Niklaus' Manson
"As a witch, your physiology is similar to that of humans, therefore like them; you're physically weaker and slower than species like vampires and werewolves." Klaus explained to an exhausted and breathless Greta who was on the floor. "We need to work on your lung capacity and endurance.
This means that cardio exercises are your first fixed daily workout from now on and I expect you to last longer with shorter reps with each passing day. Vampire and werewolf are predators in nature, and they enjoy the chase as much as the kill.
The longer a chase goes, the deeper they enter predatory state and follow their most basic instincts. Sure they become stronger and faster as a result but those basic instincts are predictable and can be used to your advantage.
And you, my dear, will be the deadliest prey by the time I'm done with you. But for now, the plan is to get you as fast as possible with endurance, and reflexes, to match."
Greta didn't get where the reflex part was coming from until a tennis ball hit her shoulder, hard.
"Ow!" She cried out, hand going to nurse the wounded area and shoulder, and through teary eyes, Greta saw Mindy walking into her line of sight, a bag full of tennis balls over her shoulder.
"Hello." Mindy greeted, playing with a tennis ball on her free hand and oh, the look Greta gave her said that if she still had her magic she would have lit her up in flames. "Don't get mad at me. I'm just the gun here, Klaus is the shooter."
"Of course, I am, love." Klaus concurred. "Mindy is here to help us with the reflex exercise. I know that you're exhausted but you'd be amazed of what our bodies are capable of when we're desperate."
Greta regretted ever asking for physical training.
TRANSITION
Bennett-Hopkins House
"Well, that didn't go well." Bonnie said, sitting cross-legged with Caroline on her bed after Caroline informed her of what happened with Tyler, grimoires and journals on her nightstand.
"I know. You should have seen him. He was more disappointed than angry at me. I'm a horrible friend."
"Hey, you're not a horrible friend." Bonnie assured.
"I know I am. If I wasn't, you wouldn't have sought comfort from night calls with Scott."
"Then I'm a horrible friend too for not being there for you through everything Damon put you through. But we're here for each other now." Bonnie said, holding hands with Caroline. "We're becoming better best friends. We will be better friends to Tyler too.
We've already started, haven't we? We saved Tyler after Klaus and his pack attacked him, because of the night calls you mentioned, and now we will save him from his loneliness and return the favor he did for Elena and show him that he matters too. OK?"
"OK." Caroline agreed, nodding her head and feeling a little better, more so because it felt like Bonnie was taking the weight off her shoulders. "But what about Stefan? And Ric? And Scott?"
"I don't know." Bonnie replied, and took a moment to think about what they could do, other than tell Stefan the truth and get him killed by Scott and his pack and compelling Ric to stop grieving. "Maybe it's time we intervene and insist that Ric quit drinking and find a new purpose to live for.
Elena wouldn't have liked to see him suffering but as much as I'm tempted to ask you to compel him to stop drinking, he's hurting just like we are and he deserves to grieve in his own way but that doesn't mean we have to let him drink himself to an early death.
About Scott and Stefan? I don't have a clue."
"You haven't spoken with Scott?"
"Nope." Bonnie responded, and became a bit uncomfortable and withdrew her hands from Caroline.
"What is it, Bonnie?" Caroline inquired.
Bonnie took a moment to decide whether to tell her or not, and then decided to because there was no one else she could speak about it with and she really needed someone to speak about it with.
"The Hundred Witches want to train me so that I can suppress Scott's power, or kill him. They say that he's become too powerful too quickly and if I don't do anything the world will bend to his will."
"What?" An incredulous Caroline asked.
TRANSITION
Nice Hotel Restaurant
"I don't need to loosen up." Tara denied as Rebekah left.
"Well, I happen to know some people who need to loosen up." Lydia said, looking at the Royal Guard. "Not all vampires are like the vampires you've come across and not all vampires and werewolves have to be enemies."
"We've known vampires to be our mortal enemies since birth, Lydia. And experience cemented them as nothing but enemies." MPG2 responded.
"I know that. But if I judged werewolves based on experience, we wouldn't be here right now, about to have breakfast together. Enemies are not born and general, they are made and specific. Just like racism. Think about that and loosen up." Lydia replied, just in time for the arrival of their refreshments.
"Are you ready to order?" Waitress inquired after distributing the refreshments.
"Which breakfast is predominantly meat?" Malia asked Waitress, and Waitress listed them for her, ending with two that she recommended which Malia ordered for Scott and herself.
"One night of passion and you're already ordering for him?" Lydia commented.
"He is my boyfriend and we were already ordering for each other before last night." Malia responded, and she couldn't help but smile, happy to finally call Scott her boyfriend and about their activities last night and this morning.
"Finally." Cora said, happy to see her cousin happy although she couldn't help but ask. "Which 'head' were you referring to being attended to and kept satisfied earlier?"
Everyone, including Tara, found themselves in a coughing fit after almost choked on their refreshments at the question for different reasons.
Waitress and Waiter, who was assisting Waitress with the pack's orders, did a double take, momentarily forgetting their jobs to get some gossip on the presidential suite's current guests.
MPGs and SPGs knew what Malia's comment was about earlier, hence some of them almost choked on their refreshments but that was more because of the way Cora put it and with guests and hotel staff present than not expecting either Cora or Lydia bringing it up.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Malia responded, not about to reveal pack matters to a stranger, and then looked at their attendants. "Don't you have something to do?"
That prompted Waitress and Waiter into action and they took the rest of the orders and Scott, SPG3 and SPG4 arrived at the table just as the waiter and the waitress were about to depart, so SPG3 and SPG4 were able to make their own orders.
"Scott, Tara. Tara, Scott and his bodyguards." Lydia made the introductions. "We just met her and her friend Rebekah and I'm going shopping with them after breakfast."
"Hi." Scott greeted Tara after sharing a chaste kiss with Malia after taking his place next to her, a friendly smile on.
"Hello." Tara returned the greeting, and wondered why Rebekah had to leave her when she was the one who wanted Lydia to join them.
She felt like an intruder, especially when the new arrivals seemed to be taking her in, probably for her scent, before Scott took a sip of his drink and then turned his attention to Malia.
But that feeling lessened when Cora, Lydia and some of the Royal Guard began a conversation and included Tara.
TRANSITION
Rebekah and Tara's Suite
By the time Rebekah reached the suite, she'd realized that she missed something about the stranger she bumped into; he was a werewolf. Although she didn't have a super sense of smell like evolved werewolves, after the centuries she's lived, she, along with her family, knew their scent.
During their early years as vampires, the Mikaelsons unknowingly and instinctively avoided werewolves and other supernatural beings, even when they were hunting. It was like on some level, they knew which people were human and which were supernatural.
When Rebekah noticed this instinctive ability, being the one to discover it, she consciously developed it and as a result she could tell the difference between humans and supernaturals easily.
Having lived in New Orleans with werewolves and witches, she knew their signature scents well enough to identify them within moments of meeting them, but it seemed that ability and skill failed Rebekah after centuries of using it and she ended up falling in like with a werewolf at first blush.
But she didn't mind, or care. It wasn't like a werewolf bite could kill her and maybe it was time she tried something new; someone that wasn't a human or a vampire, or a vampire hunter.
The handsome werewolf stranger seemed well mannered, unlike those she met earlier, and Rebekah was certain that he was aware that she was a vampire when he asked if she was OK, suggesting that he didn't have a personal problem against vampires. His smile certainly confirmed that.
With that thought in mind, Rebekah quickly found a new pair of shoes and took her phone before heading for the ground level, the hotel restaurant. She liked the werewolf's first impression and wanted to know if she liked the second impression as well.
TRANSITION
Nice Hotel Restaurant
Rebekah looked around for Scott when she entered the restaurant but didn't find him, causing her to deflate until she found him at an unexpected table, whispering in Malia's ear.
What she didn't know was that Scott was actually sharing his memories of their encounter with Malia, using a vampire skill he picked up from an experienced vampire in New Orleans.
It was only then Rebekah saw that the three previously empty seats at the table were now filled and she was the only one missing. She'd expected the fourth person to be a female; hence she didn't connect Scott to the group.
After Scott followed SPG3 and SPG4's advice, he turned his attention to Tara.
"Can I ask you a personal question, Tara?" He inquired.
"It depends." Tara responded.
"How long have you been practicing witchcraft?" Scott asked, curious.
"I have been practicing for as long as I can remember."
"So, you have a coven?"
"I've never been a part of a coven. My mother just started training me at an early age." Tara answered, seeing no harm in answering.
"Lucky you. I never tapped into my magic before I was turned." Rebekah said, joining the group.
"You were a witch?" A surprised Cora inquired, wondering how the transition was for Rebekah, from one thing she was born as to another, one most witches considered being against nature, and she wasn't the only one.
"An untapped one but yes, I was a witch."
"Welcome back." Lydia welcome Rebekah back, and then made the last introductions. "Scott, Rebekah. Rebekah, Scott and the rest of our bodyguards."
"We met." Rebekah informed the rest of the group. "And he owes me a new pair of heels."
Those not in the know looked at Scott and Lydia wondered if New Orleans did a number on Scott and he ended up taking after the Royal Guard.
"We bumped into each other outside the restaurant." Scott explained. "She almost fell and I caught her but her heel broke."
"Huh, that makes sense." Lydia said.
"No, it doesn't." Malia disagreed. "They bumped into each other and Scott spared Rebekah from falling. How exactly does he owe you (Rebekah) a new pair of heels? You actually owe him a thank you."
"Now that makes sense." Cora supported her cousin's point.
"I do, don't I?" Rebekah responded, noting that Malia was brutally honest, she liked that, not lying Salvatores. "Thank you, Scott."
"You're welcome." Scott replied, smiling like he didn't know the effects of his smile on some people.
"Any ideas on what we could do while in town?" Cora asked, all in for a downtime.
"We passed by a cinema yesterday, just two blocks away." Malia proposed. "We (Malia and Scott) haven't watched a movie in..."
"Weeks." Scott completed. "Too long."
"Aww, look at you two finishing each others sentences." Lydia teased, and then added her own suggestion. "We could go dancing. I'm sure there's a nice club around here."
"No LGBTQ clubs." Scott declared without missing a beat.
"Why not?" Tara questioned, not liking his declaration because she was bisexual and proud.
"We don't have a good track record with LGBTQ clubs and trust me; you don't want to go to one with us." Scott replied, remembering the times he has stepped into an LGBTQ club; the Kanima, Kira's fox spirit and the Dread Doctors.
And then recalled McCall Pack's visit to Calavera Club in Mexico and added...
"Actually, you don't want to go to any club with us."
Another memory came to mind and added once again.
"Or a high school dance. Or a huge sport event. Or a big house party. Or..."
"They get the idea, Scott." Lydia interrupted, and then thought out loud. "Wow, we really don't have a good track record with a lot of things."
"Except one; defying the odds against us." Malia said, and received smiles from her inner circle of friends.
"Peter called that 'Scott's Annoying Defiance of Insurmountable Odds' while we were in France." Cora revealed, and the inner circle laughed at that.
"I'm confused." Tara confessed. "First, I thought you (Scott) were being homophobic, but now..."
"Scott is a lot of things but homophobic is not one of them." Lydia replied. "He's one of the nicest people you'll ever meet."
"Just keep your eyes away from Malia and don't hurt his friends and pack and you're good." Cora added. "And vice versa."
"It must be nice having such a friendship." Rebekah commented longingly, especially after Cora solidified her suspicion that there was something going on between Malia and Scott judging by how close they were to each other.
For the first time since meeting Rebekah, the Royal Guard saw her as a person and not a vampire or an enemy waiting to reveal herself, and as their breakfast arrived, they considered what Lydia said.
TRANSITION
Bennett-Hopkins House
"Klaus is an original vampire and werewolf hybrid but I don't see him bending the world to his will." Caroline said. "And he literally had a thousand years to do that."
"They are adamant that Scott is now an even bigger threat than Klaus and that I need to be prepared." Bonnie replied.
The Hundred Witches contacted her last night and revealed their intentions to properly train her so that she could use their power to its and her full potential.
According to them, if she was trained from an early age and a member of a coven, she would have been able to handle their power by sharing it with her coven and kill Klaus at his best without dying.
But since that wasn't the case, they had an unorthodox method of training and plans for Bonnie to reach her full potential. All she had to do was give the go-ahead.
"That's impossible."
"As impossible as Scott killing Katherine or one of his pack members being able to do the impossible and get Tyler to change into his human form during the full moon through a phone?" Bonnie inquired, and Caroline didn't have anything to say to that. "That's what I thought.
Whether the Hundred Witches are right or not, I need proper training and they are the only ones offering and it's their power. I don't want to watch people I love die anymore, Caroline. I can't. I have the power to stop that; I only need to learn to use it properly."
Caroline realized that Bonnie had already decided to accept the training and she understood her and voiced her support.
TRANSITION
Niklaus' Mansion
By the time Greta, Klaus and Mindy were done, Greta wanted nothing to do with the latter two. Well, apart from a drop of their blood to heal but Klaus forbade her from drinking vampire blood to speed up her recovery, hence she was currently giving him an evil eye from the couch.
"The shower and bath tub are ready, Greta." Mindy informed, coming from preparing the shower and bath tub in Greta's bedroom at the house.
"That's wonderful news. You can stop looking at me like you want to slit my throat, love." Klaus said, a drawing book and pencil on his lap and hand while the other hand nursed l a glass of blood.
"That's exactly what I want to do." Greta replied, and tried to get off the couch only for her body to refuse to follow the command to, prompting Mindy to assist her.
"The day you're able to do that, I will have succeeded in making you the greatest witch from this century. Now off you go."
"If you give me a drop of blood, that day will come sooner!" Greta said over her shoulder.
"Not if we take shortcuts." Klaus responded, and Greta and Mindy paused for the former to hear what he had to say. "The witches I hired to further your witchcraft training made sure that you could handle emotional and mental pain. I'm making sure that you can handle physical pain.
The whole point of the chase is to capture and kill, be it by tearing apart prey or draining its blood. The chase would be pointless if prey escapes, so each time the predator gets close to the prey, it injures it to lower the possibilities of an escape.
You need to be able to endure physical pain as much as emotional and mental pain to survive. I'm not allowing you to ingest our blood because you need to get used to pain and your body failing you so that you can protect it better and endure whatever hardship comes your way.
Be it emotional, mental or physical. You have to defend yourself to survive before you can attack. What's the point of going on the offense if you leave yourself defenseless? Why do you think we're staying in a town full of people I know want me dead and will try to find a way to kill me?
If Bonnie Bennett puts her mind to it, she could kill me. That knowledge keeps me on my toes and by proxy, all of you. This is one of the reasons we're in this boring town. To sharpen your instincts and skills and keep mine sharp.
There's no better place to prepare for war than an enemy's front yard. I have been thinking about Scott McCall's hometown and I just remembered that Beacon Hills is a nemeton town."
"What?" Greta interjected, surprised, and momentarily forgot her injuries but they didn't forget her. "Ow!"
"Beacon Hills is a nemeton town, well, a city actually, and I want it for myself." Klaus made his intentions clear. "Once Kimberley arrives with my runaway little sister Rebekah, Bonnie will have to find a way to get your magic back and then we will leave Mystic Falls for Beacon Hills.
The last time I was there, it had a well established pack defending it, Hale Pack, and one thing that's annoying about established packs is their alliances with nearby packs. It's in our best interest that you give your all to this training because Beacon Hills is nothing like Mystic Falls, Greta."
Greta took that in and with a new goal set, she was more than a little motivated to take her training even more serious than before. She was taking it seriously before, but with no real purpose like now.
There was a timeline and Greta intended to meet it, especially with knowledge that she was going to get her magic back. With that, she pushed through the pain and forced herself to walk on her own to her bedroom bathroom.
TRANSITION
Nice Hotel
After the pack was done with breakfast, Lydia, along with her guards, left with Rebekah and Tara to go shopping, leaving Cora, Malia, Scott and their guards at the hotel.
"Movies?" Scott asked.
"Yes!" Malia replied.
"I'll see you later; I have to check in with Derek." Cora said, not wanting to feel like a third wheel.
"You can check in with Derek on the way to the cinema." Malia responded, linking her arms with Cora and Scott's.
"Uh, are you interested in going with us to the cinema or do you want to do your own things?" Scott asked the Royal Guard, before quickly clarifying. "By your own things, I mean at least in pairs."
"We're your 'bodyguards'." MPG3 reminded.
"Not for the next few hours. Cora, Malia and I will be together. Consider this your hours off."
"Well, I would like to explore the town." SPG4 said.
"That's a start. We'll see you later." Scott replied, and with that, the trio departed and decided to walk to the cinema.
"I don't have anything in mind." MPG4 told her fellow pack members, suddenly feeling like she had all the time in the world but didn't know what to do with it.
"I got you covered." SPG4 responded. "Let's see what's nice about Nice Town."
TRANSITION
Beacon Hills Bowling Alley
"Let me get this straight; you're now Bayou and New Orleans royalty?" Brett asked Liam while they played arcade games with Corey, Hayden, Lorilee "Lori" and Mason.
"Yep." Liam replied.
"And Scott is King Alpha?" Lori followed up.
"That's about right." Hayden answered.
"What does that make you?" Brett inquired.
"Crown Prince Liam Dunbar." Liam responded, head high, chest out.
"As cool as that would be, Malia is the Crown Princess Alpha of New Beacon Pack." Mason corrected.
"No, she's not." Liam denied.
"Yes. She is. She's Scott's chosen successor and only Alpha beside him. You (Liam), Corey and I are Prince Deltas and Hayden is Princess Delta." Mason explained, causing Liam to deflate. "And with Scott's rules that anyone under eighteen and/or attending high school has to focus on just being a kid..."
"We're not about to get promoted anytime soon." Corey completed. "I don't really have a problem with that. High school is hard enough and I want to work on improving my grades."
"What does your pack's new status mean for Beacon Hills?" Lori asked.
"It means Beacon Hills will continue to be protected." Hayden answered. "And if someone is stupid enough to attack our town or us, we'll have backup."
"What does it mean for local packs and supernaturals?" Brett followed up, and gained a suspicious look from Mason.
"Satomi sent you to dig for information, didn't she?" Mason questioned, and when Brett and Lori were about to deny the accusation, he interrupted them. "Don't deny it. We've already been warned that this would happen before we even left New Orleans.
Satomi is one of the most respected and oldest Alphas around and Ito Pack has a good relationship with McCall Pack which is maintained by you two and the four of us, and we are close to Scott and preview to sensitive information that Satomi likely hoped we would reveal to you because you're our friends.
And then you would relay the information to her and she would pass it on to the Alphas and supernatural leaders in town, and around, that asked her to verify the rumors that are currently circulating about McCall Pack and New Orleans Werewolf Community."
"It's understandable really." Hayden carried on from Mason. "Since McCall Pack killed for the first time just months ago and recently destroyed a powerful empire and it's most powerful leader in a single night and built its own empire over the ashes of the previous one in just weeks.
Everyone is happy that McCall Pack saved Beacon Hills, again, but not everyone is happy about our fast-growing power even if it means a safer Beacon Hills.
Especially after something that's never happened before happened; two royal werewolf packs and six other packs submitting to the young, most unconventional and coveted and a commoner pack, and granting it werewolf royalty status and crowing its young alpha werewolf kingship."
"It really doesn't surprise any of us that people are uncomfortable with all that and you are digging for information." Liam took over from Hayden. "But we are disappointed that neither Satomi nor anyone else contacted the person with all the answers to their questions.
We are disappointed that instead of contacting the person who has given his all for Beacon Hills and asking him to at least confirm or deny the rumors going around, you decided to take advantage of four of his youngest and closest pack members tasked with continuing to protect Beacon Hills in his place."
"You know, Scott actually believed that this wouldn't happen." Corey carried on from Liam. "He actually believed that you would likely ask us to get you in contact with him or his emissary to get the answers and not take advantage of us, but it seems like his belief in you isn't reciprocated.
Don't worry; New Beacon Pack isn't interested in Beacon Hills or any of the packs and supernaturals in it. King Alpha tasked McCall Pack with continuing to protect Beacon Hills and that's what we're going to do because it's what McCall Pack, and its allies, has been doing even before it was formerly formed."
"I've been tasked with confirming that Crown Princess Alpha Malia is an alpha and she is in charge of McCall Pack now." Liam said, gathering with his pack mates and facing Brett and Lori. "And she is not happy that you betrayed Scott."
"We didn't want to do this, Liam." Lori revealed. "Kira saved our lives and Scott saved mine. We..."
"Have to follow your Alpha's orders. I know, Lori." Liam replied. "That's why what we're saying is directed to her and the other leaders, not you two. Scott saved my life too, and I was once like everyone that's questioning him and his motives.
You (Brett) got through to me and made me see what I was blind to see, what I refused to see though I saw it. You were right, Brett. I'm lucky to have him. Scott has never cared about power because all he cares about are the people in his life and around him.
He doesn't care if they are wendigos or werewolves or whatever, he said as much when assassins and hunters came for all of us and swore that he was going to save everyone and with his pack, he did.
He killed the resurrected Beast of Gevaudan to keep that promise and when we learned that supernaturals and humans were being kidnapped and experimented on by an organization with a main base of operations in New Orleans, we did something about it and put a stop to it because we care!
We're royalty today because of that but it wasn't about power. It was about stopping another version of Dread Doctors and the Beast of Gevaudan and saving and protecting lives."
"You know, since I learned about the Hales that protected Beacon Hills before us, I've been wondering." Mason said. "Why didn't anyone save and protect the Hales when they needed help? And most importantly, is that what will happen to us if something happens to us?
Will the people we've risked our lives for abandon us when we need them the most? And then I realized that I already had my answer because while we were dealing with the Dread Doctors and the Beast, no one bothered to help us."
"Apart from Ito Pack via Brett and Lori." Hayden amended.
"Apart from Ito Pack via the two of you." Mason agreed. "And now you're being used by the very people who didn't do anything to help us to gain information from us."
"They have what they want. We confirm that McCall Pack is part and Crown Royalty of New Beacon Pack. When we meet again, I hope we will be meeting our friends and not agents of cowards who will be listening to those recordings or else there won't be any relationship between us." Liam said, and as one, the youngest generation of McCall Pack left.
"They knew we were recording our conversation the entire time." Lori commented, clearly saddened by what happened, taking her phone out of her pocked and stopping and saving the recording of their conversation with McCall Pack and Brett did the same thing with his phone.
"They're not stupid. It's only logical that we would record their answers since the other alphas won't take our words as truth without evidence and there's no way Satomi would let them mind meld with us." Brett pointed out as they left, shaking his head. "We risked our friendship for this."
The truth was that Brett, Corey, Hayden, Liam, Lori and Mason were good actors when an important situation called for their acting skills.
The whole meeting was staged by Alan and Satomi with Scott's approval to appease people who felt threatened by their fast-growing influence and power.
They knew that there were people watching them the entire time and played their part. The recordings they made and the one Marin made during Scott's speech at Marcel's house were now going to be used to put the unrest in the supernatural world to rest.
And the people who spied on the teenagers were going to help calm things down. It was time to run good PR for New Beacon Pack since internal matters were about settled and New Orleans relatively at peace and recovering, finding a new balance.