Chapter Text
The Hellmouth had closed, Buffy thought, that was the important thing. Well, partially closed. Closed around this horrendous three-headed monstrosity that had been trying to come through it. Giles’s spell had stopped the world being deluged with wave upon wave of demons: it just hadn’t managed to squeeze this particular one all the way back through. That was a problem, but as long as it couldn’t move, they just had to keep their distance and wait for Giles to regain consciousness.
She looked down at his body, which she had just dragged out of the thing’s reach. If he regained consciousness: all these blows to the head weren’t healthy, especially at his age. She saw Willow sheltering behind a bookcase, out of the way of the ongoing combat around them, handed Giles over to her, and turned back to the fight.
Angel and Faith were working together against the last of the Sisterhood-of-Jhe demons; two were splayed out dead on the ground, but this one was still kicking. Between them they had it on the ropes, but if they got too close to the snapping mouths of the three-headed hellmouth demon that could change very fast.
Then she saw the Jhe demon sink its teeth into Angel’s arm, and she remembered what Giles had said about their paralytic venom. He staggered backwards towards her, limbs spasming, and she caught him and threw him behind her. This last demon would be down to her.
Except then Faith crushed its skull with a mace, the impact throwing fragments of bone and red blood and blue skin everywhere, and she realised she needn’t have worried.
Faith punched the air as what remained of it slid to the ground. “Yeah! Only room for one demonic warrior sisterhood in this town, right? The Slayers!” She grinned at Buffy, who smiled weakly. She had always prided herself on being able to break the monotony of life-or-death combat with quips, but right now, with two of their team incapacitated and her arm feeling like it might be broken, she didn’t have it in her.
“Let’s hold the celebrating until we’ve dealt with that thing.” She pointed at the writhing mass of heads and slime.
“I believe technically it’s called a Diablogorgon!” Willow piped up. The Diablogorgon screamed at them, as though it recognised its name, and flailed wildly, trying to reach them with its jaws. It was almost like a bouquet of flowers, three long stalk-like necks coming up out of the hole blasted open in the floor. She had no idea how long those necks were on the other side, but fortunately it didn’t seem able to push them through any further. At least not right now.
“Will, can you complete the binding-spell-thing?”
“Um, I think I… I sort of know what I would need to do, it’s just that…” Willow looked nervous, “I’d need to get up real close to it, just like, um…” Just like Giles did. Which had allowed him to partially close the hellmouth, but also get knocked out and almost eaten.
“Ok, don’t do that,” Buffy was trying to game everything out. “We can just wait for Giles to come to, then maybe you and him can do it together. We have time.”
“Uh, actually B…” Her stomach fell as she turned to see what Faith was pointing at. Three more Jhe-demons had appeared at the library door, their faces spattered with gore and blood. God knows who they had just eaten. But now they were here, and with Angel still paralysed she and Faith were outnumbered.
She didn’t have time to think for long about how badly this sucked; the demons charged, the slayers charged to meet them, Faith going slightly ahead of her with the mace still in her hand, swinging wildly to throw the demons off-balance and stop them working together. Buffy landed a punch, then a kick, then whatever was wrong with her arm made the next punch go wrong, and suddenly it had her by the neck. It pushed her up against the wall, choking her, pulling its clawed hand back to strike at her face.
But before the demon could press its advantage home, something out of nowhere slammed into it, sending it flying away from her.
At first she thought it was Faith, but no, Faith was over there, still whirling the mace, just about keeping the other two demons at bay. The thing that had saved her was there on the floor, wrestling the demon with knives in its hands, stabbing and stabbing and sending blood in all directions. From the snarling sounds, and the long black hair, she almost thought it was another of the Jhe-demons — a defector, somehow? But its skin wasn’t blue, in fact it looked familiar, but it was impossible, it couldn’t be…
“Kendra?” Willow was gaping, open-mouthed, as the demon stopped struggling and the form on top of it slowly stood, blood dripping from the knives in its hands.
“Kendra?” Buffy echoed. Time seemed to slow down. It was definitely her: the hair, the skin, the build, even the black jacket she had been wearing when Drusilla had…
“Kendra, I thought you were…” then the form turned to look at Buffy, and the last word came out strangled, “dead.” The ridged brow, the yellow eyes, the inhuman fangs: it was Kendra, but she was just as dead as Buffy had thought. A wound suddenly healed, just as suddenly re-opened.
“Who the fuck is that?!” Faith's yell snapped her back to the present. Still two more Jhe-demons. Kendra had heard the yell too, and turned and leapt at one of them, catching it from behind while it was focused on Faith. The sisterhood of Jhe were fearsomely strong, and fast, but they weren’t that smart and they went down easily to bladed weapons. Knives in the back weakened it, and Faith finished it off by lodging the mace in its chest. But then the other demon caught Faith from behind, and knocked her down. Might have been able to finish her off if Kendra hadn’t been there to interpose herself and drive it back.
Now the odds were better: three of them against one of it. It saw the danger, and kept its back to the books while they circled. She looked at Faith, trying to communicate with her eyes: a coordinated attack, like back at the nest? Two of them hold its arms, so the third can stab it through the heart? Faith glanced over at Kendra, as though to say ‘I’m on board, but what about the new girl?’ Then Kendra, without warning, threw one of her knives, hitting the demon’s chest near its neck. Giving Buffy a glance that said 'works for me', Faith charged in, grabbing the stunned demon and hauling it over a desk. Buffy didn’t have any weapons handy except a stake, but it worked in a pinch, jammed right into the demon’s heart.
“Ok, so,” Faith was panting as she stepped back from the twitching body. “Really appreciate the surprise backup and all, but, uh, who the hell are you?” The Diablogorgon shrieked, as if echoing the question.
Kendra’s face was human again, and she was standing straight, arms folded, just like Buffy remembered her.
“I am Kendra,” she said, and Buffy couldn’t help but beam, hearing that accent again. She had spent so many months regretting that she had ever made fun of it. “The Vampire Slayer.”
“Huh?” Faith just stared in confusion. The Diablogorgon gurgled in the background; they tried to ignore it.
“Faith, we explained this, remember?” Willow was walking over to join the Slayers. “Buffy was briefly medically dead, which activated Kendra as the slayer, and when she died that activated you.”
“Thanks Red,” there was a slight edge to Faith’s voice, “but she looks pretty alive to me.”
“I am not.” Kendra was absolutely still: any observer would notice that she was standing stiffly to attention, but Buffy could also notice that she wasn’t breathing, wasn’t even vibrating with the beat of a heart. She was surprised Faith hadn’t noticed by now. “I am risen as a vampire.”
Faith raised her eyebrows and looked at Buffy. There it is, she thought. The thing that spoils this reunion. She didn’t survive; you still let her die. It’s just that now you might have to kill her a second time.
“If you’re a vampire, why are you helping us? Shouldn’t you be, like, hiding in case we slay you?” Kendra’s composure faltered a bit at that. She opened her mouth, tried to speak, then closed it again and looked down.
“I have had my soul restored to me.” Oh, okay. It felt like a dam was breaking inside Buffy: she’s like Angel, somehow, she’s really back. She bounded towards Kendra with her arms outstretched, stopping only when the other girl flinched away.
“Sorry, whoops, I forgot, you don’t hug.” But Kendra was smiling back at Buffy.
Willow was beaming too. “I also want to register that I would hug you if you did hugs!”
But Faith still just looked confused: “How? Why? I don’t get it.” Kendra’s face straightened at the question.
“Everything will be explained by my master. They will be here soon.”
“Your master?” Faith looked from Buffy to Willow, “you guys know who that is?” They shook their heads.
“This part is new to us too,” Buffy admitted, then reached out to gently touch Kendra’s arm. “Whatever the explanation is, it’s good to see you again.”
“It is good to see you too Buffy.”
At this point a shudder went through the floor. What had been a small crack branching out from the Diablogorgon’s hole was now a large crack. She glanced over at Giles: still out.
“Uh, Will, any smart ideas about how to get that thing to stop breaking the floor?”
“Well I could, um, maybe… if you could go with me to, uh,” Willow looked as panicked as Buffy felt, “get eaten in my place while I finish the spell?” It didn’t sound like a great idea but if it was all they had…
“Didn’t that old man ever teach you tailored wards?”
In the doorway was a figure dressed in black, about as much as any figure could be: black boots, black pants, black gloves, a black leather jacket over a black hooded jacket, and under the hood some kind of black mask that covered their entire face.
As soon as she saw it, Kendra strode to the figure’s side and knelt, bowing her head reverentially. “Master.” The figure laid a black-gloved hand on her head lovingly, then turned a black-masked face towards Willow.
“Well? You know the demon’s name and species, you have time and equipment. A witch of your power should be able to ward your path of approach.”
Buffy saw Willow light up at the phrase ‘a witch of your power’, then deflate at the word ‘should’. She shook her head apologetically. “I, I don’t know any of the spells for a Diablogorgon…”
“It’s a rule-based system,” the figure was walking towards them, with Kendra following like a bodyguard. It was thin, and moved stiffly; Buffy couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman; Kendra had simply called it 'they'. “From knowledge of the system, and of the demon’s sigillic profile, we can deduce the spell to ward it.”
“Oh! Yes, I’ve heard of this,” Willow was nodding slowly as the strange figure stood just out of reach of the flailing heads, inspecting what was left of the symbols drawn on the floor, “but Giles said it's so slow that it’s mostly for when you’re actively summoning a demon, and teaching it too quickly can, uh, encourage students to, uh, try that…”
“Well we wouldn’t want to encourage you, would we?” The figure was kneeling, pulling things out of its pockets, shaking its head.
“Uh, look,” Faith looked like every new development made her a little more annoyed, “don’t let me stop you ragging on Giles or anything but, uh, who the fuck are you?”
“For now, you can call me the Magpie.” The figure stood as Faith approached; they were staring at each other a couple of feet apart.
“Magpie? Like the bird?”
“Yes. And you must be Faith, like the theological virtue?” Faith looked confused at that, and a little angry.
“And Willow like the tree!” Willow seemed to want to defuse the tension; Buffy decided to do the same, more forcefully.
“And Buffy like the, um,” she stepped in between Faith and the Magpie, “well I’m not sure actually, but, uh, without showing all the math, can you get this thing,” she gestured at the Diablogorgon, which waved a giant eyestalk as if in answer, “out of here?”
“Me alone, no.” There was something odd about the cadence of the Magpie’s speech, like each sentence was composed internally and then uttered as a single unit, rather than flowing spontaneously. “But with Ms. Rosenberg’s help, yes.”
Willow lit up again at being asked to help, and Buffy stepped back to let the two of them confer in hushed tones about sigils and powders. She found herself standing between Kendra and Faith.
“So, this is the girl I replaced? I feel like we never talk about her.” Buffy felt her gut lurch at this, looking at Kendra to see if she was reacting. It was true: she had avoided the topic wherever possible. But she didn’t want it to seem like she had just forgotten about her.
“Well, yeah, you know, it was…” she hunted for the right word. “Painful.” Was that the right word? She turned to Kendra. “I always wanted to say, about letting you die, that I’m, I’m–”
“You did not let me die. I died in battle for the cause I lived for.” Had Kendra seen her starting to tear up? She was grateful for the deflection; she didn’t think she could get the word ‘sorry’ out without breaking down entirely.
“There, see how the pentacle shines?” Buffy turned back to the witches, who were seemingly ready to start, “This powder extends that sigil’s reach because of their elemental resonance. Now chant.” Willow and the black-clad figure stepped forward, chanting something in unison. As they approached the Diablogorgon, it reached for them, trying to seize them into its various teeth and tooth-like growths, but seemed to find some sort of barrier or repulsion around them, always turning aside at the last moment.
When they got close enough to be standing within the inner circle that Giles had originally inscribed—close enough that they could have reached out and touched the Diablogorgon, if anyone would ever want to do that—they exchanged looks and the chanting shifted. The Magpie kept going as before, in a language Buffy didn’t recognise, while Willow shifted into what sounded like Latin, perhaps the same Latin that Giles had been reciting earlier.
Tremors went through the creature’s body, as though something below them, something on the other side, was pulling or shifting. Buffy, Faith, and Kendra all instinctively went into a fighting stance, readying themselves for whatever happened next.
But in fact it was all over very quickly: the demon roared and flailed, but the spell had already been almost complete, and within a minute or two the creature had been yanked back out of their reality with a slimy “pop”, leaving just a hole in the floor and the wreckage of books and furniture strewn around from the battle. Willow’s voice, repeating the incantation one last time, was suddenly deafeningly loud in the silence.
It was the silence that let them hear Giles’ voice. “No, Willow, it’s… too dangerous…” He was mumbling, his eyes closed, seemingly only half-awake but still able to warn and chide. “Hebron’s Almanac… let me…”
Buffy went to his side and lifted him gently into a chair, relieved that he was coming back to them. “It’s ok, Giles, it’s over. We did it.” He peered around the room (she had no idea where his glasses had gotten to) seemingly satisfied by the absence of demons.
“Ah, good. Well done everyone.” He started to stand from the chair, “Buffy, Faith,” now he was pulling a backup pair of glasses from a pocket, “excellent work as always, and Willow and, and…” he put the backup glasses on, straightened up, and peered in surprise, “…and Kendra?” Now he was definitely awake.
“Mr. Giles, sir,” Kendra walked towards him, still covered in blood, and bowed deeply. “I have returned to aid you.”
Giles was, unusually, at a loss for words. He looked at Buffy for explanation.
“Kendra got vamped,” she shrugged, “but now she’s got her soul again.” He frowned, looked between Buffy and Kendra a few more times, as though unsure whether to believe it. She realised there might be good cause for skepticism: it wasn’t like a vampire would be above simply lying. But… she was too exhausted to question it. For once, surely, something good was allowed to happen?
“But how, exactly? The spell was lost until…Who could do that?”
“That would be me.” The Magpie stepped forward, standing beside Kendra protectively, looking up at Giles long and hard as he stared back. For a long time nobody spoke. Then Giles sat back down, reaching around as though looking for a cup of tea.
“Then I suppose I must ask you to, well, explain, as best you can, for this whole situation is, well,” he took off his backup glasses and cleaned them redundantly, “decidedly perplexing.”
“Yeah, decidedly!” Faith nodded.
“Alright,” the Magpie looked around at them, all now slumping, or sitting, or leaning, tired and battered in a circle around her and Kendra, who both stood still and upright, almost like robots. “I am a witch, or a sorcerer, or whichever term you would like to use. I am in touch with the online communities where Jenny Calendar, or Janna of the Kalderash, or whichever term you would like to use, corresponded about her research. Through that research, I learnt about her new translation of the Ritual of Restoration. I was uncertain of whether I could complete it successfully, but the portents indicated that something was to happen here tonight, and Kendra did not wish to face her friends without it. So we tried it, and succeeded. Then, at Kendra’s urging, we came to offer our assistance.”
“You asked for this?” Everyone turned at the voice; Angel had recovered and was slowly, stiffly, climbing to his feet. His face was unreadable.
“I asked for this.” Kendra nodded. Her face was likewise a mask; Buffy remembered how many of their past interactions had consisted of them each trying to kill the other.
“You know the gypsies meant it as a curse?” Angel was talking to the Magpie now, “A torture device, a weapon of revenge?” There was anger in his voice.
“I know perfectly well what the Kalderash meant it for.” It was harder to detect, but there was anger also in the Magpie’s oddly-cadenced voice.
“Why would you inflict that on her? Kendra doesn’t deserve that!”
The Magpie turned that unreadable black mask to Kendra, as though to ask if she wished to speak. Buffy wondered if they were a vampire as well: they didn’t seem entirely human, and the full-body concealment hardly inspired confidence, but witchcraft by itself could do plenty of strange things to a person’s body...
“I gave Kendra her soul because she asked for it. And because she doesn’t have to reckon with the same storied history as the fearsome Angelus.” The use of his old name made Angel flinch, and he looked away. Buffy put a hand on his arm, then asked the question that was really on her mind.
“But how did you two meet?”
“Yeah, tell us about the meetcute.” Faith’s joke made her realise how inappropriately romantic the question had sounded, but Kendra at least didn’t seem to recognise the connotation.
“We were both lost; we helped each other find ourselves.” Now that sounded inappropriately romantic. “Kendra was at the mercy of Spike and Drusilla until their messy breakup let her escape. We met by chance and found the partnership mutually beneficial. Beyond that, the details don’t matter right now, and aren’t necessarily anyone else’s business.”
Buffy exchanged looks with the others. The details might not be their business, but it was still a lot to swallow.
“Seems like it’s our business as vampire slayers.” Faith tilted her head provocatively. “If all we have to go on is your word that she’s all soully. Are we supposed to just believe any vamp who says they’re a good guy?”
Kendra took a step forward, squaring up to Faith, and without thinking Buffy slid herself in between them. “Hey. Kendra just saved my life. I think that gets her the benefit of the doubt.”
“But that’s how it starts," Angel was closer to the Magpie now, looming over their slight frame, “and once it gets about that any vampire who helps out a slayer gets a pass, how long before every smart demon in Sunnydale figures out how to exploit that?”
“So what I’m hearing,” the Magpie hadn’t moved, but Kendra was already at her side, bristling, “is that you should be the one and only. As long as Angel is the exception, that’s ok: if anyone else tries it that’s a slippery slope. Is that what you’re saying?” Buffy’s slayer-senses told her that both vampires were having to fight to keep their fangs hidden.
“Maybe I am. Maybe my curse was prophesied, planned by the Powers That Be. It wasn’t just some witch playing God, toying with forces beyond mortal understanding.” He seemed to be half-aware of how self-important this sounded, but couldn’t stop himself from adding, “Maybe it’s my destiny.”
“You have a destiny because the Kalderash made a choice. A member of that tribe put the spell on the internet, and now other people can make a similar choice.”
Tension hung in the air. Willow was the first to break it. “So does this mean Kendra will be, just, generally around? Patrolling with Buffy and Faith? Hanging out in the library?”
“If my assistance is required, I will do my duty as a Vampire Slayer.” Kendra and Angel stepped away from each other, Angel slinking unhappily into the shadows. “Subject to my master’s guidance and direction.” Kendra, Willow, and the Magpie exchanged glances; Kendra and Willow, at least, were smiling. Buffy realised she was smiling too, now that it was clear nobody was going to come to blows. Even Giles was doing that thing where he tried not to smile, but it still showed in the corners of his eyes. Only Angel and Faith weren’t smiling.
“Oh, speaking of assistance!” Willow suddenly looked worried, “we should go check on Oz. A lot’s been going on and something could have happened…” She moved to retrieve the tranquiliser rifle. “Vampires are immune to Lycanthropy, right?” Kendra turned a confused look to the Magpie, who simply nodded approval, so she followed Willow to the door.
When they were gone, the Magpie turned to Buffy. “It’s 5.03am. Several people here need to be away before the sun rises, but you can contact us any time you need to.” She handed her a card, with a number printed on one side, and an email address, all random numbers and letters, on the other. It felt like an oddly mundane mode of contact for such an arcane-seeming figure, but she took it all the same.
The Magpie made to leave, but scanned the room first. Angel and Faith both looked actively suspicious, even hostile, while Giles’s doubtful look was tinged with curiosity. Buffy was too exhausted to know what exactly her own face was doing, except that she still wasn’t quite crying the tears that had come up when she first saw Kendra. That would be for later. For now, she hoped her face just looked neutral.
The Magpie wasn’t even looking at her anyway. She was looking at Giles, the two of them regarding each other as though each trying to work something out. Eventually he looked down, and they turned and left without a word.