Author's Note: Quite possibly one of my all time favorite scenes in the whole story.

Seo had only been around for a week and a half, when Buffy got the news.

"I'm only going to be gone for a few days, max," Buffy told them, as she packed up her things back at her apartment. "UNIT's just got some unbeatable monster crisis going on in Ireland, and I've got to see them through it."

"But… Seo…" Willow protested.

Buffy turned to Willow. "Set up a magical barrier around the house," she instructed. "Keep her locked up, secure, and — above all — don't tell anyone she's here. Anyone. You got that?"

Xander knew that this would eventually break down into a full-scale fight between Willow and Buffy, particularly because it was pretty obvious that Willow still wanted to tell Harold Saxon. And Buffy always got really pissy when people mentioned political things, like Harold Saxon. So! In the hopes of avoiding the impending argument, Xander decided to skedaddle out of there ASAP.

Best excuse for getting out of a Buffy-Willow shouting match?

"Someone should probably keep an eye on Seo!" he told them, as he fled Buffy's apartment.

Giles, of course, was already keeping an eye on her. Two eyes, actually. But, hey, Xander could contribute a third. And even a fourth, if Giles would count Xander's glass eye.

As it turned out, it was a good thing Xander had shown up. As usual, they'd locked Seo in her room before they went to bed, and since — today — Xander and Willow were at Buffy's for most of the morning, they'd decided to keep her locked in there.

No one had actually noticed that she'd escaped.

After a thorough search of the house revealed nothing, Xander discovered Seo in Giles' backyard. Lying, belly-down, on the grass, chin resting on her left hand, which lay upon the ground. An acorn in her right.

"Let me talk to her," Xander told Giles. "You stay here and… I don't know. Make tea, or eat crumpets, or do something else English."

He knew that Giles made Seo a little nervous. And after that completely weird, nonsensical Archangel hacking incident — Xander definitely got why.

"I don't feel comfortable letting you go out there alone," Giles told him.

"Buffy'll be here, pretty soon," Xander guessed. "She'll check up and make sure things are okay. And besides. If Seo does try to murder me, I'll scream very loud."

Not that he thought Seo actually would. Xander had never really got the 'murderer' vibe from her.

He walked out into the backyard, and noticed that a squirrel was perched on its hind legs, just in front of her, its eyes open wide and fixed, intently, on hers.

Xander stepped forwards, and accidentally snapped a twig beneath his feet.

The squirrel looked up at him, then scurried back into the trees at the far side of the yard.

Seo sighed, and muttered beneath her breath, getting up off the ground. She turned to Xander. "I hope you're happy. Now I have to start all over again!"

"Start what?" asked Xander.

"The hypnosis, of course," said Seo, brushing the grass off her clothes. "Buffy said I could hypnotize people, and I wanted to see if she was right."

"So… you started… with squirrels," Xander checked.

Seo shot him her normal radiant smile. Then turned around, and began chittering at the squirrel in the tree, coaxing him forwards. He gradually poked his head out, glancing between Xander and Seo, and then deciding that — perhaps — he could risk coming out and doing what Seo wanted.

"Is it working?" Xander whispered at her.

"I haven't started, yet," Seo replied.

Xander looked over at the squirrel, waiting for Seo in the middle of the grass, where they'd been before. "So… how'd you get him to come with you?"

"I offered him chocolate," said Seo, reaching into her pocket, and breaking off a small cluster of chocolate. Then handed the rest of the candy bar to Xander. "You want some?"

Xander took the candy from Seo. But… didn't eat it. Not yet, at least. He might not think Seo was out to murder him, but the jury was still out on what Seo was actually up to. And why she'd been in jail, before.

(If she really had been.)

She lay down on her stomach, just the way she'd been before, so that she was eye to eye with the squirrel, before giving him the chocolate. He took it, and munched on it, happily.

Seo gave a small chittering sound, and the squirrel looked up at her, catching her eyes with his own.

"Good," said Seo, now in English, her voice smooth and calm. "Now. You are fully under my power. You will obey my orders without question. Do you understand?"

The squirrel chittered in affirmation.

"Then I order you to… jump up and down!" said Seo.

The squirrel gave an annoyed chitter back.

"Well… could you just scratch your nose?" Seo asked.

The squirrel made a sound that was suspiciously similar to a scoff.

"Come on," Seo pleaded. She raised up the acorn in front of the squirrel. "Please? I'll give you an acorn if you do."

The squirrel took the acorn, but didn't seem any more inclined to do what she asked.

"Maybe he doesn't understand you," Xander volunteered.

"He understands me," Seo replied. "I've got a link to his head. He's just being stubborn." She focused her eyes more intensely on the squirrel. "Okay. You. Squirrel. Scratch your head. I command you."

The squirrel snapped something back at her.

"What's he saying?" asked Xander.

"He wants to know why he should take orders from some cheesy, clichéd pink-hairless-thing," Seo replied.

"Well, you did use a seriously clichéd hypnosis line, when you started," Xander offered. "Maybe he's reacting to that. Try something else."

Seo focused on the squirrel. Tented her fingers in front of her face, and in her most commanding voice, said, "I am Seosyrae, and you will obey—"

The squirrel threw the acorn into Seo's face.

"Ow!" said Seo, jerking upright, as the squirrel ran away. She jumped to her feet, noticing the retreating animal. "I command you to… run away!" she shouted. "Climb up that tree! Hide… in…" Seo's face fell, as she realized that commanding the animal to do what it was already doing was not exactly the point of hypnosis.

"So you're not a hypnotist," said Xander. "Big deal." He broke off some of the chocolate from the bar she'd given him, and plopped it in his mouth. "You can still bribe people with chocolate."

Seo turned back to Xander, and he faltered, as he noticed the seriously disappointed look on her face.

"Seo, it's really not the end of the world," said Xander. "Take it from me. As someone who deals with apocalypses all the time — this isn't the end of the world."

"I know, but… Buffy said I could," Seo explained to him.

"Well, yeah, but…" Xander drifted off. As something occurred to him. "Oh. You're upset because Buffy said you could do it, and…"

Seo shuffled her feet against the ground, awkwardly. Eyes fixed on her shoes.

"…and you don't want to disappoint her," Xander realized.

Wow. Talk about a very weird mom-daughter dynamic.

"You do know that Buffy was only telling you that because she was afraid you were going to use hypnosis to take over the world, right?" Xander asked.

"Of course."

"Oh. Yeah. Of course. Obviously," Xander agreed. "Except… if you know that… then why do you still want to do it?"

Seo shrugged, glancing up at him. "I just thought… maybe… I could."

Xander really hoped this wasn't a cry-for-attention thing, like Dawn used to do. Because if Seo destroyed the world just to get Buffy to notice her, then Buffy was going to get seriously pissed off.

Still…

"Try it on me!" Xander offered.

Seo frowned, a little taken aback. "What?"

"Maybe squirrels are un-hypnotizable," said Xander. He spread his arms. "Go on. Try it on me. Maybe it'll work!"

Seo hesitated. Then stepped forwards, reached out to his head and, very gently, tilted it down so that his eyes were staring straight into her own.

"If this hurts, or you don't like it," Seo instructed, "tell me, and I'll stop. Okay?"

"Gotcha," said Xander.

(Not like he was expecting it to work, anyways. He just figured he'd give her a break, and do what she told him, pretending he was hypnotized.)

Then Seo's eyes sharpened in intensity, as she looked into his… no, deeper than that… all the way past his eyes and down into his soul… and he felt himself… drifting. Not drifting, exactly. Just… okay, maybe just dizzy. Except not dizzy, either.

And then it was gone. And he felt normal. Except… not normal. Something inside his mind was different. Somehow. Not a lot different. Just like… something had shifted, very slightly, in his psyche.

When Seo spoke, again, her voice resonated through his mind — soft, gentle, calming. Her voice felt like something he recognized, felt familiar with. Wanted to hear more of.

"Are you all right?" she asked. "Do you want me to go on?"

"Fine," said Xander, still staring deep into the depths of her brown eyes. Only just noting the flutter of her lashes, every time she blinked — the way they caught the sunlight.

"Then…" she hesitated, again, then went on, "Xander, you are in my power, and you will obey me without question."

"Why?" asked Xander.

And he really meant it. Really wanted to know. With a sudden, burning curiosity that had overtaken him. Why? What was the point of living in a society where no one asked questions? How could people learn if they didn't ask questions? And if Seo asked him to do something morally irresponsible — could he at least debate her about their ideas?

Seo faltered. "Because… I told you to. And my word is final."

Except… Xander wasn't really all that interested in what Seo was telling him, anymore. Because he'd started looking at the world around him. And… there were just so many more questions, so many other things he wanted to know! What would it feel like to walk on the moon, or float around in zero gravity? How many varieties of squirrel were there? Did they all speak the same language? Ooh! And this hypnosis thing! That was pretty neat. Was this kind of telepathic hypnosis more effective or less effective than the kind that stage hypnotists used on Earth?

Seo cleared her throat. Trying to sound commanding. "Xander. I order you. Sing 'Carmina Burana'. In Esperanto."

And the weird thing was… Xander knew how to do it. Even though he was pretty sure he didn't know either Esperanto or 'Carmina Burana'. But Xander only noted this vaguely, in his mind. Because he was lured in by the questions. By the desire to know, to see, to wonder. To understand.

"Why?" asked Xander. "That doesn't sound like fun. Let's do something interesting. Like… figuring out how fast we can heat-blast a turkey using high-grade explosives!"

Seo stepped back from Xander. Her face suddenly turning pale. "What…?"

And there was something niggling in Xander's mind, now. Something he could pick out, just faintly, at the edges of his perception.

"What's that about… a 'plan'?" asked Xander.

Slam!

Xander blinked, as he felt some mental doorway slam down on his mind, and the connection between himself and Seo was broken. Seo was staring at Xander with wide eyes, her mouth dropping open, as if she were trying to speak, but couldn't.

Xander simply tried to process exactly what had just happened.

"I… I…" Seo shook her head. "I was tricking you. Brainwashing you. It was evil. It wasn't…"

"Oh, yeah," said Xander. "That was evil, all right. You're way up there with Dracula in terms of the evil-brainwash." He broke off a piece of chocolate, and shoved it in his mouth. "I mean, if we'd continued, we might have spontaneously broken out into some political or moral debate. Horror of all horrors."

Seo said nothing for a long moment. Then, in a quiet, slightly desperate voice, "Xander…"

"See, usually," Xander explained to Seo, "when evil villains brainwash you to obey their orders without question, they aren't also putting little suggestions into your head, asking you to question everything."

"I didn't… I guess I just lost…" Seo hesitated. Then stood upright, and fixed a bright smile on her face that didn't completely cover her nerves. "Maybe I should stick to chocolate."

And then it occurred to Xander. All at once. Why Seo was so nervous. Why she'd shut him out.

"Oh!" he said. Pointing the chocolate bar at Seo. "You didn't mean to do that. The questions, the curiosity, the resistance to authority — that was you. Your thoughts, accidentally being beamed into my head."

Seo didn't say anything.

"That's why you can't hypnotize anyone," said Xander. "Because you don't want people to obey your orders without question. You want the questions."

Seo looked away.

Xander stepped forwards, a little closer to Seo. "You're not evil at all, are you?" he said. "You're not even remotely a threat."

Seo gave him a hard, dark stare. "You wouldn't say that if you knew."

"Knew what?" asked Xander.

Seo opened her mouth to reply, then bit her lip. She hesitated a long while, then said — in a dark tone of voice, "You're right. I'm planning something. Something big. Dangerous. And you can't stop me."

That put Xander on edge a little. Because when she'd said it — for just that instant — there'd been something cold and icy inside of her. He blinked, and the menacing look was gone from Seo's eyes.

"What are you planning?" he asked.

"To open the Hellmouth and end the world," said Seo, with a shrug.

Xander frowned. "There… isn't a Hellmouth in London," he reminded her.

"That was my first problem," Seo agreed. "Yes."

Xander stepped forwards. Taking a gamble. He leaned down, to look right in Seo's eyes. "And your second," he said, "is that you don't want to end the world."

Seo said nothing for a long moment.

Then, quietly, "What do you know?"

"Well, basically, I don't know anything," Xander told her. "I'm just good old idiot Xander!"

Seo's dark expression lightened, and a happy grin spread across her face. "And I'm good old idiot Seo," she agreed. Then swept him up into a hug that made Xander… a little more tingly than he should be around someone that (he was pretty sure) was Buffy's daughter.

Who was definitely older than seventeen.

No matter what she wanted them to think.

"Well!" said Seo, as she pulled away. "I'd better go warn Buffy that I'm hypnotizing squirrels and acting all suspiciously. If I was Buffy, I'd be keeping a closer eye on me. I might be an evil threat who's up to no good!"

Xander stared at her. "Seo, why would you warn Buffy about…?"

"What?" asked Seo, disappearing into the house. "Everyone else is doing it. I just want to be popular!"

Xander shook his head, and followed her inside. He stopped following Seo, as he noticed Willow, now propped in front of the TV, watching Harold Saxon making a speech to an adoring crowd.

And… it was weird… very, very weird… because while Xander had seen this guy on TV a ton of times, before, and heard Willow enthuse about him for hours on end, now… this time… Xander had the strangest feeling… almost like…

"I've met that guy before," Xander told Willow, pointing at the screen. "In Sunnydale. I'm sure."

Willow looked back at Xander like he was crazy. "When?"

But Xander had no idea.

Upstairs, he could hear Seo talking to Buffy, and Buffy sounding none too happy about it. A cheer rose up from the crowd on the TV, music blaring out through the speakers of the auditorium. Xander tapped out the rhythm of the music, subconsciously, trying to figure out what Seo's deal really was.

"Xander!"

Xander started out of his reverie, and realized that Willow was looking at him, pointedly.

"When have you met Harold Saxon?" she asked.

Xander shrugged the question off. "Never. Sorry. I just… brain's still kind of scrambled."