Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Lizzie stared out at the horizon wondering where everything went wrong. The chaos of everything that had happened in such a small amount of time hasn't seemed to set in yet.

On one side of things, she was now officially 18 years old. Officially an adult, which was something she'd been looking forward to for so long. But without Josie, it wasn't the same.

On the other, the Necromancer was finally dead after many failed attempts.

But so was Josie, who died in the attempt to defeat him the first time. All because of a miscalculation.

Lizzie felt a bitter smile appear on her face. Losing Josie had destroyed them all, but it also gave them the strength to win. But was it worth it?

When Josie died, Lizzie felt like the last part of herself that was stable collapsed.

It was like she didn't know who she was anymore. And her dad was of no help. All he did nowadays was get blackout drunk.

Not that Lizzie could blame him. He lost his daughter, but Lizzie still needed her dad. Maybe that was why she was going off the rails?

And let's not forget the fact that Lizzie had a ton of blood on her hands from all the fights against the Necromancer but she couldn't find it in herself to care.

They were nothing to her...

They stood in her way of revenge and she couldn't stand for that.

A part of her knew that there was something wrong with her but when wasn't there?

She remembered the conversation she overheard of Emma talking to her dad.

Ms. Tig had apparently been watching her very closely, which let's be real, she was stalking her.

Anyways, apparently, when Lizzie lost her sister, something in her mind broke and she essentially turned off her emotions as a way to cope.

Wasn't that wonderful?

Lizzie didn't fucking know what that meant. How can someone turn their emotions off? Since when was that a thing? Sure, vampires could do it but she wasn't a vampire.

From what she could understand, the last bit of empathy she had left said peace out.

Also, Lizzie's so-called dark side was now very apparent.

And to quote Ms. Tig's diagnosis, "Lizzie finds causing pain in others to be an outlet or release ". Although she wanted to, Lizzie couldn't deny that.

Seeing as barely a week ago, Lizzie snapped Alyssa Chang's arm for simply mentioning Josie and the pain she caused did make her feel better.

And could anyone really blame her? It was like watching the person you despise most, getting what they deserve.

To the relief of the other, Hope had been there to calm her down before she did something far worse. Like ending her miserable existence.

Speaking of Hope. It was obvious that she was struggling with everything that had happened.

Not that Lizzie could blame her. Hope lost Landon - Malivore's a bitch and once the two were no longer attached - Landon was dead. This all happened right after Josie was killed, so Hope was not having a good time.

Let's also not forget Hope's hero complex that was devastated that she couldn't protect Josie or Landon. This, of course, led to her attaching herself at the hip to Lizzie herself.

Most likely because she was terrified that she wouldn't be able to protect her as well.

Lizzie sighed, breathing in the fresh air.

A part of her wondered what was going to come in the future.

There would be no merge. So that was no longer an issue. God, that sounded morbid.

'Yay, my sister is dead. Now I don't have to worry about dying in the merge!' Lizzie thought, sarcastically.

What would her life be now? Who the hell knows. Would she become a heretic like her dear uncle?

It would allow her to stay with Hope, once she activated her vampire side. But what would she become if she turned? A monster?

Then again, she kind of already was one.

And while Lizzie knew that this wasn't what her sister wanted for her, she had always been far too much like her uncle for her own good.

She knew that. Her parents knew that. Hell, even Josie and Hope knew that.

It was written in her DNA in a way it wasn't for Josie.

Sure, Josie had a dark side but Josie, in the end, was good.

All the things Josie did was because of the black magic and the reason she even used that type of magic were good reasons.

Like when she blasted the Oni out of her. Or when she broke the sandclock, so that they could escape the prison world that their uncle almost killed them in by breaking his connection to it.

Lizzie looked down at her hands. She started playing with her fingers distractedly as her thoughts turned to her dear-not-so-dead-but-also-very-psychotic-uncle.

In all honesty, her feelings involving him were very messed up and confused. He had done so many messed up things, but at the same time, their similarities always made themselves clear to her.

Besides, he had actually saved her life after her sister died. Shocking, right?

Her uncle, who had tried to kill her multiple times, had saved her life. There was an irony there.

-  A few months ago -

Lizzie and Josie were running with no direction in mind, except for far away from where they had just been.

Their plan to kill the Necromancer had completely failed. And if they wanted to survive they had to get as far away as possible from his home base.

They ran through the trees, dodging spells that were coming at them from behind.

Why did this feel very Deathly Hallows?

Lizzie noticed out of the corner of her eye that Josie was slowing. Shit.

She could feel herself getting tired as well as her legs burning. The only thing keeping her going was the adrenaline.

They were fucked.

Suddenly, someone stepped into their path causing them both to skid to a halt. It was some random vampire that was under the Necromancer's control.

And the people that were behind them finally appeared and formed a circle around them. Lizzie glanced at her sister and their eyes met.

Lizzie could see that Josie's eyes were full of resignation.

They weren't getting out of this. Especially since they were both very low on magic.

The twins turned so they were back to back.

If they were going down, then they were going to bring as many of them down with them as they could.

Just as Lizzie was about to cast a spell, something struck into them both and they were sent flying, both in opposite directions.

Lizzie slammed into a rock, hitting her head in the process.

A blinding pain erupted in her head and she felt blood begin to trickle down her face.

"Fuck," She groaned under her breath.

She felt like her head was splitting open.

She could barely register what was going on. It was like everything had gone silent, except for the ringing in her ears. Did she have a concussion?

But that thought process was lost on her as she heard her sister cry out.

She opened her eyes blurrily and stared out through slanted eyes.

She could see the blurred images of figures around. One in particular getting larger as they came towards her.

The figure knelt down in front of her, and familiar blue eyes stared at her. Huh? Why were they familiar?

She blinked up at the figure that she was slowly starting to realize was a young man in his twenties who had a beard.

"Who the fuck are you?" Lizzie asked, slurredly.

"Shhh," He whispered, putting a finger over his lips.

Lizzie tried to figure out why the fuck she should listen to him and almost argued but when the raging pain in her head seemed to get worse, it prevented her from disagreeing.

The man glanced up as the Necromancer entered the clearing.

"Great, Necrodicks arrived," Lizzie muttered to herself. "Where's my bloody knife when I need it?"

The man snorted slightly in amusement, as Lizzie blinked at herself in confusion.

"And when the bloody hell did I turn British?" Lizzie wondered aloud.

Lizzie could barely make out the man raising his eyebrows in silent laughter.

"Someone has a concussion," He said, voice low.

"No," Lizzie said, denial clear on her face as she shook her head, which she quickly regretted as she felt like her entire head was spinning right after.

Her eyes flickered back to the blurry dude, who was looking at her with curiosity.

"I'm just crazy...which...somehow turned me British?" Lizzie's brow furrowed in confusion at her own words. That...so did not make sense...

The man narrowed his eyes in confusion but shook his head and glanced at the Necromancer, who was saying something that Lizzie couldn't make out.

He looked back at Lizzie and reached for her, grabbing her from under her arms. He then shifted her so that she was resting slightly against him, in a sitting position.

They were both now turned towards the Necromancer who was waving his hands around like a lunatic.

The Necromancer looked at Lizzie and surprisingly noticed her concussed state and said something to the man that was preventing her from falling over onto her face.

The man muttered something under his breath and Lizzie's vision cleared. But the pain in her head was still very much there.

Lizzie blinked a few times and looked around.

Her eyes went to her sister that was being held against a tree by her throat by some asshole. And that was when Lizzie noticed something very peculiar.

Josie was staring at Lizzie in horror - actually no, not at Lizzie - but at the man holding her up.

Oh shit...was she missing something? Who was he?

A part of her wanted to look at him but another was telling her that she didn't want to know.

"Ow..." And that was the only thing she said. Intelligent right?

Josie shot Lizzie an exasperated look. And Lizzie could tell that Josie would be facepalming if she could.

"Now, that you are both coherent-" The Necromancer started.

But Lizzie was in a bad mood, so of course, she had to say something.

"Hey, your majesty?" Lizzie called mockingly. "I get you're overcompensating, but do you have to be dramatic about it?"

The Necromancer stared at Lizzie in confusion and not comprehending what she was saying.

Lizzie could feel both Josie and the unknown dude watching her. And then a mischievous smirk crept onto her face.

"Oh no..." Josie banged her head against the tree, looking like she was done with the world.

"I mean seriously, I get that you and Malivore have this whole daddy kink thing going on - no shame to that - but you're not fooling anybody," Then Lizzie gave a mock-sympathy look. "Just accept that you're small."

The man behind her choked on his own laugh, while Josie looked like she wanted to kill herself or burst out laughing.

Which were two very different reactions, that had a hilarious result of Josie's face twisting into a deadpan that somehow had a little bit of a pursed-lip smile.

It was weird and soo Josie.

Lizzie glanced back at The Necromancer as his face twisted angrily.

"Something wrong?" Lizzie asked, ever-so innocently.

The Necromancer's face changed as it became a sneer.

"How dare you? You pathetic little insolent brat - insulting ME. THE NECRO-"

Lizzie yawned loudly, and the Necromancer stopped to stare at her, offended by her audacity.

"That's nice, you wanna keep proving my point or just admit your truth," Lizzie said, blinking as if she was bored. "No shame I swear. Just go back to being Malivore's bitch."

"You truly believe I will let you two meddling brats get in my way...no..no..no," The Necromancer's face darkened as he came to a decision.

Lizzie felt her unease rise. He turned to the person holding Josie against the tree.

"Kill her," He ordered and Lizzie's eyes widened in shock. The man holding Josie's throat flick his wrist - snap.

Lizzie opened her mouth but nothing came out. She felt light-headed. There was a sense of pain everywhere.

Her neck ached.

For a split moment, it felt like she wasn't in her own body.

Then, she fell forward, dimly realizing someone was grabbing her to prevent her from collapsing.

Her hands dug into the grass.

Her mind felt like it was melting and tearing all at once. She couldn't think, it was like needles were slicing her brain apart.

Tears sprang to her eyes.

Her heart felt like it had been torn from her chest even as she could hear the pounding on her heart in her ears.

It was like she couldn't breathe - air wasn't entering her lungs. Was she having a panic attack?

Her ears were ringing and she couldn't focus. What was happening? It was like she was trapped in her own mind.

The only thing she recognized was a sense of loss. There was rage with a strange and eerie calm.

Her sister was-

The weight on her chest seemed to ease suddenly as everything tingled. Then it turned to pins and needles.

It was gone. Her magical connection to her twin had snapped.

She couldn't feel her. Josie was dead.

The scream was out of her mouth before she could stop it.

Everything around her was forced back except for the person holding her.

Trees were torn from their roots, collapsing into the fallen people. Lightning flashed across the sky from out of nowhere. And fire erupted, spreading across the grass, burning everything in its path.

Screams echoed around her as people burned yet Lizzie heard nothing.

She felt like she was in a bubble. It was a strange floating sensation. She felt empty.

Her other half was gone. The person that would always mean the most to her was dead.

Tears streamed down her face, as the war her magic raged around her, calmed with the dispersal of the last of her magic.

Lizzie couldn't move. She felt frozen in time. She couldn't feel her. She couldn't feel Josie. Her twin.

Their bond was in tatters. Josie was gone

She would never lose her virginity. She would never see their eighteenth birthday or their twenty-first. She would never-

Lizzie's hands were shaking as the tears left trails down her face.

She was in shock, a small part of herself recognized. It happened so quickly.

Josie was always the stronger twin yet she had been killed like she was nothing.

Her rage soared as a part of her recognized the sound of yelling and people approaching.

Maybe they would kill her? She wasn't sure that she would fight them if they did. She didn't think she would be able to find the will to live even if she wanted to.

Dimly she noted that she was being picked up and carried away. But she couldn't bring herself to care.

The wind blew past her as she was sped away at vampire speed.

She felt herself be set on a wooden floor but Lizzie didn't even try to figure out what was happening.

She didn't care. And, in all honesty, she wanted to die.

Vaguely she saw the person speed away and return sometime later, carrying a body.

Lizzie snapped into awareness.

It was the man. The same one who had healed her from the concussion and in his arms was Josie.

Lizzie shot to her feet and ran over to where he laid her down. She fell to her knees next to her sister.

Lizzie looked down at her sister. Her eyes were closed.

Josie looked like she was sleeping. She looked so peaceful. But Lizzie couldn't feel her.

Where Josie used to shine so brightly in her mind was now a cold and unforgiving void. A constant reminder of what she lost.

Lizzie reached for her hand and the second it met, she flinched away.

She was cold. Her sister was gone. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. Josie should still be here.

They should be talking about boys and girls while they study for their next History of the Supernatural quiz.

They should be worrying about the merge and how to avoid it. 'To turn or not to turn' was the question they would ask each other.

What college they were going to go to or what they wanted to do as an adult. All these things and so much more.

Lizzie would never be able to address the things left unsaid.

She would never be able to apologize for being an overbearing and possessive sister. She would never be able to thank her for standing by her even as Lizzie treated her like shit.

There was so much she needed to say - so much Josie needed to hear.

Lizzie felt an overwhelming sense of rage begin to take root.

They were all going to pay. If the Necromancer thought that he could get away with this, he was sorely mistaken. She would burn him alive. And all his minions with him

Lizzie felt a hand on her shoulder and her eyes snapped up to meet the very familiar eyes.

Suddenly, Lizzie was struck with why they were familiar. They were her eyes.

Silently, Lizzie realized what this man was. A vampire and a witch. Heretic.

There was only one heretic that she knew of.

Malachai Parker. But he was dead right? Unless he was brought back to life.

"Uncle Kai..." Lizzie whispered.

Kai cocked his head, observing his broken niece.

"Lizzie..."

"Lizzie!" Hope's voice called, breaking Lizzie from the memory.

She glanced back, before looking out at the horizon one last time. Lizzie wished she could begin again and fix everything that happened. Everything that went wrong.

Lizzie turned around, not noticing the shooting star that shot across the sky at the last moment

She walked back to the school, and over to where Hope was waiting for her.

Hope held out her arm and Lizzie linked hers with it.

"Can I sleep in your room tonight?" Hope asked, looking hopeful.

"Sure, as long as you don't shed," Lizzie agreed. Hope rolled her eyes and the two headed to bed.

Chapter Text

Lizzie slowly opened her eyes tiredly as she felt to her right for Hope, but all her hand came in contact with was the blanket.

Lizzie paused and looked over, only to see that Hope was nowhere to be seen.

Lizzie's eyebrows furrowed and she sat up, looking around the room in confusion.

Something was different, wrong even.

Her eyes went over to her sister's old bed and paused as she noticed a sleeping brunette.

And that wasn't the only thing that caught her attention.

She could feel Josie. Lizzie froze in disbelief. And while it wasn't the same as before, it was still her.

The bond that Lizzie was used to being in tatters was now completely repaired, except for a few scars, a reminder of what was lost.

This was impossible.

Lizzie put her hand over her mouth as she processed this. She looked around the room, noticing slight differences all over the room.

Was she dreaming? Hallucinating? Or did someone curse her?

Lizzie spotted her phone plugged in on her nightstand and reached over to grab it. When she tapped the screen, she paused, seeing the month.

January?

Lizzie unlocked her phone - Thank god for face ID, she had no fucking clue what her old password was - and looked at the year.

2030?

That was over 2 years ago. What the actual fuck? Did she somehow time travel? That wasn't possible, was it?

Sure, there was a lot that she didn't know about magic but Lizzie would think she would be aware of time travel if it was a thing.

Lizzie looked over at her 'sister'.

If this was true and not a hallucination, then that was Josie. A very alive and healthy Josie.

Lizzie pushed back the covers and ran to the bathroom, locking the door behind her.

Her hands were trembling.

What the hell should she do? How does time travel even work? Was it like the Avengers? Or Back to the Future? Hot Tub Time Machine?

Does changing one thing, change everything? Like the butterfly effect or something?

Was it Harry Potter style - no, it obviously wasn't that seeing as there weren't two versions of her running around right now.

So that means she must have taken over her past self's body? Did that mean her past self was in her body or was she wiped from existence?

If her past self no longer existed, does that mean she can never go back?

Would she never see her Hope again or her mom or dad? But at the same time, she had her sister back. Was that worth losing everyone else?

The old Lizzie - the one she seemed to have taken over - would say yes, but Lizzie wasn't too sure.

The people she grew close to, would never have the memories that they went through together, yet she could try and fix all the shit that went wrong.

Josie wouldn't have to die. Landon wouldn't either.

Lizzie could prepare for the Necromancer and find a way to stop him and Malivore, all on her own. But could she really do it alone? Could anyone?

The biggest problem she was facing was how the fuck did time travel actually work?

Did the fact that she was here completely destroy her universe? Or is it co-existing along with this one?

She had no clue, especially since time travel was such a diverse thing. How was she supposed to know how it worked?

What if telling people you went back in time, caused the fabric of time to collapse or something?

Lizzie sat on the toilet with her head in her hands.

What if she started off not telling anyone, that way she could get a feel of how time travel worked.

For example, if she changed one tiny thing, her memories might shift immediately causing her to forget stuff.

If so, that means it was cause and effect, and telling others she time traveled would probably have some massive consequences.

Although, she would probably have to write down what actually happened so that she would know if anything changed but would the stuff she wrote down disappear too?

And if it does change it though, will she get new memories? Or will she have no clue how the changes she was making would affect the future?

God, this was fucking stressful.

Lizzie sat up straight in realization. Shit. She would have to pretend like she had complete emotional capacity.

At least, she was a great liar. But could she fake empathy? Eh, people already thought she didn't have empathy so it would be that much of a problem if she slipped up.

Lizzie ran a hand down her face with a sigh.

She looked back down at her phone as a text came through from her dad.

Dad

Girls

Hope, and I picked up a young werewolf, named Rafael, who may be attending the school. Please be ready to give him the tour when we arrive.

Lizzie fought the urge to groan, of course this was the day Raf and Landon arrived.

Lizzie had been hoping she would have at least a week to prepare for all the upcoming shit.

She frowned slightly as she tried to think about what to do next.

Her dad was going to try and send Landon away which Lizzie couldn't allow. Whether she liked it or not, Landon belonged at the school.

But how could she convince her dad to allow him to stay?

If her dad had MG try and compel him, it would fail but they would assume it was vervain like last time. Or Lizzie could 'accidentally' siphon him, which would reveal to her dad that he was supernatural.

But her dad would probably lock him up because to her dad, he might be a threat.

Lizzie snorted. As if hobbit could ever be a threat. He was practically a puppy.

Lizzie frowned thoughtfully. Hipster puppy or hipster bird ?

Lizzie shook her head - focus Lizzie - and stood up.

She went to the mirror and splashed water on her face, trying to clear her head.

"Lizzie?" Lizzie heard Josie call out concerned.

Lizzie took a deep breath and went back to their shared room.

When she entered, Josie looked up from where she was looking at her phone on her bed with a smile that quickly disappeared as she noticed the weird look on Lizzie's face.

"Are you okay?" Josie asked, sitting up. Lizzie gave a half smile as she met her sister's eyes. For a brief moment, it felt like her emotions were back.

And with that, all self-control was lost as she rushed forward, jumping on Josie's bed and pulled her into a tight hug.

"Liz?" Josie's voice came out muffled from where her head was pressed.

Lizzie just shook her head, holding her sister closer. Fuck, she missed this.

No matter what happened, she would always care about Josie. It didn't matter how psycho she could go, nothing would change how she felt about her twin.

"Hey, hey. You don't have to speak. It's okay," Josie whispered and she hugged Lizzie back, intuitively sensing that her sister really needed this.

Josie rubbed her hands up and down Lizzie's back, the two taking comfort from one another. Lizzie buried her head into Josie's shoulder.

"Liz, you have to tell me what's wrong, please," Josie said, sounding so fucking worried.

It made Lizzie want to laugh. She couldn't tell her what was wrong, not when it was literally everything.

Lizzie pulled back and Josie stared at her sister in worry that was fixed with confusion.

"I had a dream, Jo," Lizzie said after a moment. Her breath stuttered slightly, as she continued. "I watched you die."

Josie's eyes widened in shock. "It's not real. I'm right here. Nothing happened I promise," Josie said, trying to reassure her but Lizzie just shook her head.

"You don't understand, it wasn't a normal dream," Lizzie said, biting her lip. "It felt like a vision. I didn't just see you die, I felt it. It felt like I was dying."

Josie froze and her brain began working a mile a minute. "A vision?"

Lizzie nodded, as tears started to fall from her eyes once again.

"Ok," Josie breathed out, looking a little worried now. "What do you remember from the vision? Anything that can help us?"

"It was a few years from now..." Lizzie's eyes went distant as she remembered Josie's dead body.

Josie swallowed thickly. "Well, that means we have time to stop it from happening," She said, determined.

Lizzie's eyes snapped to Josie's. "Yeah," Lizzie said, agreeing with a nod.

"Are you okay, Liz?" Josie asked, softly.

"No..." Lizzie admitted, causing Josie to look surprised.

Lizzie knew why, her past self typically tried to put on a false appearance because if people thought she was having problems, they started to worry that she might have an episode.

"I just - it was a wake-up call. That we aren't as strong as I liked to think and that it would be so easy for one of us to just..." She trailed off, staring at her hands.

"I understand. I can't imagine what it would feel like to see and feel you die," Josie said, voice full of understanding. Josie reached out and took Lizzie's hand in her own. "It's going to be okay. I promise."

"How can you promise something like that?" Lizzie asked, voice barely above a whisper.

Lizzie was already fucking broken from losing her the first time, if it happened a second time? She didn't know what would happen.

"Because we have each other and as long as we have that, we can do anything we put our minds to," Josie said with an encouraging smile.

Lizzie squeezed Josie's hand in thanks. "Jo?"

"Yeah, Lizzie?" Josie said, looking at her with slight curiosity.

"I'm sorry," Lizzie said, staring at Josie earnestly.

And Josie's mouth dropped in shock. After all, Lizzie never apologized. Ever.

"What - why? You don't need to apologize for being upset, Lizzie," Josie misinterpreted.

"No," Lizzie shook her head. "I'm sorry for every time I've made you feel less than you are and those times I made you feel like you had to do whatever I wanted and the times I made you choose between me or someone else and the biggest thing I'm sorry for, is the fact that I'm a terrible sister."

"Lizzie, you're not a terrible sister. Where is this coming from?" Josie asked, confused but also uncertain.

"Yes, I am," Lizzie smiled bitterly, holding up a hand to prevent Josie from saying anything. "I'm selfish. I never ask what you want to do or if there is something you would prefer to do. I always expect you to do what I want, which was never fair to you. I've hurt you in so many ways and you just took it and stood by me. And you never deserved the way I treated you."

Josie was staring at Lizzie with tears in her eyes. "I...it's okay," She whispered.

"No, it's not. I've made your life so hard in so many ways, while you always do what you can to help me and protect me. So I want to say I'm so sorry and thank you, for being the best sister I could ask for," Lizzie said, ignoring the tingle of discomfort at the emotional situation.

Josie swallowed and pulled Lizzie into a hug. "Thank you for apologizing but you're wrong.."

"How?" Lizzie said, confused.

"You're an amazing sister. You just proved that right now," Josie said, tightening her arms. "I love you"

"I love you too," Lizzie replied. And she always would.

The two girls sat like that for god knows how long, when they felt the bed vibrate because of Josie's and Lizzie's phones.

They pulled away from each other and Josie looked at her phone.

"It's dad. The brother to the werewolf is human," Josie said, after reading the text. "Dad's going to have MG compel him to forget everything. Also their both orphans - their foster parents are who they were staying with."

Instantly, Lizzie recognized that this was her chance to get Josie on her side. Now, how to convince her that Landon should stay?

"Wait, so we're giving one of them a home, while we're sending the other away into the world with nothing except the clothing on his back?" Lizzie asked, giving Josie a confused look.

Josie paused. "I guess? Can't he just go back to a foster home or something?" Josie wondered.

"Without his brother, who he is probably very close with? Aren't foster homes oftentimes terrible places?" Lizzie asked, frowning.

"You have a good point but it's not like we can let the brother stay, he's human. It's too dangerous. Unless there's was way to make it less dangerous for him, he can't stay." Josie said but she was frowning now.

"Dad's human," Lizzie said pointedly.

"Yeah, but dad was a vampire hunter, so he's trained in fighting supernatural creatures. This guy is most likely not," Josie argued. But Lizzie could tell Josie was starting to agree with her.

Lizzie thought for a moment before looking at her sister in 'realization'.

"Then we can train him. That way he can protect himself and stay with his brother," She said, looking excited.

"Lizzie, training takes time that dad doesn't have," Josie said, shaking her head.

Please, if he had time to train Hope, he had time to train Landon but that didn't change the fact that he wouldn't do. Only Hope got special treatment.

"Then we can train him. Dad was training us before he started training with Hope. We'll need to refresh ourselves but we could do it. Besides, I was thinking about getting into training again. You never know what could happen. What if we're in a situation we don't have anything to siphon from? We would be screwed," Lizzie said, staring at her sister in hope.

"That isn't a bad idea but there is still the problem that it takes time to learn. Before that, he'll be a sitting duck," Josie said, although her eyes were narrowed in consideration.

"Then we put him and his brother in the same room. And we can have the people we trust - that have self-control - protect him during this time," Lizzie said, smirking.

Josie frowned. "That's a lot of time that they would have to stay with him. No one would volunteer for that."

Shit, she was losing her.

"Then I will," Lizzie said, rolling her eyes. "He can go between my classes and his brother's ones. And he'll be under my supervision."

"You would do that? Why?" Josie asked in confusion. Lizzie noticed a little bit of suspicion in her eyes.

Time for a teeny bit of manipulation. Thank you, uncle, for the lying gene.

"I want to do it because I can't imagine what it would be like if you and I were separated. It would be an utter nightmare. And after that vision, I just don't want to separate brothers that probably need each other. Especially with how foster care is," Lizzie said, looking at her hands with a pained look.

Sorry, Jo but this needed to be done.

Josie's eyes softened. "Okay, I'll help you convince dad."

Lizzie looked up and smiled. "Thanks, Jo."

"I got your back," Josie said, holding out a pinky.

Lizzie intertwined hers with Josie's. "Always."

Chapter Text

The twins got ready for the day as they discussed how to convince their dad to allow Landon to stay. Once they were ready, they headed to the kitchens to grab some breakfast.

After that, they started walking to where they were supposed to meet their dad.

As they walked the hallways, passing familiar faces as they went, Lizzie's mind kept flashing to things that had yet to come.

The people who were going to die. A school that became a base of operations.

A place that was once a safe haven but then became a place to discuss strategy. As well as ways to lessen the loss of lives in the upcoming battle compared to the last.

As if the lives of those that died were statistics. And that each and every life didn't hold the same amount of value when they did.

Lizzie may not value human life that much anymore but she did value the supernaturals, mainly the schools.

Because to quote Josie's words, ' This school is family '. Sure, she'd choose Josie and Hope over everyone else but that didn't mean she wasn't willing to protect the other students.

And Lizzie knew it killed her dad that the lives of his students were nothing but numbers. With some lives having more value than others.

Sure it wasn't intentional, but in the end, the vamps and the witches were far more important and useful in the battles, in comparison to the wolves, who were only just stronger than the average human.

But that didn't make it right.

And because of this whole thought process, Lizzie was far quieter than she usually was, which Josie picked up on.

"Lizzie?" Josie nudged Lizzie softly, her brown eyes full of concern. She didn't know all the facts about the vision Lizzie had but the one thing she did know was that her sister needed her and that was enough. "We can skip today if you want?"

"No," Lizzie said, glancing at her twin.

Today was far too important. Lizzie could think about everything later with a potential breakdown, but for now, she had to ensure that mop-head wasn't going anywhere.

"It's nothing, just feeling down is all," Lizzie said, shaking her head.

"Hey, it's understandable," Josie said. Lizzie could hear the sympathy in her voice. "If you want to take a break at any point let me know, I'll cover."

"Thanks," Lizzie said with a sigh. "But I’ll be okay, I just need to sort my thoughts, but not right now because I am not in the mood for a headache."

"Ok, If you're sure, " Josie looked down at her phone. "Dad's here."

"Shall we say hello to the new recruits, dearest-sister?" Lizzie asked, holding out her left arm. She plastered a fake smile on her face as she watched as her sister nodded.

"We shall," Josie said, grinning as she linked her arm through Lizzie's.

The twins exited the school, and Lizzie barely kept herself from freezing as she spotted Landon (AKA bird boy), Rafael (AKA Mr. tool) —Sorry but she's allowed to still be pissed that he had sex with her then said it meant nothing-- and last but not least, her dad (AKA drunkard).

Lizzie knew she had to be nice to her dad but that didn't mean it wasn't going to be difficult. And could anyone really blame her, he practically abandoned her after Josie died.

In the few months after her death, her dad talked to her a total of 4 times. And each of those times was Lizzie reaching out to him, not the other way around.

He had acted like he was the only one who was dealing with her death as if Josie wasn't her literal twin.

Sorry, but Lizzie couldn't forgive that easily. She needed him and he wasn't there.

If it weren't for her mom and Hope, Lizzie might have gone completely off the rails, maybe he would care then.

Lizzie felt her expression tighten, but she kept the fake smile on her face.

The twins walked right up to the boys and they stared at them with curiosity.

"Welcome to The Salvatore School," Lizzie greeted, eyes flickering to her dad off to the side. "We're your tour guides."

"I'm Josie," Josie introduced herself.

"I'm Lizzie," Lizzie said next as Landon looked between them with wide eyes, which made Lizzie want to laugh at his innocence. "Sisters"

"Twins," Josie continued, smiling at Lizzie.

"Fraternal, obvs," Lizzie said with a look of 'no duh'.

"Rafael, why don't you go ahead with the girls while I talk to Landon," Alaric said, looking between them all.

Lizzie and Josie exchanged a quick look.

Lizzie turned to her dad quickly. "Actually dad, why doesn't Rafael go with Josie, and I come with you?" Lizzi suggested with a hopeful grin on her face.

Hope walked over at that moment, catching the words Lizzie just said and gave her a confused look.

"Girls?" Hope greeted but she looked very confused, unlike the last time this happened.

"Hope," They greeted back.

Lizzie looked back at her dad, who was staring at Lizzie with worry.

"Elizabeth, why do you want to come?" He asked, warily.

"Me and Josie came up with a fabulous idea that we think you should consider for them," Lizzie said, nodding to the brothers, who were staring at Lizzie in confusion.

Alaric considered her before sighing. "Very well."

"Great," Lizzie smiled, then turned to her sister. "See you later?"

Josie smiled, pleased that their plan was working. "Definitely."

Josie linked arms with Rafael and pulled him away while Lizzie followed her dad to his office with Hope and Landon following.

The group was walking past students that were hanging out in the main area. Lizzie had moved so that she was standing next to Landon, who looked very confused by her in general.

"I'm curious, Landon-" Alaric cut off himself to tell a student who was running past them to slow down. And Landon was looking at everyone with uncertainty in his eyes.

"Relax, they can sense your fear," Lizzie said warningly. She pretended to be serious as he turned to her with wide eyes.

"Really?"

"No, well, kind of. Only some of them can but they don't care," Lizzie answered with a grin.

"Who are the ones that can?" Landon asked, curiously.

Lizzie looked at him, ignoring Hope who kept glancing back at her.  Probably surprised that Lizzie was actually acting civil, instead of condescending, toward someone.

"The vamps and the wolves can if they learn how to understand how emotions smell, although fear is a rather obvious one," Lizzie said, glancing around at the students.

Landon seemed confused by her word choice which Lizzie couldn't exactly blame him for. After all, he was probably still in disbelief that the supernatural existed. Lizzie looked toward her dad and noticed that he was waiting for her to finish talking but she decided to ignore him for now.

"They can smell fear? That's..." Landon trailed off, trying to think of a good word.

"Creepy, weird? Yeah," Lizzie nodded. "Some witches can sense emotions, Jedi style."

Lizzie saw Landon stop short at those words.

Yep, plan A was fairing well.

Lizzie was what some would call a nerd' - cue gag - but no one was allowed to know that. The only person that had a slight idea of that was MG, but otherwise, she had kept it well hidden.

However, for her plan to work, she needed Landon to 'like' her, and the only way she could think of was to connect with his geeky side.

"You watch Star Wars?" Landon asked with a grin, looking every bit the nerdy hipster he was.

Part 1 of plan A was in motion - in the middle of the main area of the school - did they seriously stop? Why wasn't her dad telling her that they needed to keep going?

Lizzie spared a look in his direction and saw Hope and him staring at her in shock.

Huh, so that's why. Also, She forgot they could hear everything she had said. And so could any vampire in the near vicinity.

Fuck.

Well, if anyone said anything, she could just set them on fire or pop all the blood vessels in their heads. Or kill them - actually, wait, can't do that one.

That's just asking for her dad to send her into the prison world. And if someone asked Lizzie if she thought her dad would send her into a prison world.

She would say, 'abso- fucking -lutely'.

Wait, backtrack. That reminded her, what was she going to do about her psychotic uncle? What could she do?

Ugh, she was not about to go down that rabbit hole, it was a headache waiting to happen.

She turned her attention back to bird boy. What was it that he asked? Oh, right. Star Wars. How to answer?

"Shhh, not so loud, I have a reputation to uphold but...yes, I do," Lizzie finally replied. Hopefully, that long and most likely awkward pause went unnoticed.

Then, she shot him a pointed look. "Also, hobbit? If I hear you telling anyone I'm a closet nerd, I will wipe you from existence, Thanos style. Understand?"

Landon nodded slightly with a grin. "Yeah, got it. My lips are sealed." He had a serious look on his face as he said that. "Who's your favorite character from the original franchise?" He asked, immediately after.

"Do you even need to ask? Leia, of course. She's a strong, independent woman that needs no man and is completely badass," Lizzie answered. "Also, she's a twin, which is a plus."

"That's a good choice. They're all my favorites but if I had to choose, I would pick Luke," Landon said, his eyes flickering around the room. "He's a Jedi, which is awesome and he's a cool person all around."

After those words, her dad decided to cut into their discussion.

"Landon? Real quick question, were you aware of us when you lived in Mystic Falls?" He asked, and started walking again.

The rest of them followed.

"Uh, I knew Hope went to some fancy boarding school," Landon answered, looking around. "People in town said it was for troubled rich kids. I see the rich part is true."

"Troubled is too," Lizzie cut in with a smirk.

Landon looked over at her with a raised eyebrow.

"I'll tell you some other time." She said as they kept walking.

Landon then noticed some of the younger kids practicing magic and froze as he stared in shock.

"Keep it moving, hobbit," Lizzie muttered, nudging him with her arm causing him to flinch away, which caused Lizzie to freeze as she tried to process why he would do that.

And the only word that appeared in her head was this one. Abuse .

Was Landon abused? If so, why wasn't she aware of this? There was a sinking feeling in her gut. And now she felt a little bad for him - crap .

Lizzie shook her head and kept moving. They entered her dad's office.

"No one in Mystic Falls knows much about us," Alaric said as he took off his jacket, hanging it up once it was off. "We blend in just enough."

Lizzie walked over to his desk and leaned against it, Hope surprisingly stood beside her.

"Participate, contribute just enough," Alaric said, turning around. "Keeps people from asking too many questions."

Landon looked at him, looking like he had a lot of questions he wanted to ask.

"What is there to know exactly?" Landon asked.

Her dad stopped next to his desk and glanced at Hope and her.

"Well, I used to have a speech prepared, carefully unpeeling the layers of mystical history, but it turns out most people have read Harry Potter," Alaric answered Landon.

Harry Potter? Seriously? That's his best explanation?

"Ok, seriously, dad? Harry Potter? That's a terrible example, let's be real," Lizzie interrupted, causing them all to look at her. Her dad and Hope with surprise, while Landon just looked confused.

Lizzie focused on Landon, ignoring the others. "Think X-Men. This school is more like 'Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters'. We have three main species. Vampires, werewolves, and witches, all of which I mentioned earlier. There may be other supernatural creatures out there but we haven't met them yet."

Lizzie glanced at her dad and Hope as she continued. "This school is a safe haven and allows us supernaturals to be ourselves. There are some of us that are not the typical creatures, like Hope and me for example."

Hope looked surprised that Lizzie mentioned her.

"I'm a siphoner and so is my twin. Siphoners are a subspecies of witches and Hope is a tribrid. Basically, she's all three main supernatural creatures and is completely badass," Lizzie finished. Glancing towards Hope, she couldn't help but wonder what was surprising Hope the most.

The fact that Lizzie hasn't insulted her in some way. The fact that she just complimented Hope. Or the fact that it seemed like Lizzie's had a giant change in her personality.

Who knows? Maybe Lizzie would ask her later.

"Ok," Landon said with a sigh, looking overwhelmed. "So you're saying magic, people that turn into wolves and people who are dead and drink blood is something that just exists?"

"Basically, although there is a lot of complicated history involved, that's the main idea," Alaric answered.

Landon shook his head in disbelief. "Th-this is beyond insane. You're saying my brother's a werewolf? How is that even possible?"

"It's a long story, involving an ancient, vengeful witch and a bloodline curse," Alaric said, leaning back in his chair. "We cover all that in Origins of a species, grade six."

"In sixth grade of my school, we learned state capitals," Landon muttered, sarcastically. His eye flickered to Hope's and Lizzie's.

Hope gave a short laugh. "We teach that, too."

Lizzie smirked and gave Landon a look of approval. Not bad, Hobbit.

"I have some questions...about Rafael," Alaric cut in, leaning forward.

"Like what?" Landon asked, defensibly.

"Well, let's start with who he killed recently," Alaric said bluntly, causing Landon to stare at him in shock.

Did her dad just really come out and say that? Ever heard of being subtle?

"Oh my god, dad," Lizzie couldn't help but groan out loud, as she facepalmed. "Where is mom when you need her?"

Hope snorted in amusement and Lizzie sent her a friendly smirk.

"Elizabeth, I could do without the scathing remarks," Alaric said, sending her a look.

"Oh, please, daddy. You haven't seen scathing," Lizzie said, feeling her hostility rise.

"Lizzie," Hope interrupted, looking at her pleadingly to stop, and to her surprise, Lizzie shut up. "Dr. Saltzman, maybe you should explain this better? Cause it's kind of coming out very..."

"Wrong," Lizzie filled in.

"Yeah," Hope agreed.

"Or maybe just let Hope and I do the talking?" Lizzie suggested.

"Fine," Alaric agreed, running a hand over his face.

Lizzie turned to Landon. "Werewolf storytime..."

Chapter Text

Josie and Rafael walked through the hallway as she showed him the layout of the school.

"Everybody gets along with everybody here," Josie said, looking at Rafael. "For the most part. The wolves, though, typically stay together because of their pack mentality so you won't see them far from each other."

Rafael glanced at Josie, taking in the information.

Josie met his eyes briefly before looking away. Briefly, she realized that he had really pretty eyes.

"Which is in defiance of the school's commitment to inclusiveness," Josie continued. "Which is why my sister and I typically volunteer as tour guides, so that you meet some witches before the wolves pull you in."

With that Josie's thoughts turned to her sister. Was she doing okay? Had she convinced their dad yet or was she biding her time?

Josie's worry for her sister was threatening to overwhelm her. This morning had left her confused and a little scared.

Her sister had a vision of her death which was a terrifying thought. Especially since Lizzie implied it was going to happen in a few years.

Josie never thought she would die young but now, she didn't know what to think or how to feel. Besides, seeing her sister so different had shaken her.

Sure, Lizzie was a very emotional person but she was typically very good at pretending with certain emotions.

While others, like anger, just burst out of Lizzie as if she was a volcano, which wasn't her fault but still.

It was even more strange to see her apologize - for being a bad sister? Lizzie never apologized for anything.

It made Josie happy to learn that Lizzie actually appreciated her but it was scary to learn it at the same time as Lizzie seeing her die.

God, if Josie had seen Lizzie die, she had no idea how she could keep going. It would destroy her.

Wait, she was on a tour, focus Josie.

Josie turned her attention back on Rafael as he started talking again.

"I wanted to ask about that, why did your sister want to go with your dad?" Rafael asked.

"Lizzie wanted to see if she could convince our dad to let your brother stay," Josie said, looking over at him.

That was a shock as Lizzie typically only did things that benefited her in some way, and from what Josie could tell, babysitting a human so that he could stay here with his brother wouldn't help her in any way.

Except, it could also make Rafael like her or get her in their dad's favor, but for some reason, Josie could sense that that wasn't the reason she wanted to do it.

"Landon's not allowed to stay?" Rafael asked with a frown.

"This school is for the supernatural only, mainly because it's far too dangerous to have a human around. In case, someone doesn't have good control, which could result in the human getting hurt or possibly killed," Josie explained, causing Rafael's eyes to widen in surprise but also worry.

"Why would your sister try to convince your dad to let my brother stay?" Rafael inquired, looking confused and Josie couldn't blame him. Being in foster care, they had learned that most people didn't do things out of the goodness of their hearts.

Some do but greed often wins.

"Because she didn't want you and your brother to be separated," Josie replied with a smile.

It was confusing and probably would be for a while but Josie also was a little pleased because it seemed like Lizzie was changing for the better.

"Really?" Rafael muttered, looking surprised.

"Yeah. I know Lizzie looks and acts like the typical mean girl but she's a really good person and she would be devastated if she and I got separated, so she didn't want you to go through that," Josie said, smiling warmly.

"Wow, but you said it would be dangerous for him to stay," Rafael said, as he thought about what she said.

"It is, but Lizzie and I brainstormed some ideas this morning that may allow him to stay. For example, he could train with my sister and me, so he can fight back if necessary and also he'll need to have a constant protector, which my sister volunteered to do  - and I'll help her out," Josie said, giving him a shorter version of their plan.

Their dad might not agree at first but if they put on the twin charm, it should work.

"You guys would really do that so that he could stay?" Rafael asked, staring at Josie in awe.

"Yeah, but first we need to convince our dad. But once he's convinced, we should be good to go," Josie responded.

"Thank you, I can't even begin to say how grateful I am. You and your sister are amazing," Rafael said, voice full of emotion.

Josie blushed. "It's nothing."

"It's not nothing. You're trying to find a way to keep me from being separated from my brother. Not a lot of people would do that," Rafael denied, smiling at Josie.

Josie met his eyes, blushing. "I'm just glad to be of help and so is my sister."

The two stopped in front of double doors and peered into the room.

"Anyways, to continue the tour, this is our librarian, Mr. Williams," Josie introduced. "He's subbing for our chemistry of magic teacher who accidentally incinerated himself last week in hellfire."

"Hellfire? Is he dead?" Rafael asked, looking slightly worried.

"Oh, no. Don't worry he's fine. He's just now hairless everywhere now, somehow he didn't scar..." Josie replied, reassuringly. Rafael relaxed after hearing that.

Rafael looked into the room with curiosity as he listened in on the lesson.

"Alright," Mr. William said, underlining something on the board. "Now, this language has been carefully crafted over centuries. So you may think you can play fast and loose with the syllables, but you'd be very wrong about that. Because otherwise, a love charm becomes a what? Penelope, show us."

He gestured to Penelope, who moved, turning in her chair.

"Of course it's her," Josie muttered under her breath.

"Who are you talking about?" Rafael asked, quietly as Penelope glanced over.

"My ex, Penelope," Josie revealed, glaring at Penelope as she sent a wink at Josie.

Arrogant, no good, witch...

"Phesmatos is lucas odoray," Penelope enchanted as a glowing yellow ball appeared in her palm. It popped and Penelope instantly started coughing. As did a bunch of the other students.

Josie rubbed her nose outside the room as the stench reached them.

"That's right..." Mr. William's said, with a little bit of a laugh in his voice. "...a stink spell."

Both Josie and Rafael wrinkled their noses and exchanged looks.

"Come one, I'll show you the turrets," Josie said. "It's where the seniors go to smoke."

"What do they smoke, eye of newt?" Rafael asked sarcastically.

"Weed," Josie corrected and began to lead him away.

<><><>

Back in the headmaster's office, Lizzie was explaining to Landon the werewolf gene.

"Basically, it's a gene that is passed down from parent to child. And the bite of a werewolf does not turn humans but it is venomous to vampires but we're good, seeing as little miss perfect over there, is the cure for the bite," Lizzie explained to Landon, sending a joking wink at Hope, causing her to roll her eyes in amusement.

She was also a cure for it too but she didn't feel like explaining what siphoning was at that moment.

"However, the curse can only be activated if the carrier kills someone, however, it doesn't necessarily mean it was done purposely," Lizzie said, with a meaningful look. "If someone with the gene is walking past someone and bumps into them and the person falls and hits their head on the ground, and dies because of it, the gene is activated. So accidents count, another example is like a car accident or something,"

"And seeing as Rafael activated his curse, he killed someone. And we don't accept coldblooded killers into the school," Alaric piped up.

Oh, look, her dad was being an asshole again.

"He's not a killer," Landon said, glaring at Alaric defensively.

"Dad, you're really not helping here. Either tone down the Mace Windu vibes you're sending out or maybe, just don't say anything at all, that sounds even better," Lizzie said, exasperated with her father. Why had she never seen that he was a bit of a dick?

Landon snorted in agreement with her words.

"What?" Alaric muttered, looking like he couldn't decide between being confused or self-righteous.

"Lizzie, it's okay," Hope said, trying to smooth things over.

"God, I can't deal with him right now," Lizzie muttered, shaking her head, then turned to Landon. "Landon, what happened and be honest?"

Landon sighed and met Lizzie's eyes, which were staring at him reassuringly.

He turned around and walked towards the middle of the room.

"His girlfriend...Cassie," Landon started. "Last month, he was driving, there was a storm, he took a turn too fast. And then he started acting out. At first, I thought it was just grief. And then, maybe, maybe drugs or something."

He moved closer to her dad's desk and leaned forward onto the chair.

"And then he threw a 200-pound lawnmower 50 feet across the yard. That was when our foster parents called in the priest. I guess they thought he was possessed by the devil," Landon finished.

Lizzie whistled. "Damn, that would suck - on an unrelated note, the devil actually existed and so did hell."

Hope looked at Lizzie with raised eyebrows, and Lizzie just shrugged in response.

"Wait, what?" Landon asked, startled.

"Uh, a story for another time," Hope intervened,

"Thank you for the information, Landon," Alaric said, and Lizzie couldn't help but roll her eyes. She didn't know why everything he did seemed to irritate her, but for some reason, it just did.

Her dad sent a look at Hope, causing her to straighten and approach Landon.

"Everything's going to be okay..." Hope started to say but Lizzie interrupted by clearing her throat.

They all turned to look at her.

"MG, stay outside," Lizzie ordered without glancing at the door, where she knew MG was waiting for the signal to compel Landon. Lizzie turned to her dad. "Josie and I think we should let Landon stay."

Hope gasped in shock while Landon just looked confused.

Alaric shot to his feet. "Lizzie, you know that's not possible, it's too dangerous for a human to stay here."

" Bullshit , daddy, your human," Lizzie said, rolling her eyes - trap set but will he spring it - and crossed her arms.

"I am, but I have training that allows me to protect myself against the supernatural, he does not," Alaric said, stubbornly.

"Josie and I could train him to defend himself," Lizzie suggested, without blinking.

"What's going on?' Landon said confused as he looked at Hope, who just shrugged back at him as she stared at Lizzie in confusion.

"You two haven't trained in over a year," Alaric shook his head.

"True but we've been wanting to get back into it and this would be the perfect opportunity," Lizzie countered.

"And what about the time before he's trained, if he's attacked then?" Alaric narrowed his eyes at his daughter.

"I volunteer to protect him and Josie will help me," Lizzie said, her eyes full of confidence. She wouldn't back down from this.

"And what about classes that he wouldn't be in with you?" Alaric asked.

"Put him with Rafael," Lizzie answered.

"You've thought this through." Alaric realized. "That's why you came with us."

"I don't think it's right to separate brothers," Lizzie said, holding her head high.

Alaric stared at her determined face and was instantly reminded of Caroline. She really was her mother's daughter - which also meant she wouldn't back down from this.

"Fine," Alaric gave in, causing Hope to stare at him in shock. "But it's up to him if he wants to stay and if anything happens, it's on you."

"Got it," Lizzie nodded, smirking victoriously and Alaric froze - she looked eerily like Kai in that moment - then he shook his head, not liking where his thoughts were going.

"What's going on?" Landon asked as Lizzie turned to him.

"Hobbit, do you want to stay here with your brother?" Lizzie asked.

"Here? As in, the school?" Landon asked, uncertain.

"Yes," Lizzie said, nodding.

"Of course," Landon said, looking hopeful.

"If you stay, you'll have to train," Lizzie said warningly.

"Train? How?" Landon asked, cocking his head.

"You'll be trained so that if you were attacked, you could defend yourself. And my sister and I would train you. Think of us as your Jedi masters," Lizzie said, giving a brief explanation.

"Seriously?" Landon looked like he couldn't believe it and Lizzie couldn't blame him.

"Yep, but it will be very difficult," Lizzie said, seriously.

"I'll do it," Landon said with no hesitation.

"Perfect, come with me, my young padawan and we shall find your brother to tell him the good news," Lizzie joked and gestured for him to follow her.

They walked out of the room and Hope watched them go, looking very confused.

"What the hell happened to Lizzie?" Hope asked Alaric.

"I don't know..." Alaric frowned, concerned. "But I'm going to find out."

Chapter Text

Lizzie led Landon down the hallway, giving him a quick tour of the place before they went to go find Josie and Rafael.

"If I hadn't agreed, what would have happened?" Landon asked, curiously.

Lizzie looked at him for a moment. "You would have been compelled to forget," She answered.

"Compelled?" Landon repeated, confused.

"Ok, you know how we're all supernaturals..well some of us have more specific skill sets or powers. Take the vamps, for example, they have super speed, super strength, super senses, healing blood, and compulsion, along with the ability to get into people's minds," Lizzie explained. "And most of those things are self-explanatory, however, compulsion is extensionally a Jedi mind trick that works on every person that is human instead of just the weak-minded."

Landon's eyes widen in understanding. "Is there a way to prevent it?"

Lizzie nodded, "There is..the thing with vampires is, there are strengths but along with strengths come..."

"Weaknesses," Landon realized.

"Yes," Lizzie agreed, with a nod.

"What are their weaknesses?"

"Vampires can't be in the sun unless they have a piece of jewelry spelled by a witch to protect them. They have to be invited into a home. They can be killed by stakes, fire, their heart being torn out, head cut off, and a few other things. And there is a plant called vervain that vampires are allergic to and if ingested or is on a human, it can protect against compulsion," Lizzie explained.

"That's..." Landon trailed off, looking like his head was about to explode.

"A lot?" Lizzie finished. "It will get easier, don't worry, thrift shop."

Landon raised his eyebrows at the nickname. "You have a lot of insulting nicknames for me, don't you?"

Lizzie smirked and shrugged. "No offense, but you're easy to make fun of."

Landon snorted. "At least they're better than the names I've heard in high school..."

"Sorry." Lizzie apologized with a wince.

Landon gave Lizzie a startled look. "Why do you say that like you know what it's like?" He asked, with narrowed eyes.

Lizzie sighed. "I'm bipolar..." She stated, revealing something that shouldn't be known by the rest of the student population but was.

"Oh..." Was Landon —oh so elegantly put— reply.

Lizzie rolled her eyes. "Because of my disorder, I sometimes lose control of my magic...which happens because magic is connected and fueled by your emotions."

"Which isn't a great combination to have with a bipolar disorder," Landon realized. And Lizzie was surprised to see no pity in Landon's eyes. Instead, he was looking at her as if a light switch had been flipped in his brain.

"Yeah, and sometimes when I have episodes, I can be a danger to others around me...which is why I've been called the psycho twin or other names that people come up with...And don't forget my favorite, Abomination. That's a fun one," Lizzie sneered.

"Why would people call you that?" Landon asked, horrified but also confused.

"Oh..." Lizzie muttered in realization. She needed to explain that better. "That's not because of my craziness-"

"-You're not crazy." Landon interrupted, and Lizzie blinked in surprise.

"I am, trust me on that," Lizzie disagreed.

"People who are crazy, don't know that they're crazy," Landon argued without hesitation.

"Valid but I'm a rare case," Lizzie replied. "And nothing you say will make me change my mind."

Landon was about to disagree but when he saw the almost vulnerable look on Lizzie's face, he decided to let it go for now —emphasis on the for now— He definitely wasn't going to let it go forever.

"Back to what you said before, about being called an abomination?" Landon redirected.

"Oh, that's because of my species. My sister and I are considered to be abominations by a majority of witches, although it is better in this school. That doesn't change the fact that there is some bias and dislike towards my kind," Lizzie answered with a shrug.

"Why would that matter?" Landon wondered.

"Witches are a very uptight and very judgemental and they believe in keeping the balance, yada yada...basically the ancestors, which can speak to the living, believe that siphoners or siphon witches should not exist because it is wrong that we take magic and can not produce our own," Lizzie gave a short explanation.

"Also, witches consider vampires to be against nature as well, which is why if a witch is turned into one, they no longer have their magic because they lose it when turned. However, siphoners don't have magic to lose and if we turn into vampires we keep our siphoning ability and seeing as we can siphon from the vampire side, we become full witches. Who are also vampires and we are called heretics." Lizzie said, as they continued to walk.

"So they don't like you for something that you can't control..that's messed up," Landon muttered.

"Tell me about it," Lizzie replied, sighing.

"I'm sorry," Landon said after a moment of them walking.

"It's just how it is..." Lizzie shrugged.

The two continued their tour for a little while before they headed outside to meet up with Josie and Rafael.

When they spotted the two walking towards them, Josie's face lit up as she spotted Landon beside Lizzie.

"You did it," Josie exclaimed as they reached them.

"Yep, dad officially greenlit Landon's stay." Lizzie replied.

"Seriously?" Rafael asked, face full of joy.

"Mm-hmm," Lizzie nodded, watching the two brothers silently.

Rafael pulled his brother into a hug and the two brothers seemed content for the first in a while.

"So what happened?" Josie asked Lizzie.

"Not a lot, except I did learn that dad sucks at introducing people into the school," Lizzie responded.

"What?" Josie asked, confused.

"I'll tell you later," Lizzie muttered as they brothers turned to them.

"So what's going to happen now?" Rafael asked.

"Well, you're going to have to meet the wolves and we're going to have to set up a training schedule for hipster boy here," Lizzie replied, ignoring Rafael's reaction to the nickname for his brother. "And once that's set up, his padawan training will begin."

Out of the corner of her eye, Lizzie saw Josie choke on thin air as Landon grinned in agreement with her words.

"Jo, you good?" Lizzie asked, innocently.

"Yeah," She croaked, staring at Lizzie in disbelief. "Everythings fine...just fine."

"Great," Lizzie said cheerfully. "Shall we continue the tour?"

They all agreed and they kept walking.

However, after a bit of walking, Lizzie noticed a certain satanic witch in the distance. Lizzie made a split-second decision.

"Hey, guys? I need to go do something, keep walking without me, I'll catch up," Lizzie said and left without giving them a chance to reply.

Lizzie walked over to where she had previously seen Penelope. She walked around, keeping her eyes peeled.

That was when she caught a flash of dark brown hair. Lizzie smirked and hid in the shadows of the building she was next to.

She waited until Penelope was walking past and shot forward, grabbing Penelope's arm and pulled her into the shadows with her, ignoring her shouts of protest.

"Lizzie?! I knew you were insane but what the hell?" Penelope exclaimed, angrily.

"I need your help," Lizzie said, ignoring Penelope's words.

"And why would I help you?" Penelope asked, with a sneer.

"Look, satan, I know we don't get along but it's for my sister," Lizzie said, using Penelope's weakness against her.

"What?" Penelope said, pausing

"Yeah...I don't know if you've heard but the election for the honor council is going to happen soon," Lizzie started but Penelope interrupted.

"Let me guess, you want to be it, well-"

Lizzie cut her off. "No," she said, sharply.

"What?" Penelope asked again, staring at Lizzie, looking puzzled.

"I want you to make sure Josie gets the nomination," Lizzie explained.

Penelope just stared...And stared.

And stared.

"Why would you do that?" Penelope questioned, looking like the world was ending.

"Because she's my sister and we both know, Josie deserves to be the winner but...I want it to be a surprise. We're going to pretend it's me but I want everyone to vote for her. Which shouldn't be hard to convince the others, just remind them that I'm insane and boom bada bang, she wins." Lizzie said, with a smirk.

Penelope was silent. "You never do anything for anyone but yourself?" Penelope muttered, looking confused.

Lizzie rolled her eyes. "Look, just tell me you'll do it. You can have your existential crisis later." She said, raising an eyebrow.

"I'll..do it." Penelope hesitantly agreed.

Lizzie smirked. "Perfect. Pleasure doing business with you," She said, looking very pleased with herself.

And Lizzie walked away, ignoring the eyes boring into her back.

Lizzie started to walk over to where she knew Josie was leading the brothers when she sensed something strange.

She looked over to the right. What was that?

Lizzie hesitantly began to follow the trail of the strange magic.

She walked for god knows how long before she came upon a building. The armory? Why the hell did whatever that was lead her here?

Lizzie slowly walked up to the entrance, and placed her palm on the door.

She began siphoning, which sent the feeling of electricity up and down her spine. She shook her head as she fought past the high feeling, siphoning magic caused.

She whispered an incantation under her breath and the door opened.

She walked forward, eyes trailing the walls as she followed the magic trail.

When she finally came to a stop, she realized that she was now in tunnels under the armory.

Lizzie looked around warily. Wondering what pulled her here.

She walked around, confused. But then she spotted a flash of silver.

Lizzie froze. What was that?

She walked forward and knelt beside the silver thing that was buried under the dirt slightly, with only a small piece of it sticking out.

She began to dig it out and when she finally pulled it free, she realized it was a necklace on a silver chain.

But what caught Lizzie's attention was the thing on the chain.

It was the Gemini's zodiac sign. Which meant twins...

Lizzie brushed the dirt off the silver piece and paused, feeling something on the back. So Lizzie turned it around so that she could see what that was.

On the back, two letters were engraved into the back of the sign.

M.P.

Lizzie narrowed her eyes in confusion. She felt like she was missing something. Were they initials? If so, for what?

Before Lizzie could really start thinking on the subject, her phone buzzed with a message from Josie asking where she was.

Lizzie sent a quick reply back, before standing up and deciding to head back. She looked down at the necklace and put it over her neck and under her shirt, out of sight.

She would look into it later. But for now, she had a tour to continue.

Chapter Text

Lizzie stared up at her ceiling with her head resting against her sister's shoulder. After the adventure that was today, she was hoping she would actually sleep, instead of having nightmares of everything that happened.

After Lizzie had gotten back to the others, they had figured out a training schedule for Landon and had introduced them to the wolf pack.

Josie had taken Rafael to the party but surprisingly Landon didn't want to go so Lizzie brought him to his room, making sure to put up a protection spell and a spell that would allow her to know if he left the room or if anyone entered.

Safety first and all that shit.

And while Lizzie had considered going to the party, she had realized that she was far too on edge to go, and Lizzie knew the risk she would be taking if she went.

Besides, there would be too many familiar faces of those that had died and she wasn't sure she wanted to be reminded of what happened.

And in all honesty, Lizzie was kind of proud of herself for not having a magic freak-out yet. And right now she'd prefer to keep that steak going. Even if it was surprising with everything that she was feeling right now.

She sighed as she breathed in her sister's familiar scent, a comfort that Lizzie had to learn to live without in her old time.

God, she didn't know what she was doing. Sure, she had managed to prevent Landon from being sent away but what would that change really?

Who knows but it was a start.

Lizzie had also managed to get on Landon's and Rafael's good side which could be helpful later on. And she made her sister happy, which was a plus.

Lizzie reached under her shirt and wrapped her hand around the pendant on the necklace she had found, sensing a feeling of comfort from it that helped settle her raging emotions.

Lizzie breathed out slowly and closed her eyes, silently dreading what would come after the darkness.

Slowly her breathing evened out and she fell into a deep slumber.

<><><>

- Warning: Violence -

Lizzie shot to the right and pushed out her hand, sending another enemy flying into a tree, neck-snapping on impact. She dogged between the rocks and pulled out a dagger as she ran.

She threw the dagger to her left, directing it with her magic, resulting in it being buried in the throat of the person who was trying to cut her off.

Lizzie didn't even blink as she called the knife back into her hand and kept running.

Just as she was about to jump over a ditch, something slammed into her and her back hit a tree. Lizzie gasped as her breath was knocked out of her, but the second she caught her bearings, she didn't hesitate.

She clamped her hand on the vampire's wrist, siphoning painfully.

The vampire released her with a shout of pain, and Lizzie swung her leg up between his legs and he went crashing down.

Lizzie held her hand out, making a clawing motion, and the vampire's heart was torn from his chest, flying into Lizzie's open palm.

She backed away from the dead vampire, preparing to start running, but stopped when she heard the pounding of feet.

Lizzie looked over to see five witches rushing her while chanting a spell, causing wind to pick up around her.

"Vodux!" Lizzie shouted and the witches were sent flying backward.

Lizzie turned to the one closest to her and held out her hand.

"Phesmatos pyrox morsinus illum," Lizzie chanted and the man fell back down, crying out in pain as Lizzie inflicted the pain spell.

She forced the pain to increase rapidly.

Lizzie's eyes flickered to one of the others, who had decided to try and get her from behind.

She narrowed her eyes and whispered a single word. "Ossox" and the woman collapsed, neck broken.

Lizzie turned back to the man who was now bleeding from his nose and eyes as he coughed up blood.

She narrowed her eyes in consideration. Then, she pulled out her knife and slashed his throat.

Lizzie focused on the last three, tossing her knife to the side.

She held her hand out in front of her, knowing she had to finish this quickly before she ran out of the last of her magic,

"Lihednat Dolchitni," and the last three witches clawed at their throats trying to force oxygen. But there was nothing they could do as they suffocated.

Lizzie let their bodies drop harshly to the floor, and started jogging past the trees.

- Warning Over -

In the back of her mind, she registered that she felt like she was being watched, but for some reason, she completely ignored her instincts.

Lizzie kept moving, as if on autopilot.

And just as she was about to pass by a grove of trees, a hand shot out and grabbed her arm, pulling her to a stop.

Lizzie whirled around, and kicked out, twisting her body, pinning the person against the ground with Lizzie above them.

"Lizzie!"

Lizzie's eyes widened as she recognized who was under her.

Penelope.

Lizzie immediately released her crushing grip on Penelope's wrists but didn't move from when she was positioned on either side of Penelope, trapping her.

"Oh..." She whispered, but then she blinked. "What the hell, Satan?"

And Penelope rolled her eyes as she glared daggers up at Lizzie.

"I didn't think you'd react like that," Penelope defended her actions as she tried to push Lizzie off of her so she could sit up.

Lizzie forced her back on her back in irritation. "We're in a fucking war - no shit, I gonna react when someone grabs me," Lizzie snarled.

Penelope just smirked that infuriating smirk of hers. "Someone likes it kinky," She flirted.

Lizzie blinked in shock and jumped off of Penelope.

"Aw, come on. The fun was just beginning," Penelope complained, sensually.

Lizzie just rolled her eyes as she tried to force back the blush.

Penelope continued to smirk as she got to her feet, brushing off the dirt.

"What do you want? I'm needed at the windmill and I really don't have time for your bullshit," Lizzie growled.

Penelope sighed. "Your dad sent me to tell you that we're taking a stand on the third front by nightfall," She explained.

"That soon? I thought we had more time," Lizzie said, fixing her ponytail, as she ran through the possible scenarios that the next day could bring.

"TN is moving faster than we thought," Penelope told Lizzie. Then, she looked around into the trees. And her eyes flashed, as her image wavered, changing.

"You are not alone..." Penelope murmured, almost vacantly.

Lizzie turned so suddenly that she almost gave herself whiplash. "What?" She asked in confusion. Something wasn't right.

That wasn't what Penelope was supposed to say. Wait...

How did Lizzie know what Penelope was supposed to say?

Penelope looked at Lizzie. "Wake up, you're not alone."

Lizzie swallowed. Something was wrong. Really wrong.

She flinched as she was hit by a migraine from nowhere.

"What are you talking about, satan? Of course, I'm awake," Lizzie denied, but chills went up and down her spine.

"You were dreaming..." Penelope said, shaking her head.

"This isn't a dream..." Lizzie frowned.

"No, you were in a memory," Penelope explained in a different way, but her voice was hurried. Her eyes kept flickering around them. "But now it's over. Your subconscious is using me to warn you to wake up."

"Why?" Lizzie wondered, feeling her unease rise. "Why do I need to wake up?"

"There's something wrong. Something slipped through your mental defenses and now, you have to wake up before you get lost in your own mind. You're not supposed to be able to be here like this. You have to leave so that your mind is able to activate its self-defense system to protect you," The not-Penelope said, quickly.

Lizzie looked around in confusion as her awareness returned to her. She remembered this - the memory she was just in.

That had happened before the final battle. The last stand they made. Lizzie shook her head, trying to clear it.

Wait, if she was in her mind, why would she need to clear it? How did that even work?

Lizzie turned back to Penelope, only to find her gone. "Satan?" She called out.

Lizzie looked around her and froze as the world or whatever this is - A mindscape? - changed around her.

She could feel eyes on her and the words that not-Penelope said registered.

She wasn't alone. If she wasn't alone, who was there?

The mindscape shifted to utter darkness, similar to how Hope described Malivore to be.

Lizzie looked around rapidly, feeling panic start to set in.

But then, Lizzie gasped as a burning pain flashed on her chest and she looked down to see the necklace she had found at the armory glowing.

It gave off a bluish glow and a sense of familiarity and comfort radiated off of it. It felt like Gemini magic. How was that possible?

She and her twin were the last Gemini except for -

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" A mocking voice came from behind her and Lizzie's train of thought was knocked off track.

She turned and froze.

It was her.

Except with darker hair, that appeared almost brown but Lizzie couldn't tell with the blackness surrounding them.

The other her smirked darkly.

"You're me..." Lizzie whispered, confused.

"I am..." The other her practically purred.

"What are you?" Lizzie asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Whatever do you mean?" The alternate her inquired.

"You know what I mean," Lizzie stated, rolling her eyes.

"I do. I'm you obviously," She said. "We are one and the same. I'm just your mental manifestation of yourself in your own mind."

Lizzie frowned. "What do I call you? Cause it's doubtful that you want to be called other-me," She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Hmm, call me Eliza, for now," She decided.

Lizzie nodded slightly in acknowledgment, keeping her eyes locked on Eliza.

Was this her with her emotions off completely? For all, she had snapped, she still had some sort of human capacity when it came to those she cared about. This version of her on the other hand didn't appear to have any.

Eliza smirked at her reaction. "You seem wary, why?"

"If I know anyone, I know myself and I know how stable I really am," Lizzie said, pointedly.

Eliza nodded. "True. I supposed but you're safe from me in the very least. Besides, we're exactly the same but you also have those other pesky emotions like joy and happiness and the worst one, love," She said with a shudder in disgust.

"Honestly, why are you hiding behind a false persona? Who cares if someone figures out how much we've truly changed. Honestly, you should just let our true selves shine, and kill anyone that has a problem with it. We both know you've been thinking it," Eliza suggested, looking excited at the prospect of murder.

Lizzie rolled her eyes. "If we killed anyone that would be a one-way ticket to a prison world," She argued.

"Then we kill our dad, problem-solved. You know you want to, even anything good in you is okay with it. I mean for real, why are you holding onto that hope that he will love us as much as he does Josie?" Eliza said with a sneer. "It's pathetic and it makes us weak and we are not weak."

"I can't make myself not love him, he's my dad, whether I like it or not," Lizzie said glaring.

"Whatever..." Eliza rolled her eyes. "But eventually, pretending to be something we're not, will backfire."

"Why are you fighting with me, if you're me?" Lizzie asked, exhausted by this strange and irrational fight she was literally having with herself.

"Ok, seriously, I'm literally you - my thoughts are the same ones you've been ignoring all day. Everything I've said is what you're thinking, so stop running like a coward and face the truth. We're imperfect monsters and we don't like being caged and forced to hide in the shadows," Eliza said viciously.

Lizzie glared and turned away angrily. Then, She took a deep breath, turning back to Eliza but she was gone.

Lizzie paused in confusion.

Her surroundings shifted and the pendant on the chain burned again. And Lizzie heard whispers erupt around her and she could barely make out some of them.

"The defective twin that nobody wanted..." Echoed from her right and she turned startled.

She was in a strange hallway that almost felt like a gate. Connecting her to something familiar.

The necklace no longer glowed but Lizzie could sense it pulsing as if reaching for something. And Lizzie could feel it encouraging her to keep walking.

May as well.

She walked down the hallway.

" I'm not burdened by things like love or guilt... " One voice said, similar to the first whisper.

Lizzie continued down the hallway, feeling a weird energy pass over her. And Lizzie also noted that she could still feel eyes on her.

" Who names a kid Malachai? It's like they expected me to be evil ."

Lizzie froze.

Malachai. As in Malachai Parker.

M.P.

She was an idiot.

Lizzie grabbed the necklace and looked down at the pendant. It was radiating Gemini magic. And it belonged to her uncle.

Did it somehow have a connection to him? But why would it cause whatever was happening?

Then the not-Penelope words flashed in her mind. 'Something slipped through...'

What slipped through? Penelope had said she wasn't alone.

Did the necklace allow someone access to her mind? Fuck, that was bad.

Was her psycho uncle of this time somehow in her mind?

Lizzie slowly started walking back down the hallway, but she was far more cautious this time.

" I always win. "

Lizzie took one more step and she felt like she passed through a barrier of some sort.

"Finally, you sure took your time," Someone sneered to her right.

Lizzie turned abruptly and stared in shock as her dearest uncle stared at her mockingly.

"As fascinating as it was to watch all that," He waved his hand in the general direction from whence she came. "It got a little boring near the end."

"Uncle Kai..." Lizzie whispered.

He smirked. "Hello, Lizziebear."

Chapter Text

"How the fuck is this possible?" Lizzie asked, staring at Kai with mistrust. Kai cocked his head slightly, and his gaze flickered to the necklace hanging around her neck.

Lizzie followed his gaze.

"How did this necklace allow you access to my mind?" Lizzie asked, every muscle was tense as she watched him carefully.

His words from early pushed themselves to the forefront of her mind. Had he been watching her this entire time?

Did he see her conversation with herself? And her memory? That was a whole nother level of creepy.

"I'm guessing that means you never heard of the Gemini Ritual, Reliquia Vinculum?" Kai asked, then he gasped dramatically and gave her a 'disapproving' look. "Have you never done any of the required rituals that you're supposed to do as a Gemini twin?"

Lizzie raised an eyebrow in disbelief. He was joking, right? Then, she snorted, shaking her head.

"Yeah, no, I'll get right on that. The second I'm awake, I'll ask the other Gemini's what rituals I missed...oh wait, they're dead, guess that's not happening," Lizzie said, sarcastically.

Kai blinked in surprise, not expecting that but he quickly wiped that expression off his face.

Not that Lizzie noticed as she glanced around them trying to figure out what was happening. What even was possible here? Can you go to the bathroom? Eat?

Kai gave a cold chuckle, making Lizzie glance back over at him.

"Yeah, that was my bad. Shame I didn't finish the job, then again, maybe I can amend that mistake," Kai said with a sneer. His eyes were dark as he threatened her, probably trying to intimidate her.

But all Lizzie did was give him a bored look, making Kai stare at her in disbelief.

"Can we eat here? Or can we 'pretend' eat? I mean, we're in our minds, right? Would food even taste like food?" Lizzie wondered, distractedly, as she voiced her thoughts from earlier.

Kai blinked, then he paused to consider it. "I don't know. Maybe..."

Then, he gave her a peculiar look. "You know you're supposed to be running scared. I tried to kill you, multiple times."

"Eh, I'm over it," Lizzie said with a shrug.

And Kai just stared. And stared. Okay, seriously, why did people keep doing that?

"You're over it?" Kai repeated, slowly.

"Yeah, it's not fun to hold grudges when you can't torture the person you have a grudge against," Lizzie explained with an innocent smile on her face. Her whole demeanor was relaxed as she said this.

Something strange flashed through Kai's eyes as he stared at her.

“ My family called me an abomination. That hurt my feelings. ”

Lizzie glanced to the right as those words echoed around, causing the hairs on her arms to rise. There was something in the words that felt eerily familiar to her.

Lizzie looked back at Kai, just in time to see him watching her as if he was seeing something or someone different in his mind.

"Back to the necklace," Lizzie said, crossing her arms. "Reliquia Vinculum means 'relic bond', what does it do?"

Lizzie wasn't actually expecting Kai to answer but surprisingly he did.

"It is a ritual that bonds the very core of a witch to an object. It doesn't do anything except there's a bond created. Typically only the future leaders of a coven have it done when they reach a certain age," Kai said, his eyes looked distant as he remembered something she couldn't see. "There's usually a pendant that represents the coven. It's a way to identify them. In our lovely coven, both twins have to do it and whoever wins, gets both."

"You won," Lizzie pointed out.

Kai looked at her for a moment. "Yeah, I did. I got my younger brother's ring," He said, holding up his hand.

Lizzie focused on the ring that had a Gemini design.

"So Uncle Kyle, why would it allow you access to my mind, if it does nothing?" Lizzie asked, frowning as she contemplated the new information.

Would she and Josie have to do this ritual? Then again, she wasn't planning on them merging, so who knows.

When she looked back at Kai, she saw him staring at her in confusion.

"My name is Kai," He said, raising an eyebrow.

Lizzie stared at him puzzled. "Yeah, that's what I said. Are you gonna answer the question?" She asked, cocking her head to the side.

Kai looked like he was at a loss for words, which made Lizzie smirk in amusement for a moment. Then, she rolled her eyes.

"Look Voldemort wanna-be, we have until I wake up to figure this out and I would rather we don't repeat this tomorrow," Lizzie said, in exasperation. Kai went completely still.

"What?" He asked in disbelief.

"Are you having a stroke?" Lizzie asked, pretending to be concerned. "Wait, is that even possible here? Whatever..."

"Hey, rewind, mini-me," Kai said, causing Lizzie to stare at him in surprise as she processed what he just said.

"Wait, hey, no, uh-uh. I am not you, no matter what everyone else says," Lizzie exclaimed, offended. And Kai raised his eyebrow.

"Why did you call me 'Voldemort'?" He asked, looking confused. He said the word 'Voldemort' like it was a foreign language he didn't know.

Lizzie stared for a moment, then she remembered that the first Harry Potter book was written in 1997.

"Did you not read Harry Potter when you escaped the first prison world?" Lizzie asked, looking at him curiously.

"I read the first book," Kai admitted, then he narrowed his eyes at her. "Wait, why does that matter?"

"You know how voldy tried to kill Harry Potter multiple times and failed every time?" Lizzie asked, feeling a smirk creep up on her face.

Kai paused. "I'm going to regret asking, aren't I?" He said, rubbing a hand over his face.

"Yep, anyways, you know how you failed to kill two fetuses and later two 4-year-olds? Well, I think you can see where I'm going," Lizzie said with a mocking look on her face.

Kai rolled his eyes but Lizzie noticed that he looked slightly impressed which made Lizzie smirk proudly.

Wait. Nope, she didn't care what he thought of her. Nope, not at all. Not even a little bit.

"Can we get back to my question?" Lizzie said, trying to redirect the conversation.

Kai blinked before nodding.

"If I had to guess, it might be because you're a siphoner. And you probably siphoned from the necklace which gave you a connection to me or something," Kai suggested, not really caring.

"But I didn't siphon from it," Lizzie replied, with a frown.

"I was pulled here during the fight-memory thing. You could have accidentally siphoned in your sleep," Kai said with a shrug as he looked around them.

Lizzie sighed. "How do I leave then?" She asked.

Kai shrugged again, observing his niece.

"So helpful..." Lizzie muttered to herself.

She approached the invisible barrier that separated their minds.

Maybe if she returned to her side, she would be able to wake up. Lizzie could feel Kai's eyes on her but she ignored him and was about to pass through when an explosion happened on the other side.

Kai sped forward, grabbing her, pulling her away from the explosion.

Lizzie stared in disbelief. What the fuck?

Also was her uncle able to touch her? Shit. She hadn't thought about that.

"What just happened?" Lizzie asked, trying to ignore her instincts that were screaming about the fact that her psychotic uncle was holding her arm. Which he clearly didn't realize.

"I don't-" He cut off as the scenery changed on her mind's side. "That's what happened before," He whispered to himself.

"What? When?" Lizzie asked, confused.

"When I tried to go to your side, It did that to stop me," Kai said, narrowing his eyes.

Lizzie pulled her arm away from him, which made him pause as he realized that he had been touching her.

Oops. Maybe she shouldn't have done that. Too late now.

"So what? Am I not allowed back in my own mind?" Lizzie asked, looking at the 'bridge' between the two minds.

"It appears that way," Kai said, glancing at her.

"Great," Lizzie scowled in annoyance. "Wait, what if I call the 'evil' me?"

"Evil you?" Kai repeated, giving her a confused look.

Lizzie whirled around. "I thought you said that you saw everything that was happening over there?" She said, narrowing her eyes, mistrustingly.

"So distrustful," He rolled his eyes at her. "Paranoia is clearly a family trait," He remarked, dryly.

"If you don't start talking, we're gonna find out what happens if you die in your own mind," Lizzie said, her eyes flashing dangerously. She held her hand out and a ball of fire appeared in it.

"Okay! Okay!" Kai exclaimed, holding his hands up defensively. "I saw everything but I couldn't hear everything. That's why I said it got boring near the end because all I could see was you talking to a shadow person."

Lizzie considered him, trying to see if he was telling the truth. Which he appeared to be so she extinguished the flame, making him relax.

"You know you got that violent temper from me," Kai commented, raising an eyebrow.

"I also got your eyes, your craziness, your bipolar disorder, and your sucky personality," Lizzie said, sneering. "So thanks for that."

Kai smirked and shrugged. "You're welcome," He said, cheerfully. Then he paused and narrowed his eyes at her.

"You got my eyes?" He asked, looking puzzled.

Lizzie rolled her eyes and turned away from him to look at the 'bridge' but Kai sped in front of her and grabbed her chin.

"What the hell-" Lizzie was cut off by him shushing her which made her give him an offended look.

This felt familiar.

He looked directly into her eyes and seemed surprised by what he found.

"Huh, I didn't expect that," He mumbled to himself.

"Hey, Uncle Douche? Could you let me go or are you too busy having fun playing I-spy?" Lizzie asked, sarcastically. What the hell was he doing?

He released her and took a step back.

"Are we certain you're my lovely twin's daughter?" He asked, giving her a speculative look. "Cause I have some questions."

"Well, seeing as my dearest sister is a carbon copy of yours, I would say yes, I am her daughter," Lizzie said, crossing her arms over her chest.

Kai furrowed his brow. "So what you are saying is that history is repeating itself in you two?" He asked with a fascinated look on his face.

"Kind of but also not, seeing as I'm not planning on killing my own twin nor do I want to merge with her, so take that as you will," Lizzie said, with a shrug.

Kai nodded, then gave her a curious look. "You know about the merge? I'm surprised Ricky-boy had the balls to tell you," He said, with a mocking edge to his voice.

"My dad didn't tell me about the merge, he's too much of a coward," Lizzie said, rolling her eyes in disgust. "I know about the merge because of reasons I'm not going to say. While my sister does not know."

Kai considered her, quietly. "What? You don't like your dad, Lizzypoo?" He asked.

"How'd you figure that Sherlock? Does someone need a magnifying glass to snoop in other people's business?" Lizzie said, sarcastically in an attempt to avoid the question.

All Kai did was cock his head slightly.

"Not a bad attempt to avoid the question but you can't beat the master, little siphon. So answer the question," Kai said, his voice taking a strangely dad-like tone.

Lizzie shifted uncomfortably. "Fine, I don't like him, happy now?" Lizzie said, glaring. And something weird flickered across his eyes.

"You didn't answer the whole question..." Kai pointed out.

"Actually, I did. You asked and I quote 'You don't like your dad, insert weird nickname here?' and I replied with, I didn't. Therefore the question was answered," Lizzie said, giving him a stubborn look.

"Hmm, but you didn't answer the implied question, which was why," Kai said, approaching her, which made Lizzie back away.

She felt like she was being backed into a corner and she didn't like that.

He stopped a foot away.

"So why don't you answer the whole question, my dearest niece?" Kai said, there was a strangely soothing and encouraging tone in his voice.

Which weirdly reminded her of her mom or a caring parental figure, but it also reminded her that he was a sociopath that could mimic emotions to get what he wanted.

Should she answer or not? Eh, may as well.

"My dad is a coward. He favors a girl, who is not his daughter, over his own children," Lizzie admitted, stupidly.

Not that she noticed as she felt herself become distant as she remembered all the times he chose Hope over them. Which Lizzie now realized wasn't Hope's fault, instead, the blame laid solely on her dad. "He also can't handle us acting anything like you..."

Kai raised his eyebrows, surprised at the implication that his other niece acted like him as well. Although, Lizzie did say that her twin acted a lot like his sister, so maybe she wasn't that much like him. Lizzie, on the other hand, was one hundred percent his not-child.

"He's also a drunkard that abandons his children at a moment's notice," Lizzie said, nastily. And Kai narrowed his eyes at her as she ranted. "He's also afraid of me, scared of what I might do. Not that I can blame him. If I were him, I'd be worried too..."

Lizzie stared off into the darkness, not really seeing.

"But that doesn't make it hurt any less..." Kai said, quietly and Lizzie just looked down in response.

"It doesn't matter," Lizzie said, shaking her head but Kai scoffed, making her look at him in surprise.

"When you're treated like a monster for long enough, eventually you give up on being anything else," Kai said, holding her gaze.

Lizzie felt chills go up and down her spine. Wasn't that the truth? The words hit way too close home. And Kai nodded as he caught the reaction.

"As fun as this lovely conversation is, my totally not psychotic uncle, perhaps we should figure out how to get back to real life?" Lizzie said, attempting to redirect the topic.

She really wasn't in the mood to talk emotions, especially with her uncle that tried to execute her medieval style.

Kai observed her for a moment before nodding. And Lizzie couldn't prevent the sigh of relief.

She could talk a lot of things but her mental health was not one of them.

"So, since you're the oh so knowledgeable one, how do I leave this place?" Lizzie asked, raising an eyebrow.

He smirked, "Why yes, thank you for acknowledging my superiority-"

"Cut to the chase," Lizzie interrupted, rolling her eyes but an amused smile played on her lips.

"Little me, I want you to close your eyes and focus on waking up, that should work," Kai said, watching her carefully.

After their weird heart to heart, Lizzie doubted that he was lying but he was still a murderous psychopath.

Lizzie bit her lip and nodded. She closed her eyes and focused on waking up. Nothing happened.

She opened her eyes and met Kai's gaze.

"So any other ideas, Ted Bundy?" Lizzie asked, and Kai narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.

"That should have worked," Kai said, just loud enough for her to hear.

"But it didn't," Lizzie said, rolling her eyes. "Clearly there were some malfunctions in your fabulous plan."

"Hey, my plan was fool-proofed," Kai pouted, making Lizzie snort.

Kai rolled his eyes at her. "Maybe you need to be anchored to me?" He suggested.

"Huh?" Lizzie started, confused.

"Use your brain, the necklace is bound to me, it brought you here. You need me to help wake you up," Kai said, giving her a 'duh' look as he walked over.

Lizzie crossed her arms over her chest childishly. "I knew that," She said, pouting.

"Sure, you did, kiddo," Kai said, patting her head. And Kai laughed as he dodged her attempt to hit him. "You just needed some help from your favorite uncle."

"You're my only uncle," Lizzie pointed out.

"Semantics," Kai said, waving his hand in the air.

"So now what, uncle dearest?" Lizzie wondered, looking at him curiously.

Kai offered his hand and Lizzie hesitantly took it.

"Close your eyes, pull any magic you have forward," Kai ordered.  "I'm going to do the same."

Lizzie nodded and closed her eyes, reaching within.

She sensed her magic and pushed it forward until it was right underneath her skin. Lizzie felt Kai shift his grip on her hand as he pulled his magic forward.

His magic reached out to hers's and it seemed like it was holding out a helping hand. Lizzie hesitantly allowed the magic to connect.

She felt the hairs of her arms rise as she felt how powerful her uncle really was. It made her feel like a child in comparison.

Like, Lizzie knew that her magic wasn't at its full potential yet, but she had always thought that she was a very powerful witch.

Apparently, she was wrong.

" Wake up, " Kai ordered, at the same time she thought it.

Lizzie blinked awake in confusion, then sat up abruptly, glancing down at the pendant with a look of pure disbelief.

First of all, it worked. Nicely done, Uncle Kai.

Second of all, she was an idiot. An absolute idiot.

How the hell did she not realize what M.P. meant Oh, well, it's too late to change anything.

Well, that was definitely not how she expected her first meeting with her uncle here to go.

Lizzie ran a hand over her face.

She actually found it rather interesting that she remembered everything in the 'dream' state. Maybe she would look into it later today.

For now, though, she needed to get ready for the day ahead.

Lizzie pushed herself off of her bed and got ready. She would wake her sister in a moment but for now, she would let her sleep.

Today was the first day of training with Landon. This was going to be fun.

Lizzie threw on some leggings and a tank top after deciding to leave the pendant on, that way Josie didn't accidentally put it on and meet their uncle.

Lizzie snorted to herself, that would be hilarious.

As Lizzie finished getting ready, she made sure to grab a sweatshirt as she pulled her hair into a ponytail.

"Huh, I didn't expect this to work," Kai said from behind her, and Lizzie whirled around startled.

"What the fuck?" Lizzie exclaimed under her breath, trying to be quiet because of her sister. She stared at the form of her uncle in her room.

He looked at her in amusement.

"How the hell are you here?" Lizzie asked, in disbelief.

"Well, you see, Lizziebear, I used my big boy brain and used the fact that my necklace has a connection to me to create a bond of sorts between us, to make myself appear here," Kai said, smirking proudly. "But I'm not actually here, I'm kind of astral projecting, using the new bond as an anchor."

Lizzie sighed and ran a hand over her face.

"I don't know if I should be mad or impressed, cause honestly, I just wanna say, well played, Uncle Kai, " Lizzie said, staring at him, trying to figure out how she just fucked up the future.

Kai smiled like a kid at a candy store. "What a heart-warming compliment coming from my favorite niece," He said, jokingly.

Yeah, the future was completely screwed.

Lizzie rolled her eyes. "Welp, at least I know it's not 'back to the future'," She said, dryly.

"What?" Kai said, pausing in confusion.

"Nothing..."

Chapter Text

Lizzie left a note for her sister so that when she woke up she knew to meet her at the dock for training.

She quickly left the room after grabbing her bag, with Kai following closely behind.

"So what are we doing?" Kai asked, for practically the hundredth time, making Lizzie give him an exasperated look.

"How about you wait and see?" Lizzie hissed at him under her breath. She had to be careful because who knew what the other students would think if they saw her talking to thin air.

Although, a majority of them thought she was crazy already, so there probably wouldn't be a problem.

She glanced at Kai as he groaned in annoyance.

"Come on, Lizzie, give me a little hint," Kai pleaded, purposely widening his eyes.

Lizzie was about to reply when she heard her full name being called.

Oh shit. Why did her dad have the worst timing?

She turned on her heel to face Alaric as he approached.

"Huh, I didn't think he could look more ugly than the last time I saw him. I was wrong," Kai said, giving Alaric a once over and Lizzie struggled not to laugh which was not easy.

Lizzie straightened, ignoring the smirk Kai sent at her. "Dad," Lizzie greeted, shifting hesitantly.

"Elizabeth, have you seen Hope?" He asked, and Lizzie rolled her eyes.

"Seeing as I just woke up, no I haven't," Lizzie said, biting her tongue to prevent herself from saying something she might later regret.

"Are you sure?" Alaric asked, frowning at her.

"She literally said she just woke up," Kai said, raising an eyebrow at Alaric before turning to Lizzie. "Is he deaf or just stupid?"

"Yes, I'm sure," Lizzie said, gritting her teeth. "Besides, since you seem to have forgotten. Let me remind you, Hope and I are not friends, therefore I wouldn't know where she's at in any given situation."

Alaric narrowed his eyes. "Cool it with the tone," He said, warningly.

"Whatever," Lizzie muttered, rolling her eyes.

Alaric looked like he was about to say something but then, he just decided to walk away.

"What did my sister ever see in him?" Kai wondered, aloud as he looked from Alaric to Lizzie.

Lizzie looked over at him. "Believe me, I have no idea," Lizzie said with a sigh.

She turned back around and kept walking.

When she reached the end of the hallway, she glanced around and placed her palm on the wall, and started siphoning.

Kai blinked in surprise and gave her a strange look, which Lizzie chose to ignore for now.

Lizzie stopped siphoning and made sure the coast was clear, and it was.

"Invisique," She whispered, and she turned invisible.

She glanced at Kai, who was staring at her with raised eyebrows.

"I'm guessing you can still see me?" Lizzie said, not at all surprised. He was here because of a bond or whatever. And, in the end, he was connected to her, so it's not surprising that he would be able to see her no matter what.

Which wasn't that great because that meant she couldn't hide from him nor could she do a spell to prevent him from hearing what she was saying.

"Uh-huh," Kai replied. "Why are you cloaking yourself?"

"Because I need to steal some stuff," Lizzie said, with a shrug.

"Ooh, now things are getting interesting," Kai said, rubbing his hands together.

Lizzie rolled her eyes and continued down the hall in the direction of her dad's office.

"So, what are we stealing?" Kai asked, curiously.

Lizzie spared him an exasperated glance.

"You'll see," Lizzie replied, turning the corner. She looked up as the door to her dad's office came into sight.

Lizzie walked up to the door and glanced around, making sure no one was in sight. Then, she placed her palm on the door and whispered an unlocking spell.

She opened the door and entered, closing it behind Kai.

"Is this Ricky boy's office?" Kai asked, glancing around the room with a look of distaste.

"Uh-huh," Lizzie muttered, as she began looking around the room. It didn't take her long to find the cloaking spell.

She quickly siphoned it, ignoring Kai, who had come up behind her.

When the spell disappeared, it revealed a red box. Lizzie grabbed it and put it in her lap. She closed her eyes, focusing on the box, and whispered a more powerful unlocking spell.

There was a click and Lizzie reached forward to open it up.

She sensed Kai freeze as he realized what was in the box.

"The ascendant," He whispered in realization. Lizzie could feel him giving her a confused look.

Lizzie looked down at the ascendant and picked it up. She put it to the side and grabbed a random object.

Lizzie closed her eyes again and pictured the object becoming the ascendant. When she opened her eyes, there were now two ascendants.

Lizzie grabbed the fake one and put it back in the box. Then she replaced the sealing spell and put it back in his hiding place with a new cloaking spell.

"Well, that went easier than I expected," Lizzie said, grabbing the ascendant and standing up. She put the ascendant in her bag and turned to Kai.

Kai was staring at her in confusion.

"Why did you get the ascendant?" He asked, narrowing his eyes at her.

"I got it because it prevents my dick of a dad from sending me into the prison world if I do something he doesn't support," Lizzie said, honestly.

Which was a genuine concern of hers. Especially since Lizzie will probably end up killing some people in order to keep certain things from happening.

And there was no way her dad would be okay with that. Although Lizzie wasn't planning on him finding out but if he did, she wasn't taking the chance that he would let her go free.

Kai frowned, thoughtfully. "Are you planning to do something that would cause him to try and do that?" He wondered, eyeing her curiously.

"Oh, most definitely," Lizzie said, smirking.

Kai nodded, slowly with a look of consideration on his face.

Both of them looked over startled as the door suddenly opened.

Alaric entered with Hope following behind him.

Lizzie straightened and Kai looked between the two with narrowed eyes.

"Who's the shorty?" Kai asked, looking at Hope.

Lizzie glanced at Kai. "That's Hope Mikaelson, the all-powerful tribrid. She's the girl, my dearest father, favors over his own daughters," She replied.

Kai paused at those words and eyed Hope. "I don't see it," Kai said, watching as Alaric and Hope discussed something about a game or something.

"See what?" Lizzie asked, sparing her uncle a glance.

Kai looked over at her. "What's so special about her," He answered.

Lizzie snorted and was about to reply when something Hope said caught her attention.

"Dr. Saltzman, have you decided what you're going to do about Lizzie?" Hope asked with a frown.

Both Lizzie and Kai stilled.

"What?" Lizzie said, in confusion.

Alaric frowned. "I don't know. She's not acting like herself but I can't tell if she is close to having another breakdown or not. If she becomes dangerous, I'll handle her," He said, shaking his head.

Lizzie narrowed her eyes at her lovely father. He was an ass - an absolute ass.

"Handle you? How is he going to handle you?" Kai asked, looking irritated on her behalf.

"Good question," Lizzie muttered, studying Alaric.

"Wait, Dr. Saltzman, you don't think she's going to snap and hurt someone do you?" Hope asked, worriedly.

Kai raised his eyebrows at Hope then glanced at Lizzie. Disbelief was clear on his face.

"I hope not but Lizzie can be unpredictable, especially since she's acting out of character at the moment, so I have no idea what to expect," Alaric said, stressed out.

"Maybe, she'll calm down and nothing will happen," Hope said, trying to be optimistic, which really wasn't her style.

"I doubt that. She's way too much like-" Alaric cut himself off.

"Oh shit," Kai said in realization. He glanced over at Lizzie again, who didn't look surprised in the slightest.

"Like who?" Hope wondered, looking puzzled.

"No one," Alaric said, sharply.

Kai snorted. "Please, as if I'm no one," He said with an offended look on his face, and Lizzie laughed in amusement.

Hope, on the other hand, stared at Alaric in confusion and surprise.

"Sorry, it doesn't matter. The point is, I want you to keep an eye on her, so you can step in if things turn south as she seems to be upset with me," Alaric said, looking at Hope.

"Wonder why," Lizzie said, dryly.

"Okay, I'll keep an eye on her, I promise," Hope said, giving him a reassuring look.

Alaric relaxed. "Ok, good. Thank you, Hope," He said and Hope left the room.

Lizzie could feel Kai's eyes on her.

"So that happened," Lizzie said, coughing awkwardly.

Kai gave her a look. "Why do I suddenly regret not killing him?" He wondered, aloud.

"No clue," Lizzie said with a shrug. Then, she narrowed her eyes as she realized the office door was closed and Alaric was looking at some pages on his desk. "And now we're stuck."

Kai looked around, realizing the dilemma they were in. "So, Lizziebear, you have a plan to get out of here?" He asked.

Lizzie glanced at him, then at her dad, then finally to the window. What if.

And no, she wasn't planning on sending her dad out the window, no matter how much that idea appealed to her.

She had a different idea, one that might actually work fairly well.

Lizzie walked over to the window and looked out. She looked around noticing that there were some students up and about in the courtyard.

"What are you planning?" Kai asked, right behind her, making her jump in surprise. Lizzie sent him a look over her shoulder making him smirk proudly.

Lizzie rolled her eyes and looked back out the window. "We need a distraction, something that will get my dad to leave the room," She explained.

"Like what?" Kai asked, starting to look excited as he noticed the dark look on Lizzie's face.

"You'll see," Lizzie said and looked back out the window. Her eyes landed on a witch that was practicing magic with some other witches.

Lizzie smirked as she recognized the witch. It was Sydney. She was one of the few witches at the school that hated siphoners and made a point of calling the twins abominations, every other week.

Time for a little revenge.

Lizzie rested her hand on the window seal. She began siphoning as much magic as she possibly could in a short period. She needed a lot because her younger self's magic wasn't as trained or as powerful as her original one was.

Which meant it would be hard to get this spell right from this distance, all while keeping the cloaking spell up.

Lizzie stopped siphoning and held her hand out, focusing directly on Sydney.

" Ossox, " Lizzie whispered, ignoring Kai's intake of breath as he realized what spell she was using.

Lizzie felt her magic respond instantly as it did as she asked, but Lizzie could also feel the strain from using so much at once.

A scream echoed as Sydney's leg snapped in half.

Alaric jumped from his chair and ran over to the window. Lizzie backed away, all while smirking in amusement.

Alaric's eyes fell on the sobbing Sydney, who was holding her leg with pain written all over her face. He immediately rushed out of the room.

Lizzie watched him go, then looked out the window again.

"Well, that worked," Lizzie said, cheerfully.

"Nicely done," Kai said, looking impressed.

Lizzie just smiled and exited the office with Kai following.

"Now what, mini-me?" Kai asked, curiously.

"Well, I was planning on stealing another thing but I'll wait on that. For now, I need to go meet up with my sister," Lizzie said, shifting her bag over her shoulder.

"Why?" Kai asked, looking at her.

"I have training," Lizzie said with a grin. She turned the corner, releasing the cloaking spell as she did so.

"Training?" Kai repeated, looking curiously.

"Yep, it's hobbit training time," Lizzie said, ignoring Kai's very puzzled face. "It's gonna be an utter disaster."

Chapter Text

Lizzie walked out of the school. However, instead of heading towards the docks where Hope and her dad usually trained, she headed to the remote place that she and Josie found when they were younger.

She glanced around her, feeling weird about the quiet. Kai hadn't been around for long yet she felt his absence.

He had disappeared as she was walking through the main part of the school. It wasn't a surprise since there was no way he could stay around her the whole day. Especially with the others in the prison world and the fact that he would need to feed at some point.

But it was strange nonetheless.

She had grown used to his childish and psychotic presence. Maybe because it was familiar and she didn't have to hide around him.

Kai already knew she was as fucked up as him and it was nice to be how she normally was. It was going to suck having to pretend around the others.

And while a part of her wanted to take the advice of her 'evil' self and be her true self, she knew she couldn't. At least, not yet.

Lizzie had to play this smart. She couldn't do anything obviously fucked up or else her dad may try to lock her up.

She sighed as she made her way down the dirt path, finally coming up on the clearing. She went towards the middle and set her duffle bag down. Then sat down beside it.

God, what was she doing? Where did she even go from here? She barely had a plan for what to do and it was only a matter of time before everything became screwed up.

Lizzie's already changed things with her uncle and who the hell knew what that would change later on. She wasn't even sure what to do with him.

A part of her wanted to release him, just to see the chaos that would take place but in the end, she wasn't stupid enough to think she could control him in any way.

If Kai got released, what would happen? Would he go after her dad? On second thought, maybe she should release him.

But what if he went after Josie? Letting him out would be taking a dangerous risk.

And Lizzie knew that she had to be careful with even her own safety. He may not appear like he wanted to kill her but who the fuck knew what he was thinking.

His schemes were Emperor Palpatine level and there was no way he wasn't going to try and manipulate her.

The one good thing was that he technically had no power here.

Lizzie shook her head and began stretching as her thoughts turned to the other residents of the prison world, particularly a certain vampire.

Jade.

What to do about Jade? She didn't deserve to be trapped in the prison world but the risk of trying to get her out would be huge.

There was no way Kai wouldn't take the chance to escape and Lizzie wasn't sure that she would actually try and stop him.

Dammit, why the hell did she have to kind of like her uncle? Just because she felt a connection to him and actually felt seen with him, did not mean she should help him.

Lizzie stood up and grabbed one of the wooden staff pole-like things - she didn't have fucking clue what they were called - and started going through familiar movements. Her muscle memory might be gone but her mind was still as sharp as ever.

Doing this reminded Lizzie that she needed to also start working on her magic skills. She may be a powerful witch - she could hold her own beside Hope after all - but her powers were weakened from being in her past body which was a dangerous thing with what was coming.

She also needed to convince Josie to join her. The more powerful and offensive magic they learned the better.

Lizzie also knew she needed to work on her killing-people urges. In her original timeline, she could be as impulsive and psychotic as she wanted but here it was a no-no.

Which was honestly stupid, she was a supernatural creature, not a human, so why the fuck did she have to pretend.

It was utter bullshit.

She moved quickly to the right, pretending to dodge an invisible opponent, and swung the pole towards the legs of the not-person.

Lizzie's main worry was that she wouldn't be able to stop herself from doing something to hurt someone that pissed her off.

And the part that worried her wasn't the actual act itself, whoever pissed her off most definitely deserved whatever they got but the risk that someone might see that she was the one that did it was a higher percentage than she liked.

And she was not proficient at memory spells. So torture might be the best way to deal with someone.

Could be fun to make someone her bitch.

Nah, too much risk in that. The only way she would do that is if there was no risk of betrayal or someone realizing that something was wrong.

Maybe later on after she learned some memory spells or some type of spell to prevent a person from saying certain things. Was there even a spell like that out there?

If not, such a missed opportunity.

Lizzie continued through the movements. She brought the pole up in a block, then pivoted on her heel, swinging it down.

She was jarred backwards as instead of her pole hitting empty air, it hit the wood of another pole. Lizzie followed the staff to its wielder.

It was Josie.

The twins' eyes met and a grin formed on Lizzie's face, matching the one on Josie's. This was going to be fun.

Lizzie pulled her pole off of Josie's and went into a defensive position with the pole in front of her. She shifted the position of her feet and changed her grip on the pole.

Josie followed her movement and the twins began circling each other. Lizzie watched as Josie's right foot moved ever so slightly forward and knew what she was going to do before she did it.

Josie sprung forward, using her right foot to propel her forward, and swung the pole towards Lizzie's right side.

She easily blocked it and pushed upwards, ducking under the pole, shifting the pole, so that the two dislodged and swung at Josie's legs.

Josie barely backed away fast enough to avoid being tripped up but Lizzie didn't let her breathe as she began swiping at Josie, increasing speed with each second. Josie moved backwards and tried to trip her up by twirling around Lizzie but she followed, refusing to let up.

Josie then made a change to her strategy that Lizzie didn't expect. She made a move as if she was about to swing low at Lizzie's legs and when Lizzie responded by lowering her pole, Josie shot forward and pinned the pole down with her foot. Then she used it as a springboard to jump over on Lizzie's pole and began to swing rapidly, putting Lizzie on the defensive.

Lizzie met each powerful hit full-on, however, she continued being on the retreat. And despite the burning in her muscles and her heartbeat pounding in her ears, she was smiling as the adrenaline coursed through her veins.

A part of Lizzie was surprised that the two were doing as good as they were, with very little muscle memory left. But as they continued going back and forth. Defensive and offensive. They began to slow.

Had the twins been paying attention to their surroundings and not so focused on the fight, they would have noticed Penelope and Landon staring at them in shock.

However, they were both too distracted to realize that and continued on with the fight even as they began dripping in sweat with their hair sticking to their faces.

Lizzie could feel herself breathing heavier and heavier as she went for a sweep at Josie's legs. And it was clear that Josie was struggling too.

It was time to end this.

Lizzie pulled back into the defensive, making sure to stumble a few times as Josie immediately began attacking full force. She moved backward and allowed Josie to believe she was getting the advantage.

Then when Lizzie blocked a powerful strike, instead of letting it bounce off she slid the poles together as she closed the space between the twins, rather than maneuvering around her twin like before.

Josie's grip on her pole weakened at the unexpected and strange movement. And Lizzie didn't wait for her to get her grip and she used the last of her strength to push up on the pole, making Josie stumble, widening her stance in an attempt to steady herself.

But that was exactly what Lizzie was going for.

Her leg shot out, going between the space between Josie's legs and Lizzie shifted sideways as she twisted her leg so that it was pushed up against Josie's ankle, and began pressing hard. Josie instantly lifted said leg off the ground so she wouldn't trip and fall but Lizzie wouldn't allow her a moment to rest, so shifted, knocking Josie's pole out of her hands, and swept Josie's last leg out from under her.

Josie hit the ground breathing heavily and despite having lost, she started laughing and Lizzie followed immediately after as she dropped her pole and sat next to her.

When the twins finally stopped laughing, Josie looked at Lizzie with joy in her eyes.

"That was really good, I really wasn't expecting you to do that," Josie said, smiling. "Honestly, I didn't even know that was a move before you did it."

Lizzie smirked. "Neither did I," She said, watching as Josie's mouth dropped in shock.

"So you just attempted a completely different and likely advanced move for the first time, with no clue on if it would work?" Josie asked in disbelief.

"I wanted to win," Lizzie replied, shrugging.

Josie laughed again. "God, that is so you," She said, looking at Lizzie fondly.

Lizzie smiled but paused as she noticed the two silent observers. Josie followed her eyes and froze in surprise at seeing Penelope.

"Satan, muppet-head," Lizzie greeted after she realized Josie wasn't going to. She stood up, groaning as she felt her muscles pull in exhaustion.

Tomorrow was going to be hell. And one look at Josie told her that she realized the same.

Yeah, maybe they overdid it for the first day getting back into training.

Lizzie looked at Landon, who was staring at them in awe.

Landon approached slowly, glancing at Lizzie. "Wait, will I be able to do that when we're done with my training?" He asked.

"Yeah," Lizzie replied, stretching her arms, trying to ease the sore muscles. "If you work hard, eventually you will Fido."

Landan grinned, reminding her of an excited puppy. "Cool."

Josie stepped forward, looking everywhere but at Penelope, who kept looking at Josie, then at Lizzie as if trying to figure something out.

What was going on in the she-devils head? Actually, Lizzie didn't want to know. It was probably something stupid and unimportant.

Although, for some reason, she almost appeared sexually frustrated. Which wouldn't be that surprising since Josie was right here but why did she keep looking at Lizzie too.

The look on Penelope's face was a combination of 'oh shit', shock, and horror. Penelope's eyes met Lizzie's and she was slightly amused to find that she seemed to be having an existential crisis again.

Then, Penelope did something that Lizzie didn't expect. Her eyes trailed up and down Lizzie's form and a slight blush formed on her face.

What the actual fuck? Did Penelope Park just check her out? Lizzie barely pulled herself out of her frozen state to look over at Josie, who didn't seem to be aware of what just happened as she was already starting Landon through some stretches.

When Lizzie glanced back towards Penelope but she wasn't there anymore. Deja vu much. She looked around confused and caught a glimpse of her heading back towards the school.

Lizzie shook her head and turned back toward Josie and Landon. And so the twins began the hobbits training session.

After about two hours, the twins finished up with Landon. For the training, they had him do some workouts to build strength, then had him go through some movements with a pole, to try and build some muscle memory.

The twins had fun teaching him different things and by the end of it, they were all laughing because they had made a game out of the training.

Lizzie couldn't remember the last time she felt this free. And despite being exhausted, Lizzie found that she enjoyed doing this again.

Especially with Josie.

And it was strange after going so long feeling either angry or numb. Her mind was void of dark dangerous thoughts.

Although, that was probably because she wasn't around anyone that she had the urge to maim. Well, except Landon. However, he thankfully seemed to be too distracted by the training to be annoying in any way.

Small miracles.

When they were all finished, they grabbed their stuff and returned to the school. Josie went up ahead to take a shower first, while Lizzie walked with Landon to his room.

They walked in sync, ignoring the students that back away from them, looking grossed out by their sweaty states.

Lizzie paused outside of the door and Landon stopped too. He rubbed the back of his neck looking at her awkwardly.

"Use words, hobbit. I may be a witch but that doesn't make me telepathic," Lizzie said, raising an eyebrow.

She glanced around briefly after realizing that Kai could show up at any moment. It was honestly surprising that he wasn't here already. It's been hours.

"Um, I-uh I talked to Hope earlier, and uh," He looked down at the floor then back at her, hesitantly meeting her eyes. "And she made me realize how much of a big deal it is that I'm staying here and how this has never been done before."

Lizzie paused. Oh, so this was the direction the conversation was going.

"Yeah, that's technically true, what about it?" Lizzie said, observing him carefully. Bird boy looked at her confused like he couldn't understand her, which to be fair, most people couldn't.

Especially now that she's gone from mean girl bitch to dark psychotic bitch.

"I just - why?" Landon ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "Why help me? Why try? Why care? Why the hell are you putting so much effort for me?"

"Frodo, why is it so hard for you to accept that I just want to help you?" Lizzie asked, staring at Landon with an unreadable look. "Why can't you accept that this is happening? Or do you not think you belong here?"

Landon froze. She instantly knew she hit the exact thing that was bothering him.

He moved away, further into his room. "I don't," Landon said, quietly. "I don't belong anywhere. I never have. This school? This crazy-ass school is for people that are special and I'm not that. I'm not supposed to be here."

Lizzie sighed, looking down. "You have no idea how wrong you are about that."

Landon gave her a confused look and she just shook her head.

"You belong here more than you know, you belong here with your brother, and I can't tell you why not yet but let's just say it's really complicated and is definitely a 'I am your father' level of crazy," Lizzie said, feeling the small amount of empathy that she had left twinging in her chest.

She knew there was a chance he wouldn't forgive her once he learned what she was keeping from him but it wasn't time for this to come out.

Landon nodded slowly, unable to comprehend what she was talking about but accepting it for what it was.

Then he looked at her earnestly. "Promise me you'll tell me when the time's right," He said, holding her gaze.

"I promise," Lizzie said, unsure of whether it was a lie or not.

He nodded and looked away. "I should ah shower and get changed," Landon said, glancing at her from the corner of his eyes.

"Right. Yeah, I'll leave you to it, Baggins," Lizzie turned and started walking out of the room.

"Hey, Lizzie," Landon called after. Lizzie paused, turning her head slightly in response. "Thanks, for everything."

Lizzie shifted, glancing back at him. "Yeah, well, you know what they say about charity cases on college applications."

Landon's mouth dropped, looking hurt for a moment, but that look completely disappeared when he saw the joking grin on her face. Lizzie laughed lightly as he rolled his eyes at her.

He really shouldn't be surprised. Bitch was 40 percent of her personality.

"Ha ha ha, laugh it up," He said, glaring playfully. "See you later Lizzie."

Lizzie smirked and walked out.

She headed back to her room and grabbed a change of clothes. Lizzie took a quick shower and began preparing for the game against the Mystic Falls Timberwolves.

She put her hair up in a ponytail when she was hit with the realization that Dana was alive.

Oh hell no.

Lizzie sat down on the bed. This was really bad.

There was no way she would be able to control her need to burn that bitch alive.

Then she paused. Maybe, she didn't have to control herself and she could give Dana actually what she deserved as well as Chad.

Lizzie rubbed a hand over her face. Since Hope and her dad don't have to spend their time hunting down Landon, they would be at the game which would make it difficult to do anything.

Guess she would have to wait and see.

First things first, get the knife.

Lizzie got up and made her way out of her room. She headed to the library and entered slowly, keeping an eye out for anyone that would be paying attention.

She rested her hand on the wall, siphoning quickly, whispering the invisibility spell under her breath. Lizzie headed towards where the knife was, spotting it resting there untouched.

She grabbed it quickly and took off towards her room. When she got there, she went to the hiding space in the corner of the room.

It was a loose panel of wooden flooring that Lizzie used magic to pull up. She placed the knife in the crevice and rested one hand on the floor, so she could siphon enough magic for a powerful cloaking spell.

However, instead of immediately casting the cloaking spell, she turned to her bag and pulled out the ascendant. She placed it securely next to the knife.

Lizzie then whispered the cloaking spell, watching as the two items disappeared from sight. She placed the floorboard back in place and stood up.

It was time to meet up with Josie for the game.

She brushed off her clothes and made her way out of her room. Now how to potentially commit murder in front of everyone without getting caught? Dammit, this would be a perfect time for Kai to be here to give her some sound advice.

"Someone's in a school spirit," Came from behind her.

Lizzie turned around and stared. There was Kai Parker covered in blood, that was either his or someone else's.

Huh, think of the devil and he shall appear.

Lizzie shook her head. She didn't care about why he was covered in blood splatters. She had more important things to worry about.

Also, what was he talking about? She looked down and she realized that he was talking about her clothes for the game which had a giant Salvatore Stallion symbol on the front.

"It's for a school-game thing, but that doesn't matter," Lizzie said, dismissively. "I'm really glad you're here. I need help."

Kai cocked his head, confused. "With what?" He asked, curiously.

Probably wondering what the hell she would need help from Kai for?

"How to kill someone in front of people without anyone knowing it was me," Lizzie said, holding her uncle's gaze, looking completely serious.

Kai paused and a dark but mischievous smile appeared on his face. "Well, my dearest niece, you came to exactly the right person. Now listen carefully kiddo, cause here's what you need to do..."

Chapter Text

“So who’s Darla?” Kai asked as they made their way towards the game. He glanced around trying to spot Lizzie’s target.

“She’s the blonde prissy girl by the water cooler,” Lizzie muttered under her breath with a subtle nod towards where Dana was.

He considered her, then looked back at his niece. “Huh, this is gonna be entertaining,” He said with a tilt of his head.

Lizzie's mouth twitched but she couldn’t reply as she heard her name being called. Turning to face the newcomer, she plastered on an easy going smile.

“Josie,” She greeted. Kai seemed to freeze for a moment and quickly turned to look at Josie, but Lizzie couldn’t see what his reaction was.

“Hey,” Josie said, stopping beside her. “Have you seen dad? He was supposed to already be here.”

“No and I’d find it a lot better if he decided to skip,” Lizzie said, rolling her eyes.

“What happened?” Josie asked, frowning. “Did he do something?”

Lizzie looked at her, shaking her head. “When doesn’t he do something, Jo,” She said as they made their way over to the others.

Josie sighed, turning to her. “I don’t know what we can do. It’s not like we can just get rid of him,” She said.

“I disagree with that sentiment,” Kai spoke up for the first time since Josie appeared. Lizzie’s eyes flickered over to him briefly, biting the inside of her cheek to stop herself from smiling.

“I mean…” Lizzie gave Josie a pointed look.

Josie hit her arm. “Liz, no,” She said, amusement written all over her face.

“Buzzkill,” Kai muttered with a pout.

“Fine, new plan, ” Lizzie said, pursing her lips. “How hard do you think it would be to convince mom to swap?”

“Swap? What do you mean?” Josie asked, raising an eyebrow.

“As in places obviously,” She said, a grin growing on her face. “Let mom be the headmistress for a bit and dad go on recruitment missions.”

“Dad would never agree,” Her twin said, laughing.

“So, just give him his precious Hope Mikaelson, and he’ll vamoose,” Lizzie said, smirking. 

Kai snorted in amusement, while Josie choked on her spit. “God, that sounds so wrong,” She said, shaking her head. 

“And yet, it seems so very accurate,” Kai said, wrinkling his nose. “Ricky boy should not be around teenagers. He’s a hazard.”

They both had to stifle their laughter when they saw both Alaric and Hope enter the field at the same time.

Lizzie listened - barely able to stop herself from rolling her eyes - as her dad told everyone the game plan. Josie also looked like she rather not be doing this but she, of course, had an easier time holding her tongue.

Kaleb protested the idea of losing but her dad was unmoved by his words. 

“So basically you guys have to publicly humiliate yourselves so that you don’t raise anybody's suspicions,” Kai said, looking at Alaric with disgust. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

He wasn’t wrong. It honestly would be a good learning exercise to learn control, if they were allowed to do what they wanted but no, her dad was a stickler for boring shit.

Once Alaric was done drilling the plan into their heads, they moved to the field. Dana was watching Lizzie with a nasty look on her face.

“Hey, Lizzie, haven’t seen you at the pharmacy in a while, makes one think someone’s off her meds,” She said with a fake pout. “And I wouldn’t want something to happen today that makes everyone realize just how crazy you actually are.”

“Shut up, Dana,” Josie said, glaring from Lizzie’s side. Kai had gone from just observing to watching Dana with a chilling look in his eyes. 

“Maybe, leave her alive, kiddo,” He said, darkly. “I think I want to have a little chat.”

“Awe, look at little ‘I can’t do anything myself’ coming to her sister’s defense, so pathetic,” Dana said, sneering at Josie. Then, she walked away to the rest of her friends with a pep in her step.

“Bitch,” Josie said, the anger making her eyes blaze. Then, she looked at Lizzie, who looked back at her with a malicious look on her face. “Lizzie?”

The look was gone but the feelings weren’t.

Lizzie felt her magic shift as her rage was a roaring flame in her chest. Her eyes flickered towards where Dana stood, then away. Maybe it was too soon, but she didn’t care.

Her gut told her she didn’t have to worry about Josie. Even if she realized who caused what. Her sister was on her side for this.

Her hand clenched as Kai’s words from earlier appeared in her mind. Act cool, don’t focus on the person, do the spell as quietly as possible - if possible do it silently.

She relaxed her hands and walked back over to the others with Josie. Putting on a smile as she said something. She let her magic fluctuate, reaching out to where the person she despised more than anything was standing. 

The spell Kai had taught her was simple but difficult. A dark spell for a dark purpose. One that was untraceable.

Conteram et cadere

She said no words yet willed it to work. A scream came from her right and it wasn't Dana. Josie and Lizzie turned quickly to look at the scene.

The one who had screamed was Dana’s best friend. She had her hand on her mouth as she stared at the unmoving body of Dana, who had ‘slipped’ and fallen, hitting her head with a massive amount of force.

Blood pooled from the head wound and Dana convulsed on the ground. She could feel Kai’s proud gaze. It made her want to smile but she forced the urge down.

“Holy shit,” Josie whispered in shock. 

“What just happened?” Lizzie said as well, playing the part. “How-what the fuck?”

People were rushing around frantically. Vaguely, she heard someone calling 911 - too little too late. Dana’s body stopped convulsing and went still.

Lizzie could hear her dad shouting orders as Josie pulled her over to the others. Looking at the people around her, she could see a variety of different reactions.

MG was doing everything he could to not focus on the blood, he could most definitely smell. Kaleb just looked confused and curious as to what just happened. Penelope had a hand over her mouth and it wasn’t because she was upset. 

Landon and Rafael were just looking at each other, not seeming to be able to process what they were witnessing. 

The person, whose reaction she cared most about, was her dad. She found there was no reason to worry as he was focused on the vampires, trying to make sure they were all in control. 

Josie was gripping Lizzie’s hand tightly. She didn’t seem upset, at least not about the death, instead, she seemed concerned about something else.

Considering her sister for a moment, their eyes met. There was something in her twin’s eyes. Something vindictive and knowing. 

Lizzie let a small bit of pride show in her expression and Josie squeezed her hand again, leaning against her.

“Karma can be a bitch,” Lizzie said, lowly.

Josie bit her lip. “It really can be,” She said, quietly with a quirk of her lips. And Lizzie barely stopped herself from staring at her sister in surprise. 

Kai had no such qualms. “Huh, maybe your sister isn’t miss perfect like my own was,” He said dryly. Yeah, no kidding.

Lizzie made sure her true emotions about the situation were locked away as she went back to watching the panic happening around her.

When Lizzie’s eye landed on the last person, she felt her heart skip a beat. Hope Mikaelson was staring directly at her. It wasn’t in an accusing way. Instead, it felt contemplative. 

It set her on edge. If anyone could figure out that magic was at fault, it would be Hope. And she would be quite capable of figuring out who was the culprit, but if she did, would she tell?

“Impressive,” Kai said, suddenly. Lizzie blinked, momentarily caught off guard. Having not seen his move so that he was beside Josie. “Especially for the first time using the spell. Silently as well.”

Lizzie met his eyes briefly, letting the thanks she wanted to say show through her eyes. He nodded, smirking at her.

Behind her, she could hear her dad saying something about heading back to the school. He likely wanted to get all the supernaturals away from the incident before any questions could be asked.

With that, they were ushered home and her dad was completely unaware of the supernatural elements of the incident. Guess the game was canceled this year. Oh well.

However, when they reached the campus, they all stared at the scene in front of them. A large monstrosity with wings circling the air above the school, raining fire down on the hiding students.

The entirety of the grounds was burning with flames that continued to spread at a rapid pace. How the fuck did she forget that the first monster was still going to appear?

It was obvious but she had completely dismissed what could potentially happen. Like it showing at the school, looking for the knife.

“Uh, is this a normal occurrence?” Kai asked, looking completely befuddled. And no, It was not every day that this happens, but soon it would become the new normal.

The fire was getting larger as kids ran in the other direction. Lizzie, on the other hand, ran forward. She wasn’t alone though as Hope flanked her right and Josie flanked her left.

“What the hell is that?” Josie said, her eyes wide as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

“A dragon,” Lizzie said at the exact same time as Kai. 

“That’s not possible,” Hope said, shaking her head. 

“Maybe, maybe not,” Lizzie said, glancing to her right. “But it sure as hell looks like one.”

“We have to stop it,” Josie said, looking mildly terrified. “It’s gonna kill someone.”

“How the fuck do you kill a dragon?” Hope said as the dragon roared, lunging at some vampires, who dove out of the way.

“Anybody got a sword,” Lizzie said with a shrug. When the other two looked at her, she shrugged. “It’s how it happened in fairytales.”

“Shit, not now,” Kai muttered, looking at something she couldn’t see. And before Lizzie could protest, he disappeared.

Damn it, now would have been a good time for him to be here. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see some of the other students running out of the school with weapons.

Guess some of them were smart. Or not, since they were running towards the thing.

Hope was looking at the dragon in worry as Kaleb barely managed to grab little Pedro and get him out of the way. Someone was going to die. So, she ran forward - Lizzie and Josie said her name, trying to get her to come back.

“Hey,” She shouted, drawing the dragon's attention to her. Its wings expanded as it took to the sky. Hope took off running away from the school.

She didn’t get very far before the dragon landed in front of her. Teeth bared in a snarl as it prowled forward.

“Jo,” Lizzie said, darkly. Josie looked at Lizzie, her face was just as dark. “Are you with me?”
“Always.”

The twins exchanged looks. They were a lot of things, and at the end of the day, maybe good wasn’t one of them. Both instinctively knew what they had to do. They could pretend all they liked. 

Play the part their dad wanted them to, but they weren’t human. Not like him. There was a universal truth that Lizzie ultimately agreed with - good people can do bad and bad people can do good.

Lizzie and Josie ran forward. Both ending up on either side of Hope. She looked at them in surprise.

“Hope, we need a dark spell now,” Lizzie said, looking at the tribrid. Hope’s eyes widened in surprise. 

“It’s the only way,” Josie said in agreement.

“Your dad won’t like it,” Hope said, hesitantly as the dragon’s mouth opened about to burn them alive.

“Hope,” Lizzie said warningly.

“Ok,” She said, holding out her hands. 

The twins grabbed her hands and began siphoning. The dragon drew in breath and fire rushed to consume them.

“Tenebris scutum,” The dark spell was out of their mouths instantly. A shield formed around the three girls as the black magic within didn’t allow the fire to even crack it.

“Repeat after me: sanguinem adducere, dolorem trahere, ignem esse coge ,” Hope said, quickly as soon as the fire was gone from their vision.

“ Sanguinem adducere, dolorem trahere, ignem esse coge, ” They followed Hope’s lead. The dark magic rose up around them as power filled their veins. 

Their hands rose as the dragon suddenly screamed in pain and it rose as if to fly away, but it couldn’t. Tears ripped through its wings as it slammed into the grass.

But then the dragon was no longer a dragon as a woman-like person replaced it. Blood was trailing from wounds as they stared at the three witches with fear and pain. Desperation was written all across their faces.

Hope slowly released the twins' hands as she walked forward. Lizzie looked at Josie, who was looking at her as well.

A smile formed on Lizzie’s face, bringing one to Josie’s. 

“That was amazing,” Josie whispered, exhilarated. Lizzie hummed in response. The power rush was sending shivers up and down her spine.

The two looked at Hope, who was begging the dragon-lady to speak, but they spoke no words. Instead, they held out their hand, desperate for something only Lizzie knew about.

Lizzie and Josie looked at each other as they walked forward. Coming to stand on the right side of Hope, they looked at the pitiful being.

It was time to end it.

Lizzie held out her hand at something behind her and a knife flew from MG’s hand to her own. She looked at the other two, who were realizing her intentions.

“Lizzie,” Hope said, nervously.

“We can risk them turning into a dragon again,” She said, giving her a sharp look.

“But-”

Josie cut her off with a shake of her head. “Lizzie’s right. It’s too dangerous. We don’t know the what or the why, but we can’t take the chance,” She said, nodding at Lizzie.

Lizzie tightened her grip on the knife, looking down at them. Distantly, she heard her name being called, she ignored it as she slashed outwards.

The blade sliced through their neck and they choked on their own blood as they fell to the ground unmoving. Blood dripped from the blade onto the grass.

“Lizzie.” 

Her name was said with so much anger, it was obvious who said it.

The three turned to see Alaric staring at them with disappointment. Lizzie noted briefly that all the other students had left.

“You three need to follow me,” He said, before turning on his heel.

Lizzie looked at Josie as she swallowed nervously, but she could tell her sister had no regrets. Hope, herself, seemed afraid of what was going to happen next.

They followed Alaric as he led them to the library, which was completely empty, with the exception of themselves.

Lizzie placed the knife on the table as he turned to face them.

“You used black magic,” He said, a frown that seemed imprinted onto his face.

“There wasn’t a choice,” Hope spoke up, moving forward with a determined look. “If we hadn’t, people could have died. We did what we had to.”

“No, you didn’t,” Alaric said, making Hope recoil.

“Yes, we did,” Lizzie said, stepping forward. “Tell me dad, how we could have stopped a fucking dragon without getting hurt if we hadn’t gone against the rules.”

“You should have found another way.” He said, shaking his head.

“How?” Josie asked in disbelief. “We were too busy trying to not be barbecued. We didn’t have time to research.”

Alaric opened, then closed his mouth, seeming to be out of words. If only that were true, but the reality of it was that he couldn’t argue, not against all three of them. They were a united front and there was no way they would back down.

“You three have detention. And if you do dark magic again, there will be serious consequences,” He said, gruffly. His eyes landed on Lizzie, who tensed. “Why did you kill her?”

“We didn’t know what they could do. What if they had turned back into a dragon? We would’ve been screwed,” Lizzie said, stiffly.

“You took a life,” Alaric said, staring her down.

“Yeah, and?” Lizzie said, raising an eyebrow. “I was protecting the school, Josie, and myself. I don’t regret it and don’t even try to make me feel guilty.”

“I don’t even think you could if you wanted to,” He said, coldly. 

Josie gasped. “Dad,” She said, glaring angrily.

Lizzie could feel eyes on her as her dad's words echoed in her ears. She couldn’t focus on that though as memories she had suppressed began to resurface.

He wasn’t wrong though. She couldn’t feel guilt. Not really. Did that make her a monster? Not being able to feel regret.

Maybe she was twisted, but nothing would change that. Nothing could. It was who she was. Glancing at her twin, who had her hand on her wrist in concern. And she wasn’t the only one like this.

It may be easy to pretend like Josie was the perfect good twin but that wasn’t really true. Josie had done a lot of fucked things, just like her. They made a pair, didn’t they?

The only thing different about Josie is that she kept trying to change, while Lizzie had just stopped trying.

But why were they trying to change like there was something wrong with them? They weren’t humans, they didn’t follow that moral code that was so ingrained into humanity.

Maybe the reason they couldn’t change was because they weren’t supposed to and maybe that was okay. 

“What would you know,” Lizzie said, glaring. “You're just a human.”

“I know enough,” Was his only reply.

Her hand formed into a fist. “It’s bullshit, you know.”

“Liz,” Josie whispered, worriedly.

She shook her off. “You are the last person who should have a say in the lives of supernaturals, especially when you want us to play pretend humans for the rest of our lives,” She said, darkly.

“Lizzie,” Hope said, stepping towards her as the lights flickered.

She ignored her. “Let’s be real dad, you don’t give a shit about us. All of this,” She motioned around her. “Is for humans. To protect them. Not us.”

“Lizzie, that’s not true,” Josie shook her head.

“Isn’t it. Ask him about the protections he has in place,” She said, looking at her twin. Alaric seemed to freeze.

“What protections?” Hope asked, confused.

“There’s something in place that when activated, takes away all of our powers. Now tell me, how does that protect us,” Lizzie’s face was blank.

Josie paused, frowning at her dad as he said nothing in response. He was staring at Lizzie, something fearful in his eyes. His silence was his admission, at least to the others. Hope was staring between all, something unreadable in her gaze.

“Why aren’t you saying anything?” Hope asked, narrowing her eyes at the headmaster. “Deny it. Do something?’

“He won’t because I’m telling the truth,” Lizzie said, crossing her arms.

“Maybe there is a spell like that in place,” Alaric said, admitting what she already knew, and the other two flinched back with matching looks of betrayal. “It’s there to protect innocent people.”

“From who?” Hope asked, a snarl forming on her face.

“From someone that I won’t be able to stop from hurting others,” He said, but he was looking directly at Lizzie. 

She heard what he wasn’t saying. Rage curled in her stomach. A buzz seemed to settle in her chest.

The magic exploded from her and Alaric was sent flying backwards. He hit the wall and slid down it, unconscious.

Lizzie heard Hope’s sharp intake of air and the next thing she knew, Hope was beside her grasping her arm.

Distantly, Lizzie could hear her calling her name but she couldn’t focus. The anger was too much. She shook both Josie and Hope off - walking away as she fought back the urge to scream.

When she made it to an empty room, she let out a cry as she used magic to send everything around her flying. The lightbulbs shattered above her, leaving the windows as the sole light source in the room.

Her back hit the wall and she slid down with her head in her hands. 

“Um, I was gonna ask about the dragon, but something tells me there’s another reason for all this,” Kai said, looking from her to the destruction of the room. “So, my darling niece, talk to me. Tell me who I’m killing.”

Chapter Text

“As much as I would love for you to kill my dad, you're sort of a ghost,” Lizzie said, looking at him as she rubbed a hand down her face.

His eyes narrowed. “What’d he do?” 

“Got all pissy at me, Jo, and Hope for killing the dragon,” She said, leaning back so her head rested against the wall.

“And how is that a problem?” He asked, brow pinching together in confusion.

“We used black magic to injure it,” Lizzie said with a shrug.

Kai’s eyes lit up with both pride and curiosity. “Black magic?” He repeated.

“Yep,” She said as a grin pulled at her lip. “It was so fucking awesome. It shredded the dragon's wings causing it to fall.”

“Interesting,” He said, most likely trying to imagine it. “Did that kill it?”

“Nope, but it did cause it to turn back into its human form,” Lizzie said, thinking back to the dragon lady and the desperation on their face. 

Her uncle stood back up. “How’d it die then, Lizziebear?” He asked.

Lizzie fought the urge to roll her eyes at the stupid nickname. It was so dumb.

“I slashed its throat,” She said, fighting the urge to smirk.

“Very nice,” Kai said after he let out a little laugh. Then, he motioned to his face “I was wondering about the blood splatter.” 

Lizzie paused, feeling her face and realized there was dried blood all over it. 

Oops. At least that explained the weird looks from earlier.

Kai raised an eyebrow at the reaction. “What you didn’t notice?” He asked, sounding amused.

Lizzie fought the urge to cross her arms and pout. “I’ll have you know I was too busy being chastised by my dad to notice.”

Then, she stopped. “You know that’s probably why my dad was so agitated, now that I think about it…”

At Kai’s look, she gave in to the urge to cross her arms as she gave him a look to shut up. He snorted.

“Back to the story,” He said, motioning for her to continue.

Lizzie rolled her eyes. “This is entertaining for you, isn’t it?” She said, exasperated.

“Immensely. Now, continue.”

Fighting the urge to stab him, she did. “Point is we got in trouble. Then, my dad basically said that I was evil, so I threw him into a wall.”

“Wait, wait, wait. Backtrack. He said you were evil?” Kai said, looking both angry and surprised.

Lizzie thought back to what happened. “Well, not in so many words, but it was implied,” She said.

Kai’s hands formed into firsts and Lizzie felt a flicker of unease. It wasn’t fear. She knew his wrath wasn’t directed at her, but that didn’t make the rage radiating from him any less unsettling.

“Where is he?” He said, calmly.

Yeah, he was in no way calm, which meant he was so fucking angry.

“Why?” Lizzie asked, slowly.

He gave her a sharp grin. “I’m going to kill him.” It was said so cheerfully, but underneath it was a volcano about to erupt.

That was when Lizzie knew that in no uncertain terms her dad was a goner the second Kai had a chance.

“As fun as that would be to watch, you literally can’t do that,” She said, motioning to his astral form. “So, slow the roll Jack the Ripper.”

Kai frowned as he realized he couldn’t argue her point and Lizzie watched him take a few moments to calm down.

Although, she knew without a doubt that the rage was still there. Her uncle would likely be biding his time and Lizzie didn’t know if she wanted to interfere.

After Kai took another breath, he turned to her. “You said you threw him into a wall?” He asked, tilting his head.

“Yeah, I said that,” She said, nodding.

“You should have bashed his skull in,” He said, simply.

Lizzie cracked a smile. “I’ll be sure to take your feedback into consideration for next time.”

She could see his eyes light up at the prospect and Lizzie shook her head in amusement. He was so predictable.

At least in this.

Normally, the thing that was predictable about him was his unpredictability.

“Ooh, I have other suggestions,” He said with a grin.

Lizzie laughed. “You can tell me some other time, Uncle Kai. My bed is currently calling me.”

Kai nodded as Lizzie pushed herself to her feet. She was so done for the day.

“Sleep tight, mini-me.” 

And Lizzie had no doubt he would be plotting a million ways to kill her dad while she slept. 

<><><>

By the time the next day came, Lizzie could feel the exhaustion that her outburst from yesterday had left on her body.

Although, it was mainly a killer headache.

With that in mind, she decided to waste away in bed, telling Josie to do the training with moppet head alone today.

It was almost perfect until Josie burst into their room to tell her that they were going to have to do community service tomorrow.

Lizzie knew she was going to be facing some sort of consequence for throwing her dad into a wall, but did it have to be that again. 

She thought she avoided that with the whole dead Dana thing yet her dad seemed determined to ruin her day. 

And her life.

Act like your psychotic uncle once and all of the sudden, you’re evil incarnate.

Ironic, since she could have sworn that was Penelope.

Or Alyssa, if she considered future events.

Note to self: Get Alyssa on her side or get rid of her.

There could be no in between.

She would think about how to best achieve that later.

As the next day came, Lizzie tried to think of ways to get back at her dad without him knowing that she was doing anything.

At least she wouldn’t be doing it alone, since both Hope and Josie were in trouble too, because of the black magic spell that the three did.

She found it funny that one of the few good things that she would likely be doing in the past was one of the things she was getting in trouble for.

It was total BS.

See if she helped next time a fire-breathing dragon came to the school.

Looking around her room, she contemplated what she needed for her day of helping the community. All while also contemplating a way to get out of it.

First, though, she had to deal with her pissed-off uncle, whose temper had not cooled in the last day or so. 

If she didn’t know any better, she would think he cared.

“You do realize that you can’t interact with the real world, right?” She said, dryly. 

He had been attempting to find a way to use magic to do things, but nothing seemed to work.

“Not for lack of trying,” Kai said, under his breath.

The irritation on his face would normally be amusing, but strangely, it was heartwarming. Especially, after the shit with her dad.

Besides, she wouldn’t be surprised if Kai found a way to either appear or interact with the world. He was crafty enough to make something work.

Of course, that was something Lizzie wasn't sure would end well, but what did she know. 

Lizzie turned to look through her clothes. “As funny as it would be for you to beat the shit out of my dad, it would most likely be blamed on me, which wouldn’t be ideal.”

She could practically hear his pout. “You don’t have to be anywhere near it though,” He muttered.

Lizzie paused and turned. “What’s that supposed to mean?” She asked, confused. 

Then, she became even more confused as he gave her a little pleased smile.

“Let’s just say that I haven’t found a limit for how far away from you I have to be,” He said.

Huh…

Well, that was good to know.

Lizzie eyed in for a moment. “That could be useful in the future,” She mused.

Kai frowned as his eyes lit up with curiosity. “For what?”

“That’s for me to know and you to wonder for eternity,” She said, turning back to her close. 

“Oh, come on. Tell me please,” Kai said, walking around, so she could see him from the corner of her eyes.

Yeah, Lizzie didn’t need another reminder that her uncle was practically a child. That thought gave her pause.

“Wait, Uncle Kevin,” She said, turning to him, ignoring the offended look on his face. “How old are you?”

Kai stared at her. Then, he looked at the ground frowning. 

After a moment, he looked back at her. “Do you mean physically or how long I’ve been alive?”

“Either I guess.”

“Well, physically, 22.”

Lizzie’s eyes widened. Her uncle was only 7 years older than her current body. She knew he looked young, but that was not what she was expecting.

“And how long have you been alive?” She wondered.

“Well, I was born in 1972,” He said, thinking. “But you have to take off around 5 years for the short period I was in hell…”

“You were in hell?” She asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Uh-huh, but that’s not important.”

“Not important…” Lizzie repeated under her breath in disbelief. If that wasn’t important, then what the hell did he consider important.

“Anyways it adds up to about 53,” Kai said, finally after doing some counting on his fingers.

Yeah, that sounded about right.

“You are so old,” She said, shaking her head.

“Am not,” Kai said, indignantly. 

Lizzie turned to him. “Are too.”

“Am not,”  He said.

“Are to-” The door opened to reveal Josie staring at her in confusion.

“Lizzie, who are you talking to?” She said, looking around the room.

She froze briefly. “Uh, myself?”

Kai snorted off to the side.

Josie frowned. “Is that a statement or a question?” She asked, closing the door behind her.

Damn it, she really needed to be more aware of her surroundings.

“A statement,” Lizzie said. “Is it a crime to talk to myself?”

“No…carry on, I guess,” Josie said, after a moment.

“Well, I can’t now,” Lizzie said, rolling her eyes as she turned back to her clothes.

Fuck, she really needed new clothes. This was all old stuff that she had no desire to wear again. Finally, she grabbed a black shirt with the Salvatore crest on the back and one of her green plaid skirts. It would have to do.

Turning back to her sister, she noticed that Kai was gone again. Lizzie really needed to ask where he kept leaving to. 

“When are we supposed to head to the buses?” Lizzie asked her twin, who was picking out her own outfit.

“Um,” Josie checked her phone. “Soon, I would say.”

“Fun,” Lizzie said, making a face.

“Hey, cheer up, I heard some of the others agreed to volunteer, so it would go faster,” Josie said, nudging her.

“Who would volunteer?” Lizzie said, confused.

No one in their right mind would volunteer to do work.

“MG, Landon, and Raf all volunteered, and MG convinced Kaleb,” Josie replied.

Well, that explained it.

She signed. “And let me guess, we’re not allowed to use our powers.”

“Nope,” Josie said, looking as annoyed as she felt.

“Great,” Lizzie said with a huff. 

She was so planning on cheating. If her memory was correct, which it always was, then her dad wouldn’t be there.

An opportunity to do shit without eyes on her.

Josie shook her head. “Let’s just get changed and get this over with.”

<><><>

Following her sister onto the bus, she looked around for a seat. At the very back, she spotted Landon sitting beside his brother.

Nudging her sister, she motioned over to them. With a shared look of agreement, the twins made their way to the back.

“Hey, flyboy, Rafael,” She said as she sat down in front of them.

Josie gave a small wave as she sat beside her.

“Lizzie,” Landon said, straightening upon seeing her as his brother greeted the both of them. 

She narrowed her eyes at the birdbrain. “Why’d you volunteer?” She asked, suspiciously.

He gave an awkward cough. “Oh, you know,” He said vaguely as he motioned weirdly with his hand.

“No, I don’t,” Lizzie turned to Rafael. “Why’d you guys volunteer?”

“Huh? Oh,” Rafael blinked in surprise. “Landon heard you were being forced to do it.”

Say what now?

Landon froze and shot a look at Rafael. “That’s not true,” He said quickly.

“Then, what is true, hobbit feet?” Lizzie said, narrowing her eyes.

“I did hear you two and Hope were getting punished for saving the school and I thought that was unfair. So, I wanted to help, so you would get it done faster,” He blurted out.

Lizzie raised an eyebrow, making his face redden.

Josie nudged her and gave the boys a smile. 

“That’s really nice of you. We really appreciate it,” Then, Josie looked at her pointedly. “Right?”

She nodded with a tight smile. “Right, really appreciate it.”

Landon smiled. “It was the least I could do after everything you’ve done for me.”

Damn right, Landon was in their debt.

Collecting favors was Lizzie’s favorite pastime.

And murder.

But for some reason, that was unacceptable.

“Landon,” Josie said, shaking her head and Lizzie had a bad feeling she wasn’t going to like what she said. “You don’t owe us anything.”

Yes, he fucking did.

“We would’ve done it for anyone.”

No, they fucking wouldn’t of.

“We did it because we thought it was the right thing.”

Yeah, Lizzie definitely didn’t have any nefarious reasons for doing it.

“We don’t want anything in return.”

Speak for yourself, Jo.

“Right, Liz.”

Of course, she was bringing her into it.

Forcing away her annoyance, she smiled. “As Josie said, you don’t owe us anything.” The lie was bitter on her tongue.

Both Landon and Rafael looked happy at their words. All the while, Lizzie was trying to remember the link for selling your twin.

Someone else could have her. She’d get another one that was not nice. Then, maybe her plans would work out.

Whatever happened to Josiemort? She was really missing her right about now. 

Her thought process was cut off by the announcement that they were here. Sighing, Lizzie followed the others off the bus.

The group formed a circle as Dorian told them that they were all on trash duty.

Lizzie felt a brief moment of surprise before she remembered that with Dana dying the Mystic Falls High Student didn’t graffiti the town.

Well, that was one less thing to do. 

It also made it highly unlikely that they were going to bother them since they were in their mourning period.

As if Dana was someone to mourn.

Turning to Dorian, she tuned back in as he suggested that they form duos to work together, so it gets done faster.

Lizzie got paired with Kaleb, while the other duos were Hope and Rafael, Josie and MG with Landon as a third because there was no other person for him to pair with.

Kaleb turned to look at her. “Let’s get this over with,” He said, walking away.

He was clearly expecting her to follow, which she did after she sent her twin a quick wave.

The two got to work on their area fairly quickly.

“You know it was cool what you did,” He said as he poked a few pieces of trash.

“What’d you mean?” Lizzie asked as she put some trash into her bag.

He turned to her, pointing the tip of the pole at her. “With the dragon. You killed it. It was sick,” Kaleb said.

Lizzie smiled, briefly. “Thanks. Not everyone thinks that though.”

“Screw everyone else. That thing needed to die. If anyone has a problem with it, they can shove it,” He said scoffing.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Lizzie said, biting the inside of her cheek. She had forgotten how Kaleb was about this sort of thing.

It was nice to know that he would likely be on her side for the majority of things in the future. He was a realist, which was rare in a world full of idealists.

“You’re from Georgia, right?” Lizzie said, after a moment.

“Yeah, how’d you know?” He asked, turning to her.

“I’m the headmaster’s daughter, I know everything,” She said, shrugging. “I also know every hiding spot my dad has, so he can’t keep anything from me, even if he wanted to.”

“That’s definitely not ominous at all,” He muttered.

Lizzie smirked. “I mean it wasn’t supposed to be, but I will admit that I have a ton of blackmail on basically everyone.”

“Nice,” He said with a whistle. “Have you had to use any before?”

“A few times,” She said with a shrug as they continued cleaning up their section.

Kaleb shot her a curious look. “What happened?” He asked.

“Well, let’s just say they don’t go here anymore,” She said, a grin playing on her lips.

“Damn, what type of blackmail did you get your hands on?” He said, his eyes wide.

Lizzie gave an innocent shrug. “The good kind,” was her only answer.

Kaleb nodded in appreciation. Then, he gave the trash all over the ground an annoyed look.

“How much longer do you think this is going to take?” He said, looking ready to bail.

“Oh not much longer,” Lizzie said, glancing around her, checking for anyone looking. Off in the distance was Dorian talking to Hope and Rafael.

Meaning it was go time.

Kaleb's brow furrowed at her action. “What do you mean?”

“My dad’s not here,” Lizzie said, turning to him. 

“So? How does that help”

Lizzie had a mischievous grin. “He’s not here and Mr. William isn’t looking.”

He stared at her in confusion, making her roll her eyes and hold out her hand. He slowly took it and Lizzie began siphoning. She could feel him jolt in surprise.

Releasing the hand once she had enough magic, she turned to their area.

“Hold open the bag,” She said without looking at him.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” He said off to her right. 

“Vitae ac viverra ,” She said quietly. 

All the trash in their area lifted suddenly and Lizzie directed it to the open bag. Once it was all in, she gave a quick look around.

There was no one looking their way.

She turned to Kaleb, who was staring at her in disbelief.

“What?” Lizzie said, cocking her head in confusion.

“Why the hell didn’t you do that earlier?” He asked. “I did all that work when it could’ve been done with your wooshy spell.”

“Wooshy spell?” She repeated, raising an eyebrow.

He coughed as if embarrassed. “The trash made a woosh sound when it flew into the bag.” Then, he made a face. “Stop avoiding the question.”

“I didn’t do it before because my dad definitely told Mr. Williams to watch over me. If he saw us actually working for a while, he wouldn't have questioned us, once I did the spell,” Lizzie said, crossing her arms.

“Oh,” Kaleb blinked.

“Yeah, oh.”

 “Now, let’s go before Mr. Williams tries to get us to do more work,” She said, walking away.

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Kaleb said from behind her as he ran to catch up with her.

After some use of vampire speed on Kaleb’s part, they were back at the school, which Lizzie was immensely grateful for.

She knew Josie was going to chew her out for leaving, but Lizzie had just remembered the gargoyle monster.

Kaleb and Lizzie entered the school, but both paused when they heard shouting. Exchanging looks of confusion - one real and one fake - they followed the sound. 

They quickly found Ms. Tig, who had created a shield in front of a group of children, to protect them as the gargoyle tried to attack them.

Well, would you look at that, the consequences of her actions.

“Holy shit,” Kaleb said from beside her.

“You can say that again,” She said as she considered their next move.

Except before that could happen, the gargoyle realized they were there. It turned to them.

“Uh, Saltzman?” Kaleb said, nudging her. “We should run.”

Lizzie shook her head as it approached. “I can’t run.”

He shot her a look of disbelief. “I am fairly certain you have a pair of working legs. Use them.”

They backed up as it came closer. It let out an inhumane sound. From behind it, Ms. Tig was motioning for them to run.

Kaleb's hand found its way around her wrist as he tried to get her to run.

Lizzie turned to him. “If we run, it will turn its attention on the kids, do you want that?” She asked, sharply.

He paused. Then, he looked past the gargoyle to the terrified kids. He sighed, turning back to her.

“Do you have a plan?” Kaleb asked simply.

“I do. I just need something to siphon from,” She said and Kaleb held out his hand.

Lizzie began siphoning quickly as she turned to face the monster.

“Phasmatos inpulsa ,” She chanted aloud with her hand held out in its direction.

The magic hit the gargoyle, but it only made it pause.

“Phasmatos inpulsa ,” She said again, increasing the power. It stumbled and cracks appeared along the monster’s body. 

This was her chance.

“Phasmatos inpulsa ,” and that was it. The gargoyle exploded into a million pieces and the two were quick to shield their faces from the debris.

There was silence as everyone processed what happened. Then, all the children started cheering as Ms. Tig released the barrier spell.

Lizzie let out a breath as the only adult in the room ran over to them.

“Are you two okay?” She asked quickly, concern written all over her face.

“We’re fine,” Kaleb said for the two of them.

Ms. Tig let out a sigh of relief. “I’m glad.” Then, she gave a proud look. “Well done, the both of you.”

Kaleb frowned. “I didn’t do anything. This was all Lizzie,” He said, looking confused.

“You didn’t run,” Lizzie spoke before Ms. Tig could. “If you had, I wouldn’t have had enough magic to destroy it.”

“Exactly,” Ms. Tig said. “It was great teamwork. I’m very impressed. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to check on the children.”

Both were silent as she walked away.

Kaleb turned to look at Lizzie. “So, if I hadn’t been there, you would’ve been screwed?”

“Pretty much,” She said, eyeing him.

He grinned. “So what you’re saying is that I’m a hero.”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t let it go to your head,” She said, rolling her eyes.

“Oh, it already did,” He said, looking way too pleased with himself.

Lizzie snorted, but before she could say anything, her dad was running into the room. She froze as he looked around the room, then at her.

This was going to be bad.

“Elizabeth, what the hell did you do?”

And she was right.