Tamsin followed Carla inside. The older woman hobbled in front of Tamsin, and she sighed impatiently.

"Kind of in a rush here, Carla."

The woman did not dignify this with a response, only throwing a scathing glance over her shoulder. They reached the kitchen and the old woman moved towards the stove.

"Cup of tea?"

"Do you have coffee?"

The look Tamsin got in response clearly indicated that it was tea or nothing.

She rolled her eyes. "Nah, I'm good."

Carla busied herself preparing tea, not speaking again until she was settled across the table from Tamsin with a steaming cup in front of her.

"Now," she said. "Let me see it."

Tamsin handed it to her reluctantly. It was a gold pendant, inlaid with rubies and other precious gemstones. She ran her hand over it, then down the side, feeling for the crack. She pressed gently when she found it, and it sprung open. Soft light streamed out, illuminating her face gently. She stared at it reverently as she spoke.

"You have no right to give this to me."

"Yeah," Tamsin agreed, shrugging. "But here we are."

The old woman's face was changing as she stared into the light. Cracks on her face were disappearing, and her hair was losing its grey. Her eyes were dancing. She glanced up at Tamsin. "How do I look?"

"You know it's not permanent, right? It's just a temporary side effect."

Carla brushed this off. "It will be an enjoyable side effect."

Tamsin sighed. "She'll kill me, you know. If you use it for anything that she notices, she'll find me and she'll kill me."

"Whatever you're doing with Hel, it's worth this?"

For the first time, Tamsin hesitated. "Yeah. I think so."

Carla nodded. "Okay. What do you need from me?"

"We've got our own way into Hel. I just need you to make sure that the guards are occupied when we arrive. Just a short window. We're coming prepared for a fight, but we can't take on the entire army of the Underworld by ourselves."

She nodded again. "I can do that." Her face sobered. "Tamsin, you will not hurt her."

"No," Tamsin agreed. "I won't. It's just your basic kidnapping and ransom situation. No one needs to get hurt. The easier you make the kidnapping part, the better."

"Can I ask why?"

"You can ask. I won't answer though."

Carla snorted. "You're an ass, Tamsin."

"I know."

They sat quietly for a moment. Carla drank her tea and absentmindedly stroked the pendant. Finally, Tamsin stood up.

"Tomorrow. Midnight. Make sure she's alone. Okay?"

The old woman stared at her, hard. "Sure, Tamsin."

Tamsin walked out of the house, taking a deep breath as she stepped outside. She had just traded Freyja's immortality pendant to the guardian of Hel. She was so dead.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Lauren stared at Evony's back as she rummaged through dusty drawers.

"You should really work on the organizational system down here."

Evony turned to look at Lauren and rolled her eyes. "Sure. I'll get right on that." She turned back to the drawer and a moment later lifted her hands triumphantly. "I knew it was in here!"

She faced Lauren, her arms outstretched. Lauren looked down at the pale lump she was holding. "So that's goatroot, huh?"

Evony shrugged. "I know it doesn't look like much. But it's a powerful focusing agent."

Lauren sighed. "Okay." She carefully took the lump from Evony, wrapping it in clean cloth and placing it in a bag. "What's next?"

Evony looked down at the list. "Guchar. Hmm." She scanned the shelves. "I'm not sure about this one. It's highly volatile, which means we may have stored in a vault." She gestured down a dank hallway. "Come on, this way."

Lauren followed her, squinting in the dark. It crossed her mind briefly that this may be a trap. Whatever Evony might have waiting for them down here might want to cause her harm. But she shrugged this off. She knew she could take Evony in a fight, if she had to. Anything else, well, she'd just wing it.

She had never been this far into the Archives before, and that was saying something. But this was beyond what she could have imagined. She didn't even know how far underground they were, or how deep into the caverns they had walked. But it was dark and damp and cold down here, and she was looking forward to getting back to the surface. She picked up the pace a bit, catching up to Evony just as she stopped in front of a large, gilded door.

Evony was squinting at the runes decorating the stone wall. She was muttering to herself and nodding. Lauren quirked her eyebrow.

"Well?" she asked.

"Patience!" Evony snapped. "I don't have this shit memorized." She finally took a step back and nodded confidently. "Yeah. The guchar will be in here." She took a step to her left and pushed Lauren in front of her. "After you, Doctor."

Lauren at her, a hint of fear on her face. "Why? What's…what's in there?"

Evony reached across her body for the doorknob, turning her head and smiling at Lauren as she pulled open the door. It opened with a deep groan, a rush of stale air hitting Lauren's face. "Guchar," she answered slowly, as if talking to a child.

Lauren glared at her and strode into the vault much more confidently than she felt. She was relieved to hear Evony's footsteps behind her and not the slamming of the door behind her. She blinked, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. She turned her head right and left, taking stock of the room. There seemed to be dusty shelves lining one wall. The others were bare, just damp stone. She took a step towards the shelves but Evony grabbed her hand.

"Wait," she hissed.

Lauren turned to look at her face. It was hard to read in the dimness, but she seemed…scared. She was staring at the shelves as though they were about to attack her. Which, for all Lauren knew, they were. She took a step backwards and looked at Evony.

"Okay…what's up?"

Evony turned her head and glared at Lauren for a moment before stooping and grabbing a small rock from the dirt floor and tossing it towards the shelves. It made it to within a foot of the shelves before it hit some kind of field, glowing blue for a moment before vaporizing with a pop.

Lauren nodded. "Ah. I see."

"You didn't really think we'd leave things like this completely unprotected, did you?"

Lauren shrugged. "It's not like it's easy to get down here and find anything."

Evony rolled her eyes. "Well, Doc, I found a perfect flaw in your plan. The one Fae with the power to disengage the force fields…you turned human."

"Well, why did you bring me down here then?" Lauren demanded. "If you knew we wouldn't be able to get what we needed?"

Evony took a step towards her. "I just thought it'd be a good place to…talk." Lauren's eyes had adjusted enough that she could see that Evony's gaze wasn't angry, but rather…intrigued.

She sighed. "What do you what to talk about, Evony?"

Evony looked down at the ground for a moment, and when her eyes met Lauren's again, the doctor was shocked by the vulnerability in them. "Reversing it."

Lauren stared at her, trying to determine if she was being genuine. "Evony, I took away your powers for a reason."

"You…you violated me, Lauren," Evony stated flatly. "You really did. You're truly no better than a rapist. You took something that should be sacred and used it to hurt me."

Lauren hated that thought. She tried to push aside the feeling that Evony was right. "Sex? Sacred? Evony, you've slept with every eligible Fae around."

"Not just sex," Evony insisted. "Sex…with you."

Lauren rolled her eyes. "Now I know you're just making things up. You don't care about me, Evony. I was convenient, and it was fun while it lasted. You can't try to make me feel bad about this. I'm sorry I had to do it the way I did, but it needed to be done. I took advantage of an opportunity."

"Whatever," Evony grumbled. "It was worth a try."

"I really am sorry about using sex. That was pretty low," Lauren admitted.

"I will get my powers back, Doctor. With or without you," Evony promised.

"Yeah, yeah. And the first thing you'll do is find and kill me. I get it. But, honestly, I've got higher priorities at the moment. So, in the meantime, can you please help with me our guchar problem?"

Evony rolled her eyes again. "Is she really worth it?"

"What?" Lauren asked.

"Your Succubus. Is she really worth all this?"

"This is about getting Kenzi back, Evony," Lauren protested weakly.

"Sure, Doc. It's not about making your girlfriend happy."

They were quiet for a moment. Evony was about to speak, admit that she knew how to turn off the force field and it did not require Fae powers, when she heard Lauren.

"Yes," she admitted quietly. "She is."