Three Brains
They ran around the base, running back each time they saw a group of guards. "This way," the Doctor told them, pulling on Caroline's hand until they reached a door. "Oh, can you hear it?" The Ood song must be back. "I didn't need the map. I should have listened." He soniced the lock on the door and, once they'd closed it behind them, soniced it again until it sparked.
"Hold on. Does that mean we're locked in?"
"Listen. Listen, listen, listen, listen." He held up a torch and began to lead them into the darkness, something Caroline was not happy with. She rushed forward so that she could stay as close to the light as possible as they went down a few steps. He grimaced. "Oh, my head."
"What is it?"
"Can't you hear it? The singing?" he shined his light into a cage that contained a small crowd of Ood huddled together. He pulled a switch so that they could see the Ood clearer, but the Ood only shifted away.
"They look different to the others." All of the Ood seemed to be holding something, clutching it.
"That's because they're natural born Ood, unprocessed, before they're adapted to slavery. Unspoilt. That's their song."
They all squat in front of the cage. "I can't hear it." Donna shook her head. Caroline said nothing. It was strange. She could hear it, faintly, like it was pulling at her brain. The song would fade away sometimes, but then it would come back, just faint and quiet in the back of her head.
The Doctor turned to her. Caroline knew he would likely ask why she hadn't spoken, why she was only looking towards the Ood with a blank face, but at that moment he was turned to Donna. "Do you want to?"
"Yeah."
"It's the song of captivity."
"Let me hear it."
"Face me." Donna turned so that she was facing him. Carefully, the Doctor placed two fingers on either side of her head, closing his eyes. "Open your mind. That's it. Hear it, Donna. Hear the music."
Caroline looked over as Donna began to cry, wondering what the song was like when one could hear it completely. "Take it away," Donna told the Doctor.
"Sure?"
"I can't bear it." He touched her head again, seemingly disconnecting her. "I'm sorry." They looked back to the Ood.
"It's okay."
"But you can still hear it."
"All the time." He looked at Caroline, who was only staring at the Ood. This is what humanity would become. They would do this to an innocent race, destroying them. "Caroline?"
She could only shake her head. In some ways, she wanted to hear it, wanted to experience the song in its full. But from what she could hear, the little she knew…it was already devastating.
The Doctor nodded, sonicing the cage door as someone began to pound at the door they'd entered from.
"They're breaking in."
"Ah, let them." The three of them entered, bending down again, as the Ood cowered. Even if they were unspoilt, they already knew to fear strangers, already knew to try and protect themselves. "What are you holding? Show me. Friend. Doctor, Donna, Caroline. Friend. Let me see. Look at me. Let me see." One of the Ood towards the back of the cage held out his hands. "That's it. That's it, go on. Go on." The Ood opened them to reveal a small brain.
"Is that?"
The Doctor nodded. "It's a brain. A hind brain. The Ood are born with a secondary brain. Like the amygdala in humans, it processes memory and emotions. You get rid of that, you wouldn't be Donna any more, or Caroline. You'd be like an Ood. A processed Ood."
"The company cuts off their brains," Caroline whispered, horrified. The second brain was right where the translator ball had been on all of the others they'd seen.
"And they stitch on the translator."
"Like a lobotomy," Donna breathed. "I spent all that time looking for you, Doctor, because I thought it was so wonderful out here. I want to go home."
Caroline didn't know how she felt. She had seen that humanity was horrible, that they'd done all this. But the Doctor kept going, despite all else. He must have seen this before, or at least something similar. He must have seen the horrors of the universe yet…he was still traveling. He was still exploring, still learning.
Caroline was horrified but…she wanted to learn more. But this was her last trip, her last adventure with the Doctor. After this, she'd be done.
"They're with the Ood, sir," a guard called from above.
Instantly, the Doctor spun and locked the three of them in the cage with the Ood as the boss of the compound walked up. "What you going to do, then? Arrest me? Lock me up? Throw me in a cage? Well, you're too late. Ha!"
|C-S|
Perhaps claiming that he had the upper ground while locked in a cage was not the brightest ideas. They were currently handcuffed to poles in an executive office.
"Why don't you just come out and say it?" Mr. Halpen, who seemed to be running the whole affair, said. "FOTO activists."
"If that's what Friends Of The Ood are trying to prove, then yes."
"The Ood were nothing without us, just animals roaming around on the ice."
"That's because you can't hear them."
"They welcomed it. It's not as if they put up a fight," he laughed.
"You idiot," Donna snapped. "They're born with their brains in their hands. Don't you see, that makes them peaceful. They've got to be, because a creature like that would have to trust anyone it meets."
The Doctor nodded. "Oh, nice one."
"Thank you."
"The system's worked for two hundred years. All we've got is a rogue batch. But the infection is about to be sterilised." Halpen lifted his wrist to his mouth, some sort of comm. device. "Mr. Kess. How do we stand?"
"Canisters primed, sir," Kess replied. "As soon as the core heats up, the gas is released. Give it two hundred marks and counting."
The Doctor's eyes widened. "You're going to gas them?"
He shrugged. "Kill the livestock. The classic foot and mouth solution from the olden days. Still works."
An alarm sounded, and this time Caroline was thankful. "What the hell?" Halpen turned around, storming out of the room.
"Emergency status!" the computer informed him. "Emergency status!"
Halpen returned. "Change of plan."
"There are no reports of trouble off-world, sir," Dr. Ryder told him. "It's still contained to the Ood Sphere."
Halpen nodded. "Then we've got a public duty to stop it before it spreads."
"What's happening?"
Halpen turned back to them. "Everything you wanted, Doctor. No doubt there'll be a full police investigation once this place has been sterilized, so I can't risk a bullet to the head. I'll leave you to the mercies of the Ood." He began to walk out.
"But Mr. Halpen, there's something else, isn't there?" he stopped, turning around. "Something we haven't seen."
"What do you mean?"
"A creature couldn't survive with a separate forebrain and hind brain, they'd be at war with themselves. There's got to be something else, a third element, am I right?"
Halpen laughed. "And again, so clever."
"But it's got to be connected to the red eye. What is it?"
He strode forwards, close enough that they could feel bits of his spit. "It won't exist for very much longer. Enjoy your Ood." Everyone left the office, leaving just the three of them.
"Come on," the Doctor told them and they all started to pull on the handcuffs, trying to see if there was any way to either break them or unlock them.
After a moment where nothing happened, Donna sighed. "Well, do something. You're the one with all the tricks. You must have met Houdini."
"These are really good handcuffs."
Donna laughed. "Oh well, I'm glad of that. I mean, at least we've got quality."
The door opened and they froze. Three Ood with red eyes walked in, translator balls in their hands.
"Doctor, Donna, Caroline, friends," the Doctor tried.
"The circle must be broken."
The two of them continued to repeat themselves as the Ood drew nearer. Caroline didn't know what to say. The red-eyed Ood didn't seem willing to listen to anything they were saying, but Caroline still wanted to try. The only problem was that she didn't know what to say.
The Ood reached out their translator balls, prepared to kill the three of them, only to stop. The translator balls turned off and they gripped their heads. One looked up a moment later to reveal his eyes were back to normal. "Doctor. Donna. Caroline. Friends.
Donna laughed. "That's us!"
"Friends." The Doctor nodded. "Oh, yes."
The Ood stepped behind them and unlocked their handcuffs, letting the three of them leave without question. They ran down a staircase, avoiding the soldiers. "I don't know where it is. I don't know where they've gone." He looked around them.
"What are we looking for?"
"It might be underground, like some sort of cave, or a cavern, or-" They took off again, Caroline and Donna following not quite certain what exactly they were looking for. They were interrupted by an explosion, knocking them to the ground. "All right?" The Doctor asked, helping the two of them stand.
They looked back to see the smoke clearing, the Ood Halpen had with him standing there. Without a word, he began to walk forwards.
"What's happening?" Donna whispered as the Doctor followed without question.
"He's going to show us."
They went towards Warehouse 15, the Doctor using his sonic to open the door. Almost immediately they looked over a railing to see a giant brain slightly below them, protected by some sort of energy field. "The Ood Brain." The Doctor nodded. "Now it all makes sense, that's the missing link. The third element, binding them together. Forebrain, hind brain, and this, the telepathic centre. It's a shared mind, connecting all the Ood in song."
There was a gun click, and they looked up to see Halpen pointing a gun at them. "Cargo. I can always go into cargo. I've got the rockets, I've got the sheds. Smaller business. Much more manageable, without livestock."
Dr. Ryder stepped forward as well. "He's mined the area."
Caroline felt sick. "You're going to kill it?"
"They found that thing centuries ago beneath the Northern Glacier."
"Those pylons." The Doctor nodded to them. It was what formed the energy field, guarding the brain.
Donna nodded. "In a circle. The circle must be broken."
"Damping the telepathic field. Stopping the Ood from connecting for two hundred years."
Halpen looked past them to see the Ood behind them. "And you, Ood Sigma, you brought them here. I expected better."
"My place is at your side, sir," Sigma informed him.
Halpen chuckled. "Still subservient. Good Ood."
Donna leaned closer to the Doctor. "If that barrier thing's in place, how come the Ood started breaking out?"
He shrugged. "Maybe it's taken centuries to adapt. The subconscious reaching out?"
Dr. Ryder stepped forward. "But the process was too slow. It had to be accelerated. You should never give me access to the controls, Mr. Halpen. I lowered the barrier to its minimum. Friends Of The Ood, sir. It's taken me ten years to infiltrate the company, and I succeeded."
"Yes," Halpen nodded. "Yes, you did." He didn't wait a second before throwing Ryder over the railing and into the brain, letting it absorb him. Halpen only smirked.
"You murdered him," Donna breathed, turning to look at him. The three of them had run to the railing when he'd fell, though there had been no hope of rescuing him.
"Very observant, Ginger. Now, then." He looked down towards the gun in his hand, weighing it. "Can't say I've ever shot anyone before. Can't say I'm going to like it. But er, it's not exactly a normal day, is it? Still." He was speaking like his words were difficult, like he was choking on something.
Sigma stepped forward. "Would you like a drink, sir?"
He laughed. "I think hair loss is the least of my problems right now, thanks."
Sigma came forwards so that he was standing in front of the trio. "Please have a drink, sir."
The Doctor reached forward to try and move Sigma back, but the Ood didn't move. "If, if you're going to stand in their way, I'll shoot you too."
"Please have a drink, sir."
"Have…" his speech had begun to slur, "have you poisoned me?"
"Natural Ood must never kill, sir."
The Doctor frowned at the cup in Sigma's hand. "What is that stuff?"
"Ood graft suspended in a biological compound, sir."
"What the hell does that mean?"
The Doctor stepped back, staring at Halpen with something akin to wonder. "Oh, dear."
"Tell me!" Halpen insisted.
The Doctor shrugged. "Funny thing, the subconscious. Takes all sorts of shapes. Came out in the red eye as revenge, came out in the rabid Ood as anger, and then there was patience. All that intelligence and mercy, focused on Ood Sigma. How's the hair loss, Mister Halpen?"
Halpen reached up, only for more hair to pull away in his hand. "What have you done?"
"Oh, they've been preparing you for a very long time. And now you're standing next to the Ood Brain, Mr. Halpen, can you hear it? Listen." He leaned forwards slightly, and Caroline found herself doing the same. If there was Ood graft in what Mr. Halpen was drinking…and the Ood were a mildly telepathic race…
"What have you…I'm not…" he dropped his gun, reaching for the back of his head. In a smooth motion, he peeled the skin off, revealing what looked like the Ood's skin. Coughing, the tentacles fell out of his mouth and, when Halpen stood up, he looked like an Ood.
"They…they turned him into an Ood?"
The Doctor nodded. "Yep."
"He's an Ood," Caroline repeated.
"I noticed."
The Ood that had once been Halpen sneezed and his hindbrain flopped onto his hand.
"He has become Oodkind, and we will take care of him," Sigma told them, stepping forwards.
Donna shook her head. "It's weird, being with you. I can't tell what's right and what's wrong anymore."
"It's better that way. People who know for certain tend to be like Mr. Halpen." Something beeped beside them and the Doctor ran to the railing. "Oh!" he deactivated the detonation packs. "That's better. And now, Sigma, would you allow me the honor?"
Sigma nodded. "It is yours, Doctor."
The Doctor grinned. "Oh, yes!" he turned to the machines. "Stifled for two hundred years, but not anymore. The circle is broken. The Ood can sing."
The energy field around the brain turned off and, finally, Caroline could hear the song in full. But, this time, it was happy. She hadn't heard it entirely before but, now, now she knew it was joyful.
Donna laughed. "I can hear it!"
Caroline smiled. "It's beautiful."
|C-S|
The Ood stood in a small semicircle around them. They'd returned to the field the TARDIS had landed in, though the Doctor was now standing quite close to Caroline, his coat draped around her shoulders. She hadn't been that cold when they'd first landed, but now the amount of time they were spending outside had made her regret not wearing a better coat. The Doctor's was quite warm though.
"The message has gone out," he told the gathered Ood. "That song resonated across the galaxies. Everyone heard it. Everyone knows. The rockets are bringing them back. The Ood are coming home."
"We thank you, Doctor-Donna, Caroline, friends of Oodkind," Sigma said. "And what of you now? Will you stay? There is room in the song for you."
The Doctor smiled. "Oh, I've, I've sort of got a song of my own, thanks."
Sigma stared at him. "I think your song must end soon."
The Doctor frowned. "Meaning?"
"Every song must end." He blinked. "Every song must be free."
The three of them shifted, a bit uneasy, and the Doctor turned to look at Donna. "Yeah. Er, what about you? You still want to go home?"
"No." Donna smiled. "Definitely not."
He nodded. "Then we'll be off."
"Take this song with you."
They nodded. "We will."
"Always."
"And know this, Doctor-Donna, Caroline. You will never be forgotten. Our children will sing of the Doctor-Donna, Caroline, and our children's children, and the wind and the ice and the snow will carry your names forever."
The trio smiled as they walked back to the TARDIS, the Ood song following them as they went.
|C-S|
The Doctor waited until Caroline had a chance to warm up before the three of them found themselves standing around the console. "Well," the Doctor sighed, looking at Caroline. "I guess…"
"It's been wonderful." She smiled. It had. She'd never thought fighting aliens could be wonderful, but it was. And she'd already learned so much. She knew about time travel, and three new alien races. But she'd known when the Doctor had first asked her to come along that it was only going to be for one trip, even if that had extended to two.
"Right then." He nodded, stepping forward to hit a button on the console. "Unless…"
Caroline didn't want to dare to hope. She glanced at Donna, who was grinning, and back at the Doctor. "Doctor…"
"What do you think of staying?" he looked up at her. "See more of the universe?"
Given the way Donna was smiling, Caroline was almost certain he'd already talked to her about it. And they wanted her to stay. They wanted her to come with them and explore the universe, no matter how quiet she was. "That would be wonderful."
The Doctor laughed. "It's settled then." He thought for a moment. "Haven't had two companions in a while, this will be fun. Right," he did something with the TARDIS, "why don't we stop by where you live, pick up anything you need, and then go on our way?"
|C-S|
Donna had been perfectly happy when the Doctor had asked her if Caroline could join them. She hadn't minded that there would be two companions, in fact, she'd almost welcomed it. Someone else to help deal with him when he got preachy, she'd said. And someone else to hug. Caroline may have been thin, but she wasn't as tall as the Doctor, less likely to give someone a paper clip.
Caroline was…nice. The Doctor couldn't make himself just leave her after what had happened, he really should have known that would happen the moment he first asked her. It was wonderful to show someone the universe, even more wonderful to show two people. And maybe, just maybe, the Doctor and Donna could make Caroline open up a bit more, be more confident in herself.
He piloted them to her home, landing right in the middle room. Caroline was out first, saying quietly that they could go wherever they wanted, as she went to find clothes. It was neat and, from what he'd been able to tell, was a small house on a road he'd been running down when looking for the Adipose.
No wonder she'd been able to run into him again. She must have been walking home.
"Nice place," Donna commented. "I'm jealous."
He nodded. "Very nice." It was also very bland, painted neutrals. Understandably, it felt like no one had been there in a long time, since she'd been off traveling with them. There was nothing he could see that let him get to know her better though, which had been something he was hoping for. Caroline was quiet, she never talked about herself, so he'd been hoping there was anything in her house to identify her.
He didn't see anything.
Except, that is, two boxes sitting on a table. They looked like open Christmas presents and, when he stepped closer, the Doctor saw the small note she'd carefully preserved from one of them. They were from her parents, or at least one of them was. Normally, he was almost certain, you were supposed to have gotten rid of the box by now, it wasn't that close to Christmas anymore. But Caroline had kept them, both of them.
And he didn't know why.
"I'm ready." The Doctor turned to see Caroline in the doorway, changed. She matched him now; long light brown sweater over a loose white tank top, dark jeans and ankle boots.
"You don't need anything else?"
She nodded to a folded coat on one of the couches. "In case it's cold."
The Doctor and Donna laughed. "Then let's get going." Donna pushed open the TARDIS door and they all walked inside, the Doctor glancing back at Caroline to see what she looked like.
Thankfully, she was looking quite excited, grinning widely. Even after seeing what had happened with the Ood, she'd still wanted to stay. True, she'd thought she'd be leaving afterwards, but she had still agreed to stay with them.
Watching her with the Ood had been strange. He had the sense, strangely, that she'd actually been able to hear the Ood song. But that was impossible, because she was human. Humans shouldn't have been able to hear the Ood song while it was blocked.
But, overall, the Doctor was glad she was staying.
Caroline was…nice.
A/N: Caroline can stay! The Doctor is beginning to notice the very basics of something being strange about her, but he hasn't really noticed anything, not yet.
