1. Prologue
"Well, that's not right." The two young women share a look before trailing their eyes back to the Kaleidoscope of images. The two had been performing their duties as they have done every other day for the past two thousand years. While watching over the multiverse, the two Umpires manipulated certain events to keep the Balance in many universes. However one had slipped their notice.
As they came upon two immortal brothers committing suicide, they used the Kaleidoscope to look in their pasts and futures. While the brothers were only one thousand years of age, their fate had been written a thousand years before their birth.
The Umpires watched the creation of the Immortality Spell and of the Other Side caused by the love and hate between Silas, Qetsiyah, and Amara. The creation of the Doppelgangers to die in place of the two True Immortals created an even greater imbalance caused by the love spell made by the Travelers. Magic shifted to accommodate, which allowed a being such as Inadu to be born, to create the Werewolves. Once again, there was imbalance as the Wolf-men became a predator with no equal. They hunted and feasted on humans but more so on the other supernatural creatures such as the Thunderbirds, Dragons, Phoenixes, and Nature Spirits. It would lead to humanity's destruction. Magic shifted once more, allowing a desperate mother to cast a spell that would create even greater predators to match the Wolves, the Vampires.
Nature even allowed the creation of the First Hybrids, which would lead to peace rather than war between the two supernatural species. However, the same witch who created him, bound his wolf and, for a thousand years, the Hybrid was in pain. But Nature already had the tools to undo the curse.
Humans once again used magic they did not understand and created an immortal creature, Malivore, using the magic of the Witches, Werewolves, and Vampires. Once again, the Balance shifted as the creature devoured Nature's Spectral Beasts, removing them from living memory, delegating them to no more than myths and legends. And again, Nature had the tools to unmake Malivore with the use of her other children.
But the Witches were Nature's most meddlesome children. Even in death, they took it upon themselves to "protect" Mother Nature, considering themselves above all other supernaturals, seeking to destroy their siblings, the Vampires.
The Umpires watched as the Witch Ancestors manipulated the living to create the Beast that would destroy the Originals and Inadu, who almost caused the death of the Tribrid before Malivore could be destroyed. While the witches celebrated the death of the oldest and most powerful creatures in existence, they never realized the shift in magic was too great. Balance was never restored.
Finn died, Elijah died, Niklaus died, and Kol died many times. Each of their deaths caused a quake in magic that shifted toward imbalance. Even though Hope had fulfilled her purpose and destroyed Malivore, it was unnecessary as all magic had already begun to unravel. The Travelers killed the Doppelgangers for their Anti-magic spell. The deaths of the Originals and those of their Sire Lines released a thousand years of magic that had no place to go. And Malivore's devouring of the Spectral Beast caused many types of magic to simply vanish from the Earth.
All of magic began to unravel. It started with the witches. New Witches were not being born and the older ones began to lose their magic. Then the Wolves' curse was lifted. No new Wolves were born and the once who had activated their change could no longer shift back into their human forms. They went rabid. They were hunted down and killed. The Vampires had it worse. Most burned in the sun when the magic in their Daylight Amulets disappeared. Rebekah and Kol Mikaelson died. The Spirit magic in their blood unraveled and they returned to their true death state. Rebekah took with her every vampire of her unbroken Sireline. Hope, as the Tribrid was the last to go, but her death was the most painful. One by one she lost pieces of herself. Her ability to cast spells went before her vampire side unraveled. When she could no longer shift back from a wolf, she did not go rabid. She fell into depression, starved herself, and died.
And magic was lost.
Even though humans are non-magical, they still rely very much on the presence of magic in Nature. Magical Forces Balance the Physical Forces. Without Magic to Balance the Physics, Nature's destructive capabilities were unleashed. It began with the movement of the plates. Quakes ravaged human cities, killing thousands. Then the volcanoes erupted over several years. The ash and soot blot out the sun, bringing in a mini ice age in the 22nd century. There was cold, famine, and disease and thus began the Apocalypse. Scientists could not understand how their predictions were so wrong. The humans panicked. Everyone was an enemy. They went to war. Then Nuclear weapons rained down from the sky, annihilating all life on the Earth.
She shut her eyes at the destruction and turned away from the Kaleidoscope. "We must stop this!"
"Yes. The Mikaelsons are the center of it all. Their survival is paramount." The girls went to work. They searched their libraries and researched the previous destructions of previous universes. If the Apocalypse was natural, such as the natural expansion of an aged star engulfing a planet, they would not be able to interfere, but this Apocalypse was not Natural but man-made. So long as it was unnatural, they could interfere to keep the Balance.
The two ten-thousand-year-old girls came back together when they had finished their research. "Okay, the ' Save The Mikaelsons' council will now come to order."
The other simply rolled her eyes. "What are you thinking, Saga?" The two sat at a table with a hologram hovering before them. The two were wearing similar uniforms with a hooded cape covering their features. "We've already discovered their home universe." She brought forth another hologram of a donut-shaped universe, with swirls of galaxies and exploding stars. "It is home to the Divine Terra."
Saga said, "We have to set it right. It all started with Hope's conception, which led to the deaths of Klaus and Elijah. Without them, the family became fractured. Rebekah and Kol weren't really a part of their niece's life, which led Hope to fall under Alaric Saltzman's manipulations. She was only a child and she already blamed herself for her parents' deaths, which gave her a Martyr complex. She wanted to save everyone without any care for herself. She never even had asked her family, her aunts and uncle, for help."
"Okay, so we need to stop the Mikaelsons from dying. Can't we just stop Hope's conception?"
"No, Vera. Remember it's all about Balance. Hope is the Tribrid, the balance of all three supernatural species. And she is necessary due to the existence of Malivore."
The younger, Vera, passed her hand in the air as she examined the stills of the Mikaelson family. She paused suddenly at the image of Klaus and Caroline kissing passionately against a tree. She searched for the couple's past and future interactions and watched them at speed to understand their relationship. She stopped at their last kiss and Caroline mourned Klaus after his death. She paused and pondered on the two. Her eyes widened suddenly. "Hey, what if we add more?"
"More what?"
"Tribrids. Since Hope is already a part of the balance, another Tribrid won't create an imbalance. In fact, another Tribrid powerhouse will likely work in the family's favor."
Saga looked at the montage of Klaus and Caroline. "And I suppose you wish for Caroline to carry the child."
Vera turned to her friend with softness and optimism in her eyes. "Just because we're changing things to stop the destruction of the world doesn't mean we can't make a select few happy. Caroline gives and gives to everyone else but is never given anything for herself in return. The only person who came close was Klaus but he died for his daughter before he could fulfill his promises to her." Vera's voice grew hard. "She made many sacrifices for her friends, who only took advantage of her. She settled for Stefan, whose priorities were always Damon and Elena. He chose to die for his ex-lover rather than live for his wife. Should she become pregnant with Niklaus' child, her priorities will shift to her child above all else. You saw what she was willing to do for Josette and Elizabeth."
"And what of the Gemini Twins? Removing Caroline from Mystic Falls will change their fate."
"Changing fate is what we're trying to do. Nature will easily compensate. It could've been anyone else carrying those children. It just so happened to be Caroline. I've also searched through her ancestry. I found this." The two looked at the image of a beautiful blonde woman with a brilliant aura around her. "A Nymph. She was most likely hiding from Malivore and sealed away her nature. And on Caroline's father's side is a Werewolf. She never awakened either parts of herself after she became a vampire. We can activate those abilities to allow her to conceive a child."
Saga nodded. "Very well. For the new Tribrid to have an effect on their fates, they must be conceived as close to Hope as possible."
Vera came forth with an image. "I've thought of that. The closest I can think of are these few here." There was an image of Caroline helping Klaus, Klaus and Caroline before prom, and Klaus and Caroline during graduation.
"Why not their stint in the woods?"
"That happened maybe a year after Hope's conception. The graduation is only three months after."
"But we cannot simply create a being that never existed in the first place." Saga sighed. She looked up at Vera with determination in her shining blue orbs. "I will deconstruct my physical form to be conceived by Klaus and Caroline. An ordinary child will be unable to warn the Mikaelsons of their enemies. Esther, Dahlia, Lucien Castle, Marcel Gerard, and the Hollow. My ability to prophecy will allow me to send them visions in the womb and as a babe."
"That is a brilliant idea. You set up while I prepare for the deconstruction spell. I will also transport myself into the past to befriend Niklaus a century before he breaks his curse." Vera and Saga intertwined their hands into each other's as they walked to the center of the room.
The two beings were residents of Bethesda, the center of the multiverse. They graduated as Umpires from the Stella School of Magic. Their positions allowed them access to several spells from different universes to allow them to influence the fates of a few influential persons. With the death of the Mikaelsons, the Terra universe became unbalanced, dangling only by a frayed string. They needed to interfere before it reached that point.
The two girls walked into the Multiverse Room, with projections of the different universes in proximity to one another. Vera selected the Terra-verse as the destination. "I think we should do something about the others?"
"The others? Klaus siblings?"
"I know Rebekah will be happy to be an aunt, but I also know she would be happier to be a mother. She will be heartbroken to find out her brother can have multiple children while she can have none."
Saga hummed thoughtfully. Rebekah and the rest of the Mikaelsons would become her family. She wants to see them happy. And it would also not be so bad to have a few cousins. It would make Hope not feel like a freak with no one to relate to if her cousins are also miracle magical babies.
Saga pushed the Terra-verse back to search the surrounding universes. There was a universe where few humans had the affinity for magic, but magic manifested in a few artists who can glimpse into other universes. They believe it to be their imagination and they write the stories of other universal beings in books and television shows. She quickly searched the universe and watched millions cry over the fate of the Mikaelsons. She picked a few Mikaelson sympathizers who were insignificant, with tragic fates, but were above all loyal. They were all saddened by Finn's and Kol's deaths, by Rebekah's sorrow and inability to find love, By Niklaus and Elijah's deaths, and by Caroline's and Hope's sadness at being left without their loved ones.
"I want a twin." She looked at a young man without family, working hard to make ends meet. He wished to be a part of a large family like the Mikaelsons. "I will share a portion of my power with him while we're in the womb."
"Perfect." Vera held her hands toward the six chosen individuals, one for each Mikaelson. She pulled and sent them into the Terra-verse, each at the point of their deaths. Vera turned to Saga and hugged her dear friend. With tears in her eyes, Vera stepped back, leaving her friend in the spell circle. She raised her hand in the air and began to draw the spell in her palm. She expanded the spell to surround Saga's body before she began to write the Magi Script.
Saga glowed white as her body and soul shattered into minuscule particles. She brought her fingers to her lips and held them out to her friend. "I will see you again, sister." She smiled before completely disintegrating.
Vera kissed her fingers and held them out to the empty space her dearest friend, her Soul Sister, once stood. "I will see you again, sister." She wiped her tears away. She would see Saga again.
Vera was a researcher, always studying the magic of other universes and melding them with her own. She took her journal of notes on the Terra-Verse magic. She would need to research the Immortality Spell, both Qetsiyah and Esther's versions, to allow the Mikaelson siblings the ability to conceive. With a few research and laboratory tools in a heavy case, she returned to the Multiverse Room.
The spell she performed was much simpler compared to the deconstruction spell. She drew a circle in front of the Terra-verse and selected the year she wished to arrive. 1910. With a loud boom, a portal of swirling darkness formed before her. Inhaling a deep breath, she stepped through.
Vera materialized in a vast garden. She came face to face with a beautiful woman with green and blue-patched skin. Her hair was made of clouds, the shining sun crowning her head while a cloak of the starry night laid over her shoulders. Her three eyes looked into the past, the present, and the future. Flowers and foliage covered her in a dress as blue water rushed off her skin as waterfalls. Her feet were in the shapes of trees, expanding in the brown dirt below, where all types of animals roamed the land.
She was taller than a mountain and I stood in the palm of her hand. Bending at the waist, I crossed my palms over my chest in greeting. "It is my greatest honor to find myself in your presence, Great Tara."
Her voice was soft but echoed. "It is a pleasure to have you. Bethesda contacted me to warn me of her two meddlesome children's arrival."
Vera shook her head violently. "We mean no disrespect. It is according to the rules. The Apocalypse was not natural. We-"
She laughed, interrupting Vera's tangent. "I am pleased that you have taken a liking to my children and wish to save them and bring them happiness. I am too grand to lend aid to such small creatures." She picked up a human in her other palm. "My Eldest, the Witches, believe to know best. But I allow the existence of Supernaturals because they balance each other and moderate the humans. The Witches were the firsts. They ruled the humans. I created the Spectral Beasts to hunt them for their magic to limit their influence. The Werewolves caused an imbalance, thus the Vampires came into existence to restore it. Then came Malivore. It did not take much time for me to balance the world. Only a blink. Ten centuries for the Tribrid, Malivore's counter to be born. Your idea was sound. Hybrids and Tribrids were meant to exist. Creating a few more will not create an imbalance. In fact, it will allow them to easily mend the bridges between their species.
"What you did not account for is yourself. Should you arrive as you are now, you will be rejected and destroyed. You must also be reconstituted." The young Bethesdan's body glowed as her friend's did. "To keep balance, I will take your memories, but I will allow you a bond to me, to allow your magic to meld with Terran magic." Tara's three eyes glowed, causing Vera's eyes to glow as well as the back of her neck. Once the glow died down, Vera slowly disappeared from Tara's palm. "Thank you, Vera."
Yes. I know I should be working on my other WIPs but this story's been sitting around for a while now and I haven't been able to work on Priestess so I'm giving you all a little something to tide you over.