"Darian," Star said, looking at a watch that hadn't been on her wrist a minute ago "hurry up with the explanation. The time freeze won't last us forever, and there's still that other thing that needs to be taken care of."

"I don't see what needs to be explained, except that we have to accept the fact that there's no running away from this fight" Darian said with a yawn "so you either have the option of sitting back and letting some professionals take care of this or fight for yourselves with our help. Any objections?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"Right now, time freeze ending in 3… 2… and a 1"

The soldiers started moving again, some of them falling from their original positions and landing on the ground with a thud! Others took a moment to look around, confused, realizing that their targets had moved.

"Everyone, stick together!" Darian called over the roar of the spell she was forming "It's alright to split up in other battle situations, but not when you're outnumbered by this much!" She let the spell go, and a wave of magic spread out and knocked the soldiers back.

"CHARGE!" Star cried, and everyone went into the fray.

"Again, with the doing nothing" Alice muttered

The Doctor shrugged. "This isn't really my department, I think something bad would happen if I did try and do something."

"Meh"

They watched the fight with mild interest.

"Can we just go?" Alice asked

"Don't know where the TARDIS is, remember"

"Have you ever lost it before?"

"Well… no…"

"Then shouldn't we be able to find it?"

He said nothing.

"You want to help don't you?" She turned to look at him, only to realize that he wasn't there. "Doctor? Where'd you go?"

"You alright?" the Doctor asked, looking at the girl. If he remembered correctly, her name was Star. She was clutching her side, as if in pain.

"Don't touch me" she hissed

"I can help"

"No, you can't"

"Listen, I'm a doctor"

"Doesn't matter, you won't be able to help" she said, teeth clenched. "Now get away from me, I can't hold it in much longer."

"Hold what in?"

"GET BACK!" Star shouted

"Okay, okay" the Doctor muttered, and backed up a few paces. She glared at him, and he backed up even more.

The girl exploded with energy, knocking the Doctor back a few feet from the blast. It looked about as violent his regeneration was between his tenth and eleventh incarnation, except regeneration wasn't involved.

"GET DOWN!" Darian cried, about a fight away. Everyone who had the smarts to listen did, and the wave of energy spared them. The soldiers though, not so much. Everyone except Darian and the Doctor were cheering, considering all the soldiers were dead or at least down for the count.

"STAR, GOSH DARNIT!" Darian yelled "I thought you had you had stopped doing that!"

"So did I" Star groaned

"She alright?" the Doctor asked

"I think so" Darian replied, kneeling down next to her friend. She propped Star up in a sitting position.

"On the bright side, all the soldiers are dead" Star said

"Yeah, that is good. Can you stand?"

"Can you get back to me on that?"

Darian smiled and stood up, looking at the Doctor. Alice had wandered over, along with Samuel and a few of the other kids who weren't busy doing something else.

"Okay," Darian said, looking at all of them. "I would like to know who all of you are. You must be pretty important if we were called here."

"I'm Samuel"

"Doesn't ring a bell, sorry. Now you," Darian poked the Doctor, "you're different. What's your name?"

"I'm the Doctor" the Doctor said, holding out his hand for Darian to shake.

Darian's jaw dropped. "No way…" she said.

Star, who was back on her feet, laughed. "I can see why you had a crush on him" she said, punching her friend in the shoulder.

"I did not!" Darian said quickly

"Mmhmm" Star said, not believing her one bit.

"Have we met?" the Doctor asked

"No" Darian said, looking the Doctor over. "What incarnation are you on?"

"My last…" the Doctor replied slowly.

"Really now" Darian squinted. "I guess that explains why I didn't recognize you… but… I don't know, there's something… telling me… that I should know you…" her eyes widened a bit with worry, and then she turned to Alice and all worry fell from her face. "You're Alice" she said.

"How did you know that?" Alice asked

Darian just laughed. "I knew you back when… oh wait," her smile fell, "that's your future. Sorry… I hate prequels. Anyways, it's great to meet you. Brilliant in fact" she laughed.

"I have to ask, mainly because I get extremely curious, but what happened to Star a minute ago?" the Doctor said

"Energy burst" Star replied. A bit of recognition, interest, and sympathy flashed through Samuel's eyes. "My body tends to produce too much energy at once. The energy's got to go somewhere eventually, and without a proper output that has something to receive the energy on the other side, it just kind of explodes out of me."

"I still don't know why it happened, I could have sworn we fixed that" Darian muttered.

"You've still got the key" Star told her.

"Sorry!" Darian fished a bluish key on a string out of her pocket and handed it to Star. Star took the key and hung it around her neck.

"When you say energy, you mean magic don't you?" the Doctor asked

"Course I do" Star replied. The Doctor grimaced.

"He doesn't believe in magic" Alice informed them.

Darian gasped. "I would never have thought! You, Doctor, of all people! Not believing in magic!" she shook her head sadly. "I can't believe it. You just weigh out to be an Abnormal! I'm ashamed!"

"There isn't such thing as magic!" the Doctor said firmly

"No, Doctor, there isn't" Darian said "but only because you don't believe it. Though, why you don't is a good question. What about the Carrionites? They used 'witchcraft' didn't they?"

"That was linguistic science"

"No, that was linguistic magic. Very reliable actually, words are powerful things. Besides, isn't regeneration, I don't know, magical, in a sense? Changing your face, behavior, becoming a new man?"

"Now that's different!"

"No, I don't think it is. Sorry Doctor, but I've got you out smarted, and I could go on for days discussing this." Darian glanced at a pocket watch. "Of course, I can't though, because we've got something else to do. Come on Star!"

The two of them disappeared, leaving everyone else there totally confused.

"I liked her," Alice said after a moment "she was funny."

"Yeah, whatever" the Doctor muttered "let's just go back to the TARDIS."