Fate
Chapter 12 - And Then You Were Gone
In the early dark of night Caroline enters the Mikaelson compound and is greeted with only silence. She spends several minutes calling out the family's names one by one hoping to hear from anyone, but there was nothing. 'Maybe they left' she wonders as she enters one of the rooms with lights on. "Scrap that someone made this room smell like a temple," Caroline mutters as she coughs at the strong smoke from incense. So they definitely hadn't been gone long, but where did they go to?
As she moves through the home the sound of footsteps entering causes the blonde vampire to enter stealth mode. "Whoever you are, I saw you come in here and you're going to show yourself now." An unfamiliar man's voice calls from the entryway of the compound.
Caroline steps slowly out of the shadows and near the balcony to spot a tall black man who gives her a bright smile. "I'm looking for Klaus," she crosses her arms across her chest glaring down at the mystery man wondering who exactly he was. After her experiences for the past however many weeks she didn't know who to trust.
"Ah pretty blonde girl, vampire I presume since you know about Klaus and have lived to talk about him." The man point up at her as the attempts to examine and dissect ever detail about her. "I'm Marcel, a friend of Klaus's." Caroline nods her head at his name making note of it but remaining silent. "And your name is?"
"Aretha Franklin," she states as Marcel chuckles deeply.
"Alright I see how it is. That's fine don't tell me your real name Aretha," he laughs once again flashing his dazzling smile up at Caroline. "May I ask then why you're looking for Klaus?"
She pauses looking at him contemplating if she should tell the stranger anything at all. "I've been...gone for awhile and now I'm back. I just figured that I would stop by and tell him that I'm here now." Caroline contemplates her words momentarily as she wonders if given any other circumstance would she come running to the big bad hybrid. After thinking on it for a few minutes in silence as Marcel simply stares at her, Caroline comes to the conclusion that she would be here even if circumstances were different. She of course just didn't want to admit this to herself or anyone.
"So now you're here looking for Klaus after being...gone." Marcel's tone is skeptical obviously, but what else could she tell him? Certainly nothing about Kyros or the fact that she's a doppelganger/descendant of one of the first Fates.
She sighs and shakes her head attempting to keep her composure. The blonde vampire had spent so long without a real feeding that the hunger was beginning to get to her. "Yes and I'm also looking for Hope, I met her at Rebekah's wedding. She's been trying to reach me for a few weeks."
Just like that Caroline watches a lightbulb turn on above Marcel's head. "You're Caroline," he states as he quickly moves towards the stairs with wonder in his eyes. "Klaus told me about you over a decade ago, I just didn't put the pieces together when you said friend of Klaus's that's been gone. Man you have no idea the things he said about you when we got drunk enough for your name to come up." Marcel pauses seeing the confusion on Caroline's face. "Look, Klaus took off to Virginia about a month ago freaking out over something when Hope called. He left and came back a week later not saying a word about this impromptu trip, but he was more angry than usual Klaus angry."
Marcel's words trail off as he recalls the memory of Klaus returning to the crescent city and destroying one of the many rooms in this home. "Yeah it was because of me," Caroline looks down at the floor suddenly feeling like girly little Caroline once again. She closed her eyes trying to refocus on the situation at hand which was to find Klaus and the nearest blood bag.
"I assumed so, and Hope's spent a lot of time lately with Freya doing locator spells."
Caroline scoffs, "I know one of the rooms smelled like a candle shop when I walked in it...well my exact words were a temple but that's not the point." She blushes slightly as her babbling quickly ceases. "Are the blood bags around?" The blonde quickly places her hand on the railing of the balcony in hopes to hold herself steady, and that's when Marcel notices her blood stained clothes that were ripped beyond repair.
"What happened to you?" He questions as he examines her ragged state. Marcel pays close attention to her pale skin just close enough to be turning grey from desiccation. "How are you even walking right now," he mutters under his breath before quickly flashing the blonde to the kitchen where a fridge stocked full of blood bags were held.
She takes the fresh blood gratefully and quickly downs the whole bag and realizes she'll need a lot more than one or two bags to satiate her hunger. If she wanted to refrain from murdering anyone else anytime soon she'd have to drink several bags, "so are you going to tell me where Klaus is off to?" Caroline peers up from her second blood bag with curious eyes.
Marcel sighs and leans against the marble countertops as he rubs a hand down his face. "They're all out looking for you. Something about they finally got the locator spell to work today."
The blonde drops her empty blood bag on the table quickly and flashes around the compound in search of where they could have gone. "Where are they!" She screams in frustration upon finding no map, no phone, not a single hint of where they were heading to.
Klaus increases the panic of everyone in the car as he speeds out of the city. His brother checks his watch every few seconds begging silently that nothing would happen to his sister and niece, all the whilst his hand has a firm grip on Hayley's who merely stares out the window at the quickly changing scenery.
Isaac on the other hand was a wreck. He didn't even know why he was so distraught over this, and the wolf hadn't even known Hope that long. Against his normal judgement and instinct he felt the need to protect her, to find her and lock her away if he had to - which the brown eyed boy was sure Hope's father would agree with - just to keep her safe.
"Take a left up ahead," Hayley states breaking the silence as Klaus quickly whips the vehicle across a lane of traffic and pulls out in front of other cars to make the turn faster. "Klaus," she warns.
"Shut it Hayley, if you were driving we wouldn't be there for another hour. Thanks to my reckless driving we shaved half an hour off our time, and we've also evaded several police officers." The hybrid smirks at his last words but quickly returns to his stoic state of concentration. Speeding down the new road that was bringing them closer to their family.
Hope and Freya had wandered through the cabin to find a door that took them deep underground into a hidden area. Now the two Mikaelson witches were maneuvering through the stone walled area hoping they weren't setting off any alarms. "Aunt Freya," her voice trails off as the reach a long set of cells and discover one with the door wide open.
The pair approach the cell and discover chains on the walls along with an opened wooden box sitting by one of the walls. Slowly and cautiously they enter the caged area, "she was here I can sense her but she's been gone for a while."
"But she was here that's something right?" Hope wishes that they could've walked into this place and found her friend, been the heroes and rescued her. Happily ever after, and the end, but apparently that wasn't the plan as the cell door slams shut behind them and they begin to cough at the smoke the fills the area.
"Hope," her aunt calls out to the young witch through the smoke as she spots her niece on her knees attempting to breathe through the toxic fog. "It's lobelia." Freya mangages to cough out the words before losing consciousness in the smoke. Unbeknownst to her or Hope that their family had just arrived to rescue them.
Marcel spent the last 15 minutes watching a strange blonde woman, who just so happened to be Caroline (but he wouldn't even approach that deep rooted topic yet), frantically run around the Mikaelson compound in search of clues. The sun was quickly rising as a new day was dawning and the vampire found herself retreating to the shadows with the lack of a daylight ring putting her in a tight spot. Just as he was about to reach insanity from her behavior, Marcel's saving grace enters. "Marcellus? What are you doing here, I thought you'd be with Nik or out looking for Hope." Rebekah states as she looks from her former lover to the blonde tattered up vampire that slowly approached the edge of the balcony.
"Hi Rebekah."
"Oh my God. You're actually alive, bloody hell Caroline." The blonde original vampire flashed upstairs to get a closer look at the woman who'd been an enigma in her family's life the past month. "Also that whole coated in blood thing isn't a good look for you," she jokes which causes Caroline to laugh lightly for the first time in what felt like forever.
"Yeah I had planned on changing and taking a long bath when I got here, but then I was told that Hope and Freya left searching for me?" Caroline's confusion as to why the two witches would be so stupid astounds her. "Also where the hell is Ingrid?"
Rebekah smiles, "you've missed a lot in the last month or so."
"It's been a month?" Caroline runs her fingers through her matted her while trying to get a sense of time back. She'd been gone for a month, and probably longer than that considering she was trapped in someone else's body for at least a week. "I didn't know it'd been that long. There was almost no sense of time where I was. Hours turned into minutes after a while and everything blurred together."
She watched as Rebekah's look turns sympathetic and it was something she never pictured coming from the blonde original especially if it was directed at her. "Ingrid is off with Kol at the moment in search of you or Hope and Freya. Whoever finds you guys first so everyone split up. Stefan and I were scoping out the bayou area for clues but we couldn't find anything. So now he's heading to find Ingrid and Kol, and I came back here."
Caroline stands for a minute ignoring the droning voice of Rebekah Mikaelson as she thinks over what spell the two witches could've used to get a location. Then it dawns on her, the spell Kyros taught her would be the key to finding Hope and Freya. Before she could say a word to the two vampires before her the blonde flashes to the room that still smelled of strong incense from when Freya was there.
"What are you doing Caroline?" The original questions as she stands in the doorway watching her blonde counterpart move around the room to position candles and other objects.
"I'm going to track Freya and Hope," she states nonchalantly before refocusing on the task at hand.
Marcel who had joined them upstairs scoffs at her words. "That's insane. Vampires can't do magic blondie, everyone knows that."
"Tell that to the heretics I've met," Caroline murders under her breath whilst sitting down and concentrating. She centers herself focusing in just like Kyros had taught her recently and suddenly the candles in the room are all lit and burning brightly.
"How the hell…" Marcel states in amazement as he circles around looking at the large amount of candles that had just spontaneously lit. "Ok then do your thing blondie."
The room grows silent as Caroline recites the spell she'd learned to track down the mystery guy from earlier. Marcel and Rebekah stand back watching as the candles burn brighter and the wind picks up in the room suddenly. Caroline picks up a knife and sliced her hand letting the blood drip onto a map and mixes it with something the other vampires couldn't name.
"It's done. Let's go Marcel," she stands to her feet gathering a bag of some supplies before walking towards the door.
Rebekah stops them before they could exit the room," how is it done? I didn't see anything on the map that indicated where my niece and sister are." The frustration in her voice is evident which causes Caroline to keep her temper at bay.
"That's because the spell wasn't for the map to show me a location. It linked my mind briefly to give me visions of where they are...it's all in here," she taps her head before looking down at her clothes. "Do you or Freya have any clothes that I can borrow so I don't look like death."
Ingrid wanders around New Orleans just a few steps ahead of Kol who keeps a watchful eye on the pretty redhead as well as their surroundings. Ever since the pair had first spoken their connection had remained, and surprisingly enough the vampire wasn't going to deny that connection. He had no intention to, and somewhere deep inside he hoped Ingrid felt the electricity as well. "Why are we out here anyways Kol? If Hope and Freya were going to find Caroline I highly doubt she'd be hidden in New Orleans."
Her voice brings the Mikaelson out of his trance and refocuses his attention. He quickly surveys the area once more before speaking, "they probably didn't want you to tag along on their rescue mission. Apparently being human around here isn't an asset, just as Camille."
"Who?" Ingrid questions back wondering who the other girl with a 'C' for a name was. According to Kol's comment she was human and not an asset to Mikaelson missions. 'Well how helpful,' she thinks to herself wondering about the role she had to play in all of this. Was she really just some orphan girl who happened to be at the right place at the wrong time? Deep down the woman inside her that longed for adventure and her life to have more meaning than something mundane hoped that she had a bigger role to play in this story. The other part of her on the surface bubbling free loved the safety of humanity, and that's where she really wanted to stay...for now at least.
Kol's fingers snapping in front of her face pull her from her thoughts as they stop on a random street corner. "Little red don't tell me you daydream this often," he smirks as his eyes brighten with excitement from the wonder filled eyes that stared back at him. All of that came crashing down quickly though as someone approached them from the street.
"Atara," the man says as he stares at Ingrid who merely stares back at him confused. "Sorry I meant to say Ingrid, but your aura truly is just like hers."
"Who are you," she questions as Kol moves to stand slightly in front of her. The overwhelming feeling of safety brings warmth to her, but the adrenaline of danger has a similar feel that brings her body into a battle without her knowledge or consent.
The man holds his hands up in mock surrender, "I am only here to warn you and to be of assistance."
"Then talk. Before you lose your tongue," Kol's words are filled with venom that immediately frighten the man who seemed to be some type of witch and knew immediately who Kol was.
"The Teacher is here in Louisiana, he is the one who had Caroline. He's here for all of you and he won't stop until what he wants is in his hands. You are the only one that can prepare them with what's to come, only you can show the rest what they need to know. Defeat him or we will all be damned." Before Ingrid could ask any questions the man steps back into the main road and into oncoming traffic.
As the mystery man lays dead in the street all Ingrid can think about is how her hunch that she was truly involved with this story on a deeper level was right. The only question was how did she fit.
Back at the compound Caroline had taken the fastest shower she'd ever had and changed into a fresh pair of clothes that belonged to Freya. As she stands in simple jeans and a dark colored blouse she attempts to wipe the blood stains off of her scalp as much as possible. To her dismay it doesn't work as well as she'd like and time wasn't on her side at the moment - and so she quickly decided to leave the blood as is and deal with it later.
"Rebekah told me you were here," a familiar voice comes from the doorway of the room she was in and chills immediately go down her spine. It had been years since that voice had spoken directly to her, and even longer since she'd imagined seeing him again. "I just didn't know if I should even say something, but when I thought you were dead all I could remember was the last time we spoke."
Caroline sighs as she turns to face the person she'd given up on love over. "Stefan…" her voice trails off as she closes her eyes allowing the memories to sink back in for just a moment. After the moment passes she shuts the emotions for him off and locks them up tight to be dealt with later. "Can we please just have this conversation later? I need to leave and find Hope."
As she goes to leave the room he grasps onto her arm to stop her, "no I just need to say this. When you were dead it broke me, and even before that in Paris I was broken. It took me almost a decade to love someone, to open up to anyone that deeply again." He runs his fingers through his hair as he becomes flustered, "what I'm trying to say I guess is that you get this incredible second chance. Don't let your walls stop you from being happy."
"I have to find Hope," those were the only words Caroline to spill out as she shakes her arm free of Stefan's hold and exits the room. She finds Marcel in the car outside waiting for her. "I'm driving."
"Like hell you are, this is my baby. I have taken care of this car and kept it together for years now, no way am I letting you drive it on a rescue mission." Marcel sits protectively in the driver's seat staring at the blonde who merely stands staring at him.
She taps her foot impatiently whilst crossing her arms, "if this car is such an important relic then why even bring it at all? You're a vampire I'm sure you could get anything you wanted. So get out and switch because only I know where we're going." Marcel sighs reluctantly and unbuckles his seatbelt, "come on we don't have all day." As soon as he sits in the passenger seat Caroline is pressing the gas and darting out of the city towards the interstate.
In that moment Marcel's phone rings as the pair enter the ramp for the interstate that would lead them to Hope and Freya. As the vampire answers the phone the tension in the car increases tenfold while Caroline worries over her two Mikaelson friends and Marcel talks on the phone to the one Mikaelson she didn't necessarily care to hear from right then.
"Marcellus please tell me you've found something," Klaus states as he furiously kicks a tree in the abandoned area they stood at. The location they'd driven hours to get to was empty of Hope, Freya and Caroline - and all that did for the hybrid was increase his anger and thirst for blood.
A sigh is heard from the other line as Isaac, Hayley, and Elijah listen in to the conversation on speaker phone. "Actually we did, we're heading to a location now that we believe Hope and Freya are at...I'll send you the address.
Confusion crosses the faces of the vampires and hybrids staring at the phone, "who is the we that you are referring to Marcel?" Hayley questions as she scrunches her eyebrows waiting for an answer.
"He's referring to me, but I'm currently driving and following random visions of a location of Hope and Freya." The voice that comes through the phone shocks the hybrids standing there, but the wolf and elder Mikaelson who are more unfamiliar with the voice wait for the others reactions.
"Caroline…" Klaus is the first to speak as he feels his heart begin to beat at a rapid pace that he hasn't felt in a long time. "How - how are you with Marcel?"
She sighs on the other end of the line and Klaus can sense the tension through the phone, "that's a long story for another time. Let's shoot for after we find Hope and Freya. I'll have Marcel send you the location." Her words are short and the people listening in on their conversation could sense the history pooling between them.
Luckily Marcel turns his phone off of speaker mode and refocuses the hybrid on why he called. "Yeah we're heading about an hour or so away from you guys from what I can tell."
"What exactly gave you the location you're going to Marcel," the original questions as he still holds out for the hope that Caroline would want to stay once they rescued Hope and Freya, but that was a topic for a later time.
The sound of Marcel clearing his throat on the phone spikes the interest of the group of 4 parked near an abandoned building, "Caroline actually located them." Sensing the Mikaelsons on the line not following him, he elaborates. "She showed up at the compound about an hour or so ago looking for you Klaus, and when I told her - after a little interrogation - that you were looking for Hope and Freya she went into panic mode."
"Get to the point Marcellus," Elijah states as he straightens his suit out and climbs back into the well air-conditioned car.
"What I'm saying is blondie here isn't just vampire because she managed to do a locator spell on Hope and Freya and is now following their trail through some form of psychic visions."
"Send me the address and we will see you there," Hayley states as she quickly takes the phone from Klaus and hangs up leaving the two hybrids staring at each other in momentary anger as the worry bubbling beneath the surface for their family takes a backseat. "Don't let Caroline distract you from what we're trying to do Klaus."
"And how would she do that Hayley? We are all working towards a common goal to rescue Freya and Hope - our family. Caroline is willing to help with that and is currently risking herself to find them, may I remind you that she recently died and who knows what she's endured the last month." Klaus glares at the mother of his child whilst attempting to cool off from the fact that in just a short period of time he would see Caroline for the first time since he buried her body.
Hayley sighs and runs her hands through her hair in frustration. "You don't see it like I do Klaus. She is helping and I am grateful for that, but it's been 20 years since you last saw Caroline. A lot has changed for everyone since then, and like it or not she's not the same Caroline we knew back in Mystic Falls. Who knows what she's been up to for the last two decades, and I'm willing to bet if it came down to it she would abandon us all to save her own skin. Katherine taught her that when she was first turned and it will always be a vampire's instinct when it comes to people who aren't family."
"Are you done now or are we going to stand here and argue over this ridiculous topic instead of driving towards our daughter?" Klaus scoffs as he marches away and climbs in the car not caring to see if Hayley follows him. At this moment he could care less if she stayed behind
and walked home. But deep down, he knew she was right.
It was cold and the sound of water dripping is what Hope first woke to. The feeling of the cold and hard metal chains around her wrists and ankles immediately increased her discomfort, but when she looked up and saw Freya sitting across from her in a similar position her panic increased. "Aunt Freya," she calls out hoping that her miracle working aunt would find a way to get them out of this.
Freya groans and rolls her head to the side as it dangles down with her chin touching her chest. The witch had taken a harder reaction to the smoke that had incapacitated them earlier. "Please wake up, we need to get out of here." Hope's pleading voice is what slowly brings the blonde Mikaelson awake to stare at a worried set of light blue eyes gazing back into her own eyes. "Freya," her niece speaks once more as the witch's hearing re-centers and her vision becomes a little less blurry.
"Hope?" She's weak and any sense of magic within has been shut off due to the effects of the herb they'd inhaled. "Where are we," she questions as her head moves around to examine her own chains and the cold stone walls. A single window sits high up towards the ceiling allowing a little light into the room, and it's just enough to tell them that the sun had risen to the point of mid-day...maybe.
"We're in the place Caroline was held at I think." She pauses biting her lower lip attempting to be the strong Mikaelson she'd always tried to be. "I think this was all a trap by the guy that took Caroline, but I don't know why he'd want us."
Freya hisses slightly as a sharp pain ignites from her arm. Pushing up her sleeve reveals a small needle mark that must've happened between their capture and waking up. "I think we have another problem. Check your arms." Just as the witch suspected a similar needle mark could be found on Hope, "if I'm right this is probably poison or some form of a hallucinogenic. Either way our window to find a way out has shorted drastically."
A shuffling sound is heard from nearby as the pair immediately grow quiet to listen, "hello. Is anybody there?" A voice questions that has Freya attempting to stand up, but of course the chains would only allow her to go so far.
"Brett!" She calls out as her eyes widen when he responds to her voice with a panicked reaction. Hope merely looks up with the same wide eyed look asking silently why the Brett that her aunt's been seeing would be trapped in a cell just beside them. "How are you here Brett?"
"Uh I don't even know." He sounds so confused and afraid that the blonde sits down wondering why she even thought she could have happiness with a normal guy. "One minute I was in a parking garage heading to my car and the next thing I knew these guys were giving me a killer headache. They said something about a girl that got away and then...they were told to kill me. Did I die? Is this like the afterlife?"
Freya chuckles at the confused human wishing she could see something other than a stone wall that was separating them. "No you're not dead, but I have no idea how exactly you're alive if they did kill you." She wonders if his ability to not die is somehow linked to Caroline's stories of her own deaths. "Hope could you possibly use the connection I share with Brett to give us access to each other?"
"What are you going to do?" The young witch questions skeptically as she recalls all the times Brett and Freya had spent together and 99% of it involved a bedroom and not leaving it for hours. Confused at her aunt's plan, but cooperative, Hope takes Freya's hand.
Immediately Hope is met with a tingling sensation as visions flash through her mind. She shakes loose of her hold on Freya and backs away as far as the wall and chains would allow. "No…"
Driving down the road with Marcel silent beside her was a relief considering the phone conversation she had thoroughly avoided just a short while ago. After all she did technically come to the French Quarter specifically searching for Klaus, but when the opportunity to talk to him presented itself she was closed off. Whether she wanted to admit it or not the two of them shared a deeper connection, but of course Caroline didn't care to admit that and she probably wouldn't for a long time.
The silence welcomed all these rushing thoughts of Klaus and freed her from the constant wondering about Kyros and the stories he'd told her for weeks. At this point she had no idea if he was even telling the truth, but he'd also showed her about a magic she didn't know she had. It was all too confusing to deal with anytime soon, and just like the Klaus topic the blonde neatly packed them away and put them on a shelf in her mind to deal with at a much later time.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Marcel finally speaks up looking over at the blonde vampire/witch whatever who seemed so lost in thought as she mindless made turns down roads they were both unfamiliar with.
She shakes her head, "I'm good but thanks."
"I don't think you are, and we're about to walk into who knows what. If I can't trust my partner in rescue crime how can I go into this?" Marcel raises his brows at Caroline and realizes he'd actually grown to like her personality over the past few hours. She was definitely an anomaly in the vampire department, but she also had managed to catch the attention of Klaus Mikaelson and she reminded him a lot of something he once saw in himself centuries ago.
"Fine you want to know where my thoughts are? I really want to rescue Hope and skip town because I don't feel like handling the long talks about 'last loves' and 'however long it takes' crap with Klaus." She slaps her hands against the leather steering wheel in exasperation before refocusing on the road.
The 250 year old vampire stared at her skeptically before shaking his head at her mini-rant. "Are you quoting Klaus on that stuff or just making it up? I've never in my life heard words like that come from him though so I'd probably assume the second option."
"Nope," she states popping the 'p' and letting silence follow her for a moment. "He said all that trust me. It was when I was a lot younger and didn't know anything about the world or living. Somehow he claimed to have fallen for me and told me that he intended to be my last love however long it takes. So for the past 20 years I've had that promise looming over my head, and that's exactly why I refuse to do the whole dating/romance thing anymore."
"Why? Because you're waiting to be his last love?"
"No because he makes those promises and ruins everything." Caroline rolls her eyes as Marcel looks at her and examines the words they'd shared briefly.
"I think you avoid romance because you know someday you're going to accept his promise of last love. And you're afraid that when you do he'll have moved on and broken his promise. We're a lot alike Caroline."
"How so oh wise sidekick?"
"I grew up around the Mikaelson family. They rescued me from being a slave over 200 years ago and I was barely 10 years old when they took me in. Over the years I spent getting to know each of them I grew especially attached to Rebekah, and I even vowed at one point that someday I would marry her." He chuckles at the irony considering he was a groomsman in her wedding recently. "Obviously things changed after a few centuries, but my point is that after Rebekah I didn't have lovers. There were flings or whatever you want to call them, but no one that I could connect to. I understand you had that with Stefan at some point and then something went down that ended things. Don't let fear of being alone in the future ruin your chance at happiness in the present."
Marcel returns to face forward in his seat and remains silent for the rest of the drive. Leaving Caroline to think over his words, specifically about happiness and how similar those words had been to what Stefan had said before she'd left the compound today. Happiness and love were things she hadn't known for a while, and as long as Kyros was at large she deemed it fair that she didn't have that.
A few hours had passed since Freya and Hope had awakened and in that time Hope remained silent staring at her aunt and letting tears roll down her cheeks. During this time Freya had attempted to break the news of the supernatural universe to Brett as gently as possible, and then the silence returned when someone came and took Brett from his cell.
"The fever should set in soon, and there's a chance we could experience hallucinations of some form. It's almost like a werewolf bite for witches if I'm right." Freya states as she looks down at the mark on her arm and then back at her niece who just stares at her. "What did you see Hope? Please just tell me, we can't do this whole silent treatment thing right now."
Shaking her head the tears roll down at a faster rate now, "I don't want to say it because I don't want it to be real. It can't be right." Freya watches Hope as she recalls seeing her niece's eyes turn a silver color when she touched Freya earlier. Sighing and attempting to collect her emotions, Hope knows her aunt is right. "When I touched you I had these flashes. One was from a really long time ago and you were pregnant and then you drank something...I guess it was poison because then when you woke up you were alive but you weren't pregnant anymore." Hope trails off as Freya recalls the same memories of when Dahlia had taken the first person she'd loved in her long lifetime.
"Then it changed, and we were here in the cell. There was a full moon rising, and you were dead. My eyes were glowing too...I think I had triggered my curse." Hope stares at Freya with fear, worry, and so many other emotions running through her.
"The full moon's tonight Hope," she states looking up at the light that seeped through the small window. It wouldn't be too long before the moon began to rise. "I think I know what that vision meant, but you're not going to like it."
Hope shakes her head at the one woman she'd spent her whole life with that understood magic. Kol of course had been there but he couldn't practice with her, and her mom just did the wolf thing. Her dad had always just been there teaching her art and about the world just like uncle Elijah had done when she was younger and learning things she was supposed to go to school for. Through it all Freya had been there, been the one she could make magic with. The one who understood her weird dreams when she woke up in the middle of the night. She couldn't...no she wouldn't die.
"Hope there is poison flooding our system right now. We don't have long to go either way, but if you trigger your curse your body will fight off the poison. Especially since it's a full moon. You'll heal faster and you can get out of here."
"No! I'm not doing it, there has to be another way." Hope shakes her head ready to explode and scream at her aunt, at anyone really. Even Caroline for even stepping into their lives. She wanted to blame someone for this predicament, but really her idiot teenage decisions got them here. When she realizes this the tears come in at full force, "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry Freya. This is all my fault." She mutters the same phrases repeatedly knowing that if they'd called for help things could be different.
"Hey, hey none of that right now missy. You're going to be just fine and I will be too. I've lived long enough and I know that if I can get you out of here by dying then it'll be alright." Freya smiles at her niece for a moment and then chooses to change the subject. "If this truly is to be my last hours I think we should have the last words talk."
Hope laughs letting her head lay back against the stone walls, "well then can I just say one thing. Brett totally doesn't deserve to lose you. He cares about you, like genuinely does not just for late night booty calls."
"You're not supposed to know what that means."
"I'm 18 aunt Freya, I've seen movies and heard all of you at some point in our house." Hope laughs when the elder Mikaelson blushes for a brief moment.
Freya sighs and looks at her niece in a serious tone. "Don't ever do drugs and drinking isn't all that fun, but if you decide to drink don't drive. Also don't go home with strangers after drinking that's almost always a bad choice." Then she looks at her niece who seems to be sweating at this point, and both of them realize more time had passed and the sun was setting in the sky slowly.
The elder witch quickly refocuses on her niece who's attempting to listen to all of the words of wisdom being poured into her. "There will come a day when you fall in love. And he or she will be perfect in every way for you. Whatever you do don't introduce them to your father for a very long time firstly, but secondly don't be afraid to show them who you are. Always be yourself my darling niece because you are unique and special in every way possible." Freya manages to meet Hope halfway across the room and place a gentle hand on her niece's cheek. "I also see the way Isaac looks at you, and the way you look at him when neither of you think the other is looking. He cares too, and don't let anyone stop you from having a first love. He may not be your last love, but first loves are always epic and unforgettable."
Hope smiles through her feverish mind knowing that she would always treasure her aunt no matter where they went. "Please don't leave me. I'm not ready," she pleads reaching to hug Freya as best as she could with the chains around them.
"It'll be ok Hope. You'll get out of here and then give them all hell for this. You are a Mikaelson, don't ever forget that." Freya looks up once more as the sun is setting quickly, "do it now." She nods to Hope knowing it had to be now or the fever would kill them both soon.
She squints her eyes shut as her lip trembles and her hands reach for Freya's neck. A sickening snap is heard a few minutes later followed by Hope's eyes opening in a glowing yellow color and her screams echoing throughout the dungeons.
Caroline parks the car and runs towards the cabin that she'd recognized from her visions. Marcel was hot on her trails as they heard another car pull up that had been speeding towards the location. Hayley and Klaus jump out of the car first leaving the car running as Elijah and Isaac follow at a slower pace.
The blonde vampire pays no attention to the group following her through the cabin towards that door that led to the underground bunker. She pauses momentarily and looked through the window of a room that held a single table, a set of chains, and blood that stained the walls. Visions of the weeks she'd spent in that room being tortured in various ways for hours at a time shook through her. Though at the sound of sobs coming from a distance, Caroline flashed towards them.
Klaus on the other hand pauses to look into that room as well. Seeing the room he knew why Caroline stopped, and his stomach dropped at the thought that she'd spent weeks here. Now his daughter and sister were here for mere hours. He'd never felt this weak and powerless in his life, and the hybrid would gladly and openly admit he hated this feeling.
He's pulled away from the gorey sight by Elijah who slowly leads Klaus down the corridor Caroline had went down. "Hope," they hear Caroline's voice come from afar and Klaus stops when he sees the blonde standing outside of a cell staring in. The hybrid immediately flashes towards the door to see his daughter sitting in chains with his sisters head in her lap.
Freya's neck had been twisted at an awkward angle and the original immediately knew her neck was snapped. "I did it. Please, please please come back aunt Freya." Hope sobs as she brushes her aunts hair from her face begging whatever was out there to give her back her aunt. It was too late though.
The night passed in a very eventful way. Hope had triggered her curse on a full moon and was rushed to an isolated wooded area where Hayley kept a close eye on her for her first turn. In the time following their discovery of Freya's body, Caroline and the remaining people had searched the dungeons thoroughly. The blonde had entered the cell that once belonged to her and taken the box she'd left behind with her. Luckily she found a daylight ring from years ago that Bonnie had made to slip on for the meantime.
When the group had finally arrived home there was complete chaos from the rest of the Mikaelsons as well as Vincent upon hearing the news of Freya's death. The days after returning home flowed into one big mess of sympathy visits, Caroline baking and cleaning a lot, and a funeral for the fallen Mikaelson witch in classic viking style.
Hope now sits on her bed staring at the floor and holding the last gift Freya had given her. It was a necklace with a special stone in it that was for her 18th birthday. She now clutched it close to her wishing it would somehow manifest her aunt and erase the past several days. "Too many people have died," she mutters to the blonde who stood in her doorway now.
She doesn't look up at Caroline walks into her room and gently sits beside Hope on the bed. Placing at hand on Hope's knee the vampire attempts to comfort her as best she could. "Loss never gets easier, but I can promise you that the pain does hurt less over time. I didn't believe that at first when I lost my mom, but here I am 20 years later and I still miss her...but it doesn't hurt like it did."
"I wanted to blame someone. You for bringing all of this to us, my family for having so many enemies and always believing we were invincible. I want to blame anyone for this, and even Freya for seeing this was the only way. The truth is though that if I had just waited and called for backup that she wouldn't be dead. So this is my fault."
Caroline shakes her head and takes hold of Hope's hand, "none of this is your fault Hope. This is Kyros, everything that has happened is his fault. It's been his plan from day one, and he's been making us his puppets for too long now."
"Someone needs to pay for this. Freya was to good for this kind of death."
"Then let's make him pay," Caroline states as Hope looks up for the first time at the blonde with tears in her eyes.
"How?"
"That my sweet magical Mikaelson is my cue to tell you a story. It's about a man named Kyros who was once the teacher of 5 students. It's a tale of how he was willing to sacrifice the people he called family for power, and how they allowed this event to change the course of supernatural history forever. It's called the story of the Fates."
Ok this was literally such a long chapter, and I had been planning it from the beginning so please don't hate me for it.
Another storm is coming so I was trying to get this done before that. As always I don't own TVD/TO and please comment, follow and favorite.
Always and Forever