Author's Note: And we reveal the reason the Scoobies find Saxon oddly familiar!
And can I just say - aw, the Doctor and Buffy are so cute together!
Martha's World:
"So… on election day," Buffy said, pacing her apartment. "What were you actually trying to do?"
Seo hesitated. Curled up on the couch.
"You're… not going to tell Giles?" Seo asked, in a small voice.
Actually, Buffy was furiously trying to think past the mental block that kept screaming that she should run and tell Giles everything. Which was frustrating, because she needed a plan, and if she could stop thinking about how she had to call Giles, right now…
Giles is in trouble. Have to warn Giles. Have to tell Giles. Giles should know. Giles has to know. Have to check in with Giles, make sure…
No!
Bad Buffy. Think plan.
"I'm not telling Giles," Buffy assured Seo. "But whatever apocalypse is going on, he's right in the thick of it. If there's any way to warn him before Saxon's plan starts up…"
Seo nodded. "I know."
Which probably meant… she'd already tried to save Giles. With no success.
"This machine thing you built, that Torchwood destroyed," said Buffy. "What were you trying to do with it? Specifically. Destroy Archangel? Brainwash everyone back? Make them—"
"Saxon's sending out a signal telling you to believe in him," said Seo. "Believe anything he says. Trust him. Don't question, don't doubt, don't have any second thoughts." She shrugged. "My machine was programmed to send exactly the same signal. But from me."
Buffy frowned. "But why…?"
"Because I'm rubbish at hypnosis!" Seo said. "Whenever I tell someone to obey me without question, they wind up questioning everything. I'm not a good enough hypnotist to override the signal. And the last time I almost blew up Archangel, I got Willow in trouble. So I thought, if I just sent exactly the same signal…"
"Then everyone across the world would begin to question it," Buffy realized. A grin lighting up her face, as she understood, completely, what her daughter had tried to do. "That's really smart."
"I thought so," said Seo, proudly.
"If you'd done it when we weren't all in the Hub, you could have pulled it off," Buffy said.
Seo shook her head. "I had to do it when everyone in the UK was thinking about him," she said. "It had to be election day." She looked down at the floor. "I… just… wish I'd stopped Torchwood from going to the Himalayas. I hope they're okay."
Oh, no.
They'd been sent on that trip by Saxon, himself, hadn't they?
"At least I stopped you," Seo whispered.
Buffy held her head in her hands. Okay. Okay! So Buffy had screwed up this whole thing!
Guilt trip later!
Save the world, now.
"Tomorrow," said Buffy, spinning around to face Seo, a grin lighting up her face. "Meeting the Toclafane. On the Valiant! Saxon's in charge of that whole thing, and everyone in the world will be watching. They'll all be thinking Saxon! It's another chance!"
"You took apart my machine," Seo pointed out. "I don't have time to build another one."
"Well, yeah, not another really big one," Buffy agreed. "But what about a little one?" Her eyes lit up. "To de-brainwash everyone within a very small area?"
Seo frowned, staring at Buffy, a little confused.
Buffy walked up to Seo. Knelt down, so she was at Seo's eye level, an excited beam on her face. "Could you do it?" she asked.
"I think so," said Seo. "What area?"
"The Valiant," said Buffy. "And every guard, alien expert, and alien fighting defender onboard." She grabbed up her daughter, pulled her to her feet. "The world's best alien defense groups are going to be on that ship. And if Saxon's an alien, I'm guessing the moment they work that out, they'll be able to take him down. Easy."
Ria, on the Slayer private jet, put down another research book, having gone through it in excruciating detail. "Still nothing on any 'Toclafane'," she said. She glanced back at Dawn. "We're flying over the tip of Greenland, now. Half way there."
Dawn nodded. Her eyes were still fixed on her laptop, which was playing clips she'd downloaded, before the plane had taken off. Clips of Harold Saxon's speeches.
"Something wrong?" Ria asked.
"I'm sure I've met Saxon," Dawn confessed. "I just can't place him."
Ria turned the screen. Examined the footage, carefully.
"I haven't met him," Ria offered. "So you didn't encounter him with me." She glanced back at Dawn. "He isn't from Sunnydale, is he?"
"Xander said that, last year," Willow said. She walked over, and crouched down by Dawn and Ria, her eyes on the computer screen. "He said he was sure he'd seen Saxon wandering around Sunnydale."
"Okay, in my defense," Xander called, from his seat, surrounded by the other 16 people from the Slayer Institute that had come along, "I'd just been hypnotized by Seo, and my brain was all super-weirded-out."
Ria snapped her head over to Xander. "Wait, Seo?"
Xander faltered. Embarrassment washing across his face. He looked away, fumbling to find a handy paper bag he could shove over his head.
"Yeah, Seo," Willow confirmed. "Why? Is that important?"
Ria's eyes fell back on Dawn. Remembering… that Dawn had been right about the ghosts. Right about the Hellmouth. Right about the Tech Demons. Right about so many things that none of the rest of them had seen, ever since Seo had first shown up. As if having both Dawn and Seo, here, on Earth, together, heightened some sixth sense in both.
"Vitally," Ria said.
Dawn just kept watching Harold Saxon, on the laptop. Watching as he and his wife stood outside of Saxon HQ, a smile on his face. He addressed the crowd.
"This country has been sick!" he announced.
"Look, there can't be anything wrong with Saxon," said Faith.
"This country needs healing," said Saxon, on the laptop.
"Giles works for him, right?" Faith added. "And we've been getting tips from him for a year, now."
"This country needs medicine," said Saxon, on the laptop.
Dawn squinted at the screen.
"Yeah, if there was something wrong about him, we'd know," said Vi, from not far off.
"In fact," said Saxon, on the laptop screen, "I'd go so far as to say that what this country really needs," with a broad smile, "is a Doctor."
Dawn started backwards, as realization smashed across her. Her eyes going wide. Her mouth falling open. Her eyes never leaving Saxon's tapping fingers.
Tapping…
Tapping…
"No," said Dawn. "No, no, no!"
Remembering… that look of complete hatred, on the face of an alternate-timeline-Buffy. The tap-tap-tap-tap rhythm, repeated over and over again. The feeling of getting smacked across the face...
"It can't be," Dawn said. "It's impossible. It has to be impossible. It—"
"What?" asked Willow. Analyzing Dawn, carefully. "Are you okay?"
Dawn spun on Willow. "What does he call Buffy?"
"Huh?" asked Willow.
"Saxon!" said Dawn. "He offered Buffy a job, remember? He knows Giles! When he talks about Buffy, what does he call her?!"
"Nothing special," said Ria. "He just calls… her…" She stopped. Frowned. A little confused.
"Elizabeth," Willow breathed. "He always calls her Elizabeth."
And none of them had noticed.
Xander jumped out of his seat. Rushed over to them. "Wait, wait, Saxon's… I mean, you can't seriously think he's…!"
Dawn played the footage for them, again.
"The way he says 'Doctor'," said Dawn. "The tapping. That kind of creepy smile. It's all there! We've seen it before!"
"Elizabeth," said Willow. "It's all exactly what Elizabeth did."
"But that's not Elizabeth," said Xander, pointing at the screen.
"No," Dawn agreed. "It's way, way worse than that. This isn't Elizabeth. This is the guy who destroyed her." She looked at Xander and Willow. Recalling every piece of information she'd gotten — Seo's ability to easily hack the unhackable Archangel, the tapping, the resurrection with a changed face. "Harold Saxon isn't human. He's not from Earth. Not even from this timeline. Harold Saxon is a Time Lord. He's the Master."
"Wait, what?" said Ria.
Then the plane shook, violently. And began to tilt, downwards, into a nosedive.
...xxx...
Seo's World:
The Doctor was perched on the end of Buffy's bed, by the window, like an excited little boy waiting for Santa to show up. His eyes searching the outside, analyzing every little black speck, as if… perhaps… that speck could be Dracula!
"I told you, I don't think he's going to show up, tonight," Buffy said, trying to suppress a laugh, as she climbed onto the bed beside him.
"But he might," the Doctor pointed out, his eyes never leaving the window. "Never know!"
Buffy rolled her eyes. "And if he does," she said, "I'm guessing you're going to get him to autograph that Dracula book you're holding?"
The Doctor looked down at the copy of Dracula that he was holding in his hands. Along with a pen, tucked neatly into the book. Guiltily, he hid the book behind his back. "Course not."
Buffy couldn't suppress her laughter, this time. And just seeing that look on his face — that delighted, eager excitement, the way his eyes danced, the way his grin seemed to illuminate the air with happiness….
Well, that was enough to send Buffy's mind spinning in a totally different direction.
"You know," said Buffy, crawling a little closer to him. "Mom's out for the night."
The Doctor didn't seem to take the hint.
"We are here," Buffy continued. "Together. Alone. On a bed. With nothing to do until morning except wait." She shot him her sexiest smile. "I can think of a way to make that time go a lot faster."
The Doctor glanced between Buffy, and the window. His brow furrowing.
"But… but…" He pointed to the window. "Dracula! We might miss him!"
"Or make him jealous," said Buffy.
Another moment of indecision, as the Doctor's eyes went back to the window. Thinking it all through. Then he glanced over at Buffy, and something else came into his eyes. Something that sent a thrill through Buffy, every time she saw it. A look he'd never have given her, before he'd lost his memory.
He tossed the book over his shoulder.
"Well," he said, advancing on Buffy. "Let's get to it, then."
The air outside the Summers' house was dark. Still.
Save for one bat. Flying through the air.
It hovered for a second, thinking. Then fluttered towards the window to Buffy Summers' bedroom.
There she was.
Buffy Summers. The legendary Slayer.
She wasn't waiting for Dracula. Wasn't watching for him. No, she had found someone else, it seemed — some insignificant human to spend the night with, fantasizing it was he, Dracula, licking her earlobe. Nibbling her neck. Kissing her…
The bat that was Dracula felt his blood freeze.
As he recognized the person who was with Buffy Summers.
Xander tried to think up what he could say when he showed up at Buffy's house. In the middle of the night. Unannounced. When Buffy was already feeling seriously turned on and aroused, and was spending the night alone, in her bedroom, with someone she absolutely adored.
Okay, actually, on second thought… maybe Xander's warning could wait until morning.
From high above the street, a bat swooped down towards Xander, who stumbled back. A bat that, in a puff of smoke, turned into a tall, dark, handsome vampire.
Xander took another step back, instinctively. Then, realizing what he was doing, advanced forwards, anger in his eyes. "Oh, no, you don't!" Xander said. "I know what you're up to. And you can just forget it, because I'm telling—"
"Silence," Dracula commanded, with a deep, penetrating stare.
Xander went stock still. "Yes, master."
Then recoiled, eyes wide, hand over his mouth. "No!" said Xander. "That's not—!"
Dracula held up a hand, and Xander fell silent, again. Despite himself.
"You'll be my emissary," Dracula said, in a soft, lilting, rhythmic voice, his eyes imprinting the command through Xander's mind. "My eyes and ears. You'll tell me everything I want to know."
"Yes, master," Xander said.
Dracula stepped closer to him. Eyes staring deep, hard. "Tell me," he commanded, "about the Doctor."
Xander gave a curt nod. "The Doctor is a Time Lord," he reported. "An alien, who travels through—"
Dracula waved his hand, and Xander fell silent. "That I know," Dracula said. "Explain his presence, here."
And so Xander told him everything.
About the Doctor's growing relationship with Buffy since the day she met him, back in high school. About the Facksisil of Balime, which erased the Doctor's memories. And how Buffy had decided not to give the memories back. About the grounded TARDIS, that was no longer able to get him off the planet. About how Buffy and his relationship had changed, once he no longer had the emotional baggage to restrain him from going all the way with her.
Dracula smiled, wider and wider, as he absorbed this all.
"Then the Doctor is ignorant of me," Dracula said. "He remembers nothing of our encounters. Nothing of our past battles. Does not even know enough to fear me."
"Yep, basically, yeah," Xander said.
Dracula gave a little chuckle. "The Slayer was a fool, not to restore his memories," he said. "She has delivered my enemy right into my hands. I will destroy the Doctor, and turn his companion into my own. Infect her with the darkness of her own heart."
Xander smiled back. "Wow," he agreed, genuine awe in his voice. "You are… just… so smart! You'll definitely kill the Doctor and Buffy. For sure."
And he meant it, too.
Meant every word, just as strongly as he could feel the surge of Dracula's power pouring through his mind. Just as much as he was swept up by the tidal wave that was… this totally amazing, awesome vampire guy.
"And just to rub it in his face," said Xander, "right before the Doctor dies, you can tell him that he wiped out his entire home…"
Xander stopped.
Because somewhere inside his mind… somewhere that was still fighting and struggling, somewhere that still knew that it couldn't let Dracula do this… he still remembered that Buffy had told him never, ever to say this.
Dracula looked at Xander, curiously.
"His home planet?" Dracula guessed. The news seemed to make him even more happy than he'd been before. "You mean he doesn't know?"
Xander shook his head. "He thinks Buffy did it. Okay, not thinks. He vaguely suspects that Buffy might have had some part in it. Buffy's decided not to correct him."
Dracula drank this in. "Interesting." He waved a hand at Xander. "Go now. By the end of this night, the Doctor's fate will be sealed. You must lead the others away from suspicion. So that, by the end of the next night, the Slayer will be mine."