TRIAD & Malivore

It has been two days since Sosuke's disappearance and the school is having a parents visit day.

And since all of the invited parents actually know about the supernatural it almost felt like a normal day to everyone but Hope, who after two days of no news about Sosuke is fearing that by a cruel trick of fate, he too could be gone from her life.

Unknown to anyone MG's mother has special plans for her attendance at the school.

Once some of the parents cleared out in the afternoon MG's mother lets a swarm of TRIAD men enter the place after she went into the tunnels beneath the school and uses the dark object the headmaster put in place there to use against his students if push comes to shove and he fails to teach them to control their darker sides which seals their magic.

She reveals herself as the leader of the group and makes sure that Hope, the Saltzman twins, Alaric and her son all get put into a cell so they don't cause any trouble even without their powers and so they would be safe.

Their safety is quickly brought into question however when one of Veronica Greasley's

men goes rogue and shoots Hope and Josie with a Malivore bullet he tells them would make them disappear and eat them up from the inside out.

Hope doesn'f feel anything when she gets shot but at seeing Josie go down they watch Josie suffer from the Malivore bullet. Hope sees that she is unharmed by it Hope figures out that somehow as a tribrid she is immune to it which also explains why she has her memories of the Kansas trip. Hope lets Josie drink her blood and Josie's poisoning caused by Malivore starts to disappear much to Alaric's relief.

The raid on the school has been ongoing for half a day already and their search for another Malivore artifact turned up empty.

During this time MG's mother took Landon to their headquarters where Clarke wants to interrogate him, at least to her knowledge. What she didn't know is that Clarke is backstabbing her and wants to free Malivore after explaining to Landon where they both came from and that Malivore is their father. Clarke being a golem himself while Landon is somewhat of a halfbreed and was created by Malivore to be his vessel.

As the TRIAD men are getting restless and more aggressive a howl coming from the woods on the schoolground catches their attention.

"Should we pursue it sir?" One of the men asks their leader, who turns out to be the very same man who shot Josie and Hope.

"No, let it come to us. It won't be able to stay transformed when it's close enough to the blood fountain and then it's just another annoying kid." The leader replies.

For the next few minutes the TRIAD soldiers guarding the outer perimeter are getting more worried by the second because nothing has happened since the wolf's howl was heard.

The tense atmosphere surrounding the school then quickly turns to one of fear and horror as an oversized wolf, the size of a pony with dark blue fur with white zig zags in it here and a tail entirely made of electricity steps out of the woods proudly and howls again.

The men being the first to see this creature open fire on it, but it jumps into the lake separating them, rendering their bullets close to useless.

"What is that thing?!" The men shout in fear and the TRIAD soldiers inside the school head outside to support their comrades.

For the next 5 minutes or so the students inside the Salvatore school listen in horror and fear as their attackers get overwhelmed by the creature and killed or badly wounded.

When the outside quiets down the students who gathered in a corner of their main room, where they usually eat their food and hang out together freeze in fear as the creature appears to be looking into the school from the front door, blood splattered over its fur and dripping from its maw from its enemies and some bullet wounds.

Kaleb, Jed and Rafael move in front of the other students protectively as the creature opens the door with its snout and steps into the large room, leaving bloody paw prints as it walks into the room.

Kaleb then sees something which he at first thinks is just a trick of his mind when small dashes of electricity seem to fly towards the wolf and start to heal its wounds.

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Kaleb asks stupefied.

"A wolf regenerating through electricity?" Rafael asks.

"You must be joking dude!" Kaleb then shouts half amused half freaked out.

"What are you doing? Don't draw its attention. We don't have our powers." Jed tells Kaleb and covers his mouth.

The wolf looks over to them, appearing to scan the entire group before it closes its eyes and sniffs the ground , disappearing further into the school building with the kids able to breathe again but still being trapped in the building with it since at least the vamps would burn up the second they step outside.

"Do you guys hear something? It's been too quiet." Alaric asks the others as a rhythmic tapping can be heard coming closer.

"Holy mother of fuck!" The man then yells when the large head of the blue furred wolf peeks inside the room and sniffs the air before climbing inside somewhat clumsily when going down the small stairs leading to the cells while its large and bulky body almost fills up the whole path leading to the cells.

"What is that thing?" MG shouts out as well, everyone moving to the back of their cell as its eyes seem to look over each one of them before focusing on Hope.

"I think it wants Hope. Should we hand her over before it eats us?" Lizzie asks.

"No. It'll first have to go through me. I won't let my students get hurt." Alaric says and steps in front of Hope.

The wolf seems to snort at this, a small gust of wind escaping its nose while it sits down on its hind legs, looking down at them and cocks its head before it lets out a short bark, and a bolt of lightning hits the ground in front of the group.

"Sosuke?" Hope asks with hope filled eyes and pushes her teachers to the side. The large wolf starts to pant like a dog when she approaches him carefully, Sosuke trying to stick its head through the gates but can't fit and only his snout peeks inside.

Hope reaches for it and calmly rubs over its nose with it yipping happily before with a quiet boom Sosuke now stands in front of the cells stark naked with a burn around him on the floor.

"Any idea where the key is?" He asks while Alaric shields Josie's and Lizzies eyes from the sight with his hands, Lizzie peeking through though while prying his fingers apart while MG shields his own eyes incredulously.

"There is an emergency one in the third step of the stairs." Alaric says shakily.

"Alright let's get you guys out of there." Sosuke tells them, coming back over to the cell after he found the key and unlocks the cell for them, Hope being the first one out and she wraps a blanket from the cell around his naked form, wiping the blood from around his mouth and then proceeds to kiss him with all she has.

"I get that you two need to talk, but I could use some help Sosuke." Alaric says, stopping the lovers reunion.

"I know how to get back everyone's magic but there might still be guards there..." Alaric says.

"Got it. Just... let me get some clothes first." Sosuke says and Alaric nods, the group leaving the cells and Sosuke hurries off to put on some clothes.

"Go check on the others." Alaric tells his daughters and MG who nod and take off as well.

"I'm coming with you." Hope tells Alaric before he can even ask her to stay behind.

A minute or so later Sosuke hurries over to the two, wearing a shirt and pants.

"Come on you two."Alaric tells them and brings them to a hidden entrance which leads to underground tunnels beneath the school.

"OK there is no one here." Alaric says relieved and goes over to a statue made of skulls which drips out blood continuously until he deactivates it with ease.

"How did you do that and where were you for the last two days?" Hope asks Sosuke, using her magic to pull him towards her once her powers work again.

"I'm fuzzy on all of that myself. Wait 2 days?" He replies shocked.

"Yeah. I thought... You left me or died." Hope tells him saddened.

"Look, I just woke up two hours ago as a wolf in the woods." Sosuke tells her, stroking over her arm.

"Well the last we saw of you was three nights ago when you were struck by lightning again."

Alaric tells him.

"Man that is messed up." Sosuke says, scratching his head.

"Anyways, what is that thing? Looks freaky." Sosuke asks, nodding at the blood fountain.

"It's a dark object, used to nullify magic." Alaric explains.

"How did it get down here? No one knew about these tunnels but you." Hope asks.

"I will explain everything later. For now, let's check on the other students." Alaric tells them and the three meet up with the rest of the students, who are looking at Sosuke's handywork with fear and disgust.

"I knew it was you!" Kaleb greets Sosuke overly excited and hugs him quickly.

"Sosuke my god, what did you do?" Alaric asks him, shocked when he sees the state the TRIAD soldiers are in.

"I defended our home. And when they started shooting... my instincts kicked in." He answers.

"This is not our way Sosuke. I can't believe you did this." Alaric reprimands him and tells his students to save the ones still alive.

"We have another problem that has to come first, Dr. S. They took Landon to the pit." Kaleb informs the teacher.

"OK, I will get my gear and ..." Alaric says.

"No. We'll go." Hope says and grabs Sosukes arm, bringing him back to the house and leads him to his room, where she makes him sit down on his bed.

"What's up? We're safe for now." Sosuke tells her while she gets two wet towels from the bathroom and helps him clean the blood off his face while he scrubs it off his hands and feet.

"I just have a bad feeling. Now let's go. We have a long drive ahead of us." Hope tells him after he's cleaned up and put on shoes.

The two start to head out without another word to the others and Sosuke looks over at her as he's driving them out of town.

"I don't understand why Dr. Saltzman was angry at you. You didn't have any other choice." Hope says upset and caresses his hand on the steering wheel.

"Maybe he's right and I went overboard. It felt thrilling to have so much power and maybe if I was more careful I wouldn't have killed anyone." Sosuke admits.

"This is not the heartfelt reunion I had hoped for when you disappeared." Hope tells him quietly and hugs herself against his arm while he's driving.

"About that. I am serious when I tell you I don't know what happened." Sosuke says looking over to her.

"I believe you. We'll figure it out together." She tells him and closes her eyes contently.

The rest of the drive is filled with mostly smalltalk, an unspoken agreement made between them to safe the deeper stuff for after they rescued Landon.

When they pull up to the TRIAD headquarters they see that the place was already attacked, giving them a free way right to the heart of the facility, Malivore's pit where they see a black cloaked creature without head and a spinal cord as scarf drag Landon into the room while the boy is holding a stone dagger.

"Don't tell me that is what I think it is?" Sosuke asks, storming into the room with Hope.

"Yep. One Malivore lock coming up." Landon says and tosses Sosuke the dagger. He catches it, only to let it fall to the floor when the headless creature uses the spine as a whip and slashes over Sosuke's arm.

"So how come you have such unique company?" Sosuke asks Landon while Hope starts fighting the creature and stabs a pipe through its heart, only for it to go on without a reaction.

"Long Story. Hope, its head is its weakness. It's on his belt." Landon tells her, seeing the creatures head half hidden by its cloak.

Sosuke jumps down to where Hope is fighting the creature and grabs its arms from behind, restraining it while Hope steals its head and tosses it up onto the catwalk going over malivore's pit where Landon's is and the teen stabs the head with another pipe.

"Hello brother." Clarke says suddenly and the three teens who were busy fighting the headless creature see the man toss the stone knife into the pit which lights up and starts to bubble with increasing speed.

"No!" Sosuke yells and grabs the whip from the now lifeless creature and swings it at Clarke, beheading him in a fit of rage.

"What now?" Hope asks, coming up to Landon onto the catwalk with Sosuke and they stare down into the pit with hopelessness.

Landon then explains everything he knows now, starting from Malivore's creation by the blood of a witch, a werewolf and a vampire reaching to his identity as Malivore's ideal host created to bring forth a new race.

"How do we kill the unkillable?" Sosuke asks thoughtfully after the story.

"That's it. Nature won't allow for anything to be truly immortal. There is always a loophole and I am the loophole." Hope says in realization. She then gives Landon a hug while whispering "Sorry" before she breaks his neck.

She takes his phone and calls Alaric, telling him that he has to destroy every evidence of her and that maintenance should pack up her stuff. With a quick explanation of why it has to be her who sacrifices herself to the pit she bids her father figure goodbye and hangs up the phone.

Looking to the only other person in the room alive, she sees Sosuke hold his hand out for her with his usual understanding smile.

"Shall we go, my love?" He asks.

Hope smiles at this but then uses a spell to pull down part of the facility's roof on top of Sosuke.

"You will be fine. It's my turn to safe you from yourself for a change." Hope tells him with teary eyes, walking over to him and kneels down, kissing him with all she has.

"I won't let you come with me. And I know you would." Hope tells him, caressing his cheek while he's trying to muscle his way out from under the rubble.

"You agreed that we carry the burden together!" He yells angrily with tears in his eyes.

"I'm sorry but this is the way it has to be." She tells him while he reaches for her and grabs onto her necklaces.

She puts a sleeping spell on him and he stops struggling with Hope gasping heavy-heartedly.

"Didn't think you had it in you. Bravo." Clarke says, clapping before reattaching his head to his body.

"Sorry I was eavesdropping." Clarke adds after his head is back on his body.

"Don't try to stop me!" Hope says pissed.

"Oh, I have no intention of doing that. I was just doing what daddy wanted because I'm scared of him. If you can kill him, go ahead I'm even rooting for you." Clarke tells her.

"Alright, then I'm taking my supporter with me." Hope says and uses a mimic spell on him. She walks towards Clarke with him doing the same.

They put one foot on the other side of the railing and grab each other's throat before they plunge down into malivore.

Sosuke awakes from the sleeping spell and looks around confused. He breaks out from under the collapsed roof after a few attempts and sees Landon lying nearby dead.

"What happened?" Sosuke groans and feels something rubbing in the inside of his palm. Opening it he sees two necklaces and puts them in his pocket.

"Wonder how long he'll take to come back." Sosuke mumbles to himself while moving over to Landon and steps onto the weaponized spinal cord, turned whip.

"I'm keeping that." He says, rolling it up and wrapping it across his torso diagonally.