Sorry, y'all. House of the Dragon hijacked my brain and then my ambition/inspiration packed their bags and took a vacation without consulting me. I had to reread to refamiliarize myself with FSO after several months off from writing it. My writing style changed (simproved/s) when I went over to HotD so you'll see that shift here in FSO. Sorry if that's jarring this close to the end! This way is a lot easier on me than the old way was.

Chapter 48 will be the last in the prison world (then things are gonna get real fucky, real fast) and then we've got about 10 to go (outlines are done) so I've set this at 47/57 chapters. 57 being the epilogue. I'm sad but excited to get to the end of this tale!

-47-

Niklaus

"Finn, a word?" Klaus called out to his eldest brother after Kol fled the scene of what may become a murder, should Malachai Parker continue grating on Klaus' nerves.

The eldest arched his brow and turned his attention from Malachai's spectacle–the boy was clattering pans and tossing ingredients together with ridiculous, unnecessary, flare and it briefly reminded him of Marcel as a boy. Klaus forced himself to ignore the pang in his chest at the thought–to stare at Klaus from down the bar.

Finn wasn't going to make anything easy on him, Klaus knew, but an olive branch needed to be extended if they were ever to get along for the sake of their shared bond.

His family had always been strongest when united. He wished to see them hail and whole, wished to see Anubis' pretty visions of the Mikaelson's future come to fruition; the peace they could one day have together.

It would be all Klaus had ever truly wanted. Love, acceptance, and his family by his side. All things he'd been denied since boyhood. These long, lonely years would finally be behind him.

And it was all within his grasp now.

Should they make it through the trials and tribulations of the coming days, of course.

Klaus' confidence waned in that regard, realizing how right he was about the nature of their adversaries. Gods, after all. Gods, legions of every supernatural entity Klaus hadn't had a clue existed, and a destruction deity just for the laughs. It was enough to make even his head spin.

But Klaus had ever been a fighter and a protector, so he would fight.

He would protect.

Thus, a true apology had to be made. A truce reached.

"The patio?" Finn asked, grasping their bottle of amber heaven in his hand as he slipped off the barstool. Klaus nodded and followed him out, ignoring Malachai's protests from the kitchen.

They settled into two of the metal patio chairs and stared out to the illuminated cobblestone street. Whether this town was based on a real place or not it was quaint and picturesque. It reminded him of a small town in France he'd enjoyed in the fourteenth century. Klaus had been in worse prisons than this. Finn had been left in a box for nine hundred years, so his prison hadn't a sliver of light at all. Parker was fortunate indeed.

Klaus refrained from saying any of this to his elder brother, who was staring at the glass whiskey he twirled against their table. Finn had leaned back in his chair, a picture of cool nonchalance. As if he went for drinks with his volatile younger half-brother every weekend.

As if he wasn't still angry beyond measure.

"You were pretentious and dull." Klaus said, filling the silence of the night with something he'd never wished to admit, and Finn's dark eyes raised to pin him with a lethal glare. One that he'd never thought Finn capable of. Recent observations aside. "Beyond that, your control and ability to remain true to the morals you'd held as a mortal whilst condemning the rest of us had grated for a few decades too long. For the time it took to find you after having been daggered, I'd realized that things were less stressful with you out of the picture. We did not have to suffer your condescending quips and disgusted, judgmental glares. So we left you in the box because it was freedom for us–for me. "

"Jealousy and resentment are what kept me in that box for nine centuries?" Finn was as still now as he had been in the box and Klaus' stare bored directly into Finn's, who's only tell that gave away his changing mood was the jolt in his jaw when he clenched it.

And the way Finn's fingers were slowly warping the metal arms of the chair they rested on.

"The more I think about it the less justified it seems, especially now." Klaus admitted, crossing his legs. "Of course back then we were simply glad to do as we pleased without you there to make us feel like monsters."

"You were monsters." Finn hissed through clenched teeth. Standing in his outrage, Klaus had to stand as well, not to be taken by surprise if Finn were to press an attack. "Are, really, and will continue to be. My morals and my attitude are not good enough reasons for stealing nine centuries of my life. You've robbed me of all but the barest sliver of my life–and your reasoning…" Finn trailed off, the metal arm he clutched giving under the oppressive grip he held it in. Klaus watched him take a few breaths, once again proving that Finn was in control of himself in a way the rest of the family could only hope to be.

"My actions are unjustifiable. As I said the other day at the end of our discussion in New Orleans. All I can do is apologize. I cannot change what has been done."

Klaus hoped it was good enough because he was out of ideas on how to appease Finn. The rest would have to be done over time.

He watched Finn's jaw clench a few more times before, to Klaus' surprise, the elder brother nodded, retaking his seat.

Isolde

After an exhausted Kol had fallen asleep under the stars, Isolde had slipped away in search of Klaus and Finn. She still needed to talk to Finn, and at this point she was certain he thought she was avoiding him. There was also an urge deep in her chest that had her hoping to speak with Klaus one on one again, now that she'd learned he'd lost his adoptive son.

Isolde understood what it was like to lose a child. To murder no less.

At least it wasn't her own sibling that had done the deed, in her case. Kol had killed Marcel.

Isolde found her missing men seated on a lit patio just outside a small bar in the otherwise vacant town. She approached slowly, giving them time to notice her before she smoothed one hand over Klaus' back and slipped the other over Finn's shoulder.

"I'm surprised Kol and Elijah let you slip away." Klaus was the first to acknowledge her. Naturally he did so with a sarcastic quip and she smiled at him when he glanced up at her just as Finn was laying his hand over hers and giving her fingers a light squeeze in greeting. The move was comforting, it sent a jolt of fondness through her and she squeezed his shoulder back.

"Hard to stop me when they're both passed out cold." Isolde told him. "Am I interrupting?"

She asked because there was an aura about the two that told her something had been said between them before she showed up. If they needed time to hash through some of their differences she didn't want to intrude on their time together.

"Not at all, we were just enjoying the quiet night." Finn said, his words were followed by a loud clattering from inside the bar and Finn's eyes closed, his jaw jumped, and when he spoke again his words were clipped. "In intervals. When Malachai Parker is not disturbing the peace."

"He's decided we need to participate in a bonding activity." Klaus' tone was enough to tell Isolde how he felt about that.

"Hm." Isolde said, failing to control the way she smirked at the hybrid. "Well I'd like to rescue you both but I'm under the impression everyone wants some one on one time with me so I can only save one of you for now."

There. She'd left the choice up to them. That way it didn't seem she was choosing a favorite of the two.

They both opened their mouths, but it was Klaus who spoke first. "I recall Finn asked to speak with you before everything went sideways in New Orleans. I'll not be sleeping tonight–" Klaus' gaze shifted to where Kai was doing something inside the bar, and Isolde understood why he'd opt to remain awake when they were in the domain of someone as dangerous as Kai.

Finn leveled a gaze at his brother and something passed between the two that Isolde could not name before he nodded once, clapping Klaus on the back. It was a very masculine 'I'm acknowledging you without acknowledging any feelings because I'm macho' move. Isolde's hand fell away from Klaus as she moved to give Finn room, hiding her amusement.

"I'll see you soon then, try not to kill Kai." Isolde said, leaning forward to press a kiss to the top of Klaus' head. He stared straight ahead as if he was unfazed by this but she could feel the way the tension eased from him before she pulled back.

"A near impossible task, but I shall try."

Finn

They'd opted to walk hand in hand down the empty streets. Privacy was a privilege they'd not had since the night his mother died and Finn was glad for it now. (It was difficult to rationalize that it had been just days ago that he'd lost his mother. These last weeks had been so busy and filled with changes and emotional upheaval that his brain was only just beginning to catch up.) There were many things he needed to speak with Isolde about, most of which he'd prefer his siblings were not privy to.

Niklaus especially. He'd acknowledged the hybrid's apology, but he was far from acceptance and forgiveness.

That would take time. For now, a tentative truce.

"I wonder if the weather is controlled at all times in this world. Seems like a detail Vera would put into her work." Isolde spoke beside him, looking around at the small vine covered houses in the neighborhood they'd meandered into.

At the sound of her sister's name, Finn had to control the anger that sparked within him. This betrayal was one of the topics he wished to discuss but couldn't if he wanted to keep the peace until Anubis could aid them. He didn't want to cause Isolde any more stress than she was already under and a secret like what her twin had shared would surely crush her.

He wished he could protect her from it. But this was something she would have to face. No amount of interference from him or his family could change what her family had done.

"What was it you wanted to speak about? It feels like ages have passed. I'm sorry it took so long to get to you when you were taken. I came as soon as I heard." Isolde told him, her voice barely a whisper above the sounds of the wildlife.

(Offhandedly he wondered if it was truly wildlife he could hear or a trick of the magic that had created this world.)

"Do not fret over me. I was glad for the opportunity to glean information from our enemies." Finn said, then faltered when he opened his mouth to continue on. Now that he had the opportunity to speak to her it was as if his throat had gone dry. How does one bring up their concern for someone's mental state? "My concern has been for you."

Isolde turned her head and looked up at him as they crossed onto a new street, heading away from where the rest of the family were settled for the night.

"I'm not exactly killable so there's no need to worry about me."

"Killable, no, but–" he trailed off, unsure how to say it.

It wasn't necessary, because Isolde understood where he'd been going. She drew a sharp breath and held it for a moment. He knew he caught her off guard when she exhaled slowly and looked up at the sky.

"Every life has a purpose." He didn't know what he expected her to say but it wasn't that. "No matter how small or mundane, there's a purpose."

His foot kicked some gravel and the echo of it clattering down the street was all to break up the silence as he waited for Isolde to continue.

"Mine was evidently written before I was created. It's been five thousand years and I've done what amounts to nothing. I have toiled for the sake of humanity. I have stood against some of the most powerful beings in creation and drawn a line that would not be crossed, only to have that line trampled over, my efforts deflected. I've been abandoned or sent away by those I cared about most, again and again. I have failed to live up to my purpose and honestly, Finn, I… I'm tired. Or I was. I was ready to give up."

She hadn't looked away from the sky during her speech, but she had squeezed his hand in hers. He squeezed back.

"I understand." Finn said as they came upon a small park and Isolde pulled him off the sidewalk and onto the grass, heading straight for a swingset. "If there is purpose to my life I have yet to find it and I, too, have been discarded and abandoned."

He did understand, and he was compelled to elaborate as Isolde dropped onto one of the swings, releasing his hand. He sat in the one beside her and they both began to rock back and forth gently.

Finn was tired as well. It was a bone weary sort of exhaustion, nothing like merely needing to rest. For nine hundred years he'd been in a box whilst the world spun on undeterred. He hadn't mattered to anyone, aside from Sage who was powerless to help him, in all that time. And prior to imprisonment he'd not experienced any fulfillment in his relationships, familial or otherwise.

He said as much to Isolde.

She cocked her head to look at him, a question in her gaze that she verbalized a moment later. "Did you have fulfillment in your relationship with Sage? She came to Mystic Falls for you when you were 'revived.'"

Finn wasn't sure it was the appropriate time for this conversation. But the longer it took to speak to Isolde about these things, the worse it was going to be. Still, he was nearly overtaken by sudden anxiety that settled into his stomach and up to his chest.

Isolde could decide he wasn't worth the trouble after this.

But he had to tell her. It was part of who he was. He couldn't bury it, nor could he hide it.

He swallowed, throat no longer dry but instead over saturated.

"Once turned Sage… she wanted more than I was able to give and it strained our relationship to the point where resentment festered in me, tainting what had once been beautiful." When Isolde's brow knit in confusion, her hand reaching over to gently grip his bicep, he knew he had to say more than that. "It's hard for me to say this, Sage is the only person who's ever known..."

Isolde, as always, gave her understanding little smile and nodded. "Do you want to tell me another time? When you're ready?"

He was ready, but it was difficult because it could change the dynamics of the burgeoning relationship and he didn't want to lose what he was building when he'd only just begun building it.

Only the foundation was laid, and this was like an earthquake that could crumble everything.

"I've never suffered carnal urges like it seems most do." There, he said it. He couldn't look away from her face–searching for any hint of disgust. Isolde's look was carefully neutral, that small understanding smile just a hint at the corners of her mouth and eyes and he was emboldened to continue. May as well, he'd already begun. "It was rare for me to indulge prior to becoming a vampire. After turning it was rarer still. Until Sage. Then I did so contingent upon her whims. It was manageable until she turned. Then she wanted more… and often. And it was beyond my capacity to give as often as she wanted without feeling dirty and used. She came to an arrangement on her own to find her pleasure wherever she could and return to me when the deed was done. That upset me, but I never told her that. I'm of the mind she wouldn't have cared what I felt about it had I said anything."

Isolde's lip twitched into a frown that she covered quickly, schooling her face back into her neutral expression again. That anxious bubble in his stomach tightened further, but now he couldn't stop.

The truth will set you free . He'd heard that somewhere recently. He only hoped it was accurate.

"I wasn't enough." He's never been enough . "My… deficiencies couldn't match her needs and before I was daggered we were close to our breaking point."

"First of all there's nothing deficient about you. Let's change that self-deprecating stance right now. Some people just don't have the urge, or as you said some 'rarely' have the urge. There's nothing wrong with you." Isolde responded when he went quiet, squeezing the bicep she still held in her hand. Finn just stared at her, as the anxiety began to recede and his heart leapt.

"Second, I'm sorry that you went through that. Some relationship boundaries are difficult to define, especially when you're in love with someone and want them to be happy so you sacrifice your own happiness so they can have theirs. But you deserve to be happy, too."

Finn released a shaky breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, emotions he'd been trying to keep down reached the surface as tears stung his eyes. Overwhelmed, he looked away. Still. While seemingly accepting of his preference, that didn't mean it didn't change things between them.

Isolde continued after a moment of silence between them. "I've had my boundaries disrespected as well. In the only two relationships that meant anything in my life. Both relationships ended with a hint of resentment at the end. I don't want that."

"Would you like to talk about it?"

"My last real relationship ended when Emeric ran him through with a lance several hundred years ago for sedition. He'd been using me to get to the family; his goal was to incite a global rebellion against our House and take power for the people. I'm not sure I disagreed with his message, but the method… I don't enjoy being used. Still, even to this day, thinking of Tristan makes me sad. Stories were written about the tragedy of Tristan and Isolde. None of them are accurate so I wouldn't suggest looking into it."

Finn reached his hand up to grasp hers, lacing their fingers and letting both hands dangle between them on the swings. He didn't want to say anything to interrupt her but he hated to think she'd been used in a ploy for power.

He guessed that probably wasn't the only story she had where something like that had happened.

"My first husband found a better match and left," she shrugged as if it didn't matter to her, "that and his devotion to his God overpowered his love for me and his commitment to the family that we had built together in the end. We worked it out eventually but our marriage was terminated for good by the time he returned. I saved him from becoming a pawn of Apophis and keep him in my confidence but Moses knew it would never be the same between us again. I draw the line at infidelity - outside of established parameters. I don't like secrets, either, and Moses kept his close to his chest."

A ripple of unease went through him and Isolde caught his expression.

"I'm aware you're all holding something from me."

Finn, who didn't crack under pressure whilst being tortured, cracked immediately. "Anubis asked us to wait until he could tell you himself."

Isolde smiled at him. "I figured as much. I thought about asking you flat out to tell me what was going on but… I trust my brother has his reasons for wanting to tell me whatever it is himself. Just tell me one thing. Is it bad?" Her smile dropped by the end of her statement and she eyed him with a severe look in her eye that told him she wanted the truth.

He nodded minutely. "It's… it will change many things for you. I want you to know I am here for you in the aftermath of the revelations to come and, as I know it's been a concern of yours in the past, I stand by what I said before. You are not a monster, though you may sometimes do monstrous things. I stand by you. Whatever decisions you make."

He'd stand by her, but he did hope that Anubis could calm her enough after telling her the truth that she wouldn't destroy the world.

Isolde's brows rose up, lips pinched into a deep scowl. "Oh so it's bad bad. I've been betrayed worse that I've already learned, then?"

Finn didn't know how she'd drawn such an accurate conclusion, and was unable to confirm or deny so he settled on a quiet; "I'm sorry."

"Preemptively sorry. Ugh, this is going to bite. I'm so tired of betrayal. Between Marcus and Nailah, potentially Yasu as well. I don't know how much more I can take." She rubbed her free hand over her forehead, kicking the dirt and wood chips beneath her shoe childishly. Isolde looked over at him. "Thanks for warning me."

Silence fell between them once again, and Finn debated whether or not he should intrude on whatever was going on in her mind at the moment by circling back to their conversation about relationships.

After a few more minutes, he did.

He had to know, and needed absolute assurance that he was enough.

And he needed to get her mind off of Anubis' information before she found herself spiraling.

"W-" the words caught in his throat and he swallowed to clear it, turning back to face her again, for better or worse. "Will tonight's revelations about me and my previous relationship affect us going forward?"

Finn didn't think he'd ever felt the way he did at that moment, as he waited for his mate to tell him that either they were better off without a romantic involvement or…

"I'm happy to have learned your boundaries. So long as you're not upset about the time I spend with my other bonds - and if you have a concern you come to me and talk to me about it so we can prevent any issues from arising - I can't see how that would change anything between us. I think it makes us stronger."

Or she accepted him as he was. His stomach swooped in a way he was unused to and the nervous anxiety fell away completely as a genuine smile stretched his features before he could help it.

He loved this woman. For her unflinching loyalty, unfailing kindness, and genuine personality. For her insecurities and vulnerabilities that so matched his. For her confidence and candor, and the way she follows through with every promise she'd made.

Everything about her had completely enraptured and ensnared him, and he wanted nothing more than to be by her side for the rest of this life… this eternal life that now took on a new meaning now that she was in it.

"When things settle," Finn began, that wide grin still plastered across his face as he rose from his seat on the swing, "and we're safe," he cupped his hands on both sides of her jaw, fingers threading through her hair and thumbs brushing over her lips. He stepped between her legs and relished the way her eyes shined in the moonlight as she looked up at him with so much heart in her gaze, "I'm going to ask for your hand in marriage."

Isoldes breath hitched, so soft that had he not been a vampire he wouldn't have heard it. Her hands lifted to grip his forearms, eyes shimmering like the stars of the galaxy above them.

"I'm going to say yes when you do."

Finn pressed his forehead against hers and felt true happiness and contentment for the first time in his life.

Last up in the prison world we've got to get Klaus and Isolde on the same page and we can move on and it's gonna be chaos from there on until the end.