Title: don't you cry no more
Summary: AU; Klaus and Katherine's daughter, Nikolina, has a nightmare.
Characters: Klaus Mikaelson, Katherine Pierce, Nadia Petrova, Rebekah Mikaelson, Elijah Mikaelson
Pairing(s): Klaus/Katherine
Genre: Family, Drama
Rating: K+
Timeline: AU, 1492+
Spoilers: Nadia, if some didn't catch up.
Words: 2,235
A/N: I dunno what this is but okie.
It was winter when Nikolina had her first nightmare. Her father, Niklaus, was out, hunting no doubt, and her mother was with him.
The snow probably blocked their road. Nadia was there though, ten years old and can't manipulate anything like dreams.
"Papa!" Nikolina whimpers; eyes shut tightly.
"Shush, Nikki, you'll be okay," Nadia whispers, looking over at her younger sister. "Wake up!" She grabs a lion coat, and pulls it over her sister's cold body.
Klaus stumbles through the door, chuckling as Katherine whines about her pair of fur boots.
"What happened?" Klaus growls.
"Nikki won't wake up," Nadia explains, shaking her sister.
"I'm not surprised, Klaus," Katherine says, shrugging off the bear skin on her shoulder. "We've been putting her to sleep since she was born, manipulating dreams."
She picks her youngest daughter up and cuddles her to her chest. "Nadia, will you ask a servant to get a goblet filled with warm milk for me?"
"Yes, mother," Nadia runs into the other room.
Nikolina makes another whimpering sound, her bottom lip trembling as Klaus took her into his arms.
He carries her into his and Katherine's bedroom, and sits on the bed, his wife next to him.
"You're alright, sweetheart," he coos softly, closing his eyes, leaning back.
Nikolina runs through the forest, two wolves chasing after her.
"Nikki!" Klaus plays, running in front of his daughter. He flits to a wolf who pounced, and grabs its heart. He growls, veins appearing from his eyes, and darkening blue, fangs extending from teeth.
Katherine sweeps her daughter into her arms, and whispers soothing words as she rocks Nikolina back and forth.
"Papa!" She grins, bright blue eyes snapping open. "Mama!"
"We're here, darling," Klaus smiles back at his pride and joy. He hums, and breathes in.
She closes her eyes again, and the last things she sees that night are the blue sapphire eyes of her father.
And she falls.
She runs away when she was ten. Not purposely though.
Katherine and Klaus were taking Nadia out to the village, the servants were to look after the young princess.
Wolves ripped them apart, as well as the entire palace. She runs.
Katherine, Nadia, and Klaus come home to find blood everywhere, and the wonder where Nikolina was. The trio, Nadia in Katherine's arms, runs to Elijah's house, and the three flit to Rebekah's large cottage.
Rebekah welcomes them with a small smile, but it slips when she finds out her niece is taken. Katherine passes her eldest daughter to her sister-in-law, and whispers, "Keep her safe, or I'll put you in a box for a century."
Klaus chuckles. He, Katherine, and Elijah walk inside with Rebekah and Nadia following, Nadia pouting, eyes watery, as Rebekah sooths her with a small lullaby her mother used to sing to her.
Rebekah sets her down on her bed, and compels a witch to babysit her niece, and gets a second witch to perform a tracking spell.
Emery, the second witch, takes the bracelet on Katherine's hand, one that she gave to Nikolina when she was a child, and most likely dropped when running.
She mutters a few lines of gibberish and thunder rumbles and no one knows who left their seats first or how they got into the trees where Nikolina was hiding.
"Papa!" Nikolina breaks into a grin, but her eyes were rimmed with tears and redness. "Mama!"
"Don't you cry no more," Katherine grabs hold of her first, just in time before the wolves jumped up.
Klaus gripped at their throats before jumping down. His hands snapped one's neck, and the other's heart torn out and dropped, making Rebekah visible. The third turned, tried escaping, but Elijah was faster, teared that black wolf to shreds easily.
Katherine jumps down with Nikolina in her arms, and her eyes turns into slits as the wolves turned human. And she sets her mouth in a straight line before ripping his head off.
They go to Paris for Nikolina's thirteenth birthday. Klaus compels several humans for a ride.
Nikolina killed her first human, triggering her vampire side, very easily.
She slaughtered a small town next to the city of love, too.
She turned sixteen, that was when the aging stopped.
Her smile dulled a bit, a lot, really. It was from a bright smile that shines like the stars, to a small smirk that looks like hell.
Klaus taught her how to feed, how to fight. Katherine taught her how to survive. Rebekah taught her how to love. Elijah taught her how to find morality.
This was family. This was her family.
She ran off, purposely, when she turned 65 years old. Her mother found Mikael walking around the village. Klaus told her to run, and she did.
Nikolina saw her mother again, in 1753, Italy. She was killing, in a small alleyway, when she appeared. Katherine. Rebekah took Nadia to a safehouse, Pearl's, in America. Klaus was god knows where with Elijah.
"I found you, at last," Katherine whispers. And Nikolina suddenly forgets to breathe. She still needs air, she was only half immortal afterall.
"Mama?" Nikolina whimpers, blue eyes watery, and oh- she feels so relieved. "Where's papa?"
"I don't know, he and I split up a decade ago." Katherine sighs, wrapping her arms around her daughter. "We can be a family again, just you and I."
Nikolina contemplates this for a few days. Then Katherine makes the choice of flying back to Bulgaria, to claim her father's land, and in the middle of the night, Nikolina runs.
Then it's when Klaus finally breaks his curse.
Nikolina makes her appearance in the trees. She hums, making smoke appear, as her witch side finally decided to drop in a few decades ago.
"Oh, daddy," she sings, grinning as she watched his back tense.
"Nikki," he sighs, turning around with amber eyes and veins and fangs, and she jumps off. Her hand finds it's way to his face, lightly stroking his cheek.
"I'll always be your little girl," she grins, flitting away. And he doesn't follow. Because he's shocked, and surprised, and angry at her because she doesn't make an appearance until now, and he thought she was dead.
They stay in Mystic Falls for a while, a long while. Caroline Forbes, cheerleader, Miss Mystic Falls, blah blah blah, catches the eye of her father and she growls lowly. Especially when she makes 'quite an entrance' at the Mikaelson ball.
Rebekah is there, with Kol, oh- Kol, her charming uncle that she's never met before, and Finn- she doesn't know what to say about him, really, and Elijah, and goddamn it, Esther's back, her paternal grandmother, who's really sweet, but only blind people - no, not even blind people- can see past her sickly sweet charm.
Guess her family is past blind then.
Nonetheless, Elena Gilbert, doppelganger, shows up in a black dress, with Damon and Stefan Salvatore as her...bitches, and Nikolina snorts next to Rebekah because she's always knew the Salvatore brothers were weak.
Esther talks to her before speaking to Elena. She wants to purify the races, with only mortals, no immortals, no Originals. She convinces her, and tells her by using her parents.
"My son, your father, never looked for you did he? Only your mother?" The witch asks innocently. "Do you wish he has sometimes?"
"No," Lie. "I'm completely fine with it." Lie. "He had grandfather and a lot of enemies." Maybe not a lie. Maybe.
"But, still, be honest," Esther whispers. "What if I could make him human, weak, so he can't run away from you."
Nikolina shivers a little, and turns away. Runs out of the room, and Elijah raises an eyebrow. Nikolina thinks Esther was just...kidding, or something.
Then the next thing she knows, Esther's dead. Klaus heard everything, and killed his own mother.
Again.
And the two flee to New Orleans, leaving Katherine alone.
They come back, months later. Klaus for Caroline's graduation because she wouldn't stop calling. Nikolina for her mother.
They chat, she doesn't notice Katherine hiding the cure in her hand, before Elena runs in, and Katherine and her fight, and her telling Nikolina that it was her fight, not Nikolina's.
And suddenly, the cure is in Katherine's throat. Nikolina drops to the floor, muttering, "No, no, no, please, no. Mama, no."
Elena grins. "It's for the best, whoever you are. She deserves it." And turns to her ancestor. "Have a nice human life, Katherine."
Nikolina shakes, grabs Elena's wrist and bites. "You have ten days to fix my mother, or I will let my bite take your life. Ten days."
And Nikolina is gone. She blames her father. For not being with them, and wishes, wishes, Esther was alive to make her son human again, powerless, mortal, able to die.
Then she stays in Mystic Falls for a while. Notices Nadia has her mother, and her and her half-sister reunite with hugs and chocolate, and she tells her everything.
Then Nadia's on the ground in an alley, and says to Katherine who was standing over her, "My name is Nadia Petrova, and you are my mother."
And Katherine has her breath knocked out, and hugs her daughters.
Nikolina pulls away. "We can't be a family without papa."
"I know," Katherine hums.
Then they're in a hotal room, a day later. Day five, and Elena hasn't called Nikolina back.
Katherine goes to the Salvatore boarding house that night. Nikolina's in the car outside, and hears a thump and she and Nadia rushes in and Elena's bite hasn't healed.
Damon tells her to heal the poor brat and Nikolina says no. Because they didn't fix Katherine. And she bites Damon twice, and Elena two more times.
"Now it's fatal, bitches, but I'm giving you less than a month. More pain, no gain." She grins, waves them off, and her and Nadia abandon Katherine because it hurts too much.
They return a few weeks, two maybe. Katherine's in her death bed, Silas is dead, along with Qetsiyah, and Nikolina breaks down. Carries her mother down but Katherine tells her to leave. Leave her in peace.
So Nikolina puts her down on the couch, and Katherine tells her to sing the lullaby that she used to sing to Nikolina.
And she does.
Then Katherine says, whispers, weakly, and hoarsely, "I promise you, that even when I'm gone, I'll make the stars dance for you," her eyes flutter. "Please tell Nadia I love her."
And she's gone. Nikolina could feel, her mother's presence slipping away and she sobs. Her hand is covering her mouth, and the tears are flowing uncontrollably. She stands up.
Her eyes burn violet, her witch side, her fangs and veins come in, her vampire side, and her claws extend from nails, her werewolf side and she gives a nasty grin.
"You're all dead," She roars, snapping her fingers, lighting up flames. "She turned you, Damon, Stefan, she turned you, and if she didn't you'd never met your supposed love of your life.
Caroline would already be dead because she's a pathetic, stupid, ignorant, naive little blonde.
Tyler would, let's face it, he'd be single because of that horse face of his.
Jeremy, oh, sweet Jeremy, you should be screwing rehab instead of screwing your so-called sister's bestie! Yay!
Mattie-blue-eyes, mmm, so adorable. Can anyone say, 'Welcome to Mystic Falls, human population; Matt Donovan?'
What's your name; Bonnie, ugly, bitchy, pathetic, Bonnie. You are low. You know, I'll kill every single supernatural just to make you suffer."
Nikolina laughs manically, and grabs Tyler, pulls his neck to her lips and bites him. Drains him until there's about a pint of blood left.
"Don't bother, blondie, my father won't be any help. My blood's the only cure this time." The hybrid bites her wrist, circles them -the Scooby Gang, blood dripping. She snaps her fingers again, and the fire...it burned in the circle of blood.
She hears Elena screaming. Caroline, Stefan, Damon, everyone, and she grins. She grins like a queen who got her revenge, and it feels great.
She picks her mother up, runs into the car, and sets her in the back seat.
Years fly by quickly.
She's working at a fucking hospital. She's helping people, secretly with vampire blood, healing them. Cancer, heart disease, sometimes, even birth.
She turned good.
She has her own mansion, she keeps her servants in them. Ones that offered to give her their lives. She and Nadia live there, alone. Her mother's coffin is in the basement, candles surrounding it forever. The room was white, with portraits hanging everywhere.
Nikolina could hear her mother's footsteps at night, a lingering kiss on her cheek in the morning.
Because she cries herself to sleep every night.
And she doesn't stop.
Until the night Katherine's ghost or spirit, or whatever, finally gives up, and walks into her daughter's dreams, and they're in a bright meadow, in a small family gathering, with Kol - Nikolina's favorite uncle -, Rebekah, Elijah, and her father, and Katherine is smiling while holding her against her chest, and Nikolina is five years old.
And Katherine whispers, "Darling, I'll always be in your heart, and in your dreams, but don't you cry no more."