- New Orleans, Mikaelson Residence -
-Your son is alive?- Keelin asks, being the one to break the silence in the place.
When Freya asked them to meet her at the Mikaelson's residence and put Kol on a video call for she needed to speak with the whole family the last thing any of them expected was for her to tell them that her son was alive.
That much like the memories of Hope other memories had come to her.
Of her firstborn.
He never died as she had always thought, much like Dahlia took her away from Esther she also took him away from her.
He was alive.
As a vampire now.
A poisonous vampire.
And if her memories were right, there were high chances of him being the original poisonous vampire.
A poisonous vampire...
Poisonous vampires were such an odd thing, like an evolution from the vampire race, so rare and strange even up to this day, some even developed unique gifts, but as much as they were more... physically advanced, they were still weaker, they held no ability to use compulsion at all, and while killing them was a bit harder for they could always heal as long as they had all their limbs within reach they were also easy to injure, so easy, like breaking porcelain if applicated enough pressure.
-He is.
-How is that possible?- Klaus questioned.- You told me before that he had died before he could even be born.
-I believe that same as we got our memories of Hope back the spell also returned to me memories that had been tampered with, memories Dahlia must have changed so as to keep me from him. Right now all I care about is finding him.- Freya states matter of fact.
She craved to see her son. She cursed that her memories of when she saw him as a vampire were so blurred, and the fact that he had been soaking in blood didn't help at all to remember his face.
-Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's go find my nephew.- Finn declares as he leaves his seat.
-He could be anywhere.- Freya says, she couldn't do a locator spell for if he was a poisonous vampire that meant he had no blood, locator spells didn't work on them, she didn't had anything to go with in general.
For all she knew he could be on the other side of the world. What if she never managed to find him?
-Don't worry, we won't rest until we find him and bring him home.- Elijah assured.
-Countless times you have helped protect my daughter, I will do whatever it takes to find your son and bring him to you.- Klaus stated firmly as he gave Freya a solemn look. He may have failed in the past to find the original poisonous vampire, but not this time around.
For this time around rather than search for him in order to end his life he was searching for him to bring him home.
And he wasn't going to give up on that so easily.
Freya had done so much for them, for Hope , the least he could do was return her son to her.
-You said that you have seen him before, how did he look? Was there anything that stood out?- Kol asked, if they were going to look for him they needed something to start off with seeing that magic was out of the question.
Main reason he had never liked those damn poisonous vampires. Magic didn't work on them for some freaky reason.
-Those memories are blurred, I don't know why, and the more I try to think about that particular day the more blurry it gets, but I remember how he looked when he was little... He had golden brown hair and hazel eyes.
-I'm afraid that that doesn't help much. Poisonous vampires are well known for the drastic changes in their appearances when they are changed.- Elijah said regrettably, the boy could very well look completely different right now.
-If you allow it sister, I can look into your mind, maybe we can figure out a way to look for him that way.- Finn interjected.
-Kills me to say it, but Finn's right.- Kol said mildly annoyed that he hadn't thought about that first.
-Sure, anything if you think that can help finding him.- Freya was quick to agree as she sat down by Keelin's side, Keelin took her hand into her own, squeezing it in comfort.
Keelin was genuinely happy for Freya, she knew how much it had hurt Freya to lose her son, now she had the chance to get him back.
Finn approaches Freya and as she looks up at him he brings his hands to rest on each side of her temple. She gives him a nod and he jumps into her mind.
And he sees him.
A young man stands in a field, surrounded by corpses, he's soaking in blood, but even then the unnatural sparkle of his skin is clear as day, such darkness in his eyes they can barely be considered crimson.
He approaches with such hatred and coldness in his gaze, making a show of pondering about ripping her throat off before stepping back.
"Liar."
The memories become thick and blurred and the young man can be seen standing above her, screams can be heard, Freya's screams, images flashes as he stands above without moving a muscle. But there's such focus on his gaze. And Freya's screams won't stop.
Finn pulls back from her mind with a flinch and Freya flinched just as much.
-What is it?- Elijah questioned at the mortified and confused look in Finn's face.
-I'm... not sure... He attacked you when you met him, but he wasn't touching you...- How could that even be possible? Unless...
-He's the original gift.- Klaus realizes. That narrowed it down quite a lot seeing that gifted vampires were even less common.
-But if he managed to hurt you without touching you, wasn't that little creep from the Volturi capable of casting the illusion of pain? Maybe he's got that too.- Kol said, though he knew it may be more complicated than that, if life had taught him anything is that every single vampire who had a gift was unique, no gift was ever the same no matter how similar they may be.
-I never saw her gift being capable of making people scream, human or not, and he couldn't compel her to forget for he doesn't have the ability and she's on vervain, which means the blurriness is something else.- Elijah said as he remembered the extent of Jane's peculiar gift.
-Was there anything particular about him when he was a child? Some of those gifts are just a human trait from their previous life having branched into something much more... weaponized.- Kol questioned. He felt like he was the only one here who had bothered researching poisonous vampires in depth, but to be fair, when vampires began arising with powers taken out of a bloody film it was his job to make sure he knew what he was dealing with.
What he could use aside from the witches.
-He was... overly sensitive to people's emotional states, like, it seemed to physically affect him whenever there were strong emotions around him, mostly whenever Dahlia got mad. And he was peculiarly charming, and I don't mean it in the way a mother would consider their child charming, I saw him manipulate Dahlia a few times into seeing things the way he wanted her to. It was like-
-An empath.- Kol's voice cut off and everyone turned to look at the screen of the phone resting on the desk.
-An empath?- Finn repeated. It was no secret that of all the gifts that were out there empaths seemed to run quite low... mostly because the vampires who developed said gifts couldn't particularly handle it.
-I thought empaths felt emotions. How would he hurt her like that when all he can do is feel her emotions?- Keelin asks with a frown.
-I once met an empath in Tennessee who could change people's emotions on a biological sense, not as an illusion, her little trick was quite real. I watched her kill a human without even touching him by inducing a heart attack on the guy. I also heard of an empath in Texas who could manipulate others' emotions to a biological degree too, though I never managed to find him. Pretty sure that must be the gift your son must have developed, it's kinda cool if you ask me.
-If the lad is an empath then that means we can narrow it down to what? Like 10 vampires? Empaths have never been that spread out like the illusionist ones.- Klaus said, he didn't particularly like the idea of someone capable of manipulating emotions being anywhere near him nor his family.
But the boy was a Mikaelson, their blood, figuratively speaking of course, poisonous vampires didn't have blood.
Point was. He was no longer a threat but part of this family.
And he would find him.
~~~~~~~
- Forks -
-A woman?- Alice repeated as she turned to look at Edward, she was fully aware of Dahlia's existence, if Edward had seen her...
Had she found him? But wasn't her magic suppose to also be useless against Jasper?
-It was blurred but I saw it, it looked just like when you have visions.- Edward felt as confused as everyone looked, because how was it possible that Jasper had had a vision? That was Alice's gift, not his.
-What was in the vision?- Alice asked, while she would usually let Jasper tell her anything, she really needed to know if Dahlia was somehow coming, because if that was the case... shit what were they suppose to do?
Her question seemed to catch everyone's attention. Edward frowned.
-It were glimpses, there was a forest, and a blonde woman in chains was screaming, but I couldn't catch what was she saying aside from the "please" and "could keep him". There was also another woman, I think that vision was different, she was brunette. She was shouting about being ungrateful and forgetting... Their clothes were so strange... kind of like from the medieval period.
-Medieval clothes?- Emmett repeated.
-Seriously? That's all you take from that?- Rosalie couldn't help but ask as she glanced at Emmett.
-Medieval...?- Alice frowned as she glanced at Jasper. A blonde woman in chains and a brunette... A forest...
Those weren't visions.
Those were memories.
Of the past.
Dahlia wasn't coming, but then what was that? How had he been affected? Something wasn't making sense here.
-I think the blonde woman was his mother.- Edward wasn't intending for that to be said out loud, but as the weight of that realization hit him his mouth reacted before his brain under the unexpected shock.
-Why the hell would you think that?- Rosalie questioned.
-Because he called her like that and... It wasn't the future what he saw it was-
-That's enough.- Alice cut off. She didn't want Edward to keep on divulging things that weren't his to divulge.
Even more so if it had to do with Jasper's mother or his past in general. Medieval clothes would need nothing but a deep look for them to realize that something didn't make sense about it. Jasper was meant to have been born in 1844 in Houston, Texas, there would be no need for him to remember a forest or people in medieval clothes.
If the Cullens figured out the true extent of how old he was it wouldn't take them long to realize something wasn't right.
Because no poisonous vampire should be that old.
Poisonous vampires didn't even exist around the medieval period. That was the originals' from the original specie's period, not theirs.
The Cullens could never know who he was for what little peace Jasper managed to find in this place would be crushed. And he didn't deserve that. He deserved all the happiness in the world and Alice would be damned if she were to let anyone find out who he truly was.
Because his identity would put him in danger.
And that was the last thing she wanted for him.
~~~~~~\\\
When Jasper woke up his first instinct was to lash out for the new memories he couldn't quite process were too overwhelming to even deal with.
But hands grabbed his wrists and kept him from even moving. And while he could easily break free or kick or bite , he didn't, for the crushing love in the air halted him, it brushed away the fog and allowed him to recognize who was the one holding him down.
Alice .
-Jazz?- Her voice was soft, softer than he ever remembers it being as her thumb strokes his cheek.- How are you feeling?
-I'm-
His voice dies down as the memories flash back across his mind.
Memories of the truth.
And that truth brings forward memories of a field and hundreds of bloodied corpses. But among all those bodies a familiar one laid on the ground.
A blonde woman.
Unconcious after he used his gift to rip her voice out in the form of the worst screams he had ever heard.
She had tried to act as if she hadn't done a single thing wrong and he had seen red. It could have been the rage and the hatred he felt for her, or because he had been under the weighted effects of those humans' emotions. Could have been how still on edge he was because of the blood, or because he was in the latest stages of his newborn year. He wasn't sure.
But he had found himself attacking her with his gift until she had collapsed on the ground with no more voice left to scream.
He had craved to rip her throat open, but not even the knowledge that she wouldn't die had let him do it, in fact, he can still remember how he had broken down almost right after he had failed to bite her.
How much had he hated and seethed in rage over being so weak. She didn't deserve his compassion nor did she deserve his forgiveness. She was a traitorous woman. A liar.
And still. He had picked her up and taken her to the nearest town, hiding her body in a stable so the bitter cold wouldn't reach her, so no despicable bastard would come across her while she was so defenseless.
Now.
Now with the realization that Dahlia had lied to him.
It felt like someone had punched a hole right through his chest. His hand flies to grab his chest as the weight of pain becomes almost too overwhelming to bear. Regret. Rage. Hatred. Such poisonous hatred he sees red.
-Jazz?
~~~~~~~~
Alice had asked the Cullens to leave her alone with Jasper once night approached and he was still unconcious. She didn't want them around when he woke up and while the walls weren't going to stop them from listening to them once he woke up it at least gave them a sense of privacy.
Plus.
It wasn't as if she was disrupting their plans seeing that during the night everyone stayed in their rooms to spend some time alone with their respective couples, and Bella and Edward had their own place.
When Jasper woke up he had seemed confused if not a bit lost at first.
But then the tears began.
He was crying . Jasper was crying .
Alice almost panicked at the sight. Her breath catching in her throat for she has never seen him cry before, he was always so strong, yeah, she has seen his eyes get all teary but she has never seen him actually crying.
-Jazz?- She calls, worried, for what can be so horrible to get this reaction out of him?
-Lies.- He spits suddenly as he sits up. His iced glare unforgiving as he bleeds with such intoxicating rage and thirst for death she is sure the whole house can feel it.
He snatches her arm and she isn't quite prepared to be met with the personification of despair itself, denial, so overwhelming she felt the breath leave her.
-Those were lies, right?- His voice sounds nothing like the usual calm and softness but oh so weak and vulnerable she feels like grabbing him and hiding. Because what on Earth could shake him to such extremes?
-I'm sorry, I don't know the how but I am fairly certain that whatever you saw was real.- Alice felt like the worst person in the world when her words seemed to crush whatever hope he had left.
-It cain't be. Those are lies, they have ta be, I know the truth, I--
Alice's heart shattered as Jasper sobbed . He was looking at her with such overwhelming despair, begging at her to agree with him, to tell him that whatever he knew now were lies.
But she couldn't agree with him. Because if Dahlia had nothing to do with this and what Edward said was true... Those had been memories of the past and considering Jasper's reaction and what she had felt...
Someone must have casted a spell that was as ancient as it was powerfully dangerous, it may have been purposefully directed at Jasper same as it may have not been.
A spell that could have revealed truths hidden in the mind. She had heard of those spells. Jasper had told her about spells capable of erasing certain memories.
But she couldn't understand what would make him react like this.
-I've failed.
Jasper's sudden hollow words caught her attention and she turned to look at him. He dropped his head and released her arm.
-What is that suppose to mean?
-If these memories are the truth... I fear I may have committed a most terrible mistake. One there's no turnin' back from.
-What mistake?
He didn't answer, but he looked so miserable she couldn't help but touch his face, wiping the tears away.
-You were not at fault, whatever it's, I know that have you known any different, you wouldn't have done it.- She told softly, something told her he needed to hear these words, she may not know what had he done, but if there was one thing Alice knew is that regardless of how many things had he done in his long, long life, he never did anything bad on purpose.
He gave her an even more miserable look and she couldn't help but pull him into a hug. Jasper buried his face into the crook of her neck.
-Dahlia lied, she didn't give me up.- Came the soft whisper, so broken and so soft that had Alice not had him so close she wouldn't have managed to catch it.
And she didn't need to be a genius to know who he meant.
She knew the kind of childhood he had same as she knew about one of the few things that could get to him.
His mother.
Firstborns from his bloodline are born with devastating power, and at times getting the slightest bit too emotional could mean absolute destruction.
His mother had had troubles controlling her magic whenever she got mad which was quite a lot seeing how Dahlia loved being testing. He had also been too sensitive to his surroundings which also put him in terrible moods at times and no one but his mother could bring him to calm down.
And then his mother demanded Dahlia to take him as far from her as possible for she no longer could deal with him. She could barely control herself as it was, she was tired of having to deal with someone else who didn't had any control whatsoever.
He had heard her argument with Dahlia.
About not wanting him around anymore.
Alice had found it strange how a woman Jasper described as kind and brave could just give up the one thing she was so protective of. It had made no sense.
His mother had always been a sore subject for him, her abandonment and betrayal had destroyed him, for her to give him to Dahlia like some common token, allow Dahlia to take him as her slave much like she had done to her...
To think Dahlia had lied about something like that. That she had tore them apart for her own gains...
Her hand came to rest on the back of his head and she kissed his shoulder.
-It's alright love, everything will be alright.
~~~~~~~~
Sometimes the illusion of privacy was just that, an illusion.
Because as much as Carlisle had tried through the years, nothing seemed to work well enough to make anything soundproof to a vampire's hearing.
Which meant Esme could do nothing to avoid hearing what was happening downstairs.
"Lies." - She knows that to be Jasper's voice but she almost fails to recognize it as his. Such roughness. Such coldness. Such steel. It's as if someone completely different is talking, nowhere is the soft voice she had come to associate with Jasper.
And following that voice is such a suffocating wave of intoxicating rage and thirst for death she feels her skin crawl and she glances at Carlisle to make sure she isn't imagining things.
The concerned look in his face tells her she isn't imagining it.
But just as quick, the wave is gone.
And then the most heart-shattering voice she has ever heard speaks.
"Those were lies, right?"
His voice sounds as small as it sounds pleading, and Esme feels her chest close at it for she has never heard such tone of voice in her strong soldier. Jasper was usually so composed that hearing him like that felt as if something was horribly wrong with the world itself.
"I'm sorry, I don't know the how but I am fairly certain that whatever you saw was real."- Alice's voice is gentle, almost sad as she speaks.
''It cain't be. Those are lies, they have ta be, I know the truth, I-"
Esme's heart shattered as she heard Jasper sob. Her hand on her mouth as she felt her own eyes sting, because her boy was hurting, and she wished to never have gotten to hear such sound from him, she could have lived her entire life not knowing he could make such heartbreaking sound.
"I've failed."
Such dejected voice, as if the world itself was collapsing around him, Esme has never wished to be able to hug him as much as she was doing now.
Carlisle at her side wrapped his arms around her, oulling her into a hug.
But not even that could quell the pain of hearing her most composed boy crying .
"What is that suppose to mean?" - There was genuine confusion in Alice's voice.
"If these memories are the truth... I fear I may have committed a most terrible mistake. One there's no turnin' back from."
"What mistake?"
But Jasper didn't answer.
"You were not at fault, whatever it's, I know that have you known any different, you wouldn't have done it."
Having to hear Jasper crying was something Esme wished to never have to hear ever again, through the years she has seen him teary, having panic attacks, dissociating, having flashbacks, but she has never heard him crying. He was so much more controlled when it came to emotions that she sometimes forgot that of them all he was also the most sensitive.
So to hear him like this...
If Alice's words had been something to go for, those flashes were to blame for his current state.
Edward had said they had been about his mother, and while Alice may have not let him continue saying anything else from what he had seen it didn't took a genius to figure out that those had been memories of the past.
A blonde woman in chains. Screaming. Please. Could keep him. Ungrateful. Forgotten.
"I think the blonde woman was his mother."
Esme had a horrible feeling about Edward's words.