Author's Note: This'll bring our story here to an end. What happens to Dawn and Seo? Well, you'll just have to read the next story... "Glorious"!

(A surprising amount of the stories in this Season move from one directly into the next. Enough so that I've actually had to put in "Previously, in the Child of Balime" at the start of the stories, which I haven't had to do since "Paradox"! Sorry, it's just how the whole thing turned out.)

Actually... come to think of it... there's a little story about Buffy in the middle.

But then, you'll get to find out about Dawn and Seo.

Enjoy!

(Oh, poor Raykins. Anyone who's read "Something" knows what Raykins' fate is.)

(Also... anyone else notice how many D-names were in this story? Deborah Raykins. Dawn. Daleks. Drusilla. Doctor. Too many D's!)

Epilogue

It had been two months since Deborah Raykins came to Earth, to the site of the dig in the Someleydaya Crater. And now… it was time.

She turned on the holo-corder.

Sat in front of it, weary and tired and worn out.

And began to record her video confession. The one that declared her a traitor… as of tomorrow.

And in that confession, Deborah Raykins told her story. About Dawn. And Seo. The legendary people who'd come to help them… and had both died at the hands of the Slayer Institution.

"And that's the truth," Raykins concluded. "The whole truth. Or as much as I know. The missiles hit, the explosion registered, and… now… they're dead."

She was quiet a long time. Her lower lip shaking.

"I spent… my whole life wanting to be like Bunfy Sompters," Raykins added. "And… I didn't even know her real name! We Slayers are so deluded about Sompters. People claim we worship her, but… we haven't turned her into a god. We've turned her into a propaganda tool, to validate everything the Officials say!"

She paused.

Then added, "And the truth is, half the things they say, Bunfy probably would never have gone along with."

In Lasky's Nebula, the Dalek Supreme's personal Dalek guard entered the ruins of what had once been their Main Experimentation Ship.

Daleks swarming through it, retrieving any bits of information that they could.

The Fountain of Kulkmattoll had already been retrieved from Sunnydale, in the past. The Dalek Supreme had sent his most expendable group of Daleks after it. And then he'd watched. And studied.

Just like he was watching, now.

Watching and studying.

"No one knows that Bunfy Sompters had a daughter," said Raykins. "And… this is why. Because her daughter died in the future — at the hands of…"

She couldn't continue.

She was shaking with fury, rage, and guilt.

"I can't forgive them for doing it!" Raykins shouted. "I want them to suffer for this! I want…!" She gritted her teeth. "I don't know. Revenge? Or… maybe that's not it. Maybe all I want… is redemption. Because Dawn and Seo trusted me. And I led them to their deaths."

The Dalek Supreme looked through the assorted data.

Sifted through the information on the Great Vampires, the information on the creation of vampire biological material, and the ways that the Daleks could instill that into subjects.

And through the sound feed from the prison cells.

"…was my mom…"

"…name was Buffy Summers, not Bunfy Sompters…"

"…wouldn't want me to die!"

The Dalek Supreme absorbed this with interest. He had known that the humanoid Seosyrae had a connection to the Doctor. He had known, from the Daleks who'd picked up the Fountain of Kulkmattoll, that the Doctor knew the Slayer Buffy Summers.

But the Dalek Supreme hadn't realized… the importance of it all.

Not until now.

Watching the last moments of the Main Experiment Ship. Seeing what had happened, and realizing… who had done it.

"I never thought… about how it would feel," said Raykins, "to be created as a weapon. Created just to kill, and for no other purpose. And then… hearing Dawn talk about Seo… knowing what IPSA wanted to do to her…"

Raykins swallowed, hard.

Then looked straight at the holo-corder.

"Then I think about what we're doing here on Earth," said Raykins. "A part-human, part-cyborg, part-demon creature, clearly created to be a weapon. We've been updating it — him. Upgrading him. Making him compatible with this modern age. But…"

She paused.

"…but I got the orders today," Raykins went on. She waved her hand, and a bunch of letters and numbers popped up, in her palm. Read out: "'Do not revive the creature all at once. The creature holds mystical and technological powers that cannot be trusted. Its brain must be first disconnected from all motor functions, then re-activated in stages — analyzed piece-by-piece, and wiped or altered depending on the result. These orders cannot be countermanded or altered in any way.'"

Raykins waved her hand, and the message disappeared.

She turned back to the holo-corder.

"That's what IPSA's doing," Raykins said. "Not bringing a creature back to life — they're just torturing it. Making it unable to move or even scream, as we rewrite this creature's personality to make sure it fights the Daleks. Without even caring to ask it… to ask him if he wants to!"

Her eyes narrowed.

"How's that different from what the Daleks did to the politicians on Jarodin?!" Raykins shouted. "How's it different from robo-men or replicants, or anything else the Daleks have done to modify human minds in the past?!"

She paused.

"I'll tell you," Raykins added, at last. "It isn't."

The Dalek Supreme could not feel shocked. Felt only anger and hatred.

But he was coming closer to shock than he ever had before, right now.

As he saw what the monitors had picked up, just before they'd gone dead. Who had caused this much devastation and destruction. Who had destroyed his best Daleks without a second thought, with just the wave of her hand, as if it had been some kind of game.

They knew Seosyrae was the Doctor and Buffy put together.

Which meant… if the Doctor couldn't do this… there was only one other option.

"THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE!" shouted the Dalek Supreme, turning to the others around him. "THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE IS THE SLAYER KNOWN AS BUFFY SUMMERS. WE MUST ACQUIRE THE SLAYER KNOWN AS BUFFY SUMMERS."

It was the perfect plan.

The Slayer's mind was brilliant. He had already seen evidence of that himself, based on the excursion to retrieve the Fountain of Kulkmattoll. The battle tactics Summers had devised were still being used by the Slayers to this day, and those tactics had managed to catch his Daleks completely off guard.

She held the key information they'd need about the Slayers' origins — information they could use to crush the Slayers forever.

And, by turning the most inspirational Slayer of all time into the Daleks' tool, they would make the Slayers give up all hope.

"BUFFY SUMMERS WILL ELIMINATE THE SLAYERS!" shouted the Dalek Supreme. "SHE WILL ELIMINATE THE DOCTOR! THE DALEKS WILL REIGN SUPREME!"

And they would.

Because of the best part of the plan.

After they were done swapping her mind into the computer… her body would be controlled by the Daleks. A body that, if she held even half the power demonstrated by her daughter on this ship, would be the greatest weapon this universe had ever known.

And the Daleks would be the supreme beings.

The only beings.

"It's the same thing!" Raykins shouted at the holo-corder. "We're no better than the Daleks! We're…!"

She took a deep breath.

Managed to calm herself down.

"So I've decided," Raykins said. "As soon as I'm done with this confession… I'm creating a distraction. One that'll allow me to go down to the labs, and revive this cyborg-demon-human creature. All at once. With his motor functions still connected to his brain."

The spark of a smile appeared on her face.

"I'm going to ask him his name," Raykins said. "Treat him like a person. Tell him the truth about everything… and give him a choice." She shrugged. "If he doesn't want to be used and manipulated and brainwashed… I'm helping him to escape. That's my final decision."

She glanced outside. No one was around.

The Earth air was crisp and fresh with the darkness of night.

"That's my confession," Raykins told the holo-corder. "By tomorrow, I, Deborah Raykins, will be a traitor to IPSA. A traitor to the war. But not a traitor to what I believe in."

She turned back to the holo-corder.

"And when you show up, Doctor Whoever-You-Are," Raykins continued, "I want you to tell Bun—tell Buffy Summers… that I'm sorry. Really sorry. But everything I'm doing next… I'm doing for her." She smiled. Leaned forwards. "Hope I'll make you proud."

Then flipped off the holo-corder.

And stood up.

Ready to take her place in history.