testing Landon

"Given recent events I have been informed by students that they don't have enough say in the way they can shape their future. And I agree. If you are expected to abide by the school's policies it's only fair that you have a voice in how those rules are made. So I am forming an honor council. One vampire, one with and one werewolf. All elected by their peers along with our school counselor who will represent the younger students.

Now I have to go off campus. In the meantime I expect you to make good decisions and to vote wisely." Alaric announces, leaving the school building promptly afterwards.

"Dr. Saltzman, is there a decision coming about whether Landon can stay soon?" Rafael asks, rushing after the man.

"We are running tests on him to figure out once and for all if he's supernatural." Alaric replies.

"And what if the results aren't clear?" Rafael asks.

"Then I have a decision to make." Alaric replies.

"Couldn't the honor council decide?"Rafael asks, hoping the students would be easier to affect so Landon can stay.

"If it comes to that and we determine he's not a danger, then yes." Alaric tells him.

"What is happening today." Alaric sighs, getting stopped again when he opens his car door only for Hope to close it magically before he can even put his bag inside.

"Are you kidding me? You get to interrogate tree nymph and I have to run Landon's 23-and-me?" Hope asks in a protesting voice.

"First of all it's a Dryad not a Nymph. Second of all I need a witch to run the testing spell." Alaric informs her.

"Get Emma to do it." Hope tells him.

"She can supervise but she's busy managing the school in my absence. Plus if Landon can convince you that he belongs? Then he can convince anybody." Alaric tells her with a slight chuckle in his voice.

"You're enjoying this." Hope says accusingly.

"I left instructions for you two in my office, try not to kill them." Alaric tells her.

"Them?" She asks suspicious of him.

"Sosuke will help you with the testing. Think of his performance as a guideline." Alaric tells her.

"So not only do I have to test Landon I have to babysit Sosuke as well?" She asks upset.

"Good luck." Alaric simply says and gets in his car.

When Landon enters the nurses office not much later both Sosuke and Hope are already waiting for him.

"What are you doing here?" Landon asks.

"Dr. Saltzman wanted me to administer your tests, starting with some weird mystical blood analysis." Hope says.

"No." Landon says.

"Excuse me?" She asks.

"These tests determine whether or not I get to stay the school right? There is no way I'm putting my future in your hands. You're biased." Landon tells her.

"I'm not biased. Besides, neither of us has a choice. Believe me this is not how I would choose to spend my day." Hope replies.

"See. Biased." He complains.

"Landon. The last thing that you told me is that you wanted to find answers about who or what you are. I want those answers too, so let's just get through this." Hope tells him.

"Hah, fine. And what are you doing here? Are you also getting evaluated?" Landon asks Sosuke.

"I'm the standard you will have to surpass in the physical tests." Sosuke informs him, patting his shoulder as he sits down so Hope can take his blood.

After half an hour of testing the three are outside and Landon has to measure up to whatever Sosuke performs in various sports activities.

"You can stop." Hope says with wide eyes when Landon is on his fourth attempt to lift up a log Sosuke hefted over his shoulder in one swoop.

"You have no supernatural strength." She tells him.

"Alright, what's next?" Landon asks slightly out of breath from the various tests.

"Next? You failed at everything and refused to swim across the lake." She tells him.

"Well I only need to pass one test, so I'm not giving up yet." Landon insists.

"Look, Landon. Take it from the only one who knows. I don't have much against you, you seem like a decent guy but this is not the place for you. You take a werewolf punch wrong as you are and you could die." Sosuke tells him.

"Come on, there must be something you can test me on." Landon tells them desperately.

"Well for the lineage test it'd be good to know about your origins. Come on." Hope tells him and the tree sit down at the pier Hope likes to go to.

"What's your name?" Hope asks him.

"Landon Kirby." He answers and a crystal ball Hope brought shines blue, showing he's telling the truth.

"That means you're telling the truth. Now try lying. What's your favorite food?" Sosuke eyplains while Hope gets out a page with questions.

"Rabbit." Landon answers and the ball shines red.

"So this is a magical lie detector?" Landon says.

"In other words you worst nightmare." She says challengingly.

"Well, bring it on Hope." Landon says.

"Where were you born?" Hope asks.

"I don't know." He answers.

"Who are your parents?" She asks.

"My mom's name is Seylah, that's all I know. I have nothing on my father." He tells her.

"Why can't you be compelled?" She questions.

"I have no idea. Until a few days ago I didn't even know it existed." Landon tells her.

"Why'd you take the knife?" She asks him.

"I don't know. Honestly, I remember taking it. But I don't know why I did it." Landon answers.

"This isn't good enough. As it stands you have very little chances of getting into the school." Hope tells him, the orb having glowed blue the whole time.

"Since we're here already... Who are your parents?" Hope asks, dropping the orb in Sosuke's lap, who was sitting on her other side.

"I don't know, neither do I care." Sosuke answers, the orb lighting up blue.

"Where do you come from?" She asks.

"The first memory I have is in Afghanistan when I was 8." Sosuke answers, the orb glowing blue still.

"Do you feel emotions?" She asks curiously.

"Yes." Sosuke replies and tosses her the blue glowing orb back before leaving.

"What was that about?" Landon asks Hope.

"I was curious, I can never figure him out." She says, and nods for him to come with her.

"Where are we going?" Landon asks.

"I don't know. There are no more tests to run." She tells him, stopping and turns around to him.

"I thought you wanted to help me find out what I am, so why are you so mad at me? I apologized for lying about the knife." Landon asks.

"I'm not mad. I couldn't care less." She says and Landon points at the orb she was still holding which glows red.

"Fine. It is easier to be mad." She admits.

"Why?" Landon asks.

"Because it is." She tells him.

"Is it maybe that when you stop being mad you'll feel like you're letting your guard down and the legendary Hope Mikaelson can't possibly do that?" Landon asks accusingly.

"When I let my guard down, people disappoint me." Hope admits and the orb shines blue, making her look away from Landon saddened.

"Growing up in the foster system, every time you get send somewhere new you hope it's the right place. You know home, where you belong. And I understand that you can only get hurt and disappointed so many times before it seems impossible to trust someone new. Especially when they lied to you. So for the last time, I'm sorry. I broke your trust, I don't want to do it again." Landon apologizes and she sees the orb glow blue again.

"Thank you." She says quietly, touched by his speech.

"But if this goes the wrong way. Can you make sure Raf doesn't follow me this time? Because whether he sees it or not, he belongs here. This is the right place for him." Landon requests and leaves her to her thoughts, coming across Jed, who earlier that day got beaten up by Rafael so he can become the new alpha and vote for Landon to stay.

"Hey Jed." Landon greets the werewolf nervously.

"Everything was fine before you and Rafael showed up here." Jed says angrily and starts to beat up Landon who fails to defend himself.

"Hop along Jed." Sosuke says warningly, arriving by luck at the scene.

"Or what?" Jed asks pisses off and steps away from Landon, starting to fight Sosuke instead.

The taller werewolf runs at Sosuke and tries to land a knee strike to his chest, but Sosuke ducks underneath the jumping teen and turn around facing Jed who does the same as he lands.

"You damn humans don't belong here." Jed shouts and throws a heavy punch at Sosuke, who blocks it and gets thrown over by the sheet force.

"Now you're making me angry." Sosuke says, getting up and takes out a switchblade.

"As if you'll get the chance to use that." Jed says cockily and tries to tackle Sosuke.

Sosuke jumps over the teen however, using Jed's lowered shoulder as a jump off point. and he does a flip in the air, slashing at Jed's leg upon landing. Leaving a cut on his opponent.

"Fucker." Jed shouts and throws himself at Sosuke again in a blind rage and is met with a knee to his face, giving him a bloody nose.

"I'm going to kill you." Jed growls, starting to transform, only for Sosuke to quickly stab him in his knees and shoulders.

"Ahhh." Jed cries out in pain, with Sosuke simply kicking over the werewolf, no longer trying to transform.

"Kill you say?" Sosuke asks threateningly, his foot posed at the werewolf's throat and his knife dripping blood onto the teens clothing.

"Whimper off before I take you serious." Sosuke warns Jed, who growls while cursing and rolls around still in pain.

"Come on, let's get you checked out." Sosuke says, coming over to Landon and hefts him over his shoulder as he makes his way into the school, pushing past the curious onlookers drawn there by Jed's yelling.

Hope, who was amongst them follows the two boys as Sosuke brings Landon to his and Rafael's room, setting him down in the bed carefully.

"This is what I was warning you about." Sosuke says, half sitting on Landon's nightstand while Hope checks his wounds, Landon luckily only having suffered a cut lip and some bruises here and there.

"I'm gonna tear Jed apart." Rafael growls after coming into the room and seeing Landon hurt.

"Already done, so cool your alpha jets." Sosuke tells him.

"If you want to help, go in the garden and bring me some stone root herb." Hope says and Rafael hurries outside.

"What does that do?" Landon asks, sitting up with a groan.

"get him to leave and cool off before he finds out I made it up." Hope tells him with a smirk.

"Raf's had a rough couple of weeks." Landon defends his brother.

"Look who's talking." Hope says, sitting down on his bed, facing him.

"I guess we can cross supernatural healing off the list." Hope says jokingly.

"I'm sorry that this happened to you." Hope tells him softly, Sosuke watching with a barely hidden frown at seeing how much she cares for Landon.

"I'm gonna make sure Rafael isn't actually going to go looking for Jed." Sosuke tells them gruffly and leaves the room.

"I have dealt with bullies before." Landon tells Hope.

"Not like this. I know how badly you want to stay here, but this school is full of people like Jed. Some of us are nice and have more control but everyone here is capable of what he just did or even worse. Do you honestly think you're safe here?" She asks.

"Yes I do." Landon lies and Hope leaves him alone to recover, looking at the red glowing orb she hid under her jacket when she was sitting on his bed.

Later that day the newly formed council is meeting to discuss whether Landon should stay.

"Why aren't we starting?" Rafael asks, a bit restless.

"We're still waiting for..." Emma was about to explain when Hope enters the room and sits down at the table.

"Hold on, who voted for her?" Kaleb asks.

"I ran unopposed" She answers, making Kaleb and Josie roll her eyes, feeling like she's getting preferential treatment again.

"Let's get this started then." Emma says. Casting a spell on scales which start to float in the middle of the table and she picks up one of the five rune tokens on the table.

"As the one voting for the younger generations. I vote in favor of Landon, he is definitely someone who could use our school's help. On that note I have to deal with some other business." Emma says and excuses herself.

"Who wants to start?" Kaleb asks, looking around the small table.

"Landon has to go." Hope says, getting surprised looks from all around the table.

"I never thought I'd be saying this. But Hope's right. Humans refuse to make a place for us in their world. We start letting them in, it's only a matter of time before they take over this place too. In fact, I suggest we make another vote soon regarding the long-time human stain in this place." Kaleb says, casting his token on the opposite plate of the one Emma placed her stone.

"Landon is my brother and he's the only reason I'm alive. Knowing what he does now... He can't go back to a normal life. We took the crappy life he already had. At least we should offer him one to replace it." Rafael says, casting his stone with Emma's.

"It doesn't matter how much we want him to stay. Look what one mad wolf did to him and even he knows that he's not safe here. We can't shoulder the responsibility to protect him all the time. It's just not possible." Hope says heavy heartedly and evens out the scale.

"It's on you Josie." Kaleb says.

"It doesn't matter who I like and who's friends with who. This school is family and since Landon showed up we had to fight multiple times. We don't even know what exactly he is. And I'm not putting my family in danger again."Josie says, voting for Landon to leave.

Raf gets angry over the vote and knocks over his chair before leaving swiftly after having a stare down with Kaleb.

Rafael hurries to his and Landon's room heavy heartedly and says goodbye to his brother. After the emotional goodbye Rafael heads to the gym to let out his anger.

Meanwhile Hope accompanies Landon to the bus stop outside the school and gives him a bus ticket, some money and a contact to a friend of hers who will help him find his mother.

When she gives him a bracelet with a spell, allowing her to locate him if he's ever in trouble Sosuke coincidentally walks by, doing a sweep around the border of the school and can see them through the large gate of the school.

Hope is walking back towards the school when her bracelet lights up and the compass on it points behind her.

"Had to make sure it works." Landon says with a smirk and closes the distance to her, both meeting in a loving kiss.

As Sosuke sees this he feels like the world is coming apart around him and leaves with a defeated sigh, heading to the gym with the same idea Rafael had.

When he gets there however instead of a punching bag he is greeted to the sight of Lizzie and Rafael making out half undressed on the mats with a broken punching back lying next to the mats.

"Can't anything go my way." Sosuke grunts, not really bothered by Lizzie and Rafael, but more by the fact that the punching bag is broken.

Sosuke leaves without letting them know of his visit and heads out into the woods, starting to lightly punch a tree, before getting more and more aggressive as his head keeps replaying Hope and Landon kissing in front of the school.

With a cry of anger he headbutts the tree, strong enough for a trickle of blood to seep down his forehead and he turns around sitting down with his back against the tree.

"I don't understand it." Sosuke says nearly tearing up and leans his head against his knees after pulling them towards himself.

"Hey. You OK?" MG asks, having heard his yell and came to check it out.

"Peachy. Headbutting trees is how I always go to sleep." Sosuke groans jokingly.

"Well better that than doing the handstand until you pass out. Takes too long." MG jokes back, sitting down next to him.

"So, what's up?" He asks.

"What of our previous encounters makes you believe I will tell you?" Sosuke asks with a tired sigh.

"Alright, message received. I'll let you enjoy the company of your trees." MG says and leaves, only hearing his quiet thanks due to his vampire hearing.

Sosuke stays leaned against the tree and doesn't even realize he fell asleep until a woman wearing a bloodied wedding dress shakes him awake the next morning.