chapter twenty-nine,

Marian's eyes widened when she saw Penny approaching her and her father at the Grill, a smile on her face. "Hey," she greeted, glancing back towards her father in hopes that he would leave the two of them alone.

"We will continue this later," he warned, standing up from his seat and moving to the pool table.

"Oooo," Penny teased, taking his place. "Someone's in trouble."

"It's not funny," Marian groaned. "He's actually going to kill me."

Penny rolled her eyes. "As if he'd kill you two days after meeting you. Besides, you two really seem to have bonded over the past few days. Congrats, dude."

"Feels like a thousand years," she muttered. "Did you bring the stuff?" Penny nodded, lifting up the small tote bag she held. "Great. Let's go."

Marian took her hand and led her to the bathroom, away from her father's prying eyes and hopefully allowing him to focus his ears on a different sound.

"So, who was the lucky guy?" Penny asked as Marian quickly took the bag from her and hurried into the closest stall.

"Huh?" Marian asked, distracted. She didn't want to have to talk about it too much; what if her father heard her?

"The guy you ... did it with," Penny pressed. "You disappeared from your own fancy party and call me the next day needing clothes. I'm not as dumb as I look." In that moment, it occurred to Marian that Elijah may have erased her memory of the fight between Kol and Damon entirely. "Was it the guy who picked up the dress this morning?"

"What? No, he..." she tried.

"Come on, Annie," Penny complained. "Losing your virginity is a big deal, okay? You're the first one out of us all to lose it."

"Um," she drawled, thinking for a moment. "It was Damon Salvatore," she answered slowly.

Penny coughed. "Damon Salvatore, Stefan Salvatore's brother?"

"That'd be him," Marian answered. Her friend whistled in response.

"Wow," she breathed. "So you're into older dudes, huh?"

"Shut up," Marian argued.

"He's, like, old enough to be your dad, I swear." Penny gasped. "He looks older than your dad."

"Oh my God!" Marian interrupted. "Please stop."

"Okay, okay," said the human with a laugh as Marian unlocked the door and glared at him. "I'll stop." She grinned. "After you tell me all about it. Was it as magical as they say? Did it hurt? My old babysitter, Katie, said that it hurts the first time."

Marian sighed, looking directly at her friend. "It was very magical, and I—" She paused, suddenly feeling as if something was stabbing through her chest and into her heart. She gasped for air, clutching her chest and gripping the sink behind her for support as she felt her legs buckle.

"Annie?" Penny asked worriedly. "Annie? Marian!" Penny quickly darted for the door, opening it and yelling into the Grill, "Somebody call 9-1-1!" Suddenly, all faces inside it looked up at the mortified girl. Someone—she didn't know who, nor did she really care, for her best friend was lying on the floor behind her, not breathing—quickly stood up and rushed towards the bathroom, frowning when they looked behind her.

"Are you okay, kid?" they asked.

Penny looked up, shocked. "What do you mean? My friend, she—she just—" Penny gasped in horror as she turned around, covering her mouth as she looked back into the bathroom. She looked around hurriedly, feeling her throat tighten as she began to cry. "No, I swear, she was here! She fell! She couldn't breathe!" She wasn't there.

...

Marian woke up with a scream, feeling something sharp being dragged along her forehead. She stared up in horror as she saw the stoic face of her uncle above her, pulling the knife away from her skin and nodding towards someone beyond her view.

"Uncle Finn?" she asked.

"I'm sorry, Marian," he whispered, looking down at her with a frown.

Her eyes widened. "What?" she spluttered. She was shocked; was her uncle trying to kill her?

"Finn is doing a service to this world," a voice said from behind her. Marian tensed as the woman stepped closer until she could only just see her face. "You see, with my children gone, the rest of the vampire race will cease to exist, restoring the balance of nature that I foolishly broke."

"You would kill your own children?" Marian cried, flinching slightly when flames erupted around them from torches.

"My dear," Esther began, standing beside the girl who still lay on a stone table, an unwilling sacrifice for a cause she didn't believe in. "For a thousand years I have lived on the Other Side, watching as my family destroyed the peace I had hoped they would co finie to live by. I watched as they murdered innocent people for a brief moment of bliss, and I have seen the joy of life leave their eyes in an instant."

"So you want to kill them for it?" Marian scoffed. "They are broken. Wounded. Waiting for someone—their mother perhaps—to show them how to live again after she forced immortality upon them."

"You mistake me, child," said Esther calmly. "I was not only referring to my children, but you as well." Marian gulped. "You are far from the innocent child you pretend to be. I have watched you slay men in a fit of rage you disguise so well your own father barely knows of it. I have watched you travel from coven to coven, seeking more power so that one day you might become the witch you will never be. I have watched you whore around—"

"How dare you," Marian interrupted. "Yes, I have had my misfortunes and my moments of less than pure actions, but I have known a happiness that you, Grandmother, could only dream of. The families I created weren't killed in the name of immortality; in fact, I never even thought of hurting them at all." She gave an empty laugh. "You can accuse us all you want of being evil, but you are the only one to blame for it."

"And my punishment shall be the sacrifice of my children."

"Which will be done how, exactly?" Marian sneered. "Use me as a trap to get them here? Get me out of the way so you can hunt them down?"

"The champagne you drank last night was laced with the blood of the doppelgänger," said Esther. Marian's heart stopped beating for a moment as she looked at Finn, a broken expression on her face as she realised why he had snuck her champagne last night. "Your death shall trigger theirs, too."

Finn's head suddenly moved to the side, his previously ashamed face turning cold with determination. "They're coming, Mother!" he warned. Who? Who was coming? She turned her head, seeing three figures approaching them. Was that her father?

"No, it's too soon, the moon is not high enough. Go! Quickly!" Esther yelled to someone. Marian tried to scream out, but Esther's hand quickly reached out and covered her mouth. "My sons, come forward," she beckoned, turning around so that she covered Marian's face. The girl gulped.

"Stay beside me, mother," Finn instructed.

"It's okay. They can't enter." Marian saw the torches around the pentagram flare up as her father approached it.

"That's lovely," he scoffed. "We're stuck out here, while the favorite son plays sacrificial lamb. How pathetic you are, Finn." He hadn't noticed his daughter on the table behind them.

"Be quiet, Kol. Your brother knows virtue you cannot even imagine," Esther said.

"Whatever you think of us, killing your own children—your only grandchild—will be an atrocity," said Elijah.

"My only regret is that I did not let you die a thousand years ago."

Klaus scoffed. "Enough. All this talk is boring me. End this now, Mother, or I'll send you back to Hell."

"For a thousand years, I've been forced to watch you. Felt the pain of every victim, suffered while you shed blood. Even you, Elijah, with your claim to nobility, you're no better. All of you. You're a curse on this Earth. Stretched out over generations. If you've come to plead for your life, I'm sorry, you've wasted your time." She moved to the other side of the table, her hand grabbing sharp. A knife.

"Marian," Kol gasped, finally seeing his daughter. The girl was too scared to speak, salty tears dripping down her face as she stared fearfully at the blade beside her. "Mother, you cannot do this!"

"I can, and I will."

"She's just a child," he pleaded.

"This child has lived a thousand years longer than she should have. You all have," Esther said. "I must reverse this evil I have placed on this Earth." Marian squirmed as Finn held her shoulders down into the stone, Esther's hands holding the blade moving above her chest.

She refused to look anywhere but her father whose face held a mixture of fear, anger and despair. His child was going to die right in front of him, and he could do nothing to prevent it. "I love you," she whispered to him, though she was unsure that even with his enhanced hearing he could hear her frail voice.

"Mother, stop this nonsense now!" Klaus yelled. His mother ignored him, pulling the blade higher as she chanted an incantation.

"We will surrender if you leave the girl be," Elijah tried, hoping his mother would listen.

Kol watched helplessly as Esther's chanting grew louder. "Please! Finn, you cannot let this happen!" he cried. "Think about what you're doing!"

All four brothers watched in horror as Esther then pushed it down. Though instead of piercing her heart like it should have, it went through her stomach. "No! Sisters! Do not abandon me!" Esther cried as Marian screamed in pain, her body jolting upwards.

"Marian!" Kol yelled.

"Mother!" Finn yelled at the same time, rushing away with his mother as the torches flared up once again. The brothers each turned away, crouching to avoid the flames, Kol screaming for his daughter. He couldn't lose her, not after only just finding her again.

As they died down, he rushed towards her, kissing her forehead desperately. His brothers were shocked to see his face had become wet with tears. Kol had never been one to express weakness, so much so that they had only ever seen their younger brother cry once when Marian had first died a thousand years ago.

"Marian, stay with me," he pleaded. He could see her eyes slowly starting to close. She was losing blood fast. "Don't you dare leave me alone. I need you."

Klaus, who had followed closely behind him, brought his wrist to his mouth, biting into it and pushing it to hers. "Come on!" he said frustratedly, pulling his wrist away when he realised that she wasn't going to drink his blood. He looked up at his brothers. "Why isn't it working?"

"Vampire blood won't heal her," Kol whispered, his voice shaking as he rested his head on Marian's chest. "The witches won't let her turn. Ayana made sure of that," he said darkly. The witch Ayana had taken many precautions to make sure that Marian would never become anything like her family. She was the reason the girl could never be born in the same place twice.

"We should take her to the hospital," Elijah told them, his eyes focussed on the blood that dripped from the edge of the table onto the ground. "Now," he demanded. Klaus nodded silently, moving so the two could lift her.

"No," said Kol. His brothers paused, looking at him. "The blade was a dark object. There's nothing a human can do. She has to heal herself."

Klaus looked at Elijah in shock; Marian had such a weak amount of magic, how would she ever be able to heal herself?"

"She doesn't have the strength," Elijah argued. "We need to go to the hospital." He moved to lift her again but was stopped as Kol put his arm out to stop him.

"No," he said again, only this time he spoke firmly. He took a deep breath, putting his hand in his daughter's. "She can channel us; use our power."

"Kol—" Elijah tried.

"She hasn't done this sort of thing in over a hundred years," Klaus said. "Who's to say she hasn't forgotten how to do it."

Kol shook his head. "She remembers," he said. "I know she does." He grasped Marian's hand in his, holding out his left hand for one of them to take. His brothers looked at each other worriedly. "Please," he pleaded. Elijah took a deep breath, stepping forward and taking Kol's hand, beckoning Kol to do the same.

"If this doesn't work, we take her to the hospital," Elijah reasoned.

Kol glanced up at him, nodding curtly before turning his attention back to his daughter. "Come on, darling," he whispered to her. "We're here. Channel us," Kol muttered. "Come on. Come on."

Suddenly, a cold wind rushed past them and the flames of the pentagram reignited. Klaus squeezed her hand encouragingly as he watched the wound in her stomach slowly begin to close in astonishment. "She's doing it," Elijah said in disbelief. Marian hadn't used this much power since the Middle Ages. He felt himself grow slightly tired, a sure sign that this was working.

"That's my girl," Kol whispered. "So strong and so brave." He leant forward, still tightly holding onto her hand, and kissed her forehead. "You're going to be okay, darling. I'm not letting you leave me just yet."

part ii:

tvd s3, e15, ""

wc: