It's a holiday so I was able to bust this one out today. Been a minute since we've heard from our boys and Sol.

-42-

Kol

Kol came to, sitting up with a gasp and a low growl. He surged to his feet, ignoring his still dreaming brothers and set off in the direction of Isolde's scent.

Anubis' memories were almost too much. Kol's anxiety was spiking again and he needed to see Isolde. Kol had a feeling his brothers would have the same inclination when they rose, too. Especially after watching the sequence of events that lead to Isolde's imprisonment and the ruthless banishment and subsequent deaths of her children.

She didn't know. That much was clear. There was no universe under which she would have forgiven Emeric, Theon, and Vera to the point where they could be as close as they are if she knew the full truth. Anubis must be planning to tell her. Telling Kol and his brothers may have been Anubis' way of getting them prepared for the inevitable fallout of forty five hundred years of deception.

Problems kept mounting, Kol realized. From the day he first laid eyes on Isolde everything had begun to change so bloody fast that even he struggled to keep up with it. Every time he thought he had a grasp on something it turned out that he was wrong and it turned to dust in his hand.

The twists of this tale seemed never ending.

He felt as if he'd come into a story that had already been completed. That their meeting at the manor had been like the first chapter after an epilogue had already been written.

How much more could Isolde suffer?

Kol didn't know.

And he didn't want her to suffer more than she already had. She was his. He'd vowed to himself when they met that he would protect her. He hadn't realized then how much had been done to her long ago, how much he was too late to aid her with. A part of him agonized over this.

To learn now that he'd chosen her long ago, chosen to walk this path, and in so doing he'd forsaken the one that had been laid out before him, it didn't change anything for him.

Anubis had presented a choice. And Kol chose to forge a new destiny. He chose to love Isolde. Learning now that he'd been given the choice did nothing to dull the feelings that had already developed. Kol had fallen irrevocably in love with Isolde. Everything else was background noise.

Her scent led him to a market, and Kol threw the door off its hinges, the glass shattering against the wall and spilling over the floor in his haste to get to her. He glanced along the long rows of groceries before his eyes landed on Isolde. It felt like days since he'd last seen her, in her own form, with that gentle smile that she graced him with now.

"Hi Kol. Welcome to the party." Anubis said, beside someone else that Kol figured was the siphoner who'd been imprisoned here. "A little surprised you're up first. Thought it would be Klaus."

Kol didn't care about what Anubis was saying, he was solely focused on Isolde and closing the distance between them with quick, long strides.

"Single minded determination," he heard Anubis say to the man beside him, "might have to shield your eyes. This won't be PG." The siphoner snickered.

"We could do without the commentary, brother." Isolde tossed Anubis a look just as Kol made it to her and pulled her attention to him with a kiss that bordered on desperation.

Isolde leaned into him and his anxiety receded like an ebbing tide. He clutched her face between his hands as her hands landed on him, one on his hip the other on gripping his shirt in her fist.

He felt her tense, then she drew back with wide eyes and Kol hated the sadness and fear that he saw there when he opened his eyes.

"About the bond… Anubis–"

Kol was already nodding, holding her face in place when she attempted to create further distance between them. "I know. I saw that memory. He asked for consent in the brief time we were all dead during our transition."

Isolde looked miffed for a second and she broke free of his confining grip, much to Kol's dismay, to glare over at her brother. "You didn't tell me that part."

Anubis' hands went up and he adopted a rueful grin. "I can't believe you thought I didn't ask."

Isolde deflated in an instant. It was interesting to watch this dynamic between them, now. It seemed that five thousand years apart did nothing to dull the bond between the twins, and that Isolde was still the more dominant twin. Kol was both glad to see Isolde reunited with her brother and annoyed that Anubis was pulling her attention away from him. Another contender for his mate's affections.

Anubis caught Kol's eye just as that thought flickered through his mind and the elder immortal's jaw twitched just slightly, eyes narrowed for just a moment. Kol had the good sense to control his facial expression, then.

From all Kol had seen of the gods' memories, Anubis seemed to be a different ball game entirely from Emeric. Smarter. More ruthless. Cared for no one but his sister. After witnessing their childhood Kol had a sense of why, too. He understood.

But that made Anubis more dangerous than the other Alexanders. Because the god would burn the world to bits for no other reason than because he wanted to. All that held him back was Isolde. And Kol was more cautious when it came to things that could end his life than, say, Nik.

Emeric held back. Emeric cared for the prestige of his throne at the helm of the world stage and the power that came with it, and he worked diligently to maintain the status quo. Anubis didn't care about power. He didn't care about anything but Isolde.

Having Kol and his brothers in Isolde's life made her realize there was more yet to live for. She'd been ready to die, planned it, intended to go through with it. Their presence in her life was helping her to see through that lonely tunnel and clear the fog of depression that had descended over her for millenia. They were a better path for her, just as she was a better path for them.

That was the only reason Anubis wanted them around. Much like Emeric had claimed to Kol and Nik a few hours ago, but to a higher intensity. Kol would make sure he didn't forget that.

"Not exactly. I do like you and your brothers." Anubis spoke with a grin that was half menacing and half welcoming in a way that was terrifying. "Of course, if you fuck up and undo all the good work you've done then you'll be seeing my throne again, I've made quite a few upgrades in the last thousand years."

Kol tried to control the jaw drop. He hadn't spoken aloud.

"Oh you don't need to, I can hear you," Anubis waved a flippant hand, then pointed his index finger at his eyes, "well, see you, rather. Window to the soul and all that. I can see everything. Sometimes that translates from video to audio, especially if the thoughts are strong. But enough of that. Mune, habib albi, it's nearly time."

The effect Anubis' words had on Isolde was immediate and Kol watched her jaw clench as Elijah walked calmly through the doorless entry. His brother looked well put together, despite all the dust and dirt that caked his suit and the pain he'd been in not long ago.

When Isolde saw him she spun around, some of the stress he'd seen on her face evaporated and she left Kol's side to meet Elijah halfway. Elijah drew her into a tight embrace and Kol was surprised to note that he wasn't at all jealous. Contrarily, he was relieved to see that Elijah wasn't upset over Anubis' meddling.

"I wouldn't say that he's not upset. He's just choosing his battles and knows better than to look this gift horse in its mouth." Anubis said, and Kol looked over at the elder immortal. He didn't think he'd get used to his thoughts being so easily known. Anubis shrugged at him. "Nothing that goes through your pretty head will be new to me. Don't worry about it."

Kol thought that he would, in fact, worry about it.

Elijah

Elijah woke angry. He strode toward Isolde and Kol's scents angry. He walked into the grocery store angry. He did his best to keep up his calm façade, however, because he wasn't angry with Isolde. He was upset with her heartless, conniving siblings. The eldest and the youngest, especially.

In fact, some of his anger subsided when she spun toward him and moved to close the distance between them. He swept her up into his arms the instant she was close enough, breathing in the scent of her hair. It helped to quell some of the rage that boiled inside of him. Faded the stress of being jabbed with that toxin.

"Are you okay?" She asked, her voice muffled by his shoulder, drawing away to run frantic eyes all over him. "I'm so sorry I didn't notice Gaius in time to stop him."

"I'm fine," he almost said 'the twins saved me' and stopped himself before the words formed, he would not grant Theon or Vera any credit, instead, he pressed a kiss to the top of her head, "and you killed Gaius. All is well."

"If your sister has four boyfriends does that mean we get to add three more for us or…?" Elijah heard from the man beside Anubis. Presumably Malachai Parker.

Anubis laughed heartily, eyes glittering. Actually glittering, some kind of trick of the light, Elijah wondered? "I can make that happen, if that's something we want."

"Please don't add any more to our ménage." Kol said offhandedly as Elijah pulled slightly away from Isolde. "It's enough to share with each other. A newcomer that is not a Mikaelson would be unacceptable. We will kill them."

Elijah agreed. He just wouldn't have said it aloud.

Anubis snorted and rolled his eyes, passing Kol and striding up toward Isolde. "No others could possibly be a good enough match. The four of you are enough." He laid his hands on Isolde's shoulders and looked her in the eyes. "There is more to say, but I cannot say it until I am in my own body and can aid you in the way you require."

Elijah knew that Anubis meant that he couldn't yet tell Isolde the truth about their siblings' betrayal. He had half a mind to tell her himself, but held back. Because Anubis had a point. Without him they'd struggle to bring Emeric, Theon, and Vera to justice.

The god of the underworld needed to be in his own body.

"You know where his body is?" Elijah looked between the twins.

"Marcus mentioned that Isolde hid Anubis' body well, and that was why he settled for Ren's for his toxin." Finn said as he entered the grocery store, not pausing until he reached the group. He placed one hand on the middle of Isolde's back and smiled down at her. "Are you well?"

"Are you?" Isolde asked, turning fully to Finn to give him a hug, too. Finn's gaze softened and he nodded as she pulled away and looked back at Elijah to answer his question. "I know where Bis' body is. The only thing is that unlike this–" she gestured all around, "-prison that doesn't look like one, I stashed Bis in an actual tomb."

"Fantastic," Niklaus' sarcastic tone reached them before he did, glass crunching under his boots as he passed through the doorway and came to a stop, arms folded over his chest as he leaned back against a register that was a few yards away from them, "where is the tomb located?"

His distance didn't go unnoticed. Elijah watched Isolde shut down her expressions in a split second and his heart sunk.

Elijah couldn't know what was going on in Niklaus' head, but having known his brother as long as he had, Elijah could guess that Niklaus wasn't too keen on having made a life altering decision under duress in the underworld. That, or he simply needed time to wrap his head around how quickly things just changed. Without talking to him, Elijah wasn't certain.

What was certain, was that Niklaus' behavior was hurting Isolde, and Isolde didn't do anything wrong.

Anubis' lips pressed into a thin line and his eyes narrowed. Niklaus gazed back at him challengingly. Elijah's shoulder's tightened and he tensed to jump between them.

"Your body language is deceptive, Klaus. For once, allow actions to mirror your thoughts." Anubis said, pulling Isolde back by her arms and away from Finn, Elijah, and Klaus until she was behind him, flanked by Kol and Malachai. A line seemed to be drawn between Anubis and Niklaus, and Elijah wasn't so certain what exactly the line was.

"Anubis, leave him alone." Isolde's voice cracked like a whip, sounding more low and gravely than Elijah had heard it, even when she'd told Rebekah and Freya off. Anubis opened his mouth to retort and Isolde pushed forward. "I said leave him be."

"I don't understand." Anubis' jaw clenched and his eyes were wide. "Why are you upset with me?" Elijah pulled his feelings back to observe this interaction. The panic in Anubis' eyes.

Isolde walked around until she was standing in front of her twin, now her hands came to rest upon his shoulders and her stern look became gentle in a moment.

"I'm not upset," Elijah watched some of the tension that had coiled in Anubis unfurl, "I want you to understand that you can't make people say what's on their mind and you can't force them to behave in certain ways because that's what you want them to do."

"But its fucking stupid to–" Anubis' arms flailed by his head.

"Anubis." Isolde said sharply and Anubis stopped talking immediately, dropping his arms with a huff. "Free will."

He sighed with his entire body. "You sound like that prick Yahweh. You don't even like Yahweh."

Isolde was nodding. "Because he's a selfish douchebag who floods the planet when he's mad because people exercise their free will." Isolde's brows raised pointedly. "Don't be like him."

Anubis grumbled, but deflated, "-fine. Free will."

Isolde nodded once and turned around to look back at Niklaus, who had been watching the exchange with a detached expression. "The tomb is in Alexandria. I built my first underground estate there, and placed Bis beneath that. Then, millennia later, I built the Library of Alexandria atop my estate. Then the library burned. There's a lot of ruin to shift through before I can get to my tunnels. Then all the traps I set up to protect Bis' sarcophagus from looters, and later the British. It shouldn't take long to get through– so long as I can keep my head in the present. Which reminds me, Mikaelsons, this is Kai. He's my new best friend and Bis' soul bond."

"We're best friends?" Kai's grin stretched his whole face and he danced in a circle before closing the distance between him and Isolde. "Wait, Kai, play it cool." He adjusted his jacket and dropped his smile. "I've never had a best friend."

Manipulative. Malachai was manipulative, Elijah decided, watching Isolde's expression soften and she reached up to pat Malachai on the head. "I'm keeping you." The siphoner grinned again and bounced on the heels of his shoes.

"Soul bond. Did you manipulate your own as well?" Niklaus quipped sarcastically, glaring at Anubis.

Kai whistled low, brows raised. "Wow you're not smart," the youngest person in the room looked around at everyone before looking back at Niklaus, pointing his thumb over his shoulder at Anubis, "he's a God. Big 'G' God. He doesn't have to manipulate anything; he can damn well do what he pleases without asking." Kai turned to Anubis with raised brows. "I can't believe you just let him say that to you."

"Oh there is much swirling about in Niklaus' head he's unwilling to say at the moment. He's trying to process and he's unsure whether he should be angry or grateful and it's making him lash out. I'm unconcerned by the whining of an indecisive pup who has a history of sabotaging what good comes into his life." Anubis turned to look at Niklaus, whose lips were pursed and eyes narrowed. Ignoring Isolde's quelling look, he proceeded to address the rest of the brothers and ignored Niklaus. "I'd like to speak to the four of you alone before I take my leave. My time in this form is at an end."

Elijah watched Isolde tense again.

Isolde

Anubis had to go soon.

Isolde wasn't happy about it. But knowing that she could have him back permanently soon enough was a balm on the agony in her heart at the thought of losing him again. She reached her arms out for him just as Bis turned with his own arms out, locking together in a tight embrace.

"Sawf arak qariban habibi." Bis whispered, squeezing a little harder.

Her throat grew sore and tears stung her eyes. "'Ana 'akrah 'anak satughadiru."

Bis tisked, lightly smacking her upper back. "Ana dayiman hunak li'ajlik."

She stood by in solemn silence as her brother strode toward the exit, waving her bonds along to have their private discussion. Isolde wasn't too worried about it, unlike with Theo and Emeric. Perhaps she would have been had she not already learned about Bis' interference with the bonds, but knowing he'd vetted them himself and found them worthy helped ease her mind.

Perhaps it made her a bad person, that the only concern she had for Anubis' meddling in the Mikaelson's affairs was what their reaction would be to it. Indeed she was glad for her bonds, she cared for each of them in myriad ways. It hadn't yet been a fortnight and she couldn't imagine what life would be like without them, now.

But that didn't mean she would force them to stay if they wanted to go.

"So what do best friends do?" Kai bounced on his heels beside her, and Isolde startled out of her compilation. "I really haven't had one before. Family called me an abomination. Wouldn't let me out much."

"I feel that. My family locked me away for fifteen hundred years." Isolde said offhandedly, going back to the shelves looking for food, lifting a bag of chips with a nostalgic smile. "Seriously I haven't seen this packaging in forever. Ah, the nineties."

"I want to see the new packaging," Kai began, taking the chips out of her hands and ripping the bag open, shoving a handful into his mouth before speaking again, "why fifteen hundred years?"

Isolde just shrugged, digging into the bag in his hands. He tilted it toward her to save her wrist from the awkward angle.

"It was supposed to be much longer. I guess my little siblings felt guilty and a couple of my people had finally tracked me down so my release just worked out at that time."

Kai swallowed his mouthful just as Isolde started her handful, one at a time. "Ew. Emotions–" he threw another handful into his mouth, following Isolde around as she kept browsing, "what did you do?"

Isolde frowned deeply, pulling a bag of beef jerky off a new shelf. "Killed a lot of people."

"Like fifty?" He swallowed again, eying her critically when she shook her head. "A hundred." His eyes widened with glee when she shook her head again. "Oh sweet mother of Christ. A thousand?" He sounded absolutely awe struck.

"Thousands." Isolde told him in a quiet voice, stressing that it was plural, taking one piece of beef jerky out of the package.

"Awesome." He threw the chip bag and plucked the jerky out of her hands, proceeding to eat that. "What did they do?"

"Nothing. They did nothing," she was looking at the slice of dried meat she held in between her fingers, suddenly not at all hungry, "they lived in a moment when I was angry and the many paid a great price for the crimes of a few."

She held out the piece of jerky to Kai and he plucked it right out of her hands with a smile.

"Thank you!" He tore half of it with his teeth and started chewing before responding. "So why are you upset about it?"

Isolde just blinked at him. He shrugged, eating the rest of the food in his hand and placed the bag back on the shelf. "You're a 'capital G' God, right? People, humans, we are inconsequential to you. If your family hadn't locked you up for it then would anyone else have?" He paused while Isolde contemplated this, nodding at her when she stayed silent. "The answer is no, isn't it? Why did they put you away? You said earlier that Yahweh flooded the world. I bet nobody locked him up. What other genocides have been committed by deities and they haven't suffered any consequences? Doesn't make sense if you ask me."

Isolde's lips thinned, brows snapped together. She'd never thought about it like that.

Kai sighed heavily, reaching an arm out and making a grabby motion with his hand. "C'mon best friend, no offense but you look like hell. You need a shower. We can break out of jail tomorrow."

"So you're really just going to step right into this chaos without a backwards glance, aren't you?" Isolde asked, eying him even as she took his hand. She felt some of her magic seep out of her body and into his.

Kai grinned, pulling her along toward the back of the market. "Pretty much, yeah."

"Okay." Isolde's gaze softened. She really did like Kai, and he seemed a good fit for Anubis. He reminded her of her brother in many ways. "So where are we going?"

"My house." He looked over at her with a cheeky grin. "We can stay up late and talk about boys, I'm pretty sure that's what my siblings used to do with their friends before I stabbed them to death– my siblings not their friends."

That tricked an astonished laugh out of her.

"Did you just laugh at that?" Kai was still grinning. "You're fucked up."

"Oh you have no idea."

Anubis

He was already beginning to fade when he decided they'd gone far enough from his sister to have a short conversation. Anubis turned to look at the four brothers who'd been trailing behind him silently as night fell around them.

"I didn't tell her about the twins–not until I'm in my own body. The fall out of Mune learning that information has the potential to sunder this planet, she won't be alright in the aftermath if she rips the planet apart in her rage. She doesn't do well with guilt."

"That much is clear, she's been living in anguish over Egypt for forty five hundred years because she murdered innocents. To learn the truth…" Elijah trailed off.

"It was by design. I didn't have enough time to share every relevant memory so I only shared the most important ones. Amunet was put in many positions where she would suffer, through her own choices and through the choices of others. This was the intent of the four." Anubis informed them.

"Pardon?" Finn asked, his face pinched with rage his brothers seemed astonished to see.

"'If Amun Ra is to be a voice for the voiceless, she must scream until she knows their pain.' Father said this to me. He said this to Horus when we were born. Set and Nephthys passed this message to Thoth and Ma'at before they reached adulthood. None of them see Mune for who she is, only what she must become in order to rise as the god of gods. In creating further strife for her as some kind of wicked 'character building' scheme, they dragged her down to a point that made her susceptible to Apophis' influence. She was nearly overtaken in the tomb. None of this excuses Thoth's hit on Harim, that was purely his own self-interest. Nor does it excuse Horus' banishment of our nieces and nephews. They didn't have the right to do anything they've done, and they know it. Tell me, were they afraid when they realized it was me inside our sister?"

"Terrified." Kol confessed, leaning against a tree.

Anubis' smile was vicious. "They know that I know, and they fear what I will do, but it is not me they should fear. The second the light of Ra touches Mune when I am no longer holding her back she will ascend." His body began to fade faster and he sighed heavily. It hadn't been enough time. "I leave you with this; You have no idea how easily she could end everything after merging with Ra, should she choose to. As I said, she will need me. I'll be the only one who can stop her from destroying it all. Don't let her reunite with the others; they'll do whatever they can to stop her from putting me back in my body; including putting her back in a tomb. Utilize Kai's magic; get out of here. Tell her to push, go straight to Alexandria. It'll be easy to convince Mune, that's what she wants to do anyway."

The last thing Anubis saw was Niklaus turning on his heel and stalking back toward the market.

We've got Klaus and Finn's reactions next.