Canada, Calgary -
Carlisle had known that it would be bad. Jasper's face and stance had told him so.
But he never expected that it would be that bad.
Hearing Jasper being so dismissive of what were clearly suicide attempts, how he had had no regard whatsoever for his own life, then being practically forced into a spell that he himself said could bring disastrous consequences, just to be blamed for what said spell brought.
What this Magni was doing…
He was obsessed with hunting Jasper down and punishing over something that while horrible, was not his fault. Because he said so himself. He told them to not do it.
But it was still somehow his fault what happened after? The blame had been thrown at him so unfairly, Magni was, for lack of better words, torturing him psychologically by slaughtering anyone he cared for, all in the name of an unfair punishment. The man had sank into such deep hole of denial he was throwing the blame at the wrong person.
Because sometimes it was easier to blame others than accept the truth.
Carlisle couldn't even begin to imagine the amount of guilt Jasper had to be carrying, how must that have affected him.
It made him wonder if that was the reason Jasper was always so hesitant when it came to interacting with others, why even now, he still insisted on casting himself out from any family activity.
Even when it looked like that was the last thing he wanted to do.
As if he was staying away on purpose, not because he wanted, but because he had to.
The sole idea of it made his insides burn.
Because while he might be a pacifist if there was one thing he didn't stand for, it was for anyone hurting his family, be it physically or mentally.
Jasper didn't deserve to suffer for Magni's mistakes. He shouldn't be punished for other people's mistakes.
Carlisle wouldn't allow it.
Enough was enough. If this man thought he could just keep on torturing Jasper to make himself feel better he had another thing coming.
~
Esme didn't even knew how to feel.
To see her son in such pain. To hear the atrocities he had been subjected to. The dismissed suicide attempts …
It was too much.
What had happened with that woman… It was horrible.
But it wasn't his fault.
The fact that Magni chose to pin the blame on him rather than acknowledge the truth on who was the real culprit… to become so obsessed to hunt Jasper down and kill whoever he interacts with…
That man had serious issues. She understood the grief of losing a child. But blaming others wouldn't fix anything, it wouldn't make it hurt any less, he was just causing suffering to someone innocent in order to make himself feel better.
And Esme could tell how that man's actions had made Jasper the way he was, someone scared of getting attached, hesitant of interacting with others, even when he gave in, even when he allowed himself to be dragged into games, when he himself did things.
There was always that lingering anxiety in his eyes, how paranoid he used to get whenever there was a storm, he would climb on the roof and there would be no force in the world capable of making him get down, he would stay there and attack anyone who got anywhere near the house, be it humans or other vampires.
Reason why they had even come up with the idea of playing baseball to begin with, make his mind focus on something else, change whatever horrible thing he associated with storms for a good thing instead. Of course it had taken time, but at the end it had worked, he still grew anxious but it wasn't anything it couldn't be mended in the game, it wasn't as horrible as when he first arrived.
There was also the claustrophobia and how terrible he reacted to unexpected fire.
His reactions were stronger than anything anyone could ever deem normal, and she wondered if it was also related to the psychological torture that man had been subjecting him to since God knows when.
He didn't deserve what that man was doing to him. He was such a sweet and sensitive boy, the reminder of what that man had been doing to him, the blame he had pinned on him.
It made Esme see red.
Because how dare that man hurt her son over something he had no fault at? He might have helped with the spell but he didn't told them to cast it when it was unstable. He had wanted to die over putting anyone in danger.
But they didn't listen, and because they didn't listen they paid the price, a price Jasper had nothing to do with but was still being hunted for.
And over her dead body would she allow that man anywhere near her son, he was horribly wrong if he thought he could keep on getting away with the atrocity he was pulling on.
~
Edward had been aware that what he might hear might not be that great. If Jasper hid it with such ferocity it had to be for a reason.
But he never expected it would be… like that.
And suddenly, any remaining wariness he may had still kept over this whole mess was gone.
His creator wasn't hell bent on revenge.
He was hell bent on denial.
The man had buried himself so far into denial and grief he no longer could see that no one was to blame for his wife and child's death him and his wife herself.
And now he wanted Jasper to pay for their own mistakes, they were the ones who didn't listen, they were the ones who chose to take the risks despite knowing how wrong things could go.
Edward always thought that there was something weird, almost a bit arrogant, over how Jasper refused to join any family activity, not even when Alice tried to coax him into it, how he would look at them from afar with that neutral look of his.
As if those things were beneath someone with his kind of skills and past.
Now he knew how wrong he had been.
It wasn't about those things being beneath.
It was about avoiding putting them in potential danger.
He was forced to put distance between the people around him and himself so as to prevent the wrong person from either seeing or finding out. Even if Magni didn't remember him at the time the kind of things he had to experience in the past could have branded into him the instinct to keep distance.
Keep distance so no one will die.
And Edward had no idea what to do with that knowledge.
Still.
What he did know, was that he wouldn't let Magni keep this whole thing up, that man needed to acknowledge the truth, needed to accept the fact that the only culprits of what happened were him and his wife herself.
Not Jasper.
It was never Jasper.
Though that didn't mean it didn't haunt Jasper. His eyes, his voice, his body language, everything about it had left very clear that Jasper still remembered that day very clearly, and that he blamed himself horribly for it.
And part of Edward couldn't help but wonder if that along with the kid's head on a spike had to do with how Jasper reacted to children.
He knew their emotions played a good part on how he acted around them, but there was also that lingering anxiety, how much Bree's death affected him…
Just how much had Magni destroyed him in the name of putting the blame on someone else?
~
For Bella to hear such horrid words it felt like getting to know a truth she wished to never have heard.
Because Jasper was such a kind and good natured person. That the idea of him going through such terrible things, that someone would make him go through such things…
What kind of monster would do that to someone else?
And that man! Magni! He truly had some nerve, to go and pin the blame on others for his own mistakes, to kill innocents in such gruesome ways, obsess over a lie, he had buried himself into such hole of lies she was perfectly sure that that man had long ago grown to believe his own lie, because it was easier to blame others than accept the truth, accept that while Jasper might had been the one to kill them he wasn't the one to blame.
It was clear that the memories of that day still haunted him, Bella couldn't blame him, if it were her she didn't think she would ever be able to forget doing something as traumatizing as that.
She didn't care how powerful this Magni was nor what she had to do. He would have to go through her if he wanted to get to Jasper.
It didn't matter if Jasper was literally over a thousand years old and a thousand times more skilled or powerful than her, even the strongest needed protection.
~
Emmett…
Emmett had no idea what to even do or on what to focus first.
His brother had tried to kill himself. Got himself torn apart by werewolves. Got stabbed on the back more than once. Almost bled to death. Got subjected to an unstable spell. Killed someone he had clearly seen as a dear friend as a result. A friend who had been pregnant mind you. Then got hunted by his own creator. Lost way too many people by what he certainly believed was his own fault. Let himself be devoured by a monster in order to be forgotten.
All that in the span of what? Months? Weeks? A few years?
How was he even still sane?
Emmett knew him to be strong but he never expected he would be that strong.
He didn't think he would be able to bear with that kind of guilt. The pain. The memories…
And that guy had the audacity to still hunt Jasper, even after all this time, he couldn't get his head out of his ass, take the stupid blindfold off and realize that he and his wife were the only ones to blame for what happened.
Emmett might not be able to take on that bastard but if there was one thing he was sure of, it was that he wouldn't die until he punched some sense into that asshole.
No one but him was allowed to pin blames on his brother, and even then Emmett would never put such horripilant blame on him.
He would make that guy regret the day he ever thought wise to not step up and face the consequences of his actions.
~
Rosalie…
Rosalie was gonna kill someone.
Because the audacity of that prick. How dare he put such awful blames on her brother? If his child was dead it was because of their own parents' recklessness. If his wife had been a heretic she definitely knew that what she was doing could have horrible consequences and she has still done it.
Jasper told them both to not do it. But they didn't listen and still somehow the outcome was his fault? How the hell was that fair?
And he tried to kill himself! More than once! He lost people he loved because of that man's bullshit. How could he kill a child in such manner? How could he do such shitty things? All in the name of revenge?
Rosalie would teach him what revenge felt like. Only she got to torture her brother, only she got to make his life miserable, who did that guy thought he was to go around threatening and killing others?
No one touched her family.
~
Jasper didn't knew for how long he ran, but at some point the weight of the world crushed him down and he dropped on his knees with a strangled sob. He was pathetic. So pathetic.
When did life became this?
When did the world crumble around him?
He bit the inner side of his cheek, forcing himself to take deep breaths, crying wasn't gonna solve anything, he didn't deserve to cry, he didn't deserve anything.
A little boy with red curls and striking green eyes, laughing and overflowing with happiness by the simple act of being carried on someone's shoulders. N̸o̸a̸h̸.̸
A young girl with blond locks and piercing blue eyes, smiling with joy as she successfully lifted the water off the river, fish swimming across crystal clear curtains as their surroundings were flooded with her innocent yet overwhelming pride. E̸m̸m̸a̸.̸
A young man with tanned skin and dark eyes who's hunger for knowledge went beyond the stars, grinning as they ran from the guards, jumping from roof to roof as shouts were heard below. Happiness and mischief heavy in the air. C̸a̸i̸r̸o̸.̸
A brunette old man with blind eyes and a kind heart who's gentleness could drown the entire world, smirking, pride spreading all over the place, as he yet again, beat him at horse racing, but under that pride and genuine and suffocating joy sat at. O̸r̸i̸o̸n̸.̸
A stunning woman with dark curls and warm honey eyes, her smile wielding the ability to brighten any room she walked into, emotions warm and overwhelming. A̸n̸d̸r̸o̸m̸e̸d̸a̸.̸
Each one of them now nothing but a reminder of what he had brought.
The flashes of a boy's head on a spike made his throat close. He did that. Because of him a child got to experience God knows what kind of horrors before being slaughtered. His fingers dug on his ribs. On the side right where the bullet had hit. It flared with fire and he choked in a sob.
A young girl was screaming, a building having collapsed on top of her, a pipe piercing right through her stomach, blood pooled beneath her as tears streamed down her face. Fire crackling around. Fingers digging into his arms.
"I̸t̸ h̸u̸r̸t̸s̸!̸ I̸t̸ h̸u̸r̸t̸s̸!̸ P̸l̸e̸a̸s̸e̸,̸ m̸y̸ p̸a̸r̸e̸n̸t̸s̸!̸ T̸h̸e̸y̸ w̸e̸r̸e̸ i̸n̸ t̸h̸e̸r̸e̸!̸"
Blood dripped down the walls. A sandstorm raging outside as screams echoed down the halls. A young man laid on the ground, lifeless and with his throat torn open, head barely connected to his neck, eyes vacant and filled with the faint ghost of sheer terror.
"W̸h̸a̸t̸e̸v̸e̸r̸ h̸a̸p̸p̸e̸n̸s̸,̸ I̸ d̸o̸n̸'̸t̸ b̸l̸a̸m̸e̸ y̸o̸u̸.̸"
Windows exploded as the house burnt. The old man's lower body had been crushed by the collapsed house, blood pooling beneath him and breathing ragged. Bloodied hand holding his own.
"Y̸o̸u̸ a̸r̸e̸ l̸i̸k̸e̸ t̸h̸e̸ f̸a̸m̸i̸l̸y̸ I̸ n̸e̸v̸e̸r̸ h̸a̸d̸. I̸'̸m̸ h̸a̸p̸p̸y̸ t̸o̸ h̸a̸v̸e̸ m̸e̸t̸ s̸o̸m̸e̸o̸n̸e̸ l̸i̸k̸e̸ y̸o̸u̸.̸"
A woman laid on the ground gasping for breath. Her legs had been torn off and a trail of blood followed her. She collapsed on the ground as her arms could no longer aid her into escaping.
Laughter resonated across the burning town as a blond man approached. And Jasper could do nothing but watch from where he had been pinned on the wall. Fire spreading across his insides as the world spun. He couldn't move.
"T̸h̸i̸s̸ i̸s̸ n̸o̸t̸ y̸o̸u̸r̸ f̸a̸u̸l̸t̸.̸" She insists as her gaze met his. As Magni snatched her hair and yanked her head back with such force bone snaps. She cries and coughs up even more blood. And he has no strength whatsoever to even shout. Beg, anything.
He did this. All he touched he destroyed it. He did this. He killed them all, their blood was in his hands.
He squeezed his eyes shut, taking a deep shaky breath as he felt the knot inside his chest becoming way worse to ignore than ever, yet he tried to push it down, trying to hold it in.
He failed.
Spectacularly.
Because all the memories kept flashing in his head. The good and the bad. All that had been happening. The stress. The anger. The hatred. The guilt. The pain. It was too much.
It was like something inside him crumbled.
Something that has been trying to stay put for way too long.
He felt the tears break free against his will, joined by a choked sob as the memories became too overwhelming.
"Y̸o̸u̸ d̸o̸n̸'̸t̸ d̸e̸s̸e̸r̸v̸e̸ t̸o̸ c̸r̸y̸.̸"
He didn't deserve to cry.
He didn't deserve anything good in life.
He deserved all the pain that his wrongdoings brought.
He deserved the worst of the worst.
A monster like him… he was rotten. He should be alone. Alone forever and ever so no one could ever be harmed.
His fingers dug even harder on his side and he bit down on his bottom lip until he tasted venom. Don't cry. Don't cry. Don't cry.
He didn't even hear the footsteps. Didn't feel the emotional signature.
Not until he felt the hand on his shoulder.
Alice.
He doesn't dare to look at her. Hunching over even more despite the fact that there's no hatred in her emotions. No anger. No disgust. No resentment. Nothing that would make sense over what she now knew.
Instead.
There's understanding. Calm. Sympathy. Acceptation. Comfort. Sadness.
A sadness so obliterating it made him feel twice as worse. All he ever did was hurt others.
-What he's doing… blaming you for something he knew could go wrong, for a choice he made… it's not only unfair, it's cruel. He's gone blind with grief, so he refuses to see the truth. Because sometimes it's easier to blame others than accept the truth.
What truth? Jasper was the one who killed her. He's the one who held her blood in his hands. He's the one who held her heart between his fingers. The gaping hole in her chest. The blood pooling beneath her. Bloodbloodblood . He'stheonewhokilledher. And an unborn babyhekilledababyababyababy
He's-
-You might have been the one to take their lives, but the one who killed them was him. He's the one who didn't listen, she's the one who didn't listen. You told them to not do it, but they still went and did it. If she was a heretic then that meant she knew enough about magic to know the consequences of messing with unstable magic, but she did it anyways. I know you may think you are a monster, that you don't deserve anything good, but that isn't true. You, more than anyone, deserve to be happy.
Jasper has never felt such overwhelming amount of resolution. Her words… how could he not be a monster? How could he be happy when he was the one who started it all to begin with? Magni said so himself. He was the one to blame. He killed her. The baby. Had he not entered their lives...
-It wasn't your fault.
Those words feel like a sledgehammer slamming upon his chest. Even more so because of how firm and honest the voice was. It felt like the universe had slapped him with a weight he didn't even knew he had and he couldn't help but lift his head to look at the woman before him. Her golden gaze so filled with sadness and yet so much compassion, so much love.
- It wasn't your fault. - She repeated again, more firmly this time.- And it's time you know it, it doesn't matter if he refuses to see the truth, you need to see the truth, you need to acknowledge it, you have to so you can forgive yourself, only then will you be able to get past it.
How was he suppose to get past it?
-I'm not asking you to forget it or act like you didn't do anything, even if it wasn't your fault I know it's not something you can easily forget, but you need to know you were not at fault, you don't need to carry on with that guilt, you are not being selfish by wishing to be happy, you are not being selfish by moving on. You can move on. You are allowed to move on. Those of us who truly love you and care about you won't judge you for it. You are not doing anything wrong by being happy. You are not.
Those words seem to break the last wall, the little control Jasper had left went out of the window as tears started streaming down his cheeks, choked sobs wrecking through his whole frame.
All that pain.
All that sadness.
All that blame he had been feeling for years since that day crashing and resurfacing with an overwhelming strength, making his whole body shake as his cries became filled with pain, he felt arms wrap around him and that only made him cry harder.
He couldn't stop it, even if he wanted he couldn't stop it.
His sobs.
His cries.
It was like a broken dam.
After overflowing for so long, it finally broke.
Destroying everything in its wake.
It wasn't his fault.
He didn't even knew he had needed to hear those words so desperately, that for a long time, even if not aware of it, a part of him deep down, had longed for someone to tell him that he wasn't at fault.
He wasn't a monster.
~
Somewhere in Oklahoma -
Klaus stared out of the window in boredom, watching the trees pass by, his fingers absently carding through Hope's hair, she had fallen asleep a while ago, her head resting on his shoulder.
He would forever be grateful for Freya having found that disc to throw the Hollow's dark magic into. So he could be here to enjoy moments like these despite the circumstances.
The empath...
He still didn't felt comfortable over the idea of an empath anywhere near his family, nephew or not, family or not, something about someone capable of messing with your emotions didn't settle well with him.
But he also had to admit there were a lot of pros over having an empath with his skills in the family. Plus, it was nice, to know Freya never actually lost her firstborn. The knowledge that Dahlia had taken the boy away from Freya would never not make him feel grateful he didn't trust Dahlia to keep her word.
She never intended to keep her word to begin with.
She would have taken Hope from him when it became too inconvenient to have them both together.
The sudden buzz from a phone caught his attention and careful to not jostle Hope he pulled the phone out from his pocket.
Marcel.
He took the call.
-What have you found?
"I'm fine, thanks for asking." - Came the reply from the other end. Klaus rolled his eyes.- "I got bad news, those flamboyant guys, the Volturi, they have found the empath's identity, they apparently failed at their first confrontation."
Klaus smirked at that. Of course they did, what did they expect? A Mikaelson was never an easy prey.
"For what my guy was able to find out the empath seems to have some kind of derivation from the red vampires' compulsion, he forced the Volturi into submission by only using his voice, sent them running away."
-Of course he did.- Klaus stated proudly.
"There's more, my guy was also able to overhear a few interesting things, he's apparently allied with wolf shapeshifters."
That got the entire car's attention.
-Wolf shapeshifters?
"And not any regular shapeshifters, it's the Quiloutes."
The what now? The Quiloutes were among shapeshifters what the Labonair were among werewolves. The best of the best for they wielded immunity to any kind of magic, the first of the wolves' shapeshifters bloodline.
Their hatred for vampires was wide known. The idea that those wolves were allied with their nephew…
It made some of them smirk.
The kid was more interesting than first thought indeed.
"He's also changed his name, goes by the name of Jasper Whitlock now, he lives in a coven of poisonous vampires; the Cullens. My guy tells me there's nine of them, counting your boy. T.hree have gifts; a mind reader, a shield, and a clairvoyant. There's also a hybrid, which if you ask me is quite crazy among their kind, a little girl, half human half vampire."
-Is that even possible?- Rebekah asks to no one in particular, mystified by the idea of a hybrid of such kind.
-There's a clairvoyant with them?- Kol said feeling the gears turning in his head over such unusual thing. He had never come across a poisonous vampire capable of seeing the future. What was their range? Limits? Was it spontaneous or controlled? So many questions.
"I also heard something, you are gonna like this one, turns out, he is The Major, yes, that Major."
Elijah almost hit the brakes over that statement. What? Alexander was That Major? Same Major who refused to bend down to the Volturi and led armies across the South? Who's bloodlust could rival Kol's and Klaus'? He even heard a few people refer to him as the closest thing to a ripper any poisonous vampire would ever get.
He slaughtered thousands , for blood, for territory, respect, fear, glory, anything. Elijah never bothered to attempt to seek him out for the sole fact that all the rumors and stories had let him know that The Major was not someone to attempt to speak with.
The slightest sign of threat would end up dead and while Elijah hadn't felt like fighting him, not because of fear but due how troublesome it would be. He had also known that a Mikaelson didn't tend to get good reactions from vampires in general.
Thus.
He kept his distance.
To now know that that vampire was his nephew, Freya's son… he wasn't quite sure how to proceed, but he was sure of something, regardless of who he was Elijah's only goal was to protect him, because he was his nephew, family.
And Elijah didn't care about anything more in this world than protecting his family.
That boy included.
~
Klaus could do nothing but grin at Marcel's words. The Major was his nephew, he knew enough about that vampire to be completely certain that this boy was definitely someone he wouldn't mind at all having in his family, he was as dangerously strong as he was dangerously smart.
Klaus never managed to find him for he did a great job at avoiding people. But he had seen the scenes he left behind. Human or not everyone died, the only ones left alive being the children and the occasional pregnant woman, traumatized but alive.
Who would have said that one of the vampires he had wanted to kill the most would end up being his nephew. What an interesting turn of events.
And those three gifts… With what purpose did he do that? Did he find himself a coven with such particular gifts out of interest or was there another reason? A mind reader sounded like a pain in the ass who Klaus wouldn't have any qualms about killing, no one read his mind, the shield, he didn't knew what that one was, but it didn't sound pleasant.
And the one who could see the future.
What did that meant? Were they anywhere similar to Lucian's witch that gave them the prophecy? Less skilled? More skilled? Whichever was it Klaus wondered if they could be persuaded to side with them, a future seer was always helpful, the prophecy turning real at the end told him so.
And right now he had a feeling they would certainly need a future seer with them if they wanted to protect their nephew.
~
Kol wasn't gonna lie. The idea that The Major was his nephew was exhilarating, because he would finally get to see that little sneaky bastard.
And if he was The Major that meant his gift was stronger than what Kol had first thought. He had heard how he had obliterated entire armies without lifting a finger. How his presence alone could seen his enemies running for the hills. He had thought people were exaggerating with such stupid rumors.
But what if that wasn't the case? What if he could do such things because of his gift?
And the slaughter he left behind… that was amazing and something Kol did admit had found almost close to his own scenes. Like uncle like nephew.
His nephew was not just sick smart but also dangerous.
It mildly made Kol wonder if they would have to fight him, he had a clairvoyant with him, that was quite the unusual gift among poisonous vampires, even more unusual than empaths, in all his life he had only met seven clairvoyant vampires.
Most of the time for what he had been able to gather these vampires came from humans who had been quite the strong psychics before the bite.
Strong enough their magic refused to die under the venom. They were the closest thing to a heretic poisonous vampires would ever get.
Though they couldn't particularly use their magic for whatever reason, it was almost as if it was locked away, in a chest, and their clairvoyance was the only power leaking out through the key hole, it was…
Weird.
And with the new info of gifts being magic related… it made him wonder if that had to do with it.
~
Rebekah… she wasn't quite sure what to make about the reveal of her nephew being The Major. But all things considered she guessed she shouldn't be surprised.
Leave it to a Mikaelson to get the kind of reputation The Major had gathered.
And considering it's been decades since The Major was last seen and he wasn't actually dead as first thought she wanted to believe he changed. If Kol and Klaus could change who was to say The Major couldn't?
Because she honestly couldn't deal with any more psychopaths in the family, it was tiresome and frankly a bit immature and unnecessary on their part.
Still.
Jasper… the change in name was interesting. A bit odd… A coven of poisonous vampires… a child… the Cullens. Why did she felt like she had heard that name before?
Cullen… Cullen…
Ah.
She knew that last name.
A blond vampire with strange golden eyes stood behind Aro.
Carlisle Cullen.