After that last night with Bekah, I cuddled and kissed Hope goodbye, said my farewells, then left New Orleans without any intention of returning anytime soon. My goodbyes were given to Rebekah, Davina and Kol, Elijah and Hayley as a wolf. She had been trapped by a curse by Dahlia, and although I tried a few things to try and break it, I found that I couldn't. I'd used up too much power defeating Dahlia, it was like the river had turned into a trickling stream, and it was going to take time for me to regain my strength. I was just…exhausted. Mentally, physically, spiritually, magically, I was just so tired of it all, and I knew that if I didn't leave now then I would never get out.
Rebekah understood, and after drinking ourselves into a stupor, she nursed my hangover, then sent me on my way with a fresh bank account in my name that meant I would never want for anything for the rest of my life. She said it was the least her family could do for me after everything I had done for them, and since it was Bekah, it was impossible to refuse her. So after saying my goodbyes, I left the city and did not look back. I was gone before Niklaus even realised, and when he called me from the road, I only glanced at the caller ID before turning it off and did not look at it again. I returned to my parents, and I vowed to never abandon them again. We talked as a family, and decided to move somewhere quiet and beautiful, somewhere surrounded by nature where I could reconnect to my roots, and my parents could retire.
I looked carefully for the perfect place and soon moved us somewhere I could be certain of their safety. We chose Montana, and with enough money to set up a really nice ranch house, my parents and I started taking care of horses, training them and giving them a loving home whilst mom ran a bed and breakfast. Being a druid, the horses always responded well to me and sometimes when we got a really wild or difficult horse, they would only let me near them. I learned their behavioural habits, and found a deep love for being out in the open country on horseback riding freely to my heart's content. It was a truly healing experience, and after a few months, I started thinking about what I wanted to do with my life, and my first choice was to finally go to college.
At first I was hesitant about leaving my parents for such a long time but they urged me to go, and considering I had already put it off for so long, I decided what the heck. I deliberated on what I wanted to study and chose to focus on biology with a focus on botany, the study of plants. Having become rather enamoured with horses and animals, I also decided to study to become a veterinarian. With the intention to become a complete recluse in the future, I spent the summer with my parents and our horses, completely falling in love with a grey mare, then started college in the fall where I started the next chapter in my life.
It was liberating not having to worry about supernatural chaos surrounding me everywhere I went, and upon my agreement with Rebekah, I had no contact from any of them about anything that was going on in New Orleans. Only occasionally did I receive a picture update of Hope, where I would smile and lovingly look at her face, her fist steps, before I would then put my phone aside and continue with my work. I connected more deeply to my ancestors, to the root of my magic to grow stronger, and made sure not to waste a second of my college life and completely let loose. I met guys, I fell in love, I fell out of love, got drunk and then struggled against the hangovers the next day until I could get a magical cure-all down my throat to fix me up. I went home at Thanksgiving, Christmas and every vacations I could to be with my parents and for almost an entire year since I had left New Orleans I lived my life the way I wanted, with no one making demands on me or asking for me to use my magic for one thing or another.
It was a good life, and I even met somebody who completely turned my world upside down after a New Year's party where I was stumbling back to my dorms completely wasted and I crossed paths with a guy. I had sobered up enough so that I at least retained the memory of what happened, and I recalled the guy being worried for my safety and, after proving that I couldn't actually walk without falling over, he had swept me up like I was nothing and carried me all the way back to my campus. In my drunkenness I had rather foolishly told him exactly where I lived, but after brining me back to my dorm, he had tucked me into bed, got me something to throw up into should I need, brought me a bottle of water from my refrigerator, then left after wishing me goodnight.
He was the epitome of a perfect gentleman, and even left a note with his number on it on my bedside table. I couldn't really remember what he looked like, but I remembered liking his smile, so I decided what the heck and called the number to apologise for being such a pain in the ass and thanking him for getting me home safely, and from there we just seemed to hit it off. We met up for coffee, and he was one of the most handsome guys I had ever met. With sandy blond hair and brown eyes brimming with intelligence, I felt all my past heartbreaks simply melt away as I came to know this man. Owen. He was a firefighter, hence the chivalry, and I found myself falling for him more and more every day.
I never thought that I would get over Niklaus, and even though I still had a vibrant love for him which questioned my sanity, that love began to gradually fall into a distant simmer at the back of my conscience, present but concealable by these newer and healthier feelings. Owen was completely normal, as human as you could get. He loved his job, was an outdoor nut, preferred healthy food to takeout, but never objected to a good old fashioned burger and fries when the mood struck. He very quickly became my boyfriend, and I had no intention of backing away from this relationship for any reason, because even though I was in love with someone else, I did love Owen, and he added to my happiness which I felt that after all I had experienced, I deserved.
Like I said, I was doing well for myself with no contact from anyone back in New Orleans until late March, when I began to sense that things were taking a dark turn amongst the Mikaelsons, my visions returning through my dreams where a monster threatened their very lives. A prophecy, whispers and warnings echoing in my mind until I had no choice but to respond. I decided that it wouldn't hurt to just take a look, however when I projected myself into New Orleans I couldn't locate Rebekah at all. I couldn't find her anywhere, and instead I came across everyone else in the courtyard of the compound pulling Finn Mikaelson inside, who was bleeding profusely.
At first I was shocked to see that Finn was alive and in his own body, but I quickly put that fact aside to focus on more important things. He was dying. My ancestors bombarded me with the facts and history of everything that had occurred since I had left probably in the hope of being helpful, but in reality just giving me a severe head and heart ache when it was over. So Finn was dying from a hybrid bite delivered by a psychotic guy named Lucien Castle. Can't these guys ever just have normal enemies? Finn was clearly in a great deal of pain as I hovered invisibly over him, feeling more than a little sympathetic to his plight despite it all. He moaned and whimpered, begging for Freya not to leave him as she held his hands tightly and promised him that she was not going anywhere.
"Why is he talking like this?" Freya questioned with concern as she tried to clean the bite that had infected Finn at his neck, Elijah also standing close with a deep anxiousness that I rarely saw from him.
"It's hallucinations of our betrayal. It's his nightmare." I remained silent, wondering if I should intervene just as Kol strode into the compound but took no notice of Finn's condition as if he did not have a care in the world. I sensed there was a great deal of dark magic surrounding Kol, and as I rubbed my aching head, I received an impression from the information my ancestors had supplied that the New Orleans ancestors were messing with his mind. It was all just…ridiculously messed up. Just how did these guys go from being the undeniable rulers of New Orleans to a crippled mess of defeats?
"Well, he looks awful. Werewolf bite. That's got to hurt, mate. So, Lucien's a bloody hybrid?" Kol questioned casually as he sprawled across a couch in his usual laid back manner as Elijah quipped back at him.
"We don't know what he is. His venom seems to work twice as fast."
"That's good. Maybe it'll work through his system twice as fast." Freya reasoned, still holding her brother's hand as Kol unhelpfully suggested that this could also mean that the venom was twice as lethal before he then made a sour comment that if Nik didn't return soon then Finn would most likely die. This was clearly the wrong thing to say to Freya as she very quickly got up and crossed the distance between Finn and Kol in order to punch him squarely on the job, unleashing her fury upon him which Elijah had to quell with a firm order for the both of them to behave. This family had become fractured since I had left, and as I watched them gather, I could not help but feel guilty for leaving them.
It was at this moment that Niklaus himself appeared, striding in through the front gates and announcing himself in such a way that silenced any further arguments. "Sibling squabbling. How familiar. Although, the teams seem to have changed…someone care to tell me why?" His dry humour went unappreciated, however it was not long before Nik found his bravado faltering as he laid his eyes upon Finn's suffering form. Even with Elijah reminding Nik that their brother needed them, Nik did not seem to have any reservations in offering his blood. He rolled back his sleeve, opened a wound on his wrist and then offered the blood to Finn who was not the only one to look shocked at Nik's kindness. He drank, and Nik's blood seemed to have a positive effect on him, at least lessening the pain enough for him to breathe deeply and calmly.
"Thank you, brother." Now smiling, Freya knelt beside Finn whilst holding his hand, asking how he felt. "I feel…strangely euphoric."
"I've been known to have that effect." Despite myself, I smiled at Nik's words and found my pulse quickening in his presence, unable to deny the feelings that still remained in residual quantities at the back of my mind. I watched the family for a while longer, thinking that all was well and began to pull away, however just as I did so Finn hacked up a fitful cough which made my head snap around in alarm just as he threw up a thick pool of blood which caused all of his siblings to veer in alarm, demanding to know what was going on. The venom was twice as lethal as Kol had speculated, it was reacting even more strongly than before, which mean Nik's blood had done nothing to save Finn. He was going to die from those bites.
"His body, it's dying…"
"No! No, it's not possible! I cured him!" Nik bellowed in fear and outrage as Finn continued to gulp and wheeze, hardly able to breathe as everyone gathered close around him. Freya desperately tried to hide her horror from Finn, smiling softly and promising him that everything was going to be alright whilst holding his hand before ordering her brothers to go and fetch her pendent, the one where she had stored Finn's soul before.
"It won't work! Davina fused his soul to his body." Even Kol looked panicked, and I was reminded once again at the end of the day, none of these siblings truly wished to see the other dead. Always and forever was more than just a nostalgic promise to them. It was their everything.
"We've got to try! There's no Other Side! No Ancestral well if he dies." This was true, and they were quickly running out of time. Nik demanded that Kol brought Davina back here in order to undo what she had done to Finn, but she would never get here in time. I made a decision in a fraction of a heartbeat, and next thing I knew I was moving forwards as a spirit, and with my hand pressed against Finn's chest, began to remove the curse that bound his soul to this body. Although a powerful curse made by Davina, I was able to purge it from him, by using the venom in his bloodstream as a medium. The powerful, destructive properties was more than enough to break through the curse itself, eating away at the soul lock whilst also easing his pain and breathing.
"You…" He began to breathe deeper, and I realised that Finn was looking directly into my eyes even though I was nothing more than an invisible spirit, an echo of my physical form melded into the natural magic currents of the earth. Still, he was looking at me. "It's you…" Raising my other hand, I pressed it against Finn's face, wondering if perhaps in a moment of equilibrium and euphoria, the instant before one's death, where the veil between the spiritual world and the physical world brushed against one another, his spirit was able to see that which his siblings could not. In this moment, he could see me.
I promised him that all would be well as I removed the curse and sent his soul into the pendent which I had summoned from Freya's room, my magic shining as it then dropped onto Finn's chest as his body passed from the living into the hands of the dead and dessicated where it lay with all of his siblings standing around him, their hands holding him steady to reassure him of their presence. Nik had unwittingly placed his hand over mine, but upon recognising that there was magic in the air, he immediately started to look around him and called out my name. "Ophelia! Ophelia show yourself! OPHELIA!"
"Impossible." Freya sobbed as she clutched the necklace in her hands, holding Finn's soul in the pendant before endless stream of tears began to flow. "Thank you Lia, thank you…wherever you are…you still watch over us." Everyone was confused, calling my name and searching for me, with Kol begging me to help him be free of the ancestors' curse, and as I looked upon them, they all seemed so lost. Perhaps they were my weakness, but I could not leave them like this. It were as if I could not help but continually be drawn back to them, to be their guide and sometimes perhaps even their saviour, but I could not abandon them like this, and so I reached out and placed my spirit hand on Nik's shoulder, where he immediately felt the warmth of my presence which made him freeze.
Flowers began to grow up and around the railings of the courtyard, sweet smelling roses of pure white before they then stopped. Pleased with my handiwork, I couldn't help but laugh at Nik's stunned face, leaving an echo of my voice in the air behind me as I drew back to my physically body with the decision made in my head that these guys clearly can't survive without me and so, I was going to go and save the day and be their everlasting hero. Because judging from what my ancestors have shown me, it was only going to get a whole lot worse.