Starry-Eyed

We Seek the Exceptional One

"Well," The Doctor muttered, rubbing his fingers against his palms, "this is not good."

"You could say that again."

"This is not good."

I glared at him.

He looked around, confused at the fact that everyone in the vicinity was not panicking. "What's going on?"

"They think it's a show."

"Rory!" The Doctor hollered over the noise. Our friend perked up across the area, waiting for instructions. "Get everyone behind me!"

Rory nodded and started asking people to move to the back of the room and tried explaining what was going on as The Doctor stepped closer to the Cyberman, which was still standing in the lift, unmoving. I followed him, prepared to be backup if any was needed.

The Doctor tilted his head, examining the metal machine. "What are you doing here?"

The Cyberman made no sound.

The Doctor tried again. "Why are you here? What do you want?"

Silence.

The Doctor pushed on the machine's shoulder. "Answer me!"

Finally, the Cyberman spoke, it's robotic voice never failing to give me chills. "We seek the exceptional one."

The Doctor looked back at me, his face a bit brighter. "They think I'm exceptional now." He turned back to our enemy. "You know who I am, then?"

"You are not the one we seek," the Cyberman answered.

Rory and Amy finally joined up with us. "Doctor? What's going on?" Amy asked.

"That's what I'm trying to figure out," The Doctor answered. "Who is the exceptional one?"

"The exceptional one is among us," Cyberman said.

"Well, that's just great." Doctor rolled his eyes. "What do you plan on doing with this exceptional one? Take them back with you? Have a nice trip to Barcelona?"

I smiled a bit at hearing of Barcelona. This was a new regeneration, but he still hadn't let it go.

"We look only to prove the exceptional one survives."

The Doctor looked skeptical. "So you're not going to do anything, then? You're just checking in?" He turned and huddled the four of us together. "We need to get the people out of here as soon as possible. We can't put these innocents in danger."

"How do you plan on doing that if they have control of the lifts?"

"It doesn't look like that's going to be a problem," Amy said. I looked up and followed her gaze to see an empty lift where the Cyberman had previously been standing.

I started to panic. "Where'd it go?"

The Doctor swung forward, checking the entire room, coming up empty handed. "I guess it left."

"We need to get downstairs, then, right?" Rory suggested. "They could be congregating down in the lobby, hurting people in the museum."

"You're right, Rory," The Doctor agreed, shuffling us towards the exit. "So long, everyone! It was lovely meeting you!"

The other visitors stared blankly at us, blinking in a daze before shrugging our presence off and going back to having a good time as they stared out windows.

"What's the plan, Doctor?" Amy asked as we made our way to the eggs. There was no time to hesitate about getting inside the capsule, so I swallowed my fear and shuffled inside, biting back my complaints.

"Not sure," he replied. "I haven't had great luck with Cybermen."

"What did you do to get rid of them last time?" Rory asked. The Doctor met my eyes, sharing the memory of our last encounter with the droids.

Rory took the hint. "Oh, great. Do we always have to ruin days off with saving the world?"

We waited for the doors to open again, and we all clambered out, rushing towards the lobby, completely unprepared for a fight but barreling into it headfirst anyway. There were none of the creatures in sight, though. The entire building was empty of evil silver people.

"I guess they found their exceptional one," I muttered.

"This isn't possible," The Doctor said. "Cybermen don't just leave. That's not something they're accustomed to."

"There's a first for everything," Rory replied, and The Doctor looked defeated.

"Not with Cybermen." He sighed. "Well, I suppose there's nothing we can do. Come on, let's get back to the TARDIS."

The walk back was a lot quieter than the one we'd made to get to the arch, because we were all silent in thought, wondering who the exceptional one could be.