The warehouse they were staying in wasn't pretty. Dull cement, red bricks, and empty paint cans were a far cry from the compound, where Marcel had grown used to plush, custom furnishing branded with his initial.

Still, it suited his purposes. Marcel was optimistic. In a way, it was freeing to not be King, for a time at least. He was reminded of days gone by when, barely a century old, he had seized the Quarter for his own beneath the noses of witches, werewolves, and humans alike. He'd had less then, but also less to lose, and what he won he did by his own wit and strength.

"What's your plan, Marcel? You'd better have one, because winging it didn't exactly work out well last time." Thierry droned.

Marcel wasn't fooled. Of all of his followers, Thierry was the most loyal, proven by how he was the only one who stuck by him even now. Still, Thierry was smart and honest enough to let Marcel know when he was making a mistake even as he led Thierry into the depths of hell.

"Don't worry, Thierry. I've learned my lesson. I should have realized that a direct approach wouldn't work. Klaus hasn't survived for a thousand years for no reason. But he's not invincible. Far from it."

Thierry blinked. "If you're talking about Papa Tunde's knife, good luck with that. Klaus has it, which doesn't help us any. Aside from that, the Originals are untouchable."

"Actually, there is a way to kill them. Remember when Rebekah and I asked for your help a month ago? The reason we were so desperate was that Klaus was going to use it to kill Rebekah."

Thierry's eyes lit up, but Marcel cut him off. "Forget it, Klaus has that too. Like you said, he probably keeps it close by and he's too paranoid to tell anyone else where it is. Besides, if Klaus dies then all of the vampires sired from his bloodline will die too, including us."

"So you're saying that even if we had somehow found a way to kill Klaus that day we would have died?" Thierry crossed his arms. "You're not inspiring confidence from me, Marcel."

Marcel shook his head. "I said that the Originals weren't invincible. I didn't say they weren't unkillable. But there are still plenty of ways we could take them down. So, Thierry, what do we know about them?"

Thierry shrugged. "You've known them longer than me, but as far as I can tell, they're stronger than us, faster than us, and heal faster than us. A stake to the heart will take them out for a few hours, but I don't know if that would work on Klaus. Klaus is a hybrid, so his venom would kill us even if we survived the battle. And, of course, Klaus killed dozens of us normal vampires the last time we fought him."

"You see, last time I was fighting with more limitations and less knowledge." Marcel smirked. "A straight-up fight, my army against him, the way it was meant to be done. If I'd won it would have made me look good. But this time, we're going to fight to win. So, Thierry, use your imagination. How can we deal with Klaus without killing him?"

"I don't know. Drain him, maybe? But we'd have to get him to be still first."

"Not a bad idea if we can get him to be still, but not enough. It would be too easy for someone to feed him blood or just get a papercut in the wrong place."

"Well, obviously we'd watch his body."

"Again, good, but not quite enough. Remember when Klaus promised to reward anyone who freed him? My guys were loyal, but loyalty only goes so far. I think a burial at sea would work. A volcano or a random spot in the ground too, but the sea is closer and easier. And, of course, we'd have a witch use a cloaking spell on him so that no one could find him with a locator spell."

Thierry nodded, rubbing his chin as he thought. "You're going to get Davina to do that, right? Why not just get her to help us now? Taking down an Original would be a lot easier with a witch on our side. You didn't use her last time either."

Marcel winced. "Come on, T, you know I have a thing about kids. I don't want her involved."

Thierry sighed and raised his arms in defeat. "Whatever, boss."

"So that leaves figuring out a way to immobilize him if possible or at least drain him of blood." Marcel continued.

"Maybe a trap? During the war, the Japs set up traps in the jungle that would kill people before they even realized they were there. Maybe a pit trap with cement at the bottom? I guess it'd have to spring pretty fast though. Do you think it would work, Marcel? I don't know exactly how fast Klaus is."

Marcel hesitated. "Even after all those years, I can't be sure. All I know is that he's pretty damn fast. But I still think a trap is a good idea, Thierry. The witches had some success with them last month. We just need some bait."

"How about that girl you've been seeing?"

"Cami? No, I don't want to get her involved either. She's just a normal person who shouldn't have been dragged into any of this. I'm thinking of using Hayley."

Thierry raised an eyebrow. "What about your no kids rule?"

Marcel sighed. "She and her baby won't be in direct danger. I'm thinking we kidnap her from the wolves in the bayou and then tell Klaus she's in the place where we'll set our trap. We'd have had to do something about her anyway. We'll have to take both Klaus and Elijah out so that one of them doesn't rescue the other, and we'd have to keep an eye on Hayley anyway so she doesn't tell Rebekah. Besides, Hayley is the perfect bait to get both of them there."

"Wait, so we're fighting Elijah too? I don't know if we can do that."

"You said no backing out, T. Remember?"

"Yeah, I do. I just hope this doesn't bite us."

"Don't worry about it. I just thought of something that could work."

Contrary to his bravado, Marcel had been worried that kidnapping Hayley would be difficult. She was constantly surrounded by werewolves in the bayou. In the end, though, it wasn't too difficult to convince Diego that a roust of the werewolf camp was a good idea despite Elijah's insistence on good manners as he attempted to negotiate a treaty for the denizens of the Quarter. Diego had always been a loose cannon especially where werewolves were involved and caused Marcel quite a bit of trouble in the past. Now Diego was Klaus's problem and his hotheadedness was coming in handy.

Jackson and the other men from the camp were standing off against Diego and a few of his friends. They'd start fighting eventually, but Marcel wagered on at least five minutes of posturing beforehand, which was plenty of time.

Marcel and Thierry were hiding behind the bushes on the edge of the camp. The women and children had already left, but Hayley had predictably stayed behind, slowly creeping forward to join the men without them noticing. Jackson must have been aware by now that Hayley refused to be left out in dangerous situations no matter how foolish it might be, and had assigned a tall, muscular blonde man to guard her. The guard didn't look particularly happy about being left out of the real action.

Marcel gestured to Thierry and they were gone, running so fast that to human senses they must have looked like a blur. Thierry grabbed Hayley from behind, clamping a hand over her mouth. Her scream was muffled as Marcel snapped the other werewolf's neck.

Jackson and his men didn't even notice as they dragged Hayley away, tied and gagged her, and shoved her into the back seat of their car.

Marcel hadn't expected to get away this easily, but even if Jackson had noticed Diego would have kept him occupied for long enough to take Hayley away. Now all that was left was to make some of the final preparations and send Klaus a ransom message.

Klaus strode straight towards town square and straight into the trap, and Elijah was not far behind him. Marcel shook his head. They were both very predictable sometimes. Granted, he'd known them for decades, but still. Klaus was rash and was all too fond of killing those who got in his way personally even though he had an army at his disposal now. Elijah was no better when Hayley was threatened. To be fair, Klaus didn't exactly have that army's loyalty especially when it came to fighting Marcel, but Klaus was still repeating the same mistake that had gotten him stabbed with Papa Tunde's knife by the witches last month. Immortals were like that sometimes, developing patterns that stuck as they were repeated over the centuries. Even Marcel caught himself reminiscing at the wrong time.

Marcel focused on the scene in front of him. Klaus and Elijah paused as they reached town square, scanning through the throngs of people as they tried to located Hayley or Marcel.

Marcel was on the roof of the building to their right and Hayley was in the warehouse with Thierry. It didn't take long for them to realize that Marcel had lied, obvious from their serious expressions turning downright murderous. But by then Marcel had already waved his hand and yelled out, sending the signal.

At once, the crowd surrounding the Originals dispersed as the wood-tipped bullets and crossbow bolts began to fly. Marcel and Thierry had compelled everyone there as well as the police officers at the edges of the square and lining the roofs of the buildings surrounding the square. Marcel was glad that he'd killed the mayor in the 70s who had suggested keeping all of the police officers on vervain. He could have made do with just people who used firearms recreationally, but this way was more effective.

Klaus and Elijah staggered and hissed as the projectiles hit their mark. None of them had hit their hearts yet, which was unfortunate, so the Originals were still conscious, but they were taking too much damage to move much.

Klaus proved him wrong when he ran forward towards an edge of the square. Klaus threw the police officer in front of him into a nearby building, killing him instantly. The pause, however, gave time for another crossbow bolt to strike his leg, and as he struggled to pull it out the second line of guards picked up water guns filled with concentrated vervain, spraying him. Klaus screamed as the vervain ate away at his skin, but was already healing a second later when a crossbow bolt struck his heart. Klaus snarled and tore it out.

So they didn't work on him, apparently. It looked like things would have to be done the long way with Klaus. Marcel turned his attention back to Elijah, where more progress had been made.

Elijah finally managed to reach an edge as well, dodging through less dense patches of projectile fire despite the injuries he incurred. Elijah apparently hadn't fed recently, because his skin was pale. He grabbed the first person he reached and drank from them, pulling back when the vervain in the man's blood scorched his tongue. Marcel had used up his entire backup supply of vervain and had been worried that he was using it unnecessarily, but his caution had served him.

Elijah ran as soon as he could, but the lack of blood and constant healing had begun to wear on him, and he was slower than he was before. Bullets slowed him further and finally a crossbow bolt struck his heart. His skin became pale and his veins became visible as he lost consciousness.

Klaus was still putting up a fight, but he was making little progress. Despite the constant stream of fire, he was able to make it to the edge of the square several times to kill another guard before being driven back by vervain spray. However, there were too many people for him to make any headway. The battle wore on for long minutes without interruption; Marcel had commanded a few police officers to keep ordinary citizens out of the area once the battle started. Finally, about an hour in, Klaus began to slow and a final spray of vervain at Marcel's command forced him into a state of torpor.

Marcel jumped down from the side of the building to the square and signaled to one of the guards, who retrieved a syringe and vervain capsule from Marcel and stepped towards Elijah. He bent down and injected the vervain directly into Elijah's heart. That would be more than enough to force Elijah to join his brother in desiccation.

"I can't believe we did it!" Thierry said as they watched the crates be moved onto the ship.

One steel crate contained Klaus, and the other Elijah. Each would be dropped into a separate deep ocean trench, where the water pressure would prevent them from returning to consciousness even if they somehow acquired blood, hurting them faster than they could heal. Marcel had compelled the crew of the ship to randomly select the drop locations and then forget them.

"Just goes to show, T. Being King isn't all about strength. You just have to use what you got well. Most vampires don't use compulsion as much as they can. They think humans are weak and not worth it most of the time, but a little creativity can make them useful tools." Marcel said.

He was entitled to a little bit of gloating. He'd won, and now he'd finally left his past as a slave behind him. No more would anyone give him orders, not even an Original.

"I just hope the witches don't think of this as an opportunity." Thierry said after the shock began to wear off.

"Don't worry about them. I have a plan. Are you with me?"

"Always and forever."