Episode 21: Point of No Return

Part One

The Living Area of the Mikaelson Compound...

Rebekah and Freya were knelt down beside an unconscious Elijah, waiting for him to wake up and recover from Klaus snapping his neck. After a minute or two, Elijah awoke, his eyelids opening up, a confused look on his face. Rebekah let out a small sigh of relief.

"Katerina..." Elijah whispered, to Rebekah's horror. Why would he say that? He hadn't seen his Katerina since returning to New Orleans, and Rebekah knew for a fact that he couldn't have seen her recently because she was dead. Then something occurred to Rebekah. Her heart sank within her chest. Klaus was alone with Elijah, Klaus was more than a little angry with Elijah—he told him. He told him their secret.

"It's good to see you weren't out for too long," Rebekah said with a forced smile on her face, her and Freya helping Elijah to sit upright. Elijah put one hand on his jaw, clearly still aching a little from having his neck snapped.

Elijah turned to look at Rebekah, now looking more angry than confused. "Katerina—Rebekah, Niklaus just told me that she was dead shortly before he broke my neck. Would you happen to know anything about this? He told me you did. That you kept it a secret out of spite for her."

Freya looked over to Rebekah, worried. The last thing she wanted was more tension between her siblings, especially when they still had Dahlia to worry about, and they needed to work together as a team if they hope to kill her before she kills them.

Rebekah paused, conflicted. "I'm sorry, Elijah. She's gone."

"She didn't die quickly," Elijah said as if he was asking Rebekah for confirmation, Rebekah nodding slowly. "She died slowly, didn't she? A slow, agonizing death. And you and Niklaus kept it from me—because you knew I would've gone to great lengths to save her life. And you couldn't have that. You wanted her dead."

"There is nothing you could've done-"

"There are always things that can be done, Rebekah!" Elijah shouted, closing his eyes for a moment, feeling a familiar tingling sensation in his veins. Elijah clutched his temples with his hands in pain as he saw himself chasing Tatia towards the red door once more, this time, Tatia actually grabbing the doorknob of the red door and starting to fully open it.

"Elijah!" Freya said as she grabbed a hold of her little brother, concerned. Elijah opened his eyes again, attempting to regain some control of himself and contain his anger. Elijah got to his feet, Rebekah and Freya standing up with him, watching him cautiously.

Despite his attempt to control himself, Elijah's vampire features were beginning to come out, his fangs protruding outwards, the veins in his face darkening and becoming more visible, and his eyes turning an onyx black. Suddenly, he reached for Rebekah's neck with both hands, grabbing her by the throat and practically strangling her, Rebekah gasping while he did, Freya stunned. "Elijah, put Rebekah down, now," Freya ordered.

"No! I am furious with you Rebekah, but I will wait until after we dispose of our aunt to ask for more details about the death of my Katerina, which you saw fit to hide from me," Elijah warned, taking his hands off of Rebekah's throat.

The Courtyard of the Mikaelson Compound...

Kol was standing a few feet away from Klaus, an anxious look on his face. "Nik, just let me start by saying, I didn't want to dagger you. Not when I actually did at least. I mean, before Finn hexed me, before I knew you were a father, I did. But this time-"

"Kol," Klaus interrupted, Kol stopping and bracing himself for what Klaus had to say. "Being daggered was... something that can only be described as an agonizing experience. Very unpleasant. Of course you would know that, seeing as I daggered you more than a few times. Kol, I want you to look me in the eyes and tell me you didn't enjoy doing the daggering yourself for a change-"

"I didn't!" Kol replied immediately, Klaus looking at him sceptically. Kol rolled his eyes. "Fine. Maybe I enjoyed it a little. You understand Nik, you took decades of my life away from me by daggering me, and each time you shoved a dagger into my heart—I never knew when or if that dagger was going to come out. You left Finn daggered for nine centuries-"

"Finn! ... Was a monster Kol. I haven't seen him as my brother in quite some time, not that way I have you-"

"No offence Nik but you're not particularly good at making your love for others known, though I think we've already had that conversation."

"We have. And I know what you mean by the fear that sets in the moment the dagger pierces your heart, the uncertainty of when or if someone is going to pull that dagger out. But... Kol I finally started to trust you, after everything, and—and now this happens," Klaus said, Kol looking a little saddened by what Klaus was saying but was trying to do his best to hide it. "And I don't know what you expect from me right now. To forgive you? To say I understand your motives? Was it done purely out of petty spite for all the times I daggered you, or was it done out of some growing affection you have for Freya? Do not say it was about Hope!"

"Freya's magic not only helped break my hex, it also helped us save Rebekah's soul from Eva Sinclair, not to mention restore my original body, the body I'm in now, after it was reduced to nothing more than a pile of ash. Do you think I wanted to lose that? She's accomplished things with magic that some witches could never dream of. And if you turned her into a vampire, all her magic—would be gone. Nik if it weren't for her magic I might be dead right now. Or at the very least still stuck in Kaleb's body, with no way of ever escaping it."

Klaus smirked. "There it is. This wasn't about Freya's needs or you worried about what would become of your sister. You were worried about yourself and your needs-"

"I look out for myself Nik, because if I don't, no one else will."

"Seems to me that Davina would. After all, she did spell you that necklace that saved you from certain death that night in the cemetery. That one that absorbed all the harm Finn's hex was doing to you in Kaleb's body."

"I know what you're referring to," Kol stated, reminded of just what Davina had done for him in the past. "But you don't realize that Davina only feels the way she does because she doesn't know about what I did for kicks back when I was a vampire the first time around."

"Right. Murder, mayhem—no, it seems to me Davina already knows about that."

"She doesn't know specifics."

Klaus took a moment to think. "You wouldn't be referring to what you did to poor Marcel, the man she sees as a father of sorts, when he was only a boy, are you?"

Kol gritted his teeth. It figured that the girl who stole his heart just happened to have a close connection with someone he truly loathed. "Maybe I am. Maybe I'm not."

"You think she wouldn't be able to forgive you for this? That she would think less of you for it, something that happened over a century ago?"

Kol avoided looking Klaus directly in the eyes. "I don't know."

Vincent's Apartment...

To say the inside of Vincent Griffith's apartment looked messy was a bit of an understatement. He had loose pages that appeared to have been torn out of paper laying everywhere, a few books lying open, a spilled wine glass on the floor, and also on the floor was a couple of dead rats who had been mutilated. Vincent himself was currently sitting on a couch next to a wall, a coffee table out in front of him. On the top surface of the coffee table was a silver chalice, and laying next to the chalice, was a bloodied athame. Vincent took a deep breathe in before he waved one hand over the chalice and began to recite an incantation.

Once he stopped chanting, Vincent cautiously picked up the chalice with both hands and placed it to his lips. He anxiously drank the contents of the chalice. Once he had as much as he could take, he put the chalice down and fell back against the couch, a sudden look of tiredness on his face. Vincent blinked rapidly, stopping when he felt someone touch his right hand. He looked over to his side and saw his destroyed wife, Eva Sinclair, sitting on the couch next to him, a smile on her face. "Hello Vince."

"Eva..." Vincent replied with a half smile on his face.

"God it feels like it's been ages since I've seen you," Eva said as she placed one hand on Vincent's face, caressing it. "I've missed you."

"I missed you too... I can't believe—I can't believe it worked."

Eva giggled. "Really? You should give yourself more credit than that Vince. You're one of the more clever witches in the French Quarter. You've never failed at anything you set your mind to."

"I'm just wondering how long this'll last."

"Probably not very. So you better make the most of it."

Vincent leaned in and kissed Eva, closing his eyes while he did, tears starting to stream down his cheeks while he did. He knew what he was seeing, what he was experiencing, wasn't real. It was only a hallucination that he created and was controlling, hence the idealized version of Eva, a version that didn't turn out to be a psychotic killer, and was just his loving wife.

Vincent was interrupted when he heard someone knocking on his door. "Mr. Griffith? Are you home?" a voice asked. Vincent broke his kiss with Eva and let out a heavy sigh.

The Mikaelson Compound...

Elijah, Rebekah, Freya and Marcel joined Klaus and Kol in the courtyard of the Mikaelson compound, Elijah holding a goblet in one hand that he was casually drinking from, the liquid inside a potion brewed to help Elijah better control his enhanced bloodlust, made from the ingredients that Marcel had just brought. "So, where are you all headed off to next, if you're not planning to fight Dahlia here?" Marcel asked.

"The jazz club in Algiers," Freya replied, to Klaus' curiosity. "We don't need to be avoiding her any longer. The sooner we take her down, the better."

Klaus kept his mouth shut, even though a part of him considered telling them all right then and there that the weapon they were planning to use to kill Dahlia was bound with the wrong blood. He hadn't told anyone, it was something that he kept to himself so far. But he had to make his choice as to whether he was going to help his siblings end Dahlia's life or not, and soon because he was running out of time. Dahlia was a sadistic, cold, sociopathic person, but she was also the only family he had right now excluding Hope that hadn't betrayed his trust after trying to earn it. She was also the only one who intimately understood the troubles Hope would go through later in her life because of her witch powers. But she also wanted to kill Hayley, Hope's mother, and Klaus wasn't going to agree to that. Unless there was some way he could convince Dahlia to spare Hayley's life.

"And Hayley is to stay here in the compound with Hope I take it?" Klaus asked, looking over to Rebekah, Rebekah looking back at him with barely contained anger in her eyes, still upset with him that he told Elijah about Katherine.

"She plans to attend the Kenner boy's funeral tomorrow," Kol jumped in. "But fortunately it looks like we'll have Cami to keep an eye on her while mummy's away."

Klaus looked at each and every one of his siblings as he spoke. "You'd all let Hayley leave the compound when there is a very powerful enemy out there who would very much like tokill her?!"

"How do you know that Dahlia wants Hayley dead per se?" Elijah asked.

"Because she told me yesterday when we spent the day together. Hope is the only child Hayley will ever have, and Dahlia knows that. She is convinced that Hayley would never hand over Hope willingly. She believes the only way she will get to keep Hope is by eliminating Hayley for good."

"So you would forbid her to attend the funeral of her husband?"

"I would to keep her alive, Elijah! That nursery is the safest place from Dahlia right now, according to you lot, so she is not to leave under any circumstances."

"And How do you plan to ensure this? Hayley's not exactly one to be told what to do," Rebekah pointed out. "There is no way you'll stop her from attending that funeral."

"I will compel her if need be. She may resent for me for it later but it is for her own good," Klaus insisted. "And it seems I'm the only one here who understands that."

"You will not take Hayley's free will away from her-"

Klaus cut Elijah off, refusing to let him finish. "Free will is what will get her killed!"

"I have to side with Klaus on this one," Marcel said, putting his two cents in, Kol sneering at him while he did. "Dahlia's already proved she has no problem killing those who are closest to you. She's already killed Jackson, do you think she'll hesitate to kill Hayley?"

"Thank you, Marcellus."

"Hayley drinks vervain," Elijah argued. "You'd have to wait for the vervain to drain out of her system, time that we do not have brother."

Klaus rolled his eyes. "There are ways to speed the process along, if I recall."

Elijah was overcome with rage at the implication that Klaus would bleed Hayley out for the sake of taking away her free will. He allowed his vampire side to overwhelm him, carelessly tossing his goblet on to the ground and using his enhanced vampire speed to tackle Klaus, pining him to the ground, putting his hands around Klaus' throat, attempting to strangle his younger brother, to everyone's surprise, except Rebekah. "No!" Elijah shouted at Klaus. "I allowed you to harm one of my loved ones before, and I will not allow it again!"

Everyone stood aside as Klaus forced Elijah's hands off of his throat, throwing Elijah off of him, and getting to his feet. Before Elijah had the chance to attack him again, Klaus took the white oak stake out of his coat pocket, stunning Elijah. "I took back the weapon that was rightfully mine brother, after I snapped your neck."

"Stop it, the both of you!" Rebekah screamed, grabbing Klaus and Elijah's attention. Klaus and Elijah stared at one another intensely for a moment before Klaus put the white oak stake back in his coat pocket, a slightly annoyed look on his face as he did.

"How did I end up being the most sane member of this family," Klaus said to himself quietly.

Author's Note: So this was one of the chapters I enjoyed writing more, so was last chapter to be fair. I would've posted this last night but I've been having issues with the website (which I believe the entire website was having issues, it wouldn't let me login, kept redirecting to me to an error page). Anyhow, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter as much I enjoyed writing it and feel free to let me know what you thought of it with a review, even if you want to say "I didn't enjoy it and you've written better". I guess that's all.