CHAPTER TWELVE - PLANET OF THE OOD: part 5

                                    

                                          
❯ better a witty fool than a foolish wit.
– twelfth night, William Shakespeare
                          
[FARREN]
                          
After their shared moment of silence, the Doctor handled his sonic once more to manipulate the lock open. The hum of the screwdriver was interrupted by a hard slamming noise.
                          
Farren looked behind her "They're breaking in."
                          
"Ah, let them." The Doctor huffed, unthreatened and more focused on the Ood as he moved to crouch before them, Farren and Donna doing the same. "What are you holding? Show me." His tone was soft and the teenager squeezed to fall beside him, wringing her mitten-clad hands nervously before speaking.
                          
"Friends." She tried, hoping it wouldn't backfire "Farren, Doctor, Donna. Friends."
                          
"Let me see. Look at me. Let me see." The Doctor willed gently and one of the Ood shuffled a little on his feet as he moved his connected palms towards the three. "That's it. That's it, go on. Go on."
                          
As the Ood held his enclosed palms higher, Farren held her breath instinctively. Though nothing could have prepared her for the sight- his gloved palms moved away to expose the small organ resting in his delicate hands.
                          
"Oh," She exhaled and Donna almost choked.
                          
"Is that-?"
                          
"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."
                          
"So, you get rid of that and you wouldn't be like- normal anymore . . . you'd be like an Ood?" Farren stared at the pink brain connected to the Ood with a long white cord, it wasn't hard to figure out.
                          
"A processed Ood."
                          
"So, the company cuts off their brains?" Donna furiously came to her own conclusion and it was a sickening thought, her jaw set harshly as her lips coiled wrathfully.
                          
"And they stitch on the translator." The Doctor was just as angry, if not more, than Donna. 
                          
"Like a lobotomy," Farren's voice wavered and the Ood that had presented his brain, tilted his head.
                          
"I spent all that time looking for you, Doctor, because I thought it was so wonderful out here." Donna tried to steady her breathing, feeling like she would burst into heavy sobs any moment and the Doctor looked ahead, "I want to go home."
                          
Farren blinked- she was shocked, yes, but she understood. It was even horribly overwhelming for her. You travelled to leave the horror, the boredom, the sadness- not to meet its competition. She gently placed her hand on Donna's and stayed silent as the red head gripped it tightly.
                          
A loud crash interrupted- the door had been successfully thrown down.
                          
"They're with the Ood, sir!"
                          
The Doctor didn't have time to properly react to Donna's words, instead, he slammed the cage door shut and stuck his head through the bars.
                          
Farren, thinking fast, moved to the back of the iron cage and crouch similarly to the Ood- moving her index to her lips at the creatures as she warped to the familiar squid-looking creatures.
                          
"What are you going to do then? Arrest me? Lock me up? Throw me in a cage? Well, you're too late. Ha!" Though his feverish mad-mans expression was useless since the guards just yanked the cage door open and pulled he and Donna out. 
                          
It was then that he'd noticed Farren's absence.
                          
"Farren?" He tried struggling against the guard's grip on his arms but it didn't work.