Chapter 22
WyldCard4
It's needlessly complicated
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Author's Note: Lots of reasons for this hiatus, and you are not obligated to care.
Wyld
I showed Esther's head to Lauren. Davina sat in her chair quietly and watched us. "Courtesy of the Mikaelsons, their mom's head in a box and a threatening letter." I could not help but smile grimly despite being shaken. "It's a very Mikaelson thing, to make such a show of brutal force to try and cow your enemies."
"Yes it is," Lauren agreed. "Let me see the note, please?" She pulled it to her with a spurt of telekinesis. "We have rejected our mother's offer. Give us Rebekah." Lauren read aloud.
"We agree we're not giving the Mikaelsons their sister's body, right?" I asked.
"Is there a reason not to kill Rebekah's body and wipe out most of them immediately?" Lauren asked.
"Well it'd kill Kol and Elijah. Finn and Rebekah would still be witches in stolen bodies. There's no way Kol's not the current Mikaelson MVP with the linking spell and his Cure suppressing their vampirism. We'd also slaughter all remaining vampires in the world, removing most of their potential allies. So um, I can't see a downside." I paused. "Your thoughts?"
"They have a backup plan, but it can't be half as dangerous as what they can do with an active Kol and vampiric minions," Lauren nodded. "Davina, your thoughts?"
"Be nice," I recited automatically at Lauren.
"Well..." Davina was clearly uncomfortable being put on the spot and kept looking away from Esther's head. "What do you need to bring back Klaus?"
"What?" Lauren asked.
"You'd need a ton of power, like a sacrifice, right?" Davina asked. "Ms. LaRue told me Jeff killed Klaus. You're sure there's a backup plan if the Mikaelsons die. Would Klaus's death have broken your linking spell?"
"Klaus was never linked to begin with," I said. "But it would've broken it if he'd been part of it anyway."
"Familial sacrifice," Lauren said thoughtfully. "Normally you need as much of the deceased's body as you can get, strong connections to the deceased, tons of power. Necromancy isn't my specialty, but if you had four siblings die that would provide a kick, especially if they can exploit the sire lines dying."
"Esther was a master of body swapping. I'd have jumped to a new body if I was hit by the Anchor curse. If Kol has studied her grimoire then he'll probably be in the body of another witch." I nodded. "Esther's written necromancy spells as well. Kol might not even be in his own body anymore. If all the Originals are outside of their old bodies right now then it'd be an acceptable risk to see if we killed Rebekah's old body."
"Can they break that linking spell without Rebekah's body?" Davina asked.
"Maybe, but it'd be very difficult and take time," I answered. "I used Rebekah's body to anchor it and linked the family with the blood of Elena Gilbert. Um, that's complicated, but Elena's blood is a useful agent in spells, and some of the blood was in all four surviving siblings at the time." I paused. "Oh! Also their father, Mikael. If they had the blood of all of them at the same time it might be possible, but it was one of my more intense spells."
"They might have saved some of Rebekah's blood, and Finn's. Probably none of Mikael's." Lauren commented. "We have to assume they've broken the spell until we confirm otherwise, but I really don't think it has happened."
"Confirming that's not overly hard." I pointed at Lauren. "It's implausible, but if they managed it we need to react accordingly. We've gotta check."
"You're going to see my mirror world," Lauren said to Davina after a moment of looking annoyed. "The last thing we need is to explain to your coven why we let you die in a hostage situation."
"One moment." I held out my hand to Lauren. "On that note, we need to get Vicki to a safer area."
"Yeah." Lauren held my hand and closed her eyes as she began a psychic shout directed at Vicki.
"Are you sure the mirror world is safe?" Davina asked.
"Huh." I frowned. "No, but it's a smaller risk and any hostiles in there are less likely to be working with the Mikaelsons."
Vicki and Silas arrived at the edge of the room. "Come in," Lauren said to Vicki, and I poked a Vicki shaped exception in the ward so she could walk in without risking anyone else entering.
"What about me?" Silas asked.
"Dude, you think we trust you?" Vicki asked.
"I've been nothing but helpful." Silas pointed out.
"I'm another psychic and..." I paused for a moment, looked at Davina, and said "Don't listen to me." I turned back to Silas. "I've seen your lunacy on a television show that may not exist. I want to get Amara back for you, but I'm not letting you run wild in the world Katherine's stuck in until we've made a deal with her."
"It's not exactly good for our reputation if we sellout people we made deals with the moment they stop being useful," Lauren added.
"Stop ignoring me." I compelled Davina and she blinked.
"What was that?" Davina asked me.
"If you stick with us they'll explain it to you, but trust me it takes a long time to understand it." Vicki cut in. "Ready to go to a slightly less hot New Orleans?"
"Ready." I said and Lauren pulled out her potion and began chanting. "Just step into the light," I told Davina.
Lauren and I investigated Rebekah's body while Davina and Vicki stood around. Vicki looked bored, Davina looked uncomfortable.
"She's still linked to the others," Lauren decided. "Well, if she's not linked then they did something unbelievably tricky." She turned to Davina. "You have questions."
"Um, if Travelers have overrun this place, why did you leave Rebekah's body here?" Davina asked. "I mean, that's not a strong protection spell." Davina pointed at the chalk and salt circle we had around Rebekah's body.
"It's cloaked, but we keep having to move so we can't do anything that sturdy to protect it," Lauren sounded defensive. "Anything else?"
"Is she alive or dead?" Davina asked after another second of looking uncomfortable.
"More dead than alive, but not all the way dead," I explained. "Vampire bodies are complicated, and can withstand a removed soul pretty well, but a lot of Rebekah's vampiric nature is suppressed by the link to Kol's cured body. She doesn't breathe or anything, but the link also keeps her from fully dying. If her soul returned to her body she'd get a bit more lively."
"Can we just kill her like anyone else?" Vicki asked.
"I'd use White Oak just to be sure, but I think the link to Kol makes her vulnerable anyway," I said. "I really didn't anticipate Kol using the cure when I linked them, so I'd probably do the full Dracula ritual. White Oak through the heart, cut off the head."
"Do you do this a lot?" Davina asked.
"Kill people?" I asked. "Not when I can avoid it, but Mikaelsons are a bit of a special case."
"Here in New Orleans we tell stories about the Mikaelsons, usually we call them the Old Ones," Davina said softly. "People say they ruled like kings before they disappeared while the city burned. Most of the stories are horrible."
"Young Padawan," I began. "I expect most of the stories you've heard are true. Then again, the Mikaelsons are also notorious liars. They've murdered, raped, stolen, tortured, betrayed and done every other crime you care to mention. The day I killed their brother he was threatening my life and the lives of everyone else in the vicinity."
"That's one way to put it," Lauren frowned at me.
"What does that mean?" Davina asked curiously. The girl's eyes were bright, eager; she deserved some truth.
"There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it ill behooves any of us to criticize the rest of us." I quoted.
"Angela and Diabola, Jeff? Really?" Lauren asked. Vicki and Davina looked very confused.
"So we both read that as kids." I smiled. "Davina, no one's the villain of their own story. Well, not many at least. The Mikaelsons are victims. Esther turned them into vampires without warning or consent. The day I killed Niklaus I was possessing the body of an innocent and I only got so close to him because he had no idea who I really was."
"Bonnie is a bit of a bitch anyway," Vicki offered.
"It would be righteous to rid the world of vampires, in my estimation, Original and otherwise. Every vampire lives with heightened emotions and a terrible hunger for human blood. But..." I struggled to find the worlds. "It doesn't mean we're the good guys if we do it, or make someone else a bad guy for wanting to stop us."
"Hey!" Vicki looked annoyed.
"One of my best friends' is a vampire." I gestured at Vicki. "As it happens, she'd survive the vampire purge because she died and I brought her back already. I'm not going to kill her, and because of that, she'll probably kill people because her every instinct is rewired to make her into something dangerous."
"That's awful." Davina frowned.
"You know I've seen the future. I've seen your future." I said. "I've seen you make friends with vampires. I don't know how much Ms. LaRue told you about what I told her. Marcel Gerard would have saved your life, and I killed him when I killed Klaus."
"What my boyfriend is getting at is that life is really complicated, and he feels bad about it." Lauren cut me off. "We don't kill Vicki for the same reason almost no one spends all their money on charity. We can't make everything about doing the right thing, or else we'd go crazy and never do the right thing at all."
"Wow, way to make me feel like crap." Vicki snarled at Lauren.
"I'm in a bad mood," Lauren admitted readily.
"So if we're not going to kill Rebekah yet in case it plays into the Mikaelson plan, but the Mikaelsons are planning to get her back, what do you think you should do?" Davina asked me.
"Well..." I trailed off. "There's a way to make sure they can't bring back Klaus, if that's their plan."
"Really?" Lauren asked.
"What do you mean?" Vicki looked between us.
"He's talking about putting Klaus in another body so they can't access his spirit to bring him back as a fully powered Original." Lauren explained.
"Do you have a better idea?" I asked.
"Could we use one of the Human Faction's supply of Talismans?" Lauren asked.
"Talismans, like a Dark Object?" Davina asked.
"Object made through Dark Magic, so Dark Object, yeah." I nodded. But do any of them even work that way?"
"They don't have to," Lauren explained. "When I worked with Esther she sacrificed one talisman to make another. We just need to find one kind of like what we need and we can trap Klaus's spirit. Then we can kill Rebekah, destroying the vampires without worrying about having to fight Klaus again."
"Huh." I nodded again. "How long would it take?"
"I don't know." Lauren admitted after thinking for a minute.
"We can use my body," I began.
"No!" Lauren shouted. "We are not going with your half-backed plan that risks putting Klaus's soul into one of the strongest creatures on Earth."
"We can keep it dormant," I said. "My spirit's far stronger than his. We just need a spell to keep two spirits in one body with the host's spirit in charge instead of the invader. You can't say we can't do that."
"Vicki!" Lauren whirled on the brunette vampire. "You know that this is a hundred times safer if we experiment on you instead, right?"
"Hell no!" Vicki shouted.
Lauren looked surprised. "What?"
"I'm not letting Klaus Mikaelson ride around in my body," Vicki insisted. "Screw that. Jeff's game, but I'm not. Every time you try and use body swaps something new and horrible happens. I'm out."
"I'll do it," Davina said.
"Really?" I asked.
"You said the vampires are dangerous. People are going to keep dying if you don't win, right?"
"Jeff..." Lauren gave me a look.
"Tell me your real feelings on this." I compelled Davina.
"I'm scared and I think I'm in less danger if you trust me, and this seems like the best way to get you to trust me." Davina answered and gave a shudder. "I hate when you do that."
"Well." Lauren grinned. "I think this is a good idea."
"Lauren..." I shook my head.
"She's up for it and she's about as dangerous as a baby compared to what you are. Do you want to betray Vicki and make her think she agreed?" Lauren asked. "Maybe spend precious time hunting down a Traveler you wouldn't feel guilty about compelling?"
"Guys, this is insane." Vicki glared at Lauren and then at me. "You put Klaus in a body, and he's gonna take it over. Sure, maybe you can cast a spell to keep it from happening naturally, but do you think that'll slow down Esther or Kol when they do something crazy? This is not going to stop Klaus."
"Vicki, time for your idea." I said.
"We talk to Esther," Vicki answered. A vein was throbbing in Vicki's forehead and I doubted she had ever looked more stressed, possibly besides the time I had seen her being tortured. "We still don't know why her children really killed her."
"She is a witness to her own murder." I pondered.
"Can we put Klaus's soul in Davina anyway?" Lauren asked.
"Be. Nice." I hissed. Clearly I had made a mistake in anticipating Lauren's reaction to Davina.
Lauren
I drummed on Esther's head as Jeff drew symbols in salt and chalk. Davina and Vicki were off getting herbs for the spell.
"I wonder if they did something to Esther's ghost," I asked conversationally.
"You know, you're really mad lately," Jeff said.
"Wow, you must be psychic." I continued the morbid drumming on Esther's head.
"We can dump Davina when we get back to Earth," Jeff offered. "I didn't realize how badly this was hurting you."
"It wasn't hurting me until we got her in the group." I paused. "Now she feels like a threat. I wasn't exactly in the best mood anyway. Attacking your pet Sabrina makes me feel better."
"Sabrina's a blonde like you..." Jeff swallowed. "Not the point."
"Not at all," I agreed.
"Is there anything I can do to make you feel better generally?" Jeff asked cautiously. "I mean, it's obvious we can rid you of particular enemies and annoyances, but I think some of the problem is that so much has built up lately."
"Well," I muttered. "We could kill off the Mikaelsons. If we ended our vampire problem we could focus on more important things."
"You know if we want to kill the Mikaelsons the last thing we want to do is keep working with Esther," Jeff pointed out. "She wants her family alive."
"You don't think she'll learn better after decapitation?" I asked, then I sighed. "She won't learn any better from this."
"What is being murdered to the Original Witch? She's been dead most of the last thousand years. She wants to punish, persuade, and manipulate her children into some semblance of a family. If the coven of Jeff and Lauren get slaughtered along the way, what's it to her?" Jeff ranted. I was not the only one who was angry today.
"Do you think they can kill us at this point?" I asked.
"Definitely," Jeff answered. "I trust your instincts, but I've also watched a show called The Originals for two seasons. They may be cowards, but they're ruthless and insightful. Perhaps not as resourceful as the teenagers of Mystic Falls, but problematic none the less."
"Can Esther keep them well-behaved, if we help her win?" I wondered.
"She's insane." Jeff paced. "Damn that bitch. We don't owe her this. We could have crawled out of the Prison World without her, eventually."
"We didn't, though." I sighed. "Esther's one of the only people we've worked with who doesn't have reason to murder us, yet. Kill Rebekah's body, let the Other Side collapse, rid the world of vampires, and we've only solved about half our problems. Why would a siren help us win against the Coven of the Thirteen if that's how we fulfill our debts?"
"Can't we just point out Esther is a bitch?" Jeff asked. "We brought Bonnie's grandmother back from the dead even if I am to blame for killing her, and we even cured her of being a vampire! We helped the Shanes, we made Katherine immortal, we put Damon in Finn's body! Can't we take a hit to our credibility and break it off with Esther?"
"We're back." Vicki showed up with Davina in her arms. "There's a lot more herbs in New Orleans than I expected. How did finding Katherine go?"
"I did a tracking spell while you were with Esther, and unless it's being spoofed she's in Anchorage, Alaska," Jeff hissed. "I have half a mind to let Silas in here to track her down himself and ask her nicely to come back."
"I wonder how frozen the coast is in the Prison World," I mused. "She might be able to walk to Russia some parts of the year as an Immortal."
"That's all we need; Katherine Pierce riding Amara's body into Eurasia when Silas wants a deal." Jeff stomped his foot.
"C'mon, one disaster at a time, please. Please?" Vicki's eyes were a bit bloodshot; something to worry about later.
"Don't worry." I suddenly giggled. "Everything's going to work out."
"You're in a good mood all of a sudden." Jeff frowned at me. "You just had an idea."
"As a matter of fact I did." I nodded. "We give the Mikaelsons Rebekah's body."
"What?" Jeff asked.
"The Mikaelson children demanded the body. Obviously they need to get to it. Rebekah's body is in the Prison World. We let them inside and shut the door on them." I explained.
"They'll never go for it." Jeff frowned. "No way."
"Not if we tell them, but don't you think they're scheming about how to get someone into the Prison World if we don't cooperate? They need Rebekah to break the linking spell; until that spell's broken they are vulnerable." I paused. "Actually, I know exactly how we get them to go in."
Jeff and Davina forged a connection between me and Esther and I saw through her eyes. Esther was staring mournfully at a small redheaded woman I failed to recognize.
"Oh," Esther said after a moment's confusion. "Hello, Lauren."
"You died again. Someone gave us your head and demanded Rebekah's body. Was someone trying to get us fighting your children or did the obvious thing happen?" I asked.
"Freya," Esther answered simply.
I thought for a moment. "The kid you gave to your sister to raise? Weren't you off on a crusade to rescue her?"
"I succeeded," Esther explained. "Rebekah broke her out of her sleep for a time with the a mighty spell and the sacrifice of a vampire. Freya turned her siblings against me and executed me hours ago."
"Ah." I answered. I considered for a moment that Jeff and Esther had agreed to link the Mikaelsons to feel the agony of every supernatural death in the world as a control tactic, but decided not to bring it up. "Do we give them Rebekah's body?"
"Of course not." Esther pointed to the small woman she had been stalking. "She's happy again like that! If she gets her old body again my children will break the linking spell and return to their lives of vampirism."
"Ah, so that is where Rebekah's soul ended up." I examined the small woman. "Who is she possessing?"
"A deeply flawed candidate," Esther answered. "Ms. MacLachlan was an untapped druid in Scotland. Her coven has the practice of giving their second child up for adoption and then kidnapping them for sacrifice on their sixteenth birthday."
"Unsettling." I nodded. "What did she do?"
"Do?" Esther stared for a long moment. "Don't try to make me feel guilty for what must be done to save my family."
"As a matter of fact that is bugging me. If we used the link and killed them now we'd rid the world of almost every vampire and tear a hole in whatever war effort they're preparing against us. It would save a lot of lives if we ended it tonight." I said.
"No." Esther said simply. "I'm not giving up on my children and you owe me, Lauren. You are going to bring me back to life and we are going to take over where I left off."
"What's to stop them from killing you again?" I asked. "Got some ingenious plan this time?"
"I have watched my children for a thousand years on the Other Side. I raised all of them and gave birth seven times. I will save them with or without you."
"My God, you're serious." I frowned. "You really don't think you need my help."
"It will be much faster if we can continue working together. Move against me and even your invincible boyfriend won't be able to save you." Esther answered.
"Damn it." I shook my head. "Things will only get worse from here if your children survive."
"I raised them well." Esther smiled. "They are good tacticians."
"If you say so," I sighed. "Try to be in Lafayette Cemetery at midnight so we can raise you more easily." I paused. "Are you up for hearing my idea of a plan?"
"So basically, we need you to tell the Mikaelsons you stole the Ascendant and a potion to activate it from us and you need their help to get Amara," Jeff explained to Silas.
"Interesting." Silas nodded. "So you're going to let me chase my girlfriend and the psycho who is possessing my girlfriend's body through the magical purgatory dimension you created. How do I know you won't just trap me in there?"
"Do you care?" Jeff asked. "It's the size of a planet and Amara's in there. Hospitals are full of blood that refills every day. DVDs work and there aren't any crowds or lines. Also, the Ascendant will be on the same end as you are."
"Why won't the Mikaelsons just break out once they have Rebekah?" Silas asked.
"That's Esther's job." I smiled. "She wants her family stuck with her. She just needs to hold onto it." A few Dark Objects found in New Orleans, some White Oak and Doppelganger Blood, and a spell on the Ascendant had ensured that Esther would be able to win that encounter when the time came; her children could not have predicted everything we had prepared for them.
"They won't all go," Silas mused. "I'm not psychic enough to get them to do that."
"They'll have to send Kol and Freya in to break the spell on Rebekah. The spell is too big, too dangerous to them to try and half-ass it by only sending one of them. Finn's not part of the group, and you can get Elijah to follow along," Jeff explained. "That's assuming they don't need to bring Rebekah's spirit along, which they well might depending on their exact plan.
"Why would he be that dumb?" Silas asked.
"One," Jeff lifted a finger, "It's his nature to be dumb;" He lifted a second finger; "Two, you're going to tell him that Katerina is in Amara's body and you're off to rescue Amara. Elijah's in love with the ghost inside your girlfriend when he's not trying to kill her."
"You're suggesting I take a road trip with Captain Suit and screw up my chances of getting my girlfriend back?" Silas glared at me.
"I made a deal with Katherine that she could have an Immortal body. You want to sign up with me, you make a pitch to her." Jeff smiled. "The last time someone hunted her she ran for five centuries. I think it will be faster if you two work together."
"So we have Freya and Kol and Elijah in your world until they figure out how to break out. What if they don't bring Rebekah?" Silas looked at me. "She's not skilled at magic and doesn't have a reason to follow us if they don't need her ghost yet."
"What about her?" I asked. "She's not a skilled witch, not an Original Vampire, and sure as hell not a brilliant strategist."
"Isn't underestimating Mikaelsons like, the easiest way to get killed in The Vampire Diaries?" Silas used air quotes around the series title.
"Yes, but Rebekah's track record of brilliant wins is sketchy." Jeff answered. "She's the most desperate of them to find some form of self-actualization. If we have to leave one in the same dimension as I am she's easily my first choice."
"Finn is also not on our radar, unless Freya's made a last minute deal since she woke up." I added. "I doubt Finn and Rebekah working together is particularly dangerous, either. If you can, get Rebekah to come, but don't worry if she's the one they're reserving."
"Okay." Silas eyed the pack. "Why don't you think I'm going to mess this up for you again."
"We think we've narrowed the things that can go wrong down to about a million." I shrugged. "They're witches who want to get to the same place you want to go. Once you bring them the Ascendant and a blood potion they'll owe you a favor. You're not a witch anymore, so you need a witch to help you. Why would you screw around when this gets you everything you want?"
"I guess I can work with this." Silas sped off.
"Besides," I said to Jeff. "So what if he tells them everything? They still need to go to the Prison World to get Rebekah." The two of us chuckled to each other.
Wyld
In my experience it is very rare for a plan to actually work without unleashing more unintended problems and side effects, but so far as I could tell everything was fine. The Ascendant was in Esther's magical possession, Rebekah had gone with Freya, Elijah and Kol into the Prison World in order to return to her true body, and Esther sent a telepathic message to report she didn't need our help. For now things were working out just fine.
I sat in the U-Haul full of grimoires and general "stuff" I had gathered with Lauren; we had carried it into a parking garage controlled by the Guerrera-Slash-Correa family under the assumption they'd be nervous about selling us out. Vicki played with her sword while I cast a handful of cloaking and boundary spells to account for the change in location. Lauren was dropping Davina off with her coven and asking about arrangements for our journey back to Virginia.
"So," Vicki said after I was done with my spells, "We're after um, I think they're called the Empty Chair? Whatever people Lauren hates."
"The Coven of the Thirteen, the Empty Chair, or the Immortal Family are all names I heard for them." I shrugged. "Honestly they weren't in the television shows I watched and I might have created them without meaning to when I filled out my jumpchain."
"Oh yeah, drawbacks." Vicki nodded. "I remember you talked about how we were stuck in the Prison World and everyone was trying to kill us because you wanted more jumpchain powers."
"Wanted is a strong word." I frowned. "Remember I didn't think this would happen. But yeah. In order to survive in The Vampire Diaries I thought I had to be immortal, and you can't do that with a normal power budget. It takes two thousand points to be a True Immortal and a fully powered witch, plus four hundred for a soulmate, and you only start with one thousand."
"So you got more points for being hunted by Lauren's enemies." Vicki nodded.
"Actually, Lauren got those points. We don't have the same drawbacks," I said after a moment's thought. "It's been a while since I did the game."
"If you say so," Vicki said after a moment of looking annoyed. "So like, does this mean..." Vicki shook her head. "Never mind, I don't care. We have to fight these guys anyway, right? Doesn't matter if you overly complicated your nerding out."
"It shouldn't matter," I said after a moment's thought. "I don't think there's anything about a drawback that says you can't have help when you solve it or anything like that. I just wanted Lauren to have the best powers and there were fiddly bits with the rules you don't actually care about that made her build different."
"I've been meaning to ask you something," Vicki said quietly. "If the jumpchain thing is real, what exactly does that mean for me?"
"I don't know." I sighed. "Remember, going by the normal rules it's more like It's a Wonderful Life where you talk to an angel who explains what is happening. If I happen to talk to someone at the end of this, supposedly after ten years, I'm going to ask about taking people with me. I remember that some people used really strict rules for taking companions along and some people thought those were dumb and ignored them; if some random deity or demon is using the jumpchain as a baseline for how to mess with me then I don't know what they'd do about you."
"Can't you just pretend to know everything again?" Vicki sighed and threw her sword into the cement wall of the parking garage.
"I'm almost out of things to pretend to know everything about," I admitted. "Besides, would you want to never see Matt again? If we go into another story, like Star Wars or something, we couldn't just go back home for visits."
"I mean, what's the point of going to Star Wars?" Vicki asked. "I mean sure, fight Darth Vader, become a Jedi I guess, but why is it a chain of jumps if you're already this strong? Can't you get anything you want already?"
"Good questions." I nodded. "So right now, I'm maybe the strongest creature in the world by a fair amount. I'm the strongest witch besides Lauren, and I am virtually impossible to kill. With me so far?" I asked.
"Duh." Vicki snipped.
"Now, we've dealt with strong people before. Does it really matter if Lauren and I are the strongest witches if we're dealing with an entire coven of witches who are strong? We've spent nearly a year dealing with Travelers and Mikaelsons. Life is hard and stressful. Now, let's say we go to Star Wars; how many witches are in Star Wars?"
"Like, zero?" Vicki asked. "Is that a trick question?"
"There's weird force users who are kind of witches, but those aren't like Bonnie and Esther. Think about it like this, if I go to Star Wars with the jumpchain I could be a Jedi and a witch. The second time you jump you're going to be weirder to the locals than the first time you jump. If I have control over where I jump, I can go to places that would grant me more strength without having as much risk."
"That sounds like a big if, since you didn't have much choice about coming here." Vicki smiled.
"Yes." I breathed. "Right now I'm in something shaped like a writing prompt about what you do with getting power, but I don't know what I can control if I do it again. Like, Star Wars might be a bad example; imagine if I could go and be Superman."
"Wow." Vicki said after a moment. "Yeah, I've seen cartoons and movies; Matty watches Smallville sometimes. Is there a jumpchain for that?"
"There are a lot of jumpchains. I know there was one for at least one Superman cartoon. Let's even say that it'd be too hard to be Superman, that you'd need to take drawbacks as dangerous as the Prison World to do that; what if you could be a mad scientist like Lex Luthor instead?"
"So I get it now," Vicki said thoughtfully. "You aren't sticking around here if you could get that."
"How could I?" I laughed. "Imagine if I could go to a second jump and become able to solve world hunger with science. Then for a third jump, what about becoming like Sherlock Holmes? I'd be an immortal witch mad scientist detective, and I've gone into a world where no one else is like that. No alien invasions to worry about like Lex Luthor and Superman do, no Original Vampires to worry about like we have to in this setting. The premise of a chain of jumps is all about mixing and matching like that to do what you want."
"So you're just dumping me if you get the chance." Vicki said.
"Um..." I found myself caught. "Wouldn't you?"
"Huh." Vicki frowned at that.
"Think about it. Think about adventures you saw on cartoons as a little girl. What's your biggest escapist fantasy, Vicki? There's jumpchains for medical dramas or Hollywood millionaires, ones where you can meet your own soulmate, ones where you can become a wizard or James Bond; what would you do?"
"So you're just going to leave Lauren?" Vicki asked.
"I bought her with the jumpchain powers. I think she's coming if that's real." I paused. "If it was a choice, her or going on..."
"You wouldn't leave her." Vicki cut me off. "You'd stick in this crappy world for her, but not for me, right?"
"I didn't say that." I muttered. "Vicki, you..."
"I can't take it anymore!" Vicki shouted. "You two have been bitching at me like some kind of burden or pet who is half an inch from murdering everyone and you can't even lie about wanting me around anymore. Screw you too!" Vicki disappeared in a blur of super speed.
"Shit." I said to the empty U-Haul.
Wyld
I showed Esther's head to Lauren. Davina sat in her chair quietly and watched us. "Courtesy of the Mikaelsons, their mom's head in a box and a threatening letter." I could not help but smile grimly despite being shaken. "It's a very Mikaelson thing, to make such a show of brutal force to try and cow your enemies."
"Yes it is," Lauren agreed. "Let me see the note, please?" She pulled it to her with a spurt of telekinesis. "We have rejected our mother's offer. Give us Rebekah." Lauren read aloud.
"We agree we're not giving the Mikaelsons their sister's body, right?" I asked.
"Is there a reason not to kill Rebekah's body and wipe out most of them immediately?" Lauren asked.
"Well it'd kill Kol and Elijah. Finn and Rebekah would still be witches in stolen bodies. There's no way Kol's not the current Mikaelson MVP with the linking spell and his Cure suppressing their vampirism. We'd also slaughter all remaining vampires in the world, removing most of their potential allies. So um, I can't see a downside." I paused. "Your thoughts?"
"They have a backup plan, but it can't be half as dangerous as what they can do with an active Kol and vampiric minions," Lauren nodded. "Davina, your thoughts?"
"Be nice," I recited automatically at Lauren.
"Well..." Davina was clearly uncomfortable being put on the spot and kept looking away from Esther's head. "What do you need to bring back Klaus?"
"What?" Lauren asked.
"You'd need a ton of power, like a sacrifice, right?" Davina asked. "Ms. LaRue told me Jeff killed Klaus. You're sure there's a backup plan if the Mikaelsons die. Would Klaus's death have broken your linking spell?"
"Klaus was never linked to begin with," I said. "But it would've broken it if he'd been part of it anyway."
"Familial sacrifice," Lauren said thoughtfully. "Normally you need as much of the deceased's body as you can get, strong connections to the deceased, tons of power. Necromancy isn't my specialty, but if you had four siblings die that would provide a kick, especially if they can exploit the sire lines dying."
"Esther was a master of body swapping. I'd have jumped to a new body if I was hit by the Anchor curse. If Kol has studied her grimoire then he'll probably be in the body of another witch." I nodded. "Esther's written necromancy spells as well. Kol might not even be in his own body anymore. If all the Originals are outside of their old bodies right now then it'd be an acceptable risk to see if we killed Rebekah's old body."
"Can they break that linking spell without Rebekah's body?" Davina asked.
"Maybe, but it'd be very difficult and take time," I answered. "I used Rebekah's body to anchor it and linked the family with the blood of Elena Gilbert. Um, that's complicated, but Elena's blood is a useful agent in spells, and some of the blood was in all four surviving siblings at the time." I paused. "Oh! Also their father, Mikael. If they had the blood of all of them at the same time it might be possible, but it was one of my more intense spells."
"They might have saved some of Rebekah's blood, and Finn's. Probably none of Mikael's." Lauren commented. "We have to assume they've broken the spell until we confirm otherwise, but I really don't think it has happened."
"Confirming that's not overly hard." I pointed at Lauren. "It's implausible, but if they managed it we need to react accordingly. We've gotta check."
"You're going to see my mirror world," Lauren said to Davina after a moment of looking annoyed. "The last thing we need is to explain to your coven why we let you die in a hostage situation."
"One moment." I held out my hand to Lauren. "On that note, we need to get Vicki to a safer area."
"Yeah." Lauren held my hand and closed her eyes as she began a psychic shout directed at Vicki.
"Are you sure the mirror world is safe?" Davina asked.
"Huh." I frowned. "No, but it's a smaller risk and any hostiles in there are less likely to be working with the Mikaelsons."
Vicki and Silas arrived at the edge of the room. "Come in," Lauren said to Vicki, and I poked a Vicki shaped exception in the ward so she could walk in without risking anyone else entering.
"What about me?" Silas asked.
"Dude, you think we trust you?" Vicki asked.
"I've been nothing but helpful." Silas pointed out.
"I'm another psychic and..." I paused for a moment, looked at Davina, and said "Don't listen to me." I turned back to Silas. "I've seen your lunacy on a television show that may not exist. I want to get Amara back for you, but I'm not letting you run wild in the world Katherine's stuck in until we've made a deal with her."
"It's not exactly good for our reputation if we sellout people we made deals with the moment they stop being useful," Lauren added.
"Stop ignoring me." I compelled Davina and she blinked.
"What was that?" Davina asked me.
"If you stick with us they'll explain it to you, but trust me it takes a long time to understand it." Vicki cut in. "Ready to go to a slightly less hot New Orleans?"
"Ready." I said and Lauren pulled out her potion and began chanting. "Just step into the light," I told Davina.
Lauren and I investigated Rebekah's body while Davina and Vicki stood around. Vicki looked bored, Davina looked uncomfortable.
"She's still linked to the others," Lauren decided. "Well, if she's not linked then they did something unbelievably tricky." She turned to Davina. "You have questions."
"Um, if Travelers have overrun this place, why did you leave Rebekah's body here?" Davina asked. "I mean, that's not a strong protection spell." Davina pointed at the chalk and salt circle we had around Rebekah's body.
"It's cloaked, but we keep having to move so we can't do anything that sturdy to protect it," Lauren sounded defensive. "Anything else?"
"Is she alive or dead?" Davina asked after another second of looking uncomfortable.
"More dead than alive, but not all the way dead," I explained. "Vampire bodies are complicated, and can withstand a removed soul pretty well, but a lot of Rebekah's vampiric nature is suppressed by the link to Kol's cured body. She doesn't breathe or anything, but the link also keeps her from fully dying. If her soul returned to her body she'd get a bit more lively."
"Can we just kill her like anyone else?" Vicki asked.
"I'd use White Oak just to be sure, but I think the link to Kol makes her vulnerable anyway," I said. "I really didn't anticipate Kol using the cure when I linked them, so I'd probably do the full Dracula ritual. White Oak through the heart, cut off the head."
"Do you do this a lot?" Davina asked.
"Kill people?" I asked. "Not when I can avoid it, but Mikaelsons are a bit of a special case."
"Here in New Orleans we tell stories about the Mikaelsons, usually we call them the Old Ones," Davina said softly. "People say they ruled like kings before they disappeared while the city burned. Most of the stories are horrible."
"Young Padawan," I began. "I expect most of the stories you've heard are true. Then again, the Mikaelsons are also notorious liars. They've murdered, raped, stolen, tortured, betrayed and done every other crime you care to mention. The day I killed their brother he was threatening my life and the lives of everyone else in the vicinity."
"That's one way to put it," Lauren frowned at me.
"What does that mean?" Davina asked curiously. The girl's eyes were bright, eager; she deserved some truth.
"There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it ill behooves any of us to criticize the rest of us." I quoted.
"Angela and Diabola, Jeff? Really?" Lauren asked. Vicki and Davina looked very confused.
"So we both read that as kids." I smiled. "Davina, no one's the villain of their own story. Well, not many at least. The Mikaelsons are victims. Esther turned them into vampires without warning or consent. The day I killed Niklaus I was possessing the body of an innocent and I only got so close to him because he had no idea who I really was."
"Bonnie is a bit of a bitch anyway," Vicki offered.
"It would be righteous to rid the world of vampires, in my estimation, Original and otherwise. Every vampire lives with heightened emotions and a terrible hunger for human blood. But..." I struggled to find the worlds. "It doesn't mean we're the good guys if we do it, or make someone else a bad guy for wanting to stop us."
"Hey!" Vicki looked annoyed.
"One of my best friends' is a vampire." I gestured at Vicki. "As it happens, she'd survive the vampire purge because she died and I brought her back already. I'm not going to kill her, and because of that, she'll probably kill people because her every instinct is rewired to make her into something dangerous."
"That's awful." Davina frowned.
"You know I've seen the future. I've seen your future." I said. "I've seen you make friends with vampires. I don't know how much Ms. LaRue told you about what I told her. Marcel Gerard would have saved your life, and I killed him when I killed Klaus."
"What my boyfriend is getting at is that life is really complicated, and he feels bad about it." Lauren cut me off. "We don't kill Vicki for the same reason almost no one spends all their money on charity. We can't make everything about doing the right thing, or else we'd go crazy and never do the right thing at all."
"Wow, way to make me feel like crap." Vicki snarled at Lauren.
"I'm in a bad mood," Lauren admitted readily.
"So if we're not going to kill Rebekah yet in case it plays into the Mikaelson plan, but the Mikaelsons are planning to get her back, what do you think you should do?" Davina asked me.
"Well..." I trailed off. "There's a way to make sure they can't bring back Klaus, if that's their plan."
"Really?" Lauren asked.
"What do you mean?" Vicki looked between us.
"He's talking about putting Klaus in another body so they can't access his spirit to bring him back as a fully powered Original." Lauren explained.
"Do you have a better idea?" I asked.
"Could we use one of the Human Faction's supply of Talismans?" Lauren asked.
"Talismans, like a Dark Object?" Davina asked.
"Object made through Dark Magic, so Dark Object, yeah." I nodded. But do any of them even work that way?"
"They don't have to," Lauren explained. "When I worked with Esther she sacrificed one talisman to make another. We just need to find one kind of like what we need and we can trap Klaus's spirit. Then we can kill Rebekah, destroying the vampires without worrying about having to fight Klaus again."
"Huh." I nodded again. "How long would it take?"
"I don't know." Lauren admitted after thinking for a minute.
"We can use my body," I began.
"No!" Lauren shouted. "We are not going with your half-backed plan that risks putting Klaus's soul into one of the strongest creatures on Earth."
"We can keep it dormant," I said. "My spirit's far stronger than his. We just need a spell to keep two spirits in one body with the host's spirit in charge instead of the invader. You can't say we can't do that."
"Vicki!" Lauren whirled on the brunette vampire. "You know that this is a hundred times safer if we experiment on you instead, right?"
"Hell no!" Vicki shouted.
Lauren looked surprised. "What?"
"I'm not letting Klaus Mikaelson ride around in my body," Vicki insisted. "Screw that. Jeff's game, but I'm not. Every time you try and use body swaps something new and horrible happens. I'm out."
"I'll do it," Davina said.
"Really?" I asked.
"You said the vampires are dangerous. People are going to keep dying if you don't win, right?"
"Jeff..." Lauren gave me a look.
"Tell me your real feelings on this." I compelled Davina.
"I'm scared and I think I'm in less danger if you trust me, and this seems like the best way to get you to trust me." Davina answered and gave a shudder. "I hate when you do that."
"Well." Lauren grinned. "I think this is a good idea."
"Lauren..." I shook my head.
"She's up for it and she's about as dangerous as a baby compared to what you are. Do you want to betray Vicki and make her think she agreed?" Lauren asked. "Maybe spend precious time hunting down a Traveler you wouldn't feel guilty about compelling?"
"Guys, this is insane." Vicki glared at Lauren and then at me. "You put Klaus in a body, and he's gonna take it over. Sure, maybe you can cast a spell to keep it from happening naturally, but do you think that'll slow down Esther or Kol when they do something crazy? This is not going to stop Klaus."
"Vicki, time for your idea." I said.
"We talk to Esther," Vicki answered. A vein was throbbing in Vicki's forehead and I doubted she had ever looked more stressed, possibly besides the time I had seen her being tortured. "We still don't know why her children really killed her."
"She is a witness to her own murder." I pondered.
"Can we put Klaus's soul in Davina anyway?" Lauren asked.
"Be. Nice." I hissed. Clearly I had made a mistake in anticipating Lauren's reaction to Davina.
Lauren
I drummed on Esther's head as Jeff drew symbols in salt and chalk. Davina and Vicki were off getting herbs for the spell.
"I wonder if they did something to Esther's ghost," I asked conversationally.
"You know, you're really mad lately," Jeff said.
"Wow, you must be psychic." I continued the morbid drumming on Esther's head.
"We can dump Davina when we get back to Earth," Jeff offered. "I didn't realize how badly this was hurting you."
"It wasn't hurting me until we got her in the group." I paused. "Now she feels like a threat. I wasn't exactly in the best mood anyway. Attacking your pet Sabrina makes me feel better."
"Sabrina's a blonde like you..." Jeff swallowed. "Not the point."
"Not at all," I agreed.
"Is there anything I can do to make you feel better generally?" Jeff asked cautiously. "I mean, it's obvious we can rid you of particular enemies and annoyances, but I think some of the problem is that so much has built up lately."
"Well," I muttered. "We could kill off the Mikaelsons. If we ended our vampire problem we could focus on more important things."
"You know if we want to kill the Mikaelsons the last thing we want to do is keep working with Esther," Jeff pointed out. "She wants her family alive."
"You don't think she'll learn better after decapitation?" I asked, then I sighed. "She won't learn any better from this."
"What is being murdered to the Original Witch? She's been dead most of the last thousand years. She wants to punish, persuade, and manipulate her children into some semblance of a family. If the coven of Jeff and Lauren get slaughtered along the way, what's it to her?" Jeff ranted. I was not the only one who was angry today.
"Do you think they can kill us at this point?" I asked.
"Definitely," Jeff answered. "I trust your instincts, but I've also watched a show called The Originals for two seasons. They may be cowards, but they're ruthless and insightful. Perhaps not as resourceful as the teenagers of Mystic Falls, but problematic none the less."
"Can Esther keep them well-behaved, if we help her win?" I wondered.
"She's insane." Jeff paced. "Damn that bitch. We don't owe her this. We could have crawled out of the Prison World without her, eventually."
"We didn't, though." I sighed. "Esther's one of the only people we've worked with who doesn't have reason to murder us, yet. Kill Rebekah's body, let the Other Side collapse, rid the world of vampires, and we've only solved about half our problems. Why would a siren help us win against the Coven of the Thirteen if that's how we fulfill our debts?"
"Can't we just point out Esther is a bitch?" Jeff asked. "We brought Bonnie's grandmother back from the dead even if I am to blame for killing her, and we even cured her of being a vampire! We helped the Shanes, we made Katherine immortal, we put Damon in Finn's body! Can't we take a hit to our credibility and break it off with Esther?"
"We're back." Vicki showed up with Davina in her arms. "There's a lot more herbs in New Orleans than I expected. How did finding Katherine go?"
"I did a tracking spell while you were with Esther, and unless it's being spoofed she's in Anchorage, Alaska," Jeff hissed. "I have half a mind to let Silas in here to track her down himself and ask her nicely to come back."
"I wonder how frozen the coast is in the Prison World," I mused. "She might be able to walk to Russia some parts of the year as an Immortal."
"That's all we need; Katherine Pierce riding Amara's body into Eurasia when Silas wants a deal." Jeff stomped his foot.
"C'mon, one disaster at a time, please. Please?" Vicki's eyes were a bit bloodshot; something to worry about later.
"Don't worry." I suddenly giggled. "Everything's going to work out."
"You're in a good mood all of a sudden." Jeff frowned at me. "You just had an idea."
"As a matter of fact I did." I nodded. "We give the Mikaelsons Rebekah's body."
"What?" Jeff asked.
"The Mikaelson children demanded the body. Obviously they need to get to it. Rebekah's body is in the Prison World. We let them inside and shut the door on them." I explained.
"They'll never go for it." Jeff frowned. "No way."
"Not if we tell them, but don't you think they're scheming about how to get someone into the Prison World if we don't cooperate? They need Rebekah to break the linking spell; until that spell's broken they are vulnerable." I paused. "Actually, I know exactly how we get them to go in."
Jeff and Davina forged a connection between me and Esther and I saw through her eyes. Esther was staring mournfully at a small redheaded woman I failed to recognize.
"Oh," Esther said after a moment's confusion. "Hello, Lauren."
"You died again. Someone gave us your head and demanded Rebekah's body. Was someone trying to get us fighting your children or did the obvious thing happen?" I asked.
"Freya," Esther answered simply.
I thought for a moment. "The kid you gave to your sister to raise? Weren't you off on a crusade to rescue her?"
"I succeeded," Esther explained. "Rebekah broke her out of her sleep for a time with the a mighty spell and the sacrifice of a vampire. Freya turned her siblings against me and executed me hours ago."
"Ah." I answered. I considered for a moment that Jeff and Esther had agreed to link the Mikaelsons to feel the agony of every supernatural death in the world as a control tactic, but decided not to bring it up. "Do we give them Rebekah's body?"
"Of course not." Esther pointed to the small woman she had been stalking. "She's happy again like that! If she gets her old body again my children will break the linking spell and return to their lives of vampirism."
"Ah, so that is where Rebekah's soul ended up." I examined the small woman. "Who is she possessing?"
"A deeply flawed candidate," Esther answered. "Ms. MacLachlan was an untapped druid in Scotland. Her coven has the practice of giving their second child up for adoption and then kidnapping them for sacrifice on their sixteenth birthday."
"Unsettling." I nodded. "What did she do?"
"Do?" Esther stared for a long moment. "Don't try to make me feel guilty for what must be done to save my family."
"As a matter of fact that is bugging me. If we used the link and killed them now we'd rid the world of almost every vampire and tear a hole in whatever war effort they're preparing against us. It would save a lot of lives if we ended it tonight." I said.
"No." Esther said simply. "I'm not giving up on my children and you owe me, Lauren. You are going to bring me back to life and we are going to take over where I left off."
"What's to stop them from killing you again?" I asked. "Got some ingenious plan this time?"
"I have watched my children for a thousand years on the Other Side. I raised all of them and gave birth seven times. I will save them with or without you."
"My God, you're serious." I frowned. "You really don't think you need my help."
"It will be much faster if we can continue working together. Move against me and even your invincible boyfriend won't be able to save you." Esther answered.
"Damn it." I shook my head. "Things will only get worse from here if your children survive."
"I raised them well." Esther smiled. "They are good tacticians."
"If you say so," I sighed. "Try to be in Lafayette Cemetery at midnight so we can raise you more easily." I paused. "Are you up for hearing my idea of a plan?"
"So basically, we need you to tell the Mikaelsons you stole the Ascendant and a potion to activate it from us and you need their help to get Amara," Jeff explained to Silas.
"Interesting." Silas nodded. "So you're going to let me chase my girlfriend and the psycho who is possessing my girlfriend's body through the magical purgatory dimension you created. How do I know you won't just trap me in there?"
"Do you care?" Jeff asked. "It's the size of a planet and Amara's in there. Hospitals are full of blood that refills every day. DVDs work and there aren't any crowds or lines. Also, the Ascendant will be on the same end as you are."
"Why won't the Mikaelsons just break out once they have Rebekah?" Silas asked.
"That's Esther's job." I smiled. "She wants her family stuck with her. She just needs to hold onto it." A few Dark Objects found in New Orleans, some White Oak and Doppelganger Blood, and a spell on the Ascendant had ensured that Esther would be able to win that encounter when the time came; her children could not have predicted everything we had prepared for them.
"They won't all go," Silas mused. "I'm not psychic enough to get them to do that."
"They'll have to send Kol and Freya in to break the spell on Rebekah. The spell is too big, too dangerous to them to try and half-ass it by only sending one of them. Finn's not part of the group, and you can get Elijah to follow along," Jeff explained. "That's assuming they don't need to bring Rebekah's spirit along, which they well might depending on their exact plan.
"Why would he be that dumb?" Silas asked.
"One," Jeff lifted a finger, "It's his nature to be dumb;" He lifted a second finger; "Two, you're going to tell him that Katerina is in Amara's body and you're off to rescue Amara. Elijah's in love with the ghost inside your girlfriend when he's not trying to kill her."
"You're suggesting I take a road trip with Captain Suit and screw up my chances of getting my girlfriend back?" Silas glared at me.
"I made a deal with Katherine that she could have an Immortal body. You want to sign up with me, you make a pitch to her." Jeff smiled. "The last time someone hunted her she ran for five centuries. I think it will be faster if you two work together."
"So we have Freya and Kol and Elijah in your world until they figure out how to break out. What if they don't bring Rebekah?" Silas looked at me. "She's not skilled at magic and doesn't have a reason to follow us if they don't need her ghost yet."
"What about her?" I asked. "She's not a skilled witch, not an Original Vampire, and sure as hell not a brilliant strategist."
"Isn't underestimating Mikaelsons like, the easiest way to get killed in The Vampire Diaries?" Silas used air quotes around the series title.
"Yes, but Rebekah's track record of brilliant wins is sketchy." Jeff answered. "She's the most desperate of them to find some form of self-actualization. If we have to leave one in the same dimension as I am she's easily my first choice."
"Finn is also not on our radar, unless Freya's made a last minute deal since she woke up." I added. "I doubt Finn and Rebekah working together is particularly dangerous, either. If you can, get Rebekah to come, but don't worry if she's the one they're reserving."
"Okay." Silas eyed the pack. "Why don't you think I'm going to mess this up for you again."
"We think we've narrowed the things that can go wrong down to about a million." I shrugged. "They're witches who want to get to the same place you want to go. Once you bring them the Ascendant and a blood potion they'll owe you a favor. You're not a witch anymore, so you need a witch to help you. Why would you screw around when this gets you everything you want?"
"I guess I can work with this." Silas sped off.
"Besides," I said to Jeff. "So what if he tells them everything? They still need to go to the Prison World to get Rebekah." The two of us chuckled to each other.
Wyld
In my experience it is very rare for a plan to actually work without unleashing more unintended problems and side effects, but so far as I could tell everything was fine. The Ascendant was in Esther's magical possession, Rebekah had gone with Freya, Elijah and Kol into the Prison World in order to return to her true body, and Esther sent a telepathic message to report she didn't need our help. For now things were working out just fine.
I sat in the U-Haul full of grimoires and general "stuff" I had gathered with Lauren; we had carried it into a parking garage controlled by the Guerrera-Slash-Correa family under the assumption they'd be nervous about selling us out. Vicki played with her sword while I cast a handful of cloaking and boundary spells to account for the change in location. Lauren was dropping Davina off with her coven and asking about arrangements for our journey back to Virginia.
"So," Vicki said after I was done with my spells, "We're after um, I think they're called the Empty Chair? Whatever people Lauren hates."
"The Coven of the Thirteen, the Empty Chair, or the Immortal Family are all names I heard for them." I shrugged. "Honestly they weren't in the television shows I watched and I might have created them without meaning to when I filled out my jumpchain."
"Oh yeah, drawbacks." Vicki nodded. "I remember you talked about how we were stuck in the Prison World and everyone was trying to kill us because you wanted more jumpchain powers."
"Wanted is a strong word." I frowned. "Remember I didn't think this would happen. But yeah. In order to survive in The Vampire Diaries I thought I had to be immortal, and you can't do that with a normal power budget. It takes two thousand points to be a True Immortal and a fully powered witch, plus four hundred for a soulmate, and you only start with one thousand."
"So you got more points for being hunted by Lauren's enemies." Vicki nodded.
"Actually, Lauren got those points. We don't have the same drawbacks," I said after a moment's thought. "It's been a while since I did the game."
"If you say so," Vicki said after a moment of looking annoyed. "So like, does this mean..." Vicki shook her head. "Never mind, I don't care. We have to fight these guys anyway, right? Doesn't matter if you overly complicated your nerding out."
"It shouldn't matter," I said after a moment's thought. "I don't think there's anything about a drawback that says you can't have help when you solve it or anything like that. I just wanted Lauren to have the best powers and there were fiddly bits with the rules you don't actually care about that made her build different."
"I've been meaning to ask you something," Vicki said quietly. "If the jumpchain thing is real, what exactly does that mean for me?"
"I don't know." I sighed. "Remember, going by the normal rules it's more like It's a Wonderful Life where you talk to an angel who explains what is happening. If I happen to talk to someone at the end of this, supposedly after ten years, I'm going to ask about taking people with me. I remember that some people used really strict rules for taking companions along and some people thought those were dumb and ignored them; if some random deity or demon is using the jumpchain as a baseline for how to mess with me then I don't know what they'd do about you."
"Can't you just pretend to know everything again?" Vicki sighed and threw her sword into the cement wall of the parking garage.
"I'm almost out of things to pretend to know everything about," I admitted. "Besides, would you want to never see Matt again? If we go into another story, like Star Wars or something, we couldn't just go back home for visits."
"I mean, what's the point of going to Star Wars?" Vicki asked. "I mean sure, fight Darth Vader, become a Jedi I guess, but why is it a chain of jumps if you're already this strong? Can't you get anything you want already?"
"Good questions." I nodded. "So right now, I'm maybe the strongest creature in the world by a fair amount. I'm the strongest witch besides Lauren, and I am virtually impossible to kill. With me so far?" I asked.
"Duh." Vicki snipped.
"Now, we've dealt with strong people before. Does it really matter if Lauren and I are the strongest witches if we're dealing with an entire coven of witches who are strong? We've spent nearly a year dealing with Travelers and Mikaelsons. Life is hard and stressful. Now, let's say we go to Star Wars; how many witches are in Star Wars?"
"Like, zero?" Vicki asked. "Is that a trick question?"
"There's weird force users who are kind of witches, but those aren't like Bonnie and Esther. Think about it like this, if I go to Star Wars with the jumpchain I could be a Jedi and a witch. The second time you jump you're going to be weirder to the locals than the first time you jump. If I have control over where I jump, I can go to places that would grant me more strength without having as much risk."
"That sounds like a big if, since you didn't have much choice about coming here." Vicki smiled.
"Yes." I breathed. "Right now I'm in something shaped like a writing prompt about what you do with getting power, but I don't know what I can control if I do it again. Like, Star Wars might be a bad example; imagine if I could go and be Superman."
"Wow." Vicki said after a moment. "Yeah, I've seen cartoons and movies; Matty watches Smallville sometimes. Is there a jumpchain for that?"
"There are a lot of jumpchains. I know there was one for at least one Superman cartoon. Let's even say that it'd be too hard to be Superman, that you'd need to take drawbacks as dangerous as the Prison World to do that; what if you could be a mad scientist like Lex Luthor instead?"
"So I get it now," Vicki said thoughtfully. "You aren't sticking around here if you could get that."
"How could I?" I laughed. "Imagine if I could go to a second jump and become able to solve world hunger with science. Then for a third jump, what about becoming like Sherlock Holmes? I'd be an immortal witch mad scientist detective, and I've gone into a world where no one else is like that. No alien invasions to worry about like Lex Luthor and Superman do, no Original Vampires to worry about like we have to in this setting. The premise of a chain of jumps is all about mixing and matching like that to do what you want."
"So you're just dumping me if you get the chance." Vicki said.
"Um..." I found myself caught. "Wouldn't you?"
"Huh." Vicki frowned at that.
"Think about it. Think about adventures you saw on cartoons as a little girl. What's your biggest escapist fantasy, Vicki? There's jumpchains for medical dramas or Hollywood millionaires, ones where you can meet your own soulmate, ones where you can become a wizard or James Bond; what would you do?"
"So you're just going to leave Lauren?" Vicki asked.
"I bought her with the jumpchain powers. I think she's coming if that's real." I paused. "If it was a choice, her or going on..."
"You wouldn't leave her." Vicki cut me off. "You'd stick in this crappy world for her, but not for me, right?"
"I didn't say that." I muttered. "Vicki, you..."
"I can't take it anymore!" Vicki shouted. "You two have been bitching at me like some kind of burden or pet who is half an inch from murdering everyone and you can't even lie about wanting me around anymore. Screw you too!" Vicki disappeared in a blur of super speed.
"Shit." I said to the empty U-Haul.