A/N: First off, thank you guys for the reviews and favorites and follows, love you guys. Sorry for the super fucking late update, again. I got sick twice just this year, first, it was a stomach flu, and now I'm sick with a common cold, yay.
Anyway, I wrote so much last month, but it's taking me a little bit to edit it. I wrote so much that this Tomb drama will probably be split three chapters when it was supposed to be just one big chapter, hahaha, pls, don't hate me. This is kinda a weird chapter, and while there is a lot of drama and angst, there is no action shit. There's a valid reason for it being this long and no action, I don't what it is, but I'm blaming the cold medicine for this one.
My Polyvore account for Nova's style and everything else; randomfashionxoxo, it's put in a collection for your convenience. I also made a Spotify playlist, mostly for myself when I'm writing, but you are more than welcome to listen to it, it's super fucking long and I still add and remove songs, my username is bluestarlings1 and the playlist is called Supernova, should be easy to spot.
According to Grams, and the six voicemails she left on Nova's phone, Stefan had tried to find Elena when she ran off post-coitus and when he couldn't find her, he tried finding her friends that are usually attached to her hip, but instead, he found Grams.
Grams had done a locator spell using her own blood when they didn't answer their phones, figuring that all of them were getting into trouble, together. You know, the usual.
It was only now that they'd found out that wasn't the case.
Bonnie had been making her way out the bathroom when Nova's newly charged phone had started ringing, and with clumsy fingers, she had answered the phone.
At Bonnie's panicked insistence, the elder Witch had tried another locator spell, this time on the potentially kidnapped girls. There was only a small blessing in the fact that Caroline had an old brush that somehow ended up underneath Bonnie's bed and Elena had a jean jacket that Nova had stolen years ago and promptly shoved into her closet at Grams' house.
Grams had tried, twice, on each item, but nothing happened.
Not a lighting fast image they had to decipher, not even the blank space of doom that is usually Nature's polite way of saying; 'The person you're trying to find is more than likely dead, sorry for any inconvenience.'
Meaning, something or someone was blocking Sheila Bennett from doing a locator spell.
Needless to say, the three of them didn't waste time getting back on the road.
To say Nova wasn't taking her friends kidnapping very well would be an understatement. After Bonnie told them the bad news, she had basically zombie walked to her car, only aware enough of her surroundings to get in the backseat with Bonnie instead of the front because she knew that if she sat next to Damon she'd end up taking her anger out on him and they'd end up arguing, again; she'd rather save her rage for the person who kidnapped her best friends.
Lexi was understanding and concerned. She waved Bonnie off when the teen offered to give the clothes back, explaining nonchalantly that she had warehouses of clothes from every century she'd lived in and didn't mind loaning them the clothes. Nova, despite her love of clothes and everything Lexi, could only spare a lackluster hug and a promise to call before she got into her car.
Nova was mostly quiet as she started brooding and plotting, but mostly plotting. If only because the brooding was mostly her blaming herself for being stupid enough to leave town, and blaming herself would help no one, least of all her sanity, or at least what was left of it.
She needed someone to keep her from doing anything stupid until they got back home. Though, once they got home, all bets were off on whether anyone would be able to keep her from doing something stupidly violent. Thankfully, Bonnie was the second best person to keep her grounded at the moment.
Second best, because her sister was far from emotionally stable herself with how she alternated between tears and angry retorts at Damon.
Bonnie was also far from it showed when barely fifteen minutes after they'd said their goodbyes Damon was forced to stop on the nearly empty road so she could vomit. Apparently getting carsick while intoxicated was terrible for the stomach.
But it had at least gotten Nova to snap out of her zombie-like state, if only for a brief moment to get out the car and hold Bonnie's long hair out of her face while hum in reassurance that masked her disbelief when the teen cried out that she would never drink again; it was something everyone who'd been hungover had said at some point, only to once again down vodka shots on the weekend.
Once that mildly dramatic segment from Bonnie Sheila Bennett was done, they got back on the road.
Nova didn't know how she fell asleep, one minute she'd been calmly going through all the ways to cause someone the most excruciating pain possible - with and without the use of Magic, emotionally and physically - and then the next minute she found herself dozing off on Bonnie's shoulder, who had fallen into a restless sleep hours before her.
Nova's first thought when she noticed her surroundings in her dream was, 'What the fuck'. Her dreaming about weird shit was a regularly occurring thing, but on stressful nights like this, it's usually just her recurring nightmare, in her old burning apartment.
Instead, she was in what mildly resembled Mystic Falls' forest.
Mildly, because despite the vague resemblance, everything from the ground to the sky was twisted in her wild imagination. The grass she was standing on looked charcoal black and the leaves of the trees were such a vivid shade of red it looked as though they were burning, and maybe they were considering her brains odd fascination with fire.
She tilted her head up curiously, only to gape in disbelief at the really unrealistically beautiful starry sky; planets that were normally far enough to need a telescope were close enough to almost crowd around the moon, and the stars were bright enough to substitute the sun, but that was shining right next to the moon.
It all looked like something out of a Doctor Who episode. Honestly, it probably had come out of a Doctor Who episode.
Nova's used to weird dreams, but this probably took the cake - and not just any cake, but the chocolate cake - because not only did her mind manage to conjure up Bizarro's version of Mystic Falls, but she herself, felt odd. She could barely control her thoughts in the waking, let alone control what she did in her dreams, but whatever this place was, - she was hesitant to call it just a dream, it didn't feel like it - she felt in control of her limbs more than she usually was while dreaming.
Nova concluded this must be a lucid dream as she looked around the area in wary confusion. She started walking purposely towards what looked to be a small line in the otherwise empty landscape.
It took a few minutes to walk towards it, but whatever she ended up looking down incredulously into was not a line at all, but a small crack in the earth, no, a fucking ravine. Though the longer she looked at it the more it felt like a fucking black hole, getting ready to swallow her soul or some other poetically fucked up shit.
Nova rather stupidly, in her own opinion, felt the urge to get to the other side of the ravine.
It seemed to be just as weird as the side she was currently standing on, with the trees moving as though they had a mind of its own and the autumn leaves falling off the trees seemed to, no shit, sparkle as they floated in the air instead of falling down to the overgrown green grass.
Nova decided to follow that urge to cross to the other side of the ravine when she saw that the ravine seemed to go on endlessly and despite her interest in the forest behind her, with its endless red trees, something was calling to her to cross it. Nova's Magic was easing her unease, it was probably the one urging her feet closer to the other side.
She still felt wary of the fucking abyss in front of her, but her brain didn't seem to want to change the scenery. So, she sucked it up and with a shrug thought, why the fuck not. She took a few steps back, and then began to regret her decision when she started running across the obsidian grass with a battle cry she just might have copied from her favorite warrior princess, she leaped over the ravine with all the grace of the cheerleader she happened to be.
Some small part of her that still couldn't place all of her faith in anything - not even in the Magic that had been there for her in this life as long as Bonnie had - thought she was going to fall and actually die in her dreams, 'cause that'd be just her fucking luck.
But, thankfully, she didn't die. She landed on the unusually green grass with a tumble that she couldn't feel; the fact she couldn't feel any pain reassured her that she was dreaming despite how she felt.
"Nova?"
"Bonnie?"
Nova found herself not alone as she'd thought as her sister tackled her into a sudden hug that she really shouldn't have felt, but her sister felt solid and real under her fingertips. "I've been wandering around for what feels like been hours, but nothing's happened. I was going to cross over and try my luck with the red trees when I saw you leaping across with a Xena yell." Bonnie admitted with an amused smile despite the worry shining through her green eyes.
There was no doubt worry over where they were and if they would be able to wake up so they could save their friends, and then there was the actual worry for their friends. Because this dream, scenery aside, wasn't normal - they had never been able to unconsciously invade each other's dreams like this.
They started walking in a direction that their Magic started, unknowingly on their part, guiding their feet to. They kept their hands clasped in a tight grip to reassure themselves that the other was actually there and not an actual figment of each others imagination.
"You were probably here longer than me because you fell asleep first. Any idea where we are... and where the hell the exit is?" Nova added waving her free hand at the unusual scenery; she was impatient to wake up so she could continue to seethe and plot.
Nova sighed when her sister shook her head, confirming what she had already guessed. "I mean, we have to wake up eventually... right?" Bonnie questioned her sister, an odd mix of confident and uncertain.
"You will wake, eventually," a vaguely familiar voice interrupted whatever reassurance Nova had been about to give her sister.
The Bennett twins exchanged a startled look before they turned their heads in unison to the where the voice had come from, except there was no one within sight.
Magic continued to lure them to the person who spoke, so the twins hesitantly moved through the floating leaves and brightly colored bushes, and towards the voice that came from the forest that seemed never-ending. "I apologize for all the obscurity," the voice continued to speak calmly even when the twins yelped as they slipped down what was apparently the end of a hill.
Eventually, they slid to a stop at the foot of a river, their hands still miraculously clasped. "But this was the only way I could contact you," the twins looked up when a hand was offered to both of them. They each took a hand offered without hesitation, and when the twins stood up and came face to face with the person who had led them there - well, to put it bluntly, they gaped like morons.
"Hello," Emily greeted them with a small smile, she squeezed their hands in her cold grip for a moment before letting go.
The twins returned the greeting, rather dumbly in Nova's opinion, but somehow they managed to scrounge up some brain cells to ask the questions that'd been racing through their minds since they'd fallen asleep and into this lucid dream.
"What's going on?"
"Why are we here?"
"How are you here?"
"Where are we? Are we even asleep?"
Emily paused their questions with a raised hand and a pointed look that reminded the girls of Grams and all the times she'd used that exact look on them; you know, the look that people give you when you're pushing their patience.
"Rest assured. You are both still asleep and on your way to Mystic Falls. This... place you are dreaming of was made by your own minds," Emily explained as she gestured around the large clearing, although it wasn't much of an explanation in their opinion.
"But, how?" Bonnie questioned incredulously, rightfully still a little confused - you'd think they'd remember creating some weird ass dreamscape.
"Magic," Emily replied with a teasing smile on her lips, she continued more seriously while the twins rolled their eyes in unison at her vague answer. "The rest of your questions will be answered in due time. But, for now, we must prepare for the string of powerful spells you both will be performing very soon."
Nova squeezed Bonnie's hand in reassurance when they were both sobered at the mention of what was waiting for them when they woke up.
No one needed to be a Seer to be able to notice all the little things that didn't add up; Vicki's unexplained death that not even she knew what happened besides her neck being snapped from behind, the unknown yet vaguely familiar Vampire who had tried to let the newborn Vampire out of her timeout, the missing talisman, not to mention Caroline and Elena being missing, somewhere even Sheila Bennetts Magic couldn't find them.
But,'Mysterious Vampire' or not, the plan hadn't changed - at least not for the elder twin. Adjusted, naturally, but it hadn't changed. She wanted her friends back more than anything, and the Tomb Vampires needed to be dealt with before Katherine came to town.
They couldn't find Caroline and Elena, so they would have to draw out the person who took them. Opening the Tomb would be their best bet to getting their attention, and if it didn't get their attention, burning every rotting Vampire in that Tomb should do just the trick.
There wasn't much Emily could teach them about the spells. After all, the twins had studied the required spells from top to bottom since they'd found the Grimoire. But their biggest problem wasn't lack of knowledge, it was that the Tomb had sealed to keep it shut but also there's another seal to keep Vampires from exiting.
Nova hadn't forgotten about it, it's what she'd been obsessing over - because of fucking course, she'd obsess over something that might kill her one of her family members. But after months of research on the spellwork put into boundaries and seals, she had only found one spell that might work because breaking seals without even the barest information on how it was made -
Well, that shit was complicated and always gave her a headache, kind of like math.
Nova hadn't thought Emily would ever give the specifics for the spell because Witches, herself included, were stingy when it came to giving people their spells, least of all for the sake of Vampires.
Nova had been planning on mostly winging it, but now she doesn't have to because it soon became apparent to the girls that Emily Bennett values family more than pride.
According to the many books Nova had read on the subject, lifting the seal would be like trying to open a closing portcullis with your bare hands. It would work for a split second, more if you were powerful enough - but you'd eventually get exhausted and the full weight of it would collapse on you.
Emily informed them that they would have to unravel the spell with their Magic until it broke or risk exhaustion trying to, figuratively, hold it open for however long it took for Damon to pout over Katherine being a bitch - okay, so Emily hadn't said it in those words, exactly, but Nova knew it what she wanted to say, so whatever.
Their Ancestor informed the twins that they had to practice unraveling seals. And, of course, some form of Magic works in this place because witchcraft always manages to bulldoze over any logic left in the twins. Emily couldn't interact with anything in this place because it was theirs - their dreams, their minds - so she had them set up a few rocks in a circle around them.
"Because a good foundation is important when dealing with singular seals. This will have to do as we are on borrowed time," Emily replied when the twins questioned the use of what was starting to look like a mini-Stonehenge.
She then had them make the exact seal placed on the Tomb - albeit with less Magic imbued into it, there was no comet powering the spell and it'd be overkill to do that when technically the Magic wouldn't be going anywhere. And then after, they had to practice unraveling it.
Unraveling the Magic that was tied to the makeshift foundation was a bit like trying to untangle invisible strings, or untangle Nova's hair in the morning, it was the same thing.
Emily was a hardcore teacher and made them practice the spell so many times Nova felt she could do them in her sleep - oh, wait, she was. The twins exchanged startled looks when whatever Spirit Magic Emily had been able to use to travel into their dreams, faded with absolutely no warning, her Spirit disappearing midsentence.
"I guess we're on our own now," Bonnie finally spoke when their meddling Ancestor didn't pop back in to finish lecturing them, which equal parts relieved them and worried them. "Guess so," Nova responded ruefully, sharing a half-hearted smile with her twin.
They started to walk back to what they decided had to be her 'side' of the dreamscape before they woke up. She didn't know what would happen when she finally woke up and wasn't where she had first appeared. Twins or not, actually sharing a brain with her sister would be a little too weird, even for them.
"Do we have a plan for getting them back?" Bonnie inquired as the eldest twin followed her, trusting her to instinctively know the way back to what Nova's deciding to call; 'The Ravine Of Doom'.
Nova shrugged at the question, too preoccupied looking around in confusion when it took less time to go through the dancing autumn trees and back to the ravine.
"I have a plan, don't worry, just leave it to me," Nova answered absently while staring at the pitch black ravine, she thought on a quote that she found oddly fitting to for this moment, and her entire future;
He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby becomes a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee, she quoted inwardly with a wry smile.
"Okay... wanna tell me the plan?" Bonnie pushed the subject, trying to be patient but anyone who knew her would be able to hear the undertone of annoyance in her voice, her annoyance was also warranted.
But sue her, she messed this universe up, she might as well fix her unintentional mess.
"I'm going to make a deal with the person who took them," Nova replied after a moment of contemplation, she tried not act like she had just come up with the plan, she probably failed, going by the skeptical look Bonnie gave her.
"You know who they are, don't you?" Bonnie stated more than she questioned, an intelligent gleam look in her green eyes.
"Don't I always," Nova spoke her smile turning a little too bitter for someone her physical age. Probably should have kept her bitter retort to herself, she thought absently as Bonnie sent her a concerned glance that Nova chose to ignore for the moment.
"I'll see you whenever we wake up," Nova changed the subject with zero subtly, and her sister, wonderful as she was, let her.
Nova waved goodbye to her exasperated sister before she turned away from her sister and started running towards beautiful yet odd black grass and crimson trees.
She skillfully leaped over the ravine of doom and thought to herself that this was definitely going down as one her top ten 'What the actual fuck just happened?' moments.
Nova didn't wake up after a few impatient minutes of staring at the scenery. Beyond inpatient, she found herself wandering around what she decided to call her mind palace, technically it was a forest, but whatever.
She passed through the red trees and towards a small clearing that was almost identical to the spot that every teenager in town gathered at for essentially unplanned parties, it was also a hotspot for make-outs. The clearing was surrounded by trees, the grass was sparse and mostly dirt that would turn into mud when it rained. Normally this place would be marked as a dump - if not for the beautiful waterfall that, every year, without fail, someone got dared to jump down from.
The only difference she could spot was the blood-red grass, the fact that the lake was unrealistically clean. And the sky was still absurdly beautiful and strange, but mostly strange. Nova made herself comfortable on the collapsed tree that faced the lake when she realized it would be awhile before she woke up.
"The two of you are very imaginative," Emily remarked idly, abruptly sitting casually next to the unaware teen.
"Holy fucking shit," Nova cursed instinctively, it usually helped her calm down, usually. She ignored Emily's chiding look at her language because as far as she was concerned, it was warranted.
They were quiet for a moment as they took in the sights her mind had created. Nova knew perception time didn't work the same way in dreams as it did in reality, but it felt like nearly an hour had passed before Emily decided to finally explain to her why she'd sought her out, alone.
"You have many secrets, I'm sure -"
"Don't we all," Nova tried to joke with a feeble grin that she neglected when Emily turned to face her with a deadpan expression.
"But the secret of your birth - or rebirth, as it were - should be revealed before it is too late," Emily continued on as though she hadn't been interrupted, watching as the reincarnated teen became absolutely still in silent shock.
Nova absently acknowledged that her Ancestor was right. She had thought the same thing not too long ago and had a promise to her sister to keep. But shock tied her tongue in knots. She wasn't surprised by the fact that the living Bennett Witches had been watched by their Ancestors. Eerie as it was to think about, Spirits had nothing to do but watch their descendants lives, gossip over the living. And if they were powerful enough, they would even meddle in the affairs of the living.
But she had hoped that her being a Seer would keep them from getting suspicious about her extensive knowledge. Clearly, those hopes were wishful thinking and died tragically.
"How... did you find out?" Nova felt the words come out her mouth but couldn't figure how she'd gotten her mouth to move, let alone breathe - was she breathing, did she need to breathe in her dream? She distantly acknowledged she was probably on the verge of having a panic attack, in her dream, how mindfucking was that.
"Witches, with knowledge of your kind, tend to know these things. It's part of our intuition." Emily replied simply, but a few specific words drew the attention of the teenager.
My kind.
My kind meant that there were more people like her; those who had died in one universe, only to be reborn into this universe.
Nova felt confusion at this information. Although the twins bragged about their knowledge, they obviously didn't know about every Supernatural Being known to walk the earth. Still, you would think they would have come across at least a mention of reincarnation being real. Most people, human or not, were obsessed with living longer. Physical proof of some form of reincarnation being real should have been in the Supernatural index or at least a mention in the many Journals they had collected.
She decided to sweep the confusion aside to be examined later as something that felt like hope wormed its way into her heart. Hope that maybe she wasn't the only one in the universe with this shitload of knowledge; it was information that made her feel confident and powerful, yet sometimes it was too much to bear alone.
"Though, sometimes if a vampire is old enough, they'll be able to sense something... different," Emily's words broke her from the scattered thoughts running through her ever racing brain. "Old souls such as yourself are rare, but easy to recognize with the proper knowledge. They say it's all in the eyes." she continued when the teenager didn't speak, and funny as it was for someone who usually always had a comeback, she couldn't find the words.
So, all one had to do was gaze lovingly into her eyes to know what she was, great, she thought sarcastically.
"Does Bonnie know...?" Nova questioned, though she was certain her sister didn't know, she nevertheless sighed in relief when Emily shook her head.
She didn't ask if Grams knew; the reincarnated teen had realized very early on that the elder Witch knew more about her than she let on. Neither of them said anything about it for different reasons.
"You may rest easy knowing only Bennetts witches, excluding Bonnie and those you haven't met, know what you are," Emily was probably trying to be reassuring but ultimately failed, terribly.
Instead, the news unsettled her, just a little bit. Because if almost the entire Bennett line knew about her Soul by just looking into her fucking eyes, that meant it wouldn't take long for people who would soon want her dead to find out as well. So much for keeping all of her cards close to her chest, she thought dryly, shaking off her unease as much as possible.
"And what exactly am I?" Nova finally found the guts to ask the question that, until now, had only asked herself.
"...I believe this is a conversation that your Grams would very much like to have with you." Emily replied after a second of visible hesitation, the answer caused the teenager to sigh in exasperation.
She decided would have to talk to Grams first before telling her friends, it would be helpful to know what exactly she was before she told her friends. But she was still confused on how the seven hells should she start that kind of conversation.
Though amusing to think about, she couldn't say something like: 'Oh, hey! Btw guys, I once died in another universe and got reincarnated in this one. Cool, right?!'
Then there was the fact she would have to talk about her dying to get to the reincarnated bit. She had never talked to anyone about it, for obvious reasons, but it was something that she more than likely needed to talk about, even though she didn't want to.
Unwillingly, her mind went back to that moment when the only sounds she could hear were distant screams that echoed and the crackling of the fire surrounding her. She had held on tight to Merlin while clutching her bed sheets over mouth in a vain attempt to stop breathing in the smoke that had already entered her lungs.
Merlin's vibrant green eyes had pulled her eyes away from the flames surrounding them, momentarily distracting her from the Soul retching pain that soon claimed her. And make no mistake, it had hurt, so much. And though the fear of fire was all but gone, just remembering the agonizing pain still made her fucking tremor while sleeping -
Emily's deathly cold hands on her cheeks startled her out her panic attack, concerned brown eyes looked up at her. Nova blinked several times in mild surprise when she noticed that her Ancestor had elegantly knelt on the crimson grass to get her attention.
"How are you touching me?" Nova, though genuinely interested, asked mostly to distract herself from her very shit thoughts.
"I'm not physically touching you, as I do not have a corporeal body. What you are feeling is my magic. Technically my spirit self isn't in your mind, that would be possession. I used our bond as blood family-" Nova only half-listened to Emily as the elder woman explained the Spirit Magic she had used to contact the twins through their dreams.
The teenager felt worried eyes on her all through the explanation but couldn't bring herself to completely focus on the impromptu lesson as her eyes felt heavy as a ton of bricks. She gave into the absurd urge to fall asleep in her dreams, reclining back on the fallen tree. Her bleary eyes followed the hypnotizing movement of the red leaves that swayed above.
"No matter who you were before, you are a Bennett witch now. And we remain strong, together, in the face of conflict and disaster." Those were the last words Nova heard before her eyes closed. And though the words were super fucking cheesy, they warmed her heart all the same.
The twins woke up to the sound of what seemed to be an argument between two people. If they were trying to be quiet, they were failing spectacularly, she thought dryly as she opened her bleary eyes.
Nova opened her eyes with an irritated frown when the sun decided to stab her in her eyes through the window. Bonnie groaned when the yellow dwarf star also decided to also stab her in the eyes with its stupid overeagerness to shine like the stupid sun it is.
"Great, now look at what you did - you woke them up,"
Nova ignored the very rude and loud talking going on as she tried, rather uselessly, to fight off a migraine. She was feeling disoriented, her mouth was dry and she felt like she'd gotten less sleep than she usually did, which was saying something. She still couldn't believe she had a panic attack, in her fucking sleep.
Bonnie started peeling her cheek from the window with a grimace, the movement knocked her out of her disbelief. Instead of dwelling on her insane life, she chose to take in their surroundings with a glare; they had arrived back in town, thankfully. Damon had parked in front of the twins house.
But sometime between parking the car, he had gotten out the car and started arguing with Stefan. There was the question of why Stefan decided to lurk around their house in the first place, but she chose to ignore all of that to pay attention to far more important matters.
Nova sighed and shared an exhausted look with her sister. She closed her eyes for a brief moment as she leaned on the center console, only opening her eyes to pop open her glove compartment and grab two pairs of sunglasses. She rolled her eyes at the fact her keys were still in the car and grabbed them before she collapsed back on her sister's arm, exhausted by those simple movements.
Bonnie tapped her arm in a silent reminder, probably too nauseous to even attempt to speak. Nova sighed and lamented the fact she more than likely wouldn't be going to sleep for at least another day but quickly handed one pair of sunglasses to her sister as she slid on another pair.
Once they had proper protection against the sun who decided to be bright despite the fact it was almost fucking winter - they got out the car with all the reluctance of a child being told it was their bedtime. "Hey, assholes!" Nova shouted to get the Salvatore brother's attention, it worked, they stopped arguing to turn towards her in unison.
"You're both very pretty," she started mockingly, ignoring the snort from her sister and the eye roll she got from both Salvatore's. "But we can host a competition over whose prettiest girls in town after we get back my best friends." Nova reminded them with a glare that was unseen through the thick frames of the sunglasses.
Like holy fuck, she seriously was questioning how Katherine kept herself from strangling these assholes whenever they decided to measure their dick sizes.
"Did Grams manage to get through whatever was blocking her from doing a locator spell?" Bonnie questioned swiftly cutting off any more arguments. The question drew everyone's attention towards Stefan, who silently shook his head, his posture radiating the frustration all of them felt -
Well, everyone but Damon who was probably just here for his own special brand of amusement.
Nova crossed her arms, groaning at the news, she started walking towards up the steps that led up to the front door.
"It doesn't matter. We know that whoever kidnapped them wants to get into the tomb. I think opening it will be enough to get their attention, don't you?" Nova stated more than asked, she was too busy looking through her messenger bag to notice a response.
But, in the end, no one got to respond to her very sound logic because just as Nova found her house key - she should really get a keyring for both her car and house keys - the door opened with a sharp creak that startled the ever living shit out of her.
Nova only calmed down when she saw it was just her father, she felt more than saw her twin stand next to her, and so, together they watched their father's face cycle through a lot of emotions in what felt like seconds. First was the relief, that emotion lasted for about five seconds before he moved on to anger, the last emotion seen on his face was determination before he went stone-faced.
The twins shared a look, both of them thinking that maybe, just maybe they should have snuck in instead of using the front door. Nova wasn't sure how, but she was apparently more stupid hungover than she was drunk.
"...Um, Hi, dad. I'm sorry. We are so sorry we didn't call but - " Bonnie started to grovel, only to abruptly shut her mouth when her stomach made an audible grumble. And with a panicked look in her eyes, she rushed past them and into the house.
Nova risked a peek behind her, frowning when she saw only saw her car, the Salvatore brothers were suspiciously absent. Cowards, she thought with jealousy. Though it was probably for the best, she thought when she turned back to her silently furious father with a weak smile.
"So... how much trouble are we in?" Nova questioned tentatively when her dad waved her into the house, she followed him into the house, wincing when he shut the door a little too loud for her hangover headache.
"We'll talk about that when your sister gets... finished," Rudy trailed off simply when they could distantly hear Bonnie's retching coming from upstairs. Both of them winced at the noise that echoed through the otherwise quiet home.
Nova wanted to go and check on her sister, but the look her dad was enough to pin her in place. She could remember the last time she'd seen him this angry with them.
Rudy had allowed them to go to a party on the condition they would be back by eleven, only for them to have to be dragged back home by Sheriff Forbes, at two am. Riding in the back of a police car was surprisingly fun. Getting lectured by Liz, and then getting grounded by both their father and Grams, however, was not fun for the twins, at all.
They settled down in the kitchen while they waited for Bonnie. An awkward silence settled between them as they waited, the only noise heard in the kitchen was the tick-tock noise coming from the clock.
Tick.
Tock.
Tick.
Tock.
"...How is work?" Nova asked if only to distract her from the noise, her hands nervously, and anxiously, tapped her keys on the palm of her hand, unknowingly echoing the clock.
"Do you even know what my job is?" Rudy questioned dryly, calmly looking at this morning's newspaper.
"Of course," Nova scoffed as though it was obvious - it wasn't, but she wasn't good with awkward silences. She cursed that inability when he finally tore his eyes away from the paper and looked at her, motioning for her to continue.
"...Finance, duh," Nova took a wild stab in the dark, but she was rewarded when he was pleasantly surprised by her vaguely correct answer. Sadly, her guessing correctly made him actually start to talk about his job. She may or may not have made a few typical teenager faces when he wasn't looking.
Nova was just relieved he wasn't angry enough to start yelling at them before they even stepped into the house. But, that was the thing with Rudy Hopkins, no matter how angry he was he never raised his voice or hand. He would just calmly state their honestly minor 'penalties' and they were expected to follow through or their many rick kid privileges were revoked; phones, cars, weekly allowance, and sometimes if they really crossed the line - but Nature forbid it - no wifi.
She shuddered in horror at the thought but was thankfully distracted by the sound of Bonnie walking down the steps and into the kitchen with hesitant steps.
Nova gave her sister a sympathetic smile and handed her the second water that she'd gotten from the fridge. Bonnie silently took the water bottle with a tired but thankful smile before hesitantly sitting down next to her sister.
"I know that the two of you are... relatively mature for your age," Rudy spoke up after they were out of the water they had used as an excuse to avoid the impending conversation. She couldn't help but roll her eyes, which were fortunately covered by her shades.
"We didn't have much of a choice," Nova couldn't help but mumble, only quieting when her sister nudged her elbow.
"But going out of town without adult supervision and not answering my calls is more than irresponsible. It was dangerous and reckless and I expected better from the both of you -" Nova kind of tuned out the rest of the scolding. She deserved it, she knew she did, but she couldn't find it in herself to listen with the unique latte wall clock that Bonnie had bought online fucking mocking her.
Each moment spent wasting here getting lectured was another minute Caroline and Elena could be suffering.
Nova knows more about her friends than she does herself, and it wasn't because of any television show she watched a literal lifetime ago. Caroline and Elena were both stubborn and persistent, in their own ways. And while they wouldn't mind being saved from the metaphorical dragon as much as she does - because she hates being a damsel in distress - they would at least try to escape on their own.
The possibility of them getting caught trying to escape was very high, the possibility of them getting while trying to escape was even higher with batshit crazy Vampires running around. Nova groaned loudly at her stupid thoughts and started glaring at the clock still fucking ticking on the wall.
Maybe she could break it and somehow blame it on Damon. She's only thirty percent sure she could pull it off, but even if she did get caught, it'd be worth getting rid of the stupid noise.
" - Are you even listening to me, Nova?" Rudy interrupted her thoughts of vandalism, she reluctantly returned her attention back to her scolding father.
"As much as I love getting scolded like a five-year-old, we have somewhere important to be. So could you maybe just give us our very deserved punishment already? " Nova probably could have worded that a little bit better, but she ignored that fact, and Bonnie's exasperated sigh.
"...Fine, you two want your punishments?" Rudy questioned, mostly rhetorically, his tone light despite the irritation that showed in his eyes.
Nova suddenly felt she would have been better off keeping her mouth closed for the duration of the lecture. But it was too late now, so she nodded along with a wary Bonnie, accepting her fate.
"Neither of you are allowed to leave the house unless it's for school for the rest of the month. Not even to your friends. Nor are they allowed here." Rudy added after a moment, ignoring their dismay he held out his hand expectedly. "Keys, both of you,"
Nova frowned but didn't argue and gave her car keys to him along with Bonnie, who went to grab her own keys from the living room.
"How are we supposed to get to school without our cars?" Bonnie questioned with a frown, dropping her keys into Rudy's palm.
"The way you used to before you got your cars, your bikes are still in the attic, use them," Rudy responded calmly, essentially dismissing them when he went back to reading the newspaper.
"But we have to -" Nova closed her mouth and tilted her head curiously when she heard the floorboards upstairs creak. She knew that creak, it was the same sound her floor made whenever she went to open the window in her bedroom.
"Elena and Caroline are missing, dad. Our best friends are missing and we can be grounded after we find them," Bonnie finished her sentence for her, shooting her an inquiring look.
Nova looked at her twin with a subtle smile that she wiped off her face when their dad focused his attention back on them.
"Missing?" Rudy prodded for more information, more alert than he had been throughout the whole conversation.
"Yes, missing. You know, when a person disappears for twenty-four hours and doesn't answer their phones?" Nova couldn't help but snark, she only relaxed when she felt Merlin brush up against her leg.
"Sounds like something kids these days are into," Rudy commented dryly, reminding Nova that she wasn't the only one with a mouth on her in this house.
"Okay, I deserved that," Nova admitted freely, she placed her sunglasses in her pocket so she could look her father in his eyes to convey her seriousness.
Merlin climbed in her lap, his warmth soothing her jittery nerves. "But this isn't teenagers rebelling against their parents, this is Elena and Caroline. The four of us have been best friends since kindergarten, we text each other at least fifty times a day and we always answer on the third call," Nova shared a worried look with her sister, the only thing that was stopping them from tearing Mystic Falls apart to find them was their over-protective, yet still distant father.
Nova felt stupid now that she really thought about it. She should have noticed how fishy it was that Elena hadn't answered any of their calls. Even if she was angry at Nova and Stefan. She would have at least answered Bonnie's calls to reassure them all that she at least wasn't dead.
Before the car accident that killed half the Gilbert's, they wouldn't have worried as much. But since the accident they'd all made sure answer by the third call, it had been Nova's idea, insistence really.
"Okay, I believe you," the twins breathed a sigh of relief at Rudy's words but they grimaced when he continued, "We can go to the police station now. I'm sure Sheriff Forbes would like to know her daughter might be missing - if she doesn't know already."
Nova highly doubted the woman had noticed, she doubted Liz Forbes would notice if Caroline died and became a Vampire; the only parents in this town that had actually paid attention to their kids beside the bare minimum had been the Gilberts.
But they were dead. She tried to ignore the mixture of guilt and sorrow that pierced her heart at the reminder, playing with Merlin's soft paws for a distraction.
"I don't think that's a good idea!" Bonnie blurted out when he was halfway out the kitchen, his coat half-way on, he paused at the exclamation.
"...Why not?" Rudy asked carefully, sighing he folded his arms as he waited for them to find a good reason.
Nova was tired, but she was mostly tired of this bullshit.
They'd been tiptoeing around this subject for too long and she was so fucking done with this conversation. "Because vampires kidnapped them and I doubt the local police would be able to do much," Nova replied bluntly, ignoring the shocked looks her statement garnered she slid out her chair with Merlin in her arms.
"Vampires?" Rudy tried to act disbelieving but fell short under her deadpan stare, she broke the stare to roll her eyes.
"Yes, vampires. Shouldn't be too hard to believe, since both of your daughters are witches." Nova spoke nonchalantly, adjusting the purring Familiar in her arms she opened the fridge, grabbing another water bottle.
There was a heavy silence that was only broken when Nova shut the fridge closed.
"How did... Sheila told you? I knew letting you girls spend so much time with her was a bad idea," Rudy was quick to snap out of his shock and put the blame on Grams, as always.
"No, it wasn't Grams," Bonnie spoke with a clenched jaw, tired of always defending Grams; the one person who accepted them as they were and never sought to change them despite their many differences. The elder Witch had made plenty mistakes during her life, but how she helped raise them was not one.
"I think it was the floating objects that really did it," Nova added sarcastically, smiling bitterly at her still stunned father.
She gave her sister the water bottle abruptly, who took it with a momentarily bewildered frown that cleared up when she gave her a look that spoke more than words did.
"Are you going to allow us to save our friends?" Nova questioned despite already knowing the answer, absently pulling her messenger bag off the kitchen table and around her shoulders, despite her ire at the situation she was careful not to jostle the ever watchful Merlin in her arms.
"If it really is... vampires, I think it'd be best to let your Grams handle this," Rudy responded hesitantly, like admitting that he knew about Vampires would somehow make them appear in his kitchen, which, at this moment, was actually very possible.
Nova knew he was just trying to protect them, it didn't make his words any less annoying. "Okay then," Nova said with a shrug, she grabbed her sister's hand, and dragged them out the kitchen.
"We are going to eventually have to talk about this," Rudy followed them out the kitchen, watching them with a frown as they walked up the stairs.
"What's there to talk about, dad? We have magic, and instead of explaining the fact we weren't crazy or imagining things - you tried to keep it from us!" Bonnie spun on her heel to say to their apologetic father - though, it was more of a yell.
Nova winced at the raised volume and gently pulled her sister up the stairs to avoid prolonging the argument any more than it had already been.