CHAPTER 39

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THE POWER OF FEAR PART 1

"Cass? Are you there?" Shawn asked as he let himself into Clara and Cassiopeia's home with the key that Cassiopeia had given him.

He knew that Cassiopeia had told him that he was always welcome there but he still liked to announce his presence regardless of that because he definitely didn't want to just walk right in and see something that he shouldn't by accident. It wasn't so much Cassiopeia that he was worried about walking in on but Clara. It was never a good idea to anger someone who regularly stood up to the most powerful beings in the universe with no fear whatsoever and constantly showed them exactly who was the boss.

Plus she fought deadly aliens too.

"Cass? Is it okay if I come in?" Shawn asked in a hesitant voice when he didn't receive an answer.

Hey! Sorry. I was just taking a shower and couldn't hear you. Sure, it's fine. Clara's not even here anyway. She's still on Gallifrey where she always seems to be lately since she became President. Now you know why I didn't want to be Lady Lungbarrow, and it's nowhere near as demanding a job. Cassiopeia said to him telepathically.

"So it's just you here?" Shawn asked out loud.

"No, not quite," Mary Shelley said as she entered the living room and smiled warmly at him.

"Oh, I'm sorry. If you don't want me here . . ." Shawn started to say as he began to feel as awkward as he always did around her.

This was the Mary Shelley after all. She was one of the greatest writers of all time and he had absolutely no idea what to say to her that wouldn't make him sound like a complete idiot.

"Don't be ridiculous, Shawn. You're not bothering me. Come in and sit down. I'd love to hear your thoughts about some of these movie adaptations of Frankenstein that I've been watching lately anyway. It might help me to understand certain changes from the book that were made in them since I'm afraid that I'm a bit out of touch with the tastes of your century's audience," Mary said with a welcoming smile as she gestured to him to sit down.

"Are you still hung up on that? So they changed the story? It's not like they changed the book itself. It's still in print and exactly as it was when you first wrote it. It always will be too. Trust me. They're still reading it billions of years from now in languages that don't even exist yet and it's just as timeless as ever," Cassiopeia's voice called out from the direction of the bathroom.

"If it's so timeless, why is it never done properly in your movies then?" Mary asked in a bothered voice.

Cassiopeia laughed as she finally came out of the bathroom and said with a grin that could have easily belonged to her mother, "It's not just you. The movie version of a book is pretty much always different from the original story. Don't take it so personally."

"I wrote the story though, Cassiopeia. I poured part of myself into its very essence and fabric. How could I not take it seriously? Wouldn't that bother you if you were in my place, Shawn?" Mary said with a frown.

When she received no answer, she quickly looked at Shawn to see him standing there staring at Cassiopeia with bulging eyes and a dazed look on his face. At first she had no idea what was wrong with him, and then it hit her all at once which caused her to instantly begin to laugh.

Cassiopeia meanwhile definitely wasn't in a laughing mood as she stood there with an extremely embarrassed look on her face while it turned a brighter and brighter shade of red by the moment. She had gotten so caught up in her conversation with Mary that she had forgotten to get dressed and had come out of the bathroom still wearing the towel that she had wrapped around herself when she got out of the shower.

"I didn't do that on purpose. I just . . . forgot. I'm so used to you and Shawn always being here lately that I just . . . didn't think about it. I hope I didn't embarrass you," Cassiopeia said in a completely mortified voice.

"I'm not quite as easily offended as many of my time might be in this situation. I was actually quite forward thinking for my age in history. That doesn't mean that I want you to continue to walk around in that condition from now on however," Mary said with a mischievous smile.

"I didn't do it on purpose!" Cass protested as her face turned even redder.

She quickly snapped her fingers and her towel instantly morphed into a long dress that quickly covered most of her body.

"I can already tell you've been around me for way too long now, Mary. I seem to have become a bit of a bad influence on you from the way that you were mercilessly teasing poor Cass just now. You really shouldn't do that to her, you know? That's my job," Clara's voice suddenly said from all around them

"Don't even start with me right now," Cassiopeia said with a deep frown as Clara suddenly appeared beside her in a burst of silver energy.

"I wouldn't dare, Towel Girl," Clara said with an evil smile as she hugged her sister.

It still felt more than a bit odd to her to think of Cassiopeia that way but it also felt right somehow. The recent revelation that her mother had actually been a part of Rose Tyler all along made the deep bond that had developed between her and Cass suddenly make a whole lot more sense.*

Too bad it couldn't help her also make more sense of the recent changes in her relationship with Mary as well she couldn't help but think to herself.

"You should be so glad that I'm not the Thorn anymore," Cassiopeia said in an annoyed voice even as she eagerly returned Clara's hug.

"Oh, stop it, Cass. You know you missed me," Clara said as she smiled at Cassiopeia in amusement.

"Of course I did . . . even if you can be one of the most annoying people in the universe sometimes," Cassiopeia admitted as the frown briefly left her face while she smiled at her.

"It really shows just how much that I love you that you're probably one of the few people that could get away with saying something like that to me without being slapped senseless," Clara said without her good-natured smile once leaving her face so that Cassiopeia would know that she wasn't actually serious.

That was when Clara looked at Shawn and laughed in amusement as she saw that he hadn't even so much as blinked since she had first entered the room.

"Earth to Shawn. Anybody home?" Clara said with a chuckle as she waved her hand in front of his still mesmerized looking face.

"He definitely seems to be heavily under Cassiopeia's spell," Mary said with a chuckle.

"You think? I haven't seen anyone with a big dopey look like that on their face since the last time that I saw Rose kiss the Doctor," Clara said with a giggle.

"The Doctor? Where?" Shawn suddenly said in a terrified voice as he finally snapped out of his trance like state at last.

"Relax, Shawn. Dad didn't see you staring at me like you've never seen a girl before," Cassiopeia said with a grin.

"I'm sorry, Cass. I didn't mean . . . I . . . You know I respect you, right? I just . . . You completely caught me off guard and well . . . you're just . . . wow!" Shawn said as he began to blush.

"I think I got the gist of all of that. Maybe," Clara joked as she laughed.

"Don't worry, Shawn. I understood it perfectly," Cassiopeia said with a warm smile as she kissed him.

"Clara, are you going to actually get to stay for a while this time around? Cassiopeia is not the only one who's missed you," Mary admitted with a soft smile as she wrapped her arm around Clara and pulled her close to her.

Clara immediately embraced her and kissed her cheek as she said to her with a devilish wink, "I'll do my best. Hopefully my little trick will keep the High Council distracted for a while so that they don't notice that I'm not actually there."

"What 'little trick'? What sort of trouble have you gotten yourself into now?" Mary asked as she began to grin at her.

"Nothing . . . so far and let's hope that it stays that way," Clara said with a barely repressed smile as she tried her best to appear innocent and failed completely.

"Clara, what did you do?" Cassiopeia said as she shook her head at her and tried very hard not to encourage her behavior by laughing.

She was the older sister who had to set an example for her now after all.

Clara finally began smiling again at last as her brief attempt at self-control immediately fell apart while she said, "I'm playing hooky for a while because I can't stand to be around those people for one more minute. So I got one of my echoes to temporarily stand in for me while I mentally tell her what to say whenever she needs help. Part of my mind is still listening to them drone on and on right now while I'm talking to you but the rest of me is free right now. I'm free! I'm actually doing a good thing here because if I stay there any longer I will hurt them. Badly."

As Cassiopeia rolled her eyes at her, Clara said, "You think I'm kidding don't you?"

"I know you're not. That's the only reason why I'm not giving you a disapproving look right now," Cassiopeia said with a sigh.

"Come on, Cass. Admit it. You think it's brilliant don't you? I don't care if we are sisters now. You can still be honest with me. It's not your job to be my role model just because you were born first plus technically I'm probably even older than you are anyway," Clara said with an encouraging smile.

Cassiopeia began openly smiling now as she said finally said, "Okay. It is brilliant. It's just so very you, isn't it? I definitely wouldn't want to be in your shoes if you get caught though."

She couldn't help it. Older sister or not, she was Clara's partner in crime and probably always would be.

"That's far better than having Clara commit multiple homicide, Cassiopeia, even if no one in the universe would possibly be able to blame her especially if they actually know the Council," The Doctor suddenly said from behind them.

"Was that an actual joke, Old Man?" Clara said as she instantly greeted him with a tight hug that made him cringe.

"Of course not. It was a simple statement of fact. Nothing more. I don't really have much of a sense of humor in this incarnation, Clara," The Doctor said with no change of expression whatsoever.

"Really? You can actually say that while you're wearing that magician's outfit of yours, Grimmy? You definitely have to have some kind of sense of humor to wear that thing out in public," Clara teased him.

"Was there something that you wanted, Dad? I'm sure you didn't come here just to get mercilessly picked on by Clara as fun as that always is to you," Cassiopeia said as she silently told Clara to stop behind the Doctor's back.

"Yes, I came here to take you and Mary along with me in the TARDIS. It's gotten a bit boring lately without Clara around. No one's slapped me in days now. Rose feels too sorry for me to do it herself I think," The Doctor admitted as he looked away from Clara.

Clara's smile covered her entire face now as she said with eyes filled with love, "I missed you too, Stick Man. I'll gladly take my annoying old man over those other even more annoying Time Lords any day."

The Doctor actually smiled for a moment as he said, "Well, then I suppose I might as well take you along too while you're here . . . if you're interested that is."

"Just try and stop me," Clara said as she hugged him tightly once more causing him to actually look properly happy for a brief moment.

"Don't worry, Clara. Even if the Council does find out what you did, I'll speak to them for you. It's worth it to keep him from having that extremely depressed look on his face all of the time," Rose said with a chuckle as she finally appeared next to the Doctor in a burst of energy and put her arms around him.

"How could you even tell if he was depressed or not with that stony expression of his, Bad Wolf Girl?" Clara asked as she winked at the Doctor.

"I was not depressed," The Doctor protested.

"Uh, huh. I believe you, Skeleton Man," Clara said with a smug look on her face.

Rose laughed as she said, "Don't you believe it. He looked like someone just told him that he could never have jelly babies again. He's really missed you whether he'll admit it or not."

"Well, we'll just have to do something about that then, won't we?" Clara said happily as she kissed the Doctor's cheek and gave him a warm smile.

The Doctor might have actually briefly had an expression in that moment but Shawn wasn't exactly sure. What he was sure of was that in the very next moment the Doctor was looking straight at him with an extremely angry look on his face that instantly made him cringe.

He knew! He had been watching after all. He had to have been.

"He's not invited though especially if he's going to be leering at my daughter the entire time," The Doctor said in the very next moment.

Even his eyebrows looked angry Shawn thought in terror. So much so that he half wondered if they might actually launch off of his face and come after him in a moment.

"Dad, he didn't mean anything by it. I just surprised him. That's all it was," Cassiopeia said as she quickly put herself in-between the two of them.

"I'm sorry, Doctor. I really am because I don't ever want Cass to think that her appearance is all that I care about. I love her for who she is on the inside," Shawn said more to Cassiopeia than the Doctor which instantly made her smile at him in approval.

"Yeah, but from what I saw you don't seem to mind her outside either though," Clara said with a giggle.

"Shut up. You're not helping," Cassiopeia hissed at her under her breath.

"I'm not trying to," Clara quipped with an evil smile.

"Clara, stop it," Mary whispered as she put a restraining hand on her arm.

"Fine," Clara said with a groan as she rested her head on Mary's shoulder while putting her arm around her.

Rose smiled at them with approval but said nothing despite the fact that Mary had actually done the impossible and gotten Clara to stop playfully teasing someone. She briefly locked eyes with Cassiopeia and Shawn though who both gave her a knowing look.

It was obvious to everyone there except for possibly the Doctor that Clara and Mary had started to become far more than friends since Erebus had tampered with their memories. Rose didn't think judging by the uneasy way that they sometimes acted around one another that they had actually developed a relationship with one another just yet, but she was sure that the feelings were there nonetheless.

It wasn't any of her business however so she wasn't about to say a word about it. Really. She wasn't.

Another person who had been more than sure that a budding relationship had developed between them was Danny Pink who Clara had slowly been drifting apart from since her death. Danny had instantly sensed this change in her mood Rose was sure and maybe the sense of desperation to hold onto their relationship that had surely developed in him as a result of this along with his own concern for her safety was what had finally led him to make a huge mistake. He had demanded that Clara stop traveling with her and the Doctor.

That had instantly ended their relationship on the spot because that was never going to happen.**

Rose couldn't help but wonder if Danny was right though because she had been consumed with guilt ever since Clara's death. Unlike Danny though, she knew that she was never going to convince Clara to stop traveling with them so this made her more determined than ever to keep her safe herself in the future by no longer holding back anymore against their enemies.

Rose didn't want to dwell on any of that for the moment though so she willingly ignored all of her concerns in favor of letting Clara have a well-deserved vacation from the stress of her new job as she said to the Doctor, "Why don't we let Clara decide where to go on this trip? It is her first one on the TARDIS together with Mary after all so she might just want to make it somewhere special."

"Why would she want to do that?" The Doctor asked her with a puzzled look.

"Utterly clueless," Rose muttered to herself in disbelief as she groaned.

Clara meanwhile actually looked properly embarrassed and looked away from Mary uncomfortably while saying nothing as Mary loudly cleared her throat and said, "Maybe we could go see Jane Austen once more. It's always nice to meet a fellow writer and Clara certainly seemed to get along quite well with her the last time that we met."

Clara looked even more embarrassed now as she said to Mary in a defensive tone, "That was an accident."

Mary smiled at her reassuringly as she said, "I know it was. You can't tell me that you didn't enjoy it though."

Clara laughed as she shrugged and said, "That's true. Definitely the best kiss I ever had bar none."

Then she gave Mary a pointed look as she said, "At least it is so far anyway."

Then she immediately looked embarrassed once more even as the Doctor asked, "What do you mean by that? Have you started developing the ability to see into the future like a Time Lord now?"

"No, I haven't. It was just something that I said. Don't worry about it, Doctor. It was nothing," Clara said dismissively.

"It sounded like something to me the way that you said it," The Doctor said in a persistent voice.

"I said drop it, Old Man," Clara said in a warning tone.

"Doctor, you'd better quit while you're ahead, yeah?" Rose advised.

The Doctor looked at her in confusion for a moment and then saw that she meant what she said so he immediately stopped. She smiled at him gratefully and immediately rewarded him with a tender kiss while Clara looked at her with infinite gratitude.

Rose couldn't help but notice that Mary gave Clara a clear look that said that they were definitely going to have to talk about this sometime soon. Clara seemed to completely ignore her however which definitely bothered Rose. That would spell trouble for her later on.

She still wasn't going to interfere though. Technically she was Ellie's daughter after all not hers even if she and Ellie were both the same person.

Besides she had made a promise to herself to stay out of her children's affairs from now on, and she was going to keep it.

"So are we going or not, Old Man? I think you've been crying over me long enough now," Clara asked with a wicked smile as she quickly changed the subject.

"I was not crying," The Doctor protested indignantly.

"You might as well have been. Every time you have to go without seeing Clara for longer than a day or two you completely fall apart. If she wasn't family that might actually make me just a bit jealous you know?" Rose said with a smirk as she playfully teased him.

"That's nothing compared to what I'd go through without you," The Doctor said in a completely serious voice.

"Nice save," Rose said as she swiftly kissed him in approval.

"So does this mean that I'm off the hook now?" Shawn whispered to Cassiopeia.

"It does if you'll shut up. Just keep quiet about it and let it all blow over. Usually Mum makes him forget about everything whenever she kisses him like that," Cassiopeia warned him.

Then she gave Clara an instant warning look when it looked like she might be about to say something that caused Clara to put up her hands in surrender and give her a 'Who, me?' expression of innocence in response.

Moments later Shawn quietly followed everyone else while they entered the TARDIS and made sure to avoid any and all eye contact with the Doctor as he did so. He definitely didn't ever want to get the look of death again if he could possibly help it.

Within minutes, the TARDIS had taken off and then quickly finished its journey back to see Jane Austen once again. The fact that they had arrived there in practically no time told Rose everything that she needed to know about exactly how desperate that the Doctor was to travel with Clara once more.

As soon as they landed, the TARDIS doors immediately swung open and Jane ran inside with a panicked look on her face as she said, "I've never been so glad to see someone in my life. How did you know that I needed you, Doctor? Are you already investigating the matter?"

The Doctor looked at her in surprise as he said, "I have no idea what you're talking about. I just came here because Clara wanted to see you again. She never stops talking about what a good kisser that you are."

Jane immediately gave her an awkward look as she said in a hesitant voice, "I don't want to hurt your feelings, Clara, but . . . "

"Say no more, Writer Girl. I'm not here expecting a reenactment if that's what you're worrying about. I just wanted to find someplace where I could have a nice, peaceful vacation away from a really, really bad situation for a while," Clara said as she gave her a reassuring smile.

"Then I fear that you have chosen the worst possible time in which to arrive. My life has been anything but nice and peaceful lately," Jane said in an anxious voice.

The Doctor and Clara instantly exchanged a pleased look with one another while Rose grinned in amusement at them as Clara said to a puzzled looking Jane, "You still don't know me very well yet or you'd realize that to me this kind of thing actually is peaceful. It definitely beats having to be Lady President any day of the week. So tell us all about it."

"I see now. You're just as bad as the Doctor about enjoying trouble, aren't you?" Jane said as she began to smile.

"Painfully so sometimes I'm afraid," Mary joked as she smiled at Clara fondly.

Jane nodded and then started to look extremely worried once more as she said, "Then I might as well tell you the whole story. I only hope that you'll be far more successful at coming up with a resolution to this nightmare than the local authorities have so far. It all started out a few days ago as just a simple prank at a ball that was being thrown at my house to celebrate one of our family friends having recently gotten his license to practice law."

"I see now. Some idiot didn't get the idea that it was all supposed to be in fun and decided to cause you some trouble over it. Not everyone has a good enough sense of humor to fully appreciate a good joke especially in this time period. We're just a few decades away from the Victorian Era after all, and they were definitely an uptight bunch. Queen Victoria never did get over Chinny trying her crown on just to see how it looked on him," The Doctor said with a deep frown.

Then he looked at Rose with a brief look of actual amusement as he said, "She was definitely not amused then."

Rose laughed as she said, "I bet. I wish I could have been there."

"Yes, you would have enjoyed it immensely. Amy threatened to knock me senseless after both of us were almost thrown in the Tower of London over the whole thing. Good thing Victoria didn't know who I was since I had a different face from Sand Shoes then or I'm sure that we would have been. Amy managed to somehow convince them that I was just a harmless idiot though and they let us both go," The Doctor said with yet another brief smile.

"Imagine that. I wonder how she pulled it off," Rose said as she struggled not to laugh.

"I have no idea," The Doctor said with no change of expression whatsoever.

"He's got to be secretly laughing right now despite the stone face. I know he does," Clara whispered to Mary who giggled.

Jane sighed as she said in an impatient voice, "Doctor, I have no idea who you're talking about right now, and I'm not really sure that I care. I have far more pressing matters to worry about than simply having someone become angry as a result of one of my pranks. I truly wish that was all that it was. What actually did happen however was far worse."

"Maybe it would help if you explained it to my Dad and Clara right now while you still can. They both tend to have a very short attention span I'm afraid," Cassiopeia said with an evil smile causing Clara to immediately shoot her a dirty look in response.

"I have no idea what she means. Please go ahead though," The Doctor said as he looked more than a bit miffed.

Jane immediately shook her head at all of them and then started to explain what had happened once more as she said, "I thought that it might be fun to briefly bring to life a local legend around this area in order to put a quick fright into my family's guest of honor. I had heard several ghost stories about a phantom hitchhiker wandering the roads of this area looking for a way back home. She would always disappear though just before reaching her destination leaving whatever charitable soul who had tried to take her home completely mystified until later when he would discover that she had died years ago after he went to the address that she mentioned. I thought that I could get a friend of mine to pretend to be this hitchhiker and ask our guest of honor to take her home the night before the ball. Later on she would create some sort of distraction and disappear from his carriage after giving him the address of another friend of mine who would tell him a false story about her being dead. Then I would tell him the truth later on at the ball, and we would all enjoy a good laugh at the whole thing. Unfortunately things didn't quite turn out that way."

She began to shake with emotion then which caused Clara to immediately put a sympathetic hand on her shoulder as she said, "It's okay. Take your time."

Jane nodded and then took a deep breath to calm herself before she said, "The joke went along smoothly at first and my friend who played the 'ghost' said that she disappeared from our guest of honor's carriage right on schedule after making sure that he knew exactly where he was supposed to go next. That was when things first started to go horribly wrong as he arrived at the house of my second friend hours later in an almost demented condition raving about the hitchhiker having attacked and nearly killed him when he found her and picked her up again a second time. I can prove that it wasn't my friend who did this though because she was with me telling me the whole story of what she had done when he claims that he was attacked."

"It sounds just like a simple case of mistaken identity so far, but then things are never quite as simple as they seem at first glance I've found," The Doctor said with a thoughtful look on his face.

Jane shivered once more as she said, "This whole matter is far from simple. You see my guest of honor's case wasn't the only such incident. There have been half a dozen other people attacked by the 'phantom hitchhiker' since that day, and all of them were left in a deranged condition afterwards just as my guest of honor was. It's a condition that I'm sad to say that none of them have recovered from at the present time. It just keeps happening over and over again, Doctor, and it almost seems as if I somehow started it all. We have to discover exactly what's happening and put a stop to it as soon as possible before someone finally ends up dead."

"Surely you don't think that you caused this," The Doctor said as he gave her a sympathetic look.

"I hardly know what to think. The 'ghost' in the stories had never attacked her victims before I started my prank. What other conclusion can I draw but that I somehow inspired whoever or whatever this is to start their unholy campaign of terror?" Jane said in a mournful tone.

"Whatever's happening here I'm certain that it has nothing whatsoever to do with you, but if it will put your mind at ease I'll look into it right away," The Doctor offered as he began to scan the area with his sonic screwdriver.

"If you could do that, Doctor, you would relieve such a burden from my shoulders. It's been weighing heavily on my heart for weeks now that I could have somehow been responsible for such things," Jane said in a now hopeful voice.

"No, it definitely wasn't you but I think I know what it actually was," The Doctor said with a concerned look as he studied the readings on his sonic intently.

"Well, that was quick, Old Man. Usually it takes a while before you'll tell us anything about what you know," Clara noted in disbelief.

"In this case, letting everyone know about what's going on will give the thing behind all of this less psychic energy to work with in order to carry out its plan. The less that it has, then the easier that it will be to defeat it. I hope," The Doctor said with a worried look.

"Wait a minute. This whole thing sounds familiar to me. So we're dealing with a being that uses psychic energy to create ghostly beings from the past to appear in the present day. It kind of sounds like the Malus, that war machine that fed off of hate and anger and then converted it into psychic energy that it would use to attack people," Shawn said with a pleased smile on his face.

"The Malus? Wasn't that a Hakolian invention?" Cassiopeia asked her father thoughtfully.

"Yes, it was part of an invasion that thankfully never happened. I came across it in a place called Little Hodcombe back when I was Celery Boy. It was completely destroyed though. The energy readings that I'm receiving in this area seem far too similar to it to be a coincidence however," The Doctor explained.

Cassiopeia nodded as she said, "The Hakolians invented many different kinds of war machines if I remember correctly. The Malus fed off of hate and anger but there were others that fed off of the fear and despair created by their psychic projections. Then they used the energy that they gathered from these emotions to grow stronger. They could eventually become so powerful that they could cause people to go permanently mad with fear and possibly even frighten them to death. They were a horrible weapon because they could wipe out entire armies with just the power of fear alone without a single shot being fired against them. I read all about them in Madame Kovarian's files once. She thought that they might be useful to the Silence's future plans but as far as I know she never actually found one though. They were all supposed to have been lost or destroyed centuries ago."

"Apparently one of them has been found and somehow reactivated," The Doctor said as he began to use the sonic to scan the area once again.

"It must have been the fear caused by my prank that brought this horror to life again," Jane said with a guilty expression.

The Doctor immediately shook his head though as he said, "No, I don't think so. It would require a level of emotion of great intensity to reactive such a machine. In the Malus' case, it was a nearby battle that first brought it back to life and then centuries later a reenactment of that same battle. It would have to be something on that level."

"What could generate that level of fear and terror though?" Rose asked as she tried to use her powers to find an answer but found nothing.

That in itself bothered her because she couldn't even read the timeline of the local era to even allow her to see what happened to the hapless travelers. That was when she knew that something was very, very wrong here.

"You're being blocked from seeing it, aren't you? Then there's definitely an unseen intelligence behind all of this. There has to be. This war machine suddenly waking up when it did was no coincidence," The Doctor said in a voice filled with growing concern.

Rose shook her head as she said, "No, I don't think so either and I don't think that it was brought back just to scare a few unlucky people into madness. It seems to be slowly using them to reenergize itself for some reason, and I'm sure that it's not to do anything good, yeah?"

The Doctor then suddenly turned to Jane and said, "I think your guest was in the wrong place at the wrong time just as this creature was reactivated and it picked him for its first victim. Now it's using the fear caused by that first attack against others in this area in order to regain its strength and power by perpetuating the legend of this so-called 'ghost'. I have to find it right away before it regains its full strength or it could easily wipe out this entire area by creating a condition of mass hysteria in the minds of everyone here."

"How do we even begin to do that though?" Clara asked.

The Doctor actually smiled now as he said, "We'll just have to give the creature another victim to attack in order to draw it out into the open so that we can find it, won't we?"

"I really don't like that look on your face right now, Old Man. That always means trouble. Let me guess. I'm the bait, right?" Clara said with a grin of anticipation.

"That depends. Did all of these victims have something in common?" The Doctor said as he suddenly turned to Jane once more.

"Yes, they were all men just like in the original ghost stories. The men would pick up the hitchhiker and try to take her home. Then they would be attacked by her," Jane explained.

"So it probably wouldn't attack Clara then. That means that a man has to be the bait," The Doctor said.

"That's not fair. It's just my luck that I have to run across a sexist war machine," Clara said in a disappointed voice.

"You actually wanted to be attacked?" Shawn said with a grin.

"It's still better than dealing with the Council. At least the 'ghost' is attacking you to your face instead of behind your back," Clara said with a shrug.

"Unfortunately you can't be the bait this time, Clara. Maybe next time," The Doctor said reassuringly.

"Promises, promises," Clara joked.

"So who is going to be the bait then? You?" Shawn asked the Doctor curiously.

The Doctor now gave him a small smile as he said, "No, I think I have a much better choice in mind. All of the victims were probably much younger men than me weren't they, Jane?"

"Yes, they were," Jane said as she began to give Shawn a look of regret.

"What?" Shawn said as he still didn't quite get it just yet.

The Doctor now put his arm around Shawn and said, "I knew that you would come in handy one day, and you don't even have to have a brain in order to carry this plan out. You'll work perfectly just as you are. The 'ghost' will never suspect a thing with you as the bait. It'll automatically know that you're nowhere near intelligent enough to pose a real threat to it."

"Dad!" Cassiopeia protested.

"We need his help, Cass. He's the only one in our group who matches the description of the victims," The Doctor argued.

"Yeah, and the fact that you've never liked him has nothing whatsoever to do with it, huh?" Cassiopeia replied with a frown.

"It definitely doesn't hurt," The Doctor said honestly.

"This is payback for what happened earlier isn't it? Alright. What do I have to do?" Shawn said with a deep groan.

*See recent chapters of Oswin Oswald, Time's Guardian if you want to know more.

**See Chapter 5 of The Impossible Adventures of Clara Oswald.

Next: The Doctor gleefully uses Shawn as the bait in his trap for the mysterious war machine that's been preying on the fears of the local population. Will his plan work in drawing out the creature and what will happen to Shawn if it does? Who or what did reactivate the war machine anyway and what is its ultimate goal? The Doctor may not like the answers that he finds and I have a feeling that Shawn definitely won't. Sometimes it really doesn't pay to date the Doctor's daughter, does it?

I don't get it. He was never this hard on Patrick when he was dating Jenny.