"Sorry, they want what?" The Doctor ran a hand through his hair, as he heard Buffy out. "You? Inside my head?"
"The Concurrence said I could… I dunno… unlock your secret about the Ascension, or something? Because I've got a copy of your soul?" Buffy glanced around herself, just to make sure that Giles and Wesley hadn't caught her sneaking back in, here, to talk to the Doctor — before she had told either of them. "It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. But the Concurrence said I'm why you're still yourself."
The Doctor quirked an eyebrow at her.
They were back in the library. Buffy knew she was supposed to be telling Giles and Wesley what she'd learned, but… she just kept getting this weird feeling that the Doctor was the one she really needed to tell.
Just like she kept getting this weird feeling that she needed to save her friends. Which didn't make sense, because her friends were fine. Right?
"Yeah, like I said, not much with the sense-making," Buffy said. "I mean — I know you said I had a copy of your soul, but I still don't understand how…"
The Doctor waved the question away. "No, no, no — I already know all the why's and how's about that. Nothing baffling, there. Real thing is — why get you inside my head? That's the baffling bit."
Buffy actually kind of thought the Doctor should be explaining this stuff way better. She felt really weird, knowing that she, apparently, 'had his soul'.
Actually, come to think of it, that wasn't the only thing he needed to explain…
"Look, about this Ascension thing," Buffy said. She stuck her hands in her jeans pockets. "I get that you're all with the silent-treatment. And I get that there's a whole paradoxiness thing, going on here, too. But… I mean, you don't need to tell me what I'm actually going to do, next week, or violate any laws of time or anything! If you could just tell me what you did, last time you stopped an Ascension, I could do something similar…"
"As I've been telling you, for the past two weeks, now," the Doctor cut in, "the Ascension I stopped was that of my own people — at the very end of the Time War. Rassilon's Ultimate Sanction." He sighed, running a hand down his face. "Well, let's just say it was a long war and the Time Lords went a bit… mad, at the end."
Buffy blinked. Blinked, again. "Wait, your people wanted to become demons?"
The Doctor shook his head. "An Ascension," he explained, "is a dimensional transformation. Can be into all sorts of things! A demon, an energy creature… even into gods. But to make an Ascension work, it always takes a lot of energy. For a demonic transformation — that translates to appetite. For energy creatures — great big electric zap. And for gods… well…" He spread open his arms. "Whole universe, really. Destruction of time, itself."
Buffy gawped.
The Time Lords were going to do… what?! That sure put the Mayor's Sunnydale plans into perspective.
"So what did you do… to stop…?" Buffy began.
She trailed off. The Doctor said nothing, just looked away from her. His eyes looked terribly sad.
"Oh," Buffy whispered.
Yeah… now Buffy was starting to get why the Doctor had been all with the no-talking, around the others. Imagine Wesley's reaction! Imagine the Council's! Imagine…
"The Concurrence," Buffy breathed, "doesn't live on Earth — or care about humans. They wanna kill the demon the Mayor's turning into, at any cost." She sucked in a sharp breath. "Oh, God — if you'd told them what you did, last time… then the whole Earth would have been…!"
"I know," said the Doctor.
Buffy nodded, slowly. She scuffed her shoe against the floor. "You know, you could have just told me all of this, earlier. Saved me the headache."
The Doctor thudded his head against the wall of the cage. Several times.
If he were to hit his head against the cage, once, for every time he'd told her the truth about the Ascension — he'd probably wind up concussed.
"But… I mean… okay! Whatever! I know, now. So that makes this all easy," said Buffy. She went and grabbed the keys, unlocking the cage for him. "You're not pulling a Faith on us, so I just need to…"
She trailed off, as she realized the Doctor wasn't listening to her, anymore.
"But what does she need inside my brain?" the Doctor mused. He turned back to Buffy. "They didn't say anything else to you, at the Concurrence, did they?"
"Uh… they want to eat me, after I poke around, inside your brain," Buffy offered, uneasily, "because they think I taste like pickles?"
The Doctor's eyes lit up. "That's it!" he cried. "That's the answer!"
"...pickles?"
"No — paradox!" the Doctor said. "I thought she'd turned the whole town of Sunnydale into a trap to imprison us, but… no! She actually just wants to kill the two of us and then blow up the world!"
Buffy nodded, slowly. Uh… huh…
"And… who's 'she'?" Buffy asked.
"Not entirely sure," the Doctor admitted. He squinted, looking upwards. "I can see the narrative, a bit, but not all that well." He blew a breath out of his cheeks. "At a guess… temporal demon from somewhere in Kasterborous, but still connected to us, here?" The Doctor held out his hands, testing the air. "We're at the right spot for something like that. The energies from the Hellmouth act as a… sort of… conductor! Just of evil, instead of electrons."
"Conductor of Evil," Buffy mused. "I'm pretty sure that's the name of the local community orchestra."
Buffy had definitely seen a whole bunch of entries on temporal demons, recently, in Giles' books. There was this one that Buffy totally wanted to meet, because its name sounded like a kind of pasta.
"But, see? It all makes sense, now!" The Doctor's eyes practically glowed, as he rambled faster and faster, barely stopping to breathe. "She wants paradoxes! No wonder there have been so many, since I landed. Little paradoxes! Big paradoxes! And, of course, most catastrophic paradox of all — your premature death. Because, if you die, now — you won't be around for the next bit! And then…!" The Doctor scratched the back of his neck. "Well, let's just say bad things will happen, and not go into details."
"You know, your explanations are actually less helpful than the first time you say stuff," Buffy pointed out, trying to hide a smirk. "Have you ever noticed that?"
"Right, yes! Sorry," the Doctor said, slowing himself down. "I was just saying—"
The creature pretending to be a prisoner — the one who was actually a Time Demon — sighed. "I'm sorry. I think we've gotten rather sidetracked from the plot, with that last little scene."
"I don't understand," Yersitraysin said. "What…?"
"The plot," said the Time Demon, with a grin. "You know? The one in which the Doctor won't help Buffy stop the Ascension, and she goes to pieces because she thought she could trust him, but couldn't. And then Angel — or maybe Faith, or Giles, or Wesley, or that man who runs the pickle store — lose their temper with him and murder him, in front of her. For good. The Concurrence then breaks into the Slayer's mind to see what the Doctor told her, blows up the Earth to stop the Ascension, and… well, you know the rest. Chaos. Destruction. Time folding and flipping and twisting and writhing."
"No," Yersitraysin said, jumping to her feet. She was in such a flustered state, she didn't even notice as her gigantic Time Lady hat fell to the floor. "No, I… I…" Her brain was finally starting to fight back against the psychic influence. She was starting to remember everything that the demon had wanted her to forget. "I don't want this to happen! I can't allow…!" She lunged forwards, grabbing the page where the Time Demon had been writing, on her desk, and tore it to shreds. "Your words make things happen for real — and the Doctor is a hero of Gallifrey! I cannot let him die!"
"What's her problem?" Xander asked, pointing his thumb at Yersitraysin.
Cordelia sighed. "Probably having to look at your loser face."
Xander shot her a glare. "Thanks, Cordy. I needed that."
Yersitraysin ran to the bookcase, trying to tear every book inside to shreds. "Can you humans not hear the Doctor calling to us, to help him?" she shouted at them. "Don't you realize you're leading your friend, Buffy, to her death?"
The Time Demon stood up, her long black dress trailing behind her, as she stepped towards the Yersitraysin. Now that she'd finally stood up, her scorpion-stinger tail uncurled and raised up, over her head. Her eyes seemed to glow with red fire.
Yersitraysin felt herself breathing, even faster. She needed to get out of here — with or without the humans. Warn the High Council!
She tried to flee back into the elevator, but realized — to her horror — that there was no elevator, anymore. There was nothing around her, at all, except a damp and slimy cave wall.
Made of a stone type that Yersitraysin knew wasn't native to Gallifrey.
"Kasterborous, but with a connection to Earth," Yersitraysin recalled. Her eyes lit up. "The Concurrence dimension! I can hook it up to here as a kind of link! I can get the humans home — and stop all of this!"
Yersitraysin didn't have time, though.
She shrieked, as she dodged the gigantic scorpion stinger now lunging for her. It swooped through the air, never far from her, as she constantly struggled to remain ahead of it.
"You are very stupid, Gallifreyan," said the Time Demon, advancing on her, "if you think you can stop me."
Yersitraysin turned to the Sunnydale scoobies. "Please, humans!" she begged them. "You're in a trance! You must break through the conditioning! Please — help…!"
Yersitraysin screamed, as the stinger finally pierced through her rightmost heart.
The Scoobies, at first agitated, now fell further back into their trance.
"There we are," said the Time Demon, withdrawing her stinger. "Docile and compliant — like a good little Gallifreyan." She caught Yersitraysin, as the girl fell, and carried her back to the armchair. "I was warned that you Gallifreyans had trickier minds than the humans. Fortunately, my mind is stronger than yours."
She sat Yersitraysin in the chair.
Yersitraysin struggled, but halfheartedly. Her mind and body barely functioned, as her immune system devoted everything to fighting off the toxin. Her mental defenses felt shot to hell.
"Story," said Yersitraysin, sluggishly. "Need… to hear… the story."
The Time Demon glanced over at her Sunnydale audience — still listening attentively — and continued. This had gone far enough. It was time to get rid of the Doctor, once and for all.