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“Where is she? ”
Three heads turned to face the source of the question, not a single one of them looking all that happy to see it.
“What are you doing here?”
Unsurprisingly, Lizzie was the first one to recover from the surprise of seeing her, and Penelope could see the annoyance on her face being used to mask… sadness .
“Nice to see you, too, Lizzie.” Penelope smirked as the blonde Saltzman twin simply crossed her arms.
Soon enough, the dark-haired witch’s eyes landed on the other siphoner, standing a fair distance away from her twin and her father. Penelope’s features immediately softened, and there’s a whisper of a smile on her face as she spoke.
“Jojo.”
She wanted to go to her, to touch the girl, feel her warmth as if to make sure she was really there. Unharmed. Physically , at least. Because by the look in her eyes, it was pretty clear that Josie was still hurt.
And it was precisely that look that reminded Penelope of why she just sat through an 8-hour flight with probably the most annoying child she’d ever had the unfortunate luck of meeting. Why she’d gotten up as soon as she heard from MG despite the fact that it was the crack of dawn when her phone rang. Why she left her school without a second thought, without even a word to her parents who would definitely be giving her an earful the next time they get her on a phone.
Her shoulders tensed, jaw tightening in determination, and she redirected her gaze to Lizzie and Alaric.
“Where is she?”
“Who?” Lizzie asked, understandably suspicious of the girl’s presence.
“Mikaelson.”
She was met with silence for a few moments. Though Alaric stood by his desk, ever itching to say something–probably some more bullshit about already having things handled.
“...Why are you looking for Hope?” It was Josie who asked, her voice soft but curious.
Penelope scoffed, obviously not a fan of that ridiculous question.
“Penelope, uh... now’s not really a good time.”
Finally, Alaric spoke up. And it took all of Penelope’s strength not to roll her eyes at school's pathetic excuse for a headmaster.
If anything, Alaric should be on her side. What kind of father just lets someone get away with almost killing his daughters?
Instead, she turned to face Lizzie again since–judging by the look on everyone’s faces–she’s the only one who didn’t seem completely perturbed by the possible consequences of Penelope actually finding Hope. In fact, it even looked as if she might have wanted to join the Park witch’s mission.
“Tell me where she is.”
“In her room, probably canoodling with her muppet boy.”
“Thank you,” Penelope replied.
At the same time, Josie shouted, “Lizzie!”
“What?” Lizzie looked at Josie, shrugging. “Thought you’d be happy that the she-devil and I are on the same side for once.”
Josie glared at her twin before shaking her head. She returned her attention to Penelope, hesitating for a moment before approaching her.
“Pen, whatever it is you’re about to do, don’t.”
And she almost listened. Almost changed her mind about the whole thing. Josie had that pleading look in her eyes, her hand reaching out to grasp Penelope’s hand gently. And part of her just wanted to stay there and make sure she was okay. This was all for Josie, anyway.
But instead she stepped back, shaking her head.
“I can’t let her get away with what she did, Josie,” Penelope said, breathing deeply. “Mikaelson heir or not, tribrid or not … she doesn’t get to hurt you and act like it doesn’t matter.”
Before any of the Saltzmans could speak, Penelope exited the room, locking the doors with a spell.
The pounding against the door, the pleas to let them out fell on deaf ears.
Penelope needed to find Hope.
“ You! ”
If her door’s sudden separation from its hinges wasn’t enough to startle Hope, the booming furious voice of one Penelope Park sure was.
Hope immediately stood from her bed, though it didn’t matter much since in the next second, Penelope threw her across the room with a flick of her hand. Before Hope could even think to retaliate, Penelope’s magically lifting her by her throat, her back pressed tightly against the wall.
“Are you crazy?!” Hope managed to shout despite the fact that she was rapidly losing the ability to breathe.
“Am I crazy?!” Penelope only tightens the pressure around Hope’s neck, forcing the tribrid to claw uselessly at the phantom force squeezing her airway shut.
The enraged witch stepped closer to the Mikaelson girl, the fury in her eyes apparent.
“No, Mikaelson. I’m not. But you certainly are.”
Penelope eased her hold around the girl’s neck only to toss her against the wall.
At this point, the loud crashing around the room had drawn the attention of others in the school, specifically Landon. He ran into the room, only to be flung back outside, followed by a slam of the door. She did not have time for him right now.
“What were you thinking?!” Penelope screamed. “They could have died! Josie could have died!”
Her anger was fueling most of her magic, which was made obvious by the objects being flung towards Hope’s head. Luckily, Hope’s instincts kicked in and she managed to dodge most of them, the edge of an easel only missing her eye by a few inches.
It wasn’t long before it turned into a full-on melee, Hope finally able to catch her breath enough to fight back. But Penelope just wasn’t willing to lose. (And maybe, just maybe, some part of Hope wasn’t really willing to fight.)
And that was how she ended up with her arm pinning Hope against the wall by her throat.
“I trusted you, Hope!”
The tribrid furrowed her brows, clearly confused by the assertion.
“Penelope, what are you talking about?”
“I-”
She cut herself off, her thoughts finally catching up to her actions, and she loosened her hold on the shorter girl before slamming her back against the wall in frustration.
“I trusted you to be there for her.”
There’s a moment of silence before Penelope finally released herself from Hope, taking a few steps back. Then she leveled the other with a hard glare.
“You’re the one that left, Penelope. I didn’t make you do anything, no one did,” Hope responded, deciding to comment on Penelope’s actions rather than trying to defend her own. “You chose to leave.”
“ Do you think I wanted to?! To… to move to a different continent and just leave Josie here, knowing that this school, that her family, that you were just never going to stop putting her in danger?” Penelope said incredulously.
“It doesn’t matter what you wanted, because that’s what you did.” Hope stood her ground, finally presenting some of that confident tribrid hero energy everyone seemed to always talk about. “And I don’t see what that even has to do with me.”
“It has everything to do with you!” Penelope yelled, clutching at her head in exasperation. “God, how could you be so stupid? You were supposed to protect them! To protect her! ”
“Josie’s fully capable of protecting herself,” Hope replied, shoulders tense as she crossed her arms in an attempt to look indifferent about Penelope’s words.
“Not when it comes to you.”
And there it was. The truth that neither of them have wanted to hear, to vocalize, to admit . But now it was there, hanging in the middle of the room begging with all its might to be seen.
Penelope finally locked her gaze onto Hope. The tribrid at least had the decency to look ashamed. Because of course she knew.
“When I left Salvatore– when I left Josie , I did it because I love her too much to watch her die, to watch her give her all to the people around her only to not even be given half of it in return. I couldn’t let myself go through that. And maybe it was selfish of me, but you’re right,” Penelope admitted. “I chose to do it.”
Frozen in place, Hope listened intently to the other’s spiel, wondering exactly where she was going with it.
“But at least she had you. At the least, I could leave and know that you cared enough about her to keep her safe, to keep her alive . To be by her side when she needed you,” Penelope stated. “When I found out about her losing control last year–almost killing Lizzie, killing others–I wanted to come back. I wanted to help. But then I heard the legendary tribrid, Miss Hope Mikaelson saved the day. And that was good. Because at least I knew my trust wasn’t misplaced.”
Then she released a wry laugh, shaking her head.
“I guess I was wrong.” Her anger was back, and she stepped forward, encroaching upon the shorter girl’s space. “Because you were the one who put her in danger. Because you were the one willing to risk her life– both of their lives for that boy out there. All out of love .”
Hope stood firm at her spot. “You would have done the same thing. Especially for Josie,” she said. “Maybe even worse.”
“Maybe.” Penelope shrugged. “Maybe not. Because manipulating the people I care about and putting them in danger just to save her… she would never want me to do that. And I wouldn’t do it because I know she’s going to come out of it feeling like the guilty one. It’s not fair to put that kind of burden on her. Just like it’s not fair to put that burden on Landon.”
“Landon understands. He’s the only one who understands,” Hope said, indignant.
“And maybe that’s true. For your sake, I hope it is,” Penelope said. “Because by the look of things… he might really be the only one you have left.”
At that, Hope’s shoulders fell, and she ducked her head in discomfort. But it didn’t matter either way because Penelope was already making her way to the door, her back turned to the tribrid.
She stopped just in front of the door, turning to face Hope for the last time.
“If I could,” she started, “I’d kill you for what you did. But, despite how temporary your death would be, I’m just not as willing to hurt Josie the way you were.”
Spinning back around, Penelope opened the door, not surprised in the least to see Josie and Lizzie standing outside it, Landon and Alaric right behind them.
She paid no mind to the way the others were looking at her, gaze fully focused on Josie.
Moving forward to wrap her arms around the siphoner, Penelope pressed a kiss to her forehead.
“I’m really glad you’re okay, Jojo.”
But before Josie could say anything, Penelope was gone.