Bec McConn

Bec ("Little One") MacConn is a fictional character in Darren Shan's Demonata series and narrator of Bec. Which takes place approximately 1600 years before Demon Thief in ancient Ireland. She was a member of the MacConn clan, though her parents were of the MacGrigor clan, and is a distant relative of Grubbs Grady. Bec was a priestess in training taught by Banba and later Drust. Bec also narrates Death's Shadow, the seventh book in the series

Ancestry
Bec was born into the MacGrigor clan, who live as outcasts on a remote plain. When the Demonata invaded Ireland several centuries prior to the events of Bec, the MacGrigor allied themselves with the demons, several even going so far as to mate with them. Most of the resultant children appeared to be human and without deformities, and so went on to live normal lives.

However, as they later discovered, their demonic ancestry had afflicted them with a terrible curse. Just when they had almost reached adulthood, some of the children transformed into werewolves (see also lycanthropy). This continued down the centuries, with at least one child transforming in every generation.

The MacGrigor asked druids and priestesses to free them of the curse, but none we able to help. However as is discovered much later, Lord Loss possesses the ability to permanently cure the affliction. When Bec learns of her heritage, she fears that she too may fall victim to the curse.

Bec
Bec was found at the gate of the MacConn clan's ráth, after her mother died in childbirth while on the run. The priestess of the ráth, a woman named Banba, tested Bec and discovered that she had magical potential. At Banba's insistence, Bec was accepted as a member of the clan, and spent much of her early life learning the ways of magic. When Bec was in her teens, a tunnel was opened which granted the Demonata access to the human world, and Ireland was overrun by hoards of monstrous demons.

The people of the rath had to defend themselves from these creatures, but many died in the battle, including Banba, thus leaving Bec without a teacher or a guardian. Several months after the attacks began, a mysterious, scatterbrained and super-humanly fast boy named Bran arrived at the gates of the ráth. He implied that he required help, and Bec was compelled by a vision to join the group of warriors who volunteered to assist the boy. This ultimately leads her to encounter the Druid Drust, who offers Bec and the warriors the opportunity to help him close the tunnel through which the demons came. It was later revealed that closing the tunnel requires the sacrifice of a mage, and that Drust had intended to use Bec for that purpose. Bec accepts this as the price of saving her people, and continues despite the fact that she will die whether or not the quest succeeds.

Drust attempts to teach Bec how to harness the power of stars as a source of magic, as druids do, but she is unable to achieve much success with the magic of men. However, one night the demon master known as Lord Loss attacks and during the encounter allows Bec to steal magic from him, which dramatically increases Bec's power. Shortly after, the group encountered the MacGrigor clan, to whom Bec's mother, Aednat, belonged. The MacGrigor revealed Bec's origins and the truth about her birth, both of which were deeply disturbing to Bec.

By the time they reached the core of the tunnel, all the group members were killed apart from Bec, Drust and Bran. Drust is mortally wounded by Bran in an attempt to save Bec's life and now too weak to perform the ritual, offers himself for the sacrifice instead. After Bec successfully completing the sealing ritual and the tunnel quickly closing, Bec and Bran try to flee before they become trapped. They come close to escape, until Vein, who with the help of Lord Loss entered the tunnels core, grabs hold of Bec's leg. Bran charms Vein into releasing Bec, but by that time the hole to escape is so small they would not be able to make it.

Bec uses what is left of her magic to forcibly propel Bran through the hole. Just before it closes he shouts "Bec!", the first time he says anyone's name. She can not reply as the hole closes, leaving her sealed inside the cave. There she is killed by Lord Loss' familiars, after he explains why he helped the group by increasing Bec's power. Lord Loss feeds off misery and sorrow. If the tunnel remained open the other demonata would have destroyed his source of nourishment. He also tells her, that her death was for nothing, as he had been crossing between the demon world and the human world for centuries before the tunnel was created. He claims that he liked Bec, and would have enjoyed feeding off the misery which she was destined to experience. However, when Drust had humiliated him earlier in the book, he placed a geis (promise of death) upon the entire group, and therefore has no choice but to kill her. In the last sentences of the book she is described as being literally torn apart by the demons dying a painful and gruesome death.

Blood Beast
Bec reappears in Blood Beast. When Grubbs is dealing with the family curse, he goes to the tunnel where Bec died. Her soul has somehow become trapped in the cave, keeping her on Earth. Grubbs sees her face and hears her whisper a warning, but she is speaking Celtic so Grubbs doesn't understand. Later when Juni Swan helps Grubbs escape, he returns there. The whispers are more warning. Grubbs yells at her "I don't understand you" and using his magic shakes the cave violently. She then disappears.

Demon Apocalypse
In the latter part of Demon Apocalypse, Beranabus realises that Bec was warning Grubbs about Lord Loss's plan to reopen the tunnel which they closed centuries before. However, by the time he arrives with Grubbs and Kernel Fleck, it is too late, and the demons have already emerged. Bec's trapped soul reaches out from the rock to Grubbs and Kernel, and the boys combine their powers with hers to travel back in time (along with Beranabus) to the night the tunnel was reopened. This feat prompts Beranabus' realisation that Bec is the third piece of the Kah-Gash. They prevent the tunnel's opening, but are forced to kill Bill-E Spleen to do so. Seeing that Lord Loss intends to kill them all, Bec enters, possesses and reanimates the body of the deceased Bill-E, and fights off the demon master. She transforms the body to recreate her original appearance, and finds herself faced with a second chance at life, albeit in a time many centuries after that in which she was born.

Death's Shadow
Death's Shadow  reveals that Bec has moved in with Dervish Grady, and is posing as his niece under the alias of "Rebecca Kinga". Her assumption of Bill-E's body has caused her to absorb some of his memories, as well as certain of his behavioural and linguistic habits (eg. his handwriting style, the use of terms such as "coolio" etc.). This softens the blow of her transition to the 21st century, though she still finds some aspects of modernity intimidating. However, the memories also present a problem: Dervish constantly pesters her to share her insight into Bill-E's mind, leaving Bec to feel that she herself is nothing more than a means for Dervish to avoid his grief. In addition to this, since her reanimation, any physical contact with others causes her to absorb some of their memories, and she is too worried about this power to confide in anyone. She forms a friendship with Meera, who convinces her to confront Dervish about his behaviour. The two sort out the issue, but moments later, the house is attacked by werewolves, and in the ensuing battle, Dervish has a heart attack. After several developments, including a battle with the resurrected Juni and the healing of Dervish's heart, Bec joins the Disciples as they pursue Juni to a cruise liner. There Lord Loss, speaking through the mouth of a restrained demon named Cadaver, states that Bec's being a piece of the Kah-Gash is a mistake, an unintended side-effect of his enhancing her powers. After this, Juni sacrifices Cadaver to summon the Shadow creature seen leading the Demonata in Demon Apocalypse. The Shadow attacks Bec in an attempt to absorb her piece of the Kah-Gash, and the contact allows Bec to gain vital information about the creature: it is in fact not a demon, but the personification of Death, as she tells Beranabus. Beranabus sacrifices himself to send the Shadow back to the Demonata Universe, and Bec, Killri and Dervish escape on a life-boat. This book concludes as Bec tells her other companions of the Shadow's true significance.

Wolf Island
Grubbs discovers in Wolf Island that Bec and Dervish have survived the zombie incident and he makes a deal with Antoine Horwitzer (the man who informed him of this fact) to spare him if he ensures their safety. However, when he does so, Grubbs has him killed anyway. Grubbs meets them later on, safe and sound. Sadly, Grubbs finds out that his uncle Dervish is slowly dying from his heart problems.

Dark Calling
In Dark Calling, Bec and Grubbs disagree about looking for Bernabus' soul. As they disagree, Kernal thinks about Beranabus and some patches of light appear. He assembles them and they enter a shadow world. There, they speak to Bernabus' soul, after which Bec has a private conversation with him. However, when they free Bernabus' soul along with others trapped in the Shadow world, the world vanishes and they find themselves in a world where there are millions of demons, including Lord Loss and Juni Swan. Meera Flame is fatally wounded and willingly explodes herself, killing Juni Swan with her. Bec is last seen by Grubbs and Kernel, fighting with Lord Loss by Grubbs and Kernel, and she tells them to leave her behind. However, as he departs, Kernel notices that Bec and Lord Loss are not fighting so viciously and suspects her of betrayal.

Hell's Heroes
In the final installment in the series, Hell's Heroes, Bec's betrayal is comfirmed. However, by the end of the book, it is revealed that her actions were part of a ruse to destroy the Demonata. At the end of the book, Bec, Grubbs and Kernel join as the Kah-Gash and recreate the universe, altering reality to remove the Demon masters from existence(as they may fracture the Kah-Gash like before) with the exception of Lord Loss, whom she agrees to spare. As the memory of the Kah-Gash, Bec guides the other two parts and is charge of creating the new life.

Physical description
Physically, Bec lived up to her name which meant "Little One". She was a small, slim girl with short, dark red hair which grew longer after she came back to life. Meera Flame commented that her hair was gorgeous when she grew it out. Her skin was pale and she had green eyes (according to Lord Loss in Hell's Heroes). Bec was naturally cute, with Fiachna, Bran and Lord Loss all taking a liking to her but unlike Meera, she wasn't a stunner and due to her priestess training, she felt she wasn't supposed to make herself attractive.

Personality
Bec was a brave and selfless girl though she was also humble about her own courage, thinking she was more practical than courageous. However she was willing to give her life if she had to, as proven when she planned to allow Drust to sacrifice her to close a tunnel between the human and demon universes. Her bravery and strength of character caused Beranabus to fall in love with her the moment he saw her, even though it was said that she was not an especially attractive girl. Bec was very devoted to protecting the world from the Demonata. She also managed to endure sixteen hundred lonely years of captivity in the wall of a cave without going mad. However when she was finally freed she continued to feel lonely and said that she was as scared of the modern day as she was of demons.

Bec was also deeply compassionate, even towards people she didn't know such as Reni Gossel. Despite Reni downright bullying her when they met, she tried to comfort her, understanding that Reni was only lashing out due to grief at the loss of her brother and the disappearance of her boyfriend. She also had a strong sense of morality and spared Lord Loss in honour of the deal they had made in order to defeat Death and the more powerful Demon Masters, although she had the power to squash him like a bug when all three pieces of the Kah-Gash were together. Bec made many close relationships during both of her lives. She thought the warrior who found her, Goll, was like a father to her and had romantic feelings for a blacksmith named Fiachna, whom she kissed shortly before his death. Sixteen hundred years later, she also became close friends with Meera Flame.

Bec initially had a shaky relationship with Dervish who saw her as little more than a mouthpeice for his dead nephew Billy. However they became friends once Bec told Dervish that she wanted to be treated like a real person instead of an object. Because she was a peice of the Kah Gash, she also had a close bond with the other two pieces, Grubbs and Kernel. Out of all three members of the Kah-Gash, Bec was the only one who was willing to work alongside Lord Loss. The Demon Master showed a fondness for her which included a physical attraction and while Bec didn't reciprocate, she did feel that Lord Loss had the right to exist.

However her strongest bond was with Beranabus who cared about her more than he'd ever cared about anyone. Bec helped Beranabus turn from a scatterbrained child into one of the most powerful magicians in history. She continued to love Beranabus even when she saw him in his demon form and was devastated by his death. When she was reunited with his spirit within Death, she didn't have much time to say goodbye to him, but Bernabus figured out a way to defeat the Shadow, which he told to her and no-one else. Unfortunately this led Grubbs and Kernel to suspect that she was betraying them.

Powers and abilities
Bec is a very powerful magician and it is stated in the book Demon Apocalypse that she is more powerful than both Beranabus and Grubbs (but only after Lord Loss increased her strength). As a child she trained with the priestess Banba, but when Banba was struck and killed by a demon, Bec's training ended and her skills grew rusty. After Bran appears, Bec meets Drust, who teaches her druid spells and helps her to reconnect with her magic. However, her powers become truly phenomenal when Lord Loss uses his own powers to both spark her innate magical skill and then enhance it to the point that she essentially by-passes all the normal turning points of the mystic arts in one bound. In Death's Shadow, she seems unable to use magic like Grubbs and Beranabus, who are able to conjure powerful magic and spells without demon presence or "magic in the air".

One talent which remains constant throughout both her training with Banba and her supercharged state following her encounter with Lord Loss is her eidetic memory, which is so perfect she can remember her own birth. This talent also comes in useful in allowing her to remember all the spells she is ever taught. In Death's Shadow, Bec gains the ability to soak up the memories of those that she touches; the longer the contact is sustained, the more memories she gets. She speculates that this new gift is a side-effect of her imprisonment in the cave, and, as of yet, she has not demonstrated the ability to regulate the absorption of memory. Because she dislikes the inherent intrusiveness of seeing into the minds of others, she avoids physical contact with others whenever possible. It is revealed in Dark Calling that Bec has such a powerful memory because she is the memory part of the Kah-Gash, with Grubbs and Kernel being the trigger and the eyes, respectively. However it is interesting to note that Bec's memory had always been remarkable, even before Lord Loss transferred his peice of the Kah-Gash into her.

Bec is a piece of the Kah-Gash. It is revealed in Death's Shadow that this piece was originally Lord Loss', but that he transeferred it to Bec (unknowingly) when he increased her power. In Dark Calling, an Old Creature tells Kernel that the piece of the Kah-Gash in Bec could be used to turn her against the Disciples, as it used to belong to Lord Loss and may have been tainted by him. Although this might have been true to some extent, Bec was able to overcome any dark traits that Lord Loss had passed onto her, either by magic or sheer willpower, and helped Grubbs, Kernel and Lord Loss save the human universe and at least one of the demon universes; the one that Lord Loss lived in. It has been implied that Lord Loss' universe wasn't the only demon universe that Bec, Kernel and Grubbs decided to spare because there may have still been other Demon Masters still alive, although most, if not all of them, were weaker than Lord Loss, who had originally been one of the weaker Demon Masters.

Appearances

 * Bec.
 * Blood Beast.
 * Demon Apocalypse.
 * Death's Shadow.
 * Wolf Island.
 * Dark Calling.
 * Hell's Heroes.

Trivia

 * Becs Eidetic Memory is typically credited to her being the "Memory" piece of the Kah-Gash. However, Bec was shown to have an Eidetic Memory before receiving the piece of the Kah-Gash, as referenced in Bec where she can recall her own birth.
 * It is more likely that the piece of the Kah-Gash Bec received gave her the ability to absorb other peoples memories through physical contact.