Tristan and Lucien followed her to the plane.
It was clear to them, in that moment, what Vivalda meant by them tailoring to different parts of her. Her personality, her needs.
Lucien had ranted along with her, letting her free her ideas of how she'd enact her revenge, how she'd burn down the Salvatore House and hunt that miserable friend group down one by one.
And when the emotional exhaustion hit, when reality became apparent and she internalized that her brother was dead and never coming back, Tristan had been there to hold her as she sobbed angrily.
The plan was clear even when unspoken. Tristan and Lucien would not enter Mystic Falls, they wouldn't even touch any of those responsible for killing Finn because Vivalda was already prepared to slaughter them with her bare hands.
Elijah, Rebekah, and Klaus hadn't bothered to make a move. For all they knew, Elijah wasn't even in Virginia.
Vivalda would kill Matt Donovan. This, she would not waver on. He dealt the killing blow, he'd be the first to die.
She was already dressed in her armor. She'd long since abandoned gorgets to protect her neck– she didn't fear a strike there. Her breastplate was small and only covered her heart with criss-crossed metal sheets and leather straps that tucked nicely behind her back to shield it from behind as well, and attached to her pauldrons, only covering the tops of her shoulders. Her vambraces were short, long enough at the wrists to tuck two knives on each arm. The fault was similar to her breastplate, stabilizing her hips just enough to keep the tight black shirt she wore beneath it secured and to provide her a good place to clip her sword. Instead of a gauntlet, she wore fingerless black gloves. She fastened greaves to each shin and tucked knives there, too, should she need them. Black boots at the very end secured her feet, and in her opinion, did wonders to crush a person's skull.
"There is only one thing I must say, love," warned Tristan as the plane prepared to land. "I do not say it because I agree with your brothers in any way, but you must consider that both Niklaus and Rebekah seem to like Stefan Salvatore. Not to mention Niklaus requires the doppelgänger's blood to create hybrids. Sickening as the species is, he will retaliate against you even if you kill them to avenge your brother."
"I know," she said tightly, staring out the window. "And Rebekah has already stated that Damon and Stefan Salvatore must be kept alive in order for them to obtain the rest of the white oak. If they want to be idiots, they can be. It would take two seconds to kidnap them, enter their minds to procure the location, then kill them so nobody is left to use the white oak. How pathetic they are... they cannot retaliate on their own. I will make my statement, little as it may seem. I will kill Matt Donovan and with it, Elena and her little friends will suffer. And forever onward they will be marked. They will never be safe again. Every enemy they face after this will be sent by me. I have hordes of vampires who would kill to be given a mission from me, and I will make sure that if they live, they will wish they hadn't. My siblings wish to protect them, fine, they can face the consequences. I will not continue to tell them the truth– that they need to stop leaving these brats alive. Perhaps now they will finally learn their lesson. All of them."
She stopped at the mansion first, confirming that Elijah was not, in fact, in Mystic Falls. Rebekah and Klaus were in the parlor, not truly expecting her.
"Where is he?" asked Vivalda immediately. "His body, his ashes, where is it?"
"Hello to you, too," said Klaus.
"I asked you a question. Where did you put him?"
He gestured to an urn resting comfortably on the fireplace. "There's your big brother."
Vivalda's eye twitched. "You are not upset... at all?"
"Good riddance, I say. He was an embarrassment."
Rebekah smacked the armrest of her chair. "He was still your brother. Mind your tongue."
Klaus threw his hands up. "Fine. Let's all say a prayer for Finn, who slept in a box longer than he lived as a man. He was a lovesick fool. He's better off in death."
"Is that how you would speak of me if I died?"
"Well, you let the Salvatores loose with two stakes that can kill us, so I guess we'll find out soon enough. And since when did you have a soft spot for them?"
"The Salvatores may fight like dogs, but in the end they would die for each other. At least they know what family means. You destroyed ours."
"I wanted a family. They just didn't want me, and now we're unlinked we're no longer responsible for each other."
"So are you leaving?"
"As soon as I get my stakes, I'm gone. I'm gonna take Elena and use her blood to create a new family. Of hybrids." He pointed at Vivalda. "And considering you have a look of murder in your eyes, I'd advise you not to lay a finger on Elena or you'll find yourself back in a box."
"I won't touch Elena," she said, fury bubbling in her chest at his nonchalant attitude. How dare he act like Finn didn't matter, how dare he claim that letting the Salvatores go was Rebekah's fault when he'd had every opportunity to kill them and didn't. "I won't even touch your boyfriend, Stefan, or his disgusting brother. But I want something in exchange."
Klaus rolled his eyes. "What is it?"
"I want the dagger you use on me. I don't want to be daggered anymore. I don't want to come back here ever again. If you don't want to be responsible for us anymore, then you don't get to punish us unfairly. You don't get to hold a threat over our heads. Give me the dagger and I will let the doppelgänger live so you can make your hybrid army. Hell, I'll even train them if you really want me to."
He seemed suspicious of her motives (as he ought to be, considering she was going to recruit Kol's help and see if they could use her dagger to make one that would work on Klaus) but shrugged, apparently feeling this would work out for him. Idiot. "Fine," he said. "Your dagger and your dagger only. Upstairs study, the safe is behind the painting of a vase by the chimney."
"Good. I'll be back shortly."
As soon as she'd retrieved it, she left. With it still tucked in her armor, she went to Matt Donovan's house, confirming he was inside of it and setting it on fire. When he tried to flee, she caught him by the throat, taking his phone and tossing him back into the house. Before he could recover, she threw a knife, lodging it in his forehead.
With his phone, she called Elena. "Matt!" said Elena on the other line. "Are you here yet–?"
"He's still at home, the lazy fool," said Vivalda sweetly. "You should come and check on him. If any more of my siblings are hurt because of you, I won't stop at one person. You should have tried harder to kill Klaus the first time around. Leave even one Mikaelson alive... and you invite the others to come and play. And when I play, I win. I end the game. I don't care if you hate my brother. Go on, have at it, hurt him all you want. But extending that wrath to Finn was a mistake. I hope you've learned your lesson."
She returned to the mansion to retrieve the urn, sitting alone by the falls and hugging it to her chest as she cried. Sage's body had been buried in the woods by the Salvatore Mansion and she didn't have the heart to dig it up. She was already resting.
Lucien and Tristan found her once she was on her feet, staring blankly out at the water, eyes more lifeless than they'd ever seen.
Something had changed. But it hadn't happened when Vivalda woke up, it hadn't happened when Tristan and Lucien confessed their feelings, it hadn't even happened when they began their arrangement.
The two had seen Vivalda manage to keep a poker face even in the worst situations. She'd laughed in the faces of those who challenged her, she hadn't faltered even when Mikael tried to kill her.
Losing Finn made a mark that wouldn't go away.
"I have nothing to fear from this," she said, holding a martini and staring at the ground far below as they flew back to Germany. "Those brats couldn't kill me even if my siblings helped them. I am the most unkillable of them all. Rebekah is easily distracted, Klaus's anger gets the best of him, Elijah trusts everyone who looks like Tatia, and I love Kol but he makes mistakes in battle. Too many. Mikael himself couldn't end me, hard as he tried. I will be fine."
"He was your father," said Lucien slowly. "You were his daughter. Have you considered he couldn't kill you... for a reason other than strength?"
"You know him. I was nothing to him after I sided with Klaus. He had no pride left for me." She noticed their silence. "You're afraid. Both of you."
"This is quite a bit to take in, Vivalda," said Tristan seriously. "The entire Strix order consists of vampires sired by Elijah. Should your brother fall because he is too trusting or simply because he is weak, we would suffer the consequences."
"And the same fate awaits me if Niklaus continues to anger every other person in the world," said Lucien. "Now that we know this, it would be ideal...to be free."
"Free? You want to make it so if they die, you won't?" They nodded slowly. "Well, you're welcome to try, but I don't know if that's possible. My mother likely sought this outcome. If she'd been successful in killing us all, she would have erased the entire vampire species." She understood their fears, and she shared them. She didn't want to lose them or any other siblings. She didn't blame them for wanting to survive in the face of their reality: her brothers were weak. Her family was weak. "I will keep white oak from piercing their hearts. As I always have and always will. I failed Finn. But I won't fail them, and I won't fail you."
"And what if there comes an enemy you cannot overpower?"
"I overpower everyone."
She didn't bother to try and stop them from searching for a way out. She called Kol the next morning and asked him to come to Germany so they could begin working on the dagger. Antonella sent a witch their way to aid with the spell. Vivalda was sure that if they managed this, they could put Klaus down and keep him from causing problems and making more enemies that would come back with a vengeance. If she had to, she'd leave him somewhere secure where he couldn't be hurt; same went for Elijah and Rebekah if they continued acting stupid.
The days that followed Finn's death were bleak. Vivalda spent her days cuddling with Tristan whenever she wasn't training The Strix, calmed only by his gentle caresses and words that couldn't make her feel better no matter how hard he tried. In the nights she let out the anger that remained, feeding viciously while Lucien watched, at first having been enjoying it, then realizing it wasn't fun when she was only doing it to distract herself. She was in pain and each of them did the best they could to alleviate it, but it was all to no avail.
That was the first time they set aside their differences.
"Aya and Aurora took her out dancing," said Lucien, adjusting the cuffs of his button-up before he sat across from Tristan, who pushed a glass of bourbon toward him. "Kol left to meet Antonella in Spain. Which means you and I... need to have a chat."
Tristan hadn't trusted his intentions at first. "Let me guess... you are already unhappy with the arrangement. Which I think is quite cruel considering she is grieving and if you believe she is not giving you sufficient attention... well, you're a worse man than I thought you were."
Lucien smiled cheekily. "It's precisely because she's grieving that I'm here. Yes, her energy has been different, but it is not making me unhappy, it simply worries me. Under a white flag I come with an idea. My brain, your witches. We bring Finn and Sage back."
His eyes narrowed. "And how, pray tell, are we going to bring back two ancient vampires? Finn was killed with white oak. Sage died as a result of that link. To say it is impossible–"
"–is potentially an accurate assessment. But I like to believe nothing is impossible. And I believe you and I want the same thing. For her to be happy. Give me time to consult my sources. I believe we can do it. Now, I do not think they'd be vampires if we did bring them back, and I take it Vivalda wouldn't mind that, and neither would Finn– though Sage may be upset. Still, they would be alive. No one need know but us. They can leave once Vivalda sees them. When she finds out her brother is back, she will be in a much better mood."
"And you're not using this as a means to earn her support with your other idea regarding the sirelines?"
"Vivalda would agree to that on her own, in time. She would want us to be free."
"Yet, if we perform it, her family's enemies will mass at the gates of their home looking to enact their revenge once their lives are no longer tethered. She may suffer for it."
"You know what she'd do if that happened? Laugh. Because she has told her siblings time and again to not let enemies accumulate, to not let small slights be bygones. Besides, she would take it upon herself to slaughter anyone who came calling until they all realize that just because the lives of vampires are no longer tied to the Originals doesn't mean they are weak."
"Her siblings would hate her if she supported us."
"And do you think she would care? Her sirelings have always mattered to her more. If we asked her to do it for Antonella, she would. She'd expect them to follow suit. Perhaps it will take convincing, but it will happen. Because she handles business and if her siblings had listened to her, we wouldn't even need to be worrying about this. She will take care of it and we will help her if need be. It's a brilliant idea. The unlinking will take much, much longer. But for starters, resurrecting Finn and Sage..."
He sighed. "Yes, I suppose that would make her much happier. I hate seeing her miserable." He clenched his fist tightly. "I wish to rip away from the world everything and everyone that causes her pain."
Lucien held up his bourbon. "In that respect, we're alike."
They agreed not to tell her anything about their plan to bring back Finn and Sage until they were nearly ninety percent certain it could work. For that, they'd need to consult Kol, and they weren't yet sure he could keep his mouth shut. Only time would tell.
The situation in Mystic Falls remained tense. Each day they heard more about what was going on there, Vivalda would snort and say that everything happening was just a consequence of Klaus's failure to rule with an iron fist. He'd come to devastate that friend group and should have killed them all from the moment the ritual was complete. Instead, they lived, and with them grew their anger toward him, magnified now that Vivalda had enacted her revenge. She didn't care; it was high time Klaus and Rebekah learned their lesson about letting the opposition live.
"One minute, they're telling me my mother is dead and that they narrowly avoided that man with the ugly name turning into a second Mikael," said Vivalda, kicking Shen Min in the side when he failed to reach for her heart. "Sloppy. Again."She easily flipped him onto his back in his next attempt. "And now, apparently, Alaric Saltzman has become the next Original Vampire Hunter. Rebekah says she could not fight him, that he was strong– too strong."
"Say the word and a legion of Strix will descend upon that pitiful town," said Aya from behind her. "Oh, for heaven's sake–" she smacked another vampire, Arthur Bailey, on the back of his head. "You embarrass us. Stop reaching for the throat and hit him–" she punched right over his opponent's heart, "where it matters. The lesson today was techniques to kill not to torture. You wouldn't even manage the latter with such sloppy movements. Again. Flynn, you attack."
Vivalda roundhouse kicked Shen Min, effectively snapping his neck. "No," she said, cracking her fingers and snapping her fingers at Flynn to demonstrate with Bailey. "If they are smart, they will do it themselves. Klaus and Rebekah, combined, can defeat him. They simply are choosing not to. I will not have what happened with Mikael happen here–" she punched her hand into Bailey's chest. "Seriously, Cadence, how the hell have you survived for six hundred years without besting a vampire older than you? Do better."
She nodded her head sheepishly, returning to position. "And yet," said Aya as they walked among the rows of students, "here they are, telling you of their failure."
"It's like they need their hand held through a murder. If they'd just killed the doppelgänger when they had a chance, if they'd killed Alaric when they had the chance, if they hadn't let those Salvatores live– well, if it isn't the consequences of their own actions! Excuse me–" she answered a phone call. "Rebekah, I swear to god if Alaric isn't dead yet–"
"He's too strong, Val," said Rebekah. "They tried and failed to ambush him. And they just learned he's linked to Elena. Mother used her blood and bound him to a mortal–"
"–so he only has one lifetime to kill vampires, I assume? Great, so there's your obvious answer. If you're too weak to defeat Alaric, just kill Elena. If I was in town, both of them would already be dead. So either get off your high horse, grab our brother, and ambush that fool before he comes charging over her with indestructible white oak or kill Elena and be done with it!"
Rebekah was silent for a moment. "You may have just given me an idea. Talk to you soon."
Vivalda rolled her eyes as she hung up. "Oh, I don't know why I bother."
Aya smirked. "I do not know what is more amusing." She nodded to one of the vampires, who'd just pinned an opponent down. "Claire Burnett catching Mohinder off-guard, or Rebekah Mikaelson needing her little sister to tell her what to do."
"Not sure why you're surprised," said Vivalda. "They drive me crazy." She looped her arm with hers. "I was born a Mikaelson and I will stand beside them when the going gets tough but I choose to linger somewhere else. With the family I made. With the sisters I picked." She leaned her head onto Aya's shoulder. "None of you have ever disappointed me. You've treated me with a greater degree of respect than the others ever did."
"If I may play devil's advocate," said Aya, "we met you when you were already mightier than us, building your reputation, forging your weapons and creating armies that would do your bidding. We knew you'd protect us, you earned our respect, and we have kept our promises to stand by you. But they still remember you as a little girl. And perhaps it has been difficult for them to let go. You all lost your youngest brother. They feared losing you, too. So they exerted their control, they smothered you. You needed room to grow, so you did. You became a butterfly and flew off. But they'd built the butterfly's cage to begin with because they knew the most beautiful and wondrous things are sometimes the most hated. Not by anyone in particular but by nature, by fate. They lost a sister to plague, a brother to the wolves. And they thought if they didn't try to contain you, you'd be next."
Vivalda was quiet for a moment. "I wish they were brave enough to tell me that. To show that they care."
"In their own way, they do. But they've a long way to go. Sometimes it takes a catalyst to teach a lesson. They may not realize how much you've done for them until they find themselves faced with a situation they cannot navigate without you. And only then will they realize what we've known all along. You, Vivalda Mikaelson, are the strongest of them. Not because of your raw strength, but because you challenge reality, you create the impossible, you do not settle for mediocrity. You shape the world and direct the sun while they bask in its light, convinced it will never move."
Vivalda was in better spirits for the remainder of the day. Her elated mood came crashing down when Rebekah called a second time.
The first plan had been to leave Alaric desiccated. To keep him from hunting any of the Originals as he lay, encased in cement, able to die once Elena had lived a fruitful human life. The Salvatores had altered the plan when Klaus kidnapped Elena to steal her blood and then kill her– it wasn't Alaric who lay desiccated in a coffin, it was Klaus.
Elijah had struck a bargain. Klaus's body, in exchange for him and the rest of the siblings letting Alaric hunt them down for the next eighty or so years, just until Elena succumbed to natural causes. Klaus would remain unconscious for a couple of centuries to learn his lesson.
Vivalda thought it stupid, and it turned out it was. Letting Alaric roam around had backfired. Rebekah had witnessed him stabbing Klaus in the heart with the white oak stake. A second brother had died.
"Lucien!" she cried, rushing into his apartment to look for him. "Lucien– Lucien–!" She hugged him tight when she found him drying his hair after a shower. "Oh my god. Oh my god..." she put her head on his chest.
"What happened?" he asked, a chill running down his spine when he saw how afraid she looked. Afraid for him. "What... did Nik..."
She nodded wearily. "He did. He's dead, Lucien. He's dead and– and–" she put her hands on his and stifled a sob. "And you'll die, too."
He let her pull him to the couch, staring at the far wall like a zombie while she hugged him. It didn't feel real, it shouldn't be possible. There was so much he had left to do, so much he still wanted to learn. Plans to make her happy, plans to see if Alexis had been right to counsel him into this relationship. To have the love that Aurora never gave him, to see what it was like to be loved by someone as incredible as Vivalda Mikaelson.
Was this the end? Was he never going to see her again? Tristan would win, he'd have her all to himself. He would steal his idea to bring back Finn and Sage, he'd make it seem like he'd come up with it and have her love forever. All to himself.
But an hour passed and he was still there, sitting with Vivalda, who stroked his hair and apologized profusely, thinking that if he died, if Klaus died, it was her fault. She'd lose them both because she was bitter and weak and should have handled business fully from the start.
Lucien was still there, two hours later. Three. By then, Rebekah and Elijah had called to say that Sage had died within the hour. But the Salvatores were alive, so was Caroline Forbes. Rebekah had already defeated Alaric by killing Elena, and their worries were still far from over because their enemy still walked the Earth, their brother was still gone.
"He can't be," said Vivalda over the phone, Kol sitting behind her, a pensive look on his face. "If they aren't dead, then he isn't."
"Perhaps we were wrong," murmured Elijah. "Perhaps Niklaus did not sire Mary Porter."
"He did. And we definitely know he sired Lucien. Find his body, brother. He's not gone. He can't be."
Tristan had watched as Vivalda kissed Lucien, glad that he was alive, glad that it meant she hadn't lost Klaus before he had a chance to learn what Aya claimed he would one day.
He realized, in that moment, that the only possible path for him and Lucien was forward. With her. He didn't doubt she cared about him, and he'd witnessed how much she cared for Lucien. They both wanted her to be happy. They wanted her safe.
He could try a little harder, for Vivalda. He could make it work, if it meant she'd have what she wanted. What she deserved.
Lucien thought the same thing as he looked over Vivalda's shoulder.