After having hugged and kissed and hugged Lucan goodbye with a promise to come home as soon as possible, I set off for Dallas in Texas in order to save the merry Mystic Falls bunch from their inevitable doom, because I'm nice like that. I'd even prepared a special concoction that was not only going to make Bonnie Bennett very happy, but a couple of vampire-witch Heretics extremely grateful for my existence. I'd already foreseen their deaths, as well as the reason why one of them was dying from a poison pill made from the blood of a mystical Huntress who had lived numerous lifetimes thanks to the magic of an ancient shaman. A shaman with druid ties, therefore, I was one of the few people who could actually fix this mess before it became irreversible.
So that's how I found myself on an airfield in Dallas, facing down with a mystical Huntress made by shamans and keeping her from stabbing Stefan Salvatore with her magic sword with a rather terrifying stone that sucked in a person's soul and tortured them in a hellish landscape until the end of time. Rayna Cruz looked exhausted as she stood over Stefan with the sword in her hand, talking to him about why he needed to let his brother Damon go, but before she could deliver the final blow, I appeared behind her and waved my hand, commanding her to sleep with my magic so that she dropped the sword and fell to the ground in a deep slumber, making Stefan blink and frown at me as the sunlight obscured my face for a while. "You sure look like hell." I commented dryly as I stepped closer to him and the moment Stefan saw my face, a sudden recognition dawned on his features.
"Lia?" Unable to help it, I smiled slightly as I regarded him at an angle. "What are you doing here?"
"Saving your life, if you can believe it." Reaching down I picked up the sword and removed the stone from the hilt in order to inspect it closely and analyse its magical properties, as well as get a read on just how many souls were trapped in there. "Don't worry about her." Noticing that Stefan was nervously looking at Rayna as he picked himself off the ground, I assured him that she'd stay sleeping until I woke her up again. Now that he no longer had to run for his life, Stefan was able to take a deep breath and process my sudden appearance here, starting to ask me how I knew where he'd be, but stopped himself when he recalled that I could see the future sometimes. "Just sit tight for a moment, and call your brother. He doesn't need to take your scar anymore."
"Damon had no intention of taking this scar, so it doesn't matter." Stefan answered but when I shot him a look which I had mastered from being a mother, it silently told him to just shut up do as I asked. The Phoenix Stone, as it was called, was a rather remarkable piece of magic, almost limitless in its capacity for storing vampire souls as well as maintain a sort of…sentience. The stone knew each of the souls and their sins, and used their past in order to not only torture them, but to also make them try and repent. I couldn't deny I was impressed, and so I tucked the stone in my pocket for the time being and dropped the sword since it was now useless. Stefan called his brother whilst I went off in search of the other two Heretics that I had also seen in my visions, catching them just as they were getting into their car.
The blonde one was clearly very sick and close to dying, struggling to even move as her girlfriend, Nora, I believe her name was, helped her towards the vehicle. "Hey. You two." Whistling sharply to grasp their attention, Nora instantly turned and snarled threateningly at me so I held up my hands in a peaceful sign whilst continuing to walk towards them. "Your girlfriend is dying, so I suggest you be nice to me. I have something here that'll neutralise the poison in her system." This immediately took them both by shock, glancing at one another before Nora regarded me with suspicion.
"Who are you? How can we trust what you are saying?" She spoke with a very eloquent British accent and I was immediately reminded of Rebekah, and the thought of her made me smile.
"My name is Ophelia. I knew if I came here at this moment in time I'd bump into you guys and that you'd need my help. See, I could give you the really long version of the story that will just waste your time all the while your girlfriend there gets closer to drawing her last breath, or you can throw caution to the wind and accept the help I'm offering because frankly, you don't exactly have much else of a choice." From another pocket I withdrew a vial of clear liquid as well as a packet of prepared herbs which they would need in order to detoxify the poison in the bloodstream, placing it on the ground before stepping back. "It won't be an instant fix, but if you follow the prescription I've written for you in the herb packet, you'll be cured in about two months and free to live your own lives. I only have one condition." Nora and Mary Louise looked at one another again, Nora helping Mary Louise to remain upright before she then looked at me again.
"Name your price." I smiled gently.
"That you both leave and live a good life. You have to vow never to take the life of another ever again, which means no more massacres, no more angry murdering or bloodshed. You can repay me by living in repentance for your past, and find happiness together like you've always wanted. That's my price…plus a favour sometime in the future. Don't worry, it'll only be siphoning off a hex from my best friend. Simple as that." We stared one another down, the Heretics clearly not trusting me, but Mary Louise murmured softly in a voice so quiet and weak that Nora had to repeat it for me since I didn't have super hearing. "Why am I doing this? Because I believe in second chances, and in balancing the scales of karma. I know your history, and you both have a lot to answer for, but from today, this moment, all of that is going to change. Take the medicine, cure yourself, then start a new chapter in your lives. You'll thank me for this later, without a doubt." I left them standing completely shell shocked, but it was not long before Nora had grasped the medicine and began to examine it in order to see what the herbs were.
Whether they chose to take the chance and trust me was entirely up to them, and after I heard their car start and drive away I gave a silent prayer for them to do better in this life than their last before putting them completely out of my mind. I returned to Stefan, who had now been joined by Damon and another Heretic who I only knew to be an old flame of Stefan's. "Ah! Of all the faces I thought I would never see again, I can't believe I'm actually glad you showed up out of the blue like that. How's it going carrots?"
"I forgot how much I despise you, Damon." Growling at him, I warned him not to touch Rayna as I could see him giving her the stink eye which meant he was contemplating killing her. Giving him a warning that I had no problems setting him on fire, I then turned to the Heretic and held out my hand. "Hi, Ophelia Martin-Jones. Druid." A little curious, the Heretic introduced herself as Valerie and shook my hand so that she could attempt to drain my magic but of course, couldn't. "Yeah see, siphoning magic isn't going to work on me. Different wavelength of magic, but nice to meet you. Now. Since you boys have pretty much opened up a whole new chapter or oncoming death, doom and destruction, I have dragged my ass all the way out here in order to sweep up the mess before it really hits the fan, so you all better listen to me and do exactly as I say."
"Whoa there carrots, what are you talking about? We've got Rayna, all we need to do is figure out a way to unlink Stefan from her psycho, vampire-hunting magic then boom, we can end all this right now." Shooting him a look, I glanced to his arm as his sleeve then caught fire just as I'd warned him, making him help and quickly try to put it out. Ignoring Damon's dramatics, I focused first on Stefan.
"First off, the most important thing for you is to never, ever switch off your humanity no matter what. If you do that, you end up ripping out Enzo's heart and that is just going to break Bonnie's so let's not go down that route, okay? Second, you need to drop the whole morose, tragic hero thing you've got going on and get a little real with yourself and the women in your life. In fact, that goes for both of you. Honestly, you two are awful, bailing on the people you care about most for your own selfish means? No wonder we never became friends. Damon, Bonnie hates your guts so prepare for a lifetime of grovelling, and for god's sake figure out her favourite flowers. Stefan, Caroline is still super mad at you, so you'd better start grovelling too, there's a lot I need to get through really so we better walk and talk. Someone grab her." Ordering them around with a tone of authority, Stefan and Damon looked at one another looking a little lost before Damon obeyed my instruction and picked up Rayna whilst Valarie grabbed the sword.
I brought everyone to a place where we could sit down and talk though the room of the motel was grimy and not exactly pleasant. All the same, I had Rayna set out on one of the beds so that she would be comfortable before then turning around to face the Salvatore brothers. Valerie had since disappeared so I assumed she and Stefan had either had an argument or they'd already got to the part where she realised that Stefan was still in love with Caroline and had decided to step aside in order to allow him to pursue his own happiness. Either way, I didn't care. I had more important things to worry about. "So carrots, why the sudden drop in after six years of nothing?" He questioned me with all of his usual arrogance and swagger that seemingly had remained unchanged in the six years I had avoided looking at his face for fear of temptation to burn it off. "You look different. What did you change? Hair? Style? Perfume?"
"I had children." Scowling at him as I sat down and folded my arms, my blunt response floundered him for a moment as he had not been expecting anything like that to come out of my mouth. "Do you want my help or shall I just go home to my son and let you all face the devil incarnate? I mean that literally, by the way. He's a guy called Cade, Arcadius, if you're being picky with the details. He has two sirens who act as his missionaries sending him corrupt souls for him to feed on and torture, so unless you guys, as well as pretty much everyone else, want to end up there, you're going to have to follow my rules from now on. Stick with me, and not only will I show you how to destroy Hell and these last few enemies of yours, you'll also get Elena back by Christmas." This definitely got Damon's attention as I saw his entire expression drop and pale to the point of there being absolutely no blood in his face whatsoever.
"What did you just say?" Unable to help it, I gave him a softened look, getting up in order to stand in front of him so that I could tell him the absolute truth.
"I know that you love Elena more than anything in this world, and right now, you can't be with her because she is stuck in a coma that Kai Parker put her in. Now I don't like you, and I especially don't like it when you call me 'carrots', but I understand not being able to be with the person you love. I'm feeling sympathetic, and from what my visions tell me, this is the last challenge you guys are going to face before you all get your happily ever after. So for once, Damon, don't be a selfish asshole and just trust me. Do what I say exactly as I say it, and I'll help you get Elena back. Christmas is her favourite season, right? You guys can make it special." Something about the way I talked seemed to strike the Salvatore brothers, because Stefan then gently asked who it was I had lost. My words caught in my throat and I visibly choked, welling up with reflexive tears before I brushed them away. "My fiancé. My son's father. He was killed last year."
"I'm sorry." Stefan, having always been the more sensitive of the two, was immediate with his sincere sympathy, reaching out in order to give my shoulder a firm squeeze of support, however it was Damon who surprised me the most. He placed his hand on my other shoulder and left it there for a long while as he studied me closely with an expression that I could almost describe as truly empathic. There was no humour or laughter in his eyes, and although he said nothing, it seemed to convey all the more just how much he understood my pain. Never in a thousand years would I have believed Damon Salvatore and I would understand one another, but I guess this was just another sign that the world was coming to an end.