"Well, well, well," said Principal Snyder, approaching them. "How did I know that if there was someone out there, flagrantly breaking the rules despite every warning, it'd be you — Miss Summers?"

"I'm not breaking the rules," Seo insisted. "I'm just trying to rescue my aunt."

"Oh, yeah? And then what?" said Principal Snyder. "Key some cars? Egg some houses? Graffiti some walls?" He scowled. "There's only one place you belong, Summers. And that's locked away in a prison cell for the rest of your life."

Seo charged at him. "A prison like this, you mean?" she snapped. "Forced to live inside a stupid game I thought up as a child, while listening to my subconscious call me a monster?"

"Seo," said Alison, tentatively. "Are you sure he's from your subconscious?"

"Well the Snyder character from my games with Dad never acted like this!" Seo replied.

"Are you calling this a conspiracy, Miss Summers?" said Principal Snyder. "Because I'm no stranger to conspiracy. I saw JFK." He leaned into her. "I've got pieces of a puzzle. So I'm going to look at all those pieces carefully and rationally. And I'm going to keep looking until I figure out exactly how this is all your fault."

Seo sighed. "That's definitely my subconscious," she said. Ran a hand through her hair. "Fine. So you've trapped me forever in my own childhood delusions because I'm a dangerous super-weapon who shouldn't be unleashed on the universe." She pointed at Alison. "But what about her? What about Dawn? They're just normal humans. They don't deserve any of this."

Principal Snyder looked between Alison and Seo. "You alter everything you touch, Miss Summers. Everyone you touch." His eyes fell on Alison. "I can see it on her. Your influence."

"Right, I've had enough of this," said Alison. She pointed her finger in Snyder's face. "You. Headmaster. Shove off, now."

Snyder's eyes blazed, as he looked at Alison. Then grabbed them both up by the wrist, and dragged them off. "That's it!" he said. "I'm calling your parents, Miss Korjensky. And as for you, Miss Summers… I think a certain guardian's going to find out just how you've been bending the rules."

Seo tore her wrist away from Snyder, raced in front of him, trying to block his path. "No, wait!" she cried. "I'll… I'll be good. Follow all the rules. Promise."

"Sorry," said Snyder, grabbing Seo's wrist again. "Not gonna fly, kid. Not with this principal."

The entire scene around them shifted, as they suddenly jump-cutted into Snyder's office, Alison and Seo both sitting across the desk from Snyder, his hand already dialing the phone.

A speaker phone.

"Please!" Seo said. "Think about what you're doing. Dawn's innocent. Stuck in a living death, because of me. If you make this call, if you tell the Toymaker, you'll be condemning her forever."

"Is she?" said Snyder, as the phone rang. "Let's just see what your guardian has to say about that. About all of this."

The phone picked up.

"Hello?" said a confused man's voice, on the other end.

Not the voice that either Alison or Seo had expected. Not the Celestial Toymaker. Not at all.

Seo and Alison looked at one another. Too shocked to speak.

"Mr. Harkness," said Principal Snyder. "This is Principal Snyder from Sunnydale High. I'm calling because—"

"You're a high school principal?!" asked Jack Harkness, a little incredulous. "How did you get this number? This is an emergency line at a top-secret agency. There's no way you could…" He paused. Registering what was being said. "Wait, did you say… Sunnydale?"

"I caught Miss Summers," said Principal Snyder, "cutting class. Again. And I don't care how important you think you are, Mr. Harkness. You're this young lady's legal guardian. If you don't want her to end up in prison for the rest of her life, you'd better—"

"Seo," Jack cut in, with a sigh. "Are you invading your mom's past?"

"No!" Seo shouted, into the speaker phone. "This isn't really Sunnydale. Jack — Alison and I got scooped up and trapped by some dimensional entity calling himself the Celestial Toymaker, who's making us play out a fantasized version of—"

"Alison?" Jack cut in. A hint of desperation in his voice. "He picked up Alison? From where? When?"

"1971," said Alison. She leaned in, closer to the speaker. "And please tell me that Nimopod didn't get away after I vanished. I had that bastard cornered, when—"

"If you could all stop chatting!" Snyder shouted, over the others. "Mr. Harkness, as Miss Summers' legal guardian, you must accept a certain amount of responsibility over what happens to…"

"I think that's enough of that, Principal Snyder," came another voice, as someone melted into existence, right beside Snyder.

Except… this person, unlike all the others… wasn't a doll. Oh, no.

Attired in ornate robes, his face looking smug and arrogant, his eyes completely confident. His voice just as authoritative as it had been when it was booming across the landscape around them, earlier.

Seo and Alison both froze.

"Superintendent!" said Principal Snyder, getting to his feet, awkwardly. "I didn't expect…!"

The man who must be the Celestial Toymaker bent down and picked up the receiver, flipping it off speaker phone. "Mr. Harkness?" he asked. "Yes, I do hope you enjoyed your little chat. But I'm afraid I have to cut it short. You see… Seo and Alison are mine. Forever. My little playthings. You'll never be seeing either of them again."

Then hung up.

For a few seconds, just lingered there. His hand on the phone. Eyes staring off into the distance. "Clever," he muttered, his face dark. "Very clever. Suppose you arranged all this with your mind. On purpose."

Seo's eyes went wide. "I didn't—"

"I warned you," the Toymaker said, turning on Seo, "that I didn't countenance cheaters. And calling the outside world for help…"

"I didn't call anyone!" Seo insisted. She pointed at the toy Principal Snyder. "Your automaton called Jack. I was begging him not to."

"That's right," said Alison. "She was. He wouldn't listen to her." She crossed her arms. "And why didn't you notice that we were calling Jack until just now?"

"Good point," said Seo. Quirked an eyebrow. "Something out there dragging you away from your fun and games?"

The Celestial Toymaker stopped. Mused this over, in his mind. "Just this once, I'll overlook the offense," he decided. "Since it's relatively minor. And if you're expecting help from your friends on Earth… think again. They're powerless to help you." He turned to Alison. "Even yours."

Alison frowned. Confused. "What? You mean the…?"

"You know exactly what I mean, Alison Korjensky," said the Celestial Toymaker. "After all. You didn't think I brought you here at random. Did you?"

Seo looked between the Celestial Toymaker and Alison. Her brow bent in concentration, as she thought this all through.

The Celestial Toymaker waved his hand. "I'm bored with this, anyways," he decided. As the landscape rippled around them, and they found themselves in a graveyard, at night. "Time for some action. Monster fighting!"

Then he disappeared.

A group of monsters, both demons and vampires, emerging, all at once. Growling as they advanced on Seo and Alison.

No weapons on either of them.

"They call me Buffy," said Seo. "Called him the superintendent. Everyone brought here from outside is subbing for someone actually in Sunnydale. Except you." Seo glanced at Alison. "You're still just 'Alison'."

"What?" said Alison. "Look, Seo, we have to—"

Seo turned to Alison, grabbing her up by the arms. "Where were you, in the seventies?"

"Sorry?"

"You said you got trapped!" Seo insisted. "Where?"

"Seo, there are vampires and monsters about to eat us, here!" Alison snapped back. "Is this really the time to be—"

"Where?!" Seo demanded.

"UNIT," said Alison.

"With my father?"

"Yes!" Alison's eyes fixed on the monsters encircling them. "Is this really the best time to be talking about this?"

"Of course it is!" said Seo. "Don't you see, Alison? This is a trap! When the Toymaker took my ship, he thought he was getting a Time Lord. It's only when he found out I wasn't one that he transported you here! If you've just disappeared, first thing my father's going to do is leap into his TARDIS and head off to look for—"

"The Doctor isn't going looking for me!" Alison insisted. "He can't show up here, Seo. He's stranded on Earth with a broken-down TARDIS!"

Seo blinked. An even more worried frown settling across her face. "But why else would the Toymaker…?"

"Can we talk about this after we escape, please?" Alison demanded.

Seo looked around herself, registering her surroundings. "Yes," she said. "I think… that might be a very good idea."