Author's Note: Last update for a little while. I'm going out of town and don't know if I'll be able to update during that time. I suspect not but you never know.

Anyways, enjoy!

Unfortunately, this was easier said than done.

The other vampires had arrived, and they were now swarming the planet. Everywhere the Doctor looked, he saw more and more.

"You said less than fifty," the Doctor pointed out.

"Less than fifty Ancients," Seo corrected. "The Ancients are the powerful vampires, who have their own minds and identities." She gestured around her. "These are Spawn — the lesser vampires. They're a lot easier to make, and a lot stupider. In fact, they're basically just undead animals, who know nothing except their own hunger."

"Charming," the Doctor muttered. He guessed that was part of the vampires' strategy: get onto a planet, create a bunch of Spawn, and let them eat up the world.

If younger-Seo preferred to do it differently… use a more hands-on approach… it was probably mostly for her own amusement.

"Eventually, I killed all of the Spawn, too," Seo told him. "Although, to be fair, that was considerably after I killed the Ancients, and it took a lot longer. Especially without super strength and things."

The Doctor shot her a sidelong glance. "I meant to ask about that. Your younger-self has super strength. But you…"

"When you give up drinking blood and time and vampire food," Seo cut in, "there are other things you have to give up, along with it. Super strength is one of those things."

"I see."

"Once upon a time, I could beat up the Spawn with one hand tied behind my back," said Seo. She grimaced. "Now… not so much."

Even if the Spawn were weaker or less powerful… they were still a force to be reckoned with. Carnage and slaughter was everywhere. Innocent people were screaming, as they were ripped apart. Some simply melted where they stood. Many were weeping, begging for help.

The Doctor, trying to make his way through it, was having a hard time stopping himself from rushing off to rescue people. And that was just him.

Seo, who'd clearly spent many sleepless nights agonizing over this, was getting completely torn up about what was happening. For all that the Doctor regretted walking away — Seo was completely beside herself.

"A lot more could die, if you don't leave," the Doctor insisted. "The whole fabric of the universe could fall apart."

"I know," Seo said. She forced herself to look away from the carnage. "I know! I'm going. I'm doing it. It's just…"

"Difficult," the Doctor supplied.

Seo looked down at the ground. "What can I say? I care about people. It's what separates me from her." She took a deep breath. "I know I can't come back here and change things, Doctor." She glanced back at him. "But could you…?"

She paused.

The Doctor wasn't there.

"Doctor?" Seo spun around. "Where…?"

"Get back to the TARDIS!" came his shout, to her right. "I'll be fine! Just get…!"

Seo spun around.

And saw the Doctor in the impossibly tight grip of her younger-self. Her hand now covered his mouth.

"He really does talk too much," said the girl, leaning towards the Doctor's neck. "Maybe I should turn him into a Spawn. Let him wander around, mindless, for all eternity. That'd be fun."

"Leave him alone," Seo demanded. "He's the good guy. I'm the scumbag. Pick on me, not him."

The girl bit the Doctor, in the neck.

He cried out.

Seo grabbed a rock off the ground and hurled it at the girl's head. It collided, and the girl hissed at her. But she stopped feeding on the Doctor.

"I knew he'd taste wonderful," the girl said, smacking her lips. "All that artron. It's divine."

The worst thing was… Seo could taste the residue of the girl's feeding, in the air. It was almost enough to make her remember… the way he had tasted.

And… oh! It was one of the most mouth-watering, incredible tastes she'd ever tasted. The Doctor wasn't just any old Time Lord — he had traveled a lot. Every single one of his blood cells was jam-packed with time and life and future.

Seo focused her mind.

Got herself back under control.

"If you kill him," Seo promised the girl, "I will kill you."

"No, you won't," the girl taunted. She licked the side of the Doctor's neck. "But… don't worry. I'm not going to kill him — yet. First, I'll have some fun with him. Then, when I do kill him… I'll make sure it's agony."

Seo clenched her fists.

It was hard to resist the urge to punch the living daylights out of herself, sometimes.

"What do you want from me?" Seo demanded. "I know you're just picking on him, to get to me."

The girl didn't answer that question.

Instead, she began to play with the Doctor's hair. "What can I do, before I kill him?" the girl mused. "How can I make his life hell?" She began plucking hairs out of his head. "Maybe I'll see how long he can survive in the vacuum of space. Maybe I'll try drowning him. Or maybe… I'll just keep cutting him open until the smell of his blood drives me crazy, and I drain him dry."

The Doctor finally pulled his mouth free from the girl's hand. "Seo, she's goading you. Seeing how far she has to push you, before you snap. Leave me. Get out of here."

"No, Doctor," Seo said. "She wants to hurt me. And she'll kill you and anyone else she needs to… in order to do it." She stepped forwards. Addressed the girl, directly. "You think I'm your mother, don't you?"

"It's your fault," the girl accused. "Everything that's happened — it's all your fault." She began throttling the Doctor. "And now, you've run off with some other guy, leaving me behind to…"

"Your mother is dead!" Seo shouted. "I'm not Myrum. She was… taller. Brown hair. Smaller lips." She gestured at herself. "I'm just a criminal. That's all. The Doctor's people caught me. He's taking me in for trial."

The girl frowned. Stopped throttling the Doctor.

"Then why am I important to you?" the girl said.

"I was trying to use you," Seo lied. "Manipulate you. I wanted to take you away from the Shadow and use you for my own ends."

"Seo, don't do this," the Doctor urged her. "She's going to kill me, anyways. Get out of here."

"There, see?" said the girl. "He doesn't believe you, any more than I do." She grabbed the Doctor to her, tighter. "I think I'll keep him around, for a while. He's a lot more honest than you." She gave him a cold, heartless grin. "And… a lot more fun."

"You were going to kill him, before I showed up," Seo pointed out.

"Yeah, well, I thought he was going to kill me," said the girl. "But, by now… I'm pretty sure he's not." She dug sharp nails into the Doctor's arm — sharp enough to draw blood. "Go on. One of you two. Hurt me. Cut me. Fight back!"

Neither of them did.

"See?" the girl said, a little proudly. "That's what makes you so fun! It doesn't matter what I do. He won't kill me or hurt me — and you…" She shrugged. "Well, you won't even touch me."

Seo was barely holding herself back, to be honest.

"So, no, you're no threat," said the girl. "You're just toys. Something to play with and then break."

"Someone to hurt, the way that you've been hurt?" the Doctor guessed. "All those tortures you described putting me through… how many have you been put through, yourself?"

The girl stared at him.

Speechless.

Seo just gave an exasperated sigh. "Doctor, seriously, don't make excuses for her. She's an evil, twisted, homicidal maniac. I acknowledge that. I live with that. I don't need excuses."

"I just think certain people should be aware," the Doctor said, "that even the most cruel, callous, and seemingly evil creatures might actually be acting out of pain and fear and desperation."

"Oh, really?" Seo snapped. She turned to the girl. "Why did you kill the Olitzitz?"

The girl shrugged. "Just because."

"But they rescued you from the Shadow, at the end of the war!" Seo said. "They felt pity for you! They wanted to give you a better life!"

"So?" said the girl. "What's that to me?"

"You're miserable!" Seo shouted. "You hate your life! If you hadn't killed them, they could have taken that away from you!"

"But that wasn't going to happen," said the girl, "because they had to die."

"But if you hadn't killed them…" Seo began.

"If, if, if!" the girl retorted. "Why do you keep saying 'if'?! There's no 'if'! The Olitzitz were a bunch of blue-skinned, time traveling bastards. I hated them. So I killed them. I had to kill them. I was always going to kill them. There was never any 'if'!"

Seo's eyes flicked down to the Doctor. "See?"

"She's a child," the Doctor argued. "She doesn't know any better."

"She should have known better," Seo replied. She stepped forwards. Addressed the girl. "If you have to kill me, just get it over with. But let him go. He's done nothing."

The girl's grip loosened on the Doctor.

For a moment, Seo thought she might have gotten through to the girl. Perhaps, by some miracle, the girl had decided to let the Doctor go, on a whim.

Then… Seo heard the voice, drifting through the wind…

And her blood went cold.

"Him," both Seo and the girl whispered, at the same time.

The girl let go of the Doctor, completely, and jumped away from him and Seo. Her hands were shaking.

"He knows I failed to destroy this planet, all by myself," the girl whispered. "He'll be angry."

"He knows who I am," Seo whispered. "He's after me."

The Doctor got back to his feet, looking between the two. He couldn't hear anything on the wind… but he felt the temperature drop, just a bit.

Without another word, the girl ran away and vanished into the midst of a crowd of panicked, fleeing people and ravenous, mindless Spawn.

Seo grabbed the Doctor by the hand. "TARDIS," she said, now without any doubts. "Before he finds me."

"Before who…?" the Doctor began to ask.

But it was a silly question, and he knew it.

"The Shadow," the Doctor said, answering his own question. "Your sire. The one person that both you and your younger-self are terrified of."

"He murdered my father, Doctor," Seo replied, dragging him after her, "kidnapped me, then had the audacity to claim it was a 'rescue'. He hurt me and said it was for my own good. Pushed me to live up to his standards and tortured me if I didn't make the cut. That kind of thing sticks with you, forever."

The Shadow… had called Seo's kidnap a 'rescue'?

The Doctor thought back to what he had seen, in Seo's past.

Hesitated.

"Seo," the Doctor ventured. "What if I were to tell you… that your father wasn't quite the way you remember him?"

Seo said nothing, for a long time.

"If you told me that, then I'd tell you… my father is dead," Seo replied, her voice low and quiet. "He died horribly. Twice. He more than paid for what he did. And… I like to think he regretted his misdeeds, by the end."

The Doctor blinked.

He hadn't quite expected this.

"You know your father was…?" the Doctor began.

"Not a nice man?" Seo glanced at the Doctor. "Yes. I know. Of course I know. I grew up living with the consequences of his actions."

The Doctor frowned.

"My father was very kind — to me," Seo continued. "But… as for the rest of the universe…" She shook her head. "I don't know. I want to think he repented. But maybe that's just wishful thinking."

"And what if you found out that your father was using you?" the Doctor said. "Manipulating you? All those injections, when you were a child…"

"No," Seo cut in. "He wouldn't. Not to me." She shook her head. "I don't know what you saw in my past, Doctor, but my father was like a magician — everything he did was trickery and deception. Whatever you saw was just a trick. Not the truth." She took a deep breath. "He'd never have hurt me. I'm sure. Not like the Shadow…"

She froze, in place.

Her eyes growing wide.

The Doctor tried to drag her forwards. "Seo, the TARDIS is just up…"

"I can't," Seo said. Her voice shook. "The Shadow. He's calling me."

"Calling…?" The Doctor grimaced. Of course — it was a rule, wasn't it? A vampire had to come, when her sire called her. "He's not calling you, Seo. He's calling the younger one."

Seo shook her head. "He's calling me," she said. "I can tell. He's found me. He knows who I am." She released the Doctor's hand. "Get out of here. Run, while you still can!"

"It's rather too late for that, Puppy," came a voice from the shadows. A shadowy hand reached out and grabbed the Doctor, and the Doctor yelped, as gold energy poured off him in droves.

Seo charged at the shadows, angrily, but ran right through them. Unable to even touch the entity within.

"So it is you," the shadows said. "Fascinating. A version from the future, who's come back into her own past."

The Doctor cried out, as the shadows gained more and more of a form. They gathered together to create a man, his hand on the Doctor's shoulder, gaining strength as the Doctor weakened.

"The real question is," the Shadow continued, "why did you come back through time with this interloper, instead of with me?" He glared down at the Doctor. "What has happened to you, by your time, to make you abandon me for him?"

"Let him go," Seo demanded, lunging for the Shadow, again.

"Stay, Puppy," the Shadow commanded.

And Seo found herself frozen to the spot.

"Interesting," said the Shadow. "You haven't been this easy to control, since I first rescued you from your father. You're spending most of your effort shielding your mind and memories — to make sure I can't see, from your thoughts, who this man is." His voice lowered. "Which confirms my suspicions. In the future… this man takes you from me. He destroys me."

"No," Seo said.

"What is he, to you?" the Shadow demanded. "What did he do?!"

The Doctor, through pain, shouted out the only words that he knew would save his life…

"Time Lord!" the Doctor cried.

Instantly, the Shadow pulled his hand away and stopped the time drain. He stared at the Doctor, who fell to the ground, weak after the attack.

"A Time Lord?" The Shadow leaned over, helped the Doctor up. "My dear fellow, why didn't you say, before? I do apologize."

Seo, stunned, couldn't speak.

Her mouth couldn't even form words.

The Doctor caught his breath. This was the hard part, of course. Because the Shadow had just confirmed all the Doctor's suspicions — suspicions that explained, perfectly, why Narvin had warned him (and Seo) not to ask too many questions.

"No harm done," the Doctor said. He could already feel himself regaining his strength. "Well, not by me, at any rate." He gestured at the planet, around him. "Is all this destruction really necessary?"

"I wouldn't do it, unless it was necessary," the Shadow replied. He shrugged. "Besides, you know the agreement — I help you win your Time War, and you allow me to carry out my own personal missions, unimpeded."

"You… know the Time Lords," Seo said, in a barely audible whisper.

The Shadow turned to her. "Well, naturally. Did I not explain that to you, in my future? How remiss." He gestured at the Doctor. "You see, Puppy, I know the Time Lords well. They are, after all, the ones who finally explained to me how, when, and where… I could hunt down and kill your father."