With a ghostly flash of pale light, Azalea tumbled to the ground.
Dazed, she peered into the clear blue sky above. She was in a clearing in the middle of some woods. It was an idyllic place, with lush green grass and vivid wildflowers, bordered by towering trees.
Curiously, nothing hurt. And considering her graceful entrance, she should be hurting. She sat up, feeling weirdly weightless, and looking down at herself she realized why.
Her body was ethereal, a pale shimmering blue.
Was she dead? No. That as impossible, she couldn't be…right? Spirits couldn't be untethered like this; she felt no connection to… to what?
How did she know this?
Desperately searching her memory for what could have happened to her, Azalea came up blank.
Azalea scrambled onto her feet, panic beginning to set in.
Ok. She knew that it was 2009, she knew her name, she knew she was from the U.S. She knew basic facts of life, things about herself as a person but when she tried to reach for more, everything as blank. It was like she had pieces of a puzzle, but no way to put them together.
What had happened to her, why was she here, and where was she?
A rustle of leaves cut into her panic. Azalea's voice rang through the clearing.
"Who's there?"
She scanned her surroundings, spotting a figure hiding in the foliage. She strode over to it, phasing through it to find the terrified form of a young boy who could not have been older than ten.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to"
Azalea kneeled to be level with the boy.
"Hey, its ok. I'm sorry I frightened you."
The boy tentatively uncurled from his crouch; Azalea held out a spectral hand to him.
"I'm Azalea. What's your name?"
"…Rik... Father and Elijah call me Henrik."
"It's very nice to meet you Henrik." The boy made a funny face at the use of his full name.
"Well, most people called me Lea, not Azalea." – at least she thought people did - '" You can call me that too, if you'd like."
Henrik nodded silently, still slightly scared.
"Well, Rik. What are you doing out here by yourself?"
"Klaus was going hunting, and I followed him. I wanted to see him use his bow, Father never lets me see him practice."
She was assuming this 'Klaus' was family, maybe a brother?
"Did Klaus know you followed him?"
"…No"
"Do you know the way back home?"
Henrik nodded hesitantly.
Well, ghost or not, she couldn't leave a child to fend for themselves in the middle of the woods.
"Well, how about I walk with you back to your home, alright?"
The boy stood, brushing leaves off his cloths.
His cloths were rather odd, now that Azalea could see them clearly. It was a blue handmade tunic, along with a pair of leggings. All in all, his cloths were something that one would normally find in a museum. And he mentioned his (presumed) brother using a bow to hunt? Azalea may not remember much, but she knew bow hunting was not exactly common.
Queries on her mind, she followed after
They eventually made it closer to his home, Henrik perking up as time went on, chattering about his family – he had four brothers and one sister – and his parents – his mother was a witch (?!), his father was a buzzkill – and a myriad of other things.
From his words, Azalea could only construct two theories: either Henrik was insane, or she was in the very distant past.
As they neared the village, it quickly became clear that she was in the past.
Azalea took in a useless, but fortifying breath; she could panic later. Just focus on the now.
They were about to exit the tree line when Azalea felt a peculiar tugging in her chest. She stopped, Henrik turning back to her when he realized she was not following him anymore.
"Lea, c'mon!"
Her vision began to blur, her hands started to fade.
"I think I'm leaving now."
"What?"
She looked at the now dejected boy.
"Hey, I'll come back if I can. Don't worry."
The world went dark.
She felt heavy. Lethargic, as if she had recently awoken from a long rest. She could feel the beep of a monitor of some sorts, could smell the sterile scent of a… hospital?
Azalea opened her eyes. She was greeted by a blank white ceiling.
"Good you're awake. Right on schedule. My name is Carmen, and I am you're primary caretaker."
On schedule?
"Where am I?"
"You are in the Coterie Anchorage. We're one of the only magical medical facilities in the world."
A magical hospital. She turned to look at the woman speaking to her. Her presumed nurse was a tall Hispanic woman with mahogany hair and dark eyes. She was bustling around the room, checking on various instruments and writing things down.
Funnily enough the first thought that came to Azalea's mind was that she had no idea how she was going to pay for this. The second was who brought her here. She decided to ask.
"How did I get here?"
"I am afraid that I cannot tell you who brought you here."
"Why not?"
"Your benefactor insisted that they remain anonymous. They are covering the costs for your stay here."
An anonymous benefactor? What was going on?
"Your reaction to your trance - "
"My what?"
Carmen gave her a strange look.
"Your trance. It's a natural part of a Memini. You are here because your Projections are involuntary and far too long lasting."
Azalea did not know how or why she was here or what these people's intentions were, but figured that discretion was the better part of valor. So, she lied like a cheap rug.
She pasted a rueful smirk onto her face, and forced a light laugh.
"Of course. Sorry, I'm still a little disoriented."
"Well, that is to be expected. You will probably be in and out for a while, so don't be too concerned."
'Don't be too concerned?' Yeah. She would totally do that.
Azalea swayed a bit, her vision darkening.
"Ah. That must be another one. Don't fight it, this has to work itself out naturally."
She faded back into oblivion.
She woke to find herself back in the clearing.
"Lea! You're back! Come with me, I want you to meet someone!"
Without waiting for a response Henrik turned and darted off into the woods. Azalea followed after him, hearing him talk to someone.
" – to introduce you to Lea!"
A long- suffering male voice answered him
"Rik, I don't have time for your games."
A different voice joined in.
"Let him have his fun."
Azalea floated into the clearing, seeing to young men, both in their twenties. They were both had similar handsome features, both were tall and well muscled, with the elder having dark hair and intense brown eyes, and the younger dirty blond hair with blue-green eyes. Judging by the resemblance, they were related. Slightly irritated that they didn't think she was real, she spoke crossly.
"Hey, I exist."
Startled the two young men snapped their gazes towards her. The elder made to speak, but Henrik broke the silence first.
"Lea, these are my brothers! Klaus", he pointed to the younger one "and Elijah."
The two stared at her warily, approaching to protectively stand in front of Henrik. Azalea held her hands up in the universal signal of surrender.
"I'm not going to do anything."
The elder spoke
"Forgive me if I have trouble believing you, but generally speaking, unbound spirits are not benevolent beings."
"I'm not unbound, I have a body! I'm just not…attached… to it right now…"
She stopped speaking as the brother gave her dubious looks. Yeah, she barely it believed herself, and she was the spirit in question.
"Look, if I do anything weird, then feel free to banish me or whatever."
The younger, Klaus, spoke this time.
"And why do you think that we could do that."
Azalea shot him a 'don't bullshit me' look.
"You two obviously have some experience with magic, you wouldn't be so comfortable around a spirit otherwise."
Obviously fed up with the conversation, Henrik broke the tense atmosphere.
"Come on, you promised you would play with me."
The two brothers shared a glance before stepping aside, desire to keep their sibling happy outweighing their distrust of the still unnamed ghost. She was right though, if she proved malevolent, they could banish her together. Or at least weaken her until their mother or Kol could.
Azalea and Henrik had ended up playing a game of tag, with Henrik's concerned brothers watching on.
She did not seem hostile, but it was hard to tell with ghosts.
Henrik eventually fell asleep in the shade of an ancient oak tree, and Klaus broke the silence that had fallen between the three.
"What are your intentions towards our brother?"
Azalea let out a sigh of irritation, she understood that they wanted to protect their brother, but that didn't keep their suspicion from annoying her.
"I don't have any 'intentions. I just showed up here and Henrik stumbled upon me. I guess he thinks we're friends now."
"I've never heard of a ghost befriending the living."
Now very annoyed, Azalea snapped out,
"I'm not a ghost."
The older one, Elijah, broke his silence.
"Then what are you."
"I'm a Memini - whatever that means." There was a look of recognition on the older one's face, but the younger did not seem to share his brother's knowledge. At their still wary body language, she continued.
"Look, I keep on appearing here after I fall into a trance, I can't do anything to stop it, and I've no intention of hurting anyone all right?"
The brothers exchanged a look, coming to the mutual conclusion that being cautiously hospitable was the best course of action, and the tension between the three eased into something more tolerable.
Silence fell upon the clearing as the three waited for Henrik to awaken.
The trend continued, with Azalea bouncing between the past and the present. Her stay at the hospital gave more questions than answered, with the witches there being very tight lipped. All Azalea learned was that her mysterious benefactor was very powerful and, judging by the witches attitude every time she brought it up, very terrifying. The witches themselves were, well. Azalea did not like them. They treated her like she was a kind of experiment. Don't get her wrong, she was grateful for what they were doing for her, but she couldn't shake the feeling that they were more interested in her abilities than her health. All in all, it was a boring, yet paradoxically, tiring experience.
The past, on the other hand, was substantially more interesting.
For whatever reason, she would only pop up in the proximity of the three Mikaelson siblings that she knew. Azalea figured that it was some mysterious aspect of her trances that she still hadn't gotten any answers on – that made her manifest near her friends.
Yes. Friends.
Henrik was an adorable ray of sunshine who decided that they were friends and after a couple more visits Elijah and Klaus had become more friendly when they started to get that she really was not a malevolent being. So, when she appeared, they had started to become what one could almost call welcoming. Well, Elijah was welcoming. Klaus decided to show his affection by being a pain in the ass – he shot an arrow through her and cackled like a hyena when she freaked out, things passing through her insubstantial body felt weird – but she figured that being annoying was how he decided to show if he like you or not. It was strangely endearing. He grew on her like some sort of bio-luminescent fungus. He was really cool but could be profoundly vexing.
Elijah was a gentleman. He was respectful and courteous to her when she appeared, but still had some hints of wariness in his demeanor that were slowly disappearing as they got to now each other better. He was kind to her. And Azalea knew that kindness was a rare commodity, especially in a time like this. And he taught her things. That was the other thing she liked about him, he respected her enough to answer her questions. She had enough of being ignored in the Anchorage, and it meant a lot to her that he would indulge her curiosity no matter how stupid the question was. Their current conversation supporting that observation.
"So exactly why are you gathering flowers?"
He carefully snapped a delicate bloom from a shrub.
"Mother is an extremely accomplished witch. She asks that her children help her in her craft from time to time."
"What's so special about these plants?"
"This one," He held up a light pink specimen, "Has mystical properties of protection when used properly."
"What about that light blue one you just picked?"
The conversation continued in a similar vein until Azalea finally brought up something that had been weighing on her mind.
"Speaking of magic, do you know what wrong with me? You recognized the name – Memini."
"Ah. Yes."
He absentmindedly picked another flower.
"In the distant past, a powerful witch had found the secret to eternal youth and sought to grant her human lover the same. She developed a spell that would draw upon the power and immortality of the soul to grant her mortal lover eternal life. The lover had an affair with a man from their tribe. The witch found out, and in her jealous rage, destroyed the lover and all evidence of her existence. The witch was later killed by the members of a different tribe. Unbeknownst her, the lover had borne a child from her affair who passed down the abilities of the Memini to his descendants."
"That's it? That's all anyone knows?"
"I'm afraid so."
"So, you're telling me that there's almost no information on what I am because one of my ancestors was a cheat who couldn't keep it in her pants?
Elijah looked down at his gathered ingredients to hide his amused expression at her comment, a quiet chuckle rising from his throat.
"Are you laughing at me?!"
The chuckle grew louder in the face of her comical rage. After a few more moments of trying to maintain her annoyance, Azalea broke down and joined him.
Klaus and Elijah seemed so different, but the one thing that Azalea found that they had in common was their high intellect and their peculiar ability to always get what they wanted. They knew what they desired and how to get it. Even in her rather limited interactions with the two, she saw that much at least.
It was with that thought in mind that she came upon the two arguing. It was not some petty brotherly bickering. It was a true fight, raised voices, low blows, the whole nine yards.
After Klaus stormed of in a (dramatic) huff, Elijah leaned against the tree, head tilted up at the sky. He was angry with and jealous of his brother and angry with himself for letting this get between the two of them.
"Is there something wrong?"
He jerked his head in Azalea's direction, not expecting her to be there.
"…No. No, it is nothing."
Azalea waited. She didn't know what was going on, but she didn't like to see him like this. If he didn't want to speak with her, maybe he would find silent companionship comforting. If she had a fight with someone she loved, Azalea knew that she would. After some amount of time spent in brooding silence, Elijah spoke, figuring that another point of view may offer him some clarity.
"There is a woman. Tatia."
Ah. A woman. A slight pang hit her heart. This was making more sense. What it a love triangle or was this woman cheating on one of them…?
"And you like this Tatia…?"
"I care for her deeply. As does Niklaus."
Love triangle. And one with brothers, as well. That was never good.
"And this has been happening for…?"
"Weeks. My brother and I… we cannot."
He let out a frustrated huff of air
She understood now. This was not about Tatia, not really.
"You are not angry with him. You are angry with yourself. This isn't about this Tatia, this is about your relationship with your brother."
He stilled at her blunt statement and whirled to face her in an abrupt burst of movement. He opened his mouth to say something, and then closed it, seemingly at a loss for words. That more than anything showed her how much this was getting to him. Elijah was not exactly what one would call a hesitant person.
"Do you want my take on it, or do you want me to keep my mouth shut?"
He just made a half-hearted 'go on' gesture with his hand.
She was going to take that as a yes.
"If I had a brother or sister, and we were in love with the same person I guess… what I would ask myself is this: is this worth the effect it would have on my relationship with my sibling? Will my relationship with my sibling survive this? If not, do I think this person is worth that sacrifice? If it could, is what I stand to gain worth the aftermath? Is being with this person worth the pain it would cause?"
She was silent for a moment.
"It really comes down to what you are willing to sacrifice. That's… all I can say, really."
Elijah resumed his previous position against the tree. When put like that, it was rather simple. He knew the answers to those questions which meant he knew what he must do.
He heard an unnatural rustle of leaves in the otherwise still clearing and looked up to see empty air where Azalea once stood.
He needed to talk to his brother.
Azalea reappeared a week later. It was a funny thing, these projections. The time was not the same on both sides. She could spend a day here and only five minuets would pass there. Sometimes, vice-versa. And other times it was the same length of time.
She found Elijah in the same spot in the woods as last time. It seemed to be the place he would go to get some peace. She approached him, and settled next to his still form, he gave no indication that he wanted her to leave.
He was staring pensively into the forest, obviously contemplating something, before he finally broke the silence.
"Tatia is to marry Niklaus after the next harvest."
Her heart ached for him. Unrequited love sucked.
"…I'm so sorry Elijah."
"It was the right choice."
Maybe, but that didn't make it any less painful.
He forcefully banished his melancholy and stood up, holding out a hand to help her up even though the gesture was useless. Regardless, she put her hand in his, a shiver running down her spine at the contact.
"Come. I would like to introduce you to the rest of us."
She though Klaus was the bio-luminescent fungi of the family, but the title obviously belonged to Kol.
It was just. He was so. Annoying. And yet, so endearing.
He would say or do something that made you want to stab him with a rusty spork and then would turn around and say or do something else that would make you feel the exact opposite. It was rather impressive, in an odd sort of way.
Rebecca doted on her brothers, in a rather subtle, snarky way, Henrik most of all. She was cheerful and bright, with a wicked sense of humor that kind of snuck up on people out of nowhere.
All in all, the younger Mikaelsons were a delight to be around. At least, they were a delight after the initial suspicious hostilities were over with.
The eldest, Fin, was a buzzkill. He was a very pedantic man, not being very close to the rest of his siblings. Azalea got the impression that when he interacted with his siblings, he was looking for someone else. He seemed to compare them to another absent person, and none of them measured up. He loved them, that Azalea believed, but he did not connect with them.
Presently, she was in the forest with Kol and Rebecca who were looking for ingredients for their family friend, Ayana. The others were in the village, a place Azalea was not going to go unless she wanted to be exorcised or something. The whole 'gathering of ingredients' seemed to be a normal pastime for the family.
Presently, Kol was teasing Rebekah about a crush she had on a village boy, Rebekah looking about ready to kill her brother. Azalea was standing behind Kol, and caught Rebekah's eye, pantomiming throwing him into the clear pond they were standing next to.
Rebekah grinned, and did so.
Kol landed in the pond with a splash…and a shriek.
Azalea broke down into helpless laughter.
"Why brother, you sound adorable. Or should I say sister?"
Kol surfaced with a splutter and pushed his hair out of his eyes. He dragged himself out of the pond before and stood on the bank observing to two laughing woman, before a smirk appeared on his face. He sprinted towards his sister and bear hugged her, soaking her with pond water, before dashing away. Rebekah shrieked and followed after her brother intent on revenge, Azalea's laughter providing a soundtrack to their chase.
They all froze when they heard footsteps approaching. Klaus entered the clearing, observed the chaos, and simply asked
"What are you doing?"
They all shared a glance before Azalea spoke.
"Gathering herbs…?"
Klaus's lips quirked up in an amused smile, before he spoke, effectively ruining he light atmosphere.
"Kol, Rebecca, Father is looking for you."
They looked almost… terrified of something.
"Don't worry, Mother is home as well."
Relief appeared in their faces.
That was the last impression that she gained from the siblings. They loved their mother, idolized her even, but were terrified of their father.