A thousand years, you'd think that I'd have had my fair share of surprises over the span of my immortal life. Yet learning about everything that had gone on in my absence still caught me off guard. I was sitting across from Alaric in his 'office' in the old Salvatore boarding house that was now apparently a school for supernatural teenagers. Sure I had been given a brief rundown of what had happened beforehand but hearing it from a man who had a front row seat was different.
Alaric told me about how the Mikaelsons had apparently all but scattered. About how everyone had basically died at least once before being resurrected in rituals or with some back door method. Even Alaric himself had died multiple times with the Gilbert ring before actually dying and being brought back to life when Amara and the Bennet girl had done something to the anchor. Damon was human again and so was Elena after being turned into a vampire. Stefan was dead and so was Klaus, Elijah, Finn, Sage, and a whole slew of other people that I had known for the better part of a few years.
The council was gone, with the founding of the school the people 'in the know' about supernaturals had accepted that they would be taught how to behave in a school. The biggest surprise wasn't that Caroline was a vampire and she was the 'principal' of the school, but that Klaus had a daughter with Haley Marshall. Haley was apparently some sort of werewolf princess that Klaus had a one night stand with. That didn't surprise me, what did was the fact that their daughter was almost like me. Almost. She was apparently what they coined a 'tribrid'. That had to be the cheesiest fucking name I had ever heard in my life but it was a proper description of someone who was a witch, werewolf, and vampire at the same time.
Hope had access to strong magic, and her werewolf side. She hadn't 'activated' her vampire side yet according to Alaric but was working on it somehow. The young girl had gone looking for Freya who was still stuck in the other world so unfortunately she never found her. Instead the girl had sought out her other aunt, Davina, this also threw me for a loop, to help. She had been gone for a few weeks now and was due to come back when school started up again at the end of the month. I guess he didn't know that she was already back and sulking somewhere according to my senses.
"You know, this is rather hard to wrap my head around."
"Yeah, try being in the middle of all of it."
I looked at Alaric who shot back a cup of bourbon. He had taken my revelation of my secrets in stride. Apparently he had suspected something once he looked into my fabricated history. Clearly the fact that all my 'ancestors' looked exactly like me in different clothes wasn't too convincing of the fact that I was someone else. So I ended up telling him who I was and my role in the whole scheme of things. Instead of getting mad at me he had offered me a job. I almost cracked up at the look of shock on his face when I had accepted.
Teaching supernatural kids was as close as I was going to get to being in Hogwarts. The Harry Potter books had always fascinated me growing up. The opportunity to emulate Snape while also researching how to beat Myrddin was something I wasn't going to pass up.
"Do you need help with a syllabus?" Alaric asked.
"Mate, I'm literally going to be their self defense professor. I don't think I'll even need a syllabus."
"Well it wouldn't hurt to have something to look at when you start teaching them strange things."
"Strange thin- Alaric, you literally married Caroline. She could be your daughter, and not only that but you two had kids. That's strange… me teaching a bunch of hormonal teens how to protect themselves is the least of your concerns."
I fought the urge to laugh at the look of indignation on Alaric's face. He opened his mouth to say something but closed it again before pouting like a child.
"That's not what I mean…" I raised an eyebrow at the ex-vampire hunter. "Fine, it was implied. What I meant to say was I'd like to know what you'll be teaching the kids."
"Self defense."
Alaric sighed. "I know that but what kind."
"…"
"You're making this difficult on purpose aren't you."
"I'll have a basic outline of the class drawn up. See you Monday Al."
I turned and left before he could protest. Chuckling to myself I made my way out of the building and towards my parked car. I felt eyes on the back of my head and I looked back up at the second story window spotting a flash of auburn hair and golden eyes. Raising an eyebrow at my not so secret observer I smirked before hopping into my car and driving back to my home.
[Scene Break]
Hope Mikaelson's heart was beating out of her chest. She had overheard Alaric and 'Seth' talking in Alaric's office. Apparently 'Seth' was supposed to be their new PE teacher. Only she knew who he really was. Her father, Niklaus, had left a painting among other things to her after his and Uncle Elijah's deaths. This painting depicted the same man that was supposed to teach them. According to Kol, 'Seth' was older than even her family. A vampire that could also use some sort of magic that made him impossible to hit, not only that but he was also truly immortal according to her Aunt Rebekah. Her aunt had seen Mikael rip out Seth's heart only for Seth to laugh it off. Apparently her Aunt Freya was currently one of Seth's many lovers. She found the thought strange seeing that Seth looked around her age sans facial hair. She also felt a strange attraction to him that she couldn't describe nor figure out.
She let out a sigh and peeled out the window again. Seth had driven away, she could have sworn she saw a smug little smile on his face before he sped off in his stupid fancy sports car. She slowly walked back to her room wondering how he had seen her. She had put a spell on herself to repel prying eyes. He shouldn't have noticed her, then again, he was powerful. She could feel it when he looked in her direction. Hope wondered if Alaric knew exactly what he had hired as a teacher.
Closing the door to her room she looked around at her sparsely decorated side of the shared room. She didn't quite have a roommate yet but she knew they'd probably get on her nerves just like the last one. She mentally prepared herself for the inevitable confrontation once the students arrived later that day. Her thoughts strayed back over to Seth, her traitorous hormones caused her to imagine rather vivid fantasies with the vampire cornering her in an empty room. She cursed and threw herself into bed.
'Maybe a nap will help. Yeah… I'll sleep it off.'
Alaric sat in his office looking at the glass of bourbon in his hand. The day's revelations weighed heavily on him. On one hand he now had an ally in Seth who was an ancient and extraordinarily powerful vampire. On the other, Seth was a vampire. He had been friends with a vampire before, Damon. Who was now human and expecting his first child with Elena. He knew it wasn't all black and white with vampires. Some wanted peace, others were pure evil. Then there were the ones like Seth. The man was unreadable at best, unpredictable at his worst. In his research, Alaric had found out that all the previous Williamson patriarchs had just been Seth. He would have laughed at the thought of Seth cosplaying as himself multiple times had he not remembered that elephant in the room.
Something had been off recently, Caroline had gone to investigate and Hope mentioned that she felt a darkness seeping into the town. He had forgotten to tell Seth about it and was currently debating on whether to give the ancient vampire a call or not. Seth could help them solve the issue, but Alaric felt weird asking Seth for anything. It was illogical but something about Seth just screamed 'deal with the devil' to him. He shook his head and downed the rest of his drink before pulling up his phone.
'Fuck it, what's the worst that could happen.'
Elena Gilbert-Salvatore looked at the ultrasound image of her baby fondly. Damon held her hand, she could feel him tense up every once in a while. The former vampire had also seemingly held his breath.
"Congrats guys, it's a healthy baby girl."
Elena turned to Damon and smiled, the man looked a bit pale. Damon returned her smile weakly, he gave her hand a squeeze before stepping out of the room. Elena rolled her eyes at her husband's dramatic reaction. Once she was cleaned up of gel she followed Damon outside. She found him with his back against the wall almost slumped over.
"What's wrong?" She asked worriedly.
"I- I don't know if I'll be a good father." He said in a hushed tone.
It had been a miracle for them when they had the chance to live out their lives as humans. Some strange being had offered them a chance to start over when everything seemed to be going to hell. Quite literally in fact. Kathrine had plotted to steal Elena's body, Stefan had martyred himself to prevent Hell from being unleashed on earth, the Original Family and their drama with the supernatural word. It was all wild, they made it through nonetheless and Damon was worried that he wouldn't be a good father?
"Don't say that… you'll be a great father."
"How do you know?"
"I just do, now let's go home. My feet are killing me and I have the sudden urge to eat a whole pint of Ben & Jerry's."
Damon gave Elena a small smile, as they moved to get back into their car they spotted a car drive past that they hadn't seen in years. The couple got into their SUV and looked at each other.
"Please tell me you saw that too."
"Seth is back."
"We have to go talk to him."
"Why? What would we even say? Do you think he knows about me?"
"Elena, he knew about me and Stefan. He's one of us… or at least he's still a vampire while we're human now."
"It's still hard to believe that Seth is a vampire. He was in the old town council for a while."
"He did a better job of hiding it than my brother and I did."
"You bet your ass I did."
The former vampires screamed in unison. They turned to their back seat where Seth was now smiling at them as if he hadn't just appeared out of nowhere. Elena glared at him and his smile grew even wider. Damon sighed,
"How the hell did you even get in our car without us noticing?"
"New ability of mine… every time someone mentions my name I can teleport to where they are. And you two said it twice."
"What do you want!"
"Calm down Vampire Magnet. I'm just here to congratulate you and to offer you my belated condolences for your losses. I was otherwise preoccupied back then fighting an asshole in another universe so I couldn't help out here."
Damon noticed Elena's face shift in anger, he put a hand on her shoulder before she could explode and endanger their now very human lives.
"What she's trying to say is, what are you doing here?"
"I already gave my reasons Damon, to congratulate you and what not. Also wondering if you could give me any information on the new supernatural folks in town. I know you're working in the sheriff's station and Elena here works down at the hospital."
"If you know stuff like that then what do you need us for?"
"Just wanted to hear it from the two people resilient enough to have survived the maelstrom that was whatever happened here a few years ago."
"What happened was a complete disaster."
"I think it's best we take this back to your place. I can meet you there in an hour or so. Just call out my name when you're ready."
Before Damon or Elena could respond Seth disappeared in a flash of light. The former vampires turned to each other in shock. Damon started the car before pulling away from the parking lot of the clinic. Elena remained silent on the drive back to their home. The two feeling apprehensive and wonder what exactly they were walking themselves into.