Episode 22: The Feast of All Saints
Part Four
Vincent's Apartment...
Vincent awoke with a gasp, immediately clutching his chest. Gia was sitting a few feet away from him, a flask filled with human blood in her hands, and an anxious look on her face. "It's okay. You're in transition," Gia informed him.
Vincent sat up, alarmed, staring at the flask in her hands. "What do you mean I'm in transition?"
"I mean, Finn's spirit tried to take your body again, I don't know how, but he did. And he just left your body. But before he did, he, um... he killed you. And when you died... you had some of my blood in your system. The blood I gave you so you wouldn't have died from that overdose."
"So, I'm—I'm a vampire?"
Gia hesitated. "Sort of. Not yet. Not really. You have to complete the transition by drinking a bit of human blood. If you don't drink any blood within the next twenty four hours, then you'll actually die."
"I already am actually dead! I'm-" Vincent was interrupted by a general feeling of uneasiness in his stomach. "Ugh."
Gia gave Vincent a look of concern and moved closer towards him. "You're thirsty, here, drink this, it'll make you feel better," Gia suggested, trying to give Vincent the flask, but Vincent refused to take it.
"I don't want it Gia."
Gia gave Vincent an incredulous look. "You want to die?"
"No. But I don't want to be a vampire. I'm a witch. If a witch becomes a vampire—I can't be consecrated. I won't be able to join my ancestors. And I won't be able to tap into my magic ever again."
"Do you think you can still be consecrated if you die without drinking any blood?"
Vincent paused. "I don't know. Probably not. Never heard of it being done before."
"Is it something you're willing to throw away your life for? 'Cause I gotta tell you, being a vampire isn't even that bad. In fact I've enjoyed life more as a vampire than I ever did as a human. Back when I was a human, I lived a life without purpose."
"And you think vampirism has given your life purpose?"
Gia hesitated once again. "You know let's not focus on me right now, let's focus on you. If you become a vampire, I promise you won't be going through it alone. I'll be there to help you every step of the way and so will Marcel or Josh or my friend Elijah-"
"Gia I appreciate what you're trying to do here, but I really don't think vampirism is for me."
"How do you know? You haven't even tried it yet."
"I know enough about vampires, and enough about myself, that I know what I would be like as one. I—I would hurt people Gia. Countless people. I don't wanna do that, okay? I don't wanna hurt-" Vincent stopped talking for a moment, his eyes focusing on the flask in her hands. His body was telling him to rip it out of her hands, to drink every last drop of the fluid that was in there. "Gia, get that flask out of here—now. Please."
"Vincent I really think-"
Before Gia could finish what she was about to say, Vincent had snatched the flask out of her hands and tossed it towards the door, Gia staring at him in shock for a moment. "Get it out of here Gia. I don't want it."
The Mikaelson Compound...
Esther was sitting on a chair in a dressing room within the Mikaelson compound, facing a mirror, now wearing a plain black dress and flats, her hands still shackled. Elijah stood behind her, holding the knife in one hand that they planned to use to kill Dahlia. "Let me guess—you brought me back from the dead to torture me," Esther said, an amused look on her face.
Elijah rolled his eyes. That was the first time Esther spoke since they had resurrected her. "My dear mother, we simply need your blood. Though, in the event that you should suffer horribly, I can't promise I won't enjoy it immensely."
Suddenly, Freya entered the room, joining the pair, staring at her mother with a look of contempt in her eyes as she did. Esther looked back at her blankly. "What could you possibly need my blood for?" Esther asked.
"Killing your abhorred sister," Freya replied. "To kill Dahlia, we need three ingredients that will combine to make a sole weakness. And those three ingredients would be, soil from her native... the ashes of her Viking oppressors... and last but not least, the blood of the witch she loved most. At first I thought that might've been myself. But as it turns out, the blood we needed was not mine."
"It can't be mine. Dahlia loathed me after I chose to marry Mikael-"
"That's what I thought too," Freya interrupted bitterly. "But according to Niklaus... she does still love you. In her own, twisted way. I think you were the only thing she ever loved in her whole life. Make of that what you will."
"Dahlia..."
Freya rolled her eyes, looking over to Elijah. "Let's just bleed her and get on with it. She's already starting to annoy me immensely."
"Understand we're not going to kill her just yet," Elijah stated, to Freya's confusion.
"And why not? She'll be of no further use to us after this. She'll just go back to being a thorn in our side."
"If Dahlia still does truly love Esther, we can use her to weaken our aunt's defences," Elijah explained, before leaning in next to Esther's head, whispering in her ear. "Just a bit of psychological warfare before I slaughter the both of you."
"Ah, yes. You expect me to walk willingly to my death," Esther replied in a sarcastic tone, to Freya's further frustration.
Elijah grinned sadistically, backing away from Esther's chair, alarming Freya a little. "Well, your willing participation would've been an added bonus, but it's far from necessary. If need be, I'll drag you there myself. You forget mother, you're not speaking with the noble stag. You're speaking... with the monster behind the red door."
"Ah yes mother, you should know Elijah is an all together different creature now that the red door's been opened," Kol interjected, him and Rebekah arriving through the same door Freya did, joining the rest of the family. Elijah turned Esther's chair around, forcing her to face Kol, Rebekah and Freya. "Have you bound that blade with her blood yet?"
"Not yet," Elijah confessed.
"Goodie. I actually get to watch then while mother suffers. You see I'm still a little bitter about that time you made me bleed from the nose, oh and then there was that time you carved my name in Runic into my forearm—I understandably have no affection left for you. And I imagine neither does Rebekah."
"You weren't exactly the best mother in the world," Rebekah added, Esther frowning. "What with trying to destroy my original body and all to correct a mistake you made. Not to mention the fact that you tried to kill my lovely niece."
"Another strike against her," Kol agreed.
"I only did what I thought was for the best interest of my family," Esther said in her defence.
Kol smirked. "You've used that excuse far too often mother for it to possibly mean anything. And let's not forget, actions speak louder than words. And what your actions tell me... is that you don't care for any of us. Because love isn't something you feel anymore... Bleed her, Elijah. Let's not waste any more time, we have a brother to save after all."
A look of pure fear washed over Esther's face. Elijah looked over to Freya, and Freya nodded, giving him the go ahead. Elijah then walked around the chair, stopping when he was standing in front of Esther. Esther looked up into her son's stone cold eyes pleadingly, as if she was trying to appeal to whatever humanity Elijah had left. Elijah stared back into Esther's eyes for a moment before grabbing one of her hands roughly, turning it over so that the palm of her hand was accessible. The aim was to get some of her blood on the knife, not kill her. Quickly, Elijah slit the palm of Esther's hand with the knife, cutting deep enough that blood ran to the surface almost instantly, Esther grimacing in pain.
Vincent's Apartment...
"Vincent just give me a few hours to convince you, okay? And if you're still not sold on becoming a vampire then... I'll leave you alone. And you can die in peace," Gia said to Vincent, silently and mentally praying that he would agree to hear her out.
Vincent pinched the bridge of his nose, the uneasy feeling in his stomach only growing the longer he tried to resist drinking from the flask. "Gia, please, just... leave me alone. I can assure you I'm not going to change my mind on this."
"Hear me out and I will. Alright, I give you my word."
"Gia, coming from a former psychology student, I think the reason why you're so determined to force me to transition, is because if I die you're gonna feel like it's all your fault, and you don't wanna deal with the guilt, am I correct?"
Gia shook her head at first. "That's not it," she insisted, but Vincent remained unconvinced. After a moment, Gia nodded slowly. "Alright maybe that does have something to do with it."
"Except my dying had nothing to do with you and everything to do with Finn Mikaelson. If I choose not to transition, and I die, it isn't anyone's fault but his. It's certainly not your fault."
"You make it sound so simple."
"It is. Nothing that happens here, with me, is your fault."
Gia paused, considering Vincent's words. "So I shouldn't feel guilty because I had nothing to do with it. But, don't you feel guilty for Finn did while he was inside your body?"
Vincent looked away from her, neither confirming nor denying it what she just said. "None of that was your fault," Gia pointed out. "But yet you still feel some kind of remorse for what Finn did. Don't tell me you're one of those guys who preaches 'do what I say but not as I do'?"
"I am. Have you not figured that out already?"
The Warehouse District...
It was now nightfall, the moon hanging high in the black sky. Klaus was just about out of time and he knew it. His only hope now was that his siblings would come to his rescue, and soon, and have the knife on them that was bound with the three ingredients needed to kill Dahlia. He stared at the flames surrounding him for a moment, before glancing over at Dahlia, who was staring up at the moon through the ceiling's skylight with an impatient look on her face. "So, auntie, are you going to tell me that story or not? I mean what does it matter to you, you're planning to kill me soon any ways. Might as well satisfy a man's curiosity," Klaus argued.
Dahlia sighed, annoyed. "I already told you Niklaus, I don't know how Freya escaped me."
"And I already told you I didn't believe you."
"Do you want me to force your mouth shut again? You know I have the power to do so. The fact that I haven't yet is a kindness on my part."
Suddenly, Freya, Kol and Rebekah appeared behind Dahlia, Klaus noticing them while Dahlia did not. "I don't believe that'll be necessary," Freya said, announcing her presence to her aunt, Dahlia turning around to look at her, smiling wickedly as she did. "I actually pity you. Over the course of our long lives together, I could see you were broken. I used to think it was my fault, but in time, I learned your ability to love died long ago."
Dahlia's smile faded a little. "Darkness isn't born, you know. It's created... by the snuffing out of the light," Dahlia replied, Kol exchanging a look with Rebekah, then another look with Klaus across the flames. "So, however you thought you might mend me, please know you never could. Whenever I looked in your eyes, I saw your mother- the sister who turned my heart to stone. And, with that stone, I will crush every one of her children."
"Isn't there a saying about stones and glass houses?" Klaus mused, Dahlia sneering.
"In case the analogy is lost on you, I believe my brother is calling you a hypocritical bitch," Rebekah added.
"So you all came to try and save your brother, did you not, knowing full well that you were playing into my hands?" Dahlia asked.
"That was one reason. The other reason we have for coming here on this faithful night... well, in short we plan to murder you," Kol answered, to Dahlia's amusement. "Nothing personal really, it's just you're trying to take someone very dear to us. Okay it might be a little personal, none of us particularly like you truth be told."
Dahlia looked amused. "And how do you plan to accomplish such a task? Surely you've learned by now that I cannot be killed."
"Ah but you can," Freya added, to Dahlia's curiosity. "A weapon bound with three ingredients that combine to make a sole weakness. Soil from your native land... the ashes of your viking oppressors... and the blood of the witch who broke your heart. Your sister."
Dahlia's eyes widened. The sound of chains rattling could be heard in the distance. After a moment, a shackled Esther appeared with Elijah at her side. "We may have taken the time to raise her from the dead," Freya admitted, waiting to see if Dahlia would squirm or not.
Dahlia stared into Esther's eyes, Esther staring back into her eyes, and for a long moment, it looked as though Dahlia was about to cry. But instead, she surprised everyone, laughing hysterically at the sight of her younger sister. "My sister... in chains? Hahaha! Is... Did you bring her here, to serve as a distraction? Or were you hoping to offer her in exchange for your lives? I imagine it's one or the other, please tell me which."
Freya gritted her teeth. "I think I'll leave you guessing."
"Well while we're trying to play on one another's perceived vulnerabilities, I think now would be the perfect time to let you know... I killed the Viking."
Freya stared at Dahlia in disbelief, as did the rest of the Mikaelson siblings. "No. You're lying. You must be. Mikael is in the compound right now where he lies desiccated," Freya insisted.
Dahlia grinned. "He did. You see after paying Niklaus a visit, while he was laying daggered in a casket, I paid a visit to your father. I tormented him for a bit before I finished him off for good. Thankfully I managed to do it without anyone noticing."
"You will pay!" Freya shouted angrily, forcing one hand out forward and reciting an incantation, hoping to weaken Dahlia with it. Dahlia laughed, completely unaffected, raising both arms up in the air, her hands reaching towards the sky. Dahlia then began to cast a spell of her own, to Esther's concern.
A sudden downpour of rain occurred, the circle of fire holding Klaus in place vanishing instantly. Klaus then fell to his knees, coughing violently, his veins becoming visibly red and irritated, Elijah, Rebekah and Kol following. Soon, the four of them fell to their knees, clearly in agony, trying to fight back against Dahlia's magic but to no avail.
Desperately, Freya tried to use another spell on Dahlia, but she was already too panicked for any spell she was trying to cast right now to possibly work.
Klaus, Rebekah, Kol and Elijah were now all on the ground, still choking, becoming weaker and weaker by the second. Dahlia smirked gleefully at Esther as they suffered, Esther watching her children struggle with a look of horror on her face. "Now, sister, what do you say we watch together as I burn your pathetic children from the inside out."
Esther hesitated for a moment before beginning to walk towards Dahlia. "You still resent me for my life's choices, so much... after all these years?"
Dahlia gritted her teeth before raising her voice at her younger sister. "You broke your vow! We were to stand together, always and forever, and you left me to marry that brutish Viking imbecile. You ended my family, and they were the result," Dahlia vented, gesturing towards the fallen Mikaelson siblings. She then snapped her fingers with one hand, nearly every bone in Klaus' body breaking all at once while Elijah scratched at his neck, the veins that ran along his throat turning blood red and swollen.
"No!" Freya screamed, watching helplessly as her siblings continued to cough and gag, their veins becoming more and more irritated, looking as if they were about to burst at any minute.
"You call this my wrongdoing? You made me bargain away my first-born child! My daughter!" Esther argued.
"Not just this first-born, but every first-born!" Dahlia reminded her. Elijah pulled out the blade bound with his mother's blood out of his coat pocket, trying to pull himself up on his feet long enough to run Dahlia through. "And even then, you found a way to deny me that which you had sworn to be mine! How do you think that felt?"
Elijah jumped towards Dahlia with the blade clutched in his right hand, but she telekinetically threw him backwards, causing Elijah to drop the weapon. Dahlia looked back up at the ceiling's skylight, where she saw that the waning crescent moon had hit its apex. Dahlia looked back down at Esther and smiled. "Now, Esther, say goodbye to all of your children, I'm afraid you won't get another chance."
Dahlia thrusted one hand forward and put Freya in a telekinetic choke hold, which caused Freya to gasp desperately for air, clutching her own throat with both hands. Esther looked at Freya, then at the rest of her children, who looked like they were just about out of time. They would be dead shortly. "Sister, stop! Wait!" Esther pleaded.
Dahlia looked at Esther, surprised, loosening her choke hold on Freya, and loosened the magic she was using to kill the vampire Mikaelsons, but she didn't completely release any of them. "You've won, Dahlia," Esther insisted. "You have everything you could have ever wanted, including the first-born of a new generation! You have bested us all. At least let me try to make amends."
Esther walked even closer towards Dahlia, until finally, there were truly face-to-face, Dahlia watching her with a mildly confused look on her face. "Let me share with you the glorious freedom that I have found... in death," Esther said as she lunged forward, wrapping the chain that connected her manacles around Dahlia's neck and choking her with it. Freya was then completely released from Dahlia's hold over her as Dahlia tried to fight against her sister's grip, Klaus, Elijah, Rebekah and Kol all starting to heal and recover, Dahlia's magic no longer affecting them.
Esther struggled to keep strangling Dahlia, looking over at Klaus who looked to be almost fully healed. "Niklaus?"
Klaus, using his vampire speed, rushed over to the knife that Elijah had dropped, knowing it was the one needed to kill Dahlia. He stared at the blade for a second before tossing it to Freya. Freya looked at Klaus for a moment and Klaus gave his older sister a nod of encouragement.
Freya, armed with the knife, ran towards Esther and Dahlia, quickly plunging the blade into Esther's back, stabbing her. She then thrusted the blade through Esther and into Dahlia, piercing Dahlia's heart with the blade, and killing both her mother and her aunt in one shot. Dahlia's head dipped back, her eyes rolling into her skull, her nose and mouth bleeding profusely and her body trembling as the life slowly left her body. As Dahlia died, the rain stopped pouring.
The Peaceful Afterlife/10th Century Norway...
Dahlia and Esther found themselves in a sunny, grassy field. They both looked much younger, like they did shortly before they got kidnapped by the Vikings all those years ago, Dahlia wearing her pink dress while Esther was wearing a yellow dress and a crown of flowers in her hair. Dahlia gasped in shock and looked down at her dress, which had a blood stain over the chest area. "Where are we? Where... what you done, sister?" Dahlia asked with a worried look on her face.
"What I should've done one thousand years ago—stay by your side," Esther replied, gently caressing Dahlia's cheek with her hand. "When I saw my children willing to fight for one another, dear sister... it is only now that I realize my most grievous sin. Not standing by you. Please forgive me."
Dahlia was on the verge of tears. "Oh," she started, lunging forward and hugging her sister tightly, the two embracing for a long moment. "Of course, I forgive you. I just hope you can forgive me."
"I already have."
Earth, The Warehouse District, Present Day...
Klaus, Rebekah, Elijah, Kol and Freya watched as Dahlia and Esther's bodies spontaneously combusted into flames, just like an original vampire did when they died. Freya was teary eyed, wearing a look of relief on her face. It was over. It was finally over. She would never again have to worry about Dahlia. She had also finally avenged the death of her beloved Matthias, six centuries after his death. She hadn't felt this good in quite some time.
"Looks like we'll live to see another day. I'll admit I had my doubts there for a second," Klaus said grimly, watching as his mother's corpse burned with a somewhat mournful look on his face. She did just die to save their lives after all, knowing full well what she was doing. It was the nicest thing their mother had done for them in years.
"May they rest in peace," Kol added, with no hint of sarcasm in his voice.
Author's Note: So before anyone asks, no Mikael is not actually dead. Dahlia lied for cruelty's sake. The Mikaelsons will find this out next chapter. An idea given to me by Dante 101. Also the idea to have Freya kill Dahlia and Esther instead of Klaus was also given to me by Dante 101. I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter, next chapter should be the last one of this story. For those of you who've asked whether there will be some kind of sequel to this story I have this to say on the matter: I will probably not write a story as long as this one in the near future, what with University classes and whatnot but rest assured, I can say that I will be writing sequel stories to this story set in the same continuity. I already have some ideas floating around as to what I'm going to do. But some might be under The Vampire Diaries banner instead of the Originals banner, or in the crossover section for both series.
