17. I Went To The Woods

In the middle of an unknown road, a confused Kol woke up, looking around he was confused with his surroundings, the last thing he remembered was Rayna stabbing him at the airfield, but looking around Kol realised this wasn't an airfield, suddenly yells caught Kol's attention.

Looking infront of him Kol saw a bus that was on fire having collided with a car, the car driver was leaning out the car, clearly dead, but there was still people alive in the bus, though he was confused with what was happening, Kol quickly got up and ran over to the burning bus, he tried to open the bus doors, but to his shock he couldn't open the doors, he tried to use his vampire strength but for some reason it wasn't working.

Hearing sirens, Kol breathed a sigh of relief realising help was coming for these people, but he was extremely confused and worried about what was happening to him, is this the hell stone or reality? If this is reality, then why the hell does he feel so different?

"Easy, breath slow" one of the paramedics instructed Kol, having given him an oxygen mask, "Dizzy is normal, and keep your foot off the ground, we're in a cold snap, weather folks say temperature's a record low, what's your name?", Kol didn't reply, he didn't want to speak he was too confused with everything that was happening, first his strength didn't work, then he couldn't breath and now his cold, realising that Kol wasn't going to say anything, the paramedic sighed, "Let's take a look at you", she removed his shirt to the side and looked at his neck, "Ooh, wow! Whoever you are, you are only luck S.O.B, you're the first person I've to survive a gash to the carotid".

"Is it healing?" Kol asked, speaking for the first time.

"Unless you have some kind of super power, I'm sorry to inform but that's not going to heal itself over night" the paramedic replied, putting a bandage over Kol's injury.

"Then it's proven" Kol stated, "I'm in bloody hell".

***

While Aria was sitting infront of Kol's body, still at the airfield, she received a call from Valerie who told her that Nora and Mary Louise had scarified themselves to stop Rayna.

"They didn't know" Valerie whispered, hearing Aria's footsteps.

"What didn't they know?" Aria asked, her voice hoarse from all the crying.

"That Rayna had stabbed Kol" Valerie informed, "That his spirit was already trapped in the phoenix stone, they probably thought they were doing the world a favor".

Aria sighed, "We should bury them, after that we'll go look for Rayna and get Kol's soul back into his body".

Valerie looked at Aria, a sympathetic look on her face, "The stone is destroyed Aria, and Kol with it".

"No" Aria said, shaking her head, "That's not true".

"Yes it is!" Valerie stated.

"No it isn't!" Aria yelled, "Kol's soul isn't destroyed Valerie, you know how I know that because we are connected, we've been connected for the past thousand years, if his soul was gone then I would have felt it, but I didn't, which means he's not gone, he's somewhere and I just need to find him, you can help me or you can go to hell!".

Aria snatched whatever was remaining of the phoenix sword from Valerie's hand.

"Aria come on, be reasonable!" Valerie called out, just as Damon came behind Aria.

"This is me being reasonable" Aria said, walking away.

Valerie looked at Damon, "You have got to talk sense into her".

Damon shook his head, "Kol isn't gone Valerie, and if anyone's going to bring him back, then it's going to be Aria" he said, turning around and following Aria.

***

Matt, who was sitting at the Grill, suddenly received a call, "Hello?".

"Matt, I need help" a panicked Rayna said, calling Matt from a phonebooth.

"Rayna?" a confused Matt asked.

"You're the only person that I trust" Rayna cried.

"Did you put Kol back in the stone?" Matt asked.

"Yes, but--".

"Then we have nothing to talk about" Matt interrupted, pouring himself a drink, "I did my part, I'm out".

Rayna grunted in frustration, "You don't understand" she snapped, "Those bitches destroyed the stone, he's free! They're all free".

"Wait, what are you talking about?" a confused Matt asked, "Rayna, what do you mean, free?".

Before Rayna could reply to Matt, Aria appeared behind her, she pulled out a dagger from her pocket and held it against Rayna's neck, "Go on huntress" she said, "Answer his question, what do you mean that they're all free?".

"I can hear them, all the voices" Rayna whispered.

Aria forced Rayna to look at her, her dagger still pointed at her neck, "Listen here bitch, now with your phoenix stone and sword destroyed your link with Damon is gone, because he's scar is gone, which means I can now kill you, so without testing my patience, tell me, what the bloody hell is going on?".

"They're coming from everywhere" Rayna informed, "When Nora and Mary Louise destroyed the phoenix stone all the souls inside escaped, scattered, and I can hear them, alive, every one of them".

"So you're telling me that every vampire you've ever marked and put into that damn stone is now back on earth?" Aria clarified.

"I burned all their original bodies which means the stone's prisoners are in random corpses" Rayna revealed, "Vampire, human, it doesn't matter, the spirits fled scattershot into the first dead piece of flesh they could find".

"Yeah screw everyone else, just tell me whose body did Kol's soul end up in" Aria demanded, when she stayed quiet, Aria once again placed the dagger on Rayna's neck, "Answer me! Where is Kol?!".

"He could be anywhere" Rayna replied, "He could be anyone".

***

With an unconscious Rayna in her arms, Aria knocked on Alaric's door.

Opening the door, Alaric let out a sigh seeing the scene infront of him, "I know you got out of all this, so was I but this is for Kol" Aria immediately defended.

Alaric shook his, but nonetheless stepped out of the way, "Bring her in then".

After chaining Rayna to a chair , Aria and Alaric sat in his kitchen talking.

"It's the same thing that happened with Jo" Aria clarified, "Only difference is this time it's even more random, every single soul in that phoenix stone have found fresh corpses to go into, some vampires, others human".

"And what does Kol have to do with this again?" Alaric asked, slightly confused.

Aria sighed, "Before Nora and Mary Louise destroyed the stone, Rayna had managed to send Kol back into it, so now he is one of those missing souls".

"What do we have to do?" Alaric asked.

"We have to hunt them all down" Rayna said, chained up to a chair infront of the father daughter duo.

"Screw that" Aria snapped, "Our first priority is to make sure Kol is safe, he isn't in his body right now, meaning he isn't an original, meaning he can be killed, and this time it will be permanently".

"Your boyfriend should be the least of your concerns" Rayna stated.

"What do you mean?" Alaric asked curiously.

"You think I spent my life chasing harmless do-gooders?" Rayna asked, "That stone was made for the worst of the worst, I've put down some of the most evil vampires of the last two hundred years".

***

"Finally" an annoyed Aria said, standing in Alaric's office with him, "What took you so long to pick my call up, Damon?!".

"Are you with Ric right now?" Damon asked, ignoring Aria's question.

"Yeah" Aria replied, "What's up with the loud background music? Are you seriously getting drunk at a bar right now?".

"No, I'm not getting drunk, I'm trying to stop someone from hearing our call, Aria" Damon retorted.

"What?" Aria asked, extremely confused with what was going on.

"Just put the phone on speaker, I need to talk to Ric" Damon replied.

"Fine" Aria said, putting her phone on speaker, "You're on speaker now".

"Ric, when did you realise Jo wasn't Jo?" Damon asked.

"Oh my god, are you with Kol right now?" Aria asked, her and Alaric had come to the conclusion that their was a high chance someone that wasn't Kol had taken over Kol's body.

"That's what I'm asking" Damon retorted.

"Okay, Damon, listen to me very carefully, that is not Kol, all right?" Alaric informed, "We don't know who that is".

"Whatever you do, don't let him out of your sight" Aria warned, "We're going to need his body to put Kol's soul back".

"So, where the hell is Kol?" a extremely confused Damon asked.

"Uh, you know, it's not easy to pick him out from hundreds of twitter reports about the zombie apocalypse, okay?" Alaric snapped, "We're working on it".

"Work harder" Damon ordered, "I don't want to spend the rest of my life babysitting a cheap knockoff of the psychotic Mikaelson".

"Trust me, it's not gonna be the rest of your life" Alaric assured, "Jo's body started to break down just as soon as that vampire soul inhabited her".

"What are you saying?" Damon asked.

"He's saying that if Kol is in a human body, he doesn't have long to live" an extremely worried Aria revealed.

***

"Marty Hammond" Aria told Alaric, as they found another person who they suspected had one of the phoenix stones souls inhabiting them.

"Turn that down, my head's about to explode" Rayna complained, gesturing to the loud TV.

Aria looked at Rayna curiously, "As a banshee I have voices in my head, especially when I'm near death, but they never cause me to be miserable, not like they do to you, the voices in my head are mostly warning me, what are the ones in your head like?".

"Confused" Rayna replied, "Hungry, angry".

An idea suddenly popped into Aria's head, "Do you by any chance see these people? Like have proper visions of them?".

"Pieces" Rayna informed, "All at once, overlapping".

"I've just gotten an idea" Aria said, turning to Alaric, "I need you to pull out a photo of Kol from the many photobooks I leave in your house because my house already has too many".

"Okay" a confused Alaric said, standing up and going over to where all the photobooks were.

"What are you doing?" a confused Rayna asked, seeing Aria light the candles placed on the dinning table.

"Helping you focus, while I try to use you to find Kol" Aria replied.

"Here" Alaric said, handing Aria a photo frame of her and Kol, "Will this do?".

Aria looked at the frame and a longing look came over her face, this photo was taken a year ago, in the photo Aria was hugging Kol's torso while looking up at him, her eyes closed, a huge smile on her face, while Kol was kissing Aria's nose.

"It's perfect" Aria whispered after a moment.

"Okay" Alaric said, sitting back down.

"Here" Aria said, placing the photo infront of Rayna, "I need you to put your full focus on Kol".

"How is this supposed to--".

Before Rayna could finish her sentence, Aria had walked behind her and placed her hands on the sides of head, immediately causing her to groan in pain.

"Focus on Kol, Rayna" Aria demanded, as she started going through Rayna's head, multiple visions popping into her head, some of which Aria recognised as she had seen them when she first touched the stone, after much looking Aria finally started seeing different visions of fire, blood, tress and a tattoo, Aria let go of Rayna and stepped back from her, "There was a fire, then there was a lot of blood and trees, and a tattoo of an anchor".

"Wait, an anchor?" Alaric asked.

"Yeah, whoever Kol is possessing, that person has a tattoo of an anchor on his hand" Aria revealed.

"Wait a second" Alaric said, suddenly remembering something, he grabbed the TV remote and turn the volume up.

"Hammond, a former merchant marine, has been working for the charter bus company, they have yet to release--".

"Ric, I saw a burning bus in my vision" Aria reminded.

"Okay, a merchant marine tattoo, a guy who saves a bunch of kids and then goes on the lam" Alaric connected, "I think this Marty Hammond is our guy".

"I'm going to call Valerie, she's going to come take here and help you with Rayna while I go with Damon to find Kol" Aria said, Alaric nodded in understanding, knowing Aria won't be a peace till Kol was infront of her safe and sound.

***

"Arkansas?" a shocked Damon asked, "What the hell's in Arkansas?".

"Nothing interesting" Aria said, in Alaric's car driving to Arkansas while on the phone with Damon, "It's miles of forest, a bunch of pissed of state troopers and a soon to be very deadly blizzard, I'm on my way now, I need you to bring Kol's body there as quickly as you can".

"I'm going to try my best" Damon assured, looking turning around and seeing the vampire inhabiting Kol's body feeding on the dinner's waitress, looking at him Damon quickly realised getting him to come to Arkansas with him wasn't going to be an easy job.

***

"I'm sorry what?!" a shocked Aria asked, as she was on her way to Kol, she received a call from a panicked Damon, "What the hell do you mean you lost Kol's body?!".

"I mean, he figured out Kol's body is a timeshare, and ran" Damon informed, equally as panicked as Aria, "He asked about Memphis".

"Memphis?" Aria asked, "Why the hell will he ask about Memphis, we are two freaking states away from Memphis!".

"I don't know Ria, I didn't get to play question and answer with him, when I find him, I'll be sure to ask" Damon said.

Aria for a second froze hearing Damon call her Ria, something he didn't even realise he called her, but hearing that name, suddenly brought back all their moments, moments Aria was trying so hard to bury ever since Damon had come back.

Aria quickly shook her head, once again pushing all her feelings regarding Damon and his return to the back of her head, "Damon, I'm going to find Kol before the cold ends up killing him, you need to go find his body, if you need help call Valerie, she's with Rayna, they'll help you".

Damon nodded, "Just, be careful".

"You too" Aria whispered, hanging up on Damon.

After Aria hanged up, Damon stared at his phone, it wasn't easy for him to be this close to Aria and not beg her to take him back, but he knew he couldn't do that, Aria had moved on and he had no right on her anymore, she was no longer his, she was now Kol's, and though Damon didn't show it, from the inside that fact was killing him, but he had no one but himself to blame.

***

"Pardon me, coming through" Aria said, entering the Arkansas police station and pushing through police officers.

"Ma'am?" an officer called out.

Aria turned around and gave the officer a small smile, "Hi".

"Who are you?".

"I'm really sorry, but I don't have time for questions, I need answers" Aria said, starting to compel the officer infront of her, "What is the status on Marty Hammond's case?".

"Well, Hammond is screwed any way you cut" the compelled office revealed, "We got the forest surrounded, boys just raided a cabin, found traces of blood, but not Marty, which means that--".

"He's in the woods" Aria finished, worry rising in her heart.

"Yeah, and nobody can survive these temperatures overnight, we're just laying low, gonna wait for nature to do our work for us".

Aria shook her head, "No" she whispered, "Nothing is going to happen to him, he's going to be fine".

"Captain, a witness is here, she claims to have seen Marty!" an officer yelled, gaining Aria's attention.

Realising the person she was talking to was the captain, Aria was again compelled him, "Tell everyone that the new officer has got this, I will be bringing Marty in, they no longer have to worry about Marty".

The dazed captain nodded, "Everybody, our new officer have got this, she will be bringing Marty in, we no longer have to worry about him".

After the captain's announcement, Aria walked over to the women who claimed she saw Marty.

"Hey" Aria greeted, sitting on the chair infront of the witness, "Can you tell me where exactly you saw Marty?".

"It was an access road off of 274, it was north of Oden, there's an outlook there".

"Are you hundred percent sure it was North?" Aria asked, not wanting to risk anything.

"Yeah",

"Okay, thank you" Aria said, she then looked at the officers around her, realising if she wanted to get to Kol first, she couldn't afford for the officers to come in her way, so she turned to the witness and started compelling her, "You saw Marty south of Oden, not north", Aria then stood up and turned to the oblivious officers, "Boys! Get your guns and stuff, Marty is south of Oden!".

Aria then turned around to leave, when the witness stopped her, "Hey, let me know if they find my phone".

Aria looked at the witness, "You lost your phone?" she asked.

"I didn't lose it, Marty stole it".

"I'm going to need your number, now" Aria demanded, realising there was finally a way for her to contact Kol.

***

As the snow fell on him, a freezing and shivering Kol sat on the ground, having accepted that this was it, this was how he was going to die, the psychotic Mikaelson was going to be taken out by a freaking blizzard.

Just as Kol had accepted his fate and was about to close his eyes, he heard a phone ringing, looking to the ground Kol realised it was the phone of the lady who attacked him after realising he was Marty, the man the police had organised a man hunt for.

Without wasting a second, Kol crawled over to the fall and after grabbing it, quickly answered it, "Hello?".

"Please tell me you're Kol" Kol heard Aria say from the other side of the phone.

"Ri" Kol whispered, breathing a sigh of relief hearing Aria's voice.

"Tonight was the worst night for you to get lost in the woods, Mikaelson" Aria teased, in her car trying to find Kol.

"I know, on the plus side, I think my body is starting to warm up" Kol informed.

"That's not a plus Kol, that's a minus" a worried Aria stated, "Kol, you have to keep moving, don't stop otherwise you will freeze to death".

"I can't Ri" Kol whispered, "I can't feel my legs, at this point I can't even tell if the tremors are from Marty's withdrawals or the fact that I'm freezing to death".

"Stop being a negative nancy, Kol" Aria snapped, "Get your ass up and start moving, this is not how you die, you hear me?! This is not how I lose you".

Kol let out a sad chuckled, "I don't know Ri, seems somewhat fitting for me to die alone in the wilderness, while trapped in a corpse of an alcoholic who recently murdered people".

"Stop Kol" Aria warned, "Stop talking shit, nothing is happening to you, I'm on my way, just hold on please, if you're not going to get up for me, then get up for the triplets, Kol they need you, they love you, hell at times I think they love you more then they love me, so for their sake, get the hell up and start moving".

Hearing about the triplets, gave Kol a new sense to live, the triplets were not his biological kids, he knew that, Aria knew that, hell even the triplets knew that, but that will never change the fact that Kol loves them like they are his own, he will always love them like they're his own, and right now, he needed to get back home to them, so after a little of bit of difficulty, Kol finally managed to stand up on his two feet and he proceeded to take small and steady steps forward.

"Kol?" Aria called out, after hearing nothing from the original.

"I'm walking" Kol informed, making Aria let out a sigh of relief, "But you better hurry, because eventually I won't be able to go on".

"I'm on my way Kol" Aria assured, pressing harder on the pedal, "I'm on my way".

***

"You know, instead of looking at this in a negative way, you should take this experience and learn from it" Aria said, trying to keep Kol talking and moving, "Kol Mikaelson is human".

"This is exactly why I hate humans and never ever wanted to be one again" Kol complained.

"Oh come, humans aren't that bad" Aria defended, "Name me the worst thing about you being human?".

"Easy, my inability to compel people" Kol answered, "If I could compel people all of this would be so much easier".

"Right, how can I forget, Kol Mikaelson hates playing by the rules" Aria teased.

"And you love playing by the rules" Kol whispered.

"Sometimes I break the rules" Aria retorted, "Hey, you know now since we have time, want to talk about the flower arrangements for our wedding?".

Kol chuckled hearing Aria, "You want to talk about flower arrangements now?".

"Well, Caroline and Rebekah have been doing my head in, they send me about two hundred flower arrangements everyday to chose from, it's honestly getting to the point I'm about to kill both of them just to stop getting new flower arrangements everyday" Aria complained.

"It's okay Ri, you don't have to worry about the flower arrangements anymore" Kol whispered.

"Why not?" Aria asked, "You agreeing to take that responsibility?".

"No" Kol replied, "It's because we're not going to get a chance to get married".

"What?" a shocked Aria asked.

Kol didn't say anything, he just stopped walking and suddenly collapsed to the ground.

"Kol?!" Aria yelled, into the phone, "Kol, are you there?!".

Hearing nothing, a panicked Aria drove even faster, she suddenly pressed hard on her breaks when she saw an unconscious body on the middle of the road, without wasting a second, Aria stopped the car and rushed out.

Reaching the body, Aria quickly realised her suspicion was right, this was Kol.

***

Kol slowly opened his eyes and realised he was in someone's car, looking to his side, he smiled seeing Aria.

"Hey stranger" Aria greeted, seeing Kol awake.

"You found me" Kol said.

"Of course I did" Aria said, "We don't abandon each other, remember?".

Kol nodded, "I remember" he said, "I would kiss you right now but I don't think you want to kiss this body".

Aria chuckled, "You thought right" she said, "Oh before I forget here, I brought you some fuel", Aria grabbed a packet of donuts from the backseat and handed it over to Kol, "Eat away".

Kol didn't waste even a second in opening the donuts and quickly eating them.

"Slow down, they aren't going anywhere" Aria said.

Kol looked at Aria, "I'll admit, there might be one thing I miss about being human".

"Ooo, do tell, officially curious" Aria said.

"The happiness I just go but eating this extremely crappy and stale donut" Kol informed.

Aria chuckled, she stopped chuckling when she realised Kol was bleeding from his nose.

"Ri, what's happening to me?" a confused Kol asked.

"Just what I was afraid of" Aria whispered, "Kol, you're a vampire in a human's body, Marty's body can't take your soul for too long, we have exactly 48 hours to find your real body and put you back, otherwise--".

"Otherwise I die" Kol realised, "Bloody hell, it can never be simple with us can it?".

"Nope" Aria said, "But don't worry Valerie, Damon and Ric are tracking your body, we will find him and you will be back to be an original vampire in no time, I promise".

"I sure hope so" Kol whispered.

***

Presenting 7x17 of Cold Hearted!

How was the chapter?

Thoughts on Kol waking up in Marty's body?

Thoughts on Aria threatening Rayna to know Kol's location?

Thoughts on Alaric helping Aria find Kol?

Thoughts on Damon and Aria both struggling to keep their feelings hidden?

Thoughts on Aria finally managing to find Kol?