08. Maybe I Should Start From The End

Alec opened his eyes and immediately shot up in shock, looking around he realised he was at a open field, with Nova and Landon laying near him.

There's something you guys need to know, but the problem is I'm not sure you'll believe anything I say, so to make you believe, I will start from how it all ended.

Landon and Nova slowly stood up, "Where the hell are we?" a confused Landon asked, "What happened?".

"I have no idea" an equally confused Nova said, "But clearly something happened, because this isn't Kansas anymore".

Alec looked at Nova and Landon with a shocked expression on his face, realising he remembered what they didn't.

***

Three Days Ago

On second thoughts, starting from the end is too damn complicated, so I'll just start from the beginning, from the time Alaric called me and Nova into his office for Landon Kirby.

"Okay, pause" Alec said, "Remind me again, how are so sure that Landon is in trouble?".

"Before Landon left the school, Emma charmed him a bracelet, she told him to press it whenever he was in trouble" Alaric informed.

"And he pressed it?" Nova asked, Alaric nodded his head in confirmation.

"And why do you think me and Nova are the best people to go rescue him?" a confused Alec asked.

"Because you and Nova work well together" Alaric stated.

"Said no one, ever" Alec retorted.

"A lot of people think that, they just don't say it because they don't want you to punch them" Alaric said.

"People think me and Alec make a good team?" Nova asked, "Yeah Alaric, no offence but even I don't believe that".

"Well I don't care what either of you believe, what I need from both of you right now is to go help Landon" a frustrated Alaric said.

"Help him where?" an annoyed Alec asked, "We don't even know where he is".

"Kansas" Alaric informed, "He's in Kansas and you two are going to find him and are going to help him with whatever he's going through".

Alec and Nova looked at each other, both clearly not happy with the task of going after Landon.

***

Alec drove his car, the car that once belonged to his father Damon Salvatore and was now gifted to the triplets by Kol for their sixteen birthday, he glanced at Nova and shook his head seeing her sitting in the passenger seat with her books opened.

"You're supposed to be telling me when to turn next" Alec reminded.

"And I will when you need to turn next" Nova retorted, "I also need to study otherwise I'm gonna fail my midterms".

"You say that every year, but every year you end up passing with flying colors" Alec reminded.

"I'd rather be prepared than be sorry" Nova defended.

"Okay fine, let me quiz you then" Alec said.

"You, quiz me?" a slightly shocked Nova asked.

"I might as well, I have nothing better to do" Alec said.

"Fine, go ahead Alec, quiz me" Nova said, sitting up straighter in her seat.

"What's the capital of Indiana?" Alec asked.

"That will be Indianapolis" a proud and slightly smug Nova replied, her eyes landed on the compass that Emma had given them and realised it had moved, "You need to take the next left, he's on the move".

"Got it" Alec said.

***

"And eighteen hours later, we're finally here" Nova announced.

"You sure this is the place?" Alec asked, looking at the house infront of them in skeptical.

"This is where Emma's little compass led us" Nova said.

Alec nodded his head, he looked at Nova, "Follow my lead, don't try and be a hero".

Nova rolled her eyes, "Fine whatever".

"So, how should we do this?" Alec asked, "Throw a fireball? Start a wind torrent?".

"Or there's a much simpler option, to just knock" Nova suggested.

Alec gave Nova an are you serious look, "Oh geez Nova, you're such a genius, why didn't I come up with that?".

"Because like you said, I'm the genius, not you" Nova said, before getting out of the car.

"This girl" Alec mumbled, before following after the St.John girl.

***

"We need a plan, Nova" Alec stated, following after Nova as the St. John girl climbed up the stairs, "We have no idea who has Landon and what they're doing to him".

"The plan right now is to act as less suspicious as we can, we don't want to alert whoever has Landon that we're here to save him" Nova said.

"That's a stupid plan" Alec said.

"It's a safe plan" Nova argued.

"I don't like it" Alec started.

"Because it's safe?" Nova asked.

"Because it's boring" Alec retorted.

"Well deal with it" Nova said, walking over to the door, but before she could knock, the duo heard a man yelling, immediately Alec moved Nova to the side, "No Alec, wait--".

Alec ignored Nova and instead put his hands infront of him and chanted, "Patere", his spell immediately causing the hinges of the door to come off and for the door to fall to the ground, as soon as Alec stormed into the house he was shocked seeing a elderly couple watching an action movie while having dinner, immediately causing his eyes to go wide in shock, "Oh, hey guys, how's it going?".

"Oh my god" an embarrassed Nova whispered, "I am so sorry for ruining your day but don't worry, Alec will fix your door".

"Wait me?" an annoyed Alec asked.

"Yes you, you're the one who broke their door so you got to fix it" Nova started.

"Don't blame me, blame Emma's faulty compass" Alec defended.

Nova looked at the compass in her hand and realised it was pointing towards the broken door, she kneeled down and started examining the door, she searched the mail box and that's when her hands landed on Landon's bracelet.

"Emma's compass wasn't faulty, someone already knew that we were coming" Nova informed, showing Alec the bracelet.

"Oh lovely" an annoyed Alec mumbled.

***

"Great thinking to use Landon's bracelet to do a locater spell on him" Alec praised, as he drove himself and Nova to the place they managed to locate Landon.

"Thank you" Nova said, giving Alec a smile, "I can be smart when I want to be".

Alec chuckled, "I never said you weren't smart, Nova".

Nova looked at Alec, "So you think I'm smart?".

Alec looked at Nova, "Isn't that what I just said?".

Nova shook her head, "You know, recently you've been confusing me a lot".

"How so?" a curious Alec asked.

"I don't know, you just seem, different" Nova admitted, "You're less mean and more helpful".

"So you'd rather me be mean to you?" an amused Alec asked.

"No, I'd rather you not confuse me" Nova retorted, "I get used to one side of you and then all of a side you show me a side I've never seen before and I don't know which side of you is real and which is not".

Alec shrugged, "I'm a Salvatore, Nova" he reminded, "Being complicated is kind of in my blood".

Nova let out a small chuckle, "Trust me, no one know thats better then me".

Alec stared at Nova for a moment, before turning back to the road, after driving for a little longer, they finally arrived at their location, the location that was currently being closed off.

"Hey, can I help you?" one of the workers asked, after seeing Nova and Alec step out of the car.

"Yeah, what's going on in that house?" a curious Alec asked, "Why are you sealing it off?".

"A gas leak, don't worry, though, we have it under control, you wouldn't happen to know who lives here, would you? We tired knocking, but no one's home".

"Uh no" Nova answered, "We don't know who lives here, actually we're looking for--".

"The highway" Alec interrupted before Nova could reveal anything to the stranger infront of them, "We're looking for the highway, we're kind of lost, we have no idea where to go and I saw you guys and was hoping maybe you could guide us".

"Yeah, at the end of the road, you make a right, can't miss it".

"Great, thanks" Alec said, "Alright Rebekah, let's go".

Once Nova and Alec had sat back in the car, Nova turned to the middle Salvatore, "Rebekah, seriously? Out of all the names you could have used you decided to use my mother's name?".

"Whoever that guy is, I can tell you one thing, he's not from the gas company" Alec informed.

"Do you think these people are the ones after Landon?" a concerned Nova asked.

"I have no idea" Alec admitted, "But it's clear they don't have him otherwise they wouldn't have asked about him, so we need to find Landon before they do and find out what the hell he's gotten himself into this time".

***

After much driving around, Nova and Alec managed to locate Landon in a shady motel room, Nova picked the lock of a room and slowly entered the room, she stopped moving when she heard a gun click and someone point the gun on the back of her head.

"I'm not looking for any trouble" Nova immediately said, putting her hands up, "I'm just looking for a friend of mine, Landon Kirby".

The woman who was pointing her gun at Nova, slowly walked infront of the St. John girl, "And who the hell are you?".

Alec suddenly appeared behind Nova and he used his magic to snatch the gun from the woman's hand and then point the gun towards her, "We're people who were unfortunately assigned Landon's case, now where the hell is he?".

"You might want to talk quickly because his thing is usually shot first ask questions later" Nova warned.

"What she said" Alec said, glaring at the woman infront of him, all ready to shoot.

"Alec? Nova?".

Alec and Nova looked behind the unknown woman, where Landon Kirby stood.

"Landon" Alec said, "You are one hard person to find".

***

"So you two go to a private school for supernaturals?" the woman, who Nova and Alec had discovered is named Seylah and is Landon's biological mother, asked the two.

"How about you mind your own business?" Alec said, not trusting Seylah one bit.

"I'm sorry about, he has trust issues" Nova apologised.

"Rightfully so" Alec defended, "And I'm sorry if I'm not really in the mood to answer questions of a absentee mother".

"He's not wrong there, you know about us but we know nothing about you except the fact that you gave birth to Landon, oh and recently you two got attacked by a monster and there's also a fake gas company looking for the two of you" Nova listed, "So Seylah, that's your name right? Do you mind filling in the blanks for us?".

Seylah took a seat on the bed infront of Landon, "When I finished my service in the army, I was recruited by an intelligence organization, the states sounded like a better life, I didn't know what I was signing up for, but soon I learned that things like you two exist in this world, my job was very much like yours, to keep the supernatural world a secret, whenever a monster went bump in the night and risked exposing the truth, I tracked it down and brought it back to headquarters".

"Supernatural creatures are not monsters" Nova argued.

"You are to me" Seylah stated.

"That's awfully judgey of you" Alec said, glaring at Seylah, "Anyways, this headquarters you speak of, where is it?".

"Sorry" Seylah apologized, "You just seem morally inclined enough to do something stupid, and there's too much blood on my hands as it is, a few years in, I saw something I shouldn't, I became the hunted instead of the hunter".

"And what was it that you saw?" a curious Alec asked.

"I wanted to know what was happening to the monsters" Seylah informed, "Because even though I spent all that time studying their every move, I couldn't remember them at all, so I started taking notes, I realized my memory was being erased, the question was, how?".

"The answer is malivore" Alec realised.

"How do you know about malivore?" a shocked Seylah asked.

"Your idiotic son here stole a knife from our school" Alec informed, "Because of which, monsters that stopped existing a long time ago, keeping coming for the damn knife".

"What's malivore?" a confused Landon asked.

"Malivore is a hell dimension that consumes creatures and wipes their existence from everyone's minds" Nova explained.

"Awesome" a panicked Landon mumbled.

"The last monster that came to our school for the knife was called the necromancer, he screwed us over really badly by taking the knife and returning it back to malivore" Nova revealed, "He said that the knife was one of three keys that were keeping malivore contained, so why are the monsters still coming for you, Landon?".

"I have no idea, didn't really get a chance to ask the last one, he just tried to eat me" Landon said.

"As you can see, we've had one hell of a semester" Alec said.

"It will only get worse" Seylah said, before turning to Landon, "If you don't go home and forget you heard the name, just like we forget anyone who's ever been there".

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, you have to tell us more" Landon pleaded, "I mean".

"I don't know who your father is" Seylah informed, realising that was the biggest question on Landon's mind, "My job was stressful, so I had flings to blow off steam, got pregnant, and just like your not-friend said, I'm not equipped to be a mother, sorry, I thought I was giving you a better life".

***

Alec followed Seylah out, "Is that alcohol?" he asked, taking a seat next to Landon's mother.

"Aren't you underage?" Seylah asked.

"I'm not the one you're responsible for, so it's fine" Alec said, taking the flask of alcohol from Seylah's hand and taking a massive sip before handing it back to her, "Look, I'm not too good with this whole people thing, but I really need answers from you".

"You already know everything I know" Seylah stated.

"That's a lie" Alec retorted, "You're lying now and you lied when you told Landon you have no idea who his father is".

"What makes you think I was lying?" Seylah asked.

"You did the thing that my mom used to do when I was younger" Alec remembered, a fond smile forming on his face, "We had a lot of bad stuff happen to us and when my mom wanted to protect us from the details, she would come up with this story but whenever she used to tell that story to me and my siblings, she could never look us in the eye".

"Did your mom eventually tell you the truth?" a curious Seylah asked.

Alec nodded his head, "My mom knew no matter how hard it is, we deserve to know the truth about our father and what's happening to him so she always came clean, you should do the same, tell Landon the truth".

"How about I tell you instead?" Seylah asked, "Just to see if you believe me, because I'm still not sure that I believe what I'm about to say, and I lived it, the organization I used to work for guards the portal to malivore, when I realized I was having memory lapses, I started writing everything down, drawing maps, I wrote about the creatures I captured and where I took them, each entry ended there".

"So where did you take the creatures?" a curious Alec asked.

"Nah, that's not important" Seylah said.

"Are you sure?" Alec asked, "Seems quiet important to me".

"Well, then I'm not gonna tell you" Seylah stated, "For your own good, believe me, one day, I snuck in by myself, and what I found was a black pit, locked away".

"Black pit?" Alec asked, "Is that a metaphor for something?".

"Oh, no" Seylah said, "It's an actual pit, filled with tar, or something".

"A literal pit to hell, nice" Alec commented, "My brother learnt that when malivore consumes a creature, all that creature experiences is darkness".

"Yeah" Seylah whispered, "It's not just a story, though, and I should know".

"How should you know?" a confused Alec asked.

"Because I've been there" Seylah revealed, shocking Alec.

***

"When my former employers discovered that I was trying to remember the things they made me forget, they tossed me into the pit" Seylah revealed.

"If that was the case, then how are you here right now?" a confused Alec asked.

"I don't know" Seylah admitted, "I don't even know how long I was in Malivore, only that I felt the things you described, the isolation, the loneliness, and then, one day, I found myself back here, I woke up in the middle of nowhere, covered in mud, absolutely no idea how I got there, turns out two years had gone by but there was a bright side, no one I worked for remembered me".

"Meaning you were free" Alec realised.

"I wouldn't go that far because there was also a catch" Seylah clarified, "I was pregnant".

"So let me get this straight, Landon is basically a supernatural immaculate conception?" a shocked Alec asked.

"I'll be damned" Seylah whispered, "You believe me".

"I'm a tribrid, my mother was first of her kind, my father is a vampire while my adoptive father is an original vampire, so safe to say I believe a lot of things" Alec said.

"It was easier for me to leave Landon in a small basket on the steps of a local church" Seylah explained.

"You were scared and young, no one holds your decision against you" Alec assured.

"I was selfish" Seylah said, "And now I'm tired, I've spent eighteen years trying to stay off the grid, to remain erased, I can't be his mother, not in the way he needs me to be, sorry".

Seylah stood up and started walking, "Walking away isn't going to to solve anything!" Alec called out.

"He'll be better off, you all will" Seylah retorted.

***

Nova stepped out of the motel room her and Landon was in, she walked over to Alec's car, opening the back seat, she took out her backpack, once she closed the door, that's when her eyes landed on Seylah trying to hotwire her own car.

"Let me guess, going out for pizza?" Nova asked, walking over to Seylah.

"Alec was right, you are a pain" Seylah said.

"I'm a pain, yet you're the one stealing a car" Nova retorted.

"It's my car, so it's not stealing" Seylah stated.

"So you're not stealing, you're just too afraid to go upstairs and get the keys, because then you'll have to come face to face with Landon and tell him how you're abandoning him once again" Nova concluded, "You realise that's even worse, right?".

Seylah looked at Nova, "He likes that school of yours, be good to him".

"I can't be good to someone whose own mother won't be good to him" Nova snapped, "Now are you going to follow me upstairs or am I dragging you up?".

"I never thought I'd see him again" Seylah admitted, "And I was okay with that, being a mother was never on my list of things to do before I died, every now and then, over the years, I wondered how he was, what kind of person he turned out to be, if he had a nice life", Seylah took a shaky breath, "Turns out he's a good person with a crappy life, he deserves better".

"You running away isn't going to make his life better" Nova argued.

"That's exactly what it's going to do" Seylah said, finally managing to hot wire the car.

"What you think is right for him doesn't matter" Nova said, "The last memory Landon's going to have of you running away from him when he needed you the most".

"No" Seylah said, "He won't remember me, period, and neither will you".

Seylah shot a dart at Nova, hitting her right in the chest and causing the St. John girl to fall unconscious on to the ground, while Seylah drove away.

***

A shocked Landon paced back and forth in the motel room, Alec just having finished explaining everything about his mother to him.

"Wait, wait, she got pregnant in Satan's mud bath?" a shocked Landon asked, pacing back and forth the room.

"Yeap" Alec confirmed, taking a seat on the bed.

"And now she's gone?" Landon asked.

"Look, being a parent isn't easy and clearly she isn't cut out for it" Alec said, "Now you let all this information sink in, I'm going to go check what's taking Nova so long".

Alec turned to leave, when the bathroom door opening caught Landon's attention.

"Bigger fish, huge fish!" Landon yelled, pointing towards the bathroom door.

"Ictus!" Alec yelled, using his magic to shove the big fish man back into the bathroom, just as Nova entered the room and used her magic to shut the bathroom door.

"Eww!" Nova yelled.

"See? Danger magnet" Landon pointed out.

"What the hell was that?" Nova asked.

"Some kind of Mer-man" Alec replied, just as the Mer-man started banging on the door, "A very angry Mer-man".

"Why are we still dealing with monsters?" a confused Nova asked, "What do we have that they want?".

"How the hell am I meant to know?" Alec asked, "Right now I can't think about all that, our number one priority is to get Landon out of here".

"Oh, no" Landon said, looking into his bag.

"What did you do this time?" an annoyed Nova asked.

"You said a necromancer told you the knife was one of three keys, right?" Landon asked.

"And why does that matter now?" Alec asked.

Landon faced Alec and Nova with a Egyptian urn in his hand, "Are you kidding me?!" Nova yelled.

 "This is Seylah's, I picked it up, but I didn't steal it" Landon explained, "I-I, not on purpose, anyway, I don't know how it got in there, just like how I don't know what happened with the knife, I swear I wouldn't do that again".

"Landon, shut up!" Nova yelled, "Right now is not the time to ramble".

"Right now is the time to run" Alec realised, seeing the door nearly rip out of its hinges .

"Or we let the Mer-man take it" Nova suggested.

"Are you out of your mind?!" Alec asked.

"Alec, this is a never ending cycle, if we want to beat malivore then we need to get to the portal which only this monster can lead us to" Nova said.

"This is a horrible idea, Nova" Alec said.

"We have no choice, Seylah is going there" Nova informed.

"What? Did she tell you that?" a shocked Landon asked.

"Kind of" Nova informed, placing Landon's locater bracelet into the urn, "Now come on, I'll explain everything else in the car, let's go".

"How fast can a Mer-man be on land?" Alec wondered, just as the Mer-man shattered through the door.

"The answer, real fast!" Nova yelled, grabbing Alec's hand and rushing out the motel room, but not before shutting the door behind them.

***

"So turns out the fish man is really fast" Nova said, as Alec drove the trio past the Fort Valley sign.

"This was your shitty idea" Alec reminded.

"Don't say it's a shitty idea till it's failed" Nova argued.

"What if we don't get there in time?" a worried Landon asked.

"Seylah doesn't have a huge lead on us" Nova assured.

"I can't believe she wants to erase herself just to get out of being a parent" Landon said, just as Alec drove over to a huge metal gate, "What the hell is that?!".

"It's a gate, idiot" Alec said, stopping the car and stepping out, Nova and Landon quickly following.

"Triad" Nova read the sign on the building infront of them.

"Explosives?" a shocked Landon read out.

"Here's a bright side to all this, maybe this huge fence will stop our little fish friend" Alec said.

"Optimistic thinking but I don't think that's the case" Nova said, looking at the huge hole in the gate, a hole the clearly indicated that the fishy man had made it here before them, Alec and Nova exchanged a look between them, before using the same hole to run into the building, Landon quickly following after them, "There!" Nova pointed towards the fish man, who was walking towards the black pit with the urn in his hand.

Landon quickly tried to rush over to the fish man, but Alec quickly shoved him back, "Stay back dumbass, he will kill you".

"I have to get in there" Landon said, shoving Alec away from him and rushing over to the pit.

"Dammit Landon!" Nova yelled, quickly running after Landon.

"Nova!" Alec yelled, running after the St. John girl, caring for her safety more than Landon's.

Before the three teenagers could reach the fishy man, he stepped on a bomb that blasted and sent all three of them flying backwards to the ground, unconscious.

I can only guess what happened next, but it's kind of obvious, Landon's mother Seylah, broke into Triad, she used them to find and go to malivore, I'm sure however triad is, they tried to stop her, but she was clearly stronger because she was fighting for something she believed in and from the looks of it, it's clear to me that she won, once upon a time my mom jumped into hell fire for her children, and now Seylah did the same by jumping into malivore for Landon, the problem with Seylah jumping into malivore is her getting erased from everyone's minds.

Once the sun had risen, Alec, Nova and Landon gained conscious and the trio quickly stood up from the ground.

"Where the hell are we?" a confused Landon asked, "What happened?".

"I have no idea" an equally confused Nova said, "But clearly something happened, because this isn't Kansas anymore".

Alec looked at Nova wide eyed, slowly but surely realising what had happened.

***

"Thank you for coming to help me" a grateful Landon told Alec and Nova as Alec drove them back to the boarding school with Nova sitting in the passenger seat and Landon in the back.

"We didn't coming willingly" a clearly disturbed Alec said.

"I'm really sorry that you couldn't find your mother" Nova said, "But I'm confused as to why I don't remember anything that happened since we found you", Nova looked at the middle Salvatore, "Alec, do you know why?".

Alec looked at Nova, "Give me till we get back to the school, I have too many theories going around my head right now".

Nova nodded her head in understanding, "Take your time, but are we sure about taking Landon back to the school?".

"It's one of Alaric's demands, something tells me going against it isn't going to turn out well" Alec said.

"Oh boy, Jayden is not going to be happy with this" Nova mumbled.

***

After explaining everything, Alec stood up from his seat and turned to his siblings and friends, "And that's it, now the question forms, what the hell do we do next?".

"You don't except any of us to have an answer to that, do you?" Asher asked his brother.

"Why do you remember and I don't?" a confused Nova asked.

"That's the big question, isn't it" Alec said, staring at the urn in his hand, the urn that had survived the blast the fish man hadn't.

"We'll figure it" Hope assured, "Whatever is happening, we're going to be the ones to figure it out".

"Why does it have to be us?" Asher asked.

"Because no one else will" Mia replied.

"The biggest question to ask right now is why do you remember things that Nova doesn't" Hope told Alec, she then glanced at Asher and Mia, "And if you two also have the ability to remember things".

"I need a some air" Jayden announced, standing up from his seat and walking out the Damon and Aria Salvatore Memorial library.

Hope looked at Mia and gave her a nod, "Go".

Mia nodded her head and quickly rushed after Jayden, "Why'd you send Mia after Jay?" a confused Asher asked Hope.

"Because she's the only one he wants to talk to right now" Hope informed, immediately causing Alec and Asher to exchange a look between them, wondering if Hope and Nova knew something they didn't.

Nova looked at Alec, "Forget Mia and Jayden, what do we do with that urn?".

Alec looked at the urn in his hand, the urn that had suddenly started glowing, "Whatever we decide to do, we should decide quickly".

Nova quickly grabbed the urn from Alec's hand and placed it on the table, Alec, Nova, Asher and Hope quickly surrounded the urn and stared at it in concern.

***

Mia entered Jayden, Alec and Asher's shared dorm room, without saying a word, Mia went and sat next to Jayden on his bed.

"Does Landon coming back change anything for you?" a suddenly afraid Jayden asked Mia after a moment of silence.

"Should it change anything for me?" Mia asked.

"I really hope not" Jayden admitted, "I'm not going to lie to you Mia, I have very strong feelings for you", Mia looked at Jayden wide eyed, not accepting him to admit that right now, "I hate the fact that Landon is back and I want you to be my girlfriend before he tries anything with you".

"This better not be a joke" Mia warned.

"I would never joke about this" Jayden defended.

"My brothers will kill you" Mia warned.

"For you, I'm ready to face anyone" Jayden assured.

"You won't leave me?" a vulnerable Mia asked.

"I couldn't leave you even if I wanted to" Jayden admitted, "You're a part of me Mia, I can't explain what I feel but whatever it is, it's strong and it's the best feeling in this world, I need you to give me a chance to explore this feeling, help me figure out what's happening between us, be mine".

A huge smile formed on Mia's face, she cupped Jayden's face in her hands and immediately pulled him into a heated kiss, Jayden smiled into the kiss before placing his hands on Mia's waist and deepening the kiss between them.

***

Presenting 1x08 of Broken Hearted!

How was the chapter?

Thoughts on Alaric sending Nova and Alec to help Landon?

Thoughts on the conversation between Alec and Seylah?

Thoughts on a mer-man attacking Alec, Nova and Landon?

Thoughts on Mia and Jayden officially entering a relationship?