"It's hero time, Hope."

.

.

.

"My squad answered the Bat-Signal."

Georgie scoffed at Hope's cringy phrase, looking around the corridor to notice that almost like it was planned, Jed, Josie and Kaleb were walking towards them with a strut in their step. Just as Josie and the boys reached their side, Lizzie appeared from the opposite direction with a look of disdain on her face. Georgie looked between the siblings, sensing the obvious annoyance at the others presence.

Josie and Lizzie glowered at each other before looking at Hope in disbelief. Hope looked at Georgie and almost huffed as she noticed that her cousin was purposefully avoiding looking at her, clearly still annoyed about having been the last one to find out about the merge.

"She's coming?" They both echoed, causing everyone to roll their eyes.

"I need all the help I can get, so please put your twin war on pause," Hope informed them, noticing how the girls both had a quick look of guilt in their eyes before going back to pretending the other didn't exist. Georgie was almost more annoyed at how the twins were acting now that they all knew about the merge, she couldn't help but feel like this was something they should be working together to fix rather than feud over.

"Why is he going?" Rafael interrupted, pointing to Jed who had positioned himself beside Georgie. While they hadn't always seen eye to eye, there was a connection there that the non-wolves would never quite understand. "He hates Landon."

"Look, you're the Alpha," Jed answered, Georgie raising an eyebrow as if to say 'makes sense' "If Landon's your pack, that makes him ours."

"Where's MG at?" Kaleb replied, realising that he was the only vampire standing amongst them all. Georgie shrugged, fiddling with the zip on her jacket as she tried to avoid the eyes of Josie, Hope and Lizzie that she could all feel on her. She knew each of them wanted to catch her for a moment to chat but she had no intention of having a heart on heart with them right now.

"He's on his way," Hope replied, feeling the tension between everyone that was standing around them. She could tell that Georgie was on edge, and she would be lying if she said that the girl's recent temper wasn't a little bit concerning for her. It reminded her a lot of her father - so she assumed it was a trait that Klaus and Georgie's mother had both inherited from their werewolf side of the family. "Let's load up while we wait for him. Come on."

Georgie rolled her eyes and went to lead the way out, just wanting to go rescue their resident damsel in distress and get back to studying for her finals. Unlike the rest of them, she seemed to not be able to balance teenage school life and supernatural life as blissfully as they all made it look.

"Georgie, I really need to speak to you," Josie murmured as she grabbed on to the hybrids arm but was shrugged off almost immediately by the girl. Georgie barely cast her a glance as she continued to walk away, but Josie wasn't giving up that easy. "Come on, George."

"What are you expecting me to say, Josie?" Georgie snapped back, the others looking around awkwardly and trying not to interrupt their small argument that they'd had four times since the twins and Hope had explained the merge to her. "Oh, congrats on having to try to absorb your sister! Can't wait to watch one of you literally die so the other can live!"

"Guys, please," Hope interrupted, rubbing the back of her neck as she tried to break up their argument before it drew too much attention to their group. The last thing they needed right now was the other students getting spooked about the merge AND a missing Landon. Georgie rolled her eyes, brushing past them all and heading directly towards where Kaleb had parked the minivan. Alaric wasn't back from wherever he had disappeared to the night prior - probably a bar somewhere - and Georgie knew he would likely try to stop them if he arrived back before they left.

Hope followed after her roommate, groaning as she slammed into the back of the girl who had almost skidded to a halt as soon as she had passed through the main doors of the school. The tribrid went to complain before she looked around Georgie and noticed the large group of heavily armoured men standing at the porch with grins on their faces.

"Oh, sorry. We were about to knock," the man at the front of the pack told them, a sadistic grin on his face as he looked at the group of supernaturals that were standing at the school entrance. Georgie felt dread suddenly seep into her bones as she felt the sickly scent of wolfsbane drifting from the small army that were standing with their weapons pointing directly at the rest of them. She'd felt the pain of the substance when she had been on her time-travel adventure and she wasn't in any rush to feel it again.

"Who the hell are you?" Lizzie snapped, causing Georgie to shook her a look at the girl's outburst. The last thing they needed was Lizzie getting mouthy with a group of men that were clearly more than capable of doing their squad some damage. The unactivated hybrid edged herself forward so she was standing slightly in front of Josie and Lizzie in a protective manner, something that didn't go quite as unnoticed by the rest of them (or the men in armour in front of them).

"Name's Burr. Triad Industries," the man replied, a sadistic smirk on his face as he looked amongst the teens. His eyes rested on Hope and Georgie for a moment, having been warned that those were the two that wouldn't be fully vulnerable to their blood fountain since they weren't bound to the full moon. Whether or not they would realise that, he wasn't sure.

"Propellere."

Georgie felt a sinking feeling in her stomach as Hope raised her arms and nothing happened. She reached her arm backwards, allowing the twins to both reach out and try to siphon from her.

"I got this," Kaleb replied, shrugging his bag off as he went to move towards the men. As soon as he left the cover of the awning, he yelled out in pain as his skin fizzled under the sunlight causing him to jump back into the shade. Georgie turned her head back to look at the twins whose faces confirmed what she had expected: they didn't have their magic either.

"What you don't got is magic. Which is why your daylight ring won't work," Burr replied, a smirk on his face as he noticed Georgie's eyes flash yellow. She knew fine well the one thing she had that wasn't controlled by magic. A growl left her lips as she started to move forward, causing all of the guards to instantly raise their weapons and fall into a defensive position.

Georgie wasn't stupid, she could smell the wolfsbane they all carried on them. But she was only seeing red, and if it hadn't been for Jed wrapping his arm around her shoulders and tugging her back, things might have gotten a lot more painful for her. The men relaxed slightly as they realised she wasn't about to charge at them, and Burr continued with his warning speech.

"Nice try sweetheart, but by the time you even manage to take one of us down, we'll have shot your friends right in the heart," he smirked, causing Georgie to twitch a little in annoyance. She knew he was right - they were trained killers and she was an inexperienced unactivated hybrid. "And what we have are stakes, wolfsbane... and other things. So I think you should invite us inside."

_____

Georgie slunked behind the three witches as they rushed into Alaric's office. She wasn't entirely sure what they were expecting to find in there that would possibly help them at this point in time but she assumed they'd know more about what to do in a situation like this. She kept reminding herself that she hadn't even been at this crazy school for a full year and that the others had been here for almost their entire school lives.

"It's dead," Hope confirmed as she tried to use the phone on Alaric's desk. "We have to find the school cell."

"Check MG's tighty-whities," Lizzie snapped.

"Really? This is serious."

" Oh, I'm sorry. We can't all be born with resting concerned pouty face," Lizzie shot back at Josie, causing Georgie to slam down the book she had lifted and turn to face the arguing sisters with a scowl on her face. She was about to start to lay into them when Hope summoned their attention.

"Didn't this shelf used to have books on it?"

The other three all turned to look at the bookcase in surprise, realising that Hope was right. Georgie moved over to stand beside her cousin, her hand resting on a big box that was sitting where the books usually rested. 

"Yeah. That's weird."

"Whatever they're doing to block out our magic must have knocked out a cloaking spell your dad had."

Georgie tried to open the lid, but she couldn't get it to budge. Something about the box was giving her bad vibes anyway, and she was kind of glad when they all moved on from the strange artefact and back to trying to find the school cell phone.

"Big shocker. Dad's hiding something from us," Lizzie snarked back, Josie rolling her eyes at her sister.

"Unless it has the school phone in it, it doesn't matter."

"Sorry I don't feel like laughing while my world's falling apart," Josie said to Lizzie, continuing their argument from before Hope's realisation. Georgie moved to stand beside her cousin again, trying to not show that their argument was getting under her skin.

"Your world? What about my world? I'm the one who's eventually going to be absorbed by my own twin!" Lizzie snapped back, her voice a little softer than Georgie expected. It was clear she had fully convinced herself that Josie would win their merge if it was to go ahead.

Hope looked at Georgie out of the side of her eye, watching to see the girl's reaction to all this talk about one of the twins dying. Sure, Hope had gotten used to everyone she loved dying or leaving her but Georgie didn't seem as immune to feelings about death as she had originally thought.

"If you lose the Merge!" Josie yelled back.

"Which I'm obviously going to. I'm the weak, broken one." 

"And like clockwork... victim."

Georgie slapped Hope's arm as her hand latched on to the small black cell phone, holding it in the air as if it was a victory prize. Hope sighed in relief as she snatched it from her cousin's hand, pressing frantically against the buttons as she began to call the twin's father to inform him about what was happening at the school.

"Found it," Georgie told the twins, noticing how surprised they looked that they hadn't noticed Hope and herself had already found it. "If you weren't both trying to prematurely kill each other, you'd have maybe noticed."

Georgie saw the hurt in both of their eyes at her comment but she was still feeling too betrayed at Josie for expecting her to not be upset about the entire idea of the merge. Sure, she knew that they had every right to be more freaked out about it than she did but she was a flawed teenager and her mind was too busy being overwhelmed with about 800 things to think about being calm for one second.

"It's Hope. Triad's here."

"Is everyone okay?" 

"Yeah, but our powers are gone - well, minus Georgie and I's wolf-ability," Hope told Alaric and Georgie was able to make out the deep, panicking groan that came from the older man.

"What do they want?"

"They said that the third artifact is in the school somewhere. The Chalice of Arithmetic or something? I don't know. Any idea?"

There was a lot of muttering on the other end of the line between Alaric and Dorian, causing the girls to look at each other in anticipation for whatever the men said next. Georgie was starting to feel twitchy and a little claustrophobic from it all so she moved away from the group and began to pace a little. She could feel her control slipping, and she knew that if she lost too much of her self-control she'd be on four legs with a bushy tail and a lot of anger.

"Uh, listen, I, uh... I've got to find my way into the school. But just promise me you're not gonna do anything crazy."

Josie looked over to where she could see Georgie muttering under her breath and pacing back and forth, recognising the signs that the girl was reaching an unsafe level of stress. Since she was technically the only student who was at their full supernatural potential (since the vampires and witches - including Hope - had no daylight rings or magic, and the other wolves were bound to the full moon), Josie knew that it would be even more chaotic if she exploded on them.

She moved across the room, holding her hand out and lightly running it along Georgie's wrist. When the Lockwood girl didn't pull back, she allowed herself to slip her hand into hers and squeeze it gently. Georgie paused in her muttering and looked at Josie for a moment, the intensity of her gaze almost causing Josie to blush. It didn't matter that they were arguing or that their lives could end any second, their connection was always just strong enough to remind them why they had gotten together in the first place.

"We're not the only ones in danger. Landon is, too. I can't just stand here and do nothing."

"Hope, for once in your life, will you please just listen to me? If Triad wants the chalice, help them get the chalice. You don't have your powers. You are vulnerable, and if you try to resist, someone could get hurt. Do you understand me?"

"Yeah," Hope grunted as she hung up from the call. She looked around at the other three girls as she slammed the phone on to the table.

"So, what do we do now?"

 "Now... we figure out a way to get our powers back, and we kick some paramilitary ass," Hope replied as she looked around the room for inspiration on how to do that.

"Wait, Dad said not to do anything crazy," Josie replied, dropping Georgie's hand and moving to stand pressed against Lizzie. If the whole situation hadn't been so life and death, Georgie would have almost chuckled at how the sisters were so co-dependant on each other regardless of how they both hated to admit it. 

"Me defying your dad isn't crazy. It's consistent."

Just before anyone could say anything else, the doors slammed open and Georgie's smirk dropped. She could almost smell his scent before turning around; gunpowder, wolfsbane and old cigarette smoke.

"Well, at least we know where you stand."

"You're damn right we do," Hope snarled back, moving around the twins to stand in front of them. Georgie also moved so she was standing in front of them, the man yet again noticing how protective of them the younger wolf was.

"You're not very scared of me, are you?" Burr purred before reaching into his belt and pulling out what looked like a normal gun. "How about now?"

"That's your plan? You're gonna shoot a kid?" Hope mocked, Georgie getting the feeling that she might have actually just said his exact plan. She knew that the bullet would be healable for her, but unlike Hope, she seemed to be hyper aware that Josie and Lizzie without their powers were very, very vulnerable. 

"This gun would never harm a human child. You four, however..." Burr smugly replied, noticing how the colour seemed to drain from Hope's face at his words. "These bullets were formed from the mud of the Malivore pit and weaponized by Triad scientists. They can break the skin of any supernatural like a hot knife through butter. Fester. Infect them. Disintegrate them from the inside out."

"We don't know where the chalice is," Josie replied, looking between Georgie and Lizzie who were now both standing in front of her. 

"I believe you," Burr replied, and Georgie knew that he was being fully truthful. He was just sadistic. "This is just for fun, really. Eeny... ...meeny... ...miney..."

"Moe!" Lizzie interrupted, lunging herself forward towards Burr. Georgie let out a yell as she noticed the movement, swinging herself round to try and push Lizzie to the side as Burr's finger tightened against the trigger. Three shots rang out, but it wasn't Georgie who felt the weight of the bullet intended for Lizzie.

The pain that entered her body was worse than any physical bullet as she wrapped her arms around Josie, who had managed to manoeuvre her way around both Georgie and Lizzie to take a bullet right to the chest. Georgie had managed to wrap her arms around the girl before she hit the floor, lowering them both gently as Josie huffed and yelped in pain. 

Just as Georgie felt her eyes flash yellow in anger, Burr looked down at them with an even bigger smirk. "Lock them up."

____

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

"With me? You practically begged him to shoot you!" Josie snapped back at her sister before turning to look at Georgie in anger too. "Don't think you're off the hook either!"

Georgie went to open her mouth to argue back, confused about why she was suddenly being yelled at too when she had only tried to stop Lizzie from being shot. However, Lizzie was always quick to continue an argument and was right in with another comeback before Georgie could even start her sentence.

"Because, if I'm destined to die in my prime, it may as well be in a blaze of hero glory."

"You are unbelievably selfish." 

"Who took it upon herself to dive in front of my bullet? I thought that your codependent days were over," Lizzie replied, Josie glowering at her as she whimpered a little while moving.

"A regrettable relapse. OW!" She yelled out as Lizzie reached out to touch the bullet wound, causing Georgie to turn around and move over to Josie in concern. Josie and Lizzie both turned to glare at her as she approached, causing Georgie to raise in her hands in defeat and also confusion.

"Speaking of unbelievably selfish," Lizzie spat, causing Georgie to scrunch up her eyebrows in concern and annoyance. The hybrid-to-be crossed her arms over her chest as she looked at the twins who were both glaring back at her.

"Selfish? I was literally about to take that mad Malivore bullet for you before Jo pushed me out of the way! Which was incredibly stupid, by the way, since neither of you have super healing the way I do!"

Hope rubbed her head in annoyance from where she stood at the side of the cell, the guard who was watching them almost enjoying this argument. She knew it was probably best to stop it but she wanted to try and come up with a plan first.

"Don't you get it, Georgie? You think you're fucking invincible!" Josie yelled out, causing even Lizzie to go silent at the pain in her voice. "Nothing phases you, death doesn't even worry you! When you die, you'll get to become a hybrid and live forever but the rest of us don't get that safety blanket! When me or Lizzie die, we'll be dead - no comebacks, no second chances - don't you get that? Why don't you think I didn't want to tell you about the merge? You don't give a shit about dying and the rest of us just have to keep watching you sacrifice your life as if it means nothing, when me or Lizzie aren't going to get that choice!"

Georgie blinked a little, no words crossing her mind as she stared at Josie in disbelief. She hadn't considered that the reason Josie didn't want to tell her about the merge was because she was in denial about them actually having to die. She hadn't even considered how the twins felt about knowing Georgie and Hope could just become a hybrid/tribrid if they get killed whereas one of the twins was literally going to have to kill the other permanently.

"Hey! Keep it quiet in there!" The guard finally interrupted, clearly bored of them now. He slammed his baton into the bars of the transition cell, causing Georgie's head to shoot round to look at him in anger.

"We're not in the prison yard, asshat," Lizzie snapped back, before turning back around to look at the wound that was on Josie's chest. There was a moment of silence before Hope moved towards the twins, noticing how Georgie was still keeping her distance after Josie's outburst.

"You guys, I'm so sorry. I mean, I dragged you both into this, and I have absolutely no idea how to get us out of it."

"Well, that is just not good enough, Hope!" Lizzie snapped, her voice breaking as she looked between Josie's wound and Hope in anger and devastation. "My sister is clearly dying, and we did not wait ten years to become friends with you for you to not come through with your annoyingly perfect Hope Mikaelson heroics when we need you the most."

"She's right, for a change. It's hero time, Hope," Josie replied, the three witches all holding hands with each other in solidarity before Lizzie sighed and turned around to look at where Georgie was standing against the opposite wall like a dog that had been yelled at. She raised out her hand, rolling her eyes and motioning for Georgie to come join their hand-holding circle.

The pre-hybrid smiled a little as she moved over to the girl's, wrapping her hand lightly around Lizzie's for a moment as Lizzie and Hope began to talk about a potential plan for escape. Georgie looked at Josie's wound and winced a little, before looking up at Josie with tears in her eyes.

"Do you really think the reason I jumped in front of that bullet for you and Lizzie is because I don't care about my life?"

Josie's silence was all the answer that Georgie needed. The Lockwood smiled painfully at her for a moment, aware that Hope and Lizzie had stopped their conversation to listen in to the potential lover's quarrel that was about to break out yet again.

"I do care about my life Josie, I care about it so much," Georgie replied before laughing hollowly and turning back to Josie with tears in her eyes. "I just care about yours so much more."

"I said keep it down in there!" The guard yelled, causing the four girls to jump a little and turn around to look at him. Just as Lizzie went to snap back, he grunted before falling forward on to his knees and hitting the transition cell bars.

Standing behind him was the one person that the four of them didn't expect to see. MG grinned as he looked between the quartet, almost wishing that someone would have been able to film that moment.

"Did someone say "hero time"?"