Author's Note: I'm really proud because a customer came into the hotel, today, and saw one of the hotel rooms I'd redone and redecorated, myself, and said that they were really impressed and that it was really classy. I felt so proud, because I'm an English major, know nothing about color matching, and was doing most of the furniture decoration and placement based on marketing research and ease of cleaning.

Hurray!

Anyways, on to the story.

Congrats to everyone who guessed the villain of this story! I know there were quite a few. If you look up the text that Alison references, in this chapter, you'll notice that the aliens say many of the same lines, in this story, as they do in that text.

(Public domain, though! All good!)

I was totally proud of myself for coming up with this particular twist on this particular villain. *Pats self on back.* I really do love this story!

Anyways, enjoy!

"The psychic parasites, they come up with two targets. On, whom they want to kill. And the other, whom they possess, to turn into the murderer," Alison explained to Maria and Clyde. "They need both. Don't know why. But when they possess someone, they spread a psychic influence over those nearby. Over a wide, wide radius. They manipulate people and events to bring about a certain outcome."

"I… still don't understand why she wore the scarf," said Maria.

"It was a clue," said Alison. "The aliens wanted people to think she was a killer. That she murdered Jason and Vicky. She thought… if anyone removed the scarf… it meant these aliens wanted them to know she was the victim, not the murderer. It meant it was endgame."

Maria looked over at Clyde. The one who'd thought to remove the scarf in the first place.

Clyde was just thinking furiously, trying to dredge up a memory that was on the tip of his tongue, but just out of his reach. "I know she said something," he muttered. "When I took off that scarf! I know it!"

"She told us that some mind parasite was hunting her," Maria offered.

"No, no!" Clyde insisted. He gritted his teeth with concentration. "She toldus what this alien was. Remember? She actually told us what she thought it was called!"

Alison stared at him. A hint of a smile on her face. "She figured out…?" Then, in a small, nervous laugh, "Oh, that's typical. She makes a guess that's spot on, and doesn't bother mentioning it to me or her mum."

Clyde jumped to his feet. "Furies!" he cried. "That was it. She said they were 'Furies'."

Maria turned to Mr. Smith. "Mr. Smith, what's your database say about an alien group called 'the Furies'?"

Mr. Smith gave a whirring sound, as he searched his database. Then, a clunk sound. "I'm sorry," said Mr. Smith, "but my database contains over ten thousand races that call themselves something amounting to 'the Furies'."

"So narrow it down!" said Alison. "They're… mind parasites."

"They are connected to a bunch of murder-suicides," Maria added.

"And they feed off life energy," Clyde put in. "I remember she said that."

"Checking," Mr. Smith reported.

"And put in the thing about the psychic influence," Alison said. "That has to narrow it down."

For a few moments, Mr. Smith said nothing.

Then, "One thousand results found."

Alison, Clyde, and Maria all thought, furiously. Trying to figure it out. Trying to remember what else they knew about this.

"It's… something to do with Luke," said Alison, her brow furrowed in concentration. "That has to be the key to the puzzle. I understand why these 'Furies' need Seo's life force… but why would they want Luke, specifically?"

"He's not exactly… normal," Maria began.

Alison dismissed this. "I know, I know," she said. "Seo told me. He was created, just like she was. My point is — why are they taking over Luke, when his background and home life make him far more likely to realize there's an alien influence controlling him, and shake off the conditioning? Why take that risk, instead of taking over someone who didn't know anything about aliens, and had no idea what was happening to them?"

Clyde and Maria exchanged a look. They didn't know what the answer was, but they knew that it probably had something to do with Luke's being the Bane's Archetype. A sample of thousands and thousands of human teenagers, with all their mental and physical potential all rolled up together.

He had enough psychic energy to make the moon crash into the Earth.

He was smart enough to fix an alien machine that could drain every scrap of energy from the planet.

And he was resourceful enough to use a mobile phone to hack into an alien spacecraft.

Whatever these aliens were using Luke for… it wasn't going to be good.

"Guilt!" Clyde exclaimed. He jumped to his feet. "That's what she said. She said that the Furies were using Maria and I for guilt! That has to be it."

Alison frowned. "What?"

"Think about it!" said Clyde. "His mum, Sarah Jane. Her whole life's been shaped by this… Doctor. You get Luke to kill Seo — and how much guilt do you think he's going to feel, when he finds out who she really is?"

"And the Furies are psychic," Maria continued, picking up on what Clyde was saying. "Luke has a huge amount of psychic potential! More than any other human in the world. If Seo has thirteen lives… maybe it needs that much psychic potential, fueled by Luke's overwhelming sense of guilt, to absorb them!"

Clyde hit his head with his hand. "And that's why he kept shouting at her that she was a murderer!" he realized. "To spread the guilt between them!"

Alison's eyes went wide. She grabbed up her rucksack, throwing it open, digging through it with sudden alarm. "Oh, I'm thick!" she said. "So thick!"

"What?" asked Maria.

"All this talk of gods, and I didn't put the pieces together!" said Alison. "I didn't even think…!"

"What?" Clyde repeated.

"The Furies!" shouted Alison, as she dragged out the book. She tapped its cover. "This is what Seo was talking about! The Furies from Aeschylus' Oresteia!"

Clyde and Maria looked on at Alison, blankly.

"It's a Greek play," said Alison. "Orestes gets chased by these evil gods called the Furies, because they say he killed his own mother. Which he did — but he had a really good reason, was being manipulated by higher powers, and felt incredibly guilty about it, afterwards. Like Seo!"

"You think the play was based on something real?" Maria asked. "An evil alien from antiquity, pretending to be a god?"

Alison marched over to Mr. Smith. "Narrow down your selection based on creatures focused on vengeance, who seek out murders and crimes of blood and specifically want to cause guilt. And have some connection to the ancient Greeks!"

"Match found," Mr. Smith reported.

He displayed the entry to them, which showed a woman with blood-red eyes, and anger, venom, and rage on her face. Beside it were the words, "The Erinyes".

"The Erinyes are a race of psychic, inter-dimensional aliens," Mr. Smith explained. "They absorb life energy by filtering the death through the guilt of another person's mind."

"Through Luke's mind!" said Clyde.

"The only mind large enough to absorb thirteen lives worth of life energy," Maria confirmed.

"Because they absorb energy through guilt, the Erinyes can only target those who are feeling guilty over a previous crime," Mr. Smith continued. "They choose a host that will feel guilt over the murder they are about to commit. Then move into the host, and exert a psychic influence over everyone and everything in the area nearby. They use their vast psychic powers to manipulate events so the host will kill the target."

"Seo said that her life would give them form," said Alison. "Make them gods."

"The Erinyes once had physical form and far more power," Mr. Smith agreed. "But lost it during the days of the ancient Greeks. They exist, now, as shadows of their former selves."

"How were they defeated?" asked Maria.

"I do not have that information in my databanks," Mr. Smith apologized.

Alison grinned. "That's fine," she said. She waved the book in the air. "Because I'm guessing Aeschylus wrote it down for us."

"Oh, no," muttered Buffy, as she saw the large green aliens lumbering out of the space pod and trudging into the warehouse. She reached down to grab a sword out of its hiding place on her person. "Not them, again."

Sarah Jane gave a similar annoyed groan. "What do they want this time?"

"A group of paranoid pan-dimensional beings told the rest of the universe that Seo was a dangerous, seriously valuable super-weapon," said Buffy. "Because they wanted someone to catch her, so they could find out where she was, then sweep in and grab her up for themselves. The paranoid guys might be gone, but the message is still out there."

Sarah Jane felt a wave of disgust run through her. "The Slitheen want to sell your daughter? As a weapon?"

"Apparently," said Buffy, "the Daleks are really interested in getting their hands on her." She shuddered. "That's a terrifying thought."

Yes.

Yes, that really, really was.

Still, Slitheen first. Daleks could wait.

"Do you have any vinegar?" Sarah Jane asked.

Buffy gave a sideways smile. "Slayer," she reminded Sarah Jane.

Then raced into the warehouse.

"Ooh, look at the clever little boy!" one of the Slitheen was crowing. "Rewiring our machine to make sure her life force is gone forever."

"But we want her alive," said another Slitheen.

Buffy crept forward, silently, along the outside of the warehouse. Peeking in through the open door, at the Slitheen that had cornered Luke.

"Does this mean I can get my hunt at last?" chirped the little Slitheen.

"Oh, I think we can indulge you just this once," said a Slitheen. It pat the small Slitheen on the back. "Go ahead. Hunt the Boy."

Buffy surged out, then, flipping through the air and landing, sword in hand, between Luke and the Slitheen.

"Hunt, huh?" said Buffy. "Sounds like my kind of thing."

The Slitheen looked between Seo and Buffy, and all began tittering. Giggling. Laughing.

"The little Weapon's dragged her mummy in to fight for her!" a Slitheen laughed.

"And this one's all human," said another Slitheen. "I can smell it on her. A weak little idiot human, armed with primitive weaponry."

"Oh, this is going to be a wonderful hunt!" said a third Slitheen. "A hunt for the whole family!"

Buffy shrugged. "Okay."

Then, in a series of swift advances that confused and twisted around the Slitheen so they couldn't follow her actions, Buffy managed to sweep through them and hack one of the Slitheen's arms off.

The injured Slitheen stumbled back, eyes wide, mouth dropping open. It clutched at the bloody area where its arm used to be. "You… you…"

"Me, Slayer," Buffy agreed, retreating to stand just in front of Luke. She raised up her sword, again. "You, evil green blobs of calcium that want to sell my daughter to Daleks. That clear up the whole 'hunter, hunted' issue?"

"She is not afraid of us!" breathed one of the other Slitheen, backing away. "She is not like the other humans. She is… a hunter. A predator."

"I… I smell only…!" said another Slitheen.

"Serious pissed-offedness?" Buffy asked, advancing on them as they backed away from her. "Yeah. Yeah, trying to sell my daughter to one of the most heartless groups of aliens in the universe will do that to a mom." She gave them a menacing stare. "So if I were you, I'd start running. Now."

They all looked at one another.

Then bolted for the exit.

Buffy turned to Luke, giving him a small smile. "You're Luke, huh? Good to see you're okay."

Luke, with a strength that wasn't his own, pushed Buffy away, so she crashed to the floor. His eyes were red, his face filled with anger and rage. "You're too early."

"Okay," said Buffy. "So you're still all with the possessed." Her eyes flicked over to the unconscious Seo, hooked into the machine. She looked deathly pale, limp, as if she'd been completely drained of energy.

If Luke thought Buffy was too early, it meant Seo was still alive, right?

It had to.

It just… really… really had to.

"Look, Luke," said Buffy, as calmly and gently as she could, "Seo's not evil. She's my daughter. The only daughter I'll ever have. Please, please. If there's any humanity left in you. Let her go."

Luke froze. His eyes growing that much angrier.

"You were supposed to wait," he said. "Supposed to come in at the end. Spread his guilt so we might feed."

Buffy got to her feet. Her eyes flicking between the limp Seo and the angry, possessed Luke. Trying to decide if she could risk darting over to free Seo, or if she had to stay here, to grab Luke away from the controls.

"Your love for her makes him doubt," said Luke. "Your arrival has made him try to fight against our influence."

Oh. It did, huh?

"Okay, then," said Buffy. "Let me tell you how much I love her." She pointed at Seo. "She is the most amazing, most beautiful little girl in the world. She's energetic, enthusiastic, bubbly and bright. Passionate and eager to help and always throwing herself in the thick of it, no matter what. And — okay, yeah, so she's kind of insane, at times. And she doesn't always think before she acts. But she loves this world. She loves humanity. She loves life. And she'll always try to do what's right."

"He will not win against us," said Luke. "He has an exceptional mind, but we overwhelm him. Your words only make him frantic. Terrified."

Damn.

"Look, I'm pleading with you," Buffy said. "Get out of Luke, and let Seo go. She doesn't deserve this. Neither of them do."

"Seosyrae murdered her own dad," said Luke. "The man who raised her. Who protected her. Who loved her. She killed him."

"He asked her to!" Buffy shouted. "To stop a war. To prevent billions more from dying. She did what he wanted." Her fists tensed by her sides. "And don't you think she feels enough grief over that already? Don't you think the guilt and pain she feels is punishment enough?"

"Blood must be repaid with blood," said Luke.

"Oh, yes!" giggled one of the Slitheen, as it paraded back into the room. They were now holding Sarah Jane as their prisoner, claws extended by her neck. "That's exactly what we think."

The red fell away from Luke's eyes, as the terror over his mum's life seized him.

"This human killed my parents!" said the little Slitheen. "I think we should cut her up."

"No, no, Korst Gogg," said an older Slitheen. "We only hurt this human if that… 'Slayer'… continues to fight us." It turned to Buffy. "What do you say?"

Buffy looked at Sarah Jane. Then at Seo.

Then sighed, and dropped both her sword and her fighting stance. "What do you want?"

"We want the Weapon," said one of the Slitheen. It held up its hands, before Buffy could protest. "But we've decided to be fair about it."

"We were going to take the Weapon, then blow up the Earth and sell off the scraps," said another Slitheen. "But we've reconsidered. If you let us take the Weapon, we'll spare the world. And the lives of these two humans."

Buffy laughed. "Because I totally believe that." She shook her head. "No. No, you're not taking my daughter. End of debate."

"We'll still take the Weapon, either way," said the Slitheen. "But if you try to stop us, we'll kill Sarah Jane. Then the Boy. Then destroy this entire planet. You have nothing to lose from accepting our generosity."

One of the other Slitheen had come up behind Luke, and was holding him in the same punishing grip. Luke's eyes were shut, and his face creased in concentration. Clearly trying to fight the mental battle, before he could move on to the physical battle.

Buffy absorbed this.

"I need… time to think about this," she said.

She took out her cell phone. Which was vibrating with an incoming call from Alison.

"Just… let me put Seo's affairs in order," she said, walking out of the warehouse. "And I'll get back to you."

"I got it!" said Maria, who was reading online. She scrolled through the section she wanted. "Orestes has a trial, he wins, and then the Greek goddess Athena gets rid of the Erinyes. She sort of… cajoles, coaxes, and threatens them until they give in. And that's how they were defeated, last time."

"What does she threaten them with?" asked Alison.

"Zeus' thunderbolt," said Maria, squinting at the screen.

Clyde threw up his hands in the air. "Oh, well that's just brilliant!" he said. "So unless we have a powerful goddess on-hand, I'm guessing we won't be able to cure Luke."

Alison stared at him.

The book dropping out of her hands.

"Oh, no," said Alison. "Oh, no, no, no." She looked down at the floor, her eyes worried. "Seo's going to kill me for this."

"For what?" asked Maria.

"We need a goddess," said Alison, "who can literally suck these Erinyes out of Luke's mind. And is powerful enough to inspire fear in all who speak of her."

"Yeah," said Clyde.

Alison cringed, as she dug her mobile out of her pocket. "Well… we've got one," she said, very quietly. "We just have to wake her up."