Chapter 43
Flashback:
The three months after the Mikaelson siblings escaped from their home felt like years. It was rough leaving their home to find someplace to hide in a world they knew nothing about, running from their murderous father, fighting an almost uncontrollable lust for blood, but most importantly, they were all still heartbroken from the loss of their mother. None more so than Klaus.
Every time he closed his eyes he saw his mother's terrified face in the moments before he ended her life. He couldn't find comfort in any of his siblings because he feared if they knew it was he that killed their mother and not Mikael, they would never forgive him. They would hate him as much as they did their father and they would leave him to wander the Earth alone. Fear of being abandoned kept him from ever saying anything but lack of consolement drove him into a depressive spiral of self-hatred and anger.
The night his siblings stopped at a small town south of France, Klaus found settlement on a stool in a local tavern while his siblings went out testing their newfound ability of 'Compulsion' in order to find a place for them to stay the night. Elijah was a bit worried about Klaus spending all of his time in a tavern but he didn't bother him about it. Klaus had taken the death of their mother harder than anyone. Even Rebekah, who was inconsolable after finding their mother's lifeless body that night, had begun to grieve with more control than Klaus had. Elijah guessed that Klaus's disconsolate nature was probably because he was unable to handle the news of being found a bastard and his mother dying all in the span of a few short days. So he gave his brother space to grieve over everything on his own since that seemed to be what Klaus was so intent on doing, even though Elijah dreaded the fact that his brother would rather find solace at the bottom of a bottle than in the arms of his siblings.
"Another!" Klaus slammed his empty mug on the surface of the bar with a resounding thud but the noise could hardly be heard over the rowdiness of the tavern. A generous knight had wandered in and had buying an endless stream of alcohol for all the patrons and the chattering and dancing had not stopped since.
Klaus turned his anger to the 'chivalrous' knight being handsy with the wait staff - flipping the ends of their skirts with his feet, pulling them on to his lap and groping them - this was the loud, obnoxious man keeping him from getting his mead. The longer the waitress took to serve the knight and his posse, the more sober Klaus became and the soberer he became, the clearer the memory of killing his mother became. He wanted nothing more than to end his misery but there was nothing he could do. He killed his mother and deserved to suffer.
A heavy thud against his shoulder brought Klaus's attention back to the room. Two drunken men playfully jostling each other near the bar had accidentally bumped into him. A little voice in the back of Klaus's head told him that it was an accident. It urged him to calm down and realize that people make mistakes sometimes and not every situation needed to be settled in violence.
Klaus ignored that voice. Instead, his listened to the loud shouts driving him to attack the roughhousing drunkards. Grabbing them both by the throat, Klaus brought all eyes to him as he choked them with one hand. His dark eyes were encased in a frame of dark veins. The room went silent with fear and only the knight had the bravery to stand up.
Grabbing his sword from the table, he stood and shouted, "Release them, demon!"
Klaus turned his attention to the knight. "Demon? If that is the extent of your cruelty, Sir Knight, this will turn out to be one battle you are ill-prepared for."
In a split second, he snapped their necks and sped over to the knight. Armed only with his sword, the knight was no match for Niklaus. Baring his fearsome fangs, Klaus bit into his neck and ripped out a chunk of flesh between his teeth. The tavern with wild with screams and people scrambling for an exit. Lost in the thrill of the chase, Klaus chased them down one by one, killing as many people as he could before the tavern was empty of all living things.
It wasn't until he was stuck alone in silence, the scent of blood and death filling the tavern, that Klaus realized what he'd done. He looked down at the faceless body of one of his victims and suddenly felt sick. He threw up a majority of the blood he'd just consumed but releasing the weight of his stomach did not ease his heavy heart.
"Father was right to hate me," he mumbled to himself, tears streaming down his face. "I am...a monster."
He fell into the nearest chair and cried and as he cried, he remembered his siblings were only minutes away in town. It would only be a matter of time before they found out what he did and when they did, he was sure they would hate him. Hate him just like Mikael did, though they should hate him more. He killed their mother. He tore their family apart. He was the reason their youngest brother was dead. He was the reason they were now monsters cursed to feed on their fellow man and burn in the sun. Everything bad that had ever happened to his family, he was the cause behind it.
Drawn by the screams of people running through the streets, Elijah hurried to the tavern to see what havoc had been wrought. He was speechless at the sight. He had to wade through bodies and blood to get to his brother sitting quietly at the bar with his head hung low. The stale scent of death was heightened by his vampire senses and he couldn't remember a day that he so wished to be free of his vampirism than then.
"What happened," he muttered breathlessly. He'd never seen such bloodshed. He and his brothers were lucky enough to never have seen the throes of war but he imagined this is what the carnage would look like.
"I was bothered," Klaus stated in a quiet reply. "So I took my frustration out on the townsfolk."
"Why...why not come to me," Elijah spun slowly round to get a better look of the room. "Why...kill all of these people? Niklaus..." He didn't know what to say. His brother was the most innocent person he knew. Even with all of Mikael's abuse, Klaus had never returned violence for violence. Elijah was stunned. 'Is this what it does,' he thought. 'Is this what the curse our mother inflicted upon us is bound to drive us to?'
"I don't know," Klaus mumbled. "Maybe...father's suspicions of me were true. Maybe...I am no good. Even as a bloodsucker."
Hearing the pain in his voice, Elijah turned to see Klaus sitting with tears breeching the corners of his eyes. "Klaus," he reached a gentle hand out to his brother. His heart was broken when Klaus pulled away from his touch.
"No," Klaus bit. "Do not pretend as if the death doesn't bother you. I know you hate it. I can hear it in your voice," Klaus looked up to Elijah to stare his brother in his shimmering eyes. "I can see it in your eyes. You're disgusted. You want to leave, leave." Turning back to the bar in front of him, Klaus added, "I will understand."
Elijah stared down at the dead bodies still in disbelief that his sweet brother could ever do something so monstrous. "This...isn't your fault. Our parents turned you into this."
Klaus slammed his hand down on the counter and bellowed, "I did this, Elijah! I...I slaughtered these people. Not father, not...mother." Memories of Esther's terrified face as his hands wrapped around her neck flooded his mind. "I did it. I...don't deserve your attempts at comfort, no matter how apathetic they may be."
"It is not apathy you hear in my voice. Wish that I could be apathetic but when a man enters a tavern to see his brother surrounded by the bodies of the dead he's slaughtered...he tends to feel emotions he'd never before contested. I am still...incredulous."
"There's a simple solution to your Delphic emotions," Klaus muttered into his empty flagon. "Walk out of that door and never come back. Take our siblings with you. Leave me here to rot with the corpses."
The sound of Elijah's hand slamming against the wooden bar echoed through the empty room. "Stop asking me to leave you," he barked. "I am not leaving you! I am never leaving you! We made a vow, always and forever. This...this was a mistake that, in time, we will forget. You could not help yourself. This...blood that flows through us makes us...not human. This unquenchable hunger made you do it."
"It wasn't hunger! I did it because I wanted to. Because I could! Because there wasn't anything any of them could have done to stop me. I did it...because I am a monster."
"If you are a monster then so am I. Rebekah, Kol, Finn...we would all be monsters. Is that how you see us?"
"You did not slaughter a tavern of drunken fools."
Elijah was silent. He couldn't even imagine killing one person, let alone dozens, and yet here he was standing in the aftermath of his brother's own massacre.
"You must forgive yourself," Elijah muttered. "You would not have done something like this if you were still yourself. This thing that mother turned us into...sometimes even I find it hard controlling my emotions."
"But you do! You all do! You all are capable of restraint, of foresight."
"Restraint," Elijah repeated in disbelief. "Do you know how many people Kol has drained in the past six days? Fourteen. He knows nothing of restraint. Rebekah has drained seven. Finn and I, three. We are all struggling, brother. This...this was just a moment of weakness. You must forgive yourself."
"No, Elijah." Klaus rose from his stool and turned to face his brother. His eyes were colder than Elijah had ever seen them. "It wasn't a moment of weakness. I have been sitting here for hours, contemplating it. With every passing moment, I convinced myself more and more that I should act, that I should kill them. I thought about it, Elijah. It wasn't a moment of weakness, it was a calculated response to an insignificant nuisance. I...I," Klaus's cold eyes turned soft. He glanced down at the body of the dead knight lying on the floor. "Retribution is needed."
"Forgiveness is needed. You are not inherently evil, brother. You must forgive yourself for your moment of weakness. It is obvious you are contrite."
"Not contrite," Klaus bite. "Anxious. Waiting for you to grasp just how far gone I am and walk away. Leave your freak, bastard brother to his corruption."
Elijah cupped his hands around Niklaus's neck and looked sorrowfully into his brother's eyes. "I will never leave you," he repeated more forcefully. "You are my brother. If I see you traveling down the wrong path, I do not turn my back on you. I help guide you to the correct one."
"There is no turning back for me, brother. Blood has been shed."
"What will it take for you to forgive yourself," declared Elijah.
"Retribution for the dead," Klaus barked back. "But you cannot seek retribution for death on a man that cannot die. I have killed...so many people," Tears welled heavily in Klaus's eyes as he remembered his reflection in the river as he washed the blood from his hands, his face coated in more of his mother's blood. "There is no going back to the brother you once knew."
"I don't believe that. I believe in your redemption, brother. You are not evil. I will convince you of that even if it takes the rest of our immortal lives."
End Flashback
Klaus sat in his studio staring blankly at his unfinished painting. He'd been fighting sleep all day but his exhaustion was keeping him from continuing his work. He heard the studio door creak open and he sensed his brother standing in the doorway but he couldn't find the courage to turn around.
"I didn't mean to hurt him," he muttered.
"I know," said Elijah.
"I shouldn't have touched him. I was so...all I was thinking about was Mikael. I didn't even realize what I was doing until it was too late."
"I know. I've spoken to Kol," he said walking over to the sofa where Klaus sat. "He seems a different man after your talk. A lot less...troubled."
"I am ashamed," Klaus muttered. "Kol may be...an occasional pest but he is still my little brother and I...what I did to him...I would think it unforgivable yet he forgave me. As he always does. As you all always do even when I don't deserve your forgiveness."
"Niklaus, there is little that you can do to not receive the forgiveness of your family. You, of all people, should know this by now."
Finally facing Elijah, Klaus jumped to his feet and barked, "Do you not see anything fundamentally wrong with that, Elijah? I BEAT our brother with the same ferocity as our father once doled out and he forgave me. Why? Because of some insignificant vow we made a thousand years ago? It cannot be that simple! He deserves better! He...,"
Klaus stood silently, his eyes swimming in anger and self-hate.
"Niklaus," Elijah reached out to his brother but Klaus quickly pulled away.
"No," he grunted. "I...I can't let this be. I still do not quite forgive him for what he did to Marcellus in that basement. Sometimes when I'm down there I get so angry at the memory that I entertain thoughts of dragging him down there and giving him a dose of his own medicine. Of course, I never follow through but that's how angry I still get at him. But I am forgiven in an instant. Why? Why, Elijah? Why does he..."
"Forgive his brother?"
Klaus could feel the tear about to fall from his lash and decided to turn and walk away from his brother to save face.
"Perhaps because you are his brother, Niklaus. Because he loves you and he doesn't want to see our family be torn apart because of this. Perhaps because he wants to believe in your redemption in the same way I do."
"Or perhaps it's because he's afraid that if he doesn't...everyone else will be forced to choose a side between he and I. If we take a look back through history, you and Rebekah usually take my side. Even when I am in the wrong...you never abandon me. No doubt Hayley will choose you, and Hope is a child so she has no choice but to follow her mother and father. Marcellus hasn't been very fond of Kol for more than a century and I've made it clear that I will never let Davina leave Marcel so long as Marcel is happiest with her around. And his pal, Joshua, if forced to choose between Davina and Kol, would no doubt choose Davina. Kol would lose everything. His family, his home, his friends. All because of me."
"That is simply not true," Elijah stated firmly. "When we returned to New Orleans, I made a new vow. I vowed to keep this family together, whatever it takes. If Kol decided to never forgive you, then he would have simply sulked around this Compound for an eternity angry at you until he does eventually forgive you or the sun devours us all in an all-consuming explosion, whichever came first. No one will abandon him."
"You know that...and I know that...but I have been where he has."
Klaus thought back to the first century of his life when he feared the love of his family was contingent upon him being the absolute perfect manifestation of a brother, bringing only happiness to the lives of his siblings, fearing that any wrongdoing would cause them to resent him as their father did.
"Feeling as though everyone you love only cares for you under the condition that you remain someone worth loving. I'm sure you've never felt that fear because you have been the backbone of this family for a thousand years and had it not been for you...who knows what would have happened to us by now. But Kol and I...we know that feeling all too well. Our father instilled that fear in me at a young age and for the longest time...for too long, I lived in constant fear that I would never be good enough to be loved by anyone, not even by those with whom I share blood. It took decades, nigh on centuries, before I finally realized that you weren't going anywhere. But Kol...I did this to him. With those bloody daggers and my...incessant paranoia. I made him think that he was nothing more than a play-thing that we could take out and have a bit of fun with whenever the moment suited us but the moment we got bored with him, it was time to put him away again. Even when he takes off to another country to be free of us for a few years, he eventually always returns to face the same looming torment every day because...because despite all of his fears, he wants us to want him. And I make him feel unwanted."
Elijah stood with his hands in his pockets, his lips pursed. There was nothing he could say to comfort Klaus that wasn't a lie because he knew his brother was right. For centuries he had begged Klaus to get rid of the daggers and free his siblings of their torment but Klaus was always blind to their fear. He felt relief knowing that his brother was finally beginning to understand the pain to which he'd subjected his family for a thousand years, a mental anguish that went overlooked by their invulnerable Hybrid brother.
"Klaus," Elijah took slow deliberate steps towards Niklaus. "You're right. I see it in him too. I've seen it for centuries. But the fault is not on you alone. We all had a hand in cultivating his fear. The first time you, Rebekah, and I made the vow of 'Always and Forever', we did it without Kol and Finn because we didn't suspect either of them cared enough about keeping our family together to agree to it but once Kol found out, he was heartbroken. And when we extended the vow to him, it had to have seemed...to him, it must've seemed done out of pity, to placate him. He has never felt as though any of us would ever stand behind him if he felt wronged by another. He needs proof."
Klaus's eyes perked up as an idea began to form in his head. "Do you remember the first time you tried to convince me that nothing I could do would drive you away from me, that I was a person worth forgiveness?"
Elijah arched an eyebrow of uncertainty. He had so many rough memories with his siblings in the first century of their lives that he couldn't be sure which memory exactly Klaus was referring to.
"My first drunken tavern slaughter. I thought that you would think me a monster and leave me forever. I think...deep down...I was hoping for it. I had...killed our mother and I hated myself every second of every day for it. And I could never find comfort in the arms of my big brother because...I was afraid that that would be the one thing that would make you truly hate me... So in a fit of unbridled emotion, I slaughtered an entire tavern of innocent folk. You saw the worst part of me that day, Elijah. But you stayed."
"Are you suggesting that we should get Kol to show us the worst part of him?"
"It's how I learned to trust you. At my very worst, I am an unbridled force of death. You saw that, and you stayed. You had every right to leave. We were both immortal and indestructible, we could have...survived apart. But you stayed and you spent the next thousand years on an unending quest for my redemption. That is the unconditional loyalty that Kol feels we lack towards him."
"And what, I fear, is the worst of Kol? He's not paused by the thought of taking a life in front of us. In fact, he takes nonpareil joy in doing so."
"I do not know, brother." Klaus sighed and flopped heavily down on the sofa behind him, still fighting a losing battle against his exhaust. "Kol has spent a thousand years keeping his deepest fears hidden from us because he felt like an outsider in his own family. We just have to figure it out and make him believe that we will stand by him no matter what. What was it you told me that day? 'Even if it takes the rest of our immortal lives.'"
Elijah smiled softly. "Indeed."
He watched as Klaus's eyes slowly fluttered, Klaus's face stern as he tried to force himself to stay awake. He grabbed the old quilt off the back of the couch and draped it across Klaus's knees. His brother was exhausted and Elijah felt that he was better rested than he was exhausted. Klaus had had a long couple of days and Elijah knew that with the fretful state everything had left him in, Klaus was going to have another of his terrible nightmares, probably the worst of them yet, but he also knew that if Klaus didn't get some sleep soon, the worse his emotional control would become.
He left Klaus's studio hoping to get a few hours of sleep in himself while Klaus slept. As he passed Freya's workshop, he heard the sound of soft snoring coming from inside. He peeked in to see if his sister had finally fallen asleep as well and was relieved to see her head lying heavily against the surface of her desk. He expected to see Finn lying on the couch fast asleep as well but was shocked to see it empty. In fact, as his eyes scouted the room, he realized that Finn was nowhere in the workshop at all.
As fast his alarm rose, it quickly lowered. He didn't trust Finn outside of direct supervision if he didn't know where he was at all time, not while his family was still unsuspectingly roaming the city, but remembering that Finn was still trapped in his teen body and was not stupid enough to jeopardize his relationship with his family while the threat of him being unsuspectingly snatched from existence still loomed calmed him back down.
"Freya," he barked his sister's name, waking her instantly.
Freya woke with a start, for a moment forgetting why she was waking up at the desk in her lab surrounded by an array of old Grimoires instead of in her bed like normal, but then she remembered all at once.
Her eyes immediately scanned the room for Finn, her anxiety rising at his absence.
"Judging by the look on your face, you have no idea where Finn is either," Elijah tutted.
"He was just here," Freya said, jumping from her seat. "I...I was just…resting my eyes for a second. He was just here."
"Well he's not here now, and since he's back in his Original body, he has the speed and power to go anywhere."
"He isn't stupid," Freya growled. She quickly moved from her desk to the door, briskly brushing past Elijah. "He knows his life is still in danger. He wouldn't go anywhere without me."
"You don't know him like we do," Elijah called behind Freya as she walked purposefully down the hall. "The only person Finn's ever trusted is our mother. Now that she's gone he's going to go back to the self-centered, cold-hearted brother he was when we were first turned."
Freya spun around to face Elijah, her eyes tense with worry, her body shaking in fear. A thousand horrible images played in her head. Right now, their brother's lifeless body could be lying in the dirt somewhere and Finn's soul snatched back to the hell he described as the Void.
"I don't care," she yelled. "Let him be selfish! Let him be cold and angry for the rest of his life and I will still do everything I can to save him because he is my brother! I thought you of all people would understand what it feels like to be that blindly loyal to your family."
Elijah sighed. He did know. He'd stood behind Klaus for a thousand years, forgiving him for his most heinous sins as only family could.
"You start looking in the East wing," he said. "I'll start in the West. Maybe he hasn't gotten too far."
Freya and Elijah searched the Compound from top to bottom, but couldn't find any sign of their brother inside until they heard soft noises coming from the basement. Elijah was the first to enter, cautiously opening the basement door as if he was afraid Finn had set a trap for them. The soft glow of a candle dancing across the back wall urged him to continue downstairs until he had a clear view of his brother standing quietly over a dusty, black coffin with the letter 'M' engraved on top.
When Freya saw Finn - his shoulders slumped, his hands frantically wiping away the shameful tears from his cheeks as he kept his back to his siblings – her sororal instinct moved her to hurry past Elijah to their brother.
"Finn," she exclaimed, falling to her knees and turning him to face her. "Are you okay?" She gently touched the side of his head as if she was afraid her touch would hurt him. "Does anything hurt? Does your head hurt? Finn?" Her worry only grew when Finn opted to continue wiping away his tears instead of speaking. "Answer me," she demanded frightfully. "Please!"
"I'm fine," Finn finally spoke, pulling petulantly out of his sister's hold. When he looked over to Elijah, his eyes were bloodshot from his crying but his face was hard with anger. "Go away," he demanded. "No one asked you here!"
Elijah was a bit surprised by Finn's sudden outburst but he didn't let it show. Keeping his calm façade, he asked, "Why were you crying down here?
"I wasn't crying," Finn barked irately as he wiped away the moister accumulated under his chin.
"Please do not insult my intelligence with lies, brother. Your cheeks are still damp."
Angry at Elijah for calling him out while he was vulnerable, Finn pushed heavily against his brother's chest, forcing Elijah to fly back a bit, catching himself just before he hit the wall.
"I wasn't crying," Finn yelled.
"Finn," Freya jumped to her feet in shock. Finn's clenched his fist and moved to attack Elijah again when suddenly he couldn't move. He only grew angrier when he realized Freya had trapped him in another binding spell.
"Let me go," he bellowed.
Standing in front of her fuming brother, Freya looked into his red eyes and pleaded. "Calm down. He's only concerned about you."
"Concerned," he spat as if the word disgusted him. "He and the rest of our so-called 'siblings' have never been concerned about my wellbeing. That's why they locked me in a box and threw away the key for nine hundred years."
Elijah looked back at Finn's coffin. He could see the speckles of tears breaking up the coating of dust over it.
"Let me guess," Elijah began to deduce. "You went wandering through the Compound, stumbled upon your coffin, and became…distraught?"
"Go on, make your jokes," Finn said misinterpreting Elijah's empathy for insincerity. "I've heard it all before. You people have always treated me like some sort of alien because I wanted to save this family."
"I think 'destroy' is the proper term for what you tried to do to this family," Elijah corrected.
"Man was not meant to live forever, Elijah. We are an abomination on this earth. A sin against nature."
Elijah let out a heavy, exaggerated sigh. "Please, Finn. Not right now. It's been a long few days and I really don't have time for another of your endlessly dull monologues."
"And what's my other option if I don't shut up? To find another dagger in my chest and be put back in that box for another nine-hundred years?"
"No," Freya suddenly moved in front of Finn's view of Elijah so he was looking only at his sister. "No one's going to do anything to you. I told you I was going to protect you, Finn, and I mean it. From anyone. Even our family."
Finn dropped his chin to his chest, a new batch of tears forcing their way to his eyes. He hated himself for being unable to stop them. "You're the only one who cares about me," he mumbled. "You're the only reason I've decided to give them a second chance."
"You hexed our little brother to death," said Elijah coldly. "And attempted to kill our infant niece. We are not the ones in need of absolution."
"I was trying to protect this family!"
"This family would've crumbled had you been left as patriarch. I am your younger brother and yet I had to step up and protect our siblings from the viciousness that threatened to overtake them because you never did anything!"
"You can't save them, Elijah! They are like that because they are monsters. We all are. I realized that a long time ago and that's why you put me in a box!"
"We put you in a box because you wouldn't stop with your pious preaching about how we were monstrous 'crimes against nature'! You never let pass an opportunity to belittle us over a condition that we could not control and I was already struggling with keeping a handle on our siblings' humanity, I didn't need you incessantly reminding us that nature despised our very existence."
"That's enough," Freya bellowed. Turning to Elijah, she ordered, "Elijah, go back upstairs. I've got Finn."
Elijah's eyebrow arched up his forehead. He wasn't used to being told what to do. He assumed giving Freya the responsibility of matriarch of their family would lead to her taking more control over the rest of their siblings, to aide him, not to give him orders. Still, the dry tears on Finn's face made him compliant enough to obey her this one time.
Once Elijah had disappeared upstairs, Freya released the spell keeping Finn still. The moment he was set free, Finn sped across the basement and grabbed the antique credenza sitting against the wall. His nose flared in anger as he lifted it above his head, the decorative oil lamps flying off and smashing to the ground, and with an angry scream, he sent the credenza flying into the wall across from him.
"I hate this family! Pretending that he cares! I know he doesn't, none of them do! If they did, they wouldn't have let me rot for nine-hundred years!"
"Finn," Freya's blaring voice suddenly caught her brother's attention. "Stop this instant!"
Finn's chest heaved with his continued rage, but he paused his frenzied rampage for the moment, caught off guard by his sister's sudden commanding tone.
"I don't know what's gotten into you," Freya continued to scold. "Whether it has anything to do with you being reverted back into an adolescent boy with the heightened emotions of a vampire or whether you were just this angry the whole time but it ends right now. You can't start destroying stuff every time you get upset. If you want to talk then let's talk."
"I don't want to talk!" Finn vamped across the room past his sister to his coffin. Without a second thought, he slammed his hand through it, splitting the large wooden box in half with a single swing of his thin arm. Then he took a half of it and broke it in two with his bare hands. "I don't need to talk," he yelled as he continued his destruction of the coffin. "I know what's wrong with me. I hate this family! I hate being a vampire! I hate…I hate…"
Finn was so overcome with rage that he didn't realize that the shards of wood he was ripping from the coffin were flying wildly through the air until he heard a yelp come from behind him and the tell-tale scent of fresh blood flow following soon after.
He spun around to see a thick shard of wood piercing Freya's right shoulder and coming out through her back. Her face winced in pain as she held her injured shoulder, the thing wedged too deep for her to pull it out herself.
"Freya," he screamed as he ran to her side.
Elijah stood just outside the basement listening intently for Freya to get control of their wild brother when he suddenly caught a strong whiff of blood. He vamped into the basement nervous for what he would find. His eyes first fell on the sight of the broken coffin and the shards of wood thrown wildly across the room - pierced into the ceiling, cracking the cement foundation, penetrating the thick, basement walls. He was shocked by the sight but his shock was short lived when he saw his sister kneeling on the floor with a piece of wood impaling her shoulder.
He ran to her side, roughly throwing Finn aside as if he were a vicious predator seeking to devour his innocent prey.
"What happened," Elijah muttered calmingly as he examined Freya's wound.
"He-he just got a bit worked up," she uttered through ragged breath as the blood continued to course down her arm.
As angry as he was about Freya attempting to defend Finn while she was having massive blood loss from his own rage-filled outburst, Elijah forced himself to remain calm.
"This has to come out," he stated. "It's gonna hurt, a lot, but I will to heal as soon as it's out."
Freya bit her lip and shut her eyes. Taking a deep breath, she nodded yes and waited for Elijah to yank the shard out.
Elijah grabbed the stake and began slowly counting and as soon as he said 'two', he yanked the shard from his sister's shoulder.
Freya's eyes widened and her mouth opened to let out a heartfelt scream but her voice was trapped in her throat.
"Alright," Elijah held his hand tightly around her wounded shoulder to keep her from losing too much blood as he bit into his other wrist and held it to her lips. "The hard part's over."
Freya didn't hesitate to start drinking from her brother's wrist. As her wound healed she felt her body becoming revitalized. The past few sleepless days had washed off of her and she was ready for anything.
As Elijah helped her to her feet, he stared daggers at Finn but Finn ignored his brother's anger. He hadn't stopped crying since he saw the dagger in Freya's shoulder. He felt as if his entire world was coming down around him. In his mind Freya was the only person in the world that cared about him and he'd almost killed her.
"I-I'm sorry," he stammered. "I-I didn't…I d-d-didn't-"
"You didn't mean to," Elijah barked. "Is that what you mean to say? You didn't mean to nearly kill our sister?"
"Elijah, that's enough," said Freya. "It was an accident."
"We can't have these sorts of accidents occurring around our family. What if he'd pierced you a little more to the left? What if it'd had been Hope?"
"But it wasn't." Freya remained calm in the face of her brother's hysteria. "He had an accident, and it won't happen again."
"How can you be sure of that?"
"I'm sure." Cutting her eyes at Finn, Freya said, "Isn't that right, Finn?"
The boy gave an enthusiastic nod, still too overcome with the fearful thought of losing his sister to speak.
Elijah wasn't sure if he could take Finn on his word but Freya seemed pretty confident and if there was one thing he trusted it was that Freya would do anything to protect her family. She banished her beloved father from ever returning to her because he posed a threat to their family so, if the time came, he trusted she would take whatever measures necessary to protect her family from Finn as well.
Looking around the basement, Elijah grunted, "I'm going to send the servants down here to clean this mess." Then turning back to Finn, he growled, "This is strike one, brother. You only get three. We may never dagger you again but we won't stand idly by while you destroy this family."
Finn's tears only seemed to come harder at Elijah's vague threat.
"I said I can handle this alone, Elijah," Freya repeated more forcefully. "Go."
Once again Elijah left while feeling a slight resentment towards his sister for so cavalierly exerting her authority over him.
"Come." Freya held her hand out to Finn. "Let's get out of this dreary basement."
Finn suddenly perked up, not expecting his sister to feel enough kindness towards him after what he did to ever want to hold his hand again. He hurried over to her, taking her hand firmly in his as if he were afraid if he loosened it she would run away like all of the fictitious manifestations of his minds did in the Void.
Freya said nothing else as the two of them trekked upstairs out of the basement. She was silent still as they made their way through the halls of the Compound and back to her workshop.
Finn expected Freya to release his hand as she closed the workshop door, but she didn't. Since he didn't want her to let go anyways, he didn't say anything about it. He simply allowed his sister to guide him over to the sofa. When she sat down, he tried to too, but Freya stopped him. He was confused as she guided him standing in front of her but the seriousness of his sister's face urged him to not ask questions.
"You can't keep losing your temper like that," Freya softly scolded.
"I-I know, sister. I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt you, I was just…angry."
"I know. And I know that you would never hurt me, Finn, and I hope the same is true about the rest of our family. At least…not anymore."
Finn cast his sight down to the floor feeling slightly ashamed at being reminded of his past atrocities to their family.
Freya placed a hand under his chin and forced him to look back up at her. "I want you to promise me. Promise me that you won't ever do anything to hurt anyone in this family again."
His lips puckered into a petulant pout. "I just want to save them from themselves. Vampires shouldn't exist."
"You can't force them to be something you want them to be, Finn," she barked. "That is what Esther and Mikael did to all of you. They took away your choice and now you are trying to take away theirs."
"It's for their own good!"
"Making them miserable to appease your own moral philosophy will never be for their own good. They are happy. We are happy. You can either be happy with us…or you can be miserable on your own."
Freya waited with bated breath for Finn to respond. She feared that he would say no, that he would choose to run away and survive on his own then striving for contentment with his family's vampirism.
"You can't make me like them," Finn growled. "I will leave them to live out their lives as crimes against nature, but you can't make me like them."
"You don't have to like them. As long as you love them."
Finn continued to pout in silence. He had a temper worse than any of his siblings and often his temper made him do horrible things but even after all he'd done to his family, after all they'd done to him, he still couldn't find it in himself to hate them.
Taking Finn's silence as compliance, Freya decided to move on with their conversation.
She rose from the sofa and walked over the cabinet of magical ingredients setting off to the side of her desk. She grabbed an arm full of different sized mason jars filled with rare plant roots and animal parts floating in a magical preservative of her creation. Finn watched with curiosity as Freya began to set up for a spell on her desk. He loved magic so much that just being around it, even if he was incapable of performing it, was enough to make him excited.
As Freya began to mix a combination of ingredients into a large bowl, Finn tried to figure out which spell she was going to perform. He didn't recognize the combination or the ritual she was performing. His brows furrowed in confusion as she began chanting with her hands hovering above the spell. It was something he had never performed before and his unease only grew at hearing it was a language he did not know.
He felt a chill spread suddenly through his body from his head to his toes, but as quick as it came, it was gone.
When Freya finished chanting, she let out a heavy sigh.
"What was that," he asked.
"It's a trick a learned a little while ago," she answered walking calmly back across the room to him. "It's an ancient Aztec spell."
"What does it do?"
"It nullifies the healing ability of a vampire. It's how the Aztecs used to protect themselves from vampires. A vampire who can't heal is a lot easier to fight."
"Did you…did you just use that on me?"
Freya returned to her spot on the sofa and took both of Finn's hands into hers as they looked eye to eye.
"I did," she answered honestly. "Because I am not a powerful Original, so I need a bit of an advantage to do what I need to do next."
"Wh-what are you going to do?"
Freya sat further back on the sofa, still holding Finn's hands as she pulled him closer to her. "You can't be so temperamental anymore. I...I could have died down there."
"I said I was sorry," he mumbled, tears reforming in his eyes. He grew angry as he felt the tears start to fall down his cheeks and knew he was helpless to stop them. "I didn't mean to hurt you, I would never-"
"You would never intentionally hurt me, I know. But you are an Original. You're too powerful to let your emotions get the better of you."
"I can't help it," he yelled attempting to shake his hands free from Freya's hold but Freya refused to let go. "I just get so…"
As Finn began getting worked up again, Freya released one of his hands, so she could place hers softly against his cheek.
"Remember the meadow we used to play in," she asked. "We would run around for hours through the field of cotton-grass. Then, when we tired out, we'd lie there gazing up at the clouds. You let me put flowers in your hair even though you hated it."
Finn was confused by her sudden change of subject but her mentioning the meadow brought back memories that he had long since buried. His tension and anger began to slowly wither away as he remembered the most peaceful time in his life.
"Better," she asked.
Finn nodded eagerly, happy that he was able to calm down for the first time since he woke in his teen body.
"That means that you can learn to control your feelings. The next time you feel yourself getting worked up, I want you to remember us back then in the meadow. Promise."
"I promise."
"Good. Now then…I can't let your rampage in the basement go unpunished. We warned you about controlling your anger last night but you did nothing in an attempt to keep it under control and I nearly died because of it."
"But-"
Freya placed a finger over her own lips as a sign for Finn to stop talking.
"I'm only doing this because I have to. Understand that it's not because I'm angry, but because I can't let you get away with what you did unpunished. In this family there are rules and if you break those rules, these are the consequences. Even for you, little brother."
"Wh-what are you going to do to me?" Finn's body tensed as he remembered the spanking he got from Elijah the night before.
Taking a moment to gain the strength to actually go through with it, Freya said, "I'm going to…lie you over my lap and thrash you."
"N-no," Finn halfheartedly tried to pull his hands from Freya's hold. He couldn't use his vampire strength for fear of hurting her again, but he didn't want to be spanked. "You can't do that to me. I-I'm…" He wanted to scream that he wasn't a child but the irony of being an actual fourteen-year-old again was not lost on him.
"Calm down, little brother," Freya firmly insisted. "I know that you're upset. This is going to hurt and you're going to be uncomfortable. But if I do it right, maybe you will think twice before letting your temperament get the best of you."
"No, sister, please. I promise I will try to calm myself down next time. I won't hurt you again."
Freya pulled Finn down into a hug, wrapping her arms tightly around him and his squirms for freedom stopped. "I know you won't, Finn. I believe in you."
As she released the hug, Finn relaxed assuming she was going to let him go unscathed. He was caught off guard when she threw him over her lap and used her magic to quickly untie the string of twine he was using to keep his oversized pants up. His face burned with mortification as his sister pulled his pants down and bared his behind. He was too embarrassed to even beg her to replace them.
Freya knew that her hand wouldn't be enough to bring an Original to compliance, so she held out her hand and summoned a ruler from her desk into it.
The first stinging strike across Finn's backside came as a shock. Freya put more strength behind it than she would've done for Hope to make sure the Original was going to feel every painful smack. Finn's mouth dropped open as the sound the thin, wooden ruler smacking his backside echoed in the room but nothing came out. Freya wasted no time landing the second swat, then a third, and a fourth. They came one after the other giving Finn no time to contemplate the pain of the previous spank before another landed right beneath it.
As she went through the first round of peppering Finn's entire bottom with red, stinging welts, Finn had shed only a few tears but the second round brought him to howls.
"Stop," he begged. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you."
"I know, Finn," she said evenly. "But you did. You threw a tantrum that could have been fatal and it can't happen again."
"It won't, it won't, I swear."
Freya fought hard to ignore her brother's pleas as she continued going around his bottom with the ruler a third time and fourth time. She didn't stop until her brother was in heavy, unabashed, heartfelt tears. Tears of her own welled in her eyes as she listened to Finn's broken sobs. She could feel the heat radiating from her brother's bright red behind and knew it would not be a feeling he would soon forget.
Finn didn't fight her as she lifted him upright onto her lap and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, burying his face against the crook of her neck as he cried.
"It's okay," she muttered tenderly against his soft hair. "It's over now. It's all over."
"I'm s-sorry I h-hurtchu," Finn repeated once again through ragged breath. "I-I did'n mean it. I-I s-s-swear. P-please don't hate me, F-Freya. You're all that I got left."
"Shh-shh-shh," she whispered, rubbing calming circles against his back. "It's alright. I have loved you for a thousand years, little brother. This incident isn't going to change that. I'm not going anywhere. I know you didn't mean it."
Finn squeezed his arms tightly around Freya's waist, forgetting for one second about the pain wreaking havoc on his bottom. He had long since forgotten what that sort of pain felt like.
Flashback:
"Finn!"
Finn jumped at the sound of his mother's scream coming from inside the hut. It wasn't a scream of terror but of anger which only made him worry more. He knew she found what he'd done and as he sat underneath the tree outside of their home practicing a combustion spell on a crispy fall leaf, he wondered if he had enough time to run off to the forest before either of his parents could find him.
Before he could make up his mind, the hut door flew open and Esther stood in it with Little Niklaus hanging onto her waist.
"What have you done to Elijah," she continued to yell.
Finn hung his head and walked shamefully over to his mother. There was no hiding now.
He stood in the doorway and glanced into the hut to see Elijah standing not far from their mother with heavy tears coursing down his face. Finn had magically tethered him to the floor in their shared bedroom after growing annoyed with his little brother after Elijah insisted on following him everywhere he went while their mother was out harvesting berries with Niklaus. He'd hope to be back in time to release the spell before Esther could find out but he'd obviously misjudged the amount of time his mother would be gone.
In a low, shameful mutter, he answered, "He kept following me around."
"He's your little brother," Esther scolded. "It's what he's supposed to do."
"He slows me down. And he's terrible at magic."
"He's four. You too were terrible at magic too when you were four."
"But-"
"No. I won't hear any more of it. You were supposed to watch him, not tether him to one spot because he was being a bit bothersome."
Finn glared at Elijah, silently blaming his little brother for annoying him and getting him in trouble in the first place.
"Now then, what did I tell you would happen the next time you used magic on your little brother?"
Finn looked up to his mother with wide, pleading eyes. "N-no, mother! P-please!"
Before Finn could run off for cover, Esther grabbed his upper arm and dragged him into the hut. She sat Niklaus down on the pallet of soft linens he usually resided on while she knitted and took a seat on the small wooden stool beside it.
She spent no time discussing the consequences of Finn's actions before she flipped him over her lap and began landing heavy, calculated smacks against his backside.
As Finn began screaming at the top of his lungs, Esther felt her heart break a little inside. She hated punishing Finn. He was with her the day they lost Freya and she could never forget the way he cried after that day. For days he was inconsolable. From that day on, she vowed to protect him from anything that would make him cry like that again but she knew she couldn't let him go unpunished after what he'd done to Elijah. There was no telling how long he was sitting tethered to the floor in tears, no one to hear his cries.
When Finn's cries became too heavy to deduce his speech from his sobs, Esther knew they had reached the end. She sat him up between her legs and forced his hands to his sides so he had no choice but to look at her as she scolded him.
"You are the oldest now, Finn. You must always protect your little brothers, forever. You are not allowed to treat them like rubbish, do you understand me?"
"I don't want little brothers," Finn bellowed. Spit and snot dripped down his face with his tears as he screamed but it didn't seem to bother him. "I want Freya!"
Esther sucked in a sharp breath of air, shocked at hearing her son's proclamation. "Fr-Freya's gone," she said timidly, afraid that Finn remembered the day Freya was taken away from them. 'He was so small,' she thought. 'He can't have remembered.'
"It's not fair," he sobbed softly. "I…I miss her. She used to give me flowers."
Esther wrapped her arms around Finn and squeezed him. "I know," she muttered. "I miss her too."
"I wish...you had had Elijah in the Old World so he could have died instead of Freya. He's not even a good witch."
Esther suddenly pulled Finn back and barked, "Don't say that! Don't you ever say that! Elijah is your brother and it doesn't matter if he's a bad witch or not, he loves you. And you love him. You're just upset at him right now but if something were to happen to him…if something were to ever take him away…you would wish there was anything you could do to bring him back."
As Esther wrapped her arms back around Finn, pleading to every God she knew that nothing would ever happen to take another one of her children away, Finn continued to pout, certain that if anything ever happened to Elijah or Niklaus he wouldn't feel half as much pain about their loss as he did about Freya.
End Flashback:
"C-Can you end the spell so I can heal again," Finn muttered against his sister's neck.
"Not just yet," Freya admonished. "I'm going to leave that spell running for at least a day so you can feel the full effects of your punishment."
Finn let out a soft whimper at her promise. He was already tired of feeling the sting of the spanking. He didn't think he could hold up an entire day.
"Come now," she eased him onto his back on the sofa and he finally released her so he could roll over onto his stomach, removing the pressure from his aching bottom. "Off to sleep. I'll wake you in a few hours."
Freya grabbed the blanket on the back of the sofa and draped it over her sniffling brother.
She watched as his eyes fluttered shut and his breathing became even and slow. He looked so much like the Finn she remembered she wanted to stay and watch him sleep the whole time, but she needed to make a call first and didn't want to disturb his peaceful rest with her talking.
As she stepped out of the workshop door, she was surprised to see Elijah standing just down the hall overlooking the courtyard from the balcony.
"You sure didn't go very far," she stated plainly as he walked over to him.
"I decided to stay nearby just in case you needed me to deal with him. Seems I should have given you more credit. You certainly are adept at handling a Mikaelson."
"I learned from the best," Freya joked, leaning back against the railing beside Elijah. "I don't think I ever thanked you, by the way. For saving my life down there."
"Say nothing of it," Elijah uttered, staring straight ahead at the empty courtyard. "I'm sure it won't be the last time."
Freya watched Elijah's shoulders subtly tense as he thought about Finn possibly having another outburst that would hurt someone.
"He's not going to lose control again," she said comfortingly.
"We can't be sure of that."
"He could've overpowered me and put an end to that at any time in there, but he didn't. Because he doesn't want to hurt me. What happened in the basement was an accident."
Elijah turned to Freya and growled, "We can't afford those sorts of accidents. We were lucky today. We may not have the same fortune tomorrow."
"What are you saying, Elijah?"
Elijah folded his arms over his chest and walked away from the banister. "I love Finn. Despite whatever he thinks, I do love him. He is my brother. But I have to think about the wellbeing of this entire family, not just him."
"Just say it Elijah," she bit.
Elijah's jaw tensed. "Maybe Hayley was right. We should have left him the way Hope put him."
Freya pushed herself away from the banister with a heave and stomped over to Elijah, growling, "That is not how we do things anymore. You don't just get to lock your siblings away when they become too much for you to handle. We are a family and we stick together through the bad times as well as the good. "
Deep down Elijah knew she was right but as he thought back to the moment he first saw that shard of wood sticking out of shoulder chest and how, for that first second, he thought Finn had killed her and he was at fault as well for leaving him alone with her. Then he thought about Finn wandering the Compound on his own and having another tantrum in the presence of Hayley or Hope, two people Finn had proven in the past to have cared less about protecting than Freya. He could be far more reckless than he was in the basement and possibly actually kill one of them, whether purposefully or accidentally.
"He's a danger, Freya. I thought this child body would make him easier to deal with but now he's worse because not only does he have the power of an Original, he has the unhinged temperament of a raging typhoon. He is a disaster waiting to happen!"
"I said I have him under control," Freya barked.
"You'd better, sister. Because I'm starting to think maybe three strikes is two too many."
"You have an endless surplus of forgiveness for the betrayals of Klaus, Kol, Rebekah, and even Marcel, but with Finn, you're willing to turn your back on him at the first sign of trouble."
"Because despite all of our quarrels, I trust that they have the same end goal as I do – keeping our family together. Finn, on the other hand,…I'm sorry, but I just can't trust him."
Freya looked Elijah in the eyes and said, "Trust me. I'm not going to let him hurt anyone. I'm going to transfer him into a witch's body as soon as I find a proper vessel. He won't be as powerful as a Mikaelson anymore and he will be in full control of his emotions. And I know that he loves this family as much as anyone, he's just angry. He's been angry for a thousand years and he just hasn't found a way to release that anger in a non-destructive way yet. I'll teach him."
Elijah's frown grew hard, his lips a tight line. "You stay with him at all times," he relented. "Never let him wander the Compound alone. And remember - not only are Hope and Marcel our family, they are the only thing keeping Niklaus from turning into a cold-hearted force of death and destruction. If Finn does anything to either of them, his stay here in the land of the conscious and free-willed will be revoked indefinitely. Do I make myself clear?"
Freya stood with her arms over her chest, unmoved by her brother's attempt at intimidation. "He's under control," she stated firmly. "Your threats are not necessary."
Elijah turned and started walking back down the hall towards his bedroom. "I do not threaten, dear sister. I promise."
Freya glared at the back of Elijah's head until he disappeared around the corner to his bedroom. With a heavy huff, she pulled her cell phone from her pocket and dialed Marcel's number.
"Hey," Marcel stated with a lilt in his voice, surprised to have gotten a call from Freya. "What's up?"
"Hey, uh, are you still out shopping with Davina and Hope?"
"We're on our way now. Had a slight hiccup at Josh's place but we're getting back on track."
"Look, I'd hate to ask this but…I'm not really making any progress on figuring out how to get Finn back to normal so, in the meantime, he's going to need some clothes at actually fit. Could you, maybe…"
"Buy some clothes for the evil spawn that tried to destroy our family and kill my little sister?"
Freya waited in silence for Marcel's answer. He had every right to say no and she'd understand but she hoped he, of all people, would know what having a second chance at family would feel like. If he said no it would mean she would have to go out and buy clothes for him herself and she would have to take Finn with her if she did. And as much as she trusted Finn to not hurt her, she didn't have as much confidence when it came to him and strangers. If Finn lost his temper in public and caused a massacre, she was sure her brothers would never forgive him.
"Fine," Marcel growled. "But you owe me one."
She released a sigh she didn't realize she was holding in. "I owe you a great deal more than you'll ever know."
sorry for the super late update. this chapter was actually really hard to write plus I had a lot of other stuff going on in my life but i'm back for a li'l bit lol. i know i spoiled yall with the multi-chapter update but this isn't want of them, don't know if the next one will be one either but i know it will be up soon, much sooner than a month (yikes). i prefer updating more often so i'm probably gonna stick with the single chapter updates for a while so i can get these chapters out bi-weekly, at least til the end of the summer.
i'm not an expert in 10th-century dialogue (or any century dialogue really lol) so i was constantly researching words for this chapter to make sure they were appropriate for the time period while also trying to make it flow but i ended up giving up like halfway through because it was taking so much time away from getting on with the rest of the story so if anyone knows anything about 10th-century dialogue and read this thinking 'that word didn't come into the english language until the 16th century', stop that. stop that right now.
also, i'm writing a book! i'm super proud of myself for this, I have been writing my own work for a while now but i've finally decided it's time to try to release one of them to the public. i'm currently in the first editing phase and it's taking more time than i thought it would and that's why this chapter is sooooo late (its basically writing the entire book again lol) but being a published author has been my dream for as long as i can remember so please be patient with me while i fulfill my dreams lol. i'm going to try to update as much as i can (i also have new ideas for my other two stories so if you're fans of those as well, be on the lookout). since i've never written a book to be published before i'm hoping the editing phase won't take longer than the summer but we shall see. in the meantime, please feel free to re-read this story as many times as you want or, if you haven't already, read one of my other stories and remember that any feedback you guys can give will go a long way in helping me become a better writer.
