In the heart of Magic Town, in the dead of night, two mighty forces face each other. One, Illyria, the Merciless, Old One of primordial past – and trapped in the human form of Winifred Burkle.

The other warrior, a Nitobe of the Yataro, Eldre Koh. And he has just discovered that the so-called-God in front of him, is responsible for the long-ago murder of his wife and children. He looks at his former ally and shouts at her, his tone commanding and his words echoing off the brick buildings surrounding them. “I thought we were comrades. You are not the Old One I thought I knew.”

“I am more myself than I’ve been in a long time, Eldre Koh. I don’t have comrades in arms. I have worshippers. Defy me at your peril.” Illyria stands before him, pointing at him now. She shows no emotion for the demon. He flicks his wrists and circular beams of pure light form around his fists. They’re interrupted before a blow can be thrown.

Angel, standing, ready, watching as always, turns to the Old One, impassioned pleading on his lips. “Illyria, we saved mankind together… me, you, Gunn, Lorne, all of us. Maybe some trace of humanity made you kinder, but you still chose to help us. You can choose now too”

Faith Lehane whispers in her friend’s ear. “Still gotta try talking, huh?”

Angel gives her a dumb look, filled with unsaid sarcasm, his teeth slightly gritted. “Being thrown at cars hurts.”

“I’ve always been curious about humanity’s capacity for self-deception. Your ability to claim shortcomings as somehow laudable. I believed it it myself, for a time. Perhaps that’s why you lie to yourself. Because you’re so small and feeble, and you can’t do anything about it, so you make up stories about how weakness is a virtue. You call strength bullying. You call success unfair.“

Angel and Faith listen to her, as the Old One stares at them, standing defiantly in the spot, commanding attention and respect.

“When I felt myself becoming diminished and ordinary like every other human, I told myself it was better. What choice did I have? When I became a part of humanity, I became a part of the lie.“

She then looks at Angel, vehemence in her eyes. “No more.“

Angel raises his arms. He doesn’t want to fight her. “Illyria, it might seem that way, but you’ve got to pause here and consider…”

Eldre Koh’s booming voice echoes through the air, loudly enough to make Faith jump. “Enough! You claim to be responsible for the death of my family? I demand answers!”

The Old One looks at him, tilts her head. “You demand? Yes, I suppose you might believe me, Eldre Koh. There was never any personal malice towards them. Like the rest of the Nitobe, they simply needed to be disciplined.“

Koh takes her words in. He stares at her, a deep growl forming in the back of his throat. With no hesitation, he launches himself at Illyria, yelling in her face. “Murderer!”

Illyria simply grabs his fist as it approaches and swings the Nitobe around, and he’s soon on the floor. She turns to him, monotone and uncaring.

“This is futile, Koh. You have a warrior’s heart, but against a God, your efforts are meaningless.“

Staying down on his knees, Koh turns around and looks at Illyria, angry. “I never saw my wife again. My daughters never grew up, married, had children of their own. You took everything from me!” His light blades hum again, this time louder and he roars forward. “I shall either have my revenge or perish in the attempt!”

“So be it.” And with those three words, Illyria seizes Eldre Koh by the throat, holding him up in the air at her mercy.

“Before people go perishing, can I make a suggestion?”

Angel’s voice comes from nowhere, and Illyria turns, sees the vampire in full demon mode, his fangs shining in the light. But it’s his fist that collides with Illyria. “Maybe you should sleep on it.”

Before she can react to Angel, Faith kicks at the Goddess from behind. “What exactly is the strategy again?”

Illyria hits the floor, but Angel quickly moves towards her. “Find some way to knock her out! Fred said when she’s sleeping, they both go dormant.”

“How do we do that? Drop the British Museum on her head?” Faith rages against Illyria again, but this time, the Old One is ready. Grabbing Faith by her wrist, she pulls the Slayer toward her.

“Enough.“

Faith struggles in her grip and can sense what’s coming. “Oh, No.”

“Yes,” Illyria says, simply and quickly. She then throws Faith over her shoulder, high into the air where Faith crashes onto the roof of the nearest building.

As Illyria turns her attentions back to Angel, she suddenly hears a strange sound that she doesn’t immediately place. By the time she turns at the noise, a car hits her at high speed, crumbling around the God, but knocking her to the ground.

“Airbag… my ass,” says Reese Zane, unsure if that was her greatest idea ever and exiting the crashed car with a wobble.

Angel moves over towards Illyria, not in anger or violence, but reaching out to her, as a friend. But she sees him coming and snaps back at him, anger now in her voice. “Angel. You used to mean something to me. I felt displaced, and you and Wesley guided me through being human. Now, I realise you were just managing me.“

She picks up the vampire and slams him into the ground, shouting at him the whole time. “The more human I became, the weaker I became. You couldn’t defeat me, but you could manipulate me. You never cared about me.“

As she raises her hand to take his head off, he looks at her and spits out his words, blood pouring down the vampire’s face.

“Always cared about Fred and you… and Fred is part of you. Part of each other. Never a trick. Fred… please…” He looks into her eyes, deeply and Illyria looks back at him. She seems to get lost in her own reflection.

And then the Old One is elsewhere. She finds herself standing in a white void, empty of anything. “What?“

The voice comes from behind her, but Illyria recognises it and turns. Fred stands before her.

“Illyria. Please. Let’s talk. I think we need to discuss… coexistence.”

The God just looks at her. “I do not discuss. I command.“

Fred looks at Illyria, anger rising in her face. She’s had enough. She starts talking, slowly and quietly at first, but by the end of her sentence, Fred is off the floor and launching herself at the Goddess.

“YOU ARE GOING TO LISTEN TO ME!”

As Fred collides with Illyria, Eldre Koh, in the real world, slams Illyria away from Angel’s form.

“Get away from him!” The Nitobe snarls. Illyria turns to him in anger, enraged and goes to punch the warrior. “You ignorant…“

“Fool!” And inside the mindscape, Illyria smashes Fred to one side.

Illyria stands over the human woman. Looks at her cruelly. “The new Seed corrected what it saw as flaws when it remade me.“

Fred wipes her mouth, spits out the blood and angrily shouts back. “You don’t get it, do you? I’ve been remade too. You are inside me. We’re connected in some deeper way, and we can’t keep fighting like this. We need each other.”

Finally losing her temper, Fred Burkle grabs a hold of the Old One’s wrist and grapples with her. Illyria pulls her fist back, refusing to give any leeway, but Fred is just as determined. She’s only just got her life back, and she’s not losing it again.

Illyria snarls at her in defiance.

“No! I do not need some weak human…“

And in the real world, Illyria throws Eldre Koh to the ground. “I don’t need you! All will bow down to me!“

She punches the Nitobe over and over again, as hard as she can. When she thinks he’s had enough, she raises her hand back, ready to remove the warrior’s head. She calmly, with reverence in her voice and utter conviction, makes sure she looks him in the eyes.

“I. Am. A. God.“

Inside her head, Fred has Illyria subdued. She pushes back against the old one, still shouting at her loudly. “You are not a God in here, Illyria. On the outside you might be all powerful. You can dominate everyone physically, bully people into worshipping you out of fear. But not in here! It’s not like before.”

Now, Fred is pushing harder, forcing Illyria down to the ground. As Fred holds her closer and closer to her, she almost whispers to Illyria. “We’re both here, both real. I’m real. And you can’t deny that. Can’t take it away. That’s what it means to be human. You can break our bodies, but you can’t take who we are. You think we’re weak?”

She turns. She looks Illyria right in the eyes. “Today a human tells a God ‘No.’”

In the real world, Eldre Koh has closed his eyes, ready to receive his death blow. When it doesn’t come, he tries to open his eyes, but finds one almost swollen shut. He spits out the blood in his mouth and, remarkably, tries to smile at the person above him now.

“Welcome back, Fred. At this point, I hope I may call you Fred.”

Reaching over to the Nitobe in horror, a flustered Fred starts to apologise.

“Koh. I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”

The Nitobe gets off the ground and nods at her. “I will recover soon enough.”

“Are you all right? What happened?” Angel’s voice calls out to her, relieved she’s okay.

Fred turns to her friends, now joined by Faith, who’s unhurt but majorly steamed. “Illyria and I had a heated discussion about who is in charge of the inside of my head. I think she was surprised to find me stronger than expected. Heck, I’m a little surprised too.”

Angel smiles at her and pulls her into a hug. “I always knew you had it in you. I’m just glad that you decided to show it in the nick of time.”

“Does this mean we’ve put a permanent cork in our uppity god?” Faith asks, but Fred shakes her head.

“I’m afraid not. She’s still in there and still wants out. But I feel at least slightly more confident I can keep her under control. Slightly.”

Koh smiles at her and bows his head. “You have the heart of a true warrior.” Fred scoffs. “Warrior? I don’t know about that.”

But the warrior tells her otherwise. “Nevertheless. That Illyria was not the same one I’d thought of as a comrade in arms. She was about to destroy me. You stopped her. Thank you. Thank all of you.”

Faith chuckles. “Teamwork and the ability to take a punch. Five by five.”

Angel smiles back at her. Looks out over the city streets before them. “In Magic Town, life spins out of control. Every hour on the hour. But we can take anything this place can dish out.”

On the edge of the battle scene, Doctor Ellis is telling Reese Zane that driving a car into a Goddess was rather questionable. Reese shoots him a look, but agrees. “I wanted to help. But, yeah, happy to leave the heroics to Faith from now on. I wish she’d stay on with us permanently. What is the condition of the lab? Did we lose all the core data?”

Ellis turns to the lab. He knows they managed to transfer all data off-site. Reese smiles.

She looks out over the streets. “We’re in the most uniquely magical place on the planet, where on of the most powerful beings in the cosmos is trapped inside that woman. Continued study of the situation might turn out to be very profitable for Zane.”

At the townhouse, Lavinia and Angel are speaking in the kitchen as Sophie comes through from the lounge. “Fred’s had a long day, but she’s resting now.”

Lavinia looks at Angel, coffee mug extended to him. “Poor dear. But of course, she must be exhausted.”

Sophie taps Angel as she goes past him. “And of course she can stay here as long as she likes. We’ll look after her.”

“Thanks.”

He looks away for a moment, his thoughts running. “I got used to thinking of Fred as gone. Now she’s back, and I’m ecstatic. But what does it mean?”

Sophie starts, a loss for words. “Well, it means, I think…”

“What do you mean ‘What does it mean?’” Lavinia needs more.

Angel turns to her and sighs. “Fred has a God inside her. That situation is far from resolved. And I’m not predicting a quick fix.”

And with that, Angel leaves the townhouse. On the front porch, Faith waits for him. She asks after Fred.

Angel smiles. “All things considered. Fred’s right about one thing. She’s stronger that she thought. We’ve got that going for us.” Faith hears a ‘but’ coming and looks at him. “But a God is even stronger.”

“Maybe after all this time, we’re just awesome enough to handle the occasional deity.” Faith has a large grin on her face.

“Wishful thinking. Also, something Fred said…”

“Spill,” Faith tells him.

“She said it was almost like Illyria let her win. I mean, not intentionally. Just on some level. Hell, I don’t know.” He turns to Faith, his voice quiet, like he doesn’t want to ask. “Look, I know you’re not in the ‘Angel and Faith’ business anymore, but…”

Faith doesn’t hesitate. “I got your back.”

“Thanks,” he tells her, as they walk into the night.

In Nadira’s sanctuary, the other side of Magic Town, Nadira and Koh are sitting cross-legged in the back room.

“I want to thank you for your words, Nadira.”

“That you’ve heard my words and taken them to heart is thanks enough, Koh.”

“I hope I can take them to heart.”

Nadira looks at him, curiously. “Oh?”

“You were right about one thing. I was hiding from my grief. I intend to remedy that. It will take time. And yet it is difficult for me to release my desire for revenge. That my family’s killer should go unpunished seems wrong. I want to let go. I will try, but this also will take time.” He looks at Nadira, hopeful.

“Time would seem to be the one thing in good supply,” she replies.

Koh smiles now, the first time she’s seen him do so. “Yes. You are kind to listen to me. But I must work out some things on my own.”

She nods, calls after him as he leaves. “Please feel welcome anytime, Eldre Koh. My door is always open.”

The Nitobe stops and turns to face her. “I have met kindness since coming to Magic Town. I have met friends. And the Nitobe never forget a friend.” He nods once again. “Goodbye, for now.” And then he is gone.

Alone, Nadira gets up, talking again to a presence, in that strange melodic voice.

“Yes, I know. He will be all right, I think. What? Her? I know you’re afraid, but she can’t harm you. Fred has her under control.“

She gets up, walking to a curtained area. They’re high about the streets of London, over looking the former area called Hackney.

“Illyria is too powerful to be contained forever, I suppose. But you are powerful too. You’re young and you don’t know what’s going to happen.” Nadira stands at the balcony, looking down at the town, smiling. She then finishes talking.

“But then… you are Magic Town.“