ignite ➝ Doctor Who¹

XXXXI

"You can breathe down here, Ida. Can you hear me, Ida?"
— The Doctor, The Satan Pit

Penelope watched silently out the window. They had been so preoccupied with Rose that she had just been left with her thoughts, which wasn't a fun place to be right now. Well placed grief was causing her chest to tighten the more the thoughts swirled around her head. She was sat next to Zach.

The poor captain felt so responsible for this woman who was unable to feel anything coherently right now. Scooti had been put next to Danny, she still hadn't woken up.

Rose was somewhere in the back, Toby watching over her.

Penelope couldn't feel anything.

She was so cold.

"Captain, I think we're going to have a problem passenger."  Zach looked back, Rose was starting to stir. He looked over to Penelope, but she was looking blankly at the console, she hadn't heard a thing.

"Keep an eye on her."

"Wait. We're not-" Danny tried to comfort her after sharing a look with Zach, they were both prepared to knock her out again.

"It's all right, Rose. You're safe."

"I'm not going anywhere! Penelope get me out of this thing! Get me out! Penny?!" She watched the ginger girl from her seat, begging for a response but there was nothing. There was an inkling of hatred then, Rose not understanding how broken Penelope was.

"And lift off! Whoo!"

"Penelope you bitch. He cares so damn much for you and you're just going to leave him behind. I can't fu-" Zach cut her off.

"She can't hear you Rose." There was quiet and he used the monitors to look back at her. "I'm assuming she got too overwhelmed and now she isn't responding. But I've never seen someone so broken. If it weren't for me she would've stayed behind."

Before she could respond, Toby started to laugh. Danny glared at him in the monitors, assuming he was laughing about Penelope, which made him a little pissed off. That woman saved their lives and lost the one person most important to her. "What's the joke?"

"Just, we made it. We escaped. We actually did it."

"Not all of us." Zach frowned, feeling the controls fighting against the black hole.

"We're not out of it yet. We're still the first people in history to fly away from a black hole. Toby, read me the stats."

"Gravity funnel holding, sir. Always holding." He laughed again and Penelope finally looked up. She didn't trust that laugh. "Stats at fifty three. Funnel stable at sixty six point five. Hull pressure constant. Smooth as we can, sir, all the way back home. Coordinates set for planet Earth." The ginger woman reached over and bunched Zach's shirt into her hand, he looked over sharpish, very concerned.

"Toby." He nods, also feeling a little off, but not being able to do anything. He had to pilot a rocket. Rose looked up, making eye contact with Penelope who frowned and looked towards Toby, the blonde girl picking up quickly and started talking.

"It doesn't make sense. We escaped, but there's a thousand ways it could've killed us. It could've ripped out the air or, I don't know, burnt us, or anything. But it let us go. Why? Unless it wanted us to escape?"

"Hey, Rose, do us a favour. Shut up. Almost there. We'll be beyond the reach of the black hole in forty, thirty nine-"

Everyone felt that. Whatever was speaking, it wasn't Toby. Maybe Jefferson was right to try and kill Toby. Perhaps Penelope had been right to threaten him when they were in the maintenance ducts. What if the consciousness was whatever had spoken to them.