Be Somebody

by Vicky Tzalachani

A girl drops on the floor of the Alaric's office. Who is she? Is she a friend or a foe? Is she after the knife? Why is she here? What are her powers?

25. Chapter 23

Hey again! So, sorry for the mix-up! I was meant to upload this chapter, on the 23rd before the 24th! I hope you like the double update after so long not having any!

Again, I want to thank everyone who is still reading and has read this story! The next update might take a while again because I'm still experiencing some writer's block.

With this chapter I suggest listening to Iniko - Jericho.

Can't wait to read your comments!

Enjoy!

Be Somebody

Chapter 23: Happy Return To Normal…Or Not

The coming week of the new year of 2028 Hope spent every waking moment with her family while Nansia worked her magic with Bonnie and went on fun dates with Ryan. At the same time, the Saltzman twins just enjoyed some quiet fun times with each other and their parents. Nansia had some quality time with Jeremy, Elena, Damon, and Stefanie too. While Bonnie whenever she wasn't with the Gilberts/Salvatores, she secretly met Kol and Davina and they kept looking for a way to bypass the Merge, it was enough waiting for after the holidays and Kol had extensive knowledge of magic that Bonnie lacked due to her lifespan, he was their best chance at finding something.

Also Bonnie clued them in on Malivore and the two newlyweds promised to start looking at some books the Salvatore School hadn't had in their grasp.

Then Jeremy also had time to continue teaching Stefanie combat, while at night, Katherine would visit Stefanie and teach her grounding techniques and Traveler magic. Katherine figured out that Stefanie had accessed both the Petrova witch bloodline AND the ancient-long time forgotten Salvatore witch bloodline. So, Katherine searched the Underworld library to find something that would help her navigate such strong magic. While she was running and was a vampire and not a celestial being, as she was known, she hadn't heard much about the Salvatore bloodline and its magic. They were faint whispers and urban legends.

Katherine liked Stefanie she had the sarcasm of Damon but the kind heart of Elena yet she wasn't as naïve as Elena had been when she had started dealing with the supernatural. In all fairness, Katherine also couldn't blame Elena for her naivety because she too was naïve when she first met Klaus, but she did blame Elena when she remained naïve during her dealings with the supernatural. She only wised up when…actually Katherine can't say that Elena wised up on that aspect, yes she learned to be cautious and protect herself and her family! Given the situation repeat itself or something new comes up, which Katherine has a feeling it's already happening, Elena, Damon, and the rest of them would repeat the same mistakes and behavioral patterns just because the last time it worked. Last time they were lucky.

Nansia had used this week to just not worry about Malivore and enjoy the holidays or what was left of it. Nansia got to explore Atlanta with Ryan by her side which was something that she felt made her get to know a different side of Ryan.

They went to the Atlanta Botanical Garden as it had started to snow and as it was decorated in Christmas lights as they held hands and embraced one another smiling and giggling like lovesick puppies.

"You know that in two days I'll have to go back to the school and tell everyone everything, it won't be a secret kept between you, me and the girls, anymore." Nansia told Ryan with a troubled tone. She had just gotten used to the idea of living with the Salvatores and in Atlanta away from the school and what it could mean.

"Look, whatever it happens, you have me and I'm sure the girls will stick by you. And as Hope said you are three and a half badass witches you can't take whatever Malivore throws your way. And you have me too! Listing all that I like our odds, yes it would be nice we had more hands on deck, it would definitely make matters easier! But I don't think we need them, yes Landon must somehow be on our side or at least kept as far away from Malivore's grasp as possible, even if he doesn't help us it won't affect the outcome. Or so I hope." Ryan reassured Nansia as he held her close arm gently around her shoulders while walking around.

"I get what you're trying to do and say, Ryan, and thank you for trying to ease my concerns. But I think you're wrong. From a strategic standpoint, if they aren't with us and know our plans they are a liability, Malivore can turn them against us or force them to do so, using what they know to his advantage and our disadvantage. Hell, they might even try to stop us thinking they're preventing us from doing something wrong which will catapult every effort in saving you and stopping your fath…Malivore. I've seen what chaos, miscommunication and mistrust can do to an army even if they have a common enemy. I want to prevent that from happening. And in turn, minimize the casualties we will surely have." Nansia explained with a concerned and fearful tone as she stopped walking and detangled herself from Ryan's embrace and faced him. Her eyes pleaded for him to understand.

"Nansia, they're kids, not soldiers! They must have the right to say no to fighting and save their innocence and blissfulness for as long as they can! Life as a supernatural is already hard and as a human I've heard is harder to imagine having to be both or pretending to be the latter while being the first, it is hell! We have no right to force them into fighting an enemy like Malivore or in general fighting for their survival. They are kids and students first, the school isn't a military academy!" Ryan tried to reason with her as he had drawn the shocking realization that Nansia was entering a sort of soldier or war mode. He feared what could that entail if she wasn't shaken up and reminded that they weren't in 2149.

Nansia looked at him as if she couldn't recognize him.

"Ryan, Malivore has brought war to them! If they don't learn how to survive then they will die and won't have a chance at any type of life later. They must become soldiers or at least learn combat to protect themselves or at least the younger students!" Nansia exclaimed defensively and Ryan sighed as he rubbed his face. She wasn't wrong.

"Nansia, you're not wrong but they are still kids! You can't expect them to think like you or me! And I'm not trying to insult you or your upbringing and trauma but look how you turned out when adults and governments didn't preserve your childhood, do you want them to hurt like you're hurting right now? Suffer the same trauma as you do? What sort of life quality would they have with this entire trauma and god knows what else? We aren't entitled to ask them these things it's wiser if not better to have a smaller army than having mass casualties." Ryan said hesitantly as his voice softened and took a step towards her in an attempt to hold her shoulders and look into her eyes.

Pain and hurt flashed in Nansia's eyes as Ryan's words sunk deep. Did he really just call her broken in more words?

She scoffed before she shoved Ryan's hands off her shoulders and pushed him away from her and started walking away at a fast pace. She needed to go away from him, she felt betrayed that he saw her as broken instead of strong. Yes, she was used to calling out her parents and essentially the government, hell even dimension, for doing her wrong. But hearing somebody else do that; it felt like a gut punch.

But why? Why calling out what was true hurt that much?

She's supposed to be wiser than that!

With thoughts like this twirling in her mind, she stops and is about to turn around to finish whatever this conversation was this with Ryan like adults instead of running away like kids. When she did the 180 turn and collided with Ryan's body, heads and noses slammed.

"OUCH!" Both exclaimed holding their foreheads and noses looking bewildered at each other.

"Why did you stop walking like that?!" Ryan exclaimed pained and Nansia was speechless.

She didn't know why but she started laughing at their predicament and soon Ryan joined her as his mind caught up to what just happened.

"I was trying to act like an adult instead of running away like a kid…now a headache is all I'll get…are you okay?" Nansia said between laughter.

"I'm fine! What did you want to say?" Ryan asked her chuckling while rubbing his nose hoping the pain would stop.

"I wanted to say that you're right. I didn't like how other people threw away my innocence like that and gave me all these traumas as a result. And just like you said, we have no right to ask of them to give up their childhoods to fight or protect other kids while they're still kids themselves. But you have to understand that Malivore isn't terrorizing just you or the girls, it terrorizes the entire supernatural community in hindsight and since I don't see any adults rising up to the challenge, who will?" Nansia said wisely whatever carefree tone was present a second ago it was gone.

"Can we both agree that we have to just ask them and accept whatever answer they give? I don't want us to keep fighting on a day like this." Ryan gave in, he didn't agree with Nansia because he had spoken with Alaric and had given him the news of Malivore and the whole monsters when they met in that small town a few months ago when Alaric said that Hope's name was Jessica.

He was aware of the danger but as Nansia said he, the adult, and presumably Caroline Forbes-Salvatore didn't think it was a matter worth their time otherwise they would have been front and center and Mrs. Forbes-Salvatore wouldn't be off running all over the world and her fellow friends and supernatural veterans wouldn't sit back like they are.

They are miscalculating how serious this is yet the kids aren't that stupid! In conclusion, Nansia isn't wrong nor is he but he can't bring himself to watch more kid soldiers die, he has seen enough of that in previous centuries.

He knew this approach was wrong but so were kid soldiers!

Nansia nodded in defeat and stress weighing her posture as Ryan engulf her in a peacemaking hug and lightly kissed her hair as he held her. Nansia squeezed him making him smile lightly as they held on to each other trying to calm their minds.

After that, both parties tried to enjoy the park, swing on swings and just focus on the happier things. Nansia shared some of her happy stories while Ryan asked more about her sister and their bond, their lives.

He avoided asking about 2149 even though he was many times tempted.

They were discussing if they should go get some lunch when Nansia's phone rang and Lizzie's name flashed on the screen along with Lizzie's picture of her in the library, a candid photo Nansia took of Lizzie while they were researching.

"Wow! Is that a photo of Lizzie?" Ryan asked amazed and Nansia nodded before picking it up. Ryan did a thumbs up and Nansia smiled in thanks.

"Hey, Lizzie, what's up?" Nansia asked concerned.

"Hope's uncles and aunts are taking us all out for lunch as a goodbye before they fly back, you have to get back to the house to get ready for that." Lizzie said from the other line as she seemed to be shuffling stuff out of her way indicating that Nansia was on speaker.

"Okay, I'll come back. Where do the adults think I am?" Nansia asked with a disappointed sigh, she didn't want to separate from Ryan just yet.

"Um…they think you just went for a walk alone." Lizzie said as she tried to remember what lie they had said when Elena asked where Nansia was off to after breakfast.

"Got it! See ya in half an hour….do I have that long?" Nansia asked as she started to mentally calculate her commune route and time.

"Yes, Hope is with them and they are at some museum or something, Hope called Josie to let us know. You're not planning on showering though, are you? Because if you are then I don't think you have half an hour to spare." Lizzie said sounding a little bit stressed out and far away a sign she was physically away from her phone.

"Um…no…I bathed last night and my hair isn't greasy so no…anyways, I have to go. I'm heading to the bus stop now. I'll text when I'm on the road." Nansia said confused and Lizzie just sighed out of relief before she bid her goodbye and Nansia hang up.

"So, bus stop no to lunch?" Ryan asked rhetorically and Nansia nodded disappointed.

The couple walked to the bus stop just as Nansia's bus pull up, thankfully the bus they were on had a stop just outside Ryan's hotel, so they had a few more minutes together as they sat next to each other and chit-chatted after Nansia texted Lizzie she was on her way.

Nansia arrived just as Elena was calling her, she was rushed to her room asking her to change quickly because Hope and her family were on their way back and most of them were dressed already.

As she was blow-drying her hair because humidity at the Botanical garden had flatten them and made them look wet she saw Caroline standing in her doorway smirking at her.

"So, how was the d-a-t-e?" Caroline spelled the word date not hiding how amused she was while resting her shoulder against the door frame smirking with folded arms to her chest.

"It was okay…we fought a bit over some political stuff but then we decided to scrap politics out of our talks and then everything was fine, why?" Nansia asked confused and a little bit suspicious.

"Nothing, I just want you and the girls to come up with better lies next time, Damon already posed the question if you found a boyfriend in the city and that is why you are sneaking out essentially at random hours. You had to see Lizzie's face as her eyes widen in horror, it was amusing!" Caroline joked and Nansia forced a chuckle. She found odd Caroline's buddy-buddy behavior now.

"Are you feeling okay?" Nansia asked her as she eyed Caroline concerned and Caroline nodded too chirpy before she walked away saying she needed to re-think her attire.

Nansia watched her suspiciously but then focused on her hair and makeup. She wore black pants with a red knitted wool sweater, loosely curled her hair with Lizzie's curling iron, and put on some matte red lipstick before she put on some cologne that Elena had lent her for her stay. She grabbed her jacket, bag, and scarf with its gloves and beanie and rushed downstairs.

She stopped abruptly and gasped in shock seeing Caroline dressed in brown leather pants and a creamy yellow wool turtle neck in contrast to the velvet red dress she was wearing a few minutes ago. Even her makeup was in different shades!

What the fuck?

She opened her mouth to say something but Hope entered the house with her family and the announcement of where they were heading erupted a chaos of planning on who was going with who and in which car. Snuffing any words Nansia had about this occurrence out of her mouth.

Unknowingly, in the shadows of the stairs on the first step behind a baffled Nansia, stood a shadow of a smirking Caroline as her eyes held amusement yet it made her look ominously evil for no reason.

Something cause Nansia's hair at the back of her neck to stand up and looked behind her only to see the dark stairs yet not the figure. Elena urging Nansia to hurry up made the young girl shake her head and rush out of the door.

The Caroline look alike morphed into Katherine Pierce but now she had a more genuine smile before dematerializing.

Katherine hadn't had morphed an opinion on Nansia she was an enigma but seeing her the past few weeks Katherine was sure for one thing, Nansia wasn't a bad person. She was just as broken as human Katherine had been if not worse, she lingered and listened to Damon, Jeremy, and Elena talking about how to handle someone like Nansia, with all this trauma. She's been listening in these past few weeks learning of everything Nansia shared with them trying to judge her character.

At lunch, the long table was filled with lively conversation and Nansia just froze marveling how her life had changed in mere months. A few months ago almost to a year, she was in an endless life with no prospects and the next thing she knows she is facing witches, vampires, and werewolves yet in those short months the love she felt from these essential strangers and unknown family members was unimaginably alien to her.

Especially after Rebekah's and Jeremy's speeches at the New Year's party, she had become more open to the idea that these people are now responsible for her well-being. And want to be part of her life out of their own volition and not because of biological coding or societal and familial pressure.

Nansia was shaken out of her own head when Jeremy tapped her shoulder and repeated that Marcel had asked for the bottle of water next to her, she handed it to Jeremy and apologize for spacing out. The food at the restaurant was amazing and the atmosphere was too high-end for her but she could see why the Mikaelsons chose it. It was posh enough but not at all at the same time.

"Who would have thought that we would be wining and dining with the Originals!" Jeremy joked with Elena and Nansia heard it and chuckled too only to be looked at by Damon who smiled and shook his head having heard Jeremy's comment too.

Hours later everyone was back at the Salvatore residence and they were winding down or taking a nap when Hope and the twins came into Nansia's room while Nansia was packing up her suitcase and sorting out the last-minute laundry for tomorrow.

"Did you have fun at lunch?" Hope asked genuinely as she sat next to the suitcase which was on the bed and Lizzie sat on the desk chair while Josie sat cross-legged on the ground and found a shoe under the bed and was studying it and looking for its pair.

"I had fun, the food was weird and I don't know how my stomach will process it but it was tasty." Nansia said as she shrugged with a small concern and kept folding her clothes.

"I knew you would find it odd. Aunt Davina suggested it actually." Hope said smiling and Nansia smiled too.

"I have to say your Aunt Davina is so cool!" Josie said admirably and enthusiastically from her spot on the floor as she was playing with lone shoe's laces.

"Thank you!" Hope chuckled at Josie's enthusiasm.

"So, girls, how are we feeling about going back to school?" Nansia asked as she kept folding and realized that by now it had started to snow again. Throughout the holidays it was raining, snowing, or being cloudy, or as she used to say as a kid it was sunny with teeth meaning sunny with super cold. According to Damon normal Atlanta weather for December/January.

"Stressed as hell?" Lizzie noted as she kept doodling on a piece of paper on Nansia's desk.

"I'm concerned with how Penelope is going to react to the news of you and Ryan." Josie admitted from her spot and Nansia nodded agreeing with her.

"And I'm terrified of what Landon would think." Hope added quietly as she fiddled with the suitcase's wheel avoiding eye contact with everyone.

"How about you?" Josie asked Nansia with a little edge in her tone.

"I'm worried how everyone is going to react to the news and how it would affect my roommate relationship with Penelope and our…situationship…I don't even know if where I and Penelope stand is considered friendship. Plus, I'm very very puzzled about how I'm going to have time to learn about my abilities with everything going on including schoolwork!" Nansia said in a stressful tone and the girls nodded agreeing with her.

"I'm glad that you regard Penelope's feelings in this. I feared that you wouldn't to be honest." Josie said guiltily and Nansia nodded.

"Honestly, I'm confused emotionally regarding what Penelope and I had. It escalated so quickly and in such a short amount of time that thinking back I can barely recall if my feelings weren't affected by everything else and my reaction to Penelope's advances was just some attempt to grasp at something solid." Nansia admitted as she finished putting the last article of clothing into her suitcase and struggled to shut it.

"I believe Penelope would understand, she seems to be very pragmatic at times." Lizzie added and Josie looked at her twin in shock hearing Lizzie say something good about Penelope.

"Look, let's be honest, I did do her dirty okay? She has every right to be angry at me, I moved on too fast even for me and with someone who last time she saw him tried to harm her friends and school, essentially her home. I expect her to be angry with me and distrustful at first and to blow up in my face but I do hope after a few weeks or months to come around and realize that Ryan is also a victim in all of this. I'm not expecting her to be all good and accept it, I would be majorly concerned if she does accept it without protest." Nansia added wisely and understandably.

Hope was silent and it didn't go unnoticed by them.

"Hope? Are you okay?" Lizzie asked her friend concerned.

"No, hearing Nansia I just realized something…after all these monsters attacked our school, I risked all your lives to save Landon's every time. Is this what my relationship with Landon is? Co-dependence at its best with no regard for collateral damage? And Landon although emotionally in tune with himself or so I see it…I'm sure the news of Ryan being on our team and me knowing it for weeks might be seen as a betrayal to him. I fear that I see no future in our relationship…I mean what do we have in common besides tragic lives, being orphans and hunted by monsters and wanted dead? What would we have to keep us together once Malivore is dealt with? And what if winning against Malivore change us, and I bet it will, the newer versions of us…will they be compatible?" Hope rambled in a state of distress as she stared at the carpet and Josie crawled to Hope and touched her knee in a show of compassion and support.

"You will get to deal with all of this once you two reach that point. Who knows maybe the adjustment or change happens so seamlessly that you barely realize it." Josie said encouragingly and Hope's eyes started to tear up.

"The good thing is that you realized one core problem in your relationship. The hard part is addressing it to Landon and working on it." Lizzie added wisely and also extended her hand to Hope who grasped it.

"And as my mother used to say, relationships are meant to be outgrown. Maybe your relationship with Landon was beneficial to both of you to this extent. Take the lessons from your mistakes and the happy memories with you to the next relationship. They say you fall in love seven times before you find the one, Landon is one out of the seven." Nansia said wisely too as she lifted the suitcase and put it aside and then sat next to Hope rubbing her shoulder soothingly.

The wind blew against the window as the girls sat on Nansia's bed in silence consoling a worried Hope.

Downstairs as the adults unwind in the living room either on their phones or laptops or just mindlessly watching TV quietness was ruling the area until Alaric eyed the book of the Petrova family.

After the last few days, in which they actively tried NOT to discuss supernatural things, they were still questions that went unanswered by the youngest and newest edition to the Petrova bloodline. Such as who was Kamina Andonov and what happened to her? She was written in the book up until Nansia's communication with her ancestors and the magical filling slash correction of the book.

If they wanted answers they had to ask her now with everyone else present and not at school. At school, they had to deal with Malivore and Landon, Alaric, himself, wouldn't have time to devote to Nansia's mysteries and also was obligated to take care of the rest of the student body, the teachers, and the school funding plus the Gemini problem with the merge and his daughter's declaration of wanting to be emancipated from both him and Caroline's care essentially denouncing Caroline as her mother. There were underlying issues they needed to address as a family regarding Lizzie's outburst on Christmas. They couldn't and shouldn't avoid it anymore if they wanted to save their relationship and do damage control.

"We must ask Nansia about Kamina Andonov." Alaric voiced his thought and everyone pause what they were doing and glanced at him.

"I'll go get her." Jeremy said as he stood up from the couch and climbed the stairs to Nansia's room.

Knocking on the door and then entering he saw the girls consoling a crying Hope and concern took over his mind. He asked if everything was okay but Josie and Lizzie assured him it will be.

"Okay…um…Nansia we need you downstairs. We have some questions about the Petrova book former writing and current one." Jeremy said concerned and a little uncomfortable, he didn't feel comfortable breaking up whatever this was, he felt as if he was invading something sacred.

Nansia nodded and stood up as she followed Jeremy and the girls followed behind her.

In the living room, Nansia sat with the book in her lap and opened it when Alaric started explaining how he remembered a name that wasn't in there anymore.

"Who was Kamina Andonov and what happened to her now that she's not written in the book? Can you ask the ancestor or somehow recall some foreknowledge of her outcome?" Alaric ended his speech and Nansia took a deep breath before putting her palm on the book, closing her eyes, and focusing on the name Kamina Andonov.

Ancestral Plane:

Nansia stood before the familiar hut and she knocked on the door. She was greeted by Thalia and her grandfather. She sat with them and saw her maternal grandmother offering her some tea.

"Thalia, do you recall an ancestor by the name Kamina Andonov? What happened to her? She existed in the family tree but now…after you gave me the knowledge and I transfer it to the book, she was erased." Nansia posed the question hesitantly fearing she was offending her ancestors by somehow asking this.

"Oh! Yes! Kamina was a baby that I miscarried. She was reincarnated though as your great grand uncle's Alexandros' wife Kamina Tosvikov essentially your great grand aunt-in-law." Thalia explained with a nostalgic and fond smile.

"Ah yes! How didn't I make the connection?! I haven't met them in person but I have years to see their grandkids, if I'm being completely honest. I wish I had a closer relationship with all my cousins and aunts and uncles." Nansia exclaimed in a guilty realization causing her ancestors to smile at her sadly.

"You will be given a second chance, my child. Just be patient. Also, cultivate your relationship with Stefanie, she's your cousin too." Thalia said wisely with a knowing smile and Nansia nodded thanking them for this information.

She stood up, hugged her grandparents and Thalia goodbye, and walked out of the hut.

End of Ancestral Plane:

Nansia opened her eyes to see everyone staring at her expectantly. Bonnie was the first to congratulate her on contacting the ancestral plane without her aid to which Nansia blushed and said thanks.

"Did you figure something out?" Elena asked intrigued and Nansia nodded.

"Kamina Andonov was a baby that Thalia miscarried. She is reincarnated as my great grand uncle Alexandros' wife Kamina Tosvikov. They were living in Australia the last time I've heard I was told stories of their wedding and their first kid's baptism, Athanasios. Then of their other two kids Malamatenia Helena's and Vasiliki Sofia's births, yet I hadn't met any of them until I was about 11 years old and Vasiliki Sofia's daughter Helena Sofia aka my aunt returned to Greece and joined the Evelpidon Military school as an F22 pilot. I met her during the summer of 2010. She was already married and had two kids when she joined Evelpidon she used to be a Military weapons designer and as a hobby, she flew planes back in Sydney. Her husband Uncle Markos was very encouraging for her to become a fighter pilot, they were married young around 16 years old, and had kids young too. My cousin Helena and Andreas…Helena who discovers Sanctum and Andreas who goes insane because of untriggered magic and wolf plus start the prototypes for the mind drives and the ALLIE AI were her kids. Becca Franco is…was…will be Andreas' daughter and her granddaughter. Making Kamina Becca's three-times great-grandmother. Thalia reminded me of them…I had forgotten that Kamina existed which isn't very nice of me." Nansia explained and everyone nodded feeling slightly better knowing all of this.

"You should write that down then." Alaric advised and Nansia nodded as she was given a pen by Damon and started writing it down.

Upstairs, without the adults' knowledge, Stefanie was napping feeling exhausted even though she barely did anything. But her new condition was sucking out all her energy and was concerned with how she was going to handle it with school opening back up. With her parents diverting again their whole attention to her once Nansia and the girls leave back to Mystic Falls. Not to mention the grueling training that awaited her with Uncle Jeremy!

Katherine had advised her to ask her parents for vitamin supplements to help boost her energy and she was working on how to pitch that to them without sounding suspicious.

Stefanie had been keeping all of those new things inside her and she felt she would burst and yet at the same time she felt detached from reality, like she was a balloon floating and being held to this reality by a small weak string. It was a never-ending shift between her past, present, and even futures. She hated it!

She woke up from her nap to see Katherine sitting observing her and looking at her questionably.

"What?" Stefanie asked concerned and Katherine smiled sadly.

"I'm worried about you. And you seemed to be having a troubled sleep." Katherine stated with worried evident in her tone.

"I did? I don't remember what I saw…I feel fine. Cold but fine." Stefanie said troubled and then threw the duvet off her and screamed in horror seeing her body engulfed in ice!

Katherine jumped from the bed too and looked equally shocked.

"Quick! Think of fire, warmth…a fireplace…not blazing hot! Think of the ice melting and guide your hands over it! Do it now!" Katherine instructed her in a panicky state and Stefanie on the verge of a panic attack did as told.

She felt her hands warming up as flashes of candles' warmth, of the sun's warmth, of the feeling of heat during a summer day and of the videos of fireplaces on YouTube. The ice started melting, wetting the bed and once all of it was gone Stefanie jumped off the bed as if it was infected. She touched the mattress and groaned as she thought it was ruined.

"Try again to dry the bedding. Stefanie." Katherine instructed more calmly now.

Stefanie nodded and did the same motions seeing the steam rise up. Once all of it was gone the temperature of the room had risen to a toasty one causing Stefanie to shiver as her body temperature tried to catch up. Katherine hugged her proudly and then told her to change into dry pjs before leaving the room and disappearing.

Stefanie still rattled changed her pjs and went to pee. As she was washing her hands she studied her reflection, her mind was of a ten-year-old just like her body yet her speech and capability to comprehend weren't. With an empty bladder, calmer mind, and dry pjs she climbed down the stairs seeing everyone doing their own thing. Essentially invisible she grabbed a glass of water and went back upstairs to her room.

In the room Stefanie decided to play a Christmas movie as she relaxed in her dry now bed feeling yet again exhausted and a little sad. Sad because her parents didn't notice the change in her and Katherine, someone…or better yet a spirit did! It left a bitter taste in her mouth.

During the holidays, at the Salvatore Academy the students Landon, Rafael, MJ and Wade were left alone with a skeleton staff members, the four students tried to have as much fun as they could but also train Landon's new abilities. Creating a bond between them that some would call friendship.

Nansia had finished updating the book and was looking through it only to realize how mixed up her family tree was in there because of how messed up her own knowledge of it is. She sighed mentally adding this to the endless list of things she must do.

"Guys, the section on my family…the current generations is all jumbled up because of my own knowledge, I'll have to either contact the ancestors again someday or really try to remember what I know…it's not like my family was close or had annual reunions." Nansia said tiredly with a sigh and everyone nodded.

Nansia after that excused herself feeling drained as climbed the stairs, she saw Stefanie's room and the memory of what her ancestor said; she needed to spend more time with the family she has now than mourn the family she lost and never really had a chance of knowing due to distance and family drama.

Stefanie was her cousin and she always wanted to have a sister-like bond with her cousins.

She was about to walk in when something in the back of her mind told her not to walk in. That voice had always saved her so she didn't disobey it and walked to her room instead. Getting under the covers she allowed sleep to get her.

The following day was filled with packing and last goodbyes, especially between Elena, Damon, Stefanie and Nansia and Caroline, and the twins. Caroline was once again getting to go elsewhere to keep looking for the merge something that Lizzie had to visibly bite her tongue not to make a rhetorical mark about it.

"I'm telling you, Hope, if there's no way to avert the merge then Mu…Caroline would realize that she spent almost a decade if not more being away from us and missing everything when one of us dies!" Lizzie hissed as she kept shoving articles of clothing in her suitcase and Hope was just sitting with her keeping her company. Josie was helping Caroline pack.

Nansia had packed yesterday and was now just waiting for the last-minute laundry items to dry, she was impressed with the dryer having spent all her life waiting for the clothes to dry the old-fashioned way. So, now she was being tested on some small spells by Bonnie, an hour ago she was talking on the phone with Ryan as he waited for his flight to depart.

Hope nodded agreeing with her friend but kept her mouth shut, she recognized that Lizzie just wanted to vent not to have advice and inspirational quotes thrown her way.

"How does she expect me not to become emancipated with how little actual time she spends with us? It already feels as if we have no mother…and I'm repeating myself again…god!" Lizzie kept going as she twirled around the room collecting item after item doing everything pretty much on autopilot.

"Look! I'm even mechanically doing my fucking suitcase! Because I've spent SO MANY hours packing for this trip or that trip just so I can see her for a few hours a day…"

"But you're right! I shouldn't occupy my beautiful mind with this right now, we have bigger…blobs to fry than this! Thanks, Hope! You can go now!"

Lizzie rambled on her own as Hope barely hiding her amazement at how theatric her behavior was nodded and stood up mattering a "happy to help" her way before leaving her alone.

Hope was just walking towards her room when she heard multiple voices coming from Stefanie's room they sounded eerily and she instantly broke in a sprint down the stairs. Horrified she comes to a halt realizing that everyone that could potentially be talking to Stefanie is all downstairs in the kitchen or living room or in their rooms upstairs.

Damon sees her panicked look and gets up from the couch asking her concerned what was wrong.

"There are voices coming from Stefanie's room and they don't sound good or from a video game. I can feel the dark energy!" Hope said not hiding her concern. Ever since the Hallow she feels creeped out by similar entities.

Damon tenses and looks at Bonnie and Nansia who are in the kitchen having just finished their magic test and come towards Damon. The group of four is slowly creeping up the stairs towards Stefanie's room where the whispers are still happening. Nansia winces as she clutches her forehead.

"Optical migraine…" She winces and Hope pushed her aside and behind her resuming Nansia's position.

Bonnie abruptly yanks the door open to see Stefanie on the floor with a red candle lit, chanting slowly as the window is open and winter rain and wind are pouring in. Stefanie is soaked from the rain but she doesn't seem to acknowledge it.

"STEFANIE!" Damon yells as he rushes to touch his daughter only for the voice of Elena to warn him;

"DON'T!"

Before Damon knew what happed he was thrown away by his own child who emitted a reddish force field or so he thought. Shocked Bonnie turns to see Katherine standing before Stefanie in a protective manner as the two younger witches are frozen in shock.

"Katherine." Nansia whispers in realization and Damon glares at the Queen of Hell.

"What have you done to my daughter, bitch?" Damon growls as he tries to stand up.

"I'm trying to help her! Get out!" Katherine says before she waved them all away and they ended up being slammed back into the couches in the living room with a gust of wind chilling their insides.

Once they were gone Katherine rushed to Stefanie and without entering the shield checked the girl for any signs of harm. Stefanie kept chanting.

"Keep it up, little girl! You got this!" Katherine whispered encouragingly as she didn't hide how perplexed and concerned she was.

Flashback: An hour ago:

Stefanie jolted awake from another nightmare, drenched in sweat and shaking. She felt this energy buzzing through her and she jumped off the bed and tried to open the door so she can go grab some water.

That was going a dark smoky figure grasped her wrist, the young girl yelped in pain as she was yanked and thrown on the bed.

"NO!" She cried terrified as she raised her hand to shield her face but the smoky figure had a knife and stabbed her through the palm. Stefanie screamed in pain, her eyes shining green as a wind burst through her incinerating the figure and the knife leaving behind darkened veins in her hand dancing until they vanished and pain.

Stefanie quickly jumped off the bed again wanting to seek help from the adults but as she stood in her bedroom she felt so weak and dizzy all of a sudden collapsed.

More smoky figures surrounded the poor girl as she lay unconscious before a small blade pierced through every single one of them incinerating them and revealing Katherine looking murderous.

Concern was instantly replacing the look of murder on her face when she saw Stefanie. She rushed to check and saw the dark veins that had disappeared from her hands and were extending over to her neck towards her temple. She cursed and materialized a red candle lighting up creating a force field around them.

"Stefanie, dear, can you hear me?" Katherine asked concerned as she shook Stefanie's head but to no avail.

Katherine paces back and forth waiting for something to happen as she wrecked her mind with ways she could help the poor girl.

What were those shadowy smoky figures? Why are they circling Stefanie only?

Suddenly Stefanie groaned and opened her eyes only to meet Katherine's and she realize the girl's eyes were a vibrant green.

"Stefanie?"

No answer.

Stefanie started to chant in a language not even Katherine knew as the wind picked up once the window opened and rain poured and beat down on Stefanie as she kept her eyes closed and kept chanting.

Katherine couldn't do much but wait. Ten minutes later Damon bursts through the door.

End of Flashback:

In Stefanie's Mindscape:

Young Stefanie stood in a corridor full of doors, white as the snow with golden doorknobs glistering to the sunlight that came from an unexplained source.

Young Stefanie saw a transparent blue force emitting from one of those doors as she carefully and guarded walked towards it. It opened the moment she stood before it.

Inside the room sat a young woman around her late teens, with blue eyes and dirty brown hair. She was oiling her gun on a desk.

"Took you long enough." The young woman said amused as she kept oiling her gun not bothering to look up.

"Who are you?" Young Stefanie asked with a shivering voice.

At that question, the young woman looked up and Young Stefanie gasped stepping back a bit. Identical eyes as hers stared back at her, the scar on her eyebrow from falling down the stairs at the mall when she was six years old existed in the same spot as in Young Stefanie's face, a little more faded though, and more scars accompanying Older Stefanie's body.

"Sorry, for scaring you back at our room, I needed the diary." Older Stefanie said apologetically and smirked at her younger self.

"Time travel hurt us!" Young Stefanie said in angry disbelief.

"Yeah…I knew it would…because I'm you, dumbass! We needed to trigger our magic! Shit's about to hit the fan and you need to be battle ready! You're welcome by the way!" Older Stefanie said with a sarcastic and unbothered tone.

"Oh! Really? Like what?" Younger Stefanie said trying to sound tough but it was bright as day she was at a loss.

Older Stefanie sighed and stood up walking towards her, Young Stefanie gasped in fear and tried to make a run for the door but Older Stefanie just whisk her arm in the air and the door shut and locked before her younger self could even touch it.

"NO!" Younger Stefanie yelled in fear as she bang the door and looked fearful at her older self.

Older Stefanie stood with one leg taking most of her weight and folded hands watching her younger self having a fear-induced meltdown amused.

"Oh! I remember that…only if you…you know…knew how to use your magic…you could have opened the door and be on your merry way!" Older Stefanie antagonized her younger self who was sobbing now.

"Why are you doing this?" Younger Stefanie sobbed as she slid against the door and hugged her knees.

"Because if I don't somebody else will and it won't be like this, they might torture you. Petrova witches' magic gets triggered with emotional or physical pain and anguish. They could apply emotional torture on you the type you will never be able to recover from even with modern therapy." Older Stefanie explained with a sigh as she squatted to Younger Stefanie's level and her expression changed to a sympathetic one.

"What will happen and we have to be ready?" Younger Stefanie asked afraid with a small voice.

"A lot but for now you must warn our mum and dad and the rest of the familia; our cousin Nansia isn't alone, the only one…her brother, her twin is alive! I've been trying to tell her that but it seems she doesn't understand. They've met before in 2149! His name is Thomas! And those entities that hurt us were rogue watchers using their 4th and 5th dimensions' forms to move around dimensions undetected. Using their 3rd dimension version of their forms gets them detected by the way. Watchers are meant to protect witches and the supernatural but those are the bad ones."

"When Nansia's mum gave birth they lied to her that Thomas was dead, he was taken and sold to the black market, the supernatural section of course, to some parents who couldn't be parents the normal way, they were good people but died soon after. After that Thomas was adopted again and remained in California but not this California in another dimension. Unfortunately, I don't know which one. Or what happened to him, he doesn't really talk about his childhood. I sense they were people who hurt him or cast him out because of who he is but I could be wrong…I hope am because that feeling of not being included hurts…been there done that…"

"Back to the point, Nansia must find him and work on her time vortex manipulators her friends back in 2281 need her!" Older Stefanie explained with a serious emphasis in her words.

"Why is Nansia so important? Why do the Watchers want her and this Thomas?" Younger Stefanie asked confused but calmer now.

"Because they are the first Tribrids, part witch, part werewolf part Watcher. Their dad's name is Colin O'Connell and has been looking for them for 19 years! They have an older brother named Declan they must find him too and be a family again! The Watchers view them as abominations or at least these rogue ones do." Older Stefanie explained seriously and eagerly.

"I will tell them…but what about us, are we going to be okay? That mind drifting between our timeline is hurting us and it driving us mad I can feel it, will it ever go away? How do we cure that? Is there a cure? What do I do?" Young Stefanie begged her older self who had a look of heartbreaking pity.

"We can't be cured. We learn to live with it. We can learn from our future selves and be better. But you need to do grounding exercises and listen to Katherine, trust her more than anyone even our parents! Yes, they will teach you things, yes, but they are a lot more narrow-minded than Katherine. Plus their knowledge has limits to what they have experienced but Katherine as Queen of Hell has become an All-Knowing-Being so she knows far more hence she can teach us far more. Uncle Alaric might run a school for the supernatural but what will be coming out of the woodwork now regarding his dealings with things will be challenging to accept." Older Stefanie spoke wisely as she touched Younger Stefanie's knees.

"I will…is Uncle Alaric to be trusted?" Younger Stefanie asked suspiciously.

"Yes, but he's human and he will always look out for his species' survival, in his mind…even if he tries to hide it and suppress it, he blames our world for Jo's death and for how Lizzie is." Older Stefanie said displeased and saddened.

"He does?" Younger Stefanie asked shocked and her older self nodded.

"He does. I'm sorry." Older Stefanie said as she lowered her head.

"So, we are going to war with the rogue Watchers or with the monsters they have been fighting and trying to keep it under wraps so I won't learn of it?" Younger Stefanie asked her older self who sighed and nodded.

"Malivore, the monsters are sent by him….it…Oh! And Ryan is to be fully trusted, he's going to be your friend." Older Stefanie said wisely and encouragingly to her and Younger Stefanie smiled.

"What can I do to help?" Younger Stefanie asked her older self feeling as if she won't be able to be of help.

"You learn to use your magic, this isn't your fight. Your fight is coming in 2281. But you will learn from the mistakes and trials that are ahead." Older Stefanie explained softly and her younger version sighed.

"How will I be alive in 2281?" Younger Stefanie asked confused.

"We are hybrids, your vampire side will remain dormant until it's triggered by being killed. Katherine will learn that soon but you mustn't tell anybody else! They will try to cure you…oh and if someone drinks from you without your consent your blood will cure them of vampirism. Don't know how it works but it does. Only when you give it, it heals and only when you allow it, it turns someone into a vampire…your sire." Older Stefanie explained.

"You're not going to be like Uncle Stefan, you're not a Ripper but you will struggle a bit also you can allow how much healing you can do on yourself. Like how allowed all these scars to stay on me, they remind me what I have done and fought for." She said wisely as Younger Stefanie listened carefully and gulped down every bit of information being told.

"So, what do I do?" Younger Stefanie asked unsure.

"As I said, you can learn from their mistakes and learn to use your magic, learn how to fight with them and without them. Also, focus on your schooling." Older Stefanie said seriously and Younger Stefanie nodded.

"Okay, I will try my best." Younger Stefanie said anxiously and the older version nodded encouragingly saying it was the best she could do.

"It's time to go. Don't forget what we talked about!" Older Stefanie said encouragingly as she helped her Younger self up and then unlocked the door.

Younger Stefanie hugged her older self and then walked back out of the corridor not afraid anymore. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply as her eyes glowed green.

End of Stefanie's Mindscape.

Elsewhere:

A smoky shadowy figure stumbles inside a rusty warehouse when suddenly the shadows and smoke fades and reveals a human-like person falling to his knees and bleeding.

Another man walks up to them and kneels before the person and checks their injuries.

"I'm sorry…I couldn't do it…none of us could!" The person whispered before he let his last breath.

The kneeling man slams his fist in anger to the ground before he leaves him there. Without the kneeling man's knowledge, another figure is watching from the shadows with concern and anger written across this man's face.

He disappears instantly and reappears in a house.

"Colin, get your ass here now!" The man yells angrily and Colin peaks from the kitchen genuinely concerned.

"What?" Colin asks.

"You were right, the Watchers are corrupt…what do we do now?" The man said defeated.

"We overthrow the current Elders, Mike, easy! Oh! And I told you so! They took my children away from me and I'm going to find them and bring them down! I promised them that when I first held them!" Colin said determined.

"And I'll have your back." Mike said smiling at his friend before he was handed a bowl of green salad.

"Right then! Let's go out, they are waiting and let's start plotting tomorrow." Colin said as he started walking towards the terrace as he held a bowl of freshly cooked pasta.

Ever since Thalia had essentially banished Colin from entering the hospital walls by casting an ancestral protective barrier around every Petrova descended in the Atlanta region. He had returned to Ireland and resumed his Watcher life duties. Since the births and deaths of his twins, the Watchers had blacklisted him and kicked him in lower ranks.

But his best friend and brother from another mother and his Watcher (before he died and became one of them) had his back. Mike never stopped looking into the deaths of the twins and didn't stop pushing Colin to do the same.

Mike Coneséus was for years with the Watchers and devoted to them but the past 100 years, since meeting his wife, and splitting his devotion between his Watcher job and wife, later kids too he noticed how hostile they had become.

How hostile they were against Watchers who didn't completely abandon their human connections or didn't stop seeking love and life not just service. It didn't sit right with Mike and when he brought that to Colin's attention, it didn't sit right with him either.

Mike had traveled several times back in time to witness the births of Colin's twins to try to figure out what went wrong, the last time he had managed to see the truth. All other times; he was blocked by miscellaneous things from not turning to the right corridor to losing the nurses holding the infants and so many more.

But that one time; oh that one time! He saw an Elder by the name of Gregor, he was always so against the Petrova bloodline like it was personal! He saw Elder Gregor holding baby Thomas-Michael and handing him to another Watcher of a lower rank named Callum and he disappeared. While with baby Vasiliki-Athanasia it was Gregor disguised as a male nurse talking to a very very displeased Maria.

Mike recalled Collin telling him how Maria's parents forced her not to get an abortion and Collin had backed them up, not because he didn't believe in abortions but because he wanted those kids to be born, he felt they would be important and he had fallen for Maria, it wasn't entirely an accidental one night stand from Collin's perspective.

Something that Mike had scolded him since he became an adulterer but he knew how it was to live for thousands of years and only get married in recent years to a human knowing how quickly they wither away. But again Mike hated how careless Colin had been to his wife and already existing son in this!

But as Colin so did Mike, he hoped that Maria would find some happiness in motherhood but he had seen the girl twin when she was in the Botanical Garden and the fight she had with her apparent boyfriend. And from the little he had listened and understood, the girl twin now going by Nansia, had a hard life.

Back at Colin's house, Mike was watching the dinner their families were having he watched as Magda his wife, Peter his firstborn son, Colene his second child but only daughter, and Sam his second son and the baby of the family having fun and talking with Crystal, Colin's wife and Declan, his firstborn son catching up after months of having to see one another, he felt this rare feeling of happiness. Then his eyes turned to Declan and Crystal as they smiled and he felt immersed in guilt on Colin's behalf, how could they forgive him for sleeping with another woman? And getting her pregnant? And forcing her to have the babies and not allowing her to leave Ireland until she did?

But as he saw earlier, the girl twin's life wasn't that great so maybe Colin knew what type of mother Maria would have become….

So many maybes!

He wasn't sure what would happen if they found the twins, what would happen to Declan and Crystal? How would they react? Crystal remembers the chaos but does Declan remember?

He also doesn't know if Maria ever realized that she was taken to a different earth's Northern Ireland than hers which is why she was able to meet Crystal and Declan. They had managed to create a landline so that Maria could talk to her family throughout the pregnancy and never suspect a thing.

Atlanta: Salvatore Residence:

Damon, Hope, Nansia and Bonnie were slammed on the couches in the living room while a second ago they were in Stefanie's room.

"What the hell happened?" Damon grumbled as he stood up and marched up to the stairs again.

The others followed him but the door was locked.

"STEFANIE?" Damon yelled with worry as everyone peaked from their rooms concern evident in their stares.

Nansia looked concerned at Hope who eyed her before Hope mumbled an unlocking spell, the door was ajar enough to see Katherine looking concerned at them and shaking her head no before waving her hand to shut the door and lock it again.

Just then Katherine materialized before the locked door with a genuine concern;

"Listen before you judge, I don't know what is happening to Stefanie, but the past few days there are dark smoky, and shadowy figures surrounding this house. I've been keeping a watch because the ancestors alerted me that something dark is looming over both the school and the house. I thought it was your new arrival, Nansia, but I cast an ancestral protection spell over everyone related to the Petrova bloodline, known and unknown, but something isn't covering Stefanie. I didn't cause this, let me fix it. I don't want to harm the child." Katherine said with a steady and truthful voice.

"Why would you want to help?" Caroline asked suspiciously as she folded her hands to her chest.

"Because either you believe me or not, I do care about my descendants. For the longest time I thought they were none left but recently more and more come out of the woodwork. Not all of them are innocent, I fear that whoever is sending these dark entities might be related to the Petrova bloodline hence why the spell isn't able to protect Stefanie or Nansia, yes they were in your room some days ago." Katherine answered again truthfully and everyone look concerned.

Elena didn't know what to think.

"So, this is my fault?" Nansia asked horrified and Katherine glared at the girl.

"Not everything is your fault! Weird shit had been happening here before you even existed. Don't be self-centered; you're not the main character!" Katherine said seriously with a warning tone.

"I'm not…"

"Yes, you are! You are almost heading for Elena syndrome. Be better than this!" Katherine said annoyed.

"Rude!" Elena exclaimed with a frown and roll of her eyes while Lizzie and Josie covered their mouths to silence their giggles.

"But true!" Katherine defended her statement and Nansia looked lost between the two copies.

"Um…is Stefanie going to be alright?" Nansia asked wanting to revert the topic back to the young ten years old girl fighting for her life, probably, in the other room while her parents are trapped in a childish war of remarks and snarky comments with the Queen of Hell!

"I'm optimistic. Now, leave. If something happens I would let you know." Katherine shooed them away.

"No, I'm staying." Elena said as she sat outside her daughter's door and Damon copied her.

"Okay, be quiet though." Katherine said with a sigh as she dematerialized.

"So, we are trusting her like that? After everything?" Alaric asked shocked.

"She's not lying, I can feel the darkness coming from Stefanie's room." Bonnie noted saddened and concerned.

"Then I'm staying too." Caroline said determined as she bobbed down and soon Bonnie joined and Alaric sighed as he also sat down. Nansia and Hope did the same before Lizzie and Josie climbed down the stairs and went to bring blankets, pillows, and food before sitting down too.

Nansia was studying the closed door and she was itching to touch the door, curious to see what was happening. She scooted closer to the door and touched the door closing her eyes and focusing on visualizing the inside of Stefanie's room.

But no matter how hard she tried she couldn't get in there. She got annoyed and let it go.

Inside the room, Stefanie's eyes stopped flashing green and Katherine who was guarding her rushed to carefully laid her down. Stefanie opened her eyes and looked at Katherine tiredly.

"Are you okay?" Katherine asked worried and Stefanie nodded.

"What happened?" Katherine asked keeping a worried tone.

"I sensed the figures, they hurt me…they aren't entities…they are Watchers…rogue Watchers…evil ones." Stefanie said tiredly as she licked her dry lips and closed her eyes.

"What?" Katherine said shocked.

"Yes, future me told me…I had a conversation with her." Stefanie said seriously.

"Why?" Katherine asked trying to comprehend Stefanie's previous statement.

"Nansia and Thomas…the first tribrid twins before Hope. Some Watchers don't want them to reunite with each other or even be aware of the supernatural world. So, they try to distract everyone and Nansia specifically from continuing her search by killing family or friends or causing pure chaos." Stefanie explained tiredly as she kept her eyes closed.

"Thomas? Tribrids? As in there are more than just Hope? Nansia is a hybrid not tribrid, Stefanie…" Katherine asked perplexed but the sounds of soft snores made her sigh and smile a bit. Stefanie exhausted herself. Then notice the wound on her hand, it was almost healed. She quickly picked the little girl up and tucked her into bed with unanswered questions buzzing in her head.

She walked out of the room to see everyone sprawled all over the hallways.

"She exhausted herself, she's asleep now. She might have a fever tomorrow." Katherine stated whispering and everyone headed downstairs.

"Explain how my daughter became part of this mess, Katherine!" Damon asked angrily.

"It's easy, her witch side activated itself, have you two forgotten that she is a descended of two pretty strong, for years inactive, witch bloodlines?" Katherine asked rhetorically.

"What caused the activation?" Bonnie asked in defense.

"Time travel in fact." Katherine answered as she pointing looked at Elena, Lizzie, and Nansia. Looks were exchanged between each other.

"There are always consequences, guys, haven't you learned already?" Katherine asked tiredly. Yep! She was right in her previous thought, they are repeating the patterns of naivety and obliviousness….downright uneducated obliviousness!

"How do we fix it?" Josie asked guiltily.

"You can't. You learn to live with it. Stefanie will have to learn to live with her magical gifts and you better help her cope since you are all the cause of it." Katherine said in a warning and protective tone.

"How?" Elena asked lost.

"You listen to your daughter, Elena, you've been ignoring her for days!" Katherine said disapprovingly.

"I haven't!" Elena exclaimed protectively and glared at the woman before her.

"Then you should have noticed what happened to her! When she started to change!" Katherine yelled protectively, her eyes became red as the house shook.

"ENOUGH!" The voice of Stefanie made everyone turn to look at her shocked, she was barely keeping herself on her feet as Katherine rushed to help her.

"What happened to you?" Damon asked horrified.

"I unlocked my magic that is what happened, dad! As to who were those shadows, they were rogue Watchers seeking to kill Nansia like they tried to kill Thomas, your twin, and me. I fought them off by the way. You must find him and work on those time vortexes because your friends need you in 2281. You're not alone, Nansia, you have family here in Thomas and in an older brother named Declan. There are also more from our Petrova bloodline out there, they will find us but you need to keep looking. You must find them and reunite with them. You've met Thomas once before during 2149." Stefanie spoke towards Nansia who remained in shock as Lizzie softly grasped her hand from her spot on the couch.

"What do you mean? The only Thomas I knew in 2149…is…is he…him? Is it him? Stefanie? Where is he?" Nansia asked concerned and eager.

"Maybe, I don't know. I was told it was him by my future self." Stefanie said seriously before she collapsed in Katherine's arms.

"She exhausted herself, let her rest, and then we can ask her more questions." Alaric advised and Hope, Bonnie, Katherine, and the twins glared at Alaric.

"Hell no! She's a child, not Google!" Bonnie yelled angrily and protectively.

"She's right! If any of you touch her or ask her any future questions I will snap your necks! She needs rest and I have a feeling that is all she could and knew to say." Katherine growled protectively as she grabbed the younger witch and took her to her bed.

Damon and Elena were too shocked to react to the news, failing their own daughter. And their minds were also reeling from all those information about Nansia.

"Why would rogue Watchers want her and Thomas? And where is Thomas? Also, what are Watchers?" Alaric asked deep in thought.

"Only Stefanie knows, maybe gently ask her once she wakes up?" Lizzie asked hopefully. Everyone nodded not knowing what else to do.

Lizzie's mind was piecing everything she and the girls had secretly found out about the Watchers and she was reeling as she looked at Nansia and the girls exchanged a few looks quickly so they wouldn't be caught by the adults. Things were escalating too damn quickly for Lizzie's liking!

She wasn't ready to reveal everything to the adults because her gut told her they couldn't be trusted not to spiral and make wrong moves.

It was their last day in Atlanta.

"Is Stefanie ever going to be okay?" Elena wondered out loud.

The following hours were spent with Damon and Elena driving themselves nuts while the others tried their best to distract themselves by preparing their stuff for tomorrow. Nansia specifically went over Lizzie's notes on Watchers and their stories as Lizzie tried to fix her suitcases and digest the fact that they might have to let the adults in on what they know.

Stefanie woke up and slowly got downstairs and saw her parents who jumped at the sight of her and Elena embraced her in a bear hug.

"I'm so sorry I have been a terrible mother, Stefie!" Elena sobbed in her daughter's neck and gave her a kiss to her puffy and warm red cheeks.

"It's okay, you didn't know!" Stefanie said softly as she patted her mum's back.

Next was her dad who had a similar reaction to her, hugging her to a suffocating point. After that, though Stefanie walked upstairs to find Nansia, she had things to tell her.

She knocked on the door and Nansia yelled for her to come in.

"Hey, future me has more things to tell you that you need to start working on your time vortex machines because you're friends in 2188 need you but I have a feeling I already said that… Also, Thomas is in California but in a different dimension. Your dad's name is Colin O'Connell and he's a Watcher and he's from here, this dimension you must find them and be a family. Lastly, she told me that you have an older half-brother named Declan, he's Colin's son from his marriage to his wife Crystal…the woman he cheated on with your mum…sorry. Um…ah…yes! And that neither you nor Thomas or I are alone there are more people from our bloodline which I think it means that we have more cousins, we will meet them soon." Stefanie explained to Nansia who was absorbing the information like a sponge. By the end of it she sighed and wrote down a bunch of notes.

"You look stressed…did I do something wrong?" Stefanie asked concerned and Nansia sighed again.

"Not you…it's just…so many things are expected of me…I can't do all…but I will try. Thank you, for this, Stefanie…and I'm sorry if me being here triggered your magic." Nansia said stressed and remorseful. Stefanie smiled softly before engulfing her in a hug that took Nansia by surprise.

"You will make it. Just make a list so you won't forget." Stefanie said softly while they were embracing and Nansia smiled hopefully.

Stefanie let her be afterward as Nansia stared at the empty page in her notebook before she started writing down the list Stefanie had suggested.

List:

Malivore/Save Ryan/Tell the group that Ryan is on our side and we are dating

Learn to use my magic

Explore my wolf side

Work on my time vortex manipulators

Help Lizzie with her trial against Caroline if she wants me to

Help Ryan discover his witch heritage

Start looking for Thomas and my other brother and father if the rest are dealt with.

End of List:

Nansia looked at it and sighed as she piled up Lizzie's notes carefully before she put them to her desk and went under the covers feeling mentally exhausted.

In the twins' room, Josie was busy looking through the supernatural database for ways and mantras to help little Stefanie while Lizzie was busy piling every mantra and technique that had helped her with her mental state and her magic to give to Stefanie before they left the following morning.

In Alaric's room he was reading a book Caroline had found that could potentially help them with the merge, he's been studying it the entire holidays.

In her room, Caroline was looking through old photos of her and her friends reminiscing about the old days when life was simpler.

Damon and Elena were cuddling Stefanie as they watched a movie in their master bedroom.

As for Bonnie, she was perplexed about Katherine's influence on Stefanie and if there was in the past such influence, a witch and sort of celestial being mentorship. Unfortunately, many people in the past hadn't realized the worth of noting down things regarding the supernatural with future generations in mind, out of fear of being discovered and prosecuted. Thus, Bonnie couldn't find any old manuscript or published diary entry or research paper/thesis on this subject and its fallout if there was any.

The excitement of the day caught up with everyone in the Salvatore household and everyone fell asleep quickly.

Eight in the morning alarm clocks can be heard all throughout the Salvatore residence as its occupants are being awakened and starting to get ready for the long road back to the school they all call home.

A goodbye breakfast ensued with the twins secretly pulling Stefanie aside and handing her what they could find on calming, centering, and grounding mantras both regarding the magical abilities and the psychological aspect. They also let her know she wasn't alone, they were here for her to talk to at ANY point, they were family after all. Stronger together! Stefanie had sobbed in gratitude as she embraced both girls as let the note on her desk. Once they were done hugging Stefanie went on to hide the notes in her closet.

Bonnie also let Stefanie know that she was here for her for any magical questions she might have and warned her not to fully trust Katherine as she was known to be a backstabber. Jeremy also promised to be visiting more frequently to teach her more combat. While Alaric reminded Elena and Damon that he had a school that dealt with a situation like Stefanie but to that statement, all the teen girls exclaimed a huge and terrified no causing Alaric to eyed them concerned.

"If the monsters don't stop attacking I don't want Stefanie to be put in harm's way!" Josie stated protectively as she glared at her dad. Lizzie and Hope nodded agreeing silently with Josie.

Nansia bit her tongue not to utter the thought of Stefanie's innocence and regarding the monster attacks and how they could preserve it for a little longer if they withheld her submission to the school for at least a year.

Caroline though remained silent…too silent which irked Elena and she said so causing Caroline to say that Josie was right, being a student at their school meant that Stefanie would be under their care, and with how things were going with the monsters, they are barely able to keep safe the kids they already have under their care. She didn't want to risk Stefanie being killed before she even had a chance to live or explore her gifts. Essentially voicing what Nansia was trying to keep herself from saying.

Damon and Elena knew they had a lot of things to consider from now on but tried to put on a brave face for just until their guest left, then they can crumble in despair and fear of what was to come.

Bonnie and Jeremy piled in a car with Hope and Nansia while Lizzie and Josie and Alaric in another car. Caroline had her own car so she drove herself to the airport because she had another lead to follow regarding the merge. Elena and Damon also resumed their pre-holiday schedule with Elena going back to the hospital and Damon to his bar to oversee the preparation.

They had a few hours into the car ride back to Mystic Falls and Nansia could feel the anxiety through the roof so she texted Ryan to take her mind off the impending doom. She asked him what were his plans and he said he was on a bus to Mystic Falls and that he was waiting to hear back from a few apartments in the area. He was moving to Mystic Falls to be close by no matter the outcome of their conversation with Super Squad.

Hope was equally nervous since for the entire holiday she lied to Landon's face about nothing exciting happening when in reality more things happened in those two weeks than it has happened since Rafael and Landon showed up at their school and the knife went missing.

"Things will go great." Hope texted Nansia on theirs' and the twins' group chat and Nansia read it right away and looked at Hope with a wishful look.

"And if things go to shit we have each other!" Lizzie texted back to the group chat and Josie liked it.

Josie and Lizzie were in the car with Alaric and it was uncomfortably silent and Josie was asleep trying not to get car-sick. Lizzie was fine just ignoring her dad and his need to talk about their family's dramas and trying to stop her from being cruel to Caroline.

Alaric wanted to talk with Lizzie, really, talk because she said some things during these holidays that concerned him. Getting emancipated because of Caroline's many travels and his busy schedule was taking things too far also threatening to expose the supernatural world to the human court of justice!

Bonnie and Jeremy were obliviously fine regarding what worried the girls but they were concerned with Stefanie's condition and Katherine's reappearance and role of mentor and savior to their young innocent niece.

The same concern existed in the minds of Elena and Damon but they had learned after all these years to compartmentalize so they can keep up with real-life duties or at least fake it until they make it.

Josie even though was sleeping through the car ride she was worried about how Penelope and Landon would take the news. She knew MG would take time to swallow the news but he would be level-headed enough to accept and see Ryan's point. She didn't really care if the others didn't agree with them. If Hope, Nansia, and Lizzie wanted to help Ryan they could do it together. Josie didn't like Ryan but Ryan was also a victim and she was a good person and wanted Ryan to be safe just because she liked Nansia and wanted her to be happy and in a healthy relationship after everything she's been through. But at the same time, she didn't care about Caroline being away, she knew that finding students was important and finding out about the Merge was equally important. Besides she had learned not to need motherly affection as often, not that she approved of it, if she ever becomes a mother she would not be like Caroline in the present aspect, she would be a present and involved mum.

After several hours of driving, they finally made it to the school; they unload the cars and greeted their friends who had stayed behind trying to put a brave face on.

It was after sundown that Lizzie texted everyone to meet them at the Old Mill and then had a mini meeting with Hope, her sister, and Nansia trying to make a plan on how to break the news to their friends. Just then Ryan called Nansia asking if they arrived safely since he had just landed himself.

Lizzie clued him in on their plan to break the news now and not wait any longer, rip the band-aid once and for all. Ryan liked that idea but couldn't help but feel nervous about it. Josie then told Ryan he should be nearby in case he needed to make his presence known to add more credibility to their claims. Something Ryan was surprised to hear from Josie and not Nansia who was too quiet. On the inside Nansia was spiraling and shaking, she was having an inner anxiety attack.

Hope saw that and gently grasped her hand making Nansia stop thinking of doomsday scenarios in her head and return to reality.

"Josie is right, Ryan….sorry I didn't say it first I'm too nervous…" Nansia apologized on the phone and Ryan forgave her understanding her state all too well, he was on the same boat.

His hands were cold and clammy and his legs felt like chopsticks shaking under his body's weight.

He then told them to keep him on the line as they broke the news and he would be near the Old Mill listening in.

The three-a-half witches with Ryan in their pocket, walked to the Old Mill to see their friends anxiously and confused waiting for them as they chit-chatted amongst themselves.

Landon, Rafael, Penelope, Jed, MG were all waiting for them.

"So, what's up, guys? Why such faces?" MG asked first trying to break the tension that the girls brought with them.

"We have a lot of things to discuss, guys, most of them are about Malivore…" Hope started to say hesitantly looking at her best friends who nodded encouragingly.

"And some have to do with things we learned while in Atlanta…" Josie added in a similar tone.

"About me and…" Nansia added guiltily.

"And about Malivore." Lizzie finished with a dead serious look on her face making their friends frown in confusion.

"What does Nansia have to do with Malivore?" Landon asked tense and confused.

"Nothing actively…it's complicated, Landon." Hope tried to say but her fears were making her voice crack and tremble.

Ryan was hearing everything and his jaw was clenched hearing the tone Landon had towards Hope, she didn't deserve that! His half-brother or whatever better not pin this on Hope!

"Then uncomplicate it for us." Landon asked with an edge in his tone trading between anger and suspicion.

Ryan shook his head in disapproval maybe he should walk in and just say; "I'm team good guys now!".

Hope looked at Nansia asking for help and Nansia nodded as she took a deep breath.

"In Atlanta, I discover more about my magic…and about my family…a few days before we left I had no idea that my family could be involved with the supernatural. I thought it was all a fluke…until I got kidnapped by Clarke….I was saved by people from this dimension's future and these people urged me…nudged me essentially towards looking for any familial connection here….which is something I and the girls did in Atlanta." Nansia started to explain as compacted as she could without information dumping on them and giving them whiplash as a result. She tried not to refer to Ryan as Ryan so she wouldn't show familiarity with "the enemy" for now.

"Who were these people from the future?" Rafael asked suspiciously and distrustfully.

"A future and older version of Uncle Damon's and Aunt Elena's daughter, Stefanie, and…" Josie started explaining in an attempt to also help the reveal but froze because she knew it wasn't her place to reveal Ryan's involvement, it was Nansia's since he will be her husband…and was her husband when he saved her.

"And a future version of Agent Clarke…" Nansia added mentally wincing when all of them exclaimed a disbelieving what and stare at them.

"So, do you have any relation to Stefanie Salvatore and Agent Clarke, their future versions, I mean." Penelope addressed Nansia who nodded guilty.

"Stefanie is my cousin essentially…distant but for simplicity's sake Damon and Elena are my uncle and aunt while Jeremy isn't related to me since my relation is only towards Elena and her Petrova side not the Gilbert one….as for Agent Clarke…it's far more complicated…it took time for me to accept it…actually, I still believe that it might be a joke or with how things turn out it might never happen now….or happen sooner…" Nansia rambled anxiously and Hope, Lizzie, and Josie held their breaths seeing the looks of suspicion on their friend's faces.

Ryan was also holding his breath but a different part of him found Nansia calling him Agent Clarke very sexy which mentally made him slap himself for thinking about that while this was happening!

"Which is?" MG urged Nansia intrigued.

"Future version of Agent Clarke was…is…will be my husband…there I said it!" Nansia breathed it out and Hope with the twins tensed as they watched the various states of shock, confusion, and disbelief…

"How? How long into the future are we talking about?" Landon was the first to speak and his tone was angry and confused still.

"2048 give or take." Hope answered and she avoided looking at him. Nansia had told her how she and Ryan would get together for good at her and Landon's New Year's Eve party in 2048 if the timeline hadn't changed…

"So, in twenty years' time?" Rafael asked shocked and the girls nodded before Lizzie spoke.

"But there's more…this version of events might never happen now because future Ryan and Stefanie urged Nansia to start working on finding out more about her abilities a decade sooner than she originally had." Lizzie explained and their friends nodded.

"Affecting the time continuum in the process." Landon added understandingly and Lizzie nodded.

"And you did look more into your abilities?" Jed asked Nansia who nodded, he was the calmest out of their friends.

"I did which yielded a domino effect of discoveries…both for me and for Ryan…" Nansia said hesitantly.

Ryan so far liked how calm Jed was but he was still not sure if he could trust Landon not to say something harmful to the girls, his friends, and his girlfriend.

"Again what did you discover?" Penelope pressed suspiciously and Nansia looked at the girls and saw how they were nervous wrecks too. Guess she had to be the strong one…

"Um…future Ryan urged us to look into some books about defeating Malivore and while looking for said books we found a bunch of things about golems which is what Ryan is or so we thought and what Malivore truly is, information planted by Ryan throughout the centuries because he too wants to end Malivore and break the bonds that are forcing him to do evil things. And as we did both research on how to defeat Malivore and about me we found more about Ryan's ancestry….and mine. Firstly, I found out who my dad is…my biological dad and why I have werewolf attributes and not just witchy ones…turns out that centuries ago the Petrova family reeling from the deaths of Katherine Pierce's parents and other family members caused by Klaus, the surviving members, some of them married into surrounding werewolf packs, making their descendants hybrids. The Petrova magic is triggered by emotional pain while the werewolf gene is by killing, if a hybrid of that nature never triggers either side it goes insane. My mum never triggered hers but she still was an untriggered hybrid and when she met my dad, who is a Watcher, she got pregnant with twins. My twin and I are the first tribrids. The reason I can dimensionally and time jump is because of both my witch and Watcher sides according to the research Lizzie did. My werewolf side is sort of muted and it's fighting to come out as far as I have understood." Nansia explained nervously and watched as everyone looked taken aback.

"So, you, your twin, and Hope are unicorns?" Landon asked amazed and in the process of calming down.

"Yes…." Nansia chuckled.

Ryan also smiled at Landon's unicorn comment.

"But you said your twin was dead." Rafael recalled suspiciously.

"That was a lie apparently, told by the Watchers to her mum. " Lizzie added calmer now and everyone nodded.

"And where is he?" Jed asked intrigued and surprised.

"In a different dimension than this or the one I came from, we were separated but I don't know how it was possible but I did meet him in 2149. This is a piece of very new information that we haven't gotten around to digging more about." Nansia added nervously and Jed nodded.

"Maybe his magic got triggered when yours did too…like twin empathy." Penelope theorized and Josie nodded.

"It's a theory yes." Josie said surprised and quickly typed it into her phone to look more into it.

"But what I don't understand is what all of this has to do with Agent Clarke and Malivore." Landon said perplexed and confused.

"During our time in Atlanta, we were attacked by a monster posing as Ryan…you see Nansia had learned about the future from Future Ryan and went to confront our present Ryan, months ago, urging him to turn sides and help us and they spent the months before we left trying to build a sort of partnership and friendship, to try to make him trust her. The monster was able to mimic Ryan and put hers and Ryan's friendship to the test and real Ryan had flown to Atlanta to report his findings after taking a trip to see an old friend to check some leads out and we drew the conclusion that we were dealing with a monster….we defeated it…well it was a group effort. That monster attack made Hope cast a spell to figure out it was a monster only to uncover things about Ryan's DNA not even he knew…Ryan isn't a golem after all…he was witch taken away from his family and infected with golem properties. So, we promised to help him figure out this while he helps us defeat Malivore…he agreed." Josie explained less nervous but still fearful of their reactions.

"So, let me get this straight…Nansia was for months talking to the enemy who turned out to be an anti-hero and a victim? And we are supposed to trust her in spite of it?" Rafael asked shocked while Landon was short-circuiting.

"Yes?" Hope said nervously.

"No! She betrayed us when she decided to talk to the enemy!" Rafael exclaimed annoyed.

"I talked and asked questions because I don't know how this world works, Rafael! I wasn't born here! And I haven't heard about the monsters and about Malivore and since Ryan tortured me by asking me about it I needed to know what I got myself into! And since I've seen the look in Ryan's eyes far too many times on my own eyes! I saw that he was ready to be over the whole abusive dance, he just needs help. And don't tell me you two, Landon and Rafael, haven't felt the hurt of abusive parental figures because that's a lie. So, I chose to do what I wanted and begged someone to do for me! See when I was drowning and needed to be helped and do just that! Nobody deserves to be abused!" Nansia exclaimed defensively and angrily at Rafael and Landon who seemed to be glaring at her.

Nobody spoke, silence overruled the Old Mill once again and everyone was just standing there trying to wrap their minds around the facts they just learned.

"Okay…is he legit though?" MG asked slightly distrustful but knew he had to say something because this conversation had to lead somewhere.

"He is because he knows of the future he's meant to have and wants that." Lizzie said seriously and had a protective undertone. She had grown to like Ryan.

Ryan smiled at Lizzie's defense of his trustworthiness.

"But there's more, isn't it? What does Malivore want with me? What is Malivore and most importantly, where do all these monsters come from? Why should we trust Ryan or Nansia after all of this? And why would Ryan change sides so easily after centuries of doing Malivore's bidding?" Landon rambled suspiciously, confused and angry.

Hearing that Ryan knew it was his cue to appear, if he didn't Landon could say something to hurt his friends and girlfriend.

"Because I fell in love with Nansia and Malivore took my life away from me, away from my family, and made me do terrible things! Things I can't bring myself to voice right now! And you can trust Nansia because she risked her life trying to make me switch sides, Malivore could have attacked her while she was none the wiser just to keep her from turning me! I don't say trust me right away, I know I have to win you with actions, but Nansia is trustworthy no doubt!" Ryan spoke as he waltzed into the Old Mill with a protective glare as he stood before Landon who looked slightly surprised by his entrance.

"We need some time to think about everything." Penelope spoke after a long silence as there was a staring contest between Landon and Ryan, one that Ryan won.

"Understandable." Ryan nodded kindly to Penelope and watched the relief sipping in his eyes and the eyes of the twins, Hope and Nansia.

"Are you two dating now?" MG asked as he studied the body language of Ryan and Nansia, how Ryan was protectively standing before all four girls but his body was mostly covering Nansia. While Nansia was a few inches away from the girls and closer to Ryan just in case she needed to protect him.

That made Penelope glare with suspicion and hints of confusion at Nansia and Ryan. Nansia met her gaze but all too quickly look away in guilt causing her to frown.

"Please tell me that you're not helping him because you had sex with him?!" Penelope exclaimed disgusted at Nansia causing Josie and Ryan to jump at Nansia's defense.

"No! She's helping me because she knows how it is to be abused and manipulated by a parental figure!" Ryan yelled angrily at Penelope for insinuating that Ryan had seduced her or forced her in any shape or form to aid him.

"He's right, Penelope!" Josie added as she gently kept Penelope from launching at Ryan.

Hearing Ryan's answer made Penelope calm down instantly.

"Sorry…" Penelope voiced guilty and once again everyone fell into silence.

"Now what?" Landon asked once the silence became overbearing.

"Now, you read all the notes I and the girls have made to be up to speed and then we make a plan to end Malivore." Hope said seriously as she took her notes out of her bag and the twins did the same and hand them the piles of paper to the shocked group of teens.

Everyone started reading the notes while the twins, Hope, Nansia, and Ryan sneaked away to talk.

"That went better than expected…." Ryan noted nervously and everyone nodded.

"Your entrance was kinda badass." Josie added smiling a bit and Ryan chuckle nodding thanks as Nansia hugged him.

"Let's hope that things are going to remain this calm and finding a way to kill Malivore is quick now with more people on deck." Hope said hopefully as everyone nodded.

"Are we telling them about the two plans?" Nansia asked them and Hope sighed.

"After they caught up with the notes." Hope said nervously.

"Let's hope things go similarly well." Ryan mused hopefully and Lizzie mumbled the word "amen" before the group went back inside the Old Mill to keep waiting on the rest of their friends to finish reading their notes.

WOW! A lot of things happened! What are your thoughts on this? What do you think will happen next? I look forward to your comments!

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