Hey so this chapter is a little shorter than usual but its the best I could do at the moment and I really wanted a chapter up this week. Its slightly depressing but oh well. Stuff happens and I've been overly exhausted this week. Hope you guys enjoy! Don't forget to review with your thoughts and anything you wanna see in the following chapters!
Klaus looked at his elder brother, fear gripping his heart as the hallucination showed him only Elijah's unforgiving gaze. Whatever it was that he had done, Klaus was entirely certain that he deserved possibly every bit of Elijah's wrath. Over the centuries they had spent together, it had seemed as if there was nothing his brother wouldn't forgive him for, but Klaus just kept pushing and pushing, testing his brother's famed patience as if it was nothing more than a game. After all, who could he rely on if not Elijah?
But looking into those now cold, hard eyes, pulled not from visions of his greatest fear but from memory, Klaus' breath caught in his chest. The worst part was knowing it to be his own fault. That day when it all went to hell, when they were in Lucien's apartment trying desperately for more time, grasping at straws in hopes of the thought of a cure, it must have been the first time Klaus had truly told Elijah what he meant to him. And regret pooled in his heart that he had not done so before, that he had taken his brother for granted for so long. Whispers of apologies fell from his lips but he doubted words could ever be enough after all he had forced Elijah to endure. And when the hallucination faded, bringing back the pain from the dagger embedded in him, he embraced it. It was but a small penance for what his family had had to suffer because of him.
Marcel pushed Damon up against the wall, fangs bared and black veins ripplimg underneath his skin. Damon, for his part, seemed entirely unperturbed, something Marcel would have found strange if he had given time to think of it. "Who the hell are you?" He asked the younger vampire in a voice that promised violence no matter the situation. "What in God's name would you want from Klaus Mikaelson?"
The grin never fell from Damon's face as he took in Marcel's features, the hybrid he had become, so similar to a vampire's yet so very different. His grin never faltered even as black veins slightly rippled underneath his own skin before disappearing. His eyes, while they darkened ever so slightly, remained a clear blue, a stark contrast to Marcel's own blood red irises. "Let's just say I'm something of a friend and leave it at that, alright? Besides, no need to worry, I was just passing through, thought I'd drop by, check on the kid, be a right pain in the ass like he was to me when in my town. You know, the usual. No big deal." Damon was entirely nonchalant about it all as he shrugged. There was a look in his eyes that Marcel had absolutely no intention of analysing as his rage built.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realise. Do you actually even care about anything or is everything just a joke to you?"
If anything, Damon's smirk only widened at that. "Funny things are."
"You have no idea what you're stepping into so I suggest you turn around and crawl back to wherever the hell you came from."
Damon's smile dropped for a fraction of a second at Marcel's words, the change in expression almost too quick and minute to catch. What gave it away was the unmistakable way his eyes hardened even as a smile still played about his lips. "See, I think I do have an idea about what I'm willingly stepping into." He said pleasantly. "I think, that you're clearly a different kind of hybrid and a new one at that. I've been around, seen a lot of things over the years, but nothing like you. I think, based on your reaction, that you and Klaus probably used to be close till he pissed you off one too many times and I think, that you decided to hurt him back. How am I doing so far?"
Hayley untied the man from the chair. He glared slightly as he stood, rubbing his wrists which had chafed against the rope. "Did you have to tie them so tight?" Hayley looked at him pointedly. "Yeah, dumb question. I'm Chris, by the way." The hybrid smiled slightly at the awkwardly given introduction.
"Hayley, but I'm guessing you already knew that. Assuming that we're going to leave asap, I'm gonna go get Hope. You betray me or put my daughter in danger and I'll rip your heart out myself. Understood?" Her eyes glowed a pale amber, a feral smile playing about her lips and Chris nodded slowly as she left the room.
Hope looked at her mother as if trying to ask if she was sure about what she was doing. Hayley could practically feel the three year old judging her, something that was pretty unnerving. "Mommy?" Hope asked and wow, her kid definitely didn't learn that tone of 'we're all screwed and you just haven't admitted it yet' from her.
"Mommy knows what she's doing sweetie, don't worry." She knelt down beside Hope, a mischievous gleam in her eyes. 'But just in case, I give you full permission to take out any threats, ok?" Hope nodded, satisfied, little sparks flying from her raised fingers. God, this family definitely terrified her sometimes.
Freya sighed as they began this never-ending fight once again. Some days it seemed as if Kol would never forgive her for what they had done to the young witch. That was sixty percent of the reason why she was already looking into alternative ways of raising the dead, she was quite sure her aunt must have had some spell or the other set up that she could modify. The problem at hand, however-
"Sometimes I wonder just who classifies as merely pawns for this family."
"I'm sorry Kol, but Elijah and I did what we had to do. I'm sorry Davina had to pay the price for that. Do you think I wanted her to suffer?"
"I think you didn't care as long as you got what you wanted. What is it with my siblings always trying to destroy anything I hold interest in? Did what you had to? You had to help me get her back!" As Kol's rage built, so did Freya's own. The choice she and Elijah had made was one born out of necessity and there wasn't a day when she didn't wonder if she could have found any other way.
"That's why Klaus and Hayley opposed our decision. But if we had hesitated even a little longer, Klaus, Rebekah and Hayley would all be dead! By the time we got there, Lucien was about to pull out Hayley's heart! Did you know that part? Do you know how Elijah and I found them when we finally got there? The mother of your niece coughing blood, Lucien's hand wrapped around her heart and Klaus was on his knees, Kol. It was a battle they couldn't win. I'm not about to let our family go so easily. Not when I've just found you."
Kol was stunned into silence, his mind trying to absorb, understand and adjust to the new information given to him. "Klaus didn't agree with what you did?" He asked. Freya started, surprise showing clearly on her face.
"You didn't know?" Kol shook his head and Freya raised a hand to her face in shock. "Did he tell anyone that he had nothing to do with what happened?" The question was a harsh whisper as she collapsed on the sofa, eyes betraying her shock and disbelief at her younger brother.
Kol sat down next to her and she leaned into him, taking comfort from his presence. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer. "Considering how both Marcel and Vincent blamed him for it too, I'm going to assume he didn't." He said in response to her question.
"Our brother is an idiot." She stated. Kol hummed in agreement before sighing.
"Was that really how you found them that day?" Freya didn't require much clarification as to which day he meant and lay her head on Kol's shoulder.
"Lucien was threatening to kill Hayley if Klaus didn't kneel before him. Klaus' pride against his mercy."
Kol shuddered against her side. "He really did that?" Freya nodded, her head still resting on his shoulder, arms around his waist, unable to bring herself to speak. Kol tightened his hold around her. "If that bastard was still alive I'd kill him myself. Maybe I'd rip his spine out first though. Or something else equally important. String him up for the world to see what happens when you mess with a Mikaelson. That would be amusing, wouldn't it sister?" She laughed a little at that and the tension flowed out of their bodies as if it never existed in the first place. They sat there in silence, Freya cuddling into her brother's side till Kol spoke, his voice soft. "I do forgive you Freya. I'm never going to agree with what you did, but I do forgive you."
Hayley walked unhesitatingly into the building Chris led her to, stepping through the doorway that separated her from members of a society that had tried to harm her family on so many occasions. Her head was held high, a thousand different scenarios running through her mind and ways with how to deal with them. Her gaze fell upon those inside, vampires she didn't know much less trust. But then, in an ironic twist of fate, she had to trust them in order to find the cures she needed. She felt Hope tighten her small arms around her and pure determination gripped her. She and Hope would be reunited with their family. Hayley would do whatever it took to ensure that. Her daughter would not live a life of loneliness and fear. Their cycle of pain ended with her and Hayley would go to the end of the world to make sure of it.
