By whose right?

Or, to give it it's full name, "Obligatory Rose staying behind in The Satan Pit fic".

Ida bit her lip as she listened to Zach's voice crackle over the intercom, alone and cold on the edge of the hole the Doctor had disappeared into a few short minutes ago.

"I'm declaring this mission unsafe. All we can do is make sure no one ever comes here again."

"But we'll never find out what it was." She protested weakly, voice catching in her throat.

"Well, maybe that's best."

"Yeah."

Zach paused for a second, hand resting on the railing next to him. He knew what this meant. Ida knew, Danny knew, Toby knew. Rose would proberly know, too, if she was still paying attention. It meant goodbye.

"Officer Scott-"

"It's all right. Just go. Good luck."

"Thank you." He replaced the comms unit and turned towards Danny and Toby (could he really trust Toby anymore? He would have to, if he wanted to get them all out of there alive.) and nodded, eyes closing for a second in recognition that Ida Scott's voice would never be heard again. "Danny- Toby- close down the feed links and get the retrotopes online. Then get to the rocket and strap yourselves in."

(Finally taking command, Captain? It's about time. Just a shame that four people had to die first. Oh, if only your father could see you now, the voice that had haunted him for hours crowed.)

Rose turned to Zach, fear and desperation warring with the determination in her eyes.

"I'm not going."

"Rose, there's space for you."

"No, I'm going to wait for the Doctor. Just like he waited for me."

Toby looked up as Rose crossed her arms and fidgeted slightly, sighing. This is why you've never wanted to love someone, Tobes. Remember that next time you get a crush on a pretty blonde.

"I'm sorry, but... he's dead."

"You don't know him. 'Cos he's not..." Rose shook her head, and swallowed heavily, before carrying on. "I'm telling you, he's- he's not... and even if he was, how could I leave him? All on his own, all the way down there? No. I'm gonna stay."

"Then I apologise for this. Danny, Toby- make her secure."

Rose spun around as the two men stepped towards her and reached for her arms. Visions flashed through her mind (them drugging her, being knocked out, arriving on a planet not quite like Earth in the year whatever-the-hell-it-is, with no Mum and no Doctor, and growing old thousands of years after she should have died) and she swung for Danny, who ducked not-quite-in-time and was thrown back a few steps by the force behind it. He dropped the needle in his hand, and Rose dropped down and picked it up, waving it threateningly at Zach.

"I told you, I ain't leaving him, ever. I promised him that a long time ago, and I'm not the kind of girl to break a promise. Ok?"

"Please, Rose. He'd want you to live." Zach half begged, because even if she wasn't actually a member of his crew, more than enough people had died on this godforsaken rock.

"No. I'm sorry, but I'm staying right here."

Zach paused for a second, then nodded, and turned back to Toby and Danny, who was just lifting himself off the floor.

"Get the retrotopes online and let's just go. Good luck, Rose."

"You too."

She bit down a strangled sob as the three men left the room, and sat down heavily on the chunky metal bench behind her, before resting her head in her hands as she waited for either death or the Doctor.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Ten minutes later (was that it? Really?), the Doctor stood in front of the Beast, breathing heavily and weighed down in his spacesuit. Dawning realisation fell over his faced as he put together all the pieces of the puzzle.

"So, that's the trap. Or the test or the final judgement, I don't know. But it I kill you, I kill her." He flinched slightly as the Beast roared with laughter, flames reaching a little too close to the clearing that the Doctor stood in, before standing up straight again. "Except that implies- in this big grand scheme of Gods and Devils - that she's just a victim. But I've seen a lot of this universe. I've seen fake gods and bad gods and demi gods and would-be gods - out of all that - out of that whole pantheon - if I believe in one thing... just one thing..."

"I believe in her."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

I am the rage and the bile and the ferocity

"Zach, do something!"
"Like what? What can I do?"

I am the Prince and the Fall

"It's him! It's him! The Beast, it's him!"
"Stay where you are, Danny, the ship's not stable!

And the darkness

"What the hell is he?"

I shall never die! The thought of me is forever! In the bleeding hearts of men, in their vanity and obsession and lust

"Pass me the gun, Danny!"
"What?"
"Pass me the damn gun!"

Nothing shall ever destroy me

"Unstrap his belt."

Nothing!

"Go to Hell."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Zach looks at Danny, sat in the corner, having pushed his computer screen away and is looking up at the roof of the shuttle, praying to a deity that humanity as a whole has still not given up on.

"I did my best, I'm sorry. But hey- first human beings to fall inside a black hole. How about that? History."

The rocket begins shaking heavily from side to side, and they both grab on to the nearest thing- Danny the bar wrapping around the window to his right, Zach to the wheel in front of him- as the ship tilts before rolling around completely, leaving them with nothing to look at but the Black Hole which will kill them in a few minutes time.

And then it stops, and silence falls.

"What happened?"

"We're... turning? We're turning around. We're turning away!" Zach yells, and the Doctor's voice (how on New Earth had he survived? Oh, who cares!) fills the cockpit over the low-quality radio they have installed.

"Sorry about the hijack, Captain. This is the good ship TARDIS. Now, first things first- have you got a Rose Tyler on board?"

Zach and Danny pause, and turn to each other, wide-eyed. They couldn't tell him, not now- he had just saved them by pulling them away from the black hole, and Rose was dead because she wouldn't come along. And even though it was her choice, they doubted the Doctor would see it like that.

The Doctor stands still in the TARDIS. Even as his body tries to give off the impression that this was nothing, just another casual jaunt through Hell and back (literally), anyone stood nearby would be able to see the tightness of his smile and the way his hands were fiddling with controls that didn't need fiddling with.

"Hello? Zach? I repeat, a Miss Rose Tyler-"

"She's gone."

The Doctor waits, and when no-one elaborates, his releases his clenched jaw and swallows around the rock in his throat.

"She's gone where? The toilet? The storage rooms? Call her for me, Zach, if you will."

"Doctor, she's dead. She stayed on the planet to find you."

Well, because I'm writing this just before dinner, I'll have to leave it there. I'll write the second part later- the Doctor's reaction. You might get a little bit of Time Lord Victorious three years earlier than scheduled.
Review please :*

Chloe xxx