Sorry for the break, but at least it's a pretty long chapter :-)


Present Day

The all too familiar streets and building fronts towered around Davina, as she and Marcel strode through the French Quarter with fast steps. She gladly volunteered to look for Briony. As soon as the rest would find the vampires outside the city borders, she was sure, they'd either be furious or gloomy. And Davina didn't want to deal with either of that.

It felt weird to walk around in New Orleans, her and Marcel. Just the two of them, without the original vampires or resurrected witches, it felt almost like the old days. Except this human Marcel was pretty clueless. His memories about New Orleans were still incomplete. He was familiar with the general structure of the neighbourhood but didn't remember most of the recent coven members. At least he had accepted that he and Davina were friends. Davina felt oddly protective of him. Without his vampire senses nor the ability to recognize who wants to hurt him, he stood no chance in this town. She didn't want to imagine what the coven would do to him when they found them.

They had passed the old witch bar hangout earlier, House Voltaire. It had been completely boarded up. After the fights and destruction they had in there, it was no surprise nobody had bothered to restore it. Yet something told her that the coven was not gone for good.

After hours of walking through the streets and looking into every possible restaurant, bar and shop, they finally recognized the witch they were looking for in a small bar with tall windows. Briony was sitting at a small bistro table right at the window. Hers and Davina's eyes had found each other almost simultaneously.

Briony didn't seem very surprised to see them.

"There you are," Davina said, after they had entered the bar and walked up to her table.

"Yup," Briony replied shortly.

"Are you here to persuade me to come back?" she asked.

"No," Davina said quickly, as she sat down next to her. "We wanted to see how you were. The vampires don't deserve all the compassion in this story. We are on your side. Right, Marcel?"

She gave him a nudge.

Marcel nodded and sat down as well, then said: "Considering that you saved my life, yes, definitely."

"Are you now?" Briony said quietly, looking from one to the other.

Her eyes rested on Davina. "From what I gathered, the brothers were not the only ones who didn't tell me the truth."

Still talking to Davina, she glanced to Marcel. "But you were right, I would have never done it if I knew."

"Sorry," Davina said, feeling that this apology wouldn't cut it.

Briony waved her down. "You're not the one I'm angry about."

For a moment they were sitting in silence.

Marcel suddenly spoke up.

"In the last few days I was pretty overwhelmed. It felt like everything was far beyond my powers. But complaining with you about the downsides of staying with that crazy family - that's something I can do."

Briony's face grew softer. "What do you wanna complain about?"

"The lack of privacy? How they make decisions for you? The stubbornness?" he said.

Briony smiled.

Marcel continued. "Have they ever told you about that time where someone had repainted my whole house without even telling me about it? Nik had said there had been an issue with blood splatters on the walls, and used it as an opportunity to paint the whole thing. One day I came home and found some workers there painting everything a weird green. Who does that?!"

Briony laughed.

"You lost your privilege to decide on wall colours the moment you stayed with them," she replied with a smirk.

Then she sighed. "After all this time, I'd say it's also my fault. Nobody forced me to stay with you vampires. I could have easily walked away from you and have an easy life."

"But it wouldn't have been the same, would it?" Marcel said.

Briony shrugged. "Doesn't matter anyway. We can complain about the past as much as we like. It won't change their bleak future."

Marcel looked at her with some resignation. Davina had felt Briony's surrender as well.

"You're saying it's time to accept that we can't help them," Davina said, trying to wrap her head around it.

"No!" Marcel interrupted her. "They are still our friends!"

"If there's something you can do. Or if you have any idea where to start, we should do it!" he added decisively.

"You don't understand. I don't think I can do it anymore," she said.

"What do you mean?" Marcel asked.

"Emotionally. I don't know how I've ended up like this. Losing a family - I have been through this before, a long time ago. Parents, husband, children, I learnt to let them go because I chose a life for myself where I would outlive them all. It was hard to accept, but everyone has to go through partings, no matter how old you get. Somehow I let myself persuade to forget this. Don't get me wrong, you, Rebekah and Finn - it's wonderful to see you back alive. I wish you a long and happy life. But I honestly don't know anymore how I convinced myself to do it."

After a pause she added: "It might have been Nik's and Elijah's desperate faces. Yeah, it was that. If I hadn't helped them, they wouldn't have rested until they found somebody else. And I'm positive that there is nobody on this earth besides me who would have done it."

She looked at him sadly. "I'm sorry if I have to disappoint and hurt you now by not helping them. But I just can't do it."

Davina's eyes shortly glanced over the room, and her heart fell into a deep dark pit. At a table she recognized a man and a woman. Both were from the coven. With narrowed eyes, they were watching her and her table with suspicion. Then Davina noticed Louis who was standing at the bar, looking at her with the greatest bewilderment. What had she walked into? Why were there so many witches here?

She had to do something. Louis was the only way to keep the whole situation to turn into a brawl.

"I'll be right back," Davina said, and got up.

Marcel and Briony looked at her surprised but then continued their conversation.

"New job?" she asked Louis nervously, when she had reached the bar.

"I knew something magical was up with those earthquakes," Louis said. "And now that I see you here, I guess that was all you who put the town into an emergency state? Her in particular?"

He nodded to Briony.

"I sense you already know the answer," Davina said.

Davina glanced over to the witches on the table who still observed her and Marcel. Now there were three.

"Is this a new witch hangout?" she asked quietly.

"So you have figured that part out, good. Why on earth would you come in here then?!" Louis tried to keep his voice as quiet as possible. "You remember what you did and how the coven feels about you, right?"

"It was a coincidence, I promise," Davina said.

Louis sighed. "You shouldn't be here. They might not know who she is, but they'll put two and two together when you and Marcel are around."

The witches in the back shot glares at her and Marcel, and their body language basically screamed fight.

Louis had noticed them too. "You must leave right now. They're angry, but they don't know what they're facing with Marcel and Briony. I don't want Marcel ripping any witch heads off today."

"Louis, so much has happened in the meantime. The vampires are not here anymore. And Marcel is no threat. He-"

She couldn't continue, when a man had walked up to Marcel. Davina sprang up, getting ready.

"I give you one chance to get up and leave, Marcel," the man said.

Marcel looked at the man confused and annoyed. "Have we met before?"

Exhausted, Briony turned to the man. "I have had some rather tough days. So whatever problem you have with us being here I couldn't care less."

"I'm not talking to you, sweetheart."

That was obviously not the answer Briony wanted to hear.

"It seems like we haven't been properly introduced," she said as she sat up straight.

"Let's postpone the proper introductions for another time. We should go!" Davina had rushed over to the table and tried to usher her two friends out of their seats.

None of them paid her any attention.

"You have some nerve showing up here! After everything that happened!" the man said with rage, facing Marcel again.

Marcel might not remember his enemies in New Orleans. But Davina was sure that his instinct told him to counteract when people talked down on him like this. She saw his eyes narrow.

Then many things happened almost simultaneously. The second Marcel got up, the man had grabbed the bistro table and threw it over. Briony had jumped up, too. And before the man could attack Marcel, he suddenly fell onto his knees, holding his head in pain, shrieking. From the corner of her eyes, Davina saw how Briony had stretched out her hand. A second man appeared out of nowhere, but before he had reached them, Marcel had grabbed a chair and smashed it over his head.

"Stop it!" Davina shrieked. "Stop it!"

She grabbed Briony by her arm, trying to stop her.

"Let's go! Let's go! Please!" she repeated.

Outside, people were gathering. All had angry faces, ready to fight if necessary. Although neither Marcel nor Briony seemed very worried by this, the gathering crowd made them look up.

"Come on, back door," Louis said and gestured them to follow him.

Again, Davina pulled at both Briony's and Marcel's arms, and this time they reluctantly followed her.

After they had passed a dimly-lit hallway, they exited the house and reached a small alley where Louis locked the door behind them.

"I know I've said it before, but this was the last time I helped you. Maybe you could return the favour by not coming back?"

"Whatever. This bar sucks anyway," Briony said.

"Still charming, this resurrected witch," Louis said, trying to sound not offended.

Then he turned to Davina. "I'm not speaking about the bar. You must leave town, the country, preferably. After all those fights and deaths, the coven already swore to kill every vampire crossing the town borders. But after the earthquakes last week, it's more than that. It's not personal anymore. And they want to get rid off you no matter where you are. Many witches of the coven see it as their duty to nature to reinstate balance and destroy the original vampires for good, with any means necessary. If we know where you are, someone will come after you."

"But you don't understand, Louis. Everything's changed. There are no vampires in New Orleans anymore. It's over now. There won't be any more disturbances."

"You're not expecting me to believe you, right?" Louis said with skepticism, nodding to Marcel.

"As I was trying to tell you before, Marcel is not a vampire anymore."

"How?" Louis asked.

It was time to tell him the whole truth. She told him how Marcel and Rebekah had died and how they brought them back, and how Briony had cast the vampires out of town. Davina had left out the part how Niklaus and Elijah were still facing their demise. Louis didn't need to know about that, she thought.

Louis looked at her in surprise and bewilderment.

Very awkwardly, Louis touched Marcel's arm, and seemed amazed.

"Warm," he said. "Fascinating."

Marcel stared at him with skepticism.

"Marcel doesn't remember you," Davina quickly said.

But Briony looked just as confused.

"We have met before," Louis said with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't think so," she said.

"Yes, you did," Davina said. "We were in his apartment after I found you, remember?"

Briony looked at them blankly.

"Yeah, you only destroyed half my bedroom furniture, no big deal," Louis said drily.

"Right," Briony replied, uninterested.

"There are no vampires in town anymore? They are truly all gone? And you won't reverse it?" Louis asked her.

"I'm not planning on it," Briony said.

Louis nodded himself into understanding. "Okay, I think I have a plan. I think I'll be able to convince the coven to leave you guys alone as long as you won't come back to New Orleans. I can sell the banishing of the vampires as a truce that the coven would accept."

Bangs drummed from the other side of the door.

"You better leave," Louis said, "I can't promise anything but I think they won't follow you if you disappear right now."

Davina nodded. Having given up on their urge to fight as well, Marcel and Briony followed her lead. They ran down the small alley back to the main street. All they needed now was a quick way to escape.


Freya had arrived just in time. She had expected that whatever Briony did in town would not end quietly. She had no idea though, why Briony had chosen to go to a bar full of witches. It must have been the new meeting point for the coven. When Freya had stopped the car, she saw Davina, Marcel and Briony come running out of the alley next to it. Trouble was already here.

Briony had seen Freya first. She stopped the two others and pointed at the car. They all adapted their route and ran towards Freya.

Davina pulled the door to the passenger's seat open.

"Excellent timing!" she said out of breath.

"Should I even ask?" Freya asked skeptically.

"Maybe later, when the mob stops following us. How did you find us so quickly?" Davina asked, as she climbed in.

"Location spell. We're witches, Davina," Freya said with a sigh.

As the three got into her car, she caught herself staring longingly into the bar. She had never been inside, but in those few seconds she recognized some of her old friends. Louis was there too. She doubted that he, or any of them, would ever talk to her again. Not while she was still with her siblings.

A fleeting thought crossed her mind, how easily she could stay here. Her old coven might even forgive her when everybody from her family was gone. Especially if they knew how she had turned her back on them and didn't help them survive. And if no counter-measures were taken soon, Elijah and Niklaus would be gone anyway. The problems of having a vampire family were basically over. All she had to do was wait them out. But was that what she wanted?

Turning her back on her siblings felt very wrong. Worse than helping them.

She had to make a decision.

She quickly glanced at Davina on the passenger's seat and Marcel and Briony in the rear mirror.

"Let's go then," she said.

Without looking back once, Freya drove away from the French Quarter, towards the town border.

"I had no idea that I was so unpopular in New Orleans," Marcel said confused, as they slowly drove through the outer neighbourhoods. "Did I know about this?"

"I doubt you were ever bothered by that before," Davina replied.

"What did they say?" Freya asked. "In the bar?"

"Not much," Davina said. "I guess we formed some sort of truce. They don't want us to come back but they let us go, because they're rid of the vampires."

Marcel leaned forward to talk to Freya. "Didn't you tell us that the first plan from the coven was to ban the original vampires from New Orleans? Find a way to keep them out?"

"Yeah?" Freya said.

"But then you tried to resurrect a witch, which we all know did not turn out the way you had planned?" he added.

"What are you on about?" Freya asked, frustration rising.

"Well," Marcel said, "Briony did what you guys wanted all along. She banned the vampires from New Orleans. It's kinda ironic, isn't it?"

With a sigh, she looked at Marcel through the read mirror. Briony wasn't paying attention to either of them and stared outside the window, lost in thoughts.

After he didn't get any further reaction, Marcel shrugged. "If you think about it, it's pretty funny."

"Yeah, you're right," Davina joined in with a laugh. "She did what the coven meant to do all along."

As they drove up to the old lodge they had set up as the meeting point, Freya felt a sense of relief. It felt right to come here. This was where she belonged now, wasn't it? Davina jumped out of the car, and Marcel followed her, and they joined the rest of the group who had waited on the porch. Her siblings had watched them arrive, seemingly approving that Freya had brought all of them back. Briony showed no intention of leaving the car and still looked outside the window. Freya considered striking up a conversation. She felt like it was her duty now too to at least persuade her to help. But she couldn't think of anything to say.

Slowly she got out of the car. She took a few steps towards the group but then stopped. Thousands of thoughts flew through her mind. She needed time to think.

It was time to admit something to herself. She couldn't lie to herself any longer.

She wanted her siblings to like her. She really did. Despite all the horrors and worries of the last months, it felt good to be part of something. And despite the many disagreements she had with her brothers, they never truly pushed her away. They had accepted her in a way that you could only expect from family.

She had promised herself to stay true to her principles. But what had that brought her? Being alone all the time?

If she was honest, she had already thrown these principles far out of the window when she had helped to bring back Rebekah, Finn and Marcel. Perhaps she was long past a point of redemption. Yet when she stayed with them, she feared to go only further away from a right cause.

Deep in conversation, her siblings and the rest didn't notice her. Wringing her hands, she turned around and walked up a small path into the woods, away from everybody.

She must have walked for a while, unable to decide. Suddenly she stopped.

"Screw this," she said to herself.

She knew exactly what she had to do to solve her problems.


"I honestly have no recollection of any of these people," Marcel shrugged disinterested, after they were back inside the house. "Didn't seem that important to me."

He and Davina had given the siblings a rundown of what had happened in town. Flora shook her head in disbelief that they had managed to stir up so much violence in the short time they were there. Niklaus quietly listened. He was not surprised that they had faced so much resistance from the witches. At least, he thought with relief, Marcel was not completely helpless as a human.

"Wait," Rebekah said suddenly, "the one that helped you escape. Wasn't that the one with the werewolf venom baseball bat? And we were in his apartment once?"

"Riiight, the apartment!" Marcel suddenly said.

"Really, now you remember?" Davina said frustrated.

Nik wasn't interested in any of this. They had a truce with the witches now. So what? It made no difference to him if they wanted to kill him or not.

Rebekah had been right, while there were some things he couldn't change at the moment, he could at least get some peace of mind.

It was the time to make good with those he cared about. Ever since Rebekah and Finn were back, things with Elijah had been okay. But to some extent he was still angry with his brother, and he wasn't sure that Elijah had truly forgiven him, either. And in the situation with Briony he mostly felt remorse.

He had no idea who he should talk to first. Which one would be easier? Elijah or Briony? Both talks seemed incredibly hard. Neither of the conversations were tempting, yet he craved for them to be over. Eventually, he decided to talk to Briony first. 1000 years of issues against 300 years. If Nik started to stir up 1000-year-old problems now, he might make the situation with his brother worse. Although he had no idea what to say to Briony, it still seemed the easier task.

Neither Briony nor Freya had joined the rest when Davina had told them what happened, so Nik assumed they were still at the car. As he walked there, his legs uncontrollably slowed down. Apologizing or making good with people always felt like the hardest thing in the world to him. There were so many things that could go wrong, and for Niklaus they usually did. Despite his bad feeling, he kept walking.

Briony was still sitting in the backseat, watching out of the window, thinking. He figured she was staying in the car to avoid people. To his relief, Freya wasn't there. Apologizing while other people were around would have been even worse.

Briony only noticed him when he had opened the door on the opposite side. Surprised, she sat up straight up and watched him skeptically.

"Do you want me to leave? Or send me flying a few miles further away again?" he asked.

She raised an eyebrow.

"Sorry, bad joke," he added.

Her face grew milder. "It's fine. You can stay if you like."

He sat down next to her.

"Where did Freya go?" he asked.

He searched the surroundings outside, somewhat worried that she was about to appear and interrupt him.

"I long gave up on keeping track on Freya's doings," she said.

A silence followed that probably was shorter than Nik had experienced it. Not sure what to do with his hands, he started to outline the seams along his seat.

Trying not to upset her, he began slowly: "Listen, I'm really sorry we didn't tell you about your family. I didn't know what else to do."

He somewhat expected her to shout at him the way she did the day before, but she didn't.

Instead, she said: "You were right. I don't think I would have wanted to help you, knowing what you did. But it feels wrong to regret it now that Rebekah, Marcel and Finn are back and alive. If I'm being honest, I wouldn't want it the other way around. Those things with my family happened so long ago that I can't possibly wish for a different outcome. It would mean wishing for a completely different life than the one I had."

"And you don't want that?"

She shook her head.

"You didn't mean it when you said you wished you'd never met us?"

"No."

"I wouldn't want that either," he said.

Worried that he got too close to issues he wasn't ready to admit, he tried to get back to his weak attempt of an apology. "Be that as it may. You still have the right to be angry."

Briony gave a weak smile. "What would be the use in that?"

Nik shrugged. "I don't know. It's good to rub it into people's faces that you were in the right."

"You'd certainly think that," she said with a small laugh.

"Another thing," he added, after a pause. "It doesn't really matter in the big picture. But I wanted you to know, I didn't do it. I didn't turn the whole village against you so that you'd come with us."

"What?" Briony said surprised.

There was skepticism in her eyes.

"I know everybody had jumped to that conclusion, but I swear it wasn't me," he said honestly.

She considered him for a moment.

"Okay," she said.

She seemed to try to wrap her head about that information. From what he could tell, she believed him.

"I'm sorry for teasing you and continually being in your way for the first decades. I guess that was a bit uncalled for."

He waved her down. "You don't need to apologize for that. I'm not here for your apologies."

"What are you here for?"

He looked at her, surprised that she hadn't caught on. "To apologize to you."

"Fine. I forgive you," she said.

"Please don't just say that because you're thinking I'm about to die," he added drily.

"I'm not!" she said quickly.

She grew louder and more agitated."And I don't want you to die! I really don't! Don't think I gave up because I want this!"

He didn't mean to upset her with this. Before he could reply, she continued, almost shouting now.

"I have thought about all the options! None of them work! I wanted to help! I don't know what to do! It's all I think about - but there's nothing I can do!"

"It's fine! I'm not asking you to!"

"But-"

"You don't have to do anything!" he said again, determined.

He realized that for her peace of mind, he had to stop. To look for a solution. Because if he didn't, she wouldn't, either.

"Let's just leave it and let things run their course, okay?"

She was about to counter angrily, but he stopped her before she could.

She took a deep breath, and slowly said: "But that's not what we do. We're not the kind of people who let things play out."

"No," he said. "But this time we are."

Briony bit her lip, struggling with the decision. But to his relief she didn't object.

Instead, she leaned back, thinking.

"What were they like?" Briony suddenly asked. "My family?"

Although he was glad she had changed the subject, Nik hesitated, worrying that anything he was about to say would make the situation even more emotional. He told her about how he and Elijah had met them in 1652. Briony had heard most of it before, right after he and Elijah had regressed to 1652, but back then she hadn't known how close these people were to her. He could tell from the anxious look in her eyes and her heart beat that everything he said was touching her deeply, and how she connected every detail he mentioned to her own past. He almost regretted telling her that Kol once held her as a baby, when her eyes filled with tears.

"So you think they were nice people?" she asked with great gravitas.

"Yeah," he said.

To his surprise, this reply made her eyes even more watery and she bit her lip again. The idea that his words caused her to cry made him very uncomfortable.

To get the conversation back to a lighter tone, he added: "To be honest, in the long run I would have rather liked having Clement around instead of you. He was much nicer, and easier to get along with."

"Funny," she said, drily.

"And in general, much cooler," he added.

"Sorry that I ruined this great opportunity for you," she said.

As if his hand was suddenly on fire, he felt a piercing hot pain in his left palm. The second he turned his hand to look at it, it was gone. All that was left was a dark red mark on his palm.

He turned back Briony who was smiling at him smugly, the watery eyes almost gone.

"Hey, that hurt," he said.

"Get over it, vampire," she said.

"I guess I deserved that," he said with a smile, and rubbed his palm over his pants.

The pain didn't wear off. It was odd. His palm hurt more than those kind of injuries usually did. And he doubted that Briony had even tried to inflict him any pain.

Before he could spend any more thoughts on it, Briony took him out of his mind.

"Have you talked to Elijah yet?" she asked.

"About what?"

Briony sighed. "And here I thought you made some breakthroughs in communication."

"Come on," she said and got out of the car.

"Whereto?" he asked.

"Since we're officially friends now, I will do the only right thing. I will make you talk to Elijah, so we can get this awkward tension between you two over with."


A bit longer than usual, but I thought these 3 parts were so close together, so it made sense to keep them like that. I hope you enjoyed it! Only 4-5 chapters left! (Haven't quite decided yet if the last one is 1 or 2 chapters).

Let me know what you think and thanks for reading and commenting!