Otherworldly (Hope Mikaelson)

15-Nightmare Made Flesh

Matt forced a sickly sweet smile before using his magic to form a tangible blade. He slit Gabe's throat, watching the grace pour out into the air.

Lucy cried out, feeling her heart shred. First Zach, now Gabriel. She couldn't handle the loss. Without Hope or Malcolm to keep her grounded, she felt truly alone.

The switch inside her snapped and she lunged forward, absorbing the freely flowing grace before her brother. Matt bellowed out in rage, slashing his blade at her.

Lucy dodged, grabbing Gabriel's body. He wasn't entirely gone, but if she couldn't give him his Grace back soon, he would be.

In the blink of an eye, Mundus appeared before Lucy, great shadow wings spreading from his shoulders.

"I've got him. And I've got you. Kick his ass." He took the dying Archangel from his daughter and winked at her before disappearing again.

Lucy was confused, but only briefly. The shadows in her soul refused to let her truly feel anything beyond rage.

Her entire being engulfed in flames. She charged at him, looking like a comet flying across the sky. Matt only barely managed to move away. He grunted as he felt the ends of some of his hair simmer away.

A wave of shadows slammed into Lucy, cooling her fire. Lucy groaned, but simply covered herself in that same magic, rocketing towards Matt.

Halfway there, she stopped, her magic disappearing as if snuffed out. She felt a brief moment of fear before she wasn't entirely herself.

"Stop this, Matthew." The voice that escaped Lucy's was not her's, but her mother's. Just like Gabriel, Lucy had been a conduit for her mother's Grace.

Matt stopped, a mixture of fear and hatred and love crossing his features.

"M-Mom?"

"My baby... You have to let this go. Your sister was just a baby."

"You're wrong..! She wasn't a baby, she was a monster!" Matt roared, tears forming in the corners of his eyes. "She took you away from me!"

Lucy shook her head, her hair flowing much like her mother's, as if the wind favored running through her blonde locks. "My darling, Lucy was not what severed my life. I was already dying."

"What?" Matt asked, confused. He watched the life leave his mother's eyes. He watched as the pregnancy slowly drained his mother's life force.

Lucy smiled sadly. "Matthew, I had been suffering from a very ancient affliction, one without cure. Only those of us that could bear children could even get infected. When I had you, I got infected. It was not because of you, or Lucy, but because of my genetics. When I became pregnant with Lucy, the disease spread like cancer, and I could no longer fight it when Lucy was born."

Matt's bright blue eyes, so much like his mother's-and his sister's, he thought-glistened with unshed tears. Was it possible? Had Lucy been innocent? Was his anger and mistrust completely misplaced?

"But.." Matt trailed off, unable to think clearly. This latest information filled his head. What would he do with himself if he wasn't out to exact revenge on his mother's killer?

"Matthew, I love you. And I love Lucy. Please believe me. This fighting you're doing is useless. There's no need to avenge me. I am at peace."

Matt growled, his blue eyes darkening. "I am Rex Malorum, king of nightmares. I am a nightmare made flesh and I will plunge the whole universe in darkness." He slashed the air where Lucy's throat would have been had she not flew back a few feet.

"Lucy, my love... My child, my sweet angel, you are the savior of everything. Of light, love, everything good. The darkness from your father does not control you, as my light does not, either. You control you. You are stronger than anyone knows, so show them. Show them who you truly are." Her mother's voice sounded in her head like her own inner monologue.

Who was she, truly? This was something she had never known. She knew from the very beginning that she was different. She wasn't wholly angelic, like Gabriel and the other Angels she grew up knowing. She vaguely remembered the moment she had first realized that she had darkness in her. She remembered the second time much more clearly, as her Fall had erased a lot of her previous memory.

Lucy could in no way be the savior of everything. That was preposterous. Yet, she knew she could save Gabriel. She had to. Could she save Matthew, too? Could she save herself?

I am otherworldly, Lucy thought. "You may be nightmare made flesh, but I am light and darkness, combined together. I am a night sky full of stars, the light at the end of a tunnel, the yin and yang of the whole universe. I am otherworldly, and you are nothing more than a dark room that needs the light switch flicked on."

Lucy suddenly turned herself into pure light. She shot herself forward, one arm outstretched. With incredible speed, she shot herself directly towards Rex Malorum.

And right through him.

~~~

Lizzie paced the floor of her room, her bottom lip worrying between her teeth. Josie had gone with Scarlet to gather some magical ingredients to help Hope find a way to get to Lucy. Lizzie had wanted to help, but she didn't know how. She felt useless.

"Lizzie?" A knock came at her bedroom door, followed by the other kitsune popping her head through the opening. "Hope's asking for you."

Lizzie's heart skipped a beat. Hope asked for her? Maybe there was something only Lizzie could do to help. Afterall, she was the hybrid to Hope's tribrid.

Not anymore, she thought. Her mind was hellbent on keeping her in the dark.

"Alright, where is she?" Lizzie asked, walking the few paces to the door. She opened it farther, noticing, maybe for the first time, how beautiful the dark haired woman was.

Lexi had a slender build, her hair a longer bob that ended at her shoulders. Her eyes had a fire in them that Lizzie instantly recognized. She had the same fire in her eyes after she became a Heretic.

"She's in the Salvatore memorial library." Lexi hummed softly as she began walking that way. She still got turned around in the massive magical boarding school, but she had spent enough time in the library with her sister and their new friends to know how to get to it from almost anywhere in the building.

Lizzie and Lexi both stopped just outside the library door. A jolt of.. something.. pulsed through them for only a moment. A sudden chill spread up both their spines. No one was around to notice the darkness that overtook their eyes briefly.

There was no one to know that a new nightmare was just beginning.