Authors Note- This story takes place after season 4 with the main focus on the Original family and their interactions with the Mystic Falls gang in and around the events of New Orleans.
Klaroline- Such great chemistry
Kalijah- I love the potential these two characters have. Despite everything Elijah hasn't been as deeply explored as his siblings, particularly with regards to his love life.
Delena- In keeping with the show.
Tyler will be coming into play but he's hardly going to forgive and forget for the chance to start a new life.
Disclaimer- I own nothing.
Power struggles were something the Original vampires were all too familiar with.
It was a common misconception that being vampires was what made the Mikaelson family so ruthless, in truth the Mikaelson method of brutality wasn't founded in their immortality or blood thirst but in their heritage. Mikael and Esther had been Vikings and they had raised their children accordingly and in the Old World power and hierarchy had been quite logical.
Power was gained by strength; strength was gained by fighting in raids or fighting within the tribe. Those that could no longer fight either had the sense to die of old age or were killed; those that were deposed were killed. There was no place in the world for mercy, it was misunderstood and fooled the weaker men into thinking
you vulnerable.
Niklaus and Elijah still lived by that code, not because they wanted too but because they had never had time or reason to contemplate another way. Mikael had chased them around the world for centuries, never allowing them the chance to make a home or to find peace and afterwards there had been the hybrid uprising, Silas and then the New Orleans witches.
Niklaus had followed the witches every order to the letter, he'd ingratiated himself in Marcel's inner circle he'd been the perfect friend he'd thrown parties he'd invested heavily in the French Quarter and been an ally that Marcel's family could depend on when they needed him.
Hayley had spent her first trimester imprisoned in a tiny shack deep in the Bayou, confined to three rooms and utterly dependent on the witches for food and water. During her second trimester Klaus had earned enough goodwill with his compliant behaviour that she had been moved to suburbia where she had access to over the counter medicine and Klaus could sneak away to visit and ensure his child was safe.
In her third trimester, Marcel had grown paranoid about how quiet the witches had become since Klaus came to the Quarter and six months of suspicion culminated in his capturing and torturing Sophie until she confessed everything.
On Bourbon Street he'd begun slaughtering those Klaus had appeared closest to, those he'd befriended and even some of Marcel's strongest allies lost their lives that day. The nightwalkers quickly scattered as he made his way out of the city, deciding that if the witches could hold the life of Niklaus' unborn child over his head as a means of forcing obedience then so could he.
In the end Marcel didn't die by Niklaus' hand.
Niklaus Mikaelson was quick to anger and impulsive when he became so. In the heat of the moment he would make decisions that he would regret once his temper cooled, although he was too proud to ever admit that fact.
Elijah by comparison was quite calm and always deliberated before making choices. Even in the midst of turmoil he made sure to act as rationally as he possibly could and as such rarely felt regret afterwards.
However Niklaus wasn't the Original brother famed for his brutality. When Klaus killed he did so quickly and usually cleanly, Elijah tended to make a mess. He would decapitate with his bare hands, disembowel or really any use method of death that could be achieved without weaponry. It was chilling to watch how he would straighten his cuffs or readjust his jacket after ripping a man's spinal column from his body; his pristine suits were psychological compensation for his blood drenched hands.
It was safe to say that neither of the Mikaelson brothers considered mercy a viable policy for dealing with their enemies. However to call Elijah heartless would be unjust, he loved his little brother and his little sister with all his heart and certainly beyond reasoning. The night that Sophie had broken the news of Hayley's pregnancy Elijah had seen the fear in Niklaus' eyes, the fear, the confusion and the beginnings of hope. He offered the witches Marcel's head on a stake, he would have offered them the head of every vampire in New Orleans if it meant Hayley's freedom.
This child was a chance for the Mikaelson's to be a family again.
However the witches weren't as accommodating as Elijah might have wished. They had the opportunity of a lifetime and they were going to get their monies worth out of the Original Hybrid.
And they were going to exploit that tiny foetus with its rapid heartbeat to do so.
So Elijah kissed Katerina and his chance for love goodbye, packed his belongings and returned to New Orleans, to the two storey mansion he bought for him and his brother above the restaurant on Conti Street and for the next six months he rarely left his brother's side.
He threw parties with him; he argued with him over carousing in bars at noon, he made a point of being disgusted by the clubs that Niklaus dragged him to with Marcel. He insisted on having decent dinners and attending refined events although Marcel and his family were clearly uncomfortable attending, he suggested art shows and charities and made a show of being pleasantly surprised when he collected his own inner circle of vampires who enjoyed the better things in life and were disenchanted with Marcel's method of ruling.
When Marcel's paranoia had these vampires coming to him concerned Elijah shrugged his shoulders and assured them that he would protect them if the need arose. They hid in his spare apartment the night that the self-titled King of New Orleans committed fratricide in the middle of Bourbon Street and Elijah left them there while he drove through the night to the tiny suburb where Hayley and his brother's unborn child were left vulnerable.
But he got there too late.
In the end Marcel didn't die by Elijah's hand.
Katerina Petrova had been born into a country occupied. The Ottoman Empire had invaded her homeland and forced her family from their country manor into the village where she had been born, she had been raised with the constant fear of attack and she was only a peasant and only a girl but she had known damn well how to handle a blade.
A young woman as beautiful as her didn't keep her virginity past the age of ten if she didn't learn how to hide a dagger in her skirts and to jam it into a man's side before he had the chance to ruin her.
Five hundred years later she was just as ruthless and just as determined to survive, although she had picked up quite a few new tricks along the way. She'd discovered that one didn't have to survive alone and that for the right price she could set up a spy network throughout the Americas that kept her aware of any useful information, dangers or Originals headed her way.
So even when she surrendered the cure to Elijah she had a backup plan for winning her freedom from his little brother. If a witch in New Orleans wanted to try and kill Klaus she was more than welcome to step up to the plate, Katherine had no doubt she would fail miserably but if it took the heat off her for a little while then she was more than happy to fill the Hybrid in on the details.
What she hadn't accounted for was the baby.
Not that she was too blame of course, nobody would have predicted Klaus getting a woman pregnant and even if they had surely they would have set their sights on perky irritating Caroline Forbes, the Hybrids current obsession, as opposed to his one night stand?
But a baby meant family. Family meant that she lost Elijah to a glorified foetus and if Klaus didn't have to endure eternity alone and if the Salvatore brothers were going to continue worshipping at Elena Gilbert's altar whilst she, now cured and mortal withered away, then she was going to wreak havoc and see where it got her.
Five hundred years of being Klaus' enemy opened a surprising amount of doors for her. The witches were hesitant at first but she managed to get Hayley's location and the end-game from them. Marcel wouldn't meet her for three months and by the time he did all she managed to do was confirm his suspicions about Klaus.
She then leaves him to slaughter and purge his city of his perceived betrayers while she locates Hayley and the witches who've survived Marcel and are dithering about like headless chickens. When she arrived the werewolf is sitting abandoned in an empty bathtub already going into labour while Marcel threatens to set the house alight.
When he realises Katherine is there he threatens to send her back to Elijah ruined beyond repair.
For old times' sake Katherine cuts his heart out his chest with a dagger and leaves his corpse for whichever Original makes it to Hayley's side first.
Marcel may have been the King of New Orleans but in the end he was a great a fool as most men and the one hundred year old vampire died at the hands of a Bulgarian peasant.
A human one at that.
A/N- Review please. If anyone wants to BETA my stories please let me know.