Author's Note: Yes, there's certainly a difference between the Glory who fought her war and the Glory we saw in the Buffy show. Interesting, huh? Wonder what happened to turn one into the other...

Enjoy!

"No!" the Doctor cried.

"Oh, God!" said Peri, climbing towards her. She tried to shake Seo awake. "Come on. Wake up. Please!"

"Still breathing," the Doctor noted. "She survived." He shot Peri a look that said, 'Friend of yours?'

But didn't need to iterate the point.

The two hell gods paused. Turned back, intrigued.

"You're still alive," they noted.

"Fortunately for us," the Doctor replied. "But did you have to do that?" He pointed at Seo. "What did this girl ever do to you? What did either Peri or I ever do to you? It was unnecessary. A cold, merciless act of senseless barbarism! What's more, it would have hurt you more than it hurt me, as I proved earlier!"

The two stared at Peri, who immediately took her hands away from Seo, and tried to pretend she wasn't doing anything even remotely suspicious.

"What… girl?" they asked.

"He means me," Peri assured them. "Girl. That's me! He's always calling me that."

The Doctor frowned. Looked from Seo to the two hell gods. And then seemed to get it.

"Yes, I'm always calling her that," the Doctor lied.

The two hell gods vacillated, but before they could decide anything, Seo made a gesture, and one of the minions, watching, caught the gesture at once. Nodded. Then turned around.

And went berserk.

Screaming and shouting and kicking up a huge fuss and pandemonium across all the minions that the hell gods for a moment seemed overwhelmed and unable to deal.

"I was right," Seo said, as Peri helped her up. "They're extremely weak. The war with Glory took it out of them. And things like the Stillness on Bvotin kept them that way."

Then Seo frowned. Stared a little bit harder at the wall by their backs, and reached out. Stroking the stones with her fingertips.

A little smile spread across her face, as she suddenly thudded a stone at the side, and part of the wall became gooey and squishy-looking.

"A secret passage," the Doctor remarked.

Seo grabbed Peri by the hand, yanking her through. "Inside! Now!"

It felt squishy and unpleasant to pass through, but Peri found herself completely dry on the other side. Could hear the two hell gods regaining control, and as the Doctor stepped through, he seemed a little frantic.

"We have to move," said the Doctor, racing forwards. "I'm afraid we've just lost our distraction."

Seo slammed her hand down on something on their side of the wall, and the squishy doorway became solid again. "That won't hold them long," she said. "Weakened or no, they're still stronger than us." Grabbed a torch out of her back pocket, shone it out down the tunnel. "Follow me!"

They ran.

"An LED torch running off triple-A batteries," the Doctor noted, pointing, as he ran. "The sort bought at Hannaford's Grocery Store, on Earth." He glanced up at Seo, curiosity written across his features. "Yet you found this secret passageway as if you knew what you were looking for."

Seo didn't answer for a few moments. Just stared at the ground.

"You know, Peri," the Doctor said, as they were running, "you never did introduce me to your friend."

Peri hesitated. Not sure what to say.

But Seo cut in, before Peri had a chance to.

"I… can visualize things I can't… always… see," Seo replied. "It's a skill I picked up on Gorlai 7."

"The Mystic Seers of Gorlai," the Doctor acknowledged. "I've been there. Never had the knack for that sort of thing, myself, but…"

He stopped, as Seo seemed to trip over her own feet, and smacked hard onto the ground. The Doctor reached out to catch her, but Seo shuddered away from him, instead accepting Peri's help back to her feet. Seo's eyes fixed on the Doctor, unable to tear themselves away.

"You okay?" Peri asked Seo.

Seo shot her a pointed stare. "You know I'm not."

It sounded like she was trying very hard to keep her voice from shaking.

"Why don't you go ahead?" Peri proposed. "Scout out the way. The Doctor and I can stay back here. You know. Out of sight, out of mind!"

But it was pretty clear that there was no way Seo could forget the Doctor's presence. Or ignore it.

"I can't leave you two here," said Seo.

"Then we'll follow behind, out of your line of sight! And… and… and while you're walking, you can tell me about how you got that minion-thing to see you!" Peri really hoped this would take Seo's mind off things for a while. "I mean, I thought you were invisible or something."

Seo gave a little laugh. As she went on ahead. "I found a friend," she explained. "Ixit. That was his name. Did a little trick to alter his perceptions a bit, get him to see me. He seemed rather eager to help, once he knew I was there." She looked off into the distance. "Funny that."

"And you wouldn't want to explain why it is they can't see you in the first place?" the Doctor inquired.

Seo didn't answer.

"Or how, for that matter, you knew those two had fought against Glorificus?" the Doctor continued. "It took me quite a while to work that one out, myself, and I'm something of a genius."

Seo kept staring at the ground. Opened her mouth to answer. Then closed it.

Finally, in a very quiet voice, "You have no idea how much I've missed you."

The Doctor blinked. "I'm sorry?"

"I… I can't," Seo said. Her voice was breaking, now, and she ran faster — away from the monsters or away from the Doctor, Peri wasn't sure — trying to swallow past the lump in her throat. "I can't talk to you, anymore. I… just… can't. I'm sorry."

The Doctor's eyebrows raised, as he took this in. "I see." Then he turned to Peri, sharply. "Were either of the two of you planning to mention this timeline mix-up to me? Or were you just going to leave me to work it out on my own?"

Peri faltered. "I… don't…"

"To 'miss me' implies that the young lady up ahead already knows me," the Doctor replied. "And since I don't recognize her, that can only mean I've somehow managed to meet her out of order. A temporal mix-up which might prove catastrophic!"

Peri should have known he'd figure it out.

That was the problem with having your best friend be really smart.

"Sorry," Peri muttered.

"Oh, Peri," the Doctor sighed. "You can't just hide things like this from me! You might think you're sparing my feelings, but actually, you're just making a mess! This sort of temporal mismatch takes finesse and delicacy to untangle. It requires effort and a certain amount of…"

He was stopped in his tracks, as Seo re-emerged, just in front of him. Staring deep into his eyes.

Then she ran forwards and threw her arms around him, pulling him into a tight embrace. And began to sob into his shoulder. Unable to stop herself.

"I wasn't trying to spare your feelings, Doctor," said Peri. "I was trying to spare hers."

The Doctor, once again, seemed completely taken aback. Not sure what to do, or how to react, now that a complete stranger had just hugged him desperately and proceeded to sob into his shoulder.

"Another reason," the Doctor muttered, "one never wants to pry too far into one's own future, I think." And decided he definitely did not want to know what action taken by future-him could possibly have provoked this kind of reaction.

Instead, the Doctor put on a slightly desperate smile, and tried patting her on the back.

"It's all right," the Doctor soothed. "You'll be fine. Whatever this is about, I'm… sorry."

Which only made her sob even harder.

"Peri," the Doctor said, trying to gently disentangle the sobbing girl from him. "Help me move this little temporally complicated confrontation into the TARDIS, please!"

The Doctor and Peri — that Time Lord and his human — had escaped into the walls of their castle.

But the two gods did not pursue them.

They stayed behind.

With Ixit.

Because the Doctor had implied that there was someone else present. Someone whom Ixit could see — but the rest of them couldn't.

The minion, Ixit, screamed and writhed under their tortures. But the gods didn't relent. They needed to know. Who couldn't they see? What was the nature of this trickery? Why couldn't they see this other person, and why was she there?

The minion had been loyal.

But even he broke, eventually.

Telling them the name neither had ever wanted to hear again.

"Glorificus," said Ixit. "It was… Glorificus. She was here. I saw her!"

The two gods looked at one another. Realizing that the Doctor had been right. Glorificus had wanted them to exile her. So she could gain the upper hand. Infiltrate their palace unnoticed, invisibly. Incite rebellion amongst their minions.

"We have to catch her unawares," said one of the gods. "She's not ready to defeat us, yet, or she'd have destroyed us already. No — this time, she came for the Time Lord."

"To keep him out of our clutches," the other agreed. "Keep us from finding out what he knew. And to keep us from understanding how his physiology operated — and how it might weaken us."

They met one another's eyes.

And decided to use all their spare strength. And reach out across the multiverse — to pluck her out of reality. Bring Glorificus back here.

They'd have their revenge, before she could ever take hers.