"But… but… no! No, there has to be a way to win!" Alison insisted. "The Celestial Toymaker said if you won, you'd get your aunt back. Right? We just have to find the way to win!"

"How?" asked Seo. She shook her head. "I've been thinking it through since I got here. Trying to remember every last detail about this game. And I have no idea how to 'win' it. I don't even know how to stop it!"

Alison felt her heart sink.

"Don't you see?" said Seo. "We might still be able to move and think for ourselves, but we're just as much the Toymaker's dolls as everyone else, here. Just as trapped as Dawn."

"Yes, thank you, Buffy," Giles cut in, clearly not even remotely concerned with what she'd just said. He yanked a big, thick book out onto the table. "Now. The 'Festival of WeemyWobbly'." He flipped to the correct page. "I've been reading up on it. And it appears that, in order to make it happen, Sergeant Duckie will first have to get his hands on a special mythical gemstone."

"Will he, now?" Seo muttered, disinterested.

"Yes," said Giles. "It is called the Gem of Ipsahapsacreamsicle."

"Ipsahapsacreamsicle," Seo groaned. Burying her face in her hands. "Oh, I remember making that one up."

"A very rare, mythical stone of power, dating back to the 14th century," Giles said. "Rumored to be buried in one of the crypts in Sunnydale. Concealed by the Order of Shamalamadingdong, a group of warriors who protected—"

"He really is getting all of this from your mind, isn't he?" asked Alison. "These are things you thought up as a kid."

Seo gave a bitter laugh. "Sergeant Duckie," she muttered. "The meanest, toughest, most undefeatable stuffed toy duck in my entire toy chest." She gave a half shrug. "I put fangs on him and pretended he was a vampire. Spent years fighting pretend battles against him."

"But if this is from your mind, can't you change it?" said Alison. "Do something clever?"

"You think I haven't tried that?" Seo cried. She jumped to her feet. "It isn't working, Alison. I tried, while we were looking for those vampires. Tried every mental trick there is. Every physical trick there is. Even tried reaching across the dimensions, attempting to create some sort of localized shift to get us two out of here. It didn't work. The Celestial Toymaker knows everything I can do before I do it. Predicts my every move. There's nothing I can do to get out of this!"

"But that's impossible," said Alison. "I thought higher-beings couldn't read your mind."

"So did I," said Seo. "But I suppose… it's the Toymaker's realm, set up for him. He can probably read a lot more from me in here than if I were out in the real world. And for all the things he can't read from my mind… he can still read them from yours."

Alison felt cold.

"We're stuck," said Seo, "in a world constructed from the imagination of a lonely, overly aggressive, thoroughly confused little girl." She dropped her head. "I'm going to be Buffy forever."

"I thought you'd like that," said another voice, entering the doors of the library. A man with skin too pale, brown hair, and a rather adorable-looking face. "After all. Didn't want to crack open a book and read. No. You just wanted to launch yourself into action. Play the hero. Play the Slayer."

"Good point, Angel," Giles agreed. "Terribly good. After all. What's the use of being part Hell Goddess, if you can't tear a few people apart, from time to time?"

Seo froze. Staring at them.

Alison looked between Giles and Seo. "You've… figured out that she's not Buffy," she said. "I thought that wasn't how the game was supposed to work."

"They took the game from my subconscious," Seo whispered. "They must have picked up… other things, in there, too."

"It's sweet, isn't it, Alison?" said Angel, leaning against a wall, eyes flicking over to Alison. "Watching her trying to emulate her parents. Re-enacting all their most brutal victories over darkness. Killing and murdering and ripping apart and Slaying."

"Indeed," Giles agreed. He reflected. "Amazing how Buffy and the Doctor change the people around them. Someone like Seo, with so much potential for good, and her parents' influence has made her want nothing but death and darkness and evil."

Alison stared at them all. A little bewildered. "Right…" she said. "Seo's subconscious…" She shook her head. "You know, it seems a bit… well..."

Seo wasn't listening, anymore, though. She turned on Giles and Angel, her eyes blazing, her fists clenched, storming up to them.

"And you think that's why I want to be like my parents?" she shouted. "Is that all you can see from this game of mine, Mr. Celestial Toymaker? The blood and the death and the destruction?" She grabbed up Angel by the shirt, and slammed him against the wall. "I remember playing this game, when I was young. I remember pretending to be Buffy, on patrol, and then turning to Dad after I was done staking vampires, and saying…"

Her voice trailed off. Her eyes growing watery.

"Saying… that now I got to go home," said Seo, her voice shaking. "To kiss my mom. And tell her I loved her."

Angel looked blankly back at Seo.

"That's what it meant, to be Buffy, when I was a kid," said Seo. "Not just fighting monsters. Not just trying to kill Sergeant Duckie and his lot. It was about… defending the people I loved. About being able to pretend… I had someone I could call Mom. A family and parents I could love. Friends I could fight for."

"Buffy, what are you talking about?" asked Angel, now looking thoroughly perplexed. "Why are you shouting at me?"

Giles, from not far away, also seemed highly confused. Scratching his head, as if he had no idea what he'd just been saying. "Are you threatening Angel? What for? He's your very dear friend."

Alison came over. Put a hand on Seo's shoulder, in support.

Seo looked back at her. Then sighed. Dropped Angel to the ground.

The dolls were all back to playing their normal roles. They wouldn't remember a thing about what they'd said, before.

"Well, I suppose if you're through… doing whatever you're doing," said Giles, "I think we'd better get on with finding the Gem of Ipsahapsacreamsicle. After all, if Sergeant Duckie gets his hands on it… well, you know what that would mean, Buffy."

"Oh, shut it!" Alison sighed. "Can't you see she's through with battling back Sergeant Duckie and whatnot? Quit pushing her to be violent, and give her some space!"

Seo looked at everyone in the room. Her eyes darting around, as her mind raced through a million thoughts at once. "Pushing…" she muttered.

Then beamed. Turned on Alison, her eyes glowing.

"That's it!" Seo cried. "That's the way out. By pushing the limits. Making these dolls and characters try to remember who and what they actually are! That this isn't real!"

She swept past Alison, and walked right up to Giles. Bouncing on her toes, as she stopped, right in front of him. "You think I'm Buffy, right?"

"I'm sorry?" asked Giles. "What are you playing at, Buffy?"

Seo grabbed Giles up by the wrists, and placed his hands over her chest. "Feel that?" she said. "Two hearts. Not human. Not Buffy."

Giles pulled his hands away, a completely lost expression on his face. Trying to reconcile the idea of this with what he was certain had to be true. "But… but you have to be…"

"Buffy's human," said Alison. "Seo's not." She pointed at Seo. "That's Seo. Not Buffy."

Giles tried to work it out. Failed. Then decided to blunder on ahead, regardless. "Right. So. Buffy. You must locate the Gem of Ipsahapsacreamsicle, determine its function, and—"

"Just listen to yourself!" Seo cried. Threw up her hands in the air. "Ipsahapsacreamsicle? Sergeant Duckie? The Festival of WeemyWobbly? The Order of Shamalamadingdong? Do those names sound dignified or scary to you? Or do they sound more like something a child would think up, to amuse herself?"

Giles faltered. "But… but that's not…" He shook his head. "You must be Buffy! This is all real." He turned to Angel. "Isn't it?"

"Of course," said Angel, stepping forwards. "I've lived under the terror of Sergeant Duckie my whole life. I know what he's capable of. Buffy has to—"

Seo turned on Angel. "Your whole life?" she asked. "And where did that life begin? How did you become a vampire? How were you sired? How'd you get back your soul?"

"I got sired in Jabberwockland," said Angel. "In Europe. Some bad people bit me, and made me become a vampire." He gave Seo a stern, parental look. "Because biting people is very mean, and hurts them, and you should never do it."

"You played this game with your Dad, didn't you?" Alison asked Seo.

Seo cringed. "I… didn't bite that many people when I was young."

"I used to be evil," Angel continued, in his normal tone, "until Buffy — you — showed up. And you were so good and kind and amazing that you gave me back my soul — except sometimes you can take it away, again. I don't understand how. But that doesn't matter. Because I'm a vampire with a soul, fighting for the side of good, and…"

"But you're still a vampire, right?" Seo asked. She pointed down at the ground where Angel was standing. The ground illuminated by a beam of sunlight. "So… why haven't you burst into flames, yet?"

Angel stopped. Looked around himself. A little surprised. "But… but that's impossible."

"How…?" Giles muttered.

Seo shook her head. "Dad's stories all said Angel was a vampire with a soul," she said. "I knew that part. I just couldn't work out what it meant." She shrugged, shooting a sheepish grin back at Alison. "He was always in my cast of characters, when I played out my stories. But usually a bit… off. Inconsistently so."

"And this version of Angel's taken from your imagination," said Alison. "Which is why… he doesn't make any sense."

"But I am real," said Angel. "I have to be!" He looked down at himself. "I'm a vampire. I remember being sired! I remember…"

"Jabberwockland?" Alison challenged. She turned to Giles. "And where were you born? Ipswichylvania?"

"I… don't think I was ever born," Giles admitted. "I think I was always old and fatherly."

"See?" said Seo. "You're both phantoms thought up by a child. This entire reality — it's a fiction. From my imagination! I—"

The doors to the library burst open, and in strolled a short, stocky, balding man, his face a sneer and his stature self-assured. He looked, to Alison, like a pompous, self-righteous git.

"Headmaster?" Alison guessed.

"Principal Snyder," Seo corrected.

Giles checked his watch. "Oh, dear. I must have kept you here too long. You're both missing your classes." He shook his head. "He hates people who break the rules."

Seo went very still.

"What?" asked Alison. "He's just…"

"An authority figure," Seo said, "whom I didn't really incorporate into my games, as a child. And who specifically hunts down people who break rules… inside the school. And inside the game."

Oh.

Maybe this 'pushing the characters into understanding who they really are' hadn't been the best idea, after all.