Author's Note: Sorry for the lack of update, yesterday.

Currently feeling upset and irritated. People keep coming to our hotel and then leaving without paying. I'm really not sure what else I can do. I feel very tired and worn out. And it's hailing in August.

I need a vacation.

Enjoy!

"Are you sure this is the right spot?" Seo called up, from her spot on the scaffolding they'd just erected. She glanced at the desolate crater, around her. Trying to see through the drench of the rain. "There are no landmarks, anymore."

"It is," Dawn said, at the top. Nailing the last board into place — a long, sturdy plank, to take them out far enough that they could stand directly over it, when it opened. "I know it is. I… just feel it."

She remembered being here before.

At 14. Terrified. Bound and bleeding, facing down a demon with a lizard-tongue, who wanted to slice her open and end the multiverse.

She remembered standing in the Doctor's TARDIS, as it drifted above this place, trying to convince Seo not to throw herself over the edge.

Dawn closed her eyes.

She remembered… Buffy dying here.

But Buffy wouldn't die again.

"You can control it, right?" Dawn called back. Looking down at Seo, still climbing up the rickety scaffolding. "I mean, I don't want to end the multiverse or anything."

She leaned down, gave Seo a hand.

Helped Seo up to the top.

"Um… yes?" Seo tried.

She didn't sound as sure as Dawn wished.

"It's a lot of power," Seo explained, with a grimace. She looked over at the spot where the portal had opened, back when she'd been a baby. "And it's a locked timeline. If we're going to do this… and succeed…" She swallowed, hard. Then looked back at Dawn. "We're going to have to crack it open. And then keep it open. Until I can get Mom out."

"Will that be dangerous?" said Dawn.

"There's a war going on in there," Seo reminded her. "A war so horrible, my father mega-locked it out of the universe! A war that nearly shattered apart time and space."

Dawn nodded. "So… kind of dangerous."

Seo didn't answer.

"Look, am I gonna be expecting massive Dalek armies, here, or what?" Dawn asked. Put her hands on her hips. "Because I left all our weapons back at the house."

"I'm going to try to mostly close the breach, behind me," Seo replied. She seemed hesitant. "We… we can't let anything that belongs there get out. The Daleks are clever. If they figure out what we're doing… use that to their advantage…"

"…we could get the Daleks currently around, in this timeline, finding a way to open the breach on this side," Dawn realized, "while the Time-War-Daleks open the breach on their side." She grimaced. "Okay. Yeah. Dangerous."

"So I hide the breach," said Seo. "Leave it as the smallest, littlest tear there is in the fabric of space and time. Unless the Daleks are the size of… I dunno. A small pea, or a pebble, or a rock or something… they won't get through."

Dawn raised her eyebrows. "You can do that?"

Seo grimaced. "I... think? I mean, even if… although maybe…" She stopped. Shook her head. "It's for Mom. I have to."

Dawn met her eyes.

Understood.

"Yeah," she said. Taking Seo's hands in hers. "Whatever the risks… we take 'em. Together."

"It was a nice universe while it lasted?" Seo offered.

"Here's to starting an apocalypse," Dawn agreed.

They smiled at one another. Shakily.

Then turned. And walked out onto the plank, together.

Seo could feel the moment coming. That weak spot in time. It approached.

"We've got maybe a minute before it comes," said Seo. "Better get ready." She took out a small thumbtack. Pricked her finger, then hissed, shaking it out.

"Do me, too," said Dawn, taking the thumbtack from Seo.

She stabbed herself.

Across the dark horizon, covered by rain and darkness, lightning flashed.

Illuminating the two in a stark silhouette.

"You do know… only one of us can go through," Seo said. "The other has to stay here. To hold open the link."

Dawn felt a shudder run through her. Then pushed it aside. "I'll go—"

"The controlling energy element has to be the one to go through," Seo countered. "Otherwise… the universe will collapse."

"You're making that up," Dawn accused.

Seo looked away. "I might not be."

"But you are," Dawn said.

Seo didn't answer.

"I've seen you do this kind of thing, before," Dawn argued. "Making this portal stable is gonna drain the hell out of your energy. And you're expecting, on top of all that, to defeat Elizabeth single handedly?!"

"Elizabeth knows you," Seo snapped, turning back to face Dawn. "She's expecting you to come through. She won't be expecting me." She paused. Then muttered, "And because of that… I'm going to have to rely on you to do some of my work."

Dawn shook her head. "I can't. You know I can't! My brain doesn't work that way."

"It does a bit," said Seo. "That's all I need." She looked deep into Dawn's eyes. "I need you to be the Key. And only the Key. Not a person. The Key."

Dawn shuddered.

As lightning struck, again, some ways away.

"Christmas, a holiday of hope and joy, will turn to doom.

As the Key submits to her destiny.

And the Goddess takes control…"

"Am… I going to die?" Dawn whispered.

Seo quirked an eyebrow at her. "What do you think I am? A maniac?"

Oh.

Okay.

"So… if you make me the Key, and only the Key, I'm not going to go poof and vanish into thin air," Dawn confirmed. "Right?"

Seo hesitated. "Well… it's technically more a 'flumf' sound than a 'poof' sound…"

Dawn shivered in the rain.

"You'll still be corporeal," Seo assured her. "And you'll wear an illusory physical form. Probably the same one you have now — it's been embedded partially into the energy, and I think that'll hold. But you won't… exactly… be human."

Dawn felt a sudden terror grip her.

"I mean, you are but… oh, it's complicated," Seo said. "And I don't have time to explain. Just take my word on it. I'll activate you. You'll sort of… well… change. But long as you remember — you're Dawn Summers, and you're the Key — long as you focus on that… it'll be all right."

"Um…"

"And if you don't," Seo continued, "you'll become human, the energy will overwhelm you. You'll die. And I'll be stuck. Got it?"

This was sounding like a worse and worse idea by the second.

"Oh, I'm not doing this right!" Seo reprimanded herself. "Okay. Here's the thing." She turned on Dawn. "Everything you've known about yourself is a lie. You've never been a person. You're a fake. A phony. A cheap imitation." She grabbed Dawn by the wrist. Waved it around. "This human body. It isn't even a real body. It's some skin you wear around — a costume at a costume party. Inside, you're a Key. Only a Key. You're the thing that fits a lock, and keeps the link open — and that's it."

"I… uh…"

Dawn could feel herself hyperventilating a little. Because she remembered… someone else saying this to her.

Glory.

And Seo might not know — not until her Tenth incarnation — but Dawn did. Seo was the real Glory. All the craziness Dawn had faced when she was 14, concentrated together and shoved into Seo's baby-brain, to grow and gather strength.

What if Seo changed, the moment she entered the portal, and became Crazy-Glory again?

What if Seo had already changed?

Screw spiders, parlors, and flies. This was more like — will you walk into my portal, said Glory to her Key…

"It's time, now," said Seo. "I can feel it. That weak point, when we can… open the portal." She raised out her hand over the edge, blood pooling on her fingertip. Then hesitated. Analyzing Dawn, carefully. "Are you all right?"

"I… I don't…" Dawn took her hands away from Seo's. Huddled into herself. "I can't."

Seo stared. Her voice low, biting, as she said, "What?!"

Dawn could see a tempest storming in her eyes. A hurricane of pain and grief and loss, of a child who'd lost her mommy and would hurtle anything at the barrier separating them, to retrieve her.

"You're going to back out?!" Seo shouted. "After we built this whole tower?! After we went through all this…?!"

Dawn waited for her to lose her temper and do something drastic.

But Seo just hung her head.

And pulled back her hand.

"Then… that's it," Seo admitted. Her head bent, as she turned away. "Mom's… just… I don't know what else to do."

There it was.

The difference between Seo and Glory. Both would fight tooth and nail to get somewhere, risk bringing down universes and multiverses to achieve their goals, risk sacrificing a life…

But Seo wouldn't do it, if Dawn didn't agree.

Somehow, that made all the difference.

"No, I mean… I'll do it," Dawn said, reaching out and turning Seo back around. "We're in this together, remember? I take a risk for you. You take a risk for me."

Seo smiled.

"Just… please don't think of me like what you said," Dawn told her. "As a Key and not a person. It's… really disturbing."

Seo gave an exasperated sigh. "It's a mental image, Aunt Dawn! I was trying to help you get into the right mindset!"

"You were…?"

"What I said to you," Seo explained, "is what I tell myself, when I do what you're about to do. To make sure I don't lose my concentration half-way through, and accidentally kill myself. Or the rest of the universe."

Oh.

Uh…

"Sorry," said Dawn. "Bit of a freak-out session. But… I'm good, now!"

They held their hands out, together. Letting their blood drop down towards the correct point.

"You can't ever think of yourself as human, while doing this," Seo reminded Dawn. "You've never been human. Do you understand?"

"I… yeah?" Dawn tried.

As the blood splashed down and hit the portal. First Seo's. Then Dawn's.

And it opened, gaping and swirling with light, before them.

For a moment, Dawn was… not even there. Like she didn't exist. Except… no. Focus! Of course she existed.

She was Dawn Summers. She was the Key.

And Dawn was herself, again. Two arms, two legs. Her face, her eyes, her hair.

Along with that thought, always in the back of her head.

I am Dawn Summers. I am the Key…

"This is it," said Seo. She turned to the portal. "Wish me luck."

Then she jumped.

And was swallowed up, the energy vanishing behind her.

"They say that, in the final days of planet Earth, everyone had bad dreams," the man continued to tell the others. "And it is said… that everyone forgot the moment they awoke…"

He stepped forwards, raising his sword above his head.

"Except for us!" he shouted. "The Knights of Byzantium!"

His brothers cheered, around him. Raising their swords in kind. Rain dripping off their armor.

"The Beast destroyed our General Gregor!" General Darren of the Knights of Byzantium shouted. "She thought she'd won. But we foresaw the end. We gathered, we unified, we strengthened our resolve!"

"We remember the dreams!" shouted the crowd.

"And so we know what's about to happen," General Darren said. "And how to stop it!" Mounting his horse, as the portal cracked open in the distance. He pointed to it with his sword. "Look forth! The Beast is gone. The Key has turned within its lock! The gateway is open, and it heralds the end of time!"

He kicked his horse, who whinnied into life.

"The link must be severed!" General Darren cried. "The madman stopped! The four knocks never sounded!"

"Destroy the link!" the others chorused, with him. "Close the gateway!"

"Such is the will of God!" General Darren shouted.

"Such is the will of God!" the others cheered.

As the thunder of horses' hooves roared through the rain of the storm, and the Knights of Byzantium approached their finest battle, in the crater that had once been Sunnydale…