Hey, guys. So, I've basically I've been busy and all that, but everybody says it, so I'll just skip the long spiel I was about to go on. Just being considerate! Perhaps you've all heard that they're taking Doctor Who off Netflix on Monday. That is my only way to actually watch the episodes so if my writing is not completely accurate, it's because I'm doing it all off of imagination, online transcripts, and my terrible memory. Really, ask anyone.I believe that is all I have to say. Oh! Wait! Since I forgot to before, I'll say it now. Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!
Rose looked up as the Doctor entered the cockpit again. The other passengers had been worrying amongst themselves, but Rose had just sat resolutely where she was, waiting for the Doctor to come back and explain everything. As soon as he passed through the doorway though, Sky was on him, asking questions.
"What did they say? Did they tell you? What is it? What's wrong?" She asked.
He turned to Sky. "Oh, just stabilizing. Happens all the time." Rose could tell even from where she was, that he was lying through his teeth. It wasn't because she knew much about engines or vehicles or anything, but she knew him better than anyone and right now, he was lying. But, why?
"I don't need this. I'm on a schedule." She glared at the Hostess as she passed. "This is completely unnecessary." She informed everybody. Anyone could see that the woman was annoyed, but she seemed…scared of something.
"Back to your seats, thank you." The Hostess ordered both politely and sternly, then went into the cockpit.
"So, what really happened?" Rose whispered to the Doctor as he slid in next to her.
"Not sure. They're not stabilizing. It doesn't need to." He explained, leaning towards her.
"Any ideas?"
He opened his mouth to answer, but Dee Dee leaned around the seat and tapped the Doctor's arm. "Excuse me, Doctor," Rose sat on her knees to get a better view of the conversation. "But they're micropetrol engines, aren't they?"
"Now, don't bother the man." Hobbes scolded her.
"Oi!" All eyes turned to Rose. "She doin' no harm. Let 'er talk. Go on, Dee Dee."
The young girl turned back to the Doctor. "My father was a mechanic." She continued. "Micropetrol doesn't stabilize. What does stabilize mean?"
"Well, bit of flim-flam. Don't worry they're working it out."
Hobbes joined in too. "So it's not the engines?"
"It's just a little pause that's all." He reassured him.
"How much air have we got?"
"Professor, it's fine." He said firmly.
"What did he say?" Val shouted to them.
"Nothing." The Doctor replied, clearly trying to keep them from the truth.
"Are we running out of air?" And with that question, everyone started panicking. Half the passengers were freaking about the air and the other half was trying to calm everybody else down.
Amidst it all, Rose heard Dee Dee say something about a circular filter. Before she could say anything however, the Doctor shouted, "Quiet!" and that seemed to do the trick.
There was a slight pause as everyone settled back down in their seats and looked to the Doctor. Rose snorted when she realized how petty-minded humans could be. Instead of panicking, they should be figuring this out logically.
"Thank you," The Doctor continued. "Now, if you'd care to listen to my good friend, Dee Dee." He nodded to her and she stood.
"Oh, er, it's just that, well, the air's on a circular filter, so we could stay breathing for ten years."
"There you go." The Doctor said. "And I've spoken to the Captain. I can guarantee you everything is fine."
As if on cue, there came to thumps on the wall of the shuttle to signal to the inhabitants that it was anything but fine. They all started looking around them for the source, although none could be seen.
"Doctor, what was that?" Rose asked, quietly, but received no reply from him.
"Must be the metal." Hobbes suggested. "We're cooling down. It's just settling."
"Rocks. It could be rocks falling." Dee Dee submitted her opinion.
Biff spoke up next. "What I want to know is, how long do we have to sit here?"
Two more thumps came from another part of the hull. It sounded like someone was knocking on the outside. But how? Rose thought.
"What is that?" Sky asked nervously.
"There's someone out there." Val said.
The Professor scoffed. "Now, don't be ridiculous!"
"Like I said, it could be rocks." Dee Dee said.
"We're out in the open. Nothing could fall ag-gainst the sides." The Hostess knocked down that theory, but in only caused to add to the worry as two more thumps sounded out.
"Knock, knock." The Doctor said quietly and Rose nudged him, giving him a disapproving frown.
"Who's there?" Jethro answered creepily.
The room was drowned in silence as they waited for something, anything to happen. Sky broke it first.
"Is there someone out there?" No one said anything. "Well? Anyone?" More knocks, near Biff and Val this time. "What is making that noise?!"
"I'm sorry," Hobbes spoke up. "But the light out there is Xtonic. That means it would destroy any living thing in a split second. It is impossible for someone to be outside."
A couple more knocks echoed and the Doctor ran to the spot where it came from.
"Well, what is that, then?!" Sky asked, clearly panicking now.
The Doctor got out his stethoscope and began to listen to the walls.
"Sir, you really should get back to your seat!" The Hostess hissed none too kindly at him, stamping her foot.
Rose stood from her own seat. "Look, just leave him alone. There's more important things than protocol right now, so just let him work." She said.
All were silent as the Doctor listened. He mumbled something incoherent and two more knocks came, quicker now. And more just after it, but in a different spot.
"It's moving." Jethro pointed out.
The emergency exit door started rattling and Val pointed at it, exclaiming, "It's trying the door!"
"There is no 'it'." Hobbes explained. "Nothing's out there. There can't be."
The door rattled some more and everyone stared on. Suddenly, it knocked on the ceiling and everyone gasped. Then it thumped on the door next to Biff and Val.
"That's the entrance." Val pointed at it. "Can it get in?"
"No," Dee Dee answered. "That door's got two-hundred weight hydraulics."
The Professor looked annoyed at her knowledge. "Stop it. Don't encourage them."
Rose made her way to the Doctor. "Doctor, what is that thing? What's it doin'?"
He didn't answer her. Biff made his way over to the entrance door and started feeling it. "Mr. Cane, better not," The Doctor warned.
"Nah, it's cast iron, that door." He knocked three times on it for emphasis. Three more knocks came through and everybody jumped back, shocked.
"Three times. Did you hear that?" Val's voice was shaking with fear as she spoke. "It did it three times!"
"It answered." Jethro put in.
"It did it three times!" Val repeated, louder this time.
The Doctor moved up to the front and held up his hands to silence them. "Alright, alright, alright. Everyone calm down."
"No, but it answered." Sky said, frantically. "It answered. Don't tell me that thing's not alive. It answered him!"
Three more thumps. With every time the thing knocked, silence fell on everybody.
"I really must insist you get back to your seats!" The Hostess ordered, her voice cracking just a little.
"No, don't just stand there, telling us the rules! You're the Hostess! You're supposed to do something!" Sky shouted at her.
Four more knocks, but this time, it was the Doctor knocking. Everyone turned to him to understand what he was doing. They all waited for a reply, and just as they thought they weren't going to get one, it answered the exact same way as he had knocked.
"What is it? What's making that noise?" Sky started shouting desperately, only causing to make everyone else nervous. The Doctor, Rose, and Dee Dee were trying to get her to calm down and be quiet, but she wouldn't stop. "She said she'd get me! Stop it! Make it stop! Somebody make it stop! Don't just stand there looking at me! It's not my fault! He started it with his stories!" She pointed at Jethro. And then at the Doctor. "And he made it worse!"
"You're not helping!" Val stated, loudly.
"Why didn't you leave it alone?!" Sky shouted. "Stop staring at me! Just tell me what that is!"
Knock. Knock.
"It's coming for me. Oh, it's coming for me." Sky began to back up against the wall of the shuttle as the thumps became louder and closer to her. "It's coming for me! It's coming for me! Aagh! Aaaaagh!" She screamed.
"Get out of there!" The Doctor lunged for her, but with a final knock, the shuttle shook and tipped and crashed. Lights flickered and sparks flew everywhere. The passengers were thrown to and fro. Rose attempted to grab onto something, but something grabbed her and held her in place.
The jolting stopped, but the lights were still off. Rose tried to shift, but someone was still holding onto her. She looked up to see the Doctor's face, with his eyes squeezed tight as he tried to protect her.
"Doctor," She whispered. His eyes opened and his grip loosened. He stood and helped her up, both of them looking over each other.
"You alright?" He asked her, feeling her arms and head for anything.
"Yeah, I'm good. You?" He nodded and they squinted in the dim light at the others. "Is everyone alright?" Rose shouted.
"How are we? Is everything alright?" The Doctor helped.
"Earthquake." Hobbes said quietly. "It must be."
"But it's impossible. The ground is fixed. It's solid." Dee Dee informed.
The Hostess, holding a flashlight, switched one on, shining it right in everyone's faces. "We've got torches. Everyone take a torch. They're in the back of the seats."
Rose grabbed one form the compartment in the seats and handed one to the Doctor. She pointed hers around the room and it landed on Sky, the only one who had yet to speak. She was hunched over with her hands in her hair, but she wasn't moving. The seats around her were ripped up and off the floor in a disorderly manner.
"Doctor," He turned to her and she pointed to Sky. "What about her?"
Everyone turned to look in Sky's direction. "What happened to the seats?" Val asked.
"Who did that?" Biff demanded.
"They've been ripped up!" His wife exclaimed.
The Doctor knelt in front of Sky and Rose stood behind him. He placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's all right. It's all right. It's all right. It's over. We're still alive. Look, the wall's still intact. Do you see? We're safe."
"Driver Joe, can you hear me?!" The Hostess threw the intercom phone down and stomped all the way to the cockpit door. "I'm not getting any response. The intercom must be down."
She slammed her hand on the button to open the door, but as it opened, a blinding, burning white light flooded the room. Causing everybody to stumble backwards. Rose screeched as she dove behind a chair for shelter from the poisoned sunlight.
The Hostess hit the button again and the door closed instantly, an alarm blaring in the meanwhile.
"What happened?!" Val asked frantically. "What was that?!"
"Is it the driver?" Her husband added. "Have we lost the driver?"
The Doctor went over to a black panel covered in buttons and started using his sonic screwdriver on it.
"The cabin's gone." The Hostess stated, still in shock.
"Don't be ridiculous." Hobbes scoffed. "It can't be gone. How can it be gone?"
"Well, well, you saw it!" Dee Dee said.
"There was nothing there. Like it was just ripped away," The Hostess continued and whimpered, putting a hand to her head. Rose made her way over to her.
"Hey, it's okay," she comforted her. "What's your name?"
"June," the woman answered shakily.
"I'm Rose and that's the Doctor. Don't worry. We're gonna figure this out. It's all gonna be alright."
"What are you doing?" Biff demanded of the Doctor and he pointed at what he was doing with his torch.
"Ah, that's better. Little bit of light. Thank you. Molto bene!" The Doctor answered.
"Do you know what you're doing?!" Val asked rather loudly.
"The cabin's gone. You better leave that wall alone!" Biff ordered.
"The cabin can't be gone!" Hobbes exclaimed, still not getting it through his head that it was in fact gone.
"No, it's safe." The Doctor murmured, talking to Biff. "Any rupture would've automatically sealed itself." He pulled the panel out and studied its wiring, looking a bit confused. "But it's like something sliced it off. You're right. The cabin's gone."
"What does that mean, Doctor?" Rose asked.
"It gets separated and it loses integrity." He stood and leaned on the chair. "I'm sorry, they've been reduced to dust." The Hostess whimpered. "The driver and the mechanic. But they sent a distress signal. Help is on the way. They saved our lives. We are going to get out of here, I promise. We're still alive, and they are going to find us."
"Doctor, look at her." Jethro interrupted, looking at Sky.
Rose looked over to find her in the same position as before, nothing changed.
"Right, yes. Have we got a medical kit?" He asked.
"I don't think a medical kit will help." He looked back at Sky and his expression made it look to Rose like he agreed with her.
"Why won't she turn around?" Jethro asked.
"What's her name?" Hobbes asked.
"Sky Sylvestry." The Doctor looked at her. "I talked to her earlier."
"Sky? Can you hear me?" He knelt down behind her. Rose chewed on her lip as she thought the situation through. "Can you move, Sky? Just look at me." She didn't move.
"That noise from outside," Jethro noted quietly. "It's stopped."
"Well, thank God for that." Val commented, voice still shaking.
"But what if it's not outside anymore? What if it's inside?"
His observation set Val into a panic. "Inside?! Where?!"
"It was heading for her."
"Jethro, don't be worrying them." Rose told him.
The Doctor didn't seem to notice what they all were doing or at least he was ignoring them. "Sky? It's alright, Sky. I just want you to turn around, face me."
Very slowly, Sky moved her right hand out of her hair, then her left. She turned her body towards them and her head snapped up to look at them. Her head turned with every movement someone made. The Doctor tilted his head to observe her and she whipped around to face him, then mirrored his action. He tilted his head the other way and she repeated that as well.
"Sky?" He said quietly.
After a slight pause, Sky spoke. "Sky?"
"Are you alright?" He asked her.
"Are you alright?" She repeated.
"Are you hurt?"
"Are you hurt?"
"You don't have to talk." He said kindly, but she only mimicked him again.
"You don't have to talk."
"I'm trying to help."
"I'm trying to help."
"My name's the Doctor." He introduced himself.
"My name's the Doctor."
Rose could tell he was getting annoyed by now. "Okay, can you stop?"
"Okay, can you stop?"
"I'd like you to stop." He said a little more firmly.
"I'd like you to stop." Sky said.
"Why's she doing that?" Hobbes asked and Sky turned quickly to stare at him as she repeated him too.
"Why's she doing that?"
"She's gone mad!" Biff declared and she began to repeat them all, staring at each in turn.
"She's gone mad!"
"Stop it." Val ordered.
"Stop it."
"I said, stop it!" Val tried again.
"I said, stop it!"
"I don't think she can." Rose observed.
"I don't think she can."
"Rose, stay quiet." The Doctor told her and she glared at him.
"Rose, stay quiet."
"Alright, now. Stop it. This isn't funny." Hobbes said.
"Alright, now. Stop it. This isn't funny."
"Sh-sh-sh. All of you." The Doctor said.
"Sh-sh-sh. All of you."
"My name's Jethro." He tested with a smirk of enjoyment on his face.
"My name's Jethro."
"Jethro, stop. Let him take care of it." Rose told him.
"Jethro, stop. Let him take care of it."
"Why are you repeating?" The Doctor asked Sky, or rather, the creature that possessed her. It was clear that whatever it was that was speaking wasn't Sky anymore.
"Why are you repeating?"
"What is that, learning?" He thought out loud.
"What is that, learning?"
"Copying?"
"Copying?"
A look of realization came over his face as he thought of something new. "Absorbing?"
"Absorbing?"
After a pause the Doctor began speaking more loudly. "The root of pi is1.772453850905516027298167483341. Wow."
Sky didn't miss a beat. "The root of pi is1.772453850905516027298167483341. Wow."
It took a moment for everyone to process what just happened and then the Professor spoke. "But that's impossible."
"But that's impossible."
"She couldn't repeat all that." Dee Dee whispered to Hobbes.
"She couldn't repeat all that."
"Tell her to stop." Val commanded, becoming frantic.
"She's driving me mad."
"She's driving me mad."
"Just make her stop!"
"Just make her stop!"
Everyone started to speak over each other, Sky still repeating all of their words and staring at them whenever she said them.
"Quiet! All of you, quiet!" Rose yelled, but no one listened. They were all too busy trying to get their word of fear in. "Doctor!"
He jumped up and tried to calm them, but the results were just the same as with Rose. They were all bickering and getting near screaming, except for Jethro of course, who was experimenting by spouting of numbers among other things.
Suddenly, there was a deep humming noise and the lights flickered back on. Everyone stopped talking and looked up at the ceiling.
"That's the back-up system." The Hostess said airily.
"Well, that's a bit better." Biff commented.
"What about the rescue?" asked Val. "How long's it going to take?"
"About sixty minutes," answered the Hostess. "That's all."
At first, Rose had been listening to them as they conversed, but then she noticed something: Sky wasn't speaking anymore. At least, that's what she thought until she started listening to what Hobbes was saying again.
"…self-induced hysteria. We should leave her alone." He finished.
"Doctor," Rose said.
"I know."
"Now, Doctor. Step back. I think that we should leave her…" Hobbes was saying, but stopped when he realized what Rose, the Doctor, and Jethro already had. "…alone. What's she doing?"
"How can she do that? She's talking with you." Val said and her eyes went wide. "And with me. Oh, my goodness. Biff, what's she doing?"
"She's repeating…at exactly the same time." Jethro noted.
Dee Dee's face was an expression of total shock. "That's impossible."
"There's not even a delay," Hobbes observed.
Jethro grinned in excitement. "Oh, man that is weird."
"I think you should all be very, very quiet." The Doctor told them calmly. "Have you got that?"
Val ignored him anyway. "How's she doing that?"
"Val, you should be quiet." Rose told her.
"How can she do that?! She's got my voice! She's got my words!" The woman yelled hysterically.
"Come on, be quiet. Hush, now. Hush." He stopped calming his wife when he realized that Sky was repeating hi now too. "She's doing it to me."
"Just stop it, all of you. Stop it, please." The Doctor ordered and then crouched down in front of Sky. "Now then, Sky. Are you Sky? Is Sky still in there? Mrs Silvestry? You know exactly what I'm going to say. How are you doing that? Roast beef. Bananas. The Medusa Cascade. Bang! Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, Donna Noble, Tardis. Shamble bobble dibble dooble. Oh, Doctor, you're so handsome. Yes, I am, thank you." Rose snorted at that part. The Doctor was always so vain. Even in a crisis he never failed to preen. "A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O." He studied her for a few more moments and stood abruptly. "First she repeats, then she catches up. What's the next stage?"
"Next stage of what?" Dee Dee demanded of him.
"That's not her, is it?" All eyes turned to Jethro. "That's not Mrs. Sylvestry anymore."
"I don't think so, no." The Doctor said and Val started crying. Sky mimicked the noise, which Rose found just a little more creepy. "I think…the more we talk, the more she learns. Now, I'm all for education, but in this case, maybe not. Let's just move back. Come on, come with me. Everyone get back, all of you. As far as you can." The Doctor took Rose's hand and led her to the back of the shuttle.
"Doctor, make her stop," Val begged him.
"Val, come with me. Come to the back. Stop looking at her. Come on, Jethro. You too. Everyone, come on." He stood in front of them and tried to get Rose to help him block their view of Sky. "Fifty minutes, that's all we need. Fifty minutes till the rescue arrives. And," He glanced back at her. "She's not exactly strong. Look at her. All she's got is our voices."
"I can't-I can't look at her." Val whispered. "It's those eyes."
All of them stared at Sky as she stared back at them, eyes looking like they knew every single one of their deepest, darkest secrets. The air grew tense and Rose began to wonder if anyone would just stop talking.
"We must not look at goblin men." Dee Dee said.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Biff asked, seemingly annoyed by it.
"It's a poem," The Doctor answered. "Christina Rossetti."
Another moment of tense silence passed and Dee Dee continued quoting. "We must not look at goblin men, we must not buy their fruits. Who knows upon what soil they fed their hungry thirsty roots."
Val started shaking more and Rose gave the Doctor a look of uncertainty. He shook his head and said, "Actually, I don't think that's helping."
"She's not a goblin or a monster. She's just a very sick woman." Hobbes told them.
"Maybe that's why it went for her," Jethro suggested.
"There is no 'it'!" The Professor insisted.
"Think about it though." Jethro prompted. "That knocking went all the way round the bus until it found her. And she was the most scared out of all of us. Maybe…that's what it needed. That's how it got in."
"For the last time," Hobbes said, raising his voice slightly. "Nothing can live on the surface of Midnight!"
"Professor," Rose started, finally getting fed up with him denying something so obvious now. "Don't you think that there's a slight possibility that some sort of lifeform can survive in the radiation? Somethin' that's…" She gestured as if searching for the right description. "Immune to it?"
"Absolutely," The Doctor said, even though she wasn't asking him. "Now, I think that there is some sort of consciousness inhabiting Mrs. Sylvestry and that she might still be in there. Which means that it is our job to try and help her."
"Well, you can help her," Biff told him. "I'm not going near."
"No, I've got to stay back, because if she's copying us, then maybe the final stage is becoming us. I don't want her becoming me, or things could get a whole lot worse."
"Oh, like you're so special." Val said bitterly.
"As it happens, yes, I am." Rose nudged him in the rib, but it didn't affect his speech. "So that's decided. We stay back, and we wait. When the rescue ship comes, we can get her to hospital."
"The Doctor let a moment pass so they could all understand and Rose thought that they were finally getting it, but then the Hostess spoke up and it all went downhill from there.
"We should throw her out."
Most everyone gasped at the idea and the Professor said, "I beg your pardon!"
Rose and the Doctor stared at the Hostess with incredulity.
"Can we do that?" Val asked and their horrified stares turned to her.
"You've got to be kidding me!" Rose said at the same time as the Doctor said, "Don't be ridiculous!"
"That thing, whatever it is," The Hostess continued. "Killed the driver, and the mechanic, and I don't think she's finished yet."
"She can't even move!" The Doctor said. Rose was just surprised that any of them could even consider it. Just an hour ago, these seemed like people you'd want as your neighbors and now they were considering murder.
"Look at her. Look at her eyes. She killed Joe and she killed Claude. And we're next," The Hostess said firmly.
"She's still doing it!" Biff said, shoving through to the creature. "Just stop it! Stop talking! Stop it!" But despite whatever anyone said, she wouldn't stop. And Rose didn't think she would, not until the next stage at least.
"Biff, don't, sweetheart!" Val pleaded with him.
"But she won't stop." Biff came walking back to them and stopped right next to the Doctor. "We can't throw her out, though. We can't even open the door."
"No one is getting thrown out." The Doctor said darkly and they stared each other down.
"Yes, we can. Because there's an air pressure seal. Like when you opened the cabin door, you weren't pulled out. You had a couple of seconds, because it takes-"
"Dee Dee, that's enough. You don't need to encourage them." Rose interrupted her.
"Would it kill her outside?" Val asked.
"I don't know, but she's got a body now. It would certainly kill the physical fo-"
"No one is killing anyone!" The Doctor said forcefully, raising his voice.
But they completely ignored him. "I wouldn't risk the cabin door twice, but we've got that one. All we need to do is grab hold of her and throw her out."
"Now, listen, all of you. For all we know that's a brand new life form over there. And if it's come inside to discover us, than what's it found? This little bunch of humans. What do you amount to, murder?" He looked questioningly at all of them. "Because this is where you decide. You decide who you are. Could you actually murder her? Any of you? Really? Or are you better than that?"
He let that sink in a bit and it started to look like they would abort this plan, but then the Hostess said, "I'd do it."
"So, would I," added Biff.
"And me," his wife said.
Dee Dee nodded. "I think we should."
"What?" Rose exclaimed. She thought Dee Dee was smarted than that, better than that. Rose thought she had been such a sweet girl and now she was contemplating killing someone.
"I want her out." She said, voice trembling.
"But you can't!"
"I'm sorry, but he said it, didn't he?" Dee Dee said, motioning to the Doctor. "She is growing in strength."
"That is not what I said."
"I want to go home," She whimpered. "I'm sorry. I want to be safe."
"The rescue truck is coming." Rose assured her. "You'll be safe soon."
The Hostess had something to say about that, however. And if Rose could be honest, she had a good point. "But what happens then, Doctor? If it takes that thing back to the Leisure Palace, if that thing reaches civilization. What if it spreads?"
"No, because when we get back to the base, I'll be there to contain it."
"Well, you haven't done much so far," said Val.
"You're just standing in the back with the rest of us." Her husband said, pointing at him.
"She's dangerous and it's my job to make sure this vessel is safe and we should get rid of her."
"Now, hang on." Hobbes held up his hands in the universal "slow down" motion. "I think perhaps we're all going a bit too far."
"At last. Thank you." The Doctor patted him on the shoulder.
"Two people are dead!" The Hostess reminded them, her jaw tight.
"Don't make it a third!" He glared at her. Rose then realized that Jethro hadn't said anything about what he thought they should do yet.
"What about you, Jethro?" She asked him. "What do you think?"
Without looking up, he said, "I'm not killing anyone."
"He's just a boy." His mum waved off.
"What, so I don't get a vote?!"
"There is no vote! It's not happening. Ever. If you try to throw her out that door, you'll have to get through me first." The Doctor stared them all down and even Rose had to admit that he looked like a force to be reckoned with.
"Okay," The Hostess said. Rose groaned and ran her hands through her hair.
"Fine by me." Biff added.
"Oh, now you're being stupid!" The Doctor put his angry face right up to Biff's as an action to intimidate him, but Mr. Cane didn't back down. "Just think about it. Could you actually take hold of someone and throw them out of that door?!"
"Are you calling me a coward?" Biff asked, sticking his chest out like a bird.
"Who put you in charge, anyway?" Val added, although she turned her face away immediately afterwards as if she was afraid of his reaction.
"I'm sorry, but you're a doctor of what exactly?" Hobbes asked.
"It doesn't matter what he's a doctor of." Rose answered before the Doctor had a chance to. "He's the only one who can get all of us out of this mess."
"Yeah, and what about you?" Val said to her.
"They weren't even booked in," The Hostess said. "The rest of you, tickets in advance. They just turned up out of the blue."
"Where from?" asked Val.
"We're just traveling." He answered. "We're just travelers, that's all."
"Like an immigrant?" Mrs. Cane said.
"Who were you talking to? Before you got on board, you were talking to someone. Who was that?" The Hostess inquired.
"It was just our friend, Donna," Rose said. "It doesn't matter to you."
"And what were you saying to her?"
"You haven't even told us your names. You," Val said, pointing at Rose. "You haven't even talked most of the time. Who are you?"
"The thing is, though, Doctor," Jethro said, seemingly switching sides. "You've been loving this."
"Oh, Jethro, not you." The Doctor whined, losing another person on his side.
"No, but ever since all the trouble started, you've been loving it."
"It has to be said," Hobbes put in. "You do seem to have a certain glee."
"Alright, I'm interested. Yes, I can't help it. Because, whatever's inside her, it's brand new and that's fascinating!"
"So, you wanted this to happen!" Val accused.
"No!" The Doctor said.
"Of course not!" Rose agreed. Although they weren't exactly talking about her then, she would still defend the Doctor.
"And you were talking to her, all on your own," Biff said, speaking to Rose. "Before all the trouble. Right at the front, you were talking to that Sky woman, just you and her. I saw you."
"We all did." Val stood by her husband.
"Listen!" Rose practically shouted. "This is ridiculous! It isn't doing anything right now. You're all just getting creeped out by that thing." She jabbed her finger towards Sky. "That's what it's tryin' to do. That's what it wants. It's tryin' to scare us into action. Don't give it what it wants."
"He went into the cockpit too. Who knows what he did in there," The Hostess said.
"You called us humans like you're not one of us," Jethro put in.
"He did," Val agreed. "That's what he said."
"And the wiring," Dee Dee added. "He went into that panel and opened up the wiring."
"That was after," Rose excused.
"But how did you know what to do?" Biff asked.
"Because I'm clever!" He shouted.
All of them just scoffed and looked at him like he was the worst person in the world, as small as that was compared to the universe, it still hit a nerve in Rose.
"I see. Well, that makes things clear," The Professor said sarcastically.
"And what are we then?" Biff asked. "Idiots?"
"That's not what I meant."
"If you're clever, then what are we?" asked Dee Dee.
"You've been looking down on us from the moment you walked in" Val noted.
"Even if he goes," added the Hostess. "He's practically volunteered."
"Listen to yourselves!" Rose pleaded. "This is mad!"
"Do you mean we throw him out as well?" Biff asked the Hostess, who started this whole argument in the first place.
The woman kept her gaze on them as she considered this. "If we have to."
"You can't be serious!" Rose threw her hands up in the air.
"What about her?" Val suggested. "She's with him. All three of them could be working together."
"Really? Throw three people out that door?" The Doctor said, trying to show them their error. "That would be five people dead. Three by your hand. Are you really prepared to face a guilt like that?" He let them chew on that for a bit. "Now, we all just need to cool down and think."
"Perhaps you could tell us your names." Hobbes prompted.
"What does it matter?" He sidestepped. Of course they wouldn't believe him if he used the "John Smith" card.
"I'm Rose and he's John. We're travelers who are just trying to enjoy their time at the Leisure Palace. That's all you need to know." Rose said firmly, not allowing anymore room for discussion on the subject. "We all just need to keep quiet and listen to the Doctor."
"Who put him in charge anyway? How are you any more qualified than the rest of us?" Biff demanded.
"Now listen to me. Listen to me right now," The Doctor said, holding out his arms. "Because you need me, all of you. If we are going to get out of this, then you need me."
"So you keep saying." Hobbes scoffed. "You've been repeating yourself more than her." He gestured to Sky, who, unnoticed by everyone but Jethro, had stopped speaking along with them.
"If anyone should be in charge," Val proposed. "It should be the Professor. He's the expert."
"Mum, stop, just look." Jethro told her, keeping his eyes on Mrs. Sylvestry.
"You keep out of this, Jethro!" She scolded.
"Look at her!"
They all looked to her and she stared right back at them, smiling softly. She almost looked kind or peaceful, but Rose knew that was just the creature inside her influencing the body's expression.
"She's stopped!" Dee Dee declared.
"When did she-" The Doctor started, but stopped when he realized that she in fact hadn't. "No, she hasn't. She's still doing it."
"She looks the same to me." Val pointed out. "No, she's stopped. Look, I'm talking and she's not!"
"What about me, is she?" Biff tested. Sky remained still, just staring at the Doctor's eyes. "Look. Look at that. She's not doing me. She's let me go."
"Mrs. Sylvestry?" The Hostess said. "Nor me. Nothing."
The Doctor walked forward and stood in front of Sky, scrutinizing her. Rose placed her hand on his arm, trying to warn him not to move any closer. He didn't acknowledge her, but stayed where he was.
"Sky, what are you doing?" The Doctor asked.
"She's still doing him." Dee Dee pointed at the Doctor.
"Doctor, it's you." Hobbes said, just now getting it. "She's only copying you."
"Yeah," Rose agreed, studying the woman/creature/whatever closely, slowly inching nearer. "But why? Doctor, why would she be copying you?"
He didn't answer her, instead repeating the same questions to Sky. "Why me? Why are you doing this?"
"She won't leave him alone," Dee Dee said.
"D'you see?" Val said from behind them. "I said so; she's with him."
As the group behind him continued to bicker and accuse, the Doctor was having a staring contest with Sky, searching her eyes for any form humanity, but none was to be found. He had been right. Whatever was now occupying Mrs. Sylvestry had not only possessed her; it had murdered her.
"How do you explain it, Doctor?" Hobbes challenged, although Rose had a feeling he really had just as little a clue as anyone else in the room. "If you're so clever?"
He thought of what he could say to them. They needed to know something, but what could he tell them? So, even after all of his bravado and telling them that he was the one they needed in order to get them out of this, he had to tell them the truth. The truth that showed just how much of what he'd told them was so useless.
"I don't know." Sky repeated the words after him and he simply got fed up with all of it. Why wouldn't anyone just listen? "Sky, stop it. I said, stop it. Just stop it!"
"Doctor," Rose's voice broke through, warning him. Someone in the background scoffed.
He tried again, gentler this time. "Mrs. Sylvestry, I'm trying to understand. You've captured my speech. What for? Why do you need-" Realization came over him as a thought made its way to him. "You need my voice in particular. The cleverest voice in the room. Why? Because I'm the only one who can help? Oh, I'd like that to be true, but your eyes," He acknowledged them and peered in, as if he could see deep inside of her. "They're saying something else."
At that moment, he had a theory as to what the creature actually wanted and he had to try to help it. If it meant any harm toward them, he'd stop it, but first he had to give it a chance.
"Listen to me. Whatever you want – if it's life or form or consciousness or voice – you don't have to steal it. You can find it without hurting anyone. And I'll help you. That's a promise. So, what do you think?"
There was a slight pause and then, "Do we have a deal?"
Everybody in the shuttle gasped as they heard it. "Hold on, did she…" Someone started, but Rose wasn't paying attention.
"She spoke first," Jethro finished.
"She can't have!"
"She did!"
"She spoke first."
Rose moved slightly closer to the Doctor, holding out her hand to touch him, when Sky spoke and she jumped back.
"Oh, look at that," She said. "I'm ahead of you." The Doctor repeated her with a slightly strained sound to his voice, as if he was just barely getting it out.
Sky was looking at her hands like she'd never seen them before. Rose once again reached out her hand to touch the Doctor's shoulder. Sky's head whipped up and she stared at her. Rose froze. She felt like a child caught with her hand in a cookie jar. Sky's eyes bore into her. She tilted her head, considering her, then after a moment, looked away and at the professor, as he spoke.
"Did you see?" He was saying. "She spoke before he did. Definitely."
"He's copying her," Observed Jethro, but as usual, nobody seemed to listen to him.
"Doctor, what's happening?"
"I think it's moved," Sky said, rolling her neck.
"I think it's moved," The Doctor echoed.
She closed her eyes. "I think it's letting me go." He repeated.
"What do you mean?" Dee Dee asked. "Letting you go from what?"
"But he's repeating now." Biff pointed at the Doctor. "He's the one doin' it. It's him!" He accused.
"They're separating," Jethro said quietly.
Hobbes stepped closer, but warily. "Mrs. Sylvestry, is that you?"
Sky moved her head from side to side, looking very unnatural. "Yes. Yes, it's me." She continued to speak even as the Doctor echoed every one of her words. She acted as if he wasn't even there. "I'm coming back. Listen, it's me."
Rose's head was spinning. This wasn't supposed to be happening. None of this. They were supposed to be on a sight-seeing tour, enjoying themselves, not this. Whatever had gotten in the shuttle and had been in Mrs. Sylvestry was now in the Doctor. He couldn't help anymore. Sky was doing something to him. She needed to stop it. But how? She didn't even know what was going on!
"Like it's passed into the Doctor." Jethro said. "It's transferred. Whatever it is, it's gone inside him."
Dee Dee shook her head. "No, that's not what happened."
Rose looked at her. "What do y'mean?" She asked.
The attention was on Val, though. "But, look at her!" She pointed.
"Look at me." Everyone's heads were pointed at Sky, none of them totally relieved of their fear of her. "I can move. I can feel again. I'm coming back to life." She looked at the Doctor, who was still copying her word for word. "And look at him. He can't move." She looked pleadingly up at them. "Help me. Professor?"
He sputtered, looking around at everybody else and they stared back at him. He started to move towards her.
"Get me away from him." She held her hands toward him piteously. "Please."
"Professor!" Rose called out to him before he could touch Sky. "I don't think you should touch her." Sky glared at her.
"Nonsense!" He said. "The creature has obviously gone into him. There's no more need to worry about Mrs. Sylvestry."
Sky caught his attention again. "Please. He scares me." Hobbes helped her up, making sure not to touch the Doctor in the process. Rose bit her lip, thinking everything over.
"Oh, thank you." Sky said, somewhat dramatically, but the Doctor's voice conveyed no feeling whatsoever.
"They've completely separated." Jethro declared.
"It's in him," his dad stated, somehow managing to sound half-way happy. "Do you see? I said it was in him all the time."
"But it wasn't!" Rose told them, but they wouldn't listen to her anymore.
"She's free." Val marveled. "She's been saved."
"Oh, it was so cold." Sky brought her hands up as if to warm herself by rubbing her arms. "I couldn't breathe! I'm sorry. I must've scared you so much." She looked sympathetically at them.
Val came forward with her arms up to embrace her. "No, no. It's alright. I've got you. There you are, love. It's gone. Everything's alright now." She cooed at her, a sort of motherly instinct kicking in.
"I wouldn't touch her," Dee Dee warned her.
"But it's gone." Biff turned to her and she cowered just a little bit. "She's clean. It passed into him."
"That's not what happened!" She insisted.
"Thank you for your opinion, Dee," Hobbes said in a tone that expressed the exact opposite of what he said. "But clearly, Mrs. Sylvestry has been released."
"No!" She cried.
"Just leave her alone." Val dismissed her. "She's safe, isn't she? Jethro," She turned to her son. "It's let her go, hasn't it?"
"No, I agree with Dee Dee," Rose said and he turned to her with a look on his face that showed just how little her opinion mattered to him.
"Nobody was asking you." Biff shot at her, giving her a venomous look. Apparently, she wasn't to be trusted.
"I'd say, from observation, the Doctor can't move, and when she was, er, possessed, she couldn't move. So-"
Biff cut him off. "Well, there we are, then. Now, the only problem we've got is this Doctor." He gestured to the Doctor, who was still in the exact same position as before.
"It's inside his head." Sky said, her hands clasped.
Rose stepped over to him and crouched down in front of him. He was staring blankly ahead, but just as the Doctor had said, she could see what he was actually feeling simply by looking into his eyes. He was in pain and he couldn't do anything about it.
"It killed the driver," Sky was saying. "And the mechanic."
But if it wasn't in the Doctor, a fact that Rose was absolutely sure of, then it still had to be in Sky. She was draining him. Somehow, she was siphoning his energy and slowly killing him.
"And now it wants us." Rose watched his mouth as he spoke after her. It wasn't right. This wasn't him.
But what could she do? None of them would listen to her; she came with the very man they blamed for all of this. They weren't even talking about the creature anymore – they were talking about him.
Sky was still talking. Rose had just noticed how affected her voice was now. She didn't sound or even look like the woman that she'd been talking to not so long ago. She probably wasn't even alive anymore. "He's waited so long. In the dark and the cold and the diamonds." Here, Val buried her head in her husband's chest. Sky held out her hands to them. "Until you came. Bodies so hot," Spittle came out of the Doctor's mouth as he spoke, unable to even swallow and tears were welled up in his eyes. "With blood and pain."
Val started panicking. "Stop! Make him stop! Someone make him stop!" Her husband held her tighter.
"But she's saying it!" Dee Dee pointed out.
Val turned on her angrily. "And you can shut up!"
"But it's not him, it's her!" She persisted. "He's just repeating!"
"But that's what the thing does," Biff countered. "It repeats."
"Yes, but she's saying it!" Rose said, standing up now. "The words that are scaring you are coming from her!" She indicated Sky, who was smirking. "I think we should just let Dee Dee talk."
"Make it all stop!" Val wailed. "Just make it stop!"
"Just let her explain!" the Hostess told them.
"What do you know?" asked Biff sarcastically. "Fat lot of good you've been!" The Hostess was shaking.
"I think she has a point," was all she could ground out.
They all looked to Dee Dee reluctantly. She stumbled a bit with her words. "I think, I mean, from what I've seen, it repeats, then it synchronizes, then it goes onto the next stage and that's exactly what the Doctor said would happen."
Biff scoffed. "What, and you're on his side?"
"No!"
"The voice is the thing," Jethro added.
"And she's the voice! She stole it! Look at her," Dee Dee pleaded with them. "It's not possessing him! It's draining him!"
"She's got his voice," the Hostess agreed quietly.
Val's eyebrows were drawn up as she tried to make Dee Dee understand. "But that's not true, because it can't! I saw it pass into him! I saw it with my own eyes!" She claimed.
Biff stood in front of her. "So did I!"
"Did you really?" Rose asked, raising her voice. "What did you see physically passing into him?"
"What did you see physically passing into her?!" Biff yelled, gesturing to Sky. Rose bit the inside of her cheek in order to keep herself from shouting back. How could she get them to realize the truth if they all kept arguing?
"But it wasn't him, I tell you. It was her!" Dee Dee kept on. "She stole his voice!"
"Oh, she's as bad as him," Val said. "Someone shut her up."
The Professor stepped up, having been silent for quite a while. "I think you should be quiet, Dee."
"Well, I'm only saying-"
"And that's an order!" He bellowed, interrupting her and effectually silencing her. "You're making a fool of yourself, pretending you're an expert in mechanics and hydraulics. Well, I can tell you, you are nothing more than average at best! Now, shut up!"
This made Rose's blood boil. Treating anyone with less worth than they're due simply because they don't agree with you was an outrage to her. She opened her mouth to rebuke him when the creature possessing Sky started talking again.
"That's how he does it." Her back was to them, but they were all listening to her. Why were any of them listening to her? "He makes you fight. Creeps into your head," the Doctor's echoes of Sky's words didn't help to calm any of them down. "And whispers." She cupped her hand to her ear. "Just listen. Listen. That's him. Inside."
"Throw him out!" Biff yelled at the same time as his wife said, "Get him out of my head!"
"Yeah, we should throw him out!" He said again.
"Don't just talk about it," she admonished him. "You're useless. Do something!"
"I will! You watch me! I'm going to throw him out!" He made to move to where the Doctor was still crouching, but Rose dashed to stand in his way.
"You're not going anywhere near him," she said with a low feral sort of tone to her voice. For a moment, she thought she saw a flicker of uncertainty cross the man's face, but it was quickly replaced with an expression of anger.
"Unless you want us to throw you out too, I suggest you stand back."
Rose looked him square in the face and said, "Make me."
He folded his lips inward and inhaled angrily. He reminded her of an irate bull. "Bother you!" He shoved her with one arm and she collapsed halfway-draped across a row a chairs.
Her head connected with an armrest and she was dazed by the impact. Her vision went black and fuzzy and she simply laid there for a few moments gasping in pain. Supporting herself on her elbow, she put a hand to her forehead and felt a warm liquid sliding down it. It took her eyes a few moments to adjust again before she could see that it was blood on her fingers. She was bleeding.
She looked back up the scene before her and saw that the Professor and Biff were dragging the Doctor across the floor and towards the door while Val was crying and shouting, Dee Dee and Jethro were watching on in horror and the Hostess was just staring at Sky as she spoke.
"Do it. Do it now." Sky was urging the two men. "Faster! Just do it! That's the way! You can do it!"
The Doctor was still repeating after her even though he was being hauled across the room. Rose tried to jump up and scream to them to stop, to just realize what they were doing and stop, but all she could get out was a whimpered "No" as she strained to get her body upright.
"That's his voice," Rose heard the Hostess say from somewhere near her. "She's taken his voice!"
Rose looked to where Sky was, but her vision was still blurry. "The emptiness! The Midnight sky!" She cried almost gleefully.
"Get him out!" Val screamed.
Rose was able to stand wobbly on her own now. She shakily fell over to where they were with the Doctor and tried to pull them away from him, yelling for them to let go of him.
All of a sudden, a blinding light flooded the cabin and everybody started screaming. Something was scorching her skin, slowly melting her body and it hurt beyond compare. It felt like someone was stripping her apart and it wasn't stopping like it had before. She writhed on the floor of the shuttle, screaming until she was hoarse. And then, as fast as it had appeared, it was gone.
Rose fell back on the cold floor, breathing heavily. The feeling of burning alive slowly dissipated and her vision began to return to her once again, but she closed her eyes, not wanting to see anymore horrors. She felt something grip her torso tightly and her eyes snapped back open to see the Doctor clinging to her in a desperate hug. She wrapped her arms around him in the same manner.
They separated to see that both the Hostess and Sky were gone.
"I said it was her." Both of them whipped their heads up at Val who was leaning heavily on a chair. Rose glared at the woman, not believing a word.
Twenty minutes later, the Doctor was sitting on the floor leaning against Rose's leg as she sat in the chair behind him. The rest of the passengers were scattered about the shuttle. No one was saying a thing. All of them too upset about what had just transpired to dare break the silence.
The voices of the rescue team came over the comms. "Crusader Fifty rescue vehicle coming alongside in three minutes. Repeat. Crusader Fifty rescue vehicle coming alongside in three minutes. Door seals set to automatic. Prepare for boarding. Repeat. Prepare for boarding." There was a click as they signed off.
Silence once again drowned the room, but the Doctor broke it just a few seconds after.
"The Hostess," Everybody looked to him curiously. "What was her name?"
His eyes dragged around the room searching all of their eyes and all he saw was obliviousness and regret as they looked to each other, hoping that someone had an answer. The very woman who had sacrificed her life for them and none of them even knew her name.
"June."
Everyone threw their eyes over to Rose. She didn't even blink, instead looking expressionlessly ahead.
"Her name was June."
The Doctor, Rose, and Donna walked back to the TARDIS, all ready to get out of there. Once inside, the Doctor set to putting them in the Vortex and Donna went to her room. Rose merely fell slumped onto the jump seat, looking utterly exhausted. Neither of them made any move to strike up conversation, leaving the air tense.
Once they were off of the planet, the Doctor pretended to fiddle with the controls on the console. He glanced up at Rose who was still sitting motionless with her eyes straight ahead and saw the blood on her forehead again.
He silently stepped over and squatted next to her seat, brushing a few hairs to the side to examine the gash closely. "How did this happen?" He asked.
She didn't answer and he began to worry. "Rose?" He put a hand on her arm.
Rose made a sharp intake of breath through her mouth and her head snapped over to look at him, as if just realizing he was there.
"Why wouldn't they listen?" She whispered, her eyes pleading with him to tell her something, anything.
But he didn't have anything to tell her. They were humans. They were terrified, angry, proud humans who wanted a solution to their problem, not giving a thought to whether or not it was the right one. They just needed someone to blame so they could make themselves feel safe again. Humans that, when they're scared, lash out and would do anything, even to the amount of murder, to keep themselves alive.
He wondered what would've happened if they had managed to kill him before they figured it out. They'd have realized as soon as he was gone that they were wrong. What would they do then? Would they throw Sky out too? Or would the creature simply overcome them now that the cleverest only one that was really able to stop it was out of the way? Thankfully, that hadn't been the final outcome after all.
Then it all came back to the Hostess – June. She didn't even know these people. In fact, they had shouted at her and refused to listen to her because she just didn't know what to do. In the end, it was her who had come up with the solution. Without her, he and probably the rest of the passengers would be dead and the creature – whatever it was – would be free to wreak havoc all over Midnight and who knows where it would go from there?
He didn't have anything to tell Rose and she knew he didn't. So he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her hair, knowing that no matter how much he comforted her, it wouldn't change anything, but that wouldn't stop him trying. As long as she was hurting, he would always be there to help her and he would always try to make it better for her.
After a long embrace, he released her and pulled her up from her seat. "C'mon," he beckoned, smiling softly. "Let's go get that forehead taken care of."
Reviews would be greatly appreciated! Even if it's just to say one word, I would love to know if I did well or not. Please let me know!