The Reset

Chapter Two: The Only Thing

  AN: So, just to clear up any confusion, any section of the story that doesn't have a timeline on it, consider it as "Present Day" or "Very Far Into the Future". I didn't want to confuse people with putting more dates other than the ones that are in the past. So anything that has a date, those are events that have already happened. Anything that doesn't have a date means that it's happening in the current timeline of the story. I don't want to say more without giving anything away so keep reading!  

-----------------------------------------------------

She weighed practically nothing. The heavy rain beat down on him in waves, but Kai could only feel the woman in his arms. Her head slumped almost lazily against his chest and he wondered, absently, if she could hear his heartbeat. But that was foolish. Because the body in his arms wasn't even alive.

Bonnie was dead.

The old woman who was stubborn and fierce, the Matriarch of the Bennett witches, the love of his life...was dead. It was almost too unreal. It was most definitely unfair. But all he could do was keep silent as he trudged through the woods, the rain reflecting the tears he had shed earlier and had stopped the moment he had lifted her into his arms.

Or was he still crying? Kai didn't know, to be honest.

He remembered taking Bonnie by the hand earlier that evening and leading her out into the forest away from the house. At the time, they were both old together. They both knew that the end was coming soon. They had already prepared their children for it. Everything was ready. All they had to do was wait for the right moment.

The moment when they both knew that it was time.

As he reached the edge of the woods, he could hear frantic screams coming from the house. They were calling for him; calling for Bonnie. They were the voices of their children.

Panic immediately struck his heart, halting his steps just as he passed the edge of the trees and entered the clearing. Eyes roved the house and he saw their oldest child, Lydia, running half wild through the front yard in her search. She was in her early fifties now and with children of her own. Lydia looked so much like Bonnie it almost hurt. Instead of green eyes, she'd inherited his gray-blue ones.

He had damn near lost his mind from joy when she'd come into the world.

Kai watched her feet shuffle to a halt, as if she had sensed his arrival; sensed his magic. Craning her neck, her brilliant blue eyes met Kai's and she all but gasped in shock. Soaked through, Lydia lurched forward - her hands already preparing to launch a spell against Kai. On any other day, he would have taken the hit. But not today. Not with Bonnie's corpse in his arms.

It wasn't until he had smiled at her that her expression melted from blazing anger to a mix of confusion and shock. "D-Dad?"

"Hey baby," he said, his voice raw and almost hollow.

She quickly closed the distance between them, her hands moving to rest over Bonnie's form. "Oh god, Mom..." Lydia's hands slid over her mother's arms. Kai watched her shaking fingers close over Bonnie's wrists before her grief-stricken face lifted to meet his own, despite his smile. "Dad, what happened?" She looked him over, still shocked at seeing a man so much younger than herself but still seeing her father. "What did you do?"

Kai shook his head, feeling so much older than he looked. "Get your brothers and sisters. There's a lot we need to talk about."

---------------------------------------------

~ 1903 Prison World ~

Kai felt like a thousand pound boulder pressed up against her, even with him holding himself up and pulling his own weight. The Ascendant clunked in her coat pocket with every step she took, their boots crunching in the snow as she made her way to the old Salvatore home. A few minutes would pass with Kai not saying anything and Bonnie would pause, snapping her fingers in front of his face to get him to wake back up. Empathy or not, she was not about to heft around Kai Parker all over creation.