As Seo stepped out onto the surface of the planet, she looked around herself. Furrowed her brow.

"Wow," said Dawn, emerging behind her. "Really cheerful place you found, here, Seo."

It was dusk. The blue pinprick sun setting below the horizon, but shedding enough light on the landscape around them to see that it was filled with scorched and burned trees, the ransacked remains of houses, and a dense layer of ash beneath their feet.

"Seems familiar," Seo muttered.

Dawn glanced at her. Okay. Was this one of those flashbacks-to-a-year-that-never-happened moments? Or was Seo picking up on something Dawn had missed?

"Well… I'm pretty sure I've never been here," Dawn tried. Holding her breath for what Seo would say next.

Seo shot her aunt a grin, over her shoulder. "Yes, but you sleep a whole eight hours a night. There's a lot someone can do in eight hours."

Then she skipped away, tossing her hair over her shoulders.

Dawn blinked.

Then shut the door and raced after Seo. "You've been sneaking out of Oliver in the middle of the night so you could explore and get yourself into trouble?" she cried. "You…! You…!" Bit her lower lip, as Seo skipped around a corner. "God, you really are me, huh?"

Then rushed to keep up.

Raykins took a reading with her wrist computer, then analyzed the results. Shook her head. "Well, if Sunglasses was here, she isn't anymore. Not a trace." Turned back to the other soldiers. "How, exactly, did you manage to lose her?"

The soldiers all looked at one another, awkwardly.

"We don't know, ma'am," one of them admitted.

"We'd caught up with her," said another. "Taken her into custody. And next thing we knew… she was gone. Can't remember how it happened."

Raykins shot them all a hard, stern look. "Can't remember," she repeated. Marched over to them. "Can't remember?! What the hell do you think you're playing at?!"

"Sorry, ma'am," the soldiers told her.

One in the back hesitated. "With permission, ma'am, who is she? Why's she so important?"

"That's classified," said Raykins.

"We think she's a Dalek spy," said Hrequor.

"We thought she was a Dalek spy," Raykins corrected. "But a Dalek spy wouldn't be using us to steal information from the Daleks' own databases, would they?"

Hrequor looked away, a little shamefaced. He clearly hadn't thought of that.

Raykins checked her wrist computer, again. "Hrequor, they're your men, you figure out how to discipline them. I have to find her." She headed off. "I'll be able to get a better reading in my ship. If she left this world, there'll be a distinct trace from her engines. Pick that up, and I can work out…"

Raykins stopped. Froze.

"Agent Raykins, Ma'am?" said Hrequor.

Raykins held up her hand, demanding quiet. "Daleks," she breathed. Grabbed up one of the Dalek-Be-Gone guns from her holster, and sprinted forwards. "Looks like they've finally come out into the open. Time to find out the real reason they're here."

"Wonder what happened to this place," Dawn muttered, as they poked around for signs of life. "It's like a disaster area, here."

Seo stopped, just a short ways away. Then her eyes lit up, and she spun around to Dawn. "Oh, Aunt Dawn! Guess what? I've just worked out what happened to make this place look burnt like this!"

Dawn spun around, to find Seo pointing.

"They came!" Seo explained.

And looming just behind Seo was a sight that made Dawn's heart stop dead in her chest. A group of five Daleks advancing forwards, their eyestalks fixed on the two of them, their gun barrels twitching. Dawn sucked in a sharp breath as she watched them surround herself and Seo.

"DO NOT MOVE!" shouted the Daleks. "DO NOT MOVE! YOU ARE PRISONERS OF THE DALEKS!"

"They're multi-color this time!" Seo cried. "And still very cute-looking." She leaned down to get a better look. "Aw, look at you! You're like… Dalek skittles!"

"SILENCE!" shouted the Daleks. "SILENCE!"

"I know that everyone's afraid of you," Seo continued, "but you don't even have hands, so why—?"

Dawn lunged forwards, grabbing Seo up and shoving a hand over her mouth. "Okay, seriously," Dawn whispered, "this time, do not antagonize."

Seo tried to speak, but Dawn squeezed her arm tight as she could, to make her shut up.

"We're complying," Dawn told the Daleks. "We'll do what you want."

"YOU WILL COME WITH US," shouted the Daleks. "MOVE! MOVE!"

But the moment the first Dalek swiveled around, it was struck — point blank, through the eyestalk — by a dazzling beam of light. It exploded in a burst of green goop and machine parts.

"ALERT!" shouted another, spinning around and firing. "ALERT! UNDER ATTACK!"

"EXTERMINATE!" shouted the remaining three.

Dawn saw her advantage.

And took it.

Grabbed Seo by the hand, and began to race in the opposite direction. Feet pounding against the ashy ground fast as she could go, her heart thudding in her chest.

Just get out, get out, get…!

"PRISONERS ESCAPING!"

A Dalek beam seared right in between Dawn and Seo, throwing them apart from one another, splattering mud and ash up in between them. Dawn rolled back to her feet, forcing herself to remain steady, then tried to run…

But someone caught her hand.

"With me," said a woman's voice.

"But—"

There was no chance for argument, though, as the Daleks resumed their fire, and the woman beside Dawn managed to shove Dawn out of the trajectory whilst flipping and dodging her way through the battlefield. Her firearm hitting another Dalek, before she and Dawn made it to safety.

"We have to go back," Dawn whispered. "I was with someone. She's—"

"Still alive," said the soldier-looking woman. "Or the Daleks would have killed you two on the spot the moment they set eyes on you." She wore a uniform emblazoned with a military logo, and her eyes looked furious. "So who are you? And what the hell do the Daleks want with you?"

Seo felt herself dragged away by another pair of hands. Dragged off, away from Dawn, by someone who looked like a soldier.

"My aunt—" Seo began.

"Will be fine," the soldier cut in. "Regroup later. Now move!"

He tried to secure his hold on her more tightly, but Seo wasn't having it. She wouldn't leave her Aunt behind to get killed on a world not her own. She just… couldn't!

Seo twisted out of his grip, and then surged forwards, in the direction she'd last seen Dawn. The soldier followed after her, gun in hand.

She could hear the sound of Daleks in pursuit of someone else — Dawn, she assumed — and followed the noise. Could hear the sounds of shots and screams, but the dust was still thick and ashy around them, and Seo could see nothing.

Then Seo collided with something metal. Was thrown back, caught by the soldier, as the dust settled. And they found three Daleks surrounding them.

"DROP THE WEAPON," one of the Daleks commanded. "YOU WILL SURRENDER."

The soldier lay down his gun on the ground, stepped away from it, hands raised. He nudged Seo, who did the same.

"We surrender," he said. "We'll come quietly."

For a few moment, silence.

Then, in unison, "EXTERMINATE!"

A blaze of light filled Seo's vision, searing across her corneas, and she could just hear the anguished screams of the man beside her, his skeleton illuminating inside his body as he was struck…

And then he fell, dead, to the ground.

Seo stared between the Daleks and the soldier. Her breath coming a little too fast.

"But… he'd surrendered," Seo said. She turned on them, rage flowing through her. "Do you need a dictionary? White flag! Surrender! You can't shoot someone if they've—"

"SILENCE!" shouted the Daleks. "OR YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

Seo shut up.

"YOU WILL COME WITH US," the Daleks commanded.

"Where?" Seo asked, trying to force the tremor out of her voice. "What are you going to do to—"

"MOVE!" shouted the Daleks, their gun-stalks twitching. "OR YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

Seo did as she was told.

But before they'd gotten very far, a sound of engines revving drowned out all other noise around them, and the dust began to blow thicker than it had, before. The Daleks' eye-stalks all raised to regard the air ship flying lower and lower towards the ground, kicking up the dust…

And Seo took advantage of the distraction.

And ran.

Ran fast as she could, away from the Daleks. Ran blindly but determinedly, ran even as dust filled her lungs and she struggled to suppress the urge to cough and give away her position.

She didn't know what had happened to Dawn.

But had to hope that Dawn had gotten away. Maybe Dawn had been the one to organize the distraction in the first place. Maybe it was a sign that Dawn was still okay!

Hope was all Seo had left.

So she clung to it.

Until the dust settled. And Seo finally realized… she knew exactly what this planet was. And why it had looked so familiar.