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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑.
[0𝟒]. 𝐇𝐎𝐏𝐄 𝐈𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐎𝐀𝐋.
【 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐓𝐖𝐎 】
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❛ 𝘞𝘌𝘓𝘊𝘖𝘔𝘌 𝘛𝘖 𝘏𝘌𝘈𝘝𝘌𝘕 ❜
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𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐄𝐋 𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐃 𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐀'𝐒 𝐔𝐍𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐂𝐈𝐎𝐔𝐒 𝐁𝐎𝐃𝐘 before setting her inside the back of the Salvatore School bus. As the nephilim placed her down, he let out a small breath due to the exhaustion of smiting a demon not even an hour prior. Nathaniel was beat. His body reacting to the low supply of grace in his system. But he hid it, almost successfully, until he felt Hope's concerned eyes linger on him a little longer. The nephilim shook his head at her to not comment on it so she wouldn't alert the others, to which the tribrid completely understood as she nodded discreetly.

"So, let me get this straight," Landon brought everyone's attention in and Nathaniel couldn't help but roll his eyes. "Dana died with vampire blood in her system, so she came back to life, and now she's in transition, and she needs to feed or die...?"

Nathaniel huffed. "That's how the man upstairs panned it out."

Landon shuddered at that.

"Alright," Kaleb spoke up and eyes landed on him. "So, we give her some human blood. It's that simple."

Nathaniel narrowed his eyes. "It's never that simple."

"Not everyone wants to be supernatural," Hope agreed. "Some people just want to be normal."

Then Landon decided on giving his two cents. "You should tell her the truth," and Nathaniel couldn't help but give him an exasperated look, but nonetheless Landon continued. "My guess is that she'd be psyched to be at a place like your school- I know I would."

"Yeah, no. We have enough annoying newcomers at the moment. So, in that case I say we leave her out in the woods while tied to a tree," Nathaniel commented and Lizzie seemed keen on the idea as she nodded excitedly.

Landon narrowed his eyes. "You're a dick."

"Alert the media, emo-boy," Nathaniel sarcastically spat back as he let out a humorless chuckle. "You know, you've been whining left and right about how much you want to stay at Salvatore, but you're already in. Cancel your fucking pity-party because none of us are attending it. Hot tip, you wanna survive at our school? Get a clue and shut your mouth."

An awkward silence followed.

But Nathaniel didn't let it go on for long.

"Wake her up," Nathaniel ordered once he turned to Hope. "Kaleb will put her out of her suffering."

Hope shook her head. "Nate-"

And Kaleb was about to protest as well until-

"Ric put me in charge," Nathaniel interrupted almost in a snarl, his fatigue making him even more irritated by the second. "So, I make the decisions. I'd do it but you now I can't. Wake her up so Kaleb can end it."

Hope sighed as she turned to Dana. "Surgere."

Groggily, Dana sat up as though awoken from a deep slumber and Nathaniel mentally prepared himself for the reckoning to come once Alaric had his say with the nephilim's choices that day. Nathaniel was blatantly screwed, but he stood by everything he had a say in. Dana would never lighten up. The first chance she'd get of exposing them after turning, she would take it to spite Lizzie. No doubt in his mind about it. Nathaniel was protecting all of them, even if everyone were to call him cold after.

But before Kaleb could approach Dana, she heaved and vomited a large amount of greenish-black goo onto the sidewalk. Nathaniel quickly stood back and everyone's noses wrinkled in disgust. Despite her best efforts, Dana continued to heave and gag up even bigger amounts of the strange vomit and Nathaniel was dismayed because he'd never seen anything like it.

"Is that normal?" Landon decided asking.

Nathaniel used his shirt to cover his nose from the stench of the vomit. "You see anyone of us reacting normally to this?" The nephilim muffled out.

And then everything stopped.

A splatter was heard and Nathaniel quickly turned in Dana's direction, expecting to see her body, though instead, Dana was reduced to a body-shaped piece of skin, hair, and clothing. Nathaniel feigned a gag, though his disgust wasn't a joke. All six of them stood around her body, looking sickened by the sight and concerned about what actually happened.

Hope was the first to break the silence. "Should we call your dad?"

Lizzie side-eyed Hope with a scoff. "Why? So, he can take another bullet for you?"

Nathaniel groaned. "Hey, hocus-pocus," he brought in Lizzie's attention as she scoffed once again at the nickname. "We've got greater problems than daddy not loving you. Like this not being a vampire."

Hope nodded before giving Landon a pointed look. "It's got to be another monster from the knife."

And with that being said, all eyes landed on Landon.

Kaleb nodded. "Well, maybe the monster has been right in front of us all along."

Nathaniel had to agree. The nephilim hadn't been able to sense him since he appeared, and everything that came with Landon Kirby was a huge mess. It wasn't until he arrived and took the knife that everything started going downhill. Maybe Landon wasn't human after all. And that meant he was fair game for Nathaniel to do with as he pleased. That excited the nephilim.

"What? Are you serious?" Landon incredulously inquired.

Nathaniel shrugged. "It wasn't until you got here and stole the knife that magically other creatures starting making appearances. Who's to say you're not one of them. I can't sense you."

That was a first time Hope was hearing that last bit, and her surprised gaze quickly fell on Nathaniel, though the nephilim just shrugged it off, not turning to her.

"It can't be a coincidence," Kaleb added.

Landon nodded his head anxiously. "It is!" But no one was buying it. The curly-haired boy looked around at the rest of the group, looking for back-up on the issue. "You believe me, right?"

But when no one came to his defense, Landon nodded, visibly hurt by the accusations.

"Got it. Say no more."

And he headed towards the school without a fight.

A little while later, Nathaniel sat back as everyone else cleaned up the evidence of Dana's death and groaned in disgust at the blonde's residue. It was comical, the way the nephilim watched over them as they cleaned while he lifted not even a finger to help them. And they all would turn to Nathaniel from time to time to narrow their eyes on him.

"I'm out of here," Kaleb announced after a bit. "But, little piece of advice? Landon could be in there right now, eating fools. So... I'll holla."

And with that, the vampire walked away.

Hope sighed. "Come on, guys. If it's not Landon, then what else could it be?"

In minutes, MG- while cleaning off his shoes with a page from one of his comic books- came to the conclusion it was an Arachne, like the one in said comic page. Though Nathaniel had never been one to mock MG for his taste in literature, because well, he liked the kid, he took a moment to scoff at the stupidity. But, it wasn't, in fact, stupidity once he explained it in full.

"So," Nathaniel started to reiterate. "Greek myth about a beautiful woman cursed by a jealous God?"

"In theory," MG shrugged.

Nathaniel hummed. "What God was it again?"

MG thought for a bit. "Technically Goddess. Athena."

Nathaniel snapped his fingers. "Goddess of wisdom and craft. Daughter of Zeus? That's Perseus sister."

Lizzie quickly caught on. "We need to get to the Salvatore School."

Nathaniel instantly nodded. There was the biggest chance the Arachne was going after the brother of the Goddess that made her what she was now and Nathaniel wasn't about to wait around and let the demigod be eaten by her. Though it would be fun to watch, he had essentially saved Lizzie's life and Nathaniel had gratitude for Perseus' heroism.

"What about the weirdo?" Lizzie asked, referring to Landon. "We can't just leave Hope's boyfriend here."

"He's not her boyfriend."

"He's not my boyfriend."

Nathaniel's cheeks instantly heated up as they said it at the same time. There was an awkward few seconds as Hope's eyes lingered on him before Lizzie cleared her throat. Nathaniel was grateful.

"If we had something from it, we could do a tracking spell."

Landon's voice caught them off-guard. "Would its face work?"

The four watched horrified as Landon held up a piece of flesh on his knuckles. Though the shock quickly went away after the two witches got their use of it, and as Nathaniel expected, they tracked the Arachne back to the Salvatore School. So, without anything else in their way, everyone made a run for the woods towards the school- though they didn't get that far before MG's school phone rang and MG checked the caller ID.

"It's for you," MG announced and handed off the phone to Lizzie as they sprinted through trees and fallen branches. "No way I'm telling your dad what we're about to do."

Lizzie groaned. "I suck at lying," she said before looking behind her and spotting Landon, who she immediately tossed the phone to. "You're great at it."

Landon turned to Hope and passed the phone on to her. "You're his favorite."

Hope looked at the phone apprehensively and Nathaniel annoyingly groaned before snatching the phone from Hope's hands, tapping on the answer option and putting it on speaker phone so everyone could hear. "Hey, Ric. How's everything going over there?"

With that, everyone stopped sprinting to listen.

"Good," Alaric's voice sounded through the line. "So, I thought I'd call, check in, see how things are going."

See, Nathaniel Forbes knew Alaric Saltzman pretty well. Almost like the inside of his palm. The nephilim had been raised by the man after all, and Nathaniel had pick up on a lot of cues. Which meant, the nephilim knew, well in his heart, that by the tone in Alaric's voice, the man already knew something was up, that is if he hadn't decided on making a surprise appearance to the Mystic Falls High School by now. So, Nathaniel decided lying wasn't going to do much for him if he was already caught.

"You know how things are going," Nathaniel replied.

That earned a smack from Lizzie. "You'll get us caught."

Nathaniel rolled his eyes before mouthing. "He already knows."

"Yeah," Nathaniel could practically sense Alaric roll his eyes on the other end. "I just tracked down Dana's body to the glove compartment! I left you in charge to take care of things. What is going on?"

"Told you so," Nathaniel mouthed to Lizzie before clearing his throat to answer Alaric. "It's an Arachne, Ric. MG's comic knows how kill it."

Alaric scoffed. "Comic books? Really?" A deep sigh abandoned him after a few seconds. "Nate, listen to me- whatever you're thinking of doing? Don't. Okay? You're already down on grace, and the kid I just found in the woods reeking of sulfur tells me you're pushing your limit. You know what can happen. Please, just tell me where you are."

Nathaniel sighed. "No can do, sir."

"You're going to run out of grace!"

Nathaniel looked around at the surprised looks on everyone's faces before he shook his head slightly. "I'm sorry, Ric."

And with that, the line went dead.

"Let's go," Nathaniel ordered emotionlessly.

Hope hesitated. "You sure you can do this?"

Nathaniel nodded. "I got this covered."

Without another word, everyone began jogging their way towards the school again. Though this time, Nathaniel was falling behind everyone else- Landon included, and that worried the nephilim because at that point it was more than just being low on grace. Nathaniel could feel himself slipping but he was doing his best in pushing through it as no one seemed to be paying attention. Not until he completely stopped jogging and began to heave that Hope quickly turned to him.

"Nate?" Hope queried tensely.

Everyone else's attention landed on Nathaniel as they too stopped, but the nephilim was too out of it to respond. Nathaniel wasn't even sure if he was going to come back from what felt like literally dying. Then the thought crossed his mind- Was he?

And there would soon be an answer to that question.

Nathaniel's body burned and he let himself fall to the ground, not hearing the loud screams from Lizzie, Hope and MG as they called out to him, nor the sound his body made as he thumped to the ground, followed by a crunch of leaves. Nothing seemed to alert Nathaniel, the nephilim was too focused on the pain.

And as Nathaniel slipped, the nephilim expected black behind his closed eyelids but it didn't come. Instead of that, it was a blinding white light. And it slowly began to fade into the scenery before the nephilim. Nathaniel sat on a bench, looking into the ocean as waves hit the shore, making the easiest of sounds. The nephilim felt at peace somehow, and that made him completely forget anything that previously had him so worried. Nothing mattered. The purplish-yellow sunset taking away every shred of doubt he once held. It was mesmerizing. Nathaniel had never felt such serenity in his life.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" A voice spoke.

Nathaniel's attention was quickly on the owner of that voice. Beside him stood a man, bright hazel eyes and a tranquility to him Nathaniel had never seen on anyone else before. And he didn't seem to be out of place. The man blended into the landscape just enough, but still stood out by the long beautiful featured wings that hung until just above his ankles. An angel. No wonder Nathaniel felt at peace.

Nathaniel nodded. "Who are you?"

The man chuckled. "Well, for starters. Welcome to heaven."

"Wait," Nathaniel suddenly snapped out of the dream-like haze that heaven appeared to put the nephilim in. "What the hell are you talking about? I was with my friends just a second ago."

"It's best you don't swear in heaven, boy," the man warned but there was slight amused smirk on his lips. "I'm Gabriel, but everyone around here calls me Gabe," Gabriel introduced, sitting beside Nathaniel. "Or they would if angels weren't so damn uptight."

Nathaniel snorted at Gabriel's curse. "You're Gabriel?"

Gabriel snorted in return. "Why are you so surprised?"

Nathaniel shrugged before looking at the sunset, which now that he actually gave it a good look, it wasn't even moving. "I thought you'd be taller."

"This isn't my true form," Gabriel smiled.

Nathaniel hummed. "So, what? I'm dead?"

Gabriel scrunched up his face. "For the moment. I sort of timed you out of the game for a second."

"What are you talking about?" Nathaniel narrowed his eyes.

"I can't really say much without being casted down alongside Lucifer- actually, I'm potentially going there by screwing with God's word by having you here so this'll be quick," Gabriel confessed as a sigh abandoned him. "I pulled you out because you were close to internally combusting and that would've been fatal for everyone."

Nathaniel nodded for Gabriel to continue.

And the angel did. "They're using you, Nathaniel. Everyone. Demons, angels, even God. You can't trust anyone; do you understand me?"

Nathaniel scoffed. "And why should I trust you?"

"You don't have to," Gabriel tilted his head. "I'm just hoping you will. There's a lot of questions you have that I can't give answers to without revealing the entirety of what God has planned for you but believe me when I say it isn't anything good."

"Can't God hear us right now?"

Gabriel shook his head. "Certain heavens are closed off to angel interference. The man on the throne made some so powerful he himself can't even listen in on them. This heaven happens to be one of the very well-guarded ones."

Nathaniel's curiosity spiked. "Various heavens? Who belongs to this one?"

"You do," Gabriel responded and Nathaniel was stunned. "Or did. Various angels weren't happy with the fact that a nephilim could make their way into heaven when they were stronger than most angels. So, you were demoted. Now you belong to hell once your time's up."

Nathaniel scoffed. "Wonderful. I guess I'll get to meet Dad then?"

Gabriel sighed. "I've let you know too much already- and you have to go back now, before there's word I'm missing and they find out a nephilim is in heaven. Remember, Nathaniel. Trust no one. Not even those closest to you."

Nathaniel shook his head. "Wait, what do you mean?"

Gabriel completely ignored Nathaniel as the angel pulled a glass vial from his black dress coat. Nathaniel noticed it contained grace and the nephilim quickly perked up once Gabriel popped the top off and put it close to Nathaniel's face. In seconds, the whitish-blue goo abandoned the vial and seeped through Nathaniel's mouth as his lips parted.

There was a slight ring to the nephilim's ears once he completely recharged as his eyes turned gold and his body filled with glowing white veins. The signature of the power flowing within him, booting up to its full potential.

And before Nathaniel could object, Gabriel planted his pointer and middle finger to the nephilim's forehead. Nathaniel woke up in the woods- in the exact same place he thumped to the ground- with a heavy gasp as his eyes still shined gold. Beside him, Hope Mikaelson jumped as she looked at Nathaniel in surprise. In return, the nephilim was confused.

"Oh, my God," Hope breathed out in relief, choking on a sob.

Nathaniel narrowed his eyebrows. "What happened?"

Hope's red eyes bored into him. "You fainted. You weren't breathing, I thought- Don't move, Doctor Saltzman's on the way. You're okay."

And Nathaniel couldn't help but wonder if it had all been a dream.

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unedited.
pretty long chapter, i'm hella proud.
anyway, hope choking up over nathaniel
being dead makes my heart flutter and
break at the same damn time :(.
OH, btw, nathaniel's back at full nephilim
power! it wasn't going to be this quick but
i saw that most of you didn't like the idea
of him being weak, so here we are.
question, any idea what the angels and
demons are planning for my boy???