Author's Note: Wow, something really cool just happened to me. I was emailing someone to list my mom's wine company on a search engine... and they said, "Hey, are you the person who writes those Buffy/Doctor Who fanfics?" I was really shocked, and really flattered! I had no idea my fame had gone that far!

So thank you! To you and all my fans!

It was a welcome niceness in my life, too, because someone I knew died today. I didn't know them well but... it's just really bothering me right now. I'm really kind of upset about it.

Anyways.

Enjoy this next chapter. This is the chapter that intersects most with the End of Time, so if you don't understand what's going on, then I'd recommend re-watching the episode.

Enjoy!

In the crater above Sunnydale, the portal shimmered.

Then opened.

"Hope this works," said Dawn, spinning the propeller and racing back, jumping into the center of the thing. Listening to the motor engage, as the makeshift airplane she'd cobbled together — probably half through sheer dumb luck — raced across the desert-scape, and then soared into the air.

Dawn almost falling off, as she struggled to hang on to the canvas and the frame, as it lifted up.

"Now I know why planes have seatbelts and cockpits and stuff," Dawn gritted. But managed to keep her balance. Directing the plane towards the opening portal. "Come on. The Wright Brothers could do it! You can, too! Go Team Dawn!"

There Buffy and Seo were.

Just inside the portal, walking through, their two silhouettes looming through the light behind them.

The Masters, below, looked up at the sound of Dawn's makeshift airplane.

But they all seemed pretty distracted by… something else. Something Dawn didn't really care about, at the moment. Considering she was the only thing saving her sister and niece from a horrible drop to their deaths.

She swooped in, just as their images emerged through the portal. Just as they stepped out into midair, and screamed, as they both fell…

Then Buffy grabbed the wing of the plane, yanking Seo by the arm, so she didn't fall, as well.

"It's… but that's…!" Seo squeaked, pointing down at the ground below them. "They're…!"

"Six billion copies of the Master?" said Dawn. "Yeah, I noticed! We'll deal with them, later."

"The Master?" said Buffy, looking up. "Wait, him, again? I thought he was dead!"

Dawn redirected the plane, spiraling it through the air. "Yeah, well, so were you!" she retorted. "Looks like the whole death thing didn't stop either of you."

Seo's breath began to come faster, more panicked, as the Masters on the ground came more and more in focus.

"Seo, close the link!" shouted Buffy. "We'll deal with the Master, later! But we've got a blanking bomb and a Crystallizer on the other side — and that'll spill over here, unless you shut down the portal!"

"Not to mention a very pissed off Elizabeth!" Dawn called, nodding at the portal.

Looked like another silhouette was trying to come through. Trying to emerge.

Seo shut her eyes. Poured all her strength into taking away the little control she'd given to Dawn, using it to control and seal away the portal. Sever the link to that reality… entirely… so that…

Seo cried out.

"It's okay!" said Dawn. "You did it!" Nodding at the sky. "The link's gone! The portal's closed. See?"

"No," said Seo. Feeling something tearing at her, pulling her inside out and back again. "No, they redirected the focus of the link. It's searing through me, and I can't stop it! I can't close it!"

Buffy's eyes went wide. "The Crystallizer… was controlling something…"

"What?" said Dawn.

Buffy grew frantic. "Dawn, land this thing, now," she said. "This instant. Stuff's about to get really bad, really fast!"

"But there's the Master down there!" Dawn insisted.

"Just do it!" Buffy screamed.

Which was when the whole planet shook. And the sky seemed to tear open, another planet slowly fading into existence, just above them. An orange planet, huge and monstrous, in the sky.

Dawn didn't land so much as crash the plane into the ground.

The passengers thrown from its frame and tossed into the sand. Beside some of the Master copies, who'd frozen, again.

Their heads shaking.

"Seo?" Dawn called. Scrambled over, grabbing Seo up off the ground. "Seo! What the hell is…?!"

"What the…?" came an English-accented voice.

Dawn looked up.

To find… Ace was back. Not Harold Saxon. Just Ace, the human being, morphed back after being the Master. In fact, all the others were back to normal, too. Back to being confused Knights of Byzantium, mostly, trying to figure out what was going on.

"Seo?" said Ace.

"I can't close the link!" Seo breathed. Trying, struggling. "It's… everything I can do… to hold it stable. Make sure… it doesn't rip apart the universe. But… I can't… it won't let me close…"

"So the Time War's getting out?" Dawn said.

Oh, God.

Save Buffy — and get a massive war with Daleks and crazy Time Lords everywhere. Was the apocalypse going to happen every time they brought Buffy back?

Ace looked up, into the sky.

Her breath catching in her throat. "No. That's… that's impossible."

"What's impossible?" said Dawn, looking up. "Is the portal…?"

She stopped. As she finally noticed the gigantic orange planet, getting ever closer.

Her jaw fell open.

"Okay, I'm guessing that's bad," said Dawn.

Ace raced around. "Bike!" she shouted. "Where's my bike? I've got to get up there. Get back. Rescue the Professor and all the others. They need me!"

"Uh… yeah," said Dawn, with a wince. "About your bike…"

Seo writhed, her face growing paler and paler.

Dawn could almost see the strength being sapped from her, with every passing second. As the link remained open… and was killing her.

"The link!" shouted the Knights of Byzantium, pointing at the sky. "The link has been opened. Time ends!"

"Seo, close it!" Dawn urged. "Please! Before they start turning on us!"

"What do you think I'm trying to do?" Seo snapped, her voice barely more than a whisper. "They're… trying to get out. Used us both… to let him establish… the focus…" She writhed again. "It hurts, Aunt Dawn! It hurts!"

"The Key, and the Beast!" shouted one of the Knights of Byzantium. His sword glinting in the morning light. "Kill them, and the planet will be banished. Back to where it came from!"

"Kill us, and anything trying to get through will!" Dawn shouted back. "Seo's trying to keep it out, you jerks!"

But the Knights weren't about to listen.

Instead, they ran forwards, swords drawn, ready to strike out.

And instead, found themselves face-to-face with Buffy Summers. Blocking their blows expertly, using a metal pipe from the wreckage of the crashed airplane.

Ace stared. "You!"

"I'm not Elizabeth!" shouted Buffy, back, continuing to fight off the knights. "Now, little help over here!"

Ace grabbed up another pipe from the wreckage, and started in, herself. "Hey, metal-face!" she shouted. "Ever beat up a Dalek with a baseball bat? Cuz this…" Whapping him in the side, "is just the same!"

Seo gave a sudden sigh of relief.

"It's done," she said. Barely able to speak, anymore. "The link's been severed. I… can close it. Send everything back where it belongs."

"Then use my energy to do that!" Dawn urged. "I'm the Key, too! And you're looking pretty awful, right now."

Seo shot her a stubborn glare. "Quit…" she panted, "bossing… me… around…"

Then passed out, completely.

As the planet disappeared from the sky.

And the link snapped shut.

"Found it!" shouted Ace, over by the wreckage, again. Tore off the top, then threw the canister, far as she could, into the middle of the swarming Knights of Byzantium. "Better run, if you don't want your heads blown off!"

The Knights looked around themselves.

Then scattered.

Just before the explosion hit.

"Come on!" Buffy shouted at them, grabbing up Seo into her arms. "Back to the Sunnydale house! Let's go!"

They ran.

Ace only taking a second to linger, look over her shoulder. At the planet disappearing from sight, sucked back into a war she couldn't enter.

"I'm sorry, Professor," Ace said. "I should have been there! I should have…"

She shook her head.

Then turned away. Putting her past behind her.

And running off, to help out her new friends. And figure out how to get back her bike.