Once upon a time, there was a majestic king and a beautiful queen, who lived with his noble brother in a kingdom where music and art were celebrated.
The king and queen did not foresee having children, but they lived in an enchanted land where all things were possible.
In time, they were blessed with a handsome son and a beautiful daughter, for whom they wished only peace.
Still, the king and queen had demons who pursued them and their children.
There was a ruthless beast who wanted to take the kingdom for her own. Armed with a pack of untamed creatures, she drove the other magical creatures from the land.
And, there was a wicked sorceress with enchanted stones that weakened the king every full moon.
Seeing the shadow their enemies cast upon their home, the king and queen were driven to send their beloved prince and princess away, convincing all who remained that they were forever lost.
The king and queen, in their sorrow, turned away from the world. The castle closed its doors, and the kingdom fell.
Some say that the only light that shines in the castle illuminates the shadows of the once majestic king and his beautiful queen in the rooms meant for his children. Alone.
But, as the ruthless beasts took rule over the fallen king and queen's realm, little did they know that they and their brother would not rest until their enemies were vanquished.
For they believed that one day, they would heal their kingdom and bring their precious prince and princess home so that they might all live happily ever after.
Elijah and one of Francesca's werewolf lackeys were taking a tour of an abandoned foundry with a realtor and fighting over who was going to buy it.
"Authentic cast-iron columns..." Elijah said looking around the building. "Look at that, the original Bloomry forge, fueled by a charcoal furnace." Elijah noticed a fire sprinkler system up in the ceiling. "The modern elements blend quite nicely indeed. My foundation has aligned itself with the city's Historical Preservation Society. We have a vested interest in seeing this building protected."
"This place is a dump!" the lackey told him glaring. "The Guerrera family would be doing this city a favor." Elijah was about to speak when he noticed the man was wearing a gold ring with a familiar square black stone on his left hand.
"Well, unfortunately, under the Preservation Act of 1966, we cannot allow the Guerreras to demolish one of the city's original foundries... even if it is for something as noble and distinguished as a casino." Elijah gestured towards the door in a polite indication that they should leave. "So, thank you, gentleman. Do give my best to Francesca."
In the Mikaelson compound, Nik was listening to Mozart's Requiem in D Minor K 626-3 on a record player while he furiously tried to stretch a canvas over a wooden frame for a painting. When he tore through the canvas, he angrily threw it all across the room, just as Elijah returned from his meeting. Nik, overwhelmed with frustration, yelled at the top of his lungs. Elijah picked up the canvas his younger brother had thrown and examined it.
"I suppose we shall have to call this your "white period."" Elijah stated before placing the canvas back on the ground.
"I'm missing a crucial color in my palette- that of my enemies' blood." Nik told him angrily.
"Well, I recommend a Venetian red, with a dash of rust..." Elijah told him sarcastically which only caused Nik to grow angrier.
"It's been months!" he shouted at his brother. "I've adhered to our plan: sit and do nothing, sell our grief. And now, my child is safely away, and another full moon is upon us- another night of pathetic weakness as the moonlight rings steal my strength!" Elijah gave Nik a sympathetic look. Nik calmed down slightly, though he was still clearly upset.
"The nursery is killing me." Nik told him making sure he didn't mention the woman who'd once shared his bed. "I need to act. I-I-I need- I need to spill blood."
"Well, then, you'll be pleased to know that I've located the last of the twelve rings forged with your blood." Elijah told him and Nik perked up slightly.
"Then, it's time!"
"And none too soon. I'm concerned about Nicole." Elijah told him and watched his brother tense and look away from him at the mention of his Hybrid wife. He started sorting through his art as an excuse not to look at his brother.
"She looks well enough." He told Elijah.
"She looks no better than you, brother. Now, if the two of you would treat each other as more than just... passing acquaintances—" Elijah started telling him
"—She has Hayley for that." Nik interrupted, and he wasn't wrong. His wife had been spending more time with her Hybrid friend away from the compound almost every night in their wolf forms. Much of their time was spent in the Bayou.
"Sadly, like her husband, she prefers to fight her demons alone." Elijah said. "Hayley hasn't seen her for a very long time."
"Then where is she?" Nik asked him.
I roamed around for former werewolf encampments as a pure white wolf with amber eyes. I shifted back to my human form with no pain. I'd been shifting so much in the last few months pretty much meant nothing to me anymore. I stole clothes from a clothes line nearby before dressing and making my way deeper into the Bayou. When I got to the old shack where Eve died I ran my hand over the wood before noticing a doll in the dirt. I bent down to it and picked it up. Half of it was melted and the other half looked perfect. I dropped doll before leaving back for the compound.
When I walked in I heard a woman walked up the stairs.
"Hello?" I heard Cami call out before I rolled my eyes. I watched her from the darkness as she looked around. "Klaus?" I watched her walk up the stairs looking around. "Klaus?" she whispered and I took a deep breath before turning away from her. If he wanted his little human pet he could have her. I just wanted the witches and Francesca dead. "Klaus, I know you're here somewhere. We need to talk."
"He doesn't wish to see you." I heard Elijah say to her and I paused before leaning on the wall and listening into their conversation.
"Elijah. Where the hell did you come from?" she asked him.
"I beg your pardon?" Elijah asked her unamused. "Aren't you the one who is trespassing? [He waits a beat] He doesn't care much for conversation these days. And, he certainly wouldn't care for the fact that you've put yourself in danger by coming here."
"I'm already in danger." Cami told her. "I have Guerreras following me like it's a police state. The city's being run by gangsters, and you guys aren't doing anything about it. Marcel took them out a hundred years ago without any of you. Don't you think he might be up for lending you a hand?"
"Thank you for coming, Camille." Elijah said to her. I heard her walking away from him when she stopped.
"I know your family is grieving. But I know you don't believe those rumors that Marcel killed Klaus and Nicole's kids." My heart stopped for a moment at the thought of my children. "So, if you want help taking down the Guerreras, you have a weapon across the river just waiting to be fired. Use it." she said before leaving.
"I like her spirit." Elijah said.
"It may come in handy." I heard Nik say before I took off once more.
Later that night, I walked into the nursery connected to Nik's room, just his since I'd moved out after Elijah took our children to Bekah, to see Elijah taking Katherine's crib a part. I looked at the toys he' boxed up an grew angry at him.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, Elijah?" I asked him.
"Welcome back. What is it, the third night this week?" he asked me passive-aggressively. It was actually the fifth night I'd been out. And it was only Thursday.
"I don't need a babysitter." I told him annoyed. "Hybrids are invincible, right? I'll ask you again: what the hell are you doing, Elijah?"
"As we have discussed, our illusion needs to be flawless. Now, months have passed. It's the appropriate time." He said as he continued his work.
"What's next on the "appropriate" list? Klaus and I hold our heads up high and say we're ready to try again?" I asked him sarcastically.
"I understand this is difficult for you—" he told me.
"What's difficult is knowing that Francesca Guerrera is still breathing after she was the one who plotted with the witches to kill my children." I told him.
"You will have your vengeance, I promise you this." He told me and I scoffed.
"And you will make sure your promise is kept." I said. "You always do, but this is children's room, and I'll tell you when it's appropriate to clean it out." I moved out of the way indicating he should leave. He placed the boards down and started to leave the room. "Elijah," he turned to me. "Come in this room with the purpose of destroying it again and I'll snap your neck." I warned before putting the room back as it was.
After meeting with Marcel, Nik came back into the compound to discuss a plan for tonight.
"We have the Guerreras where we want them." Nik told us. "We have them waiting, we have them worried, and now, we know they're an army with no defenses against an Original."
"We don't know that for certain." Elijah reminded him.
"I'm willing to gamble." Nik told him.
"It's too risky! The stake didn't just disappear, someone has it." Elijah insisted making Nik shrug.
"One enemy at a time! In the end, we'll slay them all." Nik told him.
"I'm with Nik." I said as he sat down at the table. "We have to take them out. Tonight." I stared at Nik as he went through the pain of the moonlight rings being activated to keep the wearer from turning with the full moon.
"Tonight, we just have to plant the right seeds, and for that, we need help." Nik said.
"We're taking the twelve original rings." Elijah told us. "Now, four of them sit on the hands of the Guerrera brothers. One on Oliver, one on Francesca, three with the home security detail, and the rest scattered amongst her lackeys. Now, each ring is distinguishable by its setting- gauche, like those that wear them." He told us.
"If they believe they can get their hands on the stake, they will come for me when I am weak. Each ring you retrieve will strengthen me, but I will still be at a disadvantage." Nik told us.
"That's what I'm here for." I told him. "I protect you as you get stronger."
"Ergo, any hope of our success depends entirely upon our working together. The two of you can no longer afford to retreat to separate corners." Elijah told us. Nik and I shared a look.
"This is our fight. Are you ready for battle, Nicole?" he asked.
"Just promise me that Francesca is mine." I told him.
"I will hand deliver her to you myself, beloved." He told me with a small smile I shared.
"I'll deal with the last piece of the puzzle." He said turning to leave.
"Then I guess we should get ready." I told him before following him to his art destroyed art room. As Nik knelt on the floor, surrounded by his canvases I left to get ready for my part of the plan.
I waited for a while before many of the Guerrera werewolves following Oliver invaded my home. He ordered them to split up and they did so and I smirked. Two wolves head for the staircase I was kneeling at the top of, noticed me and growled.
"Hello boys." I said feeling my face change to his Hybrid form. I attacked them and snapped their necks one after the other before taking off the rings they wore. I put both rings in my pocket before I was surrounded by more wolves. I sighed before turning to them and seeing a moonlight ring on the finger one of the female guards. "Ready when you are, bitch." I said before lunging for them. Ripping out hearts, snapping necks, and draining some of them. When I was done I took the ring and pocketed it when I noticed Oliver close by. My anger magnified and I stalked him. He was alone as I came up behind him. He turned just in time for me to force him against the wall and choking him.
"You think you're strong because of that ring you wear?" I asked him deadly calm. "You're NOTHING. We were strong, we were part of a pack, and you ruined it." I pulled the ring off his finger and pocketed it. "If I see you with one of these again, I will kill you myself." I left him alone before I got a text from Elijah. I smiled at it before heading for the backroads Francesca would take. I stood in the road waiting for her. I heard her slamming the brakes before disappearing again. I opened her passenger door and pointed a gun at her. "Drive."
When we got back to the compound I grabbed her arm and drug her with me into the compound.
"Nik!" I called to him. "I brought a gift." He joined me downstairs and smirked at Francesca Guerrera standing next to me.
"To what do we owe the honor?" he asked.
"I thought we might share a drink." I told him smirking, my face changing. His face changed to match my own and Francesca begged for her life. After we were done we stared deep into each other's eyes before I broke it off and left for the nursery.
The next morning, Nik sat at one of the tables on the ground floor with Elijah standing over the stones from the rings we'd stolen from the wolves.
"Could you not just take a sledgehammer to them?" Nik asked him, wanting it to be over.
"These were forged by a witch, brother. And, as such, only the elements of fire and water can destroy them." Elijah told him rolling up his sleeves and gathered a pitcher of water and a stone bowl with burning charcoal in it. "I'd have thought this would have brought you greater pleasure."
"As would I. This was my fault. All of it." Nik told him and Elijah looked at him in surprise.
"If I had just accepted Nicole's pregnancy instead of... playing king..." he said, his voice breaking. "I should have listened to you. Instead, my greed and my envy robbed me of my daughter. My actions led to the release of the weapon that can kill not just me, but you."
"In a thousand years, I've survived your attempts to destroy me, brother." Elijah reminded him as he gathered up the stones and dropped them in the bowl. "I imagine I can survive this."
"You chase my redemption, like a man rolling a stone up an endless mountain." Nik told him confused. Elijah picked up the pitcher and poured the water over the stones and charcoal, destroying them both.
"Well, no mountain is endless, brother. Some are just steeper than others." Elijah told him. Nik stared into the bowl, where the stones had broken apart, revealing small drops of Nik's blood that were magically forged within them. "I believe that only you can understand Nicole's grief and help her now."
"We lost our children... I mean, what could I possibly say to ease her pain?" Nik asked him. Elijah placed his hand on Nik's shoulder and squeezed in comfortingly.
"Whatever she needs to hear."
I sat in the rocking chair holding a teddy bear in my lap staring at the crib. Nik soon joined me and knelt next to me.
"It will get better." He told me.
"When?" I asked him feeling drained. "I'm immortal now. If I can't get through today, how am I supposed to get through forever?" Nik sighed and took my hands in his.
"You know, over the years, I've had my share of friends, enemies, lovers, losses, and triumphs. With time, they all begin to run together. But, you will find that the real moments are vibrant. The rest... just fades away. Your pain will fade." He told me.
"Not until I can hold my babies in my arms again." I told him.
"And so you shall." He assured me. "But, in order to do that, we need to regain control of the city. Now, we worked separately to unite those wolves. We can work together to do it again. They don't need to be our enemies."
"After ambushing them, they're not going to want to be our friends, Nik." I told him. "And they won't follow me. I'm not a Crescent."
"You waged a just war on those who would harm your child! Not only will they respect you, they will answer to you!" he told him.
"Why would they do that?" I asked him.
"Because you're a queen." He told me and I rolled my eyes. "They accepted you as one of their pack when you were pregnant. They will do so again."
"What about all our other enemies? The witches don't stop even after they're dead." I reminded him.
"We defeated my mother and her witches because we stood united." He told me pulling me to him on the floor and holding me close. "That is how we will face all our enemies. As a family." I smiled up at him receiving his in return.
"Always and Forever."
