Awakening

"" is the sixteenth episode of the third season of Sanctuary, and the forty-second episode overall in the series.

Synopsis
Magnus and Tesla encounter Afina, queen of the vampires, while Kate once again has to deal with her past.

Cold Open
In a deserted cave in East Africa, Dr. Helen Magnus and Nikola Tesla are looking for remnants of a long-gone Praxian stronghold, and reminisce about when they searched for King Tut's tomb with Howard Carter. Tesla detects a power source behind a wall, and uses his electromagnetic powers to open a hidden vault. Inside, they find that the Praxian fortress had been taken over by vampires. Alarmed, Magnus tells Tesla to take off the bracelet that shields his source blood from sensors; before he can to so, he is hit by an automated energy weapon that burns a hole through his chest. Moments later, the door of the chamber closes behind them.

Act I
Tesla is able to keep his body from dying by keeping his organs in place with a force field. Meanwhile, Magnus frantically starts searching for a way out.

Meanwhile, back at the Old City Sanctuary, Kate Freelander and Bigfoot are checking e-mails and installing a new game console, having both waited to do so until Henry Foss was away so he would not interfere. Kate receives a message from someone called Caster which says that details on a new operation with good money in it are waiting at the usual spot. She quickly moves to leave, refusing to tell the Big Guy what is going on. That night in the streets of Old City, she recovers a package from one of her old hiding places.

Magnus tries her best to treat Tesla and keep him awake; he, on the other hand, is convinced that he will die soon. He asks her to read to him from the ancient vampire inscriptions on the walls of the chamber; they tell of an army of Praxians and abnormals who fought against their vampire enemies, but eventually retreated into Hollow Earth, leaving behind the vampires and their human slaves. The "warrior queen" Afina and her court were laid to rest in the chamber, to rise again in the "after-time". Magnus soon discovers another hidden chamber, where the queen of all vampires rest in a giant crystal.

Act II
Nikola asks Magnus to help him get up, so he can stare at her in awe. Magnus, on the other hand, plans to open the crystal and take some of the corpse's blood to once again turn Tesla into a vampire. However, the crystal seems almost impenetrable, and Tesla faints before she can crack it. Just in time, Magnus is able to extract a few drops of the queen's blood and inject Tesla with it, causing him to turn vampire again and recover quickly.

Kate arrives in Dr. Will Zimmerman's office and informs him and Bigfoot that she has information on the whereabouts of a dealer in dangerous abnormals. Will wants to get law enforcement in on the operation, but Kate says that they have to act now.

Back in the cave, Tesla taunts Magnus about her fear to lose him, and tries to get them back out. They try to find a way through the door, they hear sounds of cracking crystal behind them; Afina's prison is breaking apart, and Magnus realizes that she is still alive.

Act III
Magnus and Tesla argue about the best way to deal with the situation; when Tesla touches the crystal, it quickly falls apart, releasing the young looking, dark-haired queen of the vampires. When she awakes, she is weak and sits down next to a pool of Tesla's blood. After tasting it, she suddenly knows Nikola's name and speaks perfect English. She asks about the whereabouts of her brother and the rest of her race, and is shocked to learn that her empire has fallen long ago and she and Tesla are the last of her kind.

In Old City, Kate and the Sanctuary intervention team raid the smuggler facility, quickly overwhelming the criminals guarding it. Kate finds numerous abnormals locked in cages, and is visibly upset.

Afina explains that the immortal royal family of the vampire civilization took turns ruling, with the other members being left in stasis. However, after Afina's brother was assassinated by his youngest son, the circle was broken and the queen was never re-awakened—until now. She is shocked to learn that Nikola feeds from animal blood, but agrees to come to the surface with them. Magnus takes Tesla aside and tries to reason with him over how dangerous Afina might be, but the vampire queen overhears them, and attacks Magnus. Tesla comes to her defense, but is quickly overpowered by Afina, who bites him and then throws him down a neighboring tunnel. Turning to Magnus, she says: "Welcome to the new age."

Act IV
Afina reveals that she plans to repopulate the world with her offspring and use Magnus as an immortal blood donor. Magnus just tells her to choke on it.

In the Sanctuary, Will comes to see Kate and asks her why the operation was so important to her. She reveals that she used to smuggle abnormals all the time, and that she seems unable to get over her past.

In the caves, Afina tells Magnus that humanity would never form a united front against her, that it is in fact in their nature to fight one another all the time. While Tesla wakes up in another trap chamber, Afina leads Magnus to a large underground hall where her court lies in crystal stasis—hundreds, maybe thousands of vampire warriors.

Act V
Shocked by the prospect of seeing the world overrun by vampires, Magnus attacks Afina, stabbing her in the chest. The vampire queen, however, overwhelms her, and her wounds heal almost instantly. Tesla, on the other hand, uses the magnetic powers the queen does not known about to draw the metal in Magnus' backpack down to his prison. Moments later, he has figured out a way to escape and comes to Magnus' defense. While the latter tries to reverse the awakening process, the two vampires fight, with Afina winning and about to kill Tesla. Magnus intervenes, showing Afina the holomap and telling her about Praxis; if she leaves the surface alone, Magnus will give her the means to take revenge on Hollow Earth.

Afina gives them the means to escape from the cave in exchange for the password for the second level of the holographic map. Upon saying the word, Afina is scanned by the map, which recognizes her as a vampire and activates its self-destruct mode; seconds later, just as Magnus and Tesla escape through the tunnels, the whole compound is destroyed by a huge explosion.

At the Dead Bridge, Kate meets with Caster and admits that she was the one who blew his operation. He holds her at gunpoint, but she reveals that she is now an agent of the Sanctuary Network, and that he does not want to mess with her any more.

Magnus and Tesla have barely escaped the destruction of Afina's tomb, but Tesla is quite pleased with the result; not only is he once again a vampire, he has also retained his unique magnetic powers.