Despite the discussed teams, getting everyone inside to cause the most chaos started them in a slightly different formation. Rhea had headed off with a spell from Clio, teaching it to a gathering of people at the Lyceé, sending a 'ready to go' text to cue Marcel to drive into the Estate, Stefan, Hayley, and Sam hidden in the trunk.
"Are we close?" Stefan murmured.
Hayley checked the map on her phone, "A few more minutes."
Swiping up to see her lock screen instead. A picture of Hope smiling in her crib, reaching up towards the camera, till the sound of the laugh was so easy to hear in her head. Hayley's own face morphing to match the expression.
"She's a cute kid," Stefan commented.
"Yeah," Hayley glanced at Sam, "She is."
"You know I love her, Hayley," Sam kept his voice quiet, "It's just complicated."
She bobbed her head.
"It's my own fault for not – "
"You're actually sire bonded to a baby?" Stefan wanted to laugh, "Like?"
"I know," Sam let his eyes flitter shut, "Take her over Klaus any day, though."
"Klaus is her father," Hayley let herself say it, "If you want her to be happy, you shouldn't want her to grow up without a father."
"That wasn't your stance when Dahlia was around."
"No," She tucked her chin back, "But it was MJ's. And..."
Letting herself stare at the top of the trunk.
"And Jack was..."
Sam let himself look at her.
Well, as much as they could while all lying down in the trunk of a car.
MJ, Klaus, and Elijah were all about to potentially die.
"I'll start a fight we might not win, put faith in strangers – do anything, on the off chance it means she doesn't have to lose any more of her family."
"Depends on the family," Stefan mused, "I could have done without my father."
Sam made an agreeing noise.
"If it weren't for my brother, I probably wouldn't have survived the guy."
"He stood up for you," Hayley wanted to change the topic, "And now you're risking your life for him?"
They'd gotten a bit more context to Stefan's hunter situation.
"Something like that."
"Doesn't MJ and your brother, like," Hayley thought back to her time in Mystic Falls, "Not get on."
"She thinks I cut him too much slack."
"MJ's rarely wrong," Sam hummed.
"True," Stefan smiled, "But sometimes there are bonds you just can't shake."
"I never understood the brotherly bond until I met Klaus and Elijah," Hayley admitted, "They hurt each other more than anyone, but..."
"They're vicious," Sam suggested, "When it comes to each other."
"To anyone they care about," Hayley offered Stefan a smile, "So, who's on your homepage?"
He half-laughed, pulling out his phone to offer it forward.
"Caroline?" Hayley wasn't too surprised, given the calls she'd overheard, "She still hate me?"
"For snapping her neck or screwing over her ex-boyfriend?"
"Let's go with either."
"She's toughened up since then," He slipped the device away, "I don't think you'd win round two."
"And she's also in Klaus's sire line," She remembered, "Is she the reason you're here?"
"Going into a fight we may not win?" He joked, "Trusting strangers?"
A beat.
"...I'd do anything to keep her safe," He agreed, "But I couldn't just walk away knowing MJ was in danger."
A heavy quiet.
"I've done it too many times, and...just..."
There was a part of Stefan that would always view her differently after that first trip to New Orleans. After hearing her on the bench. After watching her shove it all down the days following Kol's death. The way Katherine had been able to predict her behaviour better than them. She'd still spent the summer calling him, then shown up back in Mystic Falls to help, never giving up.
She comforted him through everything, forever, his biggest 'one that could've been.'
In MJ's own words; a beautiful maybe.
"I don't wanna leave her to get burnt," He summarised, "And there were two conversations that made it seem like she wasn't the priority in that house."
The car stopped before Hayley could say anything, and they all turned silent.
The sound of a window moving down so Marcel could greet the front gate.
They held their breath as he started to move again, getting permission from a group of people he was meant to be in charge of. Three people were at the main gate. People patrolled the doors, windows, and every potential vantage point like they thought the Mikaelsons could hire a plane to blow them up.
"She is a priority," She continued carefully, "But Freya's always gonna put Klaus and Elijah first."
"Do you think she's thought about what Kol would do if something happened to MJ because of that?" Sam murmured, "Because I think they've forgotten Kol plotted with Davina less than a year ago. Willing to take them all down."
Hayley shook her head, "Nothing's gonna happen to her."
"What if something already has?"
"Whatever The Strix has caused – "
"Clio left Klaus and MJ," He stopped her, "She said they were fine when she left."
"And Clio is probably lying to stop him from killing her."
"But if she isn't?"
Marcel started to park, stones replacing the tarmac.
"If he did something – "
"Klaus wouldn't," Hayley reasoned, "As mad as he might be, MJ's sacred ground."
Sam looked to Stefan.
Scanning the lack of security in that phrase across his face.
Seeing how Hayley pulled at her sleeves, somewhat doubting it too.
"Since I've known her, she has been."
"You didn't see everything," Stefan met her look, "And I've experienced firsthand what Klaus is willing to do to the people he calls 'friend.'"
THE WITCHES
The Glass Menagerie
Marcel left the car, swaggering into the building, letting his irritation roll off him in waves as he found Aya in the room adjacent to The Sisters. He'd always been unsure how many of them there were, never truly let into the loop. Still, he could see five standing around the pool, Klaus and Elijah floating in the centre.
Kol had killed four at The Cemetery, two at the trainyard, and Elijah had killed at least one, to his knowledge, but that didn't indicate that there weren't still some hidden elsewhere.
"You gonna mention you threw MJ in your little hybrid basement?" He cut straight to the chase, "Or explain why you even have a hybrid basement?"
"We want to find a cure," Aya spoke flatly, turning to face him.
"So you need wolves," He got more in her face, "Not hybrids."
"Or," She reasoned, "You take a hybrid. You take its blood. You enchant said blood with the magic of the original witch and viola – you have recreated what makes Niklaus Mikaelson's unique."
Marcel laughed, "And you think you can just get that spell?"
"I think," Aya gestured forward, "Once we have extracted one spell from the mind of MiMi Pasare, the others will come tumbling out."
Marcel went to rush at her, only for two more vampires to sleuth into the room, watching him.
"She will be fine," Aya reasoned, "She provided us with a true alternative."
Eyeing him up.
"Something you did not."
"I'm not actually a witch," He defended, "I made my best guess."
Both their ears twitched as a hissing entered the air.
Aya glanced about, her guards tensing.
Eyes of the hundred guards throughout the house made it a lot harder to distinguish what was meant to be there and what wasn't.
"I spoke to Pri," Marcel revealed, "The spell didn't kill Selene."
"Good to know."
"She was there," He revealed, "Saw the whole thing."
Aya raised an eyebrow.
"You find where Pri's hiding?" He suggested, "Her head'll probably be a lot easier to get into than MJ's."
The movement in the greenhouse stopped.
The Sisters parted to stare at her curiously, revealing Klaus and Elijah's bodies floating in the pools. Marcel swallowed at the sight. There was technically no proof the spell had worked, just faith in MJ. Faith that the state Maci had been left in, skin eerily grey, meant the spell had fanned out from her to set them all free.
"Do you know where she is?"
"Looking for MJ," He shrugged, "So anywhere in the city."
"Or in this very house."
"You send her a message; she just might let you see the spell if you give her MJ back."
"Potentially," Aya spoke, "I have faith in my witches."
"Faith and time are two different things. Keeping MJ locked up isn't going to end well."
"I warned her that if she did not submit – "
Marcel turned again, shaking his head in disbelief.
"Do not underestimate our power, Marcel."
"Don't underestimate her," His arms swung out, "You think she's not gonna destroy you for this?"
"She practises peace."
"If you kill Klaus – "
"He left her in the state we found her," Aya revealed, "Do you wish to see her?"
Marcel stilled.
"She cannot currently move, and it is not due to us."
His eyes darted about as he heard another hiss.
"If we cannot conquer her, then yes, I will offer her to Miss Yadav in exchange for her memories," Aya mused, "Until then – "
"Do you realise you've declared war on the city, Aya?"
Calm tone.
"Regardless of The Mikaelson's and the sire line – keeping MJ here means you won't make it out the city alive."
Aya's eyes started to narrow.
"Go to Pri while you still have the time to," He repeated, "Or waste your time trying to get in her head."
Two guards crept into the room to listen.
"While Kol Mikaelson is probably already on his way to remove yours."
The side of the greenhouse once again exploded into glass shards; two bodies chucked through it, leaving The Original Vampire seething in sight. Trying to hide how itchy his neck and arms felt after snapping two necks and throwing them at a speed meant for the undead.
"That," Kol stepped inside, "He is."
His eyes turned black as he collided with the nearest Sister, fangs into her neck, the others rushing forward to help, only cueing the hiss to return. A snake fell the overhead light, latching to Aya's neck, choking her like a living lightning bolt, hands clawing as it tightened, her panic splitting focus as the witch's body dropped to the floor, blood still pouring from the wound.
Hayley heard the commotion, opening the boot, "It's time."
The nearby guards were speeding away, split between Kol and the purple-scaled creature on Aya, to no avail. They knew they had a time limit on how long before Kol's body started playing up, but telling Kol he had a limited window to murder was more inspiration than anything else.
And the white oak gun was not in Aya's hand.
No, it sat on a table at the end of the room, behind a protective barrier, reliant on The Sisters' magic.
"Hey," Stefan scanned the dark early morning, "I know we don't know each other."
Sam pushed out of the trunk last.
"But, my life is sorta in your hands," He started to itch at the paste, "So let's make this count."
"Let's hope your huntress shows up fast," Sam offered a half-smile.
"She will."
Unaware to them, Rayna Cruz was already stomping through the forest of The Bayou, pulled to her home city the moment Stefan had left St James, head snapping up. Racing towards the fancy house full of over a hundred vampires between her and Stefan Salvatore, waiting to be slaughtered.
"The second entrance to the basement's on the left side," Sam reminded them, "Kol's aiming for the main one."
"Once the hybrids are loose," Hayley repeated the rest of the plan, "The Sisters are stuck either keeping them at bay, saving themselves, or protecting Aya."
"We get the gun, Klaus and Elijah, and bolt," Stefan finished, "While you and Kol grab MJ."
Sam nodded.
A slight pause.
They heard an agonising shout that was definitely Kol as the chanting grew louder.
"We can still switch," Stefan reminded him, "I find MJ – you protect your friends?"
Sam considered it.
"Keeping me hidden in a basement just means Rayna spends more time up here slaughtering these guys."
"Shit, man," Sam caved at a louder cry out, "Just make sure she's safe."
With one final nod, they vamped in different directions, Stefan heading to the opposite wing, where a second entrance to the basement was meant to be, snapping the head of anyone he ran into, Hayley and Sam slamming into the first two guards, snapping necks, then ducking as someone finally noticed them.
Hayley lunged straight at Aya as the snake was finally tossed into a wall, only to dissolve into shadow, reforming as Clio, a knife, slicing through the chests of the two closest vampires.
The symbols up the blade glowed gold as their skin started folding along the cut, their screams taking over the air. It was like it was turning into something else. Simultaneously decomposing and reforming, her smile grew as she processed to stab the tip directly into their hearts, their skin grey as they dropped dead.
Her neck was grabbed from behind, vanishing into nothingness once more as a wave of exhaustion washed through her, leaving the grabber confused.
Kol snapped the basement door off its hinges only to glance back and see one of The Sisters lunging for the gun.
Pulling it out of the protective circle.
He groaned while vamp-ing back, tackling her into a wall as it clattered to the ground, Sam snatching it, only for three people to pile on top of him as two Sisters shot their hands up.
"Morator."
Sam turned his head but only moved at the speed of a snail, seeing how Kol ripped the head off the witch he'd attacked, only to hear the delay ripple out of a scream from both her and her coven. Unable to move as Sam's attackers plunged their hands into his chest.
Two holding him down, the other rooting for one of the few ways to kill him.
"Metamorfóno Gínomai Néos Kýklos."
Hearing Greek in slow motion did not help Sam's attempt to fight back.
"Kataraménos Os Na Alláxei."
Clio's arms lifted precisely, and the three vampires hoisted up before everyone, spines snapping back from their bodies as their skin shrunk.
Colour changing.
The Sister's voices hitched.
"Metamorfóno Gínomai Néos Kýklos."
Confusion at what they were witnessing.
No apparent spell to stop it.
Not death, despite the entire reconstruction of form.
"Kataraménos Os Na Alláxei."
With one clear snap, the bodies were now flittering bugs, scrambling into the dark sky out of the smashed side window Kol had created. Leaving Sam to gasp in, press his chest to stop the bleeding, fangs out as he didn't waste his freedom. Lunging straight to rip venom up the vampire jumping Kol. Stunned and confused silence as everyone stared at Clio's glowing eyes.
Only for her to sway.
Only for the pounding of her exhausted heart to momentarily skip, Sam forced to catch her and swing her away as two more vampires regained their senses and leapt to attack.
"Kole Usque Ut Yon Woch."
There were still three Sisters on the surface level, four more bursting out of the now exposed basement to howl at the sight of their fallen friends and join the chanting circle.
"Kole Usque Ut Yon Woch."
Anger pulsating through the ground.
Holding their enemies still.
Letting the dead Strix fall to the floor softly as the bloodstained hands of The Mikaelson rescue found themselves once more unable to fight back.
Only for a sword to slice through the air.
Not yet in the room with them.
But the scream echoed down the corridors of the lavish house, sending a new type of fear into the air. Panic. Confusion. Stefan vanished beneath the surface, leaving Rayna's senses to spin. He was somehow there. Somehow within Rayna's grasp, yet the only thing in her vision was a bunch of suit-clad fanged people to slaughter first.
Stefan tried not to let himself get distracted as he navigated the basement.
While the side he'd entered from was still somewhat a wine cellar, it quickly turned into something else. Not just the place he'd been warned about, housing rabid hybrids in the making, but a cell for any prisoner. Corpses chained to bits of wall showing it hadn't been cleared out recently, eventually leading to the more boxed-off areas. To where he was able to hide as the witches playing with his friend were forced to race upstairs.
Stefan was almost frozen at the sight.
MJ's hands pressed into her face, still screaming and sweaty, even with the people he'd assumed to be torturing her gone.
"MJ," He knelt down, trying to turn her, only to hear her wretch.
"Don't."
"What?"
"I can't – " Her scream intensified, shaking into the ceiling.
Into the floor above.
Joining the build-up of terror and rage sparking into the air.
"MJ," Stefan tried to hold her, "What's happening?"
He saw the bites up her arm.
The way the teeth had been dragged across the surface, slightly deeper around her wrists. Intended to be a simple bite, but messy and untrained – and far too familiar. MJ's eyes watered when she was forced to linger on it. Sobs mixed with screams as she only held her temples higher, stripping so much power from herself she was starting to desiccate.
Thick grey veins up her arms, muttering nonsense.
"Can you see me?" He asked cautiously, "MJ – "
"Stefan – "
"I'm – "
"Here I thought I was escaping hallucinations," She slumped further into the dirty stone floor, "I – I – "
"I'm gonna get you out of here."
"I can't move."
"I'm gonna – "
"Stefan," She begged, "Not yet – I – I – "
Words raced through Stefan's mind.
He gently tried to guide one of her legs out from where it had curled into her. Ignoring the screams she seemed to be bringing on herself, her body flinching so tightly back together, no matter where he pulled.
"MJ," He kept his tone steady, "You don't need pain to stay grounded."
"It's – I – "
"You – "
"Can't – "
He really scanned her.
Stefan knew she could siphon bites. He'd seen her do it. He'd watched from the very first time she'd locked herself in her first Mystic Falls apartment, trying to connect the dots, yelling about how venom was based in magic, finally trialling it with Caroline –
Trailing how to siphon specific magic out of someone.
The way she'd siphoned Tyler when –
"He compelled you," He realised, "Shit – MJ – "
Her scream grew louder as he started to see something cloud over her eyes. While the veins on her neck showed the future paper skin of death and blood withdrawal, the staining up her arms was not just open bleeding. Green gunk – black mould. The venom of a bite chipping away at her senses, believing him to be a hallucination, letting her walls down as the real ones kicked in.
One thought on her mind.
Feed.
"MJ," Stefan picked her up, only causing more struggle, "I'm gonna kill him."
"You can't - " She screeched, "Just say you're – "
The phrase sent a shiver down his spine.
"Take it – Take it – " She snapped herself out of his hold, gripping the centre of her chest like she was trying to block the bleeding, "You – you – "
Swaying on two feet.
"MJ – " Stefan glanced about.
Taking in the creaking of chains.
The rattling of fists trying to shake free behind doors he didn't dare look through.
"Bullshit – you spout – " MJ flinched like her head had been slammed into a wall, "Screaming woe is me!"
Stefan tried to place the argument.
Why the phrasing felt so oddly familiar.
Only just noticing the gaping wound on the back of her shoulders, which explained the desiccation. Some intense pain, or magic, still rolling through every limb; even now her hands had let her head free.
"Destroying everyone else's – "
Stefan knew his action was not the smartest in the world, but if there was one thing he'd been doing longer than most, it was waking MJ up from a hallucination. A different type of one, but one nonetheless, yanking the door to the makeshift cells open, snapping the chains, then diving back as the half-transformed monster tried to tear into him.
His arms were only just strong enough to keep its teeth back, the second bounding up the stairs as the plan intended, kicking back to leave it howling.
Shaking the walls.
Catching MJ's attention in a flurry, as it tackled Stefan even faster, tuning in to the skills of a vampire that had been forced onto it.
"NO."
Her hands scratched so firmly down her face it tore skin, wrists splattering the blood forward, and a spark of gold electricity broke out.
Frying the creature into unconsciousness, not death, the other one left in that room slightly more human, running up the stairs like they thought fresh air might free them from the insanity they'd fallen into. Two more left behind the locked door.
"Stefan – Stef – " MJ's hands were shaking, "Klaus – "
She stumbled back until she hit the cold walls, her own hand going around her neck as she shook her head at the speed of light, spluttering.
"Stay with me," Stefan tried to think quick, "You are – "
"I'll do it perfectly," Her tear-filled eyes kept tripping him up, "Please stop."
Tightening the hold on her own neck, the smell of the infected bite filled the air.
"You're getting what you want."
Every part of her body locked in position as she started to choke, eyes opened, begging with an invisible force.
"You're not there, MJ," Stefan whispered, "Mira Jung Floare-Ruiz."
He was just about ready to let the remaining creations out, saving his ass the momentary wake-up for her it had always been.
"Your name is Mira Jung Floare-Ruiz."
Old habits truly did die hard.
"You were born on August 16th, 1992," His fingers wrapping around hers, "In New Orleans."
Having to snap the bones to free her neck.
"Repeat."
Upstairs, the spell had held the rest of the rescue party still, Strix members lining up to rip their heads off, only to be crashed directly into by the hybrids. Not trying to kill them – trying to run. Tasting fresh air for the first time since imprisonment – smelling blood that snapped their heads back to the room. The first to ground level, the first to rip through a stomach, ravaging everything in its path, as it barrelled down the carpeted corridors, each art piece hung on the wall knocked off kilter or to the ground, the sound of breaking bones clear.
The Sisters had a routine by this point.
Regardless of Kol's determination to kill them, they were lucking out. His daze lasted longer than the others. He couldn't feel his hands or feet. He couldn't make them move. Racing to drain them dry bit him in the ass as his strength evaporated. The vampirism fighting to be there. The human stomach ready to throw up.
"Magna Grande Domus A La."
They spoke like a choir.
"Quadraginta Tabulae De Haut."
The two creatures still in the room started to vibrate, their eyes trying to find anything to focus on.
"Vale Amica Mae Puella."
Kol almost came to his senses, grabbing the nearest wall, letting its cold touch rush through him. Cool him down. Force his body to remember the temperature it was meant to be.
"Adieu Ma Fille."
Until the words were the only thing on his mind.
Catching the wolves in the tune of a song, not a spell, cast through the air, pulling on something deep inside the city. Not necessarily evil. Perhaps, the ancestors, possibly their own recently deceased.
Turning the eyes of humans gold and fingers into claws.
"Magna Grande Domus A La."
No matter how quickly they spoke, The Sisters couldn't catch the one who'd already got into the rest of the house. The only thing two of them could do was break from the chant, twisting their wrists up to cast a clear boundary spell on the facility. As long as magic was in the air, no one was getting out. No experiment was to survive without their permission.
"Quadraginta Tabulae De Haut."
Kol tried to translate the words – get a rough idea of how they'd controlled the hybrids, but a different rush of heat filled his system.
"Vale Amica Mae Puella."
No one else was being caught in the flow.
The song was for the once-wolves, Kol somehow tapping into it. Every hair on his body stood on its end, pores open like he might have been part of the casting, the sick in his stomach not vomit, but a sinking pool of power trying to force its way into his system. The pain from a second of that green stone against his skin like a static television screen that left him defenceless and flinching as he fought for the sound to die. To hear heartbeats. Breathing. Anything other than –
Magic.
"Adieu Ma Fille."
The two wolves moved in sync, like mere puppets on strings, hands plunging into their chests as Sam dove to try and intercept. Keep them alive. Have hope they hadn't lost their minds in that basement.
Only for MJ's screams to fill the air. Stefan's pleading audible.
The experiment's hands pulling at their own hearts, Sam only able to grab one wrist as they stood too far apart.
"Vale Amica Mae Puella."
The other dropped dead, the last beat of the leaking heart in its hand.
"Adieu – "
Kol suddenly felt a lot better, the tension in the air vanishing.
Rushing into the night like all of the warmth and power, and emotion had been sucked outside a barrier. Not the one they'd created, but the one The French Quarter was finally casting. Chanting on a loop. Waiting for a breakthrough. Enough of their members to be focused on one task, able to overpower the dark coven.
Each coven stood at a different meeting point.
Some had more volunteers than others – some had more members awake at such a stupid hour.
The power of the living, coming through for MJ, leaving no magic in the air of the estate.
"That..." The Sister in the middle looked around, "What's happening?"
The flick of a wrist did nothing.
Aya froze.
Kol's smile was evident as the storm inside him was momentarily dealt with.
"That would be the covens, mighty pissed off you have their elder," Kol was still tired and bleeding in a few places, but that didn't matter, "Prepared to die?"
Sam instantly re-grabbed the gun before anyone could dare to get it, protective magic wiped.
"No need to be so chivalrous, Samu," Kol goaded, "If all power has been halted, the white oak is also harmless."
It could still kill some of them, but Kol would wake right up.
Aya turned to run, only for Hayley to grab her arm, blood across her face as she'd been making her way through every person she recognised from her days of torture. The day she'd lost Jack. Making sure they didn't get to pass anything close to peacefully. Only to be cut off by Rayna Cruz jumping into the main room, covered in the blood of the people she'd slain to get there, locking eyes with Aya.
Both women only just diving out of the way to avoid being sliced.
A groan came from the water pools as Klaus and Elijah were given a window to wake up.
The Chambre De Chasse was technically grounded somewhere else. The train carriage it had been cast in, but as long as they were there, they could drift into consciousness. Depending on how long it took for The Sisters to overpower the covens.
"My name," MJ repeated, "Is Mira Jung Floare-Ruiz."
Still held against the wall, this time by Stefan, as he cradled her mending fingers and didn't let her look away from his eyes.
"I was born on August 16th 1992."
Breathing was difficult.
"New Orleans."
"You are the youngest of two," He rested his forehead on hers, "Second child of four."
"Second child of four."
The two tiny children she adored with her whole heart.
Who needed a big sister.
But why would they need someone like her? So easily tricked and played and manipulated through sob stories. Trapped in the basement and attic, and nightmare after nightmare, handing her heart to anyone who'd take it. Her best friend, someone who consistently showed why he couldn't be trusted. Why he couldn't know about her father – because he'd kill her father.
"You are an incredible photographer," He cupped her face, "And a musician."
The word cut like a knife.
Could MJ call herself such a thing anymore?
She hadn't touched an instrument in months, or at least, it didn't feel like she had. Elijah had returned her violin, and she'd played it a few times for Hope, but all the things she used to prioritise – hold on to her hope for the world – why was it so hard to keep things that mattered to her!
To do things she aligned with!
To break part of a fucking sire line so she didn't have to watch people die all at once.
Again.
"And a world-class know-it-all."
No laugh helped her find gravity that time.
The feeling of what MJ thought would be her last phone call with Ty replayed. How she'd dived into Kol. Listing off all the friends she'd spent a year growing so close to – people like Stefan who stood in a basement of ways to kill him when his girlfriend had just given birth – fighting for her.
Looking at her like she was all that mattered.
"And you are about to turn this place to dust and run before anyone can stop you."
"I am an incredible photographer," She felt her hands hit the wall, "And a musician."
She officially stripped the compulsion from her brain.
Klaus telling her to lay there and do nothing.
Feeling the rage in his words as she once again did everything to be the mature one. To push her anger down. To swallow her feelings – to do what she'd been trained to do by Ryos rather than ever follow through on her threats.
"And a world-class know-it-all."
Elijah and Klaus had been kneeling to her – burning up because of her.
And instead of making them pay! Instead of lashing out for the three days of hell he'd given her, the times he'd tried to choke her or rip out her insides, she'd fled to help people. She'd let him keep doing it. She'd let him ruin her summer and give her an identity crisis, slam her head into a table for lashing out, and taken off the hexed rune she'd punished him with, and let him talk to her like the things he'd done to her weren't worse than what Elena had done!
Elena had killed a guy MJ had known for three months.
Klaus had killed Carol.
Klaus was the reason Ric had died.
Klaus had bit Caroline, used Tyler, and ruined their lives constantly, and she'd just rolled over and let him do that to her like a fucking doormat. Like she was still Ryos's little toy to play with. Like she didn't deserve to burn the sire line to dust for everything he'd done to her and everyone around him.
For Hayley and Sam and their months cursed in the woods –
For Jackson's literal death and Cami's forced transformation –
"And I'm going to – "
A new power entered the building.
A lack of power.
The explosion bubbling under her skin dampened, the opposite of what MJ was about to let happen. No one was forcing her to shove it down anymore. No more taunting Klaus, pinning her to a wall as she begged for his mercy. Begged to kill three people – one of whom was one of the kindest soul MJ had ever met –
Palm flat against the stone, turning a burning red.
Stefan scanned her face for any sign of sanity. Any indication of whether the siphoning was a good or bad sign. Grateful it wasn't coming from him as he pressed her matted hair back and held their faces together. Forehead to forehead. Proximity. Hoping to give comfort –
Only for his features to morph.
Rather than pale blue, MJ was staring at a wild ocean, threatening to drown her. Riptides around her ankles as the Florida sky tore through the basement ceiling. Spinning like Alice falling down the rabbit hole, street life racing past. Whistling for cabs. Honking lines of traffic and giggling drunk pedestrians.
"Do you want them all to die, Mira?"
Voice oddly soft.
Klaus's face so close to hers, letting her watch as he peeled her apart in his mind.
Refusing to free her from the agony of that room.
"Do you think I'm joking?"
"Kill them all," She hissed back.
"Such big talk."
New York, blending into the shadows of the hybrid cells.
"Wonder if you mean it?"
MJ went to speak but stopped herself.
She stood there, playing with him. Risking her life, her friends, and innocent people, because she wanted to keep Stefan and Elena safe. She'd wanted to protect the few over the many when that had never been who she was. Because she'd let him in. Because he was in her head. Because she was already becoming who he wanted her to be, no matter how much of a fight she pretended to put up. Who she wanted to be had been so warped, not by vampirism, but by refusing to just –
Her hands slammed forward, sending the hallucination of Klaus straight into the stairs.
Stefan actually flying there.
The words booming through her hazed mind, able to feel the venom itching through her blood, too real to be siphoned. Every step turned red. Every heaving breath burned brighter. Whatever spell had been cast on the house was coming down with her. How dare they stop her from casting?
How dare they take away the one thing Klaus had forgotten?
"This isn't a negotiation."
Klaus didn't negotiate.
She'd been forced to take that role when they'd first come to the city because he wanted to piss everyone off and be king of the hill. And he'd gotten to fucking live like that because she'd bent over backwards, and taken hit after hit, and started parenting all the pack children.
Parenting.
PaReNtInG.
She might be about to be a parent.
And the person who'd come to save her had been Stefan? Where the hell were the search parties they released for Hayley every time she ignored them and went walkabout?
Where was any of the love Klaus claimed to have for her?
"You're just nature's mistake."
Stumbling up the stairs, MJ hit mud. Not stone. Not a greenhouse extension in an estate filled with fighting vampires to explain why her craving for enchanted blood was ready to throw a damn parade, but that same stupid town square. The same place Klaus had told her Carol's death was needed to keep them close.
Needed to make her his friend.
Playing her the way people always had.
"Oh, don't back down now!"
Only this time, the sky was dark, and people yelled her name as vampires moved to jump her hallucinating form. Hands coming up and rippling out to cause everything to freeze. No beating fire. No chance to let Esther shove her into it and watch her burn.
"Revel in the power of it!"
Hear her scream.
"Look at me, Mira."
If her toxin-filled brain was going to make her relive that moment?
No freezing at the sight of a raging red-door Elijah – no stillness at a rabid and humanity-less Kol – and no sympathy for a wailing Klaus.
Weak and alone, and terrified as his own mother –
Being stripped of his abilities the way he'd tried to lock hers.
If the ancestors had truly wanted him dead, why not kill him that night while the hybrid curse held him in a heightened state of vulnerability? Why leave him to terrorise the rest of history? Why blame her for never doing what they'd forgotten to?
"I guess I'll just have to start ripping heads off."
She'd had him weak – she had a way to make him weaker.
And instead of protecting her, instead of keeping herself safe – instead of hearing her out and remembering that MJ would have sacrificed everything for him, he'd compelled her to be immovable. To be trapped. To be locked in a cupboard until so much pain was riding along her senses that PTSD wasn't enough to describe it.
Clothes wrapped around her limbs as she stood in the cold air of Mystic Falls, trying to drag her right back into the earth. Burying her under the compulsion she'd only just stripped, some part of it still there, suffocating her because of him.
Because he viewed her like that –
He –
He –
He –
Esther.
Esether's screaming face lunging for her, MJ falling back into that fire, only to scream out louder, melding her body with the burning. The flames had always saved her. The mummified Esther, more bone than skin, burnt to dust in the heat.
In the real world, Kol tried to grab her.
He saw the blazing red around her feet, outlining her skin, sucking all of the French Quarter magic out of the earth, freeing The Sisters once more. Two of them bolted into the night, leaving the remainders to panic.
To deal with MJ, as her eyes rolled back in her head.
She stepped forward.
A wave of power rushed through the room, latching on to every hybrid in the house, their skin merely suits of plasticine, made to bend, only able to scream as each limb was used like wrapping paper. Klaus's form so sharply dragged about the water of the pool started to flood out, Sam and Hayley screaming, the two homemade ones in the space skinning their own necks until they ripped their own heads off.
Dropping dead.
Corpses continuing to spasm until they exploded into dust.
Sam and Hayley were released, heaped on the floor but alive, as Kol's grip on MJ's arm was shocked away. Her hands swung forward, forearms crossed, level with her head, slicing back down to either side, banishing any sound from the air.
The whites of her eyes turned pure gold, scars across her face flickering bright red.
People who loved her able to watch as The Strix attempted to scream. Locked in silence. Clawing at their own faces, twitching uncontrollably, flesh dripping down their bodies like wax until nothing but bones clattered to the floor throughout the estate.
The remaining Sisters were frozen in fear.
Trying to work out what to do.
Aya, their instructor, nothing more than remains.
Klaus's form still shooting in every direction as Elijah gasped back to life.
Scanning the situation.
Hayley and Sam on the floor, too weak to move. Kol battered away from MJ, her eyes far from their world, in the centre of the hurricane. While he'd been freed from the Chambre, Klaus, locked in some new torture.
He lunged, only for MJ's teeth to be faster, driving directly into his neck, holding him to her with one hand, pounding his chest with the other, smashing through ribs to burst a lung, glowing red inside of him. Siphoning, feeding, and revelling in finally caving to the addictions.
Dropping Elijah to the floor, just alive enough to watch her next move.
MJ only saw the blood-coated man from the woods, the bites up her arm growing at a rapid rate now they finally had a hit of blood, Stefan appearing from the basement. Rayna made the mistake of jumping, her head ripped off by MJ, and her sword dropped to the floor before she could even get close to her target.
Stefan swallowed at the bones across the floor.
At the bags under MJ's eyes.
The way she panted more like an animal, mind racing.
"We need to get her out of here," Marcel broke the silence.
"If you move," Stefan kept his voice steady, "She did this after the prison world."
Kol tried to think.
"She needed human contact."
What the hell did he count as at the moment?
MJ had clearly taken down the spell-stopping magic, throwing him back in pain as something played with his insides like pieces of string they could roll into a ball. But – but –
What if that wasn't a bad thing?
"Get them out of here then," Marcel motioned to Elijah and Klaus instead.
As Sam tried to push up, MJ screamed.
Any fleeing Strix, racing across the gardens, were struck down by a cannon arc of electricity, blistering skin, burnt to death. Staggering final steps too similar to sights she'd seen before. The burning of death.
"My witches are dead."
Chucked into the ground like abandoned apple cores, her torment about to last even longer. Free from the apartment but latched into Klaus Mikaelson's very being. Taken without a moment of hesitation. His will, forgetting hers –
Even when it was her heart to give.
Her heart.
"I'd like to know where Tyler Lockwood is myself."
That same forest centuries later.
The wake-up call that no matter how comfortable she acted around Klaus, he would not hesitate to take it all away. Take Carol away. Take her father away. Unless he was too busy running. Unless he remembered why he should fear her. She had spared him once – not an invitation to press her buttons, but a warning.
All the evenings she'd spent researching spells for other people instead of reading the grimoire Kol had given her.
Break a spell binding lives together.
Her speciality.
Free thousands of lives so she never had to think of the statistics ever again.
"Little bird."
How dare he take something meant to represent her mother and then shove her into the ground to choke on the dirt.
Her heart.
Her choices.
"It would make way more sense for the witch who cast the spell to have to die unlocking it."
MJ breathed in sharply; the suffocating silence returned; no way to communicate around the room, just a beating drum. A beating Kol knew. Her heartbeat so familiar. Dust in the air now visible. Not just dust, but specs of blood and water, suspended out of reality for just a moment as something slammed her over the head.
A memory that had technically started her on the path to discovering the sire line.
The realisation that had saved Tyler's life.
"Well, no. It makes sense if you follow witch logic.
To undo the magic of the witch, you drain the witch –
so why a doppelganger?"
MJ started to walk.
She couldn't see anything other than that firepit, Esther's face in the middle, wanting her children dead while also creating a spell that meant no one with a good conscience would allow them to be killed.
Dragging the crisped corpse up as the coals relit around them.
"Kat told me the curse was bound with Petrova blood. Not all of their blood. Some."
A woman who'd brought her so much pain.
"Klaus is a hybrid! Elena's still alive, and he's still a hybrid, meaning her death didn't matter."
The woman who'd created the demon who'd ruined her High School and scarred her beyond belief.
"Only her – "
Blood.
Not all of it.
Nowhere in the spell had it said Elena needed to die, just that Klaus needed to drink her blood. Esther lying. The woman in her hand, who'd tortured her, screwed with her, tried to take over her body and sent her to hell – and yet still got to find peace. Die saving her children –
Elena had never needed to die.
An un-sired heart had not existed, so while it may be the ingredient, how it was used was yet to be defined. It did not have to be dead. It just had to be there.
"MJ," Kol didn't know he couldn't be heard, "Stop."
All watching as she stepped into the pool.
Klaus's body finally stilling, holes appearing across his arms to fill the pool with blood.
Wrapping her hand around Klaus's throat as he regained consciousness. Arms splashed water up as he tried to fight, the specs of life they could all see falling to the ground like hail, re-igniting noise in the world.
Proving that they were real.
This was reality.
MJ's glow crushed his vocal cords as she set the city free, siphoning only from him.
"MJ," Hayley stepped, only to feel a pulse of electricity, Sam knocking her out of its path, feeling the sting himself.
Marcel torn.
Watching as she opened her mouth.
Watching as Kol reached forward, Elijah shoving to his feet, unable to focus, still on his last legs, the remaining Sisters intervening, hands up to leave both brothers screaming in agony. Watching in awe.
"He didn't need to drink all of it," MJ spoke, "You heinous bitch – you cost us lives – "
Her entire body was practically bleeding, but she was more powerful than ever.
She was Mira Jung Floare-Ruiz, and she was going to make them kneel.
Her left hand was round Klaus's throat, her second driving into her chest, gripping her own heart in her palm.
"If you want to believe the worst in me?"
Their time in ritual spent ignoring her.
"After everything I've done for you!"
Targeted, on a loop, for being the witch who broke the hybrid curse.
The seventeen-year-old forced to pick between nature and the people she loved.
Constantly arguing in the defence of saving him because of the sire line, only to be treated like that?
"I'll be the worst."
Eye whites lost the gold, as orange was concentrated into her irises.
"Nemo Unus Animabus Carnem."
MJ was so sick of being all threats with no follow-through.
"Confractus Sanguinis Vinculum."
Why should she fear for everyone's lives all the time?
"Nemo Unus Animabus Carnem."
Why should she protect that family when Klaus had been willing to leave her like that?
"Confractus Sanguinis Vinculum."
When every face in her vision was Esthers.
Or Ryos.
Or Klaus, holding her to a wall by her stomach –
"Nemo Unus Animabus Carnem."
Holding Carol into a fountain.
"Confractus Sanguinis Vinculum."
Forcing her to kill Jenna – compelling her to –
"Nemo Unus Animabus Carnem."
Kai had made fun of her.
He'd told her the worst hadn't happened yet because she still had hope. She'd still called Klaus. She'd run to New Orleans and screamed out, breaking down at the prospect he wouldn't be able to find her there – and that hope was destroying her. Holding her down.
The Floare kept telling her that as long as MJ protected The Mikaelsons, her magic would never be healed.
Never cast spells on the level of her mother and brother.
Never turn the world to dust until they stop using her like a footnote.
"Confractus Sanguinis Vinculum."
Elijah yelled like he might break her concentration, failing miserably, then lunging. The last thing in Kol's vision was his eldest brother reaching to tear out the throat of his true love – making it so she didn't have the words to finish the spell.
Knowing that wouldn't be enough.
Knowing he'd snap her neck to stop it.
He'd watched Elijah do it once, and he'd been powerless –
"Nemo Unus Animabus Carnem."
Kol screeched as Elijah's hands found MJ, every light in the room exploding as the build-up of pressure he'd dubbed sickness let itself out.
It hadn't been sickness.
It had been screaming.
"Confractus Sanguinis Vinculum."
Screaming power, telling him when magic was about to be cast. Not Kaleb's senses, but his own. Passing through a barrier like a witch rather than an original vampire meant to be kept out. Unable to keep blood down and momentarily walking momentarily.
Not healed, not even close.
But given a window of opportunity, pure panic was not about to pass up.
"Nemo Unus Animabus Carnem."
Elijah was slammed into the floor by his outburst, Kol rushing forward, trying to pull MJ's hand out of her chest before it was too late. Only to find himself shot towards the basement door, head smacking into it so hard it cracked open and left him blacked out.
"Confractus Sanguinis Vinculum."
The world seemed to boom as Klaus's body was dropped into the pool.
MJ gasped awake as Marcel and Stefan's skin flashed red, collapsing to their knees, gagging on air as Hayley and Sam's eyes went wide. Klaus, moving yet unconscious, the water like a thin plastic layer, leaving him struggling as a millennium of protective magic was stripped.
MJ's hand pulled out of her chest.
Heart still inside.
The open wound added to the staining of red, coating her flesh like a taunting tattoo. Breathing in. Processing. Spinning in a daze as she sunk into the water, hands floating next to Klaus's form as she used the last of her strength to save her life.
Lapping up his blood and placing a hand over her stomach.
She was going to pass out if she didn't find more power.
The store that wasn't hers.
The proof of life.
Her other hand raced to the bite marks, siphoning them as she started to be sane enough to do the maths. Work out how long she had left. Determination to not collapse was the only thing keeping her going. Not stopping till there was nothing left to siphon but herself. Free of wolf venom. Free of the forest floor and Esther's corpse.
Finally seeing Klaus.
Panic hitting harder.
The power in her stomach was not enough motivation but a symbol of something else. MJ was about to die. Not from wolf venom. Not from exhaustion – but from her own choices. Her own path if she did not think quick. If she did not find a way to survive.
The way she'd been trained to.
Embrace the voices in her head that had always been darker than she liked to admit.
Willing to use a potential baby in a way in never should, searching the city for the matching heartbeat. For the rush of earth and ice – the mix of Klaus and Hayley. Genetics she could tap into so easily enhanced as Elijah used a wall to stand up once more, utterly thoughtless on what the hell to do as she started to cast yet another spell.
"Konekte Lavi Lyen Ti Bebe."
Hayley jumped as a hair was ripped from her head, MJ snatching one from Klaus and ran it through the water.
"Liy Fanmi Kenbe Mew Vivan."
The lights Kol had destroyed all jumped back to life, flickering like candles.
"Konekte Lavi Lyen Ti Bebe."
The water split across the floor started to swirl into symbols Hayley recognised, eyes widening.
"Liy Fanmi Kenbe Mew Vivan."
"MJ – "
"Fèmen."
They were back to darkness as MJ rose to her feet, facing Elijah, eyes entirely filled, fighting between red and black, veins clearer in her cheeks than they had ever seen before.
"Anything you do to me..."
Lifting her hands like they were pointing guns at her.
"...Now happens to Hope."
Everything around her was blurry, two or three forms of faces she recognised, as the sounds of New Orleans finally overpowered the forest entirely. Half-convinced she was still about to die.
Casting one of the most powerful spells in the world should be followed by rest, not another spell.
A biological linking spell.
Meaning no Mikaelson could risk doing anything to her in panicked retaliation. Letting her eyes close. Not passing out in pain, simply falling asleep. Giving her body what it needed after a hell of a few days. Floating next to Klaus's unconscious form.
Together.
The way they always seemed to end up.
Mentally, MJ was still in Mystic Falls. Even with the wolf bites healed, there was a lingering. Part of her that didn't understand where she was, or what was happening, or what she'd done. Simply in the Pethane mess.
Not bitten by mock hybrids, but experiencing a test.
The truth of the Mikealson's.
Was she not free yet? Was her magic not fixed? Could she not wake up?
Marcel and Stefan pulled themselves up, Klaus's near-desiccated skin too similar to death, Sam gripping the gun filled with the way to kill him. Staring at it.
Feeling it in his fingers.
Klaus's injuries started to heal.
Elijah stepped into the water, placing a foot on MJ's throat, shaking with rage as he couldn't look away from Klaus –
"Elijah!" Hayley vamped to yank him back, "Did you not hear what she said?"
"She's bluffing," He could only see red.
He could only hear the creak of a hinge.
Betrayal so strong it stomped out any focus he might've had for Aya if she had not already been turned to bone.
"That spell would've killed her if not – "
Cut off by the sound of Sam cocking the gun.
He pointed it directly at Elijah's chest, hand steady, no more spell to keep the white oak powerless.
Hayley's panic flipped between every face.
"Samu..."
"You don't get to call me that," He didn't blink, "Step away."
Whether it was loyalty to his friend or a supernatural power telling him something bad would happen to Hope if he didn't intervene...
As Elijah slowly did as instructed, Stefan moved quick. Snatching MJ's body from the water, hearing her gasp awake, then vanishing into the early morning. The sunrise over the field of bodies she'd left. The broken glass of the beautiful bloodstained house.
The great big house in New Orleans.
Sam didn't move, the weapon still aimed even with the risk gone.
Silence.
Dead silence.
Broken as Klaus rushed awake, pushing up.
Rapid blinking.
Taking it the destruction.
Taking in his own body – all the exhaustion, pain, and the snipping of silver string that once held so much magic to him gone.
"I felt them leave," He met Elijah's eyes, "My sire line is broken."
His elder brother stepped weakly back into the water, barely on two feet himself, offering Klaus a hand, only for them both to fall back to the floor in a massive splash.
Expecting more help.
Their rescue team, the only people alive to watch, too scared to move.
Until Sam saw Clio.
Her heart was still beating, but she had passed out from exhaustion, and she was lying there as the perfect target for Klaus's incoming rage?
The only Pethane he truly knew? The woman keeping Davina alive and free from their mess?
Sam was gone as fast as Stefan, taking Clio's body and the white oak gun with him.
~***~
Stefan let MJ fling herself out of his arms as they fell into the Bayou woods, her choking on air, desperately spinning, collapsing to the floor and slamming her fists down over and over.
Something was wrong – something Stefan could at least try and help with.
"Here," He locked her hands around his wrist, "MJ – "
Cut off by the pain as she took.
Magic low, despite having spent most of the fight siphoning everything she came into contact with, just about managing to sober up as Stefan felt the need to shove her back. Removing herself and breathing in. Falling back to lie on the floor.
Palms down to scrape the March mud into her fingernails and find her centre.
Stefan gently moved to sit with her, carefully rubbing her bleeding shoulders.
Watching how the dead leaves and sticks among the mud started to crumple up as her flesh melded back together. A mix of a healing factor and magic. Natural Floare magic. Healing spells she hadn't been able to use, let alone felt comfortable using in months.
MJ felt the mud turn hard and dry.
She sat up and burst into tears, legs pulled to her chest as pins and needles raced up her fingers, the reality of everything setting in. Trying to understand it. Justify her feelings. Hearing Pri's list, but knowing this was different.
This wasn't a branch of Elijah; this was Klaus's entire sire line.
Someone she'd thought of as her closest friend.
Her hope.
Her last string of living.
And where the hell was Kol?
If she hadn't seen him – if he hadn't come, something terrible must've happened to him, or something had been going on, and she couldn't risk racing back to The Compound to check because she'd just broken Klaus's sire line.
Every breath in felt undeserved.
Why did the universe let her breathe when she was capable of doing such awful things?
Why did it let her sense the life in her stomach?
Why did it throw everything at her at once – why did she have to stand in a Mystic Falls hospital only to be seemingly betrayed by a family member upon returning to her home city, compelled by someone she trusted the world to, treated like an enemy, locked in a basement, fed to hybrid wolves – and – and –
Every sob was like sandpaper, Stefan moving opposite her, arms wrapping over her shoulders to let MJ bury her face into his chest. Rubbing down her back and letting her hide despite the fact he needed to be using Rayna's death as a chance to get as far away as possible.
"MJ," He whispered, "Thank you."
"No – "
"Need me to tell you who you are again?"
"I – "
"Because I will," He cupped her face, "I will bring you back to earth however many times you need."
MJ sobbed harder.
"Because I know you'd do it for me."
How could someone hold her like she was the only thing that mattered?
"And everyone."
How could a friend trust her when she'd just turned on her closest one?
"And because this life is tough," He brushed thumbs over her cheeks, "And I know a million things are going on in your mind – "
"There's so much – " Her body trembled, "I just have – "
Adrenaline pumping so fast through her veins that it made her head hurt.
It needed to move.
She needed to move.
But she couldn't move because the universe liked to be funny, and when superpowering her with fear and stress and the high of casting one of the biggest spells since the hybrid curse, she also needed to feel the weight of gravity. The weight of her actions. Choke on the metaphorical gym bar being pressed into her neck by Kaus's raging gold eyes.
No sword anymore.
Just them.
Tearing her to pieces, able to picture it so perfectly her skin was practically crawling off her body like bugs could still pop out at any second.
"This – "
"But, MJ," He pressed her hands still, "Let it happen."
Not what she'd expected him to say.
"Feel every second of it."
The crushing of her lungs left her a spluttering mess, panic at the levels she hadn't felt since she was human. Since she'd seen Ryos's face in the window of The Cauldron, leaving her practically catatonic as she could do nothing other than fall into Stefan. No more tears. No more sobs. Just the world spinning at twice the speed it was meant to until she was going to throw up, Stefan pointing her to the side and holding her as she did.
Tracing a finger over her spine.
Reminding her that it was there.
That she could breathe out, and his hands would guide her back to his chest. Hugging warmly. Pressing his nose into the nook of her neck so she could feel breath across her skin.
Breathing.
Inhala.
Exhala.
She was alive, uninjured, and able to breathe.
"I haven't hit throw-up levels in forever," She let the last of the panic attack exit through her toes, "I..."
Jordan had always talked about tying emotions to different parts of her body and shaking them out.
While the method had never stopped a spiral, it certainly made the end of them feel nicer. Almost funny to picture. Like MJ was simply doing a little dance rather than questioning whether she deserved to be alive.
"Stefan..."
He just held her tighter, eyes flittering shut against her skin.
Allowing MJ to let herself go. Let him hold them up in that half-hug as hot tears once again threatened to fall.
"You just did a ridiculously good thing," He repeated, "After everything Klaus has done – It's okay."
"It's not."
"It's going to be okay," Stefan repeated, "It will be."
The familiarity of his voice was a comfort MJ hadn't realised she'd needed. She hadn't had a chance to crash since she left the hospital, and she'd had practically no time with him while in Mystic Falls, and the things she'd passed on to help with his hallucinations seemed to be working. No hell-tainted Stefan. Just her Stefan. Her friend.
Someone who'd taken a massive risk to help rescue her.
MJ pulled away from the position.
"Everyone is going to be looking for you," He reminded her, "Not to kill you."
MJ breathed in slowly.
"To thank you."
Elijah still had quite a big sire line.
Logically, there would've been some Strix not on the grounds, or some who had yet to fly in to celebrate freedom, who would all want a piece of the pie, and MJ didn't know if she had the life to cast it again. And no one else would have the power to pull it off. Not now that practically all of The Sisters were dead.
MJ's eyes met Stefan's blue.
"Everyone is going to be on your side."
"Except for the entire Mikaelson family."
He let himself just nod.
"The people who treated me like family – "
"Being treated like a Mikaelson isn't necessarily a good thing."
"Because treating people the way the Salvatores treat each other is any better?"
He smiled, "There you go."
MJ almost laughed.
"Who do you wanna be like then?"
She let her shoulders slump.
She was safe. They couldn't hurt her if she kept Hope's life tied to hers...
But she also wasn't about to walk through The Compound demanding to talk to Kol because she'd technically just confirmed that they were pregnant...
MJ had never wanted to be pregnant.
She'd never wanted to be a mother.
All the static started racing through her arms again, Stefan shifting closer to take her hand, squeezing.
"What's wrong?"
"My dad's," She answered, "I wanna be a Jung."
Just a simple human family who didn't get taken hostage, manipulated, or tortured.
Who just had jobs, and smiles, and love in their hearts.
Who could take her trembling arms and actually give her breath.
"I – I – my dad's."
"Want me to take you there?"
Nodding rapidly.
The only thing she was able to do.
The only person who might understand what she was feeling if she was finally brave enough to say the words out loud. Brave enough to realise she'd just broken any relationship any kid she might have could have with its family. Destroyed her relationship with someone who'd repeatedly saved her life.
Who'd compelled her to be weak and left her in a basement to be taken.
Fuck Klaus.
Fuck everything.
~***~
Kol woke up in the study, lying on the couch, as his family talked around him. He didn't jolt up. He didn't gasp dramatically awake as life was returned to his undead form. Instead, he felt a dripping down his forehead.
Blood.
He pushed up, only to almost instantly collapse back down, his siblings freezing.
"Kol," Klaus's hands hooked under his armpits to keep him up, "And you're awake."
"What's..." He couldn't focus on their faces, "Where's..."
"You still have no idea what's happening to him?" Elijah spoke to Freya, "The spell you cast – "
"Woke him up," She reasoned, "He is healing."
The open wound was getting smaller before their eyes.
But the blotching grey skin had only grown. The black veins surrounding Kol's heart now poked out from under his shirt, the sign of death, yet he just kept waking up.
"Can you hear us?" Klaus slowly let him return to lying down, "Do – "
"MJ," He mumbled, "Where's – "
"Gone with the wind," Freya answered.
His heart jumped.
It couldn't be true.
MJ wouldn't have just left him there for no reason.
"Do you remember – "
"MJ," He tried to roll, "I need to see – "
Falling smack onto the floor, Klaus vamping in front of him, staring into his eyes like he expected to see black magic written in them.
"See – "
"You are staying right here," He pulled his brother back onto the sofa, "And far away from – "
"You – "
"Kol," Elijah tried, "You interrupted the spell."
Even if he'd somehow cast a spell to shove Elijah away from her, to them, it still looked like he'd actually done that to stop her. Elijah caught in the middle. Kol throwing himself directly into the firing line to save Klaus's sire line.
"She cracked your head open."
"She..."
Everything started to turn bright again.
Balls of light burned his retinas, leaving him still wide awake but unresponsive.
"There we go."
A woman he didn't know ran a hand through his hair.
"It is a beautiful light, really."
"Kol," Freya instantly shook him, "Don't do that."
"Do what," He mumbled.
"The spirits..."
He let himself rub the spots, trying to distinguish between his sister's face and the taunting woman.
"We are going to save you all."
"In my experience," Klaus murmured, "White means possessed."
"We have always been here to save you from her."
Freya was instantly muttering under her breath.
"You have to understand – "
Kol finally gasped up, everything still spinning, but colour seeping back into every surface like it had never been lost. No one watching on but his family.
Only one thought on his mind.
MJ.
Where was MJ?
What had happened, why had she run, and why did his siblings look so conflicted every time he said her name.
"Here," Freya's tone softened, "Why don't we get you to a bed while I do something about that little moment?"
He couldn't speak.
He couldn't even move himself, Klaus lifting to follow his sister towards his second room in the building. His main room. The room without MJ's fingerprints all over it, even if she had stayed in it so many times through the summer. None of the magic. Just a room. Laying him down as Freya started to light some protective candles, working out what she could do to help while he drifted in and out of consciousness.
"I need to find MJ."
Drawing a symbol on his forehead to banish ancestral magic.
"I – I – "
~***~
Klaus waited until the following day. Till his bones no longer creaked with every bend. Till he could breathe without worrying his lungs would explode under the pressure.
Then, he stepped outside.
He moved faster than he had in centuries, like Mikael was still on his trail, coming to a stop in the cemetery, giving Aurora his final message before bricking her up in a tomb no one would be able to enter ever again. Not unless Cami wished to ever see her and kill her herself.
...Now that Cami was seemingly talking to them again post-attack with Hayley.
Only to leave the tomb and find Stefan waiting for him.
"So..." The younger vampire greeted, "The spell worked."
Klaus grimaced.
"We survived," He listed, "And we saved you."
"Mm."
"Would you believe me if I said I was sad I didn't run into you when I arrived?" Stefan leant against the stone, "As much as I was coming for MJ's help."
Watching how he tensed at the name.
"Couldn't bring myself to leave without seeing you..." Stefan glanced at the blue sky, "Am I too optimistic in thinking we'll never see each other again?"
"That depends," Klaus walked towards him, "I have been kept somewhat updated on your life."
"You did always love to know."
"Are you going to do the right thing?"
"And what do you mean by that?"
"Caroline gave birth two days ago," Klaus checked his watch mockingly, "And you are here."
"Because this is about me and Caroline?"
Klaus just lifted his eyebrows.
"I love her," Stefan sighed, "I know that you did once, too – and I promise."
As hard as it was to promise sometimes.
"I will only do right by her."
"And by yourself?"
Stefan hesitated.
"Will you do what is right for you," Klaus lulled, "Or will you continue to do what is right for others?"
Quiet.
The cemetery was always an odd place for Klaus, the spirits holding a slight pull to interact but not blocking him out the way they used to. No Deveraux spell, keeping dividing lines in place.
Even if the person who wanted them to work together had just created the biggest divide of all.
"Thank you," Klaus filled the air, "For coming to the rescue."
"You know," Stefan shifted, "There's someone else you should be thanking."
"Marcel had to fight for me for his own – "
"Hayley," Stefan held up a hand, "For some reason, she cares about you."
Klaus bit his cheek.
"Enough to risk her own life," He stressed, "So take your own advice. And do right by her."
A beat.
"And do you want to talk about the elephant in the room?"
"We are in a cemetery, not a room, Stefan – "
"MJ has been through hell because of you," He wasn't leaving town without saying something, "Whatever you did?"
"What I – "
"To make her mad enough to do that," Stefan finished, "Whatever it was...you know she'll forgive you."
Klaus tried to understand what point he was trying to make.
"You can drown the first mother-figure she's had since her actual mum."
Maci the only person who might otherwise count.
"And she still moves here, fights to make this place happy for your daughter."
Mystic Falls had all listened to enough of both Bonnie's stories from watching over her while dead and Ric's stress rants about how he didn't understand their relationship.
"I know you," Stefan lowered his voice, "Better than most."
One of the few 'friends,' even if his humanity had been off.
"Let yourself forgive her too."
Klaus curled his lips in.
"Because if you don't?" He was shaking his head, "You hurt her? I find out you ever compel her again?"
Klaus froze.
"Thought no one would notice?"
If anyone was going to, it was the guy Klaus had also compelled despite claiming friendship.
"You leave her curled up in a basement ever again?"
A dark look that usually only appeared on Stefan Salvatore's face when he gave into the ripper.
"Our lives aren't tied together anymore."
A fun threat.
"Part of you will always love Caroline? Part of me will always love MJ."
Platonic or not, it didn't matter.
It was just love.
Strong in him and determined to not make the same mistakes.
"And I'm not leaving if I think you're gonna hurt her."
"Assuming the threat in that is Rayna Cruz," Klaus scanned him, "Tied to you."
"Got more paste on."
His family had caught Klaus up.
"She can't track me," Stefan assured him, "For now."
He anticipated a stare-off, only for Klaus to not entertain it, glancing to the sky.
"Mira was told that she needed to see the truth in my family," Klaus let his shoulders drop, "And by that, they meant the truth in me."
Stefan started to hesitate.
"That I am a monster who will always destroy."
Trapped in the Pethane spell with her.
"Her loyalty to me was going to be the end of her."
"So what?" Stefan tried to follow, "You did the worst thing you could think of?"
Klaus had seen how the magic could damage her.
"Hoping that would end the witch interference inside her?"
Klaus simply shrugged.
"...And it cost you your sire line."
"The act cannot simply be forgiven."
"But you technically caused your own 'downfall.'"
The regret on Klaus's face was complicated, leaving Stefan unsure if it was over his actions or what he'd lost because of them. And, what specifically he'd lost.
"She would never die at my hand, Stefan," Klaus murmured, "I intended for her to be out of the way, not tortured."
Stefan let himself stand down slightly, "You didn't bite her."
"No," He mused, "But the universe does like to laugh at good deeds."
"Most good deeds don't involve compulsion."
"Sometimes it spices things up," Klaus forced a smile, "If you ever want a drink?"
"I highly doubt it."
Klaus offered him a hand, "Take care of yourself."
Stefan took it, shaking firmly.
"Old friend."
Stefan just let out a weak laugh, picking up a backpack from the ground and turning. Walking out of New Orleans, having spent his morning with MJ and her family, ready to run before Rayna was resurrected and started slaughtering through any of MJ's loved ones.
Leaving Freya to approach her brother.
Watching as he turned woozy, resting against the tomb wall.
"What's wrong with me?" He groaned.
"You haemorrhaged an enormous amount of mystical energy," Freya rubbed his shoulder affectionately, "Enough to create a Nexus Vorti – don't worry. We only have one magically cursed brother currently."
Klaus tried to take that as a good sign, "Where did all that energy go?"
"Yet to be seen," Freya's expression dipped.
"What's wrong?"
"Kol's missing."
Klaus tensed.
"I left him for five minutes, and he somehow got himself out."
"He's barely able to walk."
"Well, we know where he's probably gone," Freya was trying not to be too concerned, "Wherever MJ's hiding."
"Her apartment was empty," Klaus had checked.
"Check again for him."
"Assuming you've tried tracking?"
"He vanished off the map," She revealed, "The witches are messing with him."
Klaus started to move, "Or one of his witch friends cloaked him."
"Niklaus – "
"We need to find him."
"One of you needs to find Sam," Freya called after him, "I can't track him either, and he's the one with white oak."
Klaus spun, eyes wide, gesturing out at the location they stood in.
Freya realised her slip-up.
"We'll find them both."
While The Mikaelson's had always been practically a group of wild animals, they'd stayed together. But that bond was as fragile as glass sometimes. And if MJ had fled?
Kol may never be seen again.
~***~
MJ was racing around her father's house, Ryan and Serena watching cautiously. Not sure whether they should stop her and ask what had happened or wait until all the magic was cast. They'd gotten somewhat familiar with MJ's protection charms since the summer; they knew that's what she was doing to every room, but still...
What did she think they suddenly needed protection from?
Arriving covered in blood, the sound of the door woke them both up, only to be introduced to Stefan; left to talk to him while she showered and changed – but changing didn't stop them from having seen the state. And drinking tea with him until the sun rose also didn't prevent them from seeing how she twitched at every slight abnormality in the air. Temperature changes. The radio flicking on as an alarm. The streetlamps waning with each creaking of a door.
Finally, MJ stilled on the stairs to bid Stefan goodbye, then sank, head in her hands.
Serena gently approached, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and joining her on the steps. She heard the scratch in her throat as MJ breathed in. Letting herself rest into the woman as she stroked up her side, Ryan watched from the kitchen and started cooking breakfast.
Both tried to determine if MJ needed a bed or to see the siblings they were about to wake up. Little bundles of joy that might snap her back to reality.
Everyone jumped when something slammed into the front door.
It wasn't so much an attack, more a collapse, MJ lurching up before anyone could stop her, eye in the peephole.
Stilling.
"Mierda."
"Language – "
"Kol – " MJ swung the door open, catching his body as it collapsed inwards, "Kol."
Ryan skidded into the corridor, freezing, Serena's face turning pale.
Kol Mikaelson's skin was deathly pale, blotches of grey running up his arm and neck, thick grey lines marking out veins in those areas, and his forehead sweaty. Brown eyes flicked between familiar and glowing white as he gasped for air – for anything. Clutching at her arms.
"MJ – "
"Oh my god," She dragged him inside, "Kol – "
"You're – "
"Lespri Klé Geri Kó."
"...okay...you're – "
"Pouvwa Soti Nan Mwen Pou Ou."
"...Pregnant..."
"Lespri Klé Geri Kó."
His eyes flittered shut, caving to her spell.
"Pouvwa Soti Nan Mwen Pou Ou."
Hand on his forehead, MJ felt his mind clear, knocking him into a healing sleep. She had no idea if it would be enough, but it was the first spell to fall from her lips, cradling Kol close and scanning his features. His eyes bloodshot when she pulled the lids back to check for any darkness, heartbeat thumping rapidly, overheating like she'd never felt before.
An oh-so-familiar pain was stabbing her in the chest.
Half of her heart was once again dying in her arms, and she had no clue what to do about it.
a/n: MJ did promise to wipe the Strix out if they tried anything...
We bout to get into some of my favourite little chunks of story. As a heads up, MJ about to be so avoiding her problems till they go away - and, also, a while back, i mentioned my laptop issues...
I've lost ten chapters worth of stuff, so I'm gonna try to be better with updates over Christmas, but if I'm focused on rewriting that stuff, editing the chapters I still have/updating might slow down etc
Hope everyone's having a nice break
Remember to comment and vote!!
Bea xxx