"Welcome, I call it Fort Parker," Kai said, walking ahead of her. "It's a…it's a little moldy but also rent-controlled, so I try not to complain."

"You could pick anywhere in the world to stay and this is it?" Lizzie questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Hey," Kai said, turning to her. "Don't insult my home. It has its charming aspects and it doesn't need your attitude ruining the mood."

Lizzie rolled her eyes in response.

"Flavored vodka?" He said, tossing a small bottle at her.

She caught it and looked it over in consideration.

"It's no Zima, but then again, nothing is."

"I don't know what that is," Lizzie said, dryly.

Kai let out an obnoxious gasp. "You never tried Zima?"

He shook his head, looking horrified.

"Let me guess you're a goodie two shoes like your dear mother."

Lizzie rolled her eyes. "If you know anything about Caroline Forbes, you'd know that is the farthest thing from the truth."

He paused, blinking at her for a moment as a strange silence seemed to cover them.

"I wasn't talking about her," Kai said, finally.

Lizzie's brow furrowed. "Who else would you be talking about?"

"My twin sister?" Kai said, like it was obvious.

"Oh."

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

Lizzie crossed her arms, defensively. "You said mother, sorry I assumed you meant my actual mom and not Mombie Dearest."

"Mombie Dearest?," Kai repeated in confusion.

Lizzie couldn't help snorting. "Oh yeah, you don't want to know."

"I think I very much do," Kai said, tilting his head as he sat down with his elbows on his knees.

She ran a hand through her hair. "It's complicated. The easy way to explain it is Bio Mom came back as a zombie for a day and it was really fucking weird. Did explain a few things about my sister though."

Kai just blinked at her.

"I told you you didn't want to know," Lizzie said, eyeing her short circuiting uncle.

"Moving on," Kai said, shaking his head. "So, I have to wonder what are you doing in my personal little hell that you and your twin created?"

Lizzie crossed her arms. "We were four. We didn't even know what we were doing. It was Aunt Bonnie's plan. So if you're gonna blame someone, at least get it right."

Kai titled his head. "Speaking of—how is Aunt Bonnie? Does she miss me?"

"How would I know? I don't see her often. She's out exploring the world and living her best life." Lizzie said, shrugging.

"Huh," Kai said, "Of course."

Lizzie looked around the mill, taking note of all the important things.

"So what is there to do for fun around here?" she asked, looking back towards him.

He raised an eyebrow. "Not much. Pretty boring actually. And I tend to be dead most of the time."

Lizzie didn't let anything show on her face as she considered whether to take the bait. She could but then she'd be playing directly into his hands and repeating Jo's actions.

Being a copycat wasn't her thing. Considering him, she sat on one of the tables.

"And why is that?"

"Why is what?" Kai said, playing dumb.

Lizzie rolled her eyes. "How do you keep dying?"

"Well that little vampire that you trapped wasn't alone. She and her cronies are the monsters of this world," Kai said, twirling a hunting knife.

She could see the way he was eyeing her—trying to intimidate her or put her on edge. It was funny and Lizzie considered not playing along but ticking off her psychotic uncle was not her plan at the moment.

Maybe later, once she was certain about what she wanted to do and had some safety measures in place.

"How many are there?" Lizzie asked as she tapped her fingers on the table top.

"Three."

Lizzie raised an eyebrow. "And what are they?" She asked.

"A witch, a vampire, and a werewolf."

"Well that's the start of a bad joke," Lizzie said, tilting her head. "And how does you being dead play into it?"

"They made a game of killing me," Kai said with a fake look of anger.

Lizzie's brow furrowed. "Aren't you a heretic?"

Kai paused. "I am…"

"And aren't you supposed to be good at magic?"

He narrowed his eyes. "I'm great at magic."

Lizzie looked at her hand.

"So you're a heretic." She ticked one finger.

"You're great at magic." Another finger.

"And you're getting your ass kicked by 3 baby supernatural beings?" Final finger.

Holding up the three fingers, she looked at him. "The math is not mathing."

He stared at her in confusion mixed with annoyance. "I told you that I'm being murdered constantly and that's what you got from all that?"

Lizzie looked at him with a look that said 'who do you think I am?'

"I know everyone tends to underestimate siphoners but given that I am one, did you really think I'd fall for that?"

His jaw ticked, from anger or frustration she didn't know.

"I don't know what you're talking about," He gritted out.

"Oh come on, uncle," Lizzie said, rolling her eyes. "We know you're capable of handling them. Either you have a kink and are letting them kill you or everyone severely overestimated how dangerous you are."

Kai's mouth dropped open for a split second.

"So which is it?"

He was silent for a moment.

"You think you have me all figured out." His voice was low and a dangerous edge was creeping in.

It seemed Lizzie had finally found his limit. It may have been easier to play along and fall into Josie's role, but Lizzie's never been good at acting when she wanted to do anything but.

"No," Lizzie said bluntly after staring at him for a moment.

He blinked, rage cooling for a moment. "What?"

Lizzie tilted her head. "I don't have you figured out."

He opened his mouth to speak but she cut him off.

"We're just similar enough that I can make educated guesses. Seems like I hit the nail on its head, though."

Kai eyed her. "So you're saying you have a kink for being killed?"

Lizzie stared at him in shock. "That's not—"

She sighed. "Fair play."

He smirked, which made her roll her eyes. "Okay, I'm done."

She got up and walked away, trying to not to smirk when she heard him rushing to get up behind her.

"What—where are you going?"

Lizzie paused, turning towards him slightly. "It's called I have better things to do."

"Like what," The interrogator asked, pretending like he wasn't interrogating her.

"Like getting the hell out of this place." She turned and kept walking.

"And how exactly do you plan on doing that?"

"I don't see why you need to know." She made her way into the forest.

Probably not the best idea with the psychopath following her but what options did she have. The longer he was with her, the less time he had with anyone else.

"I should know…" He sped in front of her, forcing her to stop. "Because I know more about this place than you do."

"And?"

"And without me, you have no chance of escaping this place."

Lizzie crossed her arms. "What the catch?"

He grinned, boyishly. "I come with you."

"All you've said is that I need you to escape, but you offer nothing to prove that." Lizzie said. "So why the hell would I agree to that."

The grin slipped slightly. "Without me, you won't ever find the ascendant."

Lizzie raised an eyebrow. "And you know where it is?" Playing along.

Even though she knew he had the ascendant on him. Not that having it matters, given that she didn't have Bennett blood, but he didn't know that.

She wondered how long it would take for him to realize that. Hopefully, after she figures a way out of this place.

The grin was back on his face. "I have an idea."

Translation: it's in his pocket.

"Fine," she lied. "We work together for now. Any more tricks and I'm desiccating you til you're a corpse."

"No more tricks. Scout's honor," He pledged.

Lizzie's eyes swept the clearing as she looked for the sandclock. It laid at a distance, sitting next to a rock.

She ignored her uncle, who was babbling on and on about how much he hates Damon Salvatore.

"Have you seen his hair? It's silky and stupidly perfect. And his eyes? So fucking blue. It's annoying."

"You know for someone who keeps ranting about how much you hate him, you sound like you're in love with him," Lizzie said, dryly as she looked back at him.

Kai wrinkled his nose. "I have eyes. He's hot but then he opens his mouth…"

Lizzie snorted, stopping next to the sandclock. "I'll give you that. Uncle Damon can be very annoying. You should hear my mom rant about him. Apparently he kidnapped Josie and I once."

Kai frowned, suddenly. "Uncle Damon?" The word was said with pure disgust.

Lizzie raised an eyebrow at him. "Yes?"

"Why is he 'Uncle Damon'?" Kai asked, brow furrowing.

"Because he's my uncle," She said like it was obvious.

"No, he's not," Kai responded, immediately.

"Yes, he is. Even if you ignore the fact that I've known him my entire life. He's also married to Aunt Elena, who is practically my mom's sister."

He frowned. "He's not your favorite uncle, right?"

Lizzie stared for a moment. "Why do you care?"

Kai shifted in place. "Is he?"

She rolled her eyes. "No. Happy?" Lizzie said, exasperated.

He nodded, pleased, then paused. "Who is your favorite?"

Lizzie sighed. "Uncle Stefan."

He frowned again. "Damon's brother?"

"Yes," Lizzie said, picking up the sandclock. "And before you say anything else, he's dead."

Kai's face lit up. "So, you're saying he wouldn't be that hard to beat."

"I'm not answering that," She said, shaking her head.

Kai smirked, which she ignored. His eyes went the to sandclock.

"What is that?"

"None of your business."

He narrowed his eyes. "It's black magic. I can feel it."

Kai stared at the sandclock, contemplatively. "Is that why you're in the prison world? To retrieve this?"

Lizzie didn't reply for a moment. "Something like that," she said dismissively as she started to walk out of the clearing after putting the sandclock in the backpack.

"Come on, you can tell me," Kai said, catching up with her. "We're family right?"

"Yeah," Lizzie muttered. "Family."

"So?"

Lizzie sighed, stopping. "We didn't mean to send it here. It was supposed to be sent to another prison world but someone interfered with the spell."

He eyed her for a moment. "You're not alone here, are you?"

Lizzie hesitated, which was answer enough.

Kai nodded. "Who else? Your sister? The idiot my sister married?"

She frowned at him.

"Both then," Kai said, nodding again.

Lizzie rolled her eyes. "Are you done?"

He grinned. "Yep. So now that you got the thing, I'm assuming we're ready to get out of here?"

No. "Yes," Lizzie said, lying through her teeth. "We just need the ascendant."

"I can find it," Kai said, "I'll also need to grab my stuff."

"Fine, you do that," Lizzie said. "I'll grab my dad and sister."

They separated. Kai is going to 'get' the ascendant and gather his things and Lizzie to find the others.

She wasn't looking forward to him finding out she didn't have Bennett blood, but she would deal with it when it mattered.

Lizzie used vamp speed to get to what was Kai's prison faster.

As she reached it, she could hear shouting. Entering she saw a body on the ground as Josie and their dad argued about the currently dead werewolf.

"I didn't have a choice," Alaric said, frustrated.

Josie's body was flooded with anger. "Every day is the full moon, dad. That's torture."

"Am I interrupting something?" Lizzie asked, amused.

"Lizzie!" Josie rushed over to pull her into a hug. "Where have you been?"

"I was getting the sandclock," Lizzie said, hugging back.

"That took a while," Alaric said, frowning at her.

Josie shot a glare at him as the two separated.

"It would have been faster but I had a run in with our uncle," Lizzie said.

Their eyes widened. "What?" Her dad said, horrified.

She rolled her eyes. "Don't worry he didn't do anything. He was too busy trying to manipulate me."

"Lizzie," Alaric said, warningly.

"Yes?" Lizzie said as she eyed the said werewolf.

"Where is he now?"

"He's grabbing the ascendant and his things," She said, shrugging.

"Why is he grabbing his things?" Josie asked, confused.

"Because I said he could come with us," Lizzie said.

"What?" Alaric shouted.

"What? He knows where the ascendant is and has been plenty helpful," Lizzie said, rolling her eyes at him.

"You can't trust him! He lies!" Alaric said, furious.

"And we can trust you?"

Both Lizzie and Alaric paused and turned to Josie. She was staring at their dad with a harsh expression on her face.

"You've lied about everything. You lie constantly. So why on earth would we trust anything you say?"

Lizzie smirked at the shocked look on their dad's face.

"What, dad? Have nothing to say to that?" She backed her sister up.

Alaric clenched his jaw before shaking his head. "That doesn't matter right now. I forbid you from working with Kai. I forbid you from even speaking to him."

"You can't tell us what to do," Josie said, angry.

Lizzie narrowed her eyes at him before making a silent decision.

"Phasmatos somnus."

Alaric collapsed to the floor, unconscious. Josie gasped, taking a step back, turning to look at Lizzie.

"What-"

"What?" Lizzie said, cutting her off. "He wasn't going to let us do what we needed to do, so we needed him out of the way."

Josie frowned, conflicted, before nodding. "We'll need to tie him up."

"One step ahead of you," Lizzie said, holding up chains.

It took a minute because Lizzie couldn't reveal her true strength, but they tied him to the chair on the stage.

Once that was done, she glanced towards the werewolf.

"We should probably do something about him, shouldn't we?" Lizzie said, nodding toward him.

Josie followed her eyes. "Should we tie him up as well?"

"Probably, but we should cast a spell on the chains. The last thing we need is his werewolf strength breaking them."

And so they did just that—Lizzie lying about where she got magic from and Josie siphoning from the werewolf.

"What should we do now?" Josie asked her.

Lizzie frowned. "I'll deal with Kai and the sandclock. You should head to the boarding house to look through the grimoires. We need to find a loophole in the prison world spell and soon."

"Okay, let's go." And they were off.

Lizzie looked around the Mystic Grill as she entered. It took her a bit to turn the lights on.

Once she did, she placed the sandclock on a table. She stared at it for a moment.

She could break it. She could not break it. She wasn't sure what the best option was.

It would give her a way to escape the prison world but was it really worth the risk?

Before she was even close to figuring it out, she heard something outside. Narrowing her eyes, she exited the grill.

Kai was standing outside. His face was closed off and his eyes dark. In his hand was his hunting knife.

"You took a while," Lizzie said, eying him warily.

"Yeah, I ran into someone," He said, slowly. "Said he knew you. Spencer or something."

"Sebastian," as she felt dread settle in her stomach.

"Yeah, him," He said, walking forward slowly. "Learned some things you forgot to mention."

Lizzie stiffened. "Like what?"

"Oh I don't know. Something about a mud pit, something about you not being here willingly. Oh and something about there being no Bennett blood."

Lizzie didn't have a moment to blink before the hunting knife sliced through her stomach. Agony erupted as hot fire burned through her veins. It was laced with vervain.

He knew.

She looked up. There was something unreadable in his eyes as pulled the knife out.

Lizzie gasped as she fell backwards against the wall.

Somewhere along the way, she had failed in every aspect of the word.

Kai knew about Malivoire. She had no access to the ascendant. And blood seeped through the wound on her stomach as the vervain made her feel dizzy.

Holding his gaze, she felt betrayal course through her in sync with the vervain. She shouldn't feel betrayed. She knew this was coming.

She swore she wouldn't trust him but look how it turned out.

Now the dice was cast with her as the fool.

"Come on Lizzie, don't look so shocked," Kai sighed. "You betrayed me first."

Lizzie growled. "And how exactly did I do that?"

"You lied about having Bennett blood," Kai said.

A harsh laugh passed her lips. "I never said I had Bennett blood, you just assumed."

"Omissions are still lies."

Lizzie rolled her eyes. "Says the one who had the ascendant in his pocket the whole time. I'm not the only one who omitted things, Uncle Kai."

Lizzie pressed a hand on her wound. Kai's eyes flicked momentarily, following the movement.

He breathed out slowly. "It doesn't matter who betrayed who first. We both know you knew this was coming anyway."

Lizzie flinched because yes, she did know, yet she trusted him anyway.

Swallowing hard, she pushed herself away from the wall.

"If you're gonna kill me, just get it over with and let's be done with all the games."

He paused. "I never said I was going to kill you."

Lizzie snorted. "So you're not planning on escaping and collapsing the prison world with us in it?" She asked, knowingly as his eyes widened slightly. "Only a coward would kill someone without looking them in the eye while they do it."

Kai clenched his jaws. "Are you trying to make me kill you?" He asked, incredulous.

"You're going to kill me anyway, so why wait?" Lizzie pushed, playing with fire.

It was stupid, yes, but she had to prove to herself that she wasn't the only stupid one. That he cared, even if a little.

After all, it was easy to kill someone from a distance. Face to face was another ball game.

"Come on, uncle," Lizzie stared at him, challengingly. "You failed to kill me when I was a fetus. You failed to kill me when I was four. How weak are you that you're going to fail again?"

Her back slammed back against the building wall as his hand clenched around her neck as rage flooded on his face.

Lizzie smirked, despite the pain and sudden lack of oxygen.

The hand tightened in response and her hand instinctively flew to wrap around his wrist as she choked slightly.

The unreadable look was back on his face and suddenly she could breathe as he released her throat.

She collapsed against the wall, breathing deeply.

She looked up to see Kai frowning. This time there was something familiar in his eyes—guilt.

Huh. Warmth flooded her. Guess she wasn't the only stupid one.

Lizzie smiled. "Family right?" She said, sarcastically.

His jaw was tense as he flinched, taking a step back.

"Goodbye Lizziebear."

In a blink of an eye, he was gone.

She sat there for a while, breathing harshly as she wondered if everything she's done was pointless.

Pushing herself up, she dragged herself back inside and over to the sink to flush the wound. The longer the vervain remained, the longer her injury would.

With the wound rinsed out, it started healing slightly but not enough.

She desperately needed to drink blood but at this point, she was out of options.

Lizzie frowned, looking up as she heard new footsteps approaching.

She moved out from behind the counter. Her eyes flashing to the sandclock. It was on the other side of the room. Shit..

The door opened and she tensed. Her ex had returned.

Sebastian had a vengeful look on his face. She had made a dangerous miscalculation when it came to him.

Honestly, Lizzie shouldn't be surprised. Something was bound to go wrong.

She just hadn't expected it to be caused by her ex, who was mad she didn't like him anymore.

She should have known but she had been more focused on dealing with her uncle to remember that Sebastian was a danger all of his own.

She had assumed that since she was already a heretic, she would be able to handle anything he threw at her.

She had underestimated him. She knew he was the type of man who would kill her so she would live forever with him but she hadn't known that he was also the 'if I can't have you, no one can'.

It made sense, when she really considered it but her focus was on making sure her uncle didn't learn anything of value. Although, that was thrown in the wind in the face of a scorned lover.

That screwed all her plans. Kai knew about Malivoire because of him. Maybe not enough to think it was a good idea to take a plunge but that remained to be seen.

Her eyes flickered around them, considering how she wanted to move forward. Sebastian was angrier than she had ever seen him.

She had no doubt that he was about to do something stupid. He was faster than her because of his age and her injury but Lizzie was more powerful.

She could take him in a fight. Now, if Kai returned and joined him, that would be a problem. She didn't think he would but if he did…

She bet that she was stronger than him because of the god magic but he was clever. Almost too clever.

Being able to feel guilt didn't mean he would help her.

A part of her knew it would hurt if Kai attacked her again but Lizzie had gotten good at pushing those emotions down.

She'd deal with them later if she had to.

At the end of the day that didn't matter, because Sebastian wasn't going for her and Kai was gone.

Fuck, was the only thing she could think as she watched him grab the sandclock. She hadn't just underestimated how dangerous Sebastian was but also how smart he was.

He knew it was risky to attack a witch dead on, even a siphon witch, so he was going for the one thing she couldn't defend against. The sandclock full of black magic.

Lizzie had theorized that she could handle it, if it broke, but it was just a theory and she was about to find out if she could.

Josie had, but she also had a bond that spread it evenly throughout the two of them. Sure, she eventually siphoned it later from her but that was after her half was settled.

As she watched Sebastian grab it and throw it to the ground, her last thought before it broke was that this was gonna hurt.

It shattered against the ground and a plume of darkness exploded from it. It slammed into Sebastian first and Lizzie felt vindictive pleasure as he screamed in pain from being ripped to shreds.

It was supposed to be impossible to die for those attached to the prison world but now? Lizzie wasn't so sure there was a way even he could come back from that.

Once he was silent, the black magic was on her. She didn't even have the chance to scream if she wanted to.

Lizzie collapsed, feeling the magic deep beneath her skin in a way that it made her feel like she was being ripped apart.

It seemed to encompass everything inside of her. Her blood was on fire and her head felt like it was going to burst.

She couldn't even enjoy the feeling the rush of power caused because of the way it tore her to pieces.

The last thought before she blacked out was 'this wasn't how it felt last time'.

Lizzie found herself coming back to awareness slowly. The ground was cold underneath her and everything hurt.

She felt woozy. She could feel the black magic coursing through her veins.

It made her feel exhilarated. Her blood was buzzing and the darkness seemed to encompass her completely.

She was out of it. As she tried to regain awareness, to even open her eyes, she distantly heard footsteps approaching.

The door to the building opened and she could hear the feet stop.

Suddenly, there was a woosh and someone was crouching beside her. She felt fingers touch the side of her neck.

"Huh, seems like I'm not the only survivor in the family." The words were a whisper—they sounded relieved. Her hair was brushed out of her face.

There was a frustrated sigh. "Damn it."

Lizzie turned her head toward the sound. "Shhh." His voice was low.

"Well, Lizziebear, you did the impossible - made me care." He didn't seem happy about it. "And as much as I would love to leave without you, I can't. Emotions are such a nuisance."

She felt arms going under her back and under her knees. Then, she was being lifted into the air.

"Time to get the hell out of here. "

Lizzie's head fell onto a shoulder as she felt herself fall back into the haze of darkness.