MJ left Stefan eventually. She had too. She needed food, a shower, and a chat with her mum. Her talk was interrupted about halfway in, Damon summoning her to check out something he'd found.
Apparently, Lexi wasn't the only ghost trying to do some good.
Mason Lockwood had wanted nothing more than an apology from Damon, and once he'd gotten one, he'd shown the vampire a collection of tunnels under the Lockwood Cellar. They'd been enchanted by somebody to stop vampires from getting in, meaning Damon needed help once the ghosts had vanished.
Hearing that made MJ both happy and sad.
Mason and Lexi were genuinely good people who, even in death, wanted to help their loved ones. And both of them had been killed by Damon for basically no reason.
She'd met Elena in the cellar, and then Ric had appeared, handing Elena a torch, leading them through a hole in the wall that hadn't been there the last time MJ had visited. To be fair, she hadn't been in the cellar for a while, though, she assumed Damon and Mason had made it on their little adventure.
"The Lockwoods really have no idea that these tunnels are underneath their property?" Elena asked, looking at the spiderwebs on the ceiling.
"Tyler didn't even know about the cellar until he followed Mason to it," MJ confessed, "He had no interest in his family history until the curse showed up...Carol might?"
She had a rune on her hand, glowing in the dark, lighting the way.
Ric looked at it, then the torch, "Careful, bats hate the light."
"Wait, what?" Elena covered the torch top to dim it.
A voice whispered in the darkness, "Elena."
They all shivered, spinning around, ready to attack.
Damon, standing behind them and smiling, "Boo."
"God, Damon!" Elena whacked him.
"Scaredy-cat!"
"Just ignore him," Ric motioned to the way they were walking, "That's what I do."
They continued on their way, Damon walking with Elena, MJ and Ric at the front.
"So, you really can't get in?" MJ asked.
"Nope. Seems even the ancient Lockwood's were anti-vampire."
"What do you mean, ancient?" Elena asked.
Damon pointed to a makeshift entrance, "See for yourself."
It opened into a large cave, and MJ instantly started scanning the walls. Pictures everywhere.
She ran her fingers over them.
The white lines were grooves, meaning it hadn't been painted, but etched – a story carved into the rock. By the sharp shape of the lines, she assumed it was some kind of makeshift knife rather than a rock or a stick.
"This is as far as I get to go," Damon announced, still in the tunnels, "And Ric, I thought I asked you to bring Elena."
"Given what we found," Ric rubbed MJ on the back as she glared at Damon, "I thought a witch might be helpful."
Elena inspected the images herself, "What is all this?"
"As far as I can tell..." Ric quickly scanned them again, "It's a story. In simple, archaeological terms, it's a really, really old story."
He pointed to one of the images.
"That right there is the moon cycle," He then gestured to the two pictures below it, "A man, a wolf."
"A werewolf," Elena lifted her torch higher
"Yeah, it's the 'Lockwood Diaries: Pictionary-Style'" Damon's tone conveyed jazz hands.
"I don't understand," Elena turned from the wall, "I thought the Lockwood's came here with the Original Founders in the 1860s."
Ric shrugged, "I don't know."
MJ put the bag of supplies she'd brought on the floor, pulling out her notebook and a pen, "Person that was alive when the town was founded?"
"I was born here, I don't know," Damon admitted.
"Maybe the Lockwood's did come with the other Founders," Ric tried, "All that matters is that this wall implies werewolves have been here a lot longer than that."
"How long?" Elena rubbed her cold arms.
"Long," Damon answered.
"Middle Ages," MJ gave a better answer, "Around the 1000s."
Elena looked as MJ started to take pictures of the wall, "How do you know that?"
"The names."
"Jumping ahead," Damon put his hand up, "We were just about to get to that."
"What do they say?" Elena asked.
Ric pointed to a name in the middle, "This name here, I translated it. Niklaus."
Elena stepped back, "Klaus...."
"And Elijah," He motioned to each name respectively, "And Rebekah."
"And I'll save you some googling," MJ translated in her head, "Those two say; Finn, and Kol, and that...is Mikael."
She narrowed her eyes at the last name.
"Then...Henrik? I don't know about a Henrik?"
Damon stopped leaning on the side of the tunnel, "How do you know any of that?"
"I memoried Slater's notes, remember," She swapped her notebook for her Originals guide, "And, I was locked in a room with the guy for three days."
Flicking through the photos confirmed she hadn't missed anything.
"And," She twirled her pen before starting to write, "Elijah was talking to us about the stuff that came before the Founder's when we had the Dinner Party. I assumed he was speaking from experience."
"So, these are the names of the Original Family?" Elena checked.
"Carved into a cave that's been here since way before the founding of Mystic Falls," Ric confirmed, "Or even the entire New World, for that matter."
Elena shook her head, "Okay, this has gotta be one of Klaus's fakes."
"That's what I said," Damon didn't sound as smug about having someone agree with him as usual.
MJ pursed her lips, "It's not."
"What makes you so sure?"
"The Milling Records," She flipped to the back pages to show him the dates, focused on Ric, "The ages of the trees, plus what Elijah said about the forest getting burnt? Doing the maths, a White Oak Tree would've been here in the 1000s, and I know it was used to make vampires. And I know that vampires were created out of fear of werewolves. Mystic Falls is a werewolf town."
Silence.
"Let's say the maths is wrong – because it is all incredibly vague," She did have to admit that, "It's too much of a coincidence, don't you think? For this to just be here, undiscovered, and for it not to be genuine?"
"Agreed," Ric picked out the top name on the right, "And you translated that top name correctly. Mikael."
"Mikael," Elena was processing everything, "Mikael, as in, the vampire hunter who knows how to kill Klaus?"
"Yep," Damon nodded, "I now like to call him 'Papa Original'."
Once MJ had taken enough photos, they headed out of the creepy tunnels and back to Ric's apartment. He owned a printer so they could all have phone copies to look at as well as hard copies to work off.
MJ and he were decoding it on the kitchen counter while Damon helped Elena with her 'combat training'. MJ couldn't help but think Elena's problem with self-defence had changed. She'd been doing the work-outs, so she was getting stronger, yet she was still struggling, because her hits lacked conviction. She didn't actually want to hurt somebody.
MJ hoped her friend never lost that quality.
"These images tell a story," Ric arranged them carefully to recreate the cave wall, "To learn the story, you have to decipher these images."
Elena jabbed forward.
Damon grabbed her wrist, twisted it up and forced her to lose her grip on the stake, meaning he could take it, all while keeping her way too close in MJ's opinion.
"Sloppy."
"Shut up!" Elena snatched the stake back, "I'm new at this."
"'Ghost of Christmas Past' Mason Lockwood," Damon blocked a kick from her, "Set up the cave and led us – "
He blocked her stake.
"To a weapon that can kill Klaus."
Elena paused to take a breath, "Yeah, but doesn't Mikael have a weapon?"
"Yes. Which probably means the wall will lead us to Mikael," He caught her hand, "Who we have already found."
"And lost," MJ 'helpfully' added.
"Ha, ha, Buffy," He snatched the stake, taking it from Elena and tossing it to the floor while spinning her into his chest, "Bang! You're dead!"
He mimed biting her neck, causing her to giggle as she pushed him away.
And MJ was officially uncomfortable.
They were looking for a weapon to free Stefan. Elena's boyfriend, who was locked in a cellar, grasping for hope, while his love was giggling at his brother.
MJ focused back on the images.
"These might tell us what that weapon is, though," Ric watched as MJ worked her way through the first few lines, very slowly trying to translate it.
Elena came to look at them too, "Then all we have to do is find out what they mean."
"Can you do that?" Ric asked her
"Maybe," MJ didn't look away from her page, "It's not like I'm fluent in an ancient dead language. I just know stuff from my own experience with runes...And it's the language the Hybrid Curse explanation was written in – I'll do the best I can."
She gave them a thumbs up.
"Which, given my track record, should be enough."
"Fine!" Damon didn't like the lack of attention, "If I am being irritatingly optimistic like you three, how do we help you do that?"
MJ smiled, "We talk to the source."
"Talk to the source?" Ric asked.
"I can waste hours here, but on the off chance Rebekah's feeling chatty, shouldn't we try her first?"
"Yes," Elena agreed, "I'll talk to her."
"No, you won't," Damon shook his head.
"I'll be with her," MJ assured him, "Relax."
"You two sure about this?" Ric checked, "You really think you can get her to talk?"
"It might take a bit of pushing," Elena admitted
"She's an a thousand-year-old vampire, I'm sure she's learned the art of patience."
"Yes, Ric, she is a thousand-year-old vampire," MJ started to pack up her things, "But the first thing she did was join the cheer squad and attend a school function."
There was a reason MJ had happily let Rebekah hang out with her human friends after their Vicki run-in.
"She's finally getting to live a life. You really think she'd risk getting it taken away?"
"Why would she think it was getting taken away?"
"You think we should show her the runes," Elena realised, "Yes – yeah! Thinking Mikael's coming might make her talk."
"Or it might make her kill you," Damon argued.
"Which is why Elena and I will be handling the conversation," MJ smiled, "While you watch Stefan."
"Klaus definitely wants me alive," Elena added, "So she can't hurt me, and we're pretty sure he wants MJ alive too."
"And if Rebekah decides to snitch on us, I'll handle Klaus," MJ finished, "Considering he was the one to tell me their backstory last time, my nosiness is the least suspicious."
"Fine. But anything happens to her, it's on you Sabrina."
MJ rolled her eyes at Damon's dramatics, "Understood."
~***~
Elliot was teaching Rebekah the steps from one of the routines in front of the school. The bright smile on his face meant she must've been picking them up quickly, and MJ almost felt bad about interrupting. The rest of the squad were rehearsing to the left, Caroline nowhere in sight, which caused MJ to text her. She had to assume there was a dance committee clash or something, but better to be safe than sorry.
"Elli," MJ called.
"Sup."
"Can we steal her for a second?"
Elliot looked to Rebekah, "Sure..."
He couldn't decipher the look on Rebekah's face so awkwardly walked back to the rest of the group.
"Goody," Rebekah lost her smile, "You two."
The first thing MJ noticed was a tacky and cheap blue feather braided into the left side of Rebekah's blonde hair.
Interesting.
Not very 20s.
"Mean," MJ feigned offence, "I thought we were hitting it off."
Elena was stern and to the point, "We were hoping we could talk."
"About what? Stefan?" Rebekah asked sarcastically, "Don't worry, I'm off him until he starts treating me better. In fact, you should probably take a page out of my book, if I'm being honest."
That made their lives a lot easier.
It meant Rebekah wouldn't be looking for him, which hopefully meant she wouldn't realise he was locked in a basement.
"Actually," Elena held up the picture of Rebekah's name, "I'd rather talk about this."
MJ kept her voice far more casual, "We're a little curious about why you and Klaus have spent a thousand years running from your father."
"I should get back to the group," Rebekah motioned to the squad, "Homecoming's right around the corner."
"Well then," Elena crossed her arms, "Maybe I'll ask Mikael when we wake him."
Rebekah froze, giving them the evil eyes for a second before putting her confident face back on, "You're bluffing. You don't know where he is. No one does."
"Who's rotting in that old cemetery in Charlotte then?"
Go Elena
Rebekah marched back towards them, "If you wake Mikael, we are all doomed."
"Then tell us why you're running," MJ smiled, presenting it as the apparent middle ground.
"Why do you want to know?"
"Why don't you want me to wake him?" Elena countered.
"I need to get back to the girls," She tried to walk away again, MJ stupidly grabbing her wrist.
Rebekah instantly shoved her back with above-average strength, sending MJ to the floor.
"MJ!"
"Don't worry about it, Elena," She kept her cool, "I have something else I need to ask her about, and I kinda need to do it alone."
"What?"
"If it's relevant, I'll tell you later."
Slowly Elena backed away, letting MJ get herself back to her feet.
"I'm not going to be more reasonable just because you ditched the doppelgänger."
"I know," MJ put her hands up, "This is about daggers."
"Because I'd tell you anything about daggers?"
MJ sighed, "I want to know where you go when you're daggered."
"What?" Rebekah pulled a face, "I'm in a coffin."
"Not your body," She specified, "Where's your mind?"
Rebekah held her head higher, "Why do you care?"
MJ thought through her options.
Elijah had been trying to give her a message, the 20th Centruy Guy was trying to make a breakthrough, and MJ knew it was only a matter of time until the Tunic Man noticed her too.
She took a breath, "Do you remember me?"
"Remember you?" Rebekah raised an eyebrow.
"Remember is the wrong word," MJ shook her head, "About five months ago, I don't know if you can tell the time when you're 'dead', but whatever. I saw you dancing in a 20s dress, with Stefan."
The vampire's expression changed, "You did?"
"Context you didn't get at the bonfire," MJ felt herself wanting to look at the floor, "I have a bit of a ghost connection."
"I noticed."
"When I talk to spirits, I spend the next few hours dodging ghosts who might want things from me," She unintentionally started to check the scenery for any, "I spoke to your mother, and then I saw you, and two of your brothers. I saw them again the other day."
Rebekah started to get curious.
"Obviously, you're not daggered anymore, so I didn't see you, but I did see Elijah."
"You're not kidding?"
"Nope," MJ started to fiddle with her necklace, "You were completely unaware of me when you were dancing, but he wasn't. He tried to ask me to do something."
"Do what?"
"I don't know," She didn't want to be obsessively thinking about it, but she couldn't stop herself, "I can't control the spirits I see beyond banishing them from sight, and he faded naturally before he could finish his sentence."
Her main point.
"I assumed it was something to do with either un-daggering him, or killing Klaus, or, I don't know – if you could tell me how much you could...see? It could give me a direction."
Rebekah scanned her, "Direction to do what exactly?"
"I don't know," She sighed, "But normal ghosts can see the whole world. If Elijah has seen something important, I might need to try and reach him again."
Quiet.
Rebekah making a choice.
"We can't see anything," She admitted, "We're just...it's..."
She stopped.
MJ gave her begging eyes.
She just put her hands on her hips in response, a stubborn look on her face, "I don't want to talk about it."
"Come on, Rebekah," MJ knew it probably wasn't fun, but she needed answers, "This is about Elijah. It's not some masterplan to put you back in a coffin."
"Why do you want to help Elijah?" She retorted.
"I don't necessarily want to help him," She wasn't going to lie, "He chose to betray us for Klaus, and Klaus daggered him. It's karma. But, if the universe is letting him reach out to me from wherever his consciousness is, you've got to think it might be important."
Rebekah glanced back at the cheerleaders.
A longing look in her eye.
MJ felt her heart tug, "You know what...it doesn't matter, forget I mentioned it."
"Huh?" Rebekah's head snapped to her, confused.
"I'll find another way to figure out what's going on," She always found a way, "Go practice for Homecoming."
She pulled out her phone to check the time.
Since she basically didn't have classes anymore, she was going to spend most of her day in the art department, alternating between translating runes and working on her portfolio.
"Oh," MJ paused before walking away, "Elliot mentioned that you ended up helping him with handing out food at the Night of Illumination?"
She nodded awkwardly.
MJ smiled, "Thanks."
"Um," Something in Rebekah's voice changed, "He said you made it all?"
"Yep."
"Must've taken a long time."
"It did, but I'm a maker," MJ gestured to her clothes, "It's what I do."
It seemed like Rebekah wanted to say something else, but she didn't know what.
MJ spoke instead, "If you hurt Elli, I will hurt you, but if you are genuinely just trying to make a friend?"
Her stupid hope for people was probably going to be the death of her.
"Feel free to sit with us at lunch and stuff," She couldn't quite believe she was genuinely offering it, but she needed too, "My human faction is neutral territory, so I'll pretend you're not an Original vampire."
Elliot was being kind to her, the other non-supernatural had welcomed her with open arms at the bonfire, so, it was only natural that Rebekah might want to start hanging out with them.
When she turned to leave, she got her answer.
"It hurts."
MJ paused to listen.
"At the start, it's instant desiccation," Rebekah was trying to keep her voice flat, "And it hurts when you wake up too. You're starving after decades without blood...but the rest of the time, you're in a deep sleep."
Her shoulders rose up as she tried to force a smile to her face.
"Slowly, your brain comes back on, and you start to dream, but that's it. If you're seeing Elijah," Rebekah shook her head, "I don't know what that is."
MJ nodded, "Thank you. A dreamscape I can look into."
"And you really shouldn't go looking for Mikael."
"I hear you," MJ assured her, "But, I can't argue your case to the others if you don't tell us why we shouldn't."
With that, MJ left Rebekah to enjoy her cheerleading practise, giving her time to think.
~***~
MJ received a text from Rebekah, asking her to come to the Salvatore House after school. MJ, in response, texted Elena, only to find out she'd received the message too. She had to assume it was going to be about Mikael, but when she arrived, she was greeted with rose champagne and shopping bags across the living room sofas.
She ran with it, accepting the glass and taking a seat.
MJ couldn't see any specific dresses, but if Rebekah wanted to play 'normal teenage girl', MJ would let her.
Her first comment, "You know, you should let me fix the feather in your hair."
"And swap it for those metal things you wear," Rebekah pulled a face, "No thanks."
MJ laughed, "That's not what I mean."
She pulled a feather collection out of her bag.
"Swap it for one of these," She had a wide range, "They're higher quality, I can braid them properly, and they're not that awful blue-pink ombre, i.e., they'll actually suit you."
Rebekah tried to hide her smile at MJ's bluntness.
"And, by the way," MJ downed the champagne while looking for a specific remote, "The Salvatore Sound system makes everything a lot more fun."
She found it, flicked the radio on, and got to work.
Elena arrived just as MJ finished with Rebekah's hair, pausing to watch the scene, taking in the slight mess and the happily chatting girls.
"Hey!" Rebekah greeted cheerily, "What's up?"
"You invited me over?" Elena looked carefully at MJ, who was sitting on a table while Rebekah sat in the chair, "To talk?"
"All right, girls," Rebekah called, "Have at it!"
MJ straightened up as six people walked in, wearing a collection of dresses.
They stopped in a line, posing.
"Okay, now twirl please."
Elena scoffed, "You compelled your own private runway show?"
"This is where I check out," MJ hopped off the table, "Not a big fan of compulsion."
"I need a Homecoming dress," Rebekah justified, "So, what do you think? Pick one."
"I'm not here to help you shop," Elena complained, "I'm here to talk about why you don't want me to wake up Mikael."
Rebekah looked at the fixed stance before vamp-speeding behind one of the girls to grab her neck and bring her fangs out.
"Wonderful," MJ sighed.
"I said 'pick one', Elena."
The girl in question looked like she might choke before finally spitting out, "The red one."
"There," Rebekah stepped back, "It wasn't so hard, was it?"
She turned to the girls, compelling them.
"Go away. Remember nothing."
"Ooohhh," MJ grimaced, "I'm really not comfortable with this."
Rebekah rolled her eyes, "I thought you were supposed to be fun."
"I am fun, but I'm also an advocate for free will," MJ crossed her arms, "Plus, you picked out six very boring dresses. I mean, where's the personality in any of them?"
Rebekah smiled, taking that as permission to get back to her little High School game, "You have yours already?"
"In the process of making it."
"Making?"
"Fashion is a passion and I'm a bit of a style snob in case you haven't noticed," She summed, "I make most of my own stuff."
Elena coughed to get them back on topic.
Rebekah sighed and took the hint.
"You will not threaten me," She handed Elena a glass of champagne while pouring MJ a second, "You'll learn what I allow you to learn, is that clear?"
"Crystal," MJ answered while Elena nodded.
Rebekah walked off, the pair following her up the stairs, past Damon's room, and into Stefan's.
The vampire headed straight in, MJ behind her without a second thought. They'd already been reading Stefan's journals. They couldn't act like they respected his privacy just because it was Rebekah leading the way.
"How fun is this?" Rebekah pulled open a drawer.
Elena waiting in the doorway, "We shouldn't be here..."
"Eh," MJ pulled open a different one, finding the Katherine picture and another journal, "It's not like he has emotions to care about it."
Elena shot her a look, "MJ!"
"I'm a nosy person," She put the book back, and opened his curtains, letting some sunshine in, "Better."
"Come on, Elena," Rebekah teased, "Like you've never wanted to snoop."
She held up a pair of Stefan's underwear.
"Boxer briefs? A lot has changed since the twenties."
"Okay," MJ laughed, shaking her head and cringing, "Never touch a guy's underwear."
Rebekah raised an eyebrow, a sly smile forming, "Never?"
"Never touch a guy's potentially unwashed underwear from the floor," MJ corrected, "Other circumstances...well..."
She winked.
Rebekah let out a laugh.
Elena rolled her eyes at the mingling, "Are you gonna root through his stuff all night, or are you gonna start telling us your story?"
"You really are no fun," Rebekah grumbled, "What do you want to know?"
"Well," Elena finally walked in, "Elijah said that your father was a landowner in Europe. How did you guys end up here?"
Rebekah continued exploring the room as MJ took up a spot on the bed.
"My parents had just started a family when a plague struck their homeland," She began, "They lost a child to it."
MJ let herself start to get comfortable to listen.
"They wanted to escape and protect their future family from the same fate."
"Klaus said there were seven of you," MJ remembered, "But only five of you got turned."
"Five of us kids," Rebekah nodded, "Six total."
Mikael.
"The firstborn died, they moved, then, well, we'll get to what happened to the youngest."
Elena and MJ shared a look.
Progress.
"So, how did you end up here?" Elena repeated, "This part of the world hadn't even been discovered yet."
"Not by anyone in your history books," Rebekah's tone became smug, "But my mother knew a witch called Ayana. The spirits were talking to this witch, telling her of a mystical land where everyone was healthy – blessed by the gifts of speed and strength. That information led my family here, where we lived amongst those people."
"Werewolves," MJ assumed.
"Correct," She seemed to enjoy being the focus of the conversation, "To us, they were just our neighbours. My family lived in peace with them for over twenty years, during which time my parents had more children, including me."
Elena's face softened, "You make it sound so normal."
"It was," She had a wistful look in her eye as she stared out the window, "Once a month our family retreated into the caves beneath our village. The wolves would howl through the night, and by morning we'd return home."
MJ sat up to watch her.
"One full moon, Klaus and my youngest brother, Henrik, snuck out to watch the men turn into beasts. That was forbidden," She took a moment, "Henrik paid the price."
Damn.
Getting your sibling killed was one way to get your parents to hate you.
"And that was the beginning of the end of peace with our neighbours," Rebekah turned to face them, "And one of the last moments my family had together as humans."
Elena's phone started ringing, snapping them all out of the story.
MJ noticed how quickly Rebekah blinked, almost like she was blinking away tears.
God, MJ was a wreck.
She couldn't seriously get sympathetic to the girl.
She'd compelled people to play dress up...
But it wasn't like she'd killed Tyler or Jenna, or actually tried to hurt any of them.
Even when she'd staked Damon at the bonfire, she'd gone for the stomach, and she only attacked because she'd realised they were stalling her.
And! She'd then technically saved MJ.
Sure, it was probably because Klaus wanted MJ alive until he could find another witch to blackmail, but still.
Could MJ let herself have hope for Rebekah?
"You better get that," She instructed, "It'll be Damon checking up on you."
"Hello?" Elena answered, jumping as Damon yelled from the other end, "...Damon, where are you?... Yes, I'm fine, but I can't talk right now...Is that Stefan?...Damon! How could you let him out?"
Damon hung up on her.
MJ would've been annoyed if going off-plan wasn't typical Damon.
At the end of the day, Damon had been through Stefan Ripper rehab before. He might actually be able to get through to him, especially since seeing Damon act out usually got Stefan to act like a better person.
Plus, MJ was pretty sure Stefan was faking the no emotion thing a little now.
Like, she didn't know exactly how the switch worked, but the fact he'd completely changed his tactics felt suspicious. The sharp twist from just being a complete nuisance, to trying to get Elena to give up on him, implied he didn't want her wasting her life on him. Which suggested he cared about her.
He was still compelled to do everything Klaus wanted him to do, so the switch couldn't actually come back on, but if Stefan finally wanted it back on...well, that was progress.
Rebekah momentarily joined MJ on the bed, reading a journal.
"Did you get your fill of snooping yet?" Elena sat in a chair, "Can we get on with the story?"
Rebekah rolled closer to the bedside table, picking up a picture of Elena and Stefan that was still on it.
"Honestly, I don't get you two as a couple," She commented.
"Why would you? You don't know anything about who he really is."
Big statement from Elena.
"I know exactly who he is," Rebekah moved across the bed to get into Elena's face, "He's a vampire. We're a predatory species."
She put the picture facedown on the covers.
"We don't have time to care about humans and their silly little lives."
"Silly little humans?" MJ decided to relive a little of the pressure from Elena, "Who go to Homecoming...and try on shiny dresses...and eat roasted marshmallows."
Rebekah shifted slightly.
"Who would ever care about things like that?"
"Silly human cheerleaders," Elena mimicked the tone, "Who get all excited about boring human things."
She stood up.
"You know what, I'm just gonna go."
"You haven't even heard half the story."
"And you are not going to tell it," Elena declared, "You're just bored and looking for someone to push around. Find someone else to play with, maybe you can compel yourself a friend."
Before she could leave, Rebekah was up from the bed, calm and in control, "The necklace wasn't Stefan's to give."
Elena halted in the doorway,
"It belonged to the Original Witch."
Elena turned around, "The one who put the Hybrid Curse on Klaus?"
"Not just the hybrid curse. She's the one who turned us into vampires."
"A death in a family, triggering a desire to protect the people you love from the same fate," MJ scooted the end of the bed two, chiming in with her knowledge, "Such strong of a desire to protect that you'd be willing to change nature and create something brand new."
Elena hesitated, "Vampirism was a form of protection?"
"What else would it be?" Rebekah defended.
MJ had to fight off a smile at the fact her theory for the motivation behind vampire creation was correct.
'Point me.'
"A curse?" Elena suggested.
Rebekah shook her head and led them out of the room, back down the stairs, "My parents only saw a way of keeping their children alive."
"Yeah, but why stay?" Elena asked, "If they were so afraid of the werewolves? Why not just leave?"
"Pride," She answered easily, "My father didn't want to run anymore. He wanted to fight as someone superior to the wolves."
MJ started to mentally annotate her Originals guide.
"Where they could bite, we had to bite harder. Where they had speed, we had to be faster. Agility, strength, senses."
Meaning it all came back to Mikael.
Rebekah explained how he'd asked the witch Ayana to find a way to use an immortality spell to protect their family, but when she'd said no, the task was left to their mother.
"Wait," Elena waved a hand, "Why your mother?"
"Oh yeah," MJ felt slightly awkward, "I probably should've mentioned that the witch who wants us dead is their mother."
"What?"
"The witch of the Original Family," Rebekah spelt it out, "The Original Witch."
They arrived in the library, and Rebekah started to scan the alcohol collection in the middle of the room,.
"Where do they keep their best vintage?"
"But if your mother was a witch, then – "
"Am I? No," Rebekah didn't seem to like the question, "A witch is nature's servant; a vampire is an abomination of nature."
MJ held up two peace signs while winking at Elena out of habit, hearing her summoning phrase.
Then she remembered the situation she was in, properly registering the confusion on Elena's face.
"You can't be both," She quickly explained, "It's why a lot of witches won't accept vampire blood. They wouldn't want to risk turning and losing their connection to nature."
"You always say no," Elena remembered, "And you spit it out and stuff."
"Yep," She nodded, "Plus, Floare have a whole blood thing. Like, if you have vampire blood in your system, you're momentarily tainted, and you have to sit out of group spells for twenty-four-hours."
Rebekah raised an eyebrow, "You're a Floare?"
"Did Nik not give you a rundown on me?" MJ said without even registering the use of the wrong name.
Elena did, raising an eyebrow.
"He simply referred to you as a witch."
MJ didn't know why, but her shoulders felt oddly light at that declaration.
Rebekah's sly face was back to ruin it, "His little witch. Specifically."
"You're brother has a dom complex."
Rebekah snorted.
"And if he keeps trying to force it on me, I will be turning him into a fur coat and gifting it to Stefan for Christmas."
"Some girls go for that," Rebekah shrugged.
"Even if I vibed with the whole 'trying to control me, let's make out' aesthetic," MJ mused sarcastically, "He's not my type."
The vampire laughed, "I haven't seen him so obsessed with someone in a while."
"He's not obsessed with me," MJ pulled her phone out, perching on a sofa arm, "He just thinks he can use me."
"Which is why he threw a tantrum after you stopped texting him back?"
Elena's eyes narrowed, "You've been texting Klaus?"
"He's been texting me," She corrected.
"And you responded to how many of those messages?" Rebekah's innocent tone was not appreciated, "Most of them?"
MJ bit her lip.
"MJ?" Elena asked.
"They were about Stefan," MJ defended.
Rebekah smiled at the potential fire, "All of them?"
Nothing.
"And any recent ones? While he's out of town and Stefan is right here with you?"
"I...it's habit!" MJ didn't know what else to say, "If I don't respond, he thinks he's won."
"Won what exactly?"
MJ's mouth opened, then closed.
"Interesting."
"The art person you were texting all summer who's name started with N," Elena put it together, "Niklaus. Nik."
"We've gotten off-topic," MJ knew what Rebekah was trying to do, "Yes. I'm a Floare. You've met a troupe over the years?"
"No," She let them get back on task, "My mother had a Grimoire with one of your little symbol on it though. Oh, and Nik killed a troupe of them when he was passing through Europe looking for the doppelgänger."
"Yeah, that doesn't surprise me," She sighed, "How specifically did you turn?"
She wanted to know if her magic guesses were right, and she wanted to get the conversation away from Klaus.
"She called upon the sun for life."
Point MJ.
"And the ancient White Oak tree, one of nature's eternal objects, for immortality."
Another point.
"That night, my father offered us wine laced with blood," Rebekah stood, staring into the fireplace, "And then he drove his sword through our hearts."
Which explained why it was a stake to the heart.
MJ needed to remember that they were lowkey hearing a horror story.
Elena had slipped into shock, "He killed you?"
"And he wasn't delicate about it either," Rebekah pulled out a bottle of wine, breaking its neck with one swipe and throwing it into the fireplace, "Klaus woke up first, then me, and...well, my father came back in with a girl. He forced us to drink her blood. We had to drink more blood to complete the ritual."
MJ and Elena let her take a pause.
A moment to breath.
"It was euphoric. The feeling of power was indescribable," Rebekah's words didn't match her tone, "But the witch, Ayana, was right about the consequences. The spirits turned on us, and nature fought back. For every strength, there would be a weakness."
"The sun gave you life," MJ went through her list, "So it could burn you."
"It kept us indoors for weeks. And though my mother found a solution," She held up the daylight ring on her finger, "There were other problems. Neighbours who had opened their homes to us could now keep us out."
"You have to be invited in. The ancestors gave them a way to protect themselves in response to you protecting yourselves from them."
"Flowers at the base of the White Oak burned to touch and prevented compulsion."
"Vervain."
"And the spell decreed that the tree that gave us life could also take it away."
"The White Oak was destroyed."
"We burned it to the ground," Rebekah confirmed Elijah's Milling Records comment, "But the darkest consequence was something my parents never anticipated."
"The need for blood."
Blood was the bit MJ didn't understand.
How did human blood have the power to grant immortality?
She had to assume it was doppelgänger blood given its connection to everything else, but was it because the girl Mikael forced them to drink from after they turned was one or was it her blood hidden in the wine?
Why did she even want to know?
It wasn't like she wanted to make a vampire herself, she didn't need to anger the ancestors more than she already had...but there was something about finding out that clawed at her.
Like her mind wouldn't rest until she had all the answers. Till she was a witch who could do everything.
"Blood had made us, reborn, and it was blood that we craved above all else. We could not control it," Rebekah's voice brought her back into the room, "And with that, the predatory species was born."
It was sad.
A form of protection had gone so badly wrong, and, in the modern-day, that same witch had told MJ to kill the Originals. She'd wanted her children dead after bending nature to keep them alive.
MJ thought about Mikael.
It was his idea. His want to be the top species had pushed their mother to do it, to make the spell and curse Klaus.
And, his sword had been the one to kill his kids.
He either had an intense belief in his wife's magic or very little love for his flesh and blood.
MJ was starting to think Katherine and Damon had made a bit of a mistake waking him up.
Despite the dread, MJ couldn't help but feel a little smug about everything she'd guessed correctly. No Grimoire to look at and no Elders to learn stories from, yet she'd figured it all out on her own.
She felt like she deserved a bit of a pat on the back.
"Why did Mikael start hunting Klaus?" Elena asked.
"When Nik made his first human kill, it triggered his werewolf gene," Rebekah's face showed how sorry she felt for her brother, "With that, he became my father's greatest shame."
"Elijah told me this part of the story," Elena frowned, "Your mother had had an affair with one of the werewolf villagers. Klaus wasn't his son."
The girls looked to MJ, to check she was up to date too.
MJ poured herself a drink, "The man himself filled me in. Don't worry."
"She tried to make it right," Rebekah came closer to get a glass for her wine "She put the hybrid curse on Nik to suppress his werewolf side, and then she turned her back on him."
"'Making it right' is one way of phrasing it," MJ's face went harsh, "She stripped him of his true self."
Rebekah and Elena both stared at her.
"She shredded his last connection to the living world," She shuddered, thinking back to what she'd seen, "That Hybrid Curse was evil. From how it was written, to how it was placed – just straight evil."
They were both confused, torn between trying to work out how would MJ know about its placement, and thinking about the fact it sounded like she was defending Klaus.
MJ put her hands up, "Not justifying what he did in response. He's evil in his own right, but my limited interactions with 'The Original Witch' haven't given me a good impression of her."
MJ's patience for people who tried to kill her was very thin.
Rebekah got defensive, "I loved my mother."
"And I'm sure she used to be wonderful," MJ wasn't starting a fight, "But a thousand years on The Other Side have made her less than pleasant. And, I saw how the curse got cast. It's insanely messed up."
"How?" Elena furrowed her brows.
"To break the curse, I needed to know the timings," Her words fell out in a rush, "I went into her head through the spirit gate. It was very scarring. For some reason, Elijah was coated in blood. I'm choosing not to think about any of it too hard."
She was compartmentalising the situation.
"She attacked me, so I left as quickly as I could, meaning I didn't get to see what happened after."
"Well, after," Rebekah crossed her arms, "After, was Mikael. Mikael's greatest weakness as a human was his pride. As a vampire, that was magnified. He went on a rampage and killed half the village. Then he came home and killed her."
MJ sat up a little, attracting Rebekah's attention, but since she didn't say anything, the vampire assumed it was just shock.
Elena was on the sympathy train too now, "Mikael killed your mother?"
MJ slipped her phone subtly out of her pocket, opening up the pictures of the cave.
"He said she broke his heart so he would break hers," Rebekah swallowed, "He tore it from her chest as Nik watched."
There was an intense, awkward silence that MJ couldn't really handle.
It forced her to put her phone back in her pocket.
"Uxoricide," She whispered then pinched herself awake, "Um. That's what that event's called in a, you know, modern court of law – anyway, what happened next?"
"Afterwards, my father took off in a rage, and the rest of my family momentarily scattered. Nik stayed, so he could help me bury her. He knew I had to say goodbye to my mother."
As much as MJ didn't like the woman, she understood that feeling.
"I told him I would never turn my back on him," Her tone turned sharper again, "Elijah had come back for the burial too, and he promised the same. We stick together as one. Always and forever."
Always and Forever.
MJ looked at her hands.
It was a completely unrealistic promise, but there was something comforting about it.
It was the same intense love for another person that she'd seen between Lexi and Stefan.
To make the feeling worse, MJ couldn't stop herself from thinking about her brother. How the promise was almost the exact opposite of theirs.
After their parents had died, they'd decided that the safest thing to do was split up, and now she never saw him in person. Not properly. She'd been alone for a really long time, and she couldn't act like it hadn't ruined her.
"Always and forever," Elena spoke carefully, "Even though he locked you in a coffin for ninety years?"
"We're vampires. Our emotions are heightened," Rebekah sat down, clearly thinking the pair of them wouldn't understand the situation, "I'm stubborn, Elijah moral, and Nik? Nik has no tolerance for those who disappoint him. Over a thousand years as a family, we've all made that mistake at least once."
Por dios, MJ just wanted to give her a hug.
"I've made it several times."
"But you still love him?"
Rebekah looked Elena dead in the eye, "He's my brother. And I am immortal."
Two facts.
"Should I spend an eternity alone instead?"
Hug. Hug. Hug.
Rebekah deserved better than being made to feel like a disappointment because her mother had given Klaus a fear of loved ones hurting him.
Elena and MJ shared a look.
Clearly, Elena was feeling bad too.
Rebekah watched them communicating without words, and she didn't like it, "You've heard the story, it's time to go."
They didn't move.
"I said leave!"
She didn't want their sympathy.
"I don't know what you're up to, but I'm no longer playing along."
"I'm just looking for one good reason why we shouldn't wake Mikael."
"And I've given you a thousand!"
Not a thousand, but a few.
"But you will anyway," Rebekah spat, "I know you want him to help you all kill my brother, I'm not stupid."
"It's no secret that I want Klaus dead," Elena owned up, "He has a hold over Stefan's life, and over mine."
"Do what you need. Wake Mikael at your own peril. But make no mistake, if you come after my brother, I will rip you apart," She was very good at threatening people, "And I get my temper from my father. Now leave!"
That time, they did as instructed, even if MJ didn't want to leave her alone.
They headed to the cave under the Old Lockwood Property, where Ric had called Bonnie in to help him while MJ and Elena had been talking to Rebekah.
MJ had sent him a makeshift alphabet, and a symbol guide, so the pair of them had spent their afternoon going through the story carved into the walls and translating it. Now they could check it with Rebekah's version of events.
"We, uh, filled in what we could," Ric gestured to the post-it-notes on the wall with his torch, "A Vampire, werewolf, slaughter, mayhem, etcetera."
"That's the White Oak Tree that was used in the spell to create the vampires," Elena flashed her torch over the engraving, "Which means that was when they burned down the tree, destroying the only way that they could be killed."
She went to the next image.
"Okay. So, tree equals weapon."
Fun sentence of the day.
"Sort of, but we already knew that," Ric pointed to a different collection of images, "What we're not sure about is this; we've got the witch symbol, and what looks like a bleeding heart. Upside down figures usually signified death, of some kind."
And MJ realised a mistake Bonnie and Ric had made.
"Mikael killed the witch by ripping out her heart," Elena said before MJ could correct them, "But, why is that one connected to the witch's death?"
She pointed to the next symbol – a sun and a moon, opposite each other, and with teeth coming out.
"We don't know," Bonnie admitted, "We haven't gotten that far."
MJ took a post-it-note from Ric, "I do."
"You do?" Elena got excited, thinking it might be something useful.
MJ sighed.
"What is it?" Bonnie asked.
"Klaus lied."
"Klaus lied?" Ric asked.
"The necklace isn't the symbol for any old Witch, it's the symbol for The Original Witch, i.e. their mother. And that symbol," MJ pointed to the one Elena had asked about, "You've seen it before Elena."
"I have?"
"It's the symbol that was all over the fake Sun and Moon Curse scrolls."
Silence as they realised she was right.
"It's the symbol Klaus created to mean Hybrid."
"Oh my god," Elena realised what MJ was saying, "Are you sure?"
"Klaus is an artist, and we know he likes to record his version of events," She hated it, "Logically, he made this, and if it says 'Hybrid killed Witch'"
MJ looked down guiltily.
"That translates to mean he killed his mother," She added the note, sticking it to the wall, "And to be honest, it's not even his fault that he did."
"What?"
"Obviously, I could never kill my mum, but my mum never hurt me," She could feel the weight of her necklace more than usual, "You guys...to cast the Hybrid curse, he was branded and stripped of his essence."
MJ could barely think about it without reliving the pain.
"I saw torture and blood, and if Klaus was a freshly turned vampire, we know from our experiences that they don't have any control. They just react to the situation," Her voice had gone hoarse, "Of course he killed her the second he was free. He was in agony, and in desperate need of blood."
"Do we tell Rebekah?" Elena asked.
MJ shook her head, "We can't do that."
"Isn't 'honesty is the best policy' your motto?" Ric reminded her.
"Yes, but this is different!"
"How?" Elena asked.
"We'd be taking away everything she's ever known," MJ stressed, "The one person she's spent eternity loving – that's – what could she do with the truth?"
It just felt cruel.
"She could be on our side."
MJ looked at the wall.
The story.
Elena wasn't wrong.
There was a chance Rebekah would side with them the way Elijah had...but Elijah had betrayed them in the end. So what if Rebekah wanted Klaus dead. The second he was actually gone, she'd realise she'd lost the one constant in her life.
It was so...
"We can't."
She closed her eyes.
"That's – No – but..."
'Big Picture MJ' she reminded herself.
"Fine."
The big picture was Klaus.
The person who could kill her at any second because she still didn't have a weapon to keep herself safe.
~***~
MJ didn't want to be there when Elena told Rebekah the truth. Instead, she went to her apartment to collect some things. Things she'd bought over the past year for when she had sleepovers at Caroline. Stuff that had made her feel like a normal girl who just happened to have magic.
She put it all into a bag before heading back to the Salvatore House, slowly opening the forever unlocked door.
No Elena insight.
"Rebekah?"
She wasn't attacked, and she didn't feel any Damon-like eyes watching from the shadows, so she assumed the brothers were still on their little bonding mission.
MJ closed the door behind her and headed to the library.
She could hear sobbing.
Rebekah weeping by the fireplace while the pictures Elena must've brought her burnt.
"Go away!"
MJ's heart broke.
She dropped her bag to the floor, "No."
"Leave," Rebekah hissed, fangs on full display, "Take your truth and run before I rip your throat out."
MJ just walked forward, wrapping her arms around the Original Vampire.
"I'm so sorry."
Rebekah tried to push her away, but MJ had a firm grip, hand on the back of Rebekah's neck so her head could rest on her shoulder as she let all the hurt out.
If Rebekah really wanted to be alone, she would've just chucked her through a window.
MJ only loosened her hold when the sobs felt like they were coming from her mouth, rather than running through her whole body.
After a few minutes, Rebekah sat up, letting MJ take her hands, rubbing them softly.
"Why are you here?" She demanded.
"Because..."
Why was she there?
"Because I know what it's like to lose a parent."
That wasn't just it.
"Because I know how much it sucks to be you," She swallowed nervously, "You're new...alone...and the worst thing you could be is alone tonight."
"We're not friends."
"No, we're not," MJ brushed the tears from Rebekah's face, "But, you saved my life the other night. This is the least I can do."
Rebekah went very still under MJ's touch.
"When most people have 'family trouble', they go to their friends, rant it out, watch a film, eat junk food..." MJ tried to normalise the situation, "Both Salvatore's have a sweet tooth. Stefan's pick is ice cream, meaning the freezer is fully stocked, and the cabinets have all the toppings. Damon's a mini muffin guy if that's more your speed when it comes to cravings..."
She kept talking, unsure of what else to do.
"There's alcohol in every room. I have every takeaway in town in my contacts, and you are a girl who has missed out of the joys of fast food by being in a coffin," She rubbed Rebekah's hands together, "So, let me show you the joys of the 21st Century."
Rebekah didn't know how to react.
"If you wanna cry all night, I'll let you," MJ just wanted to help, "Everyone has their own process to go through when their world changes."
She tipped her bag over, revealing the manicure set she'd brought.
"But, I'm not gonna leave you alone right now...being alone will only make it worse."
She knew that better than anyone.
a/n: I didn't actually intend for these last two chapters to basically end on a really similar note, but, eh, it's who MJ is as a person. She doesn't want people to feel alone, whether it's Tyler, Caroline, Ric, Stefan, and now Rebekah <3 - Bea