Back in the bar of the Broken Shield once again, sitting around the fireplace. Jenna sat between Robert and the girl she knew as Liz. She introduced herself as Anna this time and she wasn't wearing her weird helmet; she claimed that she cannot ask them to trust her if she won't even show her face. As far as Jenna could understand this was a big deal for her and for the kid who came with her, too.

Anna and Luther had a strange encounter earlier; the bartender said the helmet belongs to his people and he wasn't pleased to see it used by a human. The girl told him to back off, pointing out that her, using the helmet was the most good fae ever done for humanity. Jenna thought she had a point, even though Luther saved her life. 

Her shoulder still pulsed with pain all the time, but almost three weeks had passed since New Year's Eve and she kinda got used to it. She was fairly sure that being dead would be worse, anyway. Plus, countless things were capable of helping with the pain, such as the whiskey in her hand. 

The door of the pub opened and the last two of the little party arrived: Teodore and Benjamin. They came together because Benjamin was visiting their old family butler in the hospital where Teodore worked. Jenna couldn't understand why Benjamin bothered with the old man, but Robert explained in his calm, know-it-all voice that even though Maxwell was awful to them, it's hard to stay unaffected when someone from your childhood is on his deathbed.

'I even find myself thinking about my dad sometimes these days,' he had said. 'And you know that if I say we weren't close that's an understatement.'

Why Anna looked utterly surprised when she saw Teodore, remained a mystery for Jenna. Teodore didn't give any sign that he might know the new girl.

'How is he?' asked Robert, when Benjamin sat down in an armchair next to their couch. 

'Dead,' the man answered shortly, with a blank face. It was probably the first word Jenna had heard from him since Rose died. Robert nodded and didn't say anything. Jenna found his hand and gave it a little squeeze. Robert turned to her and kissed her forehead.

'So, I talked to my bosses at MAGE,' said Marcus. He was standing in front of the fireplace, as always. The past weeks had their marks on him, just like on everyone else: he was skinnier than ever and something in his eyes, that little mischievous spark Jenna liked so much just disappeared. 'They could confirm that the substance this beautiful young lady brought to us is something that existed once,' he smiled at Anna, who smiled back awkwardly. Robert rolled his eyes. 'However, we have no way to tell if that's actually what's in the vial. MAGE could test it in their laboratory in France, but we cannot send it to them.'

'The hospital has a laboratory,' offered Teodore. 'Mostly just for blood cultures but if MAGE can tell me how to test it, I can probably manage it.'

'Worth a shot,' nodded Marcus. 'Try not to touch it, though, if it's real, it will kill you in a moment.' 

'Hold on for a second here,' said Jenna. 'Last time we were talking about this, none of us really wanted to fight anymore.' 

'Last time we didn't have a chance,' replied Robert. 'Now we just might.'

'So give that shit to the police, army, MAGE, whatever!' exclaimed Jenna. 'Why should we do all the work?'

'Because we have to,' said Teodore quietly. He had changed, too, since this whole thing began, Jenna noticed. The anger, tension he always had in his voice was missing now. 'Jenna, there is nobody else who stands a chance. Not even with that poison. It has to be us. One last fight, then it's over for good. No more fighting for the city, and no more fighting with each other,' he looked at Robert in the eyes, and the other man nodded. 

'Wait a minute!' said the kid who came with Anna. He called himself Cannon and was even younger than Remy or Claire. He was short and thin with messy brown hair and piercing blue eyes. He sounded very excited now. 'I know your voice, dude! You are the Medic, aren't ya?'

'The what now?' frowned Jenna. 

'There is a man in a surgical mask, we think he is a doctor,' explained Anna to the group. 'He helps us when we get injured or something. Nobody ever saw his whole face but he kinda looks like this guy.' 

Everybody looked at Teodore. His face was unreadable and pale, as per usual.

'They needed help,' he said then, with a shrug, as if that would explain everything. Jenna suspected that for him, it did.

'Ooookay,' said Marcus, elongating the word. 'So Teo likes to play "superhero". But let's put a pin in that for now. Jenna's right: we didn't actually decide if we want to do this or not. I, for one, think that we should give it a go if the poison is real. But, with all due respect, guys, without Jenna we might as well can pack it up and sneak out of the back door. It's up to you,' he said, looking at her.

Jenna shook her head. 

'So I get to decide whether we save the fucking city now? Brilliant. You understand that if we go, we might die, right? How the Hell could I decide that?'

'Actually, it's the city right now, but if we don't stop Kovach early on, it could be much worse,' pointed out Marcus. 'No pressure, though.' 

'You know, even though I learned to tolerate you, sometimes I still wanna kick your beautiful ass,' murmured Jenna angrily.

'It is beautiful, isn't it? So what do you say?' Marcus asked with the shadow of his old grin on his face.

'If my girlfriend and my best friend could do this without flirting, that would be much appreciated,' pitched in Robert.

Marcus and Jenna grinned at each other now, then the girl looked around.

'So the Professor, Flirty Guy, the superheroes and Teo said we should fight. Guys? Remy?'

He shrugged.

'You know I'm with you 'till the end,' he said. 'I do what you say. Besides, I've got a thing or two to say to the motherfucker who had his pets munching on my leg anyway.'

'And I will go to make sure he won't get himself killed,' added Claire, taking Remy's hand.

Jenna couldn't help it, she had to smile. They were just too damn cute. 

'Benjy?' she asked then. The man just looked up with a blank face and nodded. 

'And I'm obviously gonna go, 'coz I won't stay home when you guys are havin' a party,' said Martin. He was the only one who could keep his spirit up despite all that happened. The past weeks he slowly became the one who cheered them up whenever it was possible, he cooked for them, he had Robert to teach him new spells just so the man would feel like himself again, he was always good to go if Claire's video games got out… He was there for all of them.

'I couldn't be less enthusiastic about it, not that anyone asked me,' said Munin. He was sitting on the headrest of the couch, next to Robert's head. Anna and the boy named Cannon looked surprised at the bird.

'What the hell?' he asked. 

'That crow just talked,' she said to Jenna.

'Bigger surprise when she shuts up,' said Jenna.

'And he is a raven, by the way,' smiled Robert.

'So is that like, a normal thing for you guys?' asked Anna.

'You will get used to it,' shrugged Claire. 'You know, a few months ago I was just a happy little nerd, then these guys came along and since then I had to fight with monsters, a cult of a crazy demi-god or whatever, then monsters again, while they are coming up with the craziest crap every day. The talking bird is just the latest one. Like, Jenna has a huge bloodhound made out of shadows, and I don't even know anymore if that's odd or not.'

'Awesome!' said Cannon. 

'Let's focus,' Jenna put up both her hands so the others would stay silent. 'So everyone thinks that we should try and stop Kovach?'

Nods and a few murmured yes. 

'You do get that he has an army, right? At least a small part of that will be there, protecting him. How are we planning to go through that?' she looked at Marcus.

'Well, we cannot really expect back-up from outside the city, but I'm sure we can think of a few friends in this business who could tag along…'

'I might be able to convince Edyta,' said Robert. 'But she always says that the magic of shamans isn't for fighting. Also, her house is gone so I will have to find her first.'

'That's one,' nodded Marcus. 'Anyone else? What about that guy in the waistcoat, what's his name, Gentleman? He is pretty cool,' he looked at Anna.

'He left the city when McLoad started to hunt us down,' she said. 'He has a family.'

'Fair enough, nodded Marcus again. 'I have a couple of vampire friends from the old SRU, but that's a dead-end… No pun intended. What else have we got?' 

'Grimes?' offered Remy hesitantly. 'Or maybe Kahn?' 

Jenna shook her head.

'No, Grimes isn't a team player, he would get us all killed. Plus he is an idiot. Kahn… I don't think so. I doubt he is in town anyway, I think he was smart enough to leave before the city was closed.'

At least, that was what she was hoping for. She didn't want to think about the possibility that her old, grumpy mentor might have died alongside the hundreds or even thousands of others since New Year's Eve.

'We could always conjure up some demons and elementals,' said Benjamin. His voice was croaky from not being used. Robert looked at him with a puzzled face. 'I know, I don't like it either, brother, but I can't see any other way.'

'Yeah, but we don't even know how that works,' pointed out Jenna. 'I heard that it requires years of practice until you are able to control just one of them properly.'

'Also, demons are technically dead people,' added Robert calmly. 'There is a possibility that Kovach would turn them against us.'

'What do you mean "demons are dead people"?' asked Claire.

'Demons are born when someone dies in extreme pain or anger or fear, in some horrible way, like being brutally murdered,' explained Remy. 'The person's soul, or essence, or whatever goes crazy and becomes a furious, blood and vengeance-thirsty spirit, stuck in this world, instead of doing whatever dead people are supposed to do, I don't know, moving on or disappearing forever.'

'Yeah, I don't really wanna go near any of those, thanks,' commented Martin. 'Dude, that's fucking creepy.'

Remy shrugged. 

'I just hunting them down for a living,' he said. 'I don't like them.'

'Anyway, I guess we could exclude conjuring magic,' said Marcus. He put his hands into his pocket and leaned on the chair Martin was sitting in. 'Any other idea?'

'How about…' Claire nodded towards the bar and mouthed the name "Luther". The fae wasn't there at the moment, but he had to be somewhere close.

'He gets his abilities from this place,' answered Robert. 'He said he is nearly powerless if he has to leave the pub.'

'Besides, even if he wouldn't be, you know him,' Jenna rolled her eyes. 'He is neutral. He wouldn't help.'

Claire made a grimace and shrugged. 

'Any chance that Blake dude would show up?' asked Martin from Marcus.

'Unlikely,' replied Marcus. 'I don't doubt he would come if he could, but MAGE ordered its agents not to interfere until further notice.'

'How sweet,' murmured Jenna. 'How come you can still be here, then?'

'They wanted me to leave, but I told them off,' he grinned. 'Truth to be told, I'm not sure whether I will have a job after all this, but I was getting bored with being an agent anyway. I'm thinking I will do some travelling, tindering my way through the world...'

'Let's focus on the task at hand,' Robert cut him off.

Silence fell upon the group. Seemed like they were out of ideas. Then after a few minutes, Teodore broke the silence.

'We should ask the Seer,' he said. 'He knows most of the vigilantes in the city and he isn't one of McLoad's people. Better yet, he knows who is and who would help us.'

'The "Seer"?' frowned Jenna. 'Seriously, what is wrong with normal, usual names? Are there any Steves in this superhero business? Maybe a Joe?'

'He is this old dude, they say he can see the future which is bullshit if you ask me,' said Cannon. 'But still, he is kind of our leader, if we ever had one. Only, nobody ever saw him, he just calls or texts if he has a task we have to sort out. I have no idea how we could find him.'

'I do,' said Anna. She took out something from her pocket that looked like a compass.

'Is that the truth-teller thingy you fetched from Kovach?' Jenna asked. 

'Yeah, it is. I still haven't figured out how it exactly works, but I did find your vampire last time, I can give it a shot.'

A shadow ran through Robert's face when Anna mentioned Magda, but it went away almost immediately. 

'Okay!' clasped Marcus happily. 'Finally, we are going somewhere. So, Robert's gonna go and find his shaman-master-whatever, while Anna and… Cannon, was it?'

'Y'all can call me Tom,' the boy said.

'Tom it is,' nodded Marcus. 'So, Anna and Tom will go and ask this Seer about what vigilantes could help us out.'

'I'm going to go with them,' said Teodore. 'I want to meet this man.'

'And I'm gonna go with the big man,' added Martin, nodding towards Robert. 'Just in case there is some trouble. I wanna try my new spells in action.'

Even though the situation hadn't improved significantly, Jenna felt a little better after the meeting. Plans and a newfound, however fragile optimism in the group… Those were good signs. They might just survive this whole fuckery, after all, she thought.