Okay it took me forever to update this story. For some reason I had more inspiration to write chapters 22-26 before I wrote this one (on a good note, more to come soon!). As always, I hope you like it and let me know what you think in the comments!
Present Day
Rebekah searched the sky for anything else unusual. The green light had disappeared, but maybe something else could give them a clue. She and her brothers still stood on the hillside that overlooked the town. They shouldn't stay here. For now they had gotten away from the werewolves. Yet they could catch their scent again. Or had the werewolves given up because they had distracted them long enough from whatever the coven had done? Rebekah turned back to her brothers. Elijah was sitting in on the ground, holding his knees. Most of his wounds had healed but he still looked terrible. She couldn't imagine what he had gone through during those two days in capture. The half hour she had spent in her werewolf venom delirium probably were nothing compared to what had happened to him.
"Let's go home," Rebekah said, moving towards him.
Elijah looked up and nodded.
"Absolutely not," Nik replied. He stared into the distance where the green light had appeared. "We need to go there right now."
"It can wait. It's too late now anyway," Rebekah replied. She kneeled down to Elijah who still sat on the ground. He looked weak.
"This cannot wait! The witches are there right now, plotting against us, declaring war against us. We have to stop them now, while they are there and weak!"
"Look at him." Rebekah gestured to Elijah: "We are too weak for a fight!"
"Fine," Nik rolled his eyes. "You bring him home then, and I'll go by myself. I can figure this out on my own."
Rebekah wanted to retort but a second later he had already disappeared. She jumped up and stared at the spot where he just had stood. She hated it when he did that. Frustrated, she kicked a rock into the far distance.
"We have to follow him," Elijah grumbled, and got up.
They ran across the hillside, through the forest, in a relatively straight line, to where the green light had been, and to where Nik had been rushing to.
"Don't slow down because of me, Rebekah," Elijah said somewhat behind her.
She almost hadn't noticed herself, but she realized it was true. They were much slower than usual because unconsciously she had made sure he could keep up with her. She stopped to look at Elijah.
"I'm fine," he said quickly.
When he saw that this response wouldn't suffice for her, he corrected himself: "I'm fine enough. I'll catch up with you. Just make sure our brother doesn't obliterate the whole witch community tonight."
"Alright," Rebekah said eventually, feeling guilty to leave him alone again. "But hurry, don't lurk around in the forest for too long."
And a second later she swept off, hoping to catch up with her other brother soon.
As she drew nearer the smell of blood and fear clung through her nose. What have you done, Nik? Her legs became shaky as she got closer. She didn't even have to find him to know that in that short time since she had last seen him many people had died. She couldn't explain how the time had gone by so quickly. Had she been that slow? Why on earth was Niklaus so damn efficient when he wanted to murder people?
When she had reached the small glade in the forest she stopped. The sheer terror in front of her eyes was so overwhelming the only feeling she had left was a numb acceptance. Far away she heard some rushed steps of people running away. She knew that her brother had let them escape on purpose. She found Niklaus in the middle of a glade, staring at the bodies, his body slightly shaking, moving back and forth. There was no remorse in his eyes. She didn't know what to say, what to feel. Had she actually believed that she could stop him? Did she want to stop him in the first place? To be honest, she didn't care too much about the dead witches in front of her. Yet, out of principle, she felt like reprimanding him. He turned his head to Rebekah.
She closed her eyes, and after one long breath, she said: "What on earth, Nik?"
As he replied she looked down on the bodies again. There were at least 10 or 15. She didn't even listen to her brother's words. She was sure he had some great excuses why he did it, some overall great speech that'd convince her to listen, but she couldn't be bothered right now.
"Wait, was Freya here as well?" Rebekah suddenly interrupted him, quickly turning to look at all the faces on the ground.
"No," Nik said, seemingly annoyed by her question and her interruption. "Some got away."
"They're running that way," he added with a smirk and pointed down the path that led to the old town.
"How many witches are there even left anymore? Two? We can't just murder the whole town, Nik!" she asked with anger.
"There are more than two witches left," he replied with an eye roll. "Do you have any idea how many people were here when I got here? At least 40, and probably more that had already left."
"So what? How do these bodies help us now?"
"Why does that even make you angry?" he asked in disbelief.
There was something else that made her angry. The perpetual continuation of the problems that had been following her ever since she could remember. Why did she always have to deal with all the things that her brothers had done? It felt like her whole life she had been swimming on a giant wave that she couldn't get away from. And wherever it pulled her she had to go, no matter if she wanted to or not. Her constant battle to escape, to follow her own instinct, was useless. Every time she had tried to do what she wanted she ended up with her brothers anyway. She sighed with resignation. It was too tiring.
"Did you at least figure out what they want?" she asked with a sigh.
He looked at her in surprise. "No, I didn't ask."
"What?" Rebekah asked confused. "You did all this and didn't even bother to find out why?!"
Nik shrugged.
She shook her head with a grumble. It was too much. She didn't care anymore what he did. And she didn't care about the coven. If she just left now, she was sure, this whole ordeal would work itself out on its own. They didn't need her. With one swift turn she slowly began to walk back into the forest.
"Rebekah!" she heard Nik say behind her. "Wait!"
Her shoulders twitched, but she forced herself to walk on.
"Wait," he said again, and she suddenly felt his hand on her arm. With some hesitation and grumbling she turned around and looked at him.
"What?" she said shortly.
Nik looked at her in surprise. "Don't be like that."
"Oh, I'm sorry if the way I am is inconvenient for you," she sneered.
His expression didn't change. "You're not upset about the bodies. I know you good enough to know that you don't care about them," he said. "What's wrong?"
She wanted to sneer at him or shout at him, but part of her wondered why she should even bother. "Doesn't matter, you do what you want anyway."
He looked at her, still holding on to her arm. "Is that what this is about? Because I'm not listening to you?"
She looked at him reproachfully, which was enough of a response.
"What should we have done, according to you? Just let it slide?" he asked. He took a step back and rubbed his face.
"I don't just think about myself," he said in a calmer voice. "I care about you and what you do."
Rebekah crossed her arms, struggling with herself. "You never pay attention to what I say or wanna do. I don't wanna just follow you around my whole life."
"You are aware that it was your idea to go to New Orleans and we followed you here, right?" he said with a little smile.
She had forgotten about that.
Slowly he took some steps closer to her. He put his hands onto her cheeks.
"We're in this together, okay?" he said.
The sudden closeness let her forget where they were for a moment. Their lives could be so easy.
"Let's just leave," she said. "We don't wanna be here, do we?"
"Maybe not," he replied. "We are here now. And we might have dug out some problems that need to be dealt with before we leave."
She studied his face. The gravitas in his eyes didn't cohere with the situation. He wasn't worried about the werewolves or Freya. Then it struck her and she realized where they stood. She knew that this place felt familiar and now she understood where they were and what had happened here.
"You made me come here, and we're going to see it through until it is over," he said with a serious voice.
Part of her felt bad now for bringing it up.
In a blink of an eye Rebekah suddenly felt how his hands were ripped away from her, and a second later she saw Nik lying on the ground a few feet away from her. She looked back and forth between him and Elijah until she realized what happened. Nik held up his hand to his cheek bone that Elijah just had punched.
"You've got some nerve," Elijah said, while rubbing his arm. "Again you're trying to lull us in, after that stunt you've just pulled?"
Her head turned. He did it again. It only took five seconds, she had already felt guilty for bringing him here. And bringing him here? She hadn't forced Nik to come here, she reminded herself.
"Common," Elijah said and held out his hand to Rebekah. With one last glance to Nik on the ground she took it.
There was a bitter taste in her mouth. She didn't want to be lulled in. By neither of them. But she had no idea how to change that.
1800, Naples, Italy
Kol observed the narrow alley that led up to the main road. He could see the crowds passing through the main road from afar. From time to time a figure or two passed by them as well, but never stopping or even looking at them.
It had been surprisingly easy to find Katherine. But Kol figured that only showed how little effort Briony had given in the many times before she was supposed to look for her. This time it had only taken them two days to figure out where she was - Naples, Italy - and another week to travel across the Mediterranean sea to get there. Now they stood in front of the narrow house in the middle of the town of Naples where Katherine was supposed to live. It was absurdly easy. Kol was glad that Nik hadn't been questioning their supposed luck until now.
Nik took a step out of the shadow. Kol pushed him back again.
"You can't do that. We talked about this. If she sees you, she'll disappear before we can blink," he said to his brother.
"This is ridiculous. She's not faster than us."
"If she wasn't fast or clever, it wouldn't have taken you 300 years to catch her."
Nik looked offended. "You really wanna go there, Kol? It's not that Ka-"
Kol interrupted him. "Don't say her name! What if she hears you speaking her name?"
Nik rolled his eyes. "If she hears us speaking, then I don't think it matters anymore if we say her name."
Kol shook his head and turned back to the alley. "Your stealth skills are terrible. No wonder you never found her without help."
He could feel how his brother tensed in anger, but he didn't reply. A second later, the door next to them opened and Briony appeared.
"Are we set?" he asked.
"Yup," she replied. "As soon as she enters her apartment she won't be able to get out anymore."
Nik nodded. "And will Ka-"
"Don't say her name!" Briony broke him off.
He rolled his eyes again. Then he asked: "And she won't realize that you were in there?"
"Maybe she'll catch my scent when she's inside. But then it will be too late."
"And now we'll wait," she concluded.
After a while, Kol could hear a motion in the building above them. He looked at his brother. He too sensed it. She was inside the house now. They nodded at each other.
"Let's go inside," Nik said with a sparkle in his eyes.
In retrospect they should have planned the exact course of action of when Katherine would see them for the first time. Because as they entered her apartment all hell broke loose. As they pushed open the door to her apartment, there was a millisecond of realization whenKatherine stared at them. Then it took her about two seconds to figure out that all the entrances and windows were blocked and there was no way to get out. Then furniture began to fly into their direction, especially towards Nik. Kol had just enough time to push Briony behind him before a large cabinet smashed against them.
"Stop it!" he shouted, not at all surprised that Katherine didn't stop.
Nik threw an armchair back at Katherine, which swept her off her feet. In the short second that it took for Katherine to scramble up again and recharge with a heavy mirror, Briony shouted: "Don't!"
She held up a hand to Katherine, then turned to Nik, who too was ready to strike again with side table that had gone with the armchair.
"Don't," Briony repeated, this time with a calmer voice.
She turned back to Katherine, trying to sound as diplomatic as possible. "If any of us wanted to kill you right now, do you really think you'd be still alive?" Katherine paused, still holding a heavy mirror in her hands, reading to throw. Hesitantly, she lowered it.
"What do you want?" she asked briskly. Her eyes were fixed on Nik, obviously seeing the biggest danger in him.
Kol looked at his brother. Nik glared at Katherine with a mixture anger and interest. Kol knew that his brother had been waiting for this moment for a very long time. It would be too easy to kill Katherine right now. He hoped that Nik hadn't forgotten why they were here.
"There's something we need to talk about," Briony said.
"I doubt that," Katherine said, still focused on Nik.
Niklaus not saying a word didn't help at all. Katherine's hands were clamped onto the heavy mirror that she was now holding in front of her like a shield. Neither of them blinked, as if one millisecond of absence could mean an attack. There was no way that Katherine would listen to them like this. They had to get some things straightened out first.
"Nobody wants to harm you right now," Kol said, aware how little his words probably meant to her.
"Really?" Katherine snorted.
He looked to Nik. "He does, maybe a little. And she might be a bit belligerent towards you, because you almost smashed her with a cabinet just now. But we're good. So how about you listen to me?"
Katherine lowered the mirror. "We've never met, that's true." Then she turned to Briony with a smirk. "I see you took the nice brother for yourself. Maybe I've stuck to the wrong ones before and should follow your example."
Before the rest of them could react, Briony had already risen her hand. Katherine was thrown through the room and smashed against the closet behind her. The closet door shattered into thousand pieces. After a few seconds Katherine clambered herself onto her feet again.
With some pain in her voice, she said: "I see, jealousy is what pushes you over the edge."
Briony took a step closer and glared back at her. Her eyes were unpredictable and murdery. Kol was worried that she'd hurt Katherine again. Carefully he placed his hand on her shoulder, in the hope that this would somehow calm her down. Then he looked over to Nik. He wasn't any help either and looked at Katherine with the same contemptuous glare. And he seemed way too happy about the fact that someone else had inflicted on pain Katherine. From the three people around him, Kol was sure that at least one of them was going to strike out again soon unless he'd somehow stop them.
"Let's all just breathe for a moment, forget our murdery thoughts," he said in a slow and calm manner. "I can't believe that I'm the sensible one in this situation, but let me remind you that we're here for a reason and not to kill anybody."
The three others kept glaring at each other. After a few moments Briony eventually snapped out of it.
She said: "You're right." With crossed arms she turned away and took a step back.
"Why are you here then?" Katherine said confrontationally.
Kol exchanged looks with the other two. Briony sighed and gave her a detailed retelling of what had happened with the immortality spell. Speaking of the spell seemed to make her forget the anger she had towards Katherine. And Katherine too loosened some of her tenseness and listened tentatively.
"You're dying," Katherine concluded, when they had finished their story. "Huh." There was genuine surprise in her voice.
"That means you're dying, too," Briony added.
"And you came here to tell me this?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. "How awfully nice of you."
"That's not all. There might be a way to stop it. With your help."
"Help you?" Katherine laughed. "You cannot be serious."
"Nik, you wanted to say something to Katherine, didn't you?" Kol said slowly.
Nik didn't reply right away but kept staring at Katherine.
Then, after what look like some internal struggle, he said: "Yes."
They all waited for Nik to continue. Kol nodded at him encouragingly. He had never thought that him being here was going to be so vital for this to succeed.
"If you're going to help us, I'll forgive you. I'll let you be," Nik said with a wearing voice. Kol could tell how much struggle his brother had to say that.
"Forgive me?" Katherine snapped. "Should I feel sorry now that I've been haunted for the last few centuries? If anything you should apologize to me!"
"Apologize to you?!" Nik exclaimed, as he took a step closer to her. "Don't pretend that-"
Kol interrupted him: "It doesn't matter who was at fault! The important part is that nobody will hold any grudges against anyone in here after this! We're all even, okay?"
He looked at his brother. Nik stared at Katherine, then he lowered his view to the ground.
"Right," he mumbled through gritted teeth.
Katherine who until now, was fixed on him, looked to Briony.
Briony nodded weakly.
"I come with you now, and after this is over I can do whatever I want?" Katherine concluded.
"Yes, I'll make sure of it," Briony replied.
"Not that you're giving me much of a choice here," Katherine said with a raised eyebrow and scanned the room.
Kol hadn't thought of that until now. It was true, they hadn't given her a choice at all. At least about the part where she had to come with them. Until Briony freed her from her apartment she was trapped, and after that Katherine was stuck with them without any likely way to escape. But this wouldn't be all. They could force her to come with them, but it would need to be her choice to help them. Briony had explained that Katherine needed to give her blood by her own free will in order for the spell to work. If she didn't this journey would have been for nothing. For now they had to be nice to her, convince her that this was something she wanted to do.
There had been only a few boat rides in Kol's live that had been more awkward than this one. Since the weather was rough and rainy they spent most of their time on the boat inside. They sat around the small table in their cabin. The only thing Kol could hear was the biting wind horning outside. Besides that they sat in complete silence. He would have liked to talk to Briony alone, but that was almost impossible with both Nik and Katherine around. Kol soon realized that being stuck with these three people in a small space wasn't ideal. Nik kept giving murdery looks towards Katherine. Katherine glared back at him and occasionally glared at Briony, probably still brooding about whatever happened in France. Yet at the same time Katherine was oddly glued to Briony, the only person that she had some sort of trust in. And Briony at the same time gave her jealous looks, still mad about the comments Katherine made about him. Kol decided that it definitely wasn't his job to resolve any of this on this boat trip. He was sure that Elijah or Rebekah would be better at this than him. Instead he just kept quiet, ready to intervene in case they decide to rip off each others heads.
After what felt like an eternity of him inspecting his shoe laces he realized that Katherine wasn't looking at Nik anymore. She was looking at him. There was no glare in her eyes anymore. Profoundly confused he looked down on the table. When he looked up again she was still focused on him. He didn't know what to do. He definitely didn't want to respond to it. When he turned to Briony, he realized that she had already noticed. Her eyes were narrowed and she pressed her lips together. But Katherine didn't pay her any attention. She seemed to relish in the fact that she ignored Briony so obviously. He wondered, if she actually wanted Briony to hurt her again. He could hear Briony's nails scratching over the wooden table. Any moment and she'd explode. He had no idea what he could do to stop it. She sat up straight.
Suddenly Katherine snapped out of it and turned to her. "Calm down, little witch. I have better things to do than taking your leftovers." And with that she left the cabin and went outside.
Briony's eyes were still fixed on the door Katherine passed through, focusing so hard that Kol was worried that she might put it in flames.
"You're aware that she's doing those things to tease you, right?" Kol said, after Katherine had left.
"She's such an insufferable woman!" Briony exclaimed.
"I know! That's what I've been telling people for years!" Nik replied.
"I'm glad you two finally found something to bond over," Kol weighed in, "but can we please keep the general disdain to a minimum until she has agreed to help us?"
"She's an ungrateful git," Briony replied, leaning back in her chair again. "After everything I've done for her…" she trailed off in her thoughts, grumbling to herself.
Kol tensed up a little. Briony was getting careless. Until now nobody in his family except him had known about the many encounters she had with Katherine. No matter what situation they were in right now, Kol didn't think Nik would take it well knowing that they actively had kept him from finding Katherine for so many years. He slowly peered over to Nik. He too looked after Katherine but didn't seem to grasp the full meaning of Briony's words. Kol leaned back, forcing himself to relax. It was going to be easier when they would be back on the island, he told himself. Then they'd be able to spread out and not to be constantly stuck together. It would take off the tension, he thought. He really hoped that was true.