Author's Note: Yes, everyone shed a tear over Alison.

We will miss you.

On the plus side, this story is really starting to get moving, now, in this chapter! This is where we really start to diverge from the Torchwood story. What happens here... could only happen to Buffy.

Enjoy!

(Remember: Slayer Code = Slayers kill monsters, not humans, as Buffy mentions in the Buffy Show.)

Buffy didn't know how long it had been since she last moved.

The flat, board-like device in her hand seemed to roll every minute, every second, every hour together, and then smother her in them. It blinded her to the outside world. Blinded her to reality. It made her feel… like she was eternity and nothing, and…

And…

Alison was dead.

One single thought unspiralling across a thousand moments. And Buffy couldn't grasp it. Couldn't hold it in her hands and separate it from the thousand possibilities of the future pouring across the pavement, a thousand thoughts and dreams and empty hopes leaking like puddles beneath Buffy's feet.

Alison was dead.

The thought so weird. Fuzzy. Like it couldn't have happened.

Alison was dead.

Or shouldn't have happened. So faint, and yet so strong.

Alison. Was. DEAD!

Buffy blinked. As she fell out of… whatever it was. Trance or something.

What was wrong with her? Like she'd never lost anyone before! She was the Slayer, this was commonplace! She was sad, yeah, but suck it up! Move!

She grabbed up her phone, hurled it into the darkness.

Turned, and ran. Far as she could, away from it. So no one could trace it, use it to find her and eliminate any witnesses.

Had to get to Cardiff! Had to warn…!

But too late.

Eternity hadn't passed. Not exactly. But however long had passed between Alison's death and Buffy's waking out of her trance — it had been long enough that someone had already managed to track her down.

A black van pulled up, swerving in front of her, cutting her off. Kevlar vested people poured out of it, abandoning the vehicle in waves and opening fire on Buffy.

Buffy skidded to a stop, jerking up the flat-board-looking device as a shield. Instinctively.

Felt the rumble of bullets bouncing off its surface.

As she spun around. Ran the other way.

Struggling to keep this alien gizmo between herself and whatever goons wanted her dead. Didn't think about why the alien whatever-she'd-dug-up couldn't be destroyed, didn't think about how she'd known it would protect her, or why it was suddenly so windy and noisy outside, or why she could feel vibrations in the air and flowing through the device… just run, RUN…!

Then someone, from just above her, shot a high-impulse energy beam at the empty black van.

And the van exploded.

Buffy stared, as she suddenly saw the source of the wind, noise, and vibrations, touching down in front of her. A helicopter she hadn't noticed, just a few feet away.

And Ria Maria Hiskaloph, President of the Slayer Institution, who stood just inside the chopper. Gun at her shoulder.

"Get in," Ria said.

Buffy didn't have to be told twice.

The armed men surrounded the helicopter. Guns leveled at Buffy, but Ria grabbed her close, so that to shoot Buffy, they'd have to shoot Ria, too.

They didn't.

"Hand over the terrorist," the goons demanded. "Or we open fire."

"And the moment you do," Ria warned, "you'll have five hundred angry super-human-strength girls ready to tear you down."

"We do not negotiate with terrorists!" another goon shouted. "Hand her over, or…"

"Or what?" Ria nodded at the burning van. "That was a warning shot," she explained. "I made sure no one was hurt." Charged up her gun. "But that can change very easily. And my gun is a lot more powerful than yours." She glanced over her shoulder at the helicopter pilot. "Todd. Get us out of here."

The helicopter lifted off.

And the gunshots ricocheted off its exterior. Bouncing off a magical force barrier, before they could strike their target.

"I can't keep this magic up!" came a voice from Buffy's right.

Buffy looked over and… Willow!

"How much longer before we're out of range of their shots?" Ria said.

"Thirty seconds," said the pilot.

Ria swore, leveling her gun out the door, at the soldiers. "Then I'll have to use this thing."

"You're… you're gonna kill them?!" Buffy cried. Trying to process this all through a swirling haze in her mind.

"What? Humans?" Ria gave her a pointed stare. "You should know the Slayer Code. You wrote it."

Then Willow's magical barrier failed.

And Ria fired at the streetlight above the army goons.

The streetlight sparked, then surged with the beam of the energy weapon, bursting with a flash of brightness that temporarily blinded the soldiers.

Just long enough to get the helicopter to safety.

"That won't stop them sending others," said Ria. "Better get the hell away from this country while we still can." Turned back to Buffy, who was sitting on the floor, staring blankly ahead of her. Ria frowned. "You all right?"

"Alison's dead," Buffy said, her voice faint. "They just… shot her. She's really dead."

Willow came over. Put an arm around Buffy.

"She must be in shock," Ria said.

"Who, Buffy?" said Willow. "Impossible!" Then noticed the flat, board-like device Buffy was still clutching in her hands. Pried it away from her. "What's this?"

Buffy blinked.

Then looked around herself. "What? Where am I? What's…?" Buffy caught sight of Ria. Then Willow.

Her jaw dropped open.

"What are you two doing here?" Buffy cried.

"The same thing as you, I think," Willow replied. Examining the flat board-like object more carefully. "Looking for this."

"That's it?" Ria asked, coming over. "Doesn't look like much."

"Yeah, but in terms of mystical energy?" Willow waved it at Ria. "This thing is a major wow!"

Buffy struggled to put the pieces together. But… she still felt… detached. Confused. Separated from… well… everything. Like nothing really made sense anymore and…

And…

And Alison was dead. How could she be dead? She shouldn't be dead!

"Wait, how could you be looking for… that… whatever-it-is?" Buffy said. Struggling to grasp how even this little bit of the story made sense.

Ria put down her gun, leaned against the wall. "It started this morning," she explained. "3 o'clock. My little Chris was… well, I guess babies always like keeping their parents up late at night."

"Babies?" Buffy's eyes widened. "You have a kid!"

Ria nodded. "Thing was, he was being normal. For a baby. You know. Screaming. Crying. Throwing up. And then…" She shrugged. "For some reason… he just stopped. Froze."

Like all the other kids in the world.

"Mark and I took him into the Institute," said Ria. "Ran some tests. And I started looking into the whole thing. Found out that it wasn't just Chris who'd frozen like that. All over the world, kids were standing still. Freezing."

"Lucky you had a newborn," the pilot called back. "Up all hours of the night. Or you'd never have noticed."

"Two hours later, it happened again," Ria continued. "Except that time, we had Willow around to help."

Willow waved.

"When the children stopped, Willow picked up on an energy trace," said Ria. "Massive, she said. But diffuse. Confusing." Ria shook her head. "Took us all day to track it down."

"You couldn't find it until I'd dug the thing out of the ground," Buffy realized. "And all of a sudden, the energy… was…" Her eyes lingered on it. Unable to move away. Time was so thin, here. Over and over again, they keep coming back. Alison had said that. Alison… who was dead. Shouldn't be dead.

Who…

Was…

Buffy's eyes went wide. "Bomb!" she realized. "Alison said something about a bomb! Something's about to blow up!"

"What?" said Willow. "You don't mean this thing we found is actually a bomb that's going to…?"

She stared down at the device, eyes wide.

Buffy grabbed it out of Willow's hands. "No, I don't," she snapped. "Alison saw the bomb in Cardiff. That's where it is! There's some kind of huge bomb in Cardiff, and it's got something to do with Jack, and it's about to… to…!"

Buffy cried out, as the pain seared through her. And the lights on the device activated, dancing across its display.

The others didn't notice the device.

Lunged, instead, for Buffy. Trying to help her. Trying to support her. Trying… trying…

Buffy reached out, through pain, and stroked the device with her fingertips. "So that's the answer..." Buffy whispered.

Then the lights flickered, even more.

And she passed out.

The children, in the world below the Slayer-copter, all went still. Their faces blank. As, in the Torchwood Hub, in Cardiff, Jack Harkness realized that he had been implanted with a bomb.

And his team had only minutes to escape.

"We," the children said. "We. We."

"It's active," Ianto said. "Two minutes!"

"Get out," Jack demanded, shoving Gwen out the door. "Now!"

Outside…

"We are," the children continued. "We are. We are."

"LOCKDOWN," the voice control for the Torchwood Hub reported.

"Ianto, leave, or you're going to get locked inside," Jack warned.

Ianto didn't move. As the metal-cog door rolled shut with a resounding thud. "I'll override the mechanism."

"For God's sakes," Jack screamed, grabbing him, "get out!"

"There'll be nothing left of you!" Ianto shouted back, struggling.

Outside…

"We are coming," the children said. "We are coming. We are coming."

Jack grabbed Ianto, shoving him on the invisible lift. Then kissed him, passionately, before sending the lift up. Watching… as Ianto faded away.

"I'll come back," Jack promised him. "I always do."

In the Slayer-copter, Ria was watching a portable monitor. Watching as the children recited the words, over and over again. "We are coming. We are coming. We are coming… back."

Willow was the only one who heard one solitary voice whisper, "And so am I."

In Cardiff… the Torchwood Hub exploded.