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| “ | I'm ready to be done on this earth. I wanna see my father again. I wanna know love again. | „ |
| ~ Rayna Cruz |
Rayna Cruz is the main antagonist of Season 7 of The Vampire Diaries.
Biography[]
Origin[]
Rayna, originally from New Orleans, moved to St. Malo, Louisiana with her father, Vicente, who was a member of the Brotherhood of the Five. Rayna expressed her admiration for her father and her desire to become a vampire hunter like him. Eventually, her father agreed to train her and gave her a sword, later known as the Phoenix Sword.
During a confrontation with the vampire Julian, Rayna revealed her father's status as one of the Five, hoping to save him. However, Julian found a loophole and compelled Rayna to kill her own father. Rayna reluctantly followed through, but her father assured her it was not her fault and urged her to carry on his legacy.
Seeking revenge, Rayna joined forces with a group of Native American shamans who granted her powerful abilities. These included enhanced strength, slowed aging, a strong urge to kill vampires, the ability to track vampires stabbed with her sword, and multiple lives, allowing her to come back from the dead. The shamans also enchanted her sword, turning the hilt's stone into the Phoenix Stone.
The combination of the Phoenix Sword and the Phoenix Stone enables Rayna to trap a vampire's soul in eternal torment and locate any vampire she marks. With these newfound abilities and mystical artifacts, Rayna is determined to exact revenge on the vampires who have crossed her path.
Rayna spent a decade pursuing and seeking revenge on the vampire Ambrose, even getting framed for his crimes. She eventually killed him. In the 19th Century, she hunted the Heretics with Julian and Lily Salvatore, leaving Beau scarred and Julian's soul imprisoned. She later wreaked havoc in New Orleans, earning a fearsome reputation and crossing paths with the Strix.
Season 7[]
In future scenes, Rayna hunts down the Salvatore brothers and other vampires, shooting them and taking them hostage. She is revealed to be a powerful vampire huntress with a supernatural urge to kill vampires. Rayna's power and obsession with killing vampires are due to a spell cast on her by shamans. She is eventually captured and placed in a mental asylum, but escapes and continues her hunt.
Bonnie and Nora track down Rayna and discover her whereabouts in Ohio. They find her in a mental asylum pretending to be senile, but Bonnie is left alone with her and is attacked. Enzo arrives and kills Rayna, but she is reincarnated from her ashes like a phoenix, becoming more dangerous than ever. Matt injects Stefan with vervain under Rayna's orders, while she taunts and tortures Damon.
Rayna eventually makes her way to Mystic Falls, killing Stefan's friend Beau and sending his soul into the Phoenix Stone. She fights with Damon but is saved by Stefan, who becomes marked by her. Stefan escapes to New Orleans, meeting with Klaus and learning about Rayna's history. Klaus banishes Stefan from the city to protect him from Rayna.
Rayna continues to pursue Stefan, but he manages to evade her for a while. Damon tries to kill her but she escapes, only to be captured by the members of the Armory. She is then seen talking to Stefan, offering him his brother's life in exchange for his secrets. Damon and Stefan team up to fight Rayna, but she stabs Stefan and traps his soul in the Phoenix Stone. Rayna, realizing that the stone is being destroyed, unsuccessfully tries to chase down Nora and Mary Louise.
After the destruction of the stone, Rayna discovers that the vampire souls within it have escaped and are inhabiting random corpses. She teams up with Enzo to reverse the effects of pills made from her blood, which are lethal to witches. Enzo, who has been protecting Bonnie, threatens to kill Rayna but ultimately asks for her help.
Rayna continues to scribble names onto book pages, representing the vampires she needs to kill. She forms a deal with Damon to kill the escaped vampires in exchange for Bonnie's life. Rayna's connection to the phoenix stone vampires weakens as the Armory eliminates them. She completes her side of the bargain and offers her last life to Bonnie.
In the end, Rayna plunges a dagger through her heart to complete a transfer spell, transferring the title of Huntress to Bonnie. Rayna's story comes to a close as her last life is sacrificed.
