OSWIN OSWALD, TIME'S GUARDIAN

CHAPTER 1

I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this.

This story takes place at the same time as my other titles do and is concurrent with them. The first 60 chapters of War of the Guardians should be read first of course if you want to know the back story of Marissa aka the Rani.

"YOU WILL SURRENDER TO THE DALEKS, OR YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!" a Dalek said as it cornered 20 year old Molly Hunter in an alley. She had been running for almost an hour now since the Daleks had shown up out of nowhere and had started attacking her entire hometown of Collinstown, a small town in the middle of Kansas. She couldn't run from them anymore. She knew that this was it. She was about to be shot down just like all of the others that she had seen the Daleks kill that day.

Molly closed her eyes and waited for the lethal shot to come. She heard a loud noise and jumped as something exploded nearby. She hadn't been hit herself but obviously something else had been. She dared to open her eyes to see what had happened and saw a beautiful brunette woman standing next to a smoking Dalek with the top of its casing now missing. The woman was smiling at her with a huge grin, and her gauntleted hands were momentarily glowing with energy which then quickly faded away.

"You don't have to worry about that Dalek. It won't be bothering anyone anymore. My new gauntlets are working out pretty well if I do so say myself. They easily pack the same punch as a Dalek gun stick does if not more so," the woman said with a proud look on her face.

Molly started to shake now as the events of the day finally caught up to her. She had been witness to so much death and destruction and had constantly been afraid of dying the entire time since the Daleks had arrived. She started to break down as she slumped against the wall and sat down on the ground hard.

"I'm so sorry. I'm so used to doing this kind of thing every day now that I've forgotten what it's like to experience it for the first time. I shouldn't have been making light of what's happened here today," the woman said with a sympathetic look on her face.

She walked up to Molly and sat down next to her. Molly continued to shake out of control as the woman put a comforting arm around her.

"You're alright now. The Daleks are all dead. I've made sure of that," the woman said in a gentle tone.

"That doesn't bring back all of the people who died or repair all of the death and destruction that they caused," Molly said after a few minutes.

"No, it doesn't. At least they can't hurt anyone else though. I'm so sorry about what happened here. At least it's over now. Do you have anywhere that you can go?" the woman asked her in a kind voice.

"My home was destroyed and my parents are hundreds of miles away from here. No, I don't have anywhere to go. My life is in ruins," Molly said as she began crying.

"You can come with me then and stay with me for a while," the woman offered.

"I don't even know you," Molly said through tears.

"Well, I saved your life. That's a good beginning for any relationship I should think," the woman said with a smile.

Molly actually laughed at that as she said, "What's your name?"

"I'm Oswin. Oswin Oswald. I'm what you might call a professional Dalek hunter. I go wherever they are and exterminate them before they can exterminate us. You might say that I have a personal grudge against the Daleks since they made me a Dalek against my will and stole away my humanity until recently when I was turned back into a human once more. Now I use their own technology against them to stop them from hurting others like they did me. It's a long story. Maybe I'll tell you about it later," Oswin said with a warm smile on her face.

"I'm Molly Hunter. Until today, I had a job working at an insurance office. However, it was destroyed too. I don't even have that anymore," Molly said devastated.

"I'm so sorry, Molly. My offer still stands though. You can come and stay with me until you can get back on your feet again," Oswin said.

"Where are you staying at?" Molly asked.

"It's kind of hard to explain. I'll just have to show you," Oswin said.

She pulled out a communicator and said, "It's finished. Come and get me. I have someone with me who may need somewhere to stay for a while."

"Okay. I'll be there in a minute," said a voice from the communicator.

Seconds later, Molly had to blink twice and wipe her eyes with her hands to make sure that she wasn't seeing things as she saw a large wooden cabinet appear out of thin air. Things got even weirder when the door of the cabinet opened to reveal a huge room on the inside with a large lighted column in the center of it that had panels full of switches and knobs all around it

"This is called a TARDIS. It's a machine for traveling through time and space. This one belongs to my friend, Marissa. I stay here sometimes and with my other friend Rose at other times in her TARDIS. I travel with both of them and help them to stop alien invasions, eliminate serious threats to the Earth or the universe, and help fix any other problems that we might come across anywhere and everywhere throughout time and space. Marissa, do you think that Molly could stay with you a while until she gets back on her feet. Her home and job were just blown up by the Daleks," Oswin asked.

"Of course you can. I know what that's like better than anyone. My family were killed by the Daleks a long time ago," Marissa said with a haunted look in her eyes.

"I'm sorry," Molly said with sympathy.

"Thank you. I'm sorry for your loss as well," Marissa said.

"I guess it doesn't sound right for me to whine about losing my home and job when there are so many others who died today just like your family did," Molly said.

"Nonsense. Your whole life has just been destroyed. You have a right to be angry about it. You have survivor's guilt, Molly. I know because I had it too. You can't let it eat you up inside though. You've got to continue on with your life the best that you can and move on," Marissa said with a gentle smile.

"Thank you for saying that, and thank you for letting me stay here," Molly said gratefully.

"Don't mention it. There is a price to pay if you want to travel with me and Oswin though," Marissa said.

"What's that?" Molly asked with concern.

"If you travel with us, it means that you'll be constantly running into all kinds of deadly situations and up against all kinds of deadly people. Our line of work is not for the faint of heart," Marissa warned.

"I think after what I just went through today that I'm ready to handle anything," Molly said confidently.

Oswin wanted to laugh at that statement. She didn't think that Molly quite realized what she was getting herself into. She silently promised herself that she would watch over and protect her new friend from all of the dangers to come that lay ahead.

With that having been settled, Molly went off to find herself a room on Marissa's TARDIS. No doubt the TARDIS already had one ready for her designed to her mind's specifications. The TARDIS would have already read her surface thoughts and found out what kinds of things that she liked already in order to prepare a room for her.

"Is it really okay for her to stay? I didn't mean to impose on you. She just seemed so devastated, and my heart went out to her," Oswin asked.

"It's fine, Oswin. I could do with some company sometimes when you and Koschei aren't around. It gets kind of lonely in this old TARDIS by myself. I think that having someone else to talk to will do me a world of good. Plus I finally get myself a companion. I've always wondered what that was like," Marissa said with a grin.

Marissa then dematerialized her TARDIS, and they entered the Vortex to return back to Gallifrey now that the Daleks in Collinstown had already been handled. They hadn't been traveling for long when the TARDIS suddenly materialized all by itself.

"What's going on? Why did it do that?" Oswin asked her worried.

"I have no idea. I have noticed though that my TARDIS has started developing a mind of her own lately ever since she started hanging around the Doctor's TARDIS. I think that his TARDIS must have corrupted mine," Marissa said, half seriously and half tongue in cheek with a large smile on her face.

"So where are we?" Oswin asked.

Marissa checked the console and read what it said their current location was with a shudder.

"What's wrong, Mari?" Oswin asked as she saw her horrified expression.

"We're on Krontep," Marissa said in a shaky voice.

"So?" Oswin asked, confused.

"Peri Brown lives here. She's the Queen of this world," Marissa said.

"Who's she?" Oswin asked, still confused.

"She used to travel with the Doctor once. I encountered her once back when I was still the Rani, and I tried to kill her. I also tried to turn her into a tree. Do you think she might still be mad about that?" Marissa asked with a grimace.

Both of them suddenly heard a loud pounding on the door of the TARDIS; and a voice said, "You have been identified as the Rani. Come out immediately and face the judgment of our Queen."

Both women looked at each other in shock and dismay.

"Could be," Oswin said with a sigh.

Next: Marissa faces up to her past as she comes face to face with an angry Peri. Can Oswin convince her that Marissa really has changed?