Author's Note: Hey everyone, welcome back!
We begin this story with the Ninth Seo (she isn't dead at the end of this chapter, don't worry! We've got more 9th Seo to go). The next chapter, we'll be getting a continuation of the Tenth Seo's story, which we've already caught glimpses of throughout this Season.
Then, we'll get all the others.
We will also, as is hinted here and will become abundantly clear very soon, be getting a unique glimpse at who Glorificus was before she wound up going crazy in Sunnydale, trapped in Ben Wilkinson. You'll also get to see a little more of where Glory came from and what happened during her war with the other two.
I hope you like reading this story as much as I liked writing it. This one was fun.
Enjoy!
How is a god born?
It is said that in a Garden far beyond the limits of our own reality, a thousand kinds of flora grow — in response to and in tune with the universe itself. The Garden tells the story of reality, and reality adopts its patterns from the Garden.
The future rustles in its leaves.
The past lingers in its shadows.
And it's also said that within this Garden, a thousand years ago, three flowers blossomed. Flowers which birthed three gods — powerful beyond belief.
We have no words, in our reality, to describe these gods.
Except for one.
We call her Glorificus.
The Ninth Seo stepped out onto the surface of the Earth. Did a quick scan using the new little gizmo she had bought on Tresus Major, and now wore around her wrist. Neat little thing, lots of green lights — cheery and bright!
Checked the results of the scan. Grinned to herself. "Right place, and they've only had a five minute head start!" She clapped the scan device shut. "Next step? Find a dashing companion who'll ask lots of questions and applaud my every move."
She turned around. Found a very cute — if a little geeky — bloke standing a short ways away. Examining her ship, Oliver, with utter fascination and wonder in his eyes.
"And we have a winner," Seo said.
"So... explain this again," said the cute bloke — whose name turned out to be Diggory. "I thought you said you were only five minutes behind them."
"That's what I thought."
"But actually," said Diggory, "they've been here... five years?!"
"Oi!" Seo protested, turning on him. Her long black hair flashed in the sunlight. "Cosmically speaking, five minutes and five years are very close together."
"The difference being that it takes me five minutes to have a cup of coffee," said Diggory. He pointed at the Vestulon of Craeo, the modern art sculpture that had just finished being constructed. "While it takes this city five years to put up something like that."
Seo sighed. Hands on her hips. "Listen. Do you want to help me very cleverly foil all this lot's plans? Or are you just content to point fingers at my slightly inaccurate timekeeping?"
Diggory shrugged. "I'm just saying, after five years... how would we even know where to start looking for them?"
Seo thought a moment.
Then spun around, and pointed at the Vestulon of Craeo. "There."
"The sculpture?" said Diggory.
Seo shot him a half-grin. "Sculpture?" she said, strolling off. "All that human evolution, and you lot still have no idea when a sculpture isn't actually a sculpture at all!"
"We'll make sure you suffer for this, Seo!" shouted one of the Andromedans, banging against the lid of the cryo-sleep chamber. "If it's... the... last..."
Then he nodded off to sleep.
Seo beamed. Turned to the robot she'd reprogrammed. "And you," she said. "You've got your instructions. Right?"
"Affirmative," said the robot.
Seo turned. "Brilliant!" she declared. Taking Diggory by the hand and leading him out of the bunker. "In which case, I think everything's just about wrapped up. All I have to do is just take a look-see at..." she reached into her pocket, and produced the object she'd just retrieved from the aliens, "this!"
For the first time, Diggory got to really examine it closely. He frowned. It didn't seem the kind of object that would cause three alien thieves and a time-space superhero to fight over. It looked more like... a lump of rock.
"What is it?" Diggory asked.
"Just a fragment," Seo replied, hooking it up to some wires that snaked out from her wrist gizmo. "From a destroyed artifact. I've been making a sweep, recently, trying to gather up all the pieces. Make sure they don't fall into the wrong hands."
Which still didn't explain what it was a fragment of.
But at least it was something vaguely resembling an explanation.
"Funny, though," Seo muttered, as the wrist gizmo lit up, and a series of data flipped through the air just in front of her — too fast for Diggory to read. "Normally they're in museums or mislabeled as moon rocks. Yet this one seemed to appear out of nowhere."
"But what's it a fragment of?" Diggory asked. "And why are people so eager to get their hands on it?"
"Why? Not a clue," said Seo, stifling a yawn. "All looks like the same drivel to me. Rather read Jane Austen, personally. But every so often you get a few tidbits that are dangerous. Never can tell."
"And this one?"
"Nothing dangerous that I can see," said Seo. She sighed, as the data kept scrolling past. "Yada yada yada. In the year 2430, someone named Pado hurts his knee about three galaxies from here." Kept letting it scroll through. "Elections. Elections again. More about elections. Political disgrace, Lizard-kings on Serius 4, blah, blah, blah, blah, electric ice skating, a judicial trial, blah, blah…" Then she blinked. Her eyes went wide. "Wait! Wait!"
The data froze. Then backtracked, and froze on a set of incomprehensible-looking language.
"That," said Seo. Reading through it more carefully. "Something's funny about it. Like it doesn't quite match up." She scrutinized it, closely. Then pointed. "Wait. Right there! That's an edit-mark."
"An edit mark?" Diggory asked.
"Yep," said Seo. "Just the tiniest little slip-up in the data. So small you wouldn't normally notice. Unless you're brilliant. Which I am." She flashed him a grin, then turned back to the fragment, grin melting into concern. "Something was edited, here. Something substantial."
"You think there used to be something important on that fragment," Diggory guessed, "but then those aliens found it, and edited out the information?"
Seo gritted her teeth. "Except they can't do that!" she insisted. She waved the fragment in front of Diggory. "No one can edit this thing without a very special key — and I'm the only Key that's still around." She turned back to her wrist gizmo. Began poking and prodding at buttons and controls, making the information spin and blur and then blink out of existence all together. "I knew another Key, once, of course — but she was…"
Seo hesitated.
"…she died while being pulled out of time," she muttered, turning back to her work. Her whole face dark and gloomy, trying to forget something painful. "Let's just leave it at that."
Diggory just waited until she got to the part where she explained everything.
It had to be coming soon, right?
"Ha! Got it!" Seo cried, as the display re-emerged — this time in pale blue. The symbols still scrolling by too fast for Diggory to read. "Information about the edit. Lessee…"
But this time, as Seo watched the information, her face morphed into utter shock.
"No," she breathed. "It can't be!"
"What?" said Diggory. "Did… you find out about… this 'Key'?"
Seo unplugged her gizmo, and shoved the fragment into Diggory's hands. "Keep this here," she instructed. "Put it under your bed. Bury it. Shove it in concrete. I don't care! Just make sure no one finds it 'til I get back!"
She spun around, and began to run off.
"But... what did it say?" shouted Diggory after her. "What did you mean about the Key? What's going to happen?"
"Nothing, long as that stays on Earth," Seo called back. "Be back soon! Promise!"
Then she rushed into her space ship. And disappeared.
Diggory buried the bit of rock deep in the ground, in his backyard. Then shrugged, got back to his life, and forgot about it.
One week later, the fireball came.
The Ninth Seo frantically tried to get Oliver to cooperate. Give her proper steering, get himself in control so that she could do something to fix what had gone wrong!
To save her family!
The Key…
"It shouldn't be possible," Seo muttered, fiddling with the ring on her finger. Changing around some of the settings, to better trace one particular psychic resonance, out there. "But what if it is? What if she survived? What if she didn't really…!"
Seo could only hope.
Too many members of her family had died pointlessly. First her father, on Trenzalore — with the High Council ready to give him a new regeneration cycle and everything, like Clara had asked — if only that stupid CIA coordinator hadn't…!
A flash, and a jolt of massive time distortion in the vortex, and Seo was thrown clean across her ship. She struggled back to her feet, throwing herself at the controls. Wrestling with them, struggling to land on the planet she knew contained her only hope.
"Time distortion," Seo muttered, as the ship thudded to a shaky landing. "Could be a good sign! A time storm, or something… anything…!"
She didn't know how it would be possible.
But if there was any chance that she could undo the past — save the aunt she'd thought she'd lost — Seo would take the risk. No matter who had planted the edit. No matter what it was originally editing. Or what consequences that might have for Seo, herself.
If her aunt was still alive…!
Seo raced out, onto the surface of the planet Dicurion. But only just had time to close and lock her ship, behind her, when she nearly ran into a man.
Who was pointing a gun in her face.
Seo put up her hands. "I surrender?"
The man pressed the trigger.
"No, wait!" Seo cried.
But the light from the shot enveloped her, dragged her into its depths, and in a few moments... she knew she had been tricked. And now, she was lost.
Thus begins our story of the Ninth Incarnation of Seo.