Author's Note: I originally didn't have the last section of this chapter included in this story, since I'm planning to put it in the sequel to this, in which future-Seo meets past-Bilis. But the story kind of fell flat, without it.

I'm still not telling you all the details of that scene. For that, you'll just have to read the sequel. But... rest assured... there is definitely something worse that Seo can do to him. Absolutely!

One chapter left, after this one.

Enjoy!

"Wake up!" Seo told herself. Banging, with desperation, at the blackness of her own mind, littered with the visions of Alison dying, Xander dying, Willow dying, David dying, Mom fighting for her life. "I'm healed, now! I have to wake up!"

"Still so eager to save them?" Bilis asked. His cool, composed manner never wavering. "You weren't so eager to save me."

Seo felt this inner, dreamscape self of hers shaking with suppressed anger, fury, and hatred. Whether for the man in front of her, or for herself — for somehow causing all of this to happen in the first place — she honestly didn't know.

"Of course," said Bilis, "it is a time anomaly. Caused by the rift. Which means… there's a very simple way that you can undo all of this. Bring everyone back."

Seo snapped her head up to him. Her eyes fixed on his. "What?"

"Everyone that's died," said Bilis. "Everyone you've lost. It's so easy, Seo. So very, very easy. All you have to do is let that rift reclaim what fell through. Reclaim what it lost."

Seo shook her head. "If you think fully opening the Cardiff Rift is going to undo the time anomaly, you're even more mad than—"

"No," Bilis cut in, reflecting. "Not… what it lost. Whom it lost."

Seo fell silent.

"A Key," Bilis continued, "who can see, understand, even control the essence of time itself. For whom rifts and portals and trans-dimensional energies are a thing of instinct. A toy for her amusement. The Cardiff Rift had that, once. Had you, once. And lost you. Because of me." He gave her a small smile. "Take my place, Seo. Enslave yourself to the rift, forever. And everyone will live, again."

Seo said nothing.

"You know what I'm saying is true," said Bilis. "You can feel it."

Yes. Yes, she could.

Just the same way she knew… this was the only way. The only way to save them all. Bring them all back. Everyone she lost. Everyone killed in this chaos. Everyone at Torchwood who suffered because of her.

She just had to return Bilis to his own time. His own place. Make it as if his imprisonment had never happened in the first place. As if he'd never gone mad.

And the only way to do that… was by trapping herself. Chaining herself to the Cardiff Rift. Forever. Living her life in an eternal hell.

Seo closed her eyes. Took a deep breath. "Do it."

"I have your consent?"

"Yes," said Seo. "Let me take your place. Please."

She could practically feel the smile on his lips. Feel the gloat of his triumph ringing through the air. Was this what he'd wanted, all along? His ultimate revenge?

A sudden jolt, deep down inside of her, as if something had ripped apart, somewhere far away. Seo looked up, around. Still nothing but blackness.

"What…?" Seo asked.

"The final piece of the puzzle," said Bilis. His body glowing, faintly, as he approached Seo. "Torchwood's just fully opened the Cardiff Rift. That means, with you, the last seal on my cage has finally been broken."

He went forward, grabbing Seo up by the arm. Looking deep into her eyes, as he gripped her hand in his, and she felt a powerful energy pass from him to her. Something crawling up into her, trying to seize her, trying to bore into her mind and imprison the very essence of all that was Seo.

And just as Seo thought… that was it… this was the end…

Bilis shouted in alarm, dropping Seo's hand. Stumbling back, a look of shock, anger, and betrayal on his face. "No," he said. Looked back at Seo, his face growing livid. "No!"

Seo looked down at her own hands. Then up at Bilis. She felt… the same.

"It should have worked!" Bilis shouted. "It had to have worked! It…!" He stared at Seo, advancing on her. "You. What have you done?!"

Seo backed away from him.

"It was you!" Bilis said. "It's always you! Being clever. Operating behind the scenes. Making sure all us temporally different people are sealed off, captured, or buried alive, so no one can hear us scream." His eyes grew dark. "So… what is it? What am I missing?"

"I don't know," said Seo.

"What's the key to the final lock sealing me away?" Bilis demanded. "Why can't I get free? What have you done to me?"

"I told you, I don't know!" Seo shouted back. "I haven't done it, yet!"

Bilis stopped. Examined her with cold, beady eyes.

"Running away from responsibility," he said. "Just like always. I suppose you think this isn't your fault at all. That this is all just me, going mad." He shook his head. "Selfish, selfish Seo."

"I—"

"I loved you," said Bilis. "Loved you so much I'd have done anything for you. And you repaid that love by torturing me. Imprisoning me. Trapping me here, for all eternity, with no hope of ever escaping." His eyes burned with rage. "You did it to me. And you'll do it to your precious Captain Jack."

Seo stared.

"Don't believe me?" Bilis laughed, bitterly. He leaned in, closer, his voice low. "I thought about getting my revenge on him. Thought about how much I wanted to tear him apart for his role in what happened. But in the end…" He shook his head. "There's nothing I could put him through that's crueler than what you'll do to him, yourself."

Seo's breath caught in her throat. "But I don't—"

"Excuses, excuses, excuses!" Bilis snapped. Threw his arms up. "When will you admit that you're the selfish one?! That you only make people love you, make people loyal to you, so they can sacrifice themselves for you when you're in danger?! You make them trust you, make them love you, just so it hurts that much more when you twist the knife."

Seo's very soul shuddered at this. Overrun by a hundred years of guilt and pain and self-blame.

"I'm sorry," Seo said, almost pleaded. "I'm so sorry. But I don't—"

But Bilis was already gone.

And so, Seo realized, in horror, was the thing that had been moving in the blackness.

Seo woke up, with a gasp. A forest, surrounding her. She was lying on a patch of unsnowy ground, a blanket wrapped around her. A crashed car right beside.

She leapt to her feet.

She could feel it. Feel that gape of the Cardiff Rift, fully open, roaring its fury for all to hear. She knew what was at the bottom of that rift. She knew what Bilis' fallback plan had been.

She raced forward, darting through the trees, rushing instinctively for some place she knew but couldn't quite place, as if it were temporally significant, a rough point for a collection of what-ifs and never-weres and should-have-beens.

And… there!

Alison, on the ground, staring down at herself, dazed and confused. Touching the area right around her heart, just to make sure it was still intact and fine.

Buffy — Mom — not far away. Hand against her head. Staring at the monster that had once carried her brain, as it slowly faded out of reality.

The curious campers, cooking breakfast over open fires or stepping out of camper vans to see what was going on.

"But… that's not… how…?" Seo said.

It had all gotten put back. Just the way it'd been before. The damage undone. The timelines disentangled.

"Shouldn't I be dead?" Alison asked, getting up. Then she groaned. "Don't tell me this is a Twilight Zone moment, and I actually am dead, but don't know it."

"No, that's just what if feels like to come back from the dead for no apparent reason," said Buffy, getting up, herself. "You get used to it after the first three or four times." She looked around herself. A small smile creeping up her face. "Hang on. Is this Yosemite?"

Alison nodded.

"Go figure!" said Buffy. "I totally love this place."

Seo stumbled forward. She could still feel it, deep down inside. That terrible pull of energies, tearing at her, ripping through her. An open rift, like a gaping wound in her chest. And… something else. Something different. Something… she had never felt before… didn't completely understand…

Almost as if… Seo could feel someone, showing up, half a world away… no, could feel… herself…

But who was she in the future? What would she…?

Hands caught her. Mom's hands.

"I… have to get back," Seo said. Gritting her teeth, trying frantically to find some thread she could pull to warp reality and transport her to Cardiff. Trying to find some crack she could exploit, some tendril of the rift she could use to her advantage.

But all the cracks had been sealed.

"Seo," came Mom's voice, from just beside her.

Seo looked up. Buffy. Mom. Looking just the way she always did. Not brain-dead. Not confused. Not hurt. Just… looking… Momish.

And she was staring back at Seo as if… she could barely believe that Seo was alive. As if she could barely imagine the pain and loss that would have gnawed through her if Seo had gone through with it — given herself up for the rest of the world.

"But I have to!" Seo insisted. "It's my fault, Mom. I did it! The Cardiff rift's been open, the monster's gotten loose, and people are dying and… and… I have to save them! I have to! Even if that means sacrificing myself for—"

Buffy cut her off by snatching her up into a tight hug. Arms shaking, as she clung to Seo, almost desperately.

A sniffle escaping from her.

"Don't you dare," Mom breathed. A tear running down her cheek. "Don't you ever, ever dare."

And in Cardiff, as the great monster Abbadon loomed over the city, and Torchwood frantically tried to work out a way to stop him — another altercation was taking place. An altercation between Bilis Manger, and someone who'd crossed her own timeline to face him down.

An older, wiser — and far angrier — Seo. Who had just come forward in time, from when she'd last met this man, 200 years ago, with her friends.

Her friends stood by her.

But they all knew — this was Seo's fight. And they were letting her fight it.

"…what am I missing?" Bilis was seething at the elder Seo. "What?"

Seo held up a box in her hand. A wooden-looking box, once filled with a memory-altering entity, and now filled with nothing but sand.

"I took it with me," said Seo. "When I came here, from the past. That's why you couldn't find it." Then, tossing it to him, "Catch!"

Bilis caught it. Greedily grabbed at it, tearing it open, throwing both sand and box into the golden energies of the rift, where the whole thing burned away.

They all waited, with baited breath, for something to happen.

Nothing did.

"It didn't work!" shouted Bilis Manger. "What…?!"

"It's a stasis box converted into a stabilizer field," said a slightly older version of Alison, from where she stood behind her friend. "All you've done, by letting the rift consume it, is to set what she's done to you in stone." Her eyes shone. "You're trapped in the rift forever, now. Sorry!"

Bilis struggled to break free from his prison. But failed.

He stared at Seo, horror flooding across him.

"As if I'd require you to kill my friends and family in order to release yourself!" Seo scoffed. She shook her head, almost disappointed in him. "The lock on your prison is empathic, you dolt. It doesn't just require you to gather items and people and have them do certain things. It requires the correct feelings behind those actions."

"What?" shouted Bilis.

"A drop of Dawn's blood — supposed to be given freely, as she forgave you," said Seo. "Alison's iPhone — a sign of trust. Torchwood's opening the rift — an expression of harmonious teamwork. Obtaining my consent — well, that goes without saying, doesn't it?"

"And Rhys?" demanded Bilis.

Seo's eyes flicked over to Abaddon, who'd noticed something in the distance. No. Some… one. Someone with more life energy than anyone else.

"Insurance," said Seo, bitterness edging her voice. "In case you worked out who actually saved me, all those years ago. And came after him." She glanced back at Bilis. "Which… looks like… you did."

"Naturally."

Seo shot him an icy glare.

"Oh, don't bother threatening me!" said Bilis. He laughed. "Your friend Alison's already said you tricked me into keeping myself locked up here, forever. There's nothing more you can do to me!"

"That's what she said," this older version of Seo replied. A twinkle in her eye. "Not what I actually did."

As she sealed his fate forever.