With Jake gone, Hope struggles, finding strength in her friends while she works to bring her love home. Jo finds herself in peril as the target of MF's new Big Bad. Sandy fights to come back from the Prison World. History is catching up with the kids and their parents as the humans and the supes clash. No one is safe.

Disclaimer: I do not own Legacies it belongs to the CW, Julie Plec and the usual suspects…

Hello, my lovely readers. Welcome to beginning of the end of this story. Thankfully this book is so big it had to be split in two. On with the show…

Prologue: You Can't Forget!

Townsend

A squawking sound emitted from the walkie-talkie on Townsend's belt. He thought these days they should be using embedded-sound-devices that feed communications right into your ear, but his bosses liked the old toys. Some people were just slower to the new ways. The idea made Townsend smirk. One day he would be the one calling the shots.

"Murphy!" he shouted to one his men, who stood at the end of the hallway. "Attention!" he shouted.

Murphy's old training, from his very first days at the recruitment camp made the man jerk like a puppet on strings, and Murphy's eyes popped open. His head rotated to Townsend, a shocked, and almost scared look on his face. It made Townsend smile even wider. He liked to keep the other men on their toes.

"You plan on letting one of these sneak up on you and rip your tongue out? Huh?" Townsend marched over to Murphy, and pressed his own pale features into the darker man's face.

Murphy shook his head rapidly, his eyes sliding to the floor before training made him look Townsend in the eye. There was only one little step between them. Townsend had a badge that gave him clearance to the place upstairs, while poor Murphy still had to watch the monsters in the basement.

"I can't hear you, Murphy!" Townsend shouted into Murphy's face.

Murphy's mouth opened. "I'm sorry, sir. Will not happen again, sir." He slapped his heels together, and stood erect, ready for battle.

Townsend sneered and moved away from Murphy. He walked over to one of the cells and leaned close to the bars. "Good morning, honey, sleep well?"

The black-haired girl lifted her head and sneered back at him, her dark eyes glowing with malice. "Sleep better if I didn't have to wake up to look at your face."

"Oh, you wound me," Townsend patted his chest, right over his heart, and grinned at the girl. "You hungry? I can get you a plate. You can even eat with me. If you promise to play nice, this time." He leered at the girl who turned her head from him and shook it in disgust.

"Even if I liked boys, you'd be the last one I'd ever let touch me alive," the girl spat out, turning her head to look Townsend in the eye.

Laughing, Townsend replied, "We can always cure ya of that problem. Since you refuse to play nice, and give up your little buddies. Just one name, and it can all be over, Park."

Shaking her short black locks, the girl placed her head on her knees. End of conversation.

"Fine." Townsend turned to Murphy. "You two enjoy each other's company. I've got real work to do." He glanced at the nameplate by the cell. They chose to forgo the prisoner protocol of using numbers. They wanted others to know that these other creatures thought they were human, too, used human names, wore human clothes, and ate human food. But at the end of the day, they weren't, and they paid for their pretense.

Penelope Park was written on the nameplate. Weeks. Months. Or a year from now, it would have a new name, and a new occupant. Not until the newbie took a good look at Pen's name. They needed to know her name. They needed to know someone came before them.

Strolling down the hall, Townsend whistled as he came to the metal steps that carried him to the upper level. He whizzed his card through—they really need to move into the 21st century already—and smiled at the sound of screams, greeting him, as the heavy metal door to Upper Level 2 closed.

Freddy

Sun poured down on Freddy's Lockwood's new tan. He watched the girls and boys splash each other in the pool and he smirked at them. Kids. He felt pretty grown-up today. He'd be turning eighteen soon. College felt like it was right around the corner. Anything was possible—this summer—he could feel it, even winning the love of his best friend, Hope Mikaelson.

Hope blew a whistle at a little boy who dunked another little boy under the pool water. "No!" she called to them, waving a finger.

"Good job, Momma Hope!" Freddy teased her from his position above.

Hope blocked the sun from her eyes, with the flat of her hand, and grinned up at Freddy. "Hey there, stranger. You want to get lunch with me?" she asked, other hand on her hip.

Rubbing his lower lip with his index finger, Freddy seemed to contemplate the idea while he examined Hope's red, one-piece bathing suit. "No other hot girls have asked me out, today; so I suppose I'm free." Freddy launched himself off the seat, in one smooth jump. The little kids clapped and cheered at Freddy's performance. He bowed to them, smiling.

Hope shook her head and patted him on the shoulder. "Come on. I am starving!"

"Are you buying?" Freddy inquired.

Hope's brows rose. "You can't afford a hot dog?"

Freddy shook his head. "You asked me out. I thought it was only fair that you pay."

Giving Freddy a dubious look; Hope shook her head. "You know, my dad might be loaded, but you can buy lunch once in awhile."

"I can," Freddy nodded, and pulled out his wallet. He withdrew a twenty. "This will be my treat."

"Oh, how sweet," Hope's sarcasm was not lost on him.

Freddy stopped at the concession stands. "I need two cokes. Two bags of popcorn, and about five hotdogs, with mustard."

Hope waited, pulling out her phone from the top of her swimming suit, and frowning at the screen. "Bad news?" Freddy inquired, taking the food in both hands and almost dropping one of the drinks.

Taking her drink, without looking at it, or at Freddy, Hope sighed, and shoved her phone back into her top. "Jos. She's out-of-control! Did I tell you that I had to stop her from chowing down on the mailman, yesterday?" she asked, lowering her voice as they passed humans, on their way to a nearby table.

"Maybe your dad can talk to her," Freddy said. Honestly, Freddy felt happy for Hope, because her dad was back in the picture—but now that Jake was gone—Klaus had turned his attention on Freddy, not in a good way. Freddy knew that there was bad blood between Klaus and his dad, Tyler Lockwood, but Freddy's dad died a long time ago. Time to let it go.

Shaking her head, Hope began shoving popcorn into her mouth. "He doesn't want to freak Caroline out. The wedding is coming up. Li's a bit of a mess, thanks to being part of the wedding, and not knowing how to deal with Jos' behavior. Plus, she's taken up Fanny Salvatore as a pet project. Poor kid."

"You think we should try visiting Fanny. She's been keeping her distance from everyone…since…you know…Todd…" Freddy found he did not want to eat his hotdogs after all. His eyes went to the tabletop and he thought about Todd. Todd could be an ass, but he was also one of Freddy's closest friends—after the whole hating each other part ended.

Hope sighed and looked at the sky. "I think Fanny wants to be left alone. Maybe we can hang out with her after the wedding…" She did not seem that into the idea and Freddy decided to drop it. "Have you seen Mrs. Donovan around town?"

Freddy decided to attempt a hot dog. Picking it up, he held it between both hands, and shook his head. The food tasted better than he thought it would. "Nope," he grunted, around a mouthful of processed meat and lacking-any-kind-of-nutrition bread. He picked up his soda and took a long sip. "Looks like she's been holed up in the mansion since the funeral."

Maria Donovan tended to be a very outgoing and socially-aware human. However, since her son's sudden death—via vamps and wolves—she'd been hiding from the world, locked away in what used to be the Lockwood property before Tyler gave the place to his best friend, Matt Donovan.

"I sent flowers." Freddy said, taking another bite of his hotdog. "She didn't send a 'Thank you' card, but she didn't call to yell at me, so that's a plus. I think."

"If she doesn't come to the wedding; we'll go to see her," Hope said. She finished off her popcorn and attacked her hotdogs.

"You're hungry," Freddy noted.

Hope nodded, placing her hand over her mouth. "Work makes me this way. And the full moon's coming on."

Nodding, Freddy thought about his having to change this month. Hope liked to change and they'd been running together. It felt good. Natural. Freddy felt happier than he had in his entire life. But he knew that things always changed and he sensed that Hope would not let go of Jake as easily as he hoped she would. In the meantime, maybe she'd figure out that she was letting Freddy into her heart, too. The thought made him attack his next hotdog with relish.

Maria

"Honey?" Matt Donovan's voice made Maria's head hurt. Her fingers escaped the inside of her fort of pillows and wrinkled blankets. She wiggled her fingers at him in a "Go away" signal. Her devoted husband did not seem to understand her wordless communication because he took a seat on the bedside and placed a hand on her back. "Baby?"

"Mathew," Maria croaked, her voice sore from lack of use. "Please. I will get up tomorrow."

"Baby, you can't keep doing this… I miss him, too." Matt's words made Maria sit up, popping up like a Jack-in-the-Box, made by demons. Her hair was a tangled mess and she could feel the oil in it. She could smell where she had not bothered to bath in the past two weeks. And she did not care.

"Maria." Matt took hold of Maria's face between his hands. "Baby…" His eyes were full of tears. "Please, I can't lose you, too."

Huffing out a frustrated sigh, Maria jerked her face away from her husband's. She swept her legs over the side of the bed and pushed her feet onto the deep, plush carpet. Her toes wiggled and she looked at them. So much life in her while her boy rotted beneath the ground. It was not right.

"The monster who caused our boy's death still walks around this town like he owns it," Maria seethed. She reached out, and opened her nightstand, removing the bottle of tequila she kept there now; instead of a good spy novel. "It is your fault he took our boy! And his family thrives!" She hissed out, turning to face Matt.

Matt's blues were wide. "Maria."

"You are weak, Mathew! You allowed those monsters to take our son! Our baby! And to keep him! So? So, what? So they could find a boy was not even their blood!" Maria's eyes widened as she spoke and her lips curled back from her teeth. She placed venom in her words. She wanted to find a weapon and hunt these foul creatures until every last one them was gone.

"Maria, Klaus would have killed all of us. And he didn't kill Todd! Todd made a choice! He did something noble! Something good! He died to help his friends!" Matt tried to explain, his hands rising and falling from his sides as his words poured out.

"Your words are like water, they flood me, and drown me! I choke on your pretty sentiments! I wish they'd all died! I don't care for any of them! They are monsters! They are the children of monsters! They will do nothing, but kill, and terrorize, and make other mothers lose their babies! They bring nothing but pain on households!"

"Maria!" Matt shouted and Maria stopped. "I would give anything to bring him back! I love him, too! He was my boy! My first child! Do you think I don't want to hurt someone! You think I don't wake up, covered in sweat, remembering everything I could have done to keep him safe! Or how many times I got drunk at the Mystic Grill and how many times that the local paper almost published a story about the 'Local Mayor Who Lost His Mind?'" Matt flung his arms in the air. "You know who stops them? Caroline!"

"Caroline?" Maria scoffed. "Precious Caroline! Getting fitted for her monster wedding dress to become one of them! A Mikaelson! Caroline Mikaelson, wife of the most powerful man in the town! Step-mother to the little bitch who is the reason that my baby in the ground." Taking the bottle of tequila, Maria walked over to the window and tossed it through. She felt satisfied when glass-up-on-glass exploded and barely felt the shard of glass that tore through the skin on her cheek.

"Oh, my God!" a soft cry came from the doorway of the bedroom.

Maria's dark eyes flashed to the doorframe. "Fanny?" she said, not believing that the girl stood there.

"You're bleeding, Mrs. Donovan," Fanny said. She hurried into the room and straight into the bathroom, like she knew the house backward and forward. This did not shock Maria as much as it might have before Todd's death.

Fanny came out with a wet washcloth. She crossed the room and took hold of Maria's chin, as if Maria was the teen and Fanny was the adult. "This is going to hurt," Fanny said softly. She removed the glass from Maria's cheek and Maria did not flinch as Fanny applied the washcloth.

"I'll be downstairs," Matt told them, his head hanging down.

Neither female looked at Matt. Maria took hold of Fanny's wrist. "Thank you," she said softly, before moving her hand to the washcloth. She walked over to the bed and sat down. "Did you come to talk with us?"

"Yeah." Fanny seemed nervous as she came over to stand in front of Maria. She took hold of the bottom of her baby-doll top and squeezed it into a wrinkled mess in her hands. "I…"

Maria watched the girl closely as Fanny brushed her curly, black hair behind her ear. "I…" the girl tried to speak and Maria took hold of her wrist, again, and pulled the girl closer, taking in every fine detail of the girl's features. Fanny's large dark eyes peered at Maria in question, lips pursing into a pretty pout.

"He lives on," Maria said, her hand going to Fanny's middle. "There is still hope for us." A bitter-sweet smile turned her lips upward. Yes. Now, Maria had something live for. Something to protect, something to keep—her son's legacy—and she would be damned if anyone would take this from her.

Thank you for reading, faving, following and reviewing.

Peace,

-J