No One's POV

At Pastor Young's old cattle farm, Rebekah, Stefan, Elena and several other captured hybrids find themselves confined in old broken down, repurposed cattle stalls, vervain mist ventilating in from above.

"I thought I killed you." Rebekah deadpans, catching sight of Elena on the floor in a cell across.

"Where am I?" Elena questions, coming to, disorientated and afraid.

"They thought you were a vampire, so they stuck you in here with us." Rebekah shrugs.

"Where's Stefan?" Elena asks, her voice shrill will worry and fear. Rebekah internally rolled her eyes at the doppelgangers dramatics.

"Elena, I'm right here. Are you okay?" Stefan coughs weakly, immediately concerned for Elena's welfare, though the vervain being ventilated through the cages as well as the venom from Brooklyn's bite made him barely conscious.

Rebekah felts like vomiting from the sheer sappiness and predictability of the youngest Salvatore brother. Yet at the same time the same strings of bitterness churned, once upon a time that had been her. The doppelwhore had no right, Stefan had been hers.

"Stefan." Elena says weakly. "I didn't feed."

"Ahh, I see what's going on here. You died with vampire blood in your system and you didn't feed and now you're locked up in here without a drop of blood in sight. That is a problem." Rebekah says, almost gleefully.

"Just ignore her." Stefan tries to encourage, though the sentiment is weak given his state, Brooklyn's venom is coursing through his system at an alarming rate and in less than 8 hours would burn completely through his veins.

"Has anyone done the math or shall I? I'd say you've got less than three hours to feed before I get to watch you die all over again." Rebekah continues smugly. "My day just got a whole lot better."

Returning to the Mikaelson mansion, Brooklyn bounds through the double French doors of the living room already phasing from her wolf from to her human form.

"Aaron? 'Lijah? Finn?" Brooklyn calls out to a suspiciously quiet mansion.

"Sire, you've returned." Finn greets, flashing into the living room a moment later, having come from front of the mansion where Elijah had left him overseeing the movers packing the trucks.

Aaron followed at a much slower pace, his paw steps clicking on the marble floor of the entryway as he trotted through the slowly emptying mansion.

"Yeah, where's Elijah?" Brooklyn asks.

"He did not say. But there was a last minute call he had to take. He stepped out." Finn informs, Elijah being less than forth coming about the text he had received nearly 20 minutes before.

"Oh okay. Well, I got the information I needed. Apparently Rebekah was taken. Rounded up along with others by some psycho-crazed vigilante group lead by the new pastor, Pastor Young. While I have no doubt your sister can handle herself, I'm not about to just leave her at the hands of some over enthused idiots when we leave town. So I need your blood Finn, since Elijah isn't here, in order to track her. Then I'm going to rescue her." Brooklyn relays, gesturing vaguely for Finn's wrist, which he promptly hands over without fuss.

"I wish to come with you, when you rescue my sister." Finn informs, watching as Brooklyn weaves the spell with his blood.

"Finn- Are you sure? I mean, we won't know what we're walking into. And you're not one for bloodshed, or brutality. I can't imagine these religious-vigilante group people will be very humane about how they treat vampires." Brooklyn asks, looking unconvinced.

"All the more reason Brooklyn. My brother is not here to protect you, and currently I am the only remaining Original sibling. Besides, regardless of our differences, she is my sister, we are family. Perhaps if I had made that decision in the past over mother things would have turned out differently." Finn reasons quietly.

"Okay Finn. You can come with me. I'm really proud of you." Brooklyn says, giving Finn a proud smile and dropping her hand to squeeze his in a comforting and strengthening gesture.

"Brooklyn?" A familiar voice interrupts, managing to startle Finn and Brooklyn, though Aaron prowls around the newcomer looking menacing.

"Tyler!?" Brooklyn startles, turning to look at the familiar figure of Tyler Lockwood leaning against the doorframe coming from the hallway of the entry, Aaron prowling behind.

If perhaps Brooklyn had been more in her right mind and less emotionally compromised than she currently was due to the last 24 hours and their events, she would have immediately noticed the posture was far too casual and was held with far too much of an air of superiority and arrogance to be newly werewolf/hybrid Tyler Lockwood, but rather clearly Niklaus in Tyler's body.

"Hello Brooklyn, love." Niklaus greets, his patented charming half-smirk on his face as he pushes himself off the doorframe, an overwhelming sense of relief coming over him at the sight of his best friend.

"Tyler, now isn't really a good time." Brooklyn begins rambling, both missing the term of endearment and metaphorically bulldozing through Tyler's presence as she begins to pace around the room, restlessly packing the last few minute things left lying haphazardly around the living room.

"Rebekah has been captured by some vigilante group, and if you're here about Caroline- well, I'm sorry Tyler. But I can't. I just can't." Brooklyn says, her voice breaking as she suddenly pauses, hands stilling on one of Niklaus' old sketch pads, fingers brushing over it reverently as she packs it safely in a box.

"Brooklyn, darling." Niklaus begins, voice suddenly soft as he steps towards his best friend, heart clenching uncomfortably at the clear pain in her voice and posture.

"I can't Tyler. They killed Niklaus. They killed him! I know she was important to you. But Nik was my best friend. And they killed him out of some petty, spiteful revenge. So I'm just returning the favor." Brooklyn growls, hands suddenly clenching in anger as she blinks back angry tears.

Niklaus took another step forward, hesitantly reaching for Brooklyn, suddenly more unsure than he had ever been in his entire thousand years of existence.

"But even more than that, even if he didn't know, he was my mate. And that's not something I can forgive. So I know that you cared about Caroline. But I can't help you Tyler. I'm sorry." Brooklyn finishes softly, shoulders ridged and tension clear in ever line of her figure.

"Brooklyn." Niklaus says again. "It's me love, Niklaus. I'm alive."

"Niklaus!?" Brooklyn breathes, spinning around to gape at the figure of Tyler Lockwood.

"Hello love." Niklaus says again, another small smirk appearing on his face.

"But- how!? You. Rebekah saw you. Alaric staked you. And I just-" Brooklyn begins to stammer out, feeling anger and hurt rise up in her (I mean how could he do this to her?) along with the sudden realization that she just blurted out to Tyler Lockwood (who in actuality was Niklaus) that Niklaus was her mate (a confession she never intended to ever make).

A sudden loud crack echoes through the nearly empty mansion as Brooklyn's palm collides with Niklaus' cheek, the force physically turning Niklaus' face to the side.

"How dare you Niklaus." Brooklyn hisses, blinking back furious tears as her fingers clench into fists at her sides. "How fucking dare you come back here and pretend that everything is okay. I am your best friend. You're only friend. How could you not trust me? I would never betray you. After everything I've done for you. You didn't even give me the decency to give me this. I grieved for you. I THOUGHT YOU HAD DIED AND THERE WAS NOTHING I COULD DO!" Her voice raises into a yell.

By this time Elijah has arrived back at the mansion, the text having been from Niklaus calling Elijah to the old Lockwood property cellar 30 minutes prior, when issues had arose in transferring Niklaus back into his Original Hybrid body. The Bennett witch was unable to perform the spell because of her attempts to bring Elena's humanity back had failed and left her on unfavorable terms with her ancestors and spirits.

"I admit I deserved that love. But-" Niklaus attempts to humor lightly, but falling flat as he begins to plead an apology, hands held out in front of him looking fully remorse for his actions.

"NO!" Brooklyn screams, tears now flooding down her face, whether in rage or hurt she wasn't even sure. "I DON'T WANT YOUR EXCUSES NIKLAUS! YOU DON'T JUST GET TO STAND THERE AND APOLOGIZE AS IF I'LL JUST FORGIVE YOU FOR EVERYTHING YOU'VE PUT ME THROUGH THESE LAST 24 HOURS! I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!"

And, as resounding thunder and dry lightning cracked in sky outside and dark storm clouds rolled overhead Niklaus suddenly found himself swept nearly head over heels and thrown backwards, flying into the far wall of the living room, plaster and splintered wood exploding around him from Brooklyn's blast of power.

Leaving Niklaus pinned to the wall with her magic, Brooklyn turns attention on Elijah.

"Did you know about this Elijah!?" She demands, practically seething.

"I- I had my suspicions." Elijah admits, unable to meet Brooklyn's furious glare and the icy blue steel in her eyes. "When Sage died those she had sired died with her. My brother has sired many, including the Salvatore brothers, yet they did not meet their end. Only the Lockwood boy, or so I had heard hearsay from Miss Forbes."

"You didn't think that was something, some small important piece of information, I should know?" Brooklyn hisses.

"Only because I did not wish to give you false hope Elskan, if my suspicions came to nothing." Elijah pleads for his mate to understand. He never wished to hurt her. Not ever, in a million of life times, he'd rather pull his own unbeating heart out, than hurt her.

Brooklyn only snorted in disbelief.

"Listen here Niklaus. And listen closely." Brooklyn hisses, voice dropping into a deadly, menacing tone as Niklaus is suddenly pulled towards her in the middle of the living room, as if a puppet on a string, the force of Brooklyn's magic dropping Niklaus to his knees a few feet in front of her.

"I do not care why you are here or what you may need or even how this came to be. I am done. If you think for one second I'm going to help you in whatever plan or problem you managed to get your arrogant ass in, you couldn't be more wrong. I am so furious right now- I am beyond furious." Brooklyn punctuates with a growl, finger snapping as the last indestructible White Oak stake appears out of thin air, summoned by Brooklyn's magic, hovering mid-air and posed inches from Niklaus' heart.

"What? You seem so surprised, as if I wouldn't retrieve it when I paid my last visit to the eldest Salvatore, instead just leave it for any moronic idiot with grandiose ideas of revenge to pick up and try their hand at eliminating the Original family." Brooklyn snarks, the stake spinning in the air. "Alaric Original Hunter 2.0 may have not managed to kill you, but I like my chances much better to be honest."

"Brooklyn, love-" Niklaus begins, his voice pleading with a small tremor of genuine fear.

While Niklaus certainly acknowledge and knew Brooklyn was more powerful than him and had the capacity and power to kill him, he had never sincerely feared for his safety or felt threatened by his formidable best friend. Yet here with the last White Oak stake twirling midair in front of him, the reality of the situation and his tenuous position with Brooklyn was clear. She held all the cards, she always had.

"I thought you trusted me Nik. I have done everything for you." Brooklyn says, her voice now quiet and small. "Finn, my pack and I are going to rescue your sister, do not be here when we return, I do not wish for your help and I do not wish to see you. I am leaving for New York tonight, I am going home. And if I never see you again, it will probably be too soon."

The White Oak stake suddenly dropped to the ground, burning to ash in seconds, the only remaining weapon to be used against the Original family incinerated and swept away into nothingness.

"Elijah, I just- can't. We'll talk about this when I get back, or maybe we won't. Honestly I can't even look at you right now." Brooklyn sighs sounding emotionally exhausted beyond her years, and with that turns and launches herself out the French doors, phasing mid-leap; Finn a step behind, Aaron hot on her heels as well, pausing at the doors only briefly to cast a frigid, calculating glance at Niklaus and Elijah before following his sister at her beckoning howl.

Hello everyone,

So this part definitely took a bit more time writing than I was expecting in regards to Niklaus revealing himself (obviously alive and in Tyler Lockwood's body) to Brooklyn. I really liked how it turned out though, and honestly I think Brooklyn's reaction is totally justified. I'd go ape shit on him too if I were her. He totally deserved it. Haha.

Anyways, just so everyone knows, I'm off on vacation, so sorry to leave you guys with a little bit of a cliffhanger (or if we're being technical about it, not being able to finish the "episode"), but I got super busy this last week running errands to prepare for my week long camping trip and just didn't get to it... I get back June 12th, so next chapter... I'm estimating end of that week-ish. *cross fingers hopefully*

Polkadottedgiraffe11