THE DOCTOR'S TRIPLE TROUBLE
Chapter Fourteen Mara and the Doctor walked through the woods while she led him back to the other Doctor's TARDIS. So far, the Doctor hadn't said anything to her as he walked behind her with his hands in his pockets. The tension between them was thick and Mara felt uncomfortable since she sensed that the Time Lord was staring directly at her. Finally, she couldn't take any more of the eyes on her and she stopped and turned to him. "Would you quit glaring at me, you're making me uncomfortable," she said. "I'm just making sure you don't run off or do something underhanded," the Doctor said casually. "I don't trust you, Mara." "I'm leading you to the TARDIS, aren't I?" The Doctor shrugged. "Maybe you are and maybe you aren't. I haven't lived this long by being a naïve fool. You sided with my enemy and now you claim to be helping me so I'm reserving judgment until your true intentions come to light. Now…are you going to continue leading me to the other TARDIS?" "Are you sure you can protect me from him?" Mara said. "I will protect him as well as I can unless you turn against me and then it's open season for you, I'm afraid. Now…are we going to continue?" Mara sighed and turned back around. The Doctor strolled along behind her while she navigated her way through the woods. Fifteen minutes later, she reached the spot where she'd last seen the TARDIS and stopped. She looked around in confusion when she didn't see it. "Are my beady eyes bothering you again?" she heard the Doctor say. She turned to him and saw the impatient look on his face. "No, this is the spot," Mara said. The Doctor looked around for a moment before his eyes settled on hers again. "Funny, I don't see it," the Doctor said. "I swear to you, this is where I last saw it," Mara said as she noticed anger creeping onto his face. The Doctor sighed, whipped out his sonic screwdriver and scanned around him. He glanced at the readings and lowered the screwdriver. "According to this, there's no TARDIS here," he said. "Perhaps you're mistaken about the location then?" "I thought this was where I last saw it," Mara said, looking around. She pointed to a tree that was nearly split in half. "Yeah, I remember that tree, this is the spot," she said. "Well…my screwdriver says otherwise," the Doctor said. "Well are you sure that screwdriver is accurate?" Mara said in a testy voice. "My screwdriver is capable of picking up the vibration a TARDIS gives out. There's no vibration here," the Doctor said in a condescending voice. "Perhaps that is the wrong tree…or, more likely, you're having me on and leading me on a wild goose chase to buy time for your Doctor to get away." His eyes bored into hers and she gulped and shook her head. "No, I swear this is the spot," she said adamantly. "I said I'd help you and I will." "Well, he's gone now so any ideas on where he might have gone?" the Doctor said. "I s'pose back to the hotel room in the pub," she said. "You don't sound sure." "No, I'm not sure. All I know is he wanted me to impersonate Rose and follow you, he didn't say anything else." The Doctor snickered and Mara narrowed her eyes. "What's so funny?" she said. "What's funny is your lover, or whatever the hell he is to you, seems to have left you high and dry," the Doctor said, leaning back against a tree. "He told you to come find me and then gave you no instructions on what to do once you got there, apart from follow me and make sure I didn't cotton on to the fact that Rose was gone. Also didn't say if he'd come get you if you got into trouble. And lo and behold, you got into trouble and he's swanned off with his prize. What I think he did, my dear, is dumped you in my lap so he could concentrate on Rose without you breathing down his neck. That's why I'm laughing. If you thought my double had any intentions of being your boyfriend, this oughta dispel them once and for all." "And I suppose you're better than him, Widow Maker," Mara spat out. The Doctor narrowed his eyes. "I'm pretty sure I haven't committed the level of atrocities that he has," he said, folding his arms over his chest. "I said before that many cultures give me unpleasant names like that and it's because most of them are sore that I came in and stopped their illicit activities. How do your people know me?" "From the Time War," Mara said. "And what is the name of your people?" Mara gave him a look of disbelief. The Doctor shrugged. "There are several alien species that have blue skin and white hair which is why I asked." Mara was intrigued by that and wondered what the other species were called but she saw the look on the Doctor's face and knew he was waiting for her to answer. "The Mollon," she said. "Ah, I see," the Doctor said, leaning back up. "It becomes clear." "What becomes clear?" Mara said with a frown. "My dear, do you know what your people were doing during the Time War?" he said. "Helping fight it?" She was shocked when the Doctor let out a harsh, barking laugh at that followed by a snigger. She became defensive and crossed her arms. "Why are you laughing now?" "I'm laughing because you are as far from the truth as a Dalek is from a loving feeling," the Doctor said. "They never fought the Time War." "Yes, they did," Mara said quickly. "No. They didn't. They were smugglers and gun runners hired by those who decided to ally themselves with the Daleks so they could get back at their neighbors. They were smuggling weapons to enemy planets for a tidy profit. I figured out what was happening and I and some of the real fighters put a stop to them. I suspect my little nickname was borne out of bitterness at having been cut off from their profits." "That's not what we were taught in school," Mara said. "I should think not, it doesn't reflect too well on your people if you're learning that they stole weapons from other civilizations and sold them off. Quite a few people were left shorthanded and defenseless because their weapons went to your people to be sold off. That's partly the reason why we had trouble holding back the Daleks on some of the planets. So…I'm afraid you've been misinformed. Not your fault, mind, if your educational system is telling you this. You're young so I have a feeling you weren't even born when the Time War was being fought. But this is why you need to look into things and question what you hear rather than accepting everything blindly. I'm not the bad guy here, the other Doctor is. And if I told you some of the things he did to me and Rose, your long hair would curl up to your scalp. Rose, especially, has been abused and degraded by that bastard and I'm not in the mood to see more abuse heaped on her so…how do we go about finding his TARDIS?" "I s'pose we could go back to the pub and question the barkeep?" Mara said. "Sounds as good a plan as any. Follow…" He trailed off into silence. Mara was about to ask what was wrong when the Doctor held up his hand and put his finger to his lips. Then he suddenly dropped down and rolled towards Mara as a silver robot jumped down from the tree onto the spot where he'd been standing. The Doctor leapt to his feet and told Mara to run before the faceless robot lunged at him and began attacking.
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