The minute Jessie walked back into the console room, tying her hair in a ponytail, Donna was babbling away. "I'm sorry!" she cried, giving her a tight hug, stopping Jessie dead, her hands freezing where they were messing with her hair. "I had no idea, I really didn't!"
Jessie looked over her shoulder to the Doctor. "What did you do to Donna?"
"This is all her," he promised.
"I know now, about these fixed points, even if I don't like them," Donna kept rambling, and Jessie giggled a little, fixing her hair and hugging Donna back. "I'm sorry, and I won't do it again, and I really hope you don't kick me off - "
"Who said anything about kicking you off?" Jessie asked, looking back at the Doctor.
"I was a little overprotective the other night," he said sheepishly.
"A little?" Donna huffed, pulling away. "He was just like he was with that red spider lady thing, only worse."
"Racnoss," Jessie corrected, but smiled. "No one's kicking you off, Donna."
Donna beamed at that. "Thank you."
"Ready for the next trip?" the Doctor asked with a smile.
"Always."
"Hang on!" Jessie shrieked and quickly clung onto the railing as the TARDIS began jerking, the Doctor messing with the console. The TARDIS calmed after a moment, and he grinned at them. "Set the controls at random. Mystery tour!" He pointed. "Outside that door could be any planet, anywhere, any when in the whole wide uni - " He cut off, seeing the look on Donna's face. "Are you all right?"
"Terrified," Donna replied with a grin. "I mean, history's one thing, but an alien planet?"
"We could always 'kick you off,'" Jessie joked, making air quotes.
"Oh, don't laugh at me," Donna groaned.
"We know what it's like," Jessie told her, slipping on her trench coat. "Everything you're feeling right now. The fear, the joy, the wonder? I get that."
"Seriously?" Donna asked, eyes wide. "After all this time?"
"Yeah," Jessie replied, grinning widely. "Why do you think I stayed all this time and married this idiot?"
"Oi!" the Doctor shouted.
"Oh, you know I love you," she told him with a wink.
"This is barmy," Donna said, grinning and practically bouncing with excitement. "I was born in Chiswick! I've only ever had package holidays. Now I'm here! This is so . . . I mean, it's . . . I don't know, it's all sort of . . . I don't even know what the word is!"
She ran for the doors, and Jessie took off behind her, and she grinned, bursting out laughing when she realized they were in the middle of a snowstorm. "I've got a word for you, Donna," she joked. "How about freezing?"
"Snow!" the Doctor cheered, coming out behind them. "Oh, real snow! Proper snow at last! That's more like it! Lovely!" He grinned at Jessie. "After the Sycorax, the Racnoss, and the Titanic, we finally get real snow!" He turned to Donna. "What do you think?"
"Bit cold," Donna replied, looking down at her short sleeved shirt.
"Look at the view!" the Doctor added, gesturing to the winter-like wonderland.
"Yep," Donna agreed. "Beautiful, cold view."
Jessie chuckled, tugging Donna's arm as the Doctor began to ramble. "Come on," she told her, ducking back inside the TARDIS. "This coat's gonna get me nowhere." She tossed her trench coat up into a coral beam. "Can we get a few winter coats?" she mentally asked the TARDIS.
The TARDIS hummed, and over the railing, two furry coats appeared, one dark brown, the other a white gold. Jessie smiled at the rotor, patting it happily before handing Donna the brown one. "That better?"
"Much," Donna replied as they headed back outside.
The Doctor was obviously looking around for them before quirking an eyebrow as they stepped out in their coats. "Sorry," Donna apologized. "You were saying?"
"Better?" he asked.
"Much," Jessie said, repeating what Donna had just said, making the two women grin at each other.
"Lovely, thanks," Donna agreed.
"Comfy?"
"Yep."
"Can you hear anything inside that?"
Donna tilted her head, her hood up. "Pardon?" she asked jokingly.
Jessie laughed. "All right," the Doctor said, turning back around. "I was saying, citizen of the Earth - "
A rocket roared overhead, passing by slowly, and Jessie whistled. "You really do get interrupted at the most interesting times," she noted.
"Rocket," Donna said in shock. "Blimey, a real proper rocket! Now that's what I call a spaceship. You've got a box, he's got a Ferrari." Jessie burst out laughing at his offended face. "Come on! Let's see where he's going!"
"Ferrari?" the Doctor asked as they walked away from the TARDIS.
Jessie patted his arm. "I love it," she assured him.
As they walked, she heard a faint singing in the back of her head, and she stopped dead. "What?" she whispered, feeling heartbroken at how . . . sad it sounded. "Doctor?"
"Hold on," the Doctor replied, putting a hand on her arm and waving at Donna. "Donna, take your hood down."
She did. "What?" she asked.
"That noise is like a song," the Doctor muttered before pointing. "Over there!"
Jessie saw what he had: one of the Ood, like from Kroptor, lying in the snow. "Oh, no," she whispered, running over.
"What is it?" Donna asked as they bent down.
"An Ood," the Doctor replied, starting to look him over. "He's called an Ood."
"But its face - "
"Donna, don't," Jessie told her. "Not now. It's a he, not an it." She started brushing the snow off of his body. Give me a hand here."
"Sorry," she apologized, helping her move the Ood.
"I don't know where the heart is," the Doctor muttered, checking the Ood's chest, stethoscope out. "I don't know if he's got a heart. Talk to him, keep him going."
"It's all right," Jessie soothed, stroking the side of the Ood's face. "We've got you now. What's your name, love?"
"Designated Ood Delta 50," the Ood replied.
Donna took the ball. "My name's Donna," she said into it.
"You don't need that," Jessie told her.
"Sorry," she apologized again before chuckling. "Oh, God. This is the Doctor. Just what you need, a doctor. Couldn't have been better, hey?"
"You've been shot," the Doctor realized, showing them the wound.
"The circle," Delta 50 began.
"No, don't try to talk," Donna told it.
"The circle must be broken."
"Circle?" the Doctor asked, looking at it. "What do you mean? Delta 50, what circle? Delta 50? What circle?"
The Ood shot up, roaring, his eyes red, and Jessie let out a startled scream, jerking backwards and into the Doctor's arms, before the Ood slumped backwards, dead. Donna sniffed, checking him. "He's gone," she whispered.
"Careful," he told her.
"There you are, sweetheart," Donna soothed, brushing some snow off of him. "We were too late. What do we do? Do we bury him?"
"The snow'll take care of that," Jessie replied softly.
"Who was he?" Donna asked. "What's an Ood?"
"They're servants of humans in the 42nd century," the Doctor replied. "Mildly telepathic. That was the song. It was his mind calling out."
"I couldn't hear anything," Donna commented. "He sang as he was dying."
"His eyes turned red," Jessie added.
"What's that mean?"
"Trouble," the Doctor replied, standing and pulling Jessie with him. "Come on." They started walking off, and Donna slipped her arm through Jessie's, making the blonde smile at the ginger. "The Ood are harmless. They're completely benign. Except the last time we met them, there was this force, like a stronger mind, powerful enough to take them over."
"What sort of force?" Donna asked.
"Oh, long story," the Doctor brushed off.
"Long walk."
"It was the Devil," Jessie interrupted.
Donna stared at her. "If you're going to take the mickey, I'll just put my hood back up."
"No, it was really the Devil," Jessie insisted. "Trust me, I had nightmares of that thing for months. It predicted my death."
"Was it right?" Donna asked.
She swallowed. "Yeah."
Donna stared at her, and the Doctor cleared his throat. "Must be something different this time, though," he said, and Donna gave Jessie a one-armed hug as they kept walking. "Something closer to home." They stopped when they saw a building nearby. "Aha! Civilization!"
***
"My name's Solana, Head of Marketing," a dark-skinned woman said as the Doctor, Jessie, and Donna pushed through a crowd of people to get to the front. "I'm sure we've all spoken on the vidfone. Now, if you'd like to follow me - "
"Sorry, sorry, sorry," the Doctor apologized as they pushed through. "Don't mind us. Hello!" he told Solana brightly. "The guards let us through."
"And who would you be?" Solana asked.
"The Doctor, the Bad Wolf, and Donna Noble," the Doctor replied.
"Representing the Noble Corporation PLC Limited, Intergalactic," Donna added.
"Nice," Jessie praised her.
"Must have fallen off my list," Solana told them smoothly. "My apologies. Won't happen again. Now, then, Bad Wolf, Doctor Noble, Mrs. Noble, if you'd like to come with me - "
"Oh, no, no, no, no," the Doctor said hurriedly, pointing at Donna. "We're not married."
"We're so not married," Donna agreed.
"Never."
"Never ever."
"She's my wife," the Doctor told her, pulling Jessie to his side, showing the rings they wore on their left hands, Jessie having gotten the Doctor a simple golden band, but with the inscribed word 'run' in Gallifreyan on the inside.
"Of course," Solana brushed off. "And here are your information packs, vouchers inside." Donna took them as Solana led them towards the doors. "Now, if you'd like to come with me. The Executive Suites are nice and warm."
Jessie looked up as an alarm began to wail. "Oh, what's that?" she asked. "Some sort of alarm?"
"Oh, it's just a siren for the end of the work shift," Solana replied breezily. "Now, then, this way, quick as you can."
Jessie eyed Solana as they slipped inside. "That was no end of work shift siren," she told the Doctor as they walked down the hall.
"No, it wasn't," he agreed as they kept moving.
***
"As you can see," Solana told the buyers around them as Jessie observed her presenting a few Ood. "The Ood are happy to serve, and we keep them in facilities of the highest standard. Here at the Double O - that's Ood Operations - we like to think of the Ood as our trusted friends."
Jessie crinkled her eyebrows as she took a glass of champagne an Ood offered her before blinking and staring at it. She and the Doctor exchanged glances before looking at their drinks, grimacing and tipping their heads back to drink. Jessie gagged, putting a hand over her mouth to swallow. The Doctor wasn't very lucky, and he quickly turned to spit his drink back in. Both of them simultaneously set their drinks down on a table nearby, Donna sniggering at them. "No champagne," Jessie put through their link.
"No alcohol whatsoever," the Doctor said with a passion.
"I can live with that."
"We keep the Ood healthy, safe, and educated," Solana continued. "We don't just breed the Ood. We make them better. Because at heart, what is an Ood but a reflection of us? If your Ood is happy, then you'll be happy, too."
"Is it just me, or was that a little fake?" the Doctor asked.
"Oh, I think that's fake," Jessie confirmed.
"I'd now like to point out a new innovation from Ood Operations. We've introduced a variety package with the Ood translator ball. You can now have the standard setting." She approached the first Ood. "How are you today, Ood?"
"I'm perfectly well, thank you," he replied.
"Or perhaps after a stressful day, a little something for the gentlemen." She stopped in front of the next one. "And how are you, Ood?"
"All the better for seeing you," the Ood said in a feminine voice.
"And the comedy classic option." She stopped next to the final Ood. "Ood, you dropped something."
"D'oh!" the Ood said, and Jessie's eyebrows shot up as she looked around at the others, who were laughing.
"All that for only five additional credits," Solana announced. "The details are in your brochures. Now, there's plenty more food and drink, so don't hold back."
The Doctor watched her leave before he went to her podium and began tapping at the computer controls. "Ah! Got it!" he said happily, and the big screen lit up, showing their location. "The Ood Sphere. I've been to this solar system before. Years ago. Ages. Close to the planet Sense Sphere. Let's widen out . . . " The diagrams expanded. "The year 4126," he explained. "That is the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire."
"4126?" Donna repeated. "It's 4126. I'm in 4126."
"It's good, isn't it?" Jessie asked with a grin.
"What's the Earth like now?" Donna asked the Doctor.
"Bit full," he replied. "But you see? The Empire stretches out across three galaxies."
"It's weird," Donna commented. "I mean, it's brilliant, but . . . back home, the papers and the telly, they keep saying we haven't got long to live. Global warming, flooding, all the bees disappearing - "
"What is it about the bees disappearing?" Jessie asked.
"Yeah, that thing about the bees is odd," the Doctor agreed.
"But look at us!" Donna exclaimed, looking at the screen. "We're everywhere! Is that good or bad, though? I mean, are we like explorers? Or more like a virus?"
"Sometimes I wonder."
"What are the red dots?"
"Ood distribution centers."
"Across three galaxies? don't the Ood get a say in this?" Donna looked around before going over to an Ood. "Er, sorry, but . . . " She gently tapped his arm, and he turned to her. "Hello," she greeted. "Tell me, are you all like this?"
"I do not understand, miss," the Ood replied.
"Why do you say miss?" Donna asked sharply. "Do I look single?"
"Point, Donna?" Jessie cut in.
"Yeah," Donna agreed, turning back. "What I mean is, are there any free Ood? Are there Ood running wild somewhere, like wildebeest?"
"All Ood are born to serve," the Ood replied. "Otherwise, we would die."
"But you can't have started like that! Before the humans, what were you like?"
"The circle."
The Doctor perked up. "What do you mean?" he asked, leaning forward. "What circle?"
"The circle," the Ood replied. "The circle is - "
"Ladies and gentlemen!" Solana called as she entered. "All Ood to hospitality stations, please!"
"Always in mid-sentence," Jessie whined.
The Doctor rubbed his hands together. "I've had enough of the schmoozing," he decided. "Do you fancy going off the beaten track?"
Donna looked at the map he held up. "Rough guide to the Ood Sphere?" She smirked. "Works for me."
"Yep," Jessie replied simply, and they grinned, heading out of the room.
***
The Doctor sonicked open a gate outside, and Jessie stepped out onto a catwalk above the complex. She watched the Ood be marched out of a facility. "Ood shift eight now commencing," an announcer said. "Repeat, Ood shift eight now commencing."
Jessie watched one of them stumble and fall down, and one guard went over to it angrily. "Get up!" he ordered. "I said get up!" Jessie gasped and looked away when it cracked a whip over the Ood.
"Servants?" Donna asked in horror. "They're slaves!"
"Get up!" the guard continued to shout. "March!"
"Last time we met the Ood, I never thought," the Doctor whispered, hugging Jessie tightly. "I never asked."
"That's not like you," Donna noticed.
"He was a bit busy," Jessie mumbled.
"We both were," the Doctor agreed. "So busy we couldn't save them. I had to let the Ood die. I reckon I owe them one."
"Agreed."
Donna nodded as two men entered, one of them dressed rather spiffy. "That looks like the boss," she observed.
"Let's keep out of his way," the Doctor advised. "Come on." They headed back through the gate.
***
Jessie was investigating and looking around in the complex when there was a sharp whistle behind her. She jumped, spinning around to see Donna smirking at them. The Doctor blinked at her. "Where'd you learn to whistle?" he asked in surprise.
"West Ham, every Saturday," she replied with a smirk.
Jessie sonicked the door open, and they looked around at the shipping containers inside. "Ood export," the Doctor mused. "You see? Lifts up the containers, takes them to the rocket sheds, ready to be flown out all over the three galaxies."
"What?" Donna gasped. "You mean, these containers are full of - ?"
"What do you think?" Jessie asked gently.
They opened one container, and Jessie's jaw dropped open at all of the Ood packed inside. "Oh, no," she breathed.
"Oh, it stinks," Donna commented, wrinkling her nose before looking in the container. "How many of them do you think there are in each one?"
"Hundred?" the Doctor guessed. "More?"
"A great big empire built on slavery," Donna spat.
"It's not so different from your time," the Doctor retorted.
"Oh, don't go there, please," Jessie sighed, reaching out and putting a finger first on her husband's lips, then on Donna's mouth, which had begun to open. "Really, ple - AGH!" She pulled away from the Doctor's mouth, playfully glaring him when he gave her a saucy smirk. "What the hell did you lick my finger for?!"
"It was in the way," he said innocently.
Donna chuckled. "Don't try it on her, Spaceman," she warned. "You can go back to that later." Jessie blushed, but the Doctor just chuckled, and Donna turned back to the Ood. "I don't understand. The door is open. Why don't you just run away?"
One of the Ood answered her. "For what reason?"
"You could be free!"
"I do not understand the concept."
"What is it with that Persil ball?" Donna wondered, examining it. "I mean, they're not born with it, are they? Why do they have to be all plugged in?"
"Ood, tell me," the Doctor ordered. "Does the circle mean anything to you?"
"The circle must be broken," each of the Ood chorused in unison.
"Whoa," Jessie commented.
"Oh, that is creepy," Donna agreed, taking a small step back.
"But what is it?" the Doctor asked. "What is the circle?"
"The circle must be broken."
"Why?"
"So that we can sing."
Jessie opened her mouth, but an alarm blared overhead. She looked up. "That'll be us," she said casually before grinning widely. "Run, Donna, run!"
The three of them took off, the Doctor and Jessie going up ahead when Jessie realized Donna had stopped following them. She frowned, turning. "Where've you gone?" she asked.
"Donna?" the Doctor asked, turning and looking around. "Where are you?"
There was a sound overhead, and Jessie's jaw dropped when she saw a huge claw hovering over them. "Holy shit," she managed to say before grabbing his hand. "We've gotta go!"
They took off running through the shipping containers, trying to avoid the claw at all costs. Jessie managed to phase them through a few close hits, but one hit got them head on. The Doctor tackled Jessie to the ground, landing on top of her, the claw about to close down on them when it suddenly stopped. Jessie let her head sag back onto the floor, chest heaving, even with her bypass working. "Good God," she gasped out. "Why's it always us?"
The Doctor chuckled darkly. "I don't know, but the position we're in?"
Jessie realized how he had landed right between her legs, and she blushed and swatted at him. "Like Donna said, wait until later."
He smirked at her, holding out his hand, and he pulled her up when there was the cock of guns all around them. Jessie looked around to see rifles pointed at them by guards, and she raised her eyebrows. "Point those somewhere else!"
***
"Doctor!" Donna shouted from inside of an Ood container as they were led that way. "Bad Wolf! Get me out of here!"
"I'd do as she says," Jessie said cheerfully.
"If you don't do what she says, you're really in trouble," the Doctor agreed. "Not from me. From her."
The sergeant eyed him before nodding at the guards. "Open the container."
Donna ran out instantly. "Doctor! Bad Wolf!"
"There we go," the Doctor said happily as she hugged Jessie. "Safe and sound."
"Never mind about me," Donna replied, turning to look behind her. "What about them?"
A guard screamed, and a red-eyed Ood removed its translator ball from his head. "Red alert!" the sergeant shouted. "Fire! Shoot to kill!"
The Doctor grabbed Jessie's hand, and they ran out the doors outside, Donna and that Solana woman following. "If people back on Earth knew what was going on here," Donna began.
"Oh, don't be stupid," Solana snorted. "Of course they know!"
"They know how you treat the Ood?"
"They don't ask. Same thing."
Jessie stared at her, open-mouthed, when the Doctor spoke up. "Solana, the Ood aren't born like this. They can't be. A species born to serve could never evolve in the first place. What does the company do to make them obey?"
"That's nothing to do with me."
"Oh? What, because you don't ask?"
"That's Doctor Ryder's territory."
"Where's he? What part of the complex? I could help with the red eye." Solana eyed him warily as he held out a map to her. "Show me."
Solana pointed reluctantly. "There," she replied. "Beyond the rest section."
"Come with me," the Doctor offered. "You've seen the warehouse. You can't agree with all this. You know this place better than us. You could help."
Solana eyed them again before shouting over her shoulder, "They're over here! Guards! They're over here!"
"Of course not!" Jessie growled, swatting her husband in the arm before they took off running.
***
"This way," the Doctor pointed, when Jessie's eyes widened and she heard a familiar melody.
"Doctor," she whispered, tugging on his arm. "Listen."
He paused and did, and his eyes softened. "Oh, I can hear it," he murmured as they headed for a door. "We didn't need the map. We should have listened."
When they were inside, Donna looked around in confusion as the Doctor sonicked the door shut. "Hold on, does that mean we're locked in?" she asked.
"Listen," the Doctor told her, holding up a finger. "Listen, listen, listen, listen."
Jessie sniffed, bringing her hands up to her ears. "My head," she whimpered.
"What is it?" Donna asked, looking around.
"Can't you hear it?" Jessie asked. "The singing?"
She slowly approached a cage of Ood, and they turned away as they came closer. "They look different than the others," Donna observed.
"That's because they're natural born Ood, unprocessed, before they're adapted to slavery," the Doctor explained. "Unspoiled. That's their song."
"I can't hear it," Donna said.
The Doctor turned. "Do you want to?"
"Yeah."
"It's the song of captivity."
"Let me hear it."
He took a deep breath. "Face me." Donna did, and the Doctor took her face in his hands, closing his eyes. "Open your mind," he whispered. "That's it. Hear it, Donna. Hear the music."
Jessie watched Donna's eyes slowly widen, and tears well up in them. "Take it away," Donna whispered.
"Sure?"
"I can't bear it." The Doctor nodded and released her head, and Donna sniffed, tears falling down her face. "I'm sorry."
"It's OK," he assured her.
"But you can still hear it?"
"All the time," Jessie replied hoarsely.
She fumbled for her sonic screwdriver and held it at the cage door. Donna took a look behind them when there was an noise from the door. "They're breaking in," she noted.
"Ah, let them," the Doctor spat.
Jessie entered the cage, and the Ood backed away from her. "What are you holding?" she asked softly, holding out a hand. "Can you show me? It's all right. I'm a friend. Doctor, Donna, Bad Wolf. We're friends. Let me see." One of the Ood slowly inched towards her. "Look at me. Let me see." She smiled encouragingly at him. "That's it. That's it. Go on. Go on."
He opened up his hands, and Donna gasped at what was held inside, as she and the Doctor climbed in. "Is that?" she breathed.
"It's a brain," Jessie realized, choking back bile. "A hind brain!"
"The Ood are born with a secondary brain," the Doctor explained, anger growing in his voice. "Like the amygdala in humans, it processes memory and emotions. You get rid of that, you wouldn't be Donna anymore. You'd be like an Ood. A processed Ood."
"So the company cuts off their brains?" Donna asked.
"And they stitch on the translator," Jessie choked out.
"Like a lobotomy," Donna realized, eyes widening in horror. "I spent all that time looking for the two of you, Doctor, Bad Wolf, because I thought it was so wonderful out there." She hesitated. "I want to go home."
Jessie looked at her, eyes wide, when the door banged open. "They're with the Ood, sir!" one of the guards said.
The Doctor quickly locked the cage door. "What you going to do, then?" he taunted as they ran in. "Arrest us? Lock us up? Throw us in a cage? Well, you're too late. Ha!"
***
"You really need to know when to keep your mouth shut, dear," Jessie grumbled as she jerked against the handcuffs she was attached to, keeping her pressed up against the Doctor.
"I've got a gob. I can't help it!"
"Well, you can help it by keeping some things to yourself!"
"Why don't you just come out and say it?" the boss, Mr. Halpen, asked them. "FOTO activists."
"If that's what Friends Of The Ood are trying to prove, then yes," the Doctor replied.
"The Ood are nothing without us, just animals roaming around on the ice."
"That's because you can't hear them!" Jessie shouted.
"They welcomed it," Halpen retorted. "It's not as if they put up a fight."
"You idiot," Donna snarled at him. "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!"
"Nice one," Jessie praised her.
She preened. "Thank you."
"The system's worked for two hundred years," Halpen told them. "All we've got is a rogue batch. But the infection is about to be sterilized." He reached for his wrist communicator. "Mr. Kess, how do we stand?"
"Canisters primed, sir," the sergeant replied, and Jessie's eyes widened in horror. "As soon as the core heats up, the gas is released. Give it two hundred marks and counting."
"You're going to gas them?" she squeaked.
"Kill the livestock," Halpen replied. "The classic foot and mouth solution from the olden days. Still works." An alarm went off overhead, and he frowned, looking up. "What the hell?" he asked as he went outside.
"Emergency status. Emergency status. All exits sealed. All Ood declared hostile. Ood distribution center now - "
Something exploded, and Jessie winced, turning as best as she could to lean into the Doctor. "Change of plan," Halpen said as he entered the office again.
"There are no reports of trouble off-world, sir," the doctor with him, most likely Ryder, reported. "It's still contained to the Ood Sphere."
"Then we've go a public duty to stop it before it spreads."
"What's happening?" the Doctor asked.
"Everything you wanted, Doctor," Halpen replied. "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."
"But Mr. Halpen!" Jessie blurted out as he turned to go. "There's something else, isn't there? Something we haven't seen?"
"What do you mean?" Donna asked.
"A creature couldn't survive with a separate forebrain and hindbrain. They'd be at war with themselves," the Doctor replied. "There's got to be something else. A third element." He eyed Halpen. "Am I right?"
"And again, so clever," Halpen commented.
"But it's got to be connected to the red eye," the Doctor told him. "What is it?"
"It won't exist for very much longer. Enjoy your Ood."
"Come on," Jessie muttered, wrenching at her handcuffs.
"Sweetheart? Your phasing?"
She stopped before banging her head against the pole. "I'm an idiot," she decided before concentrating, and her cuffs fell off of her wrists. She pulled her sonic out of her boot and started to work on the Doctor's when a bunch of Ood came in.
"Doctor, Donna, Bad Wolf, friends!" the Doctor called to them.
"The circle must be broken!" Donna called out.
They both kept chanting as Jessie furiously worked on the cuffs, when the Ood stopped literally centimeters from them. "Doctor. Donna. Bad Wolf," one of them said. "Friends."
"Yes!" Donna cheered. "That's us!"
"Oh, yes!" the Doctor cried.
***
"I don't know where it is!" the Doctor exclaimed as they ran outside through the fight with the Ood and the guards. "I don't know where they've gone!"
"What are we looking for?" Donna asked.
"It might be underground, like some sort of cave, or a cavern, or - "
"DOWN!" Jessie screamed.
The three of them dropped to the ground, responding instantly, as an explosion went off behind them, and they felt the wave of heat at their backs. "All right?" the Doctor asked them.
Jessie sat up, looking behind them in awe. "Doctor," she breathed.
The Doctor twisted, and his eyes widened when he saw Halpen's personal Ood standing behind them, looking at them expectantly, calm, not attacking . . . and without the red eye.
***
The Doctor sonicked the door to Warehouse Fifteen open, and he, Jessie, Donna, and the Ood entered. Jessie poked her head over the railing on the catwalk and gasped. "Oh my God," she breathed.
"The Ood Brain," the Doctor agreed, looking down at the large brain. "Now it all makes sense! That's the missing link. The third element, binding them together. Forebrain, hindbrain, and this, the telepathic center. It's a shared mind, connecting all the Ood in song."
"Cargo." They quickly turned to see Halpen and Ryder emerge from the other end, and Jessie quickly moved Donna behind her as the Doctor stepped in front of Jessie. "I can always go into cargo. I've got the rockets, I've got the sheds. Smaller business. Much more manageable, without livestock."
"He's mined the area," Ryder told them.
Donna gasped, looking around at the devices locked on the catwalk. "You're going to kill it?" she asked.
"They found that thing centuries ago beneath the Northern Glacier," Halpen told them.
"The pylons are in the shape of a circle," Jessie observed, suddenly getting it.
"The circle must be broken," Donna quoted.
"Dampening the telepathic field," the Doctor growled. "Stopping the Ood from connecting for two hundred years!"
"And you, Ood Sigma," Halpen added, looking at the Ood next to them, "you brought them here! I expected better."
"My place is at your side, sir," Sigma said pleasantly, moving next to him.
"Still subservient," Halpen commented. "Good Ood."
"If that barrier thing's in place, how come the Ood started breaking out?" Donna asked.
"Maybe it's taken centuries to adapt," the Doctor suggested. "The subconscious reaching out?"
"But the process was too slow," Ryder said. "It had to be accelerated." He turned to Halpen. "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 agreed. "Yes, you did." And he promptly grabbed Ryder and tossed him over the catwalk.
Jessie ran forward to try and get to him when Halpen grabbed her and yanked her right to the front of his chest, startling her, and she felt the cold muzzle of a gun against her forehead. The Doctor's face instantly went from worry to fury as he pulled Donna behind him. "Can't say I ever shot anyone before," Halpen commented, keeping a tight grip on Jessie as the Doctor took a small step forward, his eyes darkening nearly to black. "Can't say I'm going to like it. But it's not exactly a normal day, is it? Still."
"Put the gun down, and let my wife go," the Doctor growled.
"I don't think so," Halpen replied, and the click of the safety was removed.
Sigma stepped forward, holding out a small cup. "Would you like a drink, sir?" he asked.
"I think hair loss is the least of my problems right now, thanks," Halpen retorted.
"Please have a drink, sir," Sigma insisted, stepping closer.
Halpen took a step back, pulling Jessie with him, and the Doctor and Donna stepped forward as well. "If you're going to stand in their way, I'll shoot you after I shoot her, too," he warned.
"Please have a drink, sir," Sigma repeated.
And Halpen began to shudder, and Jessie cringed. "Have . . . have you poisoned me?" he asked.
"Natural Ood must never kill, sir," Sigma replied.
"What is that stuff?" the Doctor asked.
"Ood graft suspended in a biological compound, sir," Sigma answered.
"Oh, dear," the Doctor sighed, but he had a bright look on his face.
"Tell me!" Halpen ordered, jabbing the gun into Jessie's head.
The Doctor's face darkened again. "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 coming along?" Jessie rasped.
Halpen's eyes widened as he reached up and pulled hair from his head, and he stared at Sigma in horror. "What have you done?" he demanded.
"Oh, they've been preparing you for a very long time," the Doctor replied. "And now you're standing next to the Ood Brain. Mr. Halpen, can you hear it? Listen."
"What have you done?" Halpen asked as he kept twitching. "I'm not - "
He dropped the gun and removed his arm from around Jessie's throat, and she sprinted towards the Doctor, who wrapped her in one arm and pulled her tight to him as they watched Halpen pull the skin from his head off, and tentacles come out of his mouth. "They turned him into an Ood?" Donna asked.
"Yep," the Doctor confirmed.
"He's an Ood."
"So we noticed," Jessie managed to say.
Halpen sneezed, and she snorted as a hindbrain flopped into his hands. "He has become Oodkind, and we will take care of him," Sigma promised.
"It's weird, being with you," Donna commented. "I can't tell what's right and what's wrong any more."
"It's better that way," Jessie told her. "People who know for certain tend to be like Halpen." The pylons beeped, and she blinked. "Oh!" She ran over and quickly shut them down. "That's better."
The Doctor turned to Sigma. "And now . . . Sigma, would you allow me the honor?"
Sigma bowed. "It is yours, Doctor."
"Oh, yes!" the Doctor cheered, heading to the control panel. "Stifled for two hundred years, but not any more! The circle is broken!" He flipped a switch. "The Ood can sing!"
The field around the brain shut off, and the song of the Ood rang through Jessie's head, strong, true, and happy. Jessie cheered, doing a small dance with Donna. "I can hear it!" Donna called, laughing.
***
"The message has gone out," the Doctor told Ood Sigma later as they stood in front of the TARDIS, a semicircle of Ood surrounding them. "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 Wolf, friends of Oodkind," Sigma told them. "And what of you now? Will you stay? There is room in the song for you."
"Oh, I've . . . I've got a song of my own, thanks," the Doctor replied, waving his hand.
"I think your songs must end soon."
Jessie blinked. "Meaning?" the Doctor asked.
"Every song must end."
Jessie blanched, and the Doctor squeezed her hand. "Yeah," he said slowly. "Er . . . what about you?" he asked, turning to Donna, trying to avoid that topic. "You still want to go home?"
"No," Donna replied firmly. "Definitely not."
The Doctor nodded, turning back to the Ood. "Then we'll be off."
"Take this song with you," Sigma replied.
"Always," Jessie promised.
"And know this, Doctor Donna Wolf. You will never be forgotten. Our children will sing of the generation of the DoctorDonnaWolf, and our children's children, and the wind and the ice and the snow will carry your name forever."
Jessie looked at him oddly before bowing and heading for the TARDIS. She unlocked the doors, and they stepped inside, and the Doctor headed to the console, sending into space as she looked at the doors oddly. She was pretty sure she'd said she was Bad Wolf, not just Wolf.
And why did Sigma string their names together? What did the generation of the DoctorDonnaWolf mean?
***
Yes, what does that mean? I can give you this hint: "Journey's End" is a fix it for our ginger. ;) And can I tell you, I feel so bad for Jessie and the Doctor in that episode. :(
So, what do you think of this? I hope this came across well. And I had fun with that champagne scene. ;) That was funny. I might include more stuff like that in the future, just for a little comic relief. But I'll get back to using the Doctor and Jessie's telepathy link more often.
We'll get an interlude next, and then comes . . . "The Sontaran Stratagem"/"The Poison Sky!" That is going to be fun, because we'll also get one of the Avengers making an appearance . . . Steve! :D Keep an eye out!