Author's Note: Inspiration for this story was the Big Finish series Bernice Summerfield, which (by the way) is exceptional. Excellent writing and the characters are amazing. Because that series has a female main character, and is placed during a bunch of Draconian wars, Draconia comes up a lot. I wanted to write about it, especially because my sister went to a conference in the third world and told me that she was shocked that in certain cultures that have been historically sexist, when women do get educated, more women actually wind up in going into science than into other areas. In fact, a larger percentage of women go into hard science than in the US! Bizarre!
I remember writing this first chapter. The inspiration struck me all at once, so I grabbed the nearest thing at hand to scribble it down. Turns out, that was a paper lunch sack.
Story starts 90 years earlier, in Seo's life. Back when she's a little kid. Then jumps forwards to now.
Enjoy!
"Another!" cried little Seo, tucked up in bed, hugging Sergeant Ducky to her chest, tightly.
Her Dad surveyed her, carefully. "You'll be asleep before the end of it."
"Nu-uh!" Seo forced her eyes open, wide as they'd go. "I'm not tired at all! You could tell a million billion stories and I wouldn't be tired!"
Dad chuckled.
"All right, then," he said. "Once upon a time, in Sunnydale, there was a Slayer named—"
"Buffy!" Seo cried. "Who fought vampires and evil monsters and—!"
"Oi, who's tellin' this story?" Dad folded his arms. "Anyways. She was out in the cemetery, as usual, when she happened on this alien who was knelt down right smack in the corner, nearest the trees."
Seo's eyes went wide.
"Oh, yeah," Dad continued, outlining the monster with his hands, in the air. "Sort of big and scaly alien, with these itty bitty yellow eyes and feathers coming out of the back of his head. The Glarnov — they're all like that, you know."
"But why's there an alien in the cemetery?" Little Seo asked, hugging Sergeant Ducky a little tighter.
Dad pointed at her. "Ah. That's what Buffy asked, too."
Buffy leaned to the side, wooden patrolling stake still in hand. "You're not a local boy."
The Glarnov looked up from where he'd been fumbling around with some switches on a small, round metal ball. And hissed at her, predatorily.
"We are the Glarnov, the greatest of the Great Weapon Builders," the Glarnov said. "With this bomb, we will clear the filth from this world and reclaim it as our own. There is nothing you can do to stop us."
Buffy gave a little laugh. "Wow, I love villains who just tell me their plans. That saves loads of time."
She tossed her stake in the air, caught in, then leapt at the Glarnov, in full ninja-style kick. The Glarnov simply pressed a button on the wrist-watch looking thing he was wearing, and — if Buffy's Slayer instincts hadn't kicked in — would have fried Buffy and everything near her to a crisp.
Buffy fell to the ground like a stone, suddenly unable to get up.
"Okay," said Buffy. "I'm starting to get the 'great weapon builders' thing."
"But… but… the Gar-glove alien didn't hurt Buffy, right?" Little Seo asked, in a small voice. "He couldn't have!"
"Course not," said Dad.
"It is childishly easy to kill primitive animals like you," said the Glarnov, turning back to his bomb. He kept pushing buttons, and Buffy wondered if maybe he hadn't quite figured out how to correctly set the timer or turn it on or something. "We built weapons that made even the most terrifying monsters tremble with—!"
A sound, behind him.
The Glarnov spun around. "What was…?"
"What do you think a Slayer was doing hanging around a cemetery?" Buffy replied. "I wasn't carrying around this stake for you, feather-head."
And from behind Buffy, bursting out of the grave, came…
"A vampire!" Seo squealed. She was nearly bouncing up and down with excitement.
Dad grinned. "You guessed it. Big fangs. Undead. Full deal. Turns out… Buffy had been there waitin' for it, that whole time — the Glarnov was a coincidence."
"And what happened then?" Seo asked.
"Well, the Glarnov tried to disintegrate the vampire using that life-stopping ray he'd used on Buffy," said Dad. He shrugged. "But, too bad for the Glarnov… vampires are already dead. Well… undead."
Buffy found herself finally able to move, again, as the vampire fed on the Glarnov, blue blood streaked across the vampire's face.
She got to her feet.
And, in one leap, staked the vampire in the heart.
"And she knew she'd done the right thing," Dad continued, with a stern look at Seo, "because even though she'd hurt someone — which is usually very bad — she'd done so to save the world and all her friends."
Seo nodded, somberly.
Her eyelids already drooping, now that they'd gotten past the fighting bits of the story, and on to the boring lecture bits.
"Course, Buffy knew that Glarnov had a whole bunch of other mates, hanging around close by," said Dad. "And they'd try to end the world, too. So she picked up the dead Glarnov, tucked the bomb into his pocket, and headed off to find the spaceship."
"As a warning…" Seo muttered, curling up in the covers.
"Sort of, yeah," said Dad. "Found the Glarnov ship, dumped the body, headed off. Course, the Glarnovs didn't know how vampires worked. So when they took the body into their ship and prepared it for a proper funeral…"
The Glarnov ship erupted into pandemonium, as the dead Glarnov suddenly popped back to life, eyes yellow, face in a snarl, teeth protruding in canine fashion.
It leapt at the others, who tried their many weapons against it.
But none worked.
They began to lift off in their ship, hoping the madness was localized to the Earth and would go away once they'd left, but the vampire Glarnov didn't get better. The ship wavered in the air, then crashed back down to Earth, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
"And that was the end of the Glarnov," said Dad.
Seo nodded, her eyes now shut. Blond hair spilling across her pillow.
"And then Buffy went home," said Dad, creeping over to her and corporealizing — just for a minute. "To all the friends and family she'd saved. And she knew she'd done the right thing, because she'd saved the people she loved from a terrible evil. Just like she always did."
Seo's breathing evened out, slow and steady, as she drifted into sleep.
Dreaming of the hero she loved.
Buffy.
Dad brushed her hair aside, tucked her in, and pressed a small kiss to her forehead.
"Just like she did for you, little Seo," Dad whispered. "Just like she always will. Because she loves you and believes in you — no matter what."
90 years later.
The time machine known as Oliver gave a childlike whine as it appeared, out of thin air, on a steep hillside above a bustling city.
Two figures walked out.
The second — a handsome looking human with a World War II military greatcoat — stopped just outside the doors. Surveying the landscape.
"Draconia," Jack Harkness announced. "Think you missed on that Placaran Booze Up by about 7 million light years." He squinted at the city. "And a few millennia, judging by the technology here. 29th century?"
Seo didn't answer.
She had sat down on a boulder, staring out at the city below. Saying nothing.
"Wanna get back in and give it another go?" Jack asked, heading towards her. Gave a little shrug. "Or maybe stay here, and see what kind of trouble you can get yourself into, as per usual?"
He rounded the edge of the boulder.
And realized Seo was staring out at the city below, her lower lip shaking, as she tried, desperately, not to cry.
"Hey," said Jack, sitting down beside her. "What's wrong, kid?"
She turned away from him. "I can't."
"Can't…?"
"It's not so bad, when I keep myself busy," Seo said, keeping her voice very low, so it wouldn't shake. "Fighting off monsters, stopping injustice. I can pretend things are normal. The pain becomes bearable. But… in between… when I'm in the vortex, and there's nothing to distract me… and I think about… Mom and… and…"
Jack put a hand on her shoulder.
And she glanced back at him, just a little.
"I can't stand this," Seo whispered.
Jack met her eyes. Those deep, brown eyes, so full of pain and loss.
"Yeah," said Jack. "I understand."
Seo glared at him.
Squirmed out of his grasp, and jumped back to her feet. "Understand?!" Her whole body shook with something between rage and desperate sobbing. "No, you don't understand. You don't have any idea."
"Seo…"
"Just because Ianto died, you think you know how I feel?!" Seo shook her head. "Mom was family. You didn't lose family. You didn't lose the closest, most important, most vital part of your life."
Jack went silent.
"I thought this gnawing sorrow would go away," Seo said. "But it didn't. I lost Mom, I lost Aunt Dawn, then I lost everything, and…"
Her voice cracked.
"Father said it'd never feel the same, despite what I did," Seo whispered. "Maybe he was right."
Jack said nothing.
"Mom came back from the dead, before," Seo said, softly. "She was the same. But… Mom's… not coming back this time." The wind brushed through her hair. "I'm… alone. No Aunt Dawn. No Mom. Just… a soul, one last little spark, and a mangled Cyberplanner for company."
"Seo…" Jack said, trying to put his arm around her.
Seo glanced up at him.
Then, with a glare, shoved him away from her.
"So don't you dare say that you understand," Seo said, turning from him and marching down the hill. "Because until you've lived through what I have… you can't possibly know what I'm going through."
Jack waited a minute before chasing after her.
They didn't talk for a long while, after that.
