Chapter Text
“There’s only one way to kill Dahlia. We need dirt from her homeland, ash of her oppressors, and blood from the witch that broke her heart, without those three ingredients she will be impossible to kill. Subduing and detaining her will be extremely difficult as well.”
“The dirt and ash will be easy enough to obtain, who is the witch that broke her heart?”
“Esther.”
Silence greeted Mikael’s pronouncement. Esther had been dead for a millennium, obtaining her blood would be impossible. Dahlia was as good as immortal.
“Well, that’s it. We’re screwed then, she’s been dead for the past thousand years, there’s no way we’re getting her blood.” Kol said.
Menw let out a rumbling noise. Kol was pretty sure he’d just been called stupid by a wolf, and also certain that if wolves could roll their eyes, he would have done so.
“My cousin is correct. We have what we need, or should I say who we need. In order to restore life to Esther for long enough to get her blood.”
“What does that mean?” Rebekah demanded; brow furrowed as she regarded Branwen.
Freya cleared her throat.
“I believe my grandson is here somewhere?”
“Harry?”
“Yes. We will need his help and that of the Harvest Girls, to manage it, but it is manageable.”
Elijah nodded.
“I believe that we should reconvene with the others and make some plans. We shall need to divide and conquer if we are going to defeat our enemies.”
Rebekah tossed back the rest of her drink and stood up.
“The conference room we used before?” She asked, directing her question towards Elijah, who inclined his head. “Right, I’ll go get everyone we need.”
“Let’s keep it to the core-magicals and the faction representatives for now.” Elijah told her authoritatively, “Once we’ve made a plan, they can cascade the information out to there people who need to know it.”
“Got it.”
It didn’t take long for Rebekah to gather those they needed and lead them to the conference room so they could discuss what they’d learned, and make plans for what they needed to do next. Elijah went first, catching everyone up on what he’d learnt from Niklaus.
“Physically Rhoswen is safe for the moment, Niklaus and his group are with her and the witches who rescued her and Elena are working on a way to unbind her from Dahlia and Lucien. It does mean we can’t kill either of them until she’s been unbound, so it’s imperative that we capture them alive.”
Grim nods went round the room, everyone fully understanding the gravity of the situation.
“As we learned from those we questioned. Lucien and Dahlia are on there way or are already in Mystic Falls preparing to perform a ritual that will make Lucian an upgrade version of an Original. We don’t know what that means, but we can assume it’s not good, so we need to capture them before they can complete it preferably.”
“Luna and Ginny will still have their coins.” Harry said, “we can send them a message and warn them, so they can prepare.”
Hermione nodded and pulled out her coin to send the message as the rest of the DA briefly explained the coins and how they worked.
“Good, but some of us will need to make our way to Mystic Falls as soon as possible, to assist.”
“Why not –”
“– All of us?” The twins asked.
“Because there are other things we will need to do if we’re going to end the threat they pose entirely.” Elijah explained, looking to Freya to take over.
“Dahlia can only be killed if she is weakened and made mortal once more. The only way to do that is with Dirt from her homeland, Norway. Ash of her suppressors, the Vikings. And the blood of the witch who broke her heart, our mother Esther.”
“I gather some of us will be needed to help gather the ingredients?” Remus asked.
“Yes. We will need someone who can travel great distances quickly to travel to Norway and get the dirt and the ash.”
Remus and Tonks exchanged looks, before turning back to Freya and nodding.
“We’ll do that.” Remus told her, “We’ll need to be at least a hundred miles from the nexus before we can portkey or apparate anywhere though.”
“As will those of us who go to Mystic Falls,” Elijah added, “I would like to get there as quickly as possible and driving a hundred miles and then apparating will be quicker than anything, even flying.”
“What about the third ingredient?” Hermione asked.
Freya’s gaze turned to Harry.
“For that I will need your help.”
“Mine?”
“Yes. Yours and that of the Harvest Girls. Esther has been dead for the past thousand years, the only way to get her blood is to resurrect her and to do that, we require the Master of Death to call her back from beyond the veil, and the power of the Harvest Girls to restore her to a body.”
The four Harvest Girls all nodded in unison.
“We stand ready.” Davina intoned ritualistically.
Meanwhile shocked looks were being exchanged amongst the core-magicals. Most of them believed the Master of Death to be just a legend. Harry however was staring at Freya evenly, as if assessing her, judging the worth of her soul.
“How did you know?” he asked.
“Because it was foretold.” Branwen answered, Harry switched his gaze to her, “Two siblings who would restore balance to the world, or doom it forever. One who would walk through death and return as his avatar on earth, The Master of Death, as his sister would be the Mistress of Life, Avatar of Magic, because what is magic but the root of all life.”
Mystic Falls
Luna and Ginny looked at each other and then pulled their DA coins out in perfect unison. Quickly scanning the message from Hermione.
“What is it?” Molly asked, understanding the significance of the coins.
“Lucien Castle and Dahlia are responsible for everything. They are coming here to perform a ritual.” Luna explained, nodding to Ginny who was subtly pulling out her wand, ready to make her move. “We need to stop the ritual if we can and capture them both alive. They’re linked to Roe somehow and if they die, then likely she will as well.”
In a fluid movement, Ginny acted on the one part of Hermione’s message that Luna hadn’t passed on, raising her wand a shooting a stunning spell at Elena Gilbert. Or rather at the person pretending to be Elena Gilbert.
A moment of shocked silence followed her actions.
Then angry shouts, shocked murmurs, and a rustling of drawn wands sounded through the room. At least until Luna made a loud bang with her wand and silence once more reigned over the group.
“She also mentioned that that.” She pointed to the stunned girl on the floor, “Is not Elena Gilbert.”
“What?” Jeremy asked, looking between his sister, or who he’d though was his sister, and the blonde witch.
“Elena was kidnapped at the same time as Roe was. That is Alexia Carrow, who has been using Polyjuice Potion to masquerade as Elena. Both to spy on us and to keep us from realising Elena was missing as well.”
“Possibly to attempt to sabotage us as well.” Ginny added.
Molly and Fleur both acted in a single movement, casting their wands at the stunned witch, and binding her in ropes. Arthur, a moment later, added a gag for good measure.
“How sure are you?” Jenna asked, casting worried looks at the girl who looked like her niece, bound and unconscious on the floor.
“Absolutely certain.” Luna replied.
“Hermione wouldn’t have said anything unless she knew for sure.” Ginny added.
Sheila and Bonnie entered the room at that moment, both of them barely sparing a glance for the tied-up body on the floor. Seeming completely unsurprised by it.
“We need to move now.” Sheila said, urgency filling her voice, “The ancestors contacted me. There is a ritual starting and we need to stop it.”
“Lets go then.”
Everyone turned in the direction of the blond vampire, who had barely spoken since they’d woken him from his coffin a few days prior. They’d been shoving blood bags at him for the past few days as they explained everything that had been happening.
Finn stood up; a head taller than everyone else in the room. Eyes grave.
“I was too late to save my sister once. I will not allow it to happen again. If you are nor prepared to fight and kill, if necessary, then remain here.” His gaze passed across everyone in the room, “If you are prepared to do so, then you have five minutes to gather what you need and come back here.”
He turned to the core-magicals.
“I assume you can transport us all where we need to go.”
They all nodded, converging on Sheila and Bonnie to get a location. Cassidy sending out a message as soon as she had it. Everyone else scattered to arm themselves and returned within the five-minute time limit Finn had given them. Everyone except Jenna, who stared worriedly at Jeremy who was armed with a crossbow and a bunch of stakes, though she didn’t forbid him from going. Even John and the Sheriff had armed themselves, both prepared to join the coming fight. Caroline glanced at the gun her mom was holding.
“That won’t do much against vampires.” She warned.
“Maybe not, but I’m willing to bet it will be pretty effective against witches and werewolves, if I aim for the head and the heart.”
“It will.” Cassidy confirmed, before looking at Finn. “My cousin’s auror team will sweep in on the location from the North. We’ll apparate in and approach from the south, catching them all between us. Orders are to subdue if we can, kill if we can’t. Except for Dahlia and Lucien, who must be subdued at all costs, if we are to save Rhoswen.”
“My aunt is a thousand years old and very powerful; she will not be easy to subdue.” He warned.
“I have a plan,” Cassidy assured, him glancing at Molly who patted the bag she had picked up.
“Good. Lucien Castle will also be very powerful, and is unlikely to be easily subdued by your spells, but if you can distract him, I can take him down.”
Arthur looked at Percy, Charlie, and Fleur, who all nodded.
“That will be our job.” He turned to Ginny and Luna, “Girls, you stay with the others, protect them and take down anyone you encounter.”
Both of them nodded. All the core-magicals aside from Cassidy, were fresh from a war and understood the need to follow orders in battle. Plan made, each core-magical grabbed one or two of the others and apparated to the location they’d gotten from Sheila. A short enough distance away from the ritual site that they could reach it quickly. Far enough away that they weren’t apparating on top of anyone.
They spread out and began to walk in the right direction, it was less than a minute before they met with the first of Lucien and Dahlia’s minions.
The battle had begun.
Roe
Roe shivered and wrapped her arms around her waist as storm clouds gathered and a strong wind began to whip around the marker stones, Markos and Silas said were protecting her. Inside the circle was calm, outside the circle was a different story. Enzo took of his jacket and gently placed it over Roe’s shoulders, as the two witches looked at the world beyond the stones and exchanged worried glances.
“What is it?” Roe asked, “What’s happening?”
“It seems Dahlia and Lucien are attempting to put their plan into action.” Silas responded, a worried frown marring his face.
“What is there plan? You never actually said?”
“We weren’t sure to start with. We were getting a lot of different information. Lucien Castle set a rather convoluted plan in motion in order to keep your family distracted. We initially believed that he was planning on killing you again, and having his witches ritually bind your soul beyond the veil, never to be reincarnated.”
“That turned out to be a lie, he used to set of a war within New Orleans, and draw your siblings attention there so that he could carry out his true goal.” Markos continued the explanation.
“Which is what?”
“To become an upgraded version of an Original. Stronger than even Niklaus is. That’s why Dahlia needed to link the three of you together.”
“In your first life, Esther channelled your magic to perform the spell that turned her children into vampires. To recreate the spell Dahlia needed to do the same, but the only way she could do that was by linking the three of you together.”
“So, she’s channelling my power right now in an attempt to make Lucien a more powerful vampire than any other?”
Silas and Markos exchanged looks again.
“Yes,” Silas waved a hand at the hurricane that was currently whirling around the outside of the stones, in stark contrast to the pure calm within. “That’s what all this is.”
“We can’t stop her, can we?”
“We can’t. Your family can, and they’re working on it, I’m sure.”
“What happens if they fail? If Dahlia completes the ritual and Lucien becomes the strongest vampire in the world?”
“We can protect you now, because our covens have your body and Dahlia is distracted by the ritual. Should she complete it she would be free to return her attention to securing you and eventually she would find you and she would have the power and the proximity to force your soul back into your body and overwhelm your will.” Markos answered.
Roe nodded. Of course, she wasn’t completely safe here. She’d never been completely safe anywhere. No matter how much people had tried to convince her she was, time had always proved them wrong. Why would this be any different.
“Have faith, lovely. You have a lot of people fighting for you. Dahlia and Lucien don’t stand a chance.”
Mystic Falls
It was like most battles, a confusing mess where chaos reigned, and blood stained the ground. Adrenaline coursed through their veins and their hearts pounded with fear and fury, driving them to clash with one enemy after another. They had no time to rest, no time to think, only to survive the relentless onslaught. And like most battles it wasn’t until after it was over, and the dust had settled that they were able to talk and make sense of the order of events. When Elijah, Kol, and the rest of their group arrived in Mystic Falls, to help, they were too late. The battle had already been won.