Dawn's eyes went wide, and she had to do her best not to cry out when she next saw Seo. She was being led out of a secret opening in the ground, at Dalek gunpoint. Led, Dawn guessed, towards some concealed space ship.

Scary as that was, though, it wasn't what made her want to cry out.

"What… is that thing?" Raykins asked. She kept poking buttons on her wrist gizmo, and frowning at the readouts. "It registers as alive, but gives off no body heat. No heartbeat." With a small glance up at Dawn, added, "As opposed to your friend Seo, who registers as nothing."

"That's Drusilla!" Dawn gasped. "But she's dead! I mean, all the vampires went boom! She has to be…!"

Then Dawn realized what must have happened. Why Seo had been sneaking out while Dawn was asleep. And what Seo's guilt-ridden conscience must have led her to do.

"Oh, God, Seo saved her," Dawn muttered, hitting her head against her hand. "You idiot, Seo! Why couldn't you have been like Angel, fueling that guilt into fighting unrelated monsters?! Why'd you have to save someone who wants your head on a platter?!"

Then Dawn realized Raykins was staring at her, expectantly.

Dawn cringed.

"Oh, right," said Dawn. "You've never seen a vampire, before, huh?"

Raykins turned back to the scene in front of her. "Is that what they looked like?" Her face creased, as a thoughtful look of intense concentration came over her. "The vampire. Saved by the super-weapon. Which one was the bait and which one was the prize?"

"What?" said Dawn.

Raykins pulled Dawn out of the way, shushed her, then raced along some back allies. Trying to keep a lookout on the Daleks, but not draw attention to herself.

"You're right," Raykins decided, pulling a gun out of her holster. "No way we can let either of those two fall in Dalek hands."

Dawn felt a shudder overtake her.

The way Raykins had said it, the way she was now pointing her gun right at the procession… made Dawn think that Raykins' number one priority wasn't rescue at all. Was just…

Raykins began to squeeze the trigger.

Dawn leapt at her, knocking her to the ground, but too late! The shot had already fired, Raykins' aim not altering in the slightest, and Dawn watched, in horror, while falling, as the shot raced right towards Seo…

"You idiot!" Raykins hissed. "I could have missed!"

But the beam did miss.

Instead of hitting Seo, it skimmed centimeters away from her back, hitting a curved mirror just behind her, and ricocheting off it, banging smack into the Dalek leading the two away.

"ALERT!" shouted the other Daleks, firing wildly. "ALERT! UNDER ATTACK!"

"SCANNING FOR HOSTILE LIFE FORMS," shouted one of the Daleks.

Raykins grabbed Dawn by the wrist, and dragged her into a run. "One centimeter further left, and your friend would be dead!" she whispered, harshly. "You better thank your lucky stars I'm a good enough shot to compensate."

Dawn's head spun. "But why…? I mean, I thought…!"

"The ricochets mean the Daleks have to scan for us!" said Raykins. "And that gives your friend the perfect distraction." She grinned, as she glanced back. "And it looks like she's taking it."

"IPSA LOCATED!" shouted one of the Daleks.

"PRISONERS ESCAPING!" shouted another.

The Daleks looked like they didn't know where to shoot. Kept attempting to fire in both directions at once — where Seo and Drusilla were escaping, and a hundred eighty degrees away, where Dawn and Raykins were running. Raykins thrust Dawn into nearby cover, then proceeded to flip and twist in elaborate acrobatics, avoiding the Dalek beams, as she edged closer and closer to Seo and Drusilla.

"EXTERMINATE IPSA!" shouted one of the Daleks. "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"

"HALT!" shouted another, flying towards Seo. "HALT! OR YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

Raykins, in a move that looked like it had been pulled out of a ninja movie itself, managed to run half-way up a wall and then kick off, twisting herself upside down directly over the Dalek and out of its gun range, taking her shot. The shot blasted the Dalek right through its domed head, and it exploded.

Then she spun on her heel, moment she landed. Ducked another extermination beam. And took out the second.

Turned to Seo and Drusilla.

"We've got to go," Raykins said, grabbing Seo by the hand, and yanking her along. "Now!"

They'd only just begun running when the sound of a hatch opening rang through the air, and — from nowhere — a swarm of Daleks emerged. Too many for Raykins to take out. Too many to avoid getting shot.

Raykins swore.

Tapped at some things on her wrist, then hissed. "They've taken down teleportation functions."

Seo's eyes scanned the ground. Then she surged forwards, grabbing the gun from Raykins, and firing at the ground just in front of her.

A latch opened.

Seo, with a jump, hurtled herself inside, Raykins following soon after. Drusilla came up behind, but before she could jump down, she was struck by one of the beams. Her skeleton illuminating, as she cried out.

And toppled to the ground, still overhead.

"Drusilla!" Seo cried.

But Deborah Raykins had already begun poking at a series of control panels, and the hatch slammed shut. Reinforced by as much shielding as Raykins could manage to scrap together.

Seo jerked her around by the arm. Meeting her eyes. "Open it. She's still out there!"

"She's dead."

"She's a vampire! She isn't dead!" Seo shouted. "She's up there! The Daleks have her! Let me out!"

"No."

Seo grabbed Raykins by both arms, shaking her. "I said—!"

"And now it's time for me to demand something from you," Raykins interrupted. Expertly twisted around Seo's grip, so that she was the one with the upper-hand, and Seo was in an indefensible position — no matter how much strength the girl had in her. "How did you know about this place? And how did you know how to open the hatch?"

Seo blinked. Clearly confused as to how Raykins had managed to get the upper hand so quickly. "There… there was something funny about the ground, here. I could see the outline of the hatch through the ash. I figured a gun designed to destroy metal casing would open it."

Raykins met Seo's eyes with her own. "Really? So nothing to do with Ms. Sunglasses?"

Seo's breath caught in her throat. As she remembered Drusilla's warning…

Beware Sunglasses.

"Sunglasses?" Seo checked.

"Yes, the other person who mysteriously worked out where this place was and how to open it," said Raykins. "I know there's a connection between you two. You might as well spit it out."

Seo gritted her teeth. Thrust aside her fears and trepidations. "I just want to get out of here," she said. "Find Drusilla. And rescue her. That's all! Nothing to do with this… sunglasses person!"

A sound from their right, and Dawn entered. Looking a little confused as to how she'd wound up there. "I didn't know there were tunnels," she said, "until one opened up randomly right in front of me, and led…"

Then she spotted Seo.

And gave a sharp breath of relief, and ran over, throwing her arms around Seo in a desperate hug. "God, I thought I'd lost you forever!"

A flicker.

Then a holo-screen popped up in the center of the area. Featuring Drusilla and a swarm of Daleks, surrounding her.

"ATTENTION," the Daleks said. "YOU WILL SURRENDER, OR THE VAMPIRE WILL BE EXTERMINATED."

Seo's eyes were fixed on the image. Then she burst free from Dawn.

"I have to go out there," Seo decided.

"What?!" shouted Dawn. "Are you nuts?! They'll kill you."

"No; they want me for something," said Seo. Her eyes lingering upwards. "And I can't leave her alone with them. I have to protect her."

"Protect Drusilla?!" Dawn shouted. "She wants to kill you, too!"

"Don't you think I know that?" Seo snapped, eyes back on Dawn. Her fists clenched by her sides. "But it's my fault she's like this. My fault she went insane. My fault she's here. My fault she's captured. I saved her, I hid her, I've been looking after her. I don't care what she'd actually do with me if she ever got her way. How much she wants to torture me, or sire me, or… whatever else her lust keeps driving her to do. Drusilla's my responsibility." Her eyes narrowed. "I'm not letting her die again."

"Daleks wouldn't even know how to kill a vampire," Raykins pointed out.

Seo turned on Raykins. "They're not the ones I think would kill her," she said, pointedly. "Miss Vampire Slayer."

Raykins didn't answer.

"What…?" said Dawn.

"Isn't it obvious?" said Seo. Pointing at Raykins. "I don't know why she's sparing me, but apparently, vampires are still on the 'all right to kill' list at the Slayer Institute. Drusilla's expendable. This… Slayer-person… she's just waiting until the right moment, and then she'll take out both the Daleks and Drusilla all at once in a fiery explosion."

"I can't let the Daleks get their hands on a real vampire," said Raykins. Deadpan. "No matter what."

"It's murder," Seo spat.

"I've read the ancient annals," Raykins countered. "Vampires are like Daleks. They don't have souls. They don't care. They just kill. They're dead inside, already."

"They're killing machines?" said Seo.

"Yes."

Seo stepped forwards, trying to stand up straight and tall, so that she could look Raykins right in the eye. And missing by a half-foot. "So what," she said, through her teeth, "does that make me?"

Raykins met her gaze evenly. "What indeed?" she answered.

"SURRENDER!" shouted the Daleks, from the display. "SURRENDER!"

"You can't get out, anyways," said Raykins. Her voice emotionless. "This place is sealed."

A small smile twitched at the sides of Seo's mouth. "That a challenge?"

Then, faster than either of them had time to process, Seo had slipped out of Dawn's clutches, and darted through the far door that Dawn had entered, before. Raykins lunged out for her, but Seo did something to the control panel by her side of the door, and it slammed shut. Sealed.

"Seo!" shouted Dawn.

As Raykins threw herself at the controls on this side, frantically trying to undo what Seo had done. Or open up the overhead hatch. But no luck.

From the other side of the door, Seo's voice rang through. "Stay by Oliver," she urged Dawn. "There's a bit of him that's connected to me. He'll keep you… a little more stable. Until we meet up, again."

"If you get on that Dalek ship," Raykins warned Seo, "you'll be signing your own death warrant. If not from the Daleks, then from me."

Seo gave a soft laugh. "I don't think so."

"I can't let them get their hands on you or that vampire," said Raykins. "I'm prepared to make sacrifices."

"But you're clever," said Seo. "You've worked it out. You know I have a time machine."

Raykins went very still. Her eyes widening.

"Goodbye," Seo said.

And then headed off.

Raykins began attacking the controls with more ferocity. Trying to override what Seo had done. Frantic and desperate and trying every trick in the book.

But by the time she opened the doors, it was too late.

Seo had already run down the passage that Dawn had taken to get there. Had already emerged onto the surface and then given herself up to the Daleks. They could see her boarding the cloaked Dalek ship, helping Drusilla to move. She only looked back over her shoulder, briefly.

Then she was gone.

"Damn it!" Raykins shouted, as the ground shook with the rumble of the departing Dalek ship. Its cloaking falling away, now that it was no longer needed. "The smart-alecky good-for-nothing idiot!" Raykins began punching buttons on a mechanical device that unfolded from her shoulder-pad. "She has no idea what she's just done!"

"You're not going to shoot her down," said Dawn. "You can't!"

"I have to," Raykins said, through her teeth. "IPSA protocols demand it."

Dawn lunged at her, but Raykins easily managed to sidestep her, then grab her by the arm and twist her around so she was immobile — all without missing a beat in her priming of weapons systems.

"Please," Dawn begged. "She's my niece."

Raykins froze, her hand just above the data pad.

"Dawn's niece," Raykins said, very quietly. "Her sister's daughter."

It was a hesitation that cost her everything.

Overhead, the ship left the upper atmosphere. And headed into warp.

Raykins looked up into the sky.

"Too late, now, anyways," Raykins muttered. "She knew that would happen. Damn her."

Then turned. Gestured at Dawn.

"Come on," said Raykins. "To my ship. We don't have any time!"

"We're going after her?" Dawn asked. She could already feel something weird going on, somewhere inside herself. Like something was shifting that should never shift.

"Don't be stupid," said Raykins, as she pressed a button and uncloaked her own ship, in the distance. "Can't leave this planet. Not now. Daleks are gone, and that means these people need us more than ever."

"Huh?" said Dawn.

"You don't think the Daleks would just leave a planet behind and do nothing, do you?" Raykins said. Then began to speak again, but was interrupted by a screaming tremor, shaking through the earth beneath their feet.

The planet creaked and groaned, as Dawn lost her footing, and the ruins around her crashed to the ground.

"Earthquakes don't sound like this!" Dawn shouted.

Raykins poked at something on her belt. Her eyes fixed on the readout. "Oh, those smart bastards."

"What did they do?" said Dawn, managing to stumble her way to Raykins. "It's the apocalypse, huh?"

"All government officials are now out of action," said Raykins, reading off the screen. "They just keeled over and died." The tremors paused, briefly, but the ground kept making horrible groaning sounds. "Meanwhile, the Daleks altered the planet's Earthquake Tectonic Defense Systems to go into overload, thus destabilizing tectonic plate activity across the globe, destabilizing the molten core of the planet, and causing… well, eventually, causing the extinction of all life on its surface."

Dawn's eyes went wide.

No wonder there were all these earthquakes and things! The whole planet must be going into massive spasm mode right now!

"Then we have to get everyone off!" said Dawn. "This planet has space ships and stuff, right? We can use them!"

"It's complete anarchy out there," Raykins countered, turning back to her ship. "The Daleks shut down every single government official. I have to call for IPSA help! Make sure—!"

Which was when every single sign of electronic functionality on Raykins' gadgets or her ship suddenly went dead.

Turned to blackness.

As did everything else nearby. Every light. Every electronic gizmo. Even Dawn's wristwatch.

Raykins slowed. Then stopped.

For a few seconds, she just stood there. Taking in what this all meant.

"EM field," said Raykins. She slammed her hand against the hull of her ship. "Which means no working power sources. No IPSA help! No communications! And no way to get those tectonic defenses working again!" Kicked her ship, angrily. "Damn, damn, damn!"

Dawn was about to speak.

But suddenly doubled over. Feeling something terrible starting, deep down inside her. Something that swirled and pulled at her from the inside out, and she had this terrible panic like suddenly… she might fade out of existence completely.

She reached out to steady herself, clutching at Raykins' ship.

And the whole thing suddenly flared into life. Just for a second.

Raykins stared at the ship. Then at Dawn. Her jaw falling open.

"I… what's happening to me?" Dawn asked. Then seemed to recall… "Unstable. Seo said I'd be unstable without her around. I… I…"

"You're energy," Raykins breathed.

"No, I'm human, Ms. Big-Shot," Dawn snapped, automatically. The churning, unstableness inside of her was fading, now. As she felt something else take over. Something straining to stabilize her. "Seo said stay near Oliver. Our… our ship. Like that could…"

Raykins spun Dawn around, hands on her shoulders, looking into her eyes. "Listen, Dawn," she pleaded. "Everyone on this planet is going to die — unless I can get power to the Earthquake Tectonic Defense Systems and start the counter-sequence. Do you understand?"

Not really.

Especially not while Dawn still felt all weird and jittery from the unstable energy creeping around inside of her, and the universe around her kept feeling heavier and heavier, like a weight crushing her down.

"There's an EM field in effect!" Raykins shouted. Shaking Dawn's shoulders. "It's taken out everything else! If you don't help me, everyone's going to die!"

"But… but I don't know techy stuff!" Dawn said. "I mean, aside from whatever I've picked up with Seo. Which doesn't include stopping earthquakes! I can't… help…"

Which was right around the time that Dawn finally got it.

Realized what Raykins wanted her to do.

"I'm spewing out super-duper Key energy," Dawn said. "And I don't get affected by EM whatevers. You're going to use me as a power source!"

"Yes."

Dawn shoved Raykins away from her. "Are you nuts?!" Dawn shouted. "Without Seo around, the Key part of me is super unstable! This is energy that could tear apart universes."

Raykins' brow furrowed.

"You think a planet-wide apocalypse is bad?" said Dawn. "Or even a universe-wide apocalypse? Seo and I can cause multi-verse wide apocalypses! Literally kill everyone, everywhere, across every reality! Do you get how bad that is?"

"But you're stable enough if you're around this ship of yours?" Raykins checked.

Dawn fidgeted, uncomfortably. "I… guess?"

Raykins considered. Then, as the planet screamed again, and a volcano in the distance began billowing dense black smoke, Raykins grabbed Dawn by the hand, and turned back to the door of her ship.

"Then I'll take that chance," said Raykins, pulling Dawn outside. "Time to save the world."