The sky seemed to reflect the chaos of her mind, a pitch black starless night, not even the moon seemed to shine. The humans inside the mansion continued partying happily, not a care in the world, completely unaware of the creatures that hid in the shadows and the commotion going on outside.

The original hybrid glared down at the man responsible for his fears, tears trailing down his sculpted face, making his once bright blue eyes a dark shade of grey, showing all the rage bottled up for centuries, all the pain and disgrace.

What did he do to deserve this? He asked himself... was he not worthy of happiness? Wasn't he worthy of peace? Was he so filthy that he had to suffer like that? His face remained stoic while his mind was overwhelming, doubts clouding his thoughts with such power that he wondered if he was drowning.

His words echoed in his mindNiklaus felt like he was drowning, drowning on the cold water of his father's disgusted eyes.

Do you know how it feels to drown? There was nothing solid to hold on, he felt completely and utterly helpless. A sudden pain in his chest started to spread and his throat tightened, he was breaking down.

His body told him, begged him, to breath, but it wouldn't let him, his eyes started to cloud and his ability to hear suddenly seemed to have left him as well, just like everything else in his rotten life and he became totally numb.

He felt like screaming, he felt the solid walls of water pressuring him and tried to fight against it, but it only made it all worse, because the harder you fight, the worse is the pain.

The light started to fade away, leaving a void feeling on his chest, what did he have? Who was he? Was he important to someone? Anyone? Why did everybody leave him? Why could no one love him... why?

He felt a sudden burst of rage, wrath, followed by an intense power rushing in the environment. Anyone could feel it, it was too powerful. The humans started to fall on the ground, their bodies couldn't keep up with the bloodlust that seemed to hover in the air.

Mikael looked wearily behind him, where a deep forest circled him, he could hear the dark howls of wolves, it was way more powerful than anything he had ever seen and just as he turned to look at the direction of the sound, two heads fell in the ground.

The twin wolves had jumped on two vampires that seemed to be allied to the original vampire, their sharp teeth easily cutting the skin and breaking their bones as their heads rolled towards Mikael's feet, receiving an enraged look from him.

Stefan tried to use the distraction in his favor and used his vampire speed to go behind Niklaus' back, the oak stake ready to impale the hybrid in a moment of fragility, making his older brother look at him with a disgusted expression as he quickly pinned him to ground.

Stefan looked at Damon with a surprised look on his face, nor just because he had stopped him from killing the reason of dear Elena's suffering, but by the difference in their power level.

Damon seemed like he wasn't using even a bit of his full strength, easily keeping his idiotic brother on the ground with a very familiar position. He had pulled Stefan by his hair, his free hand around one of his wrists, twisting it behind his back, while he kicked his legs, getting his younger brother on the ground as Damon pressed harder on his back, one foot on his face as he looked down at him.

Somehow, Stefan noticed the familiarity, the dark glare, the incredible strength, the ability on the attack... and for the first time in almost two centuries, did he notice the unfamiliar ring that was proudly showing on Damon's finger.

Pure gold with a snake curled around a spear carved in the middle, the snake's eyes were two red stones, shining brightly just like Ares' would have.

"How can you help him? After everything he did? After everything they did!" Stefan questioned in disbelief, receiving a grunt from his brother, who was plainly annoyed with his bratty attitude.

"Because I know how it is to have an abusive father, but it's not like you would know, right? Father would never touch a single hair of your head because you were the son he was proud of, am I wrong? And while you took all the privileges, I was the one fighting in the war! I was the one who was never supposed to come back!" Damon snapped, his hold tightening while his eyes darkened at the memories, a dark smirk raising on his face as his hair covered his eyes.

"But I guess I should thank you, I would never have met my mother if I wasn't sent to die and she's the best thing that has ever happened to me... now, I believe it's past your bedtime, brother" The older Salvatore continued before he quickly snapped Stefan's neck, momentarily killing him and skipping to Niklaus' side.

Just as he got there, the sound of arrows cutting the wind reached his ears, his eyes widening, quickly pulling the frozen hybrid behind him and closing his eyes as hundreds of arrows pierced through the night.

Everything happened so fast, the hybrids were on the ground, many humans splattered in their own blood, it was a bloodbath. When the screams died, Damon blinked his icy blue eyes open, confusion written on his face, before his eyes widened and a whimper left his mouth.

Right before him stood his mother in all her glory, blood running down her mouth as she kept her arms wide open in a shielding position. His watery eyes looked at her back, which was covered in arrows, some even appearing on her stomach, having completely pierced her skin.

"I hope I'm not late, my sweets" Ares played, tilting her head to the side so her hair wouldn't fall in her eyes and she could look at them. Both men were looking at her state in horror, making her smirk widen as a wild look appeared on her face.

"Are you going to stay frozen like that, scared cats?" She joked, bright red eyes following from Damon's to Klaus', who seemed to have just found his way back to the surface while mirroring her smirk as the sword she had given him instantly appeared in the air.

"I think you have some demons to kill, hot stuff... why don't you take care of this infernal skunk while Day and I show my little sister who she's messing with? I'm sure Mikael wouldn't run away from a sword fight, after all, he still has an image to keep as a Viking, or are you too scared to fight against Nik?" Ares teased, looking over her shoulder at the man who was now glaring at her, his ego was even higher than hers, it was obvious that he wouldn't back down from a fight.

Mikael gave them a mocking laugh, glaring at the goddess when his own sword appeared in front of him, the one he used to slaughter villages and civilizations. It wasn't a normal fight, the combat wouldn't stop until one of them was dead and the thought of someone even thinking that his bastard son had a chance against him was enough to make him act on his emotions.

And if there was something that Ares knew... it was that emotions could make you either incredibly stronger or incredibly stupid, they just had to gamble which one would he be.

"I, Niklaus Apemius, challenge you to a duel"

😏