"You look after her for me, okay?"

"I promise that I will do everything I can to protect her."

"Don't cry for me, for valkyries in our last life it's not called dying... It's called rising."


She's six the first time she asks about her mama; she had caught words from the school, another fight in the lunch hall and a bruise in early bloom beneath her eye. Kenzi gave her the quiet glare she'd mastered over the early years in the rear-view mirror as they drove and Dagny knew there would be more words when they got home about using her doubt outside of the house.

"Am I like my mommy?" Dagny eyed her in that way, the greens of her eyes as familiar as they ever were.

"What?"

"My mommy," she repeated, inching a little closer between the gap of the front seats. "Was she like me before she went away?"

"Exactly like you," she kept her eyes glued to the winding road and exhaled that deep breath that ached the most bottom parts of her chest. "If she'd have seen you today, saw that bruise on your eye," Kenzi shook her head, looked to the roof of the car and back to the road and breathed again, and Dagny lowered her head and waited for more words about how bad she'd been.

"She would be so, so proud of you." Kenzi swallowed, "Don't get me wrong, she'd have kicked your little butt, but she'd have been so proud of you, your mommy was the toughest girl I ever knew, Lil' D."


She's eight the first time she watches the videos Kenzi had tucked away in the basement, they're charred and some of them are beyond repair, one of the few things salvaged from the club house she'd heard so much about.

She's methodical and careful and she doesn't quite understand why. The VCR takes the tape and for a moment she contemplates turning the TV off and running upstairs, but it's too late, she's there and alive and on the screen.

"Dyson, you better get that thing out of my face before I shove it where the sun doesn't shine." she eyed the camera, crossed arms and stern eyes.

She was beautiful exactly like the pictures, she had her mother's eyes and the shape of her shoulders and she wished she was as tall. She was wearing a favourite blue-y green jacket and Dagny had the same one, it was too big for her and the sleeves hung past her hands but her jackets still smelt distinctly like her and although it wasn't much, it was enough all the same.

"Oh come on Tamsin, it's Yule, have a little Krampus spirit!" Dyson whined from the tape.

"Hey guys!" Bo called, stepping into the frame with one too many drinks.

"Hey Trouble." Tamsin eyed her, taking a drink out of her hand and necking it back. "Gross." she winced, passing back the empty paper cup.

"Lil' T, guess who brought your favorite snacks?" Dagny heard a familiar voice; Kenzi came alive on screen. She was younger and her hair was darker, she waved Cheez-Its in her mom's face and like time was folding in on itself she chewed the inside of her cheek and felt like she was there too.

"I love you, I love you, I love you!" Tamsin sighed and dove into the box. "Thank god you speak my language, Kenz."

Tamsin laughed like her sense of humor was built on a fault-line and people talked and teased her, and these were all the necessary things she needed to finally make her mom real. Dagny was enthralled by this woman, by her mother, she watched the tape and then she watched it again, she learned her lines and finally rewound to a chosen spot, settled in and felt the nerves bubble in her stomach.

She knew Kenzi wouldn't be home for another half an hour, she knew it and yet she still waited for just a moment too long just in case someone burst in and interrupted her. She found the tiny bit of spine she needed and clicked play.

"Hey Trouble!" Tamsin repeated from the tape, suspended in a moment.

"Hey Mama," Dagny cleared her throat and paused the tape, "I just wanted to say I love you."

"I love you! I love you! I love you!" Tamsin repeated once more, fast forwarded.

"I love you, Mama." Dagny smiled, and rewound.

"I love you! I love you! I love you!" the tape was paused with expert timing.

"I'm really glad I finally got to talk to you, I miss you."


The Dal is exactly how she imagined it; exactly how Kenzi told her it would be. She's fifteen and her mother's daughter, and they all see that familiar spark in her eye. It's hot and her chest burns, there's a Wolf, a Healer, a Mesmer and a Succubus too, and she knows she's home, she feels it in the old VCR tapes and the photos she'd stuck to her wall and like it was an anchor right in her gut, these people were home.

A Wolf, a Healer, a Mesmer, a Succubus and now a Valkyrie too.

"Evil is coming," Bo warns her, there's hands on her shoulders and eyes that size her up against her mother, and she knows she's not alone.


She's fifteen and in her sister's bed. Lauren is working a late shift and so they watch old tapes and Bo gives her the director's commentary.

"She never got the chance to know me." Dagny bit her cheek and looked away from the screen.

"Are you kidding me?" Bo raised a brow, "I was there when you were born, she held you in her arms and she just, she couldn't take her eyes off of you." her eyes lit up and her hands painted the air around them, "She had you for a moment, and it wasn't enough and it never will be, but she knew you better than anyone else will ever know you, because she's your mom, Dagny."


"You killed my mom." she whispers, suddenly sixteen and smaller than she'd been in years.

"Actually," Jack grins from his seat and wags his finger, "It was you who killed her."

Her eyes flicker between shades of green and black, the room is a vacuum and her powers are infinite.

"Don't listen to him." Bo's hands grab her shoulders and try to pull her away, she shrugs them off, alive and stronger than any other. Her wings were ablaze and she felt them scorch the air. "Dagny, come on!" Bo tried again, tugging at her shoulder and dodging the blazing wings.

"Which one of you is lying?" Dagny's eyes flit, she felt a darkness creep up into her throat and it choked her from the inside-out.

"My girls," Jack laughs, and the room feels devoid. "No matter how many times, neither of you ever learn that I am the only one who ever tells you both the truth!"

"Dagny, listen to me." she feels the charms dance over her skin and it barely gives her a moment's respite. "You did not kill your mom. She knew what would happen, and she loved you anyway. You are her legacy, you are the last reminder of all the good she did in this world. Don't let him take that away from you."

"Ah, Bo." Jack shook his head and bit his lip, "Speaking of our dear departed Tamsin—do you think she did regret it the next morning? I never got a chance to ask her." his eyes lit up.

"Wh-what's he talking about?"

"—Not to blow your mind, but your mother was in love with Bo. Sad story really." he tutted and shook his head. "From that love she bore you, although, I may have had a helping hand in it." he flexed his fingers and grinned, she felt the print on her chest burn and scorch and suddenly, in a single moment of clarity, she knew.

"When I get back, you've got some explaining to do." Dagny turned and eyed her sister, nose wrinkled and scowl thick like someone they all knew from time since passed, and before any of them could catch up to her plan, she pulled the gun from Mark's holster.

There was a shot fired, right through the most essential parts of herself, the print burned and before she hit the floor Jack was already gone.

"No, no, no." Bo fell at her side, "What did you do?" she begged.

Blood blossomed and bloomed through her shirt, it was sticky and hot and there wasn't much time, this was the first of many. A baptism of fire. Acacia had warned her the first time is always the worst, she wished she was better prepared.

"The mark," she tapped where red dribbled through the jacket Lauren pressed to her chest. "Dad totally horcruxed me." she tried to laugh and it hurt. "He could never die while I was still alive."

"You say it like you're dying." Bo shook it off, her hands pressed to her little sister's cheeks. Lauren gave her the look, the little shake of the head, the apology and Bo ignored it. "I promised your mom I would always protect you." her shoulders gave way.

"You did and you will." Dagny drew shallow breaths, "God, dying sucks."


She wakes up; and it's the closest thing to a hospital. She's somewhere between dead and alive and not quite sure which end she's closer to, but there's a hand pressed against hers, and she knows from the sticky feeling on her palm that it's been there much longer than she can dwell on.

"Hi." Tamsin smiled, nervous and lacking the bravado captured on old VCR tapes that Dagny had learned off by heart.

"You're dead." Dagny shakes her head, she says it with defiance and there's a little pause that neither dare end first. "Mama?"

"It's been a long time." she nods, and she's ethereal and beautiful in all the ways Dagny thought she would look in real life. "Don't worry, this is where all Valkyrie souls come after they die, it doesn't really have a name, it's above and between all nine of the world's. You'll be reborn soon."

"Come with me?" she tries, and she knows it's useless.

"You know I can't," she wiped her eyes and leaned in closer to her daughter with that smile they both possessed. "My daughter; look at you all grown up."

There's tears, she's sixteen and almost an adult, she's twelve and angry that her mom was never around, she's eight and curious of the woman in the VCR tapes, but she's her daughter; and so there's tears and a hand that strokes her hair and shoulders that smell like the inside of the jacket she grew up wearing and she takes it all in.

"My baby," she hums at the young girl in her arms, "You were smaller the last time we did this." there was a little laugh.

"Why couldn't you have been there." she whispers from her shoulder, her voice is raw and her throat is burning, and it sets Tamsin alight.

"I was," she promised, "I've always been there."

"It wasn't enough." her voice is bitter, and all she can do is hold her daughter.

"It'll never be enough, but it's something." she squeezed her. "I am so proud of you, being your mom was the best thing I ever did."

"They say I'm like you, Mom."

"You are the best of me, Kenzi did such a good job with you."

"I'm ready if you are." Dagny squeezed her tight, buries her nose into her shoulder and lets herself enjoy this tiniest of moments.

"I'll never be ready." Tamsin shook her head and bit away tears. "But I'll always be here."


It's late and there's wailing cries that wake them both, it's dark and the porch light that flickers beneath their window dilutes their bedroom.

"Do you hear that?" Lauren nudges her and suddenly there's hope.

They're downstairs before they know it, and in front of the door there's a baby wrapped in a blanket woven from the sky, a letter tucked into the folds.

"Is that the blanket of Skeemotah?" Lauren urged, leaning down to bring their child inside. Bo nodded and squeezes Lauren's hand and the words dry up on her lips.

"What does the note say?" Lauren pressed, bouncing a baby in one hand and passing the letter to Bo with the other.

Keep looking after her for me, Bo.