CHAPTER 13

I do not own Doctor Who or the Incredible Hulk, and I am making no profit off of this.

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This story takes place before the last few chapters of War of the Guardians.

"Will someone please tell me what is going on here?" Oswin asked.

"Very interesting! You seem to be a temporal anomaly. You shouldn't even exist in this timeline, and yet here you are. You always were overly sentimental, Arkytior. I recognize your handiwork when I see it. To answer your question, I am the Mara. I am temporarily borrowing the body of your friend, Nyssa. I need her to kill each and every one of you so that I can have this magnificent ship all to myself," the Mara said.

"You're not killing anyone," Oswin promised.

Oswin suddenly put her force field around everyone but herself and Rose. She was going to make sure that she protected them from the Mara's attacks. Oswin smiled as the Mara glared at her.

"It doesn't matter. All I have to do is destroy you, and they will be mine to do with as I please," the Mara said.

"That's easier said than done. Just ask the Daleks," Oswin joked.

"What do I care about the opinions of flying pepper pots? I will destroy them as well once I have complete control over all of time and space," the Mara threatened.

The Mara suddenly whirled around and blasted Oswin with the Master's Tissue Compression Eliminator. Only she had vanished already, and the only thing that was shrunken was a chair in the console room instead.

"That was my favorite chair!" Marissa said in agitation.

"I'm . . . ," Oswin said as she reappeared only to time jump again when the Mara shot at her with the TCE.

"Sorry . . . ," Oswin continued as she reappeared again this time closer to the Mara and jumped once again before she could be hit by the TCE.

"Mari," Oswin finished as she reappeared right next to the Mara and kicked the TCE out of its hand.

"Sacrifices must be made sometimes though," Oswin said as she then blasted the Mara in the face with her gauntlets at their maximum stun setting.

The Mara fell to the ground unconscious; and Oswin said, "Well, that wasn't so hard. I was expecting much more of a challenge than that."

"You did not just say that!" Rose said with a groan.

Oswin winced as she realized that she had just tempted fate. That was never a good idea.

"I wouldn't want to let you down, little anomaly. Here I am," the Mara said now through Koschei's body.

"Wonderful," Rose said as she realized that things had just gotten even worse.

The Mara, now in Koschei's body, pulled out the laser screwdriver and pointed it at Oswin. Oswin easily absorbed its blast with her force field. Luckily, she had managed to place it back around herself just in the nick of time.

"You'll have to do better than that," Oswin said laughing.

"Okay. How about this?" the Mara said through the mouths of Koschei, Marissa, Peri, Janine, and Molly at the same time.

"Oh, great. The Mara's sunken it's claws into everybody now. It's all my fault. I should have known that it was still inside of me," Tegan said in frustration.

"I have been slowly gaining control of everyone that you've been around, Tegan. I now have the entire crew under my command," the Mara said through Marissa this time.

"Except me. Why haven't you taken over me yet?" Oswin asked.

The Mara remained silent but looked at Rose with eyes full of hatred for a minute. Rose stuck her tongue out at the ancient evil and gave it a silly smile.

"You're protecting me?" Oswin asked Rose.

"More like your very nature is. You don't belong in this timeline, so the Mara has no ability to control you. You're a free agent in the universe because the universe has no plan for you. You were never meant to be here at all. That means that the major powers of this universe can't affect you at least not directly," Rose explained.

"When were you planning on telling me this?" Oswin asked in irritation.

"Never. I was hoping to let you have as normal a life as possible," Rose said.

"You should have told me. I deserved to know," Oswin said.

"You're right. I'm sorry. You were a little preoccupied with being a Dalek at the time though so I didn't want to add to your worries," Rose said.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. It does kind of make me feel like a freak now that I know about it," Oswin admitted.

"That's another reason I didn't tell you. I knew that you'd get like this. You're not a freak so don't even start with all of the self-pity talk," Rose said.

"Can we discuss this later? The Mara has taken over the entire crew. Isn't that a little more important right now?" Tegan said.

"Oh, do continue. I'm enjoying watching this little show. It's like a real life soap opera. I've already won anyway so I have all of the time in the world," the Mara said through Peri's mouth this time.

"What makes you think that?" Rose asked with a malevolent smile as his hands glowed with energy.

Rose made a single gesture at everyone that the Mara had possessed, and they were all suddenly free from its control. They looked around them in confusion as if they had just woken up from a dream.

"How did you do that?" Tegan asked in astonishment.

"I can do a lot of neat little tricks like that. It helps to have the power of the Time Vortex at your command. Otherwise, those tricks really wouldn't work quite so well. I'd just be standing here looking stupid," Rose joked.

"Your posturing and back patting does make you look stupid, Arkytior. Your victory celebration is premature because you haven't won yet. Far from it! For you see, the crew isn't the only one that I have possessed," the Mara's voice said as it seemed to come from all around them now.

"Oh, no!" Oswin said as she realized just where the Mara was now.

"What's going on?" Tegan asked.

"Think about it. The Mara can possess the mind of any living creature, Tegan," Rose said.

"It's not possessing us though so where is it at now?" Tegan asked, still not getting it.

"You're forgetting that we're not the only living creatures here," Oswin said.

Tegan's eyes went wide as she realized just where the Mara was now.

"It's in the TARDIS! It took over the TARDIS!" Tegan said in fear.

"You're a little slow on the uptake sometimes, aren't you?" Rose joked.

"How can you joke at a time like this? What's wrong with you? For that matter, who are you anyway; and how do you know my name?" Tegan demanded in a loud voice.

"The Doctor told me that you once called yourself a 'mouth on legs', and now I know why," Rose said with a wide grin.

"You're the Doctor's wife, aren't you? You're Rose Tyler. I never would have known. You're nothing like any of the other Time Lords that I've ever met. You just seem so human," Tegan said in amazement.

"That's the nicest thing that you could have ever said to me. I can already tell that I'm going to like you a lot," Rose said happily.

"We don't have time for this, Rose. The Mara has control over the TARDIS. It can easily kill us now," Oswin worried.

"Naw, it'll play with us some first. Especially me. It really hates me," Rose said.

"Why is that? I noticed before that the Mara seemed to be afraid of you," Tegan said.

"I met it once a long time ago back on Gallifrey. Let's just say that it made me angry. Very, very angry! You wouldn't like me when I'm angry," Rose said in a serious voice as her eyes darkened.

Tegan seemed taken aback by that and started to actually look afraid.

"So it's a good thing I'm so happy and cheerful most of the time. I'd never hurt my friends anyway so don't worry about it," Rose said as she suddenly regained her smile.

"Yeah, sure," Tegan said nervously.

"You should be more worried about me than the Bad Wolf, Tegan. I can finally strike back at you now. I don't even have to try hard. All I have to do is to suck the oxygen out of the room slowly. A little bit at a time. Can you feel it, Tegan? It's getting harder and harder to breathe, isn't it?" the Mara taunted.

Everyone but Rose was having trouble catching their breath as the atmosphere in the console room began to slowly change.

"What about me, Mara? I don't have to breathe. Not since I became the Bad Wolf. This won't affect me," Rose said.

"Oh, but it will. You get to watch them all die. I know you of old, Arkytior. That will affect you worse than anything else that I could do to you. Very soon now, you will get to stand by helplessly and watch them as they gasp for a final breath that will never come!" the Mara said with laughter.

Oswin put a force field around herself and the others so that some of the oxygen would be contained for a while. That would stop the Mara from sucking it out, but at the same time it would only be temporary. The oxygen that was left would not last forever. Once it ran out, they would all die just like the Mara predicted.

Oswin and Rose looked at each other in silent communication, and they both knew that before the air ran out that she would have to use the Emergency Temporal Shift on herself and the others to escape and try to find help. She felt like a heel for even thinking about it, but she had to. She hated to leave Rose alone here with the TARDIS in the control of the Mara, but she would have no choice.

Oswin activated her time jumping ability and took herself and everyone else but Rose to safety. She was going to come back though. There was no way that she was leaving Rose there to face that thing all by herself.

Next: Oswin returns to help Rose stop the Mara, but are they both already too late? Here's a hint: the Mara has much bigger things planned than just controlling a TARDIS.