a/n: The last chapter got loads of votes really quickly <3 so here's another one :)

The TVD 'wrap-up' feels unnecessary, but I couldn't cut it. I need y'all to know what specifics Kai knows for later scenes lol.

Warning: Violence
If you're squeamish, skip the Bonnie-MJ hospital scene. It's the last scene in the chapter, skip to the end to see where they're at.
(As cool as I think the fight is, it's the start of what I implied in the author's note chapter.)

Sam's return to the Mikaelson Compound wasn't an ideal one. He didn't actually want to be there, he didn't really want anything to do with the Mikaelson's now he wasn't playing supernatural babysitter, but he did want to help Hayley. It was a difficult line to walk. Being in their lives meant he could be killed at any second if he pissed one of them off, and his family could become targets.

He didn't want anything to do with the Mikaelson's, but he'd finally touched what it was like to be in a pack, and he wanted that back.

To get that back, he needed to help Klaus.

And Hayley.

Hayley was his friend, and she was acting more like an Alpha than Jackson was, and she'd lost her baby.

If Sam could be there for her, he would, so when Klaus had interrupted his conversation with Davina, he'd said yes to coming back into the fold without really thinking about how that might affect his relationship with Davina.

Hayley, Klaus, and Sam had tracked down a collection of Crescents hiding in the Bayou, Hayley had retaken her position as leader, gotten Oliver to be a double agent, and then led the group back to The Compound. In The Compound, the wolves were protected, which meant they'd stay loyal to Hayley rather than the witches.

Sam had been living in The Bayou to keep his family off-radar, not realising that helping out would mean he was expected to live in The Compound again. Wolves that still didn't know about the hybrid status wanted him there as a familiar and comforting presence, and Klaus wasn't letting him leave because he kept Hayley focused.

...He'd make it work if it was for the pack.

Of course, nothing with the Mikaelson's is ever simple or free of family drama.

Sam had overheard a conversation between Klaus and Elijah about how Davina had brought their father back to life. And about how their mother was possessing The Harvest Girl Cassie.

That was a fun revelation.

The Mikaelson mother was technically the person controlling the wolves, and it infuriated him.

Sam had then been tasked with finding Davina. She'd disappeared after Mikael had been revealed, and then the mother had organised a 'family dinner,' triggering Klaus and Elijah into wanting their own witch on standby again.

Davina wasn't calling him or Marcel or Josh back, which was stressing all of them out.

The family dinner hadn't gone well, Esther Mikaelson revealing she'd brought their other siblings, Kol and Finn, back from the dead. She'd only shown them who Finn was, which had sent Klaus into a raging cycle of smashing up canvases for reasons Sam didn't understand. If Klaus didn't like this Kol, Sam could only imagine how problematic he would be.

Then the mother had body jumped to a new witch, freeing the Harvest Girl to return to her coven with no memories of the past five-ish months.

Sam had ended up saving Hayley from Esther's attempt to them kill her.

That morning, he was trying to keep the wolves calm, but the few who did know about the vampire side of his brain weren't being cooperative, the others naturally jittery without Hayley. Sam carried himself differently from Hayley since he wanted the wolves to actually like him, not just respect him, meaning they didn't exactly gravitate towards him and his instructions when he tried to take control. His voice was naturally less authoritative – but he could still try.

"Brother!" Elijah announced, storming into the wolf infested courtyard, "Niklaus!"

Hayley came down the main staircase, "You do realise that literally everyone here has supernatural hearing, right?"

Something Sam had learnt during his time back in The Compound? Hayley wasn't dealing with her transition well, and Elijah was letting her take it out on him.

"Where is my brother?"

Sam started to make his way from the kitchen to join the conversation.

"I'll check his calendar," Hayley nodded sarcastically, "Wait, no. Not his wife, so – "

"Hayley," Elijah was at his wit's end, "This city is under siege by an army of beasts following my deranged mother's every command."

A sentence and a half.

"Considering it was your people who just declared war on my kind, now's not the best time for your particular brand of 'sass.'"

"Klaus left a while ago. If you want to find him, I can't help you," She answered bluntly, "If only there was a magical device that people used to call people?"

She lifted her phone up while shrugging.

"I don't know," She sighed dramatically, "I'm out of ideas. Good luck."

Hayley turned to head back up the stairs, stopping after two steps to look back at him.

"Oh! One more thing, Elijah, those 'beasts' that you're referring to?" She gestured around to the other wolves present, "They may be under Esther's control, but, like you said, they're my people. So, if you hurt them? Your bitch mother will be the least of your problems."

She stormed off.

"Klaus went to find Davina," Sam answered his question from the doorway.

Elijah turned to glare at him, "And you didn't think to jump in with that information sooner?"

He put his hands up, not wanting to get in the middle.

Elijah still terrified the life out of him.

Said Original sighed, closing his eyes, "Thank you, Samuel."

"He's assuming Cami might've heard from her since D knows the rest of us have been hanging around you guys again," Sam continued, relaxing slightly, "Cami had a meeting with her adviser this morning."

He'd been the one to give Klaus the information on where to find Cami since she hadn't been keeping in touch with the supernatural community post-Wolf-Mafia takedown. Sam, Davina, and Josh were the only ones she was talking to.

Elijah nodded, then look after where Hayley had gone, "If you are taking up a permanent residence in my home..."

He'd moved out after the wolves had moved in.

"...Could you please micro-manage whatever my brother's plan to help her is."

"Deliberately put myself in a room with Klaus?" Sam laughed, "Fun idea."

Elijah gave him a look.

"Hayley needs her people," He dropped the attitude, "Having them here – getting the others away from your mum, that'll do her good, so yes. I'll help her do that."

~***~

MJ only stopped chanting when Bonnie's wound had healed up, a thin scarred line the only proof she'd actually been shot. Other than that, MJ's friend would wake up at full health.

She collapsed back, exhausted, her own broken wrist healing as the magic inside of her did its job.

"Well," Kai was slowly regaining his composure, blocking the way out of the cave, "This is a fun turn of events."

MJ stood up to face him, "Get out of the way."

"No chance."

"Bonnie's gonna be out for the next twelve hours, minimum, and I'm not letting her rest in here," She let her eyes storm, "Get out of the way."

Kai clicked his teeth.

"Are you going to make me fight you for it?" MJ couldn't just sit in an underground cave for more than a few hours without her heart rate starting to go up.

Kai laughed, "And where exactly would that fight go?"

MJ narrowed her eyes.

"You're trying to hold on to your fake life," He taunted, "And unless you're willing to make that brutal kill."

He pulled a face.

"You're never gonna beat me."

"You don't seem to understand, Kai," MJ took a careful step forward, "Bonnie is unconscious right now."

"Defenceless," He smiled at the body.

"Which means that if you give off the slightest indication of anything other than friendly?" MJ was incredibly tense, "My priority is keeping her safe and alive."

"All that righteous energy is going to give you wrinkles."

MJ rolled her eyes.

"Bon-Bon just gave up her ticket home for you," Kai announced in a demeaning manner, "And you don't think you're worth it."

"Bonnie clearly thinks I am."

"Which is cute," He nodded rapidly, "How long's it gonna take her to realise that if her morals are stopping her from taking me home, they should stop her from taking you home too?"

MJ swallowed nervously.

"Except...do you even wanna get home?" He tilted his head a little to come towards her, "Or do you wanna just give in and stay here...in the repeating day."

He was in her face, voice softer.

"The tick-tocking of the clock driving you mad," His fingers tapped her temples, "Because that's what you really want, right? You want a reason to lose it. Because if you have a reason, you can blame it instead of facing the truth about yourself."

MJ put a hand forward to push him back a step, "You're not gonna break me, Kai."

"Who says I wanna break you?"

"You want a future best friend," She repeated the title he'd given her, "You want us to be one and the same, and you know the only way you're gonna get that is if you break me."

He chuckled again, "See, that's where you're wrong."

"Am I?"

"I had a realisation as you pinned me to the wall."

She rolled her eyes at the phrasing.

"I don't need you to be like me," He put it simply, "You feel too much? Perfect."

He rolled his 'r' to make it purring.

"There's something so much more romantic – in the storytelling sense of the word – about two people who are opposites, yet the same," He reached forward to run a hand through her hair, watching how she didn't pull away like before, "Only completed by each other."

"You do know that's not how life works?" MJ couldn't force herself to step back or flinch; something in her brain wasn't letting her after his earlier point, "The whole equal-opposites thing isn't real."

He just shrugged.

She was done with the conversation, "Get out of the way, Kai."

He stepped to the left, a sweeping gesture letting her get to the exit.

MJ pulled Bonnie up over one shoulder then charmed the other side to be pulled up to, watching Kai start to pick up the pieces of the ascendant. She knew she should've stopped him, gotten them herself, then buried him six feet under, but – but...he was right.

She couldn't kill him.

Killing Kai would be admitting that everyone who'd ever done awful things to her because of her siphoner side had been right.

If she had hope in herself, she had to have hope in him...right?

She only had a sliver of hope for herself, but it was something.

"Here's how this is gonna go," MJ looked at him, "I'm taking Bonnie back to the house. She's gonna rest."

He grinned.

"Then I'm going to find as many potential ways out of here as I can."

"And I will fix the ascendant up for us."

"Us?"

"You're not leaving me here," Kai's eyes were dark.

She blinked slowly.

"Now I have a way out. I'm not blowing it."

"Bonnie isn't going to let you come."

Kai's voice went up, "You could force her too."

"I'm never going to force Bonnie to do anything."

"Then you better be prepared to do whatever it takes to keep her safe," He said it like it was advice, when in reality, it was a threat, "Because...how long until I give up trying to be friends and just siphon myself a hole out the way you did?"

MJ couldn't let Kai leave her sight until she solutions.

"I'm not leaving you alone with her," She started to climb out of the tomb, floating Bonnie up, "But I have something I need to grab."

"Road trip!" He cheered.

"Little bit," She sighed.

~***~

While Finn was posing as Vincent, pretending to be Cami's adviser, Kol had been helping his mother find Davina with a tracking spell. They were in the Lycée, holding their hands over a map, doing a spell without blood, or an object of importance as a starting point. For most witches, it wouldn't have worked at all, but it was Kol and Esther.

His host body may not be strong, but he understood what he was doing, and Esther was powerful.

While they were chanting, Kol was only mouthing along, trying to check his phone under the table.

"Où Tu Fuis, A Pouvoir La Trouver. Yonn Souri Nan Zeb – " She noticed that he wasn't doing anything, hearing the taps of keys, "Kol!"

He looked up.

"Concentrate."

He rolled his eyes and put the phone away.

"Unless you've finally heard from our missing Davina Claire?"

"It's only a matter of time," He watched as Esther took a few rose petals, placing them in a glass bowl of water, "I mean, look at this face – how long can she possibly resist?"

"Given your progress, I'd say indefinitely."

He had to assume she'd either missed the sarcastic tone of his voice or just didn't care enough to bother amusing him, more focused on using a dagger to prick the end of her fingers, dripping blood over the petals.

"No matter. I'll find her," Esther wiped her hand then picked the bowl up, "Now, focus. Conjure her in your mind."

Kol reluctantly closed his eyes to think while she spoke the next incantation.

"Ma Te Ak San Sou, Ki à Lumière La Fille — "

Esther stopped staring at the map.

"Kol!"

He didn't bother opening her eyes, "What?"

"You're not focused."

"I am."

"Then why am I being shown images of Mystic Falls?"

Kol opened one eye to see the water moving in the bowl, the petals turning with the magic. The water was drifting in the direction of Virginia despite being a map of Louisianna, and his mother's irritated expression was pointed. They both knew what he was thinking about if it was going there.

He closed it again, saying, "Wasn't the whole point of this 'purging' to make you like us again?"

She frowned at his phrasing.

"You should be proud of me," He huffed, "Mourning is incredibly human – far more human than whatever Finn's got going on in his head."

"It's incredibly irritating considering it's ruining our spell."

Kol curled his lips in, trying to hold his tongue.

"Focus."

He just nodded.

"Ma Te Ak San Sou, Ki à Lumière La Fille – "

The bowl exploded.

As the water and roses spilt onto the map, they could both feel the repulsion of their magic.

Kol had thought about Davina, but Davina didn't want to be found.

Esther narrowed her eyes, "She's somehow blocked our locator spell."

"Not entirely my fault, then."

"Considering your sole task was keeping track of a teenager," Finn finally joined them, clearly annoyed about something himself, "You might want to draw a little less attention to your absolute failure to do so."

"Oh, you're one to talk about failure," Kol rolled his eyes, "Have you got that human girl to bare her soul to you yet?"

No.

"Or are you too busy playing captain to a pack of mangy dogs to have any success as a fake headshrinker?"

Finn leant forward to get in his face, "You know what your problem is?"

"Oh," Kol turned to look directly at him, "I would love to know – "

"Boys."

They looked down guiltily, still responding like scolded children despite their true ages.

"If I'm right, Davina has the White Oak Stake," Esther knew bringing it up would get Kol's attention, "Find the girl, Kol, and get it back."

He put on a smile, heading out of the room and to a different section of the Lycée, uninterested in whatever Finn had to say. He had to assume it was more of the same old drivel about Cami's lack of family, refusal to openly talk about Klaus, and odd relationships with several other people in the city.

Kol didn't know why Cami was important to his mother's big plan, and he didn't care enough to find out.

Instead, he sat and read.

The Lycée was filled with magic texts, and even if he wasn't as naturally gifted as before, he still wanted to practise, and to practise, he needed to study. Kol knew he could get stronger through studying, and he was willing to do it if he was going to be staying in the body for the long term.

After a while, his phone rang, breaking his concentration.

Davina.

"Hi. Um, I'm sorry," Her breathing was a little off, "I know I haven't called in a while."

"Don't be silly; it's fine. Are you alright?" Kol wasn't sure how careful he needed to be, "Where are ya?"

"...I'll text you the address," Davina needed a lot of help, "And maybe a list of some things you can bring me?"

"I'll be right there," He hung up and smiled, not planning on telling his family anything until he had everything they wanted, and everything he wanted, out of her.

And even then, he had a choice to make about what he was actually going to do about Davina.

~***~

MJ knew she needed to be vague. She couldn't just announce to Kai what she was picking up, but he was a chatty person, and she was a chatty person, making the pair of them in a car together a nightmare combination.

She could picture how Damon would be trying to rip his own heart out if he'd still been with them.

They'd taken Bonnie back to the house, and then MJ had cast a sleeping spell to make sure she stayed down until they were back, Kai staring at what she was doing a little too intensely.

Then she'd collected an important vial of blood from her room. She'd taken Mikaelson blood to the afterlife with her, enchanted to find the spirits of the Mikaelson Family, and, well, she didn't need to find their spirit, but she needed a way to somehow tap into their magic. Washi tape and the initials K.M. The blood Kol had left with her after he'd saved her from the insanity hex.

The vial had survived the collapse of The Other Side with her, and MJ had to think that was the universe doing her a solid after two days of hell.

She'd summoned Esther's Grimoire because she knew exactly what to picture, magic sense wise and looks wise, but trying to work out where Mikael was to get the White Oak Stake was a little different.

The stake itself was insanely powerful, so if MJ wanted a boost of ancestral magic, she'd need it.

"I don't get it," Kai mused as he followed her out of Stefan's car.

Using a tracing spell to tap into the power of the blood, to try and track an object just as old was an unconventional form of tracking, but hopefully, it would work.

"What?" MJ held the vial tightly in her hand, magic pushing out of it to give her flashes of directions as she got closer to where Mikael had been stationed with the stake in 1994.

"All that Floare Power's in you – I've seen you using it."

MJ stilled on the street.

"All that lady of the lake weather altering power," He crept up behind her, "What is it with you and control?"

"Me and control?" She dodged.

"You can't use any Floare specific spells," He jumped round her so he could see her face, "I get that bit, but, but, but! All that power is just sitting there and ready for the using – you can use it – "

MJ started to walk.

"So why aren't you?"

"It's not the same."

"Does it matter if it's not the same if it can get us out of here?"

"We have a way out of here."

"We have a broken ascendant," He had to jog to catch up her speed walk, "We have a Bennett, but if you have the power of a nuclear bomb just, sitting there – "

He poked her in the stomach.

"And you've got a brain that can write spells, why aren't you writing a new one to just zooooop," He popped the 'p', "Us all out of here to take the pressure off Bon-Bon?"

"Because," She paused to look over houses and wrap both hands around the blood, "It's not the same."

He watched her.

MJ started to hum, skin turning pale and gravity trying to pull her down.

She stopped.

"That's..." She knew she shouldn't have bothered trying, "Whatever."

She went back to the spell she had been using.

"See," Kai started to talk again, "It's hard to practise magic when you don't have any to practise with, and, well, unlike you, I didn't come here with a map to a magic supply...you a dark object maker then?"

"Nope."

"How'd you know where they were then?"

"If you know what dark objects are, why didn't you go looking for any?"

"The Gemini Coven doesn't have information on witches unless they're Floare or Travellers," He shrugged, "I didn't know to start looking."

She took a step onto the abandoned road, a slight pressure building in her ears.

"Plus, The Gemini Coven have books on pretty much everything else, so even if I couldn't practise magic, I could still learn it all."

MJ didn't like that.

"Memorising spells like it was my only purpose, because well," He looked around and put his arms out, "What else was I going to do?"

"If you want me to sympathise with you, you might want to work on the tone of your delivery," MJ started to march straight towards a house.

"I don't need a tone," He called after her, "Toneless is so much more effective."

He looked at the unlocked car then followed after her.

"Toneless means I've given up, meaning you'll have hope for me."

"Explaining how you're trying to manipulate me, to me, kinda defeats the purpose," She put her hands on her hips, watching him safely cross the road like there might've been cars to actually hit him, "We'll get you out. You leave us alone forever. We leave you alone forever."

"Tsk, see," He scrunched up his face while bopping her on the nose, "Bonnie's not gonna let you do that."

MJ rolled her eyes.

"Are you going to be able to kill me, MJ Floare-Ruiz?" He stepped into her personal space, "You really think you're capable of that?"

"I think I killed my own brother," She didn't back down, "You have no idea what I'm capable of."

He started to laugh.

She gritted her teeth.

"You did one bad thing, and you think you're all that?" He clapped, "You're still in denial! We're the apex species, MJ, and I'm gonna teach you how to love it. And then maybe you'll kill me, or I'll kill you, or we'll kill everyone else – I don't know the specifics yet."

She moved her hands to cross her arms at his excitement.

"What I do know?"

MJ forced herself to focus on the house, even when Kai moved to whisper the answer into her ear.

"We're going to be epic."

The house had white walls, a veranda with light grey benches around low-lying tables by both front windows, cute yellow and green hedges outlining the lawn, and a well-trodden path.

26 had been hung on the dark red front door, MJ walking straight to it to get personal space back.

"So," Kai went back to talking like a bubble child, "What are we looking for again?"

"An object that might give me enough ancestral magic to jump us out of here."

"As cool as that would be," He rubbed his hands, getting ahead of her to try the door handle, "The amount of magic needed to bust out of here safely is unreasonable."

"Which is why I'm looking for an extra push."

"When you say it's different," He stood up straight to smile, "It's because you can't feel the pull, right?"

And he was back to quizzing her about magic.

"The energy from real nature?"

MJ nodded.

"But the objects, you can feel them perfectly."

She pushed past him to unlock the door with a quick hand flick and get inside.

"You can feel the darkness."

"I can feel the magic," She corrected, "If I can't feel what I'm doing, I'll pull on too much, or too little, and things will go wrong – "

"You'll hurt people – "

"Go wrong," She spoke over him firmly, "These objects give me a sense of direction since I know full well I can be in control when I trust myself."

Since they were disconnected from nature, the magic wasn't making her sick the way it would in the real world. Dark objects were the only real source of magic in the prison world, other than the world itself. For a moment, she had a loophole to the sick feeling she'd spent her life trying to avoid.

Her body still reacted with the grey, now blue, veins, and it still exhausted her, but she wasn't throwing up.

"But you don't trust yourself," Kai looked around the suburban foyer of happy family photos, "And control is overrated anyway."

"Control is the key to magic."

"Control is the key to losing."

"Says the guy who got locked up by his coven – i.e. who lost."

"I killed almost all of my family, and when I get out of here, I'm gonna finish the job," Kai reminded her, "I didn't lose; I'm just on time out. And when I come back, I'll be even better."

"Not giving me much motivation to let you live."

He just winked at her.

MJ rolled her eyes, walking past the flowery wallpaper to get to the kitchen.

Where the buzz and images went away.

She backtracked, closing her eyes and picturing the corridor around her.

"It's even prettier up close!"

MJ opened her eyes to see Kai pointing at the orange wisps swimming around her fingers.

She couldn't not smile at the reaction as she turned her right hand up, a quite lightsabre-like sound following her movements. The smoke-like trails seemed to be a side-effect of the Floare magic in her – the only nice one, power leaking out every time she used, body unable to stop it.

The light guided her to a shoe closest with a safe inside.

"What object's powerful enough to get that reaction out of you while being hidden in this basic bob house?"

"Vampires hijack people's lives with this thing called compulsion, and some like to be subtle," MJ started to fiddle with the safe, tapping the right points to unlock it, "That means choosing somewhere like this; to live for a few days before you move on."

"And who do you think lived here?"

"A vampire who hunted vampires."

The door clicked open, revealing the White Oak Stake inside it.

Kai frowned, "We came all this way for a stake?"

"Yep," She wasn't going to talk it up, "I need it."

"As a magic booster or for the real world?"

"Both," She knew Klaus had the indestructible White Oak Stake, she knew she had hers, but White Oak was a rare ingredient, "You're bringing back you're digits. I'm bringing back some powerful wood."

"That's a fun sentence," He snickered.

She had deliberately phrased it to be a little crass.

It had been too long since she'd allowed herself to have a sense of humour.

She couldn't let herself have it with Kai. Kai was a sociopath planning to commit mass murder, Bonnie potentially on the list of victims are revenge for her killing him once they were back in the real world – and MJ couldn't let that happen.

She needed to be the bigger target.

Kai had asked her if she was willing to do anything to protect Bonnie, and he kept talking about the pair of them killing each other, and – and, it was making her panic.

It felt too much like the way Ryos used to talk to her when he'd use the 'don't be a cliché siphoner who's going to kill me card.'

She'd killed Ryos.

MJ took the stake in her hand and carefully looked at Kai.

"You're bringing magic objects and books back," Kai looked like he wanted to take the stake, "Is that seriously all you wanna remember from your time here?"

"What else should I remember?"

"Yeah," His voice was dripping with some kind of emotion, "I guess I wouldn't wanna remember being sad-depressed either."

"Sad-depressed?"

He put two hands in the air, "Why be sad-depressed when you can be destructive-depressed!"

MJ put the stake into her backpack.

"Do you have a sense of humour?"

"I have a great one."

"Really, cos I do not see it?"

They headed back to the door.

"Like, if you have a sense of humour," Kai used his hands to explain the concept to her, "You laugh at jokes."

"I was taught that you only laugh when the person's funny," She smiled sweetly at him, "You're not funny."

He started to smile back at her.

"And if you must know, I'm bringing back a piece of jewellery that's incredibly important to me too," She caved, "And, all of those magic books...they're my childhood in a nutshell."

"The pilot's hat."

MJ had left her dad's hat in the car because she hadn't wanted Damon to come up with another nickname for her based on it. She wanted it as a makeshift security blanket, nothing more.

If it was anything more, she'd think about her dad a little too much, and she'd slip back into the depressive spiral of truly acknowledging the fact she no longer had a choice when it came to him. MJ had killed his son. The son who'd made it so he could live a happy and normal life, safe from all of them.

She couldn't face him ever again, meaning she was truly alone.

"And those other pieces of jewellery you made? And that weird noise box that made Damon yell last month?"

MJ really hated the fact Kai had just been watching them.

"You made them using that family Grimoire of Bonnie's."

"Gilbert Rings and a Gilbert Device," She nodded, "I'm not taking them home. I was just experimenting with what my magic could do."

"Experimenting rather than sleeping," Kai had a skip in his step as they got to the end of the house path, back on the pavement, "Because you haven't slept more than two or three hours a night since you got here."

"I didn't really sleep more than three hours for most of High School," She brushed the observation off.

"I don't think that's true."

"It is."

"But it's for different reasons."

"Kai," MJ huffed, "You know I feel guilt, so what are you expecting me to say?"

His face looked flat, "That you're forcing yourself to feel guilt out of habit. Not actual emotion."

She stared at him, anger bubbling in her stomach.

"You'll go through your next cycle of happy and sad, and you'll forget all about what got you here, and you'll feel guilty about something else – as if none of this ever happened."

She bottled the irritation up and returned to walking.

Jenna and Carol.

She'd practically forgotten how upset she'd been about Jenna dying during her summer of living it up post-Junior-Year.

Klaus had killed Carol, yet he was her main motivation to get home.

She picked up the pace to make her rising heartbeat about something other than guilt and self-hate.

"Okay – okay!" Kai was next to her again, back to being light-hearted, "I'll stop making assumptions about you based on the version of you I want you to be."

"How gracious of you."

"Tell me about yourself."

They reached the car, and she went to open the door.

He stood in the way, "I sang karaoke the entire drive up here; it's my turn to listen."

"Maybe I don't wanna talk."

"Then you're not as smart as you think you are."

"Hm?"

"I'm the one person who can understand you," He opened the driver's door for her, "So tell me about yourself."

She sat down, letting him close it.

Then she started to drive before he could get in on his side, the passenger door half open and him yelping behind her.

Seeing him chase after her in the mirror was funny for a second.

Then it just made the guilt even worse.

MJ stopped the car, letting him catch up, "Fine."

He grinned, taking up his seat and closing the door.

"What do you wanna know?"

"Tell me about you, Bon-Bon, and Damono."

"What about us three?"

"How did the dream team come to be?"

"We're hardly the dream team," MJ started to drive, "In fact, we're probably the worst combination of people to have trapped here."

"Colour me intrigued."

"Bonnie and I spent the past two years pretty much hating Damon, and with both of us here, it means our friends are probably screwing up their lives since they can't go a month without needing magical solutions."

"Oooh, so you and Bonnie are team 'sacrifice ourselves for our friends'"

"Bonnie, sure. She's a hero."

"You were trying to send them both back," He reminded her, "Trapping yourself here with me."

"Because I know I can jump myself out."

"Which you won't do if it puts poor little Bonnie Bennett in danger."

MJ didn't bother with a response.

"Why'd you both hate him so much?"

"Bonnie has morals."

"And morals aren't why you hated him?"

MJ really thought about it, "...I used to act like that was the reason."

"Act?" Kai stretched to touch his toes.

"I like to think I have moral standards," She took a breath, "But my problem was Damon's reasons behind his lack of morals."

"Yeah, I need a little more detail than that?"

"Okay," MJ didn't have anything better to do, "Fifteen years ago, Damon killed the pregnant woman, and he and Stefan scattered. The reason Damon was in Mystic Falls was because he was waiting for a celestial event. He needed a comet to free a vampire from a tomb under the town."

"Juicy."

"She wasn't even in there," MJ mused, "He was like, fully in love with her, while she was kinda only half in love with him – okay, so, she was in love with him once upon a time. But she was way more in love with his brother."

"Steven."

"Stefan."

"Same thing."

MJ got on with the wrap-up of her life rather than arguing, "Damon came back to town for the event, Stefan came back to check-in with Zach, and they met Elena."

"The great love Damon wants to get back to," Kai had eavesdropped that mich, "And Bonnie's best friend."

"Yep."

"Where do you fit into that equation?"

"Fit into the equation?"

"Best friend and boyfriend, who are you to this mystical Alana?"

"Elena, and...I'm no one."

He laughed.

"We were friends like a year and a bit ago, but I was always way better friends with her brother...I moved to New Orleans. People drift apart."

"That all?"

"Yep," MJ wasn't telling Kai anything about her love life, "Elena was human, dating Stefan, she turned into a vampire, started dating Damon – it made him more bearable, her less."

"Clingy girlfriend?"

"She just lost her personality," She tapped the wheel, "I don't know if it was the relationship dragging her down or the vampirism just heightening all the worst parts about her...doesn't really matter anyway."

"Vampirism heightens you?" He checked.

"Unless you're a witch," She quickly added, "If you're a witch, it cuts your cord to nature."

It did that to werewolves too, but to a lesser degree.

"Damon and I have tried to kill each other on multiple occasions," MJ got back to what Kai had actually asked about, "I'm usually retaliating to things he's done. Plus, he really mistreated my best friend Caroline, which means I'm kinda in camp screw-him."

"The pair of you seem just fine to me."

"That's where it gets complicated," She admitted, "When we're on the same page, we work really well together."

"Because you're not morally sound."

"But we're rarely ever on the same page," She didn't let him restart his 'give in to darkness' point again, "I see how much he wants to be better, or be human – or whatever. And like I said, he's a lot more bearable now, but..."

"I bet you twenty bucks he won't have told anyone you're here."

MJ bit her lip.

"I bet he's gone back to the real world and pushed this place out of his mind."

She shook her head, "The list of things Damon actually trusts me to do is short, but it's legit."

"And what's that got to do with anything?"

"He trusts me to always have a backup plan, and he trusts me to survive," MJ recited, "Even if we're an in-and-out friendship, Bonnie's here, and he's gonna want to get her back for Elena."

"He probably thinks Bonnie's dead, and if you don't matter to that girl of his, he's not gonna think twice about getting you out."

"He'll tell people where he was," She shook her head, "And then they'll go looking for The Gemini Coven to try and get us out."

"The Gemini Coven won't let people take the ascendant."

"Then Damon will kill them."

"And I repeat," Kai taunted, "I bet you twenty bucks he won't have told anyone you and Bon-Bear are still alive."

MJ knew he had a point.

She hated to think he had a point.

Damon would tell Elena about Bonnie. Damon wouldn't be able to keep that from her – and once Elena knew, everyone else would find out, and they'd find a way to save them.

She couldn't expect Damon to have faith in her if she didn't have faith in him.

But he'd let her down so many times in the past...

"How'd you end up moving to New Orleans rather than staying in Mystic Falls with your buddies then?" Kai changed topics back to what he wanted to know.

"You really want a rundown on the past two years of my life?"

"Duh."

"Okay," MJ looked at the clock, setting the timer in her head, "The first day of Junior year, Stefan and I are the new kids. I befriend Caroline and Tyler; he starts dating Elena, Damon starts compelling Caroline to be his sex blood bag. I get really mad about that and stop him from killing her, he gets locked in a basement by Stefan, kills Zach to get out, almost rips my stomach out, but I turn into a bird and escape."

Inhale.

"Damon doesn't have a daylight ring, but it's nighttime. He kills a bunch of campers, turns this girl in the year above called Vicki; she doesn't last long as Stefan kills her to save Elena. It's Stefan's birthday, his best friend Lexi comes to town – she's awesome. Damon frames her for all the murders he's committed then stakes her to get in with the humans. We make a deal with him. If we help him get into that tomb I mentioned, he'll leave with this girl called Katherine."

"His old love."

"Who has the same face as Elena."

"The same face?"

"They're doppelgängers – that'll be important in a minute or two's time."

"Okay?"

"So Stefan and Damon were with Katherine at the same time. She loved them both; they both loved her. Damon was head over heels while Stefan was getting there – except, she started compelling him to react certain ways to things, and she compelled him to drink her blood so she could turn him."

Before saying that sentence, she'd never really processed the fact that Katherine had used Stefan the same way Damon had used Caroline...just with more feelings on her side (which didn't make it okay).

Shit.

She had thought about it, but she hadn't processed it before.

"This is after she told Damon she was only going to turn Damon – "

"Oof."

"Yep," MJ picked up the pace of the driving a little, "We get in the tomb, she's not there, stuff goes wrong, and there are thirty-three other vampires there who all waking up because Damon smashed a blood bag everywhere."

"Damon sound like a bit of an inconvenience."

"Understating it," She agreed, "I kill eleven vampires; one is rescued by her daughter; Bonnie and her grandma reseal the tomb, but Bonnie's grandma dies."

"Grams!" Kai put his hands to his face, "No!"

"A lot of semi-pointless stuff happens."

Including MJ's own breakdown.

"Elena's adopted, her mum's kind of a bitch, but a protective bitch, and a vampire, and she's still a Gilbert because her dad is her adopted dad's younger brother."

"Because that's not confusing."

"Wait until we get to doppelgänger months," MJ exhaled, "This thing called Founder's Day happens. The tomb vampires wanna kill a bunch of people, Elena's real dad uses a device Bonnie supposedly de-spelled to capture all of them and shove them in a basement."

"And you were?"

"Helping protect my vampire friends, ended up getting shot and put in the basement to burn with them."

"And?"

"Damon kept me alive, so I could get us both out of it using magic."

"Hence, complicated relationship."

She nodded.

MJ was acutely aware that she would've died if Damon hadn't saved her.

But he'd only saved her because he'd assumed she could save them.

"Then ?"

"Katherine shows up, Elena's face makes everything confusing, she cuts off John's fingers, kisses Damon as Elena, fails to trick Stefan, turns my friend Caroline, and is trying to get this thing called a moonstone off my bestie Tyler."

"A besties who you'd mentioned once before now?"

"Because we're talking me, Damon and Bonnie," MJ covered for herself a little, "Katherine's hiding from this guy called Klaus who's was cursed by his bitch-witch mum. He needs to kill a doppelgänger to break the curse, and since Katherine escaped him, he just wants her dead."

"And she set you all up," He assumed, "That's what I would do to get out of that situation."

"She ended up getting caught, so did I; we were hostage buddies for three days, and I ended up being the witch to actually break the curse."

"You killed your friend?"

"I brought my friend back to life, actually."

"But you're not friends anymore?"

She nodded.

"Okay, nope," He shook his head, "Something else happened. Something more than drifting apart."

"Damon was dying, Stefan gave himself over to Klaus because Klaus had a way to cure him," MJ wanted to be vague, "Stefan goes through hell for his brother, and to keep the fact I brought Elena back to life a secret, while Elena is kissing Damon."

"Stefano comes back, though?"

"Yep. I spend the summer playing witch to Klaus to keep an eye on Stefan. Stefan is miserable; Elena is pretty miserable too. Klaus realises she's alive so is back in town. Stefan turned off his humanity, Klaus has a bunch of siblings, Damon and I work with one of them to get to the rest of them in the hopes they'll deal with him for us. Ends up being the best and worst decision."

"Best and worst?"

"I forgot to mention that Klaus and his family are Original Vampires. All vampires come from them, and if one of them dies, every vampire in their line dies. Damon and Bonnie and Stefan, and Elena, were all working with Klaus's mother."

"Not you?"

"The woman had tried to kill me three separate times already. No way was I helping her."

"So, what were you doing while she was trying to kill vampires?"

"I was figuring out the whole 'if an original dies, you all die' thing."

"And?"

"Nothing else."

"Nothing?"

She'd been running around with Kol.

"I was trying to have a senior year, and then witch-bitch killed my guardian and died herself. The humans decided they wanted to be supernatural hunters; Elena got turned into a vampire, sire-bonded to Damon, making the love triangle fifty million times more confusing as there's a whole consent issue. Plus..."

Cue MJ's telenovela narrator voice she'd picked up after binge-watching too many of them.

"Does Elena really love Damon, or is it just the bond!?"

"Which was it?"

"You'll have to tune into the rest of the season to find out!"

He laughed.

"She says it was real."

"That sentence," He pointed at her, "Sounded judgy."

"I don't know," MJ gave him a half-smile, "Like, she didn't even question it! And I just don't relate."

That was a huge part of the collapse of their relationship. Elena and MJ were similar in many ways; both victims to the universes crappy treatment, and both carrying far too much grief for people so young – but they were fundamentally different when it came to how they dealt with their emotions.

"I question all my feelings."

"Because your feelings aren't natural, they're taught," He whispered, then quickly cleared his throat, knowing MJ would just kick him out of the car for trying to start that conversation, "She's turned and hunters?"

"There's a potential vampire cure that everyone's now after; it was not worth it. Elena didn't even end up having it, a lot of people died, we graduated High School, and I moved to New Orleans."

"And then you ended up here?"

"Then I ended up here because Bonnie died bringing Elena's brother back to life. Damon made a deal to get her back for Elena that involved making her the anchor to the supernatural afterlife. But, unfortunately, the afterlife collapsed because of a mass cult sacrifice my brother led."

Every time MJ thought about Ryos and The Travellers, it felt more and more cult-y.

The way they rallied around him like a god and how he spoke like a game show host merged with a car salesman, earning cheers at the end of his sentences - even his shift in fashion sense when he was around them.

Clothes his way of creating a character for them to worship so they'd forget he was in his early twenties.

"The three of us ended up on the wrong side of the collapse when it got too late to come back to life with the rest of our friends."

"And you committed genocide," Kai knew that part of the story, "Killed your brother and found a way to rip through the collapse to try and save Bonnie."

"Yeah," MJ's voice was weaker than what she wanted it to be, "That's the past two years in just under four minutes."

They were still an hour and a bit away from Mystic Falls, and she'd deliberately spoken at the speed of a bullet train.

"Have you ever truly let loose?"

"Truly let loose?"

"Like, just exploded to see how much you can do?"

"When I killed myself, yeah."

"No, no, no," Kai didn't like that answer, "I mean, no care, no motivation, just one giant fun moment of no remorse."

"I already told you, Kai; I like to create, not destroy."

"You've been conditioned to create."

"And we're back here," She shot him a look, "You're not going to recondition me."

"No," He nodded, "I'm not."

MJ narrowed her eyes.

"I'm trying to help you."

"I'm sure."

"You're gonna have to learn to make peace with yourself one day, MJ. Aren't you tired of being miserable?"

She didn't respond.

She didn't want to give him the satisfaction.

Not when he'd use it to go on his 'equals' spiel again.

"Power is meant to be used, and as siphoners - we were born to be powerful."

~***~

Cami had stopped the car on the way to Davina's cabin to try and give her friend time to escape...and to get some things off her chest.

After her meeting with 'Vincent', Klaus had found her and somewhat forced her to help him track down Davina. Since Cami had made her stance about the supernatural clear, she was the only one Davina answered the phone for, thinking she wouldn't snitch to Klaus or Marcel about where she was. Unfortunately, Klaus had overheard the call and deduced her location, meaning Cami had to go with him if she wanted to stop him from hurting the young witch.

She'd gone into a bar, and eventually, Klaus had been forced to make the choice of either joining her or going on his quest alone.

He'd chosen to join her.

After pushing a few of the right buttons and getting him a little drunk, Cami had been able to offer him a shoulder to lean on as he opened up.

"My mother's intentions are far less savage than my father's," He pushed his glass around, "She'd prefer to place us all in new bodies, thereby reuniting our family in some bizarre coven of extremely dysfunctional witches."

"So, what?" Cami pressed, "Are you just gonna kill her too?"

"If only I could," He dreamed, "But, therein lies my predicament; if I kill her, she'll just jump into another body."

Something they'd learnt at their little family dinner with her and Finn.

"If I somehow manage to thwart that nasty little inconvenience, she'll re-join the bloody witch ancestors and haunt me from beyond – but, right now, Mikael has the White Oak Stake," Klaus had to prioritise, "He needs to die first."

It was such a simple to-do list, and Cami's eyes went slightly bigger as she nodded, like it was a perfectly normal conversation rather than her own 'Interview with a Vampire.'

Her next question, "And how are you going to do that unarmed?"

"I've..." Klaus smiled like the Cheshire Cat, reaching into his jacket, "Taken precautions."

Papa Tunde's blade was sitting in the inside pocket.

"Oh, goody," She responded sarcastically, "Papa Tunde's Mystical-Knife-of-Ludicrous-Torment. Glad that's still around."

"You know," Klaus put it away and looked up, "My parents dedicated their lives to making me feel weak and afraid."

The emotional stuff that Cami might actually be able to help him with.

"I've killed them once already," He stood up, done with chatting, "I can do it again."

"Klaus, wait," Cami grabbed his arm, "I get it. The hurt your parents have inflicted on you for a thousand years."

The world where nothing stays buried, vampire fathers chasing you through time.

"I understand what you're fighting against – the real question is, what are you fighting for?"

He looked at her, confused about what to say.

In his mind, the answer was clear. He was fighting for Hope. But he wasn't just fighting for Hope – he was fighting because he wanted them dead, because killing them once (twice in their mothers' case) hadn't been enough to give him peace, and another try just might finally do it.

And he couldn't tell Cami that his answer was Hope when she was under the impression that Hope was dead.

She let go of the arm, "Ask me to dance."

It was a statement, not a question.

He looked to the space by the bar jukebox, confused, "You want to dance?"

"No," Cami admitted, "I...never want to dance. I'm actually really bad at it."

The statement wasn't completely true.

She didn't like dancing, but she did still want him to ask.

"But I'm trying to make a point," Cami looked around to the other people in the room, "There's more to life than the pain they made you feel. A cold beer, a slow song...a good friend."

Both of their eyes softened.

"There are good things, Klaus," She took his hand, "And you need to see that."

His eyes were watering up slightly, "I didn't have a good friend. I had a wonderful friend."

The first time Klaus had used past tense when referring to MJ.

It had been five months since May.

Cami put her free hand on his shoulder as they took awkward half steps, trying to find a comfortable position among the song's slow beat.

"And now I don't know where she is."

Five months had passed, no progress reported about a potential Mystic Falls resurrection, and Klaus was so consumed with his own growing list of dilemmas that he wasn't able to find a solution himself.

"And you have other people in your life," Cami was trying to be helpful, "Who want to help you with that loss."

His hand came to her waist, meaning they could probably dance – more so, sway together.

"People who want to support you," She whispered as their faces were close, easing into swaying with the music, "Because they understand how much she meant to you. And how much you need her right now."

Their faces came even closer, noses brushing and his head tilting up, as if he was going to bring his lips to hers, but then his head turned. Resting their cheeks together.

"There's no real peace in revenge," Cami wanted Klaus to find peace, "But there is peace in living."

Their steps picked up a little, turning them in the space.

"And you know MJ would want you to live..."

Klaus pulled back and spun her quickly, causing Cami to laugh, considering she had no clue how to keep her balance through the gesture.

When she turned around to get back in step, Klaus was gone.

~***~

Returned to the House, Kai sat by a table trying to piece the ascendant together while MJ focused on studying her spellbooks. She wanted as much information in her head as she could get, and she wanted to practise using it.

Knowing Kai had had twenty years of nothing but reading spells made her nervous.

If he got his hand on a magic source, sure, he'd need to practise a little to get to grips with it all if he wanted to control it, but he'd also made it incredibly clear he didn't care about control. He'd get the power, and he'd probably destroy her in a fight because he'd act first, worry later.

He wanted her to let loose.

The same way Katherine and Klaus lowkey did.

MJ's eyes kept darting to him as she worked through the spells, trying to find any pull with the Floare magic.

If she could find any hints as to how much magic she was using, she'd be a little more relaxed.

She just felt nothing.

All of the power there, usable as long as it was an ancestral spell coming from her mouth, but MJ couldn't feel a thing, and it was making her scratch up her arm. And if her earlier half spell was anything to go off, casting a Floare spell was still just going to make her ill.

The detachment would drive her crazy.

After an entire night, Bonnie finally woke up, fully healed but still in a bloody shirt.

"Oh," Kai tried for a smile, "Look who's awake."

"How do you feel?" MJ waved her hand to send all her books into her backpack.

Her eyes were pinned on Kai, "Like he shot me with an arrow."

"Right," He patted the table three times, "Anyhoo, I have no idea how you managed to shatter the ascendant into a billion pieces, but we need to put it together before the eclipse at 12:28."

He pointed to his progress.

"Want to help?" His tone was so inviting, "I know you're a puzzle person."

Bonnie and Damon had been doing puzzles every week beyond just the crossword.

"I don't want to help," She snarled, "You're a psychopath – this place is your prison, and I'm not letting you out."

MJ had to try reasoning with her, "Bon – "

"He'll just kill us the minute we get out."

"You've been through a trauma," Kai demeaned, "Your memory's probably a little fuzzy right now, so you might be thinking that your magic will protect you."

He came to the sofa Bonnie was still lying on.

"But all I have to do is hold your hand and your magic," He grabbed her arm roughly and started to siphon, causing Bonnie to cry out, "Suddenly becomes mine."

"Get off her," MJ sent him flying back, "You know what? You're so desperate to get out, I'll get us out."

She slammed her hands into the table and started to siphon from the world itself.

"MJ," Bonnie started to panic, able to stand up thanks to the healing magic, but still a little slow, "You said you can't do that without collapsing everything."

All three of them felt a judder, like they were in an elevator about to collapse.

"She's not gonna do it," Kai crossed his arms, pushing off the wall he'd fallen into, "She's not gonna risk hurting you."

MJ had used a specific spell to get out of the Middle Ages Prison World, but now she was just straight siphoning.

There was another jolt, the furniture moving too now.

She focused on sucking up even more, even faster, and the earthquake she'd unintentionally started in New Orleans kicked in, more volatile shakes causing cracks to appear in the walls and the ceiling.

"MJ!" Bonnie tackled her from the table.

"Let me – " She shook her friend off, " – Try."

"That first prison world was clearly a lot weaker," Bonnie pointed to MJ's face.

Blood dripping down it.

"And you nearly collapsed – you're not siphoning us out."

"If you won't let her try, and you won't do it," Kai was coming back towards them, using the fact MJ was panting and a little out of it, "Then what purpose do you have?"

He grabbed a lamp to smash it over Bonnie's head before either of the girls could register it, then he had his hand on Bonnie to siphon even more magic from her.

Her scream was like water dripping down MJ's neck.

"What was that? Huh?" He growled, pulling her in close, "What?"

His lips were against her ear.

"You're gonna do the spell and finally get us home?"

"I said," MJ matched his tone, "Get off of her."

Every other lamp in the room exploded, electricity bouncing in thick waves between them as her eyes sparked orange, a prism of power encasing them in the room like an electric fence without the wire.

He let go, laughing nervously, "There we go."

The dome of energy flickered out as she took a sharp breath in.

"Kai," MJ shook her head, "We'll take you home – but you gotta behave."

"Do I?"

"You can't kill both of us at once, so you make a move to do one? The other will kill you."

"Interesting way to make an alliance," He mused.

"We get you home; you leave us alone."

"Does Bonnie agree to those terms?" He asked with fake enthusiasm.

Bonnie had drifted closer to his right, to the table, during their exchange, but now the attention was back on her, she lunged even closer, driving a pen into his neck then shoving him to the floor, head slamming into the table on the way down to knock him out.

MJ killed the light show completely, "Bon!"

"We're not taking him home," She grabbed the ascendant pieces and shoved them into MJ's bag, "Now let's go."

MJ looked at the body, feeling all types of conflicted.

"MJ?"

"Okay."

Bonnie was magic drained, and MJ had a shooting pain up her hands like they were trapped under a car while simultaneously being held in an oven. She knew it was from siphoning the walls of the prison world, and she didn't know how to make it work for her. She just knew that Bonnie still had a scar from the arrow.

Neither of them knew what to do.

"Kai will go straight to the cave," MJ tugged Bonnie along, both of them slightly light-headed, "He'll wait there to make damn sure we can't leave without him."

"Then we find another spot," Bonnie panted.

"You think there is one?"

"There has to be – I mean, what are the chances that Mystic Falls is the one place the thing works?"

"The same chances as everything else happening in Mystic Falls," MJ could've listed every bizarre and improbable thing from the town's history, "It's literally the reason why my catchphrase is 'coincidences don't exist.'"

"You're catchphrase is – " Bonnie paused, looking like she might vomit, "Why do I – why – why...do I?"

MJ scanned her.

"I can't – "

She just managed to catch Bonnie before she properly toppled down, "Shit."

"I thought you healed me?" Bonnie pulled her shirt up, the scar re-opening up.

"I thought I did too..." MJ realised something important, "Ancestral healing isn't Floare."

"And?" Bonnie just about got back on her feet, an arm over MJ's shoulder.

"Floare healing is literally miracle-working; ancestral healing is more like advanced doctor's appointments."

"And we don't have Damon for blood," Bonnie realised as they hobbled out of the road to the Salvatore House towards the main area of the town.

MJ had to make a choice she didn't like, "I have vampire blood if you want it."

She didn't want to give up Kol's blood, but Bonnie wouldn't need all of it, and she also didn't want Bonnie to be permanently injured when she had a way to heal her.

"Medical supplies," Bonnie shook her head, "Medical supplies, and you do some more magic, and then we get the hell out of here."

With Kai on the loose, vampire blood opened Bonnie up to the possibility of dying and getting turned.

She clearly didn't want that, meaning she wasn't going to take the blood.

MJ didn't know whether to try and talk her into it or not, but the hospital sounded like a good starting point.

"Sounds like a plan."

If MJ couldn't get her Floare spells to work, they were screwed. Bonnie's stomach wound would keep reopening unless it got properly treated, and there was a massive cut across the back of her head from getting hit by the light.

She was bleeding from two spots and probably had a concussion.

MJ hadn't stopped it.

Why hadn't she just knocked Kai out?

Bonnie was hurt, and it was her fault, and Kai was gonna keep targeting her because Bonnie was the one refusing to work with him. The one who kept hurting him. MJ needed to be the bigger problem.

But,

But – but Kai was a siphoner.

Kai was a person.

MJ,

MJ couldn't kill another person. She couldn't let herself.

She hadn't had blood on her hands since she'd died, but she'd died soaked in it.

Literally and metaphorically.

She couldn't do that to herself again.

But if MJ didn't put up a fight, Bonnie was gonna keep getting hit, and Bonnie would die.

The hospital was a place MJ hadn't visited in a really long time, and she honestly hadn't missed it. Properly working out the dates, her last trip would've been when Damon, Klaus, and she had interrogated Connor. The day after she'd been shot. Her second experience getting shot.

She hated hospitals.

MJ hated their smell, their lighting, and she hated walking past the spots she'd slept when Ric had been attacked by his dark alter ego, so his ego had a cover story. Sleeping while he'd been kept in observation, unable to help because Meredith hadn't wanted to cover up another medical miracle when he could be healed the human way.

She'd failed to notice Ric's situation because she'd been caught up in her bubble of Kol and Klaus – and she couldn't let that happen with Bonnie. Her Floare mess couldn't stop her from saving her friend.

They also passed the spot MJ had slept when Matt, she, and Liz had been waiting for Caroline post-car crash. It had been Bonnie and MJ rallying for Damon to give Caroline vampire blood, and then MJ had left Caroline unprotected, and Katherine had turned her.

She couldn't let her internal argument about Kai leave Bonnie unprotected.

Bonnie was sitting on the nurse's station with the ascendant as MJ went through everything she knew about treating injuries without magic. She would use magic and science to get as close to Floare levels of healing as possible.

She knew the stuff; she just needed to do it.

She just needed to be able to do it all.

MJ wanted to be sick.

Bonnie's shirt was off so MJ could treat the wound. First, wiping it down to stop it from getting infected, then organising painkillers, but, as she worked, she kept wanting to throw up.

Blood was everywhere.

Floare were meant to be healers, but she couldn't heal Bonnie properly because she'd betrayed her lineage by stealing the magic and dying. And a Bennett witch was the only safe way out. Because Bonnie could still pull on herl lineage.

Bonnie was pulling all the weight, and MJ was nothing but a failure.

'We're the apex species.'

MJ felt like a second class citizen at most.

But maybe Kai had a point.

Maybe that sliver of hope MJ had for herself was the reason her magic wasn't working.

She'd lost faith in herself, but not in a good, humbling way. In an 'I might as well be dead' way. And just as she was starting to get her mojo back, her hope for herself meant she could barely look at blood without being sick from guilt at the image of her brother's heart in her hand.

"Take this," MJ pushed a specific amount of painkillers and antibiotics towards her, "Water bottle behind the desk."

She was forcing herself to stare at the blood as she replaced the bandage.

"Are you gonna be able to magic this ba – bac – " Bonnie winced, chugging the pills and the water in the misguided hope they'd work instantly.

MJ was hurting her friend by touching the wound to change the bandage...

Her breathing started to pick up.

"Can we magic this," The Ascendant, "Back together?"

"Already tried and failed."

The first thing MJ had done when getting back to the house with Kai.

"The magic that made it makes it impossible for me to do anything, but if a Bennett made it."

"I can try," Bonnie nodded, slowly sliding off the counter, wincing again, then looking at the clock, "We have an hour and forty-three minutes."

"We can do this," MJ tried to sound encouraging, but in reality, the room was spinning around her.

Lines on the wall were turning like a sad merry-go-round as the harsh lights triggered something in her mind.

"We can," Bonnie agreed.

"And if we can't," MJ shut her eyes to push the lights away, "We run, and we investigate the alternate place option."

"You think we can just run from Kai?"

"We have the entire world," She pointed out, "And if I can survive death hide-and-seek with Damon, who can literally hear my heartbeat, I can play it with a siphoner."

"MJ," Bonnie stepped back from the ascendant.

MJ didn't open her eyes.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Her voice croaked.

"Hey," Bonnie put a hand on her arm, "What's going on?"

"I don't know!" MJ was shaking, "I just want to cry, but I don't know why."

And not knowing was one of her bigger triggers.

"And I know the slight hallucinations are a side effect of the magic being too much," Her arms started to shake out, "But the crying – I – I don't know."

She rubbed her eyes then pushed her hair back.

"I can smell your blood."

She could smell blood and medical supplies, and the odd level of cleanliness under it all reminded her far too much of what Ryos smelt like when she hugged him. Clean and healthy, with a mix of sage and vervain over the top of it. Refreshing and protective, tricking her into feeling safe in his arms.

"It's fine," MJ opened her eyes, steady, "I'm good."

A momentary blip in her stability, but she'd be fine.

Bonnie scanned the more stable demeanour and accepted the answer. She could properly push MJ to talk once they were back in the real world, and to get to the real world, she needed to fix the ascendant.

Bonnie realigned the pieces on the table, counting them, "Where's the last piece?"

MJ waved her hand over the bag to see if it had been hidden among her stuff.

"Where is it?" Bonnie repeated, about to break herself, "This isn't happening."

That was when the power shut off.

Bonnie went to step forward, but MJ held a hand out, stopping her.

She turned her head left and right to signal 'no.'

"Looking for this?" Kai strolled into their corridor, blood still on his neck despite the fact the hole had healed, "You stole the ascendant, naughty girls."

MJ felt her body seizing up.

"You weren't planning on using it and leaving me behind, were you?" He waved the missing part in the air, "You left a trail of blood in the driveway."

He headed slowly towards them.

"Figured where else would you stop and play nurse since your Floare's lost her best tricks?"

"Vados," Bonnie yelled, causing carts from behind the counter to fly at Kai before trying to take off.

She could barely run, leaving MJ staring between her friend and Kai.

Her feet weren't moving.

Kai chased Bonnie, a scalpel in hand, easily shoving it into her shoulder and forcing her to the floor, almost in slow-motion, reenforcing the part of MJ's brain that was screaming at her to help. Questioning why she always waited until the last second to save people – because she always had. She needed to see pain to remind her she was meant to stop it, and she hated herself for the hesitancy.

Because a part of her thought acting quickly was proof she was the crazed loon covens made her out to be.

"To think," He whispered, "I left Damon's car outside and everything."

His foot slammed into Bonnie's stomach to fully knock her down.

"Even left you the keys," He pulled the knife out and looked at MJ's frozen form, "It was the perfect mousetrap."

Keeping eye contact with her, he traced the blade on the underside of Bonnie's jaw as she struggled against him, wincing in agony.

"Shh, shh, shh," He nuzzled into the spot with his nose, catching blood on the tip, "We have an hour until the eclipse, and you're going to take us home...though, I guess you need a little more persuasion."

The moment the metal started to press down, MJ exploded.

It wasn't hero mode. Hero mode was something to be proud of. Usually something she orchestrated perfectly.

This was messy and brutal – because that's the reaction Kai had been trying to get out of her, deliberately preparing to mark Bonnie with the exact same cuts that still scarred MJ's face.

The spell started at the tips of his fingers, flesh peeling off his bones like a snakeskin, flittering through the air like dandelion fluff, the scalpel slipping to the floor in an echoing clatter as he screamed a spasmed, DNA tearing itself apart like nature writing what he was. It moved down his arm until it hit his elbow, bone rotting underneath it.

There was nothing Kai could do to stop it as the hand she hadn't touched yet clapped against the floor in time with his roar, turning red, knowing he needed magic to stop her.

The second he had some, her head collided with the cool stone wall, beaten into it like a hammer on a church bell, only stopping when she did, leaving him with a perfectly functioning skeletal hand. His eyes stared at it, checking how it moved before their eyes, then looking to his two enemies. Bonnie was panting on the floor, cradling herself and crying, trying to return to her feet, her own blood covering her hands, woozy from the arrow injury bleeding out again, unable to look away from the nightmare limb close to it.

"Stop!" MJ screeched, a wave rushing out and twisting Kai's shoulder out of place while pinning him to the nurse's station.

The pin box behind the counter dissolved, metal shards cutting through her cheeks and stomach, enough force to stab her fingers into the walls while Kai picked up a phone console and smashed it into her head like a bat before using the wire to choke her.

MJ couldn't deal with choking.

She threw her body weight to the floor, bringing him down with her, magic sending him through the tiles.

The shaking of the ground didn't stop until his body was completely out of sight, leaving nothing but a manhole going through the hospital's basement to who knew where beneath them.

MJ stood back up, phone dangling on her shoulder, wire rubbing her raw skin, pins still in her fingers, clothes cut up. She was in a lot of pain, but she could let the adrenaline take over, knowing her body would recover – compartmentalising the stinging agony by focusing on the only truly important thing in the prison world.

She turned to Bonnie, a blank expression on her face, "We need to go."

"MJ..."

"I don't know if I killed him or not, so we need to go."

"But – "

"If he's not dead, he's – he's willing – " Her eyes were blurring, "He's willing to use the world as a power source now, so he can be out of there in a few minutes max. If he is dead, we have a few hours."

She started to walk forward, stumbling as she tried to collect the ascendent pieces with a flick of the wrist, wincing as the world returned to slow motion in her head, reminding her that she was, in fact, a mortal witch. Even if her body could heal, that didn't mean she wouldn't feel the after-effects of the spells she used when she went overboard.

"We need to go."

Bonnie forced herself to her feet too, "Where too?"

"No idea."

"Should we try and go to the caves?"

"Do you have enough energy to get us home without dying?"

She didn't answer.

"Then no, Bonnie," MJ tried to support her friend's weight too, "We run, we hide, and we rest."

Bonnie blinked twice, accepting the help with walking because she really needed it, but also incredibly aware that MJ was barely keeping herself up.

MJ hadn't even pulled the pins in her hands out yet.

To Bonnie, it was like she hadn't even noticed them.

"MJ," She cleared her throat.

"Yeah?"

"Is the spell specific to Bennett Magic or Bennet blood?"

"I...I don't know," MJ got them out of the doorway, "Why?"

"If it's Bennett magic, does that mean you could do it if you siphoned me?"

"I'm not siphoning you."

"MJ – "

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't trust myself right now!" MJ snapped, a dangerous look in her eye, "We're getting you out of here ASAP, but to do that, you need to heal."

"Okay."