Electricity crackling white in the stormy skies. Rain crashes down, a torrent of tear droplets soaking the Earth.
Adelaide Mikaelson leaves the cave and stumbles into a world of wet. The cave, she comes to find out, is not really a cave at all. It's a little alcove tucked into the side of a cliff. The exit shimmers as she walks through, suggesting she's been hidden by strong magic. Considering she hasn't been found in over a thousand years (has it really been so long?), she knows it's powerful magic.
Probably Esther. The thought of her mother ignites a long dormant rage.
Fire surges through her. Flames spread, fast and hot and ready to explode. It consumes everything. Past, future, love, forgiveness. All gone. Hate is all that is left.
A memory, old and worn, one she has turned over and studied in her mind, again and again. Even though she knows it well, Adelaide only sees snapshots. Little puzzle pieces, but never the whole picture. The memory is quick-moving and shaky, tinged with panic.
A sword plunging through a chest. The spurt of blood, the gurgle, the lifeless eyes glimmering in the moonlight. A glass of wine tipped over. The bodies slumped in chairs. Bekah's flower crown knocked off, crushed on the floor.
Her father, Mikael, the namesake, the leader, the monster, standing above with his sword. Red coats the blade, dripping and sticky.
And at the head of the table sits her mother. That blank face haunts her dreams. Esther does not move, does not help. She sits. And she watches.
Her children die. All except one. Adelaide gets laid to rest in a coffin with the image of her lifeless siblings tattooed into her brain and the acrid taste of vomit on her lips.
And then, she sleeps. And sleeps. And sleeps. And does not wake up. A thousand years float by like a dream. Or like a never ending nightmare.
Death would have been a mercy.
Fate. It comes in disguises. As a friend, as a foe. As a dead-end, as a crossroads. As an ultimatum, as the only way out. It appears as sacrifice. It never comes to her as a choice, only as a must, a decision already made, a promise to be kept. This coffin, this sleep, this temporary death, it was her future, then her present, and now her past. It is over. Of that, she is sure.
The past is past. No changes. No do-overs. Adelaide is done with fate. Fate tricks and lies. Fate steals. To Adelaide, fate seemed to be an ominescent force. Nothing correpeal. Nothing she can hold accountable.
But then, after a thousand years of pondering, discovering, thinking (trapped in her thoughts, have to getoutgetoutgetout), fate was no longer a whisper on the wind. It was a blank face sitting at the head of the table. It was strong magic wrapping around her. It was empty promises and broken trust.
It was her mother.
Esther, bringer of death and creator of evil, made the decisions. She chose for Adelaide. There is no fate. There is always a choice. Esther made them all, without even allowing Adelaide a chance to say no.
She would have, too. She would've said no. Death with her siblings is better than life without. Especially Henrik. Her sweet brother. Her twin. Her confidant. Her only friend.
His life string, so short and so very delicate, cut too soon. How she longs to join him.
They are opposites. One a boy, the other a girl. He, dark-haired and dark-eyed. Her, fair-haired and blue-eyed. Him all loud and happy and smiley. Her all quiet and broody and sad.
Death cradles Henrik. Life captures Adelaide.
Opposites.
Life and Death. Dead like Henrik. Dead like Finn, Elijah, Nik, Kol, and Bekah. Dead like Freya. But not true death. Just a mockery of it. True death is mercy. Eternal sleep is torture. A prison. What is her crime?
Death is gone, life has taken its rightful place. Her heart thuds a dull beat, even when she wishes it would stop. Adelaide is alive. Alive like Esther.
With great evil comes great good. Nature needs balance.
Underneath all this anger, something simmers inside her. It has been simmering for so very long. It's the ultimate question. The one that plagues the minds of men for all time. The one Adelaide asks herself now.
Why?
Why her? Why did her siblings all die and she survived? Why did Esther and Mikael decide to kill their own children? Why did she spend one thousand years asleep? Why did she wake up?
Why is she here? What is she supposed to do?
Destiny talks in riddles and plays a rigged game. Adelaide hates it. Does she have any choice at all? It feels like she can't decide anything for herself. When someone wants her asleep, she stays in a coffin in the middle of a cave for one thousand years! When someone wants her awake, magic punctures through her chest and leaves her destitute in the midst of a storm.
Adelaide just can't catch a break.
Destiny, so slippery and slimy, writhing out of her grasp like a snake, biting at her ankles and surging venom through her veins. Torturing her, playing with her.
Do we get to decide or is it written in the stars?
The very stars. Astrology, star signs, and horoscopes. The past, the future. In our skies, in our planet, in our blood.
The stars have been alive longer than we have and even after we are long dead, they will continue to exist. Unlike us, they are immortal.
To gain immortality is to break the laws of nature. And to break the laws of nature requires consequences. The stars are above consequences. And they are above us. Destiny knows this, as should we.
Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Even the Mikaelsons must abide by these rules.
Adelaide steps over shards of rock, watching her feet carefully. Unsurprisingly, she is barefoot. With her luck, she expects to see broken glass at the bottom of this decline.
The cliff seems to be more of a tall rocky hill. If she jumped off the edge, it would be maybe thirty feet. The descent wouldn't normally be so hard, she could scale it quickly. Especially considering she lived with the likes of Niklaus and Kol, both extremely athletic and sneaky.
It's the rain that makes it difficult. She slips and slides with each step, her arms held out for balance. She thinks of Nik and of Elijah and Kol. If they were here - (they aren't here. They're dead. Because of Esther. Boiling, bubbling rage, and then melancholy, and then a loss so profound her chest aches and her eyes burn. She pushes it back. Now is not the time to lose it.)
If they were here, they would've helped her walk down. As her elder brothers, it was their job to protect her. Elijah would've held her hand. Nik wasn't one for touching, but he would've stayed close, ready to catch her if she fell. Kol would've let her ride on his back whilst her took on the trek for her.
Her life, this one she has to live now, it stretches before her. Endless melancholy days, all meticulous and boring. No more siblings. No more home. No more friends. No more swimming in the creek. No more dancing around the fire, or Bekah braiding her hair, or her mother singing her to sleep, or climbing trees with Henrik. No more love or joy or hope.
All she has left is her magic, her emptiness, and her rage. She always thought anger was like Mikael's. Loud and violent and bloody. An explosion. Hers is different. She feels herself crumbling from the inside out. A different type of rage that turns her blood to lava. Something that caves in and takes everything from her.
An implosion. A supernova.
Supernova.
The stars above, concaving inward, something building and growing and stirring, and then-
Implosion. Destruction that hurts no one but yourself. A moment that surges brightly, more powerful than the sun. Lights and power and pure energy.
A different kind of magic. We are dust, like the stars themselves, and we'll implode too.
She wonders if she will be more powerful than Esther. If she can use her last push, the very last moment before the inevitable destruction, to take Esther with her.
An implosion, yes, but also a good deed. A penance, a reward, a murder. Her and Esther both will go into the unknown, to the other side, the place of death. Whatever comes will come. At least her siblings will be there.
She's doesn't care about her life. She cares about avenging her family. Every moment, every heartbeat, every memory, every hurt has been a prelude to the climax of her story: the revenge, the death, the mission. And after that, hopefully peace.
Adelaide reaches the bottom. Her feet sink into squishy mud. The shocking temperature makes her toes curl in. All around her are trees. She does not recognize the area.
There's this little cliff, the alclove, and a few smatterings of rock here and there. The ground is muddy and mushy, with sprouts of grass crushed and flat beneath her feet. The area itself is bosky, more tree than anything else.
She's in the middle of the woods. It's cool, on the cusp of cold. If she had to guess, she'd say it was either September or October.
She wonders where Esther and Mikael placed her for all these years. The climate is remisicinate of her own village, but she is unfamiliar with these woods. They had to have put her somewhere close enough to be convenient, but far enough to be hidden.
She keeps walking. Which direction is north isn't exactly clear to her. Adelaide glances up, knowing full well she doesn't understand how to use the stars to navigate, but she does it anyway. She sees Cassiopeia. For just a second, her anger is forgotten and a sense of pride wells up in her chest.
Her October guess is correct.
Then when the victory of the moment fades, she feels the confusion seep back in. The rain continues to pelt down, soaking her white dress and causing her hair to lay limp in her face. She decides to pick a direction and stick with it.
Adelaide turns every which way, closing her eyes, allowing the rain to wash away every thought and feeling, until she's suspended in this state of nothingness.
She feels a slight tug, something familiar and hazy that leaves her swaying on her feet. She sucks a deep breath in and holds it in her chest. The nothingness swirls and spins, becoming a cloudy mist she can't describe. It's warm and envelopes her in a state of calm. Her feet don't hurt and the cold is gone and her legs don't ache.
Adelaide's eyes pop open and she releases her breath in a gasp.
It's electricity, fire, fate, life and death, the very stars, a supernova.
It's magic.
Adelaide walks further into the darkness, the pulling sensation in her gut leading the way.
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You guys wouldn't believe how much research went into this! I had to look up supernovas because I'm stupid and couldn't remember if they imploded or exploded. I had to look up modern star patterns. I also had to look further into the TVD timeline. This is AU, but I want to keep it semi-accurate.
Caroline was born in October, the Originals were undaggered shortly after that, probably in October. I wanted it to be April, but I can work with October.
Thank you so much for reading! I appreciate you guys to take the time to look at my story. It means a lot to me. I felt like no one at all would see this, so seeing so many favorites makes me so happy. You guys are awesome! Hope you're going to have a great Valentine's day, if you celebrate that. ;)
-Nic