A/N- So I was going to wait until I'd finished New Lives before posting this to prevent any spoilers but I have an essay to write so I'm looking for any and all forms of procrastination. Also I don't think there will be many spoilers in this but all of them relate to Bonnie so Bonnie fans watch out.
Me personally, I'm not a Bonnie fan, I just don't think her character was developed all that well and she essentially became a plot device, she could have been a kick ass witch but she never really ever got a spell right without there being some epic consequences. Now I would have loved to have seen Katherine grow her Traveler witch skills and is it possible that the evil Traveler that came out of Bonnie and all those deaths was Nadia's father? Could he bring Katherine back?
I don't know guys, I'm just wasting time here.
Epilogue
October was a beautiful month for New Orleans.
Winter meant very little to the citizens of this old city, the weather barely dropped and the humidity made colder clothing a fashion statement rather than a necessity.
Even now when it was seven o'clock at night only a handful of pedestrians on the famous Bourbon Street were wearing sweaters and those were mostly tourists.
Tourists who came chasing the jazz, the food, the festivals and the people. Tourists who were drawn to New Orleans by the thrill of its supernatural history and the promising allure of pleasures sought and found.
So they were on the lookout for a good time and couldn't help but stare when the woman who seem to embody hedonism made flesh swept down the street.
Dressed in her typical high heels, skinny jeans that looked like they'd been sewn on and a black singlet that would have been casual on anyone lacking her curves Katherine Pierce pretended not to notice the attempted covert stares of the tourists and the lustful gazes of the men and women around her but when she stopped at the corner to check both ways before crossing she brushed her curls over her shoulder and slouched just enough to dispel any lingering suggestions that she might be a prim and proper Southern Belle.
A tour guide was leading a large group of English speaking visitors from St Ann Street, giving the typical fanciful spiel about the magic of the French Quarter.
"This here is the heart of the French Quarter, Bourbon Street where the living get lost and the dead stick around to play"
Katherine resists the urge to roll her eyes and holds her hands at waist level, twisting the new ring that graced her finger, the red diamond catching the light from the lamps slowly coming to life as the day faded. The movement caught the attention of the tour guide and she stuttered, running her eyes over the attractive brunette and recognising her instantly, Katherine glanced pointedly at the tour group that the regular pedestrians were easing their way around and raised an eyebrow.
The guide broke their eye contact and ushered the tourists out of the way, across the road to Marie Laveau's House of Voodoo where the foolish would waste money on imported charms that had no relevance to the ancestral magic or any power in the supernatural town.
Her path now clear, Katherine flounced across the road and checked the brightly painted signs for her rendezvous point. Finding the bar called 'Bourbon O' she lifted her wrist to check Elijah's watch.
Well technically it was Damon Salvatore's watch but Elijah had taken a liking to it in Yucatan and the two of them wore it regularly, sharing the time-keeping device and both taking pleasure in the fact.
It stated that she was ten minutes late and she smiled to herself. She rarely liked to be on time, better to keep people waiting for her.
And she knew they would wait for her.
She stepped into the dark bar, noting the attempted high end design, leather booths and glass tables with colourful cushions and a band setting up in the corner. She glanced at them in distaste and wondered how long she would have before conversation was made impossible by ridiculously loud music.
The bar was filled with regular humans and her eyes swept over the area before landing on a table in the very centre of the room, the most public space available where a middle aged man in glasses and a brown suede jacket, looking every inch the musician himself, was sipping red wine.
He felt her gaze on him and lifted his glass, standing as she approached,
"Miss Petrova" he smiled, nodding his head as she dropped elegantly into the seat across from him,
"In the flesh" she quipped as a waiter approached and placed a Sazerac down before her, she leaned back in her seat, "And curious that you think I'm going to be here long enough to drink with you"
He grinned and resumed his seat, "I caught the attention of the famed Katerina Petrova and lured her out to a place of my choosing, a little confidence is to be expected"
She took a sip of her drink and let the chilled absinthe and rye run over her tongue, this man was an enigma to her and she didn't like enigmas. He had passed a message to her through one of her contacts asking to meet her which wasn't out of the ordinary, people often tried to forge relationships or broker deals with her, especially now that she was for all intents and purposes settling down in New Orleans. She'd ignored the message, torn up the little piece of paper and forgotten all about it until Camille had come over for dinner one night and handed her an embossed calling card with a cell number printed in French script below the name Andrei Chilikov.
It was an alias.
Unless the priest who'd fathered her child back in fifteenth century Bulgaria had managed to pull a resurrection act that would impress even her, this man before her was simply trying to get her attention.
It had worked.
As far as she had been aware, nobody living had known that name, so here she sat in a bar surrounded by humans, being considered another citizen of New Orleans as opposed to a Princess of the French Quarter, catching gazes because of her beauty and not because she was a member of the most powerful family in the city.
She put the drink down and eyed him carefully, weighing up her options and deciding that he posed no immediate physical threat to her,
"Well, now you have me here, why don't you tell me what it is exactly that you want?"
He hesitated and looked around at the fellow customers, "You didn't bring anyone with you?"
She shook her head, "I don't need bodyguards and I prefer to do my business myself"
No doubt word would get back to Niklaus and Elijah about her being in the tackiest part of Bourbon Street but she wasn't making any effort to be inconspicuous so neither brother would think twice about her having drinks with a stranger in a public area.
After all, her fidelity to Elijah was well-known, even if the cause of it was a dark secret that nibbled at the edge of her mind.
He relaxed visibly and she bit her cheek to hide her smirk, he was an idiot if he thought her solitary presence meant that he was safe.
He sipped his wine again and studied her, "Katerina Petrova" he tested her name on his tongue, "You're quite the legend, surviving five centuries as an enemy of the Originals when nobody else has survived a decade without going completely underground but you danced a trail of destruction across Europe and left a plethora of broken-hearts in your wake. The news of you becoming human was met with disbelief but just as your enemies began to form an orderly queue to kill you, you come out on top as Elijah Mikaelson's truest love and now you're the darling of the French Quarter. Not much is known about your human life before you met him however, very few people know that were the daughter of a successful horse trader, even fewer that you are from Kazanlak"
She rested an elbow on the table and propped her chin in her hand effecting an artistic pose of insouciance, "So, are you planning on telling me anything or are you just going to recount my life story until I decide beat it out of you?"
Perhaps he had been trying to intrigue her by revealing how much he knew about her but he'd only managed to irritate her. Seeing this, he cleared his throat, leaned over and stopped speaking English.
"I've travelled far to get here," he begins in the ancient language "I walk from the east with the sun on my back and my people at my side"
Katerina choked on her drink and covered her mouth with the back of her hand as she swallowed the liquid with effort, it burned as it ran down her throat. She glanced about wildly, terrified that somebody had overheard but he had whispered the words and the lone saxophone player warming up on stage covered their conversation,
"Tell me what you want before I break this glass, slit your throat and throw you in the Mississippi!"
"You wouldn't kill me, you can't kill a fellow rom-…"
"Finish that sentence" she interrupted with a hiss, "I dare you!"
He sat back in his chair but she didn't move, "I was dead for five hundred years" she reminded him pointedly, "For me the laws no longer apply"
He huffed, "I don't believe that but…" he added hastily when she lifted her empty glass to break it against the table, "I'm not here to test that theory or your homicidal hobbies"
"Then why are you here?"
"To warn you" he blabbed, "To warn you that something dark is coming and you'll need to travel back east to survive it"
She scoffed and pushed back her chair loudly, "Goodbye"
He grabbed her hand and dug his short nails in, pulling her backwards, "I'm not a player in this game" he confessed, "I'm an emissary for one whose about to enter the game"
"Good for them," she quipped, "Tell me their name and I'll prepare a spot for them at Lafayette Cemetery"
"Nadia" he said frantically and she rolled her eyes, "Nadia, lovely Central European name"
"I'm glad you think so" he muttered dryly, "Because she's your daughter"
Celeste DuBois stared out over the paltry gathering of women with distaste.
These pathetic creatures were all that remained of the witches of New Orleans.
But they weren't survivors, they weren't warriors who'd relied on the faith and the rituals of their ancestors to survive. These were the women who'd allowed vampires to overrun the Quarter and stayed silent when Marcel began his reign, these were the creatures who'd obeyed the new 'Laws' and become subservient to the dead monsters. These were the rats that had turned tail and fled when Klaus had usurped their town.
Celeste wanted to kill every last one of them.
Unfortunately these worthless wastes of space were the only witches allowed in New Orleans, the ones who'd earned Klaus' favour by becoming his servants and helping him defeat Silas.
Granted the New Orleans witches hadn't been alone in this regard, witches from across the globe had answered that call but Celeste considered those from her city to be the worst traitors.
After all, these were the women who had known true power and then consented to know servitude at the hands of a monster.
Still, she needed their power if she was ever to save the city and the Balance of Nature.
She stepped forward into the light of the roaring bonfire, "Greetings Sisters"
She received half-hearted murmurs in reply. She ignored their lacklustre welcome.
"You are here tonight because Vampires rule your town, they invade your streets and shops like pests, they take what they want and care nothing for our magic or nature, they kill without consideration and one dares to even call himself a King!"
That got a response, the witches nodded and voiced their agreement, vampires were an abomination but the hybrid who'd fathered the Mutt was the worst of the worst.
"You are here tonight because you don't want to be ruled by the Hybrid monster, one who walks all over you and demands that you obey him without question, you are here tonight because you are going to help me take him down"
Positive vocal response came in the form of cheers and shouts of agreement save for one, a young witch stepped forward, one who had been Marcel's lover and even now mourned his death,
"I know of you" she pouted, "Didn't Niklaus Mikaelson drown you in a bathtub?"
Not personally but he had arranged for her murder.
He had never liked her, he had certainly looked down on her for being a courtesan but he had been suspicious of her intentions towards his brother, Elijah was so easily manipulated by the women he loved.
Katerina Petrova for example.
That whore had wormed her way into Elijah's bed and was prancing around New Orleans as if she were Queen, redirecting traffic and flouncing about sticking her nose into supernatural business.
When Celeste finally caught her she'd cut her nose off.
The thought of this future brought a cold-blooded smile to her face, "And yet here I am and I have greater reason than most to want the bastard dead and I have already found a means for his destruction"
Abigail Bennett walked to her side, causing most of the witches to stand back and stare at her with disgust. Once a witch of the most powerful and prominent lines she had become an abomination, a witch turned vampire, worse still, her daughter had lost herself to Expression.
Still, her pathetic attempts for redemption were useful to Celeste.
The woman crossed her arms and raised her head showing her dead eyes,
"I'm going to give you the name of the Klaus Mikaelson's greatest weakness, the woman he loves and would risk everything for"
Hundreds of miles north of New Orleans, in a small university town at the very edge of Virginia Bonnie Bennett waited patiently for Jeremy Gilbert to fall asleep.
His naked body draped over hers while their mixed fluids still slid down her thighs, she counted down backwards from one thousand and listened for his breathing to even out.
She'd booked the local hotel using the excuse that she wanted some 'alone time' with Jeremy and it felt too weird to have sex with Elena's younger brother in their dorm room, although she knew for a fact that Elena had had not one but both Salvatore brothers in the bed and their shower not once but multiple times and sometimes simultaneously.
Neither of her roommates and so called 'best friends' had noticed anything out of the ordinary.
Caroline was packing for her two week vacation in New Orleans. She was nervously questioning what to pack, what she should wear, what time she should arrive and whether or not to book a hotel even though Klaus was probably expecting her to stay with him and probably had a mansion so she could probably ask for her own room but would that be burdensome or would Klaus be assuming she would sleep in his bed and did that make her a slut or this a sex holiday…
Caroline's anxiety irritated Bonnie beyond belief, it was one of the worst parts of her personality.
Of course that paled in comparison to the fact that Caroline was preparing to go visit Klaus, she was going to New Orleans for the sole purpose of being romantically involved with the monster who'd made all their lives hell for two long years before even considering redemption.
This man was the reason her mother was a vampire.
He was the reason she'd lost her magic and had to turn to Expression.
He was the reason Silas had been raised and they'd barely defeated him.
He and his entire family was the reason her Jeremy had been killed, Tyler and Caroline had broken up and Elena had become a vampire lost her mind and was now in a semi-incestuous polygamous relationship.
She pulled on the yoga pants and sweater she had planned on sleeping in, sticking her feet into the ugg boots that only college students could get away with in the winter.
She crept out of the hotel room and onto the second floor walkway, checking over the railing to the parking lot where Jeremy's latest car- the previous one Damon bought had exploded after colliding with an insane flesh eating vampire- sat below their room. There were no other cars in the lot but the college town was rapidly emptying as those that lived in state or could afford to left for their two to three week vacation.
Shivering, she huddled over and hurried along the walkway, noting the first few snowflakes falling from the sky.
She hated winter, the cold reminded her of the Other Side, of her death.
She climbed down the stairs carefully, worried about slipping on the railing and ducked behind the side of the building. She tried to lean against the wall but it was damp from the cold so she shot back up and pulled her phone out of her pocket, checking for any messages.
She had three.
Caroline- Bonnie, do you think I need to take a ball gown? I'm totally stopping off at home anyway, so I can easily pick one up...but which one should I pack? The blue one, the green or the gold one I brought for the last masquerade ball?
Damon- Elphaba are you coming home with Elena and Stefan or are you coming back early tomorrow with Jeremy?
Matt- Hey, I applied to the culinary school in New York you told me about, they said I'd know in two weeks or so
She deleted the first two messages, Jeremy wouldn't be going to school tomorrow no matter what Damon Salvatore said. He could stay and help her pack and they'd head back together, otherwise her options were to take a bus or to spend a few hours trapped in a car with Elena who'd be uber-happy to be with her boys, Damon who'd be fake-complaining about having to pick up the college layabouts and Stefan who wouldn't stop talking to her in an attempt to overcome the awkwardness of their polygamy and the discomfort she felt about being in close quarters with the three of them.
She was rolling her eyes at the horrific memory of the last car trip just as she heard her name called.
Her mother came out of the shadows with another woman, Bonnie waited for them to approach and shivered when she felt the power radiating from the stranger.
"Are you Celeste?" she asked and the woman nodded, "Yes and you're the brave girl whose going to help the New Orleans witches"
Bonnie swore that she detected sarcasm in her tone, she felt defensive, "I'm saving my friend from Klaus, the witches can sort out their own problems"
Celeste bristled, "We need each other Bonnie Bennett, it's the only way we'll be able to destroy Klaus and the Originals once and for all"
And now New Paths is finished, but when the sequel comes up-after New Lives is finished- I'll post a link here.
Thanks for reading everyone! Thanks even more for the reviews!