Disclaimer: I own nothing. I just enjoy writing fanfiction. Please don't sue me.
A/N: First attempt at a VampireDiaries - Originals fic. Finn/OFC.
If you enjoy it and want to review or PM me, feel free. If you hate it and want to flame or PM me, feel free.
No regrets...
Chapter One
A dream in a memory, a memory in a dream.
The ancient white oaks separating men and beast stood tall and strong, creating a canopy of vibrant green leaves, sunlight peeking through to pockmark the forest floor and give life to wild berry bushes and flowering vervain. The branches rustled gently overhead, and the breeze drifted through the trees, carrying with it the hint of something distinctly floral and saccharin. The only sounds were the chirping of newborn birds and the laughter of two young people.
She felt like an intruder as she watched her own memory play through, a soft glow about the forest as she strolled through the underbrush, not a single thorn catching the soft lace and supple silk of her black dress.
A young woman with long, warm brown hair and deep amber eyes flitted between the trees, glancing over her shoulder with a most brilliant smile. She looked incredibly happy traipsing through the forest, followed by a young man with dark hair and his own hazel eyes glittering with joy, as he chased the girl. Both of them seemed to be in their own shared world, just the two of them. They were alone in nature, free to be themselves away from the disapproval of any who would frown upon them.
"For one so tall, you are terribly slow!" called the young woman, hair glowing with a halo of rose gold in the patches of sunshine.
The young man laughed, full of heart and warmth, "For that comment, I shall surely make you pay!"
"You'll have to catch me first!"
The young man increased his speed, and lunged for the young woman, but she jumped out of his reach before even his fingertips could graze her arm. With a gleeful shriek, the girl raced behind a tree, peeking out to see him get to his feet. With another giggling shriek, she sprinted off through the forest, and down an embankment. The young man followed chase towards the rushing river, catching her around the middle, eventually.
They fell together into the damp ground at the edge of the water, laughing as the man turned her in his arms, holding her close.
The breeze parted the lush branches above, allowing them to bask in the warmth of the sun and watch it reflect off the river, like gems catching light. Covered in mud, sticks and leaves sticking in their hair, the young couple inched closer and closer until their lips finally brushed together.
"I despise Finn, but you were never more beautiful to him than in that moment," said a man, appearing next to the woman, as she watched the young couple on the river bank share their first kiss. "Mother was furious to know he had been sneaking off to meet you in the woods. Father forbade the entire village from even looking at you."
"I remember," she replied, turning away from the young couple, and walking back through the woods. "Mikael even came to my hut with a warning that my secret would be revealed to the elders if I did not heed their request. I was told to leave, or be hunted."
"And you listened," said Kol, his dark blue eyes tinged with sadness. "Finn may not have remembered you, but he spent centuries trying to find you."
"That ridiculous sireling managed to stem the pain, just as Tatia proved a balm to Elijah and Klaus," she responded, quietly, and then she sighed. "Pity what happened to to them both."
"I never truly understood how mother knew Tatia was a doppelganger," quipped Kol, a small sparkle returning to his eyes. "You told her."
"I may have bestowed a few parting gifts before I returned to the moors. It was after Henrik's death, as you well remember."
"My brother and you always did match perfectly. Complete opposites. Self-righteous, and ruthless."
"I thank you for the compliment," the woman offered him the ghost of a smile, full of sorrow and regret, turning back to watch the tenderness in each kiss between the young couple. It wrenched painfully in her chest. "I never truly stayed away. All these centuries, I have been so close, and a world away. Enough has happened in the last thousand years that the spell was weakened, and when Esther truly died, it broke. I have spent enough time traveling through dreams. I will no longer."
"Cursed to spend eternity in ignorant misery of each other."
She nodded, chewing her lower lip, "A far cry from eternal bliss."
"He knew?"
"Yes," she breathed, walking away from the sight of herself with Finn, knowing that the dream would fade, and she would be faced with cold, damp air and endless darkness, and it was beginning to become too much to withstand. "I was preparing to transcend him. We were to live until the end of days, together. I only knew what the Fates wished to share, thousands of years before your time, when the scholars believed in the stars and prayed to the gods in temples of glory. Before I was reborn."
The woods surrounding them faded away, replaced by the gloomy solarium of the Strix coven. The pool of obsidian water and thriving lily pads beckoned ominously, chilling her down to the bone. Kol followed her to the altar, following her gaze back to the murky depths of the little pond, a glimpse of a slumbering beauty at the bottom. Her brown hair glistened and shimmered around her face, and she looked far more peaceful in her pseudo-death than in life. It was as if she had simply fallen into a deep, restful slumber, which was more or less what had happened, if one didn't pay attention to the intricate iron dagger sheathed firmly in her heart.
After a respectful silence, the woman breathed and gazed back at Kol from the ancient tome nestled amidst herbs and relics, "I called you here for a reas-"
"You're here," he said, softly, taking in the cracked glass hiding her from the world, cloaking her from notice. "In New Orleans."
"Courtesy of one of Elijah's many lovers."
"Aya?"
"Yes."
There was a touch of disdain in her gentle voice, as she flipped through the pages she had written herself, so many years ago.
The dream progressed through the ritual and inevitable deaths. The harsh moment of realization as Davina Claire managed to break the sire bond between Klaus and his vampire bloodline, slowed to a stop, as both Kol and his ancient companion gazed upon the young witch with individual mixtures of emotions. No one noticed the rumblings of magic coming from the glass casket at the very bottom of the pool.
Time resumed again, and Kol turned back to the coffin, as the glass cracked more, like webs spreading as both brothers' blood danced and curled downwards to fill the fissures, like ink on paper. The pale olive flesh of the woman trapped below soon became dotted with droplets of crimson, and as they traveled up the slender lines of her body, leaving trails of red in their wake, Kol was filled with a sense of anticipation. The combined blood followed a preordained course to the woman's mouth and nose, until every last drop resided inside her, continuing a journey to her heart.
"So, we remain connected, you and I," came the echo of Elijah's voice as the veil between realms faded and reality whirled around the two observers. "In spite of everything you have done. I can't let you hurt my family. And you can't hurt me more than you already have."
Kol walked around the room, watching the scene play out, while the woman found the spell she sought. Gathering the dried herbs, she returned to the ledge of the pool, tossing the herbs into the murky water, refusing to allow herself even a glimpse of what was happening. Instead, she looked to Kol, beckoning him to her side.
"I stood by you, Elijah," responded Aya, devastated in her defeat. "All of us were willing to die for you, and how did you repay it? Betrayal. Abandonment."
Kol took the woman's hand, chanting along with her, and ignoring the tremble in her fingers, the tears welling in her eyes. Looking back at Elijah, he could tell why she refused to watch. Elijah, taken aback by Aya's accusations, still looked upon his protege with the haunting regret of a long ago lover, and he understood the painful longing; she felt it for Finn, desperate to find her way back to the love that started it all. Kol would know that look anywhere, for it was the same longing, sorrowful feeling he experienced watching Davina from the cold existence of death.
"You were not forsaken," was Elijah's reverberating reply, and the fingers curled in Kol's hand clenched unforgivingly as they continued the chant. "Yes, I failed you. For this, I will never forgive myself. I cannot forgive… This."
"If your life were chained to a man who left you despite your devotion, what choice would you have but to break free? So… End this."
Wherever they were in relation to the present passing of time, Kol had no idea, but, like fragile glass, the room began to splinter and crack as the pressure of magic began to build.
"End it, Elijah! Or I'll take that gun and kill you just to finally be free!"
The glass of the coffin started breaking apart more thoroughly, water crashing down and dislodging the stake just enough with the force of gravity. The power drew heavy around Kol and the woman both, electric and suffocating, dark and light, all combining to return her to the slumbering body. There was a sense of danger in the air, an urgency that weighed on them both. It had to be done any moment, or there would never be another chance.
Hayley ran Aya through from behind, piercing the viperous vampire's heart, and killing her instantly, permanently. And the resounding silence that followed, lasted mere minutes.
"That's more mercy than Jackson ever got," was the only sound in the room, her remark thick with an underlying growl of grief.
Then the realm in which Kol had been summoned, the one breaking around them, erupted.
The spelled glass of the coffin imploded, caving in fully. Water crashed down, dislodging the dagger in her heart just enough with the force of gravity to pull it from her heart. She disappeared, pulled back into her body, as Kol was thrown into the beyond with the ancestors. The woman woke with a gasp, inhaling water and herbs, clawing at her naked flesh as the lingering magic connected with her own, burning through her body, and reverberating through her veins.
Her magic rippled out like a shockwave as the last of the enchantments on her broke, shaking the very foundations of the entire French Quarter and beyond. The surface of the pool had merely shuddered minutes before, and then turned violent, roiling with pure, untainted, limitless power. And then she emerged, breaking through the water as she wrenched the dagger from her chest, coughing and gasping for her first breath in almost two centuries. The air filled her lungs, and she stumbled for a few steps before collapsing.
Something else pulsed in the air, affecting Elijah and the woman already on her knees. He winced, and she whimpered, both clutching their heads as a force ripped through their minds, burrowing deep and then disappearing completely, a momentary flash of pain and then nothing. They were both left reeling for a moment, a sense of confusion and lightheadedness settling over them. The air in the room shifted, and emotions tried to claw to the surface.
"What the f-"
"Language," warned Elijah, calmly wrapping his expensive about the naked woman's shoulders. "It seems we have discovered the power source to Aya's coven. Hayley, allow me to introduce you to a very old acquaintance...A very old, very powerful witch."
The dagger clattered to the ground, and the woman shivered on the stone floor. Heavy breaths fell from her purple lips as she looked up at the two people standing in various stages of surprise and calm intrigue. Hayley watched the way Elijah looked at the trembling woman, as if in the presence of something extremely precious and significant - something to be cherished and revered. It was similar to the way he looked at her when they were alone, yet extremely different. There was no love in his eyes, only appreciation.
"How old are we talking, Elijah? And how powerful?" questioned Hayley, eyeing the thin fingers clutching his jacket closed around her, and the gaunt, haunting look in her eyes. "She doesn't look like she could sw-"
Elijah, unstartled, caught Hayley before she crumpled to the ground, neck broken. He laid her gently on the floor, giving the woman an exasperated look. She took his offered hand, and struggled to her feet, experiencing the echoing remnants of her centuries long slumber, and the first twinges of hunger stirring deep in her center. Leaning into Elijah, she glanced back to Hayley's unconscious form, and with a large effort on her part to not faint from the strain, brought the hybrid back to awakeness.
The hybrid stood up, angry and ready to rip a throat or two, but she bounced off a barrier, unseen and slightly painful. Hayley rubbed the red spot on her chest, earning a half hearted smirk from the ancient lady. Elijah merely gave them both a stern look.
"Ladies, I have far too much to deal with at the moment to referee a cat fight," he said, bored and indifferent. "Please, retract your claws. There has been enough death here tonight."
The women both sighed and reluctantly agreed. Hayley sped off first, huffing and puffing, after seeing Elijah pick up the woman, intent on carrying her. When the hybrid was gone, they looked at each other, Elijah conflicted and forlorn, and the ethereal woman with an amber glint in her and a flash of a memory that disappeared as quickly as it came. A throbbing pain blossomed in her head, and she felt an urgent desire to feed. Her senses were slowly heightening, and Elijah's scent was more intoxicating than anything else she had experienced in her extremely long life.
They arrived at the compound in a matter of seconds, and Elijah moved through the halls with ease, setting her in a soft bed. They hadn't spoken a word to each other since the rippling effect had crashed through them, but Elijah worked endlessly to make her comfortable. He provided her with a nightgown, and brought her a sandwich and glass of water as she dressed.
Unfortunately, a turkey sandwich was not what she craved. It was unsettling to consider, but she had used Kol to amplify her spell, a derivative of the same spell used to make the Original vampires. She had used hybrid and vampire blood to pull her body from the brink of death, a state she had been stuck in for centuries. Everything about her would be different from then onward. She was still the most powerful witch in existence, but she was also a transitioning hybrid, and she would need to feed on blood eventually or she would die.
"I shall speak to you in the morning," said Elijah, pulling back the sheets from the bed. "There is much to discuss, but you require rest. I will advise my siblings of your presence. Sleep well."
She almost stopped him, but instead let him leave. There were so many warring emotions, and a desperate longing stealing her voice away. She expected that Elijah had started to experience something akin to confusion and resentment. The entire Mikaelson clan had been made to forget about her, how closely tied to them she had been before the change.
No, there would time later for questioning what had been unleashed with the ritual. She had more important things to worry about, and a transition to complete. There was something coming, something stirring in the city that she could not ignore, and what she desired more than anything, was to find a way to reunite with Finn.
…..
