A thousand years has passed, a thousand years of memories, a thousand years of pain and joy, a thousand stories.
Mine starts when I was born in a small village known today as Mystic Falls. Everything was different back then. My family wasn't as noble as the Mikaelsons. My family wasn't as wealthy as them, but one thing we had in common was magic.
Both my parents practiced magic, and as I grew up, my magic grew stronger and stronger. By the age of twelve, my mother had me take lessons with Ayanna, along with Kol, son of Mikael. Rebekah was too young to practice magic and none of the others showed the potential besides Finn, but he had other interests, especially for being the eldest sibling of the Mikaelsons.
Kol and I are the same age, we had a healthy competitive streak on who was the better witch or warlock.
Barely a year had passed with the lessons both Kol and Diana had taken with Ayanna, their mothers, Frida and Ester, when Kol as a thirteen year old started to develop feelings for the girl who had challenged him daily.
Both sets of parents had noticed the developing feelings the teens had for one another and it was decided that upon their sixteenth year that they would wed.
No one had contested against it, not even the teens, even though Diana had doubts and had hidden feelings of being nothing more than an object for their families to sell. Diana spoke to Kol often on her feelings, no one knew the bond they had shared, no one knew that Kol had loved Diana more than anything and he swore that he would never treat her like an object, a thing.
"My precious daughter, today you will become a woman, a wedded woman. I am proud of the woman you have become," Frida, her mother had complemented.
"Mother, I am nervous," Diana exhales.
"I know, daughter, I felt nervous as well on the day I wed your father. And it has been wonderful, you and your brother is our legacy Diana. You have made me proud," her mother told her, to which Diana responds with a kind smile.
"Why did you choose Kol?" she asks nervously.
"My darling, we knew from a very young age. Your father's gift of foresight showed this very day. We shared the vision with Ester and Mikael and they agreed to this union. Mikael was somewhat difficult as he didn't believe that his son should learn magic, but that he should only focus on being a warrior. But it was Kol who had convinced him that he should take lessons with you and that he will be the man his father wants him to be," her mother responds.
"Really? That's fascinating. I haven't had a single vision except that one time about what we were going to eat for dinner," Diana replies, eyes crinkling in amusement.
"You'll grow into it soon my darling daughter," the mother replies with equal amusement.
And so it was that Kol and Diana had wed and had started their lives together.
Mikael didn't seem too happy, but he accepted Diana into the family. Ester was delighted at having another daughter close by, one that could reign in her rebellious son.
Kol Mikaelson and Diana Eriksdotter were great together. Everything was fine, until that one fateful evening when Kol's younger brother was killed by a werewolf. Then everything changed.
Diana noticed Ayanna and Ester arguing. She had no idea why, but knew it couldn't be good, especially when Mikael had ordered Ester to bring Hendrik back from the dead. Ester had refused, but tensions were high in the air after that.
Diana had comforted her husband as much as she could, but as all men she knew, he shut her out. But she pursued him, she refused to let him shut her out. It took days of hard work from her side for him to open up to her, and he seemed to heal. The spark in his eye came back, slowly, but it came back.
Diana walks towards the home of her in-laws. Kol and with the help of his brothers had built a home for him and his wife not too far from his family home.
A knock resounds the house and a tired Ester opens the door, "Good morning daughter," she greets Diana.
"Good morning mother. Are you alright? You seem unwell," Diana states.
"Don't worry about me child," she replies kindly, "tell me, how are you and Kol fairing?"
"We are doing better, thank you. I have some news I wish to share with you, I went to Ayanna this morning and I couldn't wait to share the news," the seventeen, nearly eighteen year old teen says excitedly, "I'm with child."
Ester's face did not mirror the excitement that Diana showed, instead she showed horror and covered it quickly with a false smile that Diana had caught.
"You don't seem excited," Diana states.
"Oh, no I am child, I am. It's only unexpected. Mikael will be back tomorrow morning after the hunting trip with the boys. Please join us for dinner tomorrow evening," Ester says with an ingenious mile.
"Thank you mother, we will surely join," Diana replied with a feeling of dread. That evening she stayed with her parents as Kol wasn't home because of the hunting trip. Her parents and younger brother showed more enthusiasm than Ester had and hoped that the news she would share the following evening will be received with much joy.
Kol and Diana showed up to dinner, it was the night before the full moon, and she was close to being out of her skin with the news of her pregnancy.
"You look radiant tonight, my love," he complimented her, deepening the kiss as she responded. The door swung open, revealing the disgusted face of Rebekah.
"Urgh, I don't want to see that," Rebekah said, wrinkling her nose.
"Come now sister, it won't be long before you are wedded and you will enjoy the loving kisses of your husband," Kol said with a smirk.
"Brother, please don't give our sister ideas," Niklaus said as he came to greet his brother and sister-in-law who was always kind to him and had always given him food when Mikael had refused him anything.
They sat down and conversed, they all took a sip of wine, and that's when their lives changed forever. Diana watched in dread as her family was being slaughtered by Mikael, she threw him across the room with her magic but as fast as lightning his sword pierced her stomach and she bled to death.
All of them woke up hungry and scared. Their emotions were all over the place. Diana cried out at the injustice of what Mikael and Ester had done. They turned them into monsters.
She cried out for her life, her magic and her unborn child.
She faced Ester ne evening, screaming at her, "How could you do this to me? To us? You took everything from us. My own parents are mourning me, yet I stood in front of them today alive, but dead, wishing nothing more than to rip their throats out. "
"I'm sorry Diana," Ester whispers, "I had to do it. I had to protect you and Kol."
Diana laughs, she laughs at how absurd that is, "This is not protecting us, Mother! You take my child from me. You attacked Niklaus, you bound his werewolf side, for what? Your own indiscretion?"
"I hope you can forgive me one day, daughter," Ester says mournfully.
"Never," she swore and storms off to find her husband. She hasn't even said anything about her being pregnant to him, and now she doesn't want to break his heart more than it already has. She is protecting the man she loves, she will always protect him. Even from his own father.
Decades had passed and when Kol had massacred an entire village, she had confronted him. She knew he did it on purpose to spite his family. But she didn't want Mikael to find them.
"Kol, you can't keep doing this. Mikael will find us. You are putting us in danger," she said.
"You're taking Nik's side?!" he says, betrayal on his face.
"No, I'm taking your side, but you don't see that I want our family to be safe. I want us to be safe from any threat," she pleads.
"Ha, you want us to be safe, but you can't even protect yourself, or us for that matter," he taunts.
"You're right Kol, I tried my best to fight against Mikael that night, but I couldn't stop him. But neither could you," she replies furiously. Hot tears gathering in her eyes and the more she wipes them away, the more they fall. Remembering the worst night of her life.
"Look at you, you can't even stop crying. Now wife, I don't like it when Nik or the rest of my siblings tell me what to do. You shouldn't either," he continues, making her feel weak. He wants to punish her. He wants her support, even when he is wrong.
"You will never understand, my love," she says softly, the tears glistening like a thousand jewels on the corner of her eyes, he felt a pit in his stomach, looking at his beloved wife, "I'm not strong enough, but I will be. I will learn to fight, and I will protect this family," she promises, and in the wink of an eye she disappeared.
"Diana?!" he calls out desperately.
"Diana! Come back!" he calls over and over again.
He never realised what she had been for him. He was empty on the inside, he was like a crumbling wall and she was his support.
His family heard everything but no one interfered, it was something between husband and wife, even when they had agreed with their sister-in-law. Rebekah was saddened by the loss of her sister. Niklaus, Elijah and Finn were weary of what Kol would do. And they were rightly so.
Kol became worse, he killed carelessly over the decades until the five appeared with daggers in hand. Niklaus saved them as he was not affected by the daggers and he had suffered the hunter's curse for fifty-two years until the next hunter was found.
Niklaus kept Finn daggered and had threatened Kol that he would dagger him if didn't stop killing so carelessly. The threat kept him at bay for some time. He wanted to drown his guilt in the blood of thousands. He felt no remorse to those he had harmed.
But then the century had passed and they were in the old world, no sight, no threat from Mikael. The family lived on edge for years. And then Diana appeared again.
"Kol," she greets, standing before the bloodied man she has loved for over a century.
"Diana," he breathes out, embracing her, not caring if he covered her in the blood of his victims. "You're here," he laughs out, kissing her on the mouth, "You're here."
She doesn't mind the blood, but she does mind the crazed look in his eyes. It scares her.
"Where have you been this whole time?" he asks, leading her to Mikaelson's home.
"I've travelled around, there is much I want to tell you husband," she says as he kisses her one more time, saying he'll be right back.
"Diana?" Rebekah stands before her in disbelief.
"Hello sister, It's wonderful to see you again," she replies kindly, giving her sister a hug. "I missed you Bekah."
"I missed you too," she replies, smiling widely.
Kol returned, and before Rebekah could do anything to stop her, he plunged the dagger into her heart, watching the betrayal on his wife's face as she desiccates before his eyes.
She heard Rebekah gasp I surprise, and felt herself being lowered to the ground.
"Kol, how could you? She's your wife!" Rebekah sounds hysterical to Diana.
She wants to move, she wants to breathe but she can't. She can't speak, she can't see. She feels the blood in her veins slowing and dying. She is dying. It's horrible. She can only hear and feel.
"She left me Rebekah," Kol yells out, "she will not leave me again."
"Well once the dagger is out, she definitely will" Rebekah seethes. "I'm telling Nik and Elijah."
"You can tell them all you want sister, but this is not your affair. It's mine," he threatens.
Diana heard a lot of screaming, but could barely make out any words anymore. She was numbed to things around her except for the pain in her body. She can hear the sound of her muscles atrophying over and over again. She is trapped in her mind, in her spirit and has never felt as hopeless as the night she regained consciousness into her new immortal life, realising what she lost.
Months had passed in her prison, she could tell when they were moving her body, she could hear them say that Mikael was spotted, but still they hadn't released her.
Then one day she felt her body heal again, the dagger removed from her heart and blood flowed through her veins. She sat up straight from her nightmare, she couldn't see anything, but felt a familiar presence. It was Erik, her warlock friend who had helped her fight against Mikael and had desiccated him, tying the magic to her life force, and clearly, when she died, so did the magic keeping Mikael in his desiccated state. It was ironic how both of them suffered the same fate but at different hands and different methods.
"Diana, you need to get out of here before the other vampires return, they will surely notice you have awoken if you stay here, I will find you soon. You need to feed," the voice of Erik said, and she felt the presence disappear. Something must have happened for him to be here, she thinks.
Diana left the house she was in, fury bubbling her being and it only got worse by the second. Kol wanted to murder, so she will murder. She will murder everyone in this town. He wanted to be free, well so did she. He felt betrayed by her, what a laugh.
She jumped through the window and into the daylight. No one saw her, but it didn't take long for Diana to attack the first person she saw. She was so thirsty.
One body down, two bodies, three. She lost count by the seventh body and continued her massacre through the town. She killed everyone in her path, ripped them to pieces. She even took the bodies and spelled out Kol's name in the middle of town before they arrived. They didn't see her. By the time the sun had set, she was covered from head to toe in blood. Blood was dripping everywhere. She was numb to the pain she felt, the pain she caused, but she didn't care. He hurt her. He deserved this. They all did.
She came across a small lake and sat in the freezing water, watching the blood paint the water in swirls and twirls.
Unknown to her, Kol and his siblings came home none the wiser. Diana's husband moved towards the room he kept her in, to find that she and the dagger was missing. He rushed to his brothers in panic, and all of them left to find their wayward sister-in-law.
They were all greeted with a sight that made them nauseous even if that's not possible in their vampire form. Bodies littered the streets and they had missed it. They heard nothing, they saw nothing. Limbs were hanging from the windows, half a body laying at the door of one of the nobles' homes. They couldn't even recognise who it was.
In the town square they saw the spelt out name of 'KOL', they were horrified.
"What has she done?" Niklaus seethes, "Mikael will find us."
"She's angry Nik, what do you expect?" Rebekah defends Diana, turning towards Kol, she said, "This is your entire fault, brother. You never should have daggered her. Or for this long."
"I know," Kol screeches out, "I know. I'm to blame for this. I've never seen her this angry before," his voice lowers in regret.
They all follow through the town, following the trail of the dead, and soon only droplets of blood leading into the forest.
They heard her before they saw her.
Screams of pain they have never heard before, cries of despair ringing in the cold night.
They felt her pain. Kol holds in a sob, a rare moment of vulnerability displayed as he couldn't bare the agony he felt coming from his wife.
They rushed to the sounds of anguish, finding Diana in the water, tearing at her arms, trying to wash herself of the blood, as the blood disappeared into the dark water, Diana scratched herself over and over again, to get rid of what she had done, no matter how much she washes, she knew she would never be clean about what she had just done in her rage.
Kol tackled her in the water to stop her from harming herself more. The siblings could only watch as their brother held his wife from behind, she kicked and screamed in his embrace, but Kol didn't let go.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," they heard on repeat from Kol as he cried into her back. She had calmed enough to feel the numbness seep in again.
She did the only thing she could to make it go away again, she screamed.
"Can't we do anything?" Rebekah watched on in dreadfulness, she couldn't stand to see her family in so much pain. Nik took her in a comforting embrace, watching in anticipation to their sister-in-law's next move. They were all to blame for this. They allowed Kol to do this to her.
There was a man who appeared close to the married pair, Kol growled in warning. The man ignored him and continued towards them.
"You left quite a mess in town Diana," he comments. She moves in her husband's embrace, making eye contact with her saviour.
"I was angry," her voice hoarse.
"Who are you Mate?" Kol interrupts.
"I'm the one who freed your wife. We need her help," he replies.
"You will stay away from Diana," he hisses out to the newcomer before his wife could respond.
"I'm sorry but we have a deal. I helped her with your Mikael problem years ago, and she helps me in return," he says, "I'm Erik."
Everyone froze at the name of their father.
"How did you exactly help us with 'our Mikael problem'?" Niklaus interrupts, but he has an idea how this warlock had helped.
"That's a story for an appropriate setting. This isn't my story to tell," Erik says, pointing to Diana.
Diana rests her weary head against Kol, "I'm tired of fighting."
"Darling, you don't need to fight," he says, picking her up, carrying her bridal style out of the water towards fallen trees, sitting himself down with her between his legs again.
The family followed along with Erik, who fortunately made a fire, warming the surrounding occupants who doesn't feel the cold as they once had as humans.
Rebekah made eye contact with Diana and gave her a timid smile full of regret. Diana didn't move.
"How did you remove the dagger?" Niklaus asks Erik.
"With magic. It's a more physical form to astral projection," he replied swiftly.
"And where's the dagger?" Niklaus asked worriedly.
"I left it with Diana," he replied.
"I got rid of it," Diana said when Nik looked at her.
"You got rid of it?" he asked in disbelief, "If our enemies get their hands on that dagger," he says trailing of in fury.
"You don't know what it's like to feel everything you are, dying, being helpless as you hear your muscles creak, as you feel the stale blood in your body. You don't know what it's like being trapped in your own mind, not being able to move, or see, but to hear your family doing nothing to stop the pain," she says, trying to swallow a sob, "The pain won't leave me, not even now, it won't stop," she says, banging her palm against her head, but was soon stopped but Kol, "Why won't it stop?"
"I'm sorry," Kol repeats again. They have rarely heard him apologize and even now its still a shock.
They all sat in silence for the rest of the night, none willing to move, but Niklaus and Elijah went to town to take care of the mess Diana had made. They burned the town to the ground, even the place they have called home for over a year now. They took Finn's daggered body back to the forest, where Diana was sleeping and Kol tried to persuade Erik to tell him how he met his wife. Rebekah collected wood for the fire still going.
"I'll tell you what I can, but I won't tell you everything," he said, watching the approaching form of the duo.
"Years ago Diana came to my coven in need of aid. She told me her story and that she wanted to protect you, her family. She wanted revenge against Mikael. We made a plan to trap Mikael and we did. He would've been trapped for eternity had she not died. I felt the spell fail all those months ago and I made it my mission to find her, but now my coven is in danger and she gave me her word that she would help my coven if we ever needed her," Erik said.
"I don't want her involved in your plan. I will help you, I will take her place. I pushed her away all those years ago, and she so willingly left," he breathed in, "She is my soulmate, and I will protect her no matter what. I failed as her husband, I failed as her friend. Not anymore," he vowed.
"She spoke highly of all of you. I feel like I know all of you already, even though this is the first time I've met you. She never once gave up returning to you. All she wanted was to be stronger for you and her family."
"My father showed up months ago and offered his condolences. He didn't know about the dagger. He commended my wife in defeating him, and he promised to leave us alone in our mourning period," Kol replied.
"And you've kept her desiccated after finding out what she had done to protect you?" Erik asks in incredulity.
"I felt guilty. I couldn't face the fact that I had hurt her," he mumbled, caressing his wife's blonde hair.
True to Kol's word, he and Diana had travelled with Erik to his home, and had protected the coven from rivalling covens dealing in dark magic. It took years for Diana to heal from what Kol had done to her. She was never the same again, and he will always regret hurting her.
They had travelled the world together, on occasion leaving the Mikaelson siblings behind.
Niklaus had undaggered his eldest brother who had parted ways with his lover, Sage. Niklaus knew it wasn't rational but he felt like everyone had abandoned him. He longed for the days where they were a family again. But he had to break his curse no matter what and he had to stop Mikael from killing him and his family. He had to protect his family. He couldn't leave that for his beloved sister and friend, Diana, to do again.
A/N: So I got this idea from reading so many fanfics and wanted my own story but something different. Let me know what you think, I wrote it at midnight and if there are any mistakes, sorry, it was my sleep deprived brain writing.