上海, Republic of China, 2011年1月9日
The Hanarashi Heiress' kimono dragged behind her, heels clicking on the clean, wooden floors with each step she took as she walked the corridors of the majestic palace her family owned. Trailing after her was her latest contractor, invisible to the world but her — a man that seemed to be in his thirties, with dark sharp eyes and a chiselled jawline. Since the first moment Min-Qiu's eyes landed upon him a few weeks earlier, she knew this one would be one hell of a case.
Familiar, platonic, romantic, most of his bonds were all entangled, strained and so tense they could be cut with just the grazing of a metaphorical scissors. They were in a dire need of unravelling —so much brooding and self-loathing contained in one single soul—, so she thought to offer him the opportunity to get into a Hanarashi Contract with her, especially after discovering who he was.
So they struck a deal. He would help her in any way he could, mostly dealing with information, and in exchange she would help him untangle the mess that were his bonds, and point him to a fellow clan member to resuscitate him. After all, he too had yet a role to play.
It would not be easy, not at all — she was busy with Heiress responsibilities, and basically being therapist to an Old One would make for a tedious albeit interesting task, but she owed it to her Patrons to at least attempt to.
Before diving into the heart of the matter, however, she would have to deal with a certain vexing spirit currently residing on the Other Side for a second and final time, if she had any say in it.
• • •
His days as a human ended with his thirty-sixth winter of existence. Finn Mikaelson could still remember the clear smell of the forests he would enter to accompany his father on hunts. Fresh river water mixed with fragrant cedar and pine, those were the good old days. Before he got turned into an irredeemable monster. Before his father got set on ending them all, especially his younger half-brother. Before he got cruelly cast aside, unwanted, all because he would not give in to the murderous urges crawling under his deceitful skin.
It certainly had left a bitter taste in his mouth —metaphorically, of course, he had not really tasted a thing for over 9 centuries. And the resentment he had towards his siblings for that? He was pretty sure it would not disappear for at least as long a time.
Oh, in moments like these, how he missed his lost older sister!
The one everybody thought had died of the plague, the one about whom mother dearest made him lie — to his father, to his siblings, to everyone in his life. No matter his desire to end his horrible existence even if it was at her hands, that was the one thing he would never pardon his mother for. Selling her firstborn like cattle to Dahlia, her own terrible older sister — even if such was the cost for having more children, it was too high; she should not have accepted.
After such a long time spent on a limbo, not alive but not really dead, he had regained consciousness, but it turned out to be an even more agonising experience. Trapped in the inescapable jail that had become his body; unable to move, unable to see, only capable of counting the seconds that passed by. Indeed, a torture like no other.
In this world, he was all alone. Things changed a little when Sage came barging into his life, though — untamed, fiery hair matching her refreshingly incandescent personality. For the first time since their parents killed him, he saw a light.
She was the sole drop of brilliant colour in the world filled with infinite shades of greys. She thought he could still be good, she believed him to be something he thought he could not go back to long ago, regardless of how much he longed for it. She saw him, and she had faith in him.
However, his want alone happened not to be enough to prevent the little slivers of happiness from spilling out of his hands, and any chance of a peaceful life was, once again, torn apart from him, all thanks to the Hunters of the Five and his siblings' unwillingness to have him undaggered.
Centuries later, there he was: finally dead, but now things have become clearer and more complicated all at once. He used to chase the idea of suicide, and so had used his own mother for the deed. What he did not expect is, in turn, to be so thoroughly manipulated by her. He may have detested what they were, but never would he have condemned such a massive scale genocide.
His life tried to right itself after the whole fiasco. Sage wasn't dead and had reappeared —he had felt relief for the first time in his long existence—, and they were going to live. She was going to show him the world, all the little experiences now anyone could have thanks to the human's technological advances. And the opportunity escaped from him, once again, when he saw his burned corpse from the other side due to the doppelgänger's friends driving a White Oak stake through his heart from the back.
A few days afterwards, he found himself on the other side of the world, and being seen by a stranger in even stranger clothes. It had been a total unexpected surprise, and she certainly made quite the impression. She stated she had an offer he could not help but accept. After hearing her out, oh, accept it he did.
The chance he had been chasing after since their turning — a real redemption.
»»-——— II ———-««
Mystic Falls, Virginia, 2011年1月15日
He had a pensive expression plastered on his face while he scanned the numerous grimoires laid in front of him, all the information he had collected about the Travellers was firmly in his grasp and spread all over his hotel room's bed.
He still remembered with unnerving clarity the last run-in he had with Silas' cult. He had been travelling all over South Asia, and was in Malaysia when he heard once again rumours of a cult attempting to presumably revive their loved ones. When he dug in, he discovered there were people in East Africa performing an obscure ritual in hopes of locating his tombstone and his location. Recalling the first time he crossed paths with those fanatics, he could not help but immediately part to where the ritual was taking place, frantic to stop them. In the end, he massacred them entirely, just like he had done the previous coven.
This professor —Shane, was it?— he's heard his siblings mention sounded too similar to the cults he eradicated for his comfort. It was Kol's impression that he was obsessed, and that instead of the man, it was desperation who spoke. And desperate people are always the most dangerous upon the board.
An incessant ringing snapped him out of his thoughts, and when he answered, the desperate voice of his annoying little sister reached his ears.
"Rebekah, always a pleasure", he greeted her, voice flat and loaded with sarcasm. "What do you want now?"
"Hey Kol, want to have some fun? I know you want nothing to do with the cure and yadda yadda, but I would appreciate your help here. I've got the professor's location and am on my way there."
His family may not believe him, they may only use him when they needed him for whatever reason, but so could he use them, for the sake of his own goals. And so he simply said, "I will be there."
It seemed it was time to get his hands dirty.
• • •
Rebekah hung up, and with a sly smirk on her red-painted lips, she turned to where she had Elena Gilbert, Stefan Salvatore and Caroline Forbes compelled not to leave. She never denied being petty. Honestly, at this point she only cared for the cure, but oh well, having this kind of revenge on the pesky doppelgänger and her little band of ragtags was always a welcomed plus.
She'd never seen the appeal of the Petrova line. Ever since the first one, they have never been nothing but conniving and deceitful tarts in a pretty package with big doe eyes. Greedy and insatiable little demonesses, that wanted and wanted without care in the world for whom they break.
Tatia Petrova had been a real harlot, having arrived to their village with a child born already but no husband in sight, and then she had the impudence to string two of her brothers along. She had caused the first of a long list of rifts between 'Lijah and Nik. Both falling for the same girl, and said girl did not even have enough face to choose —not that she should have been allowed to, in the first place.
( For once their father had taken a reasonable stance on the matter: her brothers were definitely out of the Petrova's league, as they would say nowadays. )
Half a millennium later came Katerina Petrova, the most conniving of the three by a long shot. She made herself look like an innocent little lamb while human, and then fled like the cowardly rat she really was, revealing her true colours, but not before stealing what was not hers. To think that her dear brother Elijah had fallen for her façade… He should have known better, by then, not to fall for the charms of that wretched face.
Lastly, there was Elena Gilbert, currently within Rebekah's imprisoning claws. A close-minded, self-sacrificing fool, but when push came to shove, she'd be the most selfish of them all. She went chanting all about her martyrdom and about how all she did was for her family and close friends, but then if it served her goals, she stabs them in the back without remorse —pun totally intended.
Resting her hands on her hips, Bekah turned to face the three unfortunate souls that had earned her ire.
"So", she started, "Stefan here has something to say, don't you? About a certain thing you promised Nik you'd keep secret — which of course you did not." She made an impatient gesture so as to say 'come on, spill it out already'.
He could only sigh, resigned to his fate. "He told me about the Hunter's tattoo. That it leads to a treasure."
Rebekah nodded at that, and motioned for him to keep going. "He also made me get information about it from Rebekah."
Elena, heedless of the amount of danger she was in, decided it was her moment to get her say in the conversation. "Wait, what treasure? And what information?" At her side, Caroline could not help but cringe a little. Woah, way to go, 'Lena.
Rebekah arched a brow at that. She really detested this latest doppelgänger, but she guessed there really was no point to beat around the bush. "A cure for vampirism, of course, and information about the one artefact needed to decipher the Hunter's map."
Now it was Caroline's turn to be confused. "How would you know about this artefact, though?"
And so Rebekah went on to tell her story, once more, all the while she was berating herself inwardly. Really, she could and would complain to her heart's desire, but sometimes it seemed like she was just asking for it.
• • •
Kol Mikaelson finally made his appearance about thirty minutes after the call with his sister, and he came by the hand of a precious cargo.
"Bekah, little sis, be a dear and come see what this shady professor has to say", he told without really asking. And he was too set on preventing the damned apocalypse to notice the looks the Scooby Gang exchanged at his arrival.
It took quite the bit of torture and death threats, but Kol finally got the professor to admit the cure was of no concern to him — that it was buried with his real goal, the First Immortal.
But of course, Bekah still thought his fear was unfounded. Despite the long stays in his coffin, Nik's excessive paranoia had clearly rubbed off on him much more than he would ever admit, and now he only aimed to sabotage her chance for humanity and freedom. A bloody load of crap.
Deep, real deep inside he loved his sister. One of his two baby siblings, the other one having passed away before even reaching his teenage years. He did care for her, truly, but certainly not at the cost of the world. Which meant he needed to start acting now.
»»-——— II ———-««
Mystic Falls, Virginia, 2011年1月27日
Regardless of brand, source or purpose, «magic always comes with a price».
It was the first lesson Kol Mikaelson ever learnt, and it was the one he had always kept close to his heart — one that has pretty much defined him to the core of his darkened soul. One of the reasons in the unending list every living being should have for not wanting to awaken Silas, was that even though it was said he could tear down the Other Side and bring back every single supernatural dead, there would be no doubt it would be costly, that it would come with an unaffordable price nobody could ever hope to pay. Kol might have always been for chaos and mischief, but he also liked living on Earth —very much so—, meaning that it was not in his best interests to allow a bunch of fanatics to revive a two-thousand-year-old quite literally petrified Immortal.
The thing was: his warnings were for nought, falling into deaf ears as they always did. Despite being the magic expert in their family, none of his siblings ever took him seriously. They only thought he was paranoid, even more so than dear Niklaus, so he was left with no other choice but to take matters into his own hands and prevent the idiots of the Scooby Gang from bringing Hell on Earth.
To get to Silas, he mused, one must have the following: his tombstone —which had the calcified blood of the witch responsible for the creation of the Other Side—, a Hunter of the Five —who would have the map that led to the Immortal—, and a witch saturated with Expression —the vilest of all magic practices, if it could even be considered as such. Thus, the easiest way to prevent them from ever reaching the ancient warlock was by taking the Hunter out of the equation by any means necessary, heedless of irksome curses — no hunter, ergo, no map, no cure, no Silas.
Decision made, he then did what he had always done best: create chaos. Massacred the vampires meant to die at the hands of the young Hunter, compelled the most obnoxious of the Salvatores to kill him —or rip off his arms, at the very least—, and just stood to the side as he watched the spectacle. No one said he could not have fun preventing the end of the world, right?
( Unfortunately for him, it would not last. And even more unfortunate for him, they would use his hostility against him — they would murder him to kill his sireline. )
• • •
Niklaus Mikaelson deeply cares for his family, despite his many shortcomings and toxic ways of expressing the sentiment. Even when he says he'll make them suffer or punish them, he would never want them dead. It felt unreal, and it made him numb with rage to see that because of the latest doppelgänger, he lost two brothers in the span of a mere few weeks.
He could still remember back when Kol was a toddler and awakened his warlock powers. Mikael had not been precisely rainbows and roses about it —he'd rather have his sons wholly dedicated to the art of the sword and the hunt—, but Esther had been absolutely ecstatic, even though her facial expression barely changed from its usual state. He had been fascinated by magic, it was the literal centre of his world. And everyone around him could see it.
Reminiscing about those times, however, would do nothing else other than heightened the guilt he felt — regardless of their differences, Niklaus had wanted all his siblings to live, but now two of them would never get to, and in no small part due to him.
It's hard, being so set on one's mind and their need to keep up appearances, so much it won't even let them grieve.
»»-——— II ———-««
Mystic Falls, Virginia, 2011年1月28日
The moon was still up in the sky, the younger sibling to the giant ball of incandescence that dominated the day; a pale lady brightening the world and guiding the creatures of the night through the infinite darkness that reigned during those late hours of the night and early hours of the day to follow.
Silence swathed the Earth, but any remaining semblance of fragile tranquillity shattered when a pulse of power could be felt all across the globe. In the sorcerers' quarters, the previously slumbering Oracle opened her eyes, orbs glowing an eerie shade of gold, and uttered a single, ominous sentence —as if heralding a dark future to come—, much to the startled Hanarashi's confusion: "it has begun."
»»-——— II ———-««
Εθνικός Κήπος, Greece, 2011年1月31日
A young woman with obvious asian features was leisurely walking down the street west to the Athens National Garden, when her escort let her know that one of her guards was trying to gain her attention. Kyriake bidded the clever magpie a nod, and it promptly vanished. She turned to glance at the man that had been charged with her safety, and motioned him to speak.
"Miss Iordanou", he said, giving the woman a subtle nod of deference, "your presence is required back at the Krystallino Palati. Young Masters Achilleas and Viktor arrived a few hours ago and are being sent to America along with you. The briefing will take place once boarded."
• • •
Unknown location, unknown time
"«Eall souls moste return whither they boren», quoth the gods. Your flesh may have become nothing but cinders, your mind on the other hand? It has remained. Is it not curious?"
