Prologue - Transference - unedited

A/N I've been sitting on this for years, rewritten it COUNTLESS times, but I finally got it done. Finally, I can mark this complete!

As you can see, this is a prologue to the last part of this series called a Hybrid's Game with Love and Death. If you want, you can continue reading there :).

Additional notes -

1) I got some Steins Gate inspiration for this. If you don't know what Steins Gate is, it's regularly ranked as one of the Best Anime of all time, currently #3 on the Anime News Network ;) ).

2) Everything else is my intellectual property and therefore plagiarism/copyright rules apply.

Enjoy!


Breathe.

Immediately, I realize how stupid that command is. I'm dead. Dead people don't need to breathe. Vampires don't need to either but, I digress.

What I'm trying to say is I don't have a body anymore, but ever since I found myself in Hades, a sector in the afterlife, I quickly find out how much it didn't matter.

You also find out what's true about life after death, and what is just rumors.

When you die, especially violently, your soul starts disconnecting from the place its called home all your life...your body. It is the most painful thing you will ever feel. Trust me. Physically anyway. Take it from someone who lived 2,050 years.

And don't get me started on the new frontier of all types of torture that rips at your soul. That level of pain which makes the physical ones seem like they should be in some Disney movie.

But when your soul does break free from its physical prison, it's like a trapped bird whose finally found the door open in its cage. When it lifts off...

I smile at the thought.

It's beautiful.

Like all beautiful things, however, it eventually gets ripped from you by your true captor. The unseen force that has pulling your strings all your life that all of a sudden, has a face.

Lucifer. The Devil. Light-Bringer. He has many names. He isn't a rumor. Oh no. He is very much real. An ancient relic of a race of beings billions of light years away who has plans for Earth's inhabitants that are far from pretty and very much the stuff of nightmares. Seeing his smiling face as I've watched him from the distance lay claims to souls, wrapping his chains around them, tearing them apart...

I shake my head of the horrid memories. Lucky for me, she decided to keep me and not give me up to him.

The Dark Mistress, Death. Like Lucifer, she has many names too. Like me, she's a hybrid, of a different kind yes, but still a hybrid. She understands how it feels to be among others, but never feeling like you belong, no matter how powerful you get.

She gave me purpose, made me her Captain. She helped me find strength I never knew I had.

And now it was time to earn my keep.

With as much stealth as possible, I reach for the Dark Mistress' sword held near Lucifer's throne in Hades, the only light in this realm where all Paradise's rejects come to be tormented till the Second and final Death.

The darkness here is infinite and the cold. The cold is so intense it burns, making just standing here a chore. Yet, I push through it.

With any luck, I'll grab this thing, and be back with the others in no time. Then, we can convince Death to get our bodies back!

With a deep breath, my hand wraps around the handle of the gold, legendary sword. The minute I pull it out of the pedestal, my surroundings erupt, making my eyes go wide when I hear:

"Fresh..."

I turn slowly. Faces, some with the skin peeling off them, soul parasites in the form of worms and snakes swirling through gaps where skin could be, start appearing all around me and I knew.

I wasn't going to get out of here easily.

"Meat..." they hiss.

They lunge all at once. A hand nearly grabs me that I greet with a slash of the sword in my hand.

Then, I flash away.

With all my speed, I dodge, dash, slash, bite, whatever it takes to pave a way out.

"Hybrid..."

My teeth clench.

"...We've been waiting for you."

I skid to a stop when they are all appear in front of me, their mouths wide as if to eat me whole.

I throw a punch at the nearest face, just for a swarm of hands to descend on me, grabbing, scratching, pulling me down.

The sheer force of them takes me off my feet, the sword quickly slapped out of my grasp. It isn't long before they pour their sadness, their hopelessness and despair on me. I struggle, I fight to not let it take hold, but it's too much!

"Welcome to your new eternity..." they sigh into my ear.

No, I think, slowly panicking. Out. I have to get OUT! I can't be here...

"There is no way out!" they cackle in response.

Nails and teeth plunge deep into me, and it takes everything in me not to scream in pain. My rebellion is useless though. I feel myself melding with them, losing my sense of self.

No...

I can't.

This can not be my end.

Not here.

Not...here...

A group of them spread out my arms, restraining me on both sides.

Like the Red Sea, the undead mob parts, allowing someone to walk through that makes my blood hot, and my eyes flash yellow. One of the souls passes her the sword I was carrying, and my chest constricts.

Katerina Petrova, the forever thorn in my side, fingers the intricate inscriptions on the blade that she was given, her fascination apparent. The mark of the beast on her forehead glows blood red, but the Alpha Brand is absent on her, however, letting me know that her true form, her Primary, is still somewhere in the universe.

"What use is this to you?" she says, more to herself than to me. "Death is the only one who can wield this and she's been banished from here. Why blow your cover as one of hers?"

I try to lunge for Katerina, but don't get far, the residents of Hades holding me back. She gets in my face, unhappy with the move. "If anyone is getting out of here, it's me," she snarls, her brown eyes darkening to black.

I scoff. "Think again, Katerina."

Her eyes narrow into slits. "I ran from you for centuries, but there is nowhere to run here in Hades where The Tormented run and play," she says, a sinister smile growing on her face. "We knew you couldn't be Death's pet forever and now you're finally here. No protection. No redemption. Just...Pain."

Out of nowhere, she pierces me through the heart with the sword. It feels much like the White Oak Stake when I died, making me scream. The souls that are around us start to rip me apart, and seep into me. Flashes of their last moments, my face, featured in them all.

I had killed them. Every single one of them. 2,050 years worth.

I grow weak, falling into Katerina's arms who clutches on to me like a vice. I let out another cry when touching her sets off a bombardment of the suffering she endured when she was alive. Added to all the others, it nearly overtakes me.

"So you can feel that," she whispers. "Hurts, doesn't it?" she twists the sword deeper, making me wince. "It should," she spits out. "Vengeance is finally...!"

A hand in her chest cuts off her words, her fearful eyes going blank when the hand withdraws, her soul's essence in the hands of Death itself.

I catch Death's sword from Katerina's limp hand at the same time an audible gasp escapes the mob when the Dark Mistress crushes Katerina's essence in her hand. Like a grenade thrown in a metal crate, Katerina's essence gives off a muffled explosion, making everyone in the crowd step back in fear. As Death moves towards us, they scurry back, as I watch amused as Death comes up to me in huff, shaking her head in irritation.

"The minute I leave you alone...what are you doing here? Where are the others? I really don't have..."

I raise the sword in my hand between us, making her voice trail off. Instantly, as if calling to her, the inscriptions turn into runes the color of starlight, on the blade. She looks down at her skin which starts to glow under the sword's light in response, confirming what I've been telling her all along.

When our eyes meet again, the gratitude I see in her eyes, broadens my smile at her. In a rare sight, she returns it with a soft smile of her own.

"You were right..." Death whispers in that unique accent of hers, stepping forward to reach for the blade. "Thank you."

Her fingers barely graze it when something, too fast to see, comes between us and leaves my hands empty. Death's eyes are already directed skyward once my mind catches up with what happened, her jaw tight. When I decide to follow her gaze, I immediately regret it.

Unfurling what looks like eight black wings made of prism glass in mid-air, the Devil himself stares down at us with his dark hair and black armor. When he extends his "wings" fully, the very darkness around him looks like it flees, revealing a sunset sky like the breaking of dawn.

We all catch our breath at the sight, for it feels like an eternity since we've seen the light of day. It's in that moment I can see that he was indeed an angel, a great one at that, if just his wings can change the very atmosphere in which we stand.

His hazel eyes fall heavy on the Dark Mistress, her sword, in his hands.

"Who told you?" he says in a deceitfully casual tone in an accent I don't recognize, gliding his fingers on the blade.

The Dark Mistress, Death, stays silent, but I speak up, probably an affliction of being the most dangerous being in the planet up to this point: "It was me."

As if it was the most laborious chore, the Devil drags his eyes away from Death and lays them on me. It takes everything in me not to flinch like the rest of the weaklings behind me who were so intent in harming me with Katerina just moments ago.

"Forever the incessant thorns in my side, you monkeys called humans."

I wanted to correct him, for I haven't been human since I was in my twenties, and even then, that's debatable, being born a werewolf, so don't get me started on how offensive it is to be called a monkey, but I don't bother, because the Devil's words don't stop there, his fury growing by the second, making the air crackle.

"This business is between us beings beyond your comprehension, yet here you are, you and your kind, asserting yourselves, laying claim to things you have no right to have, as always. How dare you violate my throne!" his voice lashing out like a whip, "touching my soul blade, taking what is not yours, you subpar excuse for a..."

"Actually mate," I say, interrupting his slew of insults without thinking, "it's not really yours either."

It happens in a split second. Everything goes dark, like someone flicked off a switch. In mid blink, I hear a loud thunderclap. When I open my eyes, the Dark Mistress is in front of me on her knees, grasping her chest. I look around to see everyone who had surrounded us in ashes. The smoke from where their essences and souls used to be is all that is left.

My eyes grow wide. Horror and realization of the danger that I am, settling on me like a ton of bricks.

"Run!" she shouts at me from the ground, shaking me out of my shock. "I'll hold him with the little strength I have left. Just make it to the others!"

My eyes go wide. " ' The little strength you have left?!' Bloody hell love, you couldn't have picked the worse timing! Aren't you all..."

A wave of light nearly takes my arm off, cutting off my tirade, but again, the Dark Mistress comes in to block the blow that was meant for me at the nick of time.

I'm admittedly stunned. I've never been in a situation in which someone is so fast, my eyes can't follow.

Death snaps at me. "Oh spare me Captain! How was I supposed to know you were going on Mission Impossible with my Einherjar? And for the record, I didn't plan for your precious Caroline to hold such a grudge, she'd want to wipe out my existence."

If my heart could still beat, it would of stopped.

"Caroline?" I breathe out.

Her face softens when she takes one good look my reaction. Before she can say more, her attention diverts to my left as I barely notice a glint of a sword coming in my direction, but again, blocked.

Enraged, the Devil screams at Death this time, her sword that he used, cutting into her bare arm that she stopped his attack with. I watch the Devil's eyes grow wide as the runes appear on the sword again, now also, on Death's skin. She struggles under him, and I stand there, transfixed, knowing I should run, but I don't.

"I need you to focus " she bites out to me. "Stop trying to look at him with eyes you no longer have. This is spiritual warfare darling. You're better off pretending you're still running from Mikael."

And just like that, I understand, closing my eyes.

I could never see Mikael coming. I always felt it.

There's a change in the air to my left, the smell of fire. Instinctively, I flash away from it. It isn't until I hear the explosion behind me and the screams that follow it, that I open my eyes again, seeing the apparent amazement on the Devil's face as he holds an unmoving Dark Mistress over his shoulder.

He shakes his head in disbelief, coming towards me. "Not a monkey after all..."

Glad we got that cleared up mate.

"What are you?"

My eyes dart towards Death, unwillingly, swallowing thickly. Without her...

"Do not waste your concern on her," says the Devil. "She will be fine."

"After you've wiped her memories away again?"

The Devil sets such a glare at me, I'm tempted to twitch.

Tempted.

"That is none of your concern," he says coolly.

"She has no desire to go anywhere with you, especially now."

"I did not ask for your opinion..."

"Why?" curiosity getting the better of me. "What are you hiding from her? She's been nothing but obedient..."

"Silence! " he snaps. "The only reason you still stand is because she desires it, but speak to me again..."

"Lulu?"

All the color drains out of his face, his head turning to Death on his shoulder whose hair, before our very eyes, starts to slowly change from black to red gold, her pale skin, brightening into an olive complexion.

"Did I rest too long?" she murmurs. "Is the dance...over? Let's keep dancing Lulu..."

With his free hand, he gently moves her hair from her face, cradling her cheek, and I'm gobsmacked with the gentleness I see there.

""Saiya?"

She hums.

"Open your eyes."

With difficultly, she does, showing off a beautiful pair hazel green eyes, her red ones, gone. She smiles at him. "You're still here? I thought you were going home?"

I watch him struggle with himself, his eyes momentarily closing. Then he meet her eyes, again, this time, his eyes dilating...

Dilating...

Compulsion!

That jolts me to act. In his distraction, I flash to Death, throw her on my back and get the hell out of there with all the hybrid speed I can muster to the gate leading to the Garden.

After a few seconds, I feel Death's body slipping off me. I nudge her back into place harshly, her eyes snapping open, startled.

"If you think you're leaving me alone to deal with...him, you got another thing coming."

Out of the corner of my eye, I see her smile weakly. So weak...

What is happening to her?

The minute I can see the gate, a power wave comes at us from behind that I barely dodge. Pushing off with my legs, I jump the rest of the way, through the gate, into the Garden

Voices chanting in Latin and Aramaic greet me on the other side. Ansel is the first face I see under the glaring sunlight when I lay Death on the grass, who I don't even recognize anymore, she's changed so much.

"What happened to her?" he demands, standing over us.

"I was right. She had another soul blade. When she touched it, this..." I gesture to Death's frail, changing body, "started. I don't know how to stop it."

Ansel gapes at me. "You cannot be serious! We only exist now, without our physical bodies, because of her! If she goes, we all go!"

"Not everyone."

We both look at her.

"Not if you're a primary soul that joins the main world line."

Before I can ask her what the bloody hell she's going on about, a loud bang tears our attention back to the gate where Esther, Freya, Ayanna and Bonnie have surrounded the Devil, trying to subdue him with their magic.

Our eyes meet while the witches try to keep him down, and, I won't lie, I'm...concerned

"It looks like V has won after all," Death says, still not addressing the fundamental issue of the Devil about to erase us from existence. "Here I thought she was the doppelganger," she says with a sad chuckle.

I've had it, my eyes not leaving the imminent threat before us. "Okay love, if you're quite done speaking in code, get to the bit in which we get out of this mess."

A hand suddenly grabs my arm, bringing with it a burning sensation that travels to the right of my upper back. I double over in pain, a voice is in my mind, hers, barely breaks through in the midst of it...

"If you haven't noticed, immorality is to be immune to the flow of time. My gift, my curse was to give time or take it away. Now..." her voice starts to fade, "...it's yours."

No! What's the point in living forever without...

"You have all you need to find her now. You need to simply...remember..."

I watch the Devil break free of the spell the witches were casting on him, grabbing Esther first. Ansel is flashing past me in an instant, all to run to the Devil's free hand that releases a power wave that turns him into ash. Blinding fury and grief overtakes me, pushing me to my feet.

I try to run to them, but everything slows down. Instead of flashing forward, I tumble on face, as if I tripped on something.

"What should we name him?"

Esther's happy voice takes me aback, making my head snap up from the ground. Instead of the Devil and the others in front of me, I find a smiling Esther, sitting on a fur bed with Ansel beside her, wearing Viking armor, grinning down at a baby boy in her arms.

"Niklaus. That shall be his name."

I shake my head. What is this?

I turn away only to be confronted with furious Ansel in his hut, confronting Ayanna. His voice is barely raised, but his disgust, evident.

"How could you aid him Ayanna? Esther is your friend!"

Ayanna shakes her head, mournfully: "I had no choice! His new wife had already died of the plague. He couldn't lose his children too! Freya, Elijah and Finn are innocent!"

"And what of my family Ayanna? You'd have Niklaus, Kol and Rebekah die instead?"

"For that is what will happen," Esther says grimly from a table in which she sits. "If you don't help us."

The voice that pulls me away from the night that Ayanna and Esther made Father and I hybrids and left my siblings as slow aging witches, makes my heart constrict:

"Why don't you and your fancy drawings just leave me alone?"

I close my eyes.

"That's a bit hard to do love. The beautiful distraction that you are."

"You do know my friends and I are vampires, and your step dad hired me to kill you?"

"I see it as a little spat. I'm over it already."

"You're crazy," she says with a laugh.

"How about a truce? Come with me, Rome, Paris, Tokyo..."

She scoffs.

"And I'll show just how much Mikael has been lying to you all."

Just like it was then, my heart is thundering in my chest when I open my eyes and watch my past self extend my hand to her. She glances at it, then at me. After a pause that seems like forever, she puts her hand in mine and I never let it go. Not for another 1,000 years until Mikael catches up with us and kills us both.

A sudden blast hits me square on my chest, knocking me off my feet. With effort, I sit up, finding myself back in the Garden with no one left but the Devil and me.

Surprise seeps into his face as he watches me stand, then understanding.

"She allowed you to meld with her..."

If that's true...

I smirk. "You can't kill me."

He returns my smirk, folding his arms. "No, but the same can't be said for your Caroline."

I freeze, my bravado gone in a puff of smoke.

"No..." I choke out.

His grin broadens, full of bloodlust. "I promise, when I find her Primary, I won't be gentle. I'll personally be her torturer and make. You. Watch."

"The hell you will."

"Impossible..." mutters the Devil, as he watches a glowing pentagram suddenly appear under his feet.

A sealing spell.

Bonnie Bennett throws me a sad smile, her hands upraised, blood leaking from her nose. "Tell Care I said hello."

The Devil lifts his eyes to me, full of malice. "Yes Niklaus," he purrs. "Send Caroline our regards. For there is no version of this in which I do not get free of this and rip you apart for taking Saiya from me."

Then, everything goes black.


When I come to, the strange sensation of a heart beating in my chest, startles me. Quickly looking around, I find myself in the middle of a fight on what looks like to be a Viking ship. The sound of bowstring being pulled back makes me look towards the ship's bow where...Caroline, dressed in medieval battle attire, releases an arrow aimed straight for my heart.

An arrow made of white oak.


A/N: See you at the sequel - A Hybrid's Game with Love and Death :)