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Thank you for so many reviews! I love the feedback so much!
Short chapter today, but I had to! Don't hate me!
xrysatsan: Thank you!
Guest: Magical babies are definitely on the backburner for now, but I'm not telling who Maya met with!
Hearteyesmf: Thank you! I've got plans for the brothers and Klaus's curse, we'll see how the MFG handles Klaus when he actually has people on his side for the sacrifice. I'm looking forward to Kai too, just imagining the chaos he would cause with Maya and possibly Klaus (Because Kai and Klaus have pretty similar backgrounds), he'd definitely rub his new found 'status' in his father's face, and I'm looking forward to the confrontation that he'll have with his dad.
TikiKiki: Thank you! Sometimes I like to make it jumpy just to emphasise that things are happening at the same time in TVD world and make the story more unpredictable. Yep Hayley is definitely NOT going to sleep with Klaus, fingers crossed Klaus and Maya will be together by then.
Enileve: Thanks!
kimmi9x: I wanted to highlight the difference between Mother Nature and Death, Nature can be beautiful but cruel, Death however isn't the same, Death is just there, no matter what, and because of it, they both have different ways of treating their creations.
JessicaOnePiece: Thank you!
aandm20: Thanks!
mrs. morgan 35: The Gemini coven are going to be fun to write, because of Maya things are going to be different and there's going to be a lot more information on them before Maya and Kai deal with them. Joshua Parker is not a good man, and he doesn't deserve to run the coven.
TheQueenofGoodbyes: I agree with you that Klaus will probably never apologise for the things he's done, but to him actions speak louder than words, and the fact Kol has been proving himself to Klaus when they work together, shows that there's nothing stopping them from staying on top. I think that because Kol has always been the baby brother, he's never really been taken seriously by his siblings, and now that Klaus has actually put some trust in Kol, I think that it will be pretty surprising how they react to one another now. I also think that Nik having Enzo and Damon as friends has sort of softened his edges (just a touch), because neither of them knew who he was to begin with and when they found out, they didn't shy away from him, or change their behaviour. (I'm betting Damon pretty much decided that he'd already been disrespectful towards Nik when they met, and if Nik was going to kill him, he would, and we all know that Damon is too cocky for his own good).
Klaus and his siblings are going to have some friction for the next little while, secrets are going to be exposed, threats made, painful actions taken, after all, the Mikaelsons can't be who they are without serious drama trailing them.
Raven R. Mahmood: Where have you been?!
katitat: He can't be in the land of the living just yet, but he's going to try and be there for Maya when he can.
Guest: I think that Maya's going to have fun, even if she has kids, but I don't want to make her a teen mom, even if she would be the most well cared for teen mom in history. She knows how hard it was for Jenna and given how close the mother and daughter are, Maya really wouldn't want to disappoint.
Felinegreat: I dunno, Klaus might surprise you, but then again, he might not!
xotinkerbella: I can't answer that question because I didn't tell you guys about the deal or who she made it with before…it's a surprise! Klaus and Kol bonding was desperately needed, especially because I see major family drama in the not to distant future! Finn upsets me, and I'll be glad when we get out of New York and go back to Mystic Falls, just because I won't have to write about him for a while, he's such a dick. As for Kol and Maya's conversation, well that's for me to know and you to dot, dot, dot!
Serena Salvatore: Thank you so much! I'm trying hard not to go overboard on one set of dynamics over the other.
Atlantean-Child: Hah! I'm trying to work as fast as I can!
TheSlytherinStark: Thank you so much! There's a little Maya/Klaus at the end and a little solo Kol for everyone!
Kol was holed up in his study, he'd come back to the living world and he could feel a change, not a physical change, but a mental one, he'd not had much time in Death's Domain, so Maya had only showed him the memories that she believed to be the most pertinent. His death…if you wanted to get technical about it, his second and third deaths, his first of course being the time that Mikael had driven a sword through his heart and changed him into an Original. He hadn't told Nik what he'd seen, hadn't spoken to Maya about it either, for he knew that those memories were once again hidden securely behind a wall reinforced by Death himself. His second death had been the most terrifying, seeing himself believe that Nik wanted him dead, watching as he was staked with White Oak, seeing his body burst into flames, hearing his own screams of agony. It had been torturous, and knowing that Nik had witnessed it, unable to stop it, and so full of rage and grief that he'd thrown caution to the wind when trying to avenge his baby brother and ended up trapped inside a house, unable to exact vengeance. Kol knew that he and Klaus were getting closer, their bond of brotherhood slowly repairing itself, but in that timeline their bond was shattered, perhaps beyond repair, and yet Nik was the only one out of his siblings that had mourned him.
Elijah had done nothing in the wake of his death, just continued on in his life as though it had meant nothing. Rebekah, knowing that those around her had orchestrated his murder, ignored it, she had continued to work with them, despite what they had done and it pained him more than he was able to admit. How could she? He was her brother, and she'd thrown him away in the hopes of a 'cure' for vampirism. He couldn't temper his rage, he snarled throwing a chair across the room, he would ensure that she never got her hands on the cure, even if he had to put her down and drop her into the bloody sea, he would ensure that she never saw an end to being a vampire, that was a promise that he would do everything to keep.
And then came his third death, if his second was terrifying, his third was heart-breaking, he and Finn had never gotten along, even as mortals. His older brother forever jealous of Kol's natural talent with magic, and his carefree nature, he'd almost go so far as to say that Finn loathed him, the simpering mama's boy that he was, Finn was his least favourite of all his siblings, and that included the newly found Freya. But he never thought that Finn would actually kill him, not only kill him, but ensure that he suffered before his death, both physically and mentally. Other than not protesting when Nik had refused to pull the dagger out of Finn, Kol had never done anything terrible to his brother. He'd left Finn and his wench Sage alone, allowed them to do their own thing, for the few short years they were together, but Finn had murdered him. Made sure that it hurt, and ensured that he knew that there was no way out of it, he'd relished in it. If Kol wasn't so certain that Death would have his hide, he would find a way to destroy Finn, permanently, in fact, if all that was keeping him alive was his sireline, then Kol would find out whether it was possible to sever that link. Surely if the vampires in Finn's line wouldn't die, then Death couldn't be too upset at him if he killed his brother. Right?
But before that, he had research that needed to be done on Siphons and Death Magic, pushing his painful thoughts to the back of his head, Kol pulled out grimoire after grimoire from his shelves, laying them out on his ostentatious desk he started going through everything that he could think of that even closely resembled what Maya could do. Her brushes with death were far too many, and too close together, he needed to fundamentally understand how her ability worked so that he could proper instruct her.
A knock at the door caused his head to shoot up, Freya had finally fallen asleep, Finn and Elijah quickly following suit, whilst Rebekah had decided to go out, and Nik was at the Brownstone, so he didn't know who was bothering him now. He hadn't locked his door, so when it swung inward, he wasn't surprised, he was however surprised to see Elijah, he supposed out of all his siblings bar Nik right now, Elijah was the one who would least likely cause his rage to bubble up. "What do you want Elijah?"
"There's much that we need to discuss Kol."
Rebekah had gone out after Freya had gone to bed, she'd received a text from one of her minions that one of Klaus's friends had been spotted at a bar in town, she was going to see if she could persuade him to give up the location of Nik's witch, and if persuasion didn't work then she could always compel him. She walked into the establishment and saw him sitting at the bar, his drink was almost empty and his shoulders were tense, something was clearly bothering him, she could work with that. Striding in, she took a seat next to him, summoning the bar tender for to take her order.
Damon tensed when he felt someone sitting next to him, Nik had taught him how to not only sense other vampires, but tell whether the vampires near him were older than him. And the woman who'd sat next to him felt old. He turned in his seat to face her and smirked, she was beautiful, there was no doubt about that, but he didn't want her, in fact it had been a while since he'd wanted anyone except one specific person. He should probably do something about that, and soon, because he was pretty sure that Enzo wasn't going to wait around for him forever.
Kol sat back in his chair, "I don't think we have anything we need to talk about Elijah."
"I disagree. You and I were aligned, we were supposed to figure out what Niklaus was hiding from us together, instead the moment you found out, you threw me to the wayside in order to gain Niklaus's favour. Since when has doing his biding been something that you enjoy?"
Kol scowled, he wasn't doing his brother's biding, he'd found out what Nik had been up to, and then Nik had confided in him. He'd offered to help his brother, Nik trusted him, and he wasn't about to lose that because Elijah was jealous. "I'm not doing Nik's biding," he hissed, "I was the one that found out what our brother was up to and do you know what he asked for my help! It's not my bloody fault that he doesn't trust you anymore!"
Elijah shifted in his chair, slightly uncomfortably, Kol had always been vicious and wickedly intelligent, a fact that Elijah had a habit of forgetting, he hid it behind his vulgarity and childish behaviour but Kol was just as smart as he was and he knew how to use it against his enemies, and it appeared that to Kol, Elijah was currently an enemy. "Of course Niklaus trusts me, I'm his brother Kol, I have always been by his side."
"Even when you were trying to kill him?" Kol asked almost innocently, that particular revelation had come from Rebekah of all people, she'd been ranting about Nik ignoring her and somehow that little snippet of information had slipped out. Elijah believed that Nik had thrown them all into the ocean and as a result had been looking for ways to kill him.
"Don't act like you've never tried it before!"
"I have never tried to kill Nik before! Have I tried to hurt him before? Yes! Get even with him? Of course! But don't you ever accuse me of trying to kill him! I'll leave that up to you and Bekah!" Kol snarled, so furious at his brother that he'd let something slip that he hadn't meant to.
"What?" Elijah asked, suddenly worried, if Rebekah had done something then Niklaus's ambivalence towards his sister suddenly made sense, "What are you talking about? What did Rebekah do?"
"Why don't you ask her yourself," Kol sneered.
"Kol if our sister has done something-"
"Elijah, Rebekah's misdeeds are her own, if you want to stand in the way of Nik's wrath, that's your prerogative, I'll happily stand aside and watch, just as you and Rebekah did to me." Kol's eyes narrowed, every moment he spent with Elijah, his anger was increasing, "Now get out!"
Maya had come back to the land of the living immediately after Kol, and Caroline and Enzo had been all over her, extra worried and refusing to leave her side. Eventually the three of them had fallen asleep in cuddle pile, and after a few hours Maya had woken again, Caroline on her right and Enzo on her left. Mumbling a few words, she silenced her movements and slid out of the bed, so as not to wake either of her friends. Maya crept downstairs and found Klaus in the living room, on the couch, drinking a bourbon.
"Hey," she said quietly, padding over and curling up on the couch next to him, "Nobody told me you were here."
"Kol and I have agreed to trade off on our time here, especially with Freya in the Penthouse," Klaus replied, "You were fast asleep when I arrived."
"Are you okay? You're not really giving off a 'my-diabolical-plans-are-coming-into-place' type of vibe, and they are you know, soon you're going to have everything that you've been working so hard towards, and Mikael's not here to stop you anymore."
Klaus let out a scoff, "Who needs Mikael when my family seem intent to stop me at every turn?" he gripped the glass tumbler in has hand tighter.
"What happened?" Maya asked softly, it was like she could feel the difference in Klaus's temperament, his anger was simmering just below the surface, it wouldn't take much to push him over the edge.
"Regardless of my attempts to stop them, Finn, Rebekah and Elijah seem intent to air my every indiscretion to Freya, I can tell that with every word they utter it pushes Freya further and further away from my cause. Not to mention that we now have my crazy aunt Dahlia to deal with."
Maya held a breath, waiting for the pain that would come with an onslaught of memories, but there was none, whatever Death had done to her mind had really helped her. Still she frowned, she knew that something like this was a possibility, but she was hoping that Freya's hate of Esther would help to coerce the older witch to help Klaus. Not to mention, given her advanced age, she had to know what happened to wolves who'd been triggered and then locked back away with magic. It never ended well for them, or whoever they were with, and because Klaus was a vampire, the effects were heightened. "Nik," she moved closer to him, lifted his arm and buried herself in his side, causing him to tense at the sudden contact. Ignoring it, she wrapped her arms around him, her head resting in the crook of his neck, "Freya's going to help you, and not just because if she doesn't, she'll end up back in a coffin, waiting for Dahlia to find her."
"You know as well as I do, that a witch that's been forced to do someone's bidding is worth far less than one who works willingly." He replied tersely.
"I do, Freya's going to help because I know how to kill Dahlia."
Klaus sent her a shocked look, she hadn't mentioned anything about Dahlia before, "What? How could you possibly- you have your memories back of Dahlia."
"I got them back the moment you said her name."
"You didn't even flinch, that little fix Death put in your mind must really be something."
She gave a little shrug, refusing to let him go, "What can I say, he's really invested in keeping you alive."
"Well then, how do we do it?"
"There are some rare ingredients that need to be gathered, I already have one, and you can get the other, but the last, that's gonna be tricky, we can't kill Dahlia until after you break your curse anyway. I don't know where she is, so we might actually have to wait until she wakes up on her own."
"Just tell me what you need," Klaus replied, if he had a way to kill Dahlia, then he had the exact leverage he needed to get Freya to do whatever he wanted.
"Sacred Norwegian soil, I don't actually know what that means, so you and Kol will have to figure it out, but I'm confident you'll manage."
"You won't tell me the rest?"
She was quiet for a moment, "Dahlia's stronger than your mother, and in the other timeline, she got into your head, I don't want to take the chance that she could do it again and we lose the element of surprise."
Klaus pulled her closer to him, if that was even possible, he'd been the most powerful creature in existence for so long, the idea of someone being able to get into his head was preposterous, but by now he knew not to doubt his Little Siphon. "What did you see today, that caused such a stir that it nearly killed you?"
Maya refused to look at him, for the first time in her life, she didn't want to tell him what she saw, it had saddened her, made her feel like that there was no end to this fight, it made her feel like she'd never be able to rest, and it hurt her knowing that it would cause Nik nothing but pain, "I don't want tell you," she mumbled into his chest.
"Why not?" he asked, Maya had been reluctant to tell him about her memories before, but he could feel that she truly didn't want to tell him about what she'd seen.
"Because it's going to hurt you Nik! I thought Marcel's betrayal was bad, but this is going to hurt you worse, I almost wish you'd never have to know."
Klaus cupped the side of her face and made her look up at him, her eyes were wet with tears and Klaus was taken aback, when was the last time that someone cried for him? Not because of him, but actually for him? Probably when he was still mortal, and he'd suffered a beating at the hands of his father. His thumb stroked across her cheek, catching a tear as it fell, "May I see, sweetheart?"
"I don't want to hurt you Nik," she whispered.
"People have been hurting me for a thousand years love, I can take it, I promise."
"Okay," she replied, "But you have to stay with me, you have to promise me that you won't leave until you're calm."
"I give you my word."
Maya gave him a little nod and he reached for her temple and fell into her memories. Maya closed her eyes, this time she could feel him in her head, rooting around her most recent revelation. Pulling away from her, Klaus growled, his vampiric features coming to light in an instant, he'd thought that he was angry before, this was a whole new level of rage that had taken over.
"Nik!" Maya said, feeling him pull away, "Nik no!" she threw herself into his lap, her hands coming up to grip his face, "Look at me!" she insisted, pulling his eyes down to meet hers. "I need you to calm down for me, please Nik you promised me!" he struggled against her grip, not realising that she was clearly using magic to hold him in place, "Nik please! Tell me what you need and I'll give it to you! Nik!" Maya was panicking now, she wouldn't be able to hold him down for much longer, especially without using offensive magic.
Klaus snarled, he was so deep in his rage he couldn't even register who was in front of him, all he knew was that she was preventing him from unleashing hell. His eyes locked on to her throat, her heart was pounding, he could practically taste the blood pumping in her veins. Growling he latched onto her throat, fangs sinking into her skin, Klaus drank deeply from her.
Can anyone guess what Klaus saw in Maya's head?! Don't hate me because it was short please!
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