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Don't Fear the Reaper

Mason woke up, not really sure where he was. He had turned and was taking off to try to track down Jade. He wasn't sure if it was going to work but it was his best idea to get Jade back. All he knew was that one minute he was running and the next everything went dark. He looked down, seeing he was back in his street clothes; as he became more aware he realized he was tied to a chair and start to struggle.

"You're up?" he heard a familiar voice saying; it was Jade and she was sitting with her back to him. "You're here to save me aren't you?" she asked with a weak laugh.

"Unfortunately," Mason said lightly, letting his head rest back against hers. "You hurt Jade?"

"I'll be fine," she assured him, struggling like he had but she wasn't sure of the point. "Have you talked to Hope?"

"I saw her for a second," Mason told her. "She was at school, with Damon."

"Ok," Jade said, breathing a sigh of relief. "Nothing weird happened?"

"Define weird," he said, noting their situation; she chuckled.

"Blood raining from the sky weird?" Jade said, then let out a heavy sigh. "That's what happened when I saw her."

"Nothing like that," Mason assured her. He figured it was because Jade had been there for so long. To his knowledge nothing strange happened when Klaus first went to New Orleans either, though he mostly kept his distance from Hope.

"Oh," she started to say ok, but something caught her eye. "My God, Mason."

"What?" he asked, turning his head. They both saw the snakes sliding into the house, along the floor, one going along the wall. "...how long have I been here?" he asked hesitantly.

"I'm guessing too long," Jade grimaced; she needed to change the subject. "How was Hope?" Mason had said he had seen her but didn't elaborate.

"Ah, pretty sure she hates me," Mason said, trying to escape again.

"Well, she's gotta hate you as much as she hates me," Jade reminded him, stating they were both absent the last few years.

"You went to see her," Mason corrected her. "I ignored her call when she wanted to tell me you were missing."

"Mason, what the f-"

"I didn't actually ignore her," Mason cut her off. "She just thinks that I did. Olivia answered my phone," he clarified the situation for her.

"Wow," Jade said in disbelief.

"Uh huh," Mason agreed. "Oh, and top it off, she's not really pregnant."

"You certainly know how to pick them," Jade said lightly, referencing their time together.

"Don't I know it," Mason teased her back, resting his head back against hers again. Hearing someone coming up the stairs outside, they both stopped. Jade was worried their kidnappers were back for more while Mason wondered who it was that took them in the first place.

"Oh my God," Jade gasped when the door opened.

"What-" Mason started to ask.

"Mom?!" Hope said when she saw her; she realized Mason was there. "Dad?" She went to turn to who she thought was her friend. "Roman, what-" Before she could say anything else the chains that would keep her from practicing magic were on.

"This is Roman?" Jade asked with disgust.

"Who?" Mason was asking in exasperation, turning his head as far as he could to try to see.

"Someone you're going to get to kill," Jade assured him, though she looked softly at her daughter; she knew it would break her heart. "He's the one that brought them to the church," she told Hope.

"You what?" Hope demanded. Roman tried explaining that it was going to be ok, that they were going to be fine. All they had to do was give up their werewolf side. Jade tried to reason with him that they weren't going to just be let go, not with where Greta had him take them. Roman wouldn't listen. She even tried to convince him that his mom just wanted to hurt her dad, to let Mason and Hope go. Still no luck. As he left the house to go call his mother, Hope went to sit next to her parents.

"Mom, I am so sorry," she told her, her eyes welling up. There was nothing she could do. Without her magic she couldn't break the cloaking spell on her mother or herself; she was sure they cloaked her father too. "I just thought...if we were all back together we could fix it..." She wasn't looking at her dad when she was talking about being back together, which Jade noticed.

"Baby," Jade told her gently. "It's ok," she emphasized. "We all did some crazy stuff to get this family back together." Her daughter saw what her mom was doing and looked at her skeptically, even given their situation. "Honey, your dad is here because as soon as he knew something was wrong he came back."

"Damon had to-" Hope couldn't keep from getting upset.

"Olivia lied honey," Jade stopped her. Those 3 words hit Hope like a ton of bricks. Of course she lied! How could she ever believe that about her dad? The circumstances they were under certainly lead to her feelings being easily swayed.

"Daddy, I'm so sorry," Hope was telling him now.

"It's ok sweetheart," Mason assured her. "I'm the one that's sorry." He looked at her sadly. "I never should have let someone like that into your life."

"We're here, we're ok," Jade told them both. "That's what matters now." She paused. "What do we do now is the question." She looked to Hope. "I'm sure Damon has every witch in New Orleans trying to track you."

"Yeah, but," Hope hesitated. "I cloaked Roman and me after we took off from school." She stopped, thinking about it. "There's something we could try but..."

"What?" Mason asked her.

"It's not going to be easy," she said before detailing her plan. For the cloaking spell to break one of them was going to have to submit to the spell to bind their werewolf side.

"You're sure they have Mason now too?" Damon was asking Freya in disbelief on the phone. He and Klaus had been driving for hours, having gone to the school then starting to look from there. They figured Hope had hid herself and they knew Jade was hidden.

"I could see where he was running before," Freya said, looking at her map. "I could track him while he was turned and then nothing."

"Where did it stop off?" Damon asked now.

"Up by the border, near Arkansas," Freya said. "I don't have much else to go on, no exact location."

"Keep trying, we're heading that way," Damon said as Klaus continued to drive.

"Olivia?" Mason asked in disbelief as the witch entered the room. They had told Roman that they all agreed to the spell and he went to call this witch. Mason felt a mixture of anger and confusion that the woman he let in his life and his family's was with these people all along.

"I don't want to do this to you Mason," Olivia told him. Twisted that she was she still believed she loved him. "If I get you free of this curse, then we can leave." She turned coldly towards Jade and Hope who she considered to be obstacles in her relationship. "We can leave them." She had a stone similar to what Freya had and she was going for Jade first. "You have no idea what you missed out on," she told her.

"Hey!" Mason stopped her. No, he didn't have those feelings for Jade anymore but he wasn't going to let her be hurt by Olivia. "Yeah, she didn't want me the way you did." He shook his head. "But I wanted her."

"Mason," Jade shook her head. Was he trying to get himself killed? They agreed either of them would take the spell first as long as Hope didn't get hurt. They would deal with the consequences later.

"It's true, I still do," he lied, egging Olivia on to pick him first. "I never stopped. Every time I was with you-" He was cut off as Olivia grabbed his hand, starting the spell there first, Mason screaming. Hope squeezed her eyes shut to block everything out, hearing her mom whispering that it was ok. She wasn't sure who her mom was trying to convince though. She opened her eyes, preparing for the plan.

"Did it work?" Roman was asking. Olivia untied one of Mason's hand, pulling it into the sunshine; it burned him, meaning it worked. Hope wasn't sure what happened next it all happened so fast. Her dad grabbed Olivia and killed her, freeing himself from the chair. The plan was for Hope to knock out Roman, but he was too fast. Mason wasn't able to get to her due to the sun and that's when he started to feel strange. He then remembered Jade and Vicki's argument years ago over who should take the Hollow. He also remembered Vincent intervening to say a vampire probably wouldn't be able to contain it.

And he wasn't.

The magic left him, though instead of going to Hope like they all expected it made a beeline for Jade, like a magnet being drawn to another piece. Jade was knocked out of her seat, free from her binds; Mason was knocked back against the wall, unconscious on the floor. Jade quickly took in the scene around her. Roman had her daughter and for all she knew Mason was dead. And then she felt something she had never felt before, unlike the Hollow or anything she could remember. It was like another part of her was awake. Unspecific circumstances and a trauma, she once told Hope was what it would take to get her magic back.

"Get away from her!" Jade shouted at Roman, her hand up as if just an instinct and Roman went flying back into the corner.

"Mom," Hope said in confusion as Jade was taking her chains off. "Do you..."

"I don't know," Jade shook her head. Thankfully, she could hear Mason stirring; he was still alive. "I do know," she started off, racing over to where Roman was and pinning him against the wall, yanking his day light ring off his finger. "Your dad is going to need this." She left Roman trapped in the only shadow in the room in that corner after Hope opened all the shades.

"What's going on?" Mason asked as Jade helped him to his feet, handing him the ring.

"No idea," Jade said honestly.

"We need to get out of here," Hope was saying, already by the door. As soon as she opened it though she was passing out, Greta there to blow dust in her face. She had no idea what she was walking into though.

"You," Jade said through her teeth, speeding to the door and tackling Greta through it. She had suffered days of torture at both Greta's word and her hands; she was going to get her revenge now.

"I should tie you to one of those chairs," Jade said as she pinned Greta to the ground, driving a punch into her face. "I should make you wonder about your child's safety for days," she said now, striking her again. With what Greta wanted to do to them though, she knew what she was going to do. "I don't have the patience for that though," she informed her, grabbing her arm and sinking her teeth into her.

"Good luck getting my dad to heal you," Jade informed her as she got up, wiping the blood from her mouth. Rather than die from a werewolf bite, Greta reached for her daylight ring.

"Greta, no!" she heard a familiar voice shouting but it was too late. Greta tossed her ring to the side, burning in the light. Jade turned to see her uncle there, staring in shock at the scene. She wasn't sure what to make out of his presence.

"Jade, we gotta go," Mason said from where he was carrying Hope on the porch, piecing it together faster than her. Though he didn't know the exact circumstance, he knew that Elijah without his memory was there for Greta.

"Get out of here with her Mason," Jade ordered, knowing all three of them wouldn't outrun her original uncle. With Hope's safety in mind, Mason took off. Elijah went to go after them, but Jade sped over and cut him off. "I don't think so Lijah," she said, calling him by her nickname for him thinking maybe that would do something; nothing. "You really don't remember me, do you?" she asked.

"I know of you," Elijah informed her, though the warmth he held towards his niece was long gone with his memories. He wanted to get by her to go after Mason and Hope but she cut him off again.

"They're not the ones you want," Jade told him.

"They're not?" Elijah questioned. She killed Greta, this family he once called his was destroying what he now had. He was going to go after them for this.

"Who was Greta to you?" Jade asked now, then made a face. "Not your girlfriend I hope."

"She was going to be my mother in law," he said through his teeth, disgust for Jade in his voice.

"Ah," she nodded with a slight smile. "So, uh, Roman in there is going to be your brother in law, yes?"

"He's why I'm here," Elijah told her, knowing she was trying to distract him.

"Mhmm," Jade nodded. "Well, I hate to tell you," she started off, though she didn't. "But, I had to give Mason his ring since they made him bind his werewolf side."

"You did wha-" he was getting furious now; Jade held up Greta's ring she had previously snatched from the ground.

"I'm the one you want," she told him and she took off. While she was now a full blown tribrid, her uncle still caught up to her. They fought there on the lawn of the house, with her trying to concentrate to use her magic on him like she had Roman but it was still too new to her and he was too strong. Eventually, Elijah did get the upper hand on her, pinning her to the ground.

"You're really going to kill me aren't you?" she asked, making one last attempt like it was going to get him to remember her. The look on his face told her he was going to. "Good luck explaining that to my dad," Jade told him; she wouldn't let him see her afraid. He was just about to kill her when suddenly she felt his weight off of her, Elijah knocked to the side. She thought that maybe Mason came back for her, or Damon finally found her.

"Dad?!" she shouted in shock when she turned to see who it was.

"Hey!" Damon said, grabbing her hand and helping her to her feet. She hadn't realized but it started hailing and she figured it had to do with all of them being together. "Are you ok, where's Hope?" he was asking quickly, looking her over.

"Hope's with Mason, she's all right," Jade assured and Damon noticed the charred remains on the ground. "Greta," she told him and he nodded. The fight raged on next to them. She had seen her father fight before, she had even fought beside him, but it was never like this. There was a new rage inside him, that her safety had been called into question.

"You put your hands on my child!" she caught him saying among the fight, throwing another shot at his brother's face. The hail was falling harder.

"We have to go," Damon was saying to Jade again.

"Damon, wait," Jade told him. He looked at her in confusion. "Just...look," she said and she turned to the fight, using all of her focus to take her uncle and toss him off her dad, back into a tree to stake him and temporarily take him out.

"You have your magic," Damon said out loud and she nodded, her dad coming over to them now.

"What were you thinking?" Klaus asked her. He didn't even seem to process what just happened. He had been so sick with worry and now she was here. "Going to New Orleans like that, why would you-"

"Why did you go back?" Jade challenged him; he nodded as he realized.

"My daughter needed me," he said, pulling her into a hug. The storm got even worse. "You both need to get out of here," Klaus told her.

"Nik," Jade shook her head.

"It's not safe," Klaus reminded her. "But, I'm going to fix it for you," he promised much like he promised when Hope was away from the family.

"It's what fathers do," she finished for him and he kissed her head.

"Get her to New Orleans," Klaus told Damon. "Our family's newest witch is going to need her Aunt Freya," he said with a slight smile before taking off.

Hope was back in her room at school, sitting up with a gasp as she remembered everything that happened. She frantically looked around the room for someone, anyone. Her eyes landed on a familiar figure.

"Uncle Matt?" she asked in surprise, seeing him sitting in her desk chair.

"Hope, hey," he said, going to sit next to her now.

"Where's my parents?!" she asked worriedly, the lights in the room flickering.

"They are fine," Matt told her right away to calm her nerves. "Your mom is in New Orleans with your Aunt Freya." He seemed as confused as everyone else by the situation. "I guess she has her magic back," he shrugged and Hope nodded.

"What about my dad?" she said, remembering the spell. "Is he-"

"He's here," Matt assured her. Now that Mason could be around Hope again it was going to be hard to get him to leave her. "He's downstairs in the office with Damon and Stefan."

"Damon's here?" Hope asked, a little surprised. After everything that happened she was sure he would stay to comfort her mom.

"You don't know how much he adores you kiddo," Matt told her with a half smile, hearing from Vicki and others about how Hope often gave her stepdad a hard time. Hope nodded, excusing herself to go to the office. At the sight of her dad who she could finally be around again she bolted for him, throwing her arms around him.

"I'm sorry dad," she told him again. "It's all my fault, I-"

"Hey," Mason stopped her, pulling away and taking her face in his hands. "I get to be around you again," he assured her. "I'd do it all over." Hope nodded, with a soft smile.

"Can I talk to Damon?" she asked him now and Mason nodded, kissing her head as he left. Stefan nodded at her as he left the room, squeezing her hand as he walked by.

"You all right Hope?" Damon asked her and she nodded.

"I thought you would be with my mom," Hope started off.

"Had to make sure both my favorite girls were all right," Damon said lightly. "Plus, I had this idea to help your dad I needed to talk to Stefan about." He thought that maybe Caroline's daughters would be able to siphon the magic off of Mason that was keeping his werewolf side down, allowing him to be a hybrid again. Stefan said that he would talk to Alaric and Caroline about it.

"I owe you an apology too Damon," Hope was saying and Damon shook his head at her.

"I think you're sorry enough over what happened kiddo," he assured her. "And look what came out of it, your dad is back and your mom has her magic." He shrugged. "Maybe her and Freya will be strong enough to fix it."

"Not just that," Hope said, blinking back tears. "I've been so awful to you," she told him and his expression softened.

"Hope," he told her.

"You didn't sign up for this," she stopped him, wiping at her eyes. "You didn't even think my mom could have kids. Then I was there and you stayed. You stayed," she repeated in disbelief. The average person would have left her mom. "And you took care of me like I was yours and then..." She shook her head. "You could have left with my mom, you could have been with her that whole time and just left me here or with Freya, but you didn't. You stayed with me again," she said, a few tears slipping out of her eyes.

"I love you," Damon promised her.

"You're a really good dad Damon," she said now, rushing over to hug him. Damon couldn't help but feel a little teary at Hope calling him her dad.

"You're a perfect daughter," he assured her as he kissed her head, just like Klaus often promised Jade that she was perfect.

what did you think?! were you surprised? i was never going to kill jade. i had thought about killing mason but i just couldn't do it! PLEASE let me know what you thought!