Caroline and Enzo were sitting at a table in her usual diner, having just finished breakfast, catching up on what they'd been doing since they'd last seen each other. Talking leads as well as life. Caroline was debating something that he didn't exactly understand but couldn't help but enjoy, watching as she kept picking up and putting down her phone as she talked.

"I should call him – "

Phone up.

"But it's not like I understand what I'd be telling him so..."

Phone down.

"But he wanted to know if he could help, and he's been around so long that – "

Phone up.

"Wanna finish a sentence, love?" Enzo grinned while sipping coffee, "See if I could help?"

"There's this guy," She started to pass the phone between her hands, "MJ was basically living with him in New Orleans."

"She had a boyfriend?"

"She dated his brother," Caroline wasn't sure how she felt about the assumption, "But he had a soft spot for her, and he's been around a really long time, and I told him I was looking for a way to get her back, and he offered help – "

Enzo would happily take help, "So, where is he?"

"A little busy...he's...a complicated person."

"Complicated person?"

"Do you know about The Originals?"

"I remember you and MJ mentioning them."

"But do you know who they are?"

Enzo shook his head while pulling a face, "Didn't get out much the past few decades, remember."

"Basically, there's a family of vampires, well, no, there was a family of vampires. The family has depleted a little..." Caroline still felt pretty guilty about the sire-lines of it all, "They were the first vampires to ever exist, and we all trace back to one of them."

She felt the need to explain the basics to him.

"A thousand years and well, they're kinda like you when it comes towards the whole 'murderous vampire' thing."

"I love them already."

"Yeah. Except they're you dialled to hundred."

Enzo was a lot more manageable than the Originals, and he was technically on their side.

"It's all murder and mayhem and revenge plots, and I don't exactly feel comfortable just calling him."

"He'd hurt you?"

"I – no," Caroline was somewhat sure of that, "But it's best not to put yourself in the middle of it...most people involved with them, other than them, end up dead."

"But MJ was with them?"

"She was a super-powerful witch. Super-powerful people tend to hoard together."

After the year, Caroline didn't know all the ways MJ's relationship with the family had developed, so she wasn't going to try explaining it.

"Point is, there's only one weapon that can kill them, and they have it. Then there are the anger and trust issues that go through the roof...and from what I can tell from when I last saw them, they have enough going on – but I also think I have my first real lead."

"And you want to tell him," Enzo pushed the phone closer to her, "So tell him."

"But I barely understand the lead."

"Did Gemini boy finally talk?"

"Luke completely blew me off when I asked him what The Gemini had to do with him," She huffed, "Then it turned out one of the Floare books MJ left with Tyler has a whole section on them, and it's all about magic that moves between realms – dimensions and stuff."

Enzo straightened up, "What does that mean?"

"No clue," She'd just started reading, "It all feels super physics and science-y, so I'll get my head around it and get back to you...at the moment, it makes it seem like that hell dimension people were sent too, might just be another place, and magic could get us to that other place."

"And you want to tell this guy," Enzo clicked, "Because he's unkillable. And unkillable in a hellscape sounds a lot more appealing than you in a hellscape."

She shook her head.

"Or because?"

"The magic seems to have been created centuries ago, possibly longer, and he's one of the oldest creatures to ever exist."

"He might know something about it," Enzo nodded, "Ah, okay, following a lot better now."

"Sorry," Caroline smiled, "I'm a little tense. There's...a lot of history."

He raised an eyebrow.

"He's not a witch, so he probably won't know anything," She added before Enzo could ask what that meant, "Which is why I don't want to waste time or give false hope by just calling."

"How about, instead of science and stress," He flipped the phone over, "You tell me about the college party I will be attending this afternoon."

~***~

After Bonnie finally agreed to help, Kai left them alone to prep the fact they were actually gonna release a witch from his prison cell. MJ hated herself for being so okay with it. Part of her really did mean the whole 'kill him the second we wake up' plan, since, if he was a sociopath, that's what he was probably planning to do to them anyway. But the rest of her thought over the important phrase he'd used.

'My family called me an abomination.'

She had to keep reminding herself not to be sympathetic with the serial killers.

Though...technically she was a serial killer.

She wasn't just a serial killer; she'd committed genocide and wiped a species out.

After all the crap she'd given everyone else about the sire-lines, MJ had been the one to actually remove a section of the supernatural world so she could get the people she cared about back, and all that guilt was really starting to hit her.

She'd been lucky growing up. Her mum had treated her normally – loved her enough to die for her.

Kai had probably been treated like trash.

Ana Ruiz's journals talked about how the Gemini advice for raising a siphoner was to lock them in a box to keep them away from the real witches. The people in New York, pieces of graffiti written about the European siphoner that had made her feel like she didn't deserve to practise magic, completely feeding into her inadequacy-confidence issues, had come from Kai's own family. His entire coven.

MJ could barely take Ryos calling her emotional; she would've broken a lot sooner if he'd been calling her all the names other witches did.

Damon had picked up a stick as the three of them walked to the spot Kai told them to meet him at.

"You're in a good mood for the first time this decade," Bonnie commented when he started to whistle.

He poked her with the stick playfully.

"Stop that," Bonnie knocked it away.

"Because I have a hot date with my girl tonight."

"Yeah," Bonnie started to walk faster to get ahead of them, "Assuming Kai's telling the truth."

"I'm thinking dinner and a movie," He ignored the comment.

"Screw that," MJ pulled a face, "You've been dead five months – skip to the good bit."

Damon laughed.

"Dinner and a movie can wait till after."

"I like that plan too," He poked Bonnie in the back with the stick, making her jump.

"Yeah," Bonnie wasn't playing along with them, "And assuming I can do the spell, which I won't know...until I see it."

Damon and MJ shared a look, both walking forward to be on either side of her.

"Whatever happened to hope, Bon?" He started to use dumb voices, "'Member when I was all like boo, grr."

He'd gotten her attention, so went high pitch to mimic her.

"And you were like 'hooray, hooray. We're getting out of here!'" Damon looked at MJ, "And she was all Batman levels of emo."

"I'm still batman levels of emo," MJ pinched her skin, "But I want to get out of here so I can be batman levels of emo in an environment that doesn't make it worse."

Showering was really helping her stay in a better headspace.

She'd had another one before going to bed after they'd learnt about Kai. Then she'd had one the next morning, and that evening, and another before they'd started to trek out to the spot to use the ascendant. She still felt like she smelt, like there was something wrong with her body, trying to be sweated out of her system – but the others really didn't seem to notice it.

"Look, I want to go home more than anything, but Kai's a sociopath," Bonnie said the word and MJ unintentional twisted tighter on her skin, "Who's to say he won't screw us over?"

"Me," Damon spoke the obvious, "Because I will kill Kai and anyone – "

He put the stick forward and waved it around like a kiddy sword.

"Who comes in the way of me getting home."

"Remember," MJ put a hand up, "We can only kill him once we're out. I magic-freeze him; you rip his head off."

"Team work!" He offered her a high five that she slowly took.

"MJ," Bonnie looked unconvinced, "You're really just going to kill him."

She looked at the floor.

"No, no, no," Damon pointed at her, "Stay in Buffy land. Buffy land is the right place to be."

"When she lets herself get happy about killing people, things go wrong," Bonnie reminded all of them, "Kai may be a psycho, but MJ isn't.

It was like every part of her body that could sweat was working on overdrive.

"And I'm not gonna let her become one. You can do whatever; she's staying sane."

"Way to have confidence in your friend," Damon challenged.

"She's right," MJ's voice was low, "Siphoners are killers...for a very long time, I've thought all the witches who hated me were wrong, but in actuality, they knew me better than I did."

For a year, it had been nice to think about her defect as a gift, not a curse.

"Thanks for having faith I can be better, Bonnie, but it's not worth it."

"What?"

"He is my future," MJ put it simply, "One day I will stop caring, I will do the bad things the way nature intended me to."

She'd already started in several ways.

"Let's just get you two the hell out of here before that happens."

"Boo," Damon frowned, lifting the stick up to mime hitting her on the head, "Emo-Batman – I want Buffy."

MJ just stuck her tongue out at him.

"MJ, you're not a bad person," Bonnie did have faith in her; the earlier comment was more because she'd clicked MJ no longer had faith in herself, and that's what Bonnie was trying to preserve.

"I killed over a hundred people to die, remember?" MJ pointed out, "That was all me."

Silence.

"Kai is what I'm meant to be. My mum just tricked me into thinking it wasn't the case."

Bonnie crossed her arms, "Bullshit."

MJ raised an eyebrow.

"You killed all those people as a way to bring me, and everyone, back, remember," She held her head higher, "You did that for me, so that isn't your guilt to carry forward; it's ours. We carry it together."

"You didn't ask me to, Bonnie."

"I don't care. We do this together until you stop acting like you've given up," She kept going, "This isn't you, MJ. You feel guilt. You don't just say 'it's my nature'."

MJ turned away.

She didn't want to talk about her feelings relating to any of it. Keeping it all at a distance, blaming it on the siphoner part of her body? The instinct to leech? It meant she didn't actually have to acknowledge how destructive she truly was.

Bonnie had faith in her.

Maybe MJ could have some self-belief too...

"Kai chooses to let it be his, but it's not yours."

"I heard my name," Kai appeared through the trees, having been there for who knows how long and probably listening in on their conversations, "All good, I hope."

He held the Ascendant in his hand, and he used it to block out the sun as he looked up.

"The eclipse will happen directly overhead," He looked at the trio, "In perfect alignment with the Gemini constellation."

MJ couldn't help but think that meant something important about the day.

"You," Kai gestured to Damon, "Need to dig into the tunnels below us."

"Why?" Bonnie asked.

Kai hesitated, talking like he was teaching a small child, "Have you never portal-jumped through an eclipse before?"

No response from their unamused faces.

"Okay, look, the light of the eclipse will shine down and activate the Ascendant. You spout a little witchy woo, and then poof!" He made an explosion gesture with his hands, "Anyone standing in the circle of light holding the Ascendant goes home."

He smiled brightly at them.

"By 'witchy woo'," Bonnie was not impressed, "I assume you mean the spell?"

"Uh-huh."

"Let me see it."

Kai paused again, "When the time comes."

"Not good enough," MJ shook her head, "You gotta show it to one of us."

"I already told you I didn't want you doing it."

"Which I still don't get if you can do it?"

"It's not for Floare."

"Lie," MJ's face was blank, "Show us the spell."

"When the time comes," He repeated.

Then he went to walk away, but MJ waved her hand and held him in his place telekinetically.

"Where are you going?" Damon asked, smug he wasn't the one frozen for once.

"Into town, I need to...gather some important supplies."

"I'll go with you," MJ dropped the spell.

"Why?" Damon and Bonnie said at the same time.

"I'm not letting him go off alone," MJ also had some important questions for him, "I'll see you guys later."

"He might kill you," Bonnie wasn't about to let her just go.

"Okay," She shrugged.

Her relationship with death was all over the place.

"Can't wait to see a fresh hole in the ground, Damon."

Kai whistled as the pair of them walked away, whistling happily, no complaints about the fact she'd invited herself on his scavenger 1994 mission, which only made MJ even suspicious.

~***~

Caroline walked through the party at the back water hole, trying to keep her head on straight and trying to stuff the guilt and anxiety down as deep as it would go. People were everywhere, groups of towels, drinks, and food, next to makeshift volleyball courts, music speakers, and deck chairs. A massive thing she hadn't considered when agreeing to come to the party was that she knew other people at Whitmore who she'd been able to avoid since the start of the year. Ava and Briar were in town for the weekend, visiting family who went to Whitmore. Whit may have been in California now, still managing MiMi Pasare, but his old friends were among an older group along the beach – waving to her and asking about whether MJ was around.

People who MJ had spent a lot of time partying during the summer pre-senior year with. People who, if they saw her, would've invited her to dance and drink, and have a good time with them.

Expect MJ was dead, and they were all just acting like she wasn't to outsiders to avoid complicated conversations.

"Caroline!" Ava tackled her in a hug, "Oh my god! I saw Matt and Tyler already, and ahh! High School feels like forever ago!"

"Hey!" Caroline laughed through the hug then took a step back, "It's great to see you."

Lie.

Seeing her meant another conversation she didn't want to have.

"You too!" Ava beamed, "How are you? How's College over here – do you go back to Mystic Falls much?"

Ava was an overenergetic drunk.

"Oh! And MJ! How is she – she's gone, like, social media silent, and I'm missing all her New Orleans photos from my feed! They were so pretty!"

Caroline cleared her throat quickly, "She doing well, seeing places."

"Travelling?" Ava pulled a face, "And not posting pictures to make me jealous?"

"A spiritual thing – a family thing," Caroline quickly added, "You know her mum's roots."

"Ah," She nodded, "The hippie life – lol, so no contact till she gets bored and comes back to the real world."

"Yeah," Caroline nodded, spotting Elena on the phone, heading away from the party to the spot the group were all supposed to be meeting at, "I gotta go."

"It was nice to see you," Ava called after her, "You look great."

"Caroline!" Briar's voice, "He – "

"Catch-up later!" Caroline didn't let herself stop, going straight after Elena.

They were all supposed to be meeting in a clearing in the woods for some private group bonding time after so long separated, but everyone was kind of operating on their own wavelength, so getting them there was a lot of effort. Elena was calling Stefan, only reaching voicemail, despite the fact he'd come to Whitmore to talk to her. Coming to the party with her claiming he was ready to catch up.

"Hey, it's Stefan. Leave a message."

"Yeah," Caroline's mood somehow got worse as she sat on a log, "Not answering is one of his new things."

"He said he was here to apologise," Elena asserted.

"Lying," She nodded, "Also one of his new things. Stefan has a lot of new things."

A girlfriend being one of them that Caroline was trying not to think about, especially since she didn't know about Enzo snapping her neck yet.

Tyler and Matt finally rocked up, tank tops and swimming shorts, though neither of them had been in the water yet. They'd been dealing with one of the guys Matt worked with on the community protection squad in Mystic Falls. Drunk, he'd started making unnecessary comments about girls at the party, trying to pick a fight about the girl who'd been 'bitten by a dog' cos he didn't buy the story.

He was right not to, but even with Matt not leaving town much, he still had Elena's back, and so did Ty.

"Hey," Elena greeted them, "Have you guys seen Stefan?"

"I didn't even know he was back," Matt's first time out of the no-magic zone since the collapse.

They all looked at each other.

"So you want to fill us in on what we're doing here?" Tyler quickly filled the silence.

"You don't remember this place?" Elena tried to keep spirits up, "We used to sneak off here and get wasted while our parents were outside grilling. Granted, we all have a few less parents, but..."

She held them both a shot.

"We can still have fun."

"Actually, I can't," Tyler made a sensible choice, "I'm working on my rage issues, and this wouldn't help."

"My buddy's wasted, and I've got to train in the morning, so..." Matt also wasn't getting drunk.

"Ok. Well, I don't want to sound like an alcoholic, but I do want a shot," Elena picked one up, "So will someone do one with me?"

Caroline put her hand up happily, "Done!"

They both clicked the plastic glasses together and took the shot.

"Bottoms up," Elena cheered.

"Mmm! Well..." Caroline put the empty glass back, "Here we are, having fun. I'm having fun."

She wasn't anything close to genuine

"Aren't we having fun?"

She looked at the glasses again.

"This is really fun," Caroline put the glass down, barely moving.

Elena's shoulders dropped, "Ok. Clearly, this was a big mistake."

Elena took a seat next to her.

"I just wanted to spend one afternoon where we pretend for just one second like we're not all drifting apart."

She looked at the group, waiting for someone else to speak up and try to tell her they weren't drifting apart, that everything was fine, that they'd get better and try to hang out more.

"Well, that's the problem, Elena," Caroline was ready to explode, "Not all of us are ok with pretending. Some of us prefer to face our problems head-on."

An awkward silence fell over the group.

Elena looked around, confused.

Tyler shifted, "I think we should go."

"Yeah," Matt agreed.

Caroline rolled her eyes but let them.

Dealing with Tyler's avoidance was a problem for another day. He hadn't erased his memories; he was just trying to focus on the situation he could potentially deal with.

When the guys were gone, Elena finally asked about the sudden tension.

"What's going on?"

"I'm...just...lonely, ok?" Caroline confessed, "MJ didn't live here anymore, but she was still a text away – we spoke every day!"

About random thoughts or stupid things they'd seen online.

"Now she's gone...And Bonnie's gone – Stefan's gone. Enzo! Shocker, terrible, murderous friend."

Elena looked at the sad expression on her friends face.

"I don't know why I thought...When we went looking for Stefan, there was this moment during the dinner...all these jokes he was making to keep Stefan on his toes about the fact we were vampires around the human, and, and, it was just so – "

"MJ?" Elena finished the thought, "All her dog jokes about Ty before we all know, and the ones aimed at Mason during the barbecue, and about Stefan actually, during the first few weeks of Junior Year...."

"...Yeah..." Caroline rubbed her temples, "It – he – he felt so close to the type of person MJ gets pulled to, and I thought...you and Bonnie were my best friends for a really long time, but deep down, you were always a pair, and you know it."

"That's not tr – "

"It is," Caroline wasn't complaining; she was just sad, "Trios always have a part of them that doesn't quite fit, but I finally had my person, and it felt so right, and she was always there to save me, like – like I mattered."

Elena shifted.

"Even when I was the worst rude and shallow version of myself – and Enzo is rude, but he's also chaotic, and he does his own thing, and it reminded me of her!" Her voice cracked, "So I thought it was worth trying – but he's not her, and I'm out at the lake, and there are faces of people who think MJ's just on a year abroad..."

The words hurt to say.

"Because we don't want to have to answer questions about bodies and funerals – and I just feel so alone."

"I'm still here, Care," Elena stood up, turning to look for the drinks tray.

"Yeah," Caroline watched her, patting her on the back, "You're still here."

She stood up and left the clearing, because Elena, as a body, was there, but the real her wasn't.

"Here – take another shot and – " Elena realised she'd been left by everyone, "Ok."

The distance between all of them just got bigger every day.

"Not so much."

~***~

"I'm assuming the scarring on your face is from the sacrifice," Kai happily talked as they walked, making MJ somewhat regret her choice to come with him, "Is that how you died?"

"I thought you already knew everything about us," MJ had her own bag on her back as she followed him into the corner shop he'd apparently been living in.

"I know you all died, I know you killed a lot of people," He tapped her on the cheek, "Including your brother."

"I'm pretty sure I met the two siblings that got away," MJ easily changed the subject.

"Two?" Kai raised an eyebrow, "Three survived."

"I met the twins."

Kai straighten up, "Lucas and Olivia?"

She nodded.

"Awe," He picked up a collection of rookie cards, "They were so cute when they were little – these big eyes looking up at you like they could do no wrong."

MJ waited for the punchline.

"It made it that much more fun to try and kill them."

"Lovely."

"You can hardly judge," He opened a backpack to drop the cards in, "Like I said, they looked like they could do no wrong."

"But you knew the truth," She narrated sarcastically.

"I knew the only reason they were born was so my father didn't have to treat me like an actual person."

MJ faltered just a little.

"If you met them, you know what they're like."

"I know they hated me," She looked around the shop den, "Without knowing anything about me."

He'd set up a comfy looking recliner chair that she had to assume he slept in since arriving in Mystic Falls.

It was kinda sad.

Even if she'd been in a bad place, she'd still had Stefan's room, Bonnie and Damon watching her back, leaving food out for her, trying to check-in.

"Imagine that being related to you," He started to drink a bright orange energy drink that had already been opened, sitting there for however many days, "Imagine six younger siblings acting like that every second of every day."

MJ swallowed, "They hated me because of you."

She knew she couldn't let her sympathy get the better of her.

"Because the one siphoner they'd met had been you, and you killed off most of your family."

"Maybe," Kai shrugged, "Or maybe Gemini witches are just like that."

MJ turned from him so she didn't have to look at his face.

"Now tell me," He pushed up to sit on the counter shop, leaning towards her and legs swinging as much as they could, "How did your parents keep you in check?"

"Me in check?"

"You know," He shimmied a little, "Stop you from just sucking the life out of everything."

MJ turned side on to rest against an aisle, "They..."

"Lock you in a box as a baby?" He tilted to the left, "Tie your hands behind your back so you can't touch anything?"

To the right.

"Refuse to teach you any magic, so even if you could access magic, you couldn't use it?"

"My mum kept a diary of what set me off," She started, "And on the days when I'd be siphoning everything magical I came into contact with, she'd make sure I was in a human environment or with my dad."

He finally stilled, watching her.

"Dad's human, so, you know, automatic solution to magic leech baby is to just shove me in his arms."

"Interesting."

"Interesting?"

"Well, you still turned into a murderer," His pointed out, "So maybe The Gemini have a point with their 'all siphoners are evil mentality.'"

He chucked a new drink from behind the counter into the bag with the cards.

"I always thought it was just me."

She forced herself to look at him again, "You don't have to act like this, you know."

"Act like what?"

"Like you don't have feelings."

"Who says I'm acting?"

"I do."

"Now," He mused, "Why would I think that?"

"Because if I was locked in here," She walked towards him, "Alone. For nearly twenty years."

Nothing but silence and your own thoughts.

"And my entire life had been like that," She shuddered, "I'd find a way to turn the emotions off too – but guess what, Kai."

He raised an eyebrow.

"You're not alone anymore."

He fought off a bored smile.

"And when we get out, you're not gonna be alone either."

"No, because you're going to try to kill me."

She bit her cheek.

"Oh wait," Kai pointed at her while sliding off the desk, "No, you're not – I already figured that out."

"I could."

"But you won't," He was matching the steps she'd taken, "You wanna be the good siphoner. Even when you talk all big game to Bonnie about giving up on yourself."

He was teasing her.

"You? You're gonna offer me a second chance – a moment of redemption!"

"I'm not a good person."

He laughed, "You keep saying things like that, but it's clear you hold yourself to some kind of standard."

"I do, but you're right," She didn't let her face show anything, "I still killed my brother. I'm still the cliché."

"I blame your mum," He took a step to the left, walking in a semi-circle around her, "She's clearly the one who made you think embracing your nature was a bad thing."

MJ frowned.

She'd made the same point before but in a very different tone.

"I've been watching you guys for a while now, a good few months," Kai pulled a pager out from in between some cereal boxes, "And watching you devour those Grimoires the other day...you are a study machine."

He made an 'mm' noise that made her a little uncomfortable.

"You've been mastering your magic despite the fact you had no spells to go on – I recon I could quiz you on everything you've read," His giddy energy made her head hurt, "And you could recite the pages back to me."

Not an incorrect statement.

Ever since Bonnie had come back with the Bennet Grimoire, MJ had made a copy of it, which meant she'd basically learnt it. Then she'd practised it until it was second nature in her body; then she'd gotten Esther's, and she had all her mum's in her bag for when she was out and able to get her Floare abilities back.

"Now that? That I put down to the siphoning."

She wasn't following, "Hm?"

"Siphoners."

There was something different about how Kai said the word.

"We don't get to be part of coven circle time," He was coming back towards her again, "We teach ourselves. We have to – and it's better for us in the long run."

She'd taught herself most of her school stuff too.

"You're a bouncing bunny who'd already be out of here if you were on your own."

"I'd be lying in a graveyard bleeding to death if I was on my own."

He'd slashed a knife across her palm before she even had time to work out where he'd gotten it from, MJ slapping him with the bloody hand a second later.

Kai put his hands up as she stared at the injury, "I just wanted to see it up close!"

The way it was slowly closing up.

"I've seen you almost drown, have rocks crash into your head, fall out of windows you've attempted to climb through and seemingly crack your spine."

MJ felt sick listening to the list.

"And," He knew how to pause for emphasis, "Every time, it's taken a minute, but you've just healed right up."

She hated the idea he'd been there for all of that.

"All that power," Kai's hand went on her cheek to slowly brush over it, "But you act like it's a bad thing."

She stepped away.

Silence.

An eyebrow jump and disappointed headshake stopped MJ from blinking, determined to work out what he was thinking as the hand stayed hovering in that position. 

"You're meant to be the one person who doesn't do that."

"Do what?"

"Flinch away."

MJ felt herself freeze up slightly.

She hadn't thought of it as flinching, but he had a point.

Kai had been without human contact for nearly twenty years, and contact wouldn't have been a good thing for him in his everyday life prior to the imprisonment.

He finally makes it again, with her, and she backs off the same way everyone else would've.

"You know," MJ changed topics again, "I have a little more evidence to back up the idea you're not a complete sociopath."

"Oh," He mocked, finally dropping the hand, "Do you?"

"I siphoned my way out of the last prison world. You could do that and leave us all to die."

"I could try it," He nodded in agreement, "But, you've got some mystical magic healing ability that's probably the reason you made it out of there alive, and I don't want you to die."

"Not a sociopath."

"Not because I care about you," He rolled his eyes, "Because Bon-Bon's far too important, and I have plans for you."

"Plans for me?"

"Like I said, your mum taught you to be a witch, and it's such a waste!" He sounded sorry for her, "Why be a witch when you can be better?"

She couldn't stop herself from challenging, stepping back into the zone of contact, "Like you?"

"Deep down, you still have hope that you can be something other than what the universe made you to be," Kai lowered his voice, "But even deeper, I can look at you, Mira Jung Floare-Ruiz, and I can see the truth, and I think I'm exactly who you were meant to meet."

She wanted to step away again, but her body wasn't cooperating.

"We were meant to find each other."

Kindred souls.

"We're one and the same."

"No, we're not, Malachai," She shook her head, "You wanna play the no emotion game? Fine. You're a sociopath – but here's the thing."

MJ turned away to walk down an aisle.

"I'm not."

"Aren't you?"

"No," She knew that for a fact, "I used to think that if the bad things kept piling up, one day I'd become one, but every awful thing that could happen has happened."

From dead boyfriends to dead family, to hostage situations and being buried alive.

"And I'm still as emotional as ever. Emotions are what make me a 'crazy siphoner'"

Scanning the rows of bagged sugar, MJ grabbed a bag of sour patch kids to eat.

"Emotions are what got my brother killed."

He'd jogged down the next aisle to cut her off at the end of hers.

"Yes?"

"You really think the worst things have already happened to you?"

"Pretty much," She opened the packet to start eating, "You had the worse childhood, hands down, but the universe has been trying to kill me off ever since my childhood ended, and instead of actually getting me, it's just hit everyone around me."

Kai tried to take the packet from her, so she walked back towards the entrance again.

"I think you're wrong," He called after her.

"About what?"

"About having been through it all already."

"Fun for you, I don't care."

"If part of you is still in denial? If it's holding on to the hope of acceptance," He picked up the backpack to follow her out, "It means the worst hasn't happened yet."

"I'll keep that in mind," She was trying to keep her tone flat.

"If you let that hope go, you could be so much better."

"I'm sure."

"You'd already be home."

"Except I don't wanna go home without Bonnie...or Damon actually."

"No, you barely wanted to be alive until three days ago."

"I remembered that there were people out there who I need to be alive for."

"Sure there are."

MJ glanced at him, "What does that mean?"

"I'm the only person you can really be alive for, MJ. I'm the only person you can't really hurt."

She looked at her feet as they walked along the pavement.

"You can siphon the magic out of me, but I'll just siphon it right back," He made a clicking noise, "To everyone else? Eventually, they'll realise you're a liability."

She couldn't let herself listen to him.

"They'll cast you out, or you'll kill them, and getting over that now is the only way you'll really get better."

MJ didn't bother responding to the fear he'd spoken into reality.

"You'll just be stuck in this cycle of mania with a desperation to help, depressed, because you can't help."

She just needed to block him out.

"Ever since I was little, I was fascinated by destruction," He had a spring in his step, "The way I could pull a butterfly apart with my mind if I siphoned my sister while my dad wasn't watching."

"And there's the difference," MJ put on a smile, "There's the reason you can't act like the way you feel is the way I feel."

She couldn't let him know he'd gotten her right.

"Why not?"

"Because I spent my childhood putting things like butterflies back together."

The park had been her favourite place to do magic for a multitude of reasons.

She could explode, sure, she'd always been good at exploding, but she didn't ever want to until her death. Until her death, she'd only ever wanted to fix things.

"You were fascinated by destruction? Well, ever since I was little, I've only wanted to create."

~***~

Alaric had been on Jeremy duty all day. He'd shown up at Ric's place at four in the morning, completely wasted, Ric taking him to Whitmore Hospital to get a few things tested. They needed to make sure the alcohol didn't permanently damage anything, and the fact he could momentarily flirt with Jo for a few minutes before the bloodlust kicked in around all the injuries was a bonus.

Once Jeremy was cleared, Ric had dragged him out to the woods to force him to train, the pair of them sparring in a clearing.

After a few moments of even fighting, Jeremy dodging under an arm, hitting Ric's palm and trying for a low kick, Ric punched him in the face, jaw making a crack like noise.

"You call this a fair fight?" Jeremy complained, "You're basically an Original vampire – "

Ric whipped him round to get him in a headlock, "You've killed an Original before."

"And it was practically dumb luck," He struggled against the limb, "That led to my own death, and I was supposed to – "

He wrestled himself free from the hold.

"I was supposed to make it up to MJ – I was supposed to have her back, not let her blow herself up!"

"He was an Original," Ric sighed, "By killing him, you had her back."

Jeremy just rolled his eyes.

Ric grabbed his hand, twisted Jeremy's arm back and shoved him to the floor.

"Now, get your head in the game, and maybe you'll keep it out of the bottle."

Jeremy tapped out, causing Alaric to loosen his grip, allowing Jeremy to flip Ric to the ground.

They were outside of the barrier, so technically, Jeremy had all the hunter abilities back.

"Happy?" Jeremy smiled falsely at him.

"I'm trying to help you pull yourself together, Jeremy," Ric started to yell, "What is your problem?"

"My problem is that everyone thinks I shouldn't have one!" He snapped, "I have the right to be messed up right now."

And having people grill him every day wasn't going to do anything to help.

"Bonnie is dead. She knew it was gonna happen, and she said goodbye over the phone!"

He'd been waiting for a chance to yell at someone about the situation, and his voice was cracking as he thought about Bonnie for longer than he'd really let himself before since it had happened.

"My girlfriend didn't tell me she was going to die."

His second problem.

"And the one person who felt like my friend, not just a by-product of being Elena's sibling – And I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye to MJ. Losing Bonnie that way hurt, but at least it was something!"

After everything, Jeremy was just done.

"I got to see MJ after her brother drove a knife through her face – and I didn't even get to try and help with that!" He put his arms out, "She blew herself up! They both died just so you – "

He managed to stop himself in time.

"Keep going," Ric nodded, "So what?"

He needed Jeremy to say it.

"So that I can come back to life, right?"

"You, Elena, Stefan, Tyler, Luke, Enzo?" Jeremy sighed, "They saved everybody but themselves."

He turned to storm away.

"You wanna talk about resentment, huh? Is that it?" Ric crossed his arms, "My wife ran away because she would rather be a vampire than be married to me. Come to find out, it was Damon who turned her. Then she died. And then Jenna? She died. And then I died. And then the guy who killed my wife died. And I actually kinda miss him."

Damon had an odd effect on people.

"And now I can't even talk to a girl without fantasizing about tearing into her neck?"

It was a long list, making his throat dry up.

"And that's not even touching on MJ," Ric put his arms out, "I meet this genius teenager who has so much power at her fingertips that she's literally a living supernova."

Terrifying to watch, considering he hadn't even known about magic before her.

"But her favourite thing to do is research, or grow flowers – or paint. And, for some reason, she puts her trust in me, and not only did I die on her after she'd already saved my life repeatedly, but she then dies so I can live."

Jeremy started to lower his head, looking at the floor guiltily.

"You feel bad about killing someone who would've killed her eventually? You feel bad about seeing her upset about it from The Other Side? I went to her after I died before I went to you."

Jeremy stilled.

"She was with him," Ric fumed, "He punched through a car before kissing her – you think that's healthy? You think that would've ended well for her? You think it did anything other than normalise how Klaus treats her?"

Silence.

"I watched Klaus smash her head into a wall and kidnap her. As he held a sword to her throat and went to slice through it. How he'd spy on her when she'd fall asleep in his stupid house like a creeper – and then she went to live with him, and I've been able to watch that bullshit too. Because I wasn't there to keep her safe."

A beat, Ric forced himself to stay on topic. He knew that Jeremy understood where he was coming from, given the Jenna of it all, only regretting what happened because of the messiness of the cure/Kol.

"I've had to listen to her call herself a curse," His anger turned to misery, "Because that's what she thought she was to me – she thought taking her in signed my death sentence."

Ric took a breath.

"I mean, Jeremy, I have resentment for years. YEARS! I get it. Okay?"

He started to calm it down.

"But I find a way to keep going. Because that's what we do: we find a way to keep going."

After a moment of silence, Jeremy finally looked back at him.

He nodded.

"Okay?"

Jeremy took a fighting stance

"Good."

They started to spar again.

~***~

MJ and Kai got back to find Bonnie leaning over a hole Damon was climbing out of, having just discovered an opening to a section of the tunnels running under Mystic Falls with his digging ho.

"Looks like we got back just in time," Kai commented while dropping his backpack to the floor.

Damon raced forward to grab it, ripping it open to inspect its contents.

"Zima, grunge..."

Kai was smiling at Bonnie over Damon's shoulder.

"Every Alex Rodriguez rookie card known to man, and a pager," He looked at MJ, who just shrugged, "Really?"

"555-Hiya-Kai," He picked up the pager as Damon dumped the bag back down, "No way I'm giving those digits up!"

"These are the important supplies you needed to get?"

Bonnie slowly sat back down on the dirt to watch them, MJ joining her, head resting on Bonnie's lap, letting her friend play with her hair.

"Look," Kai tidied up the stuff again, "The future sounds great, all right? I'm super excited about the Internet, but 1994 has been my home for most of my life. I'd hate to get homesick. So let's get down there – "

"No," Bonnie said simply, "We're not going anywhere until you show me the spell."

"Okay."

Kai didn't move.

MJ looked up at her, "Bon..."

"Don't get in the middle," Bonnie gently lifted MJ's head up so she could stand up.

"Huh?"

"Just let me do this."

"Okay?"

She walked at Kai, and Damon got in the middle to try and stop her.

Bonnie just pushed around him.

Kai still didn't move.

Nothing.

Silence.

Kai smiling, Bonnie trying to stare him down.

MJ felt herself start to tap her fingers on the forest floor, sitting up straight.

"Are we literally not going anywhere?" Damon pulled a face.

"Fine, you don't want to show me the spell?" Bonnie crossed her arms, "Then you can do it yourself."

Kai grinned at that declaration.

MJ realised what Bonnie was doing, and she was not on board with it.

"You want my magic," She held her arm forward, "Take it."

"Uh-oh," Kai said to them, "She's brave."

"I'm serious, Kai! This was your big threat, wasn't it?"

"Bonnie," MJ shook her head, "You've never been siphoned before yesterday; it's not something you wanna let happen for more than a few moments."

"Agreed," Damon had more experience.

"You siphoned Caroline to learn how to do magic suspension."

MJ pushed to her feet too, "And I never actually hurt her cos I didn't pull the magic out."

"You siphoned her and Ty to practise bites and compulsion!"

"And it hurt them like hell."

"Then he can hurt me like hell," Bonnie raised her chin up, "If I do the spell and let us out of here, he'll just take my magic, leave me for dead anyway, so, why not do it now?"

She pushed her arm even closer.

"Do the spell yourself," She held his stare, "Go ahead. Take all of it."

Damon and MJ shared an anxious look.

Kai was six-foot, i.e. a lot taller than MJ and Bonnie, since they were basically the same height, and he definitely used that difference to his advantage.

His presence was looming.

"Don't mind if I do," He clapped both hands onto her shoulders.

Her scream kicked in almost instantly, and MJ found herself captivated. She'd never watched a siphon happen before, other than when Kai had done it to prove a point, and during that, she hadn't really been watching, more focused on how he used the reacquired magic.

Bonnie's body started to shake.

The captivation turned to horror as her life was drained away, body slumping in Kai's hands.

MJ had done that to people.

MJ had done worse, considering she had actually used siphoning to kill people before.

"Bonnie?" Damon checked she was still alive.

"It's okay," She stammered out, "He won't kill me."

"Doesn't look like that from here."

Bonnie groaned in pain.

"MJ," Damon turned on her, "Stop him."

"Don't," Bonnie shook her head.

"Bon – "

"Don't."

There was a change in the air, Bonnie using the connection to do something herself, Kai forced to take more, more violently, muffling her mouth.

"Whoa, hey, guys," Damon waved his arms widely, "STOP."

Kai did, releasing her with a mischievous smile MJ surprisingly enough didn't like. It was too close to Klaus's but without the playful eyebrow raise that tricked her into the false sense of familiarity and safety.

It was the smile of someone who thought they were gonna win, surrounded by bodies.

"He doesn't know the spell," Bonnie said as she slowly regained her composure, "Which means we don't need him."

MJ smiled a little at that.

Bonnie raised her hands, "Motus."

The axe Damon had been using to dig the hole flew into Kai's chest, making his eyes widen as he fell to the floor.

"NO! No! BONNIE!" Damon hit her shoulder in sarcastic approval, "Great work, Bonnie."

"You know he's coming back, right?" MJ was staring at the body, slightly terrified.

"You said he would," She nodded.

"He's gonna kill you for doing that."

"We'll be gone by then."

"How!" Damon complained, "We don't know the spell."

"We'll figure it out," Bonnie looked to MJ.

MJ nodded, "We'll figure it out."

~***~

Ric was sitting in his classroom, at a student desk, a bottle of bourbon within his reach as he graded the papers in front of him. He was about a quarter of the way through, opening the bottle to take a swig, his post-death sobriety having gone out the window as he tried to find new ways to cope with being an Original Vampire — one with no White Oak Stake weakness.

He was putting the bottle back down when he noticed Stefan in the doorway.

"Grading on the curve, huh?" Stefan tried for a light-hearted comment, but Ric didn't smile back.

"You know," He was just staring at the bottle, "This barely makes a dent."

Stefan looked down.

"Can't fault me for trying, though," Ric lamented, "You want some?"

"No, I just came here to get one of these," He held up a daylight ring, "From Luke."

"Let me guess, you played the 'Damon's dead, and it's all your fault' card."

Stefan's face was slightly guilty at the accurate accusation.

"What do you want, Stefan?"

"Enzo turned a vampire when he and Caroline found me," He explained, walking into the room.

"You mean your girlfriend, from Savannah," Ric stood to meet him, "The one you falsely led me to believe was a witch who knew how to help MJ, Damon, and Bonnie?"

"Her name is Ivy," Stefan ignored the question, "I was hoping you could compel her to get a handle on things, somewhere far away from me...live a good life."

Ric couldn't believe him, "Are you asking me to help you with a break-up?"

"I'm just asking you to give her a fresh start."

"You mean give you a fresh start."

Stefan didn't respond.

"Sorry, Stefan. It's not that easy."

"It was when you compelled Elena to forget about Damon."

"You forgot about him first, pal," Ric turned from him as a sign the conversation was over.

"He was my brother."

"Yeah, and he was my best friend," Ric retorted, "And he vanished into nothingness with the closest thing I'll ever have to a daughter."

The vampire-ness of his new life making that point extra tough to accept.

"Who also happened to be one of your best friends – so I thought you'd understand where I'm at. But clearly, you don't. So why don't you get out of my face before I compel you to be the guy I used to know instead."

Stefan accepted that dismissal, retreating out the door, feeling completely defeated.

~***~

Bonnie and MJ were sitting on the ground, reading through the spells MJ had been messing around with and trying to work out how to use the ascendant to jump before Kai regenerated. Damon had slumped against a tree, chugging the bottle of Zima Kai had been planning to bring back to real life, not happy with them.

MJ wasn't happy about the situation since Bonnie's life was now in danger when Kai woke up.

Unless she somehow did something to make Kai even angrier.

"Mmm," Damon was making noises to irritate them, "Mmm, mm, MM."

"Can you stop?" Bonnie glared, "Let us concentrate?"

"On the bright side, this stuff's not so bad," Damon waved the bottle, "It's fruity and fizzy."

"Damon, we're working on something – "

"On the not-so-bright side? Your intelligence. Because you took the only chance of us getting out of here and turned him into a giant..." He looked at the body, "Douche-kebab, who will wake up and try to kill you."

"Not if we get out first," MJ continued reading, trying to translate it.

"Question," Damon looked at the sheets, "All of these papers are gibberish."

Bonnie raised an eyebrow, "We have to translate them, but they're not gibberish."

"Actually," MJ put a hand up, "You know that needle thread spell I cast?"

Bonnie nodded.

"That was a sight linking rune spell."

"...The doubles of you marking up the pages..."

"Yep," MJ tapped the corner mark she'd added, "I made it so only you and I can read what's really on the page the moment I figured out who Kai was. To Damon, and Kai, and everyone but you and I, it's gibberish."

Bonnie smiled, "Smart."

"Smart," Damon repeated, "Except, now we can't get home."

"Think about it, Damon," Bonnie forced her voice to be calm, "What prison gives an inmate a key?"

"Is that a trick question? Or is this stuff," His drink, "Actually starting to kick in?"

"I think the Gemini coven used a Bennett spell to create this place," MJ explained, "Ayana was Bonnie's ancestor and the spells in Esther's Grimoire, which projected me in, are all tied back to her ones."

She gestured at the pages they were reading.

"And if I was burning up or running out of power while ripping us out of The Other Side," MJ looked to Bonnie, "Grams got us here to keep us alive."

"She wouldn't send us somewhere we couldn't get out," Bonnie summed up.

Damon pointed at himself, tilting his head to the left like a broken teddy, "This is the face I make when I don't understand you two."

He went cross-eyed and stuck out his lips.

"The last thing my Grams said to me was to 'stay strong,'" Bonnie fiddled with the ascendant, "She said she'd tried to set up a way for me to find peace, but she didn't have anywhere near enough power."

"Along comes me," MJ pushed the spells back into the book to watch Bonnie hold the ascendant up, "With more power than ever before."

"And a determination to get me back home alive."

"And we end up here."

"What if that was her way of telling me that if I could get here, I'd have the power to get out?"

The ascendant seemed to glow in the sunlight.

"I have the ascendant, a massive celestial event to draw from, plus a burning desire to get away from you."

All of them smiled at the jab.

Bonnie shut her eyes and began to chant the spell she'd been trying to learn, "Sangiuma Mahema, Cendradum Kaya."

Two pincer-like pieces on the ascendant pulled free and twisted, causing them all to tense.

MJ pulled Bonnie to her feet excitedly.

"That's why Kai wouldn't kill me!" Bonnie realised, "He needed a Bennett. I was his only way out of here."

"Yes!" MJ cheered, ready to get her friend's home.

Bonnie walked straight towards the hole, MJ's arm linked with hers.

"Whoa," Damon called after them, "Where are you going?"

"Home," Bonnie put it simply.

MJ smiled, "You coming?"

Damon looked up at the sun, then followed them down into the cave.

Once they were down there, they started to prep, Bonnie finding the perfect spot to cast the spell correctly, MJ readjusting her backpack to make sure everything she wanted would be coming back through with her, and Damon?

Chugging the last of the Zima on a rock in the corner.

As the sky started to darken, the eclipse beginning, Bonnie stood directly under the light and used the ascendant to cut her wrist so she could drip some blood over it.

"Okay," Bonnie tried for a smile, breathing in and looking up to the eclipse.

She began to chant.

There was a happy click as the ascendant began to work.

Bonnie beamed at them, "It's time, guys,"

Damon put the bottle down, and both MJ and he joined her in the circle of light.

"Alright," Damon looked at them, "Let's get awkward."

They were all smiling like small children, placing their hands on the top of the ascendant, like a sports team about to do a chant before a game.

Damon glanced between them, "I'm sure there are about a billion people you'd both rather be here with..."

"Not exactly," Bonnie admitted.

"You guys really put up with me," MJ used her other hand to rub her neck.

"It's good to have you back, Sabrina."

She nodded half-heartedly. She didn't need to be ready to go back to normal, she just needed to be in 'normal', and hopefully, it would all fall back into place once she was able to hug the people she loved again.

"Let's go," Bonnie closed her eyes to focus on the magic, checking it was working.

Then, she screamed.

An arrow had appeared out of nowhere to land in her stomach, knocking her back, the ascendant clattering out of the ring of light too.

Kai was pointing a crossbow at them, "Forgetting someone?"

Damon and MJ stepped protectively in front of Bonnie.

"Every time I try to kill myself," He shook his head, disappointed in them, "I just keep waking up."

MJ swallowed.

"I thought maybe this time would be different, that the magic was only stopping me from ending it all...but no," He reloaded the crossbow, "Here I am."

Her breathing was picking up.

"Still alive."

Kai was aiming at Bonnie again, and Damon's eyes kept darting to the ascendant on the floor.

"Grab that, and the next arrow goes in her heart," He wasn't going to play nice anymore, "Your choice."

Bonnie was whimpering, and Damon looked to MJ.

She nodded with her eyes.

Damon rushed to Bonnie's side while MJ's hands shot forward, slamming Kai into a wall the moment he lunged to grab the ascendant. She made sure his head hit back against the rock, hard.

Kai's hand went to his chest, hand glowing red.

He was siphoning her spell.

MJ faltered.

She couldn't do that.

She didn't know if that was because she'd never tried or if it was another difference between normal siphoners and Floare one, but she knew it meant she had to be careful with telekinetic magic.

Telekinetic magic was using pure power to do things, pure magic, which meant he could fight back.

"Vodux," He twitched his hand down, sending her to the floor, "Eroox Femus."

Her right wrist snapped, breaking the bone.

"Espirimus Paratis," MJ retorted, causing the ground to shake, breaking his concentration so she could push back to her feet with her left hand, his airwaves closing up.

Damon had fed Bonnie vampire blood, and she'd gotten the ascendant.

"Gratuit Fra Lokk," Kai managed to get out, shutting MJ's spell down.

She didn't like that.

She was stronger than him – she had to be stronger, but that meant he had a better grip on magic than she did, which was going to be a problem.

"Immo – "

"Silencio," MJ cut his voice out, but he finished the hand gesture, her muscles tensing, freezing her completely.

Damon had put Bonnie in the circle of light, taking the arrow from her stomach to throw it at Kai, only just missing, then vamp-speeding him into a wall, freeing MJ from the spell.

She was back in action, "Le Specto Tre Colo Ves Bestia."

Kai's cry out echoed.

"That's," MJ's left hand was slowly curling up, "The feeling of your heart-crushing."

"Sosplani – " Kai only needed to say one word, and Damon was grabbing at his chest, bones in his back, and around his lungs, cracking painfully slow to break them.

"Damon!" Bonnie yelled.

MJ tightened her hold, feeling pressure in her palm as Kai fought her off and keep his heart beating.

He'd had nearly twenty years to do nothing but read magic; of course, he knew protection and counterspells.

"Get," Damon was coughing out his words, "Get out of here."

MJ made a decision, "Voxé."

Damon was shoved back from Kai; Kai shifted away too like a breeze had blasted between the two of them, putting Damon in the sphere of light as the eclipse was completely overhead.

"Fluctus Inpulsa," MJ dropped the heart spell to try a different approach, shockwaves jumping through Kai's body, "Go!"

Both of their hands were on the ascendant.

"No!" Kai tried to push back, the arrow flying at MJ's neck, except she was shoved out the way and to the floor, a bloody Bonnie on top of her.

The ascendant clicked in Damon's hands, twisting.

"No!" He tried to throw it to them, but the magic had already started, "NO!"

"Bonnie," MJ tried to shove her back into the light.

It was too late, and Damon was gone, the ascendant falling to the floor and shattering, Kai screaming out in a fury.

"We're in this together," Bonnie's voice was getting far away, still not properly healed up from getting shot.

She was smiling though.

Then her eyes started to shut.

"Bonnie?" MJ shook her, "BONNIE!"

She placed her hands over the wound and started to chant.

~***~

The corn maze Homecoming celebration at Whitmore had gone disastrously wrong when Tyler had accidentally been driven off the road and crashed directly into it. People had been caught in the collision as he'd slammed the brakes, meaning potential death was everywhere. Ric was with Jo, trying to act like he had any game after losing multiple girlfriends and dying himself, Elena with Liam, Stefan abandoning Ivy with Caroline to continue avoiding his problems.

Since Elena and Liam were studying to be doctors, they were helping casualties, only, there was a particularly bad girl – the girl who'd been playing one of the characters in the College's Homecoming Story, so she'd sent Liam away before biting into her wrist and feeding the blood to her.

As the injury healed up, Elena breathed out in relief and started to compel her.

"Listen to me, you dove out of the way just in time," She did enjoy the healing aspect of vampirism, "You were very lucky. Now get out of here and take as many people as you can, ok?"

She helped the girl to her feet.

"Come on."

As she was left alone, her phone started to ring.

"Tyler?" She answered.

He was in a different section of the corn maze, closer to the actual crash site, having caused all the chaos, and standing next to an incredibly drunk guy he hit. He'd barely been able to pull himself out of his car, and staring at a body with blood pouring from the mouth was causing him to majorly freak out.

One, it wasn't a pleasant sight, two, he'd caused it, three, causing it meant he couldn't let the guy die – not just to keep his conscience clean.

"I was driving the truck, Elena."

"What?"

"This guy ran right in front of me, and he's hurt bad," Tyler couldn't look down at the future body, "If he dies, I'm a werewolf all over again, ok? I need you to get here. We're in a ditch."

He needed vampire blood, and he needed someone who knew what they were doing when it came to injuries.

"I don't know where, but I need you here now," He was shaking in fear, "So please hurry."

"Tyler, you don't understand – you drove right through the maze – there are injured people everywhere."

He looked around at the barely lit area.

Nobody else there to help him.

"What the hell am I supposed to do?"

"Ah, just..." Elena wanted to help; she just didn't know how to, "Listen. Just hang on. Um, make sure that you keep him awake. Assess his injuries while I go find Jo and Alaric."

Without someone to talk to, Tyler started to pace, trying to think the situation through. He looked at his bracelet. The moonlight amulet MJ had made him, stopping him from having to shift, only working because it had been tied to her. Because she'd put herself in pain to give him freedom.

There was a tear rolling down his cheek.

He'd added the three Floare Stones she'd left behind to the leather cord, a way to always have them on him, to feel a buzz of energy he'd only ever felt when he was near her. In a condensed, slightly off way. Of course, Tyler couldn't use them to help him, he wasn't a witch, but it did remind him that he was still supernatural, even as an un-triggered werewolf.

He could feel the magic in them, connected to the magic in him.

He forced himself to actually acknowledge the body, and the car, and after a long breath in, he started trying to push the car up and back to get the guy free.

If he could get him free, he could try to help.

He was struggling, though.

Working out almost every day didn't actually convert to super strength.

Then, it moved to the left by itself.

He spun around, confused, spotting Liv, a hand raised to imply she'd used magic.

"What happened?"

Tyler took a sharp in-breath, "I hit this kid in the road."

Liv squatted down to inspect him.

"Look, it wasn't my fault. It was an accident."

"That's a good thing," She was talking quickly, clearly uncomfortable with the body too, "Right?"

He pulled a slightly horrified face.

"You know what I mean," She rolled her eyes.

"It doesn't matter! If he dies, I'm..." He started shaking his head, "Can you heal him?"

"How?"

"Magic?"

She looked at the body again, "Healing's a specialist thing – especially when it's this bad."

"You don't know anything to help?"

"I, like, know a charm to stop migraines and period pains, but healing magic's crazy complicated – and most witches who practise it treat it as a vocation."

Despite their differences, the pain on his face had a pain hit Liv's heart.

"I'm sorry."

He blinked in slight disbelief, "It's – It's not your fault, it's fine."

It wasn't, but there was nothing he could do to change the fact he'd gotten far too used to his best friend just being a magical solution to all his screw-ups.

"Call Elena."

Elena was just spotting Jo as she answered. She'd actually spotted Ric first, seeing him standing over a bloody body, forcing himself to keep it together as Jo treated the person as fast as she could. He'd been forced into helping, well, he'd wanted to help, but the blood was making it difficult. Having Jo focused on the body and doing her job meant he could tune it out slightly by watching he.

"Dr Laughlin," Elena ran over, "My friend Tyler, he's in trouble, and it sounds really bad, and...I don't know where he is."

"Call me Jo," She didn't even look away from the body, easily multitasking, "Put him on speaker."

"Ok," She clicked the button.

"Tyler, can you hear me?"

"I – I don't know what to do," He said while Liv was holding the phone, "I think he's losing consciousness."

"I need you to answer my questions as accurately as you can," She tightened a cloth, "Is there blood?"

"Tonnes," Liv answered.

"Is it still flowing," Jo didn't question who the new voice was, "Is he bleeding now?"

"No. No. I..." Tyler did a quick but thorough scan, "It looks like it stopped."

"Is there any coming out of his nose or his mouth?"

"Yes."

"What colour is it?" Her important question, "Red or black?"

"It's black. It's really freaking black," Liv was barely keeping it together, "What do we do?"

"Take his hand."

Liv did, but Tyler just pulled a confused face.

"Now what?"

"Just try and keep him comfortable," Jo's voice softened, stilling her own job, "It won't be long now."

The phone call ended, and Liv and Tyler shared a look.

He was going to die.

Tyler refused to accept it, trying to keep the heart beating with chest compressions that eventually became too violent to be helpful as his breathing picked up and he verged on a panic attack.

"Come on, man. Please," He could taste his tears, "You gotta live. Come on, buddy."

He hit even harder.

"Come on."

Liv closed her eyes and bit her lip, squeezing the guys hand tighter.

"Come on, man. You can't die!"

"Stop!" She let go of the hand to push Tyler back, "Tyler – stop!"

Tyler was just staring at her, heartbroken.

"Just stop, okay?" She kept her focus on him for a minute, and minute only, "There's nothing you can do."

She then stepped back and faced the body.

"I killed him," Tyler's voice was barely audible.

"No, you didn't," She took a breath.

"Yes, I did, Liv," He could barely feel his hands, "Everything we've tried to do to keep me from this, and all it took was one guy running out into the road."

Liv was back on the ground, smothering the man, a hand closing his nose and the over forcing his mouth shit too.

"What are you doing? Liv!" Ty's instinct was to pull her off him, "LIV! STOP! What the hell are you doing!?"

She was bawling her eyes out as the guy tried to breathe despite her hold on him. His last act of trying to live until he finally stopped struggling. Until he was just dead in the corn maze.

Tyler was staring at the corpse.

"You didn't kill him, Tyler," She cleared her throat, "I did."

She left while he was in his shell shocked state, hoping it meant she wouldn't need to talk about it.

a/n: The next three chapters are gonna cover two TO episodes and a TVD episode, spliced together; Bonnie, MJ and Kai scenes mixed with TO stuff - basically, ignore the chapter title lol