ATONE

“I expect nothing less from a mother.” Ravenna watched the woman pensively, silently rising from her chair to moving to the stove to pour them both a cup of chamomile tea. Placing Cassie’s mug on the table with hers still in hand, she slid it across the table toward the witch and returned to her seat. “Our crosses to bear in this town, unfortunately. If only we were to predict the future and prepare ourselves, dear.”

Cassie sat at the table as she watched Ravenna flit around the kitchen, much like the woman did when she was pregnant. She didn’t know what would have happened if she didn’t have the woman around, especially since she rarely spoke to anyone else, especially Wil during that time after Malcolm’s attack. Cass took the mug gratefully, blowing briefly before taking a small sip. “I fear that if we were able to see into the future, that would make an even bigger mess. That’s a power that I don’t know if I’d want... like it’s a double edged sword,” she mused. No... she’d stick with her elemental power-- that was a devil in its own right.

Then let us pray that if it does come to that which I hope against my judgement, my dear, you do what it takes to protect your kin.

Of course, is that not what friends are for, helping each other in world-ending scenarios? I can’t make promises of a connection, but I will try. For you and Wil, and your children.

I will be able to, I think deep down... Wil would know, too. I’ve done it once, I will do it again.

Alec tasted the rage flare like a tartness to the tongue, barely even having a moment to completely enjoy the rush when his hand suddenly raised before slapping himself across the face not from his own volition. The smack sent the witch’s head flying to the side, causing Alec to release a small groan of pain as the sting radiated along his cheek. He rubbed at the flesh, shooting the blonde with what should have been a glare of daggers, but was nothing more than an expression of amusement. “Jesus fuck, you Thornton’s can’t take a joke. Don’t get me twisted now, I was only describing what I was seeing with my eyes in the moment. We don’t even know if they’re the same person technically.” Alec bobbed his head back and forth as if he were debating the notion. “I saw her after she casted a spell and broke into my mind prison which should’ve been impenetrable. I’ve met psychics, but I’ve never met someone like Calliope.” He thought about his next answer for a moment, “She didn’t exactly say, but I bet you anything it was Dante awakening from his slumber. I think her visions were happening in flashes and she went looking for answers. And it seems Griffin followed in tow on a separate occasion.” Alec released a small humming sound, “Complicated magic, that spell, which is fortunate for you because I just happen to know it well. I could find her and your son again.”

“You can’t really blame me for that, can you? She was still a Calliope, regardless of what or where she’s from, she’s still my daughter,” Cass bit out at the other witch, someone she should have regretted using her abilities against. However, everything paled in the face of the fear she has for her children, her precious family; a family she thought she was robbed the ability to have. Cassie listened to Alec speak, a million thoughts running through her head about a mile a minute. She only quirked a brow at the man’s implication, the temptation to do the same spell again to see her children was almost there, however she shook her head. “I don’t want to complicate things by messing with the same spell they did. My children are upstairs, I don’t need to find their future selves when I need to worry about their safety in the present. My priorities are just that, and to fix what they tried to find and maybe I can save the trouble of heart ache for them in the future.”

Wilburn prepared himself for whatever came next in their conversation, but the tale Cassie spun from her lips and intertwined with the anxiety of her pacing boasted an elaborate weaving of one insane phrase after another that it was enough to smack the werewolf in a head-on collision like a freight train. The word spread about Alec fucking with Malcolm, not the surprising fact, but the more the witch barreled through the continuation of her discoveries, Wil realized just how vast the universe was compared to how small he now felt. Every small problem he once possessed suddenly did not matter anymore when his children were grown in an existing future they have yet to enter. His eyes followed Cassie as she beelined from practically one side of the room to the other. “Our kids? Like you mean the same ones who were fucking infants the last I checked sleeping soundly upstairs? How does that make any amount of sense, how’s it even possible? I can’t wrap my-” Wil cut his sentence short, Cassie’s last implication becoming all too real. Malcolm’s role as his Alpha never held more power than it had in this moment. In some shape or form, Wilburn still belonged to him. “That thought’s already crossed his mind, Cassie.” The man pushed himself to his feet, raking his fingers through his locks and adopting the other’s pacing as the panic mode set in. “I started hearing a voice around the time Malcolm was attacked. It kept getting louder, but I couldn’t ignore every second I felt it yanking at my intestines. That was him, Cass, he’s…calling for me.” Wil suddenly dug a heel in the carpet, halting himself in his spot before spinning around and approaching the woman with urgency, “Cassie, if I go to him, nothing will stop from doing what he commands. You need to lock me away, chain me down, do whatever it takes to protect our children.” He would need to speak with Tori or Spencer. Perhaps, Spencer would know the best place. “I won’t be the reason I put them in danger again, baby, I can’t.”

She paled. Malcolm had already begun his move against them, an unseen threat using the Alpha bond against Wil to do harm against those that would stand against him in a sick game. Cass stopped her rapid movements in order to not collide into Wil as he had begun his pacing; she wasn’t helping the mood but she couldn’t stop. She forced herself to breathe as Wil spoke, coming closer with an almost manic desperation. “Wil, I don’t have anything here to lock up a wolf-- I could use my abilities, but that would take too much concentration for a long amount of time,” Cass said, her hands grabbing his to still him-- trying to give him comfort just as much as he gives her comfort. She took a stilling breath herself, pushing aside her anxieties and willing herself to not lose herself in them. “We’ll figure this out, but it won’t happen if we both panic, this is what he wants. I’ll do everything in my power to keep them safe, even if it means my life in the process.”

Cassie, you begin losing your marbles now and we are all lost. Allow me to look into it and I will fix this, I promise you. But you must warn Wilburn that Malcolm may call for him.

If our world and theirs are converging, perhaps I could tap into this alternate Ravenna’s mind and pluck the answers we seek. The lines have already started to blur.

Ravenna, he’s going to ask me to do something to keep him away from our children. What if that’s all fruitless-- what if I have to do something drastic to stop him from harming them?

Alec couldn’t say he would argue with the logic, Malcolm already traced his and Valentina’s name in red underline after the stunt he pulled the other evening. He made enemies as quickly as the time it takes for the witch to walk through his front door and they seemed to emerge from the woodworks almost as easily. “That’s the unfortunate downside of being mine. I am always the hot commodity.” His gaze rested upon the Thornton woman, waiting for the reaction like a child waiting for his Christmas presents and finding little disappointment from her immediate confusion. Though…the same icy cold running through Cassie’s veins overcame Alec with a small flourish. An after-effect, seemingly from his abilities. “Oh, you know your daughter, Calliope? She was really hot in a not weird way. Fiery red locks to match a personality I could just…anyway.” Alec waved a hand carelessly and revealed a slow-forming grin, “I saw her in my prison while the idiot was awake instead. We really connected on a personal level, you know? Her abilities are acting up, she’s seeing Dante, blah blah blah. I’d love to see her again.”

Cassie watching Alec speak with a scrutinizing gaze, an immediate anger washing over her as he objectified her daughter. Without a thought, her abilities latched onto the miniscule metallics in Alec’s blood; taking control of his hand to deliver a swift slap across the face. Folding her arms across her chest, she looked at him with a quirked brow, “might I remind you, that even though you may have seen an older version of her, Calliope is still very much an infant in this time and you just objectified her which, even for you, is gross and borderline pedophiliac.” Breathing a steading breath, she pushed her blonde locks behind her ear, “lets start again, Alec. So, for some reason, you saw her and her powers are acting up. So, she’s a dark witch-- probably psychic. Did she say exactly what she was seeing? It could explain why Malcolm saw Griffin, too.”

Wilburn pressed his lips tightly at the outburst, his senses preventing him from flitching at the sudden sound of the book Cassie was leafing through making contact with the hard surface of the table. The role reversal still caught him completely off-guard, Cassie wasn’t one to lose her temper, that honorary position was filled by his impulsive knack of reacting before thinking. Yet, he watched time and time again as she carried the weight of the coven and the world on her platter. “Don’t be. It’s alright.” Wil scooted closer to the witch, moving from the cushion he was previously sitting in and could do little but stare in slight confusion. “Cassie, look at me, we live in a town where hybrids and vampires exist. I’m a werewolf, you’re a witch, so I doubt there’s anything I wouldn’t believe. What’s going on?”

Cassie sighed, looking up at Wil with Ravenna’s voice in her head-- she had to tell him. She had to let him know why she was so scared. “Alec Merriman attacked Malcolm, which that isn’t new. What’s concerning is what happened after,” Cass said quietly as she rose from her seat to pace in short circuits in front of the man. She chewed on her thumbnail for a few seconds before speaking again, “Malcolm came to Ravenna searching for a boy that she was with who also did a number on him. A boy that looks just like you-- Wil, he saw our son, except he was decades older. An adult, our baby Griffin.” She felt like she was spewing nonsense, complete fantasy even for a supernatural being as herself. She didn’t stop in her pacing-- walking in quick enough circles that she could have caught the rug on fire. “Him seeing our son was one thing... but Wil, Alec saw our daughter while he was locked in whatever prison that Gideon put him in. An adult version of her too, and for some reason our future is colliding with our present but that isn’t the scariest thing.” Cass stopped suddenly in front of Wil, “I don’t think Alec would ever go after the twins, but Malcolm? I afraid he’s going to come after the babies by any means necessary-- and if he thought what I did, he could use you. Do you understand?”

It’s not often Cassie shared a piece of her old coven life, he was fortunate to receive some semblance of information on a good day when his girlfriend wasn’t pushed on the subject, not that he was blameless walking on eggshells to broach that line of questioning. “I know my level of experience can’t compete with a witch coven, but you still have a fair share of witchy brethren you can turn to. Honey, I’m afraid every moment I spend away when I leave their sides.” The worry in the blonde’s eyes was evident, evident enough to transfer over to Wil. This wasn’t the paranoia of a new parent, not fully. “Did someone threaten our children?”

“It’s not the same,” Cassie snapped, her hands slamming her family tome shut before letting out a shuddering breath, forcing herself to bite her tongue from saying anything worse to Wil when he was only trying to comfort her. It wasn’t fair to him, but there was a constant fear that ran through her and even he wasn’t able to quell it. There was a part of her that screamed at her to be the one to fix this-- she’s a Thornton, she should be strong enough to handle this information and keep her children and coven safe. “I’m sorry,” she said with a sigh, rubbing her hands over her face before dropping her hands into her lap, “no one threatened them per se... you’re not going to believe me if I told you. I have a hard time believing it myself, that’s why I wanted to see if I could find some sort of answer to explain but I keep running around in circles.”

Malcolm still rests in the corner licking his wounds, Cassie, I ascertain it as a guarantee he will come to the same conclusion and use Wilburn as a weapon.

There is a time-jumping spell that I have dared not use considering I had no need for it. It would make sense the alternate Ravenna would be accompanying your son, but Malcolm was never their intended target. This spell is temperamental, Cass.

I--I don’t know what I’m doing, Ravenna-- I feel like I’m this close to losing my mind. Right when I finally started to make the steps of getting better, this happens.

“Cassandra.” Alec played into the role of formality, even straightening his posture with a pompous flair and knowing he couldn’t uphold it for a long period, but he just can’t find it not hilarious how easily the atmosphere surrounding the blonde dramatically altered at the first sign of the original dark witch. “Oh, come on, I’m not the only one jumping the gossip train out of us two. A conquest wouldn’t have me fucking wrapped around her finger, in any case, Tina knows she’ll always be my girl.” He shot Cassie a playful wink before that warped into an impatient eyeroll, “And there he goes again, bitching about Malcolm. Not my greatest hit, I will give him that, but I got us laid. No appreciation there.” Alec suddenly cracked a smirk, the memory tickling the front of his mind, “You’ve got bigger problems, Cassie Cass. That daughter of yours is going to be a handful troublemaker. Powerful too.”

Cass resisted the urge to roll her eyes at Alec’s words. She supposed everyone deserves to find someone that accepts them, there was still a part of her that was surprised to see the original Alec just as smitten with the hybrid as the Alec she’d gotten to know. “I would just be careful who you announce your relationship to, there would be people who wouldn’t think twice about going after her if it meant getting back at you,” she said pointedly. They had that in common-- the two of them were on Mal’s list of who he’d love to see burn. At his words, though, a wave of cold washed over her at the mention of her child. This wasn’t a coincidence, this was a pattern-- and she never ignored patterns. Malcolm saw her son, and now Alec mentioned her daughter. “Alec,” Cassie said, her voice half warning him to watch what he said about her daughter, “what are you talking about? No beating around the bush.”

“Everything I have is already crumbling around me. If it’s not the other side fucking up my life, It’s Malcolm hunting my blood and Tina’s for sport. I just want to put an end to this before he destroys anything else I care about.” Alec tore his gaze away, all thoughts of Valentina flooding his brain, pondering the immense step they made in their relationship, but something in the man’s body language changed before he could offer a response. The switch flipped, triggering the baddest of the two Alec’s. “Well,” He stated with amusement, head cocking to the side playfully, “I certainly heard no complaints from her after we obliterated what is left of the bed. The other me could never, but he’s too preoccupied talking shit about me behind my back to know how thirsty she’s been for us.”

Cassie wasn’t surprised as she watched Alec’s demeanor change right before her very eyes; she knew that the Alec that she’d talked to the most was stating more and more often that the other was taking back control. “Alec,” she said with a slight nod, folding her hands in front of her, “I really doubt that Valentina would appreciate you talking about your bedroom activities around other people like some conquest.” She sighed, she really didn’t have the mentality to deal with him at the moment after everything Ravenna told her. “Can you blame him for talking bad about you when it comes to your choices you’ve made for the two of you?”

Low and behold, even Malcolm’s pettiness knows no limits that he would ever punish a child for something he has yet done. Should this ring true, however, any action he takes against the twins will mess with a natural order neither of us will begin to understand.

He said the resemblance between Griffin and Wilburn was uncanny. And that he was under an impression that in the supposed reality your son came from, he was dead.

This is... already something I can’t begin to understand. Ravenna... could he get Wil to hurt our children? He’s still his Alpha-- I need to be prepared for anything.

They may be sitting at the driver’s seat, but I don’t see them scrambling for the next plan, Cassie. I’m tired of watching those two walk around on eggshells around me. Other me is the reason why my life is a crumbling shit show, so I’m expecting him to pull his damn weight and fix this.

I think the end of his reign is drawing near, I really do, and I couldn’t care less if I played my part in it. In the meantime until that moment comes, we’ll keep our noses down and hole ourselves away in the apartment which isn’t something I’m entirely complaining about. My relationship with Valentina changed the last time we talked, Cas.

I know this can’t be easy for you and I wish I had all the answers and could solve this on my own-- but I’ll still do what I can to help. You know that if the other you pulled his weight, he’d pull it in the opposite direction, effectively shattering everything you’ve built.

I thought my ears deceived me as well, but even in Malcolm’s state, his durability wouldn’t have sustained a head injury severe enough to hallucinate. It seems an odd lie to concoct too. This is still…concerning.

Of course this is concerning-- Rav, if this is true and not some sort of lie that Malcolm decided to spew for some last minute grab at mischief, this is a problem. He could be vindictive enough to come after my babies for the act of a... a future Griffin.

I know. I know.

He comes barging through my door, uninvited and looking worse than Alec left him, rambling on about a boy he said I was with. He claims it was your son. A grown version of Griffin.

I would not choose the full moon unless it was last resort and this is the final option. Please, don’t lecture me on the notion of unpredictability, Cassie, I’ve weighted any possibility what will and can happen, but I have faith in Giddy and myself to make this right. Then at least, I will have the energy to deal with our Winslow issue. This man has finally reached the peak of his madness.

I’m not lecturing, you know-- just worried for the two of you.

It was second nature, really, for Calli and her brother to ignore the world around them, including their parents, and remain co-dependent with each other. That may have caused Cassie feeling left out in the dark outside their little bubble, but the growing uncertainties meant taking a needle to that bubble and allowing her mother access. “The more my mind keeps replaying visions, the more I’m questioning if anything I’ve seen is real. What if it is an illusion? What if every word he said was a scathing lie? I mean, Griffin could be right and I’m just going crazy.” Calliope dropped her gaze to their connected hands, her mother’s warmth ceasing any tangent she would have endured. Her brother held the same calming affect when the migraines were at their absolute worst. “Mom, what am I?” She whispered quietly, her voice growing small and uncertain. Calli knew what she was in a way, she was a monster. A freak.

Cassie nodded along as the girl spoke, her hand never leaving her daughters clutch. She may not know the answers but she would always be a listening ear. Griffin tended to go to his father for some conversations outside the realm of magic, so it would make sense that Calli came to her-- abilities were just easier to speak about when it came to their mother. “If there’s one thing that I want you to do, is hold onto the fact that your vision are real. They’ve never been fake, you’ve been predicting things since you were a child. Just because your visions don’t make sense now, doesn’t mean they won’t in the future-- everything is happening for a reason, darling,” Cassie said as reassuringly as she could, but shook her head at Calli’s quiet question. The woman took her daughter’s chin gently in her finger tips, moving the girl’s gaze to her eyes. “Calli, what you are is my daughter. You used to get so dirty head to toe when you helped me with my gardening. You are my little girl who cried when you lost your first tooth because you were scared the toothfairy wouldn’t take care of it. You would run errands with your father on the weekends and he loves you to the moon and back even though you’ve dropped ice-cream in his car on more than one occasion. You are your brother’s sister-- you’re his rock and his best friend. I can give you more examples of what you are but what I want you to understand is that your powers do not define you, do you hear me?”