Chapter Text
300 Years Ago
“Dante, I won’t let you do this!” you yelled, holding your head up as you stared down the man. He stood with his hands pressed to the table in front of him, a slightly crazed smile on his face as he waved a hand to motion the witch to continue.
“You can’t stop me. You may be a witch, but mine is more powerful,” he said in his English accent, looking down at the scroll-like paper in front of him as he proceeded to ignore you.
You huffed angrily. How could you have trusted him? How could you have not stopped him sooner?
In your defense, the man had a crazy idea that should never have worked. But he was charismatic. You should have spotted a madman from a mile away. After all, you were very close friends with one.
You and the Mikaelsons had just moved to New Orleans. One night, you were out with them and stumbled upon a vampire with a very interesting story about splitting a portal through worlds and crossing over. It was a charming–albeit terrifying–idea, but that’s why you just thought it was only a story.
But then you started picking up on his behavior and noticed that he was actually going through with his idea with a very powerful witch.
And now, here you were in the scene he explained. The moon at its highest, the fullest night of the full moon at the transition between summer and fall. It was almost the witch’s hour and two worlds were about to be split to create an hour-long branch.
The witch activated her magic and began the spell, chanting to herself as her eyes closed. The wind began to swirl around them, becoming stronger with each chant as the rip was beginning to tear.
It was times like these when you wished your beloved Mikaelsons would dramatically show up.
You began to chant to counteract her spell but Dante got to you first, covering your mouth tightly to keep you from chanting as he spoke in your ear, “You aren’t going to ruin this for me. I will create this branch, I will travel between these worlds, and I will rule!”
You bit down on his hand and he let go of you. You clenched your hand into a fist, watching him crouch to the floor as he screamed in agony as the blood vessels in his head snapped over and over again.
“You won’t. I can’t let you. If you leave these tears open, you’ll destroy them. There will be no world left to rule,” you told him.
He spoke through the pain, “Why do you care? The world’s done nothing for witches like you!”
You rolled your eyes, “Because I’m one of the idiots who lives in it!” You turned to the witch and began curling your hand, taken aback when your magic didn’t reach her.
She had a barrier around her that kept her from being harmed during the spell. It bounced off of the field and hit you and you screamed, falling to the floor as your dress pooled around you.
You tried to get yourself up as the pain raged inside of you, slowly slipping away as you caught your breath. Dante stood and walked over to the witch.
“How much longer?” he yelled impatiently.
“Almost there!” she strained as she continued the spell, blood dropping from her nose as she continued. You looked up when you saw a bright light in the air, at first it just resembled a twinkling star before tearing down as a rip was created.
You got to your feet and you were all blown back as the blinding light exploded. The three of you got to your feet, staring in horror and awe at the literal tear between worlds.
You looked at Dante at the same moment he looked at you. You both scurried to your feet as he rushed to the portal. You grabbed a hold of his foot, making him fall face first to the ground. You scrambled to your feet, having an especially hard time because of the dress on your body.
You stood, grabbing the paper on the table that had the spell scrawled on it and stuffed it somewhere in your dress so that he wouldn’t know you had it and try to take it. You got in front of the portal, opening your arms wide and balling your fists as your magic came to life.
But before you could do anything to close the portal, you were suddenly pushed through it. You began falling inside of it, literally falling as you were surrounded by nothing but darkness and smoke.
You felt like you were falling forever as you almost screamed. When you saw a soft glow on the other side of the portal, you braced yourself for the hit to the ground. You were left utterly confused when you rolled onto the ground instead of falling painfully.
Just as you looked up, Dante was already getting to his feet as he marveled at the sight of this whole other world. “Ah, London, my home,” he sighed.
He helped his witch up to her feet, escaping with her just as you were finally standing. They suddenly disappeared into the trees far from where you were standing.
You stamped your foot angrily, looking around to try and get your bearings as you dusted off your dress. You sighed heavily, almost screaming in frustration.
You pulled the roll of paper from your dress and looked over it to make sure it was intact. You let out a sigh of relief when you saw the page intact. You rolled it back up and lifted your dress a little to slip it in your shoe.
You looked around to get familiar with your surroundings. You tried to activate your magic, but it felt distant, like you were trying to use it from far away. That didn’t make you feel any better. The good thing was that you could feel it slowly returning to you, though it was so slow you wouldn’t have it most of the night that was now approaching as the sun had almost set. That was strange, it was well into the night when you left…
You decided a direction to go in, down the dirt sidewalk of London. It seemed most people had already gone inside as the sun had begun to set, the streets weren’t busy at all. No horses strolled down the roads pulling carriages and very few people were seen coming down the street. No one even seemed to notice her come. It was like she had been there the whole time.
She began walking down the street in hopes of finding shelter to collect her nerves before she began her search for Dante and the witch.
“Hey,” a man’s voice had you turning around with knitted brows. It had been a long day and you were quite ready for a break. But as this man walked toward you, dressed expensively, you let out a long sigh. “Why are you out here so late, miss?” he asked in his prissy accent which was a giveaway of his top status.
You turned to him, dusting off your dress again and fixing up your messy hair. “Oh, I have business to attend to. Nothing you need to stick your large nose in, I assure you.”
He looked at you with clear shock and disgust in his eyes by your statement. “Excuse me?”
“Are you hard of hearing?” you asked, too tired to be polite. You were in a whole new world entirely and you just wanted a moment of rest. You didn’t want to deal with snobby, privileged men from 18th century London. “I apologize, let me rephrase: kindly fuck off, sir.”
The man before you stared down at you in anger, his hand clenching a staff in his hand. “Surely you know not to speak to me like that. Do you know who I am?” be told you.
You raised a brow. No, you didn’t know at all who this person was. Nor did you care. You sighed, rubbing a temple as you responded, “Surely you know that I don’t care. Good day to you, sir.”
You began to turn around to leave, but he grabbed your arm tight in a strong grip. You turned to him, seething at him. Normally, you would have used your magic to have him go fuck off, but you were in short supply at the moment. “Get off of me before I remove your arm,” you growled through clenched teeth.
He gave a snobbish sneer as he yanked you closer, “Come now, darling…”
Just as he started to drag you away with you fighting against him angrily, another voice was heard close by, “Excuse me.”
You both turned around to see who the voice belonged to. You tilted your head slightly as you saw a man–a beautiful man–with icy blond hair, pale skin, and…golden eyes? He wore expensive clothes that resembled that of a medic and held an accent.
Oh, great. Another one.
“Dr. Cullen,” the man said, his grasp suddenly softening in the presence of the man. The man’s eyes turned to you, assessing you for a moment before offering a kind and gentle smile, “I was looking for you, dear.”
A mask of confusion settled in your features before you quickly caught on to what he was doing. You softened at the man. Since he was helping you, you might as well play along. Without your magic, you were practically human.
“She’s yours?” the man asked, eyes wide as they turned to you and then back at the doctor, “I wasn’t even aware you were courting…”
The man–Dr. Cullen–began walking over with the soft smile still present on his face. “Yes, well, now you know. If you’ll excuse me.” He held his hand out your way, offering it to you politely, “It’s time we get home.”
You took it gratefully, “Of course.” His smile widened slightly and he began to carefully lead to away with your hand wrapped around his arm. You both paused as the man spoke, looking over your shoulders at him, “You should teach her to bite her tongue a little more, doctor. It would be a shame if something were to happen to her because of it.”
He gave a weak chuckle, “I wouldn’t dare.” He looked down at you, “She has a spirit of her own, and she can handle herself.”
The two of you began walking away again and the man fixed his coat before huffing lightly and turning away. You and him got a little further away before you both stopped.
You sighed and gave him a genuine smile, “Thank you for that.” He returned your smile with a nod and a chuckle as you both let go of one another.
“It’s no problem at all,” he told you, “I don’t like anyone getting hurt.” He sighed gently and asked, “What is your name?”
“Y/N,” you answered softly, “Do you have a first name, or am I to assume it’s just ‘Doctor’?”
He laughed at that, holding his hand out for you, “Carlisle.” You smiled and placed your hand in his as he kissed the back of it, a common greeting in the 18th century.
You chuckled lightly, “Right, well thank you, Mr. Carlisle. I’ll be on my way now.” You nodded in thanks and began to walk away as Carlisle frowned with a concerned look on his face.
“Wait, where are you off to?” he asked curiously.
You turned to him and quickly responded, “Um, I have something I need to attend to. Alone.”
“At this time?” he questioned, entirely unsure and a little urgent as he told her, “It’s almost dark; you don’t want to be out a night. It’s dangerous, trust me… I can give you shelter for the night.”
You gave a light laugh, glancing down at your feet before turning to him and crossing your hands in front of you, raising your head in a slightly cocky manner, “I can handle a little danger, Mr. Carlisle.”
He smiled again, even if it was a nervous smile. “I’m sure you can,” he said truthfully, “But please, allow me to help.”
You looked up at sky as the sun was already almost completely setting and the moon was raising in the sky, the stars already beginning to twinkle in the dark sky–a phenomenon you had already witnessed just hour before. Then you glanced in the direction Dante and the witch had disappeared in. You needed to regain your strength and rest, help from a stranger who just saved you wouldn’t be terribly bad and you would be able to take care of a problem in that area in no time once your magic came back in just a couple hours at least.
You sighed lightly, letting your hands fall to your side, “I suppose it could wait…” You looked up at him again, walking over, “Lead the way, Dr. Cullen.”
He gave a kind smile and offered his arm as you graciously took it. He began to walk down the street in the direction of what you assumed would be his home where you would hopefully be able to catch up on much needed rest.
By now, the portal had possibly already closed. He wouldn’t be able to open it again until the end of the season in three months, which means you were stuck in this world until the next transition between the seasons when the barrier between each world was weakest. But it should give you plenty of time to catch Dante and end him. He couldn’t move on with his plan until the portal could be opened again.
He was a sitting duck, and you would be his hunter.
~
As Carlisle opened the door to his lovely home, he stepped aside to let you in. There were books, quills, ink, and parchment scattered all over the house, but not in a messy manner. In fact, the house was all but spotless and organized, aside from the bookshelves, which had large gaps open where books had been pulled out and not yet replaced.
It reminded you of your own, in which books, grimoires, and parchment lay around the house as you multitasked with your magic and studies. Except, his home was tidier.
He gave a smile and closed the door gently behind him, “Please, make yourself at home. What is mine is yours.”
You smiled at him and thanked him graciously. You stepped farther into the main room, sitting on a very soft sofa. Carlisle’s eyes followed you as he kept a distance. You picked a book up from the table in front of you. It was thick and bound by expensive leather. When you turned over to the spine, you smiled as you read the title as 'A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.
“You like Shakespeare, Mr. Carlisle?” you asked, surprised they even had Shakespeare in this world. You expected your worlds to be so different, but they had Shakespeare.
He chuckled lightly as he looked down at his hands, “Yes, I enjoy Shakespeare. How about you?”
You nodded in response, “Shakespeare’s nice.”
He nodded and offered, “Would you like tea?”
You nodded again and thanked him. He headed to the small kitchen to put tea on the kettle as you set the book down. He spoke from the kitchen, “There is a spare room just down the hall. It’s yours.”
You shot him another thanks and strolled down the long hallway darkened by unlit candles before you approached a room. You opened the door to a simple, yet classy bedroom.
It was not big, but you didn’t mind. You sat down on a chair in front of a desk in the room and pulled the parchment the spell was written on out, setting it on the table as you looked over it.
You sighed gently, remembering just why you were here. Carlisle’s kindness and hospitality had distracted you.
You began looking over the spell. If you could find a way to reverse it, maybe you could penetrate the witch’s barrier when she performed her spell and actually get through to it. Maybe you could stop the rip, keep it from being permanent.
If you were thinking correctly, you would half to reverse the spell and make tweaks to make it permanent. If you seal the rift, all you would have to do was put a lock on it to seal it forever.
That would keep him from keeping it open and having the worlds literally collide together and implode, thus saving millions–and possibly billions–of lives. For all you knew, the destruction of two worlds could have a domino effect and begin to destroy the rest of them.
Yay.
When Carlisle knocked at the door, you were quickly to hide the parchment before opening the door. “Tea’s ready.”
You chuckled lightly, “That was quick.”
He led the way back down the hall and gave you a cup of tea to your preference. Once again you were distracted as Carlisle struck up a conversation.
You hadn’t realized just how long you both had been speaking, and you had yet to find out. Suddenly, the question on your mind was blurted as you asked, “Why are your eyes golden? I mean, they’re wonderful, but it’s sort of…peculiar?”
He nodded, looking away as if to take the attention away from his eyes. He spoke cautiously, “A strange condition I was born with.”
You nodded slowly, “Well, they’re lovely.” When your eyes trailed to a grandfather clock against a wall next to the fireplace, you were surprised to see that it was already past twelve.
You would need to get up in the morning to continue your search for Dante. Maybe you could find him and take care of him, wait out the next few months, and return home.
This was going to be a long saving-the-world mission.
You excused yourself to bed not long after that. You would need your rest.