Chapter Text
One decision.
One decision has the potential to change everything.
Josie watched the dark stormy night sky above her, littered with bright stars. Stars and planets that were untouched by whatever happened here on Earth. They don’t care, nor do they know of the horrors happening on earth. And whatever is happening now on the earth is her fault. She knows, and no one can convince her otherwise.
Josie didn’t think that her one mistake had the potential to doom the earth, all of humanity, and the supernatural world.
She found out the hard way that every decision, however small, can impact things on a global scale.
Looking down at the map, Josie looked for the signs of the expression triangle. Her Aunt Bonnie, before she died, told her that the expression triangle was marked with signs and warnings so that Salvatore students wouldn’t accidentally channel from the triangle or practice Expression Magick. Not that there were any Salvatore students anymore… Especially when the entire school is ash and rubble.
After arriving at the midpoint of the expression triangle, she looked back at the people who came with her to perform this asinine plan. Josie still thinks that this plan is idiotic and bordering on suicidal, and considering it was her plan, in the first place, that’s saying something!!
“Let’s get this show on the road.” Kol says to the group. Kol smiles at all of them and looks back at Josie. He was particularly proud of the little siphon witch. She will put everything on the line to go through with her plan. Not that he didn’t want her to, he wanted her to succeed, but he was remorseful about the fact that the price of the plan was her relationship to all of them.
This was the last time that she would hear Kol’s snark and witty remarks, and she wouldn’t tell this out loud, but she was going to miss it, she was going to miss everything that she came to know about everyone, but she had a plan, and she had to go through with it. “Okay. The first spell is to bind the expression triangle to me.”
Freya brings out three vials of Josie’s blood and hands one to Marcel, Kol, and Rebekah.
Freya stares at her siblings, and back at Josie. “Since we’ve gone through this plan, once before, you three know what you have to do. Draw the runes at the massacre spots with Josie’s blood and activate them at exactly 8 o’clock.” Freya seems to look for something on her face, and after a few moments, whatever she sees makes her continue with the plan. “And all Josie has to do is-”
Josie answers for Freya. And says it as confidently as possible, with no hesitation. “Let it connect to the runes that you’ve already drawn on me.”
“Yeah.” Davina mumbles.
Josie knew that everyone, especially Davina and Kol, didn’t want her to do this. But nobody else but her can do this spell. If any other witch other than a siphoner tries this spell, then the expression magick shreds their souls into a million pieces and destroys them. And since she’s the only siphoner witch in the entire world, she’s the only one who can do this spell.
Josie glances down at her watch and reassures all of them with a smile on her face. “Well, it is 7:49, so why don’t guys go there and get ready? I’ll be here with Davina and Freya.”
All three vampires leave.
Okay, time for the runes at the midpoint.
Josie moves around the two witches to get at the knife on the altar. She uses the knife to make a deep cut in her palm. She collects the blood from the wound in two bowls and gives them to Davina and Freya, who get to work and draw the runes on the ground with salt and her blood.
After finishing the runes, Josie glances at her watch, and it shows 3 minutes to go.
Josie breathes deeply and lets out a long exhale. Even though they went through the plan dozens of times, and made sure that any unnecessary risks were removed, all she feels is nervous. But, she doesn’t doubt the spells that they are performing any more than the people with whom she’s performing them, and she trusts them with her life. Two years ago, if someone told her that she was attempting a time-travel spell, then she would think that this was a practical joke, and that time travel doesn’t exist, time flows in one direction, and even if time travel existed, she wouldn’t do it.
It’s sad how much she changed in two years. Now she’s deadly serious about the spell and doesn’t think that this is a joke. Also, considering that she was the one who found the spell, studied it, completed it, and now is using it to travel back to last year.
Freya’s voice snaps Josie out of her thoughts. “I know that you still blame yourself for-”
No.
Not now, no when-
Josie takes a deep breath and controls her thoughts from straying too far into her horrendous past. “Freya don’t. Not Now.”
Freya and Davina share badly hidden looks of concern, and Josie doesn’t want to care about that… If this spell works, then she will have a chance to fix her mistake. And save the world, she doesn’t much care about the world, just one person. One person who was in it, but is not anymore. Someone that she never wanted to…
“We’ve had our goodbyes before coming here. So, let’s not rehash this now.” Josie pleads. This is going to be hard without the memories of her past haunting her. Even her dark self agrees with her about this matter.
Freya seems to relent at that, and goes quiet after, just waiting for the time to start the binding spell.
Josie glances down at her watch and nods at Freya and Davina. They start the spell, activate the runes on her body, and have them connect to the expression triangle.
The first rune glows an unnatural red-white light on her fair skin. Glowing light turns to heat, hot enough to rend skin from bones. Josie tries to muffle her screams by trying to bite her bottom lip, but that was only one rune connecting. Josie sees Davina and Freya trying to erase the sigil connections near her to stop the spell.
“Don’t!! Please!!” Josie begs, screaming when the second rune connects to her. The second rune glows an unnatural blue-white light on her already sensitive skin. The instant the second rune connects to her partly, the heat moves from her body to her skin.
She’s sweating, and when did she fall on the ground?
The heat doesn’t relent but settles on her skin. If she didn’t know any better, then she would think that her skin was being flayed by a hot knife. But she knows better. All of this is not real. All of it is only her body and magic trying to adapt to the power of the expression magick without her soul being in jeopardy.
The second rune connects to her fully, and it is like a bucket of ice-cold water. That cold seeps into her insides and settles in her bones. All the while, her skin feels like it is on fire. Her muscles constrict and tighten. She’s clutching her body, writhing in pain, and solid ground beneath her. The sub-zero conditions in her body take place on the normal ground when there isn’t a trace of ice or snow on the ground. She couldn’t even feel this type of cold in the winter. This is more. Colder than she’s ever felt before in her life. Her breathing is quivering, and her brain feels frozen, but her core? The innermost part of her? It feels like it is removed from her body and frozen in an industrial refrigerator.
Her body feels like it is dipped into two extremes. Scorching Heat and Fire on her skin and the top part, and Piercing Cold and Ice settling in her insides.
She recognizes someone screaming in the background, but everything she can hear is muted. Like she’s underwater. Biting ice-cold water, and fire running on her skin. Josie tries to tune out the pain and focuses on the surrounding voices, and she realizes that the voice that was screaming is her voice. She’s the one screaming. She can’t control it now. All she can hope is that they don’t stop the spell. She would rather feel this than that of the gaping hole left in her due-
The third rune starts to connect to her, and the run glows a black-grey supernatural light, and all she feels is numb. Numb and Empty. That’s all she feels. The gaping hole in her heart seems to envelop her fully. Her skin doesn’t feel like it was on fire, or her bones and muscles chilled like she spent a week in the Arctic. No, all she feels is numb. Numb to the outside world. Numb to herself. Little did she know that this numbness was a false sense of security, and was probably only a brief respite.
The third rune connects to her fully and all the effects of the runes come back even stronger. Her skin feels like it caught aflame, and instead of blood, lava running through her veins, but that doesn’t dispel the harsh, biting cold that settles into her muscles and her heart feels like it is encased in ice. But, the effects of the first two runes are nothing compared to the effects of the last rune. All she could describe it as being torn apart from the inside out, atom by atom, slowly, painfully, until the pain from the third rune overcasts that of the first two runes, and it is a miracle that she hasn’t passed out from the pain. Can it even be called pain if her body and brain stop registering it, and just shuts down for a while?
Her body tries to fully house the power of the expression triangle and her magic intertwines with the nature of the expression magicks. The pain gives way to mind numbness. And all she can think about is that she deserves this. This is the least that she deserves. For her mistakes, her sins… This is nothing compared to the pain of losing…
She shuts her mind from going there. This is torturous enough.
She doesn’t know how long this keeps going, but when it relents, she hears nothing. No screams, Nothing but the forest. Crickets cricketing, soft sound of wind blowing through the trees. Josie tries to open her eyes, and all she recognizes are firm hands on her shoulders. Kol.
Now, she’s reminded of everything that he has done for her. And she is more than grateful for everything that he has done for her. She doesn’t think that she would have survived without him. And now, he’s helping her fix her mistake. She doesn't deserve this. She knows that. But she can’t seem to refuse his help.
“Josie?…” Kol’s voice is gentle. There’s no edge to it. Josie lets the voice coax her out of her state.
She realizes now that she feels no pain. Her skin doesn’t feel like it is being melted. Her muscles and bones don’t feel cold. And her insides don’t feel like it is being torn apart on the sub-atomic level from the inside out. She feels the same as she always does. A gaping hole in her heart, full of sadness, anger, and guilt. But she knows that she’s physically fine. Normal. If such a thing exists. She’s sure that it doesn’t exist, and if it did, she hasn’t felt it in 7 months.
“Kol…” Josie breathes out. But, her voice is hoarse and scratchy, and it takes effort to breathe fully. She opens her eyes, and she sees his smile. His genuine smile. And a sense of peace fills the void inside her, For a while at least…
She tries to get up but, falls on the soft ground. Kol tells her to lean back and rest, which she does, and her back meets a poky tree bark. She rests against it until she feels well enough to open her eyes and be aware fully. She opens her eyes again and registers everyone standing around her, in a half-circle. Kol being the closest, sitting next to her on the ground.
“There you are…” Kol says when he sees her opening her eyes and recognizing her surroundings. He and everyone around Josie have similar looks of concern and something else that she can’t put a name to.
Josie flexes her fingers and toes and tries to move her limbs. And she feels the magic throbbing in her veins. Expression Magick. She’s connected to the expression triangle. She knows, but to get confirmation, Josie looks at her the places where the sigils are supposed to be tattooed on her skin.
Kol sees Josie look at her body, and he realizes that if he was her, then he would also need some sort of confirmation that the spell worked. Kol says in a calm voice. “You did good. The runes are connected. The spell worked.”
“It did.” Freya adds. Freya looks at the young girl in front of her trying to get up and her heart keeps breaking for this girl. So strong and brave. And her heart actually broke in the last 36 minutes. She couldn’t take any more of Josie’s screams of pain, and the moment, that she stopped screaming, everyone thought that she was dead. They couldn’t hear her heartbeat anymore. But, she is sure that Josie didn’t die. This connection and binding spell could kill other witches, but not a siphoner. A siphoner is safe from the effects of expression magick on their soul.
Josie looks around her, and she sees nothing but warm smiles and concern etched on their faces. She thinks that this is funny. She doesn’t even feel the pain of the connection anymore. But she knows it happened. And she knows that, and even she can’t believe that she survived the spell.
Josie gets up from the ground and steadies herself to stand up straight and walk towards the altar. But, her legs wobble, and she leans on the tree, before Kol slips a hand under her shoulder, and helps her stand up straight.
“I’m not going to ask if you’re sure. I know better than that.” Kol says. Josie knows that he knows that once she puts her mind to something, she’s not going to back down. And he knows that she knows that nothing will stop her from completing the spell now. Nothing, not even pain, so Kol continues despite being glared at by his family. “Do you want to take a break?”
“No, Let’s just-” Josie is hit with a strong headache, which leads to Josie leaning on the tree, eyes closed. “On second thought, a 10-minute break sounds wonderful right about now.”
A few brief laughs erupt from the Mikaelsons.
“Good. You rest. And we’ll take care of resetting the altar.” Davina says before pulling Freya towards the altar holding the ingredient bag.
Josie slides down the bark of the tree. Kol settles next to her on the left side. Marcel and Rebekah surround Josie on the left. All of them sit silently, listening to the sounds of the forest.
“There’s something I want to say.” Josie announces loudly and clearly. She makes sure that her voice carries to the others. She doesn’t want to leave this timeline without doing this. And if this spell doesn’t work, then this might be her last chance for this.
Kol, Marcel, and Rebekah nod, and smile back at Josie. They have all said their goodbyes to Josie in New Orleans, but if there was something that was left out, then it is better to let Josie tell it now. Freya, Davina, and Keelin come back near the tree.
“I-I haven’t forgiven myself yet… I don’t know if I ever will.” Josie’s voice, previously loud, becomes small and shaky. She blinks away her tears, and wills herself to be strong and finish this. She knows that her sins… all the people she killed, won’t come back to life. It’s written, and the ink is dry. And while she might get a chance to fix her mistakes, they happened. She did it. It’s her fault that this happened. Even if she changes the events and makes something new in place of this nightmare of a world, she knows that it won’t be erased, not truly.
Josie bites her bottom lip, to stop her voice from quivering. She clears her throat, and says clearly, looking into their eyes. “But I want you to know, I’m going to make sure that this future never comes to be.” Even if she has to take drastic measures.
“I promise you that.”
“We know that Josie. All you have to do is protect her." Marcel takes her hand and gently squeezes it.
“Just know that if you ever need help with anything… Don’t hesitate to reach out to any of us. I know that we won’t remember you, and this world, but make us listen. You know how.”
“Yeah. I will. Thanks, Kol.” Josie says as she stands up from the ground and brushes herself off. She hugs Kol first, and then Marcel, Rebekah, Davina, Freya, Keelin. She will miss them, but she will not miss this time.
“So… Are you okay do to the spell? We’ve set it up.” Davina asks.
The altar is littered with magical artifacts and dark objects. In the middle of the table, there are three pocket watches/clocks. The past, present, and future watches/clocks. A circle of salt was around the entire table on the ground.
Josie looks at the altar and around her. And she knows that she’s going to have to use all the magic in the expression triangle to do this spell, and she knows that no one, not even her is going to survive inside the triangle after she implodes it and siphons all the power of the expression triangle.
Josie looks at her everyone and says calmly. “I’m going to have to channel the triangle fully, so anything inside will be disintegrated down to its base atoms, so all of you need to go. Call me when you’re out of the Triangle.”
“It doesn’t matter Josie. We can’t defeat Malivore, so might as well stay with you till the end.” Freya says calmly. They know, and she knows that they know the truth. They can’t defeat Malivore, Now that the TRIAD is extinct, no one can.
“I don’t want to kill you. I can’t let this be the last thing that I do in this timeline, “ Josie argues. She’s already killed so many people, and she doesn’t want any more blood on her hands. Especially not that of her family’s.
“This timeline is not supposed to exist, so everyone in it doesn’t matter.” Davina reasons. None of them want to leave Josie now that there might be a way to fix things. They can’t fight him. They know that. Everyone knows that. All the supernaturals in the world know that. There’s no hope for this world. But, what Josie might do, could erase this world and replace it with a different one.
“Including us”
“None of you are leaving. Are you? “ Josie asks. She knows that it would be really hard to change a Mikaelson’s mind, and it is damn near impossible to change it if all of them agree on the same thing. So, she accepts what they said and lets them be here for her.
Everyone shook their head no.
“Fine. I- Damn Mikaelson stubbornness.” Josie quips dearly. This might be the last time that she could ever have the chance to do this. So, she makes sure to get as many memories out of it as possible.
Everyone laughs.
Josie saves their laughs and expressions in her memory.
Josie thinks about the dinner that they had in New Orleans, and she knows that this is the best time to say it again. Three important words. Ones that every Mikaelson knows. A vow. A promise. “I love all of you. Always and Forever.”
Always and Forever aren’t just words. They’re a promise made to each other and their family. Because they are family to her now. Her second family. She looks at everyone a good distance away from the Altar and tries to etch their faces and this moment into her brain. So, she never forgets.
“Always and Forever.” Everyone echoes the same.
“I’ll see you in another time, another life. A better life.” She exclaims and doesn’t wait for them to say anything. She won’t be able to leave if she keeps staring at them.
Josie wills herself to looks down at the altar and sets the time on the past clock and writes the date that she first used dark magic down in the space behind the clock. She keeps the future clock as is. Uses the present clock and her blood and links all of them together as one. She siphons the dark magic from the dark objects and uses them the first time she used dark magic as a beacon in time.
Josie says the spell and channels the expression magick from the Triangle, the power of all those deaths and souls. She keeps going until she sees the moment that she wants and uses the spell to travel to that time.
But something goes wrong. She keeps going back further into her past, and the spell is out of her control, and now it is basically a runaway train, and she can’t stop where it goes.
She screams as the spell removes her present mind from her body and sends the present her into her past body.
But she doesn’t know what time she’s going to be in.