Author's Note: Yes, guest, I agree. Dawn is definitely having a terrible day!
Enjoy!
The Masters noticed Dawn.
How could they not?
She wasn't them!
She'd flipped through channels on TV. Seen the live footage, across the world. Knew what was happening. She'd been right. Everyone on Earth… was the Master.
Everyone except her.
"How did this happen?" Dawn said, gathering up weapons, pointing them at the barricaded front door, where the Masters were trying to get in. "And how the hell can I summon the Doctor, to get me out of this?"
No.
Focus.
Most important thing was… she had to keep open the link. Had to remember that she was the Key. Had to remember that she wasn't human, just some green glowing energy approximating a human form.
"And if I didn't believe that, before," said Dawn, "I definitely believe it, now."
After all.
If she'd been human, she'd have turned into the Master, too.
Dawn double checked her weapons, and got into position, behind the barricade she'd built.
As the door burst open.
Dawn fired. Chucking everything she had at them. Things from Ace's backpack. Things she'd gathered to fight off Elizabeth. And a blast from a very alien gun that Buffy owned, which incinerated the Masters as they entered the house.
They stopped coming.
And Dawn stayed put. Her mind racing. Okay. Things to do! First, she had to keep open the link. Second, she had to figure out some way to call the Doctor — since he was the Master-fighting expert. Get him over here to reverse time or whatever, get back the human race! Third…
Third, Seo and Buffy were going to pop out of that portal at any minute, with no structure or platform to catch them. They'd plummet to their deaths — and even if they didn't — they'd wind up stuck in the middle of a million Masters.
Seo would freak.
"You and Donna Noble," came the Master's voice, from outside the house. "The only two humans not changed by the Immortality Gate. I wonder why."
That made Dawn hesitate.
Seriously? Donna? Like, the same Donna she'd known?
That was weird.
Why wasn't Donna affected?
She was pretty sure Donna wasn't the Key.
"You can't keep vaporizing me forever," said the Master, in a sing-song. "There's always more mes, around, to fill in the gaps."
"Yeah?" Dawn called back. Turning to the library Buffy had placed into this little house thing of hers. Looking for magic books and summoning spells. If she was energy, maybe she could use that! "And what defeats six billion Masters? Oh, I know! One Doctor!"
"Who's tied up and helpless, back in London," said the Master's voice.
Dawn froze.
Okay, Doctor was already here. With Donna, maybe? Oh, maybe that was why Donna hadn't been changed — she'd been in the TARDIS when all that stuff had happened, and the Master didn't realize it!
"Good," said Dawn. Her eyes skimming Buffy's bookshelf, on the wall behind her. "If he's already here, then I don't need to worry about you losers at all. Sooner or later, the Doctor will get free and finish you off. So I can deal with my own problems."
She grabbed a book off the bookshelf.
Thank you, Buffy, for scouring book shops all over the place trying to find books she thought Seo might like! Because this was exactly the kind of book that Dawn needed, right now.
"I don't think so," said the Master.
As, suddenly, a swarm of Masters burst through the door, all armed with the Knights of Byzantium's weapons. And it looked to Dawn like the Master had actually been to the middle ages, and did actually know how to sword fight pretty well.
"The Master's Race has no use for you," said the Masters. "Time to die!"
"Got to catch me, first!" Dawn shouted, tucking the book under her arm and leaping onto the motorcycle. She threw it into gear, and raced it over a turned-over table from her barricade, launching the bike into the air and smashing it through a window.
Then headed the bike right back towards the Sunnydale crater.
Or somewhere near there.
The rain had finally eased up, the moon beginning to peak beneath the clouds, and Dawn needed a place to hide. Redirected the bike towards a cave she knew, on the outskirts of Sunnydale. One of the cave tunnels once used by the Initiative and Adam.
She'd find tons of stuff there that she could use.
She was so focused on her task, she didn't notice something tumbling out of the link she was holding open. A small stone, soaring through the sky, burning bright enough that every Master copy could see it for miles and miles.
A White-Point Star.
Willow, Xander, and Seo raced into the abandoned building beside the one Elizabeth was inhabiting. Xander and Seo began barricading the door, to make sure no evil monsters got at them, in there.
Willow wheeled over to the window.
Looking out at the building that contained Elizabeth.
Surveying and taking in its many defenses and safeguards. The vampires patrolling the perimeter. The demons swooping through the skies, looking out for intruders. The technological traps and marvels of technology that were laid around the actual entrance to the building, itself.
"A building constructed by hell demons, to destroy the world," Willow complained, "and she didn't even have the decency to make it ADA compliant!" She pointed an angry finger at the front door, with the steps. "You're supposed to have a wheelchair ramp! That's the law!"
"Willow's Kryptonite," Xander said, dragging a bench up against the door. "Stairs."
"Like you're any better, Blindy," said Willow.
Seo looked up into Xander's eyes. Confused. "Your eyes seem to be fine, though," she said. "They haven't been gouged out or anything. And…" swinging around to face Willow. "Your legs are in perfect order, too. You should be able to walk!"
"It's not the body parts that are broken — it's the brain," Xander sighed. "The eyes are no use if the part of your brain that interprets the signals has been burned out." He gestured at Willow. "Just like her legs would work fine… if the part of her brain that sent signals to them still worked properly."
"I should have been paralyzed completely," said Willow. "And Xander shouldn't be able to see anything at all."
"Technically, we should both be dead, actually," Xander muttered. "Like the rest of Sunnydale."
Seo looked between Willow and Xander.
Feeling an overwhelming sense of sadness, as she recalled… these buildings were only abandoned because Elizabeth had killed everyone inside of them. Burned out their brains completely.
"How did you two escape?" said Seo.
Willow and Xander paused in their work.
Both with little smiles on their faces.
"The Doctor," they both said, together.
Willow gave a small laugh. "We hated him, at the time!" she said. "I mean, we'd been hearing Elizabeth badmouth him ever since she got back. We just assumed she was right. That he was evil."
"That was us told," Xander agreed.
"He brought us into his TARDIS, when Elizabeth killed off the town," said Willow. "Us and anyone else he could save. I couldn't move a muscle, Xander was blind as a bat, and we'd both spent all that time trying to kill him — but he still just grabbed me up in his arms, carried me in there, guiding Xander inside. Gave me most of my motor functions back, helped Xander to see at least the general outlines of shapes. Mended up everyone as best he could."
That sounded, to Seo, like her father.
"Yep," said Xander. Crossing his arms, and leaning against the wall. "Sucks when you find out that the person you thought was the hero has just butchered a town full of people, and the person you thought was the villain is the one running around trying to save them."
And now… that same evil villain person…
Had Mom.
And who knew what was happening to Mom, up there! What could happen every second Seo delayed.
Seo rushed over to Willow. Looking out at the monsters and defenses.
"Even if we could beat back the monsters, there's no way we'll get through the technological defenses," Willow decided. "We'll have to lure her out here."
"And kill her," Xander added.
"We try to save her, first!" Willow insisted.
"We've already tried, Willow!" Xander shouted. "How many times do I have to tell you? The real Elizabeth is gone! This is just some nutcase who's taken her place, and decided to destroy the entire—"
"I can get into the building," said Seo.
Willow and Xander stopped.
Turned back to Seo.
"I'm surprised Elizabeth hasn't worked it out," Seo replied, her eyes glowing. She pointed out the window. "If you connect the technological traps together, they form a sort of harmonious resonance. Building up pressure across the sixth dimension. Build up enough of that pressure… and boom!"
She threw open her hands, to illustrate the point.
"All the evil meanies floating about will go right to sleep!" Seo concluded. "No more monsters. No more technological traps. We can waltz right inside."
Willow fidgeted. "Waltz," she repeated.
Seo turned, beaming at Willow. "I'll carry you!" she decided. "And your wheelchair. We'll waltz together. Like a team! I'm a lot stronger than I look, you know."
Xander didn't move.
Just slouched in place.
"You really think Elizabeth wouldn't know about something like that?" He shook his head. "It seems pretty trap-like to me. Especially because you…" he pointed at Seo, "have heard us mentioning the Doctor a lot, now, and haven't questioned it at all. Which means… you know him."
"Xander, stop it!" said Willow. Rolling her wheelchair over to him. "Whoever this Seo is, she's on our side. I can tell!" She nodded over at Seo. "She acts like him. Gets upset when living creatures get killed or hurt."
"So… what?" said Xander. "She's a companion? A friend? Someone the Doctor would want to rescue?" He stepped forwards. "It's Seo, Willow. Don't you get it? Elizabeth created a bunch of traps and things that only she could get past. Because Elizabeth doesn't want Seo's mom. She wants Seo."
Seo shook her head.
"That's impossible!" Seo insisted. "She doesn't even know me!"
"Elizabeth always knows more than she technically should," Willow muttered. "Don't take anything for granted around her."