MOONS.
037. | ❛ sad copy of an original. ❜

Freya gently lifts her wrist to Luna's mouth, who pushes it away.

"Luna, drink it. You probably have vervain in your system making it harder for you to heal."

Luna looks at Freya for a second before accepting it. The blood coursed through her veins, though the pain of the stabbing was still felt she could feel it getting better. Luna pulls away before Lucien turns towards them.

Vincent is in the middle of quietly performing the spell, which involves drawing a symbol on the palm of his hand using his finger and the blood mixture, while Freya, still weakened from blood loss, starts to talk to Lucien.

"All this effort to become a sad copy of an Original? You think you can just wake up one day and become top of the food chain?"

Lucien tries to ignore her remarks, but eventually loses his temper and vamp-speeds over to her, grabbing her roughly by the shoulders while Vincent continues the spell.

"It did not happen overnight, I assure you. The truth is, I used to think your siblings gods... until my love was stolen, and our lives taken by their compulsion."

Lucien actually looks truly upset as he recounts this story, but Freya just glares at him mutinously, literally shaking from how weak and angry she is.

"Once free, I realized they were not worthy of all that had been gifted them. I decided, then, that I would become in flesh what I have always been-- their better."

He stands and storms over to where Vincent is working and points at the spell set-up.

"I have engineered every second since into achieving this moment."

"You faked the prophecy."

"Oh, no. When I found the prophecy foretelling your family's end, I knew it was true... and that I was its living embodiment."

Freya's eyes fill with tears, and she uses all her energy to resist bursting into tears as Lucien walks toward her and looks her in the eyes with a maniacal expression.

"It is my rise that shall be their downfall."

Vincent is waving his hands over the basin in the woods while he casts the spell. Luna is trembling still recovering as Freya is still on her knees behind him while Lucien paces anxiously and observes the spell. However, due to how fast Vincent is speaking and how loud the music is, the incantation is still unintelligible. The white oak bullet was wedged between his fingers as he chants, but he lets it drop into the bowl just as the contents are set ablaze, causing a burst of flames so tall and powerful that Vincent is forced to arch his back away from it as it turns into what resembles a tornado made of fire. Freya's eyes widen in horror when she realizes the spell is successful, and Lucien smiles and lets the satisfaction of his triumph flow through him. Finally, the flames vanish with such force that Vincent is thrown backward and lands unconscious on his back on the forest floor as Lucien rushes toward the basin, laughing maniacally. There is a spigot of sorts at the bottom of the basin, and he pulls the empty bottle from his pocket and fills it with the blood mixture before shutting off the spigot and holding the bottle up for Freya to see. Luna looks devastated and on the verge of passing out as Lucien triumphantly smirks.

Lucien smiles in satisfaction and puts the bottle of blood mixture into his pocket before kneeling and filling up a second from the spigot. Vincent continues to crawl weakly toward Luna and Freya, looking extremely guilty.

"Luna, Freya, I'm so sorry."

He turns just in time to see Lucien attempt to drink the bottle of blood mixture,"Can't let you do that!"

Vincent thrusts his arm forward and flicks his wrist, casting a pain infliction spell that brings Lucien to his knees, though he takes great care not to spill the contents of the bottle. Vincent makes several more intricate hand gestures that continue the spell, and Lucien reluctantly puts the cap on the bottle to ensure it won't spill just as he drops it on top of a pile of leaves. Before Vincent can do anything else to him, he cries out in agony, and his back arches as the Ancestors cast their own pain infliction spell on him, causing his bones to crack as his body contorts painfully. Vincent pleads with the Ancestors as Lucien takes advantage of being freed from his spell.

"You're making a mistake..."

The Ancestors stop, and Vincent flops on the ground in relief as Lucien picks up the bottle and growls as he storms toward them. Freya throws herself on top of Vincent and Luna to protect them.

"No one has to die today!"

"Oh. Oh, sweet Freya."

Lucien kneels on the ground in front of them with a pitying look on his face.

"Today is the beginning of an awful lot of death... starting with yours, I'm afraid."

Lucien grabs Freya by the wrists and pulls her to her feet as she looks at him with a pained expression.

"Truly, you and I could've been quite the thing."

Lucien grabs Freya in a choke-hold, and she gasps for breath just as Elijah, Finn, and Matt appear in the clearing.

"Lucien?"

At the sound of his voice, Lucien spins at vampire speed and holds Freya in a headlock.

"Oh... Just in time for the party, lads!"

Lucien holds up the bottle of blood/venom mixture and pops the top off of it with his thumb.

"Cheers!"

Lucien drinks the concoction and sighs in triumph before addressing them again.

"Let the fun begin! Can either of you get to me faster than I can rip your darling sister's head off?"

Elijah and Finn share a worried look, which answers Lucien's question for him and causes him to chuckle smugly.

"Didn't think so."

Before Lucien can do anything, Finn vamp-speeds toward Matt and puts his hand over Matt's own, using Matt's hands to pull the trigger on the gun and shoot at Lucien three times. Freya gasps in pain, revealing the gunshots went through her shoulder so they would end up right in Lucien's heart. Since he is a regular vampire, the bullets are fatal, and Lucien looks at them in surprise as his skin starts to desiccate.

"Oh, you clever bastard!"

Both he and Freya fall to the ground, and Finn and Elijah rush toward Freya. Elijah pulls her to a seated position and hands her off to Finn, who looks concerned.

"Hold her. Hold her head."

Finn does as he's told, and Elijah bites his wrist to feed Freya his blood while Finn brushes Freya's hair off of her face.

Freya tries to get words out, "Help Luna,"

Finn nods his head letting Elijah rush over to her looking at her still injured stomach.

"It's okay Luna. It'll be alright." Elijah lifts her up, whimpering in pain as Elijah feeds her his blood.

Luna finally drinks enough blood to recover and gasps for breath as she coughs and frantically looks around.

"It's okay. You're okay."

"Where is he?"

Matt has just sat down on a large rock next to Vincent, who is still recovering from the power he expended casting the spell, and he gestures toward Lucien's body.

"That guy? Dead."

"No..." Luna weakly says.

Elijah, concerned, cups Luna's face in his hands and turns her to look him in the eyes

"Listen to me. It's done. It's over."

"You don't understand-- he drank the serum." Freya says to her brother.

Elijah shakes his head in confusion, not understanding what she's saying.

"He wanted you to kill him. You helped him take the final step..."

Elijah looks behind them as he hears the sound of rustling leaves, and his eyes widen in horror when Lucien rises to his feet. Finn looks absolutely stunned as he sees Lucien develop double-fangs on both the top and bottom jaws, and his irises grow bright red as the darkened vampiric veins around his eyes stretch all the way down his face like an Augustine Vampire. Just then, Matt starts to shoot round after round at him, but Lucien just laughs and spreads his arms wide as the bullets pass through him, the wounds causing him no pain and healing as quickly as they're made.

Lucien backhands Matt so hard that he flies backward and is knocked unconscious, causing Elijah to leap to his feet to fight against him. Elijah gets in several punches but is knocked down quickly, and Finn only has time to lunge at him before Lucien hits him in the chin with a right hook and sends him flying to the ground.

"Poor show! Poor show! Come on, gents. You can do better, surely!"

Elijah vamp-speeds toward him, only for Lucien to kick him backward in the chest.

"What do you think, Elijah? This new power-- it suits me, no?"

Elijah continues to try to fight him, only to be defeated at every turn.

"I've pondered this... Whom to end first, you or Klaus? I had thought him. But now that I'm here, I think it should be you."

Lucien lifts Elijah up by the lapels and lets his fangs out to bite Elijah, only for Finn to appear behind them. He smashes the basin against Lucien's head and uses the second of disorientation to get him to drop Elijah, but in the process, Lucien bites Finn's neck as hard as he can.

He lets go of Finn, and Elijah catches him before he can fall to the ground. The Mikaelsons stare at Lucien in horror as he licks the blood from his lips, but when he tries to walk toward them, he's unable to move farther than a few steps as Freya thrusts out her bound, bloody wrists and casts a silent spell.

"A barrier spell? How delicious."

He tests the spell by running his fingers along the invisible boundary while Finn writhes on the ground.

"I do appreciate a bit of spice being thrown into the hunt. It isn't very fun if the quarry just rolls over and offers its neck, is it?"

"I can keep this up as long as I need to."

"I don't doubt it, you little minx. Never mind. I have waited a thousand years... I can wait a tad longer. I'm gonna enjoy making this last a long time."

Lucien vamp-speeds away so quickly its as if he's simply vanished, leaving the unconscious Matt and the weakened Vincent, Finn, Freya, Luna, and Elijah behind to deal with their injuries. Freya and Elijah waste no time crawling over to Finn to check on him as he wheezes on the ground.

"Finn!"

Elijah pulls Finn into a seated position and turns his head to the side so he can examine his bite. The wound is bloody and painful-looking and has yet to even begin to heal, and Elijah, Luna, and Freya seem baffled as to how this is possible.