Chapter 54: Who Are You, Maximus Bennett?
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Synapsis: Max negotiates custody of Inadu, while coming to a few realizations about himself, his goals, his fears, what he should do and the types of person he should want to be. As he concludes his thinking and follows through with his end of the deal, a body switching witch makes a mistake and decision made out of suppressed sliver of empathy may yet be his doom…
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Max followed the witches deeper into the Ancestral Burial Ground. As he did so, his mind drifted to his past actions, specifically how he handled Lucien.
He knew he could've just charmed the guy and left that as is. He probably could've used a better tactic to get the guy on his side. And, truthfully, he had no intentions of keeping him as he was now—a slave to false memories. He would return his rightful memories at a future point—Max is morally grey, not outright villainous.
The thing was, he needed immediate results as opposed to slowly actually bonding with the guy. He literally couldn't do that because the time he had until he had to actually leave was shrinking—and if it reached 0, Max's intuition told him he will actually die.
'I'll return Lucien to how he was before when I return,' Maximus thought as he walked. 'He'll probably hate me afterwards... Or maybe not. But either way, he will be a valuable player in the events to come.'
Shaking his head, Max noticed he sat in a comfy chair by a fire, where, beside him, Bastianna sat in a similar chair. The other witches left to give them privacy, though Max could sense they were close enough nearby to rush forward should Bastianna needed it.
The walls were decorated with renowned witches and warlocks through the ages—bricks of white stone made up the walls and intricate wood made up the fully furnished villa.
"So, student of Qetsiyah," Bastianna garnered Max's attention as she poured tea in the two cups on the table before them both. "You speak of a deal?... What kind of deal?"
Max silently took a cup of tea, calmly taking a sip as he prepared to negotiate.
"I want something that your coven guards, and I'm willing to trade it off your hands with something vital."
"And what, praytell, could you be willing to trade? And for what?" Bastianna drank from her cup.
"Knowledge and power..." Max smiled a Cheshire smile. "For... Her?"
Bastianna didn't seem to understand at first, her face scrunched in a slight frown as she thought over what 'Her' could mean. Then, she suddenly widened her eyes as she understood Max's words.
"You don't mean—"
"I do," Max said simply.
"But her seal—" Bastianna tried.
"Will be rendered useless in the coming decade, regardless of the re-application of magic to strengthen it," Max said, nonchalantly. "She'll be free within the decade. I want her power and have the means to assimilate it without any negative effects. I just need her."
"In return, I will strengthen the spirits of the Ancestral Well, thereby strengthen the Coven as a whole. And I will drop upon some knowledge."
"So what do you say? Deal?"
Bastianna considered this over, clearly weighing the pros and cons.
"And do you have a contingency in case the... assimilation goes wrong?" she asked carefully.
Max pulled out a large piece of moonstone—one he spent quite a while enchanting with various protection and prevention wards, purification enchantments and a long list of seal runes and symbols powered by conceptual level magic. From the TVDU verse and from memories of the show The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Max even imprinted a few Enochian runes he remembered from Supernatural.
"This is, singlehandedly, the most secure cell in the world," Max presented the stone to the elder. "Any being sealed inside it will not be coming out for a very long time. And I have resources to seal it in a separate dimension for extra protection. The moment I free the spirit, I'll bind it to the stone, seal it and banish it to that separate dimension. Once there, I'll assimilate its power."
Max set the stone slab on the table, watching as the elder inspected it.
"The power coming off of it is... unspeakably strong. Greater, I'd argue, than her current prison," the elder nodded. "I'll see that the spirit is brought to—"
"No need," Max casually reached a hand out into the Ancestral Well, ripping out the blue-black ball of immense dark magic. It was roughly a ball of energy, radiating great and terrible power, roughly the size of a basketball, possibly even larger. The entire burial ground began shaking as Max held the spirit in his hand as a person would a fruit and immediately went to seal it into the slab of moonstone. "dniB!"
Instantly, the spirit became one with the stone, causing the milky white surface of the moonstone slab to glow brilliantly a mysterious indigo-black, its being buzzing with power.
Elder Bastianna was shocked at the display, as she had every right to be. It wasn't everyday a young witch reached into another's afterlife and pulled out their most guarded prisoner.
'Of course, it's more complicated than that,' Max thought privately. 'I had channelled my Phoenix physiology at a near conceptual level while simultaneously utilizing a layer of psychic energy over my hand to keep both Inadu from corrupting me and from escaping once I took her from her prison. My authority as the Anchor to the Other Side paired with my unique ability to sense other dimensions allowed me to shift, if only partially, into the deep recesses of the Ancestral Well and swiftly pull out the most powerful dark spirit in existence.'
'In other words, my magic has evolved so drastically that interdimensional threats are of no consequence to me as a whole.'
"You-you... How did you—?" Bastianna seemed spooked by the feat she just saw. "That spirit was single-handedly my coven's most closely guarded secret. The millennia worth of protections and covertive charms on it alone would keep even the Original Family out if they ever desired to reach it and you—you just—?"
"If it makes you feel any better," Max began, bemused. "Our deal is still in effect. As for what I've just done... Well, I am not one limited to a singular dimension." Max suddenly stood up. "If you would be so kind as to show me the heart that connects the living world to your Ancestral Plane? I'll go ahead and empower it and fulfill my end of the deal."
"As for knowledge... All you need to know is that one of the Harvest girls will team up with the Vampires out of spite and fear."
At this, Bastianna froze. She couldn't believe this. 'Could what this young man be saying be true?' She eyed Max in suspicion.
"D-do you have any proof?" she wanted more of a confirmation. "On what grounds could you prove what you said to be true? Accusations are meaningless without concrete evidence."
"The eyes, chica, they never misread a future," Max grinned, tapping his eyes. "Besides, I am not obligated to clear that up for you. Believe me or not, I don't actually care. Do with the knowledge however you will. It's possible to prevent it, though. The future is never written in stone."
At this, the old crone realized that he had 'foreseen' this happening. He was psychic. 'No wonder the Great One took him on as her student. A true psychic are rarer than most witches.'
Of course, Max didn't tell her that whatever she did, the one meant to join the Vampires would do so regardless of any action taken to prevent it—not unless he himself prevented it—and he wasn't certain that he would, mostly because he had no idea how he felt about Davina Claire.
'She was meant for Kol and I took him for myself,' Max thought briefly. 'But does she deserve a fate without him?'
Max pondered this as he followed Bastianna deeper in the catacombs. She led him to an altar of wood and material beneath a stump left behind from what Max could only guess to have been a Nemeton. It was large enough for it and radiated an immense amount of power. At roughly 12 feet across, slightly raised with wood as dark as charred wood and covered in light patches of moss, the stump likely acted as a heart for the Ancestral Well.
"This is a Nemeton," Bastianna confirmed Max's thoughts. "It is the center of the Ancestral Well. All souls consecrated to the Ancestral Well are done so through it."
Max circled the stump, inspecting it thoroughly. It wasn't as impressive as the older Nemetons Max has met but its power was undeniable. It was definitely a nexus for magic ley lines, Max noted.
"This should do," Max stood before the tree stump, taking note of the assembly of witches in the yard around him, honestly, before closing his eyes and focussing.
He began channeling both Nemetons he possessed influence over—the one in Forks and the one he used prior to awaken and upgrade Kol—and he channelled himself.
Mentally, he was sure now. He didn't need to fear Davina taking Kol, because her version of Kol isn't his, and his version of Kol isn't hers. And, because of that, the future Davina suffered from also didn't need to happen.
'If I prevent the need of the Harvest Ritual, the events of the series hold no longer any relevance,' Max thought. 'I've been playing it safe for so long, I've forgotten that I was born here. I am allowed to change it for the better. I'm not a good person. I'm controlling and paranoid and, at times, outright villainous.
'But, if I can make the world better...Shouldn't I?'
With that thought in mind, Max began to cast. When he opened his eyes, they glowed a vibrant white completely, almost like a divine spirit had possessed him. And, when he spoke, it echoed in a multitude of voices:
"nehtgnertS dna ecrofnier, rewopme ot eht tniop erehw eht tsevraH lautiR si regnol on dedeen."
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Translation: "Strengthen and reinforce, empower to the point where the Harvest Ritual is no longer needed."
A brilliant white light shone brightly, illuminating the sky and environment in a near blinding display. Power seemed to saturate the stump and rush into the Ancestral Well like a tidal wave.
Every witch present felt it—the strengthening of their magics. The reinforced connection to the Ancestors.
Simultaneously, Max felt something tug at his soul—an outside force attempting to take over his body.
He quickly looked around and noticed Sabine wasn't amongst the gathered witches.
"Foolish Celeste..." Max muttered, willing a sliver of hellfire to instantaneously consume the consciousness attempting to take over his body. "Greed is a sin for a reason, darlin'. Perhaps instantaneous disintegration will suit you well."
There wasn't a scream nor whimper that pointed towards Celeste's actual location, though Max knew she ceased to be whenever that tug truly vanished and stopped its attempt at take over.
'One of the reasons why I asked that ROB for a resistance at mind control and bodily takeover is because I thought of how that particular witch would take over other witch's bodies over the centuries and even how Klaus did Alaric…,' Max thought as he began leaving. 'Good thing he was so agreeable on granting me that resistance, I suppose.'
When Max would leave later and 30 minutes after, Sabine's body would be found with its eye sockets burned out, ears, mouth and nose burned away, no one would be able to answer why.
The only conclusion they could come to would be a spell gone wrong, and after scanning her grimoire, they'd be horrified to find out who Sabine Laurant actually was—and how Celeste had been surviving the centuries.
From there, it wouldn't take them long to figure out why she ended up like this—a burned out husk.
"She tried taking over that young man's body, but failed," Bastianna would realized. "Not only failed, but it backfired and ruined her."
Instead of just fear, something close to curiosity lingered inside the Crone's mind. 'Just who are you, Maximus Bennett?'
Later that evening, Max entered his hotel room, not surprised to see a sharply dressed Lucien Castle awaiting him.
"Maximus," he muttered upon seeing Max.
Max sighed, fighting an internal turmoil.
'I wanted to give him back his memories at a later date... But something inside me wants actual, genuine connection over control. Should I?'
Max contemplated it over and over, before thinking 'Fuck it', and, with a wave of his hand, the original Lucien returned.
He seemed confused for a second. One moment, gathering his thoughts and bearing.
The next?
Max was held against the far wall by his neck, choking and gasping for air.
The only thoughts in his head were 'This feels awfully familiar,' even as Lucien's enraged glare bore down on him as he began to choke Max even harder.
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"bniB" →Translation → "Bind"
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P:S: Reviews and Comments are much appreciated.