A series of shrieks sounded from ahead of them and the three women drew together, forming a loose triangle.

"Remember," Rachel said, her voice beginning to change pitch, "All the kids will be in a hypnotic state by now. And I'm not interested in protecting the jackass that brought this down on our heads. Don't worry about the Veil."

And so, the Krillitanes were quite startled, upon rounding the corner, to be met by three gigantic, snarling, armed creatures, as they'd never seen a Crinos Garou or Bastet.

They hesitated for only a few moments, but that was more than their opponents needed. In a matter of seconds, most of them were in pieces. Soon Finch and one other remained, and they could only blink in horror – their opponents had been a blur, they'd moved so quickly. Terrified that these creatures, which appeared to have power over time, were in service to the Doctor, the remaining Krillitanes turned to fly away. But as Finch finally dropped his illusion, two blades sliced through his wings. As he turned back with a shriek, he saw that his compatriot had already been gutted like a fish. And the last thing he saw was a huge, open mouth descending toward his head.


"It's got to be children," the Doctor was telling Rose and Sarah Jane, deeply disturbed by the Krillitanes' plans. "The God-maker needs imagination to crack it. They're not just using the children's brains to break the code. They're using their souls."

The sound of shattering glass split the silence that followed the Doctor's words. It was followed shortly by the Krillitanes' shrieking, then something that sounded like the yowl of a big cat and a wolf's howl. Not missing a beat, the Doctor and Rose caught each other's eye, grinned and took off running, with Sarah Jane only a step behind.

The shrieking lasted less than half a minute, and as the school went silent, the Doctor, Rose and Sarah Jane slowed, and then stopped.

"This way, I think," the Doctor whispered after a few moments, and took a few steps, but then stopped again abruptly and looked to his left. "K-9?"

"Affirmative master," intoned K-9 as he and Mickey came into view. "I am detecting three life forms approximately eighty meters down this corridor."

"Good boy," the Doctor mumbled distractedly as he began to move soundlessly, Rose's hand subconsciously finding his as they walked. A few moments later, as an American voice drifted down the corridor, he glanced back toward the others, pressing a finger to his lips, and gripped Rose's hand more tightly as they crept quietly, listening intently.


"Gross, Venus. You don't know where that thing had been," Rachel commented, stepping around entrails as she cleaned her sword.

"Didn't eat it, did I? Spat it out. Gross is right, by the way." Venus laughed as she wiped her mouth with a cloth. "And hey, why'd we need a plan anyway? That was hella easy. What the hell were those things? Didn't even move fast."

"Venus is right. That was hardly what I was expecting," Ami commented in her soft voice. "What sort of wyrm-creature seems surprised by the appearance of Garou or Bastet?"

The Doctor, Rose, and the others, meanwhile, gaped unnoticed at the scene before them, unsure whether to be more disturbed by the carnage itself, or by the three American women calmly having a chat in the middle of the grisly scene while they cleaned their weapons.

"Maybe they thought your spots were pretty," Venus responded, a smirk on her perfect face. "They were distracted by the cute kitty."

Ami rolled her eyes. "More likely you were what startled them. It's not every day you see a Crinos Garou that looks like a big Chihuahua."

"I'm so gonna kill whoever started that. Just 'cause I don't have hair doesn't mean I look like a…" Venus trailed off, finally noticing their gaping spectators. "Hey, what do you know; it's the idiot, and he brought friends."

Unsurprisingly, the Doctor found his tongue first, though an odd expression flit across his face before he spoke. "Mickey, I see your reputation precedes you."

"Who was talking about him, dumbass?" she retorted. But then she looked at the him in question and raised one tattooed eyebrow in appreciation.

"Oh I see. My mistake," Venus said cheekily. "Hey there cutie."

"Down girl," Ami warned. At Venus' glare, she amended, "At least lay off the flirting until after you clean up. I believe blood spatter tends to be a turn-off. Rachel?" She paused, then looked around. "Oh, she must have gone to free the children. Don't suppose you lot want to stick around for monster cleanup, what with this being your fault and all."

At first, the Doctor could manage only an affronted, "What?" But he soon snapped out of it. "I beg your pardon? My fault? I don't seem to recall phoning up the Krillitanes and saying, 'Hello, how've you been? Fancy coming to Earth and eating some locals?' And swords! What's with swords? Who uses swords in 2006?"

"Actually," Rose interjected, "You fought the Sycorax leader with a sword just this Christmas."

"Well yeah," he admitted, drawing the word out so that it seemed to have several syllables. "But that's, well," he paused, "actually a very good point. Oooh, did I start a trend? Fight aliens with swords, is it? Because it's not generally considered a good method, though clearly…effective…in this case."

"Aliens?" asked Venus sharply. "As in…these were aliens? Dude, you know this means that we all owe Sev five quid. He said it wasn't a hoax, that rat bastard." Inexplicably, she affected a Boston accent for the last two words, then continued normally. "So, these weren't fomori or banes at all, then, but aliens. Huh, is that maybe why they were so easy to take out? I'm Venus, by the way. That's Ami and like she said, Rachel scampered off to…" she trailed off as all the power to the school shut down. "Do that, actually."

"Don't suppose you've got a cover story prepared?" Ami asked as scuffing sounds began to filter down from upstairs.

The Doctor was still eying Venus strangely, but he appeared to overcome his discomfort in a few moments. "Right then, first things first. I'm the Doctor, this is Rose, Sarah Jane, K-9, and, uh, that's Mickey. Now, can we get back to the part where you think this is my fault?"

"Well," Ami replied, "You breezed in here, apparently without a plan, unless that attempt at undercover was your plan, and…"

"What was wrong with our cover?" Rose cut in, defending the Doctor. "Got us in, didn't it?"

"Dude, I've seen Bond suck less at undercover," Venus stated. "And Austin Powers sucked only a little harder at it. Besides, our in was better. Ami lives just across the street and her daughter's the same age as the kids here. We came in for a couple of meetings with Headmaster Sociopath; he's the one missing his head, and said we were thinking of having Jasmine transfer here. By the way Ami, why don't you find an actual guy to pretend to be your partner, I hate playing gay."

"Yeah, well, I'm sorry you make such a good stereotype when you lose the wig," Ami replied, tugging on said wig.

"Whatever," Venus muttered, batting away Ami's hand, uninterested in the excuses.

"At any rate," Ami began, picking up the story. "When we toured the school, it became clear that something was very wrong. And since Finch suggested more than once that we should try the chips, we took a few with us and ran tests. They were inconclusive, but that oil is bizarre stuff. Actually, now that we know it's alien, the test results make a lot more sense. We also caught a few glimpses of wings and scales, but couldn't tell if their human appearance was just an illusion or an actual transformation. And we'd assumed they'd be tough to kill, so I called in Rachel, and we were waiting for a couple more reinforcements when you showed up."

"Speak of the devil," Venus said, as Severus Snape strode purposely toward them. "Got your wife's message okay then? She's just upstairs getting the children together. Don't suppose you could make this mess go poof before a couple hundred kids get traumatized by it? Or would it be too out of character for you to spare kids trauma?"

Severus narrowed his eyes at her, but merely pointed his wand. "Reducto!" reduced the remains to ash, and after a quick "Scourgify!" even that vanished.

"Sev, don't suppose you could spare a couple more cleaning spells? You know, over our way?"

A couple flicks of the wand later, Venus and Ami were spotless as well.

"Cheers, mate," Venus said in a passable British accent as Ami's mobile phone began to ring.

Ami glanced at the ID and answered, "Yes Rachel… Yes, it's safe to bring the kids out now. Severus showed up and cleaned up for us… Yep, bye."

Meanwhile, a whispered conversation was taking place.

"Magic's real! Why didn't you tell me magic's real?" Rose hissed.

"Because it isn't. Not here anyway. That's not how humans…wait, did she say Severus? And those spells, those were right out of…" The Doctor trailed off, looking stunned, but then Ami hung up the phone, and he spoke aloud. "Severus? Severus Snape? JK Rowling was writing non-fiction?" he asked incredulously.

Ami raised an eyebrow, but then shrugged. "Just the first four actually. The last three had to be largely fictionalized. Why do you think the first four came out so quickly and the others took forever? Well, are taking forever I should say. She hasn't even finished the last one yet."

The look Venus sent Ami then said, quite clearly, 'You've lost your mind.' Out loud, she simply said, "Um, why are you telling them that stuff?"

"What? Severus is going to Obliviate them anyway. It hardly matters," Ami said with a shrug.

"You sure about that, genius?" Venus scoffed. "You think Obliviate even works on aliens?"

To the Doctor, Venus added, "So, does that second heart come in handy for anything? Or is it just for show?"

"Whoa, how'd you do that then?" Mickey asked.

"Oh, you're good," the Doctor declared, grinning.

"X-ray vision, baby," Venus replied, waggling her eyebrows at Mickey. "And you have no idea," she added to the Doctor.

"Oh, you'd be surprised," the Doctor muttered.

"She's a bit like Captain Jack, eh Doctor? Except that she doesn't like girls," Rose whispered, her tongue poking out between her teeth.

Ami sighed in annoyance and cut into the conversation. "So what brings you to Earth? I'll assume it's not just sightseeing. If you were trying to stop those things from using the children as sentient computers and fought those creatures from last Christmas, presumably that would make you allies of some sort."

There was a break in the conversation as the school kids marched double file through the hall. Rachel, who was at the tail end, paused to press a kiss to her husband's lips, and then turned to the Doctor. "You're the only surviving faculty member of this school. Come up with something to tell the parents. And since it's really your fault that the staff is dead, make the story very, very good."

She stalked off, her husband and Sarah Jane following close behind.

The Doctor, for his part, looked as though he was going to be ill.

Rose, however, looked angry. "Still don't know what you lot are blaming us for. 'S not like you couldn't have spoken to us, and communicated that you had a plan. 'S hardly our fault that your lot just stood back and watched it all go wrong, is it?"

"Don't Rose," the Doctor said, sounding resigned. "How were they to know that we were trustworthy? Besides, she's right, isn't she? If I hadn't been so arrogant, ordered Finch to stop what he was doing or reap the consequences…" he paused and scrubbed his hands over his face, and then through his hair, "All those teachers would still be alive if I'd just…"

"Man, don't beat your self up so damn much," Venus said, looking ashamed. "I'm sorry we all came down on you like this. I mean really, it's way fair to say that there's plenty blame to go around. Rachel, for one, just cannot deal with unknown variables that screw up her meticulous little plans. I've been tellin' her for years that they have pills to deal with OCD, but whatever. And that just now, the barking out orders and expecting to be obeyed without question, well she really didn't need to pick that personality trait up from her husband. I wouldn't want to be one of their kids, that's for damn sure. Growin' up at Hogwarts, though, has got to rock pretty hardcore."

"You're really telling us that Harry Potter's real, and that that was Severus Snape? Married, and with kids, and…and…" The Doctor hesitated, wanting to say 'alive,' but knowing that the final book had yet to be published. Fiction or not, he didn't want to spoil the story for the others.

"Yeah, well, you heard Ami," Venus shrugged. "The last three had to be partly made up. We didn't even get to be in 'em. I still don't get why she couldn't of just made us witches."

Ami sighed and rolled her eyes. "Yes, that's because you were in the States, making bad choices, when we were having meetings with Jo."

All Venus' confidence and bravado dried up in the blink of an eye; she suddenly looked like a small child who'd just been slapped by her mother. Her voice, when she spoke, was small and hurt, with the hoarseness of unshed tears. "If you wanted to get rid of me, there was a less shitty way to do it."

As Venus stormed off, shoulders hunched, Ami bowed her head, regretting her careless words.

Rose shot Ami a bit of a dirty look, squeezed the Doctor's hand and cocked her head toward Venus' rapidly departing form. The Doctor nodded, and Rose went after her. Mickey, unsurprisingly, followed after Rose.