Summary: Valerie wished to explore the world. However, when you are a supernatural hybrid, the world seems to be against your wishes. Finding herself entangled in the Original Vampire Family, Valerie must learn to trust the untreatable and in the process, she might find herself.

Chapter One: Prologue.

Wanting to do one thing and being able to do it are two completely different things. Valerie knew that too well, and she might be only 170 years old but she knows that much. Wanting to get back to Stefan and being brutally beaten to the point the life she had been growing inside no longer beat inside of her. Wishing to die rather than stay with Julian lurking in every corner and instead, being turned into one of nature's loopholes and becoming the first heretic.

Bidding Stefan goodbye even if it broke her heart, knowing well he could never love her like he loved Caroline. Or Elena. Or any other girl, hell, maybe even how much he loved Katherine back in the day. She had been a fleeting but intense first love. First time…the girl who could've given him the life he wanted. A Family. A child.

But that life was taken brutally by Julian and there was nothing they could do.

So, she leaves, for good, a warm smile on her lips and tears in her eyes and making him promise that he will be happy. She might not be but if he was, well, that was enough for her.

She started in Oregon. Ironic, considering that her story began there. Gemini Coven grounds were still there, and while the coven itself was no longer functional, the sacred grounds were alive and so, she stayed there for weeks. Months even.

Turns out, it was a good place to make peace with her past. And sub sequentially, make her first contact with the future.

It happened one afternoon, as she fixed the garden, herbs and teas of all over the place that she gathered for supplies, she heard the engine of the truck before she saw it. The heretic stares in the direction.

"Invisique." She whispers, hiding herself from sight as she observes. No one could blame Valerie for being precautious. After all, it was how one survived, and after being locked up in a prison world for most of her immortal life, one had to take every care they could.

The truck stops by the front porch and a woman steps out. She is tall, around her own height, brunette and green eyes. There is something off about her, that she can tell. It's the sensation one gets when being around another supernatural creature. But she doesn't reveal herself. Not yet.

The woman looks around, and she can't quite read her expression. Eyes flashing yellow and Valerie frowns. A werewolf? No. Something more was off. And the woman keeps staring around before they finally stop in her direction. She can't see her, but she can sense her.

"Phasmatos Incendia." Valerie whispers, quickly as she reveals herself, a circle of fire appears below the woman's feet and traps her inside. She seems more annoyed than anything at Valerie's attempt to protect herself.

"Seriously? Are we really going to do this?" Not only she looks annoyed, but she sounds just the same. Eyes turn back to normal as her eyes stare at the ground, exasperated. "I was told you were a kind witch who would help a passing stranger."

"Witch, yes. Kind? Obviously not." The heretic speaks, a mockery of a smile by the corner of her lips as she places a pot by the table on her side. Though she is intrigued by the woman's offer, so she puts the spell down, for both of their sake. She can siphon a werewolf's venom, that is no issue, but she does not want to go through the trouble. "Go on then. Indulge me, what good deed am I supposed to do?"

The woman barely approaches her, only a few steps closer, as if she wished to keep the conversation between them. Valerie was almost vocal about the fact that no one lived around since everyone was dead or locked up in some hell dimension.

"They say you can siphon magic." A simple eyebrow raised to express amusement and the woman sighs, progressing with quick manner. "I need you to siphon a hex out of a friend of mine."

"Hm. And why would I do that? For a stranger?" It's a reasonable train of thought. She barely did errands. She is no kind witch in the woods helping strangers. "A stranger who rudely interrupted the quietness of my life."

"My friend was a close…. acquaintance of Stefan Salvatore." Stefan's name is enough for Valerie to raise her eyes from the ground, a frown quickly appearing on her lips. "Rebekah Mikaelson."

Oh she had heard of her. Briefly. Stefan had mention her, once, it seems a long time ago, when he spoke of a woman with who he did horrible things, exciting things, trying out recreational herbs. But she had also heard that last name.

And Valerie didn't liked it one bit.

Siding up with the Mikaelsons, and even helping them in some regard or the other always ended up in death and destruction.

She laughs then, mocking, taunting, void less. "Yeah, I think I will pass on that offer. I prefer my heart were it is."

And she is already turning over to get back inside the house. However, the woman was already there, blocking the entrance. Vampire speed. Werewolf eyes.

Ah. So this was another hybrid. Joyful.

"Look. I know it's not the best of situations. But my daughter needs her family. And as crazy and psychopathic that family is, Hope needs them." A daughter.

Damn her heart. Damn her lost motherhood that craved to make children happy that made her start to listen to the hybrid in the first place. Lips pressed together in a rather annoyed manner, biting the inside of her lip.

"What kind of hex? And if I am going to risk my neck for those lunatics, I might as well ask for something in return." She has no right to call them lunatics, considering her own family of Heretics had spread terror in less time than the original family ever did. But still, she wishes to have the upper hand. "Just…make sure you tell them that I will collect my debt later."

The woman seems to think about it. But she knows she is already in considering the desperation in her tone moments earlier. Valerie simply nods to the truck. "The crazy girl is not there, is she?"

"No. Back at my house. So let's go." And the hybrid already is walking back to the truck, leaving Valerie a little moment to think what mess she got herself into.

It's a long way from Oregon, that she could tell. But once they arrive, she sees a small cottage in the middle of a giant forest, and a young girl drawing in the backyard, completely immersed in her own world.

"That's your daughter?" She is not looking at the woman, Hayley as she told her earlier in the drive, but she could sense her nodding. A smile soon appears on the heretic's lips and looks down. "Lovely girl." Is the only thing she can manage for a moment, gathering her strength.

Every mention of motherhood leaves Valerie nostalgic and melancholic. Hayley's voice soon calls her back to reality and she can feel the palpable pity in the hybrid's voice.

"I didn't meant to pry but…Stefan told me about your situation. When we were trying to take down the Strix. About how you lost your baby." Her jaw tenses, cursing Stefan under her breath, considering that was her secret to keep. A hand somehow moves to her belly, void, empty, childless. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah…me too." And she steps out of the car, saying nothing more about what happened. She won't talk about it. Not to a stranger.

Get in. Get out. Like in one of those heist films she saw with Stefan while they were on the run.

The girl raises blue eyes as she senses her mother's presence and soon she is witness of the life she was robbed of. Hope runs to her mother, hugging her, whispering sweet things and looking up before sensing Valerie's presence.

Magic calls magic and Valerie is overwhelmed by the radiating magic the girl seems to get off. Even with something blocking the magic to reach heighten levels, she can tell by their short distance. She is still a siphoner by nature, and the sense of magic is sometimes too alluring for the heretic.

"That bracelet won't stop her magic for long." Valerie speaks up, getting Hayley's attention and a concerned look. One that soon changes to accusation. "I'm a heretic. Siphoning magic and feeling it is what I do." And she offers a tight smile to the mother before looking down at Hope, her mockery now gone. Sighing, Valerie speaks up once more. While she is here, she might as well do more than one favour. "I can reinforce the magic, the energy from the hex would be enough to create a stronger protection spell."

And that was it. She was already getting herself too deep into this mess.

Rebekah Mikaelson was pretty. Stefan's type once she thinks about it. He does have more of a track record with blondes than brunettes, the doppelgangers being the exception and not the rule. Caroline, Rebekah and herself seem to be the prototype. All blonde, all blue eyes.

If she was still speaking with him, she would tease him about it.

Taking the hex out was more troublesome than she thought. It was powerful dark magic, one that took all of her energy and that wasn't that pleasant to siphon. But she does it anyways. It drains her and she has to sit down, the magic spreading through her arm as Hayley watches close by and then, the magic is gone.

It fills her in just as blood really. The magic fuels her and she feels whole again. Like the kick of a drug and she is high above everyone else. "There. I'm officially Team Mikaelson. See you in the other side." A gut feeling tells her she is already too deep to get away from this mess.

Blue eyes look at the coffins spread in the attic, and she counts only four. She knows one of the siblings is dead. But according to tales, there were five of them alive, or so she heard. "There is one missing."

Hayley seems to tense at her remark, and for a split second she feels the hybrid would end her life for that comment, maybe believing her to be one of the bad guys. Considering she just siphon the hex out of Rebekah, it seems to tranquilize Hayley that she was on the good side.

"Klaus is not here."

The name makes her heart stop. Klaus Mikaelson. She had herd such tales of the man when she was a little girl. Just a young siphoner witch. The Originals were fairytale to many back then. And Klaus? He was the boogyman himself. Blue find green as Valerie questions with her eyes.

"New Orleans. It's a…tight situation. We are working on it." And Valerie just nods, finally able to stand up and move down the attic.

And she said her goodbyes, reinforcing the bracelet around Hope's wrist, who simply stared at her with kind troubled eyes.

"I'm sorry about what happened to your baby." And she freezes in her spot, tying up the bracelet and she looks down in horror, but Hope just smiles sadly. "It wasn't your fault."

And with that, the little girl was gone to play in the garden.

Leaving Valerie to disappear back to her home. To her safe place. Hoping for the best.

That night, she dreams of a crying baby. But the baby isn't dead, instead, the small bundle of tender care is alive and breathing, arms stretching reaching out to her. By the end of the dream, she wakes up and cries herself back to sleep.

Some weeks later, she is called back by Hayley.

And her troubles with the Mikaelson begin.