Buffy was halfway through the portal, when she felt herself yanked backwards. The Doctor tumbled off her shoulder, onto the floor, and Buffy dove to catch him, but a demon got her first. The demon was a nasty sort, with red spikes across his head and purple fangs. With every roar from the demon, time seemed to wobble around them. Buffy tried to swing out, but the purple-fanged thing was never where he was supposed to be. He was everywhere and nowhere, and Buffy felt lost and confused.

That was when the shaking stopped.

"Good work, Hrlfulem," said the bronze-skinned demon who had been shooting the Doctor with the Dalek gun earlier. "Secure her."

Buffy struggled, but she was surrounded by demons of all shapes, sizes, and colors, and she couldn't get free. She found herself dragged back to the torture area in the cave-like room, and was soon chained and secured just where the Doctor had been, earlier. She pulled at the chains, but they held her.

"So," said Buffy. "What do you want, now? Because I've got to warn you, it's not that easy to kill me."

The demons jeered. The bronze-skinned one stepped forward. "We're not going to kill you, Slayer," he snarled. "Not until you've paid for what you did to Karklothmanticothic."

The other demons cheered their agreement.

Buffy sighed. "Torture? Seriously? Talk about done to death. Can't you at least come up with something original?"

The bronze-skinned demon made a signal to the others, and they circled around Buffy, their teeth clashing, their eyes filled with rage and murder and revenge. And Buffy knew that this was going to be bad.

The first blow came from behind her. It was a powerful smash to the back of her knees, and she dropped, dangling from the manacles that were supporting her arms. She got back to her feet, and tried to kick out, using the manacles to twirl herself through the air — but one of the demons had his hands on her shoulders, and she could feel teeth sinking into her upper right arm, as claws rammed into her stomach. She was helpless — she hated being this helpless, hated feeling like there was nothing she could do — and this was how it was going to end. She was going to die, and then the universe would be unmade because she hadn't died the way she was supposed to, and she'd tell the demons that, except that they didn't look like they were in much of a listening mood right now.

And worse than that, worse than all of that was the realization that Buffy had failed. She was trying to help protect Sunnydale, help protect her friends, help protect the Doctor. And now she couldn't. The Ascension was going to happen, no one would be able to stop the Mayor, and Faith would be evil forever. And then all of her friends would die, horribly, eaten by the Mayor — except for the Doctor, who'd be tortured alongside her, here. On the plus side, the Doctor might be so traumatized by whatever had happened in that Dalek cube thing that he'd never snap out of it, and then, at least, he wouldn't really feel the torture. But that was a terrible plus side. The Doctor had said — he trusted her. He trusted her with his life, with the world and the universe and all of time and space. And she'd failed him.

She'd failed everyone.

A high-pitched buzzing sound filled the air, and the demons dropped back, clutching their heads. The sound cut off. Buffy looked up, and there, standing on the top of the stairs, just in front of the door to the recreation room, was the Doctor.

He stood, his deep brown eyes fixed on the demons below, his face set in a cold determination, his body standing tall and rigid, and he looked every bit the being of power that Giles' books described him as. This was not the compassionate, forgiving, friendly, bouncy Doctor that Buffy had grown to know so well over the last six months. No, this was the Oncoming Storm, the Destroyer of Worlds, the Bringer of Darkness. Every bit of him radiated anger, every crease of his face was filled with a quiet, simmering rage. He lowered the sonic, and stared out at the demons.

"Let her go," he demanded. His voice, while quiet, still rang out across the cavern-like room, and every single one of the demons — who had been jeering and taunting and torturing him such a short time ago — cowered.

The bronze-skinned demon hesitated. He moved towards Buffy, but instead of unchaining her, he took out the Dalek gun, and pointed it at her.

"One step closer, and I'll kill her," said the bronze-skinned demon. "The gun's calibrated for a Time Lord, and she's just a human. One shot, and she dies. Horribly."

"I said," the Doctor growled, "let her go."

Buffy felt the bronze-skinned demon's hands tremble. She really had to get the Doctor to teach her how to do the boomy voice thing. That was pretty cool.

"No!" the bronze-skinned demon said. "Both of you are our prisoners for the rest of eternity. We can do whatever we like, and there's nothing you can do about it. You can't stop us from hurting her."

"The only reason," said the Doctor, "that I have not collapsed this dimension into a singularity and killed you all by now, is because Elizabeth is here, and she doesn't deserve that. So I would be very, very careful about what you do to her, because right now, she's the only thing keeping you alive."

The bronze-skinned demon hesitated, then turned the gun on the Doctor. "Then we'll torture and imprison you. Once you're out of the picture, we can do whatever we want to the Slayer."

"No, you won't," said the Doctor. "Because I'm the only one who can save you."

The bronze-skinned demon lowered the gun. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that I've sabotaged your directional controls," said the Doctor. "You are careening through time and space to a very specific point, and unless you give me one good reason to save you, none of you will live to see tomorrow." He gave them a cold, angry stare. "And you'd better think of a very, very good reason. Because I've seen everything you lot have done across the universe. You have slaughtered thousands of innocents in hand-to-hand brutality, altered timelines simply to create chaos and devastation, and single-handedly twisted the planet of Scorhandra completely out of reality. That is a death count of millions upon millions of lives."

The spiky headed demon with the purple fangs gave an uneasy laugh. "You think we're fools," he said. "If we don't release the Slayer, you'll kill us. If we do release the Slayer, she'll kill us. We're going to die no matter what. We might as well have some fun while we're still alive."

"I never said I was going to kill you," said the Doctor. "I've aimed this pocket dimension of yours towards a very particular breach in space and time. You are tumbling towards the Void — the gap between universes, the hollow emptiness with no space, no time, no light, no dark, no anything. The Eternals called it 'the Howling'. The Daleks called it 'Hell'. And after the hell you've caused, I think you more than deserve it." He looked back to the bronze-skinned demon. "Now. Let Elizabeth go."

The bronze-skinned demon did as he was told.

Buffy fell to the ground, then got back to her feet in a second. She punched the bronze-skinned demon in his chest.

"Elizabeth," the Doctor warned.

Buffy stopped. She looked up at him. He was descending the stairs, his hard eyes still fixed on the demons surrounding him. They all cowered away from him, as he approached, and even Buffy felt the waves of power washing off him. Even Buffy could feel the anger resonating around his thin frame.

Was this what other-her had seen? Was this why Angel was so scared of the Doctor? Buffy had seen the Doctor angry before, but she'd never seen him like this. If this had been the way he'd looked when Angelus had killed his friend — Buffy could imagine why other-her had been afraid of what he might do. Buffy was afraid of what he might do, now. If she'd actually died, if they'd actually killed her…

Yeah, she didn't know what he'd do, if that had happened.

The Doctor approached Buffy, and his eyes grew kind and sorrowful as they rested on her.

"Are you all right?" he asked, in a soft voice.

Buffy touched her right arm, tenderly. It stung from where the demons had bitten her. "Aside from being slightly taste-tested, I'd say I'm doing just fine," she said.

The Doctor gave a barely audible sigh of relief. Then he spun around, and glared at the demons. He pointed at Buffy's arm. "Who did that?"

The demons all shuffled, but no one would own up.

"No one?" the Doctor demanded. "Not one of you wants to admit that you purposely harmed an innocent girl?"

"She wasn't innocent," one of the demons shouted. "She killed Karklothmanticothic."

"And if she hadn't, the Judoon would have," the Doctor said. "The Slayer Institution is a fully accredited alien peacekeeping taskforce, whose authority is recognized by the Shadow Proclamation. Elizabeth's conduct would stand up in a court of law. Yours would not. Explain yourselves."

"We're evil," said the purple fanged demon. "It's our nature."

The Doctor glared at him. "That's your defense?"

"Yeah," said the bronze-skinned demon. "I mean, we can't help ourselves, can we? We're just evil. Tell him, Buffy."

The Doctor stepped forwards. "I've seen evil," he said. "I've fought in the face of it for so long. But you… you aren't evil." He scanned the Concurrence. "You're nothing."

Buffy stared at the Doctor. He didn't look or feel human anymore. No, he didn't seem remotely human. This was the being that Angel had been telling her about, the one beneath the surface, the one that destroyed people. Buffy had rarely encountered any creature with this kind of power before, and that was saying something.

One of the demons leapt out towards the Doctor, claws and fangs bared, but the others pulled him back. The Doctor noticed.

"That's wise," he said. "Because you know me. You know what I've done. There are many things in this universe that are evil, and I've destroyed them all."

Yeah, destroyed them all — except the vampires, who he insisted on saving. But none of the demons seemed to bring that up, and the Doctor wasn't bringing it up, and Buffy couldn't help but think that was a little weird.

"So tell me," the Doctor continued, "if you really are evil, why should I let you live? What reason have you come up with?"

None of the demons said anything.

"I'm waiting!" the Doctor shouted. "Where's my reason?"

"We didn't harm the Slayer!" said one of the demons. The demon faltered. "Well, not much."

"Not good enough," the Doctor snapped. "Better reason."

"We're… sorry?" tried the spiky headed, purple fanged demon.

The Doctor turned on him. "How sorry?" he demanded. He marched over to the demon, and even though the demon was taller than the Doctor, the Doctor seemed to tower over him. "How sorry are you, really? Sorry enough to make up for the complete annihilation of millions of innocents? Sorry enough to make up for all the damage you have done?" He got right up in the demon's face. "You're not sorry," he said. "You're afraid. That's all you are. Scared little boys huddling in the dark."

"We'll never do it again," the bronze-skinned demon begged. "We promise."

The other demons all nodded in enthusiastic agreement. Buffy didn't believe a word of it.

The Doctor surveyed the crowd. He said nothing for a long stretch, the raspy breath of every demon echoing off the stone walls.

"You get one chance," the Doctor said, at last. "That's all. Now. Bring me my TARDIS."

The demons all hesitated.

"It's the only way to change the trajectory," the Doctor told them. "Do it!"

The bronze-skinned demon fiddled with a few things on a hidden panel on the floor, then said a little spell, and the blue police box appeared, on the far side of the room. The Doctor looked back at Buffy, and held out his hand to her. She took it — with her non-nibbled arm — and, together, they walked to the TARDIS.

"Key?" Buffy whispered to him.

The Doctor held out his hand, and snapped his fingers, the doors flying open at his request. Bright light from the TARDIS shone into the dully lit cave of the Concurrence Headquarters, looking like a ray of sunshine piercing through the darkness. The demons flinched away from it. The Doctor nodded for Buffy to step inside, and began to follow her.

"How do we know that you're not just going to fly off and leave us to die?" asked one of the demons.

The Doctor stopped in the doorway, and turned. "You asked me to trust you," he said. "I suppose you'll just have to trust me."

Then he stepped inside, and closed the doors.