Surprise! We've had Isolde. We've had Vera. We've had Emeric. Now the largest portion of this chapter is for Theon. I couldn't leave him out forever, could I? Lots of 'boys will be boys' here. Toxic but like… immortal over protective brother toxic. This is now the longest chapter, knocking the dinner with the scooby gang down to number two.

-28-

Isolde

Emeric was playing games. Isolde knew it. Emeric knew she knew it. Yet he was still doing it.

Completely unrepentant. Isolde caught Theon's eye, but her youngest brother just shrugged.

Evidently he wasn't worried about the outcome of having the Mikaelsons and Emeric confined in a small space for several hours at 31,000 feet above land. Isolde, however, was near sick with worry.

She hoped the Mikaelsons regenerative abilities would work even if they were completely smashed from a plane crash. She didn't know if she could catch them all in time. Theon would try, or he would've before they'd all upset Rebekah. Now he might just be vindictive enough to let them suffer.

"Do not bring the plane down." Isolde hissed as she reached up to squeeze Emeric's hand– hard, he winced– where it rested on her shoulder as they all walked to the jet. "I'll be mad as hell if you bring it down, Em."

She could almost hear his eye roll. "As if Gaius would crash us. He'll be insulted to hear you doubted him."

"That's not what I mean and you know it."

He patted his hand on her shoulder as she dropped hers. "Do you want to fly with Gaius?"

Isolde turned her head to glare at his stupid smirking face. "That would be convenient for you. Give you free reign to do and say as you please. Are you joking?"

"So little faith." He sighed dramatically and dropped his arm so she could board the jet first, stepping to the side so everyone else could go ahead of him.

Entering the jet, Isolde grinned widely and hastened to the back where she spotted Gaius. Her brother's soul bond smiled back. The rest of her family was boarding behind her as she held her hand out to him.

"It's good to see you, Gaius."

He clasped arms with her, much like they used to back when they all lived together in Rome, a smile softening his harsh features. "It's been a long time, Sol, how've you been?"

"Same shit, different millenia." She snarked and the severe man barked a laugh, the lines of his face becoming more pronounced as they crinkled. Isolde turned to face the Mikaelson's, who were situating themselves around and finding the right seats. It was a private luxury jet. Couches and lounge chairs to seat a dozen people comfortably. "This is Emeric's bond and Mark's adoptive uncle, Gaius. Or as he was once known, Julius Caesar."

"Just Gaius is fine," her brother's bond spoke gruffly as he eyed the newcomers, "no one has addressed me as Julius in two thousand years."

"Bloody blindsided once again." Kol mumbled, running a hand down his face as he sunk down into the corner of one of the sofa's. "Who's next, darling, shall I be on the lookout for Aristotle?"

Emeric snorted indelicately as he lowered himself into one of the lounge chairs. "Aris didn't come– he remains in Cairo to see to my daily operations while I am away."

Kol blinked, clearly not having expected that. "Oh, that's tragic. I miss him." Isolde said, frowning at her brother.

"A pleasure to meet you," Elijah drew everyone's attention back to him and Gaius as he closed the distance between them, "Elijah Mikaelson."

Gaius took the proffered hand, a barely concealed frown on his face. "I know."

Klaus appeared next to Elijah right away. "I'd say you do. I've seen many faces in my years and few have stood out so clearly," he turned to look at his brother, "you don't recognize Guy Julian, brother? Let me jog the memory," he glanced at Gaius, suspicion evident in the hybrid's gaze, "it had to do with a vineyard in the seventeenth century."

"Bygones," Gaius waved a flippant hand as recognition dawned on Elijah's features, "I dare say losing an eye made me realize I'd grown far too complacent over that long seventeen hundred years."

Isolde's brows shot up. "You're kidding me."

She was exhausted already, in desperate need of a nap but none would come any time soon. Theon certainly wasn't going to be the one to oppose Emeric when he inevitably learned all he wanted to and decided to turn his temperament meter from 'pleasant politician' all the way up to 'irreconcilable dickhead.' That Klaus was somehow the reason Gaius lost his eye was just icing on that cake, it seemed Emeric had been sitting on that and letting it fester for centuries.

"Afraid not, love." Klaus said with a sadistic little smirk. The same time that Emeric said. "Not at all."

"Well that's sufficiently awkward," Rebekah sighed beside Finn, her arm wrapped around her around her eldest brother's, "your cruelty has once again come full circle, brother."

Finn and Rebekah had come down from Isolde's room after a good half an hour and it seemed as though they'd cleared some of the air around them. Isolde had been overjoyed to see Finn's bond with at least one of his siblings beginning to mend. It was nice to see them standing together in such an uncertain situation. Isolde didn't know if it was because Rebekah was upset with her other brothers or if it was because she genuinely didn't want to be too far from Finn at present but Isolde was glad for it nonetheless.

Klaus threw a look over at his sister and Gaius, sensing the tension as all the Alexanders did, stepped through the crowd and passed both Alexanders and Mikalesons toward the front of the plane. He turned around to look at Isolde, walking backwards with a thumb thrown over his shoulder. "Are you piloting with me?"

Isolde smiled, of course Emeric had recruited his bond in his nefarious planning. "Not this time. Thank you."

"Oh come on, how long has it been since you flew?" Theon asked with a mischievous twinkle to his eye.

So Theon was going to aid Emeric, then? Do the whole 'macho brother act.' After the last several days, Isolde couldn't say she was surprised that Theo finally decided it was time. He'd probably just been waiting for Emeric– dumb brothers had to stick together and all.

Isolde resisted the urge to give him a look of betrayal. Et tu, Theon?

Not the joke to make in front of Gaius. Brutus had been like a brother to him, after all.

"Years, I'd imagine." Emeric smiled, and Isolde just knew she had to accept. She could already see Elijah gearing up to agree with Emeric and Theon. "What better time than now? Gaius can catch you up to the recent advancements and manage the flight while you adjust."

Gaius, ever Emeric's loyal lapdog, piped up from the door of the cockpit. "It's the perfect weather for a smooth flight, too."

She looked around the room and threw her hands in the air when no one tried to dissuade her.

The Mikaelson's had zero sense of self preservation tonight, it seemed.

"Fine, fine. You win. I'll fly."

Isolde didn't think Gaius could've shut the door to the cockpit fast enough when she'd stepped inside.

Theon

The night he'd found Rebekah had been the best night of Theon's long, long life. She was everything he never knew he'd needed and her very presence in his life was like a bright light in the darkness.

That didn't mean he was going to be easy on her brothers.

They'd been walking a fine line since that fateful day at the Mikaelson ball. Especially that very next day when Klaus had taken Isolde down into the tunnels in the woods against her consent.

Another point of contrition was how Kol had already wormed his way into Isolde's bed - rushing things before she'd gotten a chance to fully assess his character. Theon did not appreciate that. Even if he hadn't said anything about it.

And the way three of the four Mikaelson brothers bickered and poked at each other, in both their daily lives and over Isolde, pointed to problems that would rear their head spectacularly down the line for them all. A fall out they could only hope to overcome. Isolde was too caught up in the rush of getting to know the Mikaelsons to see it herself.

Jealousy would fester, it had already begun. Especially Klaus and Elijah's jealousy of Kol. And soon they would grow resentful of the affection Isolde was doting upon Finn.

Emeric would not condone the Mikaelsons behavior as far as it extended to the vampire race. The eldest Alexander wouldn't condone infighting either, or any ill treatment of Isolde.

But Emeric knew nothing of romantic entanglements. That was Theon's area of expertise and he excelled at it. The Mikaelsons behavior would crush his sister if it persisted, and he intended to set the record straight right here and right now. Isolde had only just gotten her smile back, and it was indeed because of the Mikaelson's bonds to her. That smile could warp so very easily, the sons of Mikael held the power to destroy her millenia to come.

Theon would not see that smile twisted ever, ever again. In this, he knew Emeric would agree.

Besides, he was certain there were things the sons of Mikael wanted to say to him, too.

As soon as they were in the air and given the all-clear over the intercom by Gaius, Rebekah was the first to speak.

"Well just get it out of the way then. Honestly, I don't know what's worse. The male posturing going on here or that you're all pretending as though it's not happening." She said it harshly, but she squeezed his hand a moment and then rose, moving to sit in the corner with Freya, who looked up with wide eyes. After the dressing down Rebekah had given her eldest sister, Freya must've assumed she wasn't going to get a chance to talk to the youngest again for some time.

When Rebekah sat, the two sisters were lost in their own quiet conversation. And that was for the best, really. It would be easier to get the male 'posturing' out of the way if the women weren't overly involved.

This was over protective brother vs. boyfriend business, after all.

On a supernatural and immortal scale. Osiris help them, Isolde would be furious if they brought the jet down.

"No art for subtlety, our sister." Klaus stated, he leaned back in his seat next to Elijah and Kol with feigned indifference.

Klaus was like an open book of emotions. Just emotions everywhere. He didn't mask them at all, even if he thought he did.

"I don't believe we have a need for subtlety right now, gents." Theon stated, settling back into the couch, adopting an air of leisure.

"Speak for yourself, I enjoy it." Emeric said, pulling a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket, offering one to Theon. The younger Alexander took it. Emeric offered one to the vampires, who declined. "You don't mind, do you?"

Of course they minded. They had a heightened sense of smell. The cigarettes were going to set them on edge worse than they already were, and they were on edge.

"Not at all," Elijah said, adopting that posh air Theon had gotten used to seeing on the noble Original. Elijah used it like a shield, and it gave away when the vampire felt uncomfortable or threatened. He was trying too hard to protect himself. Then, they all did that. They all had quite a few tells, actually. Theon picked up on them all over a few days' time. No doubt Emeric had already noticed and calculated them.

Theon smirked as he lit his cigarette. Emeric had always been quite devious. He'd Put them at ease with his introductions, now he's putting them on edge. Not one to be outdone so easily, Theon raised a hand and glasses from the bar floated over to each man. A bottle of Woodford Reserve followed, filling their drinks one by one until everyone had a glass.

Klaus took one swig of his whiskey before his mouth ran away from him, as it so often did. "I suppose we should just cut to the chase then?"

Elijah, ever the pragmatist, spoke next. Trying to ease the sting of Klaus' bluntness. "We are all men of ratiocination. There is no reason we shouldn't be capable of a civil discussion."

"It is clear that you intend to marry Rebekah." Klaus was, unsurprisingly, the one to begin. His eyes trained on Theo. "You have scarcely left her side - as though she had no life outside of your orbit."

Theon was prepared for it– he'd been expecting it for days. "I am on vacation. In two weeks time I am obligated to return to my throne at the helm of the Incubi Nation. This last week has been a blessing, in that I've had the opportunity to get to know Rebekah without the grueling requirements of my station as King. If I have taken advantage of this in a way that seems detrimental to Rebekah's personal growth, then I am sorry for it. I will do my best to ensure that I am not demanding more of her time than she can willingly give. And yes, I do intend to marry Rebekah. After we discuss it and together decide that it is a step we are ready to take."

"Simply being with one of us is a burden for the one who would choose to do so. It is not a decision that should be taken lightly. To make that connection permanent with a marriage, especially." Emeric cut in, speaking to all Mikaelsons, not just the brothers. Rebekah and Freya caught the tone and both looked up at him as he spoke. Part of the way Emeric naturally commanded a room.

"I feel as though I should stress this to you." He was looking between every one of them, lingering on each. "We are monarchs. Our responsibilities are more vast than you could know. Unlike our mortal counterparts, we do not each lead a single country. We each lead a nation of people, a species, and those people are not bound to a single area– they are spread across the world. Our network and our system is vast - even the smallest break in the chain can lead to disaster. Rebekah with Theon. Freya with Vera. The four of you with Isolde. If you step into a more permanent role in my siblings' lives you are stepping into a leadership role within each of their kingdoms. You will gain responsibilities that you need to be aware of before you ever make that decision, because there is no getting around it."

"Thus, you will have little life outside of our orbit." Theon concluded, circling back to Klaus' point. "Because if we come to rely on you then that is it– you're involved at the highest level of the world stage. You've not met Marcus yet, but I'll use his example. Marcus met Isolde two thousand years ago, mere weeks after Gaius met Emeric. It took six years for Marcus to decide to join the Shade. The minute he made that decision, he gained a high rank. Immediately the Shade recognized him as Isolde's second in command. That title remains intact today. He leads her armies. He leads the Shade when she is not in residence at the capitol. Only Isolde's command is greater."

Emeric picked up from there. "It's the same for Gaius and my people. The only reason he is with me instead of in Egypt handling my day to day whilst I am away is because he was once married to Vera and I've allowed his concern for her to outweigh my need for him to remain in Cairo. I would guess that Marcus will be in New Orleans already, as well. Isolde is far more lenient with her own than I am and likely informed him of the current circumstance because he was also once married to Vera."

"Your point is well made," Kol began, speaking for the first time, "and your warning received."

"We have not yet begun to warn you, Kol Mikaelson." Theon said, his gaze dark. "I have respect for you as the brothers of Rebekah. I will fight beside you, with you, and for you from now until we are all ash because of your relation to her. Yet I am in a position where I want to simultaneously rip every one of you apart for the way you've handled your bond to Isolde, and protect you all from your own idiocy for the sake of both Rebekah and Isolde. A sentiment I think you can in part understand."

"If you were anyone besides Isolde's brother I would have already found a way to destroy you." Klaus admitted through grit teeth. "I have quite a long history of defending my sister from lecherous men."

"And I have a long history of lecherous behavior." Theon admitted, and Vera had been so very right when she'd told him he would one day come to regret it. "I know."

"Do you have regrets?" Elijah interjected with an arched brow.

"Of course I do." Theo said as if it should have been obvious. "It has been five thousand years. Unlike my elder brother and sister I have never had a soul bond, romantic or otherwise, until now. I was under the impression that it was something that just wouldn't happen to me - Vera shared this sentiment." He glanced at Freya, who was smiling at something Rebekah said, for just a moment. He harbored no illusion that both women weren't paying rapt attention to the conversation, however. "It turns out we were wrong. But in that five thousand years there are holes to fill, loneliness to stave off."

"I am not convinced." Klaus said, leaning forward until his elbows rested on his spread knees. "A letch doesn't so easily change its color because of one affair."

"That's fine. I'm not convinced about you, either." Theon began eyes raking over Klaus' form. "Do not mistake my friendliness as acceptance. I know of every sin you have committed in the past thousand years, Klaus. All of you, with the exception of Finn through no fault of his own, have led a near demonic existence these last thousand years. You think that we," Theon gestured between himself and Emeric, "are at all pleased that you lot, of all the men that it could've been, are bound to our dear Amunet?"

Klaus opened his mouth, as did Elijah, and Emeric silenced them both. "You do not understand," he began, "you don't understand because you have only just met our sister. She smiled at me today."

Finn tilted his head. He hadn't spoken but he'd been paying rapt attention from his spot beside Theon.

"That was huge." Theon admitted.

Emeric dropped the butt of his cigarette into the ashtray on the table beside him and sighed deeply. "I haven't seen Isolde smile genuinely in hundreds of years. I have not heard her truly laugh in millenia. But I witnessed both of those things today." The Mikaelson's all frowned at that. "You know of the monster within. It is a corrosive parasite that leeches onto Isolde's connection to the Consciousness. For over four thousand years it has blocked her from receiving the other half of her portion of the Consciousness. She is the weakest of us because her connection has been blocked. She is an incomplete goddess."

Theon rubbed a hand over his head, upset that he had to have this conversation but resigned to it. He picked up with his brother left off. "Because of this, Isolde lives a half life. Because the other half punishes her for not receiving it. This is the reason she avoids the sun. The reason she remains in the shadow, and hates the heat. It is why she doesn't return to Egypt. It is Ra. Ra punishes Isolde because she was supposed to have accepted a portion of Ra. They were supposed to merge."

"Amun Ra," Elijah breathed, as though he hadn't meant to but it just slipped out.

"The strongest of all of us." Emeric nodded, folding his arms over his chest. "The Supreme Deity. We shouldn't have ever needed to create four separate nations. We were all meant to be led under the all encompassing rule of Amun Ra."

"Should you lot really be talking about her this deeply without her here? This seems to be an awfully intimate story." Rebekah cut in from the corner.

Kol ignored her. "But you entombed your sister. That's what severed the connection." Kol observed. His leg had begun to bounce wildly the moment Emeric had said Isolde led a half life.

Rebekah threw her hands in the air, muttering about idiotic men.

"The connection is not severed, it is blocked." Emeric corrected. "But it was my fault. I thought I had been right to lock her away. I flew into the streets of Egypt and saw thousands of my people dead. The Nile ran red with the blood of Egyptians and what remained of the Hebrews after the Exodus. Isolde spared no first born." He paused and met all of their eyes once more. "The last of them that remained in Egypt was me."

"She tried to kill Emeric." Theon stated quietly, his eyes were far away as he recalled the massacre that had laid all around their home in the aftermath of their sisters' rage.

Emeric nodded, still the picture of serenity. "She nearly succeeded. Had she been merged with Ra at that time I would have been dead."

"You were afraid of her," Klaus nearly growled, "you were afraid of her so you locked her away and cut off her connection to that which would make her hole. In so doing you created a weak imitation of what she was meant to be. Five thousand years of mourning for something she'd never had but always knew she'd needed. You ruined her."

"Niklaus," Elijah said, laying a hand on his brother's back, a shallow attempt to calm the hybrid - even as the man's eyes flashed with the yellow of the wolf and veins appeared under his eyes. Seeing this, Elijah's voice sharpened. "Niklaus!"

"Isolde is not ruined, Niklaus." Finn spoke for the first time, his voice cracking like a whip over them all.

"She is depressed," Klaus was fully growling now, his voice rising as his wrath climbed. He stood from his chair and grew more aggravated by the moment, "I've seen some of the poetry she writes. It is grief, and mourning. It is anger and pain and an all encompassing sorrow I have rarely seen in all my years. So well done, Pharaoh. If your intent was to cripple her so she could not stand against you then you did so quite well." The last words ripped out of him with such raw intensity that Theon knew Klaus wasn't only angry about the injustices Isolde had endured.

The hybrid was describing himself. He perceived Isolde's suffering through the lens of his own - and he wasn't wrong to do so. But his righteous anger would not serve him.

(In the background, Theon could hear Rebkeah and Freya:

"How is she not hearing this?" Rebekah asked her elder sister.

Freya looked toward the door that led to the cockpit. "There's a silencing spell on the door."

"I don't know if I should call Theon and Emeric clever or foolish.

"Foolish, certainly." Freya said.)

"Do you want to hear that you are right, Klaus Mikaelson?" Emeric began, remaining ever the calm, cool, and stoic King. A picture of serenity in his seat. Theon knew that it was a bluff. "I was afraid. You would be too. I made a decision to protect my realm from a perceived threat. One that had already ripped through a quarter of my number and had come for me."

"Justify it as you will," Elijah interjected one of his hands still on Klaus' arm - keeping Klaus from moving closer to Emeric, "you destroyed your sister's life out of fear for what she would become. Or was it that she could one day take what you'd grown to perceive as your own?"

"What I did to Isolde is unjustifiable, and my deepest regret." Emeric stated. "I did not lock her away out of some claim to the power I had amassed. I thought I was right to do it, to protect the realm. And I held onto my anger for fifteen hundred years until the moment I saw her step off the boat she returned on."

"What changed?" Kol asked. He'd carefully edged away from Klaus. Theon figured Kol didn't want to be too close in case his volatile brother wrenched away from Elijah and actually tried to attack Emeric. Such action would not go well for the hybrid. Or anyone else on the jet, for that matter.

A slight frown did form on Emeric's face at that question. The only hint at the King's very real guilt and culpability. "I had expected she would be furious with me. That she would've plotted every avenue of revenge to enact against me as soon as she returned…"

Theon decided he would interrupt. This memory was painful for them all but none more than the eldest. "... I told you her mind was sundered," he began, "what I neglected to say is that she was like an empty husk. Literal skin and bones. Flesh stretched over a mere skeleton. She couldn't form a single word - let alone an entire sentence. There were no revenge plots. She was incapable of coherent thought. Her brain had seemingly shut down and we didn't know for how long. It took decades before she could speak at all."

"... and we held that feast in her honor. She had grown healthier, stronger, but still she did not speak. When she saw what I had done. Subjugating the remaining Hebrew people…"

"It was the first time she'd reacted to anything since Vera and I freed her from the tomb. She ripped through the nobility with power we'd never before seen. Still unable to speak. Silent. Lethal. Like a wraith."

"But you were not afraid of this new power?" Finn questioned, his face pinced. He looked quite troubled by all this information and Theon hoped that he and Emeric weren't undoing all the progress Isolde had made with the eldest brother in the last day. "You did not entomb her once again?

Emeric shook his head, meeting Finn's eyes. "The new power was frightening, but I could not repeat the same mistake. Isolde tore part of Egypt apart that night. I did not pursue retribution. I rebuilt the ruin of the city - and I doubled down on my efforts to reconcile with my sister."

"A shallow means of apology for the deep wrong you committed." Klaus said, but the veins of his hybrid face faded and he took his seat beside Elijah.

Without warning it was like all of the air was sucked out of the jet and Emeric's face transformed from stoic to enraged. His eyes became a shockingly vibrant red. Veins appeared at his throat and he seemed to swell in size. Muscles expanded. Limbs elongated a few inches.

Theon sat back, grabbing another cigarette from where Emeric had tossed the pack, lighting it and taking a long, exaggerated drag. It was time, then, for Emeric to teach the Mikaleson's why he was not the one to underestimate. They'd not censored themselves at all during their conversation. They should've chosen their words more wisely.

"Well." Theon said, mostly to himself. "Here we go, then."

"So much to say," Emeric's voice was even deeper, more growly and dark than it had been. Theon knew the Mikaelsons would find themselves unable to move while Emeric was pulling on the power of the berserker, "like a pup who can't stop from whinging. A means to cover how you tremble in fear of everything around you."

Emeric took his time, reaching over for his own cigarette. Lighting it. Taking a slow drag.

"You are the unhealthy King, Klaus. An unpleasant mix of the tyrant and the weakling." Emeric stated, never looking away from the hybrid. "Plagued by narcissism, you really do think that you are at the center of the universe. You wrongly believe that power is finite. But you do know the truth– that power and influence actually increase the more you share it with others. Yet you don't bring others to your cause because you expect them to fall in line without earning their respect. Thus the burden of maintaining your fragile illusion of absolute power makes you very insecure; any threat to your authority and supremacy enrages you and causes you to lash out with abuse–physically, emotionally, or mentally."

Emeric paused, his eyes scanning Klaus as the hybrid strained–trying to no avail to break the berserker's power over him. "When you're not viewing others as a threat and putting them in their place, you see them as objects to exploit for your own gain; you are willing to push your friends and family under the bus in order to further your goals."

"As I said, you're also a weakling." Emeric ashed into the near tray. "A man who was abused as a child, and when you grew into your power as a vampire you relished the opportunity to turn the tables and become the bully. But even in a position of power, your insecurity gets the best of you; you become paranoid that people are out to get you–and they often are because you're cruel to them. Your paranoia leads you to become even more controlling and cruel. The weakling and tyrant work in tandem with each other. It's very rare that a man is ruled by one and not the other."

Emeric took another long drag of his cigarette before leveling a look at Klaus that Theon had seen men of varying degrees of power collapse under. Yet Klaus held strong as he tried to break the hold. He would fail, Theon knew. Because even Theon couldn't break Emeric's hold when under it.

"Underneath every blustering tyrant is a scared weakling. And underneath every cowering weakling is a tyrant waiting to explode." Emeric concluded, shifting his gaze to Elijah.

"The Lover." Emeric's gaze pinned Elijah, who was struggling against the King's hold almost as valiantly as Klaus. "Quiet, reserved and generally speaking only when you need to, yet completely attuned to what's going on around you. A family man, operating from a place of deep emotion and understanding. Your deeper feelings of giving and receiving love as a measure of unity and completeness steer you, and you possess wisdom, emotion, and empathy which makes you an excellent compliment to Klaus. It's clear why you're second highest in the pecking order."

Emeric's analytical eyes raked over Elijah's form, another drag of his cigarette. "But you too are unhealthy–the addicted lover. Constantly searching for something which will make you feel alive and energized. This leads you to enable your brother's bad behavior. You look at people and see them as projects– what they could be, instead of who they are and your idea of them is the way you treat them. When they ultimately fail to live up to such lofty expectations you lose your interest and abandon your cause. The Strix is a prime example of that. You are fortunate I did not come after you for scampering off after your next project and leaving them to rot. You'd shown promise when you created them," Emeric stamped out his cigarette and sat forward in his chair. "I had hope for you. I thought 'finally– one of them is stepping into his role.' You disappointed me."

Elijah looked like he'd been punched in the gut.

"The Magician," Emeric leveled his gaze at Kol now, the youngest brother hadn't strained against Emeric's power but his eyes had been lit with fire and fury. Theon could only guess that Kol had been waiting for his own assessment. "Arguably the most playful and underappreciated of your family." At this, there was a faint shift in the way Kol's eyes bore into Emeric. A subtle appreciation for the acknowledgement.

"Driven by the limitlessness of your imagination. A knower of the unknown, seer of the unseen, keeper of secrets, and weaver of narrative. You tinker with alchemy and mystery beyond the realm of regular folks, you commit your life to explore your curiosity and sense of wonder. You are an eternal student of whatever craft interests you, but never an absolute master. You sit at the precipice of logic and emotion, fantasy and reality, and empathy and intelligence."

"Promising indeed, but you're controlled by the shadow of your archetype." Emeric allowed the other shoe to drop–because this character assessment was not meant to praise any of the Mikaelson brothers. A thousand years of annoyance and disappointment would not be undone by their new connection to Isolde. "The manipulative and innocent trickster. You create and relish chaos for the sheer sake of it. Spoiled, entitled, trapped in a boyhood state. You lack the confidence to reach your full potential and you tolerate being the underdog. That you haven't gotten what you so desire– attention and acknowledgement– has led you to lash out in ways that you think would gain it for you. It hasn't worked, and yet you continue to exhibit the same behavior. You could stand to learn much from Theon." Emeric swiped a hand in Theo's direction. "He is a prime example of the healthy Magician archetype."

When Emeric's eyes slid to Finn, he smiled. It was the first time during this whole flight that Emeric had smiled at someone and Theon marveled that Emeric actually liked one of the Mikaelsons.

"The Warrior," Emeric began, "I've seen it since the moment you entered my vision–steadily beside my sister. Unwavering. The warrior is never complacent. Always watching, observing, studying, and calculating situations and your environment. You've not looked for short cuts or quick exits as this conversation has fluctuated. You've endured the struggle knowing that it might yield a positive outcome in the end. Through firm but fair guiding hands, you can appear to be aloof and unavailable– which has likely been a cause for contention between you and your brothers."

"Like your brothers, you are also unhealthy." Emeric continued his assessment, once again not simply telling a Mikaleson the things that he approved of– but their issues as well. "A placid pushover. The Masochist. One who projects warrior energy onto others thus causing you to experience yourself as powerless. Unable to defend yourself psychologically, you allow others (and yourself) to push you around, to exceed the limits of what you can tolerate and still keep your self-respect… You should have overthrown your father after he'd become old, decrepit, ineffective, harsh, and corrupt. It would've been the step to take so you could restore peace and fairness to your family. Vampirism robbed you of that. In the adjustment period, where I believe you would've come into your own, you were again robbed of your opportunity to do so– locked away against your will."

"I bring attention to all of your insecurities not to hurt or demoralize you." Emeric's gaze snapped to all the brothers, one by one. "I do so in the hope that you will realize these things about yourself and work to conquer your demons, to become the healthiest version of yourselves. And I admit this is self-serving, because if you are healthy Isolde will thrive."

"Anything you'd like to reprimand me for?" Freya cut through the fog of Emeric's long winded reprisal, drawing attention to herself and Rebekah with anger evident on her face. She stood fluidly, with confidence as she shortened the distance between herself and Emeric. Stopping only a foot from where he sat. Her fingers lifted– magic cutting through the berserkers fog until all of her brothers sagged and gasped, released. "So quick with the judgment of my brothers. Pointing out painful insecurities with little regard for their millenia of suffering. Perhaps you'd best turn such malicious sentiments to me, instead. I will not suffer anymore from this ridiculous posturing. I've allowed it long enough."

Emeric's smile widened, and he pointed at Freya. "And that, sons of Mikal, is what you've been missing. The reason you've all become so very unhealthy. You've been missing your eldest sibling - your staunchest defender. Your shield. The one who would have never allowed your parents' machinations to reach you." Emeric stood, meeting Freya's angry stare with a warm look of his own. "My reprimand is not meant for you, my dear. You had little control over your circumstance and for that, you have my deepest apologies, and my aid in bringing justice to Dahlia, should you require it."

'Well,' Theon thought, 'at least nobody blew a hole in the jet– yet anyway.'

Note: Much of Emeric's character assessment was brought to you by the male archetypes section of creative screenwriting dot com and various other articles I shifted through while trying to put this chapter together. We're not even done with this– the chapter was just getting too long to not split. So more of the Emeric/Mikaelson showdown in chapter 29. Emeric is not yet finished, and the Mikaelson's actually get a chance to speak before the plane lands.