AN: I had requests for more Horsepeople history, so in this you get a bunch about Alice right off the bat. This is mostly Alice-centric, setting the stage for what's to come. It will return to Caroline (and Klaroline) next chapter.
Seven. Alice
"Come away with me. Away from the men who would destroy you, and the sister who cares nothing for you. Come and be with me, Alice. Be happy for once in your life."
"Oh, you poor delusional fool," Alice ran her hand down Malkom's face. It was such a strong face – not one that could be called handsome, but it was striking, and his blue eyes always made her feel a little infatuated. "There is no happy for one such as I. Nor for those who would consort with us. You dance with Death when you court me, Malkom."
"You always say that, as though it's a name. Death. It is not some entity, to be feared, Alice. It is a state of being, and one that must be faced every day. I don't fear dancing with death, it is a dance I enter gladly."
He was a fool, her dark warrior with the blue eyes, and not at all the type of man Alice usually allowed to pursue her. He lived by the blade, a habit Alice sneered at. It was Caroline who respected such… barbaric natures, not her, but Malkom…
Malkom made her feel. It was a unique sensation for the woman who had shut away emotion centuries before.
A pity he was such a fool. Death was not a mere state of being, and Alice knew that better than most.
"No more talk of Death," she said, pulling his lips to hers and revelling in the sensation of them. "We will never agree, and I wish to send you off to battle with my taste on your lips, not with memories of an argument."
Malkom was perfectly willing to set aside the argument in favor of taking her to bed again, and Alice didn't wish to argue schematics with her lover. There would be time for I-told-you-so's when he finally met Marik for himself and breathed his last.
And at that point? It wouldn't matter what Alice thought anymore.
Alice snaps awake, running a clawed hand down her face. The dream had been vivid, probably because it was more memory than dream, and it brought back emotions better left buried. She hadn't thought of Malkom in centuries, hadn't allowed herself to.
Then Matthew Donovan had stared her down with eyes that were the same shade of impossible blue and had transported her back a thousand years, to a different time and now Malkom was haunting her in her sleep.
"What's wrong, Famine?" Mariks drawls from where he lounges next to her. Alice looks over at him, analyzing him with critical eyes. He's sprawled on his back, resting in head on his arms, the sheet just covering his waist. He is quite flawless, she acknowledges, all finely cut muscle and unblemished skin. She can't help but compare that to her memories of Malkom, who had been scarred and massively built, all power and brute strength, where Marik is finely toned grace.
"I thought you would be gone by now," Alice says, ignoring Marik's question and determinedly casting Malkom from her mind. Damn Donovan and his blue eyes for awakening memories better left buried! "Off to hold our indiscretion over Caroline's head" – she climbs out of the bed and begins to gather up her clothes, pausing just long enough to give Marik a narrowed eyed, considering look – "or Victor. I'm not entirely sure who you were trying to say fuck you to by fucking me, but I'll be sure to thank whichever it was. You were better than I expected."
"Is this your way of kicking me out of your bed?" Marik sits up and watches her with amusement. "But we had such fun. Are you sure you don't wish to return? We can have another round, just to be sure you weren't imagining my prowess."
"Don't you have spirits to gather and take to their respective places? You're ignoring your duty, Death." Alice pulls on her shirt, her underwear having been thoroughly destroyed in their passion of the previous night, and begins to pull up her jeans. She catches Marik's eyes once, and he is watching her with appreciation in his green gaze. It makes Alice's lips quirk in a smirk, and if she didn't have somewhere else to be, she probably would have taken him up on his offer of another round. "You should go and make up with my sister now, before Elena Gilbert tells her all about us. If you hurry, you can likely have her back to being your lapdog before she can even contemplate being angry."
"She's different," Marik replies with a frown, and isn't it just typical of him to be able to go back to brooding about Caroline, even when Alice is standing in what is a rather cool room sans bra. Alice doesn't reply to Marik's statement, and he frowns at her, his brow furrowing. "You've noticed as well."
"Of course I've noticed," Alice responds after a long moment, in which she takes the time to put on her boots. "The only one who won't have is Victor, and that's because he never had the time to contemplate Caroline outside of how she could best serve his purposes. I don't know what you want me to say, Marik. She spent eighteen years as a human. It's affected her. Give her a few decades, maybe a century, and I'm sure she'll be back to the Caroline we remember."
Alice tips her head back, pulling her hair into a ponytail and ignores Marik's probing look.
"You don't want that, though, do you, Famine?" Marik asks, and he pulls himself out of bed, not bothering to keep a hold on the sheet to hide himself. Alice allows herself one last appreciative look before he pulls on his own jeans. "You like that Caroline has all those mortal weaknesses, because they mean she may have loyalty to a sister she never cared for in this life."
"Her loyalty is to the mortals who call this town home. And to Niklaus Mikaelson" – and oh, Alice would never tire of using that to make a dig at Marik. She loved that he was jealous, loved that there was another man that Caroline looked at – "we have no place in her world, not as anything more than a danger to those she holds dear. How does it feel, Marik? To be the unwanted one? I hope you choke on it."
Alice saunters to the door, because she's always been excellent at making an exit, but Marik isn't the type to allow someone the last word. She finds herself shoved into the door, Marik pinning her arms above her head.
"I am tired of you sisters acting as though I am a creature to be put down and not feared," Marik growls, shoving his leg between her legs and holding her still. "Has it truly been so long, Allie, that you've forgotten what I am capable of?"
"I remember, I just know that you can't truly do anything. Not to me. I am not Caroline, who is surrounded by loved ones that you can use against her, Marik. I learned my lesson centuries ago."
"Ah, yes… the Berserker. What was his name again? Malkin? Malthan? Oh, it's no matter, is it? The dead don't need names. I wonder if Niklaus will look at Caroline the same way that poor fool looked at you when he dies. It was such a delicious sight, that lovely betrayal."
"Go to hell," Alice hisses, breaking his grip on her wrists and slashing her claws across his face. Marik roars and reels back, his hands coming to his face, but the sound soon turns to laughter as Alice glares at him, his blood covering her fingers on one hand, and the other balled into a fist.
"Oh, Alice my dear, you are such a pitiful fool. I thought last night that I had no way to hurt you, but I don't have to. You hurt yourself every day, don't you? And all over a fool who had the bad taste to fall in love with Famine. I pity you."
"Get out," Alice snarls, spinning away from him, wanting him to leave, to just be anywhere but there to mock her. She didn't expect him to listen, but to her surprise he left the room, still chuckling. Alice waits until she is sure he is gone, then with a roar of her own, she grabbed the television and threw it against the wall with a crash.
Damn Marik for his mockery.
Damn Malkom for falling in love with her, for making her fall in love with him.
And damn Matthew Donovan for reminding her of that love.
(CWM)
"There has to be some way to stop this," Elena says as she stands with Bonnie and Caroline outside the Salvatore cellar, where Damon is once more chained. She feels relief, that Bonnie and Caroline seems to be working out some sort of truce, but she is terrified for the man in the cell. Damon helped her so much during the summer, when she was worried for Stefan and Caroline and trying to help her aunt through transition, and seeing him reduced to this… this animal is just sad.
"Maybe we should just put an end to it," Bonnie replies, and when Elena glares at her, she holds up her hands. "I get that he helped you, Elena, I really do. But he's lost his mind. And he killed half a dozen people in the hospital before he got to my room. How are they explaining that?"
"The same way they always do," Caroline replies, her voice sounding almost dead to Elena's new and improved hearing. "Animal attack. The town has become so use to them that they don't even really bother questioning it even more, even when the attacks happen in a hospital. They just add another lock to the door and call it a day."
"Do we know what caused this?" Elena asks, and both other girls look at her with furrowed brows. Elena looks back, confused by the confusion in their eyes. "What?"
"No one told you, did they?" Bonnie asks, and Caroline hits her head against the bars in the door's small window.
"Dammit, I never even thought. You were in the hospital when Stefan found out, so no one has told you yet."
"Told me what?" Elena demands, getting frustrated with the lack of answers and the nonsense coming from her friends.
"It was Alice, Elena," Caroline replies.
At the same time, Bonnie says, "it was Famine."
The two girls look at each other, and Bonnie scowls darkly.
"Call her what she is, Caroline. She is Famine. Giving her a different name doesn't change that."
"I'm not giving her a different name, Bonnie. It is her name. Calling her Famine all the time won't change that. It won't change the fact that she is my sister, and while she may be a stranger to all of you, I can remember playing with her when we were just little girls."
"Alice," Elena murmurs, remembering the redhead who resembled Caroline from the Grill the night before. "We saw her. Last night. She was pretty, and she looked a lot like you. How did she do this?"
"You are taking this news surprisingly well," Bonnie observes, allowing her attention to be turned from her budding argument with Caroline to her contemplative brunette friend.
"It's the end of the world as we know it," Elena responds, her voice taking on a wry note. "I don't think anything will surprise me again. Ever. How did she do this? And can you undo it, Care?"
"I… she infected him with her venom. We all have a supernatural creature that answers to us, that we… created. Mine are the Valkyrie." Caroline motions at Elena. "Immortal warrior women. Alice has the Wendigo. Unlike the Valkyrie, Wendigo have no free will. They answer loyally to Alice, and if she's not there to give them orders, then they just… feed. They will eat anything and everything with a pulse. They also have the same venom as Alice, allowing them to turn others. If the others survive long enough to be turned. That's what's happening to Damon. And no, I can't undo it."
"What about the other two?" Elena asks, positive that someone must be able to help Damon. "Victor and… Marik, right? I mean, Marik and Alice obviously have a weird thing going on, so maybe he won't be of any help, but this Victor guy? Can he do anything?"
"Alice and Marik?" Caroline asks, staring at Elena. "A weird thing? What the hell are you talking about?"
"Well, last night, we saw them at the grill… and well… you don't kiss someone like he kissed her if you're not getting lucky later. Did you not know? I mean, Elijah said you and Marik – and it's still weird thinking that the Horsepeople of the Apocalypse have names – were friends. Were you, I mean… before, in your old memories… oh crap! Are you going to be heartbroken over this?" Elena remembers how Klaus had been so jealous of Marik, and it occurs to her now that maybe the asshole is two-timing her best friend, and she really could have thought of a better way to let Caroline know about his indiscretion.
"No, I'm not going to be broken hearted," Caroline replies, her expression darkening. "But I am going to tear that asshole a new one! My freaking sister!"
The blonde spins around and storms out of the cellar. Elena and Bonnie exchange wide-eyed looks behind her back.
"Uh… I am so confused," Elena admits, and Bonnie gives her a small, wry smile.
"Join the club. We're writing a book about it."
(CWM)
"Have they been in today?"
Matt stops talking with Rebekah to look at Caroline who has charged up to the bar and is leaning on the edge. There are silver sparks in her eyes; not quite overtaking their actual color, but very much present, and Matt looks around nervously, thinking that an angry War is not going to be good for the Grill's patronage. Bonnie and Elena are with her as well, and Matt can see that Elena's eyes are sparking as well, and her hands are curled into tight fists – her new powers reacting to whatever signal Caroline is giving off.
"Who the bloody hell are you talking about?" Rebekah demands in that way of hers that makes Matt wince, because he's known Caroline since forever, and there's no way that tone is going to go over well.
"Oh, go find a hole to rot in, Beks," Caroline snaps, but she's already turned those still sparking eyes back to Matt before Rebekah can work up a really good snit.
"Who are you talking about, Care?" Matt asks, echoing Rebekah's question with a sigh.
"Marik and Alice," Caroline hisses out the names like their curses, and Matt finds himself wincing in pity for the duo as the silver in Caroline's eyes begins to grow more prominent.
"Caroline, you need to calm down," Rebekah says, and Caroline snaps her head towards the Original, but Rebekah's attention is all focused on Elena. Caroline's anger fades to confusion and she spins around. Elena's eyes have become full silver and her hair is beginning to crackle, her powers reacting to Caroline's rage and the pressure of knowing there is an enemy around every corner without knowing who that enemy is and a dozen other issues that Elena still isn't ready to deal with.
"Crap," Caroline curses, and she rushes to Elena's side. "Take deep breaths, Elena. Concentrate on brining the power down. Matt, we need fries, like, yesterday. The food always helped me," she says this to Bonnie, who looks confused at the food order, "if I was eating, I didn't want to kill people. It won't hurt for Elena to try."
"I'm sorry," Elena says with eyes tightly shut, her hand grasping onto Caroline's with power that would have crushed anyone else's bones. "I don't know why I have to struggle like this. Not killing anybody shouldn't be this hard. It hadn't seemed to be this hard before now."
"You're reacting to me," Caroline replies. "It's the bond I have with the Valkyrie. You'll feel compelled to assist me… it's like a sire bond on crack."
"Wait, so you can force her to your will?" Bonnie demands, and her expression says that this is news she doesn't like, news she will probably chew Caroline out for. Before she can begin a rant, though, Elena opens her eyes and shoots her a quelling look.
"So not the time, Bon," she says before turning her still silvery gaze to Caroline. "Can you make me calm down then? Turn it into an order?"
"I could," Caroline replies. "But it would be more effective if you did it yourself. I can't always be there for you, so you have to learn to control it. If you can do it now, when you've been so heavily influenced by my powers, doing it when you're just under typical teenage stress should be a breeze."
"Yes, because your lives are oh so typical," Rebekah drawls, and Caroline thinks she should snap at her for that, only Rebekah shoves the plate Matt has delivered in front of Elena and gives the brunette a critical look. "Eat. Caroline is right – if you can distract yourself, you can calm down easier."
Elena reaches out and shoves a couple of fries into her mouth. She chews for a few seconds before grabbing more, repeating the process. Slowly, fry-by-fry, the brunette calms down, and both Caroline and Bonnie give sighs of relief.
"You asked about Marik and Alice," Matt says, when they're all sure Elena isn't going to go Rambo on someone. "I haven't seen them since… uh…"
"She knows Matt," Elena mumbles around her fries, looking up with a guilty expression. "I kind of spilled the beans already."
"Jealous over your blonde boyfriend?" Rebekah asks Caroline with a sneer. "I should have suspected as much. I knew you were going to break Nik's heart."
"I'm not breaking your brother's heart," Caroline snaps, and she tries not to think too hard about the way they'd torn up his apartment the night before, or how she'd let herself lose utter control in his arms. "And I'm not jealous."
"I hate to agree with Rebekah – like, really hate to – but if you're not jealous, then why are you so mad?" Bonnie asks, snatching one of Elena's fries and watching Caroline like her life is some sort of afternoon soap.
"Becaue Allie is my sister, Bon. She's a part of me, and Marik just screwed her – quite literally – because I pissed him off. What's between us should be between us, and he shouldn't have gotten her involved!"
Elena pauses with a fry halfway to her mouth, eyeing Caroline with a curious expression. She slowly lowers it to the plate and rests her hands on the bar, her gaze turning thoughtful.
"You love her," she says, and Caroline's eyes snap to hers. There is guilt there, Elena can read it clearly, and it reminds her of the guilt the blonde wore when she thought of Klaus and Elena caught her. It's guilt, for feeling something for someone that has hurt the others she loves, and Elena thinks this must be tearing her apart, the things she feels for the people time has turned into monsters. Elena reaches out, resting her hand over Caroline's tight fist, and smiles in understanding. "It's okay, you know. To love her."
She doesn't say to love him, because Elena isn't ready to forgive Klaus yet, not when he raises so many dark emotions in her, but she knows that, given time, she'll accept it. For Caroline's sake, and because Elena knows what it feels like to care for someone who has done monstrous things to the innocent. But she's willing to accept Alice now, because Elena knows what it's like to have a sibling, to what the best for them, even when they act stupidly.
"What she's done to Damon," Caroline says, avoiding Elena's gaze, and Elena squeezes her hand.
"You have memories of thousands of years spent with her, Care. She is your sister, and we'll forgive our siblings for the most horrible of things. It's okay to love her."
"I… thank-you," Caroline gives Elena a crooked grin. "But that's enough sap, we need to have a group meeting."
"About what?" Rebekah drawls out. "Your sister and her sex life? Because I, personally, don't care."
"No," Caroline responds firmly. "We need to talk about how there are four horsemen in this town when there's really only room for one."
Across the bar, Alice silently slides out of the booth where she had been sitting, unnoticed by Caroline and her friends. As she heads for the exit, she glances back to meet Matt Donovan's gaze. When he looks ready to say something to his companions, Alice holds her finger to her lips with a smirk and a wink.
Matt frowns, but snaps his mouth shut again, his eyes never leaving her as she walks away.
(CWM)
"Now, my pet, did you find me what I was looking for?"
Mikael hisses at the red-headed bitch when she walks into the hovel he's been calling his home in Mystic Falls. Generally, he found much better places to live, but the thirst that Famine had aroused in him was such that he forced himself to hide where no humans would make themselves easy meals.
"Well now, that's just rude. But I'll forgive you, since you managed to bring me such wonderful gifts."
Alice steps up to one the coffins, running her fingers along it. She snaps it open, and looks down at the frozen visage of Kol Mikaelson. Oh, but he was such fun. She had encountered him more than once, passing herself off as a witch, and they had spent many a night as partners – both in crime and in passion.
"How wonderful," Alice murmurs, gripping the dagger in his heart briefly before removing her hand, leaving it in his chest. The time to awaken the remaining two Mikaelsons will come, but not yet. Not with Daddy Mikaelson still kicking.
"Now, who does this one belong to?" Alice murmured, walking to the third of the occupied coffins. She tries to raise the lid, curious as to who is inside, but it doesn't move. She frowns, tugging once more at the lid, this time hitting it with some of her powers.
Instead of opening, the magic on the coffin responds, and Alice withdraws her fingers with an angry growl, blisters forming, then healing on the tips.
"Who is in this?" she demands of Mikael.
"I don't know," he growls in reply, his voice guttural and his eyes glowing with unholy hunger. "You promised to feed me."
"I promised to sate your thirst," Alice responds, so that you wouldn't feel obliged to feed anymore. She pulls out the white oak stake that she had taken from the Papa Original when he had first come under her control. "You've served your purpose, Mikael. But I can't have you killing Niklaus. Not while he is still bound to my sister."
In a flash, Alice is in front of Mikael, and the stake is shoved deep into his chest. Mikael stares at her with wide, disbelieving eyes, as though he had never expected her to betray him, and Alice thinks that he is a fool.
For her endgame, she would betray her own mother.
If she had one.
"Good-bye, Mikael."
She drops the body, already starting to burn, and then turns her attention back to the be-spelled coffin.
"What is this place?"
Alice freezes at the voice, slowly turning around as she hears slow, heavy steps approach her.
Matthew is looking at Mikael's smoldering body. Alice watches him in silence as he slowly walks around the body, making sure to keep space between himself and the deceased.
"You shouldn't be here," Alice says at last, and Matt looks at her, raising his brows.
"I don't know what you're plotting, Alice, but if it's going to hurt Care… then yes, I should be here. You need a conscience."
"Conscience is overrated, and lethal, for those such as I. You followed me."
"Yeah. I thought you'd catch me, but I guess you were distracted."
Alice sighs and turns her back to him.
"I should kill you," she comments, speaking more to the coffins than him. "You make me remember things, things that make me weak. Leave, Matt. Go back to my sister, tattle on me, just be gone from here."
"No."
The word, spoken in a firm, defiant voice make Alice's spine turn rigid. Because he didn't sounded like Matt the quarterback and bartender. No. He sounds like Malkom the Beserker. She remains still, even as she hears the thump of his boots as he joins her next to the be-spelled coffin.
"What are you planning, Alice? Because I don't believe for a moment that you plan on harming Caroline, and I'm pretty sure that's what Victor and Marik want at this point. So what do you want?"
Alice's fingers tighten into a fist just above the coffin. She wants to send the mortal far, far away, even as she wants to tell him all. She was alone right now, Caroline on one side, Marik and Victor on the other, and Alice standing between them, playing a delicate balancing act that could very well destroy her. And here was Matt, offering her a friendly word.
"Stay with me, and you will die," she whispers, fighting back the tears that threaten to come into her eyes. "Probably by my hand."
"You want to be with your sister. She wants the same thing," Alice senses more than sees his hand rise slowly, until it comes to rest on her shoulder. "I know what it's like, to lose a sister. To lose the only family you have. Care still has Liz, but you come from a part of her that none of us can understand… I don't want her to lose you like I lost Vicki and…" Matt hesitated for a moment, then he squeezed her shoulder and continued. "And I don't want you to lose Care, either."
"You don't know me," Alice says, turning burning eyes on Matt. "I am Famine. There is nothing good in me, Matt!"
"Caroline is War… but she's still Caroline," Matt replies resolutely, determination burning in his eyes. "So maybe, beneath the wall of famine you've built around yourself, you're still Alice. You owe it to yourself, and to Caroline, to find out."
"Love hurts. It destroys."
"Maybe… but it's worth it. Otherwise you become like Marik, willing to hurt the one person who cares for you by using their sister. You heard Caroline, she's pissed about that."
"She worries that he'll hurt me," Alice murmurs, remembering the warmth that had spread through her when she'd heard her sister's words. "But she also wants me gone. There's not enough room here for multiple horsepeople, remember?"
"So prove her wrong," Matt reaches out and grips her fingers, and Alice feels her throat close with emotion at the act. "Show her that you can live in peace. Together."
"I don't know that we can, Matthew. For every part of me that wants to stand with her, to be her sister, another wants to see her burn. Even I can't predict which side will win."
"Then why kill Mikael? Why eliminate the only that can kill Klaus and, by extension, Caroline?" When Alice just stares at him wide-eyed, Matt gives her a soft smile. "It's because you love her, Alice. Siblings… siblings can suck sometimes. No one can hurt us as much. But in the end? We love them. And that means we'll fight for them."
"You are wise beyond your years, Matthew," Alice acknowledges.
"It comes with the bartending thing. So, what are we going to do now? With these… coffins. Which is completely weird."
"I am going to leave this place, and you?" Alice smiles sadly at Matt and places her hands on his cheeks. He stares down into her eyes, and Alice tugs on her powers, causing them to swirl around them. "You are going to go to sleep. And when you awaken, you won't remember any of this."
Matt's eyes went blank, then they drifted shut, and Alice carefully lowered his dead weight to the ground.
"You should have never come here, Matthew," she murmurs, running her fingers down her cheek. "Even if I find I am somewhat glad that you did."
It's selfish of her, and foolish, to consider getting close to the boy – and that's what he was, a boy who had no idea the kind of forces he was getting involved with. And because of that, Alice does something selfless for the first time in many long centuries.
She summons her wendigo to take the coffins and Mikael's remains, removing any sign that she had ever been there, and then she leaves Matt's sleeping form behind.
AN: And there it is, my Alice-centric chapter. Marik and Victor may each get one as well, though I'm not making any promises. Next chapter we will get some aftermath of the Klaroline night of smexy fun.
For those of you who also read my other story Still Doll, I am excited (and sad) to announce that I finished it yesterday, posting both the final chapter and the epilogue. It was a fun journey, but now it's done. But I have a new multi-chapter OUAT story in the works, as well as a couple ideas for TVD ones. So keep an eye out.
Until next time.