Thank you for all the reviews and follows!

I couldn't wait to post this for you all!

Points to anyone who can spot the Teen Wolf reference!

lifePrice1412: You'll find out who the shadowy figure is in this chapter!

musicluver246: Thanks!

katitat: Thank you, I didn't want to make this the typical, 'the outsider knows everything and fixes it immediately' fic, things have to go wrong, Maya needs to be challenged in order to make this more interesting. Plus the character has only been in TVDU for 14 years, she needs to make mistakes in order to grow, and I figured that if she knew everything that was going to happen, and didn't tell Klaus, it wouldn't be something that he could forgive.

And with Jenna, she was never given a chance to be a real parental figure to Elena and Jeremy, and we never got to see her real reaction to all the lies that had piled up around her. It didn't make sense to me that Klaus killed Jenna as part of the sacrifice, Elena came willingly in the end, and Damon was the one who screwed things up, so Damon should have been the one who felt the most hurt, and Elena never even referred to the fact that because of Damon her aunt was dead in the place of her friend. That was a bit of a cold reaction considering that Jenna wasn't just her family, she was the only other living connection to Elena's mother, apart from Jeremy.

Guest16: Thanks! I gotta have Maya and Nik form a bond sooner rather than later, because they're going to need each other to face all the other bad guys that are coming.

Disclaimer: don't own anything you recognise.

this - flashback scene

It was had been about six months until her 15th Birthday, when Maya started to get strange dreams, they weren't the prophetic dreams/memories that she had been used to getting since she was a child. These were dreams filled with magic and death, dreams of a dark figure that was reaching out for her, and it was terrifying, these were nightmares. She had no idea what was happening to her, but as she got closer and closer to her birthday the nightmares were getting worse, so bad in fact that she was waking up screaming. Her terror so great, and screams so loud that they woke her mother, who's room was on the other side of their new house.

"MAYA! MAYA! Baby wake up!" Jenna shook her daughter awake.

"Mum!"

"Baby what happened? What's going on?"

"Mum they're getting worse, I don't know what's happening to me, and I can't stop it." She was crying. Her whole life she'd been a step ahead, she'd had a plan, but whatever this was, whatever was trying to pry its way into her brain, she didn't know what it was, why it was there, and what it was doing to her. But she'd never been so afraid in her life, and this was the first time she didn't know what to do.

"Its okay baby," Jenna said, holding the girl close to her chest, "we'll figure this out, whatever it is, we'll stop it." Jenna wasn't a witch, or a werewolf, or a vampire, she wasn't anything supernatural, but her daughter was, and it didn't matter, she would find a way to help Maya, no matter what.

It had been 5 days since Maya had woken her mother up screaming that first time, and every night since, had been the same, she didn't know any silencing spells that would stay in effect whilst she slept so she couldn't keep how bad they actually were from Jenna. Which was a problem, because her mother was not very good at hiding her worry.

Maya had spent the last few days of the school week and the weekend at home, trying to figure out what was going on in her head. It was difficult and slow-going, she didn't have any ancestors to call upon for guidance, and the ones that were hovering around Mystic Falls would sooner lead her to her death, than help her. Enzo and Damon had sent her a few grimoires that they had picked up while on their travels, but there was nothing about the shadowy spectre that was clawing its way past her skull and into her brain.

So, she did what most people her age did when they had a question, she turned to the internet. It was Monday morning, and she was fully intent on staying at home once again, this time on her computer, while she tried to figure out what was wrong with her. And that is exactly where Jenna found her when she walked into her daughter's room that morning.

Maya sat at her desk, hunched over her laptop, eyes focused on nothing but the screen, sighing Jenna moved further into the room and spoke, "God please go to school."

"I have got way too many things to research today," Maya replied, refusing to take her eyes off the screen.

"I'm not going to beg you," Jenna said, rubbing a hand over her exhausted face (her daughter wasn't the only once losing sleep over Maya's nightmares).

"Okay good, I'm impervious to your influence anyway," she shrugged.

"Would you consider a bribe?" Jenna offered.

"You couldn't meet my price."

"Extortion?" she asked.

"You got nothing on me," Maya gave a little shake of her head.

"Yeah, you're right," Jenna agreed, before she grabbed the back of Maya's desk chair, glad the thing was on wheels, and started to drag her daughter away from the computer.

"Mum what are you doing?" Maya asked, looking back at her mother who continued to pull, "Mum, what are you doing?" her hands scrambled for her laptop but it was too late, her mother had pulled her too far back, she was leaning too far forward, and she was running on too little sleep, "What are-Owe!" she cried as she fell out the chair.

Jenna stood over her with an unimpressed look, "Go to school."

"Alright!" she cried out, pulling herself from the floor with a huff, heading towards the bathroom.

"And don't think I won't check in with the school to make sure!" Jenna called as she walked out of Maya's room. The truth was she had a meeting with the Occult Studies Professor at Duke University, with the hopes that they would have some information on what was happening to her daughter. Jenna couldn't go to the Professor on Whitmore Campus, because it was Sheila Bennett, and while she was more than certain that the Bennett Witch could probably help, she knew for a fact that Sheila wouldn't. Jenna shook her head and headed out to her car, trying to ignore the memory of her encounter with Sheila on Maya's 14th birthday.

Flashback – 2006

Jenna was rushing to the bakery to pick up Maya's birthday cake, it was her daughter's 14th birthday and she was running terribly behind. Miranda had offered to help, but Jenna felt bad, as even though Jeremy was invited, Elena was not. She still didn't know why their children hated each other but she couldn't do much about it, even though she wished that it wasn't the case. Maya tried to make it easy on her mother, knowing how much Jenna loved her sister Miranda, she always tried to remain perfectly polite on family game nights, going out of her way to avoid an altercation with Elena, by sticking with Jeremy, but somehow, the two girls would always end up fighting.

In any case, it meant that Jenna was running her daughter's party on her own, Bill Forbes was helping but had been called in to work for an emergency, and Liz was too busy dealing with an 'animal attack' to help (thank you very much for that Damon). Maya's party was due to start in an hour, she had to pick up the cake and then get Maya and Caroline to the party venue before the other guests started arriving. Jenna almost flew into the bakery and crashed headfirst into Sheila Bennett.

"God I'm sor-" Jenna cut herself off when she saw who she'd bumped into, "Mrs Bennett," Jenna said, straightening herself up.

"Jenna," Sheila replied, "Running late?"

Jenna scowled, "I'm picking up the cake for Maya's birthday. Bonnie wasn't invited, but I don't think that you're too broken up about it." She said, as much as she had wanted to confront the older Bennett when she found out that she'd threatened her daughter, Maya had been so terrified that Sheila would do something that she couldn't. But Maya was older now, more confident in her use of magic, and Jenna wasn't about to let Sheila think that she could go around threatening a child, especially her child.

Sheila's eyes narrowed, "Maya may be your daughter, but she's an abomination, she shouldn't exist, but as long as she doesn't have magic, she's just a leach with no juice. So I'll do you a favour Miss Sommers, as long as she stays away from my granddaughter, as long as she stays away from magic, she won't have anything to fear from me."

Shelia must have been under the misconception that Maya didn't know magic already, Jenna thought to herself, granted her daughter had gone to great lengths to keep her use of magic a secret, since Maya had gotten her 'talisman' as she called it, she only ever practised in the basement in their home. Not to mention Maya had killed the tomb vampires, closed that place back up and made it look like nothing had ever happened there in the first place. Jenna took a step closer to the Bennett Witch, "Let me make myself clear, I don't care who you are, I don't care what you are, and I definitely don't care how powerful you think you are. My daughter is off limits, and if you ever try to hurt her, if you try to tell anyone about her, if you so much as breathe in her direction, I will personally make sure, that this town goes back to its old ways. I heard they used to burn witches in the 1800s, I'll ensure your precious granddaughter, is the first one tied to a pyre." Moving back, Jenna turned around to go up to the counter, "I swear to you Sheila, if anything happens to my little girl, you will pay."

End Flashback

Jenna was a bright, bubbly, fun loving woman, but it turned out, that threatening the one thing, the one person that she cared that most about, brought about the beast in her.

After school, Jenna still wasn't back from her meeting at Duke, so Caroline and Maya were alone at home, Maya was desperate to stay awake as she was terrified to be dragged into another nightmare, and Caroline was determined to figure out what was trying to hurt her best friend. Even though there was nothing supernatural about her, didn't mean that she couldn't help her best friend, after all, she was Caroline Forbes, queen of research.

The girls were sat at the kitchen counter, the best place for them in order to keep Maya awake, plus she was ensuring that her Sunshine remained well fed and watered, she did not want to have to deal with a hungry Caroline, especially not whilst she was so sleep deprived. "We've been over this a thousand times already Sunshine," Maya said, "I don't see how going over it again is going to help."

"We have to go over this again," Caroline stressed, "There must be something we missed," she wasn't taking no for an answer, "So first things first, when did you get the first nightmare?"

Maya groaned and rubbed her hand over her face, she was exhausted and so not in the mood to go over this again, "I dunno like six months ago," she shrugged.

"Okay, so what were we doing six months ago?"

"Um you and I were working on your Cheerleading routine for try-outs, Mum was practicing her psychology on Enzo and Damon, both of them have serious issues by the way, and uh, Nik and I had just had a discussion on where the best place for a vacation was."

"Ok so- wait, you and Klaus are on vacationing conversations? Since when do you know each other that well?"

"Well he woke his siblings, and whilst they all agreed to stay together, they're not particularly happy with him, so he's been calling me more recently, I think he likes having someone to talk to that he hasn't tried to kill and that hasn't killed him."

"But he has Damon and Enzo right?"

"Yeah, but Damon and Enzo have each other, and Damon's busy making up for lost time by taking Enzo to all the places that he wanted to visit while he was held captive. Sometimes they don't answer the phone," Maya shrugged.

"And he knows that you will? All the time?" Caroline asked, clearly she was missing something.

"I…may have…given him a schedule of when I'm free," Maya replied sheepishly.

"Mai!" Caroline exclaimed, slapping her on the back of her head.

"Owe!"

"You didn't think to mention this!"

"What?"

"The only significant change to your life is your regular talks with Klaus Mikaelson! Your nightmares started straight after that!"

"What you think he did this to me?" Maya shook her head, "He wouldn't, he wants me on his side, torturing me with nightmares when I've only ever helped him would be stupid, and Niklaus Mikaelson is definitely not stupid."

Caroline frowned, Maya was right, from everything she'd been told about Klaus, he wasn't dumb, and while he was powerful, and ruthless, and antagonistic, she doubted that he would attack a witch that had been helping him willingly, (Maya had once explained that a witch operating under duress made their spell work, shaky and unwieldy), so chances were that Klaus wouldn't hurt Maya unless she gave him a reason to. "Well it has to be something connected to you and Klaus, it's the only thing that makes sense," Caroline insisted.

"Whatever it is, I can't think of what it would be," Maya shrugged.

"Well think harder! Describe the nightmare figure for me."

"It's just a dark figure, I don't know how I would describe it!"

"Start with the basics, tall or short?"

"Average I guess, like 5'5'' or 5'6''."

"Build?"

"Lithe, it definitely doesn't look like it's physically strong, but it gives off a huge aura of power."

"Body shape?"

"Um…" Maya thought back to her latest nightmare and the figure shrouded in darkness, "Feminine, definitely."

"So the person doing this is a witch?"

"The only witch that knows I even exist is Bonnie's grandma, I know what her power feels like, this felt twisted, and dark, Bennett magic is full of light and nature, this felt like death."

Caroline pursed her lips and her brow furrowed as she catalogued the new information she was given and compared it to what she already knew. "Death," she muttered as she tried to grasp something that was just on the edge of her mind, "Feels like death…FEELS LIKE DEATH!" she shouted. "Oh my god Maya, it feels like death!"

"You don't have to sound so excited about it," Maya yawned.

"Don't you get it! You said before, the spirits here don't like you! What if its one of them?"

"You're saying you think I'm being attacked by a dead witch?"

"What else could it be?"

"It feels like death, but if the spirits wanted me dead, wouldn't they have done it earlier?"

"Well something must have changed, you must have pissed someone off, what witchy things have you been doing lately?"

"Nothing more than the usual daylight jewellery…except…"

"Except what?" Caroline asked.

"Except I've been trying to use that spell, the one that I used to find the white oak stake, I've been trying to use it to find the moonstone. I haven't told Nik because I don't want get his hopes up, but I've been looking for it."

"You haven't found it yet?"

"I've made progress, I know that its in town somewhere."

"Well then that's it!" Caroline exclaimed, "You said the moonstone's been missing for 500 years, all so Klaus doesn't break some curse, but now you're friends with Klaus and have been getting closer to finding it. What if the witch that cast the curse, is attacking you?"

Maya froze at that, she couldn't believe that she'd been so stupid, Caroline was right, it made perfect sense, she'd told Klaus that the moonstone was being hidden by the witch who'd cast the curse, and if that witch could hide the moonstone when she was on the other side, of course she could attack someone trying to find it. Especially when that person looking for it was a witch. "I can't believe I didn't see it before," Maya whispered.

Caroline shrugged, trying not to show how worried that this revelation had made her, after all, how were you supposed to fight a witch that was already dead? "Don't beat yourself up, I am the smart one out of the two of us."

Maya scowled and smacked a pillow in Caroline's face, "Shut up!"

Caroline pushed the pillow away and shot her a glare, "So now what? You know who's doing this to you, are you going to stop looking for the moonstone?"

The Siphon shook her head, "I'm not about to be bullied into submission by some old, dead witch. Especially if I can get something that hasn't been seen in 500 years. If she's trying to stop me from finding the moonstone, then I need to narrow down its location faster."

"And how are you going to do that?"

"I know a place," Maya sighed, "The witch died here, in Mystic Falls, I channel what's left of her magic in that spot, to break through her cloaking spell."

"Sneak past the enemy lines by using her magic as a disguise," Caroline said in understanding.

Maya nodded, "The only problem is, it could be dangerous, it's why I haven't done it before."

"Witch bitch is trying to kill you in your sleep, I'm pretty sure that that's dangerous too."

"So we're in agreement I should do this now, preferably before mum comes home and busts us both."

Caroline nodded, "Let's go!"

The girls rushed out of the house, taking their bikes to Maya's hidden magical spot, "This place is giving me serious serial killer vibes," Caroline shuddered. She wasn't magical, but even she could feel the death that enveloped the place.

"It's not my favourite place to practice magic, but for a while it was the only place I could."

"So what do you need?"

"Help me set up these candles in a pentagram," Maya pulled out white candles from her backpack and gave Caroline two, taking the other three they set up the pentagram, with the centre over the very spot that Esther died. Maya pulled out a map and a knife and settled them in the middle. "Before I cast the spell, I need to anchor myself to something."

"Why?" Caroline asked, genuinely curious about the magic her friend did.

"We're standing on the very spot that the witch died, and her death was so violent that it left a mark, which means that while I can easily access her magic, she's the strongest here, and I don't want to give her the opportunity to have so much access to me." Esther was a master at possession and she didn't want to take that chance.

Caroline nodded, "So what do you need in an anchor?"

"Something on this plane of existence, something that belongs to me, something that I have an emotional connection to. I brought a couple of things I could use." She pulled out the dragon that Enzo had won her from a fair the first time she had been to New York. The charm bracelet that her mother had gotten her when she turned 13, and the first painting Jeremy had done, after she had managed to convince Aunt Miranda to take them both to an art exhibit. She didn't have anything from Caroline, because there was nothing more important than the girl herself.

"You're sure that one of these things will work to hold you here?"

Maya gave a hesitant nod, "The stronger the emotional connection the better," she said.

Caroline frowned, she wasn't sure any of these items had a strong enough connection, and then the lightbulb went off. "What about me?"

"What about you?"

"I'm your best friend, the only thing that you could possibly have a stronger connection to is your mum, so use me."

"Caroline its still dangerous," Maya shook her head, "I don't want to risk you."

"You listen here! I'm the one that figured out what was going on! I'm the one that said that we should do this, and I'm the one you're going to anchor to you, because I'm not risking you!" Caroline scolded.

Maya was taken aback, Caroline had never been angry at her before, but she had to admit, her best friend was right, the thing that would give her the best chance at succeeding and staying connected to her own body would be to use her Sunshine as an anchor. "Are you sure Sunshine? I don't want to hurt you."

"It'll hurt me if you don't use me."

Nodding Maya picked up the knife and walked over to her friend, "I'm going to need to make a cut on your hand and then on mine, our blood will mix together and I'll say the spell. You should feel a connection to me, you won't be able to hear my thoughts or anything, but you will be able to feel me, and therefore feel if anything changes in me, okay?"

Caroline nodded, "Let's do this."

Maya made a small cut on her palm and then one on Caroline's, they held their hands side by side and watched as their blood moved towards each other's and then mingled. "Phasmatos stationem anchoram habemus animae meae sanguis meus, lux mea est in tenebris. Phasmatos stationem anchoram habemus animae meae sanguis meus, lux mea est in tenebris."

Caroline's eyes widened as for the first time, she felt everything that Maya was feeling, her love, her fear, her exhaustion, but overwhelming all of that at this moment, her determination. "Wow! It's like I can feel everything! Awe, you love me that much!"

Maya blushed at that, she didn't mean for Caroline to have quite so much access to her feelings, "Just familiarise yourself with what I feel like, I'm going to give you this," She took off her talisman, after siphoning enough magic to get the channelling going. Maya wrapped it around Caroline's bloodied hand, and Care felt the connection between herself and Maya solidify. "If you feel anything, I mean anything that isn't me, you unwrap that necklace and throw it as far away from you as you can, it'll distract me long enough to stop the locator spell, and cut off the witch's access to me."

"Okay," Caroline nodded and watched the Siphon move into the pentagram, Maya waved her hand and the candles all lit up, she moved her bloodied hand over the map of Mystic Falls and let the liquid drip onto the paper.

"Phasmatos sanguinis et spirituum magicae religat, solvo, id invenias quod occultatum est, lapis ostende mihi. Phasmatos sanguinis et spirituum magicae religat, solvo, id invenias quod occultatum est, lapis ostende mihi." She kept repeating the words over, and over, and the blood slowly started to move away from the centre of the map. As the trail became clearer, the words were becoming more difficult to say, she started to feel some push back coming from the magic she was channelling. Maya could feel the pressure in her head start to increase as Esther tried to pull on Maya's magic and use it for herself. Luckily for the Siphon, she didn't have any magic of her own, and that meant that Esther could not keep a solid grip on her.

"Maya!" Caroline cried, the wind had picked up around them and the blonde could feel her friend's hold on herself shake, "Maya I'm here! I'm right here Maya!" closing her eyes Caroline willed her strength to go to the Siphon, "Take what you need! I'll keep you strong!"

Maya's eyes, which had closed at some point, flashed open as she felt strength surge through her, the green of her irises almost glowing with power as she fought to push away the malicious entity and keep the locator spell going until she found what she was looking for. As she felt her nose start to drip blood, the push back from the other side lessened, she'd almost drained the area of it's magic, almost stripped this place of Esther's darkness. She looked down at the map and saw the blood begin to congregate in one area, "Lockwood Manor" she murmured before the spell finally stopped, because there was no more magic left to siphon. Maya collapsed to the ground and Caroline darted forward to check on her friend.

"Maya! Mai! Please be okay!" she cried out, rolling the girl over, Caroline had never been more relieved to hear her groan in discomfort.

"S'ok Sunshine," Maya whispered, seeing the distraught look on Caroline's face, "I'm okay now, I felt you, you helped me," she sighed.

"God don't you ever do that again!" Caroline ordered, brushing a few stray tears from her face, "I felt you shake, I felt you get weaker!"

Maya gave her a soft smile as she reached out and unwound her talisman from Caroline's hand, slipping it over her head, she let herself absorb just a touch of magic to give her, her strength back momentarily, "And you were there, to stop me from breaking."

"I'll always be there," Caroline insisted, helping her friend get to her feet, "But don't you ever scare me like that again!"

"How about we go home and get some rest?" She could see that Caroline was paler than usual, that was probably due to the strength she had sapped from her.

"I am so not in the mood to ride my bike back to the house," Caroline complained.

"That's cool, I brought enough cash to take a cab back," Maya shrugged, "I figured I'd be too tired to bike back anyway."

Two weeks later the dreams had stopped, Maya believed that when she drained the area of Esther's magical signature, Esther couldn't reach out to her anymore. She was back in good spirits, it was just another week until her birthday, unfortunately it was also a week until the Founders…whatever it was they were throwing this month, so she was not looking forward to having to dress up. It did however mean that Caroline, with her unprecedented access to the Lockwood's place so that she could help the decorating committee, could search the mansion virtually unchecked. In her snooping, she'd discovered a floor safe in Richard Lockwood's study, from there all she had to do was flirt a little with Tyler and get him to open the safe in an attempt to impress her.

It was an easy enough task, Caroline was confident in herself, much more confident then she would have been had she grown up friends with Elena, and managed to talk Tyler into looking for his dad's 'best stash' and he'd headed right to the safe and opened it up. "What's that?" Caroline asked, spying the smooth white stone in the safe, Maya had given her a fake, one that looked exactly like the original so she could swap it out in case she found the actual moonstone.

Tyler frowned and reached down to pick it up, "I don't know, I've never seen it before." He'd been in his dad's safe plenty of times, however he'd never ever seen it before. Esther's spell must have also hidden the object from plain sight, not that either of the teens knew that.

"Can I see it?" Caroline asked casually, "Must be worth something if it's in the safe," she shrugged, giving Tyler a flirty smile.

He shrugged, he didn't see why not, it wasn't like she was going to steal the thing while he was there, "Sure, but don't drop it."

Caroline suppressed a frown, she was a cheerleader for crying out loud, if she dropped things there would be serious injuries. "Don't worry, I'm pretty sure some little rock isn't going to be too hard for me to handle." She took it out of Tyler's hands and gave it a cursory glance, making it look like she wasn't really interested in the thing, and then, while Tyler had turned his back to pour her some of his dad's scotch, Caroline swapped the moonstone, for the fake in her purse. And when Tyler turned back around she handed him the fake and took the drink out of his hands. Tyler put the fake moonstone, in the safe and closed it up, not wanting his father to find out about him going through his safe. Caroline gave him another smile, downing the scotch before he could say anything else, if she was going to have to flirt with Tyler Lockwood, she definitely needed a buzz. "So…is there anything else you'd like to show me around here?"

Maya met Caroline at hers that night, "Sunshine! Please tell me you have something for me?" Maya begged, her nightmares had ended, but something still didn't sit right with her, and she wanted to get the moonstone, before Katherine got her grubby little hands on it, again.

"What no, Hi Caroline? How was your day? You spent it flirting with Tyler you say? That must have been terrible, and you did it all for me? Just to keep him distracted while you stole a powerful magical relic from his house? Thank you Caroline! You're the best!" Caroline frowned, she was so not in a good mood from having to deal with Tyler all day, "Just a, 'tell me you have something for me?'"

Maya had the decency to look abashed, Caroline was right of course, she couldn't let her unrelenting need to have the moonstone, get in the way of her friendship, "You're right, I'm sorry, I know you spent the day flirting with Lockdouche, just to find the moonstone for me, the first thing I should have said was thank you for doing what no witch, werewolf, or even Original was able to do in five centuries. You found the moonstone, not even the most powerful creature on the planet could do that, and I am very grateful." Maya gave her a hug, "I'm sorry you had to flirt with Tyler, that sucks, he sucks, you must have had a shitty day. So tonight, I'm staying over and we are watching all your favourite movies!"

Caroline smiled and returned her hug, she wasn't mad at Maya, but Tyler Lockwood got on her very last nerve. "Come on," she motioned to her bedside drawer, where she'd put the moonstone, "let me show you what all of the fuss was about."

Maya grinned back, in five seconds she would have the moonstone in her hands, and she would be able to give it to Klaus, as a sign of real friendship, when Caroline pulled it out of the drawer, she couldn't help but be mesmerised by it. There was something about that rock that was pulling her in, and she couldn't stop herself from reaching out and taking it, even though something was screaming at her, telling it was a bad idea. It was then that she realised, that the reason she couldn't feel Esther trying to break her way into her head anymore, was because the Original witch, had an altogether different plan. Because the second she touched that rock, she felt searing agony rip through her brain, she screamed in anguish and dropped to the floor.

"Maya!" Caroline cried out, she dropped to her knees, shoving the moonstone away from her friend and under the bed, "Maya!" Caroline reached for her friend, when she realised that Maya's chest was still, "MAYA!" she screamed in horror, her best friend, her family, her person wasn't breathing!

So hate to end it this way (no I don't, not really!). But hey at least it means that you'll have to come back to find out what happens to Maya next!

Thanks for reading! Please leave a review if you've got time!