Author's Note: Now the plot really starts moving.

By the way, I'm not sure how to post up pictures on this site (or if I even can), but on Teaspoon, Twisting the Hellmouth, and Archive of Our Own, I'm posting up pictures of all the different incarnations of Seo as I continue posting chapters, so that you can all see the models I constructed to work from, while developing each of the characters.

Anyways.

Enjoy!

(To respond to Guest: Wow, thanks, that's sweet! 45 and A Death in the Family, I believe are the ones you want. You'll be seeing Dave again sooner than that, though - I'm writing a story about him right now, for next season. I loved hearing all your crazy theories, but won't say too much; it'd spoil the ending! Hope you keep reading!)

There wasn't any way to describe the creature the Tenth Seo saw. In some ways, he looked like a normal man. But there was something different in the higher dimensions. Seo could see his essence spiraling and flowing and powerful, oozing across dimensional gaps and barriers.

And beside him, a shorter man. Bald. But with the same higher-dimensional power.

"Look at you," the taller one sneered. "Is this the same Glorificus that nearly crushed us in battle? This fallen, frightened wreck?"

"You must be the two who exiled her," Seo realized. She leapt forwards. "Listen, you've got this wrong. I'm not Glorificus."

The two looked at one another. Then laughed.

"I'm not!" Seo insisted. "I'm the Key!"

"She's attempting to trick us, again," said the shorter man. "Seems old habits never die."

Seo gritted her teeth. "Can't you just look at me and see that I'm not—?!"

"But you are," said the taller one. "That's what we see. The spirit wall feels it, as it repels you. Our minions see it within you. Fallen, weak, and defenseless you may be, Glorificus. But we still know you."

Oh.

Hang on.

Seo was starting to see what was happening, here.

"You picked up on that little bit of Glory inside of me!" Seo realized. "Thought I was her."

She was met by blank looks.

"You've been looking for Glory for a while, right?" Seo asked. "You knew she'd been dumped into a mortal body. You've been scanning for it." She stepped forwards. Met their eyes with her own. Their eyes burned as she looked at them, but Seo ignored this. "But Glory died a long time ago. That's why you didn't find her. She's dead."

The two men looked at one another. Then shook their heads, amused.

"She was in mortal form — Ben Wilkinson," Seo insisted. "Giles killed her so she couldn't use the Key to tear down the walls of reality and get back here." She gestured at herself. "I'm the Key. Got it? What you're picking up is a tiny bit of Glory that rubbed off on me, when I was created to fight her. It's not real."

Still, the other two didn't seem to believe her. Were only amused by her words.

"My name is Seo," Seo tried. "I was created to fight against Glory. I don't know who you are, or what happened in your war, or anything about this." Her voice lowered. "I'm not your enemy. Now let me go."

The short man tilted his head. "I think she really doesn't know us."

Finally!

"Yes," mused the tall man. He regarded her, impartially. "Interesting. What happened in that other universe? We thought none could bring you down like this."

Seo gritted her teeth. "For the last time, I'm not—"

"I'll jog your memory," the tall man cut in, stepping forwards. "I am…"

And then a series of sounds issued forth from his mouth, sounds Seo had never heard and couldn't replicate with her vocal chords. It was a rush and a roar, a sweeping of time and the sounds of a thousand screams from a battlefield. It was pain and anguish, knitted together and wrapped in dust and emptiness.

"And I," the shorter said, "am…"

Another series of sounds. These sharper, shorter, more piercing. Emptiness and horror, surrounded by sorrow and a desperate kind of grief.

Seo shook her head. Trying to translate what she heard into something short, that she could repeat.

"So your names are… Banana Tree… and Kermit?" she tried.

The two scowled.

"I am not… Banana Tree," said the tall man. "I am Destruction. I am death and war and pain."

"And I am Chaos," the short one replied. "The end of all things. When life is blotted out into meaningless, and entropy takes over. I close the universe, as I would close a book."

Seo nodded, slowly. "Right…" She gave a sheepish smile. "Well. Nice to meet you, Banana Tree and Kermit! I'm Seo! I don't belong here. So if you'll just let me go…"

She slipped off her sunglasses, shoving them in the perfect spot to reflect the beam that she'd just noticed, in the corner, was creating this not-force-wall ensnaring her, so that the light folded back on itself. She grinned, and burst forwards.

Screamed.

And was thrust backwards, yet again. The ripple of a thousand voices shouting out at her, clawing through her, as if she hadn't reflected anything. As if the not-force-wall had still been there.

"But it… was still there," Seo gasped, working it out. "My eyes… don't see this reality right. I can't… process…"

"Look at you, Glorificus," said Destruction. "Once, you could manipulate this universe with just a thought. And now…"

"I'm not her!" Seo shouted. She slammed her hands down on the ground. "When will you listen?! The reason I can't manipulate your universe or even see it correctly is because I'm not from here! I'm not Glory!"

"…now," Chaos continued, ignoring Seo's outburst, "you cannot manipulate anything at all. You cannot touch us or our reality. All your plans have failed."

Seo stopped. Staring down at the ground, very still.

"We can take our revenge," said Chaos. "But you can't take yours. There's no escape."

Seo still didn't look up.

"Can't manipulate anything in this reality," Seo repeated. "No matter how powerful I am in mine, I can't…" Then stopped. Shot her head up, eyes twinkling. As a broad grin spread across her face.

"But I can," Seo told them, fiddling with a small ring on her finger. "There's one thing in this reality that doesn't obey your rules. It obeys mine."

Destruction seemed amused. "And what's that?"

"Me," said Seo.

And sent out her psychic signal.

"What do you mean, 'disappeared'?" said the man who'd once been Jack Harkness. He wasn't called that, anymore. Many millennia had passed since those days.

Now, he was the Exalted Boe.

Jenny plugged the borrowed Vortex Manipulator into the machinery surrounding them. "See for yourself," she said. Threw herself at the machinery controls, frantically poking and prodding as it spewed output. "Pulled into another universe. Something had been pulling at her for a while, and the Crystallizer let it in. Let it take her." Jenny slammed her fists against the machinery. "Can't pick up where she is, though! Not a strong enough trace."

"Have you tried using your…?"

Jenny looked down at the ring on her finger. "Still not working," she muttered. "Hasn't since she started going mad. Why hold open a communications link, when she refuses to listen to me?"

"She could use the rings to establish a link to you," Boe proposed. "And to this universe. Allow you to pull her back home. She knows that. She'd do it."

"Not if it means admitting she's wrong, she won't," Jenny replied. Frowned, as she twisted the ring around her finger, concentrating on it. "Besides. It feels almost like… she's using its psychic energy for something else…"

The machinery whirred into life, again — this time at the far end of the room. Jenny sprung towards the alerts and flashing lights. Pressed a button, and stared at the readout.

"…something like that," Jenny breathed.

Boe leaned over Jenny's shoulder.

And swore.

"She's finally done it," Jenny said. Her eyes on the readout. "What she's been doing to everyone else — screwing with their personal timelines, altering history without caring about the consequences — she's finally doing it to herself."

"Nine times over," Boe agreed. He swore again. "The idiot! Doesn't she know the risks?" He brushed a hand through his white hair. "No, don't answer that. Stupid question."

A smile spread across Jenny's face. "Risks aside, this does give us something to trace!" She raced back, unplugged the Vortex Manipulator. "Find the rest of her, and I'll find out what universe she's in. I can get her back!"

With a few pressed buttons, Jenny faded into the air.

Dawn Summers bit her lower lip, as she ran beside the first incarnation of Seo. Watching her niece's blond hair streak back behind her, brown eyes fixed and determined.

They'd come to this world to find a cure for Buffy's mysterious illness. And here they were, stuck in another adventure. Seo blocking out all the hurt and pain she really felt inside, so she could pretend things were normal.

Except they weren't.

Dawn couldn't forget that. Couldn't forget that Buffy was collapsing, back at home, dizzy and confused and even unable to remember things at times.

Seo seemed to notice. Turned her freckled face towards Dawn.

"I still have the vial," she offered. Took it out of a pocket, waving it in front of Dawn. "See?"

"After everything we've been through to get it," Dawn muttered, "that cure had better work."

Seo glanced over her shoulder. Then grabbed Dawn by the arm, and pulled her off to the side, shutting them into an abandoned building and locking the door behind her. She shushed her aunt, as they waited in the shadows.

The sounds of footsteps and angry priests passed by, outside.

Then… silence.

"It has to," Seo decided. "The symptoms are all the same, right?"

"Except one," Dawn pointed out. "The sick people on this world couldn't see Key energy." She met Seo's eyes with her own. "Buffy could."

Seo hesitated.

"Tumors run in our family," Dawn said. "Buffy's right. That's what it's got to be."

"None of the tests showed that."

"Then we need to run more tests," Dawn decided. "Take Buffy to a hospital a gazillion years in the future where they've cured all this stuff, with no chance of any failed procedures or anything, and get her taken care of! We need to—!"

A howl surged through the air.

Seo turned, surprised, as the darkness ripped apart, beside them. And then swallowed her up — and sealed itself away. As if it had never been there.

Dawn lunged for her, but she'd already vanished.

It was too late!

She'd lost Seo, and it was…!

"I have to get you out of here," said a voice Dawn had never heard before.

Dawn spun around, finding herself face-to-face with a tall woman, blue eyes and short, wavy black hair. She was looking down at the Vortex Manipulator on her wrist.

"Your dimensional instability is skyrocketing, without her," said the woman. "I'll drop you back on Earth in this century. Until she gets back." She tried to take Dawn's arm.

But Dawn was having none of it.

She squirmed out of the woman's grip, then shoved her back when she tried again. "Who are you?" Dawn demanded. "What did you do with Seo? Because I'm not going anywhere until—"

"Jenny!" the woman cut in. "Seo's sister! You have to at least have heard of me, by now."

Oh.

So this was Jenny.

"Seo's stuck in another universe," said Jenny, finally grabbing Dawn's arm. "And the sooner I get you to Earth and out of danger, the sooner I can find a way to get her back."

"Another universe?" Dawn said. Her face lit up. "Then you need me! I'm the Key — that's what I do. Let people travel across universes!"

Jenny hesitated.

"You can't do it without me," Dawn argued. "The walls between universes are unbreachable, now, right? Except with the Key."

"Dawn…"

"I'm the Key!" Dawn said. "Use me to get her back!"

"Dawn, I'm the Tenth Jenny," Jenny cut in. "My Seo is the Tenth Seo. I can't use you. In her timeline, you've been dead for centuries."

"But… but… huh?" said Dawn. She pointed at where Seo had just been. "You saw what happened. My Seo got taken, too! I mean, what's Tenth Seo doing? Scooping all her former-selves… out… of…?"

Dawn stopped.

Her eyes going wide.

"You're kidding," Dawn said.

Jenny didn't answer.

"Look, if my Seo got taken, then it's not wrong to use me to get her back," Dawn insisted. "Anyone else, you can figure out on your own. But use me to save my Seo. Please."

Jenny cringed. "I really shouldn't."

"Please!"

Jenny thought a moment more. Then sighed. "All right," she said. "I'll take you to Earth in the time zone where we've been tracking her. But you do only what I say, and tell no one what you learn while you're there. Got that?"

Dawn nodded.

Jenny plugged a new set of coordinates into her Vortex Manipulator. "I'm gonna kill her for this," she muttered.

As she and Dawn disappeared.