Vanessa doesn't much like the thought of Red returning to a life spent running. Yet, how can Vanessa pass any judgment on such considerations? Vanessa has spent her whole life running, though she would like to claim she had turned to face the beast more often than not. In truth, she'd only faced it to invite it in.

Despite her growing connection with this place—with Red and the Doctor—she has obligations as well, and for the first time in a long while, Vanessa is returning so that she can stop running. It's the only way to save her friend. Sir Malcolm had once called her the daughter he deserved, and it had not been meant in kindness, but it was true enough. Their past sins and paths forward were inexorably twined, and she knows that she can't abandon him now.

Even if it means returning to where Satan thrives.

Eyes cast off to the side, Vanessa sighs and murmurs, "My path forward is the same. Serthica hasn't changed that."

But it has changed how she feels about it. In some ways, she's found a peace with what's within; in the connection she's found to others who are strikingly like her. In other ways, it has sent her adrift. Her life could have been better here, even in its current state. At least here, nobody hunts the Mother of Evil for her singular use and nothing else.