CHAPTER 14

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

Oswin returned to Marissa's TARDIS to find that the console room had become a warzone. Rose was in full Bad Wolf mode while the Mara had opened the Heart of the TARDIS and was using its energy against her.

Vortex energy was flying everywhere, and Oswin had to put up her force field quickly to protect herself. She tried to move forward and help Rose in some way, but Rose shook her head in warning.

"Don't come any closer. You'll be torn apart by all of the energy flying through here. I was hoping that you wouldn't return," Rose said.

"I wasn't about to leave you all alone," Oswin said.

"That's sweet, but I don't want your life on my conscience. Just stay back," Rose said in concern.

"I wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for you. You saved me from being erased when the timelines changed. I'll gladly die to help you," Oswin said as she started forward again.

"Believe me, Oswin. Your death wouldn't help me at all. It would just be so unnecessary. I saved you because I didn't want you to never have been born. You're too good and kind a person to have never existed, and my changing the timelines from what they were originally supposed to be in order to save Amy and Rory from being lost in the past forever would have eventually condemned you to have never existed in the first place. I never wanted that. I didn't then, and I still don't want it to happen to you now," Rose said as she continued to fight with the Mara.

"How noble, Arkytior! It doesn't really matter though. Soon you will both die because soon every TARDIS in this universe will belong to me!" the Mara said with a laugh.

"What? What's it talking about?" Oswin asked.

"Marissa's TARDIS along with all of the other ones except the Doctor's and the Monk's are linked to each other in a kind of telepathic net which is ultimately monitored on Gallifrey by the Time Lords. This was established by the High Council recently so that they could keep track of them all and make sure that no one could steal one or misuse it. They thought of this little precaution after Lord President Heldrin came to power. The Doctor never liked it and Idris wouldn't have let herself be spied upon like that anyway so he managed to make sure that he wasn't on this telepathic net. The Monk rigged his TARDIS so that he could stay off of it too for obvious reasons. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but now it might come back to bite everyone," Rose said.

"What do you mean?" Oswin asked again as she grew frustrated at being in the dark.

"I'm sorry. You're totally lost right now, and you hate it. I know what it's like to be in your shoes. I was there once. Okay, basically the Mara is trying to break into the telepathic net and spread its influence to all of the TARDISes at once. It will break into their minds and take them all over. Can you imagine the result of that? The Mara will essentially strand all of the Time Lords where they are right now. None of them will be able to travel in time and space. The Time Lords won't be the Lords of Time anymore. At least not until they come up with a way around it. They'd have to come up with a new way to time travel and quickly because the Mara would start using the TARDISes to cause trouble across time and space in order to feed itself," Rose explained.

"You mean that they're linked like the Daleks are then?" Oswin said with a grin as she started to understand now. She pulled out a small device and began to quickly push buttons on it.

"Exactly. I think it's a bad idea. I hate the idea of being watched like that, and now there's an even better argument against it," Rose said as she continued to contain the Mara's attacks so that they didn't reach Oswin.

"The Time Lords' shortsightedness will be their undoing. It's too late to stop me now. I am linking with the others already. Every TARDIS throughout time and space is now mine!" the Mara shouted to them in triumph.

Oswin began to have a huge smile on her face as she worked with the small device that she had pulled out earlier. Rose had noticed that a light bulb had seemed to go off in her head when she had mentioned the Dalek net earlier, and now it seemed that she had a plan in mind. She hoped that whatever it was that it worked quickly before the Mara had a chance to do any damage to the Web of Time.

"No! I cannot understand. It's too confusing. Shut up! Shut up! Stop talking! You're not making any sense!" the Mara began to scream.

"It makes perfect sense. Pay attention. You'd think that someone who had been around as long as you have would have more brains than you do. Come back here, Snake Being. We could do great things together. It's my name, silly," a very familiar voice said as it too started to come from all around them.

"What is? I don't understand you. You make no sense. I can't take you over. Your mind is too disorganized. It's too jumbled. My brain feels like it's on fire!" the Mara screamed in anguish.

"Idris?" Rose asked in joy.

"Who is Idris? What's going on here?" the Mara asked in complete and utter confusion.

"I just told you that Idris is my name a minute ago. Do try to keep up," Idris said with a chuckle.

"Keep away from me. You're destroying my mind! I can't think! I can't . . . ," the Mara said and then it suddenly stopped talking in mid-scream.

Suddenly the Mara let out one last agonizing scream as the Heart of the TARDIS closed. Rose looked at Oswin in suspicion while she laughed.

"What did you do?" Rose asked with a grin.

"I quickly asked Idris to come onto the telepathic net with my handy little device here after explaining the situation to her. This little gadget lets me hack into all kinds of computer systems, but it's also useful for just an easy way at communication with any and all computer networks no matter how well encrypted that they are. After I had a quick chat with her, Idris set herself loose inside of the net. I knew that the Mara wouldn't be able to resist the chance to take over the Doctor's TARDIS," Oswin said smiling wider and wider.

Rose began to look at her with her jaw on the floor as she said, "Oh, you're devious, you are! That's really, really evil!"

"I'm sure that the poor thing never knew what hit him!" Oswin said.

"I drove him away. He just couldn't stand talking to me. I have no idea why. I'm quite the conversationalist," Idris' voice said from all around them now.

"So the Mara is gone then?" Oswin asked.

"For now it is. It never seems to ever disappear forever though. It turns up again and again sooner or later. One thing's for sure. It'll never try to take over a TARDIS again!" Rose said laughing.

"At least not one particular TARDIS anyway," Oswin said as she laughed along with her.

"Her name is Lissa," Idris said interrupting.

"Whose name is Lissa?" Oswin asked confused.

"I'm just answering your question," Idris said.

"What question? I didn't ask a question," Oswin said now really confused.

"Not yet but you will. I just answered it for you well ahead of time. You'd think that you'd thank me but apparently not. Really! No sense of gratitude whatsoever!" Idris said in a miffed tone.

"She doesn't understand you, Idris. She isn't used to you yet," Rose explained with a smile.

"I suppose I am an acquired taste. I'll cut her some slack then just this once, My Wolf," Idris said with an amused tone in her voice.

"I'm sorry that I'm not quite up to your high standards of intellect then. Not all of us have your very unique insight into things. You see things in a very, very different way from those of us who have to be stuck in this one reality where common sense rules," Oswin said sarcastically.

Rose began to laugh as she realized what Oswin was really saying.

Idris, however, obviously didn't as she said, "Why thank you, Little Anomaly Girl! Finally one of you understands me! I think I'm going to like you after all."

"Well, thank goodness for that! That really makes my day," Oswin said.

"I imagine it does. Shehzadi," Idris said.

"What?" Oswin asked now confused again.

"That's Lissa's sister's name. You really are thick sometimes," Idris said in an annoyed voice.

"I still don't know who Lissa is!" Oswin said in anguish.

"I can't talk to her, Wolf. Maybe she'll figure it out herself in time, but I doubt it. I think that I should go now. The Little Anomaly Girl is starting to give me a headache," Idris said.

"I'm giving you a headache?!" Oswin asked in disbelief.

"I know you can't help it. I'm not blaming you. It's not your fault that you're so limited. You were born that way I suppose. He wants to keep you from taking over the Daleks," Idris said.

"Who does?" Oswin asked.

"The one who is coming back to life soon. He will return to destroy you. Be careful of him," Idris warned.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Oswin said worried.

"You will. I'll see you all around, or maybe I have seen you already. I never am quite sure. Hello!" Idris said.

"She's gone now," Rose said as she sensed Idris leaving.

"Good. She's a nutter, isn't she?" Oswin said.

"No. She's just used to thinking of time as all happening at once, and she can't understand why we experience it differently. She's really a sweet person once you get to know her," Rose said.

"I'll take your word for it. Well, I guess this is goodbye then. The Mara's gone, and the universe is as safe as it ever is," Oswin said sadly.

"I'll see you around, Oswin. Take care of yourself. Idris was trying to warn you about something. I'd keep a watch out for it, whatever it is, if I were you," Rose said.

"I'll do that. Thanks, Rose! You're always there for me," Oswin said as she hugged Rose tightly.

"No problem, Oswin. It's no problem at all. I'll always be there for my friends," Rose said warmly.

Rose left then in a burst of golden light, and the TARDIS soon landed itself as Marissa used her remote control to bring it to her. Marissa and the others were there waiting for her once she opened the doors of the TARDIS to the outside.

"Rose was just here. She popped in just long enough to tell me that the Mara was gone. She said it was all due to your sneaky thinking," Marissa said.

"I sent Idris after him. I figured if she drove me nuts and made me want to run away from her that she'd do the same to him," Oswin said with a chuckle.

"You are evil, do you know that?" Marissa asked as she put her arm around her friend.

"So I've been told," Oswin said with a wicked smile as the two of them went inside of Marissa's TARDIS followed by the others.

Next: Oswin finds out who Idris was talking about as a woman from the future comes to have a talk with Marissa about a very sore subject. Readers of Jenny Tyler, Time's Angel will know right away who I'm talking about.