|Unedited|

"Lonely as I was, I don't think I'll ever be lonely again."
HB

PRESENT TIME

Hayden sat beside Josie later on that day trying to get any information out of her that she had on the merge. But of course he couldn't come out and ask her about it as plain as day since Alaric told him to act as nonchalant about it as he could. The headmaster knew one of these days his daughter's could find out about it on their own if he didn't tell them. He knew the risks of keeping it a secret from them, yet he did it anyway.

Josie wasn't thinking about the merge right now, though, and instead was thinking of how to find her boyfriend. Rafael had just come up to her not even an hour ago wondering where his best friend was, only to be told that he was missing. The alpha was then on edge about everything going on around him. He had just gotten his best friend back from the dead and now he was missing again.

The Gemini witch sat straight looking out at the pond behind the school beside the vampire she liked to call her friend. She could feel his stare on the side of her face as he waited for her to say something, anything it seemed. The brunette just wanted to be alone but it seemed everyone thought she would burst or something. They wouldn't leave her alone.

But finally, after not getting anything but a single hello form Josie, Hayden decided to head back to the headmaster's office and tell him he wasn't quite sure if she did actually know anything or not. She seemed more upset about Landon than anything, he could tell from the look of emptiness in her eyes.

And so, she was alone at last.

"Because I was there. Over the years, his attempts at children became more refined, indistinguishable from humans. Our father is a very gifted artist."

It was in that moment that Landon realized why he felt some sort of familiarity with Agent Clarke. Why he felt a connection he couldn't describe. Why he looked so similar in way only blood could. His eyes hadn't deceived him earlier that day when he was staring holes in the face before him wondering why Clarke was taking the time to explain everything. Especially why he knew so much.

"Our father?"

Clarke smiled, what seemed to be semi-genuine, "Yes, little brother. Like I said... I was there."

Landon could only imagine his so called father and brother standing in front of one another. How his- no, their father had made him from the ground up. It was indescribable how the teen was feeling in this moment. All his life, he had thought he was garbage to his parents, and deep down, he still felt that way. His mother left him as a baby, and later left him again in the pit, all to get away from him.
The spawn of a monster. And now here he was standing in front of a man who claimed to be brother. His blood brother that should've meant more that it did. Because right now, he felt nothing but torment and doubt as he stared up at the man in front of him. There was no way that he was telling the truth about their father actually looking for him.

He wouldn't believe it.

Lizzie walking up to Josie and bringing up the merge when all the brunette witch wanted to do was cry to the likes of herself and pray her boyfriend was okay was not the right thing to do on the blonde's part. The moment the blonde brought up the merge all her memories of how Penelope had left was surfacing in her mind. How her first love tried to tell her and how she ignored her, not for her own sake, but for Lizzie's sake.

Would things have been different if Josie had gave Penelope another chance when she had the chance? Would they have failed in their relationship again, or would they have been happier? Penelope had only wanted to help and Josie couldn't see that. Would Josie even be with Landon at the very moment if she had just given Penelope another chance the prior year? Of course, she would never know, but even gone, Penelope was still a breaking factor in her current relationship.

Penelope had told Josie about the merge in the first place before she left for good. Leaving Josie with more questions than answers. And her boyfriend didn't understand how hurt she was by her leaving since he hadn't had a real and true first love before her. Josie wished things had gone different, wished that she didn't always listen to her twin sister about everything. It was why she wanted to distance herself from her in the first place.

Josie chose to stay away from her twin. So that she wouldn't say things she didn't mean and didn't hurt her sister's feelings. But as Lizzie pooped down on the wooden bench beside her and handed her a book she somehow achieved, the brunette Gemini witch was beyond fed up.
In retaliation, she said hurtful things to her twin. Things that came out from her anger and spite. She wanted a life away from Lizzie at the moment, not forever, but the way she yelled and practically spit at her twin, it came out that way. Lizzie stormed off, leaving the book on the bench beside Josie, who hadn't even given it a second glance quite yet.

Hope was walking down the hall toward her old room which was going to be turned into a small office room thanks to her very handy boyfriend. As she walked past the Saltzman twins' dorm room she felt a sudden shift in the air, like everything was going in and out from good to bad. The lights began to flicker and before she could think that it was a monster, she heard a small scream and a clink from inside the twins' dorm room.

Without a second thought Hope rushed inside the room and saw Lizzie standing with wide eyes and a frazzled look in her face. Her arms flailed at her side as she paced across a three foot radius next to her bed. The lights continued to flicker, Hope's eyes becoming wide with alarm, "Hey, are you okay?"

The moment Lizzie saw the tribrid enter her room she leaped back, almost hitting her bed side table, hands raised in the air almost defensively, "Stay back! It's fine! It'll pass. Just..."

Hope didn't know what to do. She had never seen Lizzie in the state of panic she was in before. Never been there for when her magic became so strong she couldn't control it. The tribrid took timid steps toward the Gemini witch but remained cautious to keep from either of them getting hurt.

"What do we do? What can I do?"

"N- Nothing... I just- I need to find out what this merge thing is, okay? I feel like its a spell that she's gonna use to just leave or break us up or- or something!"

As Lizzie's voice rose the flickering lights burst and suddenly the entire school was without power. Hope looked around the room before placing her and on the witch's shoulder as a form of comfort, pushing her to sit down on the edge of her bed.

"All right, deep breaths. I need you to take deep breaths. Ill call my aunt Aunt Freya- she'll know something about the merge. Okay?"

During her time in Alaric's office, Hope hadn't learned a thing about the merge herself. So she couldn't help the witch as it was. Alaric kept anything and everything about the merge from Hope as he thought she might tell one of the girls. Now that she needed the information, she was punching herself for not prying a bit more with the headmaster. The merge was something that was now tearing his two daughter's apart and he had no idea that it was even happening.

Lizzie let out a shaky breath before replying, "Okay."

Hope nodded, rubbing the witch's arm once before telling her she would go call her aunt immediately. In all honesty, Hope was beginning to become more and more interested in what exactly the merge was herself. What was so bad about the merge that Alaric didn't even tell her about it? It must've been bad if Hayden knew though.

The moment Hope got off the phone with her Aunt Freya she heard a commotion starting in the first floor hallway. She let her legs drag her toward the commotion to see that Rafael was right in the middle of it. Her legs moved faster than she thought because one minute she was on the outskirts of the crowd and the next she was placing a hand on Rafael to try to calm him down.

Where was Dahlia when you needed her?

The tribrid let her bright golden eyes shine through her ocean blue ones, letting her own status as alpha flow through her veins in a way to get his wolf in check. But it was no use with the vampire glaring at him harshly. Rafael was feeling like he had to prove he was alpha, prove that werewolves were superior to vampires.
Hope had never really seen the vampire in question and just as she was about to turn to him next, Jed was next to her placing a hand on Rafael's other shoulder and yelling at the wolves to stand down. Although Rafael was presumed the alpha, he had only gotten that title through a fight, not through respect like Jed had.

In another split second, Hayden was standing between Rafael and the random vampire with his fangs beginning to protrude from his gums. Hayden held a certain presence with the vampires, a certain respect that was given out of almost an instinct. He was now one of the oldest vampires in existence and the known adopted son of the Mikaelson family.

Hayden placed a hand on the vampires chest, letting an ounce of his strength leave his hand and push the fledgling away. The fledgling was pushed back a couple feet, the fire in his eyes finally dying down as the older vampire silently told him to back down. It was amazing to see, from everyone in the crowd including Alaric, Emma, and one fledgling Hayden didn't like, Roman.
As the vampire sped away with his friends, and the crowd dispersed, Hope pushed Rafael back a few feet as well, which seemed to knock him out of whatever animalistic state he was just in. The other wolves turned and walked back to their next class, along with Jed, who shook his head and did the same.

Rafael's yellow eyes dimmed and they were again his regular dark chocolate brown color. As he regained his consciousness he looked over at Hope, to Hayden, then to Alaric who stood behind the dispersing crowd with his hands in his pockets.

Emma gave Alaric a look from the other side of the room, one that told him it could've gone a lot worse than what it did, and that he needs to get someone here to help with him. Because otherwise, like Emma had said, Rafael will be lost to the part of his mind that was the hunter.

Just as the crowd was finally nonexistent, Dahlia came rushing forward with her book bag hanging partially off of her shoulder with an unnerving look on her face. The alpha bowed his head low as she walked up to him, upset that she had to hear about him that way. But both of them knew,no, all of them, knew that he couldn't control it. And that it wouldn't be long before he was completely lost to his wolf.
Dahlia placed both her hands on either side of the alpha's face making him look her in the eyes. His eyes tried to look at anywhere but her, but the glare she sent his way made him more than compliant to look into her eyes and maintain contact. The witch placed a chaste kiss on his lips, then peppered them along his jaw.

"It's okay. You're okay. We'll break whatever this is, I promise." With a single nod, Dahlia laced her hand with her boyfriend's and walked off, leaving everyone but Hope and Hayden shocked down to their socks.

"Now, when did that happen?"

The tribrid and vampire looked back at Alaric, who was impressed that the alpha found the guts to tell the witch about his feelings, and smiled knowingly, "Don't worry, it's only been two days for them... officially."

Agent Clarke was holding up a drawing of what was his father sculpting another version of himself, a spark in his eyes behind the drawing that made Landon feel even more nervous to be around him. He was waiting for the long awaited punchline that would decide his fate like in the movies.
"My father saw himself in me. I was clay pretending to be something it wasn't. He despised me for it. He threw me away like all the other failures who came before." Landon looked down at his shoes, muttering that he understood the feeling. But still, he was weary.

"Then you'll understand why I betrayed him."

Clarke began to tell his story again, the story of their father and how it was all related to the monsters being sent to the Salvatore School and all the monsters coming after him.

"Our father consumed every creature he could. And when his supply ran out, he grew weak... vulnerable. And that's when the humans came back. The descendants of his original worshippers, a secret society. I told them of his attempts to create a lineage, how he was violating nature, trying to birth a new species. I led them to him. And they did what humans do. They rebelled against their god. They paid witches who used black magic to trap him, and dissolve him, returning him to his natural state."

It was then that Landon turned back and saw what was covered before with tarp, uncovered at Clarke's command, revealing the black pit. Malivore. His father.

"The black pit."

Clarke crouched down at the edge of the pit, a wicked grin set on his face, "The endless darkness where the monsters are. It's not just a place. It's what remains of out father. The Eater of the Dark."

Landon was now beside his brother, staring out at the black pit in front of him that seemed to form a hole in the teen's heart. His father was this black pit, this Eater of the Dark, a monster.

"His name is-"

It was a name Landon had heard time and time again. A name that the teen was beginning to become accustomed to when talking about the darkness of the world. The thing that came after him, tried to kill his friends multiple times, the one that gave him the horrible life he had been living up until now. He didn't know how he had forgotten it before, or how he couldn't put the pieces together on his own. But now it was too late for anything.

"Malivore..."

The curly haired teen kept staring down into the black pit that reflected himself on there. He could see the man beside him, and himself, who both looked similar. They could very well be brothers, family, blood. But Landon didn't want to believe a word coming out of his mouth. Why would he want to if it all meant he was a monster himself? What was said to be a Phoenix, a bringer of light and fire, was actually a monster created from a monster.

"You don't believe me."

It was meant to come out as a question, but came out as more of a statement. Landon sighed.

"Would you believe you?"

Clarke smirked out at the black pit, letting Landon see it and stare at the reflection of his brother. Brother. That word was so foreign not talking about Rafael, who was more than a brother to him than Agent Clarke would probably ever be.

"Probably not... then again," Clarke stood up to look into his little brother's eyes, "I've never stolen an artifact without even knowing he I did it. The knife," both brother's held intense eye contact, Landon too afraid to look away, and Clarke overconfident, "and the urn were both part of the spell that dissolved him. But since he was immortal-"

"Nothing's immortal. There's always a loophole. Nature creates a balance. That's Intro to Magical History. I've been taking it for, like a week."

Now, Clarke was getting somewhere.

"Very good. But, until that loophole could be found, they bound him with three locks. Created three decoys. It can only be unlocked by Malivore's blood, so they hid them far away." Clarke walked back to the table, Landon following him. "I've been able to track down where the last four artifacts are."

On the table was different pages, photos, and drawings. Landon assumed it was his job to pick one out, but he didn't want to. In fear of just that, he looked them over once before looking back up at his brother.

"Now I need you to tell me which is the real lock so we can set him free."

Set him free? Landon was confused, didn't his brother just tell him how he betrayed their father? How he was cast aside like trash? Why in the world would he want to bring him back? His question was left unanswered at Clarke's once almost pure eyes held that of deviousness.

"B- But- I thought- No! I won't do it."

Alaric walked up to the tribrid and vampire with a worried look in his eyes, "We need to talk about Raf-"

It was now that Hope knew this was her only chance. After phone call with her Aunt Freya the worse was barely beginning. She was explained what the merge was, and now that she knew, she couldn't hold it in how much it terrified her to know what it was. She hadn't even had time to ask her boyfriend about it and be mad at him for not telling her about something so dire.

"Freya told me all about the merge, Alaric. Josie has it pretty much figured out and Lizzie is beginning to spiral not knowing. So you tell them, of I will."

Without another word Hope spun on her heel and stalked off down the hall toward her old dorm room. Shockingly, when she opened the door she found herself immersed in a room that didn't even have her bed anymore, but looked like an entire office space. Her small desk that used to be filled with paper, journals, and art supplies was replaced with a giant sized white corner desk. It faced the wall where her door was, and on a bookshelf to the right of the desk was four shelves of organized art supplies.
It had everything she needed all in one place. On the very top shelf was her journals and other sketchbooks that she had filled up entirely. The second shelf had fresh and currently used sketchbooks and journals, along with pencils, erasers, pastels, and colored pencil. The third shelf had to be her favorite as it had her small canvasses, paint brushes, and every size and color of paint you could think of having. The final shelf had the medium sized and larger sized canvasses and easel.

She stood before that one bookshelf with a huge smile on her face, and then she kept looking around. Her desk had regular mechanical pencils and pens in a cup at the inner most corner, beside that was her textbooks all lined along the wall, and her laptop siting on the left side of the desk. All the other space on the desk was free for her to place whatever else it was she wanted on it. The new chair was even more fitting than she thought, and she couldn't wait to sit in it.

Moving her eyes from the bookshelf and desk to the right side of the room, she saw a similar desk on the left side of the room. There was a single, smaller three shelf bookshelf on the left side of the desk holding sketchbooks standing up in the third shelf, along with a single pencil bag, a few older looking books on the second shelf, along with what looked to be her Uncle Kol's book on the Mikaelson's, and pictures of the two of them together on the first shelf.

On top of the bookshelf was his watch, a necklace, and a single picture