After the fourth year, they stopped counting.

Time passed on and it ached. Burned them in their core. Beatrix had finished her story, finished revealing her pain, and just like that, it made them numb. They started being reckless again. They started sleeping in rooms further away to not hear how the other moaned and screamed and sobbed in the middle of the night. They spoke to keep each other sane. They traveled and ate and trashed places. As more and more years passed, they seemed to have lost any hope that they would ever get out.

Beatrix wished things were simpler. She wished that she wasn't being punished for merely being turned against her will. She tried desperately to think of what could be worse. Truly, there was nothing. It was worse here than when Klaus daggered Rebekah in 1835 for her relationship with Marcel and furiously accused Beatrix of lying about her affections for him. It was worse here than the decades she spent without Kol and Rebekah, with only the company of a very hostile Klaus, a new vampire Marcellus, and a silent Elijah who seemed intent on only giving her the silent treatment without resolution.

She supposed 1887 was when things had turned around, but she had a very difficult time focusing on the good that had come after such an uncomfortable period being unable to leave out of a lack of planning that could put her in danger of being discovered, and a need for Mikaelson kinship that could only come if she stayed. She tried to remember the day that Rebakah ran up and hugged her when Klaus removed the dagger from her. The day that Rebekah forced Elijah and Beatrix into a room and they had their first conversation in a long time, about the piano. Elijah had taught her a song. She had taught him a poem she had made, that she wanted to make improvements to and have someone else publish one day.

From there came the feeling of bliss that she yearned for even more than escape. If she could just have that satisfaction once more, she would be at peace. To feel the joy when Elijah took her to Italy for their first date. The pride and hope when he was vulnerable and spoke to her every dark truth that he needed to release, which led her to reveal her true name to him. The love when they shared their first kiss because they embraced the darkest parts of each other, and meshed into one being that could see the beauty in things others could not.

"You're drooling again."

Beatrix looked up dejectedly at Kai, who was eating upside down for the fourth time in the past month. Neither of them had physically aged, but they looked jaded. Kai had let his beard and mustache grow out. His clothes were darker now, but still as random as always. He refused to cut his hair or let her cut his hair. If her estimations were correct, they were quite near the ten year mark of their stay. In real time, he would have been in his thirties. He certainly looked it.

Kai looked down at her. She was on the floor, laying on her side, having been sliding a small bouncy ball back and forth against the wall. The proximity between them would have been unfathomable years ago. Now, they mutually accepted each other's presence, respected the boundaries. No murder attempts had happened in quite a long time. Although they were distant, they were closer than before. They only had each other, and had to make the best of it.

Beatrix wiped the drool off her mouth and pushed the ball back into the wall, making a small dent. "You haven't tried eating soup upside down yet," she mused in response. "I can make that later, and you can try it."

Kai seemed to like this. "Yes, I actually would like that. I think I can manage it. If you let me siphon off of you."

"Sure."

Then came the magic. As time had gone on, she had kept her promise to teach him. They weren't the most exciting lessons, but he was focused, and they moved quickly. She allowed him to siphon from her to practice his spells. Of course, in mediation it was really just enabling him to get a feel for spellwork to a greater extent. Once he had magic of his own, it would be a different story trying to control it. She let him siphon a bit more after every lesson, but it would be impossible to tell if this would benefit him in the real world.

They had tapped into darker magic more recently. Beatrix had started learning it first, and Kai had theorized that maybe her magic wasn't at full potential outside because she wasn't meant to practice regular magic.

"Think about it," he had said, looking more excited than he had in a long time. "Your mother took in dark magic to escape and that dark magic helped her birth you and protect you for a long time. You've got a natural aptitude for darker magic. It's practically your birthright! Once you tap into darker magic, maybe it won't destroy you like it does to weaker people! It should be your true nature."

Beatrix had been shocked, but it made perfect sense. "Yeah... we can try it. I don't know whether dark magic will affect us less in here, but I can do it. I-I can try and get into it, and I shouldn't lose myself to it, if what you're saying is right. They said my magic would be devastating, and it already can be, but it doesn't fit their description. That's- that's what it must have meant. It would be devastating if I tapped into what I was born to do. As long as I'm careful, things will be fine. As long as I don't abandon my magic again..."

Kai had been shocked on the day she told him about her magic.

In 1901 when Kol had been undaggered once more, Beatrix and Kol had traveled together, where she had taken the cover name of Hilda Mikaelson. He took her to Arabia for a few years to study Kemiya, which meshed the scientific and the spiritual. It had been a bit of a darker magic, but Beatrix had picked it up with ease and an accuracy Kol claimed he hadn't seen in centuries.

In 1903, however, they had rushed home. They had heard of two major threats- Rayna Cruz and the Gemini Coven. First, they had gotten word that Rayna Cruz, the vampire hunter, had managed to mark one of the famed Heretics. Fearing that they might be onto her existence, Beatrix had panicked, and they'd left back to America. Upon their arrival, they heard of the next batch of trouble- the prison world made for the Heretics. When they returned to New Orleans, Elijah had recommended for her to hide her magic so that she could not be tracked by the Coven, and Kol, who had become friendly with the French Quarter witches, asked them to protect Beatrix, specifically from Rayna Cruz. With many spells placed over her, Beatrix was bound into the Mikaelson compound.

She had not suffered much, at first. Elijah had been there, and with her magic hidden in a piano key, there was always quick access in case she needed it, and the cloaking spell made sure the key would only be accessed by Beatrix, Elijah, or Kol. However, Klaus began to grow more impatient with the fact that Beatrix could not perform magic. In the past, she had assisted him with spells whenever he needed it, within reason. Now, however, he was angry that she was not wanting to help. He tried to coax her into it, by attempting to reignite the old flame between them, but it only let to discord between the three brothers. Kol thought that Klaus had no right to ask Beatrix to sacrifice her safety just to do spells for him, and had become closer with the French Quarter Coven to devise a plan to put Klaus down.

Then came the rift. The witches divided, either siding with Kol or with Klaus. Beatrix couldn't blame those who sided with the hybrid Mikaelson. They must have assumed he'd be on the winning side. She had dared to take back her magic in 1914 to assist Kol, Mary Alice Claire, and a witch named Astrid to create a dagger that would affect Klaus. Even though there came great risk with Beatrix practicing magic again, since either the Gemini Coven could find her or the French Quarter witches would discover who she truly was, she dared to practice Kemiya and fabricate the dagger, along with the help of the other two witches. The power source had been insufficient, and Kol became obsessed with stealing a paragon diamond from an older woman who had it in her possession.

That was where it all went wrong. Kol had lost control, and Beatrix had been unable to stop him, and against her morals, had helped him massacre many innocent humans in a church. Before they could get the paragon diamond to a safe location, they had been caught by Klaus, who had the two French Quarter witches trapped in the Dowager Fauline Cottage. He took the diamond, and pulled Kol and Beatrix to the home.

Elijah had been angry with her. He had been worried sick because she had not told him anything. How could she? When would he have ever approved? With her heart in his hand, he'd made her put her magic back in the piano key. He then took it, hiding it with the paragon diamond. At Christmas when she and Kol had tried to retrieve their possessions, they'd been caught by Rebekah. Kol had been daggered and Klaus had nearly killed Beatrix for good. Elijah had intervened and saved her life, though now, she wondered whether it might have been better to have died that day.

Beatrix was confined to the Mikaelson compound for another five years. She and Elijah began to bicker often. Anxiety, anger, apathy, overcame her like a storm that was just beginning. In 1917, her temper had gotten the better of her and she had nearly torn the house apart because she wanted her magic, she wanted the piano key, but Elijah did not see her fit to have it.

She was manic. He was worried. She was causing damage and needing to be restrained because she simply could not function without her magic.

In 1918 when her episode subsided, she had felt guilt. Pain and torment because Marcel had been away at war and she had missed him in her crazed state. Remorse because of the things she had said and done. It terrified her to think that she had let herself go just because she hadn't had her magic.

Therefore, she did not take it back.

"I just had a terrible though," Kai said, looking back down at her, and causing her to blink several times. "What if time here runs differently? What if one year here was ten years in our world? Or if ten years here is barely one year there?"

Beatrix had to pause and regain her wits before answering. "Hmmm... if it's not parallel, then think it might be the former. Ten years is a lot of suffering but if only one year were to pass in the real world, then it's more likely we'd eventually find a way out sooner. If one year here is ten years over there, then that benefits the Gemini Coven. Everyone who had to deal with us in the past will die and new leadership will rise. You'll never have a chance to be leader. That would be more torture for us. Everyone else moving on while we wait here, with insufficient time to wallow before figuring it out."

"You've been thinking about Elijah too much. You're going really into depth."

He wasn't wrong. Lately, anytime she remembered her worse moments, she found herself thinking of Elijah. How he had cared for her when she was acting insane and threatening to kill him because he wouldn't give her the stupid piano key.

She missed him more than she could express.

In 1919, when she was feeling better, Elijah had asked her on a date to the Opera House to watch Le Huguenots- their first proper outing in a long time. She had picked a ravishing black silk dress.

She had been fixing Elijah's tie in his room at the complex, and had pulled him in for a kiss when footsteps made them move away from each other.

"Le Huguenots," said a man who Beatrix had never seen before. "Saw it in Venice. Marvelous production."

"You-" Elijah began, wordless. He moved to stand in front of Beatrix, shielding her. The man had laughed. "It's all right, son. I just want to talk. I won't even ask for an introduction."

Beatrix had stiffened. Mikael. She had no idea what Marcel and Rebekah had planned. If only she had her magic, if only she had taken it back....

Elijah had not moved away from Beatrix. "You mercilessly hunt us for centuries," he said to his father, ready to deflect an attack. "You laid waste to half of Europe. Now you simply wish to talk?"

"Talk like civilized men, yes, and without you concealing a vampire weakling behind your back," Mikael stated, craning his neck as if trying to get a look at Beatrix. "Elijah, it was your bastard brother I hunted. Not you, never you. You're my blood, one that I'd be proud to call son. So I came here to give you a chance to help me put down that whelp for good."

In an instant, Elijah had lunged forward, slamming Mikael into the wall. With terrifying ease, Mikael had thrown Elijah back the way he'd come, sending wooden splinters all around him. Mikael had grabbed Beatrix and gripped her neck, holding a White Oak Stake in his hand. She had frozen, staring at Elijah. She wanted him to go, she wanted him to leave, who cared if she died...

"Let her go," Elijah said, his eyes darkening with fury. He got to his feet. "Do you really not know me at all? Do you think I could or would believe in anything that you say? If you honestly believe that I would betray my own brother for you, you're a fool without equal."

Mikael had scoffed. "I'll forgive you your sentimental affections for this weakling and the thing you call brother, but you need to realize- as I did when I learned his mother had lain with a beast to beget him- that Niklaus is an abomination. You do not talk to abominations. You do not reason with them or try to change them. You erase them!" He held Beatrix tighter, making her gasp for air. "You think I do not know who this is? A hybrid wench of a different breed- a witch and a vampire! So yes, I am asking you to help me kill your brother. I'll take either hybrid." He licked his lips, gazing wickedly at Elijah. "What is it going to be? Stand with me, and save this girl, or fall with your brother, and lose her? Choose, son."

"E-Elijah," Beatrix had choked out. "K-Klaus- p-pick K-Klaus-"

Elijah had picked both. He'd lunged at his father. Mikael had easily thrown him back even further than before, a broken piece of wood impaling him. The vampire had then bit into Beatrix, making her let out a terrified scream as he fed from her. He'd continued until she had gone limp in his arms, and threw her over his shoulder, pocketing the White Oak Stake and picking up another wooden splinter, driving it straight through Elijah's heart.

"What happened after that?" Kai had asked her when she told him.

That was the part she had only ever heard of. Klaus's lover at the time, Lana, was killed and left on a swing. Beatrix and Marcel were staked to crosses on the stage. The Original siblings had ran, and Mikael had set fire to the building. Marcel had barely managed to save Beatrix and himself. When she awoke she was greatly weakened. Marcel, though strengthened, was now tasked with coping and recuperating the destruction Mikael had reaped on New Orleans, thinking them to be dead while his children had fled.

Knowing that she was going to suffer, Marcel did what he knew Beatrix would want him to do. He put her to sleep. From 1920 to 1950, Beatrix La Salle slept, safe and sound in the dungeons of the Mikaelson compound, the piano key wrapped in silk beside her, a spell cast for her to dessicate in peace, figure things out in a place where she couldn't hurt herself, an wait until Marcel deemed it safe enough to wake her up. For three decades she was safe from Rayna Cruz, the Gemini Coven, the violence in New Orleans, and the wrath of Mikael.

When in 1950 she was woken, she had not taken her magic back right away. She had come to terms with her agony, but she still felt such guilt. If she had had her magic before, she could have defeated Mikael. Now, the magic felt wrong. It felt wretched. She didn't feel she deserved it yet. And thus, she had gone to study, functioning as a human. From 1960 to 1970 following her studies, Beatrix La Salle practiced as a regular obstetrician and gynecologist, delivering babies to parents. She had stopped once her coworkers became suspicious of her constant breaks where she secretly ingested blood, and once they began noticing that she wasn't aging like the rest of them.

Feeling sane again, and thinking she could do well with her powers, Marcel had delivered the piano key to her doorstep. While he reconstructed New Orleans, she traveled around the Yucatán Peninsula, learning and gathering information about her past, and simultaneously researching how to put Mikael down and create the dagger Kol had wanted to make before he was subdued. She and Marcel wrote to each other often. Although she had helped to raise him, their bond was still mostly like that of siblings, though Beatrix never ceased seeing him as a son. She had planned to return to Medical School in the year 2000 to renew her degree and beginning to study again.

In December of 1993, she had been planning a surprise visit to Marcel's home. What she hadn't known was that Mikael had slipped her true identity to the French Quarter Coven even following her death, and as soon as she entered the city, she was on their radar.

Now she was here.

"It's hard to stop thinking about Elijah. I can't even imagine where he must be now. He might be daggered. Maybe he aggravated Klaus. I don't even want to think of the fact he may have been found by Mikael already."

"You need a distraction," Kai said. "Like, a big project or something you want to do. You always get in a better mood when we study dark magic. How about using some of that?"

And so they had begun. For weeks they'd began cooking up a spell, with two major goals that came to mind right away: find where the eclipse would be strongest for the Ascendant to work and harness the most power possible, and have a sensor ready to let them know if anything freaky happened, such as another person arriving. The second was mostly Beatrix's idea.

Sitting criss crossed on the floor of the house, they had linked hands, candles lit all around them, a map on the floor with a few drops of each person's blood.

Together, they had chanted. Et obscuratus primuse, sequitir sanguine. Et obscuratus primuse, sequitir sanguine. Et obscuratus primuse, sequitir sanguine.

Slowly, the blood on the map had trailed upward from Louisiana, and had wrapped itself around the state of Virginia. The circle it made narrowed around the name of Mystic Falls.

"Mystic Falls," breathed Beatrix. "That's where the best place to catch the eclipse's power will be. Next spell... Sangina signum, signum sequitas mutatio. Sangina signum, signum sequitas mutatio. Sangina signum, signum sequitas mutatio..."

Both had felt a sharp pain in their abdomen when the third chant finished. Beatrix tasted blood in her mouth. "Good. If anything inside here changes, we will know. A gut feeling."

Kai had never looked so pleased. "Magic, baby."

They had set off shortly after. Packing in a frenzy, things surely left behind. It didn't matter. They were ready to get out, if the occasion ever came. The entire ride there they chatted, they joked, they snacked on what Beatrix had packed for them to enjoy.

Both of them could not deny that they felt something good. Something genuine. It was bliss and a break from the pain that came when they both did the math and deduced that they'd hit the ten year mark already, give or take a year. It wasn't so bad knowing that they had a shot- a real shot.

"You should turn me when we get out," Kai said very seriously when they finished the thirteen hour ride to Virginia. They had settled temporarily into a nice little house near a grocery store, and a short walk from the Hospital. Beatrix was too happy to ask Kai for her portion of blood, and she was willing to make the walk to get it, to spare him. He'd helped enough already.

But the statement had caught her off guard.

"What?" She said, raising her eyebrow. "You want me to make you a Heretic?"

"Yes. I want to be able to produce power on my own like you do. And being a vampire heightens everything. You can't possibly tell me that you'd prefer to feel things as a human."

"I mean... it depends. The sadness is quite overwhelming. So is the anger. But the happiness and the pleasure, the gratitude and the relief- it's a thousand times better as a vampire."

"I can deal with that," he said. "I want this. I want that type of power when we go kill the Gemini Coven. I want to feel insurmountable satisfaction when I drive a blade through our dear old Coven leader's heart."

Nowadays, his comments no longer fazed her. In fact, she smirked. "Yeah, I have to admit, things like that definitely feel better. All the good things in life. Can't get drunk. Can't knock someone up or get knocked up. You feel everything to the very precise degree and measurement."

There had been a moment where they had both just stared at each other. They both felt so pleased with what they'd done. They noticed things about each other that they'd never pinpointed before, and a movement drew them closer. They had been deprived of proper proximity for so long...

Beatrix was surprised she hadn't gone for it sooner.