chapter five ─ the reckoning

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AFTER A WHILE OF WALKING THROUGH TOWN, MORRIGAN AND NIK came to the high school. Approaching the building, the blonde couldn't help but think of how the building represented an experience that Morrigan herself never had since she'd been raised by Lin. Some might say she'd been homeschooled but she'd always seen that there had been no other option, so it never felt like the right word.

It didn't take them long to find an open door that allowed them access to the school. Once the doors closed behind them, Nik paused and she could tell that he was using his enhanced senses to listen for the person that they were here for. After a moment, a smile spread on his face and he looked at her, raising a brow.

Morrigan couldn't help but laugh as she conjured her scythe. No memories of the man and yet she could read his expression effortlessly.

He looked the weapon up and down with an appreciative smile and then gestured forward. They started down the hall and Morrigan once more wondered who they were here for. She was going to stick to her word and not question Nik on anything until she had gained his trust by sticking with him through this, but she was curious.

When a door opened just ahead of them, Morrigan tensed, expecting that they would be caught and have to lie their way around the scythe and the fact that they were in the school.

Instead, Nik smiled as he grabbed the arm of the girl that had walked through the door, even as dawning horror came over her face and recognition came over Morrigan's.

"There's my girl," Nik said.

"Klaus," Elena said.

Seeming to not have spotted Morrigan, Elena quickly turned away in fear but in the blink of an eye, Nik was in front of her again.

"You are supposed to be dead. What are we going to do about that?"

Nik gripped Elena's arm and looked up at Morrigan, giving her an expectant look. This finally seemed to make Elena realize that someone else was there and she turned and finally caught sight of the blonde. Her eyes widened.

"Morrigan?"

"Hey, Elena, fancy seeing you here."

"You two know each other, do you?" Nik asked.

"You could say that..." Morrigan said.

Using his grip on Elena's arm, he tugged her down the hallway and Morrigan followed. If she was curious before, she was downright intrigued now.

"Why are we here?" Morrigan asked. "What do you want Elena for?"

"She was supposed to die."

"Yeah, I know. That's why I'm in Mystic Falls. Balance between life and death being off and all that."

"She was supposed to die and didn't and now I can't make more hybrids," Nik explained.

"Hybrids..." Morrigan echoed. "Like that Klaus fellow?"

He gave her an expectant look. "Exactly like."

"Morrigan, he's Klaus. Didn't you know?" Elena told her.

"You said your name was Nik."

"I said that you called me Nik," he countered. "But my full name is Niklaus."

"Oh... Oh!" she exclaimed as the realization hit her. "Well, this just got awkward."

They walked in silence for a few more steps, rounding a corner and heading down a hallway that was near identical to the last. The further they walked, the more distressed Elena seemed to get.

"If you're going to kill me, just do it," Elena said.

"Not until I know I'm right," Klaus said. "But I do have ways of making you suffer."

Still keeping his grip tight on Elena's arm, Klaus turned and used his back to push open a gym door and pull the girl inside with him. Morrigan followed dutifully, just as she promised, but as soon as she saw the number of students in the gym, she deconjured her scythe. It wasn't exactly the kind of thing that most high school students wouldn't be suspicious upon seeing.

Inside the gym, the students were laying out hundreds of small paper cups and filling them with paint. It wasn't the most creative of pranks in Morrigan's eyes. But these were high school seniors in a small town. She didn't exactly expect a whole lot out of them.

"Attention, seniors!" Klaus called out in an American accent that gave Morrigan the creeps. "You have officially been busted. Prank Night is over. Head on home."

They stopped and Klaus got the attention of two students that were close to them. Morrigan took the moment to look past them and watch the last of the other students file out of the gym until it was empty.

"I remember you," Klaus told them.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" the girl asked.

"Oh don't worry, I wasn't in my right head last time we met. Lift your foot up please, Dana," Klaus said.

He was clearly compelling the girl on the last bit as she immediately complied. Klaus turned to the boy that was with her.

"If she drops her foot, Chad, I want you to beat her to death. Understood?"

Chad nodded, clearly understanding even though he didn't say anything. Dana looked offended as she turned to Chad, wondering why he was agreeing to such a thing.

"Don't, Klaus," Elena said. "You don't have to hurt anybody."

"Come on, love. Of course, I do," Klaus answered.

"Morrigan, you're going along with this?" Elena questioned her. "I thought you were our friend and you've been working with Klaus this whole time?"

"Look who's jumping to conclusions. I will have you know that I only met this man about... forty minutes ago. Of course, our history goes back three hundred years from before I was a reaper but I can't technically remember that time even if I do feel the inexplicable connection that one would with people that knew you very well, but I only recognize him as the man I met on the street forty minutes ago."

Elena blinked at her, clearly confused by her statement. Morrigan shrugged and conjured her scythe again, using it like a staff to lean her weight against. From the other side of Elena, Klaus was smiling at her.

"Why are you working with Klaus?" Elena asked again.

"Because he knew me in my first life," she said, smiling at Klaus. "Because he was someone who loved me and I loved in return. One of my closest friends."

"How do you know that?" Elena questioned. "Because he told you so? He's lying to you, Morrigan."

"He can't be. He knew my name. I wasn't called Morrigan in my first life."

"That doesn't mean he was your friend."

"Trust me, it does." Looking at Klaus and the smile on his face, she could tell that she may as well have already won him over. "These aren't the kinds of things you can explain, Elena. You just know."

From next to them, Dana whimpered and wobbled a bit in her effort to keep her foot in the air and Morrigan looked over at her. There were tears in her eyes and running down her cheeks.

"Keep it up," Klaus reminded her.

"Where's Stefan?" Elena asked.

"Oh, right," Morrigan said. "I forgot you kidnapped Stefan."

"I didn't kidnap him, he agreed to come with me so that I'd safe Damon."

"Oh... The brotherly love is cute and all but it kinda sucks that means I have to deal with Damon."

Klaus laughed heartily as if they weren't standing in a gym where a murder could take place any second if a high school girl couldn't keep her foot in the air. She supposed after a thousand years of being a vampire that was something you got used to.

"Where's Stefan?" Elena asked again, more agitated. "What'd you do to him?"

"Stefan's on a time-out," Klaus explained.

Behind them, the door to the gym they'd entered in from opened again and they all turned to look at it just in time to see Bonnie Bennett and Matt Donovan come in with smiles on their faces.

"Bonnie, get out of here!" Elena shouted.

In the moment it took for Bonnie to process the situation and realize what was going on, Klaus was already behind her and blocking her exit. Elena took a half step towards her best friend but Morrigan put her arm out in front of the girl to stop her. That action earned her an offended and betrayed look from Elena but Morrigan kept her attention on Klaus.

"I was wondering when you'd show up. Now we can get started." Klaus looked over at Dana and Chad. "Uh, Dana, why don't you relax? You and Chad sit tight."

Morrigan looked behind her as the girl nearly collapsed into her friend and they sat down on the floor. She turned her attention back to Klaus.

"I assume you're the reason Elena's still alive," Klaus accused Bonnie.

"That's right," Bonnie said without an ounce of fear. "If you wanna blame someone, blame me."

"Oh, there's no need for blame. It's just your witchy interference caused some undesirable side effects. And since you caused the problem, I'm gonna have you find the fix."

The door to the gym opened again and Rebekah came back in, pulling Tyler Lockwood with her.

"Ugh, get off of me," Tyler said.

"Hush now," Rebekah said.

"I'd like you all to meet my sister, Rebekah," Klaus introduced. "A word of warning, she can be quite mean."

"Don't be an ass," Rebekah said, tossing Tyler over to Klaus.

"Leave him alone," Elena said.

Klaus pulled Tyler with him till he was in front of the whole group and Morrigan stood up straighter.

"Every time I attempt to turn a werewolf into a vampire hybrid, they die during the transition. It's quite horrible, actually," Klaus explained, biting his wrist and then forcing it to Tyler's mouth. "I need you to find a way to save my hybrids, Bonnie. And for Tyler's sake... you'd better hurry."

With that, Klaus snapped Tyler's neck and the boy fell to the ground limply. Morrigan sighed. She looked up at Klaus and winced, looking at the boy and then her scythe. In answer, Klaus simply shrugged.

"Hey, old friend," Morrigan mock-whispered. "Can I have a sidebar real quick?"

Klaus nodded and gestured for Rebekah to follow them over to the bleachers on the far side of the gym. Rebekah hopped up to one of the benches higher up and Klaus stood a few rows lower than her while Morrigan stood a little off but between them both so they formed an offset triangle.

"Listen, I don't know how I was before, but now I'm kind of against needless murder and all that," she said. "I'm not trying to... I don't even know. But it is kind of my job now to keep the balance and make sure people don't die before their time and all. I just don't want to get in trouble for being here and letting this happen and there could be serious consequences outside of me getting punished."

"Consequences?" Rebekah asked.

"The universe will self-correct. Don't get me started on the intricacies of the delicate balance between life and death because judging by the teenagers pacing around their dead friend behind us, we do not have the time."

Klaus refused to look at her, instead focusing on the gym wall to his far-right which she knew could not be fascinating enough for him to ignore her.

"Nik," she said softly. "I am still on your side. You are my friend, both of you. Cosmic karma is a real thing and she's a bitch. I don't want the consequences to come down on you."

"I appreciate your concern, but Tyler isn't going to stay dead."

"Technically he is, vampires just have different rules. You get to keep your souls since you're coming back to life."

"What?" Rebekah asked.

"Don't even get me started on the rules regarding the supernatural, it took me years to learn them."

"So why are you worried?" Klaus asked her.

Morrigan laughed. "Because you're my friend, Nik. Tyler may not bring the consequences down on you, but you were ready to have Chad kill Dana and I know technically he was compelled but I'm pretty sure that in the cosmic court of law, Judge Karma will recognize that and rule you the killer while giving Chad a lesser sentence, okay?"

"Okay!" Klaus conceded.

She sighed and leaned against her scythe again, recognizing the look on his face. He was using his enhanced hearing to listen in on things she couldn't hear again.

"And if Bonnie's successful, he'll live through his transition," Klaus said.

He jumped down from the bleachers and started walking over to the group. Morrigan and Rebekah shared a look before following after him.

"Go on, then. Go fetch your grimoires and enchantments and whatnot. I'll hold onto Elena for safekeeping."

Though Elena looked terrified, when Bonnie gave her a questioning look, she nodded. Telling Bonnie that it was okay for her to leave. She took Matt with her and the two ran out of the gym together.

"So this is the latest doppelganger," Rebekah said, leaning in close to Elena from behind and causing her to jump. "The original one was much prettier."

"Enough, Rebekah," Klaus complained. "Take the wolf-boy elsewhere, would you?"

"Can Morrigan come with me this time?" she asked with a pout.

Klaus sighed and looked over at Morrigan. She shrugged and smiled before looking over at Rebekah with a hopeful look. Finally, after a moment of consideration, he sighed again and nodded, gesturing for the two of them to leave. Rebekah smiled brightly and grabbed Morrigan's arm, pulling her along as she went over to Tyler and grabbed his arm. She dragged Tyler's body along with them as they left the gym, happily linking her arm through Morrigan's in the process.

They walked down the hallways of the school until they came to one where Morrigan recognized Caroline laying on the ground. Given how she wasn't moving, she assumed that the girl was unconscious. When they neared her, Rebekah let go of Tyler but not Morrigan, continuing till they were on the other side of Caroline.

"I suppose that they'll be a while," Rebekah sighed. "Let's sit and you can tell me how this thing works."

From her pocket, Rebekah produced a cellphone. Morrigan laughed at how awkwardly she was holding it as they sat down and she laid her scythe on the floor next to her.

"Who's phone is this?"

"It's a telephone?" Rebekah asked.

"Yes, and you didn't answer my question."

"Stefan's. I stole it from him."

"Somehow that doesn't surprise me." Morrigan smiled at her and took the phone. "These are simple, really. Technology has had a boom in the last century. Exponential growth. This is essentially a camera, telephone and telegram all rolled into one."

"Really?"

"I know. When I first saw that they had put cameras in phones I didn't believe them. Of course, that was one of the first ads that I saw after coming into the real world after twenty years but that's beside the point."

While they waited for the two teenagers to wake up, Morrigan walked Rebekah through how cellphones worked. Eventually, she seemed to have the basics of it but Morrigan expected that there would be lessons in the future that she would have to reteach. But that was fine by her, she thought she was a great teacher.

Soon enough though, Caroline began to stir as they were looking through the photos on Stefan's phone. Caroline rolled over with a groan, a hand coming up to her neck.

"We didn't have mobile telephones in my day," Rebekah said. "Would have made life a whole lot easier, I suppose."

Rebekah stuck her hand out with the phone, the front-facing camera open and Morrigan leaned in closer and smiled with her as she snapped a photo.

"Where's Tyler?" Caroline asked.

"He's dead."

"Ish."

Caroline rolled over and saw Tyler's body, immediately pulling herself up to get closer to him.

"What did you do to him?"

"Think of it as... he's having a nap. When he wakes up, he'll be a hybrid."

Looking down at the phone again, Rebekah swiped through the photos, seeing ones of all of Stefan's friends and then finally landing on one of Stefan and Elena together. Rebekah made a disgusted noise. Then, her expression changed and she brought the phone closer to her and double-tapped on the screen to zoom in just like Morrigan had shown her. 

"Is that my necklace?" Rebekah asked in a quiet voice.

"That's your necklace?" Morrigan questioned.

Without answering, Rebekah got up and walked over to Caroline, holding the phone out so that she could see the photo in question.

"Why is that doppelganger bitch wearing my necklace?"

"That's Elena's necklace, Stefan gave it to her when they first started dating," Caroline answered.

"Morrigan, stay here and watch them, I'm going to tell Nik," Rebekah said, storming off without another word.

At the mention of her name, Caroline seemed to realize that Morrigan was there and looked over at her in surprise while she pushed herself to her feet with the assistance of her scythe.

"Morrigan what are you doing here?" Caroline asked.

"Ugh, this is only the second time having this conversation and it's grown old," Morrigan complained. "Wasn't always Morrigan and knew Klaus and Rebekah when I wasn't. Don't remember them, but they remember me and I was practically family."

"You're working for Klaus?"

"The only person I work for is the Grim Reaper."

"But you're here. With them."

"Exactly. With."

Caroline got to her feet and grabbed Tyler's arm. "Well, I'm getting him out of here."

"Uh-uh-uh," Morrigan said, taking a step forward and tilting her scythe back so that the bottom of the long handle touched Caroline's ankle. "You both are going to stay right here where Klaus wants you or you're going to find out what a reaper carries a scythe for."

"I don't understand why you're doing this," Caroline said, dropping Tyler's arm. "All summer you've been our friend and helping us find Stefan and now you're just working for him?"

"I told you, the only person I work for-"

"Is the Grim Reaper, yeah, I remember. I still don't get it."

"Imagine this, Caroline. You forget the people that you love most in the world. When you're reunited, sure, you have no memories of them, but all of those feelings that you had for them? Still there. Now in a contest between these people and people you've only known for a couple of months, who would you choose?"

Caroline didn't answer. Morrigan nodded.

"You're not factoring in that Klaus is a psychopath."

"Doesn't factor in. Caroline, in your little friend group, the people that I am closest to are Alaric the borderline alcoholic vampire hunter whose best friend is a vampire and Damon, said vampire, whose list of wrongdoings, when compiled, would probably be bigger than a dictionary. So..."

"This is unbelievable. I can't believe you're switching sides that easily."

"I'm not switching sides. I was here to find out how two people died and came back to life when they weren't supposed to. Now, yes, you all do have your charms, I won't lie about that. But I was never on anyone's side. I'm a reaper. Death isn't on anyone's side."

Caroline rolled her eyes dramatically just as Rebekah came back down the hallway. With a few words passed between them and some protests from Caroline, they moved Tyler into one of the classrooms off the hallway that seemed to be a lab of some kind. Rebekah easily hoisted the werewolf up onto the top of one of the lab counters.

As soon as Rebekah stepped away from Tyler, Caroline immediately sat down on one of the stools next to him and watched him with a worried expression. Morrigan and Rebekah sat down at a table nearby and kept poking around on Stefan's phone.

She explained everything that had happened when she went to go tell her brother about her necklace, including how he had set a twenty-minute timer for Bonnie to find the cure for Klaus' hybrids dying. And that, of course, gave Morrigan the perfect opportunity to show Rebekah that phones could set timers now, too.

Around the time that the timer got down to three minutes, Tyler woke up with a gasp and then started coughing. Caroline comforted him as he got his bearings.

"Where am I? What happened?" Tyler asked.

"Tyler..." Caroline started.

"Don't be shy about it," Rebekah said.

"What's going on?" Tyler asked.

"Klaus is turning you into a vampire. A hybrid. You're in transition," Caroline answered.

"Don't leave out the hard part, sweets," Rebekah said. "You'll only survive if your witch is successful. If not you're pretty much dead."

"Well, you technically already are, if that's any comfort," Morrigan said.

"It's not," Tyler said.

"You're gonna be okay. Okay? It's gonna be okay," Caroline assured him, running her fingers through his hair.

"I wonder how she's doing..." Rebekah wondered aloud before turning the phone around so that they could see the time counting down. "Tick tock goes the gym clock."

"Aren't you against murder like this, Morrigan?" Caroline asked. "You're just going to let them do this?"

"Caroline, I hate to break it to you but Elena was supposed to die in the ritual. Her soul is already supposed to have passed on. From here on out... anything that happens to her isn't meant to happen or not meant to happen."

The teenager scoffed and looked back over at her boyfriend. Rebekah and Morrigan looked back at the timer counting down. When it hit zero, Morrigan expected to feel the death of Elena Gilbert. She expected to be summoned to collect her soul or even just to recognize that it was happening.

But she felt nothing.

Which was strange if Klaus had compelled Stefan to kill Elena when the clock hit zero.

A moment passed and the door into the classroom burst open and Klaus came in, holding something in his hand.

"Well, the verdict's in. The Original Witch says the doppelganger should be dead," he announced.

"Does that mean we can kill her?" Rebekah asked excitedly.

"No, I'm fairly certain it means the opposite."

"What?" Rebekah asked, grabbing Caroline and holding her so she couldn't get to Tyler.

"Call it a hunch." He offered up a vial of what was clearly blood to Tyler. "Elena's blood. Drink it."

"No. No, no, no, Tyler, don't," Caroline protested.

"If he doesn't feed, he'll die anyway, love. Consider this an experiment." He offered the vial to Tyler. "It's okay."

Tyler, who by this time was looking very rough, shook his head and sighed as if he had nothing left to lose and took the vial. After a brief moment to gain up some strength, he lifted the vial to his mouth and tipped it back.

The boy was barely able to swallow it, immediately beginning to gag and collapse, falling to the edge of the table and knocking over a bunch of vials and glass beakers before he fell hard to the floor and rolled over. His expression said it all, the pain, the confusion of everything. He cried out in pain and Caroline cried out in protest, but Rebekah held her easily as they all watched Tyler.

After a moment, he managed to roll from his back over to his knees as he clutched at his head, continuing to cry out in pain. Morrigan took a half step towards him, watching in intrigue as she felt the shift before she was sure anyone else was even aware of it.

As a reaper, Morrigan could sense the dead and she could always tell who was a vampire and who wasn't. They were undead, after all, even if they were still up and walking around, fully functioning, they were still dead and she could tell. Now, and it was growing stronger by the second, she could feel the shift in Tyler. 

It was just like Klaus now. She could sense on them both that they were both undead and alive.

Just as she felt the energy stabilize, Tyler looked up and growled, his eyes golden like a wolf's, but the tell-tale veins under the eyes and fangs of a vampire.

"Well, that's a good sign," Klaus said.

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MORRIGAN HELPED BRING ELENA TO THE HOSPITAL and watched with some amusement as he compelled some of the staff to help take Elena's blood and make sure she stayed in the hospital. After settling the girl into a room, the three left to the parking lot. Waiting next to what she assumed was Klaus' car, Rebekah hopped up onto the hood and sat there while Morrigan stood with Klaus.

"So the doppelganger isn't the problem, her blood is the solution," Rebekah mused.

"Seems so," Klaus agreed.

"How did you know?"

"Well, you know how much the Original Witch hated me. Do you honestly think I would do anything other than the opposite of what she says?"

Rebekah smirked. "A thousand years in the grave and she's still screwing with you."

"It makes sense if you think about it from her perspective," Klaus said. "It was her fail-safe in case I ever broke the hybrid curse. The doppelganger had to die for me to become a hybrid, but if she was dead..."

"Then you couldn't use her blood to sire yourself a new species."

"Leaving me alone for all time."

Morrigan's brow immediately furrowed. Everything she'd heard about him and had assumed, this was one thing that she was most surprised to learn. He had family and he was afraid of being alone?

"Is that what this is about?" Rebekah asked, voicing Morrigan's thoughts before she could. "Your obsession with hybrids. You just don't want to be alone?"

Klaus looked up at his sister with tears in his eyes. "What I want is to take my girl, take my hybrid and get the hell out of this one-pony town. Why don't, uh, you get the truck? I'll get Elena."

"I'll start the car," Morrigan offered.

Rebekah nodded and slid off the truck, silently walking past the two of them to go get the truck. Morrigan looked over at Klaus, studying his face and his expression. When it changed suddenly, her brow furrowed, but her questions were answered when he spoke.

"Well, look who finally decided to show up to the party."

"Where is she?" Damon demanded as he walked up to them.

"Uh, she's making a donation to a greater cause," Klaus answered as they turned to face the younger vampire.

Damon made to walk past them into the hospital, but Klaus stopped him with a hand on his chest.

"Can't let you interfere, mate."

"Then you'll have to kill me."

"Oh, I would love to, but, uh, I made a pledge to your brother and unlike him, I keep my word. Although, you know what, thinking about it now, he probably doesn't care that much anymore."

In a flash, Klaus had Damon punned against the hood of the car and was reaching to rip out his heart. Morrigan was content to let him since Damon had been getting on her every nerve lately, but it seemed that Damon had an ace up his sleeve to save himself.

"Don't you wanna know about your friend, Mikael?"

A chill washed over Morrigan at the sound of that name like she had just fallen into ice water. Whoever this person was, Morrigan had a horrible, terrible feeling about him.

"What do you know about Mikael?"

"Just that he knows you're here."

"You're bluffing."

"Katherine and I found him. Consider it our leverage."

With a cry, Klaus threw Damon to the car on the other side of them. He looked once more at Morrigan before he disappeared in the blink of an eye and she followed suit, stepping backwards into the World Between so that she vanished from sight.

She watched as Damon got up in slow motion and started walking into the hospital before closing her eyes and stepping out again. She hurried off in the direction that Klaus had gone, hoping to catch up to him if he hadn't gone far, but after a few minutes, she realized that it was hopeless.

With a sigh, she closed her eyes and focused on him and felt the air shift around her. She opened her eyes to find herself sitting in the front seat of a nice car and looked over just as the driver's side door opened and Klaus got in. He still had a conflicted look on his face and didn't notice her.

"Didn't think you were getting away from me that easy, did you?" she said, getting his attention and smiling at him. "I believe you owe me a story or two."

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an. so what did you guys think of the first real chapter with Morrigan and the Mikaelson's? What do you think of their interactions and the Mystic Falls Gang's reactions to Morrigan "switching sides"? How do you think things are going to be going forward? I want to hear all of your thoughts in the comments!