Author's Note: I think I got the 11th Doctor's voice PERFECT in this one.

I think I like Timey Whimey too much. I seem to do a lot of it.

Enjoy.

The Celestial Toymaker had appeared, his robes ornate and his lips pressed into a wide grin. A wooden doll in his hands.

"Congratulations," said the Toymaker. "You won the game. And so… I've brought Dawn along. As we agreed."

Alison stared. "Wait, that's your Aunt Dawn?" she cried. "Really?" She gave a sharp laugh. "Well. Suppose that explains one extremely odd event from my childhood."

"Of course," the Toymaker continued, ignoring Alison's outburst, and instead conjuring fire into one of his hands, "you stole one of my dolls, already. Which means… I think it's my right to do whatever I wish to this doll, instead."

Seo's eyes went wide, and she rushed him. "Don't!"

The Toymaker vanished, reappearing behind her. The flame from his hand scorching the bottom of the wooden Dawn's foot. "Give me the Doctor," he said. "Or I destroy her. Now."

Utter sadness crossed Seo's face. As she hung her head, reached through the dimensions, and plucked the Doctor out of the nice little safe-spot she'd hid him. Cradling him in her arms, gently, as she advanced forwards.

For a few seconds, she just stood before the Celestial Toymaker, clutching the Doctor in a desperate hug, like a little child unwilling to part with her favorite toy.

Then, with a last whispered, "I'm sorry" to the Doctor, she handed him over.

The Celestial Toymaker grabbed up the Doctor doll, the doll of Dawn clattering to the ground in a tangle of limbs and hair. Then… before Seo and Alison's eyes… the doll of Dawn began to grow. The wood becoming flesh. The eyes growing lively and changing.

Dawn gasped, as she sat up. Then grabbed her foot.

"Ow!" she shouted. "What did you do to me while I was dollified, you bastard? And why the hell are you doing, just dollifying people…?"

Dawn stopped, as her brain went back to normal, and she was able to fully process what had happened, while she'd been wooden. Noticed what the Celestial Toymaker was holding in his arms. Noticed how Seo and Alison both looked.

Her jaw dropped open.

Dawn turned to Seo. "Oh, God. You didn't."

Seo didn't say anything. Just hung her head.

Dawn jumped to her feet, wincing as she hit the scorched one. "Okay. Fun's over. Give us back the Doctor." Her eyes narrowed. "Or I'll mess you up, good."

"I think, perhaps," said the Celestial Toymaker, "you should be more concerned with the fate of your rather charming niece."

Dawn paused. Alarmed. "What?!"

"Oh, yes," the Celestial Toymaker said. "After all. By securing your freedom, she has just sealed her own doom."

"But only after the next game," Seo challenged, not looking up. "We agreed on that."

"Yes, but I've already gotten what I wanted," said the Celestial Toymaker. "There's nothing left for you to play for."

The Toymaker held up his hand, brandishing it as if it were a magic wand.

Alison and Dawn both surged forwards, protectively, around Seo. Alison grabbing Seo up around her shoulders, refusing to let her go. Dawn just taking Seo by the hand and daring the Toymaker to make his move.

"There's Jack," Seo offered, still not looking up.

The Toymaker hesitated. Then lowered his hand.

Seo glanced up at the Celestial Toymaker. Big brown eyes leveled at him. "I'm right, aren't I?" she asked, very softly. "It's a lot harder for you to scoop people up out of their lives unless it's the direct consequence of one of your games. Otherwise… you'd be scooping up everyone. And we'd hear about it."

"So you're playing for your Captain Jack's freedom," said the Celestial Toymaker. He crossed his arms. "Very well. And if you lose, I scoop up Jack Harkness out of time and space. And both your other friends die in front of your wooden form. Slowly. And painfully."

"Yes," said Seo. Her eyes glimmered. "But I pick the game."

A sheet of parchment suddenly appeared beside the Toymaker, a quill scribbling down the rules and regulations. The Toymaker used his free hand to snatch up the paper, reading the name of the game with disgust. "Good Deeds?!"

"Good Deeds," Seo confirmed. "A big-kid game. Bit more advanced than pretending to be Buffy. A game that requires a normal person… and a multi-dimensional, godlike entity."

The Celestial Toymaker's face grew more and more irritated, as he read the details of the game.

"It's quite simple," said Seo, pulling herself away from Dawn and Alison. "You and I take turns. One of us pledges to do a good deed. And then the next one has to pledge to do a better deed — which trumps the first. First person who fails to trump loses." She grinned. "The all-powerful entity has to help make it all happen, of course. And winds up being judge of exactly what's considered 'good' and what just seems good, in the short term, but actually winds up being harmful over a longer period of time."

"You and your dad actually played this?" Alison asked her.

"All the time!" said Seo, beaming. "I think he was trying to teach me… timeline congruity? Not really sure. I was brilliant at it, though." She winked at Dawn. "He pledged to save this group of long-lived female aliens, calling themselves 'the guardians'. And I trumped him, by creating a universe-saving super-Scythe. Won the game hands-down with that one."

Dawn shook her head. "Show off."

"Only when I'm brilliant," Seo countered. She turned back to the Celestial Toymaker. "So? What'll it be?"

"I'm the judge?" asked the Celestial Toymaker. "Able to say whether you win or lose?"

"Yep." Seo shrugged. "Course, you can't judge winning or losing until your turn's up and the round's over. Just to be fair. Have to actually use your powers to make the pledges reality, first — just so we can see how the timelines turn out. Otherwise, it wouldn't be educational."

"And if you accidentally wind up killing lots of people?" asked Alison.

"That's what the quarantined timeline system is for," Seo replied. She straightened, a little. "And, any rate. This time… I won't. All grown up, now."

The Celestial Toymaker thought it over, carefully. Then, with an evil smile, waved his hand. "So be it! We begin."

The entire landscape around them seemed to shudder, as the air shifted, tension flooded through every person there.

And the game began.

"Brilliant!" said Seo. "Me first." She gave a large grin. "I pledge to spread hope, to save worlds afresh. By turning the Doctor from wood back to flesh!"

The Celestial Toymaker's eyes burned. "That's cheating."

"What do you mean, cheating?" said Seo, gesturing at the game-play rules. "I did the rhyming couplets and everything. Gave you both a justification and a means of doing it. All completely in accordance with the rules!" Her grin widened, a little. "Didn't even need a diagram to do it. It's been a while since I played this game without having to draw a diagram or hash out complex multi-temporal equations."

"Then… then… I object!" spat the Celestial Toymaker. "Releasing the Doctor wouldn't be a 'good deed'. The Silence claims he will end the universe."

Dawn rolled her eyes. "Yeah, because I'd totally trust the word of a bunch of memory-altering nutcases."

Seo stood her ground. "Well, if he's going to destroy the universe," she said, "then it shouldn't be too hard for you to trump my good deed, should it?" Her voice lowered. "Or would you like to forfeit the game?"

The Celestial Toymaker snarled. Then threw the doll to the ground and, with the wave of his hand, the Doctor began to grow to normal size, the wood turning to skin, his chest beginning to rise again with sudden breath.

As he sprung up, a manic grin on his face.

"…exactly what I would have done!" the Doctor cried. "Absolutely ingenious, Seo! Keep it up, and someday you'll be just as clever as…" Then stumbled, unsure of his footing, hair flopping into his face. He grunted, then doubled up, coughing. "Sawdust in the throat. Not pleasant."

Alison started, a little, at this. "This… regeneration thing you mentioned," she said to Seo, "changes a person… completely, then? Even their personality?"

The Doctor looked up. Beamed, as he raced towards them, arms extended. "And three of my favorite people in the universe!" he cried, swooping them all into a group hug. "Seo, Dawn Summers, and Alison Korjensky!" He pulled away, surveying Alison, fondly. "Oh, you have no idea how long I spent looking for you. Knew you'd survived — after all, you couldn't have been vaporized by the Nimopod, or we'd have found the vaporizing gun as well — and that was missing. So! I reconfigured that iPhone of yours into a sort of tracker device, nearly managed to locate you — until it got stolen. In Cardiff. By a rather nasty sort of bloke. Don't want to run into him again." He whirled around. Facing the Celestial Toymaker. "Which is something I could also say of you. Celestial Toymaker." He advanced towards him, eyes dark, voice lowering. "Rather a nasty piece of work."

"If you don't shut up, Doctor," the Celestial Toymaker warned, "I'll turn your tongue back to wood."

The Doctor gritted his teeth. "Very nasty piece of work," he growled.

"Doctor," Dawn cut in, before this could go much further. "Was there anyone else with you when you got all toy-ified? A companion, or…?"

"What?" said the Doctor, turning around. "Ah. No, actually, was just on my way to pick her up — from the 21st century — even though she's also a governess in the 19th and a Dalek in the distant future and none of this is making the first bit of sense to any of you, is it?"

Everyone in the group shook their heads.

"Right!" said the Doctor. Adjusting his bow tie. "That makes four of us, then."

The Celestial Toymaker stepped forwards, brushing past the Doctor. "My turn," he told Seo. "I pledge to eliminate what was released for war, defeat the prophecy of Trenzalore. By releasing another toy, of course." With the wave of his hand, another wooden doll appeared on the floor. A domed figure, with an eyestalk sticking out of the top, glowing more and more blue as the creature grew and turned from wood back to metal. "One, Doctor, that's a friend of yours."

The Doctor's eyes went wide. As Dawn and Alison, behind him, both sucked in sudden terrified breaths, backing away.

Seo just looked on, a little curiously. "Is that a Dalek?" she asked, leaning down to stare into its eyestalk. "I thought you lot were supposed to be scary."

"EXTERMIN—!" The Dalek shouted, as the Doctor grabbed Seo up by the hand and yanked her out of the way of the extermination beam.

"Run!" he shouted at everyone, as they raced off into the white nothingness of the Toymaker's realm.

The Toymaker just stood there, laughing, as the Dalek regained full movement and capability. And then went off, in search of life-forms to destroy.