Lauren
"Magia tollox de terras. Utera aso utox." I chanted. Beneath my feet Silas's tomb entrapped him through the ancient spell of Qetsiyah, and that spell was mine for the taking. I knelt on the ground with one of my hands on the soil and the other held by one of the Travelers I was working with. "Oribos turai manecsitus," I chanted, and the power went from me into the Traveler, who began to shake. "I need a new one."
Another Traveler stepped forward while the first one crawled away. A small line of Travelers stood behind him, waiting to accept the bestowal of magic stored in the earth beneath my feet.
If I wanted to use this much power I needed a way to store it. The ability to simply add raw magical power was too useful to pass up even if I did not have a pressing use for it at the moment. Distributing the power among several people would let me keep more of it then I could survive alone. Qetsiyah had made the strongest spell I had ever tried to siphon, and I would pop like a balloon if I tried to take it all.
I wondered if Silas himself could be an asset. Silas was a person, and so he was not replicated in the Prison World, but once this spell was gone in the Prison World it would be gone in the real world. Silas was Qetsiyah's friend and lover, as well as her student, and would know the ancient magic used by the Travelers before they were cursed into weakness. If Qetsiyah acting alone and hunted had done the spell I was dismantling right now then I had to wonder what other spells might be in Silas's brain. According to Jeff, Silas was an evil and twisted person, but how much of that came from 2000 years of starvation, torture and grief? Could Silas be fixed, or at least used?
[hr][/hr]
I napped and communed with Jeff in the ordinary world; He looked excited.
"Tonight is the Decade Dance at Mystic Falls High School; Klaus sent us a message telling us he would be there."
"Why on Earth does Klaus want to go to a high school dance?" I asked.
"He wants to impress us with a display of being twisted and creative, or maybe he just wants neutral ground. There's a problem that I need to explain, though. Klaus decided to possess Matt, and Vicki isn't taking it well." Jeff looked apologetic.
"Damn." I frowned. "So you can't just kill him."
Jeff sighed. "Well, killing that body would just let his pet witches put him back in his old one. He doesn't know if we have a plan to kill him or not, or if Mikael's around, so he wants to scout things out in something disposable and if he dies in Matt's body he can be put right back in his real one. If I knew where Klaus's real body was I could end it right now, but Bonnie couldn't break through the cloaking spell on it."
"Anything I could do to help?" I asked.
"Well you could channel enough power to Bonnie to break the cloaking spell now that you're running hot on Silas's tomb," Jeff smiled. "The issue is if we want to use so much of that power on this move in particular. If we kill Klaus's real body we kill off his sireline, which should please Esther but might make us even more enemies while she's off on fighting Dahlia."
"Do you think you could bind his spirit in Matt and hold Klaus hostage that way?" I asked. "Or what about killing Klaus's spirit without killing Matt; is that possible?"
"I think the Travelers have a knife that can do exactly that. Problem there is that I have no idea how it'd interact with Esther's sire line thing and I'm unsure if it would even delay Klaus being put back into his vampire body. I read a spell in Jonas Martin's grimoires to seal a spirit into a body, but I think if we did that it'd piss Vicki off, killing her brother or coming really close to it." Jeff frowned. "I'm totally willing to kill Matt to capture Klaus and take his lunacy off the table for a while, but I'm not as willing to deal with the hybrid of Vicki and Rebekah pissed off at us for murdering her brother."
"Cold." I smiled. "Could we just dagger her or something?"
"No daggers we aren't using on Mikael, so not without Bonnie or Luka's help, and explaining the steps and reasoning in that plan seems likely to trip me up. 'Hey Bonnie, want to help me subdue one of my most reliable allies so I can do something horrible to one of your friends so I might get Klaus out of our hair if everything goes my way?' Too many failure points if we have an alternative." Jeff laughed.
"I see the problem." I nodded. "Anything else I need to know?"
"Esther called me from Morocco today." Jeff sighed deeply. "She found a witch murdering children there and put Finn's spirit into the man's body. Apparently, Finn proceeded to bolt instead of start helping her with the plan. I am worried a jumpchain drawback I took that makes Finn into my enemy has modified the situation and I am unsure what the hell to tell Esther about it."
"Fuck." I groaned. "What about Tyler?"
"Mason, Lexi and Elena inducted him into our conspiracy. Mason also talked with that werewolf pack that came to town and apparently they are deciding if they should help us by putting Tyler and Mason through some kind of ancient werewolf trials to determine a new alpha." Jeff shook his head.
"Sounds sensible." I rolled my eyes.
"Hey, I offered Mason the spell to make moonlight rings but he thinks they'd trust me as far as they could throw me right now. I can't really blame a werewolf pack for finding this whole thing fishy." Jeff looked mildly defensive.
"Chances that Mason and Tyler make it through the trials and we can make Tyler into a Hybrid?" I asked.
"This is probably dumb reasoning, but I think it's almost certain. I'm using television logic, but I can't imagine side characters go through something dumb like this and fail. At least fail and die, I mean. Possibly we get an angry werewolf pack out of this, but I am betting Tyler's going to be really committed to becoming a superhero after this is done." Jeff answered.
Wyld
Jenna was helping Elena and Bonnie get ready for the school dance and its theme of dressing in a stereotype of the 1960s. Being male it seemed all that was required of me was putting on a suit and saying I was a cousin of Jenna's who was visiting. While the girls prepared I sat with Sheila as the former witch wrote down a list of contacts. Sheila and I wanted to have everything prepared if she had to be put down, as she was a vampire now.
"There's Hazel Tulle; she's going to hide as long as she can, but she is strong and the only person the Gemini Coven sent to watch," Sheila explained.
"I am glad they sent someone to investigate, but I was hoping for a bit more backup." I nodded as I looked at the list.
"The coven is going through some problems right now," Sheila explained. "They are vulnerable and can't make a move without risking everything."
"Something to do with the Merge and their inheritance method?" I asked. "I think there's someone called Kai who killed or tried to kill his siblings?"
Sheila frowned. "The Parker family leads the coven. Malachai Parker was one of the potential heirs but he butchered most of his brothers and sisters. No one was willing to let Kai lead their coven after that. The Merge is how the leadership is transferred and it is powered by the sacrifice of one of the Parkers, either Luke or Liv are the viable candidates. If there is no Merge before their current leader dies the entire coven will die."
"Why did a coven of presumably rational people decide to create a system that requires the murder of a family member to perpetuate itself?" I asked.
"According to them it was an accident. They bound their lives to their strongest member because most of them were very weak, and this let them call on the power of the others when they needed it. They became desperate to find someone strong enough to take the place of their leader, and the Merge was their solution. They never found a better one." Sheila sighed. "Josh is a weak leader, and he knows if he gets any of his people killed he will lose even more of his authority. He won't send anyone to the front lines if he can find a way to weasel out of it."
"Anyone more reliable?" I asked.
"There's Aja Folsom, a friend of Abby's, but we haven't spoken in years," Sheila said quietly.
"Abby? Your daughter Abby?" I asked.
"Yes." Sheila frowned. "Abby doesn't speak to me or even Bonnie."
"I can see how that would be tense." I shuddered. "Anyone else at all?"
"None I trust." Sheila looked pained. "Not alive, anyway. Possibly..." Sheila trailed off. "A witch I knew died recently. Her husband, he can't practice, but he knows more about the supernatural then anyone else."
"Does he have a name?" I asked. "Did by any chance their son die recently?"
"Atticus and Caitlin Shane." Sheila looked worried. "You saw them?"
"Yes. I believe Caitlin died through overuse of magic trying to bring their son back?" I pondered my memory of some season or other of The Vampire Diaries.
"No." Sheila's voice was firm. "She died trying to use Expression to bring her son back. There's no such thing as overusing that, it went exactly how the thing she was calling on wanted it do. She killed twelve people to have a chance at that."
"Expression." I held back a smile. "Sacrifice of twelve humans, twelve Hybrids, and twelve witches, right? Or maybe just twelve humans for Caitlin's deal."
Sheila's mouth was open in horror. "You saw someone kill what, twelve of Klaus's abominations and a whole coven of witches to try and get more power from Expression?"
"Something like that. I remember the term 'Expression Triangle' was used. The idea was to bring down the Other Side and bring back all the dead ghosts." I stopped talking as Sheila looked too disturbed to speak. "Are you alright?"
"Every vampire, every werewolf, every Traveler, every dark witch, and who knows what else coming back?" Sheila whispered. "Did you see it happen?"
"Nope. But you can see why I remembered something about that kind of power. It was Atticus Shane trying to bring his family back that started it." I explained.
"I need to take a break," Sheila whispered. "There's no one else I can think of who might help you."
[hr][/hr]
It was the first time I had met Jeremy Gilbert in person. We eyed each other as we waited in suits for the girls to arrive.
"Did you bring back Mikael?" I asked.
"Yep." Jeremy grinned. "Elena thought she should go through with the sacrifice. The plan was dumb. Anna told me about the hunter after I turned."
"Dumb, but probably not as dumb as thinking going along with Klaus would protect anyone." I nodded. "I can't blame you."
"Do you really see the future?" Jeremy asked.
"I did. It's not the future anymore, it's just the future I saw. You weren't a vampire, you just tried to become one pretty hard before Damon convinced you not to. Him not being here probably sped things up." I answered.
"How'd that asshole do that?" Jeremy asked.
"He killed you. Magic ring saved your life. I mean, it brought you back from being very dead. It convinced you that being a vampire makes you a murderous douche." I summarized.
"That it did." Jeremy admitted.
"Aimee Bradley, right?" I asked, remembering Vicki's rant from a while before.
"Also Tina Fell," Jeremy answered. "I helped with a couple vampires from the tomb, but they were trying to kill Anna, so that was different."
"I tried to eat my girlfriend's face," I offered in sympathy.
"Gross." Jeremy frowned. "You have a girlfriend?"
"I think so," I answered.
"Oh, the blonde in leather pants?" Jeremy asked.
"Ah, you met 'Nina.' Actually no, we're just friends. My girlfriend is still in the prison dimension where my body is stuck." I explained.
"Nina broke into my locker and popped some of Elena's old pain pills. She reminds me of someone." Jeremy smiled a bit sadly.
"Ah." I said. I would have brought up the fact that Vicki in Rebekah's body probably reminded him of Vicki, but so long as she wanted to keep a secret identity I would humor her.
"God." I looked up and saw the fake blonde bounce in. "Elena is taking forever to get ready."
"Speak of the devil and she appears," I said.
"Speak of a girl with super hearing and she leaves the bathroom," Vicki corrected. Rebekah's body was outfitted in a lazy hippy look that mostly stood out by having several peace signs on it.
"Good use of vampire powers." I nodded.
"Damon said there's a cure," Jeremy said after a moment.
"Why would you want one?" Vicki asked sharply.
"I've killed people, Nina. I want to stop," Jeremy explained.
"You have superpowers. Everything's better like this. Food, sex, blood, even the beer doesn't give you a hangover. You're already over the hump, why stop?" Vicki asked.
"There was this girl I knew, I thought she became a vampire and left. I wanted to go after her. Being a vampire meant I could do that." Jeremy answered. "When I turned I found out I was half right. Vicki turned alright, but she died right in front of me. Anna said she would stay with me forever, but then she died, too. What's the point in being alone forever?" Jeremy asked.
"I'm not going anywhere." A cheerful voice interrupted us as Jeremy's aunt, Jenna, blurred into the room with super speed. The new vampire was dressed brightly and ridiculously for the dance.
"That doesn't sound remotely incestuous," I told Jenna, who frowned at me. "Nice to meet you."
"Girls, put in your claws." Stefan entered the room with Elena on his arm. Bonnie trailed in last, looking uncomfortable but pretty.
"Alright." I stood up. "Looks like we're almost ready to go. Where's Luka?"
"He's not coming." Bonnie frowned.
"Man, you got no date?" Vicki rapped the table with feigned sympathy. "I bet even Klaus is taking Caroline if he's pretending to be Matty."
"Nina, be nice." I warned. "Bonnie's being very helpful."
"Aww." Vicki scowled.
"Do I look like a chaperone?" Damon blurred into view at super speed on Elena's other side. Damon was wearing a dress shirt over Finn's body but had made no attempt to fit in with the 60s style that I could tell.
"More then Jenna does," I admitted.
"He means that as a compliment," Vicki told Jenna.
"Cool." Jenna nodded. I was pretty sure Jenna's actress was barely younger than Elena's, though she looked slightly taller.
"Jeremy, I've seen you date Bonnie in the future. Escort her." Jeremy's mouth fell open. I held the door for a frowning Vicki to start the process of leaving, feeling that I had suitably punished Vicki for being a bitch by setting up her ex.
[hr][/hr]
I trailed behind Vicki as we entered the school gym.
"How is it you can be more out of place at this then I am?" Vicki whispered. "I hate these things."
"Both the lives I remember I was home schooled. I've never been to one of these before." I whispered back. "Do you see Matt?"
"Yes," Vicki answered. She pointed to a young man talking to a member of the live band that was here.
"Oh yes. He's got a special dedication for Elena." I smiled at the memory.
"Nasty." Vicki laughed. "Is that supposed to scare us?"
"It's supposed to scare a teenager he is trying to manipulate." I paused. "No offense, teenage vampire."
"None taken." Vicki smiled with Rebekah's mouth and her vampire fangs.
I said "Ah," when Matt finished with the band and walked back to a pink suited girl. "Caroline went as Jackie O."
"So is Matt supposed to be JFK?" Vicki asked.
"I think so," I nodded. "Harder to tell."
"Damn." Vicki shook her head. "Elena had his balls in a vice until she traded up, and now he put them right into Caroline's oiled, polished and pink one. Does he just like being bossed around?"
"Probably." I shrugged.
I watched Elena dance with Stefan in the mid distance while Jeremy and Bonnie watched them. Jenna and Damon had situated themselves by the punch bowl. If Greta Martin was here I could not see her.
"So, do we dedicate something to Klaus?" Vicki asked after a moment.
"I really want to, but I don't think so. 'These Boots are Made for Walkin'' is my first choice, but he'd probably just kill someone to prove a point even if it got to him," I answered. "Besides, we're in the bodies of his siblings, which has to count for something."
"Let's just get this over with," Vicki decided and I followed her as she went right up to Matt and Caroline.
"And they arrive." Klaus's voice showed amusement. "I wondered if you would be brave enough to show yourselves after you stole my siblings from me."
"Stole?" I faked confusion. "You left these nice empty bodies open without anyone using them. You can't blame enterprising folks for putting them to use." I saw Caroline have a vacant, compelled look as she failed to register the conversation.
"Oh, blame you I can." Klaus said seriously. "Leave them at once. Do I have to ask less nicely?"
"Well, Nik," I answered, "That depends on a lot of things. I made a deal to stop you from breaking your curse, and we both want Elena alive."
"What makes you think that?" Klaus asked, his eyes suspicious.
"I know the future, Nik. Your mom screwed you. To complete the transition from a werewolf into a Hybrid a person has to drink the blood of a doppelganger. Without a living doppelganger the entire point of breaking the curse is useless. Until we are sure we have a way of allowing Elena to survive the sacrifice no one benefits if you break the curse." I leaned in.
Vicki's eyes followed us like we were a ping pong match.
"Why would I believe that?" Klaus asked, looking quite surprised.
"Well, I have seen Hybrids dying in agony as they failed to complete the transition when merely given human blood. They grow in power, they become feral, and they die. My visions have told me a lot of useful things, and this is one of the things I am most certain about." I watched Klaus's face, or Matt's face, carefully. He looked thoughtful.
"Am I supposed to believe you are only here to stop me from sacrificing Elena out of the goodness of your heart?" Klaus asked sardonically.
"Oh, I have a lot of reasons for that. I want to save innocent lives from your failed experiments, I have use for doppelganger blood, and I have made a deal to stop or delay you from breaking the curse with someone who has promised to benefit me. I would rather you do not suffer anymore than necessary, though." I answered. I paused, surprised that I had been honest.
"And yet you steal the body of my brother." Klaus frowned. "You made yourself my enemy."
"It was unavoidable. My true body is trapped, and this was by far my best option. Believe me I'd rather have my real body then Kol's. I am a witch, and irritated at being a vampire. Being an Original has its perks, though." I smiled.
"You could have asked me for help," Klaus grinned.
"Would you have given it?" I asked. "You are rarely magnanimous when there is nothing in it for you."
"Oh, you'd be surprised." Klaus looked very satisfied; that worried me. "When did you make your deal with Elijah?"
"I didn't. I made a deal with your mother," I answered. Klaus looked stricken. "She's alive at the moment and tying up a loose end. Elijah is simply helping Esther pay her debt to me."
"Of course you're working with her," Klaus said, sounding disgusted. "I assumed you had merely stolen her body as well. What lies did she tell you to get your cooperation?"
"There is a piece of mystical equipment I need to get my real body into this world." I explained.
Suddenly, Klaus smiled. "Ah, a piece of equipment. I presume a crystal talisman?"
"Yes..." I answered.
"These are truly clever inventions." Klaus pulled a phone from his pocket and began flipping through it. "Ah, there it is." He showed me a picture of a white man mugging the camera with a crystal in one hand. Next to the man was a desiccated Elijah.
"That is a problem." I admitted.
"Elijah completed his task for the Original Witch, prying this particular crystal out of the hands of your enemies. Now the crystal belongs to me." Klaus looked delighted.
"You're mother-" Vicki cut me off.
"Stop!" Vicki shouted at us. Both Klaus and I jumped, having forgotten her. "You two both have exactly the same length of dick. If you two keep rambling in front of Kathy, Stefan, and the rest of the local vampires you're going to let something slip that will fuck us all over."
"Ah, profanity. One vice Rebekah never exhibited." Klaus smiled. "I take it you are this one's minion?"
"Let's just go somewhere private, Klaus." Vicki sighed. "If we're going to make a deal to betray them, we can't do it in their earshot."
I paused and listened to Vicki's mind. She totally thought I was going to screw Klaus over, but she was sure that the key to doing that effectively was making him think I was on board. She had a point.
"Abandoned house full of witches a suitable meeting place for you?" I asked.
"Of course not." Klaus frowned. "I can text Caroline the place of my choosing."
"You've got witches. No fucking way." I answered.
"We need actually neutral ground." Vicki said thoughtfully. "Caroline's house?" She gestured at the still oblivious girl.
"Fine by me," I answered. Klaus nodded after a moment's consideration.
As we walked out Stefan blurred in front of the door.
"Stefan, don't be an idiot." I said. "You know an Original can have your heart on the floor in a second."
"Oh?" I heard Finn's voice in Damon's tone come. "I'm eager to try that myself." I turned and saw Damon's was holding Klaus's, and hence Matt's, neck firmly.
"Don't. Do. That." Vicki growled.
"Is this how it ends?" Damon asked, his voice growing high and angry. "All this, and you throw it away on a deal with the wolf man?"
"Don't test me, Damon." I glared. "You want to come back, you need me. You piss me off, I heart rip Stefan without blinking."
"You don't have the balls," Damon laughed.
"I do." I turned and saw Vicki in vamp face with her fangs at Stefan's throat.
"It would be fair," I pointed out.
"We seem to be at an impasse," Klaus smiled.
"Now who is measuring dicks?" I asked Vicki. "Damon, if that crystal breaks, I can't bring you back to life on Earth and even if I could figure out a way I wouldn't want to. I need to find a compromise where everyone wins."
"A compromise where Elena dies?" Stefan asked.
"She needn't die permanently," Klaus remarked. "Not if this creature has been telling me the truth." He looked at me.
"See! Compromise. We just need to bargain away the werewolf and the vampire and then figure out a way for Esther to be chill with it and everyone wins!" I considered for a moment that the statement was ridiculous, but it did not feel like any clarifications would help matters.
"Damon!" I heard Elena's voice. "Let them go."
"Seriously?" Damon asked, looking pissed.
"We know that Jeff won't do anything to endanger his reputation when he needs help so badly," Elena looked at me seriously. "If Klaus wants his Hybrids and his family he won't kill me or do anything to betray Jeff." Elena looked at Matt's face and Klaus nodded. "Damon, let them go."
He did.
[hr][/hr]
Lauren
I felt a kind of migraine and fell over in the middle of Siphoning. After a moment's agony I had forced the spell away but had heard a psychic scream of "contact me right now" from what I was pretty sure was Bonnie.
"Duty calls," I told the Travelers, and I sat down, preparing a chant that sent me straight into a light slumber.
In the dreamscape I saw Bonnie Bennett looking furious. "What the hell is wrong with your boyfriend?"
"That is an amazingly vague question. What exactly did he do?"
It took a while for me to figure out what Bonnie was shouting about, but eventually I figured out that he was working with Klaus because Klaus had captured the Ascendant.
"Bonnie." I looked at her. "Do you want your Grams to stop being a vampire?"
"Of course!" Bonnie shot back.
"I am minutes away from getting the Cure," I explained. "Give me a few days and I can probably replicate it or do something close enough to really help her. We need physical travel into your realm for that to work."
"Elena's going to die! So is Mason, and probably Jenna or Jeremy." Bonnie shook her head. "I can't just let that happen. Klaus killed Katherine's family, he murders everyone, he turned my Grams into a vampire! You can't just give him more power."
"You can't just ignore him, either. If we just ignored him on this he might find something even worse to hold over us. If he thinks he's winning then he won't have to push as hard. I'm sure Jeff doesn't really plan on giving Klaus everything he wants." I paused. "Almost sure," I admitted.
[hr][/hr]
I held the box with the Cure in my hand. Inside the ancient wooden box there was an ancient spell of enormous power.
Qetsiyah's spell felt oddly familiar to me, almost like my own Siphoning. Perhaps the great witch had something to do with the origins of the Siphoners? Whatever was in the box could undo a lot more then a single spell, if it was used properly. Something eternal and strong writhed there.
"We've got it," I told the Travelers, if only to have someone to say it to.
The journey back to the mainland was uneventful. I examined Emily's grimoire, Esther's grimoire, and the Cure together for reference. Without Qetsiyah's own grimoire there were many missing pieces, but I felt I could understand everything together in ways I had not before. In my own grimoire I traced a model of what I thought Qetsiyah and Esther's immortality spells had actually done.
There was some kind of protection spell and linking spell using doppelganger blood, or something like it, in both versions of the immortality spell. Human blood was being used to feed something that was not quite the vampire itself, if I understood how the Cure would enter into an immortal and work. I suspected the "thing" the blood was feeding was something like the wolf inside the werewolves. The "thing" was a binding agent for every spell and curse of vampirism and perhaps of immortality. Esther would not have known she was making something alive, or at least "alive" from her grimoire, but the Cure's design only made sense in that scenario.
Esther had despaired of casting a spell on something that was not alive and was not dead. I examined the Cure and the notes there carefully. She may not have cast the spell on Silas and Amara at all, but on the thing that fit inside them.
The binding agent, which I labeled a demon for lack of a more intuitive term, was probably something created by the immortality spell, but perhaps Qetsiyah had found something already in the deepest part of the human soul. For all I knew the "soul" was what she was transforming. I felt a strong desire to start siphoning and experimenting on a werewolf.
I looked at notes Emily had written on the White Oak Ash Daggers. Emily had never seen one, but she knew about them and her ancestors had created them. The strange poison the daggers created to incapacitate an Original felt "right" if it was blocking the demon's access to its vampire host. I began to sketch out theories based on Emily's rings that stopped a vampire from being weak to wood, Esther's daylight and moonlight ring spells, notes on vervain, and the Cure. I felt that I was on the verge of a true breakthrough. If Jeff could hold on just a little longer Klaus might not be a problem at all.
[hr][/hr]
Wyld
Klaus and I sat in Caroline's living room. To my distress, Sheriff Forbes lay dead with a broken neck in the hallway. Caroline didn't seem to notice as Klaus had her wait in the kitchen.
"So here is what is going to happen; you are going to deliver me the moonstone that binds my curse and the doppelganger who I sacrifice to break the curse to me. I shall investigate the tales about dying Hybrids and see if my own witches can save the girl sufficiently for a compromise. Once I have broken the curse you get the crystal my brother found so conveniently before my witch daggered him. If you interfere then I have the crystal smashed and scatter the pieces into the ocean. Are we clear?" Klaus looked incredibly smug.
"You sexy beast," I laughed. "You do have my balls in a vice, don't you?"
"Did I stutter?" Klaus asked. "You are in the body of an Original; surely executing Elena's pathetic bodyguards would be a matter of seconds? Don't tell me you don't know where the moonstone is?"
"Katherine has it," I said. I paused for a moment. "Katerina Petrova."
"I know the doppelganger's pseudonym!" Klaus shouted.
"Damon Salvatore is currently in the body of Finn, making your immediate suggestion imprudent. Damon's reaction to the execution of his brother is unlikely to be pleasant to say the least. If I agree to this deal I will need time." I explained.
"If?" Klaus looked incredulous. "What is your alternative?"
"I am playing a dangerous game, Niklaus." I saw Klaus tense at the name. "I am dealing with the Original Witch, who has come within an inch of killing you all in the future visions I saw. Esther's plan is currently extremely dumb and she might not survive another month. You are mercurial, impatient, and violent beyond my comprehension." I gestured at Caroline's dead mother. "I need you to understand why you are not going to add stipulations or screw me over in a fit of spite." I watched Klaus scowl.
"You are in no position to negotiate, are you? One phone call and something you clearly value is destroyed forever; do you want me to be your enemy?" Klaus asked.
"I have your father," I stated.
Klaus froze. He looked around the room with an expression close to panic. "If you're lying about this I will eat your heart." Klaus whispered.
"Ever heard of Katherine's friend, Pearl? She knew how to locate Mikael. Her daughter turned a new vampire into their family, and he's the last of their line and just so happens to be Elena's brother. He realized Elena's plan was dumb, so he went and dug Mikael up from the coffin he was in." I explained. "Right now he has a dagger in him, the dagger you had Sheila put in Finn's body."
"I see." Klaus nodded. "He will destroy you if he wakes."
"He can't get to me if that crystal is destroyed. As far as I know that is the only way to physically travel across the worlds. What would I care if he burns this town to the ground to stop you? Is there any daylight between you two from my perspective? I have his stake. If you shatter the Ascendant I will pull the dagger out as soon as I've made sure the stake is indestructible, and then use the stake on Kol and Rebekah before Mikael wakes to take it." I ranted, feeling a sense of excitement and power at a duel of words with Klaus himself.
"You dare to threaten me and my family!" Klaus roared. Several dancers were looking at us worriedly.
"Family?" I pointed again at the dead sheriff. "I will put it simply Klaus; I know everything you're capable of. I'm capable of just as much, maybe worse. You do not jump the gun. I will work my very best to get you everything you want. If you make one of your trademark stupid calls then Mikael is the only member of your family left when I'm done."
Klaus sat there, furious but clearly thinking hard. "You're bluffing," He said after a minute. "You don't really have Mikael or the stake."
"I am telling you the truth," I said with a burst of Immortal compulsion.
Klaus shuddered. "What was that?" He asked.
"I was trying a short cut through that Mikaelson stubborn streak. Did it work?" I asked.
"I believe you are telling the truth, now. I know you are clearly spewing a pile of horse shit, too," Klaus said thoughtfully.
"Oh, just read my mind or something." I stood up and leaned over Klaus. "Surely an Original can do that?"
Klaus focused for a moment. "I can tell you're very annoyed and impatient. Yes..." Klaus paused. "You have seen my father, at least, and the stake. You have seen my mother..." Klaus sounded pained for a moment. "You want to kill me, you fantasize about it..." Klaus smiled. "Oh, that's a trick; when did the Original Witch put a spell on us to kill off all our vampire descendants?"
"Damn it," I sighed. "I was hoping to keep that under wraps."
"Keep under wraps that Katerina dies if I do?" Klaus smiled. "If Katerina goes then so does Stefan. I wonder who Anna's sireline comes from, and what happens to little Jeremy when I go? You knew all this time that you were murdering them and their friends and let them help you do it. You're certainly a piece of work, aren't you?"
"Surely we have an understanding?" I asked. "I mean, if I don't work with you then my plan collapses into a million pieces the moment you tell them anything." I paused. "Assuming they aren't listening in on this conversation right now."
"Oh, great Master of the Mind, surely you can make them forget if they did?" Klaus asked with a smile. Then Klaus frowned. "What is that?" He asked. "A perk? I don't understand."
"My visions are accurate, but come from down a rabbit hole of cosmological and practical insanity that has kept me up all night with flowcharts and colored string. Long story short..."
"Yesterday, upon the stair, I met a man who wasn't there. He wasn't there again today. I wish, I wish he'd go away..." Klaus recited. "Oh, that is curious, isn't it? We are all a story someone else made up as far as you can tell?" Klaus grinned. "You're not the first, you know."
"What?" I asked.
"We are all on the same sinking vessel, my new friend. Let us tell this story after I get what I want." Klaus looked so incredibly smug.
"Tell me." I demanded.
"I was lying to put you on edge," Klaus answered, and then frowned. "How do you do that?"
"Originals can be compelled by what I am, and my psychic energy carried with me when I entered the body of Kol." I explained.
"Ah." Klaus nodded.
"If I trusted my ability to compel you better we would not be having this conversation, so it is unlikely to be turned against you." I explained.
"Do you think you can get me the moonstone?" Klaus asked after a minute of thought.
"If Katherine has it destroyed out of spite I would fail. A similar problem is present for Elena herself, as she can die or turn into a vampire at anytime." I answered honestly.
"You have two days until the full moon." Klaus paused. "You don't want a vampire and a werewolf to die in the sacrifice; are you truly so sentimental?"
"No, I'm not. But I believe that if I act like I am I will be a better person then if I admit it," I explained.
Klaus laughed out loud. "So that's it? You think if you pretend to be good you will find some flicker of morality in your soul?"
"I'm not damned yet." I smiled at Klaus. "I will do my very best, but I do have one sincere request in exchange for my cooperation."
"What would that be?" Klaus was curious.
"Matt and Caroline don't die. Elena doesn't want her friends hurt, and those two people count. If I betray her, I owe her that much at least."
"Very well." Klaus answered. "I will harm neither one."
I left the house. I had a lot to do before the full moon.
[hr][/hr]
I found Atticus Shane in a book store near the Whitmore College campus. Professor Shane was on a leave of absence, but he was not traveling at the moment.
"You're Kol." Atticus looked up, his eyes piercing. "Kol Mikaelson."
"Not exactly." I smiled. "I'm a witch possessing Kol for my own purposes."
"What do you want?" Atticus was not crying or drinking or even showing signs of fatigue, he was simply studying maps of Canada stretched out on the table before him. I sat down next to him.
"You're intelligent and capable of doing great things. I am stuck in something like a Gemini Coven Prison dimension. If my current plan goes south I want someone motivated to pick up the pieces." I got straight to the point.
Atticus's eyes glimmered. "Malachai?"
"Wrong once again. Did Sheila Bennett tell you about him?" I asked.
"I know Jo," Atticus explained. "She's a friend of my wife's."
"About your wife, here's the deal. I will bring her back if I find any way to do so. Right now, I am stuck in a purgatory dimension and can't bring her and your son back for you. If I get to Earth, then I can start working on it. Sound like a plan?" I continued to be concise.
"It does, but why should I trust you?" Atticus asked. "Not many witches can bring back the dead, and vampires can't be witches."
"You'd be surprised." I pulled a quarter out of my pocket and levitated it with telekinesis. "I'm not myself here, but I can do a few neat tricks in Kol's body. I'm curious how you know what he looks like, too."
"There are paintings of the Mikaelsons if you know where to look and many witches would like to see Kol back. My wife is one, actually." Atticus put his book away.
"You're after a long shot on raising Silas. I assure you I am a lot more reliable, Professor. Want anything else to prove my merit?" I asked.
"This kind of thing just doesn't happen." Atticus frowned, but he looked very curious. "Why are you here, really?"
I prepared to pontificate. "Honestly, well, how honest do you really want me to be? The way I know your future is crazy and occasionally unreliable, but when I have the right details it is amazingly precise. The fact is that the people I am working with right now are a bunch of scheming bastards who have even odds of selling me out if I'm being generous. You, on the other hand, are amazingly goal oriented. In a few months I have a shot at getting out of my purgatory dimension, and then eight more shots after that, or I have a good chance of never getting out at all. If you get me out, you have my word I will do my best to bring your wife and son back to life. What more do you need?"
"I want to know everything." Atticus's look was very hungry. "Please, tell me."
"Hm..." I considered. "Do you take vervain?"
"Not in a while." Atticus shook his head.
"Drink it, keep it in a bracelet or something, and hide it somewhere else on your body all at once. Vampires can be tricky about taking it away from you. I guess it won't hurt anything if I tell you everything that's happened." I paused. "I'll admit, that is because you are expendable from my perspective. Not saying I would sell you out or anything, but you're unrelated to my main plans and if you are down it's only running without an insurance policy. No offense or anything."
"None taken." Atticus smiled. "So what exactly can you tell me that you aren't telling anyone else?"
"Well, I've told some people. So first of all, tell me about your favorite book, or movie, or TV show, something like that. Believe me, this ties in." I watched the man closely.
"Lord of the Rings." Atticus smiled. "I know, I married a witch, so of course I'd like that."
"Alright, I never actually read it, though I read The Hobbit and have gotten a lot of pop culture osmosis about it. So, imagine you wake up in a Hobbit Hole and Frodo is looking like you broke in. How do you explain yourself?" I sat back in my chair.
"Huh." Atticus frowned. "Are you saying that you found yourself in your favorite novel?"
"Not quite, but pretty close. I was playing a kind of online writing challenge about what you would do in that situation, and then something super weird happened before I found myself in almost exactly the situation I had been writing about. Sometimes I have been wrong about details, but they're the kind of thing you'd expect to get wrong occasionally like exact locations or names. It's possible I am slightly 'off course' in dimensions, but if so it's by a tiny amount." I explained.
"So you don't want to tell the main people they're in a TV show because you don't know how they might react. I take it I'm not on the show?" Atticus asked.
I smiled. "Minor character, recurring, in a later season, while I am in like, late season two or something so far."
"Ah, so you know some master plan I develop to bring back Caitlin and Sam. I take it that you don't think it ends well?" Atticus asked.
"Nope."
[hr][/hr]
I entered the Salvatore boarding house. Katherine and Elena sat together on a couch looking equally annoyed. Damon stood in one corner and Vicki in another, glaring at each other. Stefan paced. Bonnie and Luka sat at the table and poured over grimoires.
"He returns." Stefan said. "Are we fucked?"
"I am," I answered. "Dealing with Klaus made me put things on the table I never should have. He had to peel back layers if I wanted him confident. I have some leverage, but not much."
"How much?" Katherine asked.
"Is Tyler alive?" I asked.
"He won his trials. He and Mason are asleep," Stefan answered.
"Then we have what we need." I nodded. "I have one last move to make. I need Elena and every Original Vampire."
"Klaus has Elijah," Vicki pointed out.
"Katherine, that's your job." I told her. "Get me Elijah. I don't care how."
"Oh?" Katherine's eyes danced. "Is that all?"
"Do you want to stop Klaus?" I asked. "Get it done."
"What the hell are you planning?" Stefan asked.
"I'm going to break the curse on Klaus, and I'm going to give Esther everything else she wants," I explained.
"Can you be more vague and ominous?" Vicki asked.
"Everyone who knows what I am going to do is a liability. Klaus can extract the information. I just need you all to trust me one last time." I almost begged.
"Do it." Elena said after a moment.
"Are you sure?" Stefan asked.
"This way, we can all get out of this. Jeff is giving us a chance." Elena said. "If we don't let him try, then we will lose people to him and Klaus."
"You would," Vicki whispered in her corner. Everyone turned and stared at her. "If you don't let him bring me back, I'll kill you all."
I looked at Vicki for a minute. "Thank you," I said honestly. Vicki and I walked out of the room together.