s words were pointed but not unkind.
The corner of the Doctor’s mouth twitched. She sighed.
"I know."
"You shouldn’t. You didn’t make the universe this way, Doctor. You just… help people. As much as you can."
The Doctor frowned. Then her expression shifted. Synapses firing. A thought. Urgent. Pressing. She thrust a finger in the air, words and ideas forming too fast to catch up with her mouth.
"Wait. Wait."
Yaz blinked, caught off guard by the abrupt change.
"What?"
"Ashad. Back at Villa Diodati. He said he slit the throats of his family! Not that they were dead."
Yaz gasped.
"They’re not part of the fixed point. We can save them! We can do one good thing!"
The lift juddered as it reached the top floor. Yaz let out a breath, and for the first time in the conversation, she smiled. A small one. But it was there.
The Doctor barely had time to process what was happening before Yaz grabbed her hand and ran. For a moment she was confused, this time she wasn’t the one dragging someone along.
That’s my job!
The Doctor smiled, because despite the weirdness of being the one dragged along, this was exactly how things were supposed to be. Her fingers tightened around Yaz’s as they raced through the night, boots slamming against the pavement, adrenaline still roaring in her chest. She turned her head and watched Yaz, focused, determined. Her expression set with purpose.
Yaz didn’t hesitate. Didn’t slow. She yanked open the car door, slid into the driver’s seat, and turned the ignition with practiced efficiency. The Doctor barely had time to hop into the passenger side before Yaz was adjusting the mirrors, ready to go.
The Doctor huffed dramatically.
"When’s it going to be my turn to drive?"
Yaz flicked her a look, amused but unimpressed, as she pulled on her seatbelt.
"Not until you get proper documentation."
"I have been driving since before cars were even invented!"
Yaz clicked the seatbelt into place and turned to her, brows raised.
"Yeah? Well, I’ve seen you park the TARDIS. I rest my case."
The Doctor’s mouth fell open. Yaz smirked and put the car in gear. The engine roared to life. Yaz grew serious.
"Where are we going? Did we find their address in our research?"
The Doctor, biting down a response that she could have driven them there, pulled out the sonic. With a quick buzz, the coordinates loaded onto the sat nav.
"We did."
The car careened forward, pulling out onto the empty road, the streetlights whipping past in streaks of yellow. The Doctor frowned as Yaz steadfastly obeyed the speed limit. She narrowed her eyes. Tapped her fingers on the dashboard. Huffed loudly. Yaz, catching it out of the corner of her eye, rolled her shoulders like she was bracing for impact.
"Okay, what are you frowning at now?”
"Why are you driving so slow?"
"Slow? I’m doing the speed limit!"
"Yaz! We’re being chased by a half-converted Cyberman with the knowledge of an entire empire in his head! Maybe, now is the time for a cheeky bit of speeding!"
Yaz, one hand still on the wheel, turned to her with pointed calm.
"Ashad has to wait for the lift. We’ve got a big head start."
"Mmmm. Maybe. But. Counterpoint. That underground lab was full of alien tech. And the Cyberium? Not exactly known for playing fair."
A beat. Yaz’s fingers tightened on the wheel. Then, without another word, she slammed her foot down on the accelerator. The car roared forward, tyres skidding slightly as they shot down the road, swallowed by the dark. The Doctor grinned. Yaz focused ahead.