ashes ➝ Doctor Who²

XXXXV

"Now then. Where were we?"
- The Doctor, Journey's End

Penelope spun around in an instant, ripping herself away from Jasper. The Doctor was standing by the console, still ever the same. He was grinning at her, the way that he used to, and for a moment it was as if no time had passed at all.

Once more they were just friends, floating in the universe.

"Hello Penelope." She moved forward, deciding to - instead of hugging him like he expected - start hitting him. No one tried to stop her.

"You. Are. So. Fucking. Stupid." He caught her hands, hugging her close. Something in Jasper bristled and he wanted nothing more than to pull Penelope back and remind her of everything he did.

It hurt that after everything, she could go back to him so easily.

"You look like you've done well without me."

"Shut up, you just died." She was slightly muffled, being pushed into his chest for a hug. She wasn't exactly complaining. Then she had subtle flashes of Jasper and Felicity, for a split moment, but that was enough to get her to pull away, remembering what she had to go through because of him. She's still allowed to be upset by that. Smiling at him apologetically she slowly edged backwards. "What the hell happened?"

He started to explain, bounding about the TARDIS, almost giddy from getting to spend time with her again. This man really can't keep his emotions in check around her, everything seems dialled up to eleven.

Penelope couldn't hear him, everything having a slight high-pitched ring to it, so she made her way back to Jasper's side. Instinctively, he put a hand on the small of her back, stopping her from going any further. But to his surprise she leaned into him. He wasn't entirely sure how to react, or if she was okay. She seemed off, absent even.

This was a lot all at once, especially since they had worked so hard to get over him these past two years.

The power cuts off, shaking both Torchwood Agents back into the room - neither of them aware of how the Doctor had been watching them. Together they stumbled towards the console, Penelope able to finally travel with the TARDIS again.

Unfortunately, it's never an easy ride with their usual designated driver, but the Daleks? Ten times worse. The TARDIS almost tipped them over, Penelope going flying into Rose. This was something that she seriously couldn't believe for a moment.

Then she was pulling the girl close, whispering her apologies and how much she had missed her. Rose was just happy to see her again. She had been worried for her, when the Doctor turned up to the beach alone all those years ago now, so it was a relief to see her best friend was still okay.

They didn't get time to properly catch up, being brought towards a Dalek ship wasn't grounds for a reunion.

"There's a massive Dalek ship at the centre of the planets. They're calling it the Crucible. Guess that's our destination."

"You said these planets were like an engine. But what for?" Donna's question was valid, and Penelope frowned. They powered the Dalek ship, the Crucible, that's obvious. But they still didn't know what for.

"Rose, you've been in a parallel world. That world's running ahead of this universe. You've seen the future. What was it?"

"It's the darkness."

"The stars were going out." Penelope frowned at the ginger woman, who caught her look. Neither of them were entirely sure of the other. "What?"

"We noticed that, but we couldn't find any reason for it. Hell, I even went to the future, and everything seemed fine. We decided to just keep an eye on it but leave it alone." Rose gave her a sympathetic look; it was hard when you realise you could've done something to prevent this.

"One by one, we looked up at the sky and they were just dying. Basically, we've been building this, er, this travel machine, this, this er, dimension cannon, so I could come back. Anyway, suddenly, it started to work, and the dimensions started to collapse. Not just in our world, not just in yours, but the whole of reality. Even the Void was dead. Something is destroying everything."

"Yeah, we created a machine that followed the pattern of stars disappearing, but there wasn't one. It was random and widespread. At some point we lost sight of a distant galaxy, there isn't much we could've done. But we had started to trace the signal."

Neither Rose nor Penelope could believe that two girls from the Powell Estate were now in charge of protecting their worlds. Or that they had started to lose them. It was one of those moments when you finally felt grown up.

Space wasn't as friendly as either of them had once thought.

"In that parallel world, you said something about me."

"The dimension cannon could measure timelines, and it's, it's weird, Donna, but they all seemed to converge on you."

"But why me? I mean, what have I ever done? I'm a temp from Chiswick."

The scanner abruptly cut off the conversation, the Doctor going round to have a look, his face finally becoming serious. Penelope had to suck in a quick breath, it was the same face he made when he left her.

"The Dalek Crucible. All aboard."