It was a beautiful day at the Mikaelson mansion, as Klaus and Rebekah sat across from each other at the dining table, which had an elaborate breakfast on it.
“Have you spoken to Marcel today?” Klaus asked her.
“No, should have?” she lied.
“He’s been mysteriously silent----avoiding me, some might say. I thought perhaps he may have whispered reason into your ear. Along with all those sweet nothings.”
“If I see him, I’ll be sure to ask if he’s still sore at you,” she replied.
“Oh, come on Rebekah, you’ve been giving me the devil’s eye all morning. Out with it!” he replied.
“Perhaps I’m concerned that if I voice my opinion, I will end up on the wrong side of your toxic hybrid teeth,” she replied.
“Poppycock! I would never bite you. Besides, you know my preferred method of punishment for your indiscretions is the dagger,” he reminded her.
Rebekah smirked, as she stood up.
“There is something fundamentally wrong with you.”
She walked out of the room, leaving Klaus alone at the table.
Later that day, Klaus was dictating his memoirs in the study while he drank a shot glass of Bourbon. As he spoke, Cami transcribed him on a typewriter.
“They have all forsaken me. My siblings are as deceitful in disease just as my parents ever were, trusting others before their own blood,” he informed the bartender.
“Would a laptop kill you?” she questioned, tired and frustrated.
“That typewriter was good enough for Hemingway.”
“I see the resemblance. Booze and random acts of violence,” she stated to him.
“All I’ve done is tried to win this battle of wills over Marcel’s control of the Quarter in order to reclaim our home.” He looked at Cami when she stopped working. “Type, please!”
“What’s the point? You just repeat the same thing over and over again. Rebekah’s out to get you. Elijah’s out to get you. Is there anyone who isn’t plotting your downfall? I doubt you trust your own reflection,” she bravely replied.
“You know, if the daggers weren’t missing, I would put one in each of their hearts. Rid myself of the burden of my siblings for a couple centuries.”
“Look at you! Repeating the same destructive cycles over and over again. You are the architect of your own unhappiness!” Cami told him.
“I don’t remember asking for your advice.”
“Oh, really? So, of all the people in New Orleans, you choose someone with a masters in psychology to record your life story. You’re over a thousand years old. Pretty damn sure you know how to type. The truth is, you compelled me to come here because you have no one else to talk to, and you want to be understood. Then, you compel me to forget everything as soon as I leave your presence because you are too scared to trust.”
“I’m scared of nothing.” Klaus picked up a sheet of paper on the desk next to Cami and examined it. It had an elaborate circulator symbol written on it. “What’s this?” he inquired.
“It’s an ancient mystical plot I’m using to destroy you,” she joked. Klaus looked at her, clearly frustrated, and she rolled her eyes. “Relax. It’s a tattoo design.”
“Draw on your own time,” Klaus told her.
“This is my time. You steal it from me!”
Cami angrily packed up her things and stormed out of the room.
Meanwhile, Rebekah and Marcel were in the Garden.
“Where are we gonna put Klaus? He needs to be away from all the others. We don’t want him formulating descent. You know he has a knack with words, he could talk his way out of hell,” Rebekah said to Marcel.
“Yeah, I got a spot picked out for him in the back. Only person he’s gonna be talking to in the next fifty-two years is himself,” he replied.
“Fifty-two?”
“One for each year that he kept you daggered in the 1800’s,” he clarified.
“You mean you let him keep me daggered?” she questioned.
“And I’ll spend every year Klaus is in here apologizing to you for it.”
“Well, I’ll settle for long enough to experience just a little bit of happiness. And ensure that my niece isn’t turned to a hybrid breeding machine. It’s gonna be tough to keep him here. That little witch of yours would put the odds in our favour.”
“I can’t risk it. She’s got less and less control over her magic lately. I can’t even get her out of the church attic, much less rely on her to go to battle against Klaus,” he informed her.
“Then we’ll need your very best warriors. Klaus is strong and crafty, and betrayal makes him particularly nasty.”
“What we’re doing is nothing Klaus hasn’t done to both of you and your brother four dozen times over. You’re not getting second thoughts now, are you?” Marcel replied.
“These aren’t second thoughts. They’re feelings of regret. I should have buried him a hundred years ago. A hundred years we could’ve been together,” she replied, before kissing him.
Later that day, Klaus entered the courtyard of the compound to find Marcel standing and waiting for him.
“Klaus,” Marcel greeted.
“You’ve been avoiding my calls,” Klaus stated.
“Little pissed off lately.”
“Apologies for my behavior can come later. You have something of mine. I want it back,” Klaus informed him.
Marcel pulled out the silver dagger and held it up, know that that was what he was after. “Sorry, but I can’t do that.” He held out the dagger to his side and when Rebekah entered the courtyard, she took it from him.
“What is this?” he questioned, unamused and suspicious.
“Apologies for your behavior? You don’t apologize, Nik. You just act. I’ve had enough. We have had enough,” Rebekah said, avoiding his question.
“Look at you. Finally in possession of the one thing that can take you down. How does it feel?” Klaus taunted her.
“Great,” she replied.
Marcel whistled and a dozen or two vampires came out of the woodwork and filled the balconies.
Klaus laughed sarcastically.
“So, this is it? The evil bastard Klaus has gone too far, must be punished. And by his own sibling, nonetheless. How positively biblical. And you, Marcel, is this---“ He pointed at the vampires. “your ideas of a hit? I taught you better than this paltry excuse for a take-down. Do you think you can subdue me with this?”
“No, but I think I can with this,” Marcel said, before whistling again, and dozens more vampires appeared and filled the balconies.
Marcel, Rebekah, and his vampires crowded around Klaus, who stood in the middle of the circle and spread his arms.
“Let’s end this charade, shall we? Vampires of New Orleans! Do recall that I am an Originals. A hybrid. I cannot be killed. Eternity is an awfully long time. How long, do you think, Marcel will stay in power? What if one of you lot were to release me, knowing I will be eternally in your debt? Oh, I would pity those of you who dared to cross me. I can assure you, your ends would be spectacular. To borrow a trick from an old friend---“ He reached out his hand, which held a large gold coin. “Whoever picks up this coin gets to live.” He dropped the coin on the floor in front of him. “Now, which of you magnificent bastards wants to join me?”
“Anyone wants that coin, pledge allegiance to Klaus. Take it now. Go ahead. The choice is yours,” Marcel urged.
No one moved, except for Klaus, who was slightly astonished that no one picked up the coin. Marcel looked at him, proud of the loyalty his minions showed.
“Take him,” Marcel ordered them.
Some of the vampires lunged for Klaus, but he easily took them out. However, when Klaus stretched his arms wide on either side, two other vampires wrapped his wrists in chains and bound him. They looked triumphant for a moment, but Klaus’ hybrid face came out, and he growled deeply, eyes yellow like a werewolf’s, before breaking through the bonds and viciously biting and killing every vampire who came at him.
Rebekah stood there, watching in fear as Klaus quickly gained the upper-hand.
“Marcel! Come and finish this!” Klaus yelled.
Marcel rushed toward Klaus, but Rebekah held him back.
“No! Take the coin!” she demanded of him.
“What?” Marcel asked, shocked.
“He won’t stop until everyone is dead. And he will kill you too. End this. Pick up the coin!”
Marcel considered it for a moment, before picking up the coin, holding it up.
“Enough!”
Klaus was amused, as everything went silent, the fighting stopping with Marcel’s words.
“Well, well, well. The great Marcel, self-proclaimed king of New Orleans, bowing before me,” Klaus said.
Marcel threw the coin at Klaus’ feet.
“There. I hereby pledge my allegiance to you. You have the keys to my kingdom. It’s yours.”
Klaus smiled gleefully.
That night, the bodies of the fallen vampires were covered in white shrouds and placed on the stone floor of a room off of the courtyard. Diego and several others poured Vodka and Bourbon over the bodies before taking swigs out of the bottle. On the balcony, Marcel watched them work when Klaus joined him.
“Looking at what you’ve wrought?” Klaus questioned.
“Look, if you’re gonna kill me, let’s get this over with,” Marcel replied.
“Why would I kill you? You picked up the coin. There are rules of engagement in battle, Marcel. Without them, you’d have anarchy. I would, however, like to talk about accommodations. Your living quarters, for example. I believe they used to be mine.”
“You own this. Fine. It’s yours. You can put me back on the street for all I care. But let’s make one thing clear---You will never have this; loyalty. You can’t buy it, you can’t own it, you can’t force it. It comes only out of love and respect for the people who believe in you. You taught me many things, Niklaus Mikaelson, but this I learned myself. And it is something you will never know. Enjoy your kingdom.”
Marcel left Klaus alone on the balcony to watch as Diego lit a lighter and dropped it on the bodies.
When Elijah returned home for the day and Katherine heard Klaus and Rebekah downstairs, they both came into the living room.
“Elijah’s home. There’s only one dagger. Which one of us will you be punishing today?” Rebekah inquired of Klaus.
“I contemplated a game of eenie-meenie-miney-moe. You betrayed me. My own sister!”
“Niklaus, don’t you dare!”
Klaus pointed the dagger at Elijah. “Perhaps it should be you, brother! Stealing my child away with every fawning moment with Katerina. And now my child, my blood, will grow up to call you father!”
“Is that what it is? You are once again worried that you will be left behind? Has history taught you nothing? We don’t abandon you, Nik, you drive us away!” Rebekah reasoned with him.
“Is that so? What have I done lately, other than cooperate? I bow down to you, brother, to make up for daggering you so many times. For the greater good of our plan to reclaim our home. Looked the other way, sister, while you repeat the same cycle with Marcel. Falling again for a man you shouldn’t be with, while he controls the empire that we built! That he took! Now, I make no excuses for past sins. But in the one moment when you two could have chosen to stand by me----to believe in me, to believe my intentions for my own child were pure---you chose to stand against me, to side with my enemies. I wanted our home back. Now I have it. So, I’m going to live there. And the two of you…you can stay here together and rot.”
He angrily shoved the dagger into Elijah’s hands as he left the house and Rebekah and Elijah looked guilty.
Katherine was silent. She didn’t want to be between them all or leave, but being the mother of Klaus’ unborn child, she knew she had to go with Klaus, and so she followed him out.
Klaus opened the door to the passenger’s side of the car for her and she got in. He then got in and began to drive, heading for the compound.
“I know you’re raving mad right now, but they had their reasons. You have yours too. Rebekah just wants to be happy. All you’ve done is take her happiness away every time she finds love. Elijah may supposed to be noble, but he has his reasons for doubting your intentions. He may have hope for your redemption, but maybe he just is finding hard to trust that your intentions are nothing more than wanting to be a good father. You can’t blame them. You’ve done many things to them. Thank you, though. You could’ve daggered either of them, but you chose not to. So thank you for that. I don’t want to come between you guys, but I understand all of you more than you could know; especially, you. We’re quite a like whether I want to admit it or not,” she said to him.
He looked at her and then at the road again.
She put a hand on his which he had on his right leg.
He looked at her hand on his and then at her again.
They gave a smile at each other, before he looked at the road again and she looked out the window.
ns 15.158.61.12da2
