CHAPTER 5

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

Thank you for all of your favorites, follows, story alerts, and reviews!

This story takes place after the events of Oswin Oswald, Time's Guardian Chapters 34 and 35.

VICTORIA, WHAT BIG EYES YOU HAVE!

The TARDIS landed in the middle of what looked like a warzone. It was a small village that looked like it had been completely devastated. All that the Doctor and his companions could see in every direction was ruins and debris everywhere.

"Where are we?" Polly asked as she looked at the devastation with complete distaste.

"This is or was a small village called Glaston. Victoria's transmission came from here. Somewhere," the Doctor said as he surveyed the ruins with a fearful gaze.

"Could she still be alive, Doctor? Do you think that whoever or whatever did this could have gotten her?" Jamie asked.

"I'm sure that she's alright, Jamie. She's very resourceful. She traveled with me after all so that shows how tough she is," the Doctor said with a grin.

"It certainly shows that she can hold her own against annoying aliens. That's for sure," Clara said.

"Yes, she was very brave when she went up against the Daleks and the Cybermen," the Doctor said.

"Them too. They weren't the annoying alien that I was talking about though," Clara said as she eyed the Doctor with a wicked smile.

"Very funny," the Doctor said annoyed.

"I thought so," Clara said with a huge smile as she hugged him.

"You're lucky I love you so much, Clara Oswald," the Doctor said as he smiled at her and returned the hug.

"Luck has nothing to do with it. I'm just a very lovable person. Ask anybody," Clara said.

"Will the two of you just stop? Victoria could be dying out there somewhere," Jamie said in a panicked voice.

"She's fine," Clara said in a voice of absolute certainty.

"How do you know that?" Jamie asked her in surprise.

Clara suddenly looked nervous as she said, "I just do. It's a gut feeling that I have."

"It could also be that you peeked over my shoulder when I was using the sonic earlier to check for life signs. There's one human life sign nearby that's very strong. It must be Victoria," the Doctor said.

"Yes, that's it. That's how I knew," Clara said a little too eagerly in Jamie's opinion.

"What about aliens or whatever was attacking Victoria? Does your screwdriver show you anything about them?" Jamie asked.

"That's the weird thing. It doesn't show anyone but us and her here. That can't be right though. Something had to cause this," the Doctor said in an intrigued voice.

"Maybe it's something that doesn't give off life signs," Zoe suggested.

"Either that or they know how to hide themselves even from someone as clever as me. Neither possibility sounds good, does it?" the Doctor said.

Jamie started to look extremely worried again so Clara smiled at him as she said, "I know for a fact that she's safe, Jamie. Don't worry about her."

Jamie just looked at her like she had grown a second head. Why was Clara acting so strangely?

"How close was Jamie to Victoria?" Polly whispered in the Doctor's ear.

"Very. We both were actually. She was orphaned by the Daleks and only had us to take care of her for a long time. We both felt a huge responsibility towards her and became like a surrogate family to her to make up for the loss of her father. I think that Jamie may have even fallen in love with her. I never was entirely sure of that though," the Doctor whispered back.

"I'm sure," Polly said as she looked at the worry and misery on Jamie's face.

Clara had heard what the Doctor said and felt terrible. The Daleks had destroyed this girl's life. That made finding her safe and sound even more imperative then. She wouldn't give up until she did and reunited her with Jamie.

"Follow me. The sonic will lead us to her," the Doctor said as the sonic started getting louder and louder the closer that they got to Victoria.

"Is there anything that sonic screwdriver of yours can't do?" Clara asked him with a smile.

"Plenty but I'm coming up with new settings and apps for it all of the time. Just yesterday I added a banana detector," the Doctor said happily.

"A banana detector?" Zoe asked in disbelief.

"To help me find any bananas that might be in the area. I used to love bananas when I wore all black and used to shout all of the time. I couldn't get enough of them. I even still liked them as the Frenchman. I'm more into fish fingers and custard these days, but you never know what my next incarnation might like. I thought that I'd be prepared just in case my next self likes bananas a lot again. Regeneration's a tricky business you know," the Doctor said as he rambled on and on.

"Bananas? Really?" Zoe asked as she laughed at him.

"Bananas are good," the Doctor said with a wry grin on his face as if that explained everything.

Suddenly the Doctor's happy mood was abruptly brought to an end though as they were surrounded by several Daleks. The Daleks all converged on them in a matter of moments and completely cut them off from any avenue of escape.

"YOU ARE THE DOCTOR. YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!" they began to shout together.

"Some life sign detector that thing is if it can't even detect your worst enemies!" Clara said with a sigh.

"It's still not detecting them. It's almost as if something or someone is hiding them from me," the Doctor said confused.

"What does it matter now? We know that they're here so what you should be worrying about is how we're going to get through the next minute in one piece, Doctor," Zoe said.

Oddly enough Clara looked completely unbothered by this. In fact, she was starting to smile.

Moments later, the Daleks found themselves surrounded as several more Daleks suddenly appeared out of nowhere and started firing on them. The two Dalek factions quickly went to war with each other, and the Doctor and the others used this distraction to get away from them.

"Is that why you looked so unworried, Clara? Did you know about this? Does Oswin guard you with her Daleks or something because you're like a sister to her?" Jamie asked intrigued.

Clara said nothing. She just smiled enigmatically at him.

Her smile quickly turned to a look of horror though as a young woman in her twenties came racing toward them with tears in her eyes. "Victoria!" Jamie shouted with a mixture of joy and relief as he embraced Victoria.

"Victoria, I'm so glad that you're alright. I was so worried about you," Jamie said with a huge smile on his face.

"I had no idea that I had gotten through to the Doctor. I was just trying to call anyone who would listen on an old ham radio that I found in the ruins. Everything around here has been destroyed by the Daleks. I've been hiding from them for days now. You have no idea how happy I am to see you again!" Victoria said as she kissed Jamie's cheek and made him blush.

"Victoria, how did you know how to operate a ham radio? You're from the nineteenth century," the Doctor said.

Clara smiled at him. He saw it right away. Well, of course he did. He always was the cleverest person that she knew.

"My adopted father taught me how. You have to know many different ways to communicate with the outside world when you're living on an offshore oil rig. Just in case you need to get help immediately," Victoria said.

"When I left you to live with the Harrises though, it was in the late nineteen sixties. This is 2013. Why do you only look like you're in your early twenties?" the Doctor asked suspiciously.

"Aye, you have aged very well for someone in their sixties," Jamie said as he looked at Victoria with a smile.

"I honestly don't know. I thought maybe you might. I just stopped aging once I hit a certain age. I never was able to understand it. I thought that maybe it might have been a side effect of traveling with you," Victoria said in an innocent voice.

Yeah, right! Clara said to herself as she rolled her eyes at her. She hoped that the Doctor wasn't falling for Victoria's Little Miss Innocent act like Jamie apparently was. He was falling for it hook, line, and sinker.

"You know who I am, Victoria. How do you know that? I never told you about regeneration; and even if I had talked to you about it, how would you know that this was me?" the Doctor asked pointedly.

"You're wearing a bow tie and traveling with Jamie. Who else would you be? As for your change in appearance, I wouldn't put anything past you. You always could surprise me," Victoria said with a giggle.

"Why are you asking all of these questions for, Doctor? It's like you're suspicious of Victoria for some reason," Jamie asked in a defensive voice.

"There are just several things about her that don't add up, Jamie," the Doctor warned.

"She's explained everything that you've asked her about, Doctor. Why are you bothering her for after everything that she's already gone through?" Jamie asked.

"The Doctor's just asking the same questions that everyone else but you is already wondering about," Clara said as she glared at Victoria.

"Are you jealous, Clara? You don't have to be like that. I only think of Victoria as a friend," Jamie said.

Clara shook her head at him. Jamie was so smitten with her that he couldn't see through her obvious lies. Even a two year old wouldn't fall for them.

"I'm sorry, Victoria. I guess that I've just gotten too suspicious in my old age. Come on. I'll take you back to the TARDIS and get you out of this place. I'm sure that you could use a nice change of clothes and something to eat," the Doctor said as he smiled at her.

"You should apologize, Doctor. Imagine treating poor Victoria like that," Jamie admonished him.

"It's okay, Jamie. Just look at this place. It's enough to set anyone on edge," Victoria said.

"Are you kidding me?" Clara whispered in the Doctor's ear as she stared at him in disbelief.

The Doctor simply smiled at her and whispered, "Trust me."

Then he turned and started to walk back toward the direction of the TARDIS.

"This way, Victoria. The TARDIS isn't far from here," the Doctor said.

"Don't think that you're fooling me. I know who you are just like you know who I am," Clara said to Victoria as she walked alongside her.

"I don't understand what you're talking about, and I don't know who you are at all," Victoria said.

"Oh, really? Then you won't be expecting this then, will you?" Clara said.

Suddenly gauntlets appeared over Clara's hands that had been hidden until now by a perception filter, and she held one of them to Victoria's head as it glowed with energy. "Tell them who you are!" she demanded.

Victoria looked at her with eyes filled with terror as Jamie cried out, "Clara, what are you doing?!"

"Oswin, I can assure you that she's not faking. She really doesn't know what you're talking about. Now please take your gauntlet away from my friend's head!" the Doctor ordered as he looked at her sternly.

"You knew?" Oswin asked as she looked at Victoria's face for any signs that she was faking.

"Yes. I know Clara so well now that I knew almost instantly when you had replaced her. You're just like her in many ways, but I can tell that you're not her. You're not that good of an actor, Oswin," the Doctor said.

"Oswin? Now it all makes sense. You switched places with the real Clara back in the TARDIS when you went to her room with her. Why though?" Jamie asked.

"Please," Victoria pleaded as she eyed Oswin's gauntlet in terror.

"Oswin, she's not possessed or under anyone else's influence in any way," the Doctor said.

"Are you sure?" Oswin asked even though she herself was starting to doubt that Victoria was faking.

"Oswin, stop it!" Jamie shouted.

Oswin powered down her gauntlet and lowered it as she said, "I'm so sorry. It's just that an enemy of mine took your form recently and tried to kill me twice. I thought that you were possessed by him, but he must have just been impersonating you."

Victoria looked at her with a surprised look on her face as she asked, "Was this enemy the Great Intelligence?"

Oswin nodded and the Doctor looked at both of them in alarm. So that was what this had been all about?

"I think that I was possessed by him. I thought that it was just a dream, but it must have been real," Victoria said.

"What are you talking about, Victoria?" Jamie asked.

"I've been having what I thought were only bad dreams lately where I was possessed by the Great Intelligence again just like I was that time when I travelled with you to the Himalayas," Victoria said to the Doctor.

"Why didn't either of you tell me about this?" the Doctor asked Oswin and Victoria.

"I thought that I was just dreaming. I mean why would I be taken over by the Great Intelligence again now after all of these years?" Victoria asked.

"Time means nothing to the Great Intelligence. Decades to him are more like seconds to a human," the Doctor said.

"I'm sorry, Doctor. I should have told you about what I suspected right away. I thought that you already knew though from the questions that you were asking her," Oswin said.

"You were also afraid that I would catch onto the fact that you and Clara have been switching places for several days now so that you can have adventures with me in secret. Why didn't you just ask me if you could go with me?" the Doctor asked.

"That's because you don't really know me, and I thought that you'd say no. I just wanted to be Clara again every once in a while. I'm sorry," Oswin apologized.

"I understand. From now on when you want to travel with me though, Oswin, just ask. I'll be glad to let you come along. Having two Claras onboard can only be a good thing in my opinion," the Doctor said smiling.

The two of them embraced then as Clara said, "Thank you!"

"Are you okay, Victoria? Do you think that the Intelligence is still in you?" Jamie asked.

"I don't think so. I haven't had any weird dreams about him since the Daleks attacked. I was living in this little town after a lifetime of moving around from one place to another so that no one would notice that I never age. It's been a lonely life," Victoria admitted sadly.

"I'm so sorry, Victoria. I didn't know. Obviously the Great Intelligence did something to you when he possessed you before to lengthen your lifespan. He's done that to his host bodies before. He must have kept you around in peak condition so that he could use you again later if he wanted to. He's a master strategist and is always thinking ahead," the Doctor said.

"The last time that I saw Victoria the Intelligence had become a partner with the renegade Daleks against me. Is it really a coincidence that they're here now in the same place as her?" Oswin asked.

"I swear that I'm not possessed anymore. At least not as far as I know," Victoria said.

"You're not. The sonic would have detected it. That's how I knew that you weren't still possessed by him because I scanned you with it," the Doctor said.

"Your sonic didn't detect the Daleks earlier though, did it? Because of that we can't really be sure that there isn't still some remnant of him still in Victoria somewhere even though she's okay now. I'm sure that the Intelligence was behind cloaking the Daleks from you so he might be doing the same thing to Victoria. This still smells like some kind of trap to me," Oswin said.

"I know. I have no idea what the Intelligence could be planning this time though. Not yet anyway," the Doctor said.

"There you are, Clara. I've been looking all over for you. The renegade Daleks are either gone or destroyed now. It's all over with," Clara said as she came running up to them still pretending to be Oswin.

"You can stop now, Clara. He knows," Oswin said.

"Really? I'm so glad! I really hate this sneaking around pretending to be who I'm not. I'm terrible at it," Clara admitted.

"So am I apparently," Oswin said.

"That's because neither one of you is a good liar. That's a good thing though," the Doctor said with a smile.

"I guess we'll just go back to the TARDIS and change clothes. I'm going back with my Daleks. My Daleks were watching over you by the way, Victoria," Oswin admitted.

"What? When?" Victoria asked in surprise.

"They found you and helped keep the renegade Daleks from finding you too and hearing your transmissions. They were the ones who redirected your transmissions to the TARDIS so that I would hear them. They've been helping you out in secret for the last few days or you wouldn't have survived. They didn't tell me who you were though or I would have been suspicious of you a lot earlier. I think that they must have figured it out for themselves that you weren't possessed anymore just like the Doctor did. I just wished that they had told me about it," Oswin said.

"It was obvious to me. You should have listened to me," Jamie said.

"I thought that you were just blinded by your feelings for her," Oswin said.

"What feelings? We're just friends," Jamie said as Victoria blushed and turned away from him.

"It's nothing, Jamie. Just skip it," the Doctor said as he smiled at the others.

"I still wish that I knew what this was all about. Surely the Daleks were here for some reason," Zoe said.

"That's true. The Daleks never do anything without a good reason for it," Polly agreed.

"I know but I still have no idea what that reason was yet. One thing that I do know is that whatever it is will become clear eventually. The Daleks never have given up a plan to kill me yet, and I don't think that they've started now," the Doctor said.

"Well, that's comforting," Polly said with a smile.

"I'm glad that I'm leaving then," Zoe said.

As she realized what she had just said, she quickly added, "I didn't mean it like that. Of course I'll miss all of you. I just don't want to do this anymore. I just want to find my parents and have a normal life with them. I want the kind of life that I never got to have with them."

"I understand, Zoe. I'll take you there as soon as we're done here," the Doctor said.

"Thank you, Doctor. You will come back by and visit sometimes, won't you?" Zoe asked.

"Of course," the Doctor said a little too quickly.

"Rule number one," Oswin said to herself.

"What?" Zoe asked.

"Nothing," Oswin said as she smiled at her to cover up what she had just said.

She exchanged glances with the Doctor who looked away confirming what she had suspected. They both knew that the Doctor would probably never see Zoe again. He almost never went back to see old companions again. He always moved on without looking back. Of course, Rose might have different ideas so who knew?

"I suppose I'll be going now. My Daleks can take me back with them. Let's go change, Clara," Oswin said once they finally reached the TARDIS.

Victoria looked at the Doctor nervously as she said, "Doctor, do you think that I could travel with you again? I don't really fit in anywhere else. Besides that, I want you to be there to stop me if I get taken over again. I think that the Intelligence was trying to get me to hurt people from what little that I remember of my dreams. I don't want him in my mind anymore."

"Of course you can stay, Victoria. I'll do everything that I can to keep you from getting taken over again. Maybe I should take you to see an old friend of mine, K'anpo. He can teach you several mental shielding techniques that might work in keeping the Intelligence out of your mind," the Doctor suggested.

"I'll do anything that might help. I don't want that thing in my brain anymore. Who knows what he had planned to do with me?" Victoria asked with a shiver.

"He won't do anything to you anymore, Victoria. The Doctor and I will keep you safe from him now," Jamie said confidently.

Polly turned to Clara who had just emerged from the TARDIS with Oswin and said, "I don't think that you have to worry about Jamie's little crush on you anymore now that Victoria's here."

"Good. I certainly hope so. I like him and I didn't want to keep breaking his heart," Clara admitted with relief in her voice.

"Good bye, everyone! I'd like to come back as me sometime and travel with you again, Doctor. How about it?" Oswin asked.

"Anytime you want, Oswin. Just say the word," the Doctor said.

"Thank you again," Oswin said as she hugged him. Then she teleported away.

"It's so nice to have the real Clara back. I liked Oswin but there's just no substitute for the real thing," Jamie said.

"I agree, Jamie. There's no one else like Clara not even another Clara," the Doctor said as he embraced her and kissed her forehead.

Clara smiled a sinister grin behind his back. The plan had worked completely. The Doctor had been completely fooled by that little bit of misdirection. The Great Intelligence had been so busy making the Doctor concentrate on what the Daleks had been up to and the mystery surrounding Victoria's sudden reappearance that he never even saw that Clara had been taken over by him right under his nose.

The Intelligence had taken Clara as soon as she arrived on Earth with Oswin's Daleks, and no one had even noticed. Now the Intelligence had the perfect body to hide in until the time was right to gain his revenge on the Doctor. He was hiding in plain sight right beside him in the body of his best friend.

He would never suspect that Clara wasn't what she seemed until it was far too late. His companions always had been his greatest weakness, and now the Intelligence was going to use his trust and devotion to them to his full advantage.

The irony of this plan was almost beyond belief. The Intelligence had once been stopped from killing the Doctor by one Clara, and now he was going to use another one to finally destroy him forever! The Doctor would never even see it coming.

Next: Even as the Great Intelligence plots and schemes against the Doctor while possessing Clara, Zoe finally gets to see her parents again at last. Will this family reunion go as well as she hopes though? Also will the Doctor be able to see through the Great Intelligence's deception as easily as he did Oswin's?