As Marianna, Kol and Rebekah prepare some magical stuff that Buffy could not even begin to pretend to understand the blonde Slayer and The Hybrid were stood off to the side.
Swinging the scythe in her grasp Klaus arches a brow as he inspects the weapon carefully "You never did tell me the story of how you got ahold of such a weapon Luv."
Buffy chuckles slightly as she moves over to him holding up the scythe between them allowing him to examine it properly, as she thinks back to that fight with Caleb on the island. The day he had sped up her pregnancy.
The day that had changed so much in her life.
"I king Arthured it out the stone and stole it from Caleb."
At her playful grin the hybrid smirks "Ah the serial killer priest, I did enjoy watching you slice him in two."
Buffy couldn't help but giggle at the memory, she had to admit that was probably the only positive about that whole situation other than Joy being born. Slicing Caleb in half literally had been very cathartic.
"You ever going to let me use this?" He asks smirking down at her as he moves to take it from her grasp only for the blonde to shake her head and pull it away "Nope. This is all mine."
The three witches who were being forced to listen to the two hybrids flirting all groan in annoyance and glare over at the couple who were smiling at each other.
"Could you quit it with the flirting?" Mary huffs as she lights the candles while Rebekah merely shakes her head in amusement.
Kol on the other hand watched the Slayer and his hybrid brother carefully finding himself curious, while Mary was their sister, maybe not close but still their sister he could understand her being in on whatever was being hidden but...when it came to the blonde, that had him puzzled.
"So, what is the secret, anyway?"
At Kol's question Klaus finally tears his gaze from the beautiful Slayer in front of him and glares over at his brother "The term secret...implies something only known by those who have earned the right to be aware of it."
Buffy clenches her jaw as she feels the tension fill the room as anger filled the air between the two brothers, clapping her hands she draws their attentions off each other hoping to keep Klaus from ripping his head off "So we ready to get your power of three stuff going?"
"It's not that simple." Mary tells the blonde "Finn is channeling the power from Esther and Mikael...I could get through but I doubt you'd be okay with me sacrificing everyone in the quarter to get that amount of power. I need to drain some of my books for more power." She says gesturing to the dark spell books in the room "It will take time but...in the meantime I'd suggest either you or Buffy get the spell out of Kol's head that Finn used on him. The one that locked him into his body."
With that Mary moves to sit beside her books placing her hands over them summoning the dark magic inside her while Buffy and Klaus glance at each other. If they could lock Finn to that one body then all they would need to do is snap his neck, then boom no more Finn.
With a silent agreement both hybrids take a step towards Kol who immediately jumps up to his feet backing away from the hybrids "No, no, no. I'm not allowing anybody into my mind. Do you understand?"
Buffy merely smirks up at him "We're not asking."
The 1000 year old hybrid nods in agreement as he glares down at his youngest brother hatefully "You came into my home asking for my help. This is it."
With that Buffy speeds behind him and pins his arms down putting him into a chokehold while Klaus grabs his face, the two hybrids holding him tightly as the elder hybrid forces his way into Kol's thoughts.
As Kol struggles against her Buffy tightens her hold before watching in confusion as Klaus suddenly rips away from him staring at his brother with a hurt betrayed look on his face.
The blonde frowns in confusion before shoving the still struggling Kol away from her and watching Klaus closely, she had never seen that look on his face before, it was pure hurt and heartache...one look that could only be brought about by the betrayal of someone you love "Nik?"
Kol gulps and purposely steps behind Buffy hiding behind the blonde, peaking over her shoulder he winces at the look on Klaus' face, it was safe to say his own secret had just been revealed "See...I'm guessing just by the look on your face, that it worked." Without another word, Buffy gasps as Klaus speeds past her and grabs his brother launching him at the wall. As Kol drops to the ground Buffy couldn't help but wince "Ouch."
WHITMORE
"You wanna give me a little back story as to how you know one another?" Stefan asks curiously as he and Damon walk with Aaron in-between them, he couldn't help but feel that he was missing something about this whole story to do with Wes.
Damon sighs as they continue to walk towards the parking lot, he knew this was coming, knew Stefan would find out the truth, he just hadn't planned for it to be for at least another 50 years "Aaron is Aaron Whitmore. He comes from a long line of vampire-probing, blood-testing...organ removing freaks called Augustine."
Stefan's eyes widen in horror, while he knew stuff like this had happened mainly on Hellmouths he never imagined it would be happening so close to their own home "Why do you know this?"
"Because I was their test subject in the '50s."
At his words, Stefan freezes "Like Spike..."
"Sort of." Damon tells him, it was a little like that to be fair, but Augustine was a bit more brutal in his eyes although Augustine never did make a demon, robot monster so the Initiative did win a point there "I mean I was donating my body to science. Except I was alive and it was against my will."
At that Stefan frowns in confusion placing his hand on his brother's shoulder he forces him to stop staring at him with wide eyes, how in all of their time together had this never come up? "Wait, hold on a minute. How do I not know about this?"
Damon couldn't help but sigh in annoyance, this was so not a conversation he wanted to be having right now "Don't get all guilt-ridden Stefan on me. We were on the outs then. And by the time it was over, you know, it was over."
As Damon moves to walk off Aaron scoffs glaring at him "Why don't you finish the story, Damon?"
At Aaron's cocky voice Stefan turns around glaring at him "I don't recall saying that you could talk." Pausing he glances at his brother "Did I say he could talk?"
"I don't remember anything."
"I didn't think so."
Buffy sighs as she stands on the balcony speaking to Oz over the phone who wanted to know when she would be back for this meeting "I'll be there soon. Get through the marriage stuff first. I'm pretty sure they can meet little old me later." With that, she hangs up and moves to head back inside only to frown as she feels eyes watching her. Tucking her phone into her pocket the blonde shuts the balcony doors in front of her instead of going inside. Staying quiet for a moment she then grabs the scythe from where it rested on the table, spinning around she swings it at the darkness to her left stopping it just a second before it sliced through Marcel's head "Hi there. Tell me why I'm not chopping off you're head today."
"Wait!" He hisses as she presses the axe against his neck "I'm not here to hurt you."
When she merely arches an amused brow at him he rolls his eyes "Okay starting to see the similarities between you and Klaus." He huffs before gesturing to the scythe "Could you?"
The blonde sighs before spinning the scythe away from him and twirling it in-between her hands watching him carefully. She wouldn't go as far as to say they were friends, she barely knew the guy, but they were at least in the stage where she wouldn't just kill him on sight "Why are you here? I thought you were being held against your will and all that jazz?"
"I am." He admits unable to tear his gaze off the scythe as she continues to swing it around like a toy, the blonde quickly notices this and rolls her eyes placing the weapon back into its holster.
Sighing in relief he finally meets her gaze "Finn sent me to get your blood."
At that Buffy's eyes widen "Locator spell."
"He knows Klaus' sister Marianna is blocking his spells so he's going old fashioned locator blood spell...to find your daughter."
Buffy's eyes widen and she slams him up against the wall pinning him by the throat "Marcel I like you. But we have spent all day making sure he can't locate her...so tell me where he is."
"I don't know." He tells her truthfully, surprised that they already knew of Finn's awareness of Joy's existence, but it did explain why Marianna of all people would be in New Orleans, he had only met her once or twice and she had never been a fan of this city.
Buffy groans and pulls away yanking on her hair as panic runs through her, Marcel watches the mother carefully he couldn't help but feel for her, unable to even begin to imagine the terror inside of her "He said he'd tell me where to meet him later. Listen, I gotta give him something. He's killing one of my guys every hour till he gets it."
Buffy groans and runs her hands through her hair trying to think and quick, slowly her eyes widen "Go to Hayley and Oz in the Bayou. They'll help...I need to talk to Klaus."
Damon and Stefan follow Aaron as he leads them through the halls of the college towards Wes' empty lecture theatre Aaron thought Wes might be.
As they enter the room Damon freezes as he hears a familiar voice, one he hadn't heard in over 50 years, a voice that belonged to someone he long thought dead.
"21051"
Damon freezes and looks over spotting the European man smirking over at him as he sits in one of the chairs "Enzo?"
Enzo smirks over at his old friend as he stands "It's been a while mate."
As Enzo moves over to them Stefan continues to stare in between his brother and Enzo in confusion "Who the hell are you?"
"Lorenzo." The vampire reveals with a kind smile as he finally gets to the buttom of the steps and stands opposite the two vampires and the human "But my friends call me Enzo. Ah. Kidding. I don't have any friends." He says with a smirk holding out his hand towards Stefan who merely stares at him silently.
As Enzo snorts in amusement Stefan turns to his brother awaiting an explanation, Damon sighs as he finally tears his gaze off the friend he had abandoned to die "Enzo's another Augustine vampire. Our cells were next to each other." He explains before getting back to the reason they were here in the first place "So we're here to meet somebody. Wes Maxfield. Do you know him?"
Enzo exhales softly almost amused at Damon's words "That's your first question for me? Not how are you? How did you survive in that fire I left you to die in?"
Stefan arches a brow, today was just getting more and more confusion by the second, he couldn't help but think he would rather be dealing with Klaus then all of this "I should have stayed in New Orleans." He mumbles before turning to his brother "Does somebody wanna tell me what's going on here?"
NEW ORLEANS
"We have another problem." Buffy huffs as she jumps down from the second level to land in the center of the courtyard. Looking at Rebekah who was trying to keep Mary centered as she consumed more dark magic she sighs before turning to Klaus who was glaring at his brother who was crouched on the floor.
Rebekah sighs as she turns away from her adopted sister and over to Buffy who she hoped one day to call her sister in law "What now?"
"Finn sent Marcel to get a vial of my blood."
"What?" Klaus hisses finally tearing his gaze away from his traitor of a brother to look at Buffy "Where is he now?"
Buffy groans and rubs her forehead stressfully wishing she was normal right now, her life would be so much easier "I sent him to the Bayou. He has to give Finn something. Oz or Hayley aren't blood relatives, it will buy us time."
Suddenly Mary's eyes fade from black back to their natural chocolate brown "Let's hope so...if Finn gets near your blood no spell I use will be able to stop him." She tells them as she grabs another book her hands hovering over the page before her eyes again return to pure darkness.
Buffy turns to Klaus a panicked look on her face, groaning she gestures to Kol who was still crouched on the floor "So wanna explain this? I was gone for five minutes."
Klaus tears his gaze off the blonde turning back to his dastardly brother with such hatred it made Buffy flinch "When I went into my brother's head I learned that this whole time he's been plotting against me with a damn dagger." Stepping forward to his brother he couldn't help the desire to rip his head off right then and there "You're no better than Finn."
"And you threatening me makes you better than Finn, does it?" Kol argues glaring up at Klaus from his place on the floor.
Rebekah sighs in exhaustion as she stands leaving Mary's side to stand beside Buffy both women the only things keeping the two brother's from killing each other "Both of you stop it."
Kol ignores his younger sister as he finally pulls himself back to his feet his focus on Klaus "I came to you because you're my family. But I see whilst you, Rebekah, Elijah, and even Marianna all hang portraits and share secrets I'm the odd one out!" He screams getting into his brother's face "You even keep the damn Slayer around for all your little secrets yet your own brother!" He yells gesturing to Buffy only making the blonde sigh, her getting involved with this family was serious leaving her with so many migraines.
Kol ignores the way his brother's jaw clenches as he continues "Wanna know where Finn is? You wanna find a way to kill him? Then you can figure it out yourself." With that Kol raises his hand and suddenly Klaus gasps in pain, before Buffy could do anything Kol swings his hand out sending the blonde flying and crashing into a nearby wall while Rebekah is sent flying into a nearby chair.
Buffy groans in pain as she pulls herself back up, wiping the dust from stone wall off of her she moves over to Klaus who was now on his knees watching where Kol had stormed out of the compound.
Rebekah glances over at Buffy with a begging look, she knew deep down Buffy was the only one that could possibly convince her brother to listen.
Sighing Buffy helps Klaus up before taking his hand "Come with me."
MYSTIC FALLS
Elena groans as she stares at the ceiling of the burnt-down building that she had now realized used to be her father's old clinic, which meant she was back in Mystic Falls. Knowing he was keeping her weak so she wouldn't attack him while he got the serum ready for her the banshee thinks back to the first time she woke up. The vampire who had been here with her "Enzo." She breaths still only able to whisper to try not to set off the device threatening to destroy her jaw "He was the Augustine vampire, he killed my neighbor Megan didn't he?"
"Careful." Wes tells her as he glances back at her "We don't want your jaw broken before you can kill all the vampires in Virginia."
Elena sighs as she watches him, she could feel her head fading in and out again, "Why did Megan have a picture of my dad and Hank in her cell phone?"
Wes chuckles from his place at his desk "Maybe because Hank brought her parents onto the project. They were one of the supporters. Funded a lot of your father's projects. Hank was very persuasive getting money out of people."
"They knew about Augustine too?"
Wes shakes his head as he drops a small portion of Buffy's blood under the microscope before moving to grab the bag of Elena's blood he had drained of her earlier "Well no, Hank told them that your dad had a unregulated compound that could cure most injuries."
At his words Elena's eyes widen "Vampire b—" The brunette is cut off and whimpers in pain as Wes moves over to her and tightens the muzzle around her mouth again "Sorry I need to focus on phase 2 and your questions will have to wait."
Moving to knock her out again the doctor halts as his phone starts ringing, spotting the familiar name he sighs "Aaron?"
"Where's Elena?"
At the sound of Stefan Salvatore's voice Wes frowns in confusion "Who is this?"
"We have Aaron and we're trying to decide the best way to kill him."
Wes snorts as he looks over at the half-conscious banshee still strapped down to her gurney "Funny. I have Elena and I'm wondering if her powers will still work when she has no means of walking. I'm thinking of just remove anything connected to her legs. Or the legs themselves what do you think? Touch him...and I will rip her apart."
Buffy pulls Klaus into his room shoving him into the room not so gently, shutting the door behind them she leans against it as she watches as the still silent Hybrid move over to the window and merely glares outside.
"Nik."
The hybrid growls in frustration and shakes his head before moving to face the blonde "Now is not the time for one of your hero talks Luv, you heard my sister Finn is getting closer!"
"Stop!" Buffy yells moving over to him grabbing his arm when he tries to pull back she rolls her eyes and speeds him over to the wall pinning him there refusing to let him move "He is your brother!"
"He is a traitor! He cannot be trusted!"
Buffy sighs as he screams in her face, this was always his way, never trust anyone, not even family, he was so scared of being alone that he had pushed his siblings to the point they were so scared of him that Kol had tried to protect himself scared of his own brother's wrath.
"You push people away Nik." The blonde tells him before grabbing him again as she tries to move past her forcing him back against the wall she keeps a hand on his chest trying to get through his stubborn brain "You push everyone away! Your rage does that."
Spotting him about to argue with her again the blonde places a hand over his mouth glaring at him "No interruptions. Let me talk." With that she sighs her eyes softening ever so softly as she watches him "What he did sucks yes...but...he's your brother. Your little brother. Do you know what little brothers do? They do whatever they can for their elder siblings' approval and when they can't do it...they act out. He already thinks you don't care about him."
Removing her hand from his mouth she takes his face in her hands praying that she was getting through to him because if she couldn't she didn't know at this point what he was capable of anymore.
Inhaling tightly she looks into his blue eyes with her green ones forcing him to pay attention to him "You're the one that said, Always and forever. Yet you're pushing him away. I know he hurt you but he is dying Nik...do you remember when he died last time? How crushed you were? I know you're mad, but you've got to get through this anger somehow and remember that. So if he comes back...you listen to him. Because he may be our only hope of stopping Finn."
Klaus sighs as he watches the blonde getting almost lost in those green eyes of hers, every time he looked into them he struggled to think clearly.
Noticing his reluctance the blonde looks up at him desperately "Do you trust me?"
The question makes the hybrid pause, never in 1000 years had he truly trusted anyone, not even his own family, he hadn't allowed himself to, but when it came to her he knew he did, he didn't know why but he just did "Yes."
"Then listen to me. Please, Nik."
As Damon dealt with Enzo Stefan follows Aaron into his apartment where Aaron claimed to have files on his family which may help lead them to Elena. However, the second Aaron invites him in he spots the human reach for something under the couch...a gun. Grabbing him he spins him around and pins him to the wall by the throat "Was this all a lie?" he hisses glaring at the human who was gasping for breath "If you want me to kill you, I will kill you. Do not test me."
Aaron gasps for air desperately as he tries to speak "Dude I'm dead already." He forces the words out struggling to speak under Stefan's grip "Damon's been planning my death since before I was born."
At his words Stefan couldn't help but frown in confusion, it seemed yet again his brother was leaving out parts of the story "What are you talking about?"
"Damon left out the best part of the Augustine story, the part after he escaped."
Stefan watches him for a long moment before rolling his eyes in annoyance and releasing the human, stepping back he watches impatiently as Aaron gasps for air trying to quickly fill his lungs with the air they were craving.
As the human coughs, Stefan sighs "Talk."
"It wasn't enough for Damon to kill the doctors who tortured him. He had to torture their families...and their future families. He spent the last 60 years killing every one of my relatives. Except he's a psychopath. He keeps one alive so they can continue the family line. So he can destroy future generations of innocent people. So go ahead and do it. Kill me. Because I don't wanna give Damon the satisfaction, so do it."
As Aaron clenches his eyes shut awaiting death Stefan merely watches him sadly thinking about all that his brother had done, how he had dragged out this revenge plan for over 60 years "You know, not all of us are like my brother." And with that, the vampire walks past him heading for the door only to halt as Aaron speaks up "Stefan?"
As the vampire stops Aaron walks over to the bookcase grabbing a brown file and approaching the vampire "This is everything Wes gave me on Augustine. I saw Elena's last time on a few pages...and her cousins too. Maybe it'll help."
