Rose cries out in pain when she sits upright and quickly touches her face only to find it smoother and scarless.
She eyes her clothes too and finds that she's in a long, flowing green gown. She finally starts to take in everything around her in wonder and shock when she sees that she's in a clearing of some sort.
But it stretched on for miles on end and it looked like there were no sign of life anywhere.
"Hello?!" She shouts before taking off in a sprint, searching for something, anything in this hell. "Hello?!" She keeps screaming but no matter how far she runs she keeps coming back to the same spot.
It's no use.
She's only running around in circles. She screams angrily at this as she falls onto her knees, sobbing as she does.
"I'm never going to leave this place" she realises solemnly.
~Fall on me~
Bonnie freezes in her steps when she sees her blonde best friend standing on her porch with her back turned to her.
She can't help recalling the last thing Caroline said to her just before Kol daggered her.
(Flashback)
Caroline stares at Bonnie with wide fearful eyes when she sees the trio walking into the room.
Bonnie was at the front with Rose by her right side and Kol on her left.
"Bonnie?" She says, using her frightened voice to try and manipulate her best friend when she sees the dagger that Kol was holding. "Bonnie, no!" She begs fearfully.
"I'm sorry Care" Bonnie says solemnly, "it's the only choice. I can't lose you" she adds. "I promise I'll let you out myself when I find a way to save your life" she promises with eyes blurred by her unshed tears.
"I'll never forgive you if you let this happen!" Caroline screams at her, "I won't!" She adds firmly.
"I'm sorry" Bonnie repeats.
(Flashback ends)
"Care?" She says slowly and hesitantly. Caroline turns to face her with her bright signature smile but it falls when she sees the tears in Bonnie's eyes.
Bonnie's whole face was red but her nose was the reddest.
"What's wrong Bon?" She asks worriedly, closing the gap between them in the blink of an eye and engulfing Bonnie in a tight hug as Bonnie sobs brokenly in her best friend's arms.
Relief courses through her veins but so does unimaginable sadness.
She's happy to have Caroline back but she's heartbroken to have lost Rose to achieve that.
Rose had become something of a mentor and a friend.
"Rose is gone" Bonnie reveals to her. "She's dead" she adds brokenly as Caroline gasps aloud as she draws back from embracing Bonnie to search her eyes for truth.
"Poor Klaus" she says sadly, "he must be so sad" she adds.
She recalls the looks shared between Klaus and Rose so she can't imagine Rose's death to be easy for him.
~Fall on me~
"Feeling a little stuck?" Maximus' 'amused' voice questions from behind her as she whips her head to face him.
Relief surfaces at the sight of him and she can't help but leap into his arms as she seeks solace in his arms.
"Max" she whispers in evident relief.
"Whoa!" He says, taken aback by the action. No one has ever hugged him before. "This is...unexpected" he says as he pats her back awkwardly as she snorts in his embrace.
Trust him to be as emotional as a rock in such a situation as this.
"How are you here?" She asks him, suspecting that she's going mad and he's just a figment of her imagination.
Why would her mind conjure up Max of all people though? Maybe because he warned her about what would happen if she continued defying the demons.
"I was sent here to get you" he says to her as she draws back from his embrace in shock. That doesn't sound right...
"What?"
"Your mother" he says as her eyes widen in shock at his words.
Her mother had been the one to banish her to Earth as punishment for her actions of brining Kol back to life.
Why would she want to help her now all of a sudden?
"Let's go" he says as he draws a rune on his hand with his scythe before doing the same on hers.
Rose stares at the familiar rune in disbelief just as she feels it's magic surround her.
They join hands and the magic swirls around them both before teleporting them to the Reaper Plane.
~Fall on me~
"Nik? Niklaus what are you doing?!" Rebekah shouts both fearfully and sadly when her brother starts to fight with Kol.
They can all see that he was as unhinged as can get following Rose's death.
"Niklaus..." Elijah says as Kol glares at Klaus from across the room.
They had already laid waste to half the items in the living room and there was a crazed look in Klaus' eyes. A crazed look that they knew all too well but this time there was more to it.
"He betrayed me to stand with the Bennett witch" Klaus tells them, referring to when Kol stood in front of Bonnie protectively when Klaus demanded that she bring Rose back in a growl. "the same person that took Rose from me!" He screams angrily as his eyes glow golden. "You're a traitor Kol" he adds. "You chose an outsider over your own family" he tells his brother who glares back at him with open defiance.
"How many times have you done that Nik?" Kol asks him bitterly.
"I have never picked anyone over any of you!"
"Oh come off it" Kol says dryly, "you've always picked strangers over us. When you had your little hybrid army we were nothing but an inconvenience in your eyes" Kol says to him.
"I built that army to protect us!" Klaus screams. They've had this argument before and just like before they can all tell that it's going to turn ugly.
"Niklaus, isn't what Rose would've–" Rebekah starts, trying to get through to him.
"Don't talk to me about Rose, Rebekah!" He screams at his sister as she flinches at the harshness of his tone. "None of you knew Rose like I knew her. She was my whole heart. My mate" he adds, looking like he may collapse weakly at any moment from then.
None of his siblings argue with that statement. And none of them move to assist him because they know him all too well.
"Which is why I'm doing this and if either of you stand by Kol then you stand against me" he informs them firmly as he sets his eyes on Kol in determination.
"Niklaus, enough is enough" Elijah says with a sigh as Klaus faces him with a look of hurt and betrayal.
Elijah has always stood by his side, citing that all he wanted was Klaus redemption. Well Rose had been that for him so there was no use in anything else now that she's gone.
"I will not allow you to dagger Kol. Not without going through me first" he adds with finality.
For far too long he has watched his brother dagger their siblings.
Kol looks genuinely surprised by Elijah's words because he's always figured that his siblings wouldn't hesitate to turn against him as he was the 'unstable one'.
"Then you will also fall by my hand" Klaus growls out bitterly before attacking Kol only for Elijah to intercept his attack.
"Elijah!" Rebekah screams as Klaus staggers back from his brother with shock in his eyes before it gets replaced by a blank look as Kol catches Elijah as he starts to dessicate.
"Brother please" Elijah manages to plea out before his skin completely desiccates.
Klaus stares at him with dead eyes as Kol lays his brother on the ground gently before lifting his eyes angrily to face Klaus who had another dagger in his hands, ready to take him down too.
"Kol run!" Rebekah begs him as more tears stream down her face when she finally realises that Klaus was on a daggering spree.
None of them would be spared. Rose's death has brought back the Niklaus that they all hated and feared.
The Niklaus who didn't care who stood in his way because he would simply lay waste to all of them, family or foe.
"I will not" Kol says defiantly. There is no way that he is going to run from Niklaus. Never again. He's done living his life in fear of his brother. "Do what you think makes you happy" he says as he opens his arms grandly as if expecting Klaus to dagger him at any moment. "But know this Niklaus...when I am undaggered then I will never be your victim again" he adds seriously.
"Nik...please..." Rebekah pleas with him in a hoarse tone of voice but her please fall on deaf ears as Klaus attacks Kol only for Kol to defend himself at the last minute as the two brothers go head to head.
Kol holds his own against Klaus, nearly overpowering him for a second but Klaus's hybrid status helps him out and he eventually manages to dagger Kol.
His brother makes no sound as he merely glares back at him with defiant brown eyes.
"Kol!" She screams sadly.
His skin dries up and starts to dessicate as he freezes stiffly in Klaus' arms before his head falls limply onto Nik's shoulder as his brother cups the back of his head with a heartbroken expression on his face and the glistening of tears in his eyes.
His brothers betrayed him. They defied him. And in his eyes that warrants for one thing.
"What have you done?!" Rebekah says in horror as she backs away from her brother as he lays Kol onto the ground gently beside Elijah.
Klaus doesn't respond and Rebekah grabs the nearest items closest to her: Bonnie Bennett's grimiores and takes off and surprisingly her brother doesn't give pursuit.
Clearly, in all his cockiness, he believes that he can find Rebekah if he truly wanted.
~Fall on me~
Caroline tells Bonnie the last thing thing that she remembers which is when the 'witches' took her.
She had no recollection of the things that she did when she turned her emotions off and Bonnie chose not to tell her, more for her own sake than for Caroline's.
A part of her figured that if she just pretended that it didn't happen then it would be easier to handle.
Caroline is shocked to hear everything that Bonnie shares with her about what happened during the time when she was 'asleep'.
The two friends look between themselves when there's a knock on Bonnie's door.
Bonnie goes to open it and is surprised to find Rebekah standing there.
"Rebekah" she blurts in shock. Rebekah opens her mouth to say something but snaps it shut when she sees Caroline standing a few feet away.
Her heart shatters into a million tiny pieces and if anything it solidifies the truth for her.
Rose was truly gone.
A whimper builds itself up but she pushes it down before Bonnie and Caroline can see.
"Your grimiores, witch" she finally speaks, holding them out for Bonnie to take.
She didn't want anything that reminds her of Rose near her and she figured Rose would have wanted her to return some of Bonnie's birthrights to her, even if their relationship had become a little strained towards the end.
Both the girls could see that she has holding on by a thin string. Bonnie takes them for her, feeling sorry for Rebekah.
Rose had been her best friend.
Her one true friend.
The two of them got along because of Rose, sure, but it must be all the more harder for her.
Rose impacted everyone's life in some way. No matter how small.
"Do you want–"
"No" Rebekah shakes her head frantically, sniffling sadly as tears fill her eyes. "Good bye Bonnie. Good bye Caroline" she says stiffly, swallowing the lump in her throat before speeding off as fresh tears stream down her face.
She can't help them.
Everything has gone wrong.
Her brothers are daggered and Nik has gone mad. He's destroyed everything in his sight.
The two best friends watch her leave with saddened hearts. This is the first time that they've ever felt truly sorry for Rebekah.
~Fall on me~
A few weeks passed on Earth but that was merely a few days on the Reaper Plane.
"The demons that were terrorising you will do so no more" Imani's cool and calm voice comments from Rose's left as the reaper stares out into the distance.
Once upon a time this castle had been everything that she had ever wanted and more. It had been home.
"The Council has granted authority for them to be sent back to hell where they will be sealed away. Not even Lucifer himself could break the seal" Imani comments, watching her daughter carefully.
"That's wonderful to hear" Rose says as she turns to face her mother, "thank you, my queen" she says with a bow.
"You are no longer here Rosella" Imani comments bluntly, "your loyalties lie divided between us and the Original vampires" she adds.
Rose is grateful that she doesn't make mention of a specific Original. Surprisingly enough she still felt love as deep as ever for Klaus and for his family despite also being a reaper.
She assumed that there must have been some sort of mistake that took place.
"Walk with me" she says as she floats off as Rose follows, walking beside her as they walk down the hallways of the castle in comfortable silence.
Her mother has always been a reaper of few words. Which is why all the reapers listened so intently when she spoke.
The two of them walk in silence for what feels like a lifetime before Imani speaks again.
"You come from a very powerful line of magick, Rosella" she adds as Rose nods. She already knows this. She's her mother after all.
"There have been many stories of how you came to be. All of them which you know but none of them are true" she adds as Rose inhales sharply at this.
Her hand wrapping around her scythe even though it felt weird to carry one now.
It doesn't feel as good as it used to. Carrying it felt awkward to her now.
"What is the truth, my Queen?"
Her mother has always been Queen Imani to her. It was when she was on earth that she would refer to her as mother.
After all, the reapers were no fans of portraying 'weakness' and so to them Rosella referring to her mother as mother would have been just that.
"Your father...the man that made you along with me. He was from Earth" Imani confesses much to Rose's shock.
"B-But how?"
"As you are well aware sometimes angels are sent down the earth to attend to the commands given to them as is expected of all of those residing on the planes. The result of your conception was no different. Many, many, many years ago there lived a man in what is now known as Africa. He was a fisherman who lived away from the villages with his elderly father, a shaman. When his father passed on I was sent down to reap his soul but I didn't expect for him to see me..." She goes on to add as Rose gasps at this.
It should be impossible for them to be unseen unless they want to he seen.
"When I tried to run and return to the Reaper Plane I found that I could not. Trouble had been brewing on the Reaper Plane just as it had done with you and my mentor decided to send me away so that I wouldn't witness the demons murdering her" she adds, her voice giving not a single emotion off.
"But how I...How was I a reaper despite being half human?"
"Your father, Naruni, he was a special man. A man of magick. When we came together you were conceived and luckily for us you showed signs of tremendous power from inside the womb. When the village people heard of my relationship with Naruni they decided to band together and get rid of the 'witches in the mountains' as they put it" she adds.
"How did you get away, my Queen?" Rose asks as they descend the stairs of the castle that lead into the garden.
This garden wasn't like those of earth. The flowers here were flowers that none of the humans had ever and will ever see again.
Extinct. Rare.
Beautiful creations that glowed in the dark.
"Naruni crated a portal that would send me back home at the risk of staying behind and when I returned home you were immediately born. My closest confidants knew of your true lineage and I was granted permission to strip you of your human aspects seeing as you were half reaper" she reveals as she grabs a seat on the bench under the Akumba tree.
It was like the sakura trees of Japan but instead of just pink or white flowers the flowers were of all colours.
"We stripped you of everything, but not your capacity to feel" she adds as Rose nods in understanding, "that may have been or greatest mistake or our greatest achievement" she says. Rose knows that asking would be futile so she simply sits beside her mother and stares at the beauty around her.
This is her home.
It's been her home for over 3,000 years but why doesn't it feel like home anymore?
Hadn't she been trying to come back here in the beginning?
Well now here she is but she's never felt more lonely.
"I will not dictate your life, Rosella" Imani tells her as Rose soaks in all the information that her mother had shared with her, "so you now have a choice. You may either reside on this Plane as a reaper for the rest of your days, never to come into contact with the Mikaelsons again or you may return to earth but if you do. You can never come back" Imani gives Rose a clear cut ultimatum.
She's never been one to dance around the issue.
~Fall on me~
"Have you come to a decision?" Imani questions her daughter as Rose watches her mother's back.
Her mother stood by the window overlooking the Reaper Plane, a blank expression on her face.
"I have" Rose replies as her mother turns to face her. "Queen Imani" she starts as she kneels, "it has been my utmost honour to serve you as a reaper and to reside on the Reaper Plane" she adds as Imani stares at her with no emotion in her eyes.
Rose doesn't know whether she's angry or disappointed. But then again she never has when it came to her mother.
"You understand that there is no coming back from this decion, correct?" Imani asks her.
"I do" Rose nods.
"Very well then" Imani replies, " Rosella of the House of Imani, Queen of the Reaper Plane, I release you from service" she adds as a black spot appears in Rose's hand which she stares at in wonder, "you are no longer allowed to participate in the reaping of souls and the knowledge of the supernatural world that you possess that may change the course of the timelines of earth has been stripped from you" she adds as Rose falls onto her hands when she feels a hot, searing pain in her head as her mother strips away her knowledge of certain things, "rise and Maximus will deliver you to the Gate that transports us to the world of man" she adds as Rose rises from the ground as the pain nulls away.
"Thank you mother" Rose says to her.
Maximus appears out of nowhere, having felt that Imani wanted him there and he bows before her. "Deliver Rosella to the Gate" she commands him.
"Yes my queen" he says with a humble bow.
~Fall on me~
"Thank you Max" Rose says to him, placing her hand on top of his. "For everything" she adds with a small smile.
"It's been my honour princess Rosella" he replies, tilting the side of his lip in a miniscule smile for the first time in literally forever.
Rose nods at this, showing him that she's ready to go back as he summons his magic by drawing a rune on the ground in front of the 'Gate', which is basically a wormhole, as she looks around at everything that used to be her life.
Max draws back after he's completed drawing the rune as Rose steps inside it, feeling the magic swirl around her as she does.
"Goodbye Max" she says.
"Goodbye...Rose" he says before she's transported back to Earth.
Rose lands on her feet gracefully when she jumps out of the portal that transported her back to Earth.
She looks around and finds that she's standing in the exact same spot where she crash landed in what seems so long ago now.
She smirks at this.
Max is such a cliché when he wants to be.
She lifts her eyes to face the sky and sees stars there but one in particular stands out and if she didn't know better she'd think it had winked at her.
~Fall on me~
Klaus steps out of the compound when he hears a familiar heartbeat coming from the woods surrounding his home.
He's gone mad. His mind is starting to play tricks on him.
He freezes when he sees Rose coming from the woods, dressed like she had when he first saw her but this time the robe had no runes on it.
"Nik" her voice whispers as the wind carries it over to him as he speeds over to her, closing the gap between them as he engulfs her in a tight hug, barely believing that she's really here. "Hi" she giggles as she draws back from his embrace to cup his face, kissing him tenderly on the lips to show him that he wasn't imagining her. "I'm back. I truly am" she promises him as he wraps his arms around her, afraid that if he says a single word she'll disappear and it'll be nothing but a bad dream.