Author's Note: This is a long one, so I'm posting the Story of the Second Seo in more than one chapter. It's also one of the more important ones to the overall storyline.
Yes, that's right; in typical me-fashion, you'll be getting the story dealing with the effect the Children of Earth incident had on Jack BEFORE you get the Children of Earth story. Does the timey-whimeyness never end? Personally, I blame Sunglasses for making me tell stories completely acausally.
Replies to guest reviews follow at the end. (Rebecca - I replied to your review, too!)
Anyways.
Enjoy!
The Story of the Second Seo
David Walter Korjensky III raced back, fast as he could, desperate to find her and pull her out before it was too late. The sirens and warning alarms blared in his ears, but he didn't care. He had to find her. Why had those idiots left her behind? How could they…?
He could hear the bulkhead doors sealing, in front of him. Clanging shut.
And there she was.
Desperately trying to outrun them.
"Seo!" Dave called, sprinting as hard as he could. Desperate.
But the last door slammed shut, between them, before he'd gone even half the distance he needed.
Dave froze, outside the door. His hand against it. Looking in through the bulkhead window, staring at her. This beautiful blond woman who'd come to mean so much to him. Whom he'd do anything for. Anything at all.
She slowed. Then stopped, a horrible look of resignation on her face. As she realized… there was nothing she could do.
"I'm sorry," Seo mouthed at him, through the sound-proof doors.
And then the area behind the bulkhead erupted as it was thrown from the space ship, Seo's body hurtled out into the middle of deep space.
"No!" Dave shouted.
Scrambling as fast as he could to do something. Bring her in! Yes, he could do that, now that she was in space. He frantically raced back around the space ship to the manipulator arm, cranked it into manual override. She said she could hold her breath longer than he could! Maybe she was still alive out there! She had to still be alive out there!
But when he brought her in…
She wasn't breathing. Her hearts weren't beating.
"The debris must have hit her the moment the ship separated," said the onboard medic. He shook his head. "I'm sorry. She's dead."
Which was right around the time Jack Harkness rushed into the room. And tugged them all away.
"Get back," Jack said. "Seriously. Way back."
Dave fought to get over to her. To hold her hand one last time, and say goodbye. "She's dead," he said. "She's really—"
"She's not dead, she's dying," Jack corrected. "And you both need to get back!"
"How do you know…?" the medic began.
Which was when Seo's body exploded.
Seo sat up. Gasping for breath. She looked around herself, the whole world swimming and yet so solid. It was like… it was in her grasp, and out of it, all at the same time. She reached out a hand to catch hold of reality…
Except it wasn't her hand.
"I died," Seo realized. But her mouth was different. Her whole head was different! She felt… she felt… not herself. Like someone else. But also not.
"What…?" Dave breathed. Then he pulled out a gun, aiming it at her. "Who are you? And what have you done to Seo?"
Who was she?
Good question.
"I think… I'm Seo." Seo paused. "At least, I remember being Seo. Am I still her? How do I know?"
She tried to get up, off the medical exam table, and wobbled. Everything seemed so much shorter than before! Dave… and Jack… and the whole ship… it had shrunk!
Or had she grown?
How could she tell the difference?
"Maybe I stayed the same, and the whole universe changed," Seo proposed. "Or maybe… maybe I'm actually dead. And this is what it feels like." A shudder of fear ran through her, and she clutched at the medical exam table. "Am I dead? I thought I was supposed to come back. Regenerate."
"Whoa, steady there, kid!" Jack said, racing forwards to help her. He caught her in his arms, so she didn't pass out completely. "You're okay. Trust me. As someone who knows from experience — death is not waking up on a spaceship, surrounded by a med lab and the gorgeous guy you're in love with. You're fine."
But Seo couldn't believe that.
She was already starting to notice that her hair was bouncy. And red. She was a redhead. She'd never been a redhead before.
"I don't understand," said Dave. "That's… that's not… that can't be…"
"I'm supposed to come back," Seo explained. "When I die. I'm supposed to come back thirteen times. Looking different. But being the same, inside." She grabbed onto Jack, a little tighter. "But it doesn't feel the same! It feels like… I died. Seo died. Who am I, now?"
And there was just so much extra energy swirling through her. Energy that glowed and shone, and made her feel ill. She didn't even sound like herself. She had an English accent, now. She'd never sounded English before.
She felt faint. Gasped for air, as the world spun around her. And then her knees gave out…
Everyone raced forwards to catch her.
As she fought to control the sickness.
"That's impossible," the medic was saying. "Complete cellular regeneration? It's not—"
"Dave," Seo said. Looking up at him as he caught her, and she felt better just knowing he was there. "I remember you. I have to be me, if I can remember everything Seo remembered, right? All those moments. Those memories." She shook her head. "The grasses of Ochito. Remember that? I remember how it smelled. How it felt. How the food tasted, and… and…" She gave a small laugh. "That bumblebee! Oh, you made me swear never to say a word about that!"
"She can't be the same person," the medic insisted. "It's a parasite. Or some sort of…"
"She's the same," Dave decided. Taking her into his arms and holding her. "She has to be. I know."
It felt good to be held like that. Just as good as it had before.
Until that burning golden energy flooded through her, again. Made her shudder back, convulsing violently, and she found herself on the floor, trying to stop herself from shaking and coughing and gasping.
"Her ship," Jack decided. "It should help. Or… can't hurt, anyways." He turned to the others. "We gotta get her back."
It did help.
It was as new an experience for Oliver as it was for Seo, but he helped soothe her nausea. Helped soothe her mind.
For a while.
Until she tried some chocolate.
And realized… it wasn't all that yummy, anymore. It was just… a thing. A sweet thing, but just something to eat. It wasn't… chocolate.
"I don't love chocolate," Seo realized. She threw down the chocolate bar. "How can I be Seo if I don't love chocolate?!"
And she didn't fit her old clothes. Or even like them.
Couldn't stand the décor in her room, or her ship! Once, she'd loved it. She remembered loving it!
Why didn't she love it, anymore?
"How can I be me?" Seo whispered. Held her head in her hands. "How can I be Seo?"
Then she screamed.
And ran.
Seo spent a long time standing in front of the mirror. Staring at the empty glass, trying to squint and hoping that she'd see something.
"I'm not there," Seo told Jack, when he approached. She reached out, and touched the mirror. "Maybe… I don't exist."
"You regenerated," said Jack. "You're fine. This is shock. It's normal when you first come back to life." He knew that one all too well. "Take it from me. Soon, you'll be a pro at this."
Seo spun around. "But I didn't come back!" she insisted. Her hands bunching into fists. "I died! I feel like I died! And now I'm just some… imposter, running around with Seo's memories and Seo's thoughts and Seo's feelings, and… and… it's not me, Jack. Seo isn't me!"
Jack hesitated. He had to admit, he'd come back to life a lot. And he'd never had this kind of reaction before.
"I don't like the things Seo liked," Seo said. "I don't think the way she thought. I don't speak like her. I don't see the world like her. I probably don't even look like her!" She stared into the mirror. "Although… I suppose I can't really tell that for sure."
"Seo," said Jack, in his best soothing voice. "Trust me. You're still you."
"You would say that," Seo replied. "Jack Harkness. Even your name is a lie." She touched the surface of the mirror. "Am I a lie, too? Do I even exist, still?"
Wow.
Talk about existential crises.
A flash from Seo's ring, which spread through Oliver. Seo spun on her heels. Zipped off, and twirled her way down the fireman's pole into the console room, where she flipped at a number of switches.
"It's Jenny!" Seo cried, as Jack followed her. A smile lit up Seo's face. "I can find her!"
Jack nodded, slowly.
Guessed Jenny was having trouble using that ring-thing to communicate, with Seo newly regenerated. Oliver must have picked up the slack, helped get the message through.
Seo spun the ship into a juddery, haphazard kind of flight, the ship bouncing off the sides of the vortex and showering her and Jack in sparks. "Jenny won't lie to me!" Seo decided. "She'll know if I'm Seo, and if I'm not, she'll know what to do to get the real Seo back."
"Seo, you are yourself," Jack insisted, struggling to stay upright. "You've got to trust—"
Which was right around when Oliver crashed.
Jack struggled to get Seo out of the ship, before the smoke suffocated them both. She was bigger than she'd been before. It wasn't easy to lift her, anymore. She wasn't overweight, just… taller. Curvier. Less petite and a little more awkward to hoist.
Jack led Seo, who was stumbling and staggering, out of the ship, and into the middle of a sunlit city with a pink sky, blue trees, and human-looking people all around them.
And there, right in front…
"Jenny!" Seo cried. Tearing herself from Jack and racing forwards. "Jenny — who am I? Do you… can you…?"
Then she collapsed.
Jenny barely caught her. Looked over at Jack, horrified. "Don't tell me this is…!"
"Yep, Seo regenerated," Jack said, helping Jenny. "And I guess it's not quite the same as gasping back to life all the time."
"When?" Jenny demanded.
"Just now!"
"And with a day or so of regeneration sickness…" Jenny shook her head. "Oh, this isn't good. Not good at all."
Jack's confidence melted a hair.
As he got the feeling… there was something he was missing, here.
"That leaves just you and I to save the day!" Jenny said. She gestured around herself. "They're already half-way through, Jack — and this time, for some reason, they know you!"
"Who…?" Jack began.
Which was the exact moment that every single child on the street stopped. At the same time.
That same glossy look in all their eyes. That same hypnotic stare.
Oh no.
"It's not the 222, again, is it?" Jack said. "Or the 374? I've so had it with the 374!"
"No. This gang's operating on a radio frequency I've never seen before."
Now Jack began to feel even more uneasy. "What… frequency…?"
"456." Jenny examined his reaction to those words, carefully. "That mean something special to you?"
Replies to guest reviews:
Thanks for the review, Guest! I spent a lot of time and effort on sculpting my Seos, making them all sound and act different from each other but still be Seo inside. I also worked a lot on each of their stories, to flesh out their characters.
The Sixth Seo's story is actually the sparsest, because I'm considering breaking off from Fanfic all together, and eventually creating an original series about Seo raising Chiara, and all the craziness that comes from having a mom who is a so-called "retired" space-time superhero. Chiara, of course, always tries to get out of doing her homework by dragging Seo into fantastic space adventures, and Seo tries to get Chiara to safety, save the world, and make Chiara do her homework, all at the same time. (I'd have to ditch some of the backstory that's distinctly Doctor Who or Buffy, but I think there's enough original stuff to make it still be interesting and intriguing. Maybe I'll throw in Alison Korjensky, too, since people seem to like her.)
And before I forget: Rebecca, didn't get a chance to reply to your review, earlier. You're right, Buffy did say that, but about the Glory who had been driven crazy and needed to suck out people's brains just to be able to think. I'm talking about the Glory before that, when she was at the height of her power. If you're noticing a rather huge contrast between those two... then good on you. Remember that for later, it'll come up again.
