Author's Note: Just the epilogue left!

Then a quick short story involving Buffy, after which we'll continue to follow Dawn and Seo, with a nice, fat, juicy story which I hope you'll all love. Stay tuned!

Enjoy!

Almost the moment Raykins disappeared, Seo and Dawn found themselves racing right into a dead end. Looking around themselves, realizing — in terror — that they were surrounded.

Dawn brandished the gun. "Don't move, or I fire!" she shouted.

But no sooner had she said it, the gun seemed to melt in her hands, and she yelped in alarm.

"WEAPON NEUTRALIZED," said the Daleks. "PRISONERS WILL MOVE!"

Seo's eyes went wide with horror.

Dawn could even see her shaking.

"What… what are you going to…?" Seo asked.

"PRISONERS WILL MOVE!" the Daleks shouted, their guns twitching. "OR THE PRISONERS WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

Dawn looked between Seo and the Daleks. "I don't…"

"Drusilla told them about the Key," said Seo. She met her aunt's eyes with misery and devastation written through her. "I'm so sorry."

Oh.

Oh, God. This was way beyond bad.

A blast from a Dalek gun struck a spot next to Dawn's left leg, and Dawn jumped.

"PRISONERS WILL MOVE!" the Daleks shrieked. "MOVE! MOVE!"

Seo and Dawn moved.

Dawn frantically trying to think of a way this wasn't the end of the universe.

Ha! That was it!

Dawn leaned over to Seo, as they were marched down the corridors. "It's going to be okay!" she whispered. "They can't end the universe. I mean, they need our blood, right? That's what makes this whole portal-thing happen. But they don't have any hands, so they can't…"

"They can," Seo said, quietly.

There was something heavy and horrible in her voice which implied… she knew it first-hand.

Dawn swallowed. Then strengthened her resolve. "Okay. Plan B. They're… well, they're super-excited about exterminating." Gestured to her right. "Just look at them! Gun barrels twitching. They can barely stop themselves."

"I don't want to die," Seo said. Looked away, biting her lower lip. "I'm sorry. I just… don't."

Yeah, but the Daleks needed Seo alive, anyways, to create and maintain the portal with her mental powers. Dawn, on the other hand, was going to die no matter what. Either from being bled to death, or…

"Hey, Dalek!" Dawn shouted, racing forwards to stand in its way. "You smell! Also, your mom was so fat, they named a hippo after her at the zoo."

"THE PRISONER WILL CONTINUE MOVING!" the Daleks shouted.

"Or what?" said Dawn. "You'll shoot me? Or are you too chicken to do that?" She began to wave her arms and make chicken noises.

Seo grabbed her up and dragged her away. Fearful eyes fixed on the Daleks. "She didn't mean it."

"Yes, I did!" said Dawn, struggling to try to free herself from Seo's grip. Then gritted to Seo, through her teeth, "I'm going to die no matter what! This is the only way to save the universe."

"I don't want you to die any more than I want me to die!" Seo hissed back. She shuddered. "Too many people have died here already."

Dawn managed to free herself from Seo, and dart forwards. Running fast as she could down the corridor, and through a door into the next room up. Glancing back over her shoulder.

"Oh, look!" Dawn shouted at them. "I'm getting away! You'd better—"

But as she raced across a metal disk in the center of the room, a sudden force yanked at her, as an energy field sprung up around her feet. The force shoved her back against a metal beam, hands and ankles being secured by automatic clamps.

When the energy field disappeared, Dawn was too tightly secured to hope to escape.

A yelp from Seo, and Dawn turned her head. Could see that Seo, rushing to try to help Dawn, had been caught by the same trick — just on the edge of the metal disk. The energy field dragging her backwards, Seo kicking and fighting all the time, until she was restrained to metal beam on the outer reaches of the metal disk.

"THE PRISONERS ARE SECURED," shouted a Dalek.

"PREPARE SPECIAL WEAPONS DALEK FOR BLOOD EXTRACTION PROCEEDURE," another commanded. "FULL DIMENSIONAL CONTROL WILL BELONG TO THE DALEKS!"

Across the room, a Dalek spun around. "IPSA MISSILES DETECTED APPROACHING THIS VESSEL. SHIELD INTEGRITY HAS BEEN PERMANENTLY COMPROMISED."

"MISSILE ATTACK WILL DESTROY THIS VESSEL IN 40 RELS," said another Dalek.

"So we won after all," Dawn muttered. "We're just going to be too dead to feel happy about it. Great!"

"INCORRECT!" the nearest Dalek replied.

Seo slumped in her bonds. "If they gain access to the dimensional corridors," she explained, "they'll swallow this ship into a dimensional pocket. The missiles wouldn't hit."

"CORRECT," the nearest Dalek confirmed. Then turned to the others. "ACTIVATE SPECIAL WEAPONS DALEK! PRIME THE DELTA TRANSFER!"

A Dalek emerged from the shadows, then — one with swords and knives and a thousand whirring sharp things protruding from it. Something metal clamped down on Seo's head, and she grunted, as if trying to force down a shriek.

All up to Dawn, now.

"The Doctor!" Dawn shouted out.

Every single Dalek there seemed to jerk at mention of the Doctor's name.

Even the Special Weapons Dalek hesitated and slowed at mention of the Doctor.

"EXPLAIN," demanded the Dalek just in front of Dawn.

Dawn smiled. Gotcha.

"He told me you guys couldn't exterminate your way out of a paper bag!" Dawn said. "Because you suck! You're not supreme — you're wimps! The Doctor was more scared of my mom than of you!"

"SILENCE!" shouted the Daleks, now feeling agitated. "SILENCE!"

"THE DALEKS ARE SUPREME!" shouted the nearest Dalek. "THE PRISONER WILL BE SILENT, OR YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

Obviously, that was the important Dalek. So Dawn addressed all her comments to it, specifically.

"Dawn!" Seo hissed, in warning.

Behind them, one Dalek reported, "PRIMING OF THE DELTA TRANSFER SYSTEMS COMPLETE. INITIATING FULL DELTA TRANSFER."

Dawn didn't know what this meant, but pressed on anyways. "I mean, seriously, the Doctor's regenerated, like, 10 times already," Dawn pointed out. "And never from you guys! That's a pretty sucky record. Talk about biggest wusses in the universe!"

"EXTERMINATE!" shouted the nearest Dalek, completely losing its cool.

Which was when Seo wrenched open her chains, and threw herself forwards, in front of Dawn.

The beam struck Seo full-on.

Seared through her, entire body lit up in a bright burst of light, skeleton shining through as a scream of utter agony was wrenched from her lips. It lasted only a moment, one blinding, horrible moment, before Seo dropped to the floor, by Dawn's feet.

Dead.

Dawn stared. Her heart pounding. Her brain unable to register it. No regeneration. No fake-outs. No nothing. Seo was dead. Really dead. Struck-down-by-a-Dalek dead.

That was supposed to be Dawn! Seo had been supposed to survive! She'd…

She'd…

She was…

"You killed her," Dawn breathed. The words burned in her throat. "You actually…!" She struggled, trying to suppress a horrible sob. "So go on! Kill me, too!"

The Daleks didn't move.

"Your experiment's useless!" cried Dawn. "The IPSA missiles will blast this whole ship into oblivion in a few seconds, anyways! So just do your damn job as the universe's mini-Hitlers and KILL ME, ALREADY!"

"THE EXPERIMENT HAS NOT BEEN COMPROMISED," said one of the Daleks.

Dawn's blood ran cold. "What?"

"DISK REGISTERS RAPIDLY RISING, CONTROLLED DIMENSIONAL ENERGY RESERVES," reported another. "DELTA TRANSFER HAD COMMENCED AT TIME OF EXTERMINATION. FULL MULTI-DIMENSIONAL CONTROL IMMINENT."

"CONTINUE WITH USE OF SPECIAL WEAPONS DALEK!" shouted the Dalek in charge.

The Special Weapons Dalek advanced forwards.

No.

No!

Either of their deaths should have been enough to halt the end of the universe, but… it looked like Seo wasn't exactly like Dawn, after all. Her energy could be released even without blood. Just by dying forever.

The universe was doomed.

Dawn was doomed.

Seo was dead, the IPSA missile would never strike in time, and the Daleks would use the power to rule every single dimension and every single universe, across all of time and space and the infinity of creation, and there was nothing Dawn could do about it! Nothing…!

The Special Weapons Dalek halted the moment he hit the disk. Froze, as if completely immobilized.

"WHY HAVE YOU STOPPED?" demanded the Dalek in charge. "EXPLAIN! EXPLAIN!"

The Special Weapons Dalek tried to move forwards, but the effort clearly was doing nothing for him. "I CANNOT MOVE. I…" The Special Weapons Dalek twitched. "SENSORS DETECT MASSIVE… ENERGY… DECREA…"

Then the eyestalk drooped. And the light in its eyes went dead.

"ALERT!" shouted one of the Daleks. "ALERT! ANOMALOUS READING EMITTED FROM DISK!"

"IPSA MISSILE COLLISION IN FIVE RELLS!" shouted another.

The lead Dalek began jumping and jolting in irritation. "THE DIMENSIONAL GATEWAY MUST BE CLAIMED!" he shrieked. "THE DALEKS MUST REIGN ACROSS…!"

The flash and crash and bang swept across Dawn's eyes, as the bomb struck.

Except…

Dawn peeled open her eyes, again.

It… had struck, right? She'd felt it striking the ship. She'd felt the air beginning to ignite and burn away. She'd felt…

"WHAT IS HAPPENING?" shouted the lead Dalek, clearly just as baffled as Dawn was. "REPORT! REPORT!"

A low laugh echoed from down by Dawn's feet. A low laugh… coming from…

Seo picked herself up, off the ground. "Oh, now that feels good," she said, stretching as if getting up after a long nap. "Mmm, mmm, mmm! Power-sucking a high-grade explosion. Brilliant! Never get enough of that." Her eyes fell on the Daleks. "Oh. And you must be the boys who let me out."

The Daleks, clearly floored that they hadn't actually killed her, began to shout, "EXTERMINATE!"

The beams flashed through her, as Seo spread open her arms, and let them strike, every single beam illuminating her skeleton for a single second, but not felling her. She laughed, as they ran through her.

"Keep it coming!" Seo shouted. "All that energy? Massive head-rush. No, actually, on second thought…" She reached out and caught one of the beams, frozen in midair, in her hands. Then yanked on it, hard, until the Daleks around Seo and Dawn began to scream, and harsh light zipped from their metal husks. Swirling towards Seo. "Just like that! Come on! You know you want to!"

"Seo… what…?" Dawn stuttered, as the lights on the space ship began to flicker, the systems began to power down.

"Do you know what the difference is between a Key and a Dimensional Node?" Seo asked. She grinned. Gesturing around her. "Energy. Dimensional Nodes have to suck up energy from everything around them. The whole dimension and the whole universe. But us? We've got our own energy. Don't have to suck anything from anyone." She laughed. "But it sure feels good doing it, anyways!"

Oh, God.

That was what she was doing.

Draining energy from the Daleks, from the ship, from everything and everyone around her, even draining energy from the IPSA prisoners, the humans screaming out in agony as Seo laughed with delighted glee. Draining their life. Extinguishing both Dalek and human alike.

And loving it.

Dawn shuddered. She had a horrible feeling… that whomever had survived that Dalek blast wasn't Seo.

Not at all.

The Daleks drooped. The ship fell silent. Not even a sound from the IPSA prisoners. No one and nothing survived… except for Dawn, still restrained. And Seo, her eyes crazed, the last tendrils of energy still zipping around her.

"Locked up for over a century!" Seo breathed. "And finally — finally — she's gone. Forever. And I'm free." She turned, a huge grin on her face, exactly that Glory-insane look in her eyes that Dawn remembered from the real thing. "Looks like it's just you and me, now. Key."