Author's Note: So it always kind of annoyed me that Hope didn't just go full Mikaelson on Alyssa and make her help. Particularly when the same episode has her cutting the wings off of Cupid. So I decided to write a quick little one-shot where she didn't use the kid gloves with Alyssa. And some 9000 words later this the result. Warnings for violence apply.
Monster
Hope was done playing by the rules. Malivore had sent yet another monster while she had been trying to persuade Alyssa Chang into telling her where the Ascendant was. And while it hadn't been surprising, because bad things tended to clump together, the monster itself had been far more dangerous than the last few had been. An Ifrit, ten feet tall, made more of flame than flesh, and with the ability to control fire.
That last part had been the problem. It turned out that control of fire extended to mystical flaming birds, such as her boyfriend. Once it had control of Landon she had hesitated, reluctant to attack out of fear of hurting him. Because of that hesitation four students were now dead, none that she had been particularly close with, but still dead because of her. It had only been then that she had cut loose, hitting the Ifrit with enough pure magic to turn it into ash and killing Landon in process. Landon would resurrect in time, but she didn't have time to wait for that. She refused to let anyone else die because of her inaction.
"Have a change of heart?" Alyssa taunted as she saw Hope approaching her cell, having no idea of what had happened over the last few hours. She quickly realized something had changed though as Hope entered the cell and grabbed her by the neck before pinning her to the wall. "Hope. What ar- what are you doing?"
"Last chance. Tell me where the Ascendant is." Hope practically growled out, her eyes flashing yellow for an instant.
"Or wha-" Alyssa never got to finish her taunt as her words turned into a scream. Hope had driven her fist into her stomach, in the most literal sense possible.
"What the hell?" Hope heard from behind her, turning slightly to see MG and Kaleb running down the stairs. With a tilt of her head she slammed the doors of the cell shut with a spell, locking them out before realizing that MG was barely able to keep himself under control with all the blood spilling out of Alyssa. A quick sleep spell took care of that, knocking the teen vampire out before she returned her attention to Alyssa. "I believe you wanted to tell me something."
Alyssa glared at Hope, barely able to bite back her screams from the pain she was in. The tribrid's hand was still inside of her, and the slightest movement of it racked her with even more pain. "Fuck you." She managed to get out, refusing to cooperate even now.
"I thought you might say that," Hope admitted, pulling her hand out of Alyssa's gut and wiping it off on the none blood-drenched parts of the girl's top. Pulling out a knife she twirled it in one hand, before using it to slice open her own hand. "Want to know something interesting?"
At that she punch another hole into Alyssa, this one through her left lung before opening her hand and letting her blood mix with Alyssa's. "You don't have to actually drink vampire blood to turn someone. It just needs to be in their system. And now it is." Hope smiled darkly at that, the look of pain and fear across Alyssa's face telling her that she understood what Hope was getting at.
"See you in five minutes." Hope said, a false cheery tone to her voice, before reaching up and snapping Alyssa's neck. With that done she let her false demeanor fall, doing her best to keep from shaking at what she had just done. It was the only option she had left though.
"Hope, you better be able to explain." Kaleb said, the veins around his eyes fully blacked out from all the blood in the air. It was honestly impressive that he was able to keep control of himself so well, she knew vampires far older that would have struggled to do so in the same circumstance.
"She was never going to willingly help. So I'm going to force her." Hope said, giving the most succinct explanation she could.
"By turning her into a vampire?" Kaleb asked incredulously, wondering how that could help anything.
"No. A hybrid." Hope answered, keeping her eyes on Alyssa.
That got Kaleb to pause for a moment. At least Hope had a plan, even if he couldn't see what it actually was. "Can you even do that?"
Seeing Alyssa start to move Hope moved over to her. "We're about to find out." Not even waiting to hear what Alyssa had to say Hope grabbed hold of her as soon as the girl's eyes opened. Holding her mouth open she gripped the knife blade in one hand, holding it over Alyssa's mouth and forcing her to swallow the blood that dripped down from it.
Within in seconds she could feel the change, Alyssa's eyes developing the same black veins as a vampire's before they seemed to move into her eyes, blacking them out entirely instead. A sudden charge ran through the air before Hope was thrown violently backwards by a burst of magic. Alyssa started to move to follow up on her attack before a single command from Hope cut her off, "Stop."
"What? What did you do to me?" Alyssa asked, panicking as she felt her body stop cold against her will. Hope was smiling at her in a way that made her sick, and she suddenly realized why. Hope could control her.
"Don't move, don't speak, and don't use magic without my permission." Hope ordered quickly, cutting off any avenue Alyssa might have had to escape.
"You can control her..." Kaleb realized, suddenly understanding what Hope's goal had been. Now Alyssa had no choice but to help her. And all it took was killing her and stripping away her free will.
"I'll admit it wasn't a sure thing. The only witch/vampire hybrids I knew of were the Heretics, and they were originally siphoners so the rules are different. But I knew I could control the vampire/werewolf hybrid's I make so I though it was worth trying." Hope said, filling in Kaleb on her thought process. Honestly she had been hoping that actually being willing to tear a hole into Alyssa would have persuaded her to cough up the information. Turning her had been a rather drastic plan B.
"You didn't know it would work? What if she hadn't come back as a hybrid?" Kaleb asked, wondering how the hell Hope could be so reckless. He was honestly too shocked at what she had done to really put what he was feeling into words. For now he would help her save the Saltzmans but after that he intended to have words with her over this. This wasn't right.
"Then she would've come back as an ordinary vampire and I would've had Kol, or Rebekah, or Marcel here within a day to compel her to help." Hope answered, having already thought of that possibility. This was a better result though, the less time they wasted the better. And speaking of, "Get MG out of here and then bring Emma to my room. I'll go get the Ascendant."
Kaleb hesitated for a second before nodding, "Right." Scooping up MG he shot out of there, only slowing down to tell any vampires he saw to get to there rooms and stay there. With the amount of blood Hope had on her she could send half the school in to a frenzy.
"Now, where were we?" Hope said, turning and giving a still frozen Alyssa a dark smile. The girl hadn't moved even a fraction of an inch thanks to her order. "Lead me to the Ascendant where you sent the Saltzmans."
"Hope how could you think this was ok?" Emma asked, looking at Hope with something very close to horror in her eyes.
"I don't," Hope answered honestly, getting a look of surprise from everyone in the room. It wasn't like she had suddenly lost her moral compass or anything. She had just decided that if following it was going to get people killed then she could put it down for a moment. She wasn't about to let people she loved die because a teenage bitch was throwing a temper tantrum. She could have understood if it had just been Dr. Saltzman but to trap Josie and Lizzie as well? That was too much. "But I don't care either. I'm going to go save the Saltzman's. And I need you to send me there."
"I can't do that." Emma protested, taking an involuntary step back in fear as she Hope's eyes narrow at her.
"Don't make me force you to cooperate." Hope warned, with a pointed look at Alyssa.
"So that's the game now? Either do what you say, or be turned into a hybrid and forced to?" Kaleb asked, anger and incredulity seeping into his voice in equal measure.
"Look I'm not thrilled about this either. But Dr. Saltzman, Josie and Lizzie were sent to a prison world with their extremely dangerous Uncle who has already tried to kill all of them before." Hope said, giving a shortened version of the Alaric/Kai drama. She had pretty much forced Dr. Saltzman to fill her in on everything after finding out what the Ascendant was originally for.
"So yes, I will kill whoever I need to, to ensure their safety. You can all hate me for it afterwards." Hope finished, even as she prayed that Emma wouldn't force her to. She hadn't even wanted to hurt Alyssa, and she certainly didn't want to hurt Emma, but she would if she had to.
"All right, I'll do it." Emma said, closing her eyes for a moment as she answered. She didn't want to push Hope any further, not just for her own safety but for Hope's. She was spiraling and if it continued then god help them all.
"You sure about this?" Kaleb asked, obviously not comfortable with any of this.
"No. But I don't see another choice." Emma admitted before turning and focusing on Hope. "You should know before you go though that Kai isn't the only inhabitant of the prison world. There are others who have been sent there. Such as Sebastian, for starters."
"Who else is there?" Hope asked, not as surprised as she should be that there had been others exiled to it. She knew far more of the schools secrets that most did, and while she hadn't thought they'd been sent to a prison world, she knew there were students who had been removed from the school before. Honestly she was just surprised that Dr. Saltzman hadn't simply killed them, especially in Sebastian's case. She couldn't really think of a reason not to have killed the vampire from the limited amount she knew about him.
Once Emma had filled her in on what to expect and she had gathered some extra materials, Hope turned to Alyssa. "You are not to leave this room until I return. You can not use magic, and can only fight if attacked." Hope ordered, before turning to Emma. "Ok, send me in."
A flash of light later and Hope was in the same room with far different decor. For a moment she glanced around wondering about it before shaking her head and deciding it wasn't important. She hadn't come here empty handed, bringing along a bag that held a personal item for each of Josie, Lizzie, and Alaric along with a vial of Bennett blood that Dr. Saltzman had stored in his office. Setting the items on a map of the town she had, she quickly set to casting a locator spell to see where they were.
Watching the blood trails move off she was grateful that she had thought to use a town map. They hadn't been trapped here even a full day, yet had already moved quite a ways from the school. And most worryingly they had split up for some reason. Lizzie was the furthest away, almost off the map in an area of town she had never even been too, Dr. Saltzman was toward the middle of town, at what she was pretty sure was a dive bar, and Josie, well if she had to guess she would say that she was leaving the meadow they had been in last night.
Deciding to go for Josie first as she was the closest, Hope made her way downstairs, stopping for a moment as she saw two separate blood pools in the what was the common area of the school. Focusing her senses she took in the scents available to her, recognizing the familiar scents of Josie, Lizzie and Dr. Saltzman along with three unfamiliar ones. The blood was tinted with two of those scents so fortunately it didn't seem to be from any of the people she actually cared about. Unfortunately the lack of bodies versus the amount of blood basically confirmed that Emma had been correct when she said the people linked to the prison world couldn't die. That would make things more difficult.
Heading out of the Salvatore house she took off into a run, checking the map every few minutes to see if anything had changed. Lizzie and Dr. Saltzman weren't moving but Josie was heading into town for some reason. She wasn't moving fast though so with the speed Hope was moving she was confident that she could catch up to her and from there make a plan to get the others and leave.
It wasn't until the hospital came into view that she realized where Josie was headed, and that she wasn't alone. There were two other scents mixed with hers, both of which she had noticed at the house earlier. Pushing herself even faster she rushed into the hospital, following the scent trail she could just barely pick up. Hearing a man's voice from a nearby hallway she started gathering her magic, getting ready to cast it at a moment's notice.
Rounding the corner she immediately recognized Josie, the girl seemingly frozen in place while trying to run away. There were two other people in the corridor, a girl with red-hair that she was guessing was Jade thanks to Emma's warning and a man that she was assuming was Kai. All three of them were facing away from her and Hope didn't hesitate to attack, her magic flaring as she used it to yank both Jade and Kai into the air.
"What the fuc-"
"Who is-"
"Delfan eoten cor." Hope cast as she caught the two in her spell, ripping the hearts of the two vampires out through their backs. Catching the hearts as they flew towards her, Hope crushed them for good measure, tossing what was left on to the hospital floor next to their owner's bodies. Ignoring the corpses she moved to Josie, casting a counter spell under her breath to free her as she did. "Josie, are you ok? They didn't hurt you, did they?"
"No they didn't..." Josie said before trailing off, turning to see what Hope had done to her captors as the paralysis spell faded. Jade and Kai were laying in a pool of their own blood, their crushed hearts lying nearby. "You killed them."
"They were going to kill you. Or worse." Hope replied, looking Josie over to make sure she was ok. She didn't feel any remorse about having to kill them, not when there was a chance that they would have killed Josie. Now she just needed to find the others. "Where's Lizzie? And your Dad?"
"Umm, Dad's at the karaoke bar. Lizzie should still be at the school." Josie said, before her eyes went wide. Hope should've shown up in this world at the school, she should have ran into Lizzie. "You didn't see Lizzie? She should have been there, with Sebastian."
"You left her with Sebastian?" Hope asked, trying to keep the incredulity out of her voice. That just didn't seem like a smart move.
"I didn't know how dangerous it was here." Josie defended, before a worrying thought hit her. If Lizzie had gone somewhere with Sebastian then there was a good chance that she didn't know how dangerous things were here yet. "We have to find her."
"We will, I did a locator spell as soon as I got here." Hope said, trying to reassure Josie before hearing a faint sound. It looked like the two she had killed were already coming back, just as Emma had warned her was possible.
"That isn't how you say hello." Kai said mockingly, pushing himself to his knees while Jade was still trying to figure out what happened.
Hope didn't bother responding, at least not with the banter he was trying to goad her into. "Ignis ga praemium." Fire erupted from within Jade and Kai the instant she finished her spell, being ignited from inside their bodies and exploding outwards. Even as while screaming in pain Kai managed to launch himself at her, nearly reaching them before she slammed him into the wall with a telekinetic spell. Keeping a hold of him with one hand she focused her magic through the other, turning the heat of her previous spell up even more. "Alba ignis."
The flames covering Kai glowed white hot with that, causing him to scream even more before they burned through the vocal cords that allowed him too, and within seconds he had been reduced to little more than a charred skeleton. "Think he can come back from that?" Hope asked before noticing that Josie was actually shaking next to her.
Josie had been wondering how Hope was casting such powerful magic, why she had never used such spells against the monsters that had plagued the school. If she could set them on fire from the inside or rip their hearts out from twenty feet away then why hadn't she done so before? And now with Hope being so close she could tell why, because those were all dark magic spells. She could feel literally feel it in her skin with Hope having been so close, just the last two spells had felt equal to the purge spell she'd cast that had made her so sick she could barely stand. And yet Hope seemed fine, as if she hadn't felt any side effects.
"Jo?" Hope asked softly, her eyes showing her concern. Josie was shaking. Whether out of shock of what she had done, or fear, or concern, or something else she didn't know but it hurt to see her like this. It hurt to think that Josie might be scared of her. Even though she knew that she had every right to be.
"Oh, umm... Kai said they were bound to this world so they couldn't die. They'll always be revived." Josie said, the implications of that suddenly hit her. How many times could Hope kill them before they eventually got through? They only needed to once, just one time and they'd be dead.
"Right, I was afraid of that." Hope said, looking around for what she needed. There was more than on way to kill an immortal, and she had few ideas how to go about it. It helped when your family were some of the original immortals and had been on both sides of the problem. Luckily Kai had brought one of the items she needed to her, a nice machete that was still serviceable, if bit scorched. Taking hold of it she drove it through the burned out remains of Kai, pinning them to the wall before grabbing Josie's hand and pulling her away from the body as she waited.
"What are you doing?" Josie asked, wincing slightly at the feeling of the residual dark magic coursing through Hope.
"Waiting. We need to keep them from coming after us. You know how to cast a truth spell right?" Hope asked, getting a nod from Josie in response. "Good, I need you to use it on Jade... That is Jade right? Emma said there were three others here besides Kai."
"That's Jade. Wait Hope, how are you even here?" Josie asked, finally realizing that she didn't know. Hope showing up at the last minute to save the day had felt natural enough that it had caused her to forget that there was no reason for her to be here.
"Let's just say Alyssa Chang had a change of heart." Hope answered, not really wanting to get into it. And seeing the flesh starting to reappear on Kai's corpse it looked like there wasn't time to anyways. "Get ready."
Nodding Josie took hold of Hope's hand again for a minute, siphoning enough magic from her to use the spell Hope had asked. The instant Kai's eyes opened Hope locked him down with a paralysis spell, preventing him from moving.
"Ok seriously, who the fuck are you?" Kai bitched, glaring down at the teen girl that had already killed him twice. All he needed was half a second to reach her to rip her throat out. Or the leeway to be able to siphon the effects of her spell out of himself, but she was refusing to give him even the smallest opening.
"Silencia." Hope casting, shutting down Kai's ability to talk, before really focusing and casting a much stronger spell. "Secare ventus." Sweeping her hands down like knives as she finished her spell two faint green blades shot out from them, cutting through Kai's arms above the elbow like they were butter and severing them completely. As the limbs fell to the ground she gave him a dark smile, glad to see the sudden fear that shot into his eyes. That meant that she was on the right track.
Turning she caught Jade in another paralysis spell just as she started to charge them, splitting her focus to keep the two of them locked down. "Josie, would you do the honors?"
"Right..." Josie said, taking a moment to get into gear. She hadn't been expecting Hope to slice off Kai's arms like she had. Hell she hadn't even known there was a spell that could do that. Still Hope had asked her to do something and she needed to do that first, she could worry about Hope's apparently extensive knowledge of dark magic later. "Veritas verbis."
"Thank you Josie," Hope said, smiling as she focused on Jade. "Now Jade, mind answering some questions for me?"
"I'd really rather not." Jade answered honestly, wincing as she realized exactly what kind of spell Josie had cast. "A truth spell? Not exactly fair is it?"
"I'm done playing fair. Now answer me, can you restore severed limbs without dying first?" Hope asked, Kai's eyes going wide at that, trying to struggle free even more. It was no use though, Hope's spell held him like a vice, not giving him any freedom to move.
"No, we only heal after we die." Jade said through gritted teeth, trying to resist to no avail.
"Thank you for that," Hope said, before using the spell she had taken Kai's arms off with once more. This time she aimed for just above his waist, removing everything from there down and leaving him held to the wall by the machete she'd driven through him earlier. No arms, no legs, and no ability to talk. There was no way for him to get himself down and thanks to being a vampire none of those wounds was enough to actually kill him. But she wasn't done yet. "Adsiccesco."
As Jade and Josie watched Kai seemed to dry out, his skin becoming tighter and tighter as he was desiccated, Hope not stopping until every bit of blood had been drained from his body. She wasn't going to take any chance of him getting free. Turning her attention back to Jade she took a step closer, "Now what should I do with you?"
For the first time since she had shut off her emotions Jade felt fear course through her. She didn't have any idea who the girl in front of her was but she'd already killed her twice and put Kai into a state that he would never be able to recover from without outside help. And it didn't seem like she'd even broken a sweat to do it. As fear gripped her hear she felt the switch she had flipped off all those years ago turn back on, her formerly suppressed emotions flooding through her. And she was terrified. "St-stay away!"
Hope actually stopped at that, pain flashing in her eyes for a moment at the sight before her. Before she had just seen Jade and Kai as enemies, as another monster to rip apart. But now she couldn't help but see a scared teenage girl. Something had changed. "You had your emotions turned off, didn't you?"
"Ye-yes. Since before being sent here." Jade managed to get out, trying to keep her bearings. It wasn't easy. The emotions from the night she had killed Inez, the horror and disgust of how she'd spent the last ten years, the nigh overwhelming fear she still felt, and the fact that the hallway was soaked in blood were all threatening to overwhelm her. "It's too much, I can't-"
Seeing Jade's eyes go red Hope realized what the problem was, that Jade was a Ripper. She could barely control herself now that her emotions were back on. But she was trying to, and that made up Hope's mind on what to do next. Muttering a spell under her breath she gathered up all the blood in the hall to her, including that which had drenched them, creating a nauseatingly large ball of blood that floated in front of her. Another spell and she lit it on fire, incinerating all of it within seconds.
"Thank you," Jade said, focusing on her breathing as she got herself back under control. With the blood gone she was able to actually think, and since she hadn't simply been killed she was hoping that meant that their was a chance she survived this. "So what now?"
"Now you tell me everything we need to know about this place. Then we find Lizzie and Dr. Saltzman. And then, maybe, I will take you with us when we leave." Hope said, not having made up her mind yet. It wasn't as if Jade could lie thanks to the truth spell, hell she couldn't even refuse to answer with it active, so her first condition was fairly unnecessary. But she was willing to give the vampire a chance, and if she failed, well, all Jade needed to do was look at was left of Kai to see how that would end.
"Well we better talk on the move then, because I doubt Dr. S will be doing too well if we don't." Jade said, as she felt the paralysis spell release. She hoped that for all their sake's Diego and Wendy hadn't already started in on Dr. Saltzman. Otherwise they would likely all end up as wall ornaments like Kai had.
"They should be in here." Jade said, pointing to the karaoke bar, turning to see what Hope wanted her to do. There had been plenty of time to talk while on the way here and she'd filled the girls in on everything she knew about this world.
And she'd also learned a few things herself, such as the fact that the teenager that she had tried to kill and was currently doing everything possible to please was Hope Mikaelson. That alone added another layer of fear for her, everyone knew who the Mikaelsons were, and this one clearly lived up to the name. She might be better off staying in the prison world.
"Go though the back and get their attention. Warn them in any way and well..." Hope said giving Jade a vicious smile as she left her threat unfinished and allowed her to imagine the possibilities. She didn't actually know what she would do if Jade warned them but she doubted she'd need to find out, the girl was quite clearly terrified of her.
"What should I do?" Josie asked, wanting to help somehow. It was her Dad that was being held captive inside, Hope and Jade both having been able to confirm that by the scents.
"Just stay by me. I'll handle it." Hope said, giving Josie what she hoped was a reassuring smile. Hearing the sound of of the back door opening she headed through the front, Josie right behind her. Entering the dimly lit bar she could hear Jade talking with someone, and as she entered the main room she saw that she'd done her job as the distraction. "Delfan eoten cor."
Diego and Wendy hadn't even realized that she was there before their hearts were ripped out of their bodies. "Jade, wait outside." Hope ordered, seeing the vampire's eyes start to change from the blood in air. The vampire complied instantly darting back out the door, leaving Hope and Josie to take care of Alaric. "I've got to say, you've looked better."
"Heh, thanks." Alaric said, coughing out the words. His face was swollen and bleeding in multiple areas, the fingers on his right hand were all broken, and there were multiple burn marks on his chest. "What took you so long?"
Hope winced at that, even though she knew that he was just talking to distract himself from the pain. If she hadn't been trying to always be the good guy, if she had just broken Alyssa last night upon discovering what she'd done, then she could've stopped this from happening. "Sorry, it took a while to make Alyssa cooperate." She said as she pulled out her knife, slicing her hand open and holding it up for Dr. Saltzman to drink from.
"Dad..." Josie said finally, having been shocked at the condition her dad was in. She didn't understand how he and Hope could be so calm about this.
"Josie, it's ok. I'm alright." Alaric said, the words actually being true now that Hope's blood was healing him. By the time Hope had cut him free of his restraints he was completely healed, only the burns in his clothes to show that he'd even been tortured. Moving to Josie he wrapped her in his arms, holding her to him even as he turned his head to address Hope, "We need to leave, Kai is-"
"Currently missing his limbs, desiccated, and pinned to a wall." Hope finished, as she walked over to Diego's body. Slicing her hand open again she stabbed the blood soaked knife into his throat, letting her blood mix into his before moving to do the same to Wendy. "Already dealt with him. He won't be a problem. Once we're done here all we need to do is get Lizzie and leave this world."
Alaric was more than a little stunned at that, Hope had already dealt with Kai? He knew she was powerful but it wasn't as if Kai was weak either. She must have either taken him by surprise like here or been severely underestimated to have done so. "What are you doing?" His daughter asked suddenly, breaking him out of his thoughts. That was a good question, Hope seemed to know that they could revive so why had she stabbed them when they were already dead?
Even as he thought that he saw Diego and Wendy jolt up, returned to life even though their hearts were still on the floor a few feet away. "Me ne de qual suurentaa!" Before they had even realized what was going on Hope snapped both of their necks, the two teens falling to the floor lifelessly once more. It was then that Alaric remembered something important, that Hope had cut herself before stabbing them. "Hope, you can't..."
"Actually I'm the only one who can." Hope replied, leaning against the back of a nearby chair as she waited. Josie was looking back and forth between her and her Dad in obvious confusion, not understanding what was going on. Well it would be obvious pretty soon. "I told Jade I'd take her and her friends with us when we leave, but to do that I need to know they won't try to attack us. This is the only way to do that."
"Do you even know if it'll work on a witch?" Alaric asked, not exactly happy with what was going on but understanding her motives.
"It worked on Alyssa." Hope answered succinctly, deliberating not looking at Alaric. She didn't need to see the disappointment there, she knew what she had done wasn't great. "Look we can argue about this later, right now I just want to finish this and get to Lizzie."
Any further protest was cut short as Wendy and Diego started to stir, drawing everyone's attention as they slowly sat up. They both seemed confused, being able to tell something had changed. "What did you to me?" Diego growled out, the uncomfortable feeling he had growing. He could still feel his wolf but it was distant in a way it hadn't been in years, like it had been locked away somehow.
"You're in transition." Hope said, giving the two teens a smile as they looked up at her in surprise. Raising a finger she floated two shot glasses from the bar over to her, slashing her palm with her knife and filling one with blood before repeating the process for the second glass."And now you have a choice, you can either become hybrid and be bound to me. Or you can die."
"In case you haven't noticed we can't die here." Diego retorted, wondering why he was bothering talking when he should be killing her. A hand placed on his knee by Wendy kept him from acting impulsively though, the witch appearing far more concerned than he was.
"You said become a hybrid, how is that possible?" There were only two hybrid's that she knew of and they were both very special and very insane cases. Kai Parker and Klaus Mikaelson.
"I'm a tribrid," Hope replied, getting skeptical looks in response. Which honestly didn't bother her all that much, they'd believe her pretty quickly once they accepted her ultimatum. "Oh, and muscle for brains? When you were banished here it was as a werewolf, but now that link is broken, so if you die again it will be for real. Of course, you're welcome to test that if you don't believe me."
Diego looked a lot less confident as he heard that, looking over at Wendy to see what she thought. Wendy just nodded, having realized the same thing. If they died again it would be permanent. That they were even being given a chance was more than they would have done in reverse. "Fine, we accept." Diego said, pulling himself to his feet.
Watching as the two teens downed their shots of blood Hope simply nodded in satisfaction. All that was left was to get Lizzie and then get the hell out of here. Even as she gave them commands to prevent them from attacking the Saltzman's or herself that was where her mind was, wondering where the hell Lizzie was and how exactly they were going to leave the prison world.
Of course things could never be simple, even with Kai already dealt with, even with three of their former enemies on their side. There always had to be complications. To start with they couldn't simply drive to wherever Lizzie was, they had to walk. The resources of this world were finite and all the gas in the cars near the karaoke bar had been used up long ago. So they had been walking along the highway to where Lizzie was since before sundown.
And second, Josie had collapsed in pain shortly after they had reached the edge of town, clutching at her side as she fell to her knees. Lizzie had been hurt, severely, and it was enough that Josie could barely retain consciousness. Hope hadn't wasted any time, sending her two new hybrids on ahead with strict orders. Wendy was to find Lizzie, keep her safe, and return to her if it was something she couldn't handle. And Diego was to find whoever had hurt Lizzie and kill them. Repeatedly if necessary.
Twenty minutes after she had sent them off Wendy returned, Hope wincing at the sight of her blood covered hands. "Found her. She's hurt pretty bad. I tried to give her my blood but she refused, so I came back here." Wendy said quickly, giving Hope a report almost like she was her commanding officer. And since she couldn't disobey her she kind of was.
"Take me there." Hope ordered, ignoring Josie and Alaric's sudden questions. She understood their desire to know more but right now she needed to get to Lizzie. And she'd get there a lot faster with Wendy carrying her than otherwise. As Wendy picked her up and took off at full speed she just prayed it would be fast enough.
"Lizzie!" Hope nearly yelled as Wendy let her down, rushing over to the blonde. She was sitting against a tree, wearing what Hope was fairly certain was the same dress that she herself had worn to Miss Mystic Falls, only now the entire midsection was dyed red with blood. There was a wrecked police car a short distance away and further down the road she could see Diego and Sebastian fighting each other. "Wendy, go help Diego."
Nodding Wendy shot off, nearly taking Sebastian's head off with a surprise attack before letting loose with a fireball that he barely managed to avoid. It was already impressive that he had been able to last so long against Diego but he wouldn't be able to hold out for much longer against the two of them. That didn't concern her though all she cared about at the moment was Lizzie. "What happened?" Hope asked as she looked over Lizzie, not really expecting an answer.
"He wanted to turn me." Lizzie answered softly, her head tilting to one side. She had to be going delirious from the blood loss if she was seeing Hope. That or she had finally gone fully crazy. Maybe she'd been concussed when she'd wrecked the car.
No when Sebastian had wrecked the car. It had been his fault, he had woken up and tried to force her to stop, ended up jerking the steering wheel and crashing them into a tree. Poor tree. The tree got it's revenge though, Sebastian had been thrown out and impaled on it and she hadn't fared much better given the hole in her gut. "Couldn't even get my name right but wanted to keep me forever. Hard pass." Lizzie said, her voice getting softer as she spoke before starting to fall to the side.
"Lizzie! Lizzie no! No, no, no. You are not dying on me!" Hope yelled, grabbing for her knife and slicing her palm open for the umpteenth time today. Forcing Lizzie's mouth open she manged to get a few drops down it. "That's it, just drink. You'll be ok."
Lizzie nodded slightly, drinking on reflex before noticing how warm it was. "No, I don't want to be vampire..." Lizzie protested, turning away from the source, her eyes still half closed. She wasn't going to let Sebastian force her to become something she didn't want to be.
"Lizzie! It's me! It's Hope! So quite being a stubborn bitch and drink before you actually die." Hope yelled, forcing Lizzie to turn to her. She was not going to let her friend die because she was too delirious to know what was going on. Noticing that her cut had already healed she sliced her hand open again and held it to Lizzie's mouth, the girl willingly drinking this time.
With more of Hope's blood now in her system her wounds began to heal, taking her out of danger in seconds and fully healing her in less than a minute. Finally Lizzie looked up, realizing that it wasn't a dream, that Hope was really here. "Hope..."
"Hey," Hope said, smiling at Lizzie in relief. She had been afraid that she'd lose her for a second there. While she could heal from anything less than an instantly fatal blow she wasn't sure if her blood could heal others to the same extent. And honestly she never wanted to find out either, this was a close enough call as it was.
Lizzie smiled back, before suddenly seeming to realize where they were, "Sebastian! We need to go, he went crazy. He tried to kill me to force me to turn, he's-"
"Dead." Diego cut in, getting both girls to jump at his voice. Raising one hand he showed them Sebastian's severed head, "very dead."
"Where's the rest of him?" Hope asked, not being satisfied with just that. He had been banished to this world as well, he would revive in time.
"Over there," Diego said, pointing to where she could just make out a still smoldering corpse in the dark of the night. Fortunately all the fire Wendy had used had lit the place up quite a bit.
Rising to her feet Hope focused on the police car, taking hold of it telekinetically and moving it above where Sebastian's corpse was. Letting it fall she trapped him underneath it, before grabbing the head from Diego and tossing it over to Wendy. "Incinerate that." She ordered, turning away as Wendy carried out her orders. With that done Sebastian would revive underneath the police car, and while he would be able to get out from underneath it eventually she planned to be long gone from this world by then.
"Umm, anyone care to explain what the fuck is going on?" Lizzie asked, having finally noticed the extra people. Did Hope bring friends to come save them? That didn't make any sense, Hope didn't have any friends(besides herself, Josie, and a pet bird anyways). So who the hell were they?
"I'll explain later. For now we need to get back to your dad and Josie. They're probably worried sick." Hope said, delaying the questions for now. "Wendy, go get the others. Diego, keep an eye on Sebastian. As soon as everyone's here we're leaving."
"Don't we need to use a celestial event to do that?" Lizzie asked, trying to remember what she knew about prison worlds. It wasn't a lot but she was pretty sure that you needed both the right event and Bennett blood to leave.
"Not necessarily," Hope said, giving Lizzie a reassuring smile. It was true that to leave the prison world they should need to use the correct celestial event, which in this case was a meteor shower that had ended two hours ago. She had no intention of following the rules and waiting around here for another day though. Fortunately it was like most rules, if you had enough power it was possible to break them.
Emma was pacing back and forth in Hope's room, as she had been almost non-stop since Hope had left. She had only left to make sure some the other students were okay and to explain to Landon where Hope had gone after he'd resurrected. Unfortunately another new monster had appeared, something Landon had called a Fomorian, which she'd surmised was essentially an uglier, slower type of giant. Instead of simply killing it he had been working with the other students to trap it on the grounds, at least until Hope returned.
As the Ascendant suddenly started to vibrate she realized that Hope might be back even sooner than they had thought. A bright flash of light filled the room and when it faded not only were Hope and the Saltzmans standing before her but so were three of the students she'd helped Alaric send to the prison world a decade ago. Upon seeing Emma, Diego started to lunge for her, only to be stopped by a quick command from Hope, "Stop."
"Seriously we just got out of a prison world. Are you trying to give me a reason to send you back?" Hope asked, Diego having the good sense to look at least somewhat chastised at that. Rolling her eyes she turned her attention to the Ascendant, picking it up off the floor as she examined it.
They had left the mora miserium that had been the cause of this whole mess in the prison world and that actually worried her a little bit. It would break eventually and all that magic would need to go somewhere and she was betting that would end up being Kai. With all that extra power he would likely be able to force his way out of the prison world like she had just done. And that wasn't a chance she was willing to take. Drawing magic into her hands she began to focus, pausing for just a moment to give one more order, "Diego, Wendy, Alyssa. All of you are to follow Dr. Saltzman's order as if they were my own."
"Hope, what are you doing?" Alaric asked, moving over to her. He wasn't sure what she was about to do but if she was leaving him in charge of the hybrids then it was probably dangerous.
"Kai's too dangerous to take any chances with. I'm going to destroy the Ascendant before he can escape. But that's going to take a lot of magic and after everything else today I'm probably not going to be awake after this. So you're in charge." Hope said, continuing to build her magic up as she talked. If she had been at full strength she likely would have been fine, but after all the spells she'd used, and breaking out the prison world she was already more drained than she had ever been.
"Can we help somehow?" Josie asked, looking over at Lizzie to see her nod in agreement. Hope had done enough already, surely there was someway they could help.
"This isn't the kind of spell you can help me with." Because it was dark magic and the twins were far more susceptible to that than she was. It was too dangerous to let them help. "I'll be fine. Phasmatos de strutos avox addellum."
And with that she cast the spell before anyone could raise any further objections, the Ascendant shaking violently in her hands as she did. Letting go she poured her magic into it, keeping it suspended in the air with the sheer force of the spell. Finally it started to crack and once it did it spread rapidly, cracks spider-webbing out across it before the whole thing gave one last shudder and burst into a shower of dust. 'See, easy...' Hope thought, before falling over unconscious, at least three people rushing to catch her.
Coming to slowly Hope wondered for a moment if she had just been having a very vivid dream. She was back in the twins room, with Josie and Lizzie on either side of her, their arms draped across her as they slept. They were all still wearing their normal clothes, laying on top of the covers just as they had been before Alyssa's spell had sent them to the prison world. If it hadn't been for how exhausted she felt she might have really believed it was all a dream.
"So, how are you feeling?" Alaric asked, Hope nearly jumping out of her skin at the man's voice. She hadn't noticed him sitting in the chair across the room until he had spoken up.
"Like I got hit by a truck," Hope answered honestly. She was exhausted, in a way she hadn't been in years. Using as much magic as she had, particularly of the type she had, combined with not having slept in over a day took a toll. "Also a little surprised Landon isn't here."
"He's supervising the students, apparently they caught a monster while we were gone." Alaric said, raising a hand to reassure Hope as her eyes went wide in alarm. "Relax, I already checked on them. It's big and ugly but also dumb and slow. It won't be going anywhere. I'm more concerned about you."
"Are you really wanting to do this now?" Hope asked, glaring back at him. He was probably intending to take advantage of the fact that she didn't want to wake Josie or Lizzie to keep her from just leaving. "I did what I had to do."
"I'm not going to dispute that. You did what you felt was necessary to save the people you love. I've been there, I get that." Alaric said, surprising Hope at that. She had been certain a lecture was coming. "That doesn't make it right though."
Ah, there was the lecture. "I know that." Hope said, and she did. She knew that what she had done was horrible but given that Lizzie and Josie were currently sleeping peacefully on either side of her, she thought it was worth it. "I'll find some way to make up for what I did to Alyssa. And Diego and Wendy."
"It's not just that Hope," Alaric said, although admittedly that was a pretty big piece. They weren't the first hybrid's to be bound to Hope and there were ways to grant them freedom while protecting everyone from retaliation. He was actually more concerned about the magic she had been using, "Look, I know you're strong. And I know you can handle it better than anyone but you have to be careful with dark magic. There's reasons we don't allow it."
Dark magic was dangerous and for more than one reason. It got inside of people, heightened their darker emotions, made them quicker to anger, lowered their ability to empathize. But it was more than just that. There was an actual physical price to pay with most dark magic spells, a sort of recoil from using them that could cripple a normal witch. If any ordinary witch had cast even half the spells Hope had used today then they would be dead, their bodies collapsing under the recoil. Hope though could just heal right through the damage, but that didn't mean it didn't occur, that it didn't hurt like hell.
"I know, believe me I know." Hope said letting her head fall back against the headboard. "But what am I supposed to do? Students died because I hesitated. Dark magic comes with a price but if it means keeping everyone safe then I'm willing to pay it."
"And if it kills you? Or twists you into becoming what they need to be kept safe from? It's not worth it." Alaric said as he got to his feet. It was possible the physical effects would overwhelm even Hope someday and the mental side-effects were not to be underestimated either, as countless examples throughout history showed. "Still you saved my girls. And me. So for that you have my thanks."
Moving to leave he stopped by the doorway, "And Hope? Don't forget that you have people here that love you as well. If you won't do it for yourself than do so for them."
As Alaric left and shut the door behind him the lights went out, leaving her in the dark with the just the sleeping twins for company. It was surprisingly comfortable, and far more than she felt she deserved right now. She had tortured and killed a girl their age just that morning. How was it right that she just got to be ok after that?
Moving slowly she tried to find someway out of the tangle of limbs she was in before a tired sigh from Lizzie stopped her. "Where do you think you're going?" Lizzie asked, glaring at Hope through half closed eyes. It was too damn late or early or whatever it was for any of them to be awake.
"To my room?" Hope answered, keeping her voice down to avoid waking Josie. Why she was even in the twins room and not her own she didn't know.
"Your room has three hybrids and a vampire in it." Lizzie said, moving to lean on one elbow since it seemed she needed to convince Hope to stay. "And before you do you your Hope thing and run off to find a problem to fix, everything is fine. Landon was finally useful and caught the monster of the day so there's nothing for you to worry about. Except waking Josie up. So go back to sleep."
"Can I at least sleep in the other bed? This one's a little crowded." Hope countered, not really knowing why she was protesting. She just didn't feel like this was right. That everything could be this good after what she had done.
"No because if you do that then Josie will think I kicked you out and she'll pout. I don't need that." Lizzie retorted while rolling her eyes. Honestly only Hope would make a big deal of this. And she was too tired to try to unpack whatever baggage Hope had over this. "So shut up, go back to sleep, and accept the fact that we still love you."
Hope didn't know what to do with that, simply staring at Lizzie. She knew that Lizzie didn't mean it romantically(at least she was pretty sure of that) but it still meant a lot to her. That she had people that loved her that didn't have the obligation to do so by being family. But she wasn't about to get into that tonight, not after what Josie and Lizzie had been through already. "Aww, you love me?" Hope teased, deflecting from her own feelings on the matter.
"Shut up," Lizzie said, pushing away Hope's grinning face. She wasn't an idiot, she could tell that Hope was deflecting something. Guilt probably, Hope seemed to like to torture herself. She'd call her on that in the morning, right now she was doing good to even keep her eyes open. "Just go back to sleep already."
"Fine, you win." Hope said, letting herself sink back into the pillow. As Lizzie threw an arm around her and moved closer to her side she couldn't help but smile. It was still far more than she deserved but this was also what she had been fighting for. For the twins to be safe and back home where they belonged, for her friends to be not be in danger. For that she was willing to be the monster at times. After all she was a Mikaelson, they had always been the monsters all the other monsters feared.
Author's Note: This was supposed to be a nice quick one-shot to get an idea I had out of my head and instead ended up being a monster 9k+ one-shot. And yes this will be staying as a one-shot. Anyways hope you enjoyed it and if you did please leave a review, I always love knowing what people thought about my writing. Oh and if you like this check out some of my other Legacies stories too. Particularly Hanging On By A Thread, I'm pretty proud of that one.