Chapter Twelve

1492

The first thing I registered when I woke was the smell of burning. The smell of scorched flesh. Evangeline's face flashed through my mind and forced my body off the couch before I even thought about standing. For five hundred years, since becoming a vampire, I had never had difficulty with something as simple as walking. But in that moment, my legs felt like led, unwilling to carry me over to the ashes that lay ten feet away from the entrance. I didn't remember falling to my knees, I felt the tears falling from my eyes without permission, but the only thing I could focus on completely was the gaping hole in my chest. My heart head been ripped out—she had taken it with her—and left behind was an empty chasm that ached as a reminder of what I had lost.

My hands clenched unwittingly and I felt a small sting of metal in my palm. Opening my right hand I saw her daylight ring. She must have put it into my hand before she… left. I held it tighter for a moment before sliding it onto my little finger. It got stuck halfway down, but all that mattered was that it stayed there—it was one of the few reminders of her that I had left.

'Niklaus? What has happened?' Elijah's voice broke through the haze I had fallen into, long enough to commandeer my gaze to him.

'Evangeline—she is dead.' My voice sounded hollow. Broken.

The elder Mikaelson's brow furrowed in confusion and concern, but I didn't acknowledge either emotion. My expression hardened, my jaw ground together in determination and I stood, allowing my anger at the entire situation to take over—falling back on anger was after all what I was best at. But before I could speak a word, Elijah's hand landed on my shoulder, bringing me into his embrace. He hugged me firmly and with purpose.

'I'm sorry brother. Truly.' He murmured, and that was all it took for the tears to return.

Telling Elijah the truth hadn't been a part of the plan. Mainly because I didn't think he would approve of me compelling the doppelgänger. But as we took a carriage to our next destination—we had left with haste that Elijah hadn't understood until I explained it to him—he listened, without expression or interruption. When I had finished, I hadn't been able to meet his gaze. For the first time in a long time, I felt like a boy seeking approval from the only brother I had ever looked up to. Another aspect that had returned with my personality. I cared about what Elijah thought. I was worried that he wouldn't approve. And while his lack of support wouldn't stop me, it had the potential to hurt me.

'Brother, I made a promise to you a long time ago, that I would stand by you always and forever. That promise was made before you became a man I didn't recognise as my brother, and yet I continued to uphold it because a shadow of the man that used to be my comrade, I believed, to be better than no brother at all.' Elijah paused, his gaze had been focused on the passing scenery, but now it returned to me, 'the entrance of Evangeline in our lives was sudden, and while I myself didn't get to know her incredibly well, I did notice how she bought out something in you that I had believed to be decimated—your humanity.'

My fingers found the ring on my little finger and began twisting it gently. If my heart were still beating, it would have been pounding in that moment.

'In a matter of weeks, she saw and accepted the darkest parts of you. She helped you recognise that you needn't be ashamed of your werewolf lineage, something you have been disconcerted about since we learned of our mother's dalliances with a werewolf and forced a part of you into dormancy.' A small smile played on his lips as he once again grasped my shoulder, 'and now here you sit, choosing to be truthful with me, despite your obvious fear that I will not approve and aid you.'

'Will you assist me, brother?' I murmured, keeping my voice low.

'Will I help you hide that you've broken your curse? Will I leave Katarina believing she evaded you? I finally have back the brother I remember from all those years ago, and I'm not going to let the reason for that be jeopardised.' Elijah's hand lifted to slap my shoulder once before he held it out to me, smiling at the surprise and appreciation on my face, 'always and forever brother.'

Our hands met and clasped together, bringing us closer as we patted each other's backs.

'Always and forever.' I murmured, pulling back and offering Elijah a genuine smile, 'thank you, brother.'

He didn't verbally respond, but he didn't need to. He had said all he needed to reassure me of his loyalty, of our vow. So we fell back into comfortable silence as Evangeline's face invaded my mind.

1919, New Orleans

It had been my idea. To lure him here, to the town we'd built, the town we had prepared for war. I had first thought of it when we'd managed to establish a treaty between the species. With witches, werewolves and vampires willing to work together, we had ourselves quite the army. Something Mikael couldn't be prepared for. Surprisingly, it hadn't taken a lot to convince Elijah, Rebekah and Kol that it was time that we fought and stopped running.

All of us wanted our lives back. Although my main priority was assuring that Mikael was gone before Evangeline was born. I had plenty of enemies already, mostly from before I had met the elder Gilbert—since she had left I'd been careful not to acquire anymore unless absolutely necessary—and I didn't want Mikael to be alive when she eventually came back into my life.

Elijah was the only one who wasn't surprised with my newfound restraint, but that was because he was the only one who knew about her—we'd decided that keeping it to ourselves for the time being was for the best. Which led to us uniting to defeat our father. We lured him to New Orleans with a witch and a photograph of us at the grand opening of New Orleans' Opera house. After that we prepared extensively. Everyone trained within their factions everyday, with an original being present within each to give an idea of what strength they would be facing. Everyone—human and supernatural—ingested vervain to avoid compulsion. A witch placed a boundary around the city limits that would immediately alert us to his arrival—she had to use a knife that had belonged to him that Rebekah had stolen when we were children, but we were assured it would work.

Of course, what none of us had anticipated was how close the preparations made us. Kol felt included in the family that Rebekah, Elijah and I had never intentionally meant to seclude him from. He seemed lighter—he no longer killed meaninglessly as he didn't need to use high body counts to draw our attention. Rebekah found love with Marcellus and despite my lack of violence with her past few dalliances before him, she was nervous to tell me. I assured them both I was happy if they were happy—a reaction that had her beaming with delight and I hated that I'd ever reacted in a way that generated a different response. Elijah was happier, as anyone who knew him well would have been able to tell. His expression usually remained sombre, but occasionally a smile would appear when he saw the way we interacted without hate, deception or malice. But most of the time, his joy could be seen in his eyes—before they were often bleak as he observed his siblings regressing to an inhumane state—while now, his eyes often twinkled with mirth and uncontained contentedness.

All of us worked to maintain this new relationship. Kol confessed to trying to create a gold dagger to use against me—this was before we'd begun to mend our relationship—and as soon as we were on the right track, he handed over the diamond he'd intended to use. I'd embraced him and offered my gratitude to him for not going through with it, along with a promise to give up the daggers as soon as Mikael had been dealt with. All siblings had been shocked at that—but I'd seen how important the bond we had created was. I had seen the importance of family.

I managed to keep the secret of my broken curse hidden with a repression spell that a witch had placed on a ring for me. It meant that when I wore it, I appeared as a vampire, and I rarely removed it because it was vital that no one knew. As much as I wanted to tell them, I refrained because telling them about it would mean explaining why it needed to be a secret, and I'd rather do that when Mikael was dead.

The night we had come together to destroy our father, we reaffirmed our pact of always and forever in the Mikaelson compound. It hadn't been easy—the wolves and vampires corralled him to the centre of the City. This was where the witches waited with an incapacitation spell that held him long enough for me to drive the White Oak stake he'd planned to use on me through his heart. While everyone cheered for his demise, my siblings and I watched him burn with uncontrollable relief.

'It's over, Nik.' Bekah murmured, winding her hand around my waist while my arm fell over her shoulders.

Elijah placed a comforting hand on Kol's shoulder and we all fell into silence, revelling in the freedom that was finally ours.

1947 Paris, France.

The first time I heard it was in the streets. It was a girl humming. I'd stopped, ignoring the people bumping into my back and violently swearing at me in French as I frantically glanced around, trying to locate where the sound was coming from.

'What is it brother?' Kol had asked, his brow furrowed in confusion.

'That song. Did you hear someone humming it?' I said, still looking around, my hearing focused, but I couldn't hear anything anymore.

'I don't hear anyone humming.' Kol told me, his eyes clouding with the same look that overcame him whenever he realised I was remembering something about her—he and my siblings empathised with me as much as they could.

I appreciated their concern and their attempts to understand, but they couldn't, at least not completely. The circumstances were incredibly specific and therefore, hard to comprehend entirely.

I sighed, defeated, and continued walking. Kol and I were in Paris to meet Marcel and Rebekah—they were celebrating their 28th wedding anniversary and they'd invited us over after they'd been here for a month. They wanted time to enjoy themselves without interruption before we made it a family vacation. Which was something we made a point to do a couple of times a year—since the defeat of Mikael we ran New Orleans, and sometimes we needed time to be a family without the pressures of running the city weighing us down. We had trusted second in commands, of course, and we could be contacted in the case of severe emergency. Elijah was set to arrive tomorrow—he wanted to assure that the newly turned vampires weren't a problem. Logically he knew our second's in command could handle it, but the elder Mikaelson was overly cautious.

'Come on, brother, you mustn't mope. You've lasted this long. What's a few more decades?' Kol's arm wound around my shoulders for a moment and squeezed before falling back to his side.

I offered him a tight smile, trying to ignore the hollow feeling in my chest. The feeling was always there, of course, but when something reminded me of her and caught me off guard, the pain was much worse. Kol was right. What were a few more decades?

1990, Mystic Falls, Virginia

I had known that this was the year she would be born, but I hadn't known what day exactly. My sources were told to keep an eye out for any children born with her name, and just as I was getting restless, just as my paranoid mind was telling me that something had gone wrong with the time travel, I got a call on October 15th. She was born at 5:27am, weighing 7lb 2oz. As much as I wanted to see her, to see the baby that would grow into the woman who would fall in love with me, and I her, I stopped myself. I couldn't risk doing anything that would jeopardise her future, not when I'd lasted so long. So, after thanking my contact, I hung up my phone and went to my art room, painting a portrait of her whilst listening to the song I'd come to associate with her, when I'd properly heard it all those years ago, first from her lips, and then the voice of Édith Piaf.

Quand il me prend dans ses bras

Il me parle tout bas

Je vois la vie en rose

Il me dit des mots d'amour

Des mots de tous les jours

Et ça me fait quelque chose

When he takes me in his arms

He whispers to me

I see life in pink

He tell me love words

Everyday words

And it does something to me.

2011, New Orleans, Louisiana.

'Niklaus.' Elijah's urgent voice commandeered my attention away from the book I was reading.

'What is it?' I asked, lazily closing my book and trying not to let my concern show.

'It's time.'

Those two words had me standing from my seat without conscious thought. I knew we were getting close, of course I did, but I'd had to force myself to stop obsessing decades ago, in order to maintain some semblance of sanity.

'The contacts on her have witnessed the loss of her locket and the new daylight ring she has had to acquire.' He said, his eyes reflecting his happiness for me.

'I—I' I stuttered, suddenly at a loss for words, and a loss for what to do.

Of course I wanted to go to her—I'd been waiting for this moment for six centuries, but I also wanted Evangeline to want to come to me. I didn't want to just show up in her life and make her feel like she didn't have an escape, a freedom to choose her own path. I believed that she loved me then, I knew she did, but I owed it to her to give her time to decide if she wanted me in her life now.

Slowly, I sat back down, my head bowed and my hands running through my hair as I came to terms with my decision. I was going to give her some time, but could I do that with the issues that were occurring in Mystic Falls in that moment? The biggest one was Katherine. While Evangeline would have returned to the date she originally disappeared, the time line would have stretched out a little. Originally at this point, Stefan and I would be hunting werewolves, I would believe her sister to be dead, and her aunt would have died for my ritual. However, as I hadn't arrived in town yet, Katherine was still lurking and planting seeds of fear about the big bad Klaus Mikaelson who wanted to break his curse. I didn't want to remove the compulsion encase Katherine tried to kill Evangeline as revenge, and I didn't want to kill Katherine both due to the suspicions it would raise and because I was certain Elijah still had some semblance of feelings for her. I would just have to wait; no harm should come to them, as they believed me to be the impending danger. The only one who would know that wasn't true was Evangeline.

I'd waited all this time, what was a little more?

I know this is kind of a filler chapter, but I really wanted to explore some of Klaus' memories of his time without Evangeline. Encase I wasn't clear in this chapter:

Kol and Rebekah find out that Klaus has broken his curse and they find out why it has to be a secret after they defeat Mikael.

The family bonds are mended—well aside from Finn, but I figured his hatred of what they were would lead to his devotion to Mikael and I wanted to avoid that.

Klaus is lonely without the woman he loves, but he has his family to help him through it, which I honestly think helped more than he realized.

Rebekah and Marcel never even consider betraying Klaus, mainly because Klaus had mellowed out on his overprotectiveness centuries before. None of the other men lasted, but those had nothing to do with him, unless of course any of them legitimately hurt his sister.

Evangeline's necklace and original daylight ring indicate that she has returned from the past, because those are the two things she left with Klaus before she left. Which is why he's had his people watching out for that as an indicator.

Sorry if the translation isn't exactly correct—I blame Google translate if it's not ;)

See you next chapter, where we'll be switching to Evangeline's P.O.V.