chapter four ─ history

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THE DAY AFTER THE FOUNDER'S PARTY and Damon trying to kill Caroline's dad since he couldn't be compelled, Morrigan was walking through the streets of Mystic Falls, trying to clear her head and find a moment of peace– something she hadn't had since coming to the town. She had started at the Mystic Grill after having lunch with Elena, Caroline and Daisy, but now she was alone, as they had gone to get supplies for something called Senior Prank Night and she wanted no part in that.

It was true that she still considered the town to be mostly unremarkable. The only thing it had going for it was that it was infested with the supernatural, and that wasn't exactly something you wanted to advertise to the world. But the quaint little town was still pretty. And quiet, once you got away from all the drama. It was a good place to go if you just wanted to walk around and think, clear your head or just let yourself relax in the quiet outdoors.

Morrigan found the town to be particularly useful for this purpose, as her home was not the quietest of places due to the number of people inside and what they might be doing at the time. The blonde had made it a habit to use any small town she could get access to as a place to clear her head when she needed quiet and Lin had always been willing to indulge her. He had a talent for tuning everything out when focused that she didn't share. It was one of many things she envied about her boss.

As the sun began to fall below the horizon, the sky turned beautiful shades of orange, pink and purple. More than once, the reaper stopped to just stand on the sidewalk and admire the sunset. But she did eventually always keep moving, needing the motion to help her keep her head clear. As she headed towards a corner, she stepped around a man that was walking briskly in the opposite direction.

"Mina?"

A shiver ran down Morrigan's spine like a shock of electricity, causing her to straighten before she turned to face the man, the very same one she'd just stepped around moments prior. He had sandy blond hair and blue eyes, he seemed to be just a bit taller than her and there was something familiar about him that she couldn't place, but she could guess why she felt that way.

"How is this possible?" he questioned.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" she asked.

"You don't remember me? Consider my feelings hurt, love," the man said. "We were only the best of friends."

"With an attitude like that, I don't doubt that for a second. But I'm afraid it's more complicated than that," she said, knowing the explanation was going to be a bit complicated. "A little over three centuries ago, I died and I was chosen to become a reaper. In the process, I was reborn. I have no memories of my first life but... my boss said that I would recognize it if someone called me by my name in my first life. And you did. So you knew me."

"So you don't remember me at all? Or any of my family?" he asked.

"I knew your whole family?" Morrigan paused, letting that fact settle in. "I'm not supposed to remember my first life until I become the Grim Reaper, but if you knew me..."

"You wouldn't have to wait," he realized.

"Exactly. I take it from you finishing my sentences that we were close?"

"Like I said. Best friends."

"Well, old friend, what's your name? In this life, I'm called Morrigan."

He smiled. "You called me Nikky. You were the only one that was ever allowed to get away with calling me that."

"So we were very close," she said. "And you're sure that we were just friends?"

Nik laughed. "Quite sure. You were, well, let's just say we knew someone who would have our heads if anything like that happened."

"Interesting... I would love to hear more."

"Oh, I'm sure you would. And I would love nothing more than to give you my side of the entire story, but there's someone that you should meet first. She knew you before as well."

Nik gestured in the direction that he had been walking before encountering Morrigan. She smiled and started walking with him in that direction, feeling comfortable in his presence, despite him being basically a stranger to her.

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WHILE SHE HAD BEEN TO MANY PLACES with her family, Mina Mercer had never been to Spain. She'd heard stories of the beautiful coastlines and warm, sunny days from friends and acquaintances alike. They had been there for a few days now and Mina loved every moment of it. From the people she got to meet to the places she got to see and the foods she got to try. She knew that though they were not going to be staying there forever, they would be here for at least the next several months and she was well okay with that.

Having collected the things she would need to venture out to the market, Mina left the home they were staying in and started walking in the direction that the market was in. They needed a few things and so her mother had sent her out to get them, knowing that she enjoyed not only going to the market but just for walks around the town. No one could ever say that Ludwina Mercer didn't know her children very well and always did her best to use her knowledge to make them as happy as they could possibly be.

Mina had always found going on walks in whatever town they happened to be in at the time to be relaxing and allowed the mind to clear. Sometimes, she would find herself so lost in thought that she would completely miss her destination and have to double back. Not that she minded too much since she was never on a time limit when she chose to go for a walk.

Finally reaching the market, the brunette approached the first stand and browsed what they had to offer, picking out a few things, paying the merchant and placing the items in her basket before moving onto the next stand. She repeated this process for a few of the other stands before she came to one with some delicious-looking fruit. Mouth beginning to water and knowing that food was one of the things she had been sent out for, she stepped up to the stand and picked out a few things, chatting with the merchant while she did before paying for them and turning away from the stall.

Before she could step away, she bumped into someone just as she was turning. They were solid, as if she'd bumped into a wall and not a person, and sent her basket to the ground, most of its contents spilling out across the stone ground of the market.

"Oh!" Mina exclaimed, immediately bending down to try and collect it all.

"My apologies," said the voice of the person she'd bumped into. "I wasn't looking where I was going."

"Neither was I," Mina admitted, looking up as they knelt down to help her.

Immediately upon looking at the man's face, her voice trailed off, captivated. He was one of the most handsome men that she had ever seen without a shadow of a doubt, with dark hair tied away from his face and dark eyes that watched her with a blank expression. Mina quickly averted her eyes, cheeks colouring, to pick up the goods that were still spilled across the ground.

"I think we were both at fault," she said as he handed her the last apple.

"Allow me to replace your damaged goods," the man said.

"Oh, that's not necessary, I have more than enough to–"

"Please," he said, placing his hand on hers. "It is the least I can do after causing you to drop them all."

Mina tried to conjure up the words to protest further, but she found her voice failing her under this man's penetrating gaze. He took her silence as agreement and guided her back to the stall she'd just left. He easily communicated to the merchant what he was intending to do and Mina just watched, still completely captivated. As they moved onto the second stall, she finally found her voice.

"Thank you, sir," she said. "I feel that the least I can do in return is tell you my name so you know who you're helping. My name is Mina Mercer."

"Well, it is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Mina," he said. "I am Elijah."

Elijah, she repeated in her head, a smile pulling on her lips. It suited him more than anything she could have assumed his name to be.

"It is a pleasure to meet you as well, Elijah. I cannot thank you enough for what you are doing for me," she told him.

"Oh, no need to thank me. I bumped into you and caused you to spill it all. You must need the food otherwise you wouldn't be here."

"Well, it's just a few things. I'm sure we would have survived without them," she assured him.

"Nevertheless, I feel I must do the honourable thing and replace them," he told her.

"I appreciate it greatly," she said. He gave her a smile and she smiled back as they moved to the next stall. "Do you live here in town?"

"My family has recently moved here for a change of scenery," he told her. "We've only been here for a few months. How about you?"

"My family is vacationing. We've only been here for about a month," she said.

"It is a lovely place, I'm sure you'll love it."

"I already do, but each day it seems to just get better and better."

They approached the last stall, the one that Mina had started with. But something interrupted Elijah before he could request anything from the merchant before him.

"Elijah, let's go home, I'm bored."

"In a moment, Niklaus," Elijah said.

"No, now, Elijah, there's nothing for me to do here," the man said.

"Yes, and we can return home as soon as I finish what I'm doing."

"What are you doing?"

"Oh, he's being very considerate, sir," Mina answered, assuming this man was his boss or master given how he was ordering him around. "He's replacing all my food after we bumped into each other and they spilled to the ground and were ruined."

"And you are?"

"Be nice, Niklaus," Elijah chastised.

"Miss Mina Mercer, sir," she introduced, giving the man a little curtsey.

"Mina, this is my brother, Niklaus," Elijah introduced.

"Most people call me Klaus," Niklaus said.

"I think you look like much more of a Nik," she said after studying his face. "Or Nikky."

"Really?" Klaus questioned.

"Yes, indeed. Klaus has such a soft ending and you look like a man who wishes to intimidate. Nik suits such a purpose much more. And, of course, Nikky then follows as the perfect affectionate nickname for those that you choose to let close to you," she explained.

"I like her," Klaus said to Elijah.

"I'm sure you do, Niklaus," Elijah agreed noncommittally, placing a few things in Mina's basket and paying the merchant for them. "I'm afraid my brother and I must be off, Mina. I hope we have the chance to run into each other again in much more pleasant circumstances."

"I believe this has been perfectly pleasant," Mina said.

Elijah smiled. "Your family will be staying a while in town?"

"Yes, we have no set date to return to London," she answered.

"Wonderful. Farewell."

"Farewell," she said quietly, watching as Elijah carefully guided his brother away from the stall, sincerely hoping she would get to see him again.

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LIN HAD TOLD MORRIGAN SINCE SHE started asking about her first life when she was young that if she ever did happen to encounter someone from her first life, she would know it. There would be a shiver down her spine as if someone had sent a spark along it. That she would trust this person, feel at ease around them. And Morrigan had been dreaming of the day that she might one day get to experience that, hoping that she wouldn't miss out on such a thing when it sounded so exhilarating.

And now she had experienced it and it was everything she could have ever hoped it would be. After three hundred and eight years, she'd almost given up hope, knowing that her only chance would be if someone she knew happened to have become a vampire and would live long enough for her to meet them. But there she was, walking down the streets of Mystic Falls with someone that had known her before she became a reaper.

They came to a parking lot soon enough where there was a large box truck parked. It was all closed up, but there was a pretty blonde sitting on the back bumper as if she was waiting for someone.

"Dear sister," Nik called out, "I have someone for you to meet. You'll never guess who I ran into while scouting for our prize."

"Nik, I don't need you to announce that you found the─ Mina?"

Another electric shock raced down Morrigan's spine at being called the name again.

"Once, yes," she answered. "In this life, I'm called Morrigan. But I am going to take a crazy leap that you also knew me in the life when I was Mina."

"I'm confused."

Morrigan quickly explained how she had come to be a reaper and forgotten everything about her first life, the one in which she'd known the two of them. With help from Nik, it was relatively easy.

"You don't remember anything from before? No one and nothing at all?"

"I don't even remember dying, honestly. I didn't even remember agreeing to be a reaper at first. I won't get my memories back until I become the Grim Reaper. And even then, it's not really like I'm getting them back, it's more complicated than that."

"Oh, I don't even care," Rebekah said, hugging her. It felt so right, so natural, that Morrigan found herself hugging back before she even knew what she was doing. "I've got my best friend back."

"That's been going around a lot, I hear," Morrigan said, smiling. 

She looked over at Nik from the hug and found him smiling at her from where he was leaning against the truck. Her smile widened as she hugged Rebekah tighter. It was incredible how natural all of this felt when she barely even knew these people. But she trusted them as much as she trusted Lin, the man who had raised her. She could only suspect what that meant for how well they'd known each other.

"So what are you doing here in Mystic Falls?" Morrigan asked as Rebekah released her.

"Looking for someone," Nik answered.

"Perhaps I can help," she offered. "I've been here for a few months and would like to say I know my way around."

"While I would love your assistance, I've already found where my prey is going to be. I wouldn't mind if you tagged along to help, though," he told her. "As long as you're a better fighter than when first we met."

"I do have three hundred years' worth of practice with this thing," Morrigan said, conjuring her scythe. "I'd like to think I've gotten pretty good with it."

"That looks like just the kind of thing that will inspire fear where I want it," he said. "Now, if you don't mind following me..."

"Why, of course," she agreed.

"Rebekah, you stay here till our friend wakes up from his little nap and then join us at the high school, alright?"

"Why do you get to go with Morrigan and I have to stay here?" Rebekah pouted.

"Hey," she assured her, "I'm not human now. We've got so much time to catch up. We'll have a chance, I promise."

Still pouting, Rebekah agreed and sat down on the bumper again as Morrigan followed Nik away from the parking lot. She got rid of her scythe as they walked so as not to bring attention to themselves but walked contentedly next to her old friend as he lead the way to where they were headed.

"So... this person you're looking for," Morrigan started. "What did they do to you?"

"They were supposed to do something. And they didn't. So because they didn't, I can't do something I need to do."

"Cryptic... You want to tell me the specifics or do you not trust me?"

"Still the same clever girl," he noted with a laugh. "I want to trust you, but I need to know you're on my side here. You said it yourself, you've been here for a while. The person I want might be your friend."

"You're my friend," she reminded him.

"One that you didn't know you had until a half-hour ago."

"Touché. Alright then. Lead on." He gave her a look. "Truly. You want me to prove that I'm on your side. So I won't question you. At least not on this."

That seemed to satisfy him and he lead on, Morrigan following him.

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A WEEK PASSED BY FOR MINA WITH little to excite her. She went on a brief two-day trip with her father and brother, but it ended up being less exciting than promised and they returned to their home with no new stories to share with the rest of their family. Her father, Rowland, and elder brother, Millard, gave Morrigan their clothes to bring to the wash room while they delivered the weapons back to the room they had converted into an armory. On the way, she met her mother, Ludwina, who was heading in the same direction.

"How did it go?" Ludwina asked.

"It was an absolute bore," Mina complained. "That nest was so much smaller than we were informed it would. It's good we didn't bring Myrtle with us, there wouldn't have been anything for her to do!"

"Oh, what a shame," Ludwina agreed. "But the world is all the better for having fewer vampires in it."

"True enough. Shame we didn't get the tip about it earlier. They may have been new vampires, but they had already gotten several victims."

"How horrible. You returned them to the town to be given a proper burial?"

"Mother, what do you take us for? Of course, we did. We aren't the animals."

After depositing the laundry in the wash room, both mother and daughter returned upstairs. When they came into the sitting room they found Myrtle, her younger sister, setting a bouquet of flowers in a vase down on the coffee table. When she heard the two women enter the room, she turned around and held out an envelope towards them with a large smile on her face.

"What's this?" Mina asked, taking the envelope handed to her.

"These came with that. Addressed to you," Myrtle said with a teasing tone.

"To me?" Mina questioned, quickly opening the envelope. "Who delivered them?"

"Judging by the size of the flowers, not the person who sent them," the younger girl explained. "He was cute, but definitely not dressed well enough to be able to afford something as lavish as these flowers."

Now even more curious, Mina pulled the card out from inside the envelope and read it over, her cheeks colouring as she realized who had sent it and why. A smile grew on her face before she could stop herself, only making her mother and sister more confused about where the flowers had come from.

"The Mikaelson family is holding a ball," Mina explained. "And we are all invited to come."

"Who are the Mikaelson's?" her sister asked.

"I believe I met two of them the other day in the market... One of them was quite charming. He said that they were also living in town."

"Why would we be invited if we don't know them?" Ludwina questioned, making a grab for the invitation, but Mina held it out of her reach.

"Perhaps he found me as charming as I found him. Must there be more to it?" she questioned.

"Yes, of course, there must. We can't just walk into the homes of people we don't know," Ludwina explained.

"Oh, please," Mina scoffed. "Most of the contracts we take are from strangers who we've never met and we go into their homes without question."

"Wilhelmina," Ludwina said.

"Mother," she mocked. "You don't have to come and have a good time if you don't want to. We'll go without you."

Ludwina crossed her arms. "You think your father will agree to this?"

"I think I can convince him. And if I can't, then Myrtle certainly can. And she's on my side, aren't you?"

"If it means going to a ball? Of course, I am."

"Well, it seems we're already two against one and even if we can't convince Father, I know that Millard will come with us, too."

"You are acting like a child."

"I believe I'm being perfectly democratic. You need to loosen up, Mother. If you're too tense, it'll be easier for the vampires to get you."

"Fine. But on your head be any consequences."

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"SO YOU MUST HAVE SOME JUICY STORIES on me that I don't know about," Morrigan said as she and Nik walked through town.

"Oh, I have plenty," he agreed, smiling. "We knew each other from... 1697 to 1702. Lots happened during that time."

"1702, that's the year I died."

Nik stopped.

"Lin would never tell me what happened. You know how I died, don't you?"

He turned and looked at her. She could see the answer in his eyes. But she could also see that he didn't want to tell her the answer that she was looking for.

"If you know, you have to tell me," Morrigan urged.

"That story is a complicated one. And it isn't for me to tell. There's someone who we both cared about that should be the one to tell you."

"Rebekah?"

"No, no, not Rebekah. Someone else. And I promise that there are a myriad of other stories about the time we knew each other that I would be more than happy to tell you, but how and when you died will not be one of those stories."

"This other person we knew... is it the same person that's the reason nothing ever happened between us?"

"Yes, it is."

"And this person... where are they now?"

"Incapacitated."

"Can you elaborate?"

"Maybe once you've proven yourself. I don't just go divulging all my secrets to just anyone. You do as you said you would and prove yourself tonight and I will tell you who the person is and even one of my favourite stories of us."

"Alright. Let's get going, then."

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an. I hope you guys enjoy this break from the actual episodes and a little tease of Morrigan's history with the Original Family! I really enjoyed writing the flashbacks and her first interactions with Klaus and Rebekah. I had these written AGES ago. Don't forget to tell me what you thought!