Author's Note: And the end!

Sorry about the lack of update yesterday. I was completely swamped at work and forgot.

Next up... the final story. "Reunion."

Enjoy.

The Havchornom screamed and writhed, as the energy flow was suddenly redirected.

Infecting them with horror and terror and fear — as if those emotions had originated within themselves. Tearing them apart instead of feeding and sustaining them.

"This will achieve nothing!" the Havchornom cried. "All you'll do, by killing us, is place the Doctor in danger, too!"

"Oh, yeah, like that threat's gonna work," Buffy said. Shaking up the gun. "I saw that projection. The Doctor got shot just like Seo. If she didn't survive, neither will he."

"You don't under—!" The Havchornom began.

"Just don't even start!" Buffy screamed, something deep down inside snapping. "You murdered my daughter! You get that? You killed her! And if Seo's dead — you're gonna die, too."

Buffy's voice lowered, as she stopped shaking the gun.

"And — just so you know," Buffy added. "That gun in Cardiff? Also broken. That didn't stop me."

She threw the gun into the fire, then raced for the door. Jenny close on her heels, just behind, shouting at her that didn't she realize the chemical reactions she'd just induced by rupturing different areas would result in…?!

The whole house blew up, behind them.

Buffy glancing back over her shoulder at the Havchornom, their smoking husks vanishing into nothingness, as they were destroyed.

"You killed them all," Jenny said.

"Seo is dead," said Buffy, "and there's nothing I can do to save her." She got up from the ground, dusting herself off. "They deserved a lot worse."

Seo lingered by the Doctor, as he scanned the air with his little spore-detection device.

"All gone," the Doctor confirmed. He grinned down at her. "Very good."

Seo stole a glance at Jack.

"Will he be all right?" Seo asked.

The Doctor tucked away his gadget. "Oh, fine," he assured her. "Might take him a day or so to recover. But all-in-all, crisis averted. The future's been saved."

Seo nodded. Her eyes fixed on Jack.

She didn't seem placated.

"He will be fine," the Doctor insisted.

"I hurt him, though," Seo said. She glanced back at her father. "I don't like it when people are in pain. It's why, the moment I saw Jack again, I had to—"

"Take him with you," the Doctor said. "I know."

He headed back to his TARDIS, letting Seo trail after him. So he could double-check what they'd just done, make sure that it had actually altered the future the way he expected.

"You really do love people strongly, don't you?" the Doctor said, turning down a back-alley.

"I… get attached," Seo said, her cheeks growing red. "Clingy. I think I have some abandonment issues."

The Doctor laughed. "I tried to make you hate me, to stop you going to the Irkoli Empire on my behalf," he reminded her. "I was rotten to you. Miserable. But for some reason… you still love me. Just as much as you always have."

"You're my father," said Seo. As if this were enough.

"I'm not, technically," the Doctor said.

Seo shrugged.

And the Doctor reached out, to squeeze her hand. "Your mum was just the same," he said. "It's why she protected people. Because she loved them all so strongly. Didn't matter if it was friends, family, memory-implanted not-quite-sisters. She loved. So she gave them everything."

Seo looked up at him.

"You're more like her than you know," the Doctor said. "She'd be proud."

"Are you proud?" said Seo.

"Oh, always! Did you ever doubt…?"

A throat cleared, just behind them.

Seo and the Doctor turned, to find Jack standing there, a blaster in his hand and an easy smile on his face.

The Doctor gripped Seo's hand a little tighter.

As, a little confused, Seo asked, "Jack?"

"Not quite," the Doctor breathed.

Jack pointed the blaster straight at them. "Sorry to disappoint, cuties," he said. "But there are no Jacks here."

The Doctor turned, dragging Seo after him, as he sprinted for the TARDIS. "Seo, run!"

"Nothing personal," said not-quite-Jack. "But business is business."

And he fired two shots.

Seo screamed.

Back in Jenny's ship, Buffy stood. Staring at the screen, upon which she'd found and was currently displaying the front page of the newspaper on Ariffildos — complete with pictures and big, bold text, explaining Seo's death.

Jenny, meanwhile was frantically trying to control her ship, and jettison them out of the Gate. The ship shook and rattled, the metal groaning and searing under the strain.

Buffy didn't notice.

Just kept staring.

"And… made it," Jenny announced, with a breath of relief, as the readings stabilized, and the view outside her ship reverted to the familiar starscape of their home universe. Jenny turned to Buffy, triumphant. "Out of a Gate that's impossible to cross, without opening it or letting any bits of Hell out. What do you think about…?"

Jenny paused.

As she saw Buffy still staring at that headline.

"Buffy…" said Jenny, crossing over towards her. "I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do."

"I… know," Buffy whispered. A deep shudder ran through her. "Laws of time causality whatever stuff. I get it."

It looked, however, like Buffy only said the words aloud to convince herself they really were true. She still was seconds around from saying to hell with the universe and jumping in anyways.

She took a long, deep breath. Her hands shaking.

"You can't get her back," Buffy whispered to herself. Voice trembling. "Any more than the Doctor could save his own world. Time can't be rewritten."

Jenny stopped in her tracks.

Pulled out that letter, with the smudged ink and desperate words. Her eyes glued to its surface, as she thought about everything Buffy just said.

Then smiled.

"Actually," Jenny decided, spinning around and launching herself back at the controls to her ship, "on second thought — let's do it!"

Buffy snapped her head up. "What?!"

Jenny was already flipping and switching, jerking open panels to tear out fail safe sections of her ship and ignoring countless warning lights.

"Ariffildos, Year of Robert, 35," Jenny announced. Using her boot to smash one of the temporal fail safe devices she'd installed a while back. "Take two." The whole thing sparked in her face, and she waved away the smoke. "So what if it's already happened and you're already sort of there? We've got a time machine, why not…?"

Buffy launched herself forwards, grabbing Jenny by the arm.

Stared into Jenny's eyes.

"Seo caused the catastrophe just by showing up there and trying to stop it," said Buffy. "You're supposed to die, too. The only thing you'll do, by following her to Ariffildos, is to make it a double-catastrophe."

"Not if I'm strategic," Jenny countered.

Buffy shook her head. "And whoever killed Seo and your dad will be prepared for your strategies," she insisted. "I mean, you said yourself that this was a trap. Anyone who knows you at all would figure out that you'd do the research while Seo just jumped in. There's some part of this whole plot that involves you, Jenny, and it's not going to be simple!" She glanced back over her shoulder. Her eyes dull. "I've lost my daughter. I'm not going to let you… wind up… in that newspaper…"

Buffy trailed off.

Her face sinking into sudden thought.

Then her eyes went wide, and her breath caught in her throat.

"They knew you'd do the research," Buffy said. "And those Havchornom threatened the Doctor's life when I first started defying them, which wouldn't happen if he was already…" A small laugh passed through her lips. "Oh, God! Why didn't I catch that?"

"What…?"

Buffy pulled Jenny away from the flight controls of her ship. "They're not dead, yet, Jenny," said Buffy. She pointed at the newspaper. "I told you someone knew you'd do the research! Look at that paper. It's a fake — specifically for you to find!"

Jenny blinked.

Then realized… Buffy was right.

"How did I not catch that?" Jenny asked herself.

Buffy swung her around, looking deep into her eyes. "You didn't catch it because you were never supposed to," she said. "You said it yourself. Ariffildos is where you and your sister die — but not where the Doctor dies. Why? Because whatever kills my daughter—"

"—hasn't happened, yet," said Jenny. "It's something involving me. Something that kills my sister and me, while Dad manages to escape." She looked back at the newspaper. "I was never supposed to be on Ariffildos. Someone knew I'd be too scared to go. This is all designed to lure me in… so I die, anyways."

"Yes."

"Then receiving your letter changed nothing," said Jenny. "It just got me deeper in the trap."

"That's right, my letter changed—" Buffy began to confirm. But stopped.

As something occurred to her.

"No," said Buffy. Thinking hard. "When you came to rescue me… those Havchornom really were at reduced power. And Sineya said…"

One single act of kindness could change the course of history.

Could release Buffy from hell.

Maybe even… stop two sisters from dying.

"That letter," Buffy realized, "didn't stop you from falling into the trap. It just made sure… I was around, when you fell into it."

"You?"

"Yes! You, the Doctor, Jack, Seo — you're all wrapped up in this future where everyone dies and everything gets destroyed," Buffy said. "But I'm not. That's what Terazina did by giving you my letter. She gave you guys me."

Jenny frowned.

"So tell me everything you know about this dead-future, Ariffildos stuff," Buffy demanded, leaning back against the hull of the space ship. "Because whatever time or history says… while I'm around, you're not gonna die, Jenny. And neither is Seo. I promise."