Author's Note: It's amazing how you can put all your effort into something, literally pour your soul into it, and then someone slams it with a horrible review. I mean, I know the customer's always right, but some people you just never please! You get a guest that tells you they have allergies, so they need a room that's completely allergen free. You give them the room you've just renovated, and they're the first people staying there, and it's beautiful and you've put all this money and time into making it gorgeous. And they complain it's "too new" then shove up a review that makes you sound like you're a cheap motel that's given them rooms no one would look twice at.

I've had a rough few days.

And all I have to show for it is a lot of yelling from my uncle, two broken windows, and ungrateful customers.

Hopefully my writing will make SOMEONE happy. And if not, at least it was free to read, and your review won't jeopardize my job or my business.

(I really need more sleep, I think. I've been up until 2 am every night this week doing hotel laundry, and I think it's starting to get to me.)

Enjoy!

Please leave good reviews! I need the moral support.

"I keep telling you," Dawn insisted. "Neither Seo nor me have anything to do with any Daleks. In fact, we pretty much hate the Daleks. This is totally un— Ow!"

She winced, as she was once again jabbed with a syringe, and injected with something. The woman who'd rescued her — Raykins, the others had called her — flashed another scanner-looking thing over Dawn, and analyzed the readings.

"What is that stuff?" said Dawn. "Sodium pentothal? Because I'm telling you the truth, here!"

"And you'd believe that even if you were a Dalek agent," said Raykins, still scrutinizing her scanner. "IPSA's perfectly aware of Dalek conditioning tactics. Rest assured, this isn't sodium pentothal." She waved the scanner around, again. "Just a DNA sequencing enhancer." Waved the scanner around another time. Then sighed, and put it down on a nearby table.

For a few seconds, she just stared at Dawn — a hard, inscrutable stare.

"Tell me about yourself," she said, at long last.

"Again?!" Dawn cried.

"Again."

Dawn gritted her teeth in frustration. Seo was out there, somewhere, probably in trouble, while Dawn was stuck here getting interrogated by someone who sounded like a broken record — and to make life even suckier, these bonds that were restraining Dawn, at the moment, were really starting to itch.

"My name's Dawn," said Dawn. Again. "I'm here with my niece, Seo. We were just traveling around, when—"

"Not that part," said Raykins. "Your personal life."

Dawn frantically tried to remember the story she'd woven for them. "I'm from Earth. New York." She'd figured she was safe with that, because she couldn't imagine New York ever not being around. "I work in data entry. Except my sister was feeling a little under the weather, so I decided to take Seo out for—"

"Okay, that's a lie," Raykins said. Folded her arms. "Now. Truth."

Dawn blinked. "How do you know it's…?!"

"Truth," Raykins demanded.

Dawn hesitated. "You're never going to believe the truth."

"Try me."

Dawn took a long, deep breath. Then began, "I'm a time traveler. From the 21st century. Seo built this space ship that's also a time machine, because she secretly wants to be like her father — who's this very cool time traveling alien — even though she claims to be totally embarrassed by him. I'm looking after her, because she needs parental supervision and doesn't want to travel across the universe with her parents. Neither of us selected this planet. Seo doesn't actually know where or when anything is, so we travel at random. Which is who I am, who she is, and why we're here — in a nutshell."

For a few moments, there was silence in the room.

Then Raykins dropped her head, and burst out laughing.

"Yeah, I figured you wouldn't believe the truth," Dawn muttered. "Look, can you let me go, now?"

Raykins managed to compose herself. Checked the scanner, one last time. Then gave an amused sigh, and sat down at the table, opposite Dawn.

"I should be disintegrating you, right now, you know," Raykins confessed. "After your scans kept testing positive for replication errors. But no Dalek Replicant would ever give such a cock and bull back story."

Dawn blinked. "Wait, a Dalek what-licant?"

Raykins showed her the scanner. "These readings," she explained. "You have replication errors. Minor little disconnected pieces of your bio-composition — so slight that most scanners wouldn't pick it up. But it's the signature of a person who's been created in the image of another."

In the image of…?

Oh, God!

Buffy!

"I can explain that," Dawn offered. Then hesitated. "Although… on second thought… if you didn't like the time travel explanation, you're really not going to like this next one."

Raykins sighed. "Don't tell me. You're a Dalek Replicant — with a soul."

"Uh… actually," said Dawn, wincing, "I'm a mystical Key who used to be green glowing energy, but was shaped into a person based on my sister's DNA by a bunch of magic monks who were trying to hide me from an evil hell goddess — the same evil hell goddess my niece was created to destroy."

Raykins stared at Dawn.

Then looked down, trying to suppress another laugh.

"What?" said Dawn. "It's true!"

"Yeah, and I'm Bunfy Sompters, slaying monsters in a graveyard in Somleydaya," said Raykins. She looked up, analyzing Dawn a minute longer. Then shook her head. "Well, if you were a Dalek Replicant, I'd be long dead by now. I guess that's something."

Dawn felt this was a good sign. "So… I can go rescue my niece?"

"No," said Raykins. Looked right into Dawn's eyes, a new intensity on her face. "No, you might not be a Dalek Replicant, but… there's something about you I'm missing. Something important. There was a lot of nonsense in that back story of yours, but… you put in just enough to convince me that you know more than you're telling." She leaned over. "So. What's really going on, on Jarodin?"

So much for good sign.

"Seriously, I'm a total idiot," Dawn insisted. "And a lunatic. I mean" — scoffing — "time travel, right? That's nuts."

"You knew exactly what I'd need to hear to believe you weren't a Dalek Replicant," said Raykins. "Dropped in just enough details to imply that you knew who Sunglasses was looking for. Managed to reference enough Slayer legends to convince me you've done your research about us. And then, of course, there's your so-called 'niece', whom we know for a fact has a connection with Sunglasses."

Dawn felt totally lost. "Wait, huh?"

"Either you're the greatest genius this side of the Milky Way," said Raykins, "or you've been very well briefed. So. Whatever your mission is, whatever connection you have to Sunglasses, whatever it is that the three of you actually arrived on Jarodin to find — you'd better tell me right now." Her voice lowered. "Because whatever you want, here — the Daleks are looking for it, too. And you really, really don't want them to get their hands on it, first."

Dawn felt her heart skip a beat. "The Daleks came here… looking for something?"

Raykins didn't answer. Just fixed Dawn with that same intense stare.

"Look, you gotta let me go out there and find Seo," Dawn pleaded. "It's really important. You've got no idea—!"

"She's dead," said Raykins. "I sent out a soldier to rescue her. He hasn't come back. Trust me. By now, they're both dead."

"She's not, and you have to help me get her back!" Dawn insisted. She tried, frantically, to think of how to express this in a way that made sense. "We… didn't just arrive here for the hell of it. I mean, we still have no idea where or what this place is, but… we passed something weird in the vortex, and traced it to here. Seo thought it was going to be a mystery or mega-trouble or something she could fix, but… I mean, what if the Daleks wanted her here? What if it was all a trap?"

Some of the hardness fell away from Raykins' face. "They want your niece? Why?"

"Because I wasn't lying!" Dawn shouted. "Seo was created as this super biological mega-weapon. I mean, don't get me wrong — she's a sweet kid, and wouldn't harm a fly! But she's also powerful. She's dangerous. She was created as a weapon that could crush anyone or anything out there, and if the Daleks figure out how to use that, then it's goodbye universe."

Raykins opened her mouth to speak again, but the door to the interrogation room crashed open, and a very frantic Hrequor burst in.

He saluted Raykins, hastily.

"Just got word," he reported. "Councilor Klothor has arrived by air for an unscheduled trip to the wastelands. In the confusion caused by his arrival, the second Dalek prisoner managed to escape."

Dawn broke into a large smile.

Managed to escape! Oh, go Seo! Way to pull it out when it counted!

Raykins leapt to her feet. Suddenly alarmed. "Klothor?" she said. "You're sure it was Klothor?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

Raykins swore beneath her breath. Then pressed a little button on the tabletop beside her, and the restraints holding Dawn in place immediately dispersed into thin air, as if they'd never existed in the first place.

Before Dawn had time to react, Raykins had grabbed her up and dragged her to her feet.

"Your niece," said Raykins. "Where would she have gone?"

Dawn cringed. "I… don't know," she admitted. "Probably somewhere not even remotely safe. Why? Do you think she's in trouble? Do you think the Daleks will—"

"Councilor Klothor," Raykins interrupted, "is a Dalek Replicant."

Dawn froze. Eyes wide.

"But… but if they're the ones that called him here… if the Daleks caused the distraction that let Seo escape…" Dawn bit her lower lip. "They wanted her to escape."

"Yes."

"But… but… why?" Dawn protested.

Raykins turned, and pulled Dawn along behind her. "That's what I intend to find out."

Beside a burned out patch of trees, in the midst of a wasteland that had been ravaged and destroyed, Seo could see a rock formation that, despite being burned and charred and scorched, Seo would still recognize anywhere.

Because she, herself, had put it there.

"Jarodin," Seo confirmed. "This planet… is Jarodin."

She felt a horrible sinking feeling, deep down inside, as she raced towards the rock formation. What if the Daleks had already opened it? What if they'd already…?

Seo could feel the dimensional-lock mechanism disengaging beneath her hand, as her brain almost subconsciously managed to unravel the dimensional components that kept people out, and allowed her to open the door.

Surely the Daleks wouldn't be able to force their way through a lock like this, right?

After all. Only Seo, as a dimensional Key, would know instinctively how to manipulate and alter the dimensional aspects to allow her access to the hidden chamber inside. A chamber hidden in a side-dimension, adjacent to this one but inaccessible except by the most innovative of means. Only a handful of people knew how to gain access. People that Seo knew wouldn't betray her secret.

The Daleks wouldn't be able to figure it out.

Right?

Seo hurried within the door, and let it seal shut and locked behind her. Then raced down the secret passageway, fast as she could.

Please don't let them have found this place…

Please don't let them have found this place…