No One's POV
Dusk was falling at Pastor Young's cattle ranch, Stefan weaker yet, barely clinging to consciousness and coherency between bouts of hallucinations and pain, and Elena equally as weak from lack of blood and the constant vervained mist filtering in the ventilation system above the stalls.
Taking pity on the last dying request of a lost, forgotten love and in memory of fonder, happier times of the Roaring 20s, Rebekah had reluctantly agreed to help the doppelganger and had bided her time.
"Better get this in quickly. Looks like a freak storm is rolling in. I got this. Bring the other one in." An officer says to another, carrying in several batches of vervain.
"Excuse me? Hello, sir?" Rebekah says sweetly, coughing fakely.
"I thought I told you to shut up." The officer says cockily, cocking his shot gun as he saunters over to the cage.
"Here's the thing, my family we- we have money, castles, apartments, jewelry; just name your price and let me out." Rebekah begins to list.
"I'd much rather watch you die." The officer sneers.
Suddenly Rebekah rushes the bars, the officer falling back towards Stefan's cage banging his head harshly and disorienting the officer. Before he could regain his balance, Rebekah catches his leg, dragging him towards her cage and hauling him upright before he had time to think, slamming him against the bars of her cage repetitively with sick satisfaction at the sound of his skull cracking and several bones breaking, the gun clattering to the ground uselessly.
Satisfied with her work, Rebekah shoves the officer hard, the body landing towards Elena, blood already oozing out in a puddle.
"Elena. Elena!" Stefan urges weakly, hoping desperately it was in time.
The blood runs slowly through the bars of Elena's cage, thankfully enough. Elena Gilbert, doppelganger and last of the Petrova bloodline, was a vampire.
A loud blast suddenly echoes through the barn, shaking the foundation as thunder and lightning roar outside, wind howling and rain thudding heavily against the metal roofing, the heavy wooden double oak doors swinging open with a resounding clang, the metal smoking from the hinges.
Rebekah coughs from the sudden gust of smoke the rush of air pushes into the barn, shielding her face from the sudden clattering of debris and squinting against the sudden contrast from the darkened skies outside and the bright floodlights of the barn.
Most however, cringe away to the far corners of their cells, fearing for their lives at the hands of their cruel and unmerciful captors.
"Hello?" Rebekah asks, her voice wavering with only a tremor of uncertainty. It was no accident, she was sure. The day had been clear, crystal clear and sunny in a matter of fact. A storm of that magnitude didn't just blow in on a whim, something, or rather someone very powerful was behind this.
"Rebekah? Sister?" Finn's voice calls out through the howling wind, his form emerging out of the shadows like some dramatic superhero scene in a movie, hand resting lightly between the blades of Brooklyn's front shoulders as she prowls easily beside him in wolf form, eyes glowing molten gold.
"Finn!?" Rebekah says incredulously, jaw nearly dropping in shock as she stands and moves towards the front of her cell.
Outside gunfire and shotgun shells fire rapidly as Pastor Young and several of his followers, having heard the commotion and seen the ambush from the farmhouse, rushed out to try and apprehend Brooklyn and her pack in their attack on the barn.
But it would be to no avail, as Ryan, Brooklyn's gamma, ran point around the barn's perimeter, linking with his sister to shield the barn with magic while several pack members systematically took out the barn's ventilation system and others counter attacked.
The religious-vigilante group would be little challenge against the full strength of the Alpha Wolves. And in eliminating the threat in a guerrilla style blitz, Brooklyn's pack would unknowingly play a larger role in preventing Pastor Young's greater ambitions from coming to fruition as well as delay a chain of events leading to a much darker path and play to power of the first immortal Silas.
"Are you hurt?" Finn questions, making his way immediately towards Rebekah's holding cell on the far end of the barn, Brooklyn keeping pace beside him, Aaron and another wolf flanking Brooklyn and Finn respectively.
"I didn't realized you cared." Rebekah answers, said without much heat to it. "I'm fine. No thanks to Nik."
"I am gratified to hear that. Of course I care sister." Finn answers formally, stopping a short distance from the cell at Brooklyn's unspoken command.
But before Rebekah could complain or question, Brooklyn pads forward the last two feet, clamping her large jaws around the vervain coated cell bars and yanks back, the steel rebar bending and snapping like twigs under her strength.
Tossing the steel bar to the side, Brooklyn makes a point of turning her back to Finn and Rebekah, giving them some semblance of privacy despite her enhanced Alpha Wolf hearing while she gazes around at the scene in front of her.
"What are you thinking?" Aaron asks, nosing his sister's snout.
"We can't exactly leave them here." Brooklyn answers, her eyes roaming over the cowering, blinking figures of the stunned and traumatized hybrids huddling in the corners of their cells.
It wasn't like she was trying to be judgmental, she was more evaluating; to see if they could either join her pack (the immediate circle), or could be placed in one of the packs that were accountable under her (the immediate adjacent packs), or if they could be placed in a pack below those or thereafter and so forth, continuing all the way down to smaller packs that had little to no contact or accountability to her pack.
There was all a certain hierarchy to the werewolf world, where her pack was the top and each time authority got passed down, knowledge of the Alpha Wolves and power got less and less. To the point where most werewolves didn't even know the existence of the Alpha Wolves (more as a legend or story), and that suited Brooklyn and her pack just fine.
"They're hybrids Brooke. You can't save them all." Aaron reminds his sister.
"I know. But they still didn't deserve this. Look at them, they're terrified. Niklaus isn't going to do anything with them now you know. They're on their own."
"We cannot let them run rampant. They could be dangerous if left unchecked. And Niklaus didn't exactly teach them manners, or you know, how to behave or survive." Aaron snorts, rolling his eyes.
"Our wolves are ten times the dominance of any other. I doubt that'll be an issue Aaron." Brooklyn mentally scoffs.
"You're always bringing home strays Brooke." Aaron complains good-naturedly. "You know, you're mate's not going to like having the hybrids hang around."
"Do I look like I give a damn what my mate thinks or feels like right now?" Brooklyn growls annoyed, swiping a paw at her brother with an angry huff. "And I didn't say we had to bring them home with us."
"Fine. Touchy." Aaron huffs dramatically.
"You're such an ass some times." Brooklyn retorts back snarkily before moving decisively closer to the row of cages holding the frightened and confused hybrids.
And as Brooklyn and Aaron deliberated the fate of the captured hybrids at Pastor Young's cattle ranch, Niklaus and Elijah would find themselves in a much more heated argument with each other in the now empty Mikaelson estate.
"I warned you Niklaus, that Brooklyn would not take your deception lightly." Elijah finally speaks, his voice echoing gravely in the lifeless mansion.
"Oh save me, from your incessant moral bound lectures, dear brother." Niklaus spats out, whether he was angrier at himself or Elijah he honestly wasn't sure at this point.
"Did you know?" Niklaus suddenly demands, turning to face Elijah, a maniac sort of look in his eyes along with his anger, as he stands in the remains of what had previously been his living room coffee table.
"How could I not? Brooklyn is my mate Niklaus." Elijah answers dryly.
"And you didn't think to tell me?" Niklaus asks incredulously.
"It was not my secret to tell Niklaus. It was shared in confidence. I respected her wishes and understood it was not a topic she wished to speak of."
"Or perhaps it was because you did not wish to jeopardize your own chances with her dear brother." Niklaus sneers.
"Think what you will. I do not have to defend my actions to you. I respected her wishes. As should you." Elijah answers coolly.
"You should have told me!" Niklaus snarls viciously.
"And what would you have done if I had Niklaus?" Elijah challenges.
"She is supposed to be my mate Elijah! Mine!" Niklaus growls fiercely.
"She is not a possession to be won Niklaus. She is a women, furthermore she was your best friend." Elijah growls protectively, suddenly rushing his brother, pinning him to the wall aggressively with a forearm.
"But if you insist on seeing it that way, let me make it quite clear to you brother. Brooklyn is mine." Elijah growls warningly. "And you will not take her from me."
"You would choose her, over family. What about always and forever? Or does family mean nothing to you now?" Niklaus asks, looking stunned as Elijah drops him from the wall, Elijah stepping back and once more composing himself into his typical formal façade.
"You are my brother Niklaus. We will always be family. I have stood by you for centuries. And I have watched you make mistake after mistake. I have cleaned up after more of your messes I have cared to remember and I have watched you tear this family apart. I can no longer do so." Elijah answers, holding Niklaus' gaze evenly, expression unflinching.
A tense silence fell between the two Mikaelson brothers as Elijah and Niklaus face each other; centuries of hurt, betrayal, mistakes, unsaid words, broken promises, unhealed wounds and grievances only growing bigger.
"Brooklyn has requested you not be here when she returns. I suggest you heed her request Niklaus. I do care for you, deeply. I do not wish to fight you brother." Elijah finally breaks the tension.
"So this is how it is to be then." Niklaus states bitterly, turning to brush past Elijah.
"Brooklyn is my mate. I love her more than I have ever loved anyone in my entire existence. And I find there is little I would not do for her." Elijah admits to his brother, Niklaus pausing at the doorway leading towards the entry from the living room. "She is justifiably angry and hurt. But she values your friendship. Do not allow your pride to prevent you from seeking reconciliation. Perhaps given some time. We may see each other again brother. But until then, I wish you well."
"Until then I suppose." Niklaus sighs heavily, and in a rush of wind is gone.
Heading to the old witch house where a sick, bitten Caroline, Jeremy and the Bennett witch wait to rendezvous, Niklaus storms in a whirlwind of bitter anger of how things had gone.
He was angry that Elijah was proven correct (yet again). He was angry at Elijah's presence in general (he always just seemed to be in his way, a hindrance and annoyance Niklaus had to suffer through). And he was angry that Elijah knew the truth about Brooklyn being his mate and yet had not told him.
But in the end, while Niklaus could try and blame much of his anger on his brother, most of his anger towards his brother was an excuse.
If he was truly being honest, if he faced the facts he long since ran from and tried to ignore indefinitely or bury, he was only really angry at himself; because he had hurt the one woman he would ever admit to ever loving in the centuries of his existence.
"What are you doing?" Caroline cries suddenly, taken very much by surprise, watching as Niklaus rips Tyler's shirt, nails extending into claws on his right hand, digging into Tyler's chest cavity.
"Ripping Tyler's heart out. I'll jump into someone else." Niklaus explains, looking at Jeremy. "Maybe you."
"Oh my god!" Bonnie screams as Niklaus continues.
"You're hurting him! Stop! Stop!" Caroline cries weakly, though she is in really no state to protests and nearly falls over herself trying to get up, far too weak from Brooklyn's fatal bite.
"He's bluffing. He needs a witch to do that." Jeremy says, though he doesn't look completely certain.
"What makes you think I don't have one? Or ten? I do have my treasured, little blue eyed, white wolf. Pick, Bonnie! You or Tyler!" Niklaus continues, Tyler's heart almost completely showing.
"Stop, please! You're killing him!" Caroline begs weakly.
"Then why haven't you gotten your body back yet?" Jeremy challenges.
"Oh, you just love to challenge and rub the wrong way don't you?" Niklaus tsks, squeezing Tyler's heart tightly. "Ah, you see my little wolf, she's indispensable to me. And as powerful and magnificent as she is, she could undo the spell. But it's quite simple. Bonnie did the spell, so it is simplest if she undoes it. Why waste my beautiful little wolf's talents when I don't need to?"
"Fine, I'll do it! Just stop." Bonnie caves.
"Good. Let's begin."
So guess who's back from vacation! This girl!
Still sooo tired though... So hopefully this chapter isn't utter rubbish. I actually got over half of it written before I left, and I really like how it's written. But, there still is a small part of me that's like, "am I still on vacation brain while looking/proofing this or is this actually good". Ah, writer's anxiety am I right?
Reviews are lovely, let me know what you think.
Also, I seriously love badass Brooklyn. And I like Finn getting to be a small part of it too.
Polkadottedgiraffe11
P.S. Here is where you see the first glimpse of how season 4 is going to change as far as the Silas drama and such.
