◤ 𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝖓𝖎𝖓𝖊𝖙𝖊𝖊𝖓 : ❛ lost lover ❜ ◢

✧

          KLAUS WAS FURIOUS WITH THE WITCHES FOR WHAT HAPPENED AT THE BAYOU. Don't get her wrong, Marisol was pissed herself because she got an arrow in her stomach that had some type of poison or enchantment that made her feel to the ground and Hayley had also gotten hurt, which sucked, but she wasn't bursting at the seams like Klaus was.

And, she supposed, he had a right to. Hayley, the woman carrying his child, almost got killed and he almost lost his child, but he also hadn't shown so much care for the baby so it was perplexing. Sometimes, like these, he was furious and seemed to fixated on keeping Hayley safe. Other times he ignored her and forgot about her existence, keeping her locked up in the house for her protection, going along with his plans for world domination starting with New Orleans and taking down Marcel.

Marisol would almost call it amusing to see if she wasn't so mad herself. Hayley could have died – the baby could have died – and that just meant another child she failed to protect when she had given her word that she would. She had promised to herself and to Hayley that she would protect the baby, just like she had promised Ophelia she would protect Magus. But unlike last time, she would not fail Hayley and those pesky little witches almost made her break her promise.

Those pesky little witches would have to pay, and time away from the bayou made her realize how much she fucking hated witches again. They needed to pay for hurting her and Hayley (but also Rebekah, though Marisol didn't consider her a friend but more of an ally so it didn't really matter that she got hurt), like how Ophelia needed to pay for cursing her.

But Ophelia was long gone so she would just have to make due with getting revenge on the witches who were currently alive.

Marisol flipped through a book as she waited for Klaus to return to Sophie, Rebekah waiting with her. "How much longer is this going to take?" she asked the Original, because this was taking up too much of her time and she could be with Hayley or Marcel or getting revenge on her own.

"Be patient," Rebekah told her with an eye roll before muttering, "And here I thought you were a woman who liked to take her time..."

She raised an eyebrow, looking up from the book and turning to Rebekah. "What do you mean by that? I have never claimed to be a patient woman," she said clearly.

"Well, you certainly kept Elijah waiting before," Rebekah brought up and Marisol huffed.

"I didn't keep Elijah waiting, I didn't want to be with him. Seriously. I wanted Elijah as a friend and nothing else, so I didn't drag him along and make him wait," Marisol defended herself, because it was true back then.

But feelings changed and now she didn't even want to think about Elijah in that way. He was just a bad memory she wanted to desperately forget even though no one was letting her, apparently. Well, not that it's surprising considering she lived in a house with two of his siblings who both were around when they had their almost relationship.

"I'm sure," Rebekah said unconvinced, "Elijah was practically in love with you and don't deny that you weren't the same."

"So what? I used to like him, didn't mean I wanted to be with him. I always told him we couldn't be anything more and he respected that. There are other reasons why I didn't want to be with him than just not liking him," Marisol said, "In fact, I liked him a lot and then it all went up in flames so it doesn't matter anymore."

"Maybe not to you, but it mattered to Elijah for a long time and that means it still matters to me," Rebekah stared at her, a bit of fire in her eyes.

Marisol stared at her, soaking up the silence before slamming her book shut and practically throwing it onto the coffee table. "That happened centuries ago, it doesn't matter anymore. I've let it go so you should do the same," she said with an edge of finality, and thankfully Klaus chose this as the time to rush in with Sophie so she was saved from Rebekah trying to argue with her even more.

Thank the Lord, or whatever ruled the universe.

And once Klaus planted Sophie onto the sofa opposite of Marisol and Rebekah, he wasted no time ranting to her. "We had a deal! You protect my unborn child, I dismantle Marcel's army. And whilst I've been busy fulfilling my part of the bargain, you allowed Hayley to be attacked and almost killed by a gaggle of lunatic witches."

Sophie sighed. "I had nothing to do with it, I swear," she assured them, "Hayley and I are linked, remember? She dies, I die."

"Then who were they?" Rebekah asked barely after Sophie had a chance to finish, a perplexed expression on her face.

"They are a faction of extremists. Sabine stupidly told them about some vision she had about the baby," Sophie explained to them.

Klaus titled his head, and even Marisol frowned. "What kind of vision?"

Oh, he was more interested in the vision, Marisol was wondering about the extremists. She knew witch culture – she had to since she was a part of it once – and she knew that if there were extremists, but just conservatives loyal to tradition, something very bad had to be behind it. Maybe it was Davina, maybe everything was just leading back to the same final girl who wasn't dead even though she was supposed to be, or maybe it was Marcel and other leaders oppressing them.

"She has them all the time. They are totally open to interpretation," Sophie was quick to assure them, "I'm guessing she's wrong on this one."

"Well, how, may I ask, was this particular vision interpreted?" Klaus asked her, though his tone suggested that he wasn't actually asking at all.

Sophie hesitated for a second before admitting, "Pretty much that your baby would bring death to all witches."

Marisol frowned at that. She might be mad at the witches, but she didn't want them all destroyed. Yeah, some should die – including Agnes, that backstabbing bitch – but not all of them. Her heart was torn because she felt as though some of it was justified for how witches had wronged her and they should be punished, but she did not wish death upon them all.

She was a witch once, and she could remember that glorious magic running through her veins. She loved it back then, loved how in touch she was with nature and interpretation of the future. The spells she created, the spells she used, how they saved people. Magic should not be abolished.

"Ah, well. I grow fonder of this child by the second," Klaus commented but Marisol ignored him in favor of staring at Sophie.

"Open for interpretation?" she questioned, "Visions normally tell you everything you need to know. All lots open for the circumstances, but death to all witches isn't just an interpretation; it's what it's saying if that's what Sabine saw."

Sophie's eyebrows furrowed and she stared at Marisol suspiciously. "What do you mean about a witch's visions?"

She didn't hesitate under the watchful gaze of not only Sophie but the two Originals in the room. "I was a witch once and I had visions of my own. They were very clear about the intention. Of course, my visions also came with a new spell to write, but that's beside the point."

"Sophie, look," Rebekah said, redirecting the conversation though not without a glance to Marisol saying that she wanted more information later, "I promised Elijah that I would protect the Mikaelson miracle-baby whilst he tries to win your witch Davina's loyalty. Why don't you tell me just how extreme this faction is?"

A look of surprise went over Sophie's features. "Elijah's talking to Davina?"

"Yeah. As we speak, I imagine," Rebekah answered without searching too deeply into Sophie's features. Marisol still frowned at the witch because she seemed fixated on Davina.

"I'm guessing she'll have plenty to say about that crowd," Sophie told them.

"Do tell," Klaus urged her.

Sophie sighed. "I...wasn't always an advocate for the witches. My sister was devoted, like our parents, and our upbringing was very strict, which drove me nuts. The minute I turned twenty-one, I left the Quarter to travel...and play," she told them, "But, I wanted to be a chef, so I came back to Rousseau's. Which is where Jane-Anne told me that Dominique, my niece, was a part of the Harvest."

Marisol lifted her head up at that. She hadn't known Sophie's connection to the Harvest or why she advocated so deeply for the return of the Mikaelsons to the French Quarter, but this explained it. People did crazy things for their family, and she was sure that Sophie would do anything to bring Dominique back like Ophelia did for Magnus.

"What the bloody hell is a Harvest?" Rebekah frowned, looking thoroughly confused at the mention of the ritual.

"It's a ritual our coven does every three centuries so that the bond to our ancestral magic is restored. We appease our ancestors, they keep our ancestral power flowing," Sophie explained.

"And why haven't I heard of this?" Klaus asked.

"Because it's not like witches would go around sharing that information," Marisol answered for Sophie, "Come on, be smart here. If your magic was tied to your ancestors through a ritual that only Elders can perform, would you tell a vampire who could easily kill all the Elders and force you out of the land which your ancestors were buried on so that you have no connection to magic anymore? No, no you wouldn't."

"And how do you know so much about this?" Rebekah turned to ask her, an accusatory tone in her voice.

"After I betrayed Klaus, I went on the run, staying mostly with other covens because I could offer them spells from my spell book to save some of their people. One coven I met had severed their connection with the earth but rebuilt a connection through their ancestors. They taught me everything about them and in return I taught them every spell I knew even if I couldn't perform it," Marisol told them.

"So this Harvest actually works?" Klaus asked her, suspicious about the ritual.

She shrugged. "I never saw one take place. They don't happen often, like Sophie said, and I didn't stay around that coven long enough to find out when their next Harvest would be."

"It just seems like a myth," Sophie went off of what Marisol said, "A story, passed on through generations like Noah's ark, or the Buddha walking on water. The kind some people take literally, and some people don't. They had the girls of our community preparing for months. Four would be chosen for the Harvest. They said it was an honor, that they were special. I thought it was a myth."

"Was it?" Rebekah questioned since Marisol wasn't able to give them a satisfactory answer.

Before she could answer, Klaus' phone rang, he got up, loudly proclaiming Marcel's name along with other information to clue the others in on what they were talking about. Marisol's heart picked up at the mention of the dead witches and how a werewolf was involved, because that was not good at all, but she tried to remain as calm as possible.

When Klaus got off the phone, Sophie wasted on time to say, "You can't go out there now. I need to gather the witches' remains and consecrate them. If I don't get to them before sundown, we'll lose the link to their magic."

"They should've thought about that before they tried to kill us," Marisol rolled her eyes. She didn't want them all to die but that didn't mean she had to like them or want their magic to be given to the other witches.

"Those witches tried to kill Hayley. I'd prefer for Marcel's informant not to find anything that would lead him back to us, or to...you know..." he pointed at Hayley's stomach, the younger werewolf just wondering into the room as Klaus was on the phone, "That."

Hayley rolled her eyes at him. "You are all class," and Marisol was inclined to agree with her about that.

Ignoring her, Klaus pointed at Sophie. "Stay put. And save the rest of your story 'til I return."

After demanding Sophie not to leave, Klaus was quick to leave the house in pursuit of Marcel. Marisol leaned back into the sofa, looking around at the others in the room. "Can we all agree to just not do anything today? I'm still exhausted from last night."

✧

UNSUPRISINGLY, THEY COULDN'T all agree to just have a chill day not going out into the bayou in search for dead witches, which was very unlucky for Marisol. Sophie left the house soon after Klaus, disregarding his order to stay there and wait for him to get back, not that anyone was shocked she disobeyed. Marisol knew she would have done the same if Klaus ordered that because fuck him and fuck his wishes. Marisol was her own person and she did whatever she wanted.

And, of course, her leaving meant that Hayley wanted to go out in pursuit of her since Sophie was surely going to the bayou and Hayley wanted to do that too, which meant that Rebekah and Marisol were forced to tag along on that adventure. God, Marisol really hated New Orleans sometimes, especially the people living in it.

She just wanted one day of doing nothing, maybe going to get lunch with Amelia or dinner with Marcel and nothing more. Going into a bayou searching for those dead witches was not something she wanted to do for fun, but life didn't always give her what she wanted. The Mikaelsons coming back to New Orleans and fucking up her life was living testament of that fact especially with how much shit came after their return.

She could hear Hayley talking to Sophie in one of the mausoleums about how much it meant to her to find the werewolves in the bayou because of her family and she had to bit her lip out of some sort of guilt. If you asked her, family was overrated. She only had Magnus and that was more than enough. She didn't need Ophelia who cursed people left and right, and didn't need her controlling mother, and she didn't need Circe. She was fine without them all and the whole need to find family was an overrated concept.

"Could you two be more idiotic?" Rebekah asked when they entered the mausoleum, which was a good question that Marisol was also asking. Sophie and Hayley looked displeased to see them both there, but tough shit honestly. "Two can play the follow-game, you know! You heard Klaus, he and Marcel are headed right where you're going."

"And really, can't you go two days without getting killed? God, young people are so annoying..." Marisol muttered her own complaints, shaking her head slightly.

Hayley glared at her, though there was also a tint of hurt before looking back at Rebekah. "If you're worried about Klaus and Marcel, distract them. Because unless you wanna lock up a hormonal, pregnant werewolf in a tomb, I'm coming with you. And wouldn't Elijah be mad if he hears that the baby and I died of asphyxiation?"

"Or we could knock you out, chain you up back at the house, and make sure you don't escape until Elijah returns," Marisol offered, "Personally, I think that's a whole lot better."

"No, we're not knocking out Hayley," Rebekah disagreed immediately, giving her a heated look that made Marisol roll her eyes. It was a reasonable suggestion, "Fine. We'll go out to the bloody bayou."

Hayley looked incredibly pleased with herself and Marisol wanted nothing more to wipe that look off her face. She didn't get to be so happy when she was making Marisol suffer to keep her safe. Honestly, this was the whole reason she didn't have supernatural friends, they always dragged her into the worst shit. She liked human life, wanted it, because humans didn't have to go through all of this just to protect a friend.

But Marisol wasn't about to trust Sophie enough to keep Hayley safe, nor was she going to trust Rebekah with that even though she promised Elijah, so now she was going back to that fucking bayou. Friendship fucking sucked.

✧

MARSIOL WAS NOT a fan of spending her free time in the woods if it wasn't a full moon. She had spent so much of her life out of cities and in villages surrounding the forest that now she couldn't stand it. She didn't want to deal with the bugs or the mud or anything else; she just wanted paved streets and cars and industry. Was that too much to ask?

Apparently so since she was being dragged back into the bayou. As they walked, after Rebekah finished calling Klaus and telling him to stall Marcel so they could find the dead bodies and do whatever Sophie needed with them, the Original asked, "So, this Harvest thingy – tell me more."

"Klaus said to wait," Sophie told her and Marisol rolled her eyes. Yeah, like she or anyone else in the group actually listened to everything Klaus said.

"Yes. He also said to stay out of the bayou and yet here we are, amongst the crawly, buzzy creatures," Rebekah retorted, which was a great point if you asked Marisol.

But before Sophie could say anything, in a low voice Hayley announced, "We're here." Marisol took another step forward, looking at the dead bodies. Some of them were from her, she knew that, and some from Hayley and Rebekah, but also some torn and ripped from a wolf.

She remembered a time when she would've gotten sick looking at these. When she was younger and hated this beast inside her called a wolf who demanded to come out during a full moon, when the beast killed and forced her to have the blood on her hands. But she had made peace with her beast through the years, she had to if she was going to be one for all time.

She couldn't keep calling it a beast or herself a monster, she had to grow and respect it, to live as one with it, and ever since blood and bodies hadn't been an issue for her. Magnus being a vampire also helped her dissociate from the sickness she used to feel since it was more normal to have dead bodies around and she got so accustomed to it.

"Whoa," Hayley muttered and she turned to see a paw-print in the mud. Definitely a sign of a werewolf.

"Is that a wolf track?" Sophie asked.

"No, it's a fucking unicorn track – of course it's a wolf track," Marisol snapped at the witch. To be fair, it was ruder than she needed to be, but also in her defense this was really bad news for her. Now Hayley would want to keep coming back to see the wolves, and that was not a good thing.

She heard some twigs snapped and she looked in the direction in which the sound came from. "Who's there?" Rebekah called out loudly and then a figure of a man appeared.

"What the hell? An Original?" he asked and before they could move forward, he sped away. A vampire – probably one of Marcel's informants who know not only knew they were in the bayou, but that she was with them. The human who was supposed to not know anything about the Originals – fuck.

"Shit," she cursed, "This is fucking great. I knew we should've just knocked out Hayley and brought her home. Everything would be so much better if we did that."

Hayley shoot her a look. "You didn't have to come."

"Of course I had to come. You're my friend and I promised to protect you, so obviously I had to come, but now if that dude goes to Marcel and says that he found us here, not only is Marcel going to know that I'm working with you guys but he's also going to know about you, Hayley. The one person Marcel doesn't need to know about," Marisol ranted, because the last thing she needed was Marcel finding out the truth about her.

God, this was why she didn't have many friends. This was why she stayed away from supernatural creatures. This was why she should've never been friends with Marcel or Hayley in the first place. Either way, she wouldn't have been in this mess, but it's too late to turn back time and change things.

"Calm down, Marisol," Rebekah told her, "I'll call Klaus and tell him."

Marisol still huffed at her, crossing her arms because she knew this was going to end badly. How did she know that? Because everything that happened in this stupid bayou ended badly! The werewolves who lived here got cursed, Hayley almost died here last night, and now a stupid werewolf was about to ruin everything. She fucking hated the Mikaelsons and her past with them – it was official. This was her breaking point.

She tried not to listen to Rebekah's conversation with Klaus, instead focusing on the bayou around her, watching for a wolf. But she didn't find one, probably because since she wasn't from their pack they didn't want her to see them. Warry of outsiders and all, but not without reason.

"I'm going to help distract Marcel," Rebekah informed them and Marisol turned back to the circle where everyone was. She felt Rebekah's eyes on hers so she looked up to meet them, "Keep Hayley safe. I swear to God if anything happens I will tear you from limb to limb."

"Vivid," Marisol muttered, "But yeah, I'll protect her. Why do you think I'm here in the first place? For fun?"

Rebekah nodded, not saying anything else before speeding away so Marisol stepped back into the clearing with the bodies and Hayley, going closer to the younger werewolf.

"You really didn't need to come out here. I can take care of myself, and I'm sure that wolf would come back," Hayley told her.

"We can't count on some mysterious wolf to save you every time you need it, and I don't trust you alone with Sophie," Marisol responded, looking to see the witch consecrating their remains.

"Hey," Sophie began to protest, "Keeping Hayley alive also keeps me alive. I have a great interest in protecting her."

"I don't believe you," Marisol shook her head, "They told me about your ultimatum before so if you don't get Davina and can't complete the Harvest, I have no doubt you'll take out your anger on Hayley."

Sophie stared at her, wanting to challenge Marisol even more, but eventually she returned to the witches' bodies. Marisol knew that she would do anything for Monique back – even if it meant sacrificing her own life. She wasn't dumb enough to think that Hayley was still safe, especially not with just Sophie.

"So," Hayley said, going to change the subject, "Elijah. What really happened between you two that makes you not want him back?"

"It's a long story, but to sum it up for you: we were almost together, liked to each other, and then I found out about the ritual Klaus and Elijah were going to perform that required the death of a werewolf and realized that Elijah was probably only wooing me to kill me," Marisol told them in the simplest terms she could, "So, you know, that really taints your view of a person."

Hayley frowned. "That doesn't sound like the Elijah I met."

Marisol shrugged, not putting too much weight on the comment. "I met him five hundred years ago, you met him this year. He's changed. I've changed. We're not the same people we used to be. Maybe he's better, not as bad as I remember, but that doesn't mean I wanna meet him."

"What do you think you're gonna do him when you meet him again?" Hayley asked.

"What are you gonna do?" Marisol turned the question back on her because she didn't know what she was going to do. Run away, scream, cry. There were a lot of options and none of them seemed appropriate.

Hayley frowned at her, obviously not liking her deflection but not saying anything more since it was obvious that Marisol had reached her limit on that subject. She was just going to cross that bridge when she came to it and not a moment before.

As more time passed, Marisol sat down and hummed herself old tunes, playing little games with Hayley as Sophie worked until night fell and Sophie announced that she was done. "Finally," Marisol groaned, happy that they got to leave the bayou after what felt like days.

When they reached Sophie's car, Hayley asked her, "Those people, all this, because of a vision about my baby you don't think is true?"

"Look, I love Sabine, but she's the witch equivalent of a drama queen. I've learned to take little stock in whatever she says or sees. Just kinda wish she'd kept her mouth shut," Sophie said before her eyes turned to Marisol, "And I know you said that there's truth in all visions, but not hers. Sabine's are really open for interpretation, not absolute, so I'm guessing she's wrong."

Marisol shrugged at her, knowing that nothing she had to say would convince Sophie otherwise. She knew how visions worked, how she could catch a glimpse of something that would happen, something she couldn't prevent but could help after. Those visions were absolute, not just open for interpretation, not something that could be wrong or not happen at all.

"The Harvest ritual," Hayley broached the ritual again, because everything just went back to it apparently, "You said you didn't believe I in it. Were you right?"

"No," Sophie was quick to answer, shaking her head, "I actually saw it with my own eyes. It was working. It was real."

There was so much conviction in her tone that even Marisol, if she was younger and more naïve, would've immediately been moved to believe her. She knew that people put stock into it, believed the ritual, just like that old coven back then did, but she didn't know for real if it was true or it. She had no proof other than Sophie, who was untrustworthy, and other witches believing in it themselves because of tradition.

"So, how can you be sure Sabine's vision isn't?" Hayley asked her, and the question silenced Sophie for a moment, unable to think of an answer.

"Visions are always true. At least, they were in my case," Marisol opened up, "But that didn't mean they happened in the way I expected them to. They're only glimpses, not the full story, there's still a lot of mystery surrounding it. Sabine could be right, but it might not manifest in the way anyone is expecting it to, which is how you can say that the vision is wrong, but that doesn't mean the witches are going to stop. That's why we can't leave you alone."

Marisol looked at Hayley, the precious cargo, because she swore that nothing would happen to her and she was going to make sure she kept that promise.

✧

AFTER THEY GOT home, Marisol went into the study to be alone, wanting to pour herself a drink until she got completely plastered. Not that she could do that. Her tolerance was way too high and they probably didn't have enough alcohol in the house for her to reach that level, but it was definitely the one she wanted.

Thankfully, Hayley left her alone and when the two Originals came back they didn't go searching for her, letting her have some peace and quiet before the next big thing tomorrow because she was sure that something was going to have to happen. It always did.

But eventually, she got hungry and ventured out of the study and into the kitchen, not paying attention to any of her surrounding as she opened the fridge, looking around in there for a minute before getting out some leftover Chinese food to heat up, but when she close the door, moving to her right, she stopped.

"Elijah," she breathed out, the only thing she could utter as she stared at her old almost lover. He was there, really there, and everything flooded back to her. Their nights together, when he bought her that necklace, how they danced under the moonlight at the balls, how he kissed her and held her, how she never wanted to get go, and how they turned against each other, tainting everything that had happened before.

"Marisol," he said her name, and it grounded her back into this time, where Elijah wasn't the man she wanted but the man who tried to use her in a ritual. "How – Why are you here?"

She cleared her throat, because she would not be a stumbling idiot in front of him. "Klaus found me, and now I have to help him defeat Marcel. You know, the usual," she said casually, as if they weren't almost lovers from five centuries ago. As if they hadn't left everything so hatefully.

He took a step forward and she had to refrain from taking a step back. "You're here. You're really here," he murmured to himself and she could feel her heart beating rapidly in her chest because he was there now, right in front of her, and he was back in her life.

She nodded, confirming what he muttered to himself. "Yeah, I am, now goodbye."

She went past him, cold Chinese food and no fork in hand because she was not wasting another moment in that room with him and all the things left unsaid to heat it up or get a utensil to use and eat it. She knew she couldn't avoid him forever, they now lived together, but she would push this off as far as she could, so she went upstairs to her room and locked the door.

After a long day, the last thing she needed was to reconnect with a lost lover, so she turned on her computer and drowned everyone else in the house out.