The Impossible Planet & The Satan Pit


She should have figured that when the wall had a spray painted, "Welcome to Hell," that this trip would be a little less than fun.

Aliens were swarming them. "We must feed," their chant.

Rose grabbed a stool to fend them off, glancing at the Doctor. He had his fierce, we're-going-down-fighting face, and Rose couldn't help feeling somehow happy. Even if she was going to be eaten by aliens with tentacle faces, at least she would be with him.

The aliens paused in front of them. "We must feed . . . you, if you are hungry."

"Sorry?" the Doctor said. Rose just stared at them, confused.

And then, thank goodness, there were humans. But the humans were completely disbelieving as to how they got on the ship.

"But you're a sort of space base. You must have visitors now and then. It can't be that impossible," Rose reasoned with them.

"You're telling me you don't know where you are?" the man with the gun asked.

"No idea. More fun that way," the Doctor grinned, and Rose almost smirked. More fun, or it almost killed them.

It was pretty hilarious seeing how shocked everyone was that actual people were on their little space station thing. The earthquake interrupted any further conversation, though. After the earthquake-storm . . . thing, introductions were made. But then they opened the roof.

A black hole. Rose had read stories about them, but seeing one for real . . . for once, the Doctor seemed as surprised as she was. She was actually having fun, reveling in the impossibility of a planet stuck outside a black hole. That was, until the TARDIS was gone.

She could practically feel the panic rolling off of the Doctor in waves. Once they were alone, he finally spoke to her.

"I've trapped you here."

"No, don't worry about me." Rose tried to inject some false bravado into her voice, but it didn't really work.

The whole station shook.

"Okay, we're on a planet that shouldn't exist, under a black hole and no way out. Yeah, I've changed my mind. Start worrying about me." She was trying to joke, but it didn't work. The Doctor folded her into his arms, and she buried her face in his shoulder. There was something terrifying about being in this place that was almost worse than facing a Dalek. Most of all, though, she was worried about the Doctor.

"What about you?"

He pulled back, keeping his hands on her shoulders. "What?"

Rose refrained from lifting her hand to his cheek. "I'm worried about you."

"Oh, Rose, never worry about me. I'm always alright."

"Always a liar," she smiled sadly. "Come on, Doctor. Let's go see about that laundry, huh?"

According to the computer, it was night. Rose tried to fight the weariness, but all too soon she was yawning her head off.

"Go on, Rose, get some sleep," the Doctor said, looking up from the scraps of the language he was working on.

"I'm not that tired," Rose hedged. A terrific yawn caught her in the lie.

The Doctor smiled, a soft smile that Rose saw too infrequently. "Yes, you are."

"I can just sleep here," Rose offered. She pushed her stool over against the wall and leaned back against it awkwardly. "See?"

"Okay, what's wrong with you?"

Rose shrugged, twisting her fingers nervously. "I just . . . sleeping under a black hole? Not exactly something very, well, nice." How could she tell him she was a coward, and didn't want to be alone?

His gaze was calculating. "How 'bout if I bring some work to one of the bunks?"

Rose gave him a beaming smile. "That might be better."

The Doctor set up station at the small desk in the room, while Rose curled up on the bunk. Shrouded in the darkness, she managed to fall into an uneasy sleep.

The next thing she knew, the Doctor was shaking her awake, and Rose found herself trembling.

"Rose, you're having a nightmare. You're okay, come on, wake up."

"I . . . I'm awake." Rose managed to pull herself into a sitting position. She was breathing heavily, and she couldn't even remember what she was dreaming.

"You're okay. I'm here."

"I know," Rose murmured. His arm was around her, fingers rubbing her shoulder comfortingly. She leaned into him, and instead of pulling away like she thought he would, the Doctor scooted further onto the bed, pulling her down so that she was on her back while he was on his side, one of his arms over her stomach. Rose willed herself not to think about it too much.

"Want to talk about it?"

Rose sighed. "I don't remember anymore. I think it was just . . . everything."

"That's a lot to handle in one dream," the Doctor smiled.

Rose was too on edge to joke around. "Just . . . all the bad stuff. You know, like the Wire, the Cybermen, the werewolf, the Bad . . ." She quickly stopped herself. "The bad guys."

"I put you through so much," the Doctor whispered, voice laced with guilt. His lips brushed her hair.

"And I love it," she returned, shifting to look up at him. "So don't play the guilt game."

"I can't imagine you loved getting your face pulled off," he muttered sullenly.

"I loved you . . . I mean, seeing you. You know, after. Knowing that you saved everyone." Rose let out a breathy laugh. That had gotten close to dangerous territory.

"There's at least five more hours left in their designated night."

"Mmm." Rose couldn't decide if that was a hint that he wanted to get up or not.

"Go to sleep. I'll keep the nightmares away." He didn't leave her side. Rose let out a breath she didn't remember holding.

"Goodnight, Doctor."

"Goodnight, Rose."

The next day, it almost felt like a day back on the TARDIS. She got up, washed her face, and they went together to get breakfast.

Later, looking up at the black hole, Rose tried to make small talk.

"I've seen films and things, yeah. They say black holes are like gateways to another universe."

"Not that one. It just eats," the Doctor returned absently. Rose thought about asking if they could try and sail through one that did go into another universe, but that would bring up the TARDIS. She didn't want the Doctor to have to think about that.

"Long way from home," Rose commented instead. Her voice almost broke as she thought about it. The Doctor looked over at her, pulled away from his contemplation of the pit above them.

"Go that way, turn right, keep going for . . . er, about . . . er, five hundred years, and you'll reach earth."

Rose thought about smiling, but couldn't quite make it there. Even now he was trying to cheer her up. She pulled out her phone, a distraction. "No signal," she said, examining her it. "That's the first time we've gone out of range . . . Mind you, even if I could, what would I tell her? Can you . . . build another TARDIS?"

"They were grown, not built. And with my own planet gone, we're kind of stuck," the Doctor said flatly. Rose made a mental note to ask him about Gallifrey more later, but she focused on cheering him up at the moment.

"Well, it could be worse. This lot said they'd give us a lift." Rose had the sudden longing to hold the Doctor's hand. She fisted her hand instead.

"And then what?" Apparently, the Doctor would not be comforted.

"I dunno. Find a planet, get a job, live a life, same as the rest of the universe," she offered, thinking practically.

The Doctor was finally playing along, acting appalled at having to get a house.

"You'd have to get a mortgage," Rose sang to him.

"No."

"Oh, yes," she grinned at him.

"I'm dying. That's it. I'm dying, it is all over."

She smirked. "What about me? I'd have to get one, too." Here was the leap. She took it. "I don't know, could be the same one. We could both, I dunno, share. Or not, you know. Whatever. I don't know. We'll sort something out." Rose backed out as soon as she could. Coward.

"Anyway," the Doctor said, too quickly for Rose's liking.

"We'll see," Rose finished.

It got serious again. "I promised Jackie I'd always take you back home."

Rose considered, looking up at the black hole. "Everyone leaves home in the end," she murmured.

"Not to end up stuck here."

Rose bared her heart to him once more. "Yeah, but stuck with you? That's not so bad."

"Yeah?" She hated the desperation in his voice.

"Yes," she said firmly.

Her phone rang, just as she was going to say more. Rose lifted it to her ear, only to hear a deep foreign voice.

"He is awake."

Panicked, Rose tossed the phone away.

"Rose?"

"Not to make things sound worse, it's just . . . I think there's something more to this station," she said, taking a deep breath. "That's the second weird thing that I've heard today."

"The first was?"

"One of the ood.

"Not the 'we will feed' deal, then?" he joked. For that she gave him a large smile.

"I've got to say, in hindsight, that was hilarious."

"So, what'd it say?" he prompted.

"It said that the, um, Beast and his armies shall rise from the pit to . . . um, war against God," she recited.

"Good memory," the Doctor smiled. She returned it, reluctantly.

"What does it all mean?"

"It means . . . we have a mystery on our hands." He stood, and she could see him as the Doctor again. He held out his hand, and she took it.

Panic. Officially, she was sick of it. The ood chanting together, some kind of hull breach . . . it was enough to take it out of a girl. Apparently it was enough to take it out of Toby as well.

"Come on," she encouraged, "up you get. Come 'n' have some protein one."

"Oh, you've gone native," she heard from behind. If she wasn't busy helping Toby, she would have started flirting with him.

As it was, she just replied sassily, "oi, don't knock it. It's nice. Protein one, with just a," she clicked her tongue, "dash of three."

Any flirting was out of the question as the girl, Scooti, was dead. Dead. Twenty years old. Her age. At least, that had to be her age by now. Rose didn't even know how old she was anymore. The slightly hysterical part of her wanted to start giggling, or maybe just scream.

Mention of the drill threw their situation back into Rose's face. The instant they talked about it, Rose knew the Doctor would go down.

"I want to go with you." Even as she said it, she could tell what his response would be.

"I've gotten you into enough danger this trip. It'll be safer for you to stay up here." The Doctor looked at her solemnly, and something in his eyes told her not to argue.

She helped him pull on the space suit, willing her fingers not to fumble with their trembling.

"I want that spacesuit back in once piece, you got that?"

"Yes, sir."

In any other situation, she would have retorted that it was "ma'am", but as it was, she was fighting the urge to break down.

"It's funny, because people back home think that space travel's going to be all whizzing about and teleports and anti-gravity, but it's not, is it? It's tough," she monologued, wasting time until he went down.

"I'll see you later," he said softly.

"Not if I see you first," Rose laughed shakily. She reached forward, pulling the Doctor to her and kissing the outside of his helmet.

And he was gone. Rose held onto the communication line like it was her own life line.

While the Doctor was exploring, the ood began acting up again. She focused on his voice. As long as he was alive, she was fine.

Unfortunately, Toby was possessed by some demon. It moved into the ood, and Rose desperately wished she was with the Doctor. She was all alone.

She hated panicking. Hated fear. But it was eating her away. The possibility that there could be Satan had never occurred to her.

All she wanted was the Doctor to give her a hug, but he was down at the center of an impossible planet, while she clung to the crust.

". . . And the lost girl, so far away from home. The valiant child who will die in battle so very soon."

Satan was telling her she was going to die.

"Doctor, what does that mean?"

"Rose, don't listen."

"What does it mean?" she cried. He didn't answer her. The crew was panicking, and finally the Doctor got them back on track, but it all went wrong again as he was cut off from them.

"Child, you are so afraid."

Rose whirled, but no one else seemed to have heard the voice.

"You are all alone."

She didn't have time to panic. The ood were getting in. "Right, so we need to stop them, or get out, or both."

"I'll take both, yeah? But how?" Danny said with exasperation.

"You heard the Doctor. Why do you think that thing cut him off? 'Cuz he was making sense. He was telling you to think your way out of this. Come on. For starters, we need some lights. There's got to be some sort of power somewhere," she urged.

"Ha, child, trying to be so brave. You will fail."

Rose ignored the voice in her head. At least it wasn't possessing her like it had Toby. It would be Cassandra all over again.

She focused. Urging the crew to get their act together, encouraging them . . . she didn't have the brain of the Doctor, but what she could do was work with people.

Rose had run for her life in many ways, even hopping one time. But crawling through some kind of ventilation shafts had to be a new low. Having Mr. Jefferson dying for them made it even worse. He was so brave, in death.

"You will die in battle. It is your fate." Rose officially hated the voice in her head. Satan or no, it was getting old, not having her brain to herself.

She was desperate, and the ood were gaining. Bad Wolf was howling, but if she let it out . . . "Danny, get that thing transmitting!"

It was the last second, but it still worked.

Now all she had to do was find the Doctor.

But he had fallen.

And she would wait.

But they took her away, and Rose felt her heart breaking. The Doctor would think she left him.

"Such a coward," the voice laughed in her head. "But you will be brave, before the end."

"This doesn't make sense," she said aloud, "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?" What if it was escaping through her? In her head?

Toby told her to shut up. Rose threw him a glance. What if he was . . . but his eyes were normal. She'd only just met the man, maybe he was rude in general.

The rocket began to shake violently, and Rose looked out the window. They were falling. So was the planet.

"I am the rage."

She whipped her head around to find Toby covered in symbols and eyes glowing red. The devil was screaming in her mind in fury.

"It's Toby! Zach, do something!" she yelled, "just do something!"

He was helpless. But she wasn't. Rose saw the bolt gun, and took her chance. A shot through the window. "Go to hell," she growled.

She threw him out. Threw the devil into the black hole.

"You will die in battle, so very soon."

The voice fell silent.

"We've still lost the gravity funnel. We can't escape the black hole." Zach said dully.

"But we've stopped him. That's what the Doctor would have done." If this was her final battle, at least she went down fighting.

Just as she'd resigned herself to death, she heard his voice. The voice she'd been waiting for far too long to hear. And everything was all right again.

Except that she would die in battle.

Rose Tyler's secret was her fate.


"The valiant child who will die in battle so very soon."

The words took his breath away. The Doctor was miles below Rose, and all he wanted to do was see her, make sure she was all right, hold her. The beast was lying. It had to be. But deep down, he knew something was coming.

"Doctor, what does that mean?"

"Rose, don't listen." He couldn't lie to her right now. He wanted to wipe away all her fears, telling her it was just a metaphor or make up some babble about how demons who possessed the ood were a common occurrence . . . but he was too terrified. Rose Tyler, dead. He had thought the prospect of getting a mortgage was the worst thing he could hear that day, but this . . .

She kept asking him what it meant, and he couldn't answer.

Finally, he was forced to put aside his own fears and try to encourage the rest of them " . . . Cos I'll tell you what I can see. Humans. Brilliant humans. Humans who travel all the way across space, flying in a tiny little rocket right into the orbit of a black hole, just for the sake of discovery. That's amazing!"

He had no words for Rose. But she would be fine. Rose was always fine.

The beast, or the devil, or whatever it was, separated them once more, taking out the coms.

Ida, not him, was the one to suggest going into the pit.

"We're running out of air with no way back. It's the only thing we can do. Even if it's the last thing we ever achieve," she said.

"I'll get back. Rose is up there," he replied. But Ida was right. He was the Doctor, and he wouldn't just sit around doing nothing. If he had to throw himself down a pit, so be it.

He was dangling, with no way of knowing how far he had to go. He would go anyway. "If they get back in touch, if you talk to Rose, tell her . . . tell her . . ." Even now he couldn't say it aloud. "Oh, she knows," he whispered, and then he fell.

The Doctor woke up. He heard the rocket going off, from so many miles above, and felt both despair and relief. Rose would be leaving. She would be safe. The illogical part of him was upset that she would leave him. He pushed the feelings aside.

He talked to the devil. Destroyed the gravity field. Found the TARDIS. All in a day's work.

And he saw Rose Tyler again. He hugged her for all he was worth.

"Zach? We'll be off, now. Have a good trip home. And the next time you get curious about something . . . oh, what's the point. You'll just go blundering in. The human race." He grinned at Rose, who returned it.

"But Doctor, what did you find down there? That creature, what was it?" Ida insisted.

"I don't know. Never did decipher that writing. But that's good, Day I know everything? Might as well stop," he lied.

"What do you think it was, really?" Rose asked.

"I think we beat it. That's good enough for me," he said firmly.

"It said I was going to die in battle," she whispered.

"Then it lied," the Doctor said solemnly. "Right, onwards, upwards. Ida? See you again, maybe."

"I hope so," she said over the coms.

"And thanks, boys!"

"Hang on though, Doctor," Ida spoke up again, "You never really said. You two, who are you?"

The Doctor grinned at Rose. "Oh, the stuff of legends." And they took off, the Doctor and Rose in the TARDIS. Just as it should be.

"I didn't leave you," Rose blurted out behind him. The Doctor didn't turn.

"What, you mean on the rocket?"

"They knocked me out and carried me on. I didn't . . . I wouldn't leave you, all alone."

He couldn't tell her how much it meant to her hear say that. The Doctor turned, a smile on his face. "Rose Tyler. Faithful in the face of the devil."

"So it was the devil," she murmured. The Doctor cursed his slip of tongue.

"Oh, not really." He could tell she wasn't buying it.

"So what did you do?" Rose asked, changing the subject.

"Hmm?" He set the controls to drift in the Vortex and again turned to his companion.

"The gravity field went down at the right moment, so I could . . . well, I . . ." Rose paused, and seemed rather sickened. "I killed Toby."

"What do you mean?" he asked quietly.

"He was possessed, and I threw him out of the rocket. I killed someone." She slumped down on the seat behind her.

"You had to, Rose, don't worry about it. I knew you would save us."

"Me?"

"I knew you wouldn't let it free. That's why I broke the gravity field." He sat down next to her.

"It was in my head."

He nodded. "It was pretty brilliant, for a chained demon, but all it did was predict . . ."

"No, Doctor, it was in my head. I heard it talking."

Alarmed, the Doctor turned to Rose. "You mean . . ."

"Yup. Up here." She pointed to her head. "To be honest, I'm really sick of my brain having so many visitors."

"Oh, Rose, I'm sorry. Look, I think I can help." He advanced until he was standing in front of her.

"How so?" She looked somewhat alarmed.

"I'll help you set up barriers."

"You mean you'll go into my head."

"I won't go prying. Promise." He paused. Now he could ask a dangerous question. "Do you trust me?"

"With everything," she murmured. He raised his hands to her temples.

The temptation to completely immerse himself in her subconsciousness was overwhelming. He could feel her nervousness through the connection and soothed her, brushing her mind with his own.

Physically, she shivered, and the Doctor moved closer, their foreheads nearly touching.

He explored, slowly, enjoying how young and naive her thoughts were. He could sense where Cassandra had left some remnants, and he smoothed them out as if they were wrinkles.

"Doctor," Rose murmured.

"Yes?"

Her hands reached up to cover his own. "I can . . . feel you."

Rose's mind reached out to gently touch his own consciousness. She waited, and the Doctor told her through the link that she could enter. Unlike Reinette, she asked permission, and he loved her for it.

The Doctor found the memories of Krop Tor and delved in, tasting the fear and panic that Rose had gone through.

He left barriers behind, helping her establish them herself, though she wouldn't know that.

"You thought I left you."

The Doctor had forgotten she was in his mind as well. "I was just being selfish. Didn't want to be left on a planet all alone," he murmured aloud. He reached further into Rose's mind, and found something shielded from him.

"Rose, what is this?"

"What is what?"

"It could be left from Cassandra, but I can't get in. Try and open it."

He felt Rose withdraw from his own mind and concentrate on her own. "I . . . can't," she whispered, but he heard what she actually meant to say in her mind."I won't."

"Rose . . ."

"Satan said I would die. Can't say I'm looking forward to that."

He knew she was purposefully distracting him. "Don't worry about it, Rose. Even if it did know what it was talking about, that could be years from now. Okay?" He regretfully drew back from her mind, but didn't take away his hands. He opened his eyes to find hers filled with tears.

"I don't want you to be all alone," Rose whispered. The Doctor leaned in so that their foreheads were touching, the tips of their noses centimeters apart.

"I won't."

"But what if you are? What if I die soon, and you're all alone? Promise me you'll be all right."

The Doctor closed his eyes. "I promise," he murmured. Rose's lips brushed his own, and his eyes snapped open. She blushed violently, and pulled back.

"Sorry."

"Guh."

Finally, the bright smile he loved emerged. "Never known you to be speechless before."

"It has happened," he said defensively, one hand going back to scratch his neck, the other refusing to leave Rose's face.

"Don't leave me again, okay?" she murmured.

"Never." He leaned in and pressed a kiss on Rose's forehead, unwilling to take it further. Not while there was a storm coming.

The Doctor's secret was his lies.


A/N: Two of my favorite episodes. It's so much more fun to write when I really like the episode. Hopefully didn't go too overboard . . . I know it's really long.

Oh, so I figured out what to do past season 2. It's gonna become a full out AU, but I'll skip some parts of the seasons . . . it'll definitely be different from other things you've read. You'll have to wait and see. :D

Love you guys reviewing. Thanks :)