Author's Note: In case you're wondering, when Buffy says she's "harboring five", the five I'm thinking about (which she is harboring, in 2003) are: Willow, Faith, Anya, Andrew, and Spike (I know Spike never actually tried to end the world, voluntarily, but he has been under the First's control in the past).

"Sorry, I'm afraid I'm not following," said Giles, the next day. He kept putting a hand up to his head, as if he were trying to overcome some tremendous headache. "Are you really, honestly, and sincerely telling me that you spoke to him? Had a reasonable, civil conversation with him, and even allowed him to help you, without once savagely beating him until he could barely stand? Him? The origin of all evil, the bane of existence itself?"

Buffy sighed. "You're never going to let this go, are you?"

"Ethan Rayne!" Giles repeated. "Ethan bloody Rayne! You asked for help and consultation, and never once beat the living daylights out of him!"

"I was just trying to fix things," said Buffy. "Set everything right."

"By summoning a vengeance demon!" Giles continued.

"Bring back evil-maniac-killing-machine vampire boyfriend from Hell," said Xander. "Acceptable! Let Alien-Guy-Possessed-By-The-Origin-Of-All-Evil go, no problem! But collaborate with Ethan Rayne… and now you're in for it."

"To be fair," Oz threw in, "the evil alien did let Willow go. And he saved Buffy's life."

"No, he saved Lucronis' life," Willow put in. "If Lucronis had eaten Buffy, it would have poisoned itself, and then thrown Buffy up. She would have been fine, and Lucronis would have been dead. Instead, the Doctor killed a baby to save Lucronis — and didn't think twice about that baby once he was done."

"Why on Earth would you want to summon a vengeance demon?" Giles demanded of Buffy. "Do you realize what you could have done?"

"I had to fix time!" Buffy shouted back. "I thought she was the only way I could!"

"Can we get back to the fact that, for a few weeks, now, Buffy's been secretly harboring a murderer who tried to kill all her friends and end the world?" Cordelia put in. "Because I've got a problem with that."

"More like harboring five," Buffy muttered, before she could stop herself.

Everyone stared at her.

"Except… that hasn't happened, yet," Buffy continued, a little nervously. Stupid 2003 stuff she could still remember. She shook her head. "And anyways, Angel's not the problem here!"

"Way I see it," put in Faith, "the big problem is that you don't know what side you're on."

Buffy glared at Faith. That really smarted, coming from her. "I'm on your side," she said. "I just know the future. I know what's going to happen, because I've seen all of this before. Everything I'm doing now makes sense, if you have the right perspective."

"Secretly harboring someone that tried to destroy the world, last year?" Willow asked.

"Refusing to kill an evil alien we know is out to destroy us all?" Oz added.

"Throwing away our band candy?" Cordelia put in.

"Collaborating with Ethan Rayne to summon a vengeance demon?" Giles said.

Buffy said nothing. What could she say? It all made sense in hindsight. It just didn't make sense right now. And there was way too much complicated temporal stuff to explain to these guys all the ways in which this made sense.

"Where's the Doctor, now?" Xander asked Giles.

Giles waved his hand. "Destroying the remaining branches of Torchwood, from what I can gather. Torchwood Four was destroyed earlier this morning."

Willow frowned. "But the Doctor was just here! In Sunnydale! And Buffy fried his TARDIS."

"I jammed the coordinates," Buffy corrected. "The only places he can go are here and England. As long as he's headed for one of those two spots, the trip will take him less than a second."

"What about this Mayor guy B was talking about?" Faith asked, leaning back against a table in the center of the library. She fiddled with a stake, in her hand. "Sounds like a pretty Big Bad. Maybe I should go after him. Take him out."

"No!" Buffy said, snatching the stake away from her. Then she realized everyone else was staring at her, and she shuffled awkwardly. "It's just… the Mayor's human." She fixed her eyes on Faith. "And we don't kill humans."

Faith gave Buffy her uncomfortable brushing-things-off shrug. "Sounds to me like you won't kill anything," she pointed out. "The First Evil. Angel. The Mayor. Baby-eating demons." She raised her eyebrows at Buffy. "The Doctor."

Buffy didn't answer. She just gave Faith her most reprimanding glare, and said, again, "We don't kill humans."

"I'm not entirely clear we can kill the First, even if we wanted to," said Giles. "According to Buffy, the First is an entirely non-corporeal manifestation of an evil beyond our understanding. One who appears in the guise of dead persons."

"I don't get why this First thing is so scary, anyways," said Faith. "I thought you said it couldn't touch anything. Or reach in to affect the world around it."

"It just destroyed every other reality besides this one, changed history, and sent me back in time, all because of a conversation," Buffy said. "Believe me, this thing's dangerous. And now that it's got the Doctor, Caleb's going to seem like a walk in the park."

"But why strike out now?" asked Willow. "You said yourself that the First did some time travel portal thing. If it could have chosen any time in history, why this particular moment?"

"Because the balance shifted. I died, and then you brought me back to…" Buffy stopped. And realized. "Except… that didn't happen, yet."

Willow blinked.

"Actually, that was me!" said Xander, waving a hand at Buffy. "Super CPR skills. Remember?"

Buffy crossed her arms, chewing on her lower lip. Willow was right. Why now? The Doctor only arrived in Sunnydale because the First was coming through. The First could have gotten the Doctor at any time. Why turn back the clock to this specific point in history?

"You're saying this thing wants to destroy you?" Giles clarified. "Destroy the Slayer Line entirely? Wipe out all of Earth's defenses, and let evil take over?"

Buffy paused for a long moment. Remembering. A time, so long ago, when she'd been swept away to the 39th century, and had been swept into a Dalek plot to do exactly this. Destroy the Slayer Line. Make sure that IPSA was born out of darkness and evil, instead of hope and light.

Except… they hadn't.

She remembered what the Doctor had told her, down in the sewer — that she would help him. She remembered learning about her other-self. And then she looked over at Faith.

And knew why the First had chosen now.

"No."

Giles massaged his forehead. "Sorry, I'm afraid I don't—"

"The First is like the Daleks," said Buffy. "I mean, I think. It doesn't just want to kill the Slayer. It wants to use the Slayer for itself."

"The what-leks?" asked Oz.

Buffy was just staring at Faith, a renewed determination flowing through her. "But it forgot. I know what's going to happen." She allowed a small smile to creep up her lips. "And I'm not going to let it happen again."

"Now where have I heard that before?" asked Jesse McNally, stepping out from behind the stacks.

Willow and Xander both gaped at the apparition before them. Their once-friend, who had died so long ago. Killed by the evil vampire known as the Master, almost the exact time Buffy had arrived in Sunnydale.

"Oh, yeah, I remember!" said Jesse. "That's exactly what other-you said, last time this happened. In her 2003." He put his hands into his pockets. "But, of course, by trying to change it, she made it happen. That's the way it goes, man. In the end, evil wins."

"You don't remember that," said Buffy. "You were locked up, in the other timeline. You're reading the Doctor's memories."

"And what a read!" Jesse laughed. "Every way a Slayer's died. Every way she's been defeated. Every weakness, every problem, every fault in her training." He grinned at Buffy. "And here I was, thinking that taking over the Earth would require effort."

"Then why this obsession with Torchwood?" Giles asked. "If you wished to eliminate the Slayer, why not target the Watchers Council? Or the potential Slayers?"

"You heard about the balance between good and evil?" asked Jesse. "Well, I'm done with it." His eyes twinkled. "And with Torchwood gone, and the Doctor in my power — I never have to worry about the balance, again."

"Huh?" Xander asked. "What's Torchwood got to do with the balance?"

Jesse winked at them. "All you need to know," he said, "is that you're all going to die. And there's nothing you can do to stop it." Then he folded into the air, and vanished.