"Ah! Ireland. Twenty-first century, if I'm not wrong."

Valkyrie stared at the man in front of her. He had appeared just a little while ago in the middle of her escape. She had heard a weird noise when she was running away from some vampires, and practically ran straight into him when he stepped out of a blue box of all things. He sort of reminded her of Skulduggery: tall, skinny, mysterious, a bit of a know-it-all, and strange.

Suddenly, she heard the telltale pants of the three monsters behind her, and she remembered why she was out of breath. She began to run again, but realized that the man was following her. She cursed, and shoved him to the side.

He looked momentarily surprised, before catching up to her. She hoisted herself over a barred chain link fence, expecting the man to leave, but surprisingly, he somehow unlocked the gate like Tanith.

Valkyrie raised an eyebrow. So the man was a sorcerer. That would explain how he got here. But he still had to go. She wouldn't let him be killed by vampires because he wouldn't get out of the way. She continued to make her way towards the pier, hoping to lose him on her way through the woods.

Unfortunately, it was too late. They were already catching up to her, and it seemed like the only course of action was to throw him into the water with her. As Valkyrie neared the pier, she splayed her hand, sending the brown-haired man into the salt water. His eyes opened wide in shock for a split-second before his head went underwater; Valkyrie hoped that the man could swim before diving into the frigid water as well.

She noticed him trying to reach the surface, but she shoved his head down, gesturing for him to wait until the vampires left. He gave a slight nod, and they waited silently for another few seconds before throwing themselves onto the pier, spluttering for air.

"Well. That was a type of hematophagous Chiroptera-Homo Sapiens I've never encountered before."

Valkyrie somehow managed to give him the, 'speak English, please' look while using her magic to remove most of the water from her hair.

"Blood-sucking bat-human. Vampire, as you humans call 'em."

"'You humans'? What's that supposed to mean? You an alien or something?" Valkyrie demanded suspiciously.

"Actually, yes."

"Su-u-u-re. And my best friend's a skeleton."

"You don't believe me."

"No, really. My best friend's a skeleton."

The man frowned for a second.

"Anyways, who are you?" Valkyrie demanded.

"I'm the Doctor."

"Doctor what?"

"Just the Doctor." His eyes held a far away look in them, as if he was remembering someone that he could never see again.

Valkyrie nodded. It wasn't the strangest name she had heard.

"I'm Valkyrie Cain."

The Doctor seemed to regain his composure, and got up, shaking the water out of his hair.

"Well, Valkyrie Cain, it was nice meeting you. Now, I've got somewhere to get to..."

Valkyrie leapt up.

"Hold on! You can't just go running off like this."

The Doctor gave her a sad smile.

"Yes I can. This is me, running off like always. Never staying."

"And where exactly are you going to go? There's no way that you'll be able to make to back to that blue box of yours without running into more vampires. You were pretty much useless back there. I'm pretty sure that I deserve a thank you at the very least. I did save your life."

The Doctor laughed.

"Well, thank you."

He turned to leave.

"I'm coming with you." She amended that statement, adding, "Not to stay, just to make sure that you don't kill yourself."

The Doctor stared at her, then smiled a genuine smile.

"Well then! Off we go. Allons-y!"

Valkyrie followed him down a dark alley. He was playing with a screwdriver-type thing.

"How do you know where your box is?"

"TARDIS."

"A what?"

"Time and Relative Dimension in Space."

"A time machine."

The Doctor paused.

"It travels through space, too."

"We have teleporters for that."

"Well, you're mighty hard to impress, aren't you?"

Valkyrie grinned.

"I've seen too much to be surprised anymore, and I've got hundreds of years more of strange things to encounter."

The Doctor looked at her oddly.

"Hundreds of years?"

"Yeah..."

They turned around another to a small corner where the box was sitting.

"Huh. No vampires." Valkyrie muttered. She just hoped that Skulduggery had gotten rid of his share this time around; it would be annoying if she had to fight a whole lot of them. The Doctor took out some keys and unlocked the door.

Skulduggery hadn't. A bunch of vampires ran around the corner.

The door opened.

"In! Get in now!"

Valkyrie hastily followed the Doctor's order. The two collapsed inside of the box, breathing heavily as they heard the vampires trying to get in.

Valkyrie looked around the TARDIS.

"It's bigger on the inside," was all that she could manage. The walls were curved, and there was some sort of console in the center of it all. A picture of a girl was taped to one of the walls.

"Yes it is," the Doctor agreed happily. He toggled with something on a huge hunk of junk in the middle of the room, and Valkyrie heard the same noise from earlier echo throughout the box. The noise outside subsided, and Valkyrie opened the door again.

"We're in front of my house."

The Doctor looked up.

"So we are."

Valkyrie hesitated.

"Where will you go now?"

The Doctor shrugged.

"Here, there, anywhere in the universe that needs me."

Valkyrie nodded.

"You know... You could come with me. See the whole galaxy. Be my companion."

Valkyrie froze.

"I'm sorry, but... I'm already somebody's... um... companion."

He nodded.

"Yeah... Okay. See you around."

She stepped outside. Skulduggery was waiting in the Bentley.

"Doctor?"

He turned.

"Don't go running forever, all right? You'll find her."

He smiled.

She shut the door, and didn't look back.