a/n: Sorry for the wait, read my page for quick update on summer - or simply enjoy the chapter!!! It's a long one, and it's chaotic, characters 'bout to make some interesting choices, so let me know your thoughts on everything. And remember to comment and vote <3<3
- Bea x

MJ made a few choices as she rushed away from St James. Vincent had sent Marcel to point her to the cemetery, but her phone said something had happened to Klaus, and she needed to check if he was okay, or would be okay, or who even knew.

If Kol was okay –

"He will be."

MJ froze.

She was on the edge of the city centre, with stalls for the music festival just within sight. The central roads were closed, meaning groups of pedestrians continued past as she stilled. So many; it was like a swarm, feet grazing over grey cobblestones, unaware of the young girl crashing their festival.

Eyes pinned on her, MJ pulled out her phone and dialled Cami.

"It's been so long since I've been a person to anyone."

The ringing of her phone stopped the tune in the wind.

"I am not the noise trying to break you."

"Then why did you know the words?"

"Because I have been forced to listen."

The shops and restaurants had bright bunting hung across their doors and windows. Orange and green were usually such an awful combination, but for just a moment, it was the exact thing MJ needed. Something only the complicated living would select. Bright. Full of everything yet ugly at the same time.

"Do you know what it is like to sit in nothing but silence?"

MJ didn't like that her phone was still ringing.

"To float as a light, the world desperate to snuff you out?"

"You don't normally look like this?"

"I dream I could still look like this."

The pain in her voice made MJ hesitate.

About to ask a question –

"MJ?"

Cami's voice replaced the droning tone of her phone, someone knocking into MJ's shoulder. A reminder that no phantom before her changed where she was. A city trying to celebrate.

"You there?"

"Yeah..."

Cami panicked, "What's wrong?"

"Kol...uh – "

"How do you do this?"

"Kol's currently knocked out," She couldn't look away from her, "What's happened to Klaus?"

"He baited Lucien," Hayley answered, "We're gonna go save his ass."

"Guys – "

"Lucien texted Elijah."

"There is no way to find me, yet you have."

"He's meeting him at some whiskey bar."

"Text me the address," MJ decided, "I'll make sure he doesn't die."

"Thank you."

"Not just found – but I am me."

"Where are you guys?"

"Like," Cami's voice was shaky, "A block from Lucien's penthouse?"

"Cool," MJ let her eyes turn orange, "I'll be there shortly."

"...I thought you were going to Elijah?"

"I'll be there too."

Hanging up, MJ focused on the address from Hayley, blinking. Breathing. Feeling two versions of herself step forward, walking down the street. Any human would think she'd just walked off as the original cloaked herself. The safest place for a base was the cemetery. Even if the ancestors were bitchy, they couldn't just kill her.

"So many bodies."

As she went to walk, the woman stepped closer.

"And yet I am left with none."

MJ bit, "What are you?"

"Why do I have to be anything?"

"Because you're here. With me."

Both now equally invisible to the real world.

"And people don't just find me."

For so long, she'd thought her hauntings had been random accidents, but they'd been because of Ryos. And beyond him? In Mystic Falls, it was only later on she realised how many of the spirits with unfinished business were victims of her friends...No one just found her.

"People don't normally find me either."

"You called to me."

"I am always screaming."

She was directly in front of her.

"Everyone hears me. Most are too weak for more."

"Which loops me back to what are you?"

"Everything."

"That answer doesn't fill me with confidence."

"I deserve flesh."

"Getting a bit creepy there."

"I deserve this ground."

"Yeah, well," MJ winced, "I've kinda got dibs, so..."

"They will burn you the way they burnt me."

"Not if I burn them first!"

"They will take your baby."

MJ swallowed.

She didn't want to think about the chanting Kol had been forced to say. Matching the woman from the video. Pleading for help, claiming a baby was the only way out. Words that had fallen into existence from the moment of conception...

It would be stupid to pretend it was about any other child.

"They will bless her with power like they'll love her."

The figure stepped back as her curled locks seemed to crack, falling to the floor in tufts closer to straw than hair.

"Claiming it is a gift that will save them."

Skin tightened until her face was nothing but dry flesh.

"Then they will cut her into pieces."

Hallowed cheeks so waxy she might as well have been a corpse.

"And pull her from her bones."

Eyes nothing but blue emptiness, MJ's hands instantly rushing to her face to cover her own. She would not look into the light. She would not listen to the voice. No matter how much it sounded like a crying child. Just a teenager begging for mercy. Holding back a sob in her throat.

"And she will be left sitting with me."

MJ had first heard her locked in a closet.

"Screaming in the dark."

Scared that people were going to hurt her. They were hurting her. Someone was hunting her down and beating her dry, and the only thing MJ could think about was the sound of her own mother's body being chucked across a destroyed apartment.

"My mother did this to me."

Her eyes snapped open, her mouth opening in confusion.

Only for the blue to be gone, the spirit nothing more than a shadow on the floor.

Reaching out her silhouetted hand to MJ's.

"Will you do the same?"

"Surghiuni."

And it was gone.

MJ breathed out.

As her shoulders pushed back, three streets filled her head. It was a slightly dizzying feeling, but she'd done it before while dealing with her brother – she could handle it while only facing Lucien and some ghosts.

MJ scanned the street one final time.

Nothing...

She vamped to the cemetery.

She'd just met the voice she'd been warned about. The great blue light.

Except, it hadn't been blue.

It hadn't been a mystical light.

It had been a young woman.

A girl.

One, locked away and alone...

THE WITCHES
A Black Mark On Her Soul

Kol woke up slowly, trying to understand why his body felt fire when everything had been going so well. The stupid book in the corner of the room was like a beacon of problems. MJ had been able to see something, which wasn't comforting, and then he'd blacked out. Left to face Marcel, sitting by the bar.

"Here," He chucked a blood bag, "I suggest you drink up before you do something you'll regret."

Kol instantly ripped into it, staring at his hand, then tugging the top of his shirt to spy how much bigger his ancestral mark had grown.

"MJ's gone to help get this spell back up – "

Kol instantly stood.

"You sit right back down," Marcel pointed, "I'm not letting you go anywhere."

"If this place is no longer protected," Kol squeezed the last blood out, "I don't need to stay in it."

"Yes," Marcel stood, "You do."

"My family is under attack."

Ice scraped up his spine.

"And MJ's being thrown into it."

"I'm not letting you anywhere near her!"

The blood seemed to stick to Kol's throat, clamping up and demanding more. Like fingers were wrapped around it and squeezing tight, turning his bones brittle and weak –

He couldn't be weak.

He refused to lie unconscious while his skin turned to paper and begged to be set alight.

"Not while you're like this – "

Kol's hand slammed into him, pinning him to the bar as that itch spread further through his body. It always started in his chest. It always felt like a stab in his heart. One that sent him into auto-pilot, desperate for the liquid that would wake him up –

"Kol – "

He needed blood.

He needed more.

He needed to be away from the bar that cut off his senses – why had he gone there? Why had he willingly made himself vulnerable? Why was he pushing away from the power rush? The insanity? Had he really become so willing to cut off parts of himself and stand in a room that nulled everything that made him strong –

"Kol."

A second hand joined the fight, pressing Marcel's throat against the cool surface.

"Kol Mikaelson!" Marcel kicked hard enough to get free, darting back as Kol's eyes turned black, "I never liked you much on a good day – "

"You need us."

"We'd keep you safe."

"We'd let you be strong."

"But you are clearly not yourself!"

Kol breathed in sharply, listening to the voices.

Realising there were voices.

When had they kicked in? They usually stayed in his dreams. They – they -

"Tell me I'm wrong!"

Kol spun to punch him, only for the fist to be caught, twisting his arm up and trying to shove him down – only to be greeted by Kol using a press-up like positing to slam the back of his head into Marcel. Hard enough to fly him back.

And think.

What was him, and what were the voices?

How couldn't he tell anymore?

When had it gotten that bad – it hadn't been – but what had changed?

"The ancestors are doing this to you."

The itching under Kol's skin was infuriating.

He wasn't meant to feel pain.

He wasn't meant to be so empty of blood that every breeze was enough to break a rib.

"And they're not gonna stop," Marcel tried not to seem dazed, "Whatever MJ's been giving you doesn't cut them off – so if we're not trusting Ryos's solution?"

Kol didn't want to fight Marcel.

Why had he gone to fight him?

Why had he wanted to leave the place that made the itching stop?

"You need to go."

Kol froze.

Or, well, mentally he did.

Physically, he couldn't stop panting, trying to stop his eyes turning black as he stared at the man he'd once hated so thoroughly. His entire posture was hunched, like an animal about to attack– and he'd been left alone with MJ...

"Out of the city," Marcel pitched, "Somewhere they can't reach you."

There was an emotion in Marcel's eyes that almost sobered Kol up. He couldn't quite place it, but it gnawed at him.

Fear.

Disappointment.

Protection?

"The longer you stay," Marcel's words slowed, "The more dangerous you are to everyone – including MJ."

MJ hadn't been the one to stop him that morning.

She'd been so focused on what was happening that Klaus had been the one to chuck him off. For so long, her power had been a good thing. Since they met, she'd never been scared of him; she'd had white oak. She'd had daggers. She had a list of spells to subdue his entire family – even if he hadn't known about the list. She'd had no reason to ever fear him. Now?

Hesitation. Hope that Kol would be strong enough to wake up?

A desire to help instead of hurt him.

"Marcel," Kol rubbed his eyes, "I would never hurt her."

But that morning, he almost had.

Taking more of the Floare fix was barely helping. Clearly, the ancestors had done something to up their hold on him overnight, and, well...Ryos's statement on their stupidity. Drops of MJ's blood shouldn't be enough to get Kol anywhere close to addicted, but with the other magic in his system?

With the number of people he'd killed the day Finn was revived?

He – he –

Why hadn't she just ripped him to pieces that morning? Why hadn't she just shocked him back to his senses?

Why did she have to love him enough to be gentle?

Kol didn't want to feel the knives in his veins or the way they called him to tear everything within his hearing range to pieces. But he couldn't even separate them from his own thoughts anymore. It wasn't just a feeling in his gut – a sound that showed he was hungry. It was voices. Powerful whispers that were trying to possess anything they could touch.

"If that's true," Marcel tossed him a burner phone, "Do the right thing."

Kol stared at it.

"Leave."

The word was like a hand crushing his heart.

"And don't come back."

Kol shook his head, "I can't do that to her – "

"It's keeping her safe!" Marcel snapped, "Nothing is happening to her!"

Ryan's call-out replayed every time Marcel went to sleep.

Would Ana want this?

Would Ana be proud? Or had he truly wasted her death? Her sacrifice. Her love – and everything he thought they'd shared, The Harvest had still happened – people were still dying – Marcel had thought MJ had died in New York, and instead of finding Ryos, he'd stayed watching from afar, and then he'd died too –

"It's not forever," Marcel reasoned, "That phone? The only numbers in it are that guy Jeremy and her Kitsune friend Beni."

Kol stilled.

"Pri gave me their details, and they agree," He continued, "If you aren't safe here – if you're slowly gonna lose it?"

And kill everything in sight.

"You need to be around someone you can't just kill."

Beni's tails.

"And someone MJ trusts."

"Someone who's proven they can kill me," Kol corrected, "If push comes to shove."

The stake had gone in his chest because Elena had pointed out Kol's destruction. The mess of their house and how Kol had stormed through it, dragging the kill out rather than ending them swiftly. He could've caught them quicker, but he'd revelled in the fight. He'd handed Elena that line of argument.

And Jeremy had proved he loved MJ enough to kill him.

To stop that pain from coming anywhere close to her.

The final words he'd heard before dying.

It was hard not to think about them when MJ got caught in The Mikaelson explosions.

"No."

"Kol," Marcel's gaze hardened, "Her brother went insane. Slowly."

Hexed.

"And almost destroyed her in the process."

Kol's heart jumped.

"Do you wanna put her in the position where it's her life or yours?"

Silence.

"Because I think we both know she won't be making the same choice she did then ever again."

As strong as MJ was, did they think she would pull out Kol's heart to save her own?

"With everything else going on?" Marcel reasoned, "You need to be safe. And out of the way."

Kol almost laughed, "Rather than a distraction."

"Rather than a risk," He rephrased, "You and I both know you should take Ryos's fix."

Kol swallowed.

"But if you do that here?"

"MJ's not going to leave my side until she's sure it won't kill me."

Even if Whit's report came back and said everything made sense – even if Ryos was supposedly free of the hex, MJ wouldn't trust it. Ryos had wanted Kol dead once.

His nails dug into his palms, deep enough to start drawing blood.

Ryos's solution practically required him to desiccate for three days. Even if he didn't leave, if Kol took it, he'd have to stay out of the game for three whole days, no idea if MJ was okay or what was happening. And if he was in the city? Desiccated and out of control of his own body?

That was a recipe for possession or ancestral invasion.

"She's pregnant," His voice cracked, "I cannot leave her."

"Kol," Marcel's expression broke too, "Three days."

His eyes moved to the phone as the screen lit up.

A text from Jeremy.

A time he'd arrive in the city.

"Then you have her for the rest of your life."

~***~

When MJ-1 arrived at the cemetery, she paused at the front altar. Six candles were positioned to form a six-point star on the grey stone tabletop, and a box of matches was in the middle, the St James logo on the front. An item from the building they were trying to tear down...

She gritted her teeth, instantly reaching forward, only two candles lit, when Vincent burst out of the Lycée.

"Don't touch that!"

He looked exhausted, Davina right behind him, rubbing her arms nervously. She was in skinny jeans and a relatively nice top, her hair straightened for the first time in a long time, making MJ raise an eyebrow.

"You really see dangerous magic and just go, 'Gimme.'"

"You're one to talk," She rebutted.

Vincent looked away.

"And it's not that dangerous," MJ put a hand on her hip, "I'm dangerous magic. This is 'how can we torture MJ today' magic."

"Van Nguyen set it up," Davina revealed, "The ancestors made him Regent."

"My punishment," Vincent's voice was low, "For hiding from them the past few days."

"That's good," MJ inspected the set-up, "Frees you up to help people."

"But makes him their puppet," He murmured, "And he's been messaging elders all day telling them to shun your classes and revert back to the old ways."

MJ raised an eyebrow, "Anyone actually listening?"

"Not sure," He admitted, "People are torn. Want meetings."

"Intriguing," MJ eyed up the corridors of graves, "They didn't automatically follow."

She smiled, voice going up.

"I'm almost proud."

The ancestors weren't meant to pick a new Regent without consulting the city. The covens may not always love MJ, but they care about their rules. It was why she'd gained favour by using loopholes – or by bringing up old rules against people like Gen and Davina. She'd shown that she followed and respected the covens, even if she didn't respect the spirits. Their own spirits just cutting them out of the conversation?

"You give Van power...what happens when the living just give it to me?"

A third candle sparked in the star formation, roaring with a rage only the dead could hold.

"Yeah, yeah," She taunted, "Keep throwing your little fits."

A fourth sparked.

"You think that scares me?"

"MJ," Vincent's eyes were wide, "Don't – "

"What they gonna do?" She was not in the mood, "Give me a bad dream?"

So scary.

"If they cause a storm, they'll put out their own damn spell."

"They're gonna take over Kol."

"That much is slightly obvious."

"Once all six candles are lit, our neutral ground is gone, and they're rooted deep enough in him to fully possess – "

"Sure," MJ nodded falsely, "Not like the spell is based on my magic or anything?"

Her hand lifted, and all but one of the candles went right back out, leaving Davina and Vincent wide-eyed in surprise. They'd been trying to find a way to slow the power down since Van left, but when it was the power of every dead spirit in the city?

"Jo rewrote a traveller spell."

Jo had also shown up to help MJ, Kol, and Davina run.

"This is my family history," She poked her chest, "And if they wanna take it from me?"

A laugh.

"They're gonna need a hell of a lot more than some second-grade witch who isn't even powerful enough to qualify as an elder."

Narrowing her eyes, the final lit candle started to flicker.

They were fighting back.

How dare they?

How dare they torment Kol, try to kill her in her sleep, and sacrifice people over and over. That was why Kol had lost it that morning! That was why he was struggling. Rhea and Pri had found two bodies. Two dead witches, all so the dead could have some Original weapon against her – because Lucien wasn't enough!

It was becoming increasingly obvious that Lucien could only succeed if she was occupied, and the only way to occupy her was to hijack Kol. Whether they were gonna try to kill her or just thought it'd keep her out of the way – literally, what was their end goal here?

They needed her alive to give birth, right? They needed her baby to jump ship?

So they couldn't be trying to kill her...

Wait.

They weren't trying to kill her? But they were driving Kol insane with bloodlust, and they literally had him jump her twice now –

As the air started to move, a red glow formed around her feet, and MJ felt a shooting pain up her spine, blackness appearing in her eyes as she tried to push through –

"So..."

Lucien's voice was in her ear.

"Either tell me how to find him."

Facing Elijah in the whiskey bar.

"Or I'll kill you."

"MJ," Davina gripped her hand, reassuring power flowing out.

"Anprae Kata."

She was channelling her.

"Sispann Dife."

Vincent rushed into action, picking up a salt shaker to start marking the ground around them.

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

Rapidly moving to draw symbols while muttering alongside them. They'd asked MJ there for a reason. The momentary shock at how quickly MJ had knocked the spirits down a few pegs was her swiftness, not her power. They had a spell ready to go – ready to take a stand.

If they proved that they didn't need spirits? They just required faith? Each other?

It would be tough for any coven to argue that they still needed the ancestral plane. They only needed MJ.

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

When Vincent finished the symbols, he watched the pair turn to face each other, hands joined.

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

Walking forward, knowing that, in a way, this had started with him.

With a book he'd handed to elders, hoping it would set him free.

Sinking to his knees so they could both place one hand on either shoulder.

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

The anchor they needed to fight the ancestral power.

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

His eyes turned white, feeling every second of the war between living and dead, determined to let the pain roll through him until it was over.

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

MJ lost all sense of gravity, the world flickering blue as the ageing marble turned into trees and huts and a gathering of people lifting torches towards the night sky.

She could feel the wind fighting the flames.

Rippling out from the centre of the hunting pack, a girl pinned down in the centre –

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

Ghostly figures lingered even as she forced her body back to reality.

They were there too. They were watching. Their mouths moved like a chorus, speaking words MJ could not hear as each step brought them closer. They could not see the lines of graves and mausoleums. Simply trodden routes of their town as they aimed for whatever they thought she was.

Venom in their expression.

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

"My mother did this to me."

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

With each step closer, MJ's heartbeat picked up. She had drawn them there – Davina and Vincent completely unaware and chanting like nothing was wrong – but they – they were being attacked – someone was being attacked –

These were not spirits they knew.

These were not present against her skin.

This was something etching into her mind.

MJ tried to focus on her pronunciation. The power passing between three friends. History did not matter. The blows passed between all three meant nothing as they stood, united, trying to keep their people safe. Trying to ensure that St. James would stay as a safehouse before any more lives could be taken to keep Lucien strong.

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

They would not hurt them.

They were just echoes.

Memories.

The villager's pyres flickered against her cheeks until they bled, but they were not real. The scream was not real. The slice of weaponry –

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

The whiskey bar tables were covered with near-empty glasses, Elijah's coat tossed onto the small stage, ready for a fight, Lucien opposite him, his goal clear. Elijah was either to reveal Tristan's location and return him to Aurora or forfeit his life so Aurora would know her brother's suffering had ended.

"You carefully craft yourself into this..." Elijah's face soured, "Abomination."

While they hadn't gone into the day planning to confront Lucien, they knew Klaus wouldn't have gone down so quickly unless there was information to find out – or problems to cause.

"Purely to become an errand boy to that banshee?"

"Oh, you Mikaelson's," Lucien mused, "Your arrogance truly knows no bounds."

Said the man stupid enough not to simply kill him while he had the chance.

"Do I need to remind you the prophecy is on my side?"

Elijah's lips twitched.

"Your family is doomed – does that make you laugh?"

"I think that I have always been one for wording," His mind hadn't been right in a while, "And I am almost embarrassed my younger brother had to be the one to point out the obvious?"

Lucien rolled his eyes, "That was?"

"We shall fall," Elijah recited, "Where exactly does that state death?"

Lucien let himself take a step closer.

"Your witch only saw the sire line burn with Klaus – that has come to fruition. The sire line burnt up," His words sharp, "Klaus fell to a friend. Rebekah fell to family."

Lucien almost twitched at the reveal they'd taken that line under control.

"So I will fall to foe," He shrugged, "I allowed you into our home, and you became this under my watch."

Elijah almost enjoyed how Lucien's eyes seemed to race at the rephrasing of something he'd built his confidence on.

"You bit my brother – "

"I killed your brother."

"Did you?"

Lucien stilled.

"For someone supposedly working with this city's spirits, they certainly aren't keeping you in the loop."

"My bite – "

"Can kill us," Elijah agreed, "But you are aware Mira Jung has returned to our home."

Lucien let himself straighten up, glaring at the sky, "Bringing her traitorous brother with her."

"You fear him."

Lucien's head snapped back to look at him.

"It's intriguing," Elijah baited, "Even now, when you have become something supposedly so powerful, you fear some witch?"

"If you don't fear Ryos Jung, you are a fool."

Elijah wasn't sure what to make of Lucien's instant tension.

"Everything he creates is a perfectly crafted poison you will not even understand the depths of until it is too late," Lucien made another step, "No one alive is capable of what he is."

"Yet you drink his mixes without hesitation."

"He wishes to end it all," Lucien let his arms come out, "I wish to end you all. I have nothing to fear."

"Had," Elijah corrected, "You have no idea where he is or what he's doing – do you think I would just walk to my death?"

Lucien froze.

"You want Tristan? I have no idea where he is."

They had no reason to keep a tab.

"So the options are death or information I cannot provide," Elijah reminded him, "Yet I am still standing in front of you?"

Lucien's eyes were on everything but Elijah. Scanning every shadow and reflective surface like they might eat him alive. Telling Elijah everything he needed to know. Lucien had seen Ryos fight – he'd seen the range of his power and revelled in it himself, and now it was potentially against him?

"We both know you do not care for Tristan or his recovery."

Lucien tried for a smile.

"You only agreed to this to bait us out."

Lucien let his face transform, the red iris meant to heighten him. Make him strong enough – yet he could still not tell if there was magic in the air waiting to undo everything.

"As if you have any power over that young man."

"If Ryos is not here," Lucien's cheeks filled with veins, "He is still writing his reverse."

Meaning he still had time as the world's strongest predator.

"Meaning I have no reason to fear him."

"I think you should reevaluate your priorities," Elijah tried not to panic, "Are you so empty-headed to think Mira Jung needs his help to destroy you?"

"I know the ancestors are keeping her far too busy to care about you."

"Interesting statement," MJ-2 was leaning in the doorway, dropping her cloaking spell, "Because I'd much rather be here, gloating that I was right about you."

Waving a finger.

"Than wasting a second of thought on them."

Both vampires were surprised to see her.

"If you care enough about Aurora's wants, I could probably give you Tristan's location."

Tracking spells were easy enough.

"But..." She let her eyes shift, "It would be far more fun to rip your insides out."

"My bite may not kill you," Lucien smiled right back at her, "My hands still – "

Her eyes turned golden, slamming him into the floor like nothing but a bowling pin, begging to be knocked over, allowing them to see how his shoulders seemed to grow bigger as the power of the earth kept him strong.

"What was that?"

As a hand lifted, he screamed, body flying back up directly into the wall.

"Didn't quite hear the end of your sentence?"

His hands swung back, digging into the wall as he tried to push through her spell.

"You know," She tilted her head, "Threats are usually more effective when they're finished."

Glancing to her left.

"Don't you agree, Elijah?"

"I do," He rubbed his hands together, "Now, Lucien!"

Stupidly walking closer.

"You will give me my brother."

MJ's eyes started to sting as Lucien's grunts grew louder.

"We will not ask again."

"I..." Lucien breathed in deeply, "...would advise you to know..."

MJ winced, feeling her eyes started to bleed.

"When you're beaten."

The wall shook, his foot slamming him free from it, charging straight at Elijah, flipping him onto the floor, only for MJ to tackle him right back. She needed to play smart. Her magic needed to be focused on the cemetery. Those candles weren't just about St. James but about the city. If the ancestors were forced to focus on the trio fighting there, they'd flee Lucien, making him killable.

His bite couldn't kill her.

If Ryos was honest – she was immune.

"My, my," He rolled on top, arm over her throat, "I did wonder how long it would take to get you like this."

MJ punched him in the jaw, second hand lurching into his stomach, only to feel the skin close around her wrist – a healing factor so strong it almost trapped her there. Elijah yanked his body back to free it, MJ deliberately sliding up to create a gash in his chest as she left it.

Lucien's head turned, MJ ripping him out of Elijah's hold to toss him towards the door before teeth could touch skin.

She didn't want to waste Ryos's sample so quick.

Lucien was barely phased by the fight back, morphing into the face of the beast they'd seen in the forest, moving faster than the eye could follow; MJ was just able to shove Elijah out of his path, forcing herself into it. His teeth skimmed her neck as she grabbed his chin and siphoned.

It was the same staggering pain, blood spilling from her eyes and nose, the scream pulled from his throat just about worth the fight the serum was giving her.

Letting her body roll with its rejection to fire it straight back out, setting him on fire instead of her.

Fire she then went to manipulate, only to hear the chanting.

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

MJ-1 was no longer bleeding, standing with perfect red teardrops down her cheeks, almost like painted porcelain, as her brain tried to manage not only three places but the visions.

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

Not when Vincent knelt there, mouth foaming as their conduit.

That final candle still fighting back.

Able to hold onto it and Lucien at the same time.

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

The villagers were gone, nothing but a young girl and her mother and every caveat of nature at war. Trees were screaming, the sky spat down, and the grass cut like a blade. No colour was true, only greys and blues, stripping the world of what was meant to be there.

No life. No love.

Just nature, magic – killing a young girl for the power rippling out of her.

"They made me this, then cursed me for it."

Instead of the two women, MJ focused on Elijah's face.

But it wasn't Elijah carrying bruises and blood from Lucien's fists. It was an Elijah wearing a style of suit from centuries past that she'd only ever seen packed away in their closest or in Kol's memories.

A woman pleading with him.

"They demanded me here, then cast me out."

Striking a deal.

Pitching a new Other Side – pitching the ancestral realm.

Because, if he had a way to see his family forever, would he not take it?

"Power is what made us like this."

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

"I did not ask for it. They did."

MJ's swaying form caught Elijah's attention, and the two versions of him seemed to face her as she became the witch talking to him about Esther's Grimoire. The spells Ayana had shared. The knowledge that had allowed Kol to learn so much, so quickly, never truly sharing with his siblings, as they refused to share with him.

"Yet they cast us out for what they crave."

As Lucien roared, the fire went out, and he stepped towards her, Elijah moving just in time to toss a clearly drawn sigil onto the floor.

His shoe hit it perfectly.

Burning into the floor and sending so much pain through Lucien's body, he was left screaming, falling to his knees, and trapped.

Freya walked in to join them.

Reminding MJ she hadn't asked anyone for the plan; she'd just shown up, pissed off, and determined to be everywhere, all at once. She was the only person who could hold their own against Lucien, so she felt justified.

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

"Oh," Freya shook his head at Lucien, "That looks like it hurt."

MJ let herself breathe out slightly as Freya's smile turned sadistic.

She was in a whiskey bar, a cemetery, and the path to Lucien's apartment, not trapped in the past. Living in the past was for the dead, not the living...But you could learn from the past...

What if the visions were from the spirits who cared for her?

The people like Josephine, Lillian, and Tom, who wanted her to have all the information. They all spoke of this blue light as evil, but really? A girl murdered by her own family, trapped to watch over the city she died in? Longing to just move on?

MJ had been called evil her whole life.

Witches had been trained to see her and squirm; in a century's time, she might be just like Qetsiyah. Never summoned. Never spoken of. Only remembered as a crazed woman who'd used her power as she wanted – so who was she to cast judgment and decide who was good and who was evil based only on stories?

MJ could set them all free – she could save the living and the dead.

"That's," Freya's voice bringing her back to reality, "What I was going for."

"What – " Lucien groaned, "Are you doing to me?"

"The sigil will slowly sap your strength," Freya summarised, "The boiling in your blood? Well, I added that myself."

With so many spells across their courtyard, they were finally making progress.

"Maybe we can't kill you," She crossed her arms, "But I can make you wish you were dead."

"And we might be able to kill you," MJ hated that she could see so many people around them, "Every second, the ancestors are losing power. How long till they sacrifice you to save themselves?"

"I am their chosen," He hissed.

"Said every future dead body ever."

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

"You think they'll be gone soon?" Elijah mused.

"I think they are gonna have to choose," MJ gloated, "Either have enough power to stop me usurping them or save him."

Keeping it vague as he fought off his body's instinct to writhe in agony.

"And spirits are quite selfish."

He let his snarl grow clear as he glared at the three of them.

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

"Nik," Aurora's voice was clear, "What a conundrum!"

The woman stood in the centre of a chaotic scene, Klaus trapped by enchanted chains, Hayley unconscious in the corner on one side of the apartment, Cami in the corridor between the lift and the entrance, not invited in, holding only a cursed knife to keep herself safe.

"Mother of your child over here," She gestured gleefully, "Woman of your dreams over there."

Once again, finally in each other's arms, only for hell to break loose.

Aurora tried to seem innocent, "Which one should I kill first?"

"I'm the one who betrayed you," He snarled, "I'm the one you hate."

"And they're the ones you care for," She retorted, "So, what a pleasure that I get to watch your face – "

The elevator door dinged, opening to reveal MJ-3.

" – As I rip them apart."

"I always knew you were the smart one," MJ smiled as Cami relaxed at her presence, "Tristan and Lucien pick fights and fall for tricks while you focus on walking out with everything you wanted."

Aurora narrowed her eyes, "You're meant to be – "

"Focused on the spirits? Or Lucien?" She nodded, "Yeah, always been a multitasker."

They could all smell blood, the slight sign of it around her eyes. Her friends were unsure what that meant, but Klaus pulled on the chains, recognising something.

"Now make the smart choice," She stepped into the foyer, letting the elevator doors close behind her, "And run before I kill you."

"It's interesting," Aurora let her eyes jump to Klaus, "How these women in your life are so willing to play 'the hero.'"

Klaus was giving MJ a look, trying to get her to understand.

The glance to Aurora and the wideness of his eyes.

'Do not kill her.'

MJ kinda hated that she could read him so well.

Even after weeks of fighting, one look and she just...

"After so many centuries of craving 'trembling and helpless.'"

MJ almost wanted to laugh at the psychoanalysis that could go into Klaus's love life, but?

"At least they will never have to suffer the pain I did," Aurora let her voice drift, "Silly enough to believe you could ever love someone enough to save them from your family."

The pain in her voice was too real.

"They will live freely, without the burden of having faith in you."

The forever daunting question of what it meant to love Niklaus Mikaelson.

"Without the curse of hope."

What did you have to forgive, and what parts of yourself might you lose along the way?

"Locked in a tower and called crazy," Aurora's raged grew, "You were the only one who might have viewed me as more."

MJ and Klaus had made up!

He'd apologised!

For Christ's sake, he'd gotten on the floor! This was not about her! This was about Aurora's very real millennia of mental torture from her brother, compulsion from Elijah, and twisted idealisation from Lucien – because he put her on a pedestal, but he still treated her as lesser-than –

Not the time, Mira!

"They are lucky enough to have more than that dream to hold on to."

Why was women being locked away the theme of the day?

Was it National Misogyny Month?

MJ was not in the mood for National Misogyny Month – she just wanted her very loving boyfriend to not be possessed so they could go back to planning where they were going to live now they were officially moving out.

"Then again, maybe the one reason they take on that role is because they are, in fact, as blinded by love as I once was," She shook her head almost in pity, "Ready to give everything."

'Everything' meant something different to each of them.

"Even their lives, for one who is, and will always be, unworthy."

MJ went to move, only to snap Aurora out of her ramble, grabbing Cami and dragging her up against the threshold.

"You think you have control here?" She sneered, "Any closer – "

Cami screamed, desperately trying to swipe at her with the knife, only to lose it in pain, clattering to the floor as MJ batted Aurora off, using her own inability to enter the room to create a barrier. The pain ripped at her back, so she ripped into Aurora's throat, teeth driving deep –

MJ might not be able to enter the room, and it might be trying to kill her as punishment, but if she was drinking vampire blood? Healing herself as fast as it tore her apart?

And MJ was a hybrid.

Aurora was not getting out of her hold through simple squirming.

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

Blood lapped against her lips, too much to swallow at once, a problem MJ had never really faced before – letting the body drop.

The elder wasn't unconscious yet, but her skin was grey enough to show it was close. There was electricity bouncing against MJ's bones, suddenly aware of the size of her arteries and veins and exactly how they wrapped around her, stumbling to the left in a daze. Was this what her body was meant to feel like? So entuned...

A sweet scent raced up her nose as she tilted back, tongue pressing into teeth in a desperate chase to finish the remains.

What a –

A sweet, sweet –

Cami.

A few feet away, and so beautiful, and perfectly crafted for her -

Pop.

The taste on MJ's tongue was new.

Every light and socket in the room had a buzz she couldn't ignore. Electricity. She could wield electricity! She could rip it out and run it through the whole room -

That –

That –

Klaus had looked at MJ and told her not to kill the woman. It hadn't been a request. It hadn't been his hesitation to end her life – it was a warning –

A taste –

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

Lillian stood before MJ, blonde hair cast in blue light, as the centre of the city grew out of the corridor, MJ's back arching in agony as she felt someone grab her.

A torturous face.

A teacher with no sympathy or style or forgiveness for adventurous souls.

Lillian tried to run but was locked in a chanting of a song that had been stumbling out of MJ's mouth all day. A nursery rhyme. A childhood chorus, so comforting and familiar, but also a way to train them to stay in line. To be part of the choir.

Flashing images in her eyes, battling between red and blue.

The lakes were burning, and the taps only poured blood -

Fearmongering.

MJ was so sick of fearmongering.

How dare they drive Lillian to kill her own mother? Who punished a daughter for growing up and asking why? How dare they make Kol repeat those phrases about their baby?

Their baby had to die?

Their baby could take the power that was driving them mad? No baby was going to be driven mad. No baby would be so supercharged an entire village was forced to cut it into pieces to lock it away. MJ would burn it all down. Erase it from their lives.

No more repeating history.

No more –

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

Lucien let his head roll back, then around his neck, still groaning but following in MJ's footsteps. Sometimes, the best thing to do was accept pain.

The sigil on the floor may have been Mikaelson magic, but Mikaelson magic had technically helped make him, and Mikaelson magic had been officialised into the city the night they consecrated Esther. Reinforced by the constant resurrections. Cemented by the storage of Finn Mikaelson around her neck, only alive because they had brought him back as a test subject.

Rising the phoenix back to his feet.

"Whew!" He cheered, "Well, I admit, Freya, this is a valiant effort."

MJ's entire spine was on fire, form flickering before them.

"Inspired, I assume, by the agony you saw your dear Finn in."

Focus moving to MJ.

"Despite your hatred, you found a way to save him?"

"Every corner you turn," MJ gritted her teeth, "I will be there to stop you."

Stabilised, worlds no longer merging into one.

Klaus had warned her.

And then MJ had drank from her.

But she hadn't died.

She'd just drank it...

"And them. And everyone."

"You're not even truly here?" He realised, "Yet you felt corporal."

"I am full of tricks."

"Well, so am I – "

Both Freya and she thrust their hands forward, the ringing of a pain infliction spell almost audible, and while he winced, momentarily staggering back to his knees, his mind was still clear. He was still pushing back up. Moans, almost begging – enjoying the pain.

The twisted statements Klaus had made so many moons ago; life was boring without an assassination attempt every now and again.

Each run-in with him showed that he was still touchable, yet the more power they demonstrated, the more power the spirits gave him to bite back. Each fight would make the next one that much harder. The serum was so fresh it was potentially changeable. Not entirely. Not in a way that Ryos's notes wouldn't be able to beat, but in a way that would make hand-to-hand combat complicated.

"Pop goes the weasel!" He mocked, "A rather potent aneurysm spell – always good to see some magic."

So he'd noticed MJ's hesitancy, dropping it to let Freya's stabilise.

"You never fail to impress."

"And," Freya had been waiting for more than just Elijah's cue, "We brought an audience to enjoy the show."

Slowly, the remaining Strix trickled in, and MJ hesitated. They'd been so large in number, and she'd seen The Compound guards, but she had somewhat assumed only ten to fifteen remained. At least double that waltzed in, circling Lucien, making it that much harder for him to reach Elijah.

Maci led the way, head high, as Lucien's smirk faltered.

"You still side with them."

"I side with life," She approached the circle, "Are you really so willing to throw our life away?"

His eyes were full of hurt, "They will never take you seriously."

"I do not need some estranged family to validate my being."

"You were privileged – "

"I loved you," She glared at the barrier, "At every turn, I had your back. And you risk creating something that could kill us all?"

"It would never have been aimed at you!"

"Aiming at my people is aiming at me!"

Most of the surviving Strix were people who'd fled the fight because they'd come from Maci's bloodline. People who'd turned on her after a curse that was now broken. Manipulated and played by a man now lost at sea.

"Playing with the universe is asking those you care for to die!"

Lucien shoved to his feet, "You have no idea – "

"You have two serums," She reminded the room, "You haven't given it to me."

Silence.

"Meaning whoever has it can end my life at any second."

If she even believed that he would never hurt her, Maci knew Lucien.

"And you know she will."

"Aurora will only complete it once Tristan finds peace."

MJ-2 opened her mind to MJ-3 as she stumbled with the power in her mouth. Confirming her assumption. Aurora had drunk the serum, and it was now in her blood, which was now in MJ.

Making her sick.

Making her dazed.

Sending her mind into a blender, but filling her body with strength that would boost Vincent and Davina.

...Silas had drained the cure from Katherine by drinking it.

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

As Cami reached for MJ's hand, MJ was gone, pinning Aurora to the wall and diving back in just as the woman woke up from her haze. Her hands hit out, begging the wall to help her, but nothing against a heretic.

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

"Davina," MJ risked breaking the pattern, "You might need to snap my neck."

"What?"

Vincent kept the spell going as the younger girl panicked, face pale at the declaration.

"MJ – "

"There is a high chance we are about to have a problem."

"You can't just say that!"

"I'm currently drinking the second serum."

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

Vincent's eyes snapped open, staring at her.

"And if I somehow die with it in my system?"

The pair realised what she was implying. Not understanding it. Suddenly, they were aware of how watered down their connection to MJ felt. It was still creating a supercharge of power, fresh water cleaning any dirt of ancestral hate away, but still. It wasn't full.

Because she wasn't entirely there.

Because they needed to lead her for once.

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

"His death creates Tristan's," Lucien made one last appeal, "After everything he has done to you – "

Maci's hand lifted, putting the remaining Strix on high alert.

"You would never kill me."

"Possibly true," She considered it, "But I will gladly bury you."

If Lucien was the true mastermind behind it all, playing The Sisters, who'd played The Strix, that would have made him responsible for her curse, too. He could've stopped it. He could've manipulated it. The recent Strix invasion of New York timed with his own move there. Her arguments with Pri were now pointless, as Pri had been right. It had always been him.

"Beneath one thousand tonnes of cement."

"Who knows," Elijah couldn't help but feel light, "They might even build a parking lot for you."

"Kingmaker Land Development," Maci agreed, "You write your own fate, after all."

A sentence that created a chill in the air.

Lucien's furious eyes almost turned to the sky.

Asking for an explanation of why he felt pain. It was fun momentarily, but a small ancient fighting force ready to kill him? A witch floating between them and somewhere else, MJ's eyes golden for a reason none of them understood?

"You think you have any say?" Lucien hissed, "You have as much hubris as them."

His body was starting to flinch uncontrollably, but not because of anything they were doing.

"Wandering through the smog of self-importance."

"While you do what?" MJ called out, "Dub yourself 'the chosen one' because the spirits liked your CV?"

Even when MJ had been told she would destroy Floare magic, she hadn't fully believed it. Not just because Beni constantly reminded her the future wasn't set, but because how on earth could one person have that much power?

And, in a way, she'd been proved right.

Yes, she had 'fallen,' and taken the power with her, but it hadn't been destroyed! Those ghosts had been overdramatic in their phrasing! And she'd carried so much guilt because of it, but like? What was the point! She was one person! She wasn't 'the chosen one' because they saw some vision; she was just a little sister forced to hold her brother's heart.

"News flash, nothing is more up your own ass than actually believing you're 'the chosen one!'"

"I can kill anything," He loomed, "Even them."

Finn proved that, no longer a vampire.

"Even you."

"Then you better hurry up and get to it."

"I am your ancestors chosen one!"

"So I should just bow down?"

"They will not allow me to be detained."

"I could show you how to stop him."

As Lucien stepped forward, the sigil turned to dust, freeing him.

Every vein on his body was thicker, darkness travelling down his face as he craved blood, unaware that MJ's form was shifting in that same fashion because she was consuming it.

MJ didn't fully understand how the connection worked, but what was happening to one of her was happening to all. And if Lucien somehow killed her?

"I could show you how they killed me."

"You are just a spec of – "

Her hand lifted, pure lighting crackling out to fry him alive as she vamped forward to hold him up by the throat, siphoning. One body drinking blood. One body consuming power. The third pushed it all back out, straight into Vincent and Davina, the red of the candle shrinking before them all.

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

Vincent's pain was cut short, coughing the spit he'd been choking on to the side and staring up as colour returned to Davina's face, MJ's eyes flicking golden.

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

Aurora's head started drooping, and Klaus was unsure whether he was fighting out of fear that this death would still count to activate another upgraded vampire or what might happen to MJ if she finished it.

Too late.

Cami breathed out as the woman's body dropped. Entirely drained of blood. Too old for that to kill her, instead making her a stone weight in the middle of the foyer, MJ hearing a whisper in her ear she didn't like.

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

Lucien's entire body was red, and while it caused black veins to appear across MJ's arms and back, she didn't stop. She didn't care as everything connected to them started to catch fire. Why did they constantly taunt her with fire?

Why did they think that would make her stop?

The vampires were unsure whether to run or help.

Maci snapped a leg off the nearest table, aim always incredibly good as MJ lifted Lucien higher.

Watching as his mouth moved.

"Great big house in New Orleans."

Speaking the words like a prayer as her heart hammered with a strength a doctor would have worried about. A mortal might have collapsed from. But MJ?

She'd been forced to face Ryos.

She'd been forced to find out Vincent had sold her out.

All just kids, making terrible choices, having to live with their guilt for the rest of their lives while the dead used their pain and refused to share what they knew about whatever dark magic was out there, just getting mad they didn't roll over.

MJ had been called a doormat so many times.

The phrase followed every stage of her life.

It didn't matter who'd died or what she'd been through; if she didn't act the way people wanted her to, she was a doormat, but if she acted the way they wanted her to, she was a doormat too!

She was sick of being called a fucking doormat for being smart.

For having empathy.

For not wanting to cause death.

Why did she always have to put so much time and energy into seeing other points of view when no one spared her that same grace? How dare they think she'd just stop? She'd just go, 'Ah yes, people who want murder, you are definitely the way I should behave and totally normal and not, in fact, massive weirdos with no empathy.'

Fuck the ancestors.

Fuck sacrifice.

Fuck everything.

Both of Lucien's hands dived into MJ's chest, grabbing the centre of her ribcage and pulling.

"Forty stories high."

"Delphin Eoten Cor."

Freya's voice was oddly comforting, swooping to hold back his action. Stop him from actually tearing MJ in two as she screamed but kept siphoning. They thought it wasn't possible. So many of Ryos's spells were based on reformation magic, like dark objects, but Lucien had screwed up. He'd altered parts. He'd been forced to finish the spell without Ryos. With the ancestors.

"Delphin Eoten Cor."

He'd made himself weak by using the work of someone he didn't understand.

Or maybe Ryos was wrong.

Maybe self-preservation had kept MJ from ever pushing the edge of the magic she was not meant to allow near her body.

"Delphin Eoten Cor."

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

"Delphin Eoten Cor."

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

Two spells working in tandem across the city, built around MJ as she snipped up every inch the ancestors threw into him.

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

Cami was red raw from Aurora's attack, approaching her friend cautiously.

"Camille," Klaus hesitated, "Unless you and Mira discussed this – "

"She's not just here," Cai admitted, "She told us she was going to Elijah too."

Klaus blinked as Hayley groaned awake, taking in the scene quickly.

"MJ," Cami tried, "What can you hear?"

"Them."

"Can we knock her out?" Hayley didn't like it, "If this is the ancestors – "

Not sure how to move.

"If she's fighting Lucien right now – "

"We can't risk it," Cami agreed.

"I – I – " MJ tried to focus on control, "It's not their magic."

They weren't controlling her.

Drinking the serum didn't make you one of their puppets.

It wasn't that simple.

"It's – ah – "

The pain turned her insides into mush. The blood had tasted good. So good. But it also wasn't right. The amount of ancestral power in the serum was sickening, and it certainly didn't want to be in MJ.

"They – "

If they wanted to escape her, would completing the transition not give them control of her?

Why had Lucien been making sacrifices?

What did that contribute to the spell? Because he hadn't hit twelve yet, so if it had just been to give them enough of a foothold to make him, it wasn't done yet.

"It's..." MJ hadn't drunk an entire person alone before, "...Adapting..."

His witch hadn't known the reasoning.

There was no way for Lucien to have known if his witch didn't, and once Alexis had died?

And MJ had seen how easily the dead lied to people like Alexis.

"I'm...it's just like..." She closed her eyes, "First time I siphoned a person to death."

The vampire in New York.

Blacking out from the rush.

But she was older. She had those moments to learn from.

History wasn't always the enemy, but you also never knew what facts in books were true.

The spirits surrounding Lillian.

The town surrounding that girl.

"I'm...It's..."

Written and remembered as enemies.

"...Gimmie like..."

"Hey," Hayley was by her side, "We got you."

"You got all the serum?" Cami checked.

"Yep."

Klaus fell backwards in relief, taking in the sight of them alive.

"We should take her to be safe, but like..."

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

As MJ regained composure, her sanity only added fuel to the fire of power she covered the city with.

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

Vincent allowed himself to stand rather than be the lamb at risk.

Hands drifted up as all of them focused on the candles.

The last beating wick.

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

Eyes opening, not closing, as it was snuffed out.

"Delphin Eoten Cor."

MJ's hand grabbed Lucien's, no longer siphoning from the neck but wrist, watching as the skin shrivelled under her touch.

"Delphin Eoten Cor."

The skin in his own chest cracked.

"Delphin Eoten Cor."

The opening was clear, her second hand driving in as Freya pulled his heart forward.

"Delphin Eoten Cor – "

Just before the organ hit her fingers, the magic faltered.

The ancestors fled the cemetery, allowing them to be their primary focus.

MJ's eyes narrowed, changing the words and announcing them in case Freya needed to join in.

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

Banishing them from him, too.

But Lucien used her split focus to lurch, catching his chest to stop his heart from flying out, crashing into the back table, two Strix there to hold his arms back.

Freya stepped closer on instinct, repeating the words.

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

MJ's head snapped to the sky as they revealed their truth.

They hadn't actually been focusing on him.

They'd left the cemetery to focus on her.

The one siphoning.

The one with serum now in her veins.

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

Freya's spell inadvertently stripped her of power and targeted on any ancestral boost.

Lucien's eyes were wide as he stared at her, confused, feeling as weak and empty as he had while living as an average vampire.

Eyes meeting Maci.

Seeing that she'd clocked him while everyone else was still too afraid to strike, fear of his bite spreading so quick.

A stalemate as they stared.

Two people who had seen each other through every empire's rise and fall. Every Mikaelson silent period. Every new love, lost love, Tristan-scheme, and Aurora-rejection.

Friendship despite birthright

Maci went to move.

Lucien was gone before she could reach him.

"Anprae Kata Sispann Dife."

"Freya," Elijah called, and his sister's voice stopped.

She was human; it took her a second to realise he was gone and showed them all that her magic had been hitting MJ.

Panting on the floor. Veins glowing in a way Elijah hadn't seen since she was seventeen and holding him to his knees in the centre of a forest.

He approached cautiously, "Mira."

That memory was not the only time he'd seen her at peak explosion.

"Are you with us?"

"Momentarily," Her voice hoarse, "It actually hurt him."

"Mira," Elijah tensed, "To drain all the power from him would be the equivalent of draining every spirit from this city's afterlife."

"And?"

"You tell me," He spoke slowly, "You and I both know you can do that calculation."

Qetsiyah was always the example MJ fell to. Two thousand years in one body that she'd been able to strip, but it was also more complicated than that. While her power was technically that old, her second life was short. And she was just one person.

Every spirit on the ancestral plane ranged from people who'd died the past week to people who'd been dead for four hundred years. And there was an unknown amount of them. The total of all those years added together, multiplied by the power they could draw on thanks to their living counterparts?

Plus, all the power soaked into the land from sacrifices and important events?

There was actually no guarantee MJ's body would survive it.

Siphoners had a limit.

Heretics had a limit.

She had gotten ridiculously lucky that they'd not hit hers yet. They'd come close. When she'd been younger and weaker, she knew she'd pushed it in places, but now, she had no idea which attempt to siphon would be her last.

"You're not really here?" Freya had heard Lucien's point, "Where are you?"

"Here," MJ slowly stood up, "The cemetery. And his penthouse."

Maci stilled, "What?"

"A warning to anyone who thinks they wanna mess with me right now?" MJ's tone was dark, "I just drained Aurora of the serum he gave her."

Part of MJ thought about keeping it quiet, but considering her plan for the rest of the day, she didn't see the point. It was funnier to leave The Strix believing that touching her would create a second creature with Lucien's power level.

Possibly more.

The power of a witch, a vampire, and the bite of a wolf.

"Anyone kills me? I'll be right back."

Turning to face the siblings.

"Cami and Hayley have Klaus, I need to check on St James."

Vanishing into the window like it was nothing, leaving a trail of flowers poking up around the ground she'd planted herself on.

Their smell was unmistakable in the air.

Trying to overpower the blood of her healing chest and lungs.

"Find him," Maci glanced to the vampires now following her every command, "He won't return to his penthouse if he thinks she's there."

The Strix looked nervous.

"If any of you get bit, do not fear," Her voice was gentle, "That young woman has a cure."

Maci knew that wasn't true. Pri had kept her in the loop. But she also had no reason to protect people who'd been so easily turned against her once upon a time.

"And if you can get her more samples, she can make even more."

Elijah's eyes momentarily met hers, seeing exactly what she was doing and trying not to let himself smile.

~***~

"She drank the serum," Freya sat in the study, exhausted, "And she wasn't even truly there."

"Imagine the damage she could do if she was," Elijah poured a drink.

"She was casting a spell to banish the ancestor's control over the soil of a city they helped build," She shut her eyes, "Fought Aurora. And held Lucien down."

"She has always been our greatest ally," Elijah lifted the glass, "And our biggest threat."

He'd honed in on MJ as a teenager for a reason.

"I am not quite sure why you are suddenly so taken aback by it."

"I think you forget," Freya lulled, "My understanding of her was from Klaus's mind."

Elijah faced her cautiously.

"The day Kol and I used him to save Rebekah."

"You saw that he loved her."

"I saw a young girl my jealousies wanted to hate," Freya admitted, "Until I realised the way he viewed her wasn't how I wanted him to view me."

Elijah was almost amused by that declaration.

"Klaus has never feared her power; he feared losing her."

"She had just returned from assumed death."

"Exactly," Freya agreed, "I used to think his fear of having a weakness made her so important because he never thought of MJ as a weapon against him."

Even when they'd first met, MJ had marked herself as one of his pieces on the chessboard.

"I'm not convinced he's ever thought of her as a weapon at all."

"His words recently would say differently."

"And are we not both aware that Niklaus will say whatever he has to," Freya countered, "To fit a role he's decided to play for a week?"

Elijah sipped slowly.

"Klaus has only ever looked at her and seen everything he could have been."

"Everything he ever wanted," Elijah corrected, "A bastard of nature surrounded by friends, new family, and light."

"So, yes," Freya finished, "Some things she has pulled off are slightly shocking to me. Sorry for not studying someone I do yoga with like an enemy while I could have."

The end sentence was somewhat teasing, but Elijah could hear something genuine buried in it.

"Do you believe what you said to Lucien?"

"That the prophecy is already complete?"

She nodded.

"I have no idea," He sighed, "Klaus fell to MJ, Rebekah fell to me, and we all fell for Lucien's scheme."

She didn't look convinced.

Neither did he.

He wanted to take that stance. He wanted his brain not to trust prophecies and to bask in whatever gave Ryos Jung his audacity to make fun of them for falling into one. In all honesty, Elijah wanted to stop thinking about Ryos.

"If Lucien is so afraid of her brother," He let himself talk, "It does beg the question of why don't we just let him have those stones, get a foothold, and release him on him."

Freya's eyes were on Elijah's glass.

"Obviously, the problem is that the ancestors might use Lucien as a vessel to damn Ryos Jung to hell, causing MJ to snap."

"Entirely blaming you," Freya continued, "Letting herself die, turning into the new beast, and killing us all."

Silence.

"Elijah – "

"She killed him," He reminded her, "Tyler and Stefan died, and she murdered him for it."

"Top stop the destruction of all magic."

"Yes," He nodded, "But it was because of that loss that she did it."

They were both incredibly aware her magic lined the walls of their house.

"She has always been a powder keg about to explode."

"So we just spend our lives hoping she does not go off?"

"We ensure that when she goes off, she takes out the spirits, not us."

"Please tell me you are not as blind as our siblings to how big of a problem she might be."

MJ had literally yelled about how undeserving they all were a day ago.

"Friend, family, foe – she said it herself when we first heard the line; she qualifies as all three."

"And if you truly believe that," Elijah didn't know what to think, "Do not be the reason she becomes it."

"Elijah," She defended, "This family is all I have ever wanted."

For a thousand years as a prisoner.

"I cannot sit here, knowing she might be the thing to take you away."

"I think," Elijah heard Finn step onto the stairs, "We need to see what she plans to do with the serum."

~***~

MJ summoned herself back to the cemetery, giving Vincent and Davina a reassuring smile that she was okay, confirming the serum was now inside of her, and then rushing back to St. James in the hopes of finding a restored Kol. Perhaps he'd even had a chance to look over all the pages on how to make a cure, the expression triangle, and the spirits –

Marcel was alone in the bar.

His brown leather jacket was similar to hers, a glass of bourbon in front of him and a fancy cocktail to his left.

She listened out, "Where's Kol?"

"Made that up for you before he headed out."

She stilled, "Headed out?"

"Says it's non-alcoholic," He pushed the glass over, "But thought it'd at least cheer you up a little."

MJ stared at it, "Where is he?"

Silence.

"Marcel," Her hands started to shake, "We stopped the spell. It's safe – "

"MJ," He faced her, "That's just another temporary solution."

Her eyes were still gold, not brown, all the power just sitting in her.

"And your brother was right. You can't be using your blood as one either."

Despite her appearance, he didn't back down.

"He's gonna take the potion Ryos made," Marcel spoke firmly, "Out of town. Far from the spirits."

She felt herself snarling.

"So you can be safe."

"Marcel – "

"MJ!" He pushed up, "I have known that man for almost two centuries – "

"You knew a few years – "

"And!" He stopped her, "Since being around you? He has finally started to do the right thing."

Kol was only dealing with the ancestors because he'd finally saved Mary-Alice. Making amends for the years he'd left her to rot in a mad house. Hell, that choice was probably why she'd been able to find peace.

"Which is what he's done now," He grabbed her hand, "If it doesn't fix him, you will find something that does."

Her stomach started to churn.

"Until then? We are making sure you are safe."

Her lips curled in.

"...MJ – "

"No," She decided, "You guys don't get to make that call."

"A call that keeps you alive?"

"Look," She put her hands up, "I'm not about to shoot the messenger."

Checking her phone and seeing no texts about it.

"He can tell me himself."

"MJ – "

With a hand over her stomach and a supercharge of power, MJ used the fact Kol's DNA was literally inside of her to transport her straight to his location before Marcel could try anything to stop her. Appearing in the middle of the road heading towards the first exit out of the city.

MJ slammed her hands into the car as the driver desperately slammed the brakes down, only managing to push her back a few centimetres, glare shattering the front glass.

"Kol Mikaelson."

He was in the passenger seat, Beni driving, and Jeremy in the back.

"How dare you?"

His eyes were wide in shock, shoving the door open to join her on the road.

"What. The hell. Do you think you're doing?"

"Me!" He gestured out, "You just jumped in front of a car!"

"Yeah!" She shoved it back, "Funnily enough, I get a bit deranged when my boyfriend skips town without telling me!"

Another kick to push it even further, Jeremy and Beni's hands shooting up.

"How the hell could you two let him do that?"

"Technically," Jeremy opened the back door, "It was a collective plan."

"I didn't know he didn't tell you," Beni's hands stayed up, "That was not a collective plan."

"MJ," Jeremy joined them on the road, "If he's cursed, or hexed, or whatever – "

"He doesn't need to run!" She argued, "We fixed the spell! St. James is safe."

Kol closed his eyes, rubbing his face.

"When your girlfriend is pregnant," Her volume went up, "You do not skip town!"

"When your girlfriend is pregnant," Kol retorted, "You also don't want to potentially kill her!"

"You're not going to kill me!"

"We don't know that!"

The air turned so static MJ wanted to die.

They were lucky the route they'd chosen wasn't popular, meaning they could have the argument without causing any more potential crashes or strange looks. Not that MJ cared anymore. She would've wiped their minds and sent them on their way. If Kol was allowed to make rash decisions like leaving her, she could land in front of his car and remind him why that was a dumb plan.

"It wasn't his idea," Jeremy spoke up, "Marcel told us what was happening – "

"He should have told me he was this freaked about it."

Kol turned, pushing his jacket back to stare towards the trees.

This wasn't like him.

He didn't keep stuff – he didn't have the filter for it.

"I am in full support of you doing whatever to feel safe," MJ breathed, "But you should've told me."

"That I'm going insane?" Kol brushed his hair back, "That every second, every heartbeat gets louder, and the only thing that stops it is your blood?"

His hands were trembling.

"Sorry, Mira, but I can do the math! This ends with me draining you dry – "

"Then drain me!" She sighed, "I'm a vampire – that won't kill me."

He blinked incredibly slowly.

"In fact, currently," She was exasperated, "It'll make you the most powerful guy ever. Because I just drank the serum out of Aurora. Meaning, if Lucien kills you, you'll come back as powerful as him."

MJ straightened up.

"Wait, can we do that – "

"MJ," Kol stared at her, "Desiccation might kill the baby."

Her turn to hesitate.

"We've gotten lucky so far. The wolf venom left, and it was fine. But if you were actually entirely desiccated?"

What would be keeping it alive?

Feeding it power?

For all they knew, it would start sapping the remaining magic in her, causing her to actually die.

"If we're doing a plan, we're doing the one where I'm at risk, not you."

"Why does it always have to be one of us!"

A yell more at the universe than him.

"It's not fair."

"Imagine how I've been feeling for the past three years!"

Her expression dropped.

Kol closed his eyes, "Didn't mean it that way."

"I know."

Most of MJ's hesitation to have a kid was because of how she lived her life.

"Just..." She pinched her jaw, "I'm sorry."

"So am I."

"Kol..."

What was she meant to say?

Not talking to her drove him insane, she knew that, meaning for him to just up and leave without a text?

The ancestors were ruining their lives.

"I didn't want you to watch me lose it," He reframed, drifting closer, "Felt too much like your brother."

"Leaving without telling me why is also very like my brother."

Kol had been aware of that, but "Rather leave you than kill you."

"Leaving doesn't change us, Kol," She hit her forehead against his shoulder, "You're being punished because we're tied together."

By being in love.

By having a child.

By whatever Esther Mikaelson had seen in MJ's aura that kept her linked to The Mikaelson's.

"Until the ancestors are gone, you'll have to stay gone because they know you're a way to mess with me."

Even if they wanted to kill The Mikaelson's, it was becoming blatantly aware that the family was not the end goal. This was all about witch politics, legacies, and messes. And while some of those messes involved vampires, MJ was convinced they were using Lucien's resentments to make him a weapon for something bigger than all of them.

"And I – "

He pulled her chin, forcing her to look at him, "Then we cannot be together."

"What does that mean?"

"Darling," He wanted her to let him go, "I will be back the minute this is all dealt with."

"Assuming Ryos isn't trying to kill you."

"And you are not going to spare me a second thought."

MJ only realised what was happening as Kol did it; their eyes locked as his pupils dilated.

"Because you are so much more than me. And us. And you deserve to not worry about whether your brother has done something to me," He spoke clearly, "You have no reason to worry! Because you do not remember why you – "

She slapped him.

Kol may have been holding MJ's face, but that left her arms free, and he hadn't compelled her still, his face sitting, facing the car as Jeremy looked panicked.

"How dare – " She was siphoning it instantly, "Kol – "

"Mira!" His eyes begged, "It does not matter if what he's given me is fake. If I die, you are just as safe as if he isn't lying, and it genuinely heals me. And that's the only thing that matters!"

She scoffed.

Kol's eyes shut again.

"If you're really willing to take it that far," She stepped away, "Fine."

He was dealing with insanity. He was dealing with insanity.

HE WAS DEALING WITH INSANITY.

~ThEy WeRe AlL dEaLiNg WiTh InSaNiTy~

"Go."

Two Mikaelsons had tried compelling her in what felt like two weeks.

And it hadn't even been Elijah!

How – How dare –

"But you just crossed a line."

One she'd never thought he'd touch.

"And that's not how I wanna remember you."

"Mira..."

Her finger shoved into his chest, "You better have the apology of your life prepared when you get back."

Because she had to believe he would come back.

She had to believe in Ryos.

Because that couldn't be their last moment together.

Her entire body shook with rage.

Vanishing as fast as she'd appeared.

"Dude," Jeremy's mouth was agape, "What the hell?"

"You do not get to judge me."

"I do!" He shook his head, "What were you – "

"If MJ did not love me? If she was not tied to my family?" Kol was bitter and flat, "She would not be in this situation."

"She's tied to you guys because of Klaus!"

Stillness.

"He picked her."

Kol had always hated that version of the story.

"But she loves you."

He stilled.

"Do not take away the thing that makes the mess he forced her into worth it!"

Blinking slowly at the young human Kol still somewhat hated.

It was almost funny how Jeremy Gilbert was one of the few people who had always only seen MJ as just MJ. Not an attachment to someone else.

The same way she'd never treated him as one, either.

"As much as it makes all of our lives harder? She has never been happier than when she has been with you. And, as her friend," He shut down, "You don't get to act like her happiness is something you can just take away from her!"

Lifting the gun he'd had in the back of the car with him.

"I won't let you."

"Jer," Beni's eyes were darting between them, "I think he gets it."

"I don't think he does."

"If it keeps her safe – "

Jeremy cocked the gun, "You sound like Damon."

The vampires had always had similarities, but their differences made MJ love one and hate-like the other.

"And MJ deserves better than a Damon."

"And MJ has always deserved better than me!"

"You were better than him!" Jeremy pointed, "I'm literally the guy you told your murder plans to, but you never followed them through – meaning you were better."

Kol sighed, pulling his phone out to look at the lock screen. MJ was wrapped up in a light-coloured blanket, her hair puffy around her face, and she was smiling at him. A picture saved despite his death. One he'd taken to remind himself that things he hadn't felt in centuries had started to creep in and that maybe that was okay.

"And if you really think you might die drinking her brother's shit, how dare you screw up so majorly at the end."

"If it means she misses me less – "

Jeremy fired, letting the wooden bullet lodge in his shoulder.

"Jer!" Beni pushed out of the car too.

"I'm apologising!" Kol started to draft his text, "I know! It was the wrong call."

But he'd only been able to make wrong calls recently.

Showing up at Ryan's.

Eating a whole bar of people.

...All the sanity he thought he'd finally achieved flying out the window...

But he didn't want to lose MJ.

He would've brought the memories back the minute he was healed!

But he knew it was about more than just keeping her safe. It was about her parents. It was about Jeremy and Elena. It was about so many things that Kol knew and shouldn't have messed with, and given the engagement ring sitting behind a brick in his room, he couldn't help but think his rash action might have just cost them everything.

"Can your magic fix that?"

Beni eyes up the broken glass, "My 'magic' isn't exactly magic."

Still, pieces slowly started to fly back to their original spots.

"Though it does seem to count."

Meaning they could climb back into their seats and continue their drive.

However, as they reached the city border, Kol began to choke on air, skin turning to stone before their eyes, bringing them back to another screeching halt.

~***~

MJ reformed in the city, able to see the sky turn slightly darker, stalls packing up, and the public drifting away. She didn't want to be in public. But she couldn't let herself not see the people. The innocent lives wandering down streets, meandering with smiles, music carrying through each of their steps.

Her phone was blowing up.

Vincent had gone to talk to the elders once MJ had vanished, and they had a lot to say to her and a lot they wanted to do. And they didn't like the spirits taking control and electing Van...

Van.

The covens.

So many witches across the city – so many people on that street – so many sellers at their shops and twenty-somethings running between bars while her boyfriend was forced to leave town –

She wasn't about to tear their throats out.

She couldn't let herself tear their throats out.

She had enough blood; she did not need a feed!

The ancestors were the problem.

The ancestors had to go.

"You know it's more than just finding the anchor."

MJ stilled.

"Don't you?"

The girl was back, features not quite right, skin still sunken around bone, nothing in her eyes. It wasn't blue light. She still hadn't shown MJ anything to fear or driven her mad. She'd just been an annoying buzz in her ear that MJ knew she couldn't trust.

When had a spirit ever been on her side?

Excluding the ones in the ancestral realm, the ones who came poking in her vision had never been friendly. In fact, seeing how easily this spirit was floating around, MJ was half convinced she was the one who'd taunted her with Carol's face at Christmas.

"To tear down the realm of the dead."

MJ let herself turn, standing underneath the shadows of the overhanging balconies, shop windows on one side, general public on the other.

"You need someone on both sides."

"Is this where you offer?" MJ challenged, "And I get double-crossed?"

"I am not offering."

Talking to a semi-skeleton was somehow not the scariest thing MJ had ever done. The Pethane had practically trained her for that sort of experience, and yet? Seeing someone so young? Seeing how her hair remained silky and shifting like something lived in the nest.

"I have no power to help you."

MJ let her eyes flash orange-gold again, scanning the force before her.

"I am merely reminding you that someone will have to die."

Typically, a ghost would have been picked up by the shift in her power. She'd been able to temporarily vanish the visitor earlier, meaning she followed some otherworldly rules, but taking her in didn't flag anything. No power, no insanity – no ball of light.

"But you already knew that."

"I'm too smart to think you aren't the thing my brother and Vincent were talking about," MJ started slowly, "The power that Lillian said had the ancestors going mad to keep at bay."

Somehow, the skeletal features smiled, showing a mouth with no teeth.

"Yet you're not doing anything to me."

The Floare senses would have told her. Her magic was fixed, and she could sense everything, and there was no subliminal spell, link, or curse being cast between them. No infiltration magic to fight off. Not even a push on her skull that would've implied the girl was trying to read her mind.

"Why?"

"You are not my enemy."

The longer MJ looked, the more the hair seemed to morph into snakes, tips hissing and snapping, gaining colour as the rest of her pruned skin turned pale.

"Why would I punish you for others sins?"

"If that was your rule, why punish anyone at all?"

"All those who fall into my light become victims of the ancestors."

The vision of Lillian being cursed by spirits the same way Kol had.

"Or themselves."

Her voice was so dainty...

"If those I bless decide to use me for their own gain?"

With each shake of her head, eyes appeared in the now scaley locks.

"I owe them nothing."

Eva Sinclair, lost to the void of dark power.

"You should try my methods."

"I have a feeling," MJ lifted her brows, "That if I did..."

The return of the girl's smile was haunting.

"I would be as dead as you."

Not just because of how horrifying it was to look at but also because MJ didn't like the sympathy that appeared in her heart. The expression was confirming. This teenager had been powerful, and because of that, she had been feared, and that fear had her ripped apart by a village...Trapped in the shadows and the walls of the afterlife, exactly how the spirits of siphoners were once cursed instead of consecrated.

"Leave me alone."

Spirits weren't trustworthy.

But she wasn't offering anything. She wasn't telling her to do anything. She was floating freely, seemingly because she hadn't had a form in centuries, and MJ had somehow given her one.

Or, the collapsing afterlife had given her one...

"Whatever you think you're getting from this – "

"You cannot give me what I want."

MJ was a day back into restored Floare power, and she already had a new spirit to deal with. And this one didn't even seem to be looking for peace.

"So I am simply enjoying what is shown to me."

Or maybe this was her peace. Her unfinished business.

The end of the ancestors.

The people who had trapped her in the dark...

"And reminding you there is a way to stop them. It is merely the question of the price."

MJ blinked, and the vision of the bone snake woman vanished.

She was too old for this.

She'd done the rodeo too many times to let a ghost linger. If she had been given a form by MJ, it would have been because her magic was leaking out like crazy, which she was going to get control of.

But now that she'd seen how Lillian had lost her mind?

Now she'd heard the spiritual chanting?

Lucien's lips as locked into the spell as the witches?

Oh – MJ was fuming.

Marching into The Compound, she found most of the family in the dining room; Klaus laying his enchanted chains on the table, Elijah in a fresh shirt, sipping a drink, Freya leaning on the back of a chair while Finn loitered in the corner. Clearly, he didn't know where to be, but with Freya's nerves on edge, he was trying to be by her side.

Only for MJ to break up whatever they had been saying, semi-aware that each of her steps had the stones cracking, poking up with flowers as electricity sparked from her fingers.

Hayley was in the shower, the tap turning off sharply at the sound of MJ's distress.

"Mira," Klaus straightened up, "What's happened?"

"Oh, I wonder!" She gripped the back of a chair, "Let's start with my boyfriend's just skipped town on me!"

Their eyes went wide.

"And no, he didn't tell me. He let Marcel."

Freya's head turned to Elijah.

"So I almost got hit by a car to lecture him."

The back of the seat started to crack as Klaus moved to his feet.

"And then he tried to compel me to not care about it!" She ranted, "And forget why I should care!"

"Something he clearly failed to do," Finn noted.

"Yeah, well," She shoved the chair forward, "He forgot the whole 'don't siphon the compulsion' part!"

Klaus was by her side, "Kol's left?"

Holding his look, she nodded slowly, his gaze shifting sharply with anger.

"He's trying to get away from the ancestors," MJ forced herself to calm down slightly, "So he can take Ryos's shit without becoming a liability."

"Has your friend got back to you?"

"There's a bit of magic he can't address," MJ tossed her phone onto the table, "But all the other ingredients are of pure intent."

She slammed her fist into her phone, then twisted her wrist to fix it.

"I – I – "

Shutting her eyes tightly.

"I'm literally pregnant! And the father of my baby just skipped town on me!"

The cracks in the floor widened as the flowers burst into flames.

"Por dios! I'm a 90s movie cliché!"

"And Kol will be dealt with appropriately," Klaus declared.

"Sorry! As the other family member who's compelled me recently, you can sit the fuck down."

She highkey wanted to smack him, even if he'd simply respond as a friend would.

"And he's trying to keep me safe," She waved a hand, "I'm just giving context to my somehow worse mood."

She'd deal with him once he'd come back and apologised.

"Who wants to sit with me while I have a – " She gave jazz hands, "Blood transfusion!"

Elijah almost laughed, "Is that your plan for the serum?"

"Yep," She rubbed her face, "Kol made the point that I can't let myself desiccate given the baby. Oh, and the ancestral possession that's being passed around like the common cold."

They all went tense at that possibility.

"So I need blood going into me as we pull it out of me."

"I'll set something up," Freya spoke carefully.

"Thank you," MJ huffed, "Again, I'm not mad at any of you –actually, yes. I am. The only reason he's dumb enough to think compulsion was a good idea is because of how screwed up this family is – "

Inhala. Exhala.

"But that's neither here nor there."

And certainly not Freya's fault.

"God, I need a drink."

Klaus managed a smile, "I don't think that's an option."

"Again!" MJ groaned, "I have a healing factor!"

She threw her head back, wishing there was a wall to smack.

"The baby has a healing factor!"

Would alcohol really be that bad?

"Why didn't I use Hayley as a test subject!"

"Because," Hayley walked in, drying her hair, "You know a baby isn't a test subject."

"Shut up."

"Calm it," Hayley laughed, "If I could limit my rudeness to sarcasm during pregnancy, you have no excuse."

She linked their arms.

"And instead of running off on me, my baby's father simply tried to kill me."

"Once," Klaus defended, "And not actually, I simply – "

"Don't you dare finish that sentence," Hayley pointed at him, and his hands went up, eyebrows proclaiming innocence.

"My formal apologies."

"Not accepted," She gleamed.

He just smiled back at her.

"In better news," MJ gestured at her fixed phone, "Witches would rather flee than sign up to the new Regent regime."

"New Regent?" Freya paused, "What?"

"Oh yeah," MJ waved a hand, "I wasn't just with you guys. I was with Davina and Vin."

She hadn't exactly explained anything properly.

"Vin's no longer Regent. The ancestors got sick of him trying to be reasonable – so they stripped the title and gave it to Van Nyguen. Davina killed his mum earlier this year, and I didn't snitch on her."

Honestly, MJ felt for the guy. He was being manipulated.

But she wasn't going after him.

She was going after the dead psychopaths manipulating him.

"Which is somewhat brilliant for us."

Freya shook her head, "Are they allowed to just pick a new Regent? "

"Nope," MJ confirmed, "Meaning the elders are planning a meeting to see if they can elect me."

"What happens if they do?" Finn asked carefully.

"No idea," She admitted, "The ancestors wouldn't confirm it. However, there are some old rituals of power out there the Treme are debating putting into action."

"That means?"

"Fight to the death?" MJ shrugged, "Not actually, but also maybe."

"How brilliantly vague," Elijah pointed out.

"Well, like," She reasoned, "It used to be a rite of power. Whoever killed the Regent got to be the Regent. They shifted that workflow around to be more inherited – not, like, blood inherited, but...A Regent would know if someone was more powerful or capable in the city. Their power would fluctuate, and they could either slowly weaken or hand the title over naturally."

"Didn't you all vote Davina in?" Hayley recalled.

"I didn't," MJ reminded them, "And yeah. The method I just described caused a bunch of infighting. Whenever a Regent sensed someone stronger, they'd try to organise their death to restore their power."

"As you do," Klaus nodded in agreement.

"So that system got removed. Then there's this challenge round. Anyone can run for the role, but they complete a series of rites to get it."

"That seems to most logical," Hayley frowned, "Why isn't it?"

"Because casting a resurrection spell doesn't make you a good leader," MJ reminded them, "You can have all the power in the world, and then, well..."

She smiled teasingly at Klaus.

"Act like you."

"I think I act brilliantly."

"How many people are currently trying to kill you?"

"How many people are currently trying to kill you?" He retorted.

"My enemies are technically dead," MJ reminded the room, "And about to be erased."

The faster she destroyed them, the faster Kol could come home.

"The living won today. Vincent, D, and I channelled each other and beat the spirits out of the cemetery. Hence, we are returning the elder's vote, which is how most modern Regents get the role."

*Democary*

"I think I might have started a revolution," She put her hands out, "And I'm kinda living for it."

"Alongside taking out a vampire with ten centuries on you," Hayley added, "And whatever you did in the meantime."

"I am just that girl."

"Hm," Hayley squeezed her arm, "Your eyes are still funny."

"Yeah," MJ dragged the word out, "I'm just hoping it heals me through the blood transfusions."

Power flickering in and out.

"I keep seeing ghosts."

Everyone, once again, tensed.

"Random hallucinations of the past – it's just giving me more motivation to destroy everything."

"And while you do that," Freya nodded, "I will analyse your blood to get the serum from it."

MJ tried to relax.

Team work.

Teamwork made the dream work.

And then Kol would get to come home.

"I must say," Klaus was still by her side, scanning her, "You all took your time today. Almost thought you were going to leave me with him."

"Do you want us to put the chains back on?" Freya smiled, "We can."

"You'd be doing us all a marvellous favour," Elijah continued with the lighter mood, "Perhaps you could fasten something to his mouth?"

"Oh, Kol has one if you want it."

Everyone stared at her.

"Not everything he makes has a double meaning!" MJ sighed, "He wanted to trap you the way he'd been trapped – funnily enough, that meant making an enchanted and toxic muzzle to torture you with."

Klaus raised an eyebrow, "I've never seen it."

"It's at Cami's," She gleamed, "In the city stash."

"I suggest we use it on Aurora," Hayley suggested, "She's still desiccated."

Having checked before her shower.

"How long is she gonna stay that way?"

"I've added a spell to keep her down," Freya confirmed, "Whether we need to see if the serum reforms in her or bait Lucien out?"

They had no idea how the serum worked, and MJ didn't want to find out until the ancestors were dealt with. She knew they were all hoping that post-blood drained, it would just be wiped because if the serum lingered, that meant MJ would also 'upgrade' upon death, regardless of not wanting to.

God, how did siring factor into it? If Lucien turned someone, what were they?

"I suppose, beyond mocking the speed," Klaus spoke carefully, "I should be thanking you all."

"You're welcome," Freya smiled genuinely for the first time in months.

"If you mean it," Hayley mused, "You can thank me in diaper duty."

"When is Hope coming back?" MJ leaned into her, catching Klaus's eye.

Seeing a softness fill his eyes at the question.

Only to realise something.

"Where's Cami?"

"Collecting some things," Klaus answered, "She'll be back shortly."

MJ hesitated, "Lucien's gonna target her after today."

"Why do you think she is returning here?"

"Oh, I don't think anyone wants to hear the list I could give you."

"Correct opinion," Hayley jabbed her, "Now, Miss-Upgrade-Serum-Girl. You wanna start getting rid of it now, or enjoy the fear you give everyone by keeping it in you?"

"Is kinda funny," MJ grinned, "If I died right now, I'd have a wolf bite – would that make me the new first tribrid?"

Since Hope was technically just a witch until she killed someone.

"You've always been welcome with the wolves," Hayley reminded her.

And MJ tried not to feel a twinge in her heart.

"Speaking of, Pri's been dropping venom off for you all day."

"Yeah," MJ felt ice on her spine, "I'm really hoping there's enough Malraux line for a cure."

"Are they really that rare?"

"Yep," She hadn't killed them.

Mary Porter was dead!

And if Lucien had hurt Keelin, or Scott, or even his cruel wife who'd blamed MJ, she'd be killing him for them, too. She'd be making her amends.

"Then let's get you clear," Freya nodded, "So we can start working on that."

"May I help?" Finn looked so tired of being useless, "A blood transfusion?"

"Not magic," MJ shut down.

"Though," Freya countered, "We will be doing it a magical way. I'll show you."

MJ didn't hide her grimace, and Klaus stepped closer to her.

Kol was gone...

Kol was gone.

Who was she meant to talk ideas out without him?

But he'd gone to compel her!

But –

Exhala.

He was going to be okay. Everything was going to be alright. He would come home in three days, or sooner if she found a way to burn the ancestors to hell before that. She would get him home to her, and she wouldn't lose anyone else because of some spirits – no one would.