Authors note: a big thanks to tvnut who helped me through this chapter
Rose zipped up her black leather jacket as Donna ran out of the TARDIS with a gleeful look on her face. The Doctor promised an alien planet this time round and Donna was acting like a child on Christmas day, Rose found it amusingly sweet.
"IT'S FREEZING!" Donna shrieked
The Doctor walked out with his hands in his pockets, grinning while Rose pulled out a dark green scarf with matching hat and gloves from her pocket, grateful that the TARDIS supplied her clothes were the pockets were bigger inside.
"Now that's beautiful" the Doctor said admiring the icy view.
"Yes" Donna agreed "a beautiful cold view"
As Rose exited the TARDIS she was pushed to the side by Donna who raced in to the TARDIS, Rose assumed it was to keep warm. She looked over to the Doctor who was in one of his rants"
"DONNA NOBLE, CITIZIN OF THE EARTH!" the Doctor shouted "standing on another planet"
He turned round to see Rose standing there with a bemused expression on her face "carry on dear" she said "Donna will be out in a minute"
The Doctor's cheeks turned a faint pink and Rose knew it had nothing to do with the cold.
They walked down a hill, Rose still laughing her head off due to Donna's comment about the rocket they saw look at that a proper spaceship, you got a blue box but he's got a Ferrari. It was needless to say that the Doctor was not amused. Rose instantly stopped laughing when she heard it.
It was a soft musical sound, a beautiful song.
"Can you hear that?" she asked in a whisper
The Doctor looked at her questionably and then concentrated, on look on his face told Rose that he could also hear the song.
"I can't hear anything" Donna said
Both Rose and the Doctor ran towards the song, Donna hot on their heels demanding to know what's going on. And then they saw it, something they never thought they would see again not after the last time.
"It's an Ood" Rose shouted running to its side "I think it's dying, Doctor do something"
"What's an Ood?" Donna asked as the Doctor pulled out a stethoscope
"A slave race, very peaceful (usually) and very nice (again usually)" Rose said resting the Ood's head on her lap
"It's no use" the Doctor said "I can't find its heart, I don't even know if it has a heart"
"Donna talk to him" Rose said "keep him talking"
"Hi" Donna said nervously "I'm Donna, what's your name?"
"I'm designated Ood Delta 50" the Ood said
"You've been shot!" the Doctor exclaimed
"But how…?"
"The circle…" Delta 50 whispered
"No don't talk" the Doctor said
"The circle must be broken" Delta 50 whispered
"Circle what circle?" Rose asked
The Ood suddenly sat up his eyes blood red and he let out a strangled snarl. The Doctor got up and pulled Donna away while Rose threw herself back a few yards on the snow.
They couldn't save the Ood…again. It reminded Rose of the last time when they managed to save three people and themselves from the Beast but couldn't save the fifty or so Ood. As they walked towards the factory where the Ood seemed to be kept, Rose told Donna the story.
They snuck in on the tour under the guise of Noble Corporation and snuck round trying to find out what exactly is happening. They saw the Ood being whipped and it took both Rose and the Doctor to stop Donna from charging down to yell at the men.
The Doctor decided that he wanted to have a better look at the warehouses, and dragged Rose and Donna with him. He explained to them how the Ood would be packed into the giant shipping crates awaiting where they would be shipped off to. While the Doctor and Rose kept talking, Donna wandered off and walked into the crates. Suddenly she heard the door behind her slam shut and a snicker.
"Goddamn it!" she hissed running to the door and trying to open it
"Sorry red, but business is business" a male voice said
"WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE I'LL HUNT YOU DOWN AND SLAP YOU, YOU HERE ME SUNSHINE?" Donna shrieked through the door
She heard shuffling behind her. She turned to see four or five Ood shuffling towards her, their eyes blood red gleaming in the dark.
"The circle must be broken, the circle must be broken, the circle must be broken, the circle must be broken" they chanted as they carried walking towards her.
She let out a scream as she pressed her back against the door.
The Doctor and Rose then realised that Donna was missing, but before they could do anything about it, a giant claw lift started chasing them "RUN!" yelled the Doctor, taking Rose's hand and pulling her along.
They kept running a maze through the warehouse but finally the giant claw caught up with them, and so did the soldier like workers. As the were marched off to be interrogated, they heard Donna's voice coming out of one of the crates, so they pulled her out too, noticing that they Ood that were in the crate had red eye. As the soldiers started to shoot them, Rose, Donna and the Doctor were given the chance to escape.
When they got outside, they saw the tour guide and demanded she show them where the newborns were kept. Rose asked her to come with them, but she refused, shouting for the guards. When they got to it, the Doctor hit his head and said he should have listened to his ears, and Rose opened the door with her sonic pen, and when they got inside, the Doctor damaged the controls with his screwdriver.
"Now that you have a sonic device I can't let you have all the fun" he said.
Rose glared at him, "why not?" she demanded
"Because I need a little fun in life" the Doctor said
"Well buy a magazine" Donna snapped "we don't have time for this bloody argument"
"Did she just suggest that I should buy a…?" the Doctor asked bewildered
"Yes and if you follow up on that suggestion you will be sleeping on the couch for a long time, possibly a century" Rose said patting him on the back
They found them in a cage, they looked small and innocent and in their hands weren't the translators but a small little flesh like ball.
"Is that…?" Rose asked softly
"It is" the Doctor whispered in awe "that's their brain…they hold their brains in their hands…and those humans cut them out and stick in those translators"
"That's sick" Donna spat "sick and wrong"
"Their song" Rose whispered "their song is so beautiful"
"I wish I could hear it" Donna mumbled
"Do you?" Rose asked
"Rose don't you might overwhelm her" the Doctor hissed
"No I want to hear it" Donna said looking wide eyed "please let me hear it"
Rose pressed her hands on Donna's temples, Donna could feel Rose float in her head briefly saw flickers of gold that was purely Rose Tyler before Rose pulled away. And then she could hear it. It was one of the most beautiful things she ever heard and it was one of the saddest.
She felt tears fall down her cheeks and she looked over to the baby Ood and they looked over to her with their big eyes.
"Take it away" she whispered shivering "TAKE IT AWAY"
She felt Rose's hands on her temples and then the song disappeared from her. She fell back slightly and felt Rose hold her as she cried. The Doctor looked at the pair of them mournfully.
"You two hear that all the time?" Donna whispered
"Yes" the Doctor whispered back
They could hear someone marching in and the Doctor turned round to see the owner of the business and his goons. He pulled Donna and Rose behind him.
"What are you going to do? Arrest us? Lock us in a cage? Well I've been there, done that – HA!"
They ended up being handcuffed to the office wall.
"I hate you sometimes" Rose said under her breath
"Why don't you just come out and say it, photo activists" the man said sternly
"If that's what the friends of the Ood are then yes" the Doctor said
"The Ood are nothing without us" the man said "animals roaming on the ice"
"That's because you can't hear them" Rose shouted
"They welcome it" the man said smirking "it's not like they put up a fight"
"You idiot" Donna said wiping the mans smirk off "they're born with their brains in their hands, don't you see that makes them peaceful! They got to be if a creature like that trusts whoever it meets"
"Nice one" the Doctor muttered
"Thank you" Donna whispered
"This business has been running for two hundred years and now all we have got is a rouge batch, this infection is about to be sterilized" he then turned to talk through his wristwatch mentioning gas.
"You're going to gas them!" the Doctor snarled
"A classic solution from the old days, still works" Suddenly an alarm went off alerting everyone, "what the hell?"
The man then ran off leaving Rose, Donna and the Doctor handcuffed in his office. He strolled back in looking annoyed and the scientist behind him looked harassed.
"Change of plan" he said
"No report of it happening off sphere sir" the scientist said "it's still contained on Ood planet"
"Then we have a public duty"
"What's happened?" the Doctor asked
"Everything you wanted Doctor, no doubt there will be a police investigation once this place has been sterilized so I can't risk a bullet in the head" the man smiled slightly "I leave you to the mercy of the Ood"
"Mr Harpin, wait there's something else, am I right?" the Doctor said
"What do you mean?" Donna asked
"There's a third element" Rose said "something that makes everything works together, bit like a clock"
"There you two go again so clever" Harpin said beaming
"But it's got to be connected to the red eye, what is it?" the Doctor asked
Harpin walked up to him "it won't exist for very much longer" he hissed in the Doctor's face, he then looked at them all "enjoy your Ood"
He then strolled out with everyone following. Immeadiatly the three of them tugged at their handcuffs, trying to wiggle out of them. The Ood with gleaming red eyes walked in slowly.
"Err…DoctorDonna and Rose friends" the Doctor shouted
"The circle must be broken" Donna shouted
"He is awake!" Rose shouted helplessly
"Not helping Rose" the Doctor shouted at her
"Well you all taken the good ones" she snapped back
"DoctorDonna and Rose friends, the circle must be broken, DoctorDonna and Rose friends, the circle must be broken, DoctorDonna and Rose friends, the circle must be broken" it had become a messy chant shouted at the Ood from all three of them.
The Ood held their translators to their faces about to kill them when suddenly they froze. The light went out of the translator and the Ood's lowered their heads and shivered before standing up properly.
"Doctor, Donna and Rose friends" one said lightly
"Yes that's us, yes that's us OH YES!" the Doctor shouted excitedly
Rose gave a sigh of relief and Donna kept muttering "that's me"
The Ood let them out of their handcuffs and they immediately ran out of the office, they ducked and ran avoiding the bullets and explosions as the battle between human and Ood carried on. They followed Mr Harpin to a locked warehouse and then they saw it.
A large giant brain, the one that bonded the Ood together and there surrounding it a blue electronic circle. The Doctor babbled to Donna and Rose about the telepathic link, when Mr Harpin came in ranting about what business he could do and how he was going to destroy the brain.
The watched in disgust when the scientist tried to defend the brain only to be pushed over the railing by Mr Harpin and they watched in horror when he turned into an Ood, well the Doctor actually found it amusing but one glare from both Rose and Donna told him to be quiet.
"He is now Ood kind, we will take care of him" an Ood said
"This is all weird, I can't tell what's wrong or right anymore" Donna said
"Better that way" the Doctor said
"Far better, less confusion and makes things easier to do" Rose added
The beeping noise alerted them that the bombs were still in place. The Doctor and the Ood called Sigma stopped them and freed the brain, thus freeing the Ood.
Rose wrapped an arm round Donna's shoulder "come on we'll head home and have a nice cup of tea, yeah?"
They stood outside of the TARDIS and a group of Ood sang to them goodbye.
"We'll always remember you DoctorDonna and Rose, our songs shall tell the tale of how you saved us, would you like to stay and sing it with us?"
"Oh I got a song of my own" the Doctor said
"I think your song shall end soon" the Ood said
"Pardon?"
Rose's hand grabbed his tightly and he squeezed back just as tight.
"Well every song must end someday" the Ood said
"Yeah, well we're better heading off" the Doctor and Donna headed inside as the TARDIS, Rose not far behind when the Ood spoke again.
"Our children will learn the song of the DoctorDonna and Rose, and their children, and theirs, you shall never be forgotten. Just like your children of time shall never forget you"
Rose turned to face the Ood "what?"
"Come one Rose" the Doctor said tugging Rose into the TARDIS. She looked back at the Ood who merely blinked at her. She wasn't going to find anything else out about the children of time any time soon.