Disclaimer: I do not own anything, except my OCs, Bianca and Itzel Franco, and any further character I create along the way. I do not claim anything else besides the small tweaks and changes I'll make to the story/dialogue. This is purely meant to entertain and no profit is or will ever be made out of it.

"It was very long ago...

Before the Greek gods, the Egyptian gods, and even the Norse gods, that the gods of a young girl named Itzel and her village ruled over the Great Kingdom.

A kingdom in which Itzel's village lived in peace and the Gods prospered with their offerings.

Until Evil and its monsters plagued the village, sending a fiery and merciless Summer to ravage its fruitful land.

Hunger struck first, resided in the empty bellies of young Itzel and her people.

Illness soon joined her monster-sister, and took away many of their friends, family, and loved ones.

Leaving the girl and the few other villagers to fend for themselves against the third and most fearsome monster of them all: Death.

Although they didn't have to fight alone for so long, as the Gods got word of the Evil terrorizing Itzel's village and strode onto what little was left of her home. Powerful and heroic, the Gods battled the four monsters, finally winning and liberating the villagers after years of suffering in the hands of Evil.

What should've been happily ever after, never was, for the Gods had gotten a taste of war. The invigorating sense of glory that came with it. They searched for it all over the Great Kingdom but nothing provided the challenge that Evil and its monsters had.

Many summers and winters passed in which Itzel and her people lived merrily, yet the Gods only craved the blood of another adept enemy. And when sacrifices and offerings weren't enough anymore, Itzel's village grew very afraid.

Taken over by this poisonous need for warfare, the Gods looked down at the small village, and turned Itzel and her people into creatures not even Evil itself could ever control. A new breed of gods, they were.

Gifted with immense power, all villagers were fast to rise and compete with the Gods, too consumed with greed themselves. But, now a young woman, Itzel saw the true motive behind the Gods' gift- for no god, no matter how benevolent, handed his worshipers the power to sit on his throne- and knew that their gift was nothing but a curse.

When the rest of the village perceived the same, Itzel's people were enraged. They wouldn't stand to be puppets for the Gods to play with any longer.

The Gods had wanted blood and it was their own that spilled from their throats that cold and biting Winter.

However, as late as the Gods had been in realizing their grave mistake, a bit of time was left where they put an end to the vicious monsters they had created.

And with their last, drying breath they slaughtered every one.

All but a young woman, burdened instead with a last curse from the Gods who once saved her long ago.

Forevermore, she would walk around the Great Kingdom with her god-given power, yet never reach a happily ever after.

Indeed, a cruel and twisted tale, the one of Itzel."

Just when I thought Bianca was asleep, the six-year-old pulled her head away from my chest and looked up. Her eyes carried sleepiness but she fought the urge to close them long enough to ask, "It's not true, right? If you found a way to get my happily ever after, there's got to be one for you."

"You getting your happily ever after is my happily ever after, B." I hugged her for the night and kissed the top of her head, getting up from the bed and tucking her in. "Now come on, go to sleep."

As I turned to leave she reached out and held my hand. "I'm gonna miss you, Mommy," she said before she jumped out of her bed and wrapped her small arms around my waist.

I chuckled softly, understanding exactly how she felt, and picked her up in my arms, "I'm gonna miss you too, mi vida. But Tania is going to take good care of you," I let her down, seeing her tear up with the knowledge that I'd be gone in the morning.

My heart hurt at the sight, but I cupped her cheek and smiled, "Tania is a very old friend and I know she'll take great care of you while I'm away-"

"Like my fairy godmother?" She sniffled, warming up to the idea of spending time with her.

"You are going to love her," I nodded and she smiled as she went back to bed.

"Mommy," she said one last time while fighting back a yawn, "please be careful?"

"Promise."

I looked at the worried look on her little face and wondered if I had done the right thing in telling her the truth. She was so young to be burdened with the story of my past, but it was something she needed to know.

I had already broken the promise to myself to never to fall in love and have a child, but I wasn't going to break this one or any other I had made to her.

There wouldn't be any secrets between us, and there wouldn't.

She knew that in order to break her free of the curse I brought on her the moment I fell in love with her father, I would have to lie, deceive, and betray. But never to her.

With a curse like mine, one that forced you to be four different monsters, never at once but always forever, it was so easy to lose myself.

My true self.

My human self.

And with that breaking of the only ever promise I swore to keep, I made three others to try to make up for what I had done:

1) With Bianca, I would always be my real self, the woman I had been millenniums ago, the one her father fought hard to recover after I was afraid she was forever gone.

2) I would find a way to set her free from the Gods' curse, and 3) at no matter what cost.

Three thousand years ago, I had given up on looking for a way to break my curse, but, now that I had Bianca, giving up was no longer an option.

It was no longer just me, but my daughter, too, who would have to live with an eternity of pain and grief, and I rather be damned again if I let her live like that.

So in the morning, I kissed her goodbye, and made my way to New Orleans, home of the Originals.

The Mikaelsons, whose newest addition to their dysfunctional family was the key to my little girl's happily ever after.

If my research on the family of Original vampires was true, which it was, there wouldn't be a solution of just getting what I wanted and leaving. I knew it from the start that it wouldn't be easy. I couldn't simply waltz in their kingdom- well, yes, I could, but, although powerful, I wasn't stupid. The assortment of spells needed to be done to break Bianca's curse were on another level of complicated. At the end of it all, I needed to have the Mikaelsons on my side for her to be free.

And even then, Bianca wouldn't be entirely free. What I found wasn't much of an undoing of a curse, more like a loophole, but it was enough of a loophole to satisfy my promise.

One that started with me playing the Villager, instead of the God, as I met with Marcel Gerard, the former King of the French Quarter and protégé of the Hybrid, Niklaus Mikaelson, in the Algiers neighborhood.

Like many of the compelled humans standing here, I was just another young woman, an outsider, lost and with no sense of purpose. I had come here to hear out Marcel and what he had to offered.

"I know you're all wondering how you got here," he stepped out towards the group, wanting to ease their minds. "Don't worry about that for now. Instead, I want you to think about your lives." He stopped in front of a man and compelled him to stop shaking with fear, his words gentle and nonthreatening, "Don't be afraid." Marcel smiled upon the crowd and paced around as he delivered his speech, "Remember when you were a kid, and you felt like anything was possible? Then, you grew up, things didn't turn out like you planned. But still, there was that part inside of you that would dream. Maybe you wanted strength. Maybe you wanted to be a part of something, something bigger than yourselves. Maybe you wanted to be a fighter. Have something worth fighting for. Maybe some of you even wanted to live forever. Well, you can have it! All of it. Because that's what being a vampire is all about. "

I only realized I've been staring at him the whole time when he drew his attention to me. A curious spark crossed his dark-brown eyes and I quickly looked away, made myself smaller than the vampire as he continued, "Oh, don't be afraid. What do you have to fear, when you can do this?"

He sped over to a man in the group and with one arm threw him up in the air. The humans widened their eyes in surprise and gasped, turning their heads up at another young vampire on the upper floor of a building as he caught the scared biker and lay him down on his feet beside him.

"I know!" He smiled from above and patted the guy on the back, "Pretty cool, right?"

Marcel nodded his head and drew us back to him, "When you leave here, you'll forget this. But somewhere, deep down, you'll know the offer still exists to join me. Be like me. And, only then, will you find your way back here. Because you want it. Because you need it."

Or because this little Build-A-Vampire Workshop thing he had going on was my perfect way in.

By nightfall, I made my way to Marcel's loft. Now that the last few details of my cover story were worked out- Itzel Franco, exotic dancer, lover of soulful jazz music and aspiring violinist, who was done being treated as property and ready to fight for something bigger than herself - I was ready to put everything into motion. But before that, I decided to hide behind the opened door and listen to the conversation inside.

"Marcel, they got Joe," the same vampire that caught the biker earlier today said in distress.

"Joe knew what he was getting himself into," Marcel didn't sound all that heartbroken as he sighed.

"So, what?" The other vampire argued, referring to the vampire community he was trying to set up, "'Hey, come on, join our team? Your reward will be your death?'"

"Here's what you gotta understand," Marcel explained. "Vamps like Joe? They know what it feels like in the battle, and what it feels like to sit on the sidelines. Joe sat it out for a long time, but when the fight came to him, he got back in. Because he'd rather die on his feet than live on his knees. That's a warrior."

"Wh-What are we fighting for?"

"Me? I'm fighting for my home. For the dignity of the vampires who were run out of there. The question is, what are you fighting for?"

"That's the problem! I have no idea! The wolves took over the Quarter. We beat them back today, they'll fight us back tomorrow. It's nuts! And all for a few measly blocks of real estate?"

"I was born here in a time far more shameful than now. And even then, this city was worth fighting for. My blood runs through the gutters of this city, along with the blood of my closest friends. And yeah, Klaus and I fought side-by-side against the Guerreras. But, you know, before long, he's gonna want to be king of the wolves. His blood runs deep, here, too..."

I pressed myself closer to the outside wall as Marcel continued to talk, my stupid human ears not letting me hear without struggling.

As far as I could tell, witches, vampires, and now the werewolves fought for the throne.

I looked down at the emerald ring on my ring finger and slipped it out before hiding it in the pocket of my leather jacket. If I wanted to make Itzel Franco believable, there couldn't be any ancient rings that allowed me to shift between supernatural creatures. With this ongoing war, I would have to be a vampire through and through.

"... We're not fighting for real estate, we're fighting for the soul of this city." I listened to Marcel's last words and let out the last of my few human breaths before stepping in through the door.

"Hi," both men turned to look at me, Marcel smiling when he recognized me, "is this where I sign-up to join the vampire community?"

His smile dropped, sharing the same confused expression as his friend beside him, "I compelled you to forget. How-?"

"Yeah, sorry," I sighed and pulled out the small bundle of vervain from my jacket's pocket in explanation, "but I'd be stupid to be a human living in the Quarter and not have vervain on me."

"Smart," Marcel admitted, finally walking over as I tossed the herb into the nearest trash can, "although you're not gonna want to touch that stuff with a ten-foot-pole once you become a vampire."

"I know," I looked at him straight in the eyes.

Where any other person would come in confused, mumbling, and scared, I didn't. I knew what I was getting myself into, I was ready, and he knew it, too.

It didn't take long for Marcel to let me drink his blood, leaving me with a day to think about the choice I wanted to make before it became real.

Little did he know, I was the reason why there even was a choice in the first place. Because of me, creatures like him existed; witches, werewolves, sirens, vampires- even the Originals- descended from me.

When the Ancient Gods made monstrous gods out of my village, they hunted us down and imprisoned all but me in their supernatural purgatory. In creating us without a purpose other than serving as their form of entertainment, the Gods had upset the balance of Nature and were forced to figure out a way to not tip the scale.

So they let me walk and eternity on Earth, cursed to be a goddess of the supernatural.

If it weren't for me, they would all be but creatures in fairy-tale stories.

Like it was supposed to be, I thought bitterly as Marcel, accompanied by a tall, dark-haired man, dressed in a business suit, that could only be Elijah Mikaelson, stopped a few feet away and watched me play the violin on the moonlit sidewalk.

They talked quietly amongst themselves but I caught traces of their conversation. A witch named Davina had gone missing, which was worrisome because she could've been aiding Mikael- the vampire who hunted vampires and also another Original, being the father of them, this much I knew already. After all, his wife, Esther, had been the witch that found me and stole some of my blood, in order to make the spell that turned her family into the first vampires, a little more than a thousand years ago.

Finished playing, I cased the violin and looked at Marcel as he made his way to me.

"See, you're an Original," he told Elijah while standing beside me. "Every vampire that's ever been sired is an extension of you and your family. Now, you can walk away from that, and side with Klaus and the wolves, but you're not one of them, and you never will be. You want allies, right? Look around! This is ground zero for a new vampire community. Now, you may think that you're better than us," Marcel motioned between me and him with a smug smile, "but we're all you got."

Elijah shot back with amusement dancing on the corner of his lips, "And why would I play benefactor to a collection of lost children?"

Marcel rolled his eyes and retorted, "That's right. You never were any good with children. But, like it or not, vampires exist because of you."

Of course, I was just a myth to them, a name of a goddess long forgotten, so what was there but to believe that an Original like Elijah was the creator of their species?

"And these folks are gonna need your help," Marcel put his hands on my shoulders and I nodded at him to go ahead.

A quick snap of the head and I was dead.

A/N: Guess who's back?! And with an Originals fic I have no idea where it's heading but I needed to put it out here because it was driving me crazy after reading so many TO fanfics and being overwhelmed with inspiration!

I haven't even caught up to the show (currently on the beginning of season 3, so please, no spoilers!) smh.

But I hope this spur of the moment decision to post this chapter gets me back to writing again, so yes, please leave a review to encourage me to keep going with this fic if you want to read more of it! I reply back, if you have any suggestions or questions about this fic!