Prison World.
A dark silhouette glided across Portland's night sky, its presence given away only by the red blinking lights on its fuselage. It was an airplane, tracing a steady, almost eerily smooth path between the distant Cascade foothills and the city's glowing skyline. Below, the Willamette River snaked like a black ribbon, reflecting the moon's cold light. The engines droned constantly, maintaining a consistent altitude as the city limits approached.
The descent began normally as the airport neared. The angle lessened, morphing into a controlled glide towards the runway. But then, something went awry. The angle abruptly steepened, far beyond what was safe. The plane's descent lost all control, the gentle slope transforming into a violent, uncontrollable plunge.
The plane tilted sickeningly, the buildings below rushing up with alarming speed. The fuselage shuddered, metal screaming as it slammed into the earth. It wasn't a smooth, corrected descent; it was a straight, terrifying crash.
The impact was catastrophic. A blinding explosion of orange and black erupted amidst the dense evergreen woods just west of the city. Flames quickly engulfed the wreckage, licking with his fire everything around the area of impact and sending plumes of smoke billowing into the darkening sky.
.....
A while later, not far from the plane wreckage. Among the shattered and burning trees, Kai lay sprawled, his body contorted in a way that made Joe's lips curl in a cruel smirk. Joe stood over him, his eyes glinting with a cold, malicious delight. He had pulled Kai from the wreckage, not out of kindness, but to mete out his revenge.
"You thought you could stamp us out, Kai?" Joe tsked, his voice a low, dangerous growl. "Thought you could kill me in that way?"
"Well, sorry for you, mate. As you can see, this body isn't real at all! The crash didn't do anything at all!"
"Than annoying me."
Kai's eyes rolled back, his lids fluttering as he struggled to focus on Joe's face. His breath hitched, a wet, gurgling sound deep in his throat. "Joe... Joe, please...Aaaahhh!!!!" he begged, his voice a raw, agonized scream. "P-PLEASE!"
Joe's smile was a harsh slash across his face. "Please what, Kai? Please forgive you? Please help you?" He leaned in, his voice dropping to a menacing whisper. "Or please, make it stop?"
Kai's scream tore through the night, a sound so inhuman it made the hairs on the back of Joe's neck stand on end, even if he was enjoying seeing him trash around. Kai's body convulsed, his insides churning, liquefying, as a molten heat surged through his veins. He could feel his brain melting, dripping like hot wax down his spine. His eyes were red like a demon widened, bulging with the intensity of his agony, blood pouring out of them, and his ears sliding down.
"You... you were gonna kill me anyway after getting hold of the ascendant, Joe..." Kai gasped, his body arching off the ground as another wave of pain crashed over him. "W-why... why won't you just... j-just let me die...and when I come back I will help you get it?" Tears streamed down his face, mixing with the blood and sweat, his pleas dissolving into wracking sobs.
Joe straightened up, crossing his arms over his chest, his expression implacable. "Oh, Kai," his lips raised in a sneer. "You'll die when I say you can die. And not a moment before."
He watched him suffer while sporting an impassive expression, as Kai's screams echoed through their grim surroundings.
"So you can get the point."
.....
An unknown time later, the old Parker residence in Portland, Oregon, was shrouded in darkness and quietness when they arrived. The silence lingered until they entered and started switching on the lights. Joe and Kai stood in the living room, the silence between them heavy with tension.
"Well, here we are," Joe said, breaking the silence. "Home sweet home." He looked around.
"Now get to work. Find me that ascendant, Kai."
Kai scanned the room, his expression a mix of nostalgia and bitterness. It was everything just the same as the day he killed his brothers and sisters. The walls were still painted red in patches where their blood had splashed, and the pool across the hallway where he stabbed his twin sister was still there. Everything was just the same as that day.
After a second, he snapped out of it and thought for a moment, his brows furrowed. "I'll look into it."
"That's what I like to hear, Kai. Chop-chop." Joe smiled.
Kai silently, without saying anything more, left to somewhere else in the house. Joe looked at his leaving back before he sat on a couch and relaxed into it. He was thoughtful about how to proceed once he got hold of the ascendant. One thing he was sure of: he would need to use Kai's body as a battery to start depleting the world and, at the same time, absorb from him and then open a portal.
....
The next day, at midday, they were in the front yard of the house.
"The eclipse has started. Stay nicely put inside and don't move." Joe spoke as he looked at Kai inside a hexagram similar to the one where Silas was.
"Alright, dude. I get it." Kai rolled his eyes, but inside he was burning with a wish to kill Joe.
"No, you don't get it. But you will, Kai." Joe said as he strode in front of him. Joe snapped his fingers and spoke. "Stay put, don't move a muscle unless I say otherwise."
"Joe! I said I get it, come on, man." Kai yelled in distress as his body no longer answered to him; he couldn't feel it. The worst part was that he was trying to absorb any magic in him, but nothing was being absorbed. "Come on. Release me from this."
"Quiet. Don't talk from now on." He snapped his fingers. "There, stay quiet like a good doll."
....
At the given hour, when the total phase of the eclipse was starting, he activated the hexagram.
"Ἰσχὺς ἄνω, σῶμα ἀναστρέφετε, ἐν ἑξαγράμματι, δύναμις ἀναλύεται, Σίλα, εἰς ἐμοὶ ἡ ἀναγκαία ἀναβαίνει!"
The hexagram became alive, but it wasn't moving one speck of magic through its pathways as Kai's body didn't have magic at the moment. But that would soon be solved as Joe grabbed the ascendant of the prison world where they currently were and started using the blood of Qetsiyah on it.
"Casso tor." Joe intoned as the ascendant levitated in front of him.
As Joe prepared himself, surging his magic to make a powerful spell, the air around him started shaking. The wind started roaring around as it shook the trees around the house with force. Then he focused his eyes on the moon and the sun. When they aligned perfectly, he intoned, "Ἀνάπαυε, ῥήνα!" The moon and the sun stilled in the sky, staying in position. Joe smirked, then he focused again and released almost all the magic he brought inside here.
"Φάντασμα φυλῆς, ἔξω σου, λύτρον εἰρήνης."
The world started shaking uncontrollably without stopping as soon as he finished. Magic was running away wildly without control all over the world. At the confines of the world, it was like a barrier started breaking apart. And soon, darkness started consuming everything around.
"It is done, Kai. This place will be destroyed in a while." Joe smirked as he looked at Kai's standing body while the world around them shook and vibrated as if the end of the world was coming. The sky was presenting cracks like a marred eye as odd things happened. "Magic is starting to disperse if not channeled."
"Which we would be doing now."
"Μαγεία ζῇ· ἐν ἐμοί."
Kai's body started trembling in pain as his eyes bulged. He wanted to scream, but no sound came out of his throat. He could feel all the magic that was starting to course through him, killing him in the process as his body couldn't hold such an amount.
"Φάσματα ἀκολουθοῦντες ἐν τῷ φωτὶ βρεφῶν νεκρῶν. Ἔρχεσαι πρὸς ζωὴν. Ἔρχεσαι πρὸς εἶναι. Ποιῶ μέρη ζώντων." Joe intoned as he started absorbing him. Kai's body relaxed at the eye as he wasn't being fed magic anymore; he was now more like a momentary stop for it before it left him.
All the magic of the world was now being fed into him. "Hahaha!!!" Joe laughed, enjoying the same feeling as he felt outside of channeling such an amount of magic. He enjoyed the exhilarating feeling for a few seconds before he grabbed the 1903 ascendant from his pocket and smeared it with Qetsiyah blood. "Casso tor." he said and walked to Kai and smiled at his face that was unchanging but his eyes followed him. Joe extended his hands and smeared them with his blood running down from his eyes.
"I'm absorbing the entire prison world of 1994, Kai. You are proving to be a good battery and energy conduit." Joe smiled, a cold and calculating look in his eyes. Then, he walked back to the ascendant and chanted again.
"τὸ ἐμὸν αἷμα καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐν τῇ φυλακῇ τοῦ κόσμου."
"Καί ἀπό ἐνθάδε ἔρχομαι εἰς τῆς ἄλλης φυλακῆς τοῦ κόσμου."
With a final chant, Joe completed the spell. The ascendant glowed brighter than ever, the magic pulsing with an intense light. The air shook violently, the area trembling as a portal opened in front of his eyes.
.....
Outside, Mystic Falls.
Rebekah and Katherine were boringly waiting for news.
["Mom."] Joe's voice echoed.
"Son!" They both exclaimed at the same time, their faces breaking into smiles of happiness at his voice.
["The prison world is breaking apart; I'm consuming it into magic, so maybe the portal you have in front will shut down soon as the world ceases to exist. It's quite apocalyptic the sight inside here."] Joe chuckled as he looked around like a veil being torn apart.
"Then get out!" Rebekah exclaimed. "Why are you not out yet?"
["I'm going to the prison world of 1903 as I found a way thanks to the unexpected guest inside this place. I will use that world too, and when I get out, we'll become stronger."]
["Mom, make sure to keep standing in the circle as it is the only way to keep feeding me magic and the connection to this illusory body. Without it, I will be trapped in this body until it runs out of magic. Which would be hard... I'm harnessing quite a lot..."]
"Please, babe. Isn't it enough already? Get out of there. What you have now should be enough for whatever you are planning already."
"Joe, listen to Rebekah. Don't take unnecessary risks that you don't need!"
["Don't worry, you two, it will be fine. If I get this world's magic too, I can make the change better for every one of us."]
["Wait for me, I will be back."]
"Dammit." Rebekah angrily and worriedly exclaimed. Katherine sighed but also looked forward to Joe coming back and doing whatever he wanted to do.
........
Joe snapped his fingers and looked at Kai. "Come, let's go. This world is over."
Kai, when able to move and talk, quickly ran beside him as he grabbed his clothes. "You son of a bitch! I said I would cooperate and stay still!"
"Stop being a kid, and get inside the portal. There isn't enough time." Joe rolled his eyes.
Kai looked at him, fuming in anger, as he released a huff and went into the portal, Joe following soon after him.
--------------------------------
1903, Prison World.
Mystic Falls.
It was snowing heavily, blanketing the woods in a pristine white mantle. The landscape shimmered under the silver moonlight piercing the darkness. Suddenly, a light flashed near the Salvatore house, and as it faded, Kai and Joe appeared.
"I've never felt more like wanting to die than after spending a couple of hours by your side. Damn my luck for crossing paths with you, Joe."
"It wasn't that bad, Kai. Stop your sniveling, would you?"
"Besides, if you suffered, you have only yourself to blame. That's what you get for being foolish."
"But now that we're no longer in that prison world, watch your step. If you die now, you're done for. There are no second chances. So don't provoke me into killing you, understand?"
Kai looked at his departing back and followed after him. "Fuck you, Joe."
"Mhm." Joe snickered.
"How the fuck you don't die in the crash?"
"Who knows?"
Kai sighed as he calmed down and looked around them as they walked through the woods. He now started feeling cold as he wasn't prepared for a climate like this. "Where the fuck are we? I'm freezing my ass here."
Joe stopped and turned around, looked at him, and raised a hand to him. "Φάσμα κινήσεις πυρός." Then continued walking. "Better?"
"Much better," Kai smiled contentedly, feeling his body warming up. He no longer felt cold. "Thanks for that."
Soon, they left the woods and saw a large mansion in the distance, illuminated with lights. It seemed whoever was in this prison world was currently inside the mansion. They both looked at each other before walking toward it.
"Someone is inside that mansion," Kai said as they walked down the snowy path.
"I know. I have an idea who it is." Joe smiled with a lustful glint in his eyes. "I went through all this trouble of coming to this world for her and her daughters."
"So you also know about the prisoners inside this world." Kai's face darkened. He only knew about them from the records when looking for the 'ascendant'.
"Obviously."
They soon found themselves on the porch. Joe walked beside the front door and started knocking on it. Snow was falling, and the wind was raging quite loudly, so he knocked pretty hard to be heard inside. But given the nature of the expected owner inside the mansion, she should have heard even if Joe had merely touched the door softly.
---------------------------
Earlier.
Lillian Salvatore was gathering firewood when the world shook for a moment.
"What was that?" She gasped in surprise, looking around as she felt the world tremble under her feet. This event had never happened in all the more than a hundred years she had been a prisoner in this world.
The prison still repeated the same day and the same events without stopping. But this was an occurrence outside of the loop. Her face glowed with wonder and hope. She grabbed the firewood from the snow and carried it to her house, a task she did automatically every day, like something already ingrained in her being.
She tossed the wood beside the dimly glowing fireplace and hurried away with the jar of blood that held their last reserves to where her family was resting.
As she walked into the attic upstairs, she saw her family, her children sitting around the table. They followed her with their eyes, and a smile blossomed on Lily's face.
Six desiccated adult vampires were there, sitting immobilized in their chairs. They were Malcolm, Beau, Oscar, Valerie Tulle, Nora Hildegard, and Mary Louise.
"Did you all feel that?" Lily asked excitedly. "That never happened before. I believe something is happening, and we should look into it."
All six looked at her with their eyes, unable to actually answer her.
She put the jar of blood on the table and continued looking at each one of them. "I believe it's worth using our last reserves for that."
"What do you think?" Lily asked, observing them. Starting with her eldest child, Malcolm, who looked at her with supportive eyes but also worry. After all, he had his doubts. Maybe the event was nothing worth looking into, or maybe they would find nothing at all and end up draining what was left of the blood. Then everyone, even Lily, would be desiccated—an outcome he would have liked to avoid. But he could only support Lily if it was her wish.
Beau's eyes were impassive; he intended to follow whatever she wanted. Nora and Oscar's answer was quickly conveyed as their eyes showed excitement. Mary was doubtful, and Valerie looked forward but mostly with resignation.
...
A moment later, they were downstairs in the parlor, having recovered their former appearances. They were checking the 'ascendant' to see if there were any changes. However, they found nothing at all.
"What do we do now?" Oscar asked the others.
"We should check the place from where the event originated," Malcolm said calmly, looking out the window at the forest before turning back to them.
"Yes, that is a wise thought, Malcolm." Lily smiled. "Let's go there and see if we find something."
"Wait," Valerie said suddenly, drawing the attention of the rest. "Did you hear that?"
"What?" Mary Louise asked, sounding bored.
"Listen. Someone is talking out there in the snow," Valerie said, giving a hard stare at her.
Everyone focused on listening, and they actually heard voices. Valerie was right; there was someone out there—two men, to be precise.
"Someone is inside that mansion," one said as they walked down the snowy path.
"I know. I have an idea who it is," his companion replied. "I went through all this trouble of coming to this world for her and her daughters."
Lily gasped at that answer. She looked at Valerie, Mary Louise, and Nora in wonder.
"Someone is coming for us?" Nora asked, bewildered.
"I don't think he has any good intentions for any of you girls, judging by his tone of voice," Oscar said, smiling lecherously at them.
"Ugh. Disgusting," Mary Louise said after looking at Oscar's face.
"Oscar!" Lily chided him.
"I'm sorry," Oscar said, rubbing his hands together with a not-too-honest apologetic smile.
"So you also know about the prisoners inside this world," the first man spoke again.
"Obviously," the companion answered.
Everyone looked at each other, alert. "Witches," they said in unison.
"The Gemini Coven came after us inside the prison world?" Valerie wondered.
"We'll see in a moment," Lily said, her face changing as she showed her true face for a second. Black veins surged around her eyes, and her sclera turned red before returning to normal. "Prepare for any possibility."
"Valerie, let me take the magic from your pendant," Malcolm asked calmly.
Valerie looked at Malcolm with hesitation, struggling for just a moment before passing it to him. Malcolm noticed her struggle but didn't say anything as she extended her arm, giving him the pendant. He took it and absorbed the magic inside before passing it back to her.
*Knock**Knock**Knock* The front door sounded.
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