A/n: Sorry I have delayed an update I've been planning the story out so I can maybe go into the 11th doctor as I've made a few good plot lines for both including River. This one is a little short but I promise to update more soon!

Hope you enjoy this chapter.

Chapter nine:

Nova felt her hand begin to sweat as she held onto the Doctors hand tightly, he looked back at her and flashed a little smile calming her down. She could feel her feet hit full force against the asphalt of the school playground, the running began to slow down as they approached a red rusty old car. She could feel her hearts pounding wildly with adrenaline as they stopped, it was quite exciting but scary.
Sarah Jane flung open her car boot, peering inside was a metallic tin looking dog.

The Doctor let go of Nova and excitedly approached the car "K9! Nova, Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith, allow me to introduce K9. well, K9 Mark Three to be precise." He said giving it a loving pat, motioning Nova to come and do the same. Smiling down on her fiery red hair as she started fiddling with the dog.

"Why does he look so disco?" Rose asked making Nova stifle a snort.

"Oi! Listen, in the year five thousand, this was cutting edge. What's happened to him?" The Doctor said noticing Nova prodding at the broken parts of the sad little dog.

"Oh, one day, he just, nothing." Sarah Jane said leaning onto her car looking down at the pair, her eyebrow raised at the Doctor tender reactions with the child.

"Well, didn't you try and get him repaired?" The Doctor said sadly looking down at the dog inspecting the broken parts.

"Well, it's not like getting parts for a Mini Metro, Besides, the technology inside him could rewrite human science. I couldn't show him to anyone." Sarah Jane said sadly looking at the Dog.

"Ooh, what's the nasty lady done to you, eh?" The Doctor playfully mocked as he rubbed on the rusted edges of the metal dog.

"Look, no offence, but could you three just stop petting for a minute? Never mind the tin dog. We're busy." Rose said looking disdainfully at Sarah, scolding the Doctor.

xOx

They planned to go to a local coffee shop that was still open at this hour. It wasn't too far away from the school. The coffee shop was darkly lit, with the slightly yellow tinge of the streetlamps coruscating through the dirty windows of the coffee shop. A tired worker sat behind the sticky counter, uninterested in the group of people once they had ordered some coffees and went back to listening to his radio near the kitchen door.

Nova meanwhile was feeling tired, as she curled up on the leather dining booth. The Doctors warm trench coat draped over her as she stared sleepily at them as they huddled over a table fixing the metallic dog. She heard them talking about a great spaceship on Christmas that apparently the Doctor scared off.

"Did I do something wrong, because you never came back for me? You just dumped me." Nova heard Sarah Jane say with such heartbreak, causing her to stir from her sleepiness and watch the Doctor and the ginger woman.

He was fiddling with the underside of K9 with his sonic screwdriver, "I told you. I was called back home and in those days humans weren't allowed." The Doctor replied rather quickly, giving a quick glance to Nova. Almost scared to mention anything about Gallifrey in front of her.

"I waited for you. I missed you." Sarah said, the Doctors passiveness about the situation hurting her. Nova noticed Rose also looking slightly disheartened by this.

"Oh, you didn't need me. You were getting on with your life."

"You were my life. You know what the most difficult thing was?" Sarah Jane started, standing up looking down at the Doctor fixing K9 "Coping with what happens next, or with what doesn't happen next. You took me to the furthest reaches of the galaxy, you showed me supernovas, intergalactic battles, and then you just dropped me back on Earth. How could anything compare to that?" She finished slumping back down on the leather dining booth opposite Nova.

"All those things you saw, do you want me to apologise for that?" The Doctor replied to Sarah with a tinge of sad darkness in his voice as he turned K9 back onto his front as he begins working on the side panel.

"No, but we get a taste of that splendour and then we have to go back," Sarah said looking at Rose as if suggesting something silently that Nova didn't understand.

The Doctor jumped up as he started adjusting the antennas on K9's little head. Then turned to Sarah with a comforting smile "Look at you, you're investigating. You found that school. You're doing what we always did."

"You could have come back" Sarah pouted.

"I couldn't." He said looking at Sarah silently pleading her with his eyes to not push on the subject.

"Why not" She pushed as the Doctor began to finish fixing k9, tugging on his left ear awkwardly.
There was an uneasy silence for a minute before Sarah finally changed the subject slightly.
"It wasn't Croydon. Where you dropped me off, that wasn't Croydon."

"Where was it?" The Doctor asked rather surprised as a little light starts to whir up on the dog.

"Aberdeen" Sarah Jane laughed.

"Right. That's next to Croydon, isn't it?" The Doctor said with a cheeky grin. Then the little metallic dog began to flicker back to life.

"Oh, hey. Now we're in business." The Doctor said patting the dog lovingly on its rusted head.

"Master" He dog barked in a tinny voice, its little 'ears' shaped like scanning antennas began to wiggle in almost delight.

"OHH he recognises me," The Doctor said delightedly.

"Affirmative" The dog chirped happily as its little tail and ears began to mechanically whirl and wiggle, Nova chuckled at the Dog causing the Doctor to look at her with a tender smile beckoning her to come over and pat the dog.

"Oh rose, give us the oil," he said remembering why they were here, he pressed a button causing a probe to appear out of the dog's nose.

"I wouldn't touch it, though. That dinner lady got all scorched." Rose replied carefully handing the Doctor the test tube of Oil they had collected.

"I'm no dinner lady. And I don't often say that." He said smirking at Nova who gave him a little smile as she carried on rubbing K9's head who seemed to be enjoying the attention.

The Doctor smears the sample on K0's outstretched probe causing some lights to flicker on the dog's body.

"Here we go. Come on, boy. Here we go."

"Oil. Ex ex ex extract. Ana ana analysing." K9 stuttered, struggling to wake up all of its functions from its very long nap.

"Listen to him, man. That's a voice." Mickey said mockingly.

"Careful. That's my dog." Sarah Jane said sternly to the boy giving him a look before smiling at him.

"Confirmation of analysis. Substance is Krillitane Oil." K9 chirped robotically, wiggling its ears once more as it retracted the probe back into its nose.

"Aren't you a clever boy" cooed Nova rubbing the side panel of K9.

"Affirmative"

A sudden look of realisation wiped over the Doctors face "They're Krillitanes!"

"is… that bad?" Nova asked looking up at the Doctor.

"Very. Think of how bad things could possibly be and add another suitcase full of bad." The Doctor said his face blank as he paced thinking.

"And what are Krillitanes?" Sarah Jane asked looking worried at the Doctor.

"They're a composite race. Just like your culture is a mixture of traditions from all sorts of countries, people you've invaded or have been invaded by. You've got bits of Viking, bits of France, bits of whatever. The Krillitanes are the same. An amalgam of the races they've conquered. But they take physical aspects as well. They cherry-pick the best bits from the people they destroy. That's why I didn't recognise them. The last time I saw Krillitanes, they looked just like us except they had really long necks." He said, arms flailing about as he gestured whilst he spoke rather fast and rather frantically.

"What're they doing here?" Rose asked the Doctor who stopped dead in his tracks and looked down at Nova as if realising something.

"It's the children. They're doing something to the children."