22 | Point de Rupture

TW: suicide

"𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐘, 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔? I know you are not ignoring me simply because you're mad at me for making you believe I'm dead. But I've been contacting you for days now. Kol is out of control. Your charming presence is very much needed to distract him. I suggest you pick up the phone before I drag you out of Scotland myself."

Klaus hung up the phone in irritation before proceeding to do his task.

It had been well over two months since Mary left Mystic Falls. Not a word was heard by the Mikaelson Family ever since. They knew she was in Scotland, they just didn't know where exactly and what had happened to her. Locator spells didn't work, as expected.

In the town of Mystic Falls, a lot can happen in a day, let alone over two months. Elena, much to Rebekah's dismay, was now a vampire. Unfortunately, when she died, she had vampire blood in her system. The council was blown up. A cure for vampirism was brought up. Elena dumped Stefan for Damon, then finding out it was because she was sired to him, then finding out she was also in love with him regardless of the sire bond. A werewolf named Hayley showed up. She was the one who helped Tyler and the other hybrids break their sire bonds to Klaus before 12 of them were slaughtered by him after Hayley revealed her true intentions. Tyler's mom and Mayor of Mystic Falls, Carol Lockwood, was dead, drowned in the fountain by Klaus out of revenge, a hunter of the Five died and passed to Jeremy which made him the next hunter—

It was a lot.

Apparently, a moment of peace was too expensive for this little town to afford.

Recently, the Mikaelsons had encountered a difficult predicament. Their own brother. After Silas was mentioned by Professor Shane as the immortal who was imprisoned with the cure, it was like Kol made it his life's mission to stop them from raising Silas at all cost. Even compelled Damon to kill Jeremy. Which had caused a bit of a kink in Klaus's plans.

Hence, Klaus trying to reach out to Mary. Though, that plan was certainly going downhill as he could not even get the former Scottish queen to pick up the phone.

If Mary didn't show, then Klaus would have no choice but to dagger Kol.

Bonnie was walking down the hallway of the high school as she argued with her father on the phone who had recently taken the role of being the temporary mayor of the town.

"Are you serious? You dumped vervain into the water supply? Where did you even get it?" Bonnie said, avoiding the red balloons they had inflated for the decade dance that same night.

"I have my sources." Her dad, Rudy Hopkins, answered. "I'm also reinstating the curfew and canceling all town events."

"Dad, there's a dance tonight." Bonnie told him.

"Not anymore." He debated.

"Are you serious?!" She exclaimed.

The Bennett witch was upset after her dad took over the mayoral role, insisting that she was keeping the town safe just fine—at least, as fine as it could get. But she had been failing in making him see that.

"Honey, I'm trying to protect you, not punish you." Said Rudy. "The well-being of this town is my job now."

"No, Dad, it's mine. And I've been doing fine without you getting involved." She once again reminded him, only for her to be shut down again.

"You've been doing fine? Would you like me to read you all the names of the people that have gone missing or died in tragic accidents in your senior year alone? Head straight home, please. We're having a family meeting." He said before Bonnie took the phone away from her ear and ended the call.

The Bennett witch was then left alone in the halls, frustrated about the current situation as she always was. Every time that there was a predicament—and by every time, that meant everyday—she was the magical solution. She was there to save their asses from whatever mess they had put themselves into. Bonnie was their safety net. But somehow, no one was hers.

Out of the blue, a certain brunette original vampire emerged from wherever he was hiding and sped to pin Bonnie against the lockers, holding her down by the neck.

"No one can get to the cure if you're too dead to find it!" Kol said. He watched the fear that flashed in Bonnie's eyes before he opened his mouth to let his fangs out, ready to rip the witch's throat out.

However, before he could even get near her throat, a surge of excruciating pain jolted his brain that made him groan as he stepped away from Bonnie, struggling to keep his strength in check. Bonnie was just as confused as Kol was, wondering what was happening to him. It wasn't her doing, whatever it was. She was clueless until she saw someone appear from the corner of her eye. She whipped her head toward that direction and saw a brunette woman with olive skin stare at the original vampire rather apathetically. Like rendering an original vampire incapacitated was nothing to her.

The said brunette woman momentarily looked at Bonnie and gestured for her to run while she kept Kol, who was now yelping from the way his bones were breaking causing him to kneel down to the ground, under control—bewildered by the amount of magic that struck him.

Bonnie took one more glance at the fellow witch before breaking into a sprint away from them.

Once the young witch was far enough from them, the woman released Kol from the unbearable pain that rooted from the greatness of her magic. This finally gave the original vampire the opportunity to lay his eyes upon the witch who had dared to take on the original. The woman was pleased at the shock that flashed across Kol's face.

"Cordelia?" Kol questioned.

Cordelia stood in the middle of the hall a few feet away from Kol, clad in modern clothing with her previously white hair now dyed brown to lessen the attention she would have gained.

"You seem to have a tendency to hunt down young witches, Kol." Cordelia noted. "Mary, Isabella, now poor Bonnie."

"A rather perfect timing you have to save your distant relative." Said the original vampire as he stood up from the ground, fixing his jacket before he continued. "I don't presume you crawled out of your grave to save her."

"Mary brought me back." Cordelia answered.

Kol narrowed his eyes on the witch in suspicion. "How exactly?"

"You know how."

The original vampire mentally cursed Mary. Of course she would use the Queen's Crown again despite it being the sole reason why she was even possessed in the first place.

"That bloody woman. I really can't trust her, can I?" He responded, irritated so far at the updates he had been given about the former queen. "Has she told you what has happened to her?"

"I'm well aware." She answered.

"Well? I assume you're supposed to be the solution to her problem?" Kol guessed. Mary mentioned that she knew exactly who could help her solve this problem of hers. Knowing that using the Queen's Crown would only deepen the damage done to her, she still used it in order to raise Cordelia back from the dead. Mary wouldn't do that unless she really needed her.

Reluctantly, Cordelia answered with a deep, disappointed sigh. "As it turns out, no."

Kol scoffed as a sarcastic chuckle escaped his lips, shaking his head at how unbelievable everything turned out to be after the lengths that he knew Mary had to go through in order to cure herself.

"Well, that's just brilliant, isn't it?" He said, his sarcastic grin lingering on his face before it gradually turned into a stern one. "Where is she?"

"Back in her old house here."

"I need to see her."

Kol was about to march past Cordelia when she stopped him by grabbing his arm.

"There's something that you ought to know about Mary first." Cordelia said, still holding on to his arm. In annoyance, Kol yanked his arm away from her grasp harshly before glaring down at her.

"Can't Mary tell me herself?" He said.

"Not at the moment."

"Why not?"

Cordelia braced herself. Knowing Kol's wild and impulsive behavior, she very

well knew how he would react to her delivering him the news.

"Because she's dead."

Cordelia didn't know if Kol noticed how he stepped back and almost tripped as a perplexed expression took over his face. That same expression kingered in his face for a couple of seconds before it was replaced by a furious one as he attempted to come attack another Bennett witch.

"Louvir." Cordelia muttered with a subtle flick of her hand, sending Kol flying and crashing against the opposite wall of lockers. The contact of his body with the lockers rang and echoed through the halls, as well as Kol's groans.

"Phasmatos somnus." She then chanted and the original vampire fell into a deep slumber before his body collapsed on the ground below him with a thud.

That was the easiest thing about Kol. When he was angry, he tended to choose impulsivity over rationality. Which was why Cordelia didn't even break a sweat as she put him to sleep. He knew he would lose that attack. But he was too angry to care.

Though no one was angrier than Cordelia.

—

Klaus was marching toward the front porch of the former Grant Residence. His eyes were locked on the front door which was open wide. He stopped at the doorway when he found his brother unconscious on the floor, carelessly left there.

"Well, that's one way to handle my brother." Klaus remarked.

The original hybrid averted his gaze from Kol to Cordelia. She was the one that called him and informed him that they were back in town...and in the land of the living.

"Hello, Cordelia. Are you finding the modern society to your liking?" Asked Klaus, an amused grin forming on his lips.

"No." Cordelia simply answered.

Klaus very well knew that Cordelia wasn't up for small talk which was why he left her alone and proceeded to acknowledge the presence of another person in the room. "Sir Maxime."

Maxime clenched his jaw at the sound of his name on the original hybrid's lips. He had never liked him. Any of them, really. They were always a threat to Mary's safety.

"The loyal knight. Have you ever considered switching teams?" Klaus said, his eyebrow raised and his smile mocking as if he was entertaining himself by annoying Mary's other best friends. He wasn't going to admit it, but he was kind of spiteful that Mary brought them back.

"I serve and protect Mary." Maxime answered, straight and stern.

"And how's that working out for you?" The original hybrid responded as every last trace of mockery and amusement left his face, now replaced by a serious and grim one.

Mary's loyal knight looked away, wincing at how pained he actually was at that. He had failed Mary back in Scotland by dying without achieving their goal. Now he was given a second chance to serve her and he had failed yet her again. Clearly, he was already doubting his own capabilities to protect Mary. And he had been beating himself up ever since he and Cordelia found Mary with the absence of life in her lungs.

"May I?" Klaus asked Cordelia.

The Bennett witch looked over to Maxime and nodded at him, signaling for him to stand down and give way. The loyal knight stepped out of the way, letting Klaus get more view of the mahogany casket that was situated in front of the fireplace.

Klaus balled his hands into fists and started walking toward the coffin. Every step he took gave him more view of the woman's face as she laid inside it. When he had reached the casket, he placed his hands on its side and craned his head to look at the redhead. She looked peaceful like this.

"Oh, little fox." Klaus murmured as he caressed his friend's cheek with the back of his fingers. "What happened to you?"

Klaus's attention, as well as everyone else alive in the room, was caught when Kol jolted awake, gasping as his consciousness returned to him. His head whipped toward the living room where his eyes landed on Cordelia, then Klaus, then Maxime. The presence of Max in the living room, or in the living in general, confused him for just a short moment before he had reverted his attention back to what mattered the most.

The brunette original vampire scrambled to his feet and started making his way toward Cordelia with a raging irritation.

"If you dare do that again, I'll—" Kol halted his tracks in the middle of the living room when his brown eyes caught a glimpse of the beautiful and peaceful pace of the woman that laid in the casket behind Klaus.

Suddenly, his anger was nowhere to be seen. Instead, in its place, was hurt. Hurt flashed across his face as his feet reluctantly took steps toward the coffin. Klaus lowered his head and moved away to stand next to Maxime, letting his brother reach Mary without hassle.

When he finally stood in front of the mahogany casket, Kol's eyes landed on Mary. She was sleeping while clad in a clean white lace dress that ended on her calves. Her hands were intertwined together and were clasping a rosary as it laid on her stomach. Her eyelids unfolded, hiding her deep brown eyes beneath. Her hair was still auburn, as rich as the color depth of her blood that stained the collar of her dress.

She was basking in tranquility from the looks of it, but Kol knew better than to assume that she was at peace.

"Now that Kol is up and about, care to explain what you lot have been doing this time that it led to this?" Klaus said, his voice indifferent, or perhaps simply unreadable. Cordelia couldn't tell whether he was mad or bored. But she was leaning more toward the former.

Kol didn't say anything as he gently brushed away the strands of hair on her face to cup her cheek, his thumb stroking her skin soothingly. He simply listened as Cordelia finally decided to fill them in.

"We'd been looking for ways to rid the spirit possessing Mary's body. As you may have already guessed, we didn't find it." Cordelia said.

Kol's grip on the coffin tightened at the thought of the witch spirit inside of her leading her to her own grave. "It did this to her?"

Cordelia gulped. Her fingers fiddled with one another, struggling to blurt out what really happened. Because of the long pause that Cordelia had taken, Kol averted his haze from Mary to Cordelia, suspicion written all over his face. Klaus had the same expression, his eyes narrowing at the witch.

"No. Mary did it to herself." She answered.

The original vampire gripped the coffin even tighter that it finally broke, but his expression did not change. He still had his eyes on Cordelia while burying the emotions eager to surface onto his face. He witnessed the struggle Cordelia was experiencing in telling them what had happened that the loyal knight stepped in to spare her from the suffering of having to tell the suicide of the former Scottish queen.

"She said the voice in her head was getting louder to the point of pain. Cordelia and I would often catch her muttering in different languages, but all translating to one sentence. Here I am." Max explained, his hand sitting atop the hilt of one of his knives that was on his hip.

Kol recalled the Latin words Mary kept muttering to herself unknowingly. Hic sum, she said. She didn't remember saying those words because it wasn't actually her saying that. It was a game the spirit was playing with all of them for centuries—who would be the first to notice?

"Her sanity was put to the test." Max added before he swallowed hard when his gaze dropped to his former queen. "She failed."

Klaus, with his gaze turning into a glare, looked at Cordelia. "She can't die. Didn't you make sure of that?"

"One of the things we tried was stripping her of all magic, hers and others'. We theorized that the spirit was inside her because she was a witch, at least partially. We thought that by getting rid of the magic in Mary's body, it would leave her to leech magic off of others." Cordelia elaborated, her eyes set upon the auburn haired siphoner.

The Bennett witch looked down on her twiddling fingers, swallowing hard. Anxiety was flowing through her veins more than her own blood as she stood in the middle of a living room with two original vampires with a tendency to not obey her.

"When that didn't work, she...took matters into her own hands. We were against it. But she did it anyway." She continued. She lifted her head up and flickered her gaze between Kol and Klaus. "She said vampirism and witchcraft have always repelled each other."

"What?" Kol said, his forehead creased and his eyebrows furrowed while stared at Cordelia for confirmation.

Was she implying what Kol was thinking? Or even what Klaus was guessing?

"She didn't just off herself. She died with vampire blood in her system. She wanted to become a vampire so the witch spirit would leave her alone." She finally revealed.

Every witch could see the reason behind Cordelia's distress about the situation. Not only did her best friend kill herself, but she did so in order to become a vampire, the very thing that witches despised. The very definition of nature's enemy. Which was why a person could not be a witch and a vampire at the same time. And that was what Mary was hoping for when she grabbed a dagger and slit her throat while on her bed.

"Well, you lot had us all thinking that we lost her forever when it's actually the exact opposite—Your storytelling needs to be put in check!" Klaus exclaimed, frustrated at how Cordelia and Maxime carried all this out thinking that the former queen was gone for good.

"That's the thing." Maxime spoke up, looking to his side to meet Klaus's irritated gaze before wandering his eyes around the room to glance at everyone else. "This all happened three days ago. She hasn't woken up since."

"I think the spirit is trying to reject the vampire blood. It doesn't want her to become one." Cordelia added to Maxime's statement.

"You think?" Kol had his eyes narrowed as he finally leaned away from the coffin. He approached Cordelia with heavy, threatening steps. "Mary raised both of you from the dead to help her and the only thing you've done so far is let this happen."

"You're forgetting that we're dealing with one of the most powerful witches to ever walk the face of the Earth." She reminded him, keeping her stance straight and taunting, not letting the original vampire intimidate nor scare her.

"Then what do you suggest we do, oh wise one?" Klaus sarcastically remarked. "I reckon the two of you didn't come here bearing the body of the Scottish Queen solely to inform us of what hopefully is her temporary demise. What do you seek our help for?"

Cordelia's eyes met Maxime's. It was like they were talking in secret codes hidden in their glances. While keeping their shared glances, the Bennett witch spoke.

"She is not built for vampirism. She has a kind heart and a fragile mind. Those two already took a toll from the centuries that have passed." Cordelia then shifted her glance to look at the original siblings. "Turning her into a vampire will ruin whatever humanity she has left. Before you know it, the Mary we know will be as she was meant to be all these years. History."

"She'll be history either way. If she doesn't complete the transition, she will die." The original hybrid pointed out.

Cordelia nor Maxime said a word. They remained silent as the two originals demanded for more answers. Though the answer for this one was as clear as day. And neither of them were in favor of it.

"Unless that's what you want." Kol responded. Just when he thought he couldn't hate Cordelia more at the moment. "Do you want us to convince her not to push through with the transition? Because if you are then you really made a mistake bringing her here."

"You of all people should know the curse of being a vampire."

"I won't let her die."

"You were the reason she even touched the damning dark object in the first place!" Cordelia exclaimed. For all the centuries that she was on the other side, watching as Mary struggled on her own, Cordelia blamed Kol. He was the root of all of Mary's problems. If Kol hadn't let his ego and pride take over, then the royal game wouldn't have started. Mary wouldn't have been forced to touch the Queen's Crown, she wouldn't have lost her first husband Francis, she wouldn't have fled France and continuously fight for her throne in Scotland, she wouldn't have found herself in England to be executed, she wouldn't have to flee, again, and she wouldn't have spent over 400 years in a prison world for murdering Isabella.

Cordelia later found out that Isabella acted alone in the murder of Francis II, but Kol was still hardly innocent in her eyes. It was his influence that made Isabella act that way. It was his influence that started all this mess.

"When she becomes a vampire, I wonder how she'll be when her hatred for you amplifies." She spat at Kol.

The original vampire and the Bennett witch exchanged glares in silence, trying to one up the other by intimidating one another. But that silence, that heavy, quiet ambiance was broken when the sound of a person gasping for air caught all of their attention.

Mary was inhaling and exhaling sharply as her hand made its way to her neck, searching for the wound that she herself opened up. Her deep brown eyes were roaming the room as she gripped the edge of the coffin that was partially destroyed due to Kol's grip earlier so she could pull herself up. She now sat upright in her casket and found four of the most important people in her life—who also hated each other's guts—in one small space.

For a moment there, Mary thought she was really dead and she was at peace with the people she cared about, if not for the strong urge to feed came in hot after.

"I guess we're about to find out." Klaus uttered as they all stared at the auburn haired siphoner, now in transition to become a vampire.

—

After this chapter, there's only one left for part one and then I'm gonna take a break from publishing to continue writing enough for part two before I start posting them. Btw, thank you so much for 14K reads!<3