Don’t own Lost Girl, belongs to M.A. Lovretta. Or Buffy, who belongs to Joss Whedon.
The Dal silenced as a petite blonde walked into the room drawing Bo’s attention. She could tell the girl wasn’t human, it wasn’t the shocked silence of when Kenzi had entered the Dal for the first time years ago. It was a respectful and almost fearful silence. The kind when someone lightyears beyond you in the social pecking order deigns to allow you to bask in their presence. Yet there was a... nervous edge to it, as if they were expecting bad things to happen.
Trick’s own small ‘Uh Oh’ tweaked Bo’s worry up a notch. Her grandfather almost never uh-oh’d and when he did worrying stuff was going down.
The blonde said nothing to any of the silent onlookers, as after a quick scan of the room her eyes landed on Bo and unerringly she moved toward the unaligned succubus.
“Can I help you?” Bo asked when the blonde stopped in front of her, causing shocked glances to be pinned to Bo. Great, someone else super-important she’d probably just insulted.
Instead of appearing insulted however, the blonde flickered a smirk before she knelt to one knee, her head bowed, and started to speak, “By my blood I am bound, by my soul I shall serve. These words are my pledge. So mote it be.”
The blond raised her eyes to Bo’s though she remained kneeling, her expression one of anxious waiting.
Bo’s eyes flickered to Trick’s who was stuck staring in shock at the blond before the succubus’ feet. Her eyes went back to the blond who still looked up at her waiting for an answer. Then, words unbidden rose to her lips, “So mote it be.”
Trick snapped out of his shock to stare at Bo for a moment before he turned to the bar. “Everyone out! Take your drinks just get OUT!” He roared out to the bar and everyone started leaving, including Bo and the blond. “Not you two. You stay put.”
Bo reluctantly returned to the barstool she’d been attempting to vacate. The blonde, after a questioning glance to the succubus moved into a seat as well.
Once the bar cleared Trick turned back to them and growled out, “What in the name of the Gods was that Bo? Do you have any idea what you just did?”
Bo couldn't help but stare in incredulity at her grandfather. He expected her to understand? Half the time it seemed people only gave her information when it was absolutely necessary and since this situation hadn't come up before of course she didn't understand! “No, because for all I’ve been learning about the fae I have only been here three years. What did I just do? Well?”
“You just accepted me under your banner.” The blonde replied with a smile, glad her plan had worked without a problem. She hadn't even been totally sure it would work. “I’m on your side.”
“But I don’t have a side. That’s my thing. I’m the unaligned succubus. I don’t have a side. Trick, what the hell is going on here?” Bo rambled for a moment going from the blonde to Trick and back.
“That oath she swore, that was the oath every fae must make before the current leader of the side they are swearing themselves to serve. It is binding, it cannot be broken. The contract Hale nudged at you is just a bit of bureaucratic paperwork to help keep track of who is aligned with who. The contract, even once signed, isn’t truly binding until the oath has been given,” Trick explained, rubbing his temples. When he had written the laws, that included the oath, he hadn't expected his own grand-daughter to both refuse to choose and indeed create her own side somehow.
Bo's eyes boggled at Trick, her mind racing to understand the bizarre situation she found herself in. “But I have no side to swear to! I refused to pick a side and even if I hadn’t I wouldn’t be the Ash or the Morrigan!”
The blonde snorted and both Trick and Bo looked at her. “What? I did my research before I came here. If you were Dark Fae by now you’d have killed the Morrigan just because you hate her guts and the Dark Elders would, instead of barely tolerating your existance, love you for all the shit you clean up for the fae. If you were Light Fae then after your little bout with the Garuda you’d have been lucky if they didn’t physically hurl you at the position.”
Trick shook his head, silently conceeding the points the blonde had mentioned. Bo was almost a force of nature and it seemed incredibly unlikely that she wouldn't be considered extremely important by now at any rate. “Regardless. Bo, I know you felt the magic take hold when you replied to her, I’m afraid that whether or not you were on a side before you are now. Your own. I’m going to call the others down here, you... get to know your new subject.” Then the blood sage shook his head again as he walked over to the phone to start dialing those in their little group, recently expanded to include Dyson’s new partner Tamsin the Valkyrie.
Bo looked ready to object to Trick’s referral to the blonde as her subject but didn’t feel it worth the effort and turning to the blond she raised an eyebrow. “So, you seem to know a lot about me, yet I know almost nothing about you. Who are you?”
The blonde extended her hand. “Buffy Summers, at your service. Literally,” The blonde chuckled at her own joke and Bo shook her hand.
Now Bo had to ask a question that had been digging at her a little since the blonde had entered the room. “What was with everyone giving you those weird looks?”
Buffy shifted somewhat uncomfortably. “My coming of age was... a week ago. At the party when I was asked what side I would chose I told them I hadn’t decided yet, since then all the fae have been... edgy around me.”
“They didn’t treat me like that a week after I refused to choose a side,” Bo responded confused at the difference between the two happenstances.
“That’s because,” Trick’s voice cut in, clearly done calling who he would call, “Since you declared yourself on neither side three fae have attempted to say they belonged to no side. All three went violently insane six days after they did so. No fae involvement, no one went anywhere near them. They simply did.”
“Why didn’t that happen to you?” Bo asked Buffy turning back to the blond.
“I never declared no side, I simply didn’t declare,” Buffy replied, once more glad her plan had worked and she hadn't gone violently insane. “I don’t understand it either, I expected to go insane on the sixth day like everyone else, but when I didn’t I just kept trying to figure out what to do, It took me a couple days to work up the nerve to just walk in here to say it.”
“What made you different?” Bo questioned, confused but eager to understand what the difference was between the three fae who had gone insane and the petite blonde sitting beside her.
Trick decided to speak up to voice his own theory, “I’d suspect it’s because she had chosen a side, yours. The others thought they could follow your lead and simply refuse a side. Maybe you being the first to do it created the side that would be in the middle and that area was simply no longer open and Buffy deciding to take your side the magic allowed her to make it here to take the oath.”
Fortunately for Bo’s mental state, it was at roughly that moment when Dyson and Tamsin arrived, the wolf-shifter eying the blond next to Bo with a touch of suspicion. “What’s going on?”
“I’ll explain when the others get here. No reason to explain it more than once.” Trick replied and Dyson gave a grunt but moved to the pool table to distract himself, though Bo could see him slinging looks at Buffy.
Lauren and Kenzi arrived next, they’d been spending time presumably together back at Bo’s place while Bo had been going to look for someone to take to bed.
“Can we get some answers now? Who is that? Why’d you call us over here?” Dyson asked. “Is it because of her?” The shifter asked pointing at Bo’s new... subject.
“That, is Buffy Summers, and you could say that. She just made the oath... to Bo,” Trick informed the impatiently waiting bar.
“Which oath?” Lauren asked, in all honesty it was a fair question, there were half a dozen formal oaths that had to be performed on that particular day, four dozen in that month, fifteen at that time of day, etc. There were a lot.
Dyson didn’t say anything, waiting instead for the answer to Lauren’s question while Tamsin’s head came up from where she’d been taking a shot to pay much closer attention. Kenzi, being the only person in the room who knew terribly little about fae lore and laws, besides Bo but the succubus wasn’t being very much help at the moment looking as slightly shell shocked as she was, simply waited for the answer, not particularly patiently, but she did wait.
Instead of trick, the blond next to Bo smiled and spoke up, “I declared myself. I gave Bo the Declaration Oath.”
“The Declaration Oath? But Bo has no side, much less is the leader of one,” Lauren responded confused.
“She is now, the oath was made, and the magic that binds it responded. I am now of the... what are we called?” the blon-Buffy paused to turn to Bo with her question.
Bo snapped out of the slight state of shock she’d been in since it sunk in that she really was the leader of her own side. Looking at Buffy she took a moment to process the question. “Well... There’s the Light Fae, and the Dark Fae... How about we’re the Neutral Fae?”
Buffy nodded, “Works For Me. We’re the Neutral Fae.”
Kenzi decided she had enough information to make a question now, “Wait we? How do we know we can trust blondie?”
“The Declaration Oath isn’t perfect, but only in cases of extreme self defense can the oath-taker harm the one to whom they are sworn,” Trick explained. Seeing the disbelieving look on Kenzi’s face he continued, “Aife got around it by not actually targeting the Ash. I’m pretty sure she wanted the elders dead, not the Ash. If he had actually died from the blast, instead of his continued coma, she might have either died or gone totally insane on the spot, well... more insane than she is. Think curled up in a corner muttering pitifully.”
Kenzi frowned but could see Trick wasn’t particularly worried about the blond’s loyalty, still she turned back to the blond and gave her a slight glare. “I’m watching you.”
Buffy looked to Bo with a curious eyebrow. “I’d heard she was unusual, but you let your human talk to you like that?”
Every other person in the room, including Tamsin funnily enough, shrugged and said, “It’s Kenzi.”
Buffy nodded in hesitant understanding, she didn’t quite get it, not yet, but she had the feeling she would.
“Not to distract from the questions of how this happened, but because it happened Bo you need to do some things.” Trick spoke up making Bo give him a funny look. “Before the Light and Dark fae both looked at you as unaligned, and claimable. Now that you’re on a side, but it’s neither one of theirs, they might try to change their minds. Not to mention they might decide to take offense to you walking onto Light territory or Dark Territory.”
“Hale would never-” Bo, Dyson, Lauren, and Kenzi all started before Trick held up a hand to stop them.
“He’s the Ash now. If Bo caused a problem in Fae territory it could cause problems now, unlike when she was unaligned, because now some Fae, in particular the elders, could look at it as a member of another side causing trouble and he’d be forced to take action or simply be removed from power. That’s why, Bo, you need to go back there and hash out a treaty between your Neutral Fae and the Light Fae. You might want to do it with the Morrigan too.”
“Why? She already wants me dead, it’s not like me doing anything on Dark territory would change anything there.”
“True, but now you’re in a different position. As it is, she’s sending people against you because you’ve made her personally angry but it hasn’t been anything you couldn’t handle because you never angered the Dark itself, only one individual of it. It would be wise to either meet with her, or go around her by meeting with the Dark elders themselves. If only to secure your ability to move without repercussion, and perhaps some territory to call your own besides your little building.”
Bo frowned but she could see Trick’s point.
“Not to be rude because I appreciate the advice you are giving my leader, but who are you to her? The research I had said she listened to no one and didn’t let anyone tell her what to do, was one of the reasons I liked her before I met her,” the blond who still hadn’t moved from beside Bo spoke.
“I’m her grandfather,” The others in the group gave Trick a weird look, it wasn’t like the Blood King to be so open with information about himself.
The blond about freaked. “You’re the granddaughter of Fitzpatrick McCorrigan, that makes you one of the Finarvin clan and of the surviving three great families, why are you always introduced as Clan Unknown Parentage Unknown?”
“That’s... complicated,” Bo replied, her mind bringing up the image of aife lying on the ground three stories under her, not that she'd been there when Bo had gotten all the way down the stairs but she still didn't understand what had happened to her, “I don’t exactly see eye to eye with my mother.”
Buffy just nodded, the succubus obviously didn’t want to talk about it.
“What are you anyway?” Kenzi asked. When everyone other than Bo and the blonde gave her a glare she just cried “What?!” She was aware that asking what a fae’s species is was kinda a taboo but she didn’t really care.
Blondie waved off the glares and looked at Kenzi, “It’s ok, I’d have needed to tell Bo later anyway. I’m a Slayer. I believe you met the Furies, the ones who punish those who break our laws but not the major ones and the Amazons, who guard our prisons. Slayers... we’re much more final. We don’t punish, or imprison. When a Slayer is sent after a person that person is considered too dangerous for standard imprisonment or even extermination squads. When one of my people goes in, it’s to do one thing and one thing only, to slay. Like the valkyries,” here Buffy paused to raise a phantom glass to Tamsin, “we’re warriors born. Not a single Slayer who can’t fight, enjoys fighting, and loves doing her born duty..”
born duty? Aren’t there any male slayers?” Bo asked. She knew Succubi were an all female species of fae but they had a corresponding male species the Incubus but Slayer didn’t exactly sound like a gender-specific name.
Trick decided to chip in with his infinite knowledge of faedom, “Male children born to slayers are always the species of the father, never the mother. There is no such thing as a male slayer. Unlike the Amazons though they raise their male children with the father. Though, traditionally Slayers are Light Fae.” As he ended his explanation the short blood-sage gave a questioning look to Buffy.
“So why did I pledge myself to the Neutral Fae?” Buffy asked, getting a nod from the bartender. “I never was good at following the rules, so when a chance came to toss the rulebook out the window... well, how could I resist? Besides, it’s better this way. Slayers have been getting... lazy over the years, too much willful blindness to what’s going on.”
“The slayers have never been more effective as executioners of those who break our laws, what do you mean?” Dyson asked causing Buffy’s eyes to swivel in the Shifter’s direction.
“Slayers used to use our instincts, sizing up whether a target truly deserved a Slayer’s personal touch. In recent centuries however, my people have become complacent, relying on bureaucracy to tell them who to slay rather than their own instincts,” Buffy replied spitting on the ground to show her distaste for the practice. “We were given these instincts for a reason, now most of my people are little more than puppets dancing on a string. I can’t help those who won’t help themselves though so instead when the time came to declare myself I chose Bo, knowing I could act as a Slayer should without idiots trying to control me. Make no mistake, it is not corruption that is the problem, if it were I could cut it out with my own hands and be protected by the old covenants. No, it is poor judgement and complacency that I despise.”
“I’ve never met a Slayer,” Tamsin mentioned moving away from the pool table. “My mother always said never to anger one, or do anything that could cause a Slayer to come down on my head, of course, she was Light Fae,” Tamsin paused to shoot a grin at Dyson, “and we all know how Light Fae like to worry about things. Haven’t heard one such warning from a Dark Fae though. Makes a girl wonder.”
“Makes you wonder what?” Buffy replied, despite knowing the answer. It wasn't the first time she'd seen a Dark Fae, or equally arrogant Light Fae, make such statements.
“Makes me wonder what’s so special about Slayers.” Tamsin taunted, .
“It’s not a good idea to taunt a Slayer,” Trick warned.
“No, no. It’s ok. Bo?” Buffy assured the bartender turning to Bo, the unaired question of whether or not she could show Tamsin hanging there.
Bo cocked her head, on one hand Tamsin could do that whole “Doubt Yourself” stunt, on the other hand Buffy seemed to know exactly what Tamsin was and wasn’t worried. Nodding she said, “Try not to hurt each other please?”
“I won’t,” Buffy replied hopping off the barstool revealing she was only slightly taller than Kenzi at around five foot six.
Trick sighed and motioned for everyone to clear the area in front of the Bar, the only area open enough for the two to settle things.
Tamsin started, a powerful kick that Dyson knew from experience hurt, even blocked and Buffy caught it with one hand, seemingly unstrained. Tamsin growled and sent a flurry of blows, uppercut, right cross, left straight, spinning backhand, heelkick, none of them got through. The petite Slayer deflected some, avoided others with supernatural grace, and refused to let the Valkyrie lay a hand on her.
After ten frustrating minutes for Tamsin, for everyone else it was full of shock that the tiny blond was so skilled and powerful despite her tiny frame, the Valkyrie stopped, breathing hard. Buffy couldn’t help but taunt the taller blond, “Aww, tired already?”
Tamsin growled and put her hair up in a tight bob and started staring at Buffy, her powers coming out and her appearance semi-shifting to the skeletal form that had intimidated Dyson. Buffy stood there immune and grinned. Tamsin stopped after only a few seconds which clearly were having no effect, “How?”
“The reason your mother was so insistent that you should refrain from entering combat with a Slayer who wants you dead is simple. Our abilities, besides those that grant us instinctual mastery of weapons and warfare, also include an immunity the mindgames some species of Fae like to use. It is an immunity that is trained, rather than instantaneous, but by every Slayers declaration and coming of age it is one she is well trained in. Our duty cannot allow us to be beaten with such abilities, if we could be we wouldn’t be very useful now would we? Afterall, how many beings can cloud another’s mind, through intimidation,” the small blond nodded at Tamsin, “Lust,” Now at Bo, “Guilt, as a Fury would, or any other way you can think of. If we fell to such things, we would die far more easily than we do. The Fae world is a world of predators. We are it’s Apex.”