CHAPTER 9
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Marissa's TARDIS materialized in the middle of Brisbane. Nyssa had had no idea of what Tegan's address was so she had just brought her to the middle of the city itself.
Oswin immediately took out a small device from one of her pockets and started using it to surf the local internet. She had found Tegan's address in a matter of minutes, and Marissa took the TARDIS straight to her house.
Tegan heard the sound of the TARDIS materializing and couldn't believe her ears. She ran towards the sound expecting to see the familiar blue box of the Doctor standing there. Instead she saw an old cabinet standing in her front yard.
"Could he have actually fixed that chameleon circuit?" Tegan said out loud.
She walked uncertainly towards the cabinet as she began to wonder if this was the Master instead. She wasn't sure why the Master would be here to bother her after all of this time, but she wouldn't put it past him.
Tegan was pleasantly surprised when Nyssa stepped out of the cabinet instead. Nyssa came walking towards her at a brisk pace and then hugged her tightly. She hadn't seen Tegan since the day that she had stayed behind on Terminus.
"Tegan, I missed you so much. How have you been?" Nyssa said happily.
"Oh, I'm just fine. I came back to my old life and kind of just picked up the pieces. I actually became a bit of a local celebrity out here not too long ago when I stood up for some of the aborigines that were being given a hard time. It actually made the papers. It's the first real good that I felt that I'd done since leaving the Doctor," Tegan said.
"I'm sure that's not true. You were always helping people when I traveled with you," Nyssa said.
"You know what I mean. It's the first time that I did something big that affected a lot of lives like we used to do back on the TARDIS," Tegan explained.
"I've been trying to help people myself. I came up with a cure for Lazar's disease and a few more diseases since then. I've been going from planet to planet fighting diseases that others can't find cures for. It's my way of trying to do the kinds of things that I did with the Doctor as well I suppose," Nyssa said.
"That feeling of wanting to do something that makes a difference and to make your life mean something that you get from traveling with the Doctor just doesn't go away once you leave him. You're never the same person that you were before you met him," Tegan said.
"Have you ever wanted to go traveling again like in the old days?" Nyssa asked her.
"Sometimes I do, but other times I'm glad to have that part of my life past me. I hated all of the violence and death that seemed to surround the Doctor. That's why I left him ultimately. I just grew tired of it," Tegan admitted.
"I would love to be able to travel with the Doctor. I would still love to. I think that maybe I was supposed to be his companion, but my timeline has been erased now. I'm a temporal anomaly, or so I'm told," Oswin said, breaking into their conversation.
"Who are you?" Tegan asked with a trace of irritation in her voice.
"This is my new friend, Oswin. She helped me to find a cure for a plague that turned people into zombies recently," Nyssa said.
"Zombies? Really? It sounds like the larger than life adventures never quite stopped for you, Nyssa," Tegan said with a laugh.
"I guess not. Zombies aren't exactly a common thing for me to come across though. That really has been the strangest thing that I have had happen to me since I traveled with the Doctor," Nyssa said.
"What is it about the Doctor that trouble just seems to follow him everywhere he goes? He was like that even as a child," Marissa said with a small smile on her face as she stepped out of the TARDIS.
"I assume that you're the Time Lord who owns this TARDIS and brought Nyssa here then?" Tegan asked.
"That's right. I'm Marissa by the way. I figured since Nyssa just saved humanity from being turned into zombies that she was deserved some kind of reward," Marissa said.
"Thank you for bringing her here. You know I'm so glad that it turned out to be you. I was half afraid that it was going to turn out to be the Master," Tegan said laughing.
"Yeah," Marissa said as she laughed nervously.
Marissa and Oswin exchanged a look, and both of them suddenly went quiet. They had made a silent agreement not to mention anything about the fact that Marissa was Koschei's girlfriend. Tegan and Nyssa were so wrapped up in catching up with each other though that both of them failed to notice this.
What no one failed to notice though was the sudden appearance of four Daleks that appeared out of nowhere right in front of them. They started to fly right towards Oswin as they recognized her immediately.
"IT IS THE ABOMINATION! EXTERMINATE HER! DAVROS COMMANDS THAT SHE MUST BE DESTROYED!" the Daleks all shouted together.
"I take it that they're after you then?" Tegan asked Oswin.
"Yes. I tried to instigate a revolution in the Dalek ranks, and they're just a little bit angry about it," Oswin said sheepishly.
"You must have had a death wish or something. Now you've brought them right here to my doorstep. Thank you so much!" Tegan said with growing anger in her voice.
"I thought that maybe I'd lost them. I haven't seen them in a long time," Oswin said defensively.
"They're Daleks! They never stop coming!" Tegan yelled at her.
"You don't have to tell me that. I used to be one," Oswin said as she started to lose her temper.
"What?" Tegan asked in disbelief.
The Daleks all started blasting them then and quickly put an end to their bickering. The four women all started running for their lives as they tried to avoid being hit by the lethal blasts.
"This is just great! Well, I didn't miss this bit at all. I've only been around a Time Lord for less than five minutes, and I'm already running for my life from a bunch of angry Daleks again!" Tegan complained loudly.
"I'm sorry, Tegan. It's my fault. I shouldn't have asked them to bring me here," Nyssa said.
"I'm glad that you did. It was worth the Daleks being here again to get to see you. I always wondered if you were okay or not after you left us the way that you did," Tegan said as she ran.
"Oh, so with her you're all nice; but with us, it's all scream and shout time!" Oswin said annoyed.
"They're not after her. They're after you!" Tegan shouted at her.
"SILENCE! WE SEEK ONLY THE HUMAN FEMALE KNOWN AS OSWIN OSWALD. ALL OTHERS ARE OF SECONDARY INTEREST BUT WILL BE EXTERMINATED AS WELL IF THEY DO NOT REMAIN SILENT!" the lead Dalek said.
"Oh, nice! I've just been threatened by a Dalek again. It's just like old times," Tegan said grumpily.
Oswin had had enough of Tegan's mouth. She decided that now would be a good time to stand and fight. Even if she died, it wouldn't be half as bad as having to listen to Tegan's complaining and shouting every minute.
Oswin switched on her force field that she had luckily been able to fix on the way over here and had it absorb the Daleks' incoming fire. She then powered up her gauntlets and blasted two Daleks into a smoking pile of debris in a matter of seconds.
The remaining two Daleks fired on Oswin once again. Her force field was too powerful, however, and it easily absorbed their attacks. They then tried a new tactic as one of them grabbed Nyssa with its suction cup arm. She had stopped running along with Tegan and Marissa once Oswin had decided to stand and fight. Now she was wishing that she hadn't as the Dalek brought her directly in front of the other Dalek's gun stalk.
"SURRENDER TO US NOW FOR VOLUNTARY EXTERMINATION, OR WE WILL KILL THE FEMALE!" the Dalek holding Nyssa threatened.
"Don't do it. They're going to kill us anyway," Nyssa said.
"She's right," Oswin admitted.
"So, you're just going to let them kill her! I can really believe that you used to be a Dalek now. You're just as cold as they are!" Tegan said with anger.
"Stop it! You don't know anything about her. She's one of the nicest, kindest people I've ever known," Marissa said as she defended her friend.
"Not if she wants to let my friend be killed, she isn't," Tegan said.
"I never said that. I just said that they were going to kill us no matter what we do," Oswin said.
"SURRENDER OR THE FEMALE WILL DIE NOW!" the Dalek with its gun stalk pointed at Nyssa threatened.
"Time Lords are nothing but trouble. This just proves it," Tegan grumbled.
"Will. You. Shut. Up?!" Marissa shouted as she finally lost her temper.
Oswin looked at her in surprise. She had never seen Marissa this angry before. She was usually so easy going and laid back.
She could see how Tegan would have brought out her dark side though. Tegan would try the patience of just about anyone. She wondered how the Doctor ever put up with her. The Doctor must have had much more self-control than she gave him credit for. She didn't understand how he could have traveled with this woman on a long term basis. She had only been around her a few minutes, and she already wanted to kill her!
"THE FEMALES WILL STOP FIGHTING! SURRENDER NOW, OSWIN OSWALD, OR THIS FEMALE WILL DIE! THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING!" the two Daleks shouted together.
Oswin decided to take a chance now while the Daleks were busy shouting. She did something that she had never done before and transferred her force field from herself to Nyssa. She had modified her force field to be able to cover other people or objects as long as she was within a few feet of them. The problem with this was that it left her defenseless. She just hoped that she wouldn't need it.
Oswin blasted both Daleks and destroyed the one holding Nyssa instantly. The other Dalek was still alive and well, however. It had only been slightly damaged due to having gotten out of Oswin's way just in time to avoid the brunt of her attack. It had only been given a glancing blow.
"NOW THE FEMALE WILL DIE!" the Dalek said as it blasted Nyssa at point blank range.
"No!" Tegan yelled out in fear.
The Dalek blast was absorbed by Oswin's shield and surprised both it and Nyssa. Oswin took this momentary distraction to quickly initiate an emergency temporal shift. She disappeared and then reappeared right behind the Dalek and unloaded both gauntlets into its casing at full power.
The Dalek quickly exploded into a ball of flame that would have killed Oswin if she hadn't quickly time jumped out of the way once more. She was back standing beside Marissa and Tegan once again in the blink of an eye.
Tegan was looking at her in awe. She knew that she had misjudged this woman, and she felt sorry for yelling at her now. She had risked her own life to save Nyssa.
"Thank you for saving her! You covered her with your force field and left yourself open to attack, didn't you?" Tegan asked in a now gentler tone.
"Yes, I did. I had to gamble that I could take out the Daleks before they hit me," Oswin said.
"Now what was that about her being just like a Dalek?" Marissa asked with a smirk.
"I know. I need to apologize. I'm sorry, Oswin! I shouldn't have said that to you or yelled at you like that," Tegan said.
"It's okay. You were worried about Nyssa. I understand," Oswin said.
"You're more forgiving than I would be," Marissa said.
"Stop it, Mari. We're making a breakthrough here," Oswin said grinning.
"I'm just saying I think that you should have made her sweat a little more," Marissa said with a little smile.
"I think that I should leave now. More Daleks will be coming after me soon I'm sure," Oswin said as she suddenly turned serious.
"What if they show up after you're gone? I don't want to end up charcoaled!" Tegan said.
"They won't stop here. They'll sense that I'm gone and follow me," Oswin assured her.
"They won't want to stick around to listen to you complain anyway," Marissa quipped.
"How do I know that they won't attack whether they sense you're here or not? I'm going with you until I'm sure that I'm safe from them. I don't want to have to worry about Daleks suddenly popping up out of nowhere and attacking me in my sleep," Tegan said.
"No! You're not going with me!" Marissa said as her eyes widened in horror.
"Yes, I am! I'm staying with you until I know for sure that the Daleks won't be coming after me," Tegan said.
"No! No! No! Please no!" Marissa said as Tegan walked into the still open door of her TARDIS.
"It'll just be for a short time I'm sure. I'll come up with some way of shaking the Daleks off of my trail in no time, and then we can bring her back," Oswin said.
Marissa walked slowly alongside Oswin and Nyssa back into the TARDIS as though she were going to her death. She just kept shaking her head no over and over again.
"Brave heart, Marissa!" Nyssa said to her with a gentle smile.
Next: Oswin and Marissa reunite with Peri, Janine, and Molly and introduce them to Nyssa and Tegan. Then things quickly head south as Koschei picks that moment to show up. If Marissa thought that Tegan was hard to deal with before, she hasn't seen anything yet!