Name: Kenzie Gabrielle MacLeod

AGE: 17

DOB: 14 November 1981 (by the records prepared for her and uploaded by Kenzie and her Watcher)

Origin:

The Slayer from the future named Kenzie MacLeod was born in Edinburgh, Scotland sometime in the future (although the exact date has yet to be revealed), to Jacob and Rosalind MacLeod. Kenzie's parents knew from the first sight of the mark on her shoulder that she was destined to be a Slayer. The MacLeods, descendants of the same clan that had spawned champions of humanity in the sixteenth century and who were well acquainted with their kinsmen's exploits, contacted a cousin who was a member of the Watcher's Union to make their daughter's destiny known to them. After talking with the members of the Ruling Council, the woman reported to Jacob and Rosalind that they would raise their daughter, while she and other active and former members of Section Seven and the Watcher's Union would begin her training at the appropriate time. According to their cousin Shaw, allowing Kenzie to have as much of a normal life as possible would be paramount.

As Kenzie grew up, she displayed an affinity for mathematics and computers, although she was an average student otherwise. She was a fine child, having no lack of role models growing up; she was raised on the stories of the heroes of her clan; Connor and Duncan MacLeod, not to mention those they named as kinsmen; Steve St. Wolf, Elisabeth Summers St. Wolf, Richard Ryan, Amanda MacLeod, Maxine Thomasson, Faith Pryce Gecko, Jarod and Andrea Russell, and Shaw Hunter. Kenzie was very close to Shaw, calling her "Aunt," although they were actually cousins, and her husband, Raidon, an Immortal like Connor and Duncan. Kenzie grew up on the history of the War against the Darkness, often dreaming that she might one day become a hero like her ancestors.

When she turned nine, Aunt Shaw came to visit Kenzie. Instead of a social call, the woman had come to begin Kenzie's training. The older female told the child that she would become the Slayer and imparted how serious and dangerous such a life was. Seeing that she would one day get the chance to be the hero she'd fantasized about becoming, Kenzie enthusiastically took to the training. Shaw and Raidon introduced her to Colin, a young man who was to become her Watcher. It was his job to teach her to be the Slayer, while her aunts, uncles, and others would train her in other areas. Over the next five years, Kenzie underwent the traditional training of the Chosen One, in addition to being trained by Immortals (who gave her the benefits of their centuries of experience) and Amazons (whose enhanced abilities were nearly equal to that of vampires). The latter training taught her to rely on skills and senses other than pure physical power, as well as getting her used to fighting opponents with superhuman abilities.

It was during this time that Kenzie became more aware of the idea of multiple Gods and Goddesses. She knew about God, of course, as her parents were Catholic. She also knew of Aunt Shaw's "pagan" beliefs as well as the Shinto practiced by her Uncle Raidon. When exposed to the female deities of the Amazon Pantheon, the Scot surprised her teachers by being very receptive to the ideals of their Patrons. By the time she was thirteen, the Slayer-to-be had begun worshipping one of the Goddesses of the Greek Amazon pantheon. When she divulged this information to her relatives, they easily accepted it (while sharing some knowing smiles). When she turned fourteen, Kenzie met with her favorite aunt and uncle in Paris for a break in her training. While riding in an air car (a combination of a bus and airplane used for local transits), a random malfunction caused a deadly crash that killed nearly fifty people. Among the dead was Raidon, who was decapitated in the crash.

It is likely that Kenzie would have died as well, had Shaw not been conscious long enough to cast a healing spell on her niece. As it was, the child lost much of her right arm due to the extensive tissue damage caused by fire and electrical discharges. Knowing that the teenager had a destiny (as well as feeling guilty over the loss of her arm), Shaw called on the Section and some of their allies for aid. In a risky medical procedure (even for the early 22nd century), the doctors fitted MacLeod with a prosthetic limb using the finest technology available. The operation was a success, though the young woman took nearly a year to regain the full use of her "arm."

Her recovery could not have come too quickly, as eventually Kenzie's time came; she was called as the Slayer. Kenzie left home and moved in with her Watcher, Colin. Over the next two years, the Slayer and her Watcher handled solitary or minor threats across Europe and Africa (saving the world-level crises were handled by the Section, for the most part). Two of these episodes (both mentioned in Death Before Dishonor) consisted of Kenzie saving Lisbon, Portugal from a vampire lord (earning her the title "Savior of Lisbon," which embarrasses her to this day) by using a number of antique white phosphorous grenades and C-4 to blow his lair into smithereens (literally), and a trip to Pamplona, Spain, where she "rescued" the bulls used for the yearly running from a group of vampires helping themselves to snacks from the animals (easier to drain than tourists). This mission didn't go so well, as the bulls turned out to be less grateful than the people of Lisbon; Kenzie was gored and spent two weeks recovering (Death Before Dishonor).

Kenzie was on her way to becoming one of the finer Slayers in the new millennium when she received a shock. One night, she and Colin were surrounded by a group of vampires in Lisbon, Portugal. As they fought their way through the group, two warriors joined the fight along side the Slayer. After turning the battle and decimating the vampires, Kenzie and Colin were surprised to see that their rescuers were Shaw Hunter and an old man calling himself Juan. Shaw gave the Watcher a sad look and said two words.

"It's time."

After returning to London, Shaw began telling Kenzie things that even the MacLeod girl found hard to accept. The gist of it was very simple; Section Seven had always known how much of Kenzie's life would turn out before her birth. When the young MacLeod asked how she had known, her aunt told her the truth; at the turn of the millennium, she had been involved in one of the greatest battles in Earth's history. During the struggle, a pair of people from the future had contacted her and told her a story that she found somewhat easy to believe, given her own experiences with time travel. The people had been sent back to help Section Seven deal with the threat at that time, and had been sent back by Shaw's current self. It was then that she dropped the bombshell; the time travelers who'd gone back in time to join Section Seven had been the old guy named Juan. . . and Kenzie herself.

Shaw added that this was why she had always thought of Kenzie as a sister rather than a niece. Kenzie had gone back in time and been a close loved one in Shaw's younger days. Shaw then told Kenzie the catch; the trip was one-way. She could never return to her own time. Shaw told her niece that the choice was still hers; she could go back when the time came, or stay in her own century. Kenzie decided that she would have to think about it in private.

After several hours, the Slayer made her decision. She would go back. She reasoned that since this had already happened (by Section Seven's perspective), she had the responsibility to keep history intact (despite hating temporal mechanics, as it gives her migraines (Death Before Dishonor, Pilgrimage)) and go back to the dawn of the millennium. Six days later, Kenzie, her Aunt, her soon-to-be former and soon-to-be new Watchers, and Shaw's daughters by her first husband gathered outside of a ruined castle in Scotland. Shaw's daughters, members of the Leprechaun Glens, combined their magical powers to open a portal to the past. Before going through with Juan, Kenzie turned to her favorite aunt one last time and said that she felt like her aunt was losing her. Shaw smiled and stated that no, she was about to gain her all over again. The two shared parting words and hugs, and then Kenzie walked through the gate with her new Watcher, never looking back.

The two warriors arrived in Los Angeles, California in December of the year 1998, near the end of the twentieth century (Be Careful What You Wish For). The two were to use information given to them (as well as money of the period, some valuable gems and artifacts, and weapons that were top of the line in this era) to find a place to stay until the time came for them to make themselves known to the people Kenzie thought of as "living" legends. The problem was that they would have to maintain their secrecy and remain undiscovered for at least two years before going to Sunnydale, California, a town Kenzie had visited, but not for decades yet. Kenzie thought of how hard it would be for her, since the town was mere hours away by ancient transports. Juan, having a more objective view of things, responded that it was easier to hide in plain sight. As Kenzie and her mentor talked, they were almost immediately accosted by a quartet of vampires. After eliminating them with ridiculous ease, they headed off into the night, looking for a place to rent or buy to begin their new lives. Kenzie quietly enrolled as a senior in Hemery High School in Los Angeles (unaware of the significance of that choice), with her records stating that she was staying with a paternal uncle (her new Watcher).

Mere hours after their arrival, agents working for the US government showed up in that section of Los Angeles, having somehow detected the temporal flux that signaled their arrival. After leading the agents on a merry chase (she'd been minding her own business and trying out her first 20th century munchies, things suggested by her Uncle Alex), she and Juan managed to convince the Feds (through use of their little flashy thing (Death Before Dishonor, Pilgrimage)) to let them assume their proper places in the timeline. Juan was happy with how well his new Slayer had handled herself, but he was less pleased by her antics (it involved using the flashy thing to make two of the Agents sing like the Blues Brothers; don't ask).

Within a week, Juan and Kenzie had bought a house in the Westwood section of Los Angeles. Another thing she did, after finding out how uncomfortable she was at Hemery, was to volunteer at the East Side Teen Shelter. She did this to learn the way things happened and because she wanted to help others in a way that didn't necessarily involve "getting medieval or blowing things up." Although her first shift went somewhat strangely (it reportedly involved a Latina girl getting in her face, followed up by Kenzie getting her out of her face <with a snap kick to the jaw> (Death Before Dishonor), she quickly found herself becoming close friends with Lily (her boss and head of the shelter), Jaina (the woman she gave the snap kick to for Christmas), Charles, a neighborhood watch leader, and Alonna, Charles' sister. It didn't take her long to put two and two together; she found out about the vampire problem in that part of LA, and to convince (or con, depending on who you ask) Juan to begin patrolling the area to help out the Lost Boys, who were led by Charles. They eventually expanded this to routine patrols of the entire city proper.

By April, Kenzie was spending almost as much free time at the shelter as she did at home. It caused problems for Charles (as he tried to keep the secret of vampires and demons from Kenzie), who went with his second-in-command's decision to not bring Kenzie in, despite the fact that she had some combat skills. But when a vampire cult named El Eliminati arrived to challenge the Lost Boys, Kenzie's secret (about her knowledge of vampires, not that she is in fact a Slayer) came out. Kenzie herself fought a duel with a knight named William Thatcher, agreeing to a draw after both combatants suffered sword wounds (thanks to Gunn accidentally barging in on their fight).

After having a long talk with Gunn, Alonna, and Lily, Kenzie accepted Charles' offer to join the Lost Boys, provided that her priorities were working at the shelter and continuing to patrol other parts of the city. She managed to get Juan included in the "deal," and life went on for the time-hopping high schooler and her grizzled Watcher (who isn't too old and crusty), who still covertly watch and monitor the activities of the still-new Section Seven (Be Careful What You Wish For, Death Before Dishonor, Prom Night, Pilgrimage).

Race: Human

Description:

Kenzie is widely regarded as a beautiful young woman, and the strange contradictions in her appearance only give her an aura of exoticness and mystery. Kenzie has a heart-shaped face with slightly angular features, elegant almond-shaped eyes, and black hair that is wavy, glossy, and falls all the way down to her tailbone when bound.

It is there that the contradictions begin; the highlights in her hair, not to mention the shape and dark brown (almost black) color of her eyes show off the Japanese ancestry for the Slayer, who is known to have been born in the northern reaches of the British Isles (these traits have been taken into account in creating her background records). Yet another mystery is that her "cheekbones to die for" have a slight bluish tinge to them. This, however, can be explained by having some Welsh blood in her background (although the Slayer herself isn't sure that's the case).

The Slayer's attractiveness doesn't end with her face. The whole package is one that many men (mostly those of her age) find utterly fascinating. The girl is exceedingly tall compared to most women her age, reaching all the way up to five foot ten. She weighs a well-maintained one hundred twenty-five pounds; all of it streamlined, athletic muscle, whether it is in her biceps or the calves and thighs gracing legs that "go on forever and a day". This illusion only gets better (or worse for jealous girlfriends who catch their men staring at her) when Kenzie wears her favored platform boots or heels (which she doesn't always wear for fashion considerations; she also likes them because the weight adds to the impact when she kicks a vamp in the jaw or balls).

Kenzie has two distinguishing characteristics, one of which can be expected and one that is not. The common mark is a birthmark on the back of her left shoulder, the same mark that traditionally appears on girls destined to be the Slayer. The thing that is not normal is Kenzie's right arm (see Origin).

Kenzie lost her right hand, wrist, and half of her right forearm in an accident that involved an air car crash in Paris when she was fourteen. The combination of fire and electrical discharges ruined her limb, forcing doctors to amputate. Kenzie underwent an experimental procedure using technology loaned to Section Seven by unknown allies to replace the limb. The doctors fitted the yet-to-be-Chosen young woman with a cybernetic limb that is commonly referred to as "techno organic." What this means is that the limb is malleable, and it is permanently attached to the portions of her arm that remain. This connection is on every level; bone is mated with the metal core, nerves are fused to similar (yet technological) receptors to facilitate full responses sent to the hand via impulses from Kenzie's brain, and her skin and muscle are flawlessly meshed with the corresponding layers of the bionics. The arm is made from a metal alloy that is unidentifiable by conventional (20th century) means, not to mention harder than almost any known terrestrial substance (the one known exception being adamantium, which she has admitted can cut through her arm). The artificial muscles in the forearm and hand give Kenzie more power than her other arm, but the limits to what force the rest of her body can safely exert prevent her from physically lifting more than any other Slayer. In hand to hand combat, however, Kenzie's right arm can deliver blows that are about 15% more powerful than those of her left. This is a benefit at times, as Kenzie can keep her right hand free while wielding a weapon in her left (the fact is, Kenzie is left-handed, which can cause problems for her opponents in itself). One additional feature of the arm is that it uses a combination of technology and permanent magic (illusion) to emit false readings (to fool metal detectors and the like) that make the arm appear to be a natural limb under all but the minutest examinations. The illusion that covers the arm makes it appear to be human flesh. The magic is also tailored so that Kenzie herself can turn the spell on and off at will.

She especially enjoys canceling the spell when fighting vampires to give her a temporary advantage (caused by the shock value of seeing a "robot" Slayer). Another "shock" Kenzie is fond of delivering is when opponents who see her supposedly Oriental background (enhanced by her normal choice of weaponry) are confused by her cultured Scottish accent (which often degenerates into a rough brogue when she gets highly emotional).

Abilities (uncommon): As the current Slayer in her time, Kenzie's strength, speed, agility, reflexes, and endurance have all been raised to near-superhuman levels. Along with her enhanced physical skills, the young MacLeod has advanced gymnastics and unarmed combat skills that make her nearly unbeatable by mundane opponents. Kenzie also seems to have the Slayer's natural affinity for mastering almost any form of weapon, being able to learn how to use swords, bows, staves, firearms and technologically advanced weaponry in an amazingly short amount of time.

Kenzie is different in one way; other Slayers (such as Buffy, Kendra, and Faith) have an ability to sense vampires within one hundred feet of their person. Kenzie, for an unexplained reason, has a range that is nearly tripled. Another difference is that she has the previously unheard of ability to sense the base emotions (such as fear, anger, etc.) of vampires within the same range. This anomaly has never been explained, despite testing from mages in Kenzie's own time. The futuristic Slayer has learned to use this ability to her best advantage; she's become a master at determining which of her opponents to Slay first due to their emotional states when confronted by a Slayer.

Abilities (learned): Kenzie has a surprising amount of learned skills for someone of her age, but this can be directly attributed to her upbringing in a time over a century into our future. However, this does sometimes lead to problems (examples of which will follow). Kenzie's particular specialties seem to be mathematics and computer skills. She has as much knowledge of these fields as someone with at least a Bachelor's Degree in both subjects, but her training has been with theories and equipment that was decades ahead of our time (used in Death Before Dishonor). Thus, Kenzie has had to go through the process of learning how to use modern (or "antique" by her perspective) items in order to adapt to living and fighting with those she grew up reading about. Kenzie's level of education in her time, by her own admission, was "average." Of course, being from the future, that "average" education is likely to be the equivalent of a full, four-year college education at a top university in the twentieth century. Kenzie's difficulties often stem from the fact that some of the topics she took in her time haven't even been created yet, and the careful measures taken (see below) to prevent any tampering with the timeline make it necessary for her to learn how to do things in the "old days" of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. One of the things that was easier for her to learn was how to drive modern (to us) automobiles. She has used that and bought herself the car she fell in love with at first sight; a golden-colored 1978 Pontiac Firebird (Death Before Dishonor, Pilgrimage).

Kenzie has made it her passion to study the history of the battles fought by Slayers, Immortals, Section Seven, and she knows virtually everything there is to know about the battles, the warriors, the enemies they fought, and the outcomes of those battles. What she does not know (by careful selection by those who knew she would eventually be sent to our time) are many of the faces, with only a few exceptions. This was done (along with post-hypnotic suggestions that no one in our time knows about) to prevent her from possibly divulging information that could alter the future or the lives of specific members of Section Seven. She was allowed to remember some of the members of Section Seven who have survived into her time, if they were instrumental in her early life and training. She has referred to precautions that had been taken to prevent any changes to the timeline (Pilgrimage), but she may know the specifics.

Kenzie is multilingual and possesses a strange repertoire of languages that she can converse in. The Slayer from the future can speak, read, and write (not to mention switch back and forth from with absurd ease) English, Japanese, Celtic, Irish and Scottish Gaelic, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Latin, Elvish, the tongue of the Fairy Kingdom, and an alien language known as Reudian. It's also known that she can turn the air blue in Celtic and Japanese, which only makes her Watcher wonder what other languages she can curse in (Death Before Dishonor).

The future Chosen One was an expert martial artist before becoming the Slayer; now she is a master. Kenzie has a great deal of cross training in her background, possessing (even before being Chosen) the equivalents of first or second degree black belts in karate, tae kwan do, aikido, jeet kun do, kenpo, kickboxing, and Thai kickboxing. She has also been extensively trained in the use of melee and missile weapons from Europe, the Middle East, the Far East, and Africa.

Current Status:

(2105) Slayer, active member of Watcher's Union and trainee of Section Seven. Citizen of Great Britain with no criminal record. Completed high school education. 

(1999) Citizen of Great Britain with dual citizenship in Japan, no criminal record, granted permanent residence in the United States. Senior at Hemery High School in Los Angeles, California. Volunteer at the East Side Teen Shelter in Los Angeles, California. Accepted to the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), planning to major in Archaeology (it must be Juan's choice, as Kenzie thinks having to take his classes in addition to training with him "ubersucks." (Pilgrimage)) Kenzie is not a Pre-Immortal or Immortal (as revealed by two Juan Sanchez's in Death Before Dishonor). She is, like all Slayers but one (or two if one counts Wish Buffy), completely mortal.

Proficient weapons: As a Slayer, MacLeod has the mystical advantage of instinctively being able to master the nuances of hand-to-hand combat as well as most forms of ancient weapons and modern (even in her case) firearms. Kenzie seems to prefer weapons that emphasize speed and grace, rather than pure stopping power. She has a particular fondness for curved swords such as scimitars and sabers, one-handed crossbows, throwing knives, and shuriken (with which she's frighteningly accurate). However, her favored weapon is the katana, a traditional weapon of her family for centuries. As noted above, a simple yet confusing advantage Kenzie possesses is that she is a southpaw.

Current beliefs:

Having been in the twentieth century for a few months, Kenzie's personality hasn't changed all that much from her original time period. Kenzie remains a confident, skilled young woman who tends to use her brain as much as her brawn when handling her duties, although at times her temper does manifest itself (although she wonders where she got THAT from [as her parents were quite mild-mannered]). She continues to train with her new teacher, who she enjoys hearing stories from, while continuing to attend a high school that is really teaching her nothing more than how people her age did things a hundred years before her birth. She's acclimating with surprising ease, considering that nearly everything she sees or uses in everyday life now is considered obsolete or antiquarian.

Kenzie, as one might expect, is impatient for the day she and her Watcher are supposed to make themselves known to the members of Section Seven. She particularly anticipates meeting her Aunt's younger self, the not-so-experienced Steve St. Wolf and Buffy Summers, the rest of the legendary Slayerettes, her Immortal kinsmen, and also the Amazon Queen whose name she carries (as her middle name). While she does dream of realizing her lifelong dream of fighting alongside them, she also wonders how she'll compare to the people who have always been an inspiration to her. She also knows that she might one day meet the woman who she actively worships; the Goddess known to the 20th century as the Warrior Princess.

Kenzie and Juan had made it their priority to keep a low profile, although that doesn't make them lose sight of Kenzie's duty as the Slayer (something made somewhat easier since joining the Lost Boys). Just because there are three active and "modern" Slayers doesn't give her the right to sit on her butt, as she so politely puts it. The time travelers keep track of their predecessors' missions by occasionally hacking into the databases of both groups of Watchers (the Society and Council) by using hacking techniques that are currently beyond even Willow Rosenburg, Jenny Calendar, the Lone Gunmen, or any of the talent possessed by the Section in this era. Even if their efforts were detected, the Section would be extremely hard pressed to track down those behind the hacks (as a result of this, Kenzie and Juan keep track and have full knowledge of the events through this time, and continue to keep track through the first half of 1999).

Kenzie has a confident personality, but she is far from arrogant. Instead, she knows what her limits are and seeks to exceed them to make herself measure up to the standards of those who have come before her, not realizing that she's measuring herself against the skills of her Aunts and Uncles in the future as opposed to this time and age. She also has the ability to take things in stride; the loss of her arm didn't keep her down. Rather, the Slayer worked long and hard to adapt to having a replacement limb and has found ways to make it work for her. Kenzie does have two psychological weaknesses; the first is that while she accepts her limitations and tries to improve herself, she still takes every death personally. She feels it when people die on her watch (Pilgrimage). Despite the fact that one of the first things Colin taught her was that she couldn't expect to save everyone, she still cares enough that she prays for everyone who suffers at the hands of her enemies.

The second weakness is somewhat linked to the first; since she's now in the same era as her idols, she spends a great deal of time piecing together reports to have as accurate a picture as possible of how the Section is evolving in its early days. This has made her admire the Army of the Light (particularly the Sunnydale team) all the more, and has given her something of an inferiority complex when it comes to comparing her own record to those of Steve St. Wolf, Buffy Summers, her kinsmen Connor and Duncan, and the Sunnydale Amazons and mortal Slayers. She wants to live up to their legendary standards, but thinks that her own record (both in her own time and whatever she will accomplish before she meets the Scooby Gang) will never stand up to them. This causes her to drive herself to become better, and causes her to take the deaths of others even more severely.

Besides keeping tabs on her younger Aunts and Uncles, Kenzie is also becoming closer to her own teammates. She's a fast friend with Lily, Alonna, and Jaina, but what she hasn't recognized yet (although she does sometime between Death Before Dishonor and Pilgrimage) is her growing attraction for her team leader, Charles Gunn. While she's not shy by any stretch of the imagination, Kenzie hasn't made a visible move in asking him out (of course, Alonna and Lily note that he hasn't gotten it through his thick and bald skull either). Also, while they aren't moving toward the father/daughter relationship shared by one Rupert Giles and his Slayers, Kenzie and Juan are bonding in an "Old Fart/Young Hot Slayer" Odd Couple kind of way (her words, not his).

What is the one most important thing you can say about the character?

One of the reasons I think Kenzie will be a fun character to write is because she's someone who mixes traits of several characters, partially because she grew up among them and reveres them as the heroes they were (are). As a Slayer, Kenzie has traits seen in both Kendra and Faith; she was given much of the years of training that most Slayers experience, but great care was taken to ensure that her training was as broad as possible (in five years she trained with Immortals (her Uncle Steve, Gabrielle, and Sonja, but apparently not her kinsmen, Connor and Duncan <she hasn't met them yet>), Watchers (the aforementioned Colin), Amazons, Slayers (her Aunts Elizabeth and Faith), or combinations thereof). Also, like Faith, she embraces the duties of the Slayer. Not because it got her out of a rotten life (as it did the Boston Bad Girl), but because it gave her the chance to live the life of a hero like those she idolized growing up. Kenzie has the fire of an Amazon (and her choice of deities was not by chance; she knows the history of the mortal her Goddess once was; the near-perfect warrior with a heart of gold hidden beneath a tough exterior), and being a MacLeod, she has the same sarcastic streak of her kinsman Connor (which rubbed off on her Aunt, and thus onto Kenzie), and the cool head of Duncan MacLeod (except for those rare occasions that her temper surfaces).

The other thing that will be fun with Kenzie is that she breaks all the "commandments" Hollywood seems to have concerning time travel. One, she's not from an "alternate" timeline; she is from what appears to be "our" future (that of the Wandererverse as we know it). Two, she can't go back when her mission is finished (the trip is one-way, and she knew it going in), so her mission isn't to come back, do her job, and vanish without a trace, leaving people to wonder if they've changed the future for the better. Three, an extension of number two, is that the future of the Wandererverse isn't a shitty, post-apocalyptic one where the bad guys rule (ala Days of Future Past/Cable (X-Men mythology), the machines/Skynet (the Terminator movies or The Matrix), nuclear oblivion (Mad Max), plagues that destroy mankind (12 Monkeys), etc.); rather, it seems to proceed apace, and the fight between the Darkness and the Army of the Light still takes place in secret in her time, much in the way it's being fought now. Fourth, she's not a tragic character; she had a fine childhood, a loving family, many friends (even if they had super strength or lived forever), and came to the past since she realized that it had "already happened," so she was quite pragmatic about it. Despite the time differentials, Kenzie is also much like teenagers in our time (except for the thing involving a bionic hand).

One thing that also shows Kenzie's human side (despite being from our (the Wandererverse's) future) is that she still has her "phases," like other teens; her belief that she might not be able to live up to the exploits of her heroes leaves her wanting to do more. Juan provides a way to temper this; having taught male members of her kind (Death Before Dishonor), he can remind her that no one, not even her heroes, is perfect. Kenzie has a bit of what I call "Bishop Syndrome." For those who don't know, Bishop is a character in X-Men, a time traveler stuck in the past that joins the X-Men, the heroes who are legends in his time. He can quote for hours (and hours on end) the exploits that made the X-Men the icons he looks up to. But it isn't until he sees them in the flesh and joins in their missions, that he learns about the people behind the legends and comes to realize what they're really like. He finds out that that despite their best efforts, they're mere mortals just like him. Once the denial wears off, he becomes a better person in terms of seeing that the heroes of his youth make the same mistakes he does. In doing so, the legends become a little more human to him, and he grows closer to them rather than think he's not up to the standards of living legends.

Kenzie has that bit of denial in her system right now, mainly because everything she knows about Section Seven and the Slayerettes come from two sources: first- and second-hand tales from the people she grew up with (who were careful not to let her know too much), and from the reports that she and Juan have managed to scam from the Society and Council's computer systems. Kenzie is now getting the "current" reports that detail the battles when they're fresh in the minds of the chroniclers, but she doesn't have the experience of seeing things from the perspective of those who fought the battles at the time (although she begins to change that after Death Before Dishonor). Until she meets her heroes in the flesh, she'll likely continue to feel like she's a second-string player, despite her own worth.

Another fun one is that she's sort of the "anti-Shaw Hunter" in terms of adapting to the 20th century. Whereas Shaw came from a world without technology and has had to learn how to adapt to a world six hundred years ahead of anything she's ever seen, Kenzie's adaptation is a much different take; rather than seeing things that she considers to be another form of magic (until she learns differently), Kenzie wonders how the people of this time ever got by with these things that belong in museums or on historical documentaries. Shaw had to learn how things worked and have everything explained to her. Kenzie, on the other hand, knows what the things do, but just wonders why they were so complicated when a tweak here or there would have made things so much easier.

Also, think about the fun of when she DOES meet the Scooby Gang and MacLeods, and when she says, "Goddess," she surprises the Amazons by meaning Xena, NOT Artemis. <<What? I didn't reveal that earlier?!? Ooops.>>

Favorite quote: "The hardest part about growing up with your kin being your heroes. . . is trying to measure up to their legends." Another favorite, that she dreams of using when she's eventually introduced to Connor and Duncan: "Same clan, better vintage."

Nicknames: Bright One (Kenzie's name translated from the Celtic), Scottie, Cyber Slayer, K-Z, KZ Mac, and those things Gunn mutters under his breath when she teases him.

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