It was like waking up from a dream. She tried to move but felt as though her body was weighed down. A pounding in her head made it impossible to hear very much, and her eyes were sealed shut. As much as she tried to hold it in, she felt tears building up behind her eyelids as the rush of feeling – the rush of pain – began to race through her veins. She began to let out a nearly silent whimper, but suddenly she could make out words being spoken by voices she instantly recognized talking over her.
"Come on. Use it. I dare you. You'll have Dagmar to deal with."
There was no fucking way – Elijah? The last she had seen him was when Klaus had daggered her in '96. However to her growing horror she realized that she had no idea how long ago that had been as the memory of Klaus plunging a dagger through her chest came back to her. How long had she been left in this godforsaken coffin this time? He'd kept Finn locked away for a millennium straight, had she been given the same treatment?
The voices she strained to hear continued to fade in and out, but she heard the phrase, "He's gone Elijah, forever," and having been able to make out the name "Mikael" beforehand her thoughts came to a complete halt. Was he really – had Niklaus really done it? Were they all finally safe from their father?
Dagmar struggled but failed to follow the rest of the conversation, however she did hear the name "Salvatore" and would have gasped if she was able. Her Alexia had mentioned that name more than a few times, and she wondered if it was possible that the person in question was the same man her protégé had been speaking of.
Just as she was finally able to twitch her fingers and toes, she heard Elijah say, "What are you doing?"
Unfortunately, the glide of the ash covered dagger between her ribs was a sensation she was far too familiar with.
God damn it, not again.
Once again, Dagmar woke from a neutralized state. However this awakening took mere seconds. As soon as she was able, she surged out of her wooden prison, wildly looking at her surroundings. Her fangs burst through her gums and she felt the veins beneath her eyes fill with blood as she let out a starved whine. A moment later a container of blood was thrust beneath her nose. Gripping the bag holding the red liquid she quickly bit into it harshly, knocked it back, and chugged the contents. Just after she finished she was handed another plastic bag filled with blood, and then another and yet another.
After the burning sensation of being desiccated was abated, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and tried to make sense of what was around her.
Finn was sitting up in his coffin looking dazed, while Rebekah looked furious. Panicked, she sought out her twin and let the relief flood through her when she found Kol's sharp aura, a perfect reflection of her own, even though rage clouded his expression.
Elijah's evenly toned voice caught her attention and she whirled around, seeing him discard a few empty blood bags – he must have been the one to feed her – before he handed a silver dagger to her, handle first.
"Dagmar, I believe this belongs to you."
It took a moment for Dagmar to translate his English into Old Norse. After she woke from being desiccated she often took a minute to recall her English perfectly. But when she sorted out what he'd said she snorted and gave him a scathing glare as she replied, "Of course of all the times to develop a sense of dark humor you choose to do so while I'm locked in a box. How unfortunate."
He huffed out a small sigh and cleared his throat quietly, causing all of her siblings to look to him.
"Niklaus is just outside. I've relieved you all of your own daggers. I believe we ought to show him that we are not pleased with his actions."
A sadistic grin grew on her face and Kol quickly strode over to her, throwing his arm around her shoulders.
"How about it, Sunny? I hold him back while you castrate him?"
"I haven't done that since the 1700s, but thank you for remembering, Gloomy. I've since discovered a whole new arsenal of torture for us to play with. Wait until I show you chainsaws, you'll absolutely adore them."
The twins smiled at each other, but Dagmar whipped her head around when she heard a low voice whistle softly before muttering, "This will be fun to watch."
Leaning against the wall was a man she'd never met before. The soft glowing grey of his aura alerted her straight away that he was a vampire. Dark lashes framed light blue eyes, creating a striking contrast. When he saw her looking him over a cocky smile covered his face.
While not taking her eyes off of the unfamiliar man she asked over her shoulder, "Elijah, who is the stranger over here?"
Her sister answered instead of her brother in an annoyed tone, "His name is Damon Salvatore. He is an absolute prat and quite the man whore."
Well that answered that. Damon wasn't a name she recognized, so he was not the same Salvatore her Lexi was fond of. That meant he wasn't off limits. Her fangs began to descend and she knew Kol could feel her beginning to fidget, causing him to tighten his hold on her, sending the subtle reminder that he could hold her back.
The hum she was producing from the back of her throat became a low growl as she said, "Well he looks absolutely delicious."
Damon's smile grew even wider if possible and he cocked an eyebrow before trailing his eyes up and down her body. He winked and said back to her, "Well you're not too bad yourself."
Kol let out a loud laugh and moved his position from Dagmar's side to right behind her, gripping her upper arms tightly and keeping her in place.
"You're a bit out of your league, mate. My sister is being quite literal."
In a slow voice, as if talking to a child he said, "Now Sunny, remember that little promise you made to yourself? No more feeding off of vampires. It makes you a tad twitchy – remember that little incident in Massachusetts?"
Letting out an exasperated huff she rolled her eyes and bit back, "There is no need to patronize me you asshole. I haven't fallen off the wagon since then. I'm just hungry. And furthermore in my defense, those hundred and six men were Loyalists. You could say that by slaughtering them I was a hero in the founding of the United States of America."
Looking decidedly less comfortable, Damon turned and tried to conceal the nervousness from his voice as he suggested, "Uh, Elijah? Want to call off Thing 1 and Thing 2 and introduce them to the plan?"
Dagmar and Kol shrugged away from the younger vampire and focused on Elijah as he explained that they would be attacking Niklaus and revealing that they were all animated once again before leaving him behind and traveling together.
The twins briefly met each others eyes and nodded minutely, agreeing on their own, decidedly different plan. Neither one of them had been included in the little "forever and always" bullshit that their three siblings had sworn upon. Both would take off when they wanted to live apart from the others.
The only one that Dagmar had ever actively sought out to find over the years was her twin, and the same applied to him. Coming across her other siblings was by chance or them seeking her out. Their meetings and time spent together was often polite and at times even pleasant, but altogether awkward. Dagmar had been their mother's least favorite and after her so-called "disgrace" she had been alienated by all of her siblings apart from Kol.
Centuries of time apart strangely enough did not erase the wounds created by the comparatively tiny time frame during which they had lived as humans.
She watched as all of her siblings gave back to Elijah the daggers that had kept each of them in their neutralized state for different lengths of time. Elijah and the Salvatore left the room, and the rest of the siblings remained in their places until they heard the words signaling their time to surround Niklaus.
"Where are your manners, brother? We forgot dessert."
For the first time since being awoken, Dagmar heard Klaus's voice clearly as he said in a shaken voice, "What have you done?"
Elijah spoke with more emotion in his voice than usual as he angrily replied, "What have you done? You see I've learned not to trust your vulgar promises, Klaus. We're doing this on my terms now."
Kol, Finn, and finally Rebekah entered the parlor and Klaus' reaction for each made Dagmar excited for her own turn to torment the brother that saw it as his right to destroy her life each time it just got fun.
When she entered she found Klaus being restrained, his arms behind him and held by a murderous looking Kol. To her immense surprise, the black aura that had always surrounded Klaus and her other siblings, what with them being Original vampires, had been changed since she last saw him. A deep red was now twined with his black, a clear combination that indicated his status as being both vampire and werewolf.
Niklaus had broken the curse.
Holy hell.
However, Dagmar quickly gathered herself, not allowing this surprising information to change her actions nor her feelings toward her older brother. That was why when she walked into his line of vision and saw his pain replaced by a look of terror and panic that he almost perfectly repressed, she felt a surge of glee. However, she was able to see through it and decided that she wanted to keep that expression on his face for a moment more.
She sauntered over to her brother slowly, twisting the dagger she had retrieved from the platter in her hand and humming. When she reached him she gently dragged the point of the silver weapon from his chin to the top of his forehead, not meeting his eyes.
"Dagmar, please. You know I had to, it was always for your own good."
Laughing lightly she placed her hands on Niklaus' cheeks and met his gaze while she smiled in mock friendliness.
"Of course it was, brother. All is forgiven. In fact, I was thinking of buying you a gift. Maybe a nicely aged wine?"
Kol peeked at her from behind Nik's shoulder and replied without releasing his grip, "Actually I was thinking we could bake some pastries."
"Right you are; always showing me up, Gloomy. However, I was thinking of doing something a bit different now that I'm thinking about it."
Without hesitation she plunged the dagger into his throat just below the Adam's apple, twisting it just a fraction of an inch before pulling it back out and tucking it into the waistband of her jeans, adjusting her shirt over it to hide its shape.
"Now, on to more important things."
Dagmar blurred across the room and in seconds had the other young vampire in the room pinned to the wall by his throat, and she noticed that Damon had frozen and started to approach the two slowly. She realized they must be friends of some sort, and the dark haired man felt protective of the physically younger looking one.
She leaned forward and glared harshly at the green eyed man, who remained wide-eyed and silent. Her fangs nearly grazed his nose when she suddenly pulled his face close to hers, gripping the collar of his shirt.
"Is Morrissey still alive?"
The shift in facial expression on the man before her was comical, and she struggled not to laugh at him. His confusion and bafflement were painfully genuine and clear, and his voice was incredulous as he said, "Morrissey?"
She rolled her eyes but refused to back down as she dismissively waved her other hand, "Yes, Morrissey. Lead singer of the band The Smiths."
His mouth hung open for a second before he replied slowly, "Uh, yes, I think."
Appeased, she let out a breath and a relieved laugh, "Oh thank the fucking Lord. Alright, the world can't be that bad this time around."
Dagmar brushed the man's shirtfront off and straightened it before smiling warmly and saying, "Thanks, man. You are the savior of my sanity."
From across the room she heard Damon mumble under his breath, "Are we sure about that?"
She turned around quickly to face her siblings, all of whom were glaring at Niklaus and looking ready to eviscerate him, apart from Kol who was smirking at her.
"Is this Morrissey fellow that good?"
"He's fantastic. Makes me want to dance through the streets drinking Red Bull and O Negative."
"Red Bull? Furthermore, what the hell are you wearing? Why is there jewelry in your nose?"
"I hopped aboard a trend. And I really need to catch you up at some point. Anyway, see you all sometime next century. And little bro – Valstrop."
Before another word could be spoken, Dagmar blurred out the door and ran as fast as she could to escape whichever town she was in at the moment. Over the roaring sound of wind rushing by her ears she was able to make out Kol's indignant shout of, "Thirteen minutes!"
She planned on traveling to one of her concealed houses and laying low for a while, perhaps even playing human as she acclimated.
Time to see what the world has to offer nowadays.