Title translation - She carries fire and water

French proverb: 'He carries fire in one hand, water in the other' ie...
The person is a deceiver (I switched pronouns)

~***~

Marcel picked a storage locker at the docks for them to hide out in until Davina woke up. He placed her gently on the floor before starting to walk up and down.

MJ took a seat beside her. Resting a hand on Davina's forehead gave her some idea of her temperature, despite her own unnaturally high body temperature. She was working off the basis that if she, of all people, felt heat coming from Davina, something was very, very wrong.

"If you don't stop pacing," MJ didn't take her eyes off the young witch, "I might knock you out too."

"Sorry if I'm a little tense," He replied sarcastically.

"You can be tense, just be tense...I don't know?" She patted the ground.

He looked at the ceiling, sighing, then caved, sitting down on the slightly damp floor too.

The sound of dripping echoed.

Underscored by a boat on the river.

"I've texted Josh to tell him what's going on," MJ admitted, to fill the silence, "They were friends...and she's dying..."

An awful collection of words.

"And he needs to know."

Marcel really had a habit of studying her face.

"I was gonna tell Cami too, but I didn't really know how to...got her number, but...I don't wanna just say it again."

He leant back on the wall, "You actually freed her from all the compulsion."

"I did."

Her phone rang.

A face time call.

She saw the ID, "You chill if I answer this?"

"Who is it?"

"My friend Bonnie," MJ knew it wasn't the time, but, "She's just come back from the dead."

Marcel stilled.

"Not kidding."

"Then you can answer."

"Digame?" MJ greeted warmly.

"Heeey," Bonnie sounded incredibly nervous, eyes darting about the screen.

MJ sat up, "You okay?"

"Yeah," She cleared her throat, "I just wanted to check in."

"Bon," She smiled a little, "If you're struggling, that's not something you need to hide."

"I'm making it work," Her voice started to sound genuine, "I just needed to hear your voice."

"Awe, cute," MJ looked at Davina.

Bonnie noticed the background, "Can I ask why you look like you're in a dungeon?"

"I'm kind of in the middle of something," She summed up, "Can I call you back?"

"Is it something I might be able to help with?"

"Trying to stop a girl from getting sacrificed. So maybe," MJ admitted, "The magic they're sacrificing her to get access to is overwhelming her."

"Oh," Bonnie paused, "Well, from experience...I had to die."

Marcel glared.

"You died over-using power, though," MJ reminded her, "And you didn't mean to even host it. The magic was moved to her to be stored."

"True," She admitted, "Preservation spell to give you time?"

"Looked at it earlier, have a spell to try with me," She started to organise her sheets, "But pretty sure the magic in her will just burn it up to burn her up."

There was an odd gap, Bonnie seeming to have an argument with someone through her eyes.

"Are you with Jer right now?" MJ could only assume since Bonnie was at her house, not the dorm room.

"No," She sighed, "Question, you've been dealing with spirits your whole life?"

"I have."

"How do you get them to leave you alone?" She was glaring at the person MJ couldn't see.

MJ laughed, "I learnt a banishment spell."

"That's a thing!"

"You don't have the magic to perform it anymore."

"So I'm stuck with them?"

"Seems so," MJ pulled a face, "I can give you protection jewellery?"

She didn't want anyone to go through what her pre-teen self had.

"Take spa days. Long baths and painting nails helped me when I was younger."

There was another non-verbal argument on Bonnie's end.

"What type of spirit?"

"Doesn't matter," Bonnie's focus returned to her, "Where's Klaus during all this?"

"Uhhh," MJ scrunched her nose, "I can't say."

"You can't say?"

MJ looked at Marcel for a second, "I'm also not alone right now, and Klaus's business is his business."

She had a text saying that he was visiting the wolves he'd decided to help, and that wasn't something she was about to just reveal.

"Ha, ha," Marcel rolled his eyes, "What he's up to is quite possibly the last thing on my mind."

"I never said he was up to anything. I don't actually know his schedule."

He fought off a smug smile, "I'm half-convinced you have merged calendars."

"Humour is not your forte."

Bonnie was focused on something off-screen, "Who is that?"

"Momentary ally?" MJ didn't bother showing Marcel on the screen, "We're Team 'let's not force the teenager to die.'"

"And let me guess, Klaus is Team 'kill her'"

"Reluctantly," She admitted, "No one wants her to die – it's complicated."

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," She nodded, "Just trying to make it work."

"And your 'ally' is...not...making you uncomfortable?"

MJ raised an eyebrow.

Marcel gave her a confused look too.

"We're just hiding out. Buying time and planning. It's fine."

She lowered her voice, "Isn't that the guy who killed your mum."

Beat.

MJ hesitated, "How did you know that?"

Bonnie's eyes went wide.

"Bon?"

"I've been haunting you - you know that!"

The words sounded rushed.

"Put the pieces together."

"He is. We had it out. It's all cool now."

Bonnie's eyes darted off-screen again, then came back, "I know you let him live, but you're friends now?"

"Hardly. I repeat, momentary ally."

Davina shifted in her sleep.

"Anyway," MJ really needed to focus, "I'll call you back another time?"

She nodded, "Sure. I've missed you a lot, so..."

"We could do a regular thing if you'd like."

"Yeah."

"Text you when I get free time."

"Talk to you soon - oh, and, don't let Klaus manipulate you."

"He's not."

"Bye."

"Bye."

MJ hung up.

Marcel just looked incredibly confused.

"Yes."

"Your entire life just seems messy."

She laughed, "That's not an incorrect statement."

"You roll into town with Klaus," He shook his head, "Have this 'partners in crime' act thing going on with him, but clearly disagree with almost everything he does."

"It would be concerning if I did," She snorted, "We...we work well together."

That wasn't enough.

"I've already told you that we have normal stuff in common. But we're hardly the same person. And, I'm not going to let things happen just because we work well together."

"You complement each other," Marcel muttered, a little wistfully,

"Hm?"

"Eh, don't worry about it – I'm not judging."

"Not judging?"

"Whatever the pair of you have going on is none of my business."

"Dude," MJ grinned a little, "Get it through your head. Klaus and I, not together."

"Not even once?"

"Not even once."

He wasn't convinced, "Okay."

She just laughed.

"I gotta ask," He changed the topic, "Did he tell you to say all those things to the human faction before we killed them?"

MJ had been caught up on how Klaus and Marcel had bonded over killing the human faction for trying to make a statement against them. Klaus had been quite proud of himself in his text message.

She felt herself relaxing a little, "Nah."

"You just came up with that list of compromises and demands on the spot?"

"Pretty much."

"Damn," He smiled a little too, "And here I thought he'd been trying to use you to get a list of things off them."

"I'm invested in trying to make a peaceful community," She shrugged innocently, "Plus...One of my recent guardians may have been a vampire hunter."

That part she'd already told him.

"But the other was the Mayor of a vampire ridden town."

Carol was with her in 'spirit.'

"I was just thinking of things that happened there mixed with some stuff I know about the New York crowd. It would've been more cohesive if I'd planned the list."

He made a somewhat impressed noise.

"And...I do just want peace in the city, Marcel," She repeated, "Equal peace. All communities."

"That was what you said when that Tyler guy was here."

"And I meant it."

"You called him family."

"Most important person I still have left."

"How is your brother?"

"Lying to me every other sentence, across an ocean...got a PhD...now a combat medic."

Marcel processed that, "He escaped violence and decided to be an army doctor?"

"That's my reaction!" She couldn't really judge, "Then again, as one of my friends has put it, I'm shacked up with the Mikaelson's, so it's not like I'm in a stress-free environment."

"You can say that again."

It was bizarre sitting on the floor with him, Davina passed out in between them, just talking.

It was Marcel Gerard.

He seemed like a pretty decent guy who genuinely cared about people, especially kids...

"Thank you...again," MJ said slowly, "For doing that stupid memorial bench and for burying her body."

He looked away, "I'm sorry I killed her to begin with."

"I mean," She lifted her eyebrows, "There were a million other things you could've done, but if my mum was ready to die...then I can't exactly be mad at you."

She was still trying to work out exactly how she felt about the real story.

"I just wish I could go back and snap my fingers, so all those stupid nightmares turned to dust."

His voice was so quiet, "Did you mean it when you said you stopped sleeping because of me?"

"...Yeah..."

Silence.

"Even when I had worse things to dream about," MJ didn't want to be scared to say it, "You were still my biggest fear because you were the threat that was still out there."

He was just staring at her again.

"Learning to operate off minimal sleep really came in handy later on, if that makes you feel any better?"

His shoulders sagged.

"I used to pin every bad thing in my life on you, but even if killing my mum had been intentional, that wasn't a fair stance to take."

"I feel like you're apologising to me for killing your mum and just," He shook his head, "You're right. There were other things I could've done, and I should've done them – searching the place, maybe."

"I was cloaked."

"Yeah?"

"A little," MJ clarified, "If you'd gone looking, you would've seen me, but my heartbeat and breathing, and all the noise stuff? Masked so you guys wouldn't think I was there."

"Normally I would've looked," He sounded so disappointed, "Especially when dealing with a witch."

"And maybe I'll remember that fact and hold it against you in the future. Or maybe it doesn't matter because I'm not living my life on what-ifs."

Marcel noticed the way she was tugging on her necklace, but instead of commenting on how he thought she was wearing Klaus's daylight ring, he commented on the other necklace she'd stuffed into her pocket.

"Your mum was probably the strongest witch I've ever met."

MJ smiled fondly.

"She's why I didn't think anything too dangerous was up with Davina when I first put her in that attic."

She watched how he looked at the young girl.

"I thought it was just power," He let his hand brush over her shoulder, "That she'd learn control."

"I did too."

"The first time I met your mum, she was out of control."

MJ liked hearing about her mum, even if the topic was a little twisted.

"Two years later, she moved to town, perfectly controlled and terrifying everyone," His eyes were slightly longing, "Because if she'd wanted full out war, she probably would've won."

"That's because the first time she came to New Orleans, she was hosting power, just like Davina. She was completely out of it and technically dying."

He sat up taller, "Dying?"

"Yeah, that glowy thing," She gestured to her own wrists, "If she was doing that, it meant she was accessing a power store that she shouldn't have had access to. It was killing her while keeping her alive to host it."

"Is that what you're doing too?"

"Nah, with me, it's a Floare Siphoner thing. Whenever I siphon too much magic – it's like a warning that the next time I do a spell, things might explode."

"So if I see you like it, I should take the warning and play ultimate suck-up to avoid pissing you off?"

She smiled, "Pretty much."

Her eyes drifted to her sheets again.

"Plan; we need to get her out of town."

"The next boat – "

"It can't be a boat," She shot down, "We need to drive, so we can turn around."

"If we turn around, they'll kill her."

"Crossing the border might kill her," MJ pointed out, "If the magic is her lifeline right now, the way it was with my mum, trying to leave might do that, so we can't be on a boat that'll keep going."

He considered it, then nodded in acceptance.

"I have a preservation spell that can keep her body intact while she's unconscious – sleeping beauty style."

"You said the magic would burn through it."

"It would try too, but it's something," She spread the sheets out on the floor, "This – first place to start."

Two pages at the top as she somewhat crawled across the damp tarmac.

"Preservation, then a restoration healing spell," Her next two sheets going underneath it, "Lastly; either a nullifying charm or displacement spell."

She stood up to circle them.

"The healing spell is Floare magic. I need to translate it if I want it to work," Her voice turned distance, "Right now, it's in this ancient language with some Czech, Spanish, and Greek – among other language structures – like, Romania grammar and stuff."

A long out-breath.

"It won't work on a non-Floare witch unless I switch it Ancestral Latin or French Creole."

"Can you just do that?"

"Yes," Her hands came up, fingers wiggling as she stared at the words, "It'll take like half an hour to forty-five minutes, then...combining it..."

She went back to her knees, picking up a sheet on the left and ripping.

"Second half of this is irrelevant to what I wanna do," She'd get it back later, "AAmmmmmmmm."

The words were so muddled.

"Binding ingredient."

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Not really," MJ smiled apologetically, "It's gonna take me around two hours to figure this all out – less if I can get my head to actually start thinking."

She reordered the sheets.

"It needs to be in this pattern for the healing to still work, but then the preservation spell needs to be the lead in..."

Another change of order.

Silence.

The flurry of sheets moving was like she was dealing cards until she was happy with the way it looked, dragging the pad of her finger over the lines she wanted to mentally highlight as important. She couldn't just rip all the pages until she was sure she was right.

"This'll fix it?" Marcel stood up to stare down at her jigsaw puzzle effort.

"Give us time," MJ corrected, "This is all about prolonging it until I can come up with something better."

He bit his lip.

"I always do."

Marcel faltered, "...Hey."

She pushed her chin back.

"You got a little bit of crazy in your eyes."

"Yeah," She shifted on her knees, "My mind's trying to figure it all out at once, so I'm not really here...mentally...I'm like...I look at these pages, and I'm rewriting it."

She wanted to scream.

"But it's not clicking."

Things MJ didn't like to seem anymore?

Weak.

How her voice sounded?

Broken.

"It always clicks – why isn't it clicking?"

Closed eyes, long breath in.

"I can do this," MJ picked up the Floare pages first, "Translation is the easiest bit."

She let herself pull her pen out, writing beneath the actual spell, forcing her hand to steady, technically slowing herself down.

It didn't need to be fast, as long as she could do it before the day was out, and as long as it was right.

"You mentioned a binding ingredient. Need me to grab it?"

"This is probably gonna end up being a spell cast on a drink," She kept working, "That way, it's inside of her. Part of her. A spell is like challenging the magic fighting to get out to go wrong – "

Davina's eyes started to open.

She instantly panicked, seeing Marcel first, thrusting her hand out to send him flying across the space.

The harsh white lights on one side buzzed in reaction to her, the tins of food in the storage shaking, experiencing a personal earthquake just by being within a distance of her anger.

Marcel looked like he was begging her as he got back to his feet, "I'm not gonna hurt you!"

"I don't believe you!" She cried out, "You want to kill me, just like everyone else."

"Davina," MJ put a calming hand on her shoulder, "He's the reason you're alive."

The girl paused.

Marcel pushed off the grated wall, "I'm the one who put a protection spell on you, D. That's why Tim's dead, and you're not."

He put his hands out.

"Before you throw me again, if I'd known anything was gonna happen to your friend, I would've protected him too."

Her face was flickering between shock and sadness, "You're the one who saved me?"

"Yeah," He took a careful step forward, free to move, "But now the witch who did the spell is in league with the rest of them, so I had to take you away."

Davina shifted closer into MJ, "So you could use me as a weapon?"

"We're trying to keep you safe, Davina," MJ shared a look with Marcel, "When I took you to Cami, I told you to talk to Marcel before you skipped town, for a reason, so let him talk."

She looked down.

MJ nodded at him.

"Look at me?" He asked gently, "I messed up."

He held her watery eyes.

"All this power that you have, it gave me an advantage. It helped me punish the witches," He looked momentarily at MJ, "And after everything they've pulled over the years, I enjoyed it...It let me run the city, and I let that mean too much. All right? But that's over with now."

It was a pretty good apology, in MJ's opinion.

He owned up to the mistakes, justifying them without trying to undermine her reasons to hate him. It sounded genuine, and it made a promise to do better.

"One survivor to another, all I want to do is keep you alive, I swear."

She started to shiver, "I'm scared."

"But you're not alone," MJ wrapped an arm around her as a clap of thunder happened in the background, "We can try some things."

They'd hit the water phase.

"I feel so sick," She was welling up again, "And I don't know what's wrong with me."

"It's the magic," MJ said sadly, hating that it was the truth.

"Can you siphon it again?"

"I'm really sorry – "

"Please!"

"It's not working," MJ shook her head, "As long as the spirits have access to the city, they have access to you."

She looked between them rapidly, "You won't let them hurt me?"

"No," Marcel sat back down with them, "Nobody's gonna touch you."

"But," MJ reluctantly started talking, "We need to have a discussion about your options."

She kept waiting for another witchy moment, but the voices had retreated slightly, returning to repeating the four elements like a choir in the back of her mind, their calls for her mother fading out completely.

"If I can just wait it out a few more weeks...Help me, please?"

"I will," Marcel nodded, her arms wrapping around his tightly, "And when it's over, I'll do what I should have done – get you out of town."

"Guys," MJ snapped.

Marcel looked at the floor guiltily.

"I'm not sure we have a few more weeks," She felt Davina try to pull away from them, "You're not just getting handed over to be slaughtered, Davina, but I want to present you with an option."

"You think you have a solution?"

"I have ideas."

Half-finished ones.

"I need time to write a way to keep you preserved in a coma until I find a better option."

"A coma!" She shook her head, "That's – that – I – "

"It means you're alive."

Her trembling hands looked so tiny, "Then what?"

"While you're in the coma, I can tether the magic to something else, but that spell is two thousand years old and not written for things like this, but it's close enough to give me something to start – "

"MJ," She shifted closer, "That sounds impossible."

"Nothing's impossible."

"...Anything else?"

"Do you trust me?"

Davina sat up on her own, knuckles pressed into the cold floor.

"You can say no. I won't get mad."

"I..." Davina inspected her face, "I do."

"Then hear me out, the whole way through," MJ knew Marcel wasn't gonna like the suggestion, "The Harvest could be real."

"MJ – "

"I've seen enough resurrection to have faith, but this isn't about my faith," SHE DIDN'T WANT TO SAY IT, "I got you out of that house because there is no way I could stand by and watch you scream as they slit your throat."

MJ was trying not to cry; she hated the words coming out of her mouth that much.

"I couldn't. But if you're dying, you have a choice to make. And that's what's happening," Her eyes shut, "You are dying."

"MJ!"

"It's the truth," Her voice cracked, "I can come up with as many potential solutions as possible, but we don't have time. I wish – I wish we could."

She was so used to performing in rushed situations, but it was like her brain wasn't working properly. Trying to understand the creepy ancestral messages, create her preservation spell, and rewrite the Floare power tethering spell. Trying to finish all of them meant she was finishing none of them.

Davina shifted down, curling up on the floor, "I had a dream that Tim wasn't dead."

There was sweat on her forehead as the rain picked up, hitting the roof heavier and heavier.

"He played a song that he wrote for me," He voice shook, "And he kissed me, and we were just normal."

MJ wrapped her arms around the girl, cradling her slightly, hating that that was her reaction to being told she was dying.

Rebekah was standing in the doorway, "That sounds like a beautiful dream."

"What are you doing here?" Marcel glared.

"But it was just a dream," She came inside, ignoring him.

"Get out!"

"MJ," Rebekah focused on her, "You're right. This is killing her. Are you going to let Marcel's stubbornness kill her?"

Davina started coughing again, lunging to get away from them as saltwater poured from her mouth, spluttering across the floor. The weird double yellow realities were back with each lurch up, and it wasn't stopping half as quickly as the dirt, out-of-date ocean smell somewhat disgusting.

MJ stared back at the Original, "I'm going to let her have a say in what could possibly be the last moment of her life."

Finally, Davina managed to sit back up, wiping her face, "I'm really dying?"

It finally hit her.

MJ nodded, retaking her hand to squeeze it, "You have a choice to make, D."

"I promised her I'd fight for her," Marcel's voice went up, "I'm not breaking that promise."

"No one is asking you not to fight," Rebekah spoke louder as Davina started choking up water again, "You're the only family that this girl has. You owe it to her to fight for her to live."

Marcel started to rub Davina on the back as MJ chanted the strongest nullifying charm she could, giving Davina a moment to actually breathe.

Once she could, Rebekah had gone. Leaving them to say goodbyes.

Davina just started to cry, lap soaked from the water, skin burning up worse than any fever humanly possible, Marcel and MJ instantly wrapping around her to provide some final moments of comfort.

"I – I don't wanna – " Davina stuttered, "It's not real."

"If you don't want to do this, Davina, you do not have to," MJ repeated, "But you are dying."

The sobbing got louder.

"We can do it any other way. We can make it peaceful. We can pause it and hope that a suspension spell stops the magic from eating you alive while you're asleep – "

"But do you really think it will?" Davina wasn't stupid.

Silence.

"Be honest with me, MJ."

"No."

A hard truth she wasn't ready to accept yet if she was honest. But that was the truth she didn't want to admit to herself. The truth of Davina's question was 'no.'

"And though we can do it another way, I want you to think about the big picture. The Harvest is the way to go to give you a chance to come back."

The room went still.

"And not just you, but Monique too. If it is true, if you have faith in the Harvest, you might come back. If we put you to sleep, you won't."

Marcel's face looked absolutely devasted at the prospect.

"You'll be putting your life in my hands, and I can't tell you that I have a way for you to be okay."

Floare magic and New Orleans magic didn't have the same rules.

There was no guarantee that recreating the Floare transference spell for Davina would even work.

"I can try – and if you want that, I will do everything in my power to try – "

"MJ," She put on a brave face, "It's okay."

Marcel looked sick.

She leant further into him, "It's okay, Marcel."

"No," He gripped her tightly, MJ stepping back, "I failed you."

"MJ's right," She wiped her eyes, "I'll die whether I do this or not. I mean..."

A clearing of the throat to get the salt away.

"Now the only option is – Is whether I take everyone with me. If you look at it that way, it's kind of selfish not to do it."

MJ curled her lips in.

She kept rethinking how Elena had tried to hand herself over to Klaus to keep them all safe. The way she'd stuck to her values rather than risk everyone around her. She'd talked to Katherine to hear the story herself, she'd searched for a way to contact Klaus, and she'd made a deal with Elijah knowing she'd still die...MJ missed that 'Elena.'

Was it weird that she managed to see both herself and Elena in Davina?

Thinking about that sacrifice wasn't a good thing to do.

It was putting her back into that state of mind. Memories filled with fear, so strong that she'd been on the verge of a panic attack every second; Jenna's face as she died; the breakdown she'd had in the apartment and in the Witch House.

Ric's arms around her, holding her together, putting off his own breakdown.

She felt her eyes watering, but she could cry.

Three days of pure panic, reigniting in her bones like she was trapped in a time-loop, having to force herself to remember that it was over a year since that time, and that she was in New Orleans, and safe – and – and –

Davina was the one getting sacrificed.

"There has to be another way," Marcel was looking at her, desperate for a last-minute solution, "This is not how it ends."

MJ had a list of potential resurrection spells, but most required living blood relations to keep the spirit somewhat connected, Kol's list focused on vampires, and her witch-doctor book was supposedly evil.

"And if it is," Davina said calmly, "If this is all I have?"

It felt like MJ's lungs were failing her.

"I've had a lot."

She couldn't have a panic attack about Davina saying goodbye when Davina was the one walking to her death.

"I had Monique, and I had Tim, and I had someone who fought for me from the moment you met me."

Marcel was crying too, "Davina."

"Most people don't get that...even when they live to be a hundred."

She wasn't wrong.

MJ was forcing herself not to cry while watching the exchange, mind reliving her final goodbye to Ric before Esther had possessed Bonnie.

Ric and Jenna were both dead, and in a way, both deaths felt like they were her fault.

She really hoped they'd found peace together.

She needed that to be the reason she hadn't seen Ric floating around Mystic Falls during her last two visits.

"Marcel," Davina put a smile back on again, "I'm ready."

He kissed her forehead softly.

Arriving at the cemetery, all the voices turned from a choir into a cult-like backing track in her brain, and MJ was left cursing her screwed-up, overly intense connection to the spirit world. It had been so helpful for a few weeks, but now it was back to banging on her brain like a weighted drumstick.

The finely built mausoleums had tiny statues on their corners, taunting and harsh stone faces following their steps, the names of the previously deceased cut perfectly into the stone. The white marble was covered with green moss and ivy, breaking through cracks as if the place was filled with life, not death – but the cold winds created miscoloured battering on every row, reminding MJ that just because something looked pretty didn't mean it wasn't haunted. Just because she'd seemed okay for months didn't mean she wasn't.

When the fire erupted around the gate, MJ knew they were reaching the time limit.

The rain was beating down, torrential and flooding the floor, soaking through shoes until each step squelched like something sickly.

Despite how much the water hurt MJ's skin on impact, it wasn't enough to fight the flames.

Marcel had Davina in his arms, head rested on his shoulder, MJ leading the way, feeling the heat follow them.

When she glanced back, the fire had reached the floor, moving only seconds behind Marcel, trying to reach Davina by burning them up in the process.

If she let herself look at anyone, she was going to through up.

'Celeste Dubois, Alphonz Delgallo, Genevieve Brodeur, Bastianna Natale'

The centre of the graveyard was set-up for the sacrifice.

The raised slab of grey in the centre had three bodies already on it, frozen and open eyes, blood-covered throats, and damp white dresses – the three other girls.

Once it was over, MJ was going to learn their names.

Hopefully, they'd get to introduce themselves to her soon.

'Esther Mikaelson'

MJ tensed, spinning around.

Just hearing the name had her expecting to be jumped by some kind of spell, the Mikaelson mothers familiar face appearing from the shadows.

Nothing.

The slab was outlined by four sacrificial bowls; soil, water, and wind already captured inside each of them, waiting for the final ingredient.

The rest of the audience for the event were dressed slightly more appropriate for the occasion than she was, considering it hadn't started raining when they'd left the compound. Hayley and Rebekah were in darkly coloured coats, hidden under umbrellas, Elijah standing on the top of the nearby box grave, looking down to watch the ceremony with his own umbrella. Klaus was to the left of his sister, layered up too, except, only a hood covering most of his face.

Sophie's hair was completely sopping.

Marcel put Davina down, her legs weak, hand reaching out for MJ's support to get her closer.

Sophie lifted a ceremonial athame over the flames that slowly filled the four bowls around the space. The determined look on her face was chilling and didn't seem to match up with the shivering in her arms – no turning back.

Now Davina was there, unless they killed Sophie, she was finishing the Harvest.

She stepped forward, "Do you believe in the harvest?"

Everyone watched as Davina let go of MJ's hands, taking the step onto the slab.

They'd used a slab in the Hybrid Curse too.

MJ felt the cold competing with the anxiety inside, no longer sure which part was taking away her stability, the pores in her body screaming alongside the witches in her head.

Davina nodded, "I believe."

Sophie cut through her throat so quickly MJ had to slam a hand over her mouth to stop her scream, instinctively wanting to intervene as the tiny child took her final breath, grabbing at her own neck until her palms were stained with blood.

Rushing up as she sunk down, MJ and Marcel caught her.

MJ retreated to let Marcel lay her down.

He needed the moment.

Hayley had turned away, shell-shocked it had actually happened, Rebekah reaching out for her, both fighting off tears.

Her heart stopped.

The rain did too.

MJ watched as Davina's skin turned golden, magic leaking from her system and into the earth.

She was lain among the other girls, arms crossed like they were meant to be in coffins as Sophie started to walk around the slab, preparing the next stage.

Elijah jumped down to the floor to join the rest of them, umbrellas shutting and hoods coming down.

While Marcel roamed aimlessly next to the group, MJ kept wanted to drift forward and take over.

Situations like this?

They were the type of thing she was in charge of – never by choice, but by force – by Klaus.

Davina's heart had stopped, but hers was beating faster than ever, desperate to make sure the spell went perfectly, but having wasted her chance to get her mother's remains and became an elder herself.

The only thing stopping her from potentially doing something stupid was Klaus's watchful gaze.

He'd come to stand by her side the second she'd started tugging on her necklace and overanalysing the situation.

For a moment, it had calmed her, but then she'd looked at the fire bowl, and she was back in that stupid quarry; Jenna's heart placed in it as she sobbed her way through the spell, and now she needed to getaway. Maybe she was overdramatic, but it was like her skin might crawl off her body if she let him touch it.

"After the Harvest comes the Reaping," Sophie spoke clearly, "Their sacrifices made and accepted."

MJ closed her eyes, lowering herself to feel for the magic in the floor.

"We call upon our Elders..."

Power was building up, spreading across her fingers.

"...To resurrect the chosen ones."

Nothing.

The build-up was disappearing.

MJ opened her eyes anxiously.

"We call upon our elders," Sophie repeated, "To resurrect our chosen ones."

Marcel looked at her, but MJ didn't know how to react, turning to Sophie just like everyone else.

"We call upon our elders!" She looked to the sky, "To resurrect our chosen ones!"

MJ rushed over to the nearest tomb wall, hands running over the ice-cold stone.

"Resurrect your chosen ones!" Sophie cried out, tears in her eyes, "Please?"

Marcel had stopped moving.

"I beg – "

The magic was missing.

Not faded or lost – just not where it was supposed to be.

Leaving four dead girls.

Four bodies in the middle of all of them. Not waking up.

Not coming back.

"No," Sophie completely broke down on the floor, "Give – give her – "

"No, no, no," MJ hit the wall, "No!"

She closed her eyes, trying to siphon.

The normal magic.

The city magic was there.

"Where the hell did it go!" She smacked it again, finger cracking on impact, her scream sharp and quick, "Give it back!"

The next hit officially broke her wrist.

Hayley and Rebekah were crying too, everyone watching MJ try and fix something she couldn't fix.

"Lectes Espiritox Cuidar," She pushed all the magic she'd siphoned out and into the walls, "Lectes Espiritox Cuidar."

She'd siphoned it.

She'd messed with the magic, and the sacrifice hadn't worked.

The magic in hadn't been enough because Davina hadn't had all of it – because MJ had stupidly siphoned it and gotten involved.

It was the only reason her brain could come up with at the moment.

"Lectes Espiritox Cuidar."

Klaus stepped closer as she began to beat the wall again, "Mira!"

"Lectes Espiritox Cuidar!"

Nothing.

"Reclaim it and give them back!"

"Mira!" His arms wrapped under her shoulders, firm no matter how she kicked out to try and continue with the spell, "Mira – MJ!"

"No!" She screech, "No."

She'd talked Davina into it.

Davina had trusted her.

Four girls were dead.

"Get off me!" She wriggled out of Klaus's grip to get to Davina's body, "I'm finding a way."

Sophie sobbed at her, "It failed!"

"An Van ça Le. Ke ça Le Aun," MJ put a hand on Davina's forehead, one under her chin, "An Van ça Le. Ke ça Le Aun."

"What are you doing?" Marcel was shaking, about to cry too.

"An Van ça Le, Lecte Espiritox Cuidar, Ke ça Le Aun, En Dugas Tuas Ánimos."

Nothing.

"An Van ça Le, Lecte Espiritox Cuidar, Ke ça Le Aun, En Dugas Tuas Ánimos."

There was no magic.

No life force to pull back to the realm of the living.

"Dugas. Tuas. Animos."

A hand over Davina's heart, waiting for it to turn back on.

"No..." MJ slumped back, "The power got hijacked."

Rebekah blinked away her tears, "What?"

"That should've worked," MJ pushed to her feet, "Even if the Harvest didn't – that was straight resurrection magic that I know works!"

Not just resurrection magic. She'd taken an ancestral connection spell, an empowerment spell, and a resurrection spell.

If there was a life to save, it would've been – but Davina hadn't woken up.

Klaus's hand was on her shoulder as she just started to rub her arms, "Mira."

'Celeste Dubois, Alphonz Delgallo, Genevieve Brodeur, Bastianna Natale'

Everything about her was soaked from the rain, making MJ feel like a human icicle.

She knew what that meant.

Cold meant death.

Her hair wouldn't stop dripping, and each droplet that caught on the skin at the bottom of her neck sent her closer to a very explosive edge.

'Esther Mikaelson'

MJ stayed very still, forcing her breathing to steady.

She couldn't explode.

Exploding wouldn't do any good for anyone, and she wasn't an out of control teenager anymore. She couldn't let herself act like gunpowder.

Klaus's hands were still on her shoulders.

Marcel was gone, vanished in a flash, hatred radiating in the air.

"I need to take a walk," She croaked out, "Yeah."

Davina had recently turned seventeen.

She'd spent her birthday locked in an attic because witches really thought they needed to kill four teenagers.

She was supposed to be in her junior year of high school. She was supposed to be spending time with her friends and enjoying music and life. But she was just dead.

Four girls were dead.

The ancestors had used four teenagers for power, then left them dead.

"Mira," Klaus had moved in front of her, holding her there, "It's – "

"Get off of me," She cut him off, "Now."

The silence felt deadly.

"Mira – "

"The last place I wanna be right now is anywhere near a sacrificial bowl and you."

The word was laced with more venom than MJ had ever used before.

She hadn't even meant to say it, but her quivering lips had just started moving.

"Let go of me!"

His face turned dark, and for a moment, it seemed like he was ready to lash out straight back at her.

But he didn't.

Klaus just released her roughly and turned away, leaving her to walk out of the cemetery alone.

MJ wasn't sure where she was going, but maybe that was a good thing. Letting her feet lead. The chanting of elements had stopped – all the voices had stopped. Still, something was gnawing at the back of her brain. A feeling in the air she didn't like.

The magic had been there.

It had been in the ground, and it had been empowering the city, and when she walked, she could feel it.

The power had come back, but the girls hadn't.

If the power had been coming back, where had it gone?

Even if the resurrection part of the ritual had been a lie, why had the power disappeared from the cemetery?

That should've been the point of focus, but it was like a vacuum had sucked it up and placed it somewhere else.

Ana Ruiz.

Esther Mikaelson.

Celeste Dubois.

Alphonz Delgallo.

Genevieve Brodeur.

Bastianna Natale.

"Ana Ruiz," She let herself say it, "Come on, mum...what are you trying to tell me."

She'd seen people who were at peace – there was a chance it had been her mother all day.

She'd told Marcel about The Harvest seven years in advance, so if she was gonna come out of peaceful retirement, it would be to help again...

MJ broke into her family's old shop – Fai's.

She knew it was a weird thing to do, but she needed certain herbs, and she also wanted a map of the city, and she had to hope a shop with a staff of mainly witches would have one lying around. Witches and one former werewolf, now hybrid – who she needed to call at some point.

She was right.

MJ was crushing up petals in a grinding bowl when the door opened.

Her heart jumped, terrified it was gonna be her dad – but...thankfully?

Sabine.

MJ wasn't thankful to see the woman, but it was better than adding her feelings about her father to her emotional hurricane.

"Hey?" The witch looked at her, "You know this is closed, right?"

MJ didn't even look up, "I'll leave cash for the stuff."

Sabine laughed.

Irritatingly, she didn't leave MJ to it though, she just watched her.

She sighed, "Yes?"

"Just," Sabine shook her head, "You really remind me of your mum."

"Personality-wise, that's fair," MJ poured the petals into a cup and began to fill it with water from a back sink, "But I think time has clouded your memory."

"She did not like me," Sabine mused, "But she knew what she was doing."

MJ didn't know whether or not to encourage the conversation, "Yeah?"

"A shame her spirit got lost – the elders were really pissed."

MJ scanned her, trying to work out how old she was.

"If her spirit had been on the ancestral plane," Sabine whistled, "Now, that'd be something."

"I was thinking about it," MJ strolled back to the counter, "An alternate option to Celeste."

Sabine nodded, "How'd that all go?"

"Turns out the Harvest is a lie," MJ forced her eyes to relax, "Sorry...I know this might be a little weird to ask..."

How to sound genuine around a woman who just had red flags waving in her head.

"But do you really remember my mum? Like, fondly? Because most people don't."

"Like I said..."

There was something about the way Sabine carried herself that just didn't sit right.

"She wasn't a fan of mine, but she was a talented witch and a talented musician."

MJ smiled as naturally as she could, "Yeah."

"I watched her play live this one time," Sabine nodded, voice full of happy wist, "And you could just see that music was what she was meant to be doing."

"What event?"

"She was one of the players...it was an outside charity thing in Luis Park?" Sabine spoke like she was doing a nice thing for MJ, talking about it all while trying to fight off a knowing smile, "Some classical piece – by Franz Liszt."

She'd added the composer too quickly.

People who weren't music fans didn't remember composers, and if she could remember the composer, she could one hundred per cent remember the name of the piece.

"Ah, yeah," MJ nodded fondly, "It would've been Liebestraum Number Three."

Sabine shifted.

"Anyway," She put on a smile, "I should probably be...you know?"

She gestured to the cup.

"Right," Sabine put her hands up, "Magic for the Mikaelson's. I'll leave you to it."

Her steps echoed in MJ's head.

"Though," Stilling in the doorway, "I should warn you. Dangerous family."

"No doubt," MJ looked back at the map, "See you around."

"See you."

The jingle of the door shutting meant she could openly narrow her eyes.

MJ poured the flower water over the map and started to mutter, turning away to multitask, casting a spell and googling a collection of things simultaneously.

"Chèche Le Virtute," MJ had remenents of the Harvest Magic inside her, so she could use herself to track it, "Chèche Le Virtute."

Sabine's Facebook was easy to find, zooming down to the bottom, then looking up the performance she'd referenced in a separate tab.

'Celeste Dubois, Alphonz Delgallo, Genevieve Brodeur, Bastianna Natale'

'Esther Mikaelson'

Once the map had shown MJ what she needed to see, it settled, ready for her to show the others, rushing to The Compound.

Klaus and Rebekah were sitting in the courtyard, drinking to the disaster of a day

"This whole thing was doomed from the start, you know?" Klaus was pouring drinks, "Yes, we saved the city, and I'm not complaining about the witches losing their power, but this did not go down the way I thought it would."

He handed Rebekah a glass.

"You surprised me, though. You were quite resourceful," His tone went up, "How did you find them down at the docks?"

Rebekah kept a straight face, "You're not the only one with clever little spies in the quarter, Nik."

"Sometimes I think I don't give you your due, little sister."

That managed to make her smile.

Then the glass became Rebekah's sole focus, "I knew Elijah's plan was mad, but I really thought it'd work."

"So did I. I was sure Davina would survive," He began to drink, "There was so much life in her."

"What about the power?" Rebekah sat forward, "Four were supposed to rise, and none did...Where did all that power go?"

"Precisely," MJ arrived, waving the map in the air, hair in a wet bun, strands falling out, "The power was hijacked."

Rebekah walked cautiously towards her, "MJ?"

"I have two questions-slash-points!"

Klaus stood up, scanning her up and down.

'Celeste Dubois, Alphonz Delgallo, Genevieve Brodeur, Bastianna Natale'

'Esther Mikaelson'

"First," MJ tugged at her hair free, "Why are the ancestors suddenly saying Esther Mikaelson at me?"

Rebekah looked down awkwardly, "Oh."

"Celeste failed," Klaus explained, "To make Sophie an elder, we had to use the remains of our mother."

MJ's face went slack, "No."

"The baby is a living descendant, so it worked."

"No, no, no..." She shook her head, "No, no, no, no, no. And did I mention, no?"

"My reaction too," Rebekah assured her, "But if the Harvest didn't even work, it's not like they can use her against us."

"Oh gross!" MJ groaned, looking to the ceiling, "Esther Mikaelson has a direct line into my head!?"

She sounded like a teenager who'd just stepped in something nasty.

"That's disgusting."

Klaus tensed, "She couldn't do anything, could she?"

None of them had thought about that.

"I don't think she can just possess or curse me from the ancestral plane," MJ waved the hand holding the map, "My mind is too strong for that now...but it's not a pleasant thought."

As she's said. It was gross.

"But it's a problem for another day."

Rebekah was looking at her like she'd gone mad, "The map."

"Yes," MJ jumped a little, "The map. Point two!"

"Are you okay?" Rebekah offered MJ her drink, "Because – "

"I'm trying to work out what happened," MJ lay the map on the table, "You see this? This tracks the movement of magic in the city today."

She tapped it twice, the water reappearing on the surface, playing like an animation.

"It starts at the compound, earthquakes represented by pulses through the city. The second dot appears when I siphon the power."

It was like the world was moving at double speed in her head as she bounced around the room.

"Then we have the winds. More pulses – and it shows Marcel and me moving Davina to the pier."

Constantly changing lines and shapes in front of them.

"Occasionally, it has these moments where it's, like, all-consuming across the entire city, making Davina lowkey untraceable."

Rebekah watched over her shoulder, "And where did it go during the sacrifice?"

"It became clearer," MJ paused, pointing, "Targeted to the cemetery, then..."

The water vanished from the map.

"Magic doesn't work like that!"

The siblings shared a look as she yelled at the paper.

"You don't work like that!"

A beat.

"Anyway," MJ needed to seem somewhat sane, "Then, suddenly. This."

The water reappeared at four spots around the city, milling around faintly.

"It's waiting for something, and I don't know what."

"You mean Davina might be coming back?" Rebekah asked.

"I don't know!" She hated it, "It might just be grounding points for the ancestral magic returning to the streets?"

If it was, she was going to destroy the ancestors.

"But something happened to make it go poof for those few seconds, and it's something to do with Sabine."

Quite a declaration, the name creating stillness in the empty building.

She nodded, confirming that they hadn't misheard her.

"Sabine?" Klaus pulled a face, "Why does she matter?"

"I don't know," MJ started to shake her head, "But I'm getting bad vibes, and she just had a really weird conversation with me."

"A weird conversation," Rebekah raised a sceptical eyebrow, "And now you think she stole the Harvest?"

"Like I said," She let herself pace, "I don't know."

Words she ~hated~

"The first met, and she told me I looked like my mum."

A comment MJ had shot down at the time.

"I thought it was just one of those things you tell people, but I also thought it wasn't right because it just didn't sit right, but then, then – "

"Mira," Klaus spoke carefully, "Is this relevant?"

She clapped and jumped round to looked at him, "I promise you it is."

He gave her a quick up and down scan, glanced at Rebekah's confused face, then nodded for her to continue.

"I just ran into her when I was tracking the magic, and she told me my mum didn't like her and that she'd seen her perform a piece of music live."

Rebekah sat back down, "And?"

"And the piece she told me she's seen live? The event?"

The dates she'd checked.

"It happened before she was born."

The siblings straightened up.

"Sabine said it was by Franz Liszt, and the way she said it...it's like when someone doesn't want you to realise that they're a fan of something, so you don't think they're weird or overly obsessed."

Like teenagers who lie about what they're into.

"They're masking the fact they know exactly what they're talking about by pretending to think, but not pretending enough," MJ's skin was itching again, "My mum didn't perform classical pieces."

She was a jazz and folk musician.

"She refused to teach me piano past basics because she didn't touch classical music unless she was getting paid."

It was an attitude that still made MJ smile, despite how much she did like classical and romantic piano pieces herself.

"She'd teach other kids to 'curse their parents with inaccurate Bach' since she could play it, but she would never choose it herself."

A breath in.

"Except once."

The concert MJ had googled.

"An open-air classical musical event in Luis Armstrong Park," She spoke the words like they were the answer to everything, "A charity thing, while she was pregnant with my brother."

More key dates.

"Where she played Liebestraum Number Three because one of the people who was meant to be playing was a friend who'd gotten sick."

Another sharp breath in.

"I've watched all the live performances my mum ever did!" She had to grab her cheeks to force them to feel real, "They were usually recorded, and they were my addiction when I couldn't afford an instrument."

She was getting a little off-topic.

"My brother is twenty-three."

Back to the point.

"Nowadays, everything's online – including graduating class pictures."

On public websites.

"I could check Sabine's age through the birth date on her Facebook, as well as the schools she put there. She's twenty-two."

The background research skills MJ had developed over the years were incredibly useful.

"She said, to my face, that she'd seen that concert in person, and she's giving me bad vibes, and the power is missing."

Klaus came a little closer to her, "I think you need to go to sleep."

"Klaus!" Her hands shot out, "I know I sound like I'm reaching, but it's me! Trust me."

He looked over her chaotic eyes.

"Someone stole the power!"

It was such a stretch, but it just made so much sense in her head.

"She's been here the entire time, in the background, and, unlike Sophie, she doesn't have a niece to get back by letting the actual resurrection happen."

Silence.

Klaus nodded, "We'll look into it."

A simple phrase that had her entire body relaxing.

"We will."

"Thank you."

MJ finally let herself still, the feeling of her veins closing up in grief creeping back in.

Davina was dead.

"I'm sorry, by the way," She mumbled, "It's not like you wanted this sacrifice to happen, but I...it's hard not to make the comparison."

Instead of dealing with the Hybrid Curse, MJ had cut her hair, died in nine different colours, and changed towns every two weeks until the summer ended. Every day post-June, Klaus had hit her phone up as a constant reminder that the situation wasn't really over.

Then it had been.

At some point, that panic had faded, and she wasn't sure if it had been their run in post partying her way through New York, or when he'd killed the witch in Florida...or when she'd threatened him at Prank Night.

Katherine had a point.

It wasn't just that MJ couldn't let go of her literal ghosts; it was that she never addressed the real problem.

Maybe she didn't need to address it.

Maybe she could just grow up and grow past it.

He sighed, a hand reaching out to her shoulder hesitantly, "I think I can let it slide."

MJ looked back up at him.

"It's not as if it was an unjust way to have felt, given the history."

She let his fingers graze against her still dripping wet clothes before cracking, her arms shooting up, hugging him tight so she wouldn't just start crying, thinking about why she was wet – why blood had been mixing with rain at her feet.

He tensed on instinct, and MJ managed a laugh.

After that, he relaxed into it for a second before they both stepped back.

"I can't believe I couldn't save her," MJ slowly admitted, sinking back into the chair, "I should've been able to."

"Her death sentence was signed long before we arrived, love," Klaus took one too.

MJ looked to Rebekah, "...That offer of a drink still on the table?"

While she poured, a different type of tension reformed in the room.

"You had resurrection magic on the tip of your tongue," Klaus noted.

"I did."

Rebekah gave her a careful look, "I wasn't aware my mother's Grimoire had much resurrection magic in it."

They all knew MJ was somewhat studying the book in her minimal spare time.

"It doesn't," She shifted, "Doesn't mean I don't have ways to learn it."

Klaus sat forward, "Spoken to Kol recently?"

"Kol?" Rebekah's eyes went wide, "What?"

MJ tried to seem calm, "Yes, I spoke to him while I was in Mystic Falls."

"Wait, wait - wait," Rebekah put a hand up, "You're summoning Kol's spirit?"

"Yes."

"To do what?"

"Talk to him."

"Talk to him!" Rebekah looked to her brother, "Klaus?"

"What?"

"Why didn't anyone think to mention this?"

"I wasn't sure how you'd react," MJ justified, "I only told him the first time because I thought he'd like to know...Then he sounded all weird, so I didn't want to bring it up again!"

Silence.

"You've done this more than once..." Rebekah's tone was as nervous as Klaus's had been the first time, "And you're looking into resurrection magic."

"Correct," MJ sighed, "Part of our conversations may cover ways I could bring him back."

"...Oh, Mira," Rebekah's entire face softened, "No."

MJ blinked, "You don't want me to bring your brother back from the dead?"

"I would love for Kol to come back," She stressed, "But witches who play around with life and death end up dead. You know that."

MJ looked down.

"And...I mean...it's Kol," She glanced at Klaus carefully, "If he told you not to tell us..."

Silence.

MJ's eyes jumped back to her.

Still nothing.

"Rebekah?"

"As much as I thought Kol did care for you - "

"Sister," Klaus stopped her, "If Mira thinks she can do it, she can."

"Nik - "

"Who are we to object?"

"Klaus."

A stare-off between the pair.

"You know what the end of my sentence was, and you know it's true."

"It's not."

"You can't encourage this!"

"I can, and I will," He shrugged, a complete shift from MJ and his last conversation, "Given that it's our family she's assisting, I will have whatever spell she comes up with checked. Then she can use it."

That did have Rebekah relaxing a little, still eyeing up her brother, trying to work out what his game was.

"Mira is powerful enough and cares for him."

MJ smiled at the faith he had.

The problem?

While MJ crashed in the magic room of The Compound, exhausted by everything, the siblings were still awake, Klaus lingering by her door. He slipped in once her heartbeat and breathing had settled, inspecting the handwritten spells she'd pinned up and the large collection of grimoire's she'd acquired over the summer.

Rebekah was a moment behind him, in the doorway, whispering, "What are you doing?"

Klaus turned to glare at her.

"Do you not see the problem with this?"

He gave up his moment to snoop to march to the door, pushing Rebekah back to the internal balcony, softly closing the door behind him, knowing MJ had noise proofed the room.

"Nik - "

"Do not interfere."

Rebekah stilled.

"She thinks she can bring Kol back?" He put his hands out, "What's wrong with letting her think that?"

"Because," Rebekah hissed, "She might die trying."

"Kol won't let her perform a spell that would kill her."

"Ten centuries of watching him use witches as toys says otherwise."

"This is different."

Rebekah just stared at him like he was stupid.

"If I'm proven wrong, I'll deal with him myself - but I won't be."

"How many times has she spoken to him?"

"No idea."

"And are these conversations five minutes long while she's in a car," Rebekah crossed her arms, "Or is she dating a ghost and discussing his resurrection over brunch?"

Silence.

"He is dead."

"I'm aware."

"Is MJ?"

"Clearly. Why else would resurrection be her goal?"

"Being aware that someone is a ghost, and that they are dead seem to be two different things."

Both of their eyes were drawn back to the door.

"She can't view death as a temporary state," Rebekah's voice was quiet, "It's not healthy."

"And anyone who lives in this house has a leg to stand on when it comes to healthy behaviour?"

"...Klaus."

"I'm not taking this away from her," He crossed his arms, "She needs it."

"She can't actually do it, though," She shook her head in sympathy, "She can't just commune with a ghost for the rest of her life because of a dream that death is something she can control."

"Our mother came back."

"Our mother waited a thousand years for a Bennett because she'd asked Ayana to give her a passage back to us. Kol didn't think he was going to die."

"And Mira is far more talented than our mother."

"The 'witch' can probably hear you, you know."

"I hope she can," He glared at the walls, knowing her spirit now belonged to the city, "And I hope she's miserable."

"Hm."

"Mira brought Elena back."

"Klaus," Rebekah snapped a little, "Think about the cure! MJ told us how that was a one-time thing – she told us that it needed a family member to die in exchange."

"Hence why I'm all for it," He joked, "Get on board too unless you want to be the lamb she offers up."

"Don't joke about this!"

He lost the fake smile.

"What's happened between then and now? What happened to the person who understood that death was death?"

"She had to say goodbye to him for a second time only to learn the woman who helped kill him got her happily ever after. That the person who drove the stake got to come back, and that she just helped give him his happiness too."

No one quite understood how she'd been so happy to just pop back to Mystic Falls, but now it was a little clearer.

"If Mira isn't ready to accept that he's gone, I'm not going to force her to."

"Then it's your fault when she realises it herself and breaks down."

"Or she succeeds, and we have our brother back."

Katherine was right about him not being the best example of someone who knew how to let go either. His initial response had been the same as Rebekah's, but after a few days to really think about it, his plan had shifted.

"Then again, of course you don't care for Kol's revival, Rebekah. You barely even acknowledged he was murdered, preferring to galavant with the enemy."

Something Kol had called out himself, causing her to shift her weight back and forth.

"Keep your sabotaging of our family name to the living members, please."

"It's not sabotaging. It's seeing a car crash about to happen and wanting to prevent it."

He went to respond, but she spoke quicker.

"If we let this go too far, and she fails? She'll be devastated."

"Seems a little cruel to still be betraying him in death."

"You're the one who made me feel like I had to betray him," She glared, "And you're the one constantly trying to create moments between MJ and yourself in his absence."

"I'm doing nothing of the sort."

She rolled her eyes.

"If I was, surely I would be against him returning to us?"

"Or you just want to win her favour before you subtly mess it up for her at the last second."

"I wouldn't."

"I don't believe you."

"I don't need you to. I just need you to understand that this is a dream Mira needs to have right now. Don't mess it up."

"She doesn't need a ghost!"

A pause as they looked at the door.

Her heartbeat was still slow and steady in their ears.

"She has people in the world of the living who care about her too."

"Mira's heart has belonged to the spirits most of her life, Rebekah."

By this point, they all had some knowledge of MJ's 'ghost necklace.'

"She's exhausted by always being the one left alive - this stops her from feeling that way, hence, I'm all for it."

Her reaction to the idea of Tyler in danger, and to Davina's death, showed that MJ was still wobbling when it came to the sentiment, but now she'd brought Bonnie back?

Proof she had the power.

The idea that death was temporary fresh in her brain, adding extra pressure.

She could resurrect someone for other people but not someone she claimed to care about?

MJ needed the dream.

"Perhaps talking with her will help him too," Klaus pointed out, "When she is ready to focus on the living, Kol will find peace, having done something positive for the world."

Rebekah swallowed.

"Is it our place to take that away from either of them?"

a/n: I hope the title of this chapter makes sense ;) Sabine = Celeste etc

I decided Rebekah's stance based on how she was happy to help raise Kol in TOS2 because she was putting herself at risk, and because the ancestral plane made it seem easier, while now she's worried.

Also, I have some important school work to finish so might vanish for a few days. I'll probs be on to answer comments but the next chapter might take a little longer than normal.