The Salvatore school was awfully quiet, the events at the soccer field had sounded the alarm for the students and everyone was in their room, waiting for further instructions. Everyone except Jo. She was at her dad's office, anxiously prowling around his desk, in desperate need of news concerning her sister. Suddenly, she heard a knock on the door and ran to open it, hoping for some developments. It was the first time she felt disappointed seeing Jade on the other side of it.
"Hey." Jade's tone denoted pure concern for the girl in front of her, who returned quickly to the office, waiting for the phone to ring or something. "I was worried about you and I just wanted to make sure you're okay." she continued, ignoring the fact that Josie had completely dismissed her.
"Nothing about this is okay. My sister is captured by one of the most powerful beings to ever exist and God knows what he is going to do to her." the brunette yelled, misplacing her anger onto the girl.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean-" Jade apologized. "I just didn't want you to be alone right now, since your father is not here."
"That's right. Everyone is out there, putting themselves in danger and I'm here doing nothing. I'm completely useless." the siphon broke down, not able to control her emotions.
"Hey, you're not useless. You're needed here. Someone had to stay behind. Don't worry, Hope and Dr. Saltzman got this, I'm sure everything will be fine." the vampire tried to console her.
"Don't worry? Are you listening to yourself? Lizzie could die at any moment if she's not already gone and you're here telling me to calm down? I don't want to calm down, I want my sister back." Jo returned furious.
"I-" Jade exhaled "I'm just trying to be there for you."
"And it's not helping. I guess you're just as useless." Josie spat out dead serious.
Heavy silence soaked the room as the ginger strived to process the words coming from the cold stranger across the desk.
"You're upset." she finally spoke with a steady, almost professional voice. "Maybe I should come back later."
"Don't."
Jade took a last glimpse of Josie's expressionless face, as she was clearly refusing to look back at the vampire, before the first left the office.
* * *
"I don't want to come off as needy but I would really appreciate if you could go a little faster." Lizzie suggested for a third time, as Hope was trying and inevitably failing to break her free.
"And I don't want to keep repeating myself by saying that this thing is impenetrable. Just give me a minute." the tribrid begged for some peace and quiet.
"That's what she said." she shrugged cheeky.
"Really?" Hope raised an eyebrow, unable to comprehend how the girl could crack this kind of jokes- or any joke at this point.
"Sorry. Force of habit." the blonde raised her shoulders again.
"Well, I don't want to be the one to kill the mood-"
"You usually are."
"But I've tried everything I could think of." she continued, ignoring the comment. "I've done five different spells, tried bending it, melting it, breaking it in half. Nothing worked. Have you tried siphoning it's magic?"
"Well, duh. I'm a siphoner. I siphon things."
"So, what's the problem with this one?"
"I don't know, do you think he wouldn't be prepared for that?" Lizzie's words were followed by a big pause that forced the girls to look into each other's eyes.
"I will find a way." Hope promised reaching for Lizzie's hand through the bars.
"I know you will." the blonde returned, slightly rubbing Hope's palm with her thumb, forcing the tribrid to look down for a second and make sure she wasn't just imagining it. "I was just hoping it would be easy just this once."
Hope didn't speak, instead, she gently pressed her fingers around Lizzie's hand to give her emotional strength and to make perfectly clear that they were in this together.
"Wait." Lizzie's tone suddenly became suspicious.
"What?" the tribrid tensed, afraid she might have overstepped.
"I can't siphon you."
"You were trying to siphon me?" Hope pulled her arm back, trying to hide the feeling of betrayal, thinking they were having some sort of a moment there.
"Well, yes and I can't, which means it's not just the cell i can't siphon. I've completely lost my magic."
"Maybe the cell is blocking your magic. And my magic to it."
"Only one way to find out. Cast a spell on something else." Lizzie suggested.
"Okay, let's see." Hope walked around in a place full of candles and chose the darkest one, bringing it back to where she was standing before. She shifted her hand above the source of light and chanted 'Namia Exum Solvos' trying to put it out but the flame was still flickering. "Damn, you're right. It's not the cell. Something else is blocking both our powers."
"Just say it as it is. We're totally screwed."
"I wouldn't say totally."
* * *
Alaric was in the dock, gazing across the lake to calm himself down while waiting for the trade. When he heard someone coming from the woods, he immediately felt that his daughter wasn't there.
"Where's Lizzie?" he said serious, without turning around to face the Necromancer standing six feet apart.
"Safe. For now." the impatience in his voice made the headmaster finally turn. "Where is the arrow?"
"Here." he said taking it out of his jacket. "Just let my baby go. We don't want any trouble." he begged.
One moment the weapon was in Alaric's fist and the next The Necromancer had his hands on it. Looking at him examining it, made the man sweat. The dark master laughed hard at his possession but when Ric believed their plan had somehow worked, the first broke it in half and tossed it into the lake furious.
"You, fools, thought I would fall for such a vacuous deception?" he remarked laughing. "I was considering about sparing one of your children but now.. Now I'm going to take everything from you. Until you tremble in the sound of my name." he threatened and started walking away.
"No, wait!" he screamed frightened from the monster's announcement and revealed the real artifact. When he knew he had caught his attention, he continued calmer "Hope said I cannot give it up but the truth is.. someone that I don't even remember is not as important as my own daughters. So, take it." he extended his arm towards him, holding the arrow.
The Necromancer summoned the arrow again and looked at it. His evil smile suggested that he'd once more won.
"I knew I could count on your undying desire to save your little girls, even when that means destroying lots of other people's lives." he remarked jolly and began his way to the cemetery.
"You're going to let her go now, right? Does she know we met here? That she's free?"
"She is.. definitely feeling the change." the monster reassured the man craftily.
* * *
"Wait a minute." Hope ran to the counter full of candles and started blowing them out one by one.
"What are y- Aaaw, you're creating an atmosphere. I see you." Lizzie remarked cheeky.
"What? No. I think I know what's blocking our powers." Hope continued until every candle was blown out and then returned to her spot. "This." she said holding the candle she previously tried to put out.
"Care to elaborate?"
"I thought I recognized it earlier. It belonged to the school's library and it's supposed to absorb everyone's magic inside the room it is placed in. The Necromancer must have taken it when he stole all those objects from the school to find the arrow the first time." Hope explained.
"Then what are you waiting for? Blow it out."
"I can't. Only the person who lighted it up can, in this case the one that will rip us apart once he figures out our plan."
"Yeah, because he needed a reason to kill me." Lizzie spat out dismayed.
"Hey, we still have time to come up with something." the tribrid tried to comfort her.
Before the sentence was over, the ground began to quake underneath them, causing some fragments to fall off from the walls.
"You sure about that?"
"What happened?" Hope asked concerned.
"I think the Necromancer finally got what he wanted." Lizzie returned calm.
"That's impossible. I made Dr. Saltzman a fake arrow for him to trade just to buy me time to rescue you. I kept the real one safe at the school." the shorter girl explained not-so-calm.
"No, you didn't. My dad gave it away. And this place is gonna burn to the ground in the next few seconds, with me in it." Lizzie explained, having accepted her fate.
"Well, I don't accept that." the tribrid declared and desperately tried to break the cell again.
"Stop. This isn't working, you need to stop." Lizzie raised her voice trying to talk some sense into her but the girl continued struggling to get her out while the building around them was collapsing. "Hope, listen to me!" she yelled bringing her back to reality and immobilized the two hands attached to the bars. "You have to get the hell out of here."
"You listen to me. I'm not going anywhere without you, so, shut up and help me bend this thing." Hope released her hands from the blonde's and continued her job.
Very soon the room was on fire, starting from a curtain and quickly spreading all around them.
"You can't save me. Not this time. But you can save Landon. And he needs you."
"I don't even know if he's ever coming back, you're here right now and I'm not leaving you." she returned restless, never taking her eyes off of Lizzie.
"Yes, you do. Landon is alive." Lizzie reassured her.
"What?" Hope spat out bemused. "No, you're lying to make me go."
"I'm telling the truth, the Necromancer told me in his own way that he has escaped and that's why he needs the arrow so bad. He's going to kill him again and you have to stop it." she explained coughing from the amount of smoke in the air. Hope took a second to process this.
"We will. Once we're both out safely."
"Why are you like this? What more do I have to say? I don't want you here!"
"I don't care."
"You're so --cough-- infuriating" Lizzie declared angry and then it hit her. "But you have to. That's my wish."
"No. Nuh-uh. No way. Absolutely not." Hope exclaimed in denial realizing she was talking about the bet.
"You said whatever I want. I want you to leave." Lizzie spat out dead serious but then her voice softened. "I want you to live."
"You can't do this to me." Hope begged.
"Look at me." Lizzie took Hope's face in her hands and lifted it slightly, forcing her to look into her eyes. "Not so long ago, I promised you I would help you get Landon back. And you promised that you wouldn't die. Don't make us both liars." the siphon begged one last time, wiping a tear away from Hope's cheek with her thumb.
The tribrid closed her eyes, dealing with a huge fight inside her head and took a deep breath, trying to keep the blonde's smell forever etched in her mind. It was Lizzie's turn to close her eyes while Hope held her wrists, slowly detaching them from her sopping face. When she opened them again, the girl was gone and the tears she was holding in all this time for her friend's sake, finally ran down her face like a stream of liquid water, making her eyes burn.
She pressed her lips into a sad smile, thankful that at least Hope would be okay but then she started coughing uncontrollably. The smoke was suffocating the room and the girl's lungs were getting more damaged by the minute. She tried to cover her mouth and nose with her elbow but the product of the burning consumed almost every bit of oxygen in the grave, making it impossible for her to breath. Her senses kept fading more and more until she couldn't keep her eyes open any longer.
And everything went dark.
* * *
Blur. The room's ceiling was spinning and the lights were too bright to look at directly. But nothing was burning. There wasn't any fire. The earth wasn't shaking. She wasn't in danger anymore.
Lizzie blinked a couple of times until she realized she was in her room. In her bed. She tried to lift herself a little bit, leaving a weak groan of pain in the process. Yep, that happened. It wasn't some nightmare she'd just woken up from. The sound roused the tribrid, who had just closed her eyes in a chair next to the bed. She didn't have to think twice to get up and check on her friend.
"Hey, you." she used her softest voice to welcome the siphon back.
"Hope?" Lizzie formed a weak smile, forgetting everything for a second. "Wait, how did I.. Why are you.. Is this?" she spoke low trying to make sense of this, until her eyes popped out of her head "Am I dead?" she asked suspiciously.
"Despite all your efforts, you're pretty much alive." Hope was too thankful that the girl was awoken to sound as petty as she had originally planned.
"You sure I'm not dead? Where's Josie and my dad?"
"You just missed them. I practically had to kick them out to get them to go and get some sleep. For a person who's not dead, you were passed out for quite some time. Although, it's good to know that Heaven looks like this in your head." Hope joked to lighten up the atmosphere, throwing back a strand of her hair.
"Yeah, Heaven, that's what I thought it was.." Lizzie returned the joke and tried to raise herself some more.
"Hey, easy, you're still hurt." Hope said helping her up. "How are you feeling?"
"Like an ancient puppeteer of zombies with an infinite amount of dark magic just locked me up in a stinky anti-magic dungeon for the sole purpose of killing me by putting the entire building on fire until it literally falls on me. Oh, wait." she remarked, ironic to the bone.
"Well, at least we know your memory's still intact. And your sarcasm."
Lizzie thought about what she'd just spat out. "How am I not dead again?"
"So, uhm.. remember when I left?" the tribrid scratched her neck full of guilt for that time.
Vividly. That's how well Lizzie remembered the moment she opened her eyes and Hope was gone but she settled with an uneasy nod to answer the girl's question.
"I took the candle with me and gave it to Josie, who reactivated her powers in order to be able to siphon it and then Jade vamp-sped us to the grave. With the spell broken, I could put out the fire and break the cell that, by the way, was also disarming you from your powers. You were unconscious all the way back, till now."
"You came back?" Lizzie asked bewildered, that being the only part of what Hope had just said that she cared about.
"I- I know I wasn't supposed to" the tribrid anxiously tried to explain herself "And I know it was your wish but I just, I couldn't-"
Lizzie's hug came so breathlessly, it almost caused Hope's heart to stop. Once the second realized what was happening, her features relaxed and her arms embraced the siphon, returning the meaningful gesture.
"Thank you." the blonde spoke sincerely with her eyes closed, truly relieved that she didn't have to pretend she wasn't absolutely terrified of dying anymore.
"Sure." Hope returned with a smile that Lizzie could feel, even though hidden behind her shoulder, refusing to let go of the witch.
"But let's not do that ever again, shall we?"
"I don't know, you seem to be getting in trouble a lot lately." Hope finally parted from the blonde to face her.
"Me? Oh, please, we both know you wouldn't last a week without me saving your ass."
"And that is the only reason I saved your ass." the Mikaelson witch manifested, raising her shoulders and eyebrows at once.
"So, keep saving each other's asses, then?" Lizzie suggested unusually tender.
"Sounds good." Hope agreed with a smirk.
After some moments of silence, the tribrid extended her hand towards the girl's, without ever finding the strength to actually touch it, only managing to land it at the edge of the bed, just next to hers. Lizzie stared at it for a few seconds and then dragged her eyes all the way up to meet Hope's.
"So.. What about Landon?" Lizzie asked as she noticed, much to her regret, the light extinguishing from her friend's eyes.
"He.." Hope looked down as she took a deep breath to regain some strength. "He's gone."
"What? How? But the-"
"I went back to the pit. When you were here safe. I went back. I thought I'd find something, anything that could give me a sign about where he is. Instead, I found the Necromancer." Hope began to explain while Lizzie was listening without a breath. "He said it was done." she spat out heartbroken.
The blonde looked at the girl speechless, expecting to hear more. Once she realized she wasn't going to get anything else, she returned "Well, he could be lying, there's still a chance Lan-"
"Just forget it, okay?" Hope's voice was more aggressive than she would ever want to use on Lizzie. "It's over." she continued much softer.
"Okay." the siphon decided not to fight, seeing how upsetting this was to the shorter girl and honestly, just thankful they were both there, alive.
Before Hope could say anything, the door opened, and the rest of the blonde's family barged in, in a great hurry to welcome her back.
"Lizzie." Josie let a breath she was holding all day, finally come out.
"Hey, baby." Alaric gave her daughter a worried yet warm smile.
Hope immediately jumped on her feet to make space for the family to reunite.
"Jo, daddy. I'm so glad to see you, both." Lizzie gasped, standing on her feet to welcome them.
The three of them embraced cordially, with the once more wounded witch in the center of this endearing gesture. Hope stood there for a second, watching this tender moment that filled her with delight, yet she couldn't help but feel nostalgic, knowing she would never be able to recreate that unmatched feeling of wholesomeness only a family hug can give. She turned around to leave father and daughters to it, when Lizzie's hand reached her relentlessly, pulling her into that magical moment. Alaric and Josie welcomed her without a question and the four of them almost suffocated from a hug so tight, that could actually be able to put some of their pieces back together.