Introduction
As a fan of the Originals in TVD seasons 2 and 3, I was a pretty disappointed on how the series The Originals turned out. With this fic I tried to create a story of how I imagined it could be. I wanted to lay a bigger stress on the past and the relationship between the siblings and a smaller one on New Orleans (and no vampire babies, like, what even). The past storyline will feature several stories from different times and thus has a bit of an Anthology feeling to it, usually with one POV (the first one will be Kol, second one Elijah).
When I started writing it, I thought this whole Present/Past split was brilliant but I understand if it gets a bit convoluted to read both at the same time. So in case you feel like you wanna focus on one part first, I'd suggest to read the Past first, because the Present Day is building up on that later.
Also, this is not a continuation from either of the shows (i.e. they never went to Mystic Falls), it's more of an AU where I picked up some elements of the show that I liked. For instance I read about Freya somewhere, and thought having a second sister was pretty cool. I stopped watching TO a while ago so I don't know what happened since - If I write anything along the lines of the actual show I wouldn't know and I'm sorry if that turns out to be super boring to read!
As said above I'm mostly interested in the relationship between the siblings, so there won't be much in the shipping department except some small stuff. That will probably change later in the story when I established some new characters.
I hope you enjoy it and let me know what you think and what parts you like in the comments!
Present Day, New Orleans
There she was, in the old town house in New Orleans, looking down onto the street from the first floor. This room used to be a study room, almost like a library, that was mostly occupied by Elijah, but Marcel must have changed most of the interior. The new furniture looked a bit more disassembled and cheaper than the old one, but Rebekah couldn't say that she had liked the old furniture better. She felt a colder shiver down her spine. She hadn't been back in New Orleans since 1925 and she had a reason for that. A part of her always thought she could forget the pains of those days, but now that she was back she knew that wasn't the case.
"Why exactly did you have to lure me of all people back here?" she asked, which was rather a question to herself than anyone else. Why did she even agree to come back?
"Because you were easier to persuade than your brothers," Marcel replied with a convincing smile.
Stupid Marcel. He almost made her forget why she didn't like this place.
"Are you saying I'm gullible?"
"No, of course not," Marcel said swayingly. "It just shows that you're the most reasonable person in your family."
Rebekah laughed. "Nice retrieval."
The door swung open and a young dark haired woman rushed in. When she saw Rebekah she made an abrupt halt.
"Oh, you're already here," she said.
"This is Davina," Marcel added.
Before he could add something, Rebekah said with a smile: "Yes, you wrote about her in the letter."
It was only two days ago that Rebekah received Marcel's letter. Then she was still back in New York, together with her brothers Elijah and Niklaus. Although, together might have been the wrong word. Elijah had been seeing this philosophy student for the last few months who, although an intelligent woman, kept ranting about the demons inside every human being. Rebekah kept pushing him to leave her alone, because god knows he couldn't tell her they were vampires, but he didn't listen. Then she got into a fight with Nik, when he said she didn't have any right to meddle with everyone's private life, making her dispute with Elijah about himself, as he usually did. Marcel's letter was a welcome escape, and she left without even telling her brothers goodbye. Only when she was out of the door, she realised how long it had been since the last time she was in New Orleans. And even now she wasn't sure if she was ready for it.
"Let's get right to it then, shall we?" Davina said rather casually and began to unpack her bag on the table in the room.
As Davina pulled out a map and a wooden box from her bag, Rebekah looked at Marcel questioningly.
"The reason why I asked you to come, " Marcel begun with a much more serious tone now, "is because we, that is Davina, found something very odd. She has been trying out different kinds of location spells for finding vampires in New Orleans, but they always come out wrong. They mark spots where we know aren't any vampires."
Rebekah raised an eyebrow. "You brought me here because your little friend can't do a proper location spell?"
She looked at Davina. She couldn't be much older than 16.
"First of all, I know how to do location spells," Davina looked affronted, "and besides, that's not the only-"
"Let me tell her, " Marcel interrupted, resting his hand on Davina's shoulder, which somehow calmed her down.
"Yes, the location spells are in order. Trust me, we checked. The marks always show up in the same place, in the middle of a witch coven. And these witches aren't vampires, we're sure of it. And that's not the only thing. When we couldn't find the source of the problem, we began to experiment with different things. Turns out the spot marks not only a vampire, but an original."
"That's not possible." Rebekah shook her head.
Davina sighed and unrolled the map onto the table they were standing next to. Then she opened the wooden box and took out a copper pendulum. Rebekah moved next to her and looked at the map of New Orleans. Of course she knew that the city had grown since she left in the 1920s, but now that she saw it on the map it looked practically gigantic.
"So far I've been using the dust of this house to get the original scent, but if you want me to do it properly I could use your blood?" Davina remarked.
"Sure," Rebekah replied and offered her hand. She started to like Davina.
After Davina pinched her with a needle and moved the drop onto the pendulum she began to chant. Rebekah had heard an enormous amount of witch chants in her life, but she never bothered to remember them. Why even try if she couldn't have that kind of power as a vampire? They all sounded the same to her anyway. Soon her blood from the pendulum dropped onto the map. Quickly it began to move towards the townhouse, towards her direction. All seemed as expected, until the drop slowly divided into two. While the bigger drop kept moving towards her, another one moved away from it and eventually stopped close to the harbour.
"This can't be," Rebekah added in disbelief.
"Are you sure? I mean, are you absolutely sure than neither of your brothers is here or was here, somehow confiding with witches?" Marcel asked.
Rebekah thought for a moment. She had been together with Niklaus and Elijah in New York for a while now. There would have been absolutely no possibility for them to quickly going to New Orleans and back without her noticing it. Finn and Kol were dead. There was no one else.
"I'm sure. That just doesn't make sense."
"All I can say is that there is someone in New Orleans with Mikaelson blood running around. The pendulum doesn't lie," Davina concluded.
1705, Ysbyty Ifan, Northern Wales
The dirt lept up to Kol's boots. They had been standing on the muddy path for a while now. Let's wait here for a while and watch the village, his brothers said, so we don't attract attention. He already regretted not staying in London with Rebekah. She was smart. She said there was no way she'd travel all the way up here just to search through this tiny, practically medieval village. She must have a blast right now. Probably invited some people over, and now they were drinking and dancing in the comfort of a warm and dry home. Not that a vampire could feel the cold, but there were definitely nicer places to be than a muddy road while the wind and rain slapped your face, even for a vampire.
"You're not watching the village," Elijah said to him.
"You observed that right. You two are doing a great job of that already."
Elijah turned his eyes but before he could counter, Kol added: "It's not like there is anything suspicious we can hear. None of these people are witches."
"He's right," Niklaus added, who kept his eyes on the village, "the witch is not here."
They had been observing the village for a while now and listened. With roughly half a mile of distance they could hear the people in their village homes talk to each other. There were maybe 50 of them, women, men, some old people and children, going through their daily routine on this spring evening. The brothers had been hoping the witch would give herself away with some witchy talk, chanting, anything, but nothing seemed suspicious. The main problem was though that these villagers spoke Welsh, and Kol and his brothers weren't exactly proficient in the language.
"Let's not make hasty decisions here. Just because we don't hear her talk, doesn't mean she's not here. The pendulum said she's here, and the pendulum is usually right, especially with that kind of power involved," Elijah said.
Oh that witch, Kol really did not care about her. They had been looking for that witch for a long time. Ever since that other witch told Niklaus that the most powerful witch she had ever heard of lived in Northern Wales and had so for the last 50 years. Ever since then Nik had the great idea to find that witch in order to win her for the team, aka the team of super specimen that are better than humans, aka him and his siblings, so that he has a witch on his side to do his biddings. Having a witch on their side, permanently, would be helpful, Kol had to admit. But every witch they encountered so far wasn't that helpful in the long run, because either they weren't that powerful after all and died, or were just not willing to help. Kol couldn't really say he was surprised by this. It wasn't that Nik was terrible at making friends, he could be surprisingly nice when he wanted, but it was hard to find someone useful that was as crazy as the demands he had. Nik's main goal still seemed to be a way to find the vampire doppelgänger just so that he can kill her. Priorities, Kol sighed.
"Let's wait till it's dark and then scout the village," Nik decided.
When the sundown began to settle in they moved towards the village.
"Have you thought about how you're going to do it, Nik? Convince the woman to come with us?" Kol asked. "Are you going to charm your way into the heart of that middle aged lady? Now that I think of it that's actually not the worst idea."
He was pretty sure he saw a slight smirk on Nik's face.
"Maybe she doesn't need much convincing. She must be bored, living here in this sad little village, having all these powers for nothing. She'll probably come with us before we can even ask her."
Let's hope she's crazy then, Kol thought.
Eventually they reached the village and moved between the narrow paths between the houses. Nobody was outside anymore, the rain and the wind kept the villagers safe in their houses. Kol, Nik and Elijah walked along the houses and listened. Now it was much easier to tell the voices apart, as they headed from house to house. But it was still the same, just humans doing human things, talking and eating. Occasionally they stopped when they passed a woman that roughly fit the age and profile of the witch, but it was no use. None of them gave themselves away for being in any way magical.
After Nik made them go through all the houses twice they eventually gave up. The witch in this town apparently didn't do many witchy things at night. They decided to come back the next day. Maybe it was easier to find her during the day.
The weather didn't improve much overnight. As the morning broke some weak streaks of sunlight touched the meadows around the village, but it was still cold and windy. Kol thought about London. What was wrong with him when he agreed to come along? If he had known that all they were going to do was staring at a village and then making sure that these 50 people living in that village are really, one hundred percent, not witches, he would have stayed at home for sure. His mood didn't improve either, when Nik suggested they should start talking to people, and if they weren't helpful compel them to find the witch. Elijah pointed out that they couldn't compel them because the people didn't understand English, so there was really only the talking option. Then Nik got angry, but since he didn't want to let go of his idea, he decided that only the talking it is. Kol decided not to weigh in on this discussion, because he knew he would be talking at a wall. That seemed like a ridiculous amount of effort now that they pretty much knew that the witch wasn't there. He was just hoping the day would be over soon.
However, the first meeting with the villagers went surprisingly well. They seemed interested and friendly enough towards strangers. Kol had the impression they thought he and his brothers were only passing through, although he wondered where they were supposed to go to, since this place already seemed the end of the world.
Nik was on his mission, and Elijah nice enough of a brother to help, so Kol decided that he wasn't needed anymore in this task. If the witch was here they could surely find her without his help. Slowly he moved away from the crowd and began wandering around the houses. In daylight, and when one ignored the occasional rain drops, they almost looked homely. He walked towards the edge of the village where the muddy path led towards the mountains. Someone on their way here told him that this path was part of a pilgrimage route that led over a pass to the other side of the valley, and Kol wondered why anyone would want to walk over that mountain.
Suddenly he spotted a small cottage further down the path, but still rather close to the village. From his experience, witches, although often included in a community, preferred to live on the brink, both mentally and locally. Sometimes helpful but still on their own. The location of the house would be ideal. He felt the lack of motivation waning. Oh, he would love to rub into his brothers' faces if he found the witch and not them.
He walked along the path until he reached the wooden house. Its windows were shut but there was smoke coming out of the chimney.
"Hello?" he said as he reached the door, and waited. He decided that Nik's talking approach might actually give the fastest result here.
Nobody replied.
He slowly walked around the corner of the house and peaked through the window cracks as far as her could, nobody seemed to be inside. Suddenly he heard a noise that from the other side of the cottage.
As he turned around the second corner, he encountered a young woman sitting next to a huge can of water. She was cleaning roots. When she saw him she jumped back a little but didn't stand up.
"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't want to intrude," he said rather clumsily but with a smile.
As he finished the sentence he already suspected that she would't understand him anyway.
That suspicion grew when she replied something in Welsh.
"So," he started again, "you don't speak English, do you?"
Her eyes widened in confusion, and she slowly shook her head.
Still not sure what to do next, he asked: "Is your mom maybe home? Does she have any special powers?"
Might as well go with the really stupid questions if they don't understand you.
The girl obviously didn't understand. Kol assumed she could be related to the middle aged witch. She was around twenty, maybe? Kol was never good at guessing human ages. That's a skill that's lost when you don't age yourself. Suddenly she spoke to him again. There was no fear or anger in her voice, so he assumed she didn't mind him intruding in her garden. When she was finished she looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Did she ask a question?
Then she pointed back to the path and up the mountain and rephrased some unintelligible words.
"Are you asking if I'm on a pilgrimage? Then the answer is no," Kol replied with a laugh.
The girl shook her head confused and gave a laugh. She got up to her feet but apparently didn't know anything else to say either.
He had the impression her eyes moved slightly downwards. Was she looking at his chest? Wait, was she checking him out? That is an interesting turn of events, Kol thought. Now that he looked at her, he thought she was rather pretty. She had a country maid look going for her, with the curly unruly hair and her slightly tanned skin. To be honest, he was somewhat surprised that village girls seemed to be so easy. Before he could do anything with this piece of information she spoke again. And again he had no idea what she said.
She sighed impatiently and pointed to herself and said: "Briony dwi. Briony."
"That's your name. Briony," he put together.
She smiled and nodded.
"I'm Kol," he said with a gesture that probably looked idiotic.
"Kol," she nodded and smiled again.
"Well, it is nice to meet you, Briony. I am…"
They heard food steps coming up the path. Briony made a shh-sound - finally something he understood - and shoved him to the side, and she walked to the front of the house.
Huh, Kol thought, she doesn't want anyone else to see him. Interesting. True, he had no idea what she had said so far, but she didn't seem afraid or intimidated by him. On the contrary, the way she looked at him were rather signs of intrigue. In the moment she was away, he decided that if she came back and would throw herself onto him he wouldn't turn her down. First of all, that would be rude. And second, Kol couldn't think of any way that this could go wrong. He sat down on one of the tree trunks next to the house and smiled. This terrible day could still turn around.
A few minutes later she returned, still focused, with an aim in her eyes, but unfortunately not the desire that Kol was hoping for. She carried a burlap sack full with vegetables with her, whoever that just was must have given it to her, and placed it next to the entrance door. Then she walked over to him and sat down next to him, as if that was the plan all along.
She addressed him again.
At this point she must surely know that he didn't understand. When he looked at her blankly, she spoke again. She kept her eyes focused on him, and the intense way she spoke made it sound like it was important, at least to her. When she was done she looked at him expectingly. Kol shook his head. He saw that she was getting impatient. To his surprise he suddenly felt her hand on his chest. It seemed like she was actually going there. But somehow he wasn't sure if he should react to it or not. She repeated what she said before, a bit slower this time, and kept her intense look fixed on his eyes. Did she want him to kiss her?
He felt really off his game with that whole language barrier.
He hesitated. Before he could anything else, she sighed and took her hand away.
Instead she placed it on her chest, and began tapping it softly. She was imitating a heart rhythm. Then she placed it again on Kol's chest and shook her head.
A light went on Kol's head. She knew that his heart wasn't beating. How could she-
"You're a witch."