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Chapter Text

Chapter 1

Niklaus' eyes were wide open, staring back at him. Marcel was sure Niklaus could see him but he knew because of the pain he was suffering from the blade in his chest he wasn't focused on much else.

The night he defeated the Mikaelsons seemed a lifetime ago though only a few years had passed. Since that night, he has been filled with regret. He was so angry at the Mikaelsons for killing Davina. Killing them made the most sense at the time but each day he visited Klaus trapped in his vampire graveyard, he felt as if he'd betrayed his family. He tried to convince himself that the Mikaelsons were never truly his family but memories of his time as a child growing up under their caring tutelage plagued him continuously.

Every day he considered taking the blade out but the more time that past the angrier he was sure Niklaus would be. He thought about Hope growing up without her father. He knew that one day the blade would be taken out of Klaus, whether by his hands or someone else's, and when Klaus woke to find Hope, perhaps 80 years old, her entire life past him by, he would never forgive him.

-M-

Hayley spent years searching for cures for the Mikaelson family and when she did she snuck back into New Orleans and to the Mikaelson Compound in search of Niklaus. She went undetected, Klaus' security becoming lax after so many years of waiting. She freed him and pulled Papa Tunde's blade from his chest, waking the other Mikaelsons in the process. Once Klaus was awake, the two escaped New Orleans together and rendezvoused back with his siblings at Haylee's home in Florida.

Niklaus had never been happier than when he saw his daughter, 13 years old and the spitting image of her Aunt Rebekah at her age. All he wanted to do was protect her the same way he'd protected Rebekah all those years. Better. He wanted to make sure that no harm should ever befall her.

But he still had a debt in New Orleans and he aimed to collect it.

The Mikaelson siblings spent months living with Haylee, staying low and keeping it a secret that the Original family was back. Klaus was sure that Marcel had figured out he was gone by then so he didn't want to have any rumors spread about vampires in the town to avoid Marcel finding them sooner than he needed him to.

"Are you all out of your mind?" Hayley yelled at the Mikaelsons crowding her living room. She'd just come from checking on Hope, fast asleep in bed, when she overheard Kol letting it slip that the Mikaelsons were planning to seek revenge on Marcel.

Freya had been working nonstop since she woke to find a spell to defeat Marcel as per Niklaus's adamant request.

"I worked myself to the bone saving you people and the second you're out of harm's way you decide to run back to New Orleans to die."

"No one's going to die." Klaus barked. "I am grateful for everything you've done for this family, Hayley, truly I am, but Marcellus will not get away with this. I gave him everything! I made him the man he is today! And this is how he repays me? By trying to kill my brothers, locking me away from my daughter and forcing her out of the city that is so rightfully hers."

"Marcel's bite is still venomous to you. You would risk your life for vengeance?"

Niklaus reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a small vial with a red liquid inside.

"The cure. Freya synthesized the cure you got from that old witch using our blood. We have enough vials to go to war for years."

"Years? What about your daughter? She's been without her father for 12 years and now you're going to make her go without you for longer?"

"Hope will not be without a father for much longer. I'm going to get Marcel out of her home and we will live in New Orleans again as we should!"

"So you run Marcel out of New Orleans, then what? He's going to come back. Have you learned nothing in a thousand years! You will never be without enemies if you can't learn to stay down when you're beaten."

"We are not beaten! We are the Mikaelsons! We are never beaten. New Orleans is the city we built! It is our home! I will take it back if I have to kill every other vampire on Earth to do it!"

"Elijah, please. You can't possibly agree with this idiocy."

With sorrowful eyes, Elijah answered, "I do. Normally I would agree that leaving New Orleans for good would be the best recourse but Marcel tried to destroy this family. He left us for dead. We will receive our retribution."

"Oh no, not you too. Rebekah, Freya, Kol, someone be the voice of reason."

Rebekah sighed in frustration and said, "You know how things work around here, love. Niklaus and Elijah say jump, the rest of us ask how high."

"No, Rebekah, you don't have to do this. Stay here with me and Hope."

"Rebekah will do as she's told!" Klaus booms. "We are a family! We move and think and act as one. I let Marcellus out of my hold and we all see the grave mistake that was. I won't let that happen again. From this moment forth, if you're not with us, you're against us. So you choose now, Haylee. Are you a part of this family, or not."

Hayley glanced around at the other Mikaelsons. No one was going to stand up to the eldest two brothers while they were in such a rage. She knew she would have to make the same moral sacrifice if she intended to keep the peace. The thought of taking Hope and running away crossed her mind for a brief moment but Klaus had already missed so much of his daughter's life, she knew he would hunt Haylee down and end her before he lost Hope again.

"Fine, whatever. But if anything should happen to Hope-"

"I will burn the city down and rebuild it from scratch before I ever let anything happen to Hope. She will forever be this family's first priority." Klaus turned to the others to get their confirmation. "Are we all in agreement?"

With a snarky smirk, Kol replied, "Listen, mate, I agreed to follow you lot unquestioned but I draw the line at 'immortal babysitter'."

Before Kol could let out a chuckle, Niklaus had him pinned against a wall, his arm twisted behind his back and a silver dagger pressing against his ribcage.

"Niklaus," Elijah barked. "No, no more daggers. If we are to return to New Orleans we are to do it together. We can't keep turning on each other when there are still people out there who want us dead."

Klaus heeded his brother and pulled away from Kol with the dagger clutched tightly in his hand.

In the same moment, Elijah sped over to Kol and brought the youngest brother over to the sofa with him. In the blink of an eye, he threw Kol over his knee and began raining down swats all over his bottom, using his vampire's speed and strength to his advantage.

Everyone stared on in awe. Even Freya ceased her spell to watch. When it was over, Elijah pushed Kol from his lap and stood as if everything was the same old same.

"We are a family. There will be no more daggering, no more betraying, no more rebellion. From now on, if you intend to bring shame on this family, I will shame you."

Kol rose to his feet with tears in his eyes and rubbing his still sore behind. "Arse." He bit angrily.

Elijah cut his eyes at him and Kol unconsciously stilled his hands, covering his entire bottom in order to prevent further smacks coming his way.

"Are we all in agreement?" Elijah pressed.

Everyone nodded solemnly, Freya with the fear that her frail human body wouldn't be able to withstand Elijah's vampire might as well as the others so at the moment she decided to find a spell that could toughen her body should she ever be on the receiving end of what looked like a very painful spanking.

-M-

Soon after Freya found the curative spell to return Marcel to his original non-Original self. Once it was cast all that was needed was to bleed the serum out of him. The Mikaelsons went back to New Orleans and stormed the compound, killing every vampire in their wake until they made it to Marcel. He was captured and confined in the basement as Niklaus bled him out.

Marcel tried to struggle against the Vervain engrained shackles as he stood chained against a support beam but he'd lost too much blood to put up a good fight. He was cut from sternum to naval, bleeding heavily into the metal tub before him. He was quickly fading from pain and blood loss.

Flashback:

Eight hundred years of fear made his eyes open at the slightest provocation so when he heard the stirring of the boy in the room next to his, Klaus woke immediately. He rushed to the boy's bedside to hear little Marcel struggling to wake from a nightmarish dream.

He shook the boy's shoulders until his big brown eyes fluttered but then the boy began to fight against him, screaming for a man who was not Niklaus to set him free, to stop hurting him.

"Marcellus, wake up. It's poppa, Marcellus. Wake up."

"Poppa?"

Klaus face fell, afraid that the boy hadn't yet seen him as his father and feared having his heart broken by yet another person who couldn't love him with the passion he loved them.

"It's me, Klaus." He corrected.

"Poppa," The boy lunged headfirst into Klaus's chest, soaking his evening gown with tears. "I dreamed he had come back and he was trying to take me from you."

Niklaus knew who the 'he' in Marcel's dream was without the boy having to specify. The man who had tortured him under the reign of the whip for so many years before Niklaus found him.

"It was just a dream, Marcellus. No one will ever take you from me."

"Promise."

"I promise. I will be with you, my son, always and forever."

End Flashback.

When Marcel woke it was as an ordinary vampire to the face of his angry Sire.

"I loved you. Like my son." Niklaus muttered. "As much as any father would their son. More than my own father loved me. You were selfish and ungrateful…and cruel. Qualities I would commend you for if you hadn't used them against your own family. But, wait, we're not your family anymore, are we? You denounced us with every venomous tooth you dug into my brothers and with that treacherous dagger you stabbed into my heart."

"Your brother tried to kill me! Your family killed Davina! And you did nothing! You forgave them like you always do. You people deserved everything that happened to you!"

Niklaus slammed his hand against the wall beside Marcel's face. "Davina's death," He growled. "Was unfortunate but it had to be done."

"Had to be done for your family. It's always about you people. The rest of us mean nothing. We're just pawns to be used and sacrificed."

"You're right." Said Klaus calmly. "We use people and we throw them away like broken toys when we're finished. But you weren't just another broken toy. You were one of us. We trusted you and you continued to betray us time after time after time. I am capable of forgiveness to those I call my family, Marcellus. No one should know that better than you but you have released yourself from the ties that bind us so I will release you."

Niklaus opened the shackles preventing Marcel from moving.

"Leave New Orleans and never return. If you ever come back I will end you the moment I see the whites of your eyes."

Marcel was heartbroken to hear this but he knew it was best not to argue.

"How long do I have to clear out?"

"Let's say an hour. The thought of having a traitor in my city any longer than that makes me sick."

"That's not enough time. I have to gather my things, round up my remaining men, make provisions to move,"

"I don't care if you leave this city with nothing but the shirt on your back! Your well-being is no longer a concern of mine. And don't worry about your men. While I've been down here taking care of you, my siblings have been ordered to search the city and find any vampire, witch, werewolf, and human that has ever pledged their allegiance to you and end their pitiful existence."

-M-

Marcel was searching through a drawer in his once room, now Niklaus' room, when Elijah entered. The young vampire's breath caught in his chest immediately, afraid that his time was up.

He quickly looked at the clock above the bed and said, "You can't do this. I've got 12 minutes left."

"Do not worry, I didn't come here to exact my revenge. I've come…to apologize."

At first, Marcel was surprised by this proclamation. After biting him and his brother the last thing he expected to hear from Elijah was an apology but then he considered that perhaps, like he, Elijah had realized that he was justified in his revenge.

"For trying to kill me? Or killing Davina?"

"…both, I suppose."

"Save it. I don't need your guilty apology."

"I'm not apologizing because I feel guilty. I'm apologizing because you trusted us and I betrayed that trust. That night, when you were talking to Klaus on that bridge you were just ranting from anger…but all I could think about was that prophesy and I was sure that you were going to fulfill it. I…I was just trying to protect my family."

"The story of my life. You people destroy, maim, and kill all in the name of the family and expect life to just go on like everyone is supposed to just forget the friends and loved ones that you killed."

"Marcel, Davina-"

"Don't say her name! Don't you ever say her name! Don't ever talk about her! She was just a girl and you killed her just like you people do with anyone who's not a Mikaelson."

Elijah sighed heavily, accepting that he couldn't get through to him now.

Before Elijah could leave, Marcel asked, "Was I ever really a part of that family? One of you?"

With sorrowful eyes, Elijah replied, "Niklaus has slaughtered entire cities; men, women, children, everyone, for the slightest infraction. But you…you betray him, attempt to slaughter his family, take him from his child, and you're still alive. He has grieved you twice, I don't think he could bear to do it a third. That's why he's banishing you. That's why he hasn't killed you. Because you were family, you were his son, his best friend…his brother."

"I was never his brother."

"You were. At least, he tried to make it so anyway. Since we returned to New Orleans, Niklaus has put more trust in you than he has ever done with anyone who wasn't his sibling, marking you as his true family. But in a thousand years, through all our quarreling, never have we tried to so maliciously slaughter each other. So maybe it was you who never saw him as your brother."

Again, Elijah tried to leave but paused at the subtle tones of Marcel's voice.

"When I was ten years old," He muttered. "Klaus said I was too young to light the lanterns in the barn on my own but I did it anyway because I thought I was mature enough to do anything. You people made me feel like that. You made me feel like there was nothing I couldn't do. Like my past and the world we lived in didn't matter. But then one day, something happened, I guess I didn't close the lantern or it fell, I don't know, but the next thing I knew I was trapped in a burning barn with no way out…but then you saved me. I got out alive but Klaus's favorite horse didn't.

"That night I waited for him to come home, sure that when he came back he was going to beat the hell out of me and sell me back to the plantation. But he didn't. He held me and apologized for not being there to protect me and when I told him I killed his horse he said he wasn't angry. He said that it was a mistake and I would always be forgiven for making a mistake.

I knew then that I had found my forever family and you all would never give up on me. Even when he found out it was me and Rebekah who called your dad to New Orleans, he forgave me again. He should've killed me but he didn't. He forgave me for my mistake."

"What are you trying to say? That poisoning Freya, biting me and Kol, and plunging that dagger in Niklaus' heart for 12 years was all a mistake?"

"I'm saying…that I've always wanted to be his brother because I've always envied the relationship you all had. The closeness, the trust, the way you never gave up on each other no matter what…but I had something with him too. It was different, I wasn't his brother, but I wasn't just a somebody either. I was…"

"His son. He treated you differently because you were different. When you became a man he tried to treat you as one, giving you the space you needed to grow into the man you wanted to be but Niklaus had been around long enough to see the horrors of this world and even as a vampire he felt he had to protect you. He struggled to make you his brother but you were always his son…until now. I've never seen him so hurt. I don't think it will be so easy for him to forgive you this time, if he ever will."

"But you're saying there's a chance? A chance for his forgiveness."

"The true mark of family is forgiveness…but I wouldn't get your hopes up. You should just leave this city and never return or risk death."

"Would you leave? I mean, if your dad wasn't a sociopath bent on destroying his children, would you leave if there was a chance…if there was a chance he would forgive you?"

"Marcellus…Marcel, at this point, in Niklaus's eyes, the only difference between you and our father is that you're still alive. Leave before he rectifies that mistake."

Elijah finally left Marcel to finish packing with the little time he had left in the city.

Marcel was certain that he could change Niklaus's mind. He was born in New Orleans, he helped build it into the kingdom it was. He refused to leave it, even if it meant his death.

Chapter Text

Chapter 2

Marcel left his former home to find sanctuary in Vincent's church. Once there he found other of his loyal followers seeking the same protection, one of those followers was the vampire Josh, once Davina's best friend. He swelled with relief at seeing the young vampire, proud that he managed to escape the Mikaelson's slaughter.

Vincent was kind enough to let Marcel stay at the sanctuary with the provision that he wouldn't bring any trouble to those who stayed there; that included secretly planning to dethrone the Mikaelsons. Marcel agreed but that was a promise he soon intended to break.

He and Josh soon began hatching plans to overthrow the Mikaelsons with a few others at the sanctuary. After weeks of hitting dead ends Marcel's men began to get antsy then one night Josh came to him in a rush.

"Marcel, we've got trouble," Josh said breathlessly. "Klaus's….Klaus's kid…the guys found out she's going to a Halloween dance at the school tonight. They're…they're planning…they plan to get to Niklaus through the kid."

"No!" Marcel jumped up from his seat. "We don't hurt kids!"

"I know that's why I ran back here to tell you. They've already left. We have to go now."

For the first time in weeks, Marcel left the safety of the church. He and Josh rushed to Hope's Middle School.

"You go into the gym, I'll circle the perimeter," Marcel ordered.

He circled around the back of the school and found nothing. Just when he was about to go into the gym to check things out with Josh he heard a girl scream coming from the football field. He sped to the field just in time to see Hope Mikaelson using her Magic against two vampires at once, keeping them subdued. She was with two of her friends, both he recognized as young witches but neither apparently as powerful as Hope.

While Hope was distracted by the two vampires under her control, one of Hayley's werewolves tried to sneak up behind her.

After Hayley left New Orleans her werewolf clan went under new leadership and Marcel convinced the new leader into pledging loyalty to him. Because of that when the Mikaelsons returned most of Hayley's people had to escape to Vincent's sanctuary in order to survive. Once at the sanctuary, Marcel began to convince those same vampires to join his rebellion.

As he sped over to the werewolf on the football field now, he wished he began to regret it.

He tackled the wolf and screamed for the two kids trembling on the ground to run away. The two kids ran over to Hope and pulled her away from the vampires she was subduing. As the teens ran away, the vampires tried to run after them but Marcel held them off on his own.

"Man, we don't hurt kids." He screamed.

"That is Klaus Mikaelson's daughter!" One of them yelled back. "We kidnap her and Klaus will give us the world to get her back."

"Klaus would destroy the world to get her back. He would kill you and everyone at the sanctuary to get her. You are putting good, innocent people in danger."

Angry at his interference, the two vampires and werewolf began to circle Marcel.

"You're not going to stand in our way, Marcel."

The three lunged at their former leader. Marcel fought them off as best he could. He snapped the first vampire's neck in an effort to subjugate his former allies without fatally harming them. He put the werewolf in a headlock, being careful not to touch his teeth, as he fought off the remaining vampire.

"Marcel!"

Marcel turned at the call of his name to see a fuming Hayley standing in front of Hope and her friends.

Haylee sped across the field to Marcel's vampires and ripped their hearts out – one in each hand. The werewolf in Marcel's hold used his distracted state to his advantage and sunk his teeth deep into his arm. Marcel immediately released the werewolf and as the last of the violent trio tried to escape, Hayley caught him and killed him with the same ferociousness as she did his partners.

Turning to Marcel, she growled angrily, "How dare you come after my daughter, you son-of-a-bitch!"

"I didn't! I would never!"

Hayley ignored Marcel's declaration and sped over to him. She opened her mouth, about to sink her teeth into his neck.

"Mom, no!" Hope screamed. "He saved us."

Hayley glared down at Marcel in her hold. He didn't struggle, resigning to his fate with no other choice. He was already bitten and the only cure was Klaus's blood which he doubted he would ever get again. One more bite would only kill him faster.

Releasing him, Hayley said, "What are you doing back in New Orleans? If Klaus finds you he'll kill you."

"I never left," Marcel chuckled. He took a look at the festering wound on his arm. "And this bite's going to kill me before Klaus does."

Hope ran over to them, her eyes wide with fear at the sight of the bite on Marcel's arm.

"Why-why aren't you healing?"

The young girl had never seen what a werewolf bite could do to a vampire and Hayley had hoped she never would, though now that they were back in New Orleans she knew it was only a matter of time before she was unable to shelter Hope from the cruel supernatural world she was born in.

Hayley pulled Hope away from Marcel and answered, "It's a werewolf bite. They're poisonous to vampires."

"He's going to die?!"

Marcel cringed at the thought of his own mortality.

"I don't think there's a way you could get me Klaus's blood?" He asked unsurely.

"I'll talk to him, tell him what you did here tonight, but I can't get you his blood against his will. He's even more paranoid than I remember since he woke. He thinks even the slightest violation of his new rules for the Quarter is an act of treachery and since your betrayal, he hasn't been so lenient with second chances."

"You afraid of him?"

She ran her hand down Hope's back. "Elijah's going to make sure I stay safe but you know how vindictive Niklaus can be. I don't want to lose my daughter."

Marcel simply nodded. "I understand. I'll…I'll figure something out. I'll find a way."

As Hayley lead Hope away, the young girl couldn't take her eyes off Marcel. All that was ever said about the man was that he betrayed the Mikaelson family. No one ever gave her a reason why but she was expected to never trust him or any of his friends but Hope was sure that a man that would risk his life to save her couldn't have been that evil.

-M-

Hayley put Hope to bed before going to inform the others of the events of the night. She found Niklaus, Elijah, and Rebekah in the drawing-room and broke them the news as gently as she could but Niklaus still overreacted as she expected.

"I'm going to kill him." He declared. "Marcel is dead."

"He saved her, Klaus," defended Hayley.

"Those were his men tonight that came after MY daughter!"

"He didn't know about their plan."

"And who told you that, huh? Marcel? How many times do I have to tell you people, you can't trust him! Not anymore."

Frustrated by her brother's pigheadedness, Rebekah came to Marcel's defense. "Marcel doesn't hurt children, Niklaus. Hate him all you want but you know that to be true."

Niklaus snarled at his sister's rationality.

"So what do you expect me to do? Go pat him on the back? Thank him for having the common decency to not harm my daughter when he had the chance?"

Hayley then announced, "He got bit while trying to get her out of there. By a wolf. He's dying."

All eyes turned to Niklaus.

With malice lacing every word he spat, "He can rot for all I care."

"Niklaus," Elijah said tenderly. "He saved your daughter. He doesn't deserve such a cruel punishment for performing a good deed."

"He put her in danger." Niklaus paced heatedly between his brother and the burning fireplace. "He's not even supposed to be in my city. I promised him death should he ever return so that is his punishment, whether it's by my hands or someone else's. I should've ended him and the rest of the pathetic lot that scurried off to that church for asylum. Well, I will not make the same mistake twice. Let's go, Elijah. We're storming that sanctuary tonight. Anyone who has ever called Marcel Gerard 'King of New Orleans' dies tonight."

"Brother, don't be foolish. We can't storm a sanctuary. You will start a war."

"Then let there be war!"

"You will risk Hope's life for pride? I will thrash you across this entire compound before I let that happen."

Niklaus stilled at the thought. He was grateful for Elijah, always his voice of reason whenever he dared to act without thought.

"Fine, we will not storm the church but should I see Marcel out on my streets again, he's a dead man."

"He's already a dead man." Rebekah barked as she jumped to her feet. "He's out there dying alone right now. You can banish him in rage for as long as you want, Nik – for 52 years if that's it – but if you let him die out there right now you will never forgive yourself. You will never make up with the boy you once called son and that will destroy you."

Niklaus' reply was a heavy grunt as he walked out of the drawing-room.

"Where are you going?" Elijah called behind him.

"To find Marcel."

-M-

Marcel hurried out the back alley of another closed witch's shop, once again failing to find a cure to his bite. He was beginning to panic. All of his witch contacts were either dead or in hiding from Klaus and no one else wanted to help the exiled ruler for fear of the new King of the Quarter, Klaus Mikaelson.

It'd been 12 years since he had to worry about a werewolf bite and it was something he never thought he'd have to worry about again. As he stared down at the searing wound on his arm, he hated himself for being so arrogant.

"Marcel," A cold chill went down his spine at the sound of that oh too familiar voice. All the stores being closed rendered the streets empty so there was no crowd for Marcel to slip into to lose his angry sire and there were no witnesses to caution Klaus's rage.

Arrogance unwavering, Marcel yelled, "You come to kill me, Klaus? Go ahead! I'm already dying. What more can you do?"

Klaus sped over to Marcel, gripping the younger man's jaw in his hand and lifting him from his feet. "Oh there is so much more I could do to you so cease your disrespectful tongue before I rip it out."

Marcel bit his bottom lip to keep from speaking out again though his rage was painted clearly on his face.

"I told you never to come back to my city again and yet here you are, mere weeks later, as if my decree was a simple suggestion not worth noting. I would not be a King of my word if I did not rip you limb from limb as promised."

Niklaus threw Marcel on to the dusty street beneath him but Marcel quickly jumped back to his feet, unwilling to be caught off guard before the ancient vampire.

"However, I've been told that you received that bite protecting my daughter, I will offer you a choice. Either I heal that bite or I let you leave this city unharmed but you cannot have both."

Marcel chuckled. "So either way I die."

"Seems that way."

Marcel mulled it over in his mind. He realized now was the time to ascertain how much Klaus truly hated him.

"Then I choose to walk away. I would rather die alone in the bayou like a wounded animal than come begging for scraps from you again."

Niklaus let out a heavy sigh. He rolled up the sleeve on his left arm and said, "Had I known you would be this foolish, I wouldn't have given you a choice. Let me make this decision for you." He presented is bare arm out to Marcel, revealing a long, clear vein that made the other's mouth water. "Drink."

Fighting his survival instinct, Marcel stood resolute. "And then what? I feed on your blood and then you beat me to death? You snatch my heart out and put it on display in the Quarter as a warning to all those who dare betray you?"

"I grow forever tired of your defiance." Klaus boomed. He quickly grabbed Marcel in a headlock and forced his bare wrist in front of Marcel's mouth. "Drink," he ordered.

Marcel's instinct to survive was greater than his pride and he immediately bit into his maker's wrist, drinking as much blood as he could before Klaus pulled it away.

Klaus's blood gave Marcel extra energy. He felt a spring in his step and was ready to take on Klaus should a brawl began. The sudden hand through his chest gripping his heart ended all confidence. His eyes dimmed as Klaus's fist tightened around it.

"Leave my city." Klaus stated calmly. "Or next time, the punishment will be death. I don't care who you save."

Klaus pulled his hand from Marcel's chest cavity and sped away, leaving him gasping for air on the ground.

Chapter Text

Chapter 3

Once he got his baring, Marcel went back to the sanctuary.

"Uh-uh, nope, get out." Vincent greeted Marcel at the doors of the church. He'd been waiting for his return all night. "You're not welcomed here anymore."

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh no, don't play coy with me. There's talk going on all through the streets about how you and your men attacked Klaus's kid. I told you not to bring trouble 'round here."

"That was just a big misunderstanding. Me and Klaus talked that out, everything's okay."

"Nothing's ever okay when it comes to you and the Mikaelsons. Get out of here, Marcel."

Vincent flicked a finger and the church doors slammed in Marcel's face.

-M-

While he wasn't busy running the supernatural world of New Orleans, Klaus was spending all of his free time with his family, especially his daughter.

"Where's your mother?" Klaus asked as he entered the den where Hope was lying on the sofa texting away while the TV played noisily in the background.

"Uh…I think she went out with Uncle Elijah."

Klaus's face puckered. He wasn't happy that his brother was in love with the mother of his child but he couldn't say anything about it. After losing Cami he decided to never stand in the way of true love again, even if it wasn't his.

"Then how about you and I do something together."

"Can't, dad. Sebastian is on his way over."

"Sebastian?"

In every father there's a gene that shuts down all reason whenever their daughters mention a boy's name, that gene had not skipped Klaus by.

"And who is Sebastian?" He said with a façade of calmness.

"You know Sebastian, daddy. He's a witch. His mom is the new Regent. We're studying spells together. I was hoping…you'd let us borrow Grandma Esther's grimoire."

"I believe my mother's grimoire is a bit too advanced for witches as young as yourself."

"But Uncle Kol says I'm one of the most powerful witches he's ever met."

"Well that's because you are. You're a very powerful witch for your age but you're still not quite ready for Esther's grimoire."

"You let Davina study it when she wasn't much older than me."

Klaus's face hardened. "Who told you about Davina?"

"Uncle Kol. He said that studying that grimoire made Davina an even more powerful witch than she was already destined to be."

With a sigh, Klaus sat down beside Hope. He took her hand in his and said, "Davina Claire was a very special young witch placed into a time of war which forced her to learn advanced skills at an early age. We are at peace. There's no reason for you to burden yourself with the stress of learning such ancient magic so soon."

Hope remained unsatisfied by her father's answer. Like any witch, she longed for greater knowledge and the greatest knowledge she could have was in Esther's grimoire.

"How about," said Klaus as he sprang to his feet. "I make you and me a Hot Fudge sundae and we can eat it out on the terrace while you tell me about all about your day yesterday and more about this Sebastian chap."

Hope nodded with a wide smirk. Haylee was often strict with her but in the weeks that her father's been awake, Klaus has spoiled her with anything she wanted.

As they were sitting out on the terrace sharing a Sunday and talking about Hope's Halloween night, the subject of the attack came up and a question that Hope had been pondering all night suddenly slipped out of her mouth.

"Who's Marcel Gerard?"

Klaus nearly choked on the ice cream in his mouth. "Um, Marcel Gerard? He's…no one of consequence. He's just a man who saw a young girl in trouble and came to her aide. A good Samaritan."

"That's not what Uncle Kol said. He said that Marcel Gerard was probably the only person in the world that loved Davina Claire more than he did and you knew Davina, right? So you must've known Marcel too."

Klaus silently cursed Kol. "Okay, the truth is, Marcel and I were…old friends once upon a time but then he betrayed this family in a way that can never be forgiven so I banished him when we returned to New Orleans. He returned last night and saved you but that wasn't enough to clear his debt and I banished him again."

"Why? What'd he do that was so terrible?"

"Nothing you'll ever have to worry about. You are my world, Hope," He said, brushing back a lock of her soft blonde hair from her face. "And I'll do anything to keep you safe. Now, let's forget about Marcel and talk about what else happened last night. You say there was a live band at the school? Were they any good?"

Hope wasn't ready to drop the subject of Marcel but she knew her father was and so she went on to talk about the school dance, making a note to herself to find out more about Marcel when she could.

-M-

Hope left the compound with Sebastian to search witch shops for the ingredients they needed for a potion that would give a person warts. They wanted to use it to prank someone. Though they didn't know who yet, it was fun thinking about it together.

As they were about to enter the shop, Hope saw a familiar figure enter a hotel not far from them. She slowly began recognizing it as the figure that saved her the night before. Marcel Gerard.

"Um, you go in without me, Sebastian."

"Why? Where are you gonna do?"

"Uh, I have to call my dad. You know him, if I don't check in every so often he'll come find us. I'll be quick."

Sebastian chuckled and went into the store. When the door closed, Hope used her supernatural speed to get from the storefront into the hotel she saw Marcel walk into before Sebastian could see her. He was still at the front desk checking in when she entered. She stayed hidden as he got his room key and waited for him to get into the elevator before speeding through the closing doors so they could be alone.

Marcel was shocked by the girl's sudden appearance, assuming it was one of Klaus's new Sire-lings come to bring the trespasser to justice. Once he recognized the girl as Hope Mikaelson his apprehension didn't decrease.

"You!" He exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"You're one to talk. My dad said you're supposed to be banished. What are you doing here?"

Marcel hated himself for the fear that pooled in his stomach at the thought of Niklaus finding out about him still being in the city.

The elevator doors opened to his floor and Hope continued, "Don't worry, I just want to talk."

"About what?"

"About you. I want to know who you are. I want to know why I always hear your name whispered throughout my home but whenever I ask someone about you they all always say the same thing – that you're no one."

"No one, huh?" He said stepping out of the elevator. "Even Rebekah?"

"Aunty Bex never talks about you. But my uncle, Kol does, especially when he's talking about Davina."

Marcel slipped his hotel key into the door and opened it to a free luxury hotel room compliments of the Hotel Manager, and his wonderful mastery of Compulsion.

"Okay," he agreed, motioning for the girl to enter the room. "Let's talk."

Hope entered the room and sat down at the desk while Marcel helped himself to the bar, pouring a Scotch for himself and a cold glass of milk from the mini fridge for Hope.

"First things first," Hope started after taking a sip of milk. "Who were you to Davina Claire? Did you two, like, go out or something?"

Marcel shook his head with a chuckle. "No, nothing like that. I just…watched over her. When she was just a few years older than you she was caught in some bad witch business. Her coven was about to sacrifice her for this Harvest Ritual and, well, I saved her."

"Why?"

"Why did I save a 16 year old girl from being sacrificed?" He laughed.

Hope blushed and elaborated, "I mean, did you know her then or were you just being a good guy? Like you were to me, when you saved me and my friends from those vampires last night."

Marcel took another drink of Scotch and said, "No, I didn't. But I got this rule about hurting kids. I'll pretty much save any kid I see in danger. Davina didn't have a safe place to go after because the witches were still looking for her so I hid her and protected her."

"Oh," She said softly. "And here I thought I was special."

"You are. You're the daughter of Klaus Mikaelson, a miracle of nature. Not to mention that you're a Tribrid and from what I witnessed last night, you're one hell of a witch – pardon my French. If I didn't come to your rescue, I'm sure you would've ripped those guys apart on your own."

Hope smiled and for a moment there was a twinkle in her eyes that Marcel almost mistook for Davina.

"What happened to her?" The moment she asked that question Marcel began to painfully relive that night.

"Kol didn't tell you that?"

"He said that she was killed by the old Ancestors but he wouldn't tell me how."

Marcel thought back on the night he walked into the bar and found Davina's lifeless body on the floor, touching her cold face and her blood coating his hands.

"Let's not talk about this," Marcel answered coldly.

Hope stared down at the glass in her hand. "You sound just like him. Whenever I ask him about it he gets quiet and then he says he doesn't want to talk about it. Mom says it's because it hurts him too much to think about it because the wound is still fresh for him. She says it's best if he only remembered the moments they spent together while she was alive."

A small smile graced Marcel's lips. "Your mother's a wise woman."

Hope nodded. Then she tried to think of the best way to ask her next question without coming across as too pushy.

"What did you do?" She asked straightforwardly.

Caught off guard, Marcel stuttered, "Uh, um, e-excuse me?"

"To get banished. It had to be something horrible otherwise my dad wouldn't still be so angry with you after what you did last night."

"What I did happened a long time ago but it caused irreversible damage and it's probably going to take an even longer time for your dad to forgive me, if he ever does."

"I'll say. Whenever I hear them whispering your name, the whispers always sound the angriest coming from dad. He talks like he hates you."

Marcel's heart sunk at that discovery.

"Do me a favor," He said. "Don't tell anyone I'm in town or that you spoke to me."

"Of course not. If my dad found out I snuck into a hotel room with some guy he'd have a conniption. I'd be grounded for life and he'd probably kill you."

"Oh you can bet on that." Marcel chuckled heartily.

"How long have you two been friends? I mean, 'were' friends. Before that horrible thing you did happened."

Marcel let out a heavy exhale and said, "Since I was a boy." He saw the look of confusion on the girl's face and decided to tell her the whole story from the day he met Niklaus to the day he was turned. "Niklaus was more than just my friend and Sire…he was…my…"

"Dad." Hope's voice came out as a soft whisper.

Marcel nodded and finished off his Scotch. When he set the empty glass down on the desk in front of her, Hope jumped to her feet and wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him tighter than he'd been hugged in a long time.

"I'm sorry." She choked. A tear dropped from her eyelash to his neck and Marcel realized the girl was crying. "I'm sorry for Davina, and for my dad, and for everything that happened to you."

Marcel was hesitant to hug her back at first but after spending years blocking out the pain, having her crying on him brought it all back just as clear as if it'd just happened.

The hug didn't end for what felt like a full 60 seconds and then Hope pulled back from him and said, "I know that I can never be Davina but I'm your…you're my…we're…" She threw herself back into his body, hugging him one last time before saying, "You're my brother and I'm going to make sure no one ever hurts you – especially not dad."

"Aren't I supposed to be saying that to you?" Marcel tried to laugh through his emotions.

Hope smiled and squeezed him tighter. She was overwhelmed. She'd always dreamed of having an older sibling – someone older who still wanted to hang out with her, someone to drive her where she wanted to go and take her to the movies and to fairs without her parents having to tag along, someone to goof around with when the rest of her family were being too serious. Here she had one all along but her father had banished him.

A loud banging on the room door caused both of them to jump, breaking their hug.

"Oh, no," Hope whispered nervously. "That's Uncle Elijah."

"You sure?"

Hope took a deep whiff of the air and said, "Yep, I'd know his scent anywhere."

Elijah banged on the door again and screamed the girl's name at the same time. Marcel jumped from his seat. He knew if Elijah found him he would definitely drag him back to Klaus and the last thing he wanted was another encounter with Klaus so soon after their last.

Hope saw the look of worry in her newfound brother's eyes and realized that she really had to make sure he didn't get found out by the other Mikaelsons now.

"No matter what, don't say anything." She said before she began to chant a spell to herself as she moved to the door.

When she opened the door, Elijah burst into the room. The younger vampire's heart nearly jumped from his chest for fear of being found but then Elijah kept going as if he looked right through him. It was then Marcel knew that Hope was casting a Perception Spell on him, causing Elijah to see nothing but the wall behind him.

"Uncle Elijah, what are you doing here?" Hope asked timidly.

"I always have a tail following you whenever you leave the house without one of us. Imagine my surprise when I get a call today saying that my young niece was spotted sneaking into a hotel with a strange man."

"It's not what you think, Uncle. He was…he was just a tourist looking for a witch to create a love potion for him."

"Hope, you are old enough to know better than to go off with strangers. Where is he now?"

"He's left. He already had the raw ingredients mixed, he just needed me to do the witch stuff, y'know. Make it magical. Nothing else happened, I swear."

Elijah grabbed the girl by the arm and spun her around, landing three solid smacks on her jean-clad bottom.

The smacks were so sudden and strong that Hope almost lost her bearings for the spell keeping Marcel invisible but she somehow managed. When Elijah spun her back around to face him, the girl's face was scarlet from the shame of being spanked in front of her new brother. Tears began to pool in her eyes from both the pain and humiliation.

"You are never to go anywhere with a stranger ever again. Do I make myself clear, young lady?"

"Yes, sir." She sniffled.

"And you can rest assured that your father will be hearing of your little exploit the moment we get back to the compound."

Hope nodded her agreement, her tears now falling heavier. Elijah's tough-guy façade immediately fell and he picked the sniffling girl up in his arms and shushed her as they left the room. Once the hotel room door was closed, Hope released the spell she was casting and fell asleep in her uncle's arms, the stress of keeping up the spell and being spanked at the same time having worn her out.

Chapter Text

Chapter 4

Niklaus lounged sullenly in his armchair after hearing his brother's recount of his day's event with Hope.

"You didn't have to spank her." He griped.

Elijah sighed as he handed Niklaus a drink in the hopes of getting his brother to calm down. Hayley entered the room and poured herself a glass of white wine. She'd just come from the courtyard where Hope and her friend, Sebastian, were zealously practicing their magic.

"She followed a stranger to a hotel," Elijah stated for what felt like the hundredth time. "I couldn't let that go unscathed."

"I would've grounded her when she got back if you would've simply told me first."

Hayley chuckled. "Grounded her? You mean when you send her to her room, half an hour later she comes to you with big crocodile tears on her face and you let her out, you two share a Sundae or some cake or some other high calorie sweet and all is well? No, Klaus. What she did was impulsive and dangerous. She needed something a little harsher than a thirty minute time out."

"She's an exceptionally strong witch. I doubt some pervert would ever be able to get the jump on her."

Frustrated by his brother's obstinacy, Elijah declared, "So what if it wasn't some pervert, you still have enemies out there. Enemies who are sure to return the second they find out Klaus Mikaelson is back on his throne in New Orleans. They all know about your daughter and they know the easiest way to get to you is through her. You have to think about that before you go letting her explore the city unguarded."

"She is only allowed to explore the Quarter, she knows that. And I cleared this city of all wretch so my daughter could roam is unguarded and carefree. She is not a prisoner."

"Elijah's right, Niklaus." Hayley asserted. "I know my daughter and she may be a Mikaelson by blood but she is hardly one of you. She is far too trusting and innocent to be let go without reigns. You're too soft on her."

"I'm soft on her because she is too trusting and innocent. I don't want her to think me the bad guy. I refuse to have her grow up to resent me! I won't have another Mar-" Niklaus cut off his rant before he revealed a secret that he didn't even know he harbored but he'd already said too much.

"Brother," Elijah put a soft hand on Niklaus's shoulder. "Hope will never become like Marcel. His life was filled with so much pain before us whereas Hope has been showered by an endless supply of love her entire life."

Niklaus rose to his feet and anxiously paced the room. "Did we not shower Marcellus with the same love and affection? Did we not proudly dote on him for every achievement? The only misgiving I can think of, the only way in which we were like Mikael, was that we hit him and that is why he grew to resent us as we did our father."

"Hit him?" Elijah quickly made his way in front of Niklaus, forcing his younger brother to look him in the eyes as they spoke. "Is that what you thought of me when…when I spanked Kol that night? Did you…did you see me as Mikael?"

"I don't know what I thought. But I know that monster ruined me. I lived in constant fear until Mikael's ultimate demise and if I thought Hope felt even the slightest bit of fear towards me…I don't even want to imagine."

"Niklaus, we were never Mikael. We were never the object of Marcel's nightmares, callous sadists gaining pleasure from the pain and fear of the weak that rely on us for safety. We may have spanked him but we were never like Mikael. If you were to ask Marcel right now I'm sure he'd tell you the same."

"How would you possibly know that?"

Elijah stared reservedly away from his brother. "I spoke to him the day you banished him and he told me…that he might be feeling some regret over what he did to us. That…he was hoping for your forgiveness."

"Why didn't you tell me that sooner?"

"Because you were furious with him and I feared anything I told you about him, even that of his inner most reservations, would be coldheartedly cast aside. You needed to be vulnerable before you heard the truth and now you are. So tell us…how do you feel?"

Niklaus walked away, rubbing his hand roughly through his hair as he pictured Marcel out in the world on his own. He was an old vampire so Niklaus knew he was certainly capable of surviving on his own but he wasn't sure if he would. Marcel had hardly left New Orleans in two hundred years and for the most part he was always safe there, surrounded by a community of vampires that would die for him. Out in the real world, he had no one and in his travels Niklaus had witnessed all the creative defenses the vast growing world had thought of to protect themselves and Marcel knew of none of them.

"He betrayed this family." Klaus said lowly. "He plunged me into a dozen years of pain and torment. He tried to kill you and Kol. I've wiped out entire colonies for less. I can't forgive him for that."

"I think you can. I think you really want to but you're fighting it because you're afraid that the Marcellus who turned his back on us that night is now who he's truly become. You're afraid that the boy you loved is gone for good but allow me to say this: Marcel is over 200 years old and he spent half of that without you. He has long since abandoned the boy you raised and yet he still fears your eternal disapproval as any son would a loving father. You didn't fail him, brother, he failed you. Allow him the opportunity for absolution."

"It's too late. He's gone."

"Freya could perform a locator spell."

"No. After what he did, what would it say about me as a King if I let him return this quickly? People need to know that no one is above my laws. Not even Marcel."

Hayley rose from her spot on the couch and strolled over to the father of her child. "You once compared Marcel's death…to that of Hope's. Just…think about that while you leave him to roam the Earth alone."

Elijah followed Hayley out of the room, leaving Niklaus to ponder things on his own. There was nothing he hated more than being alone with such dark thoughts though he would never let anyone know.

-M-

The day after being almost discovered by Elijah, Marcel moved his residence from the hotel room to a cabin out in the bayou and at least once a week, Hope would find a way to sneak off to see him. Since she found out about Elijah's secret trackers she was extra careful to lose them before she ever went out to the bayou. Elijah and Haylee were always livid when she returned home but she could always count on Niklaus to come to her defense.

Thanksgiving was soon upon them and Hope couldn't have been happier.

"Let's do Thanksgiving together." Hope declared as soon as she walked in Marcel's cabin.

"What about your family?"

"I'll still do it with them too but we can have it here first."

"That's…very generous of you but I haven't celebrated the holidays in years. I can't even cook Thanksgiving dinner."

"I can. Mom and I used to cook it together every year. Dad's having it catered this year because he says the Mikaelsons haven't cooked a holiday meal in a thousand years so I'll be completely free to cook here."

"I don't know. Do you really want to waste your Thanksgiving break here cooking for me?"

"Of course I do. You're my brother and you'll be all alone otherwise. It's not fair what my dad is doing to you, forcing you out of the city you lived in your entire life in to the bayou away from your only family."

Marcel cringed internally. That was almost the exact thing he'd done to the Mikaelson and her obvious disgust at Niklaus but not him told Marcel that her family had yet to tell her the truth about where Niklaus was and who rendered the rest of the Mikaelson clan inert.

"Still, I'd feel bad making you cook." Marcel changed the subject. "Something about it makes me feel like I'm breaking some child labor laws or something so how about we skip Turkey Day and you spend the rest of the week with your family and we can do Christmas together."

"But…you'll be all alone."

"I'll be fine. I've got a few plans of my own."

"Like what?"

Marcel smirked at his sister's inquisitiveness. "Okay, I'm going to tell you this but don't freak out. I'm leaving New Orleans."

Hope's jaw dropped. She moved her mouth to speak but Marcel quickly held up a hand to silence her.

"I know but let's face it, there's nothing here for me anymore. I'm living alone in a cabin in a swamp and the only friend I have is a thirteen year old girl who has to ask permission to stay out after dark. I've thought of a hundred ways I could return to the city but they all end with your family hating me more than they already do or with me lying dead in the streets and I don't really win in either of those scenarios."

"Please, Marcel. I'll think of something. I'll talk to my dad. He'll do anything for me."

"That is such a bad idea. Klaus hates me. If he found out we've been secretly chatting behind his back he'll go berserk. He'll accuse me of trying to turn you against him and then he and the rest of the Mikaelson clan will sweep the bayou, killing everything in sight in search for me and once he gets his hands on me he will rip me apart and end me in the most painful way he can think of."

Hope refused to believe that her father would be so cruel.

"He-he wouldn't." She stammered. "My dad couldn't hurt a fly."

Marcel laughed sarcastically. "Klaus Mikaelson? Girl, please. In the 15th century, your dad and your uncle, Kol, drained an entire convent of nuns just to get the King's attention."

"No, no, you're wrong. My dad would never do something like that. My daddy's a Saint."

"Then you go ask him. Ask him about the Convent Massacre or the Shelby Suicides. Ask him what happened to the Roanoke colony. He's a monster, Hope, and the only reason you don't know about it is the same reason I grew up thinking Klaus could do no harm – because he wants you to think that. He wants you to trust him more than anyone so when you're strong enough, you'll feel obligated to him."

Hope's emotions flared at Marcel's accusations and he was awarded the chance to bear witness to a stunning surge of chaotic magic more powerful than he'd seen since Davina. Hope's magic ripped through the furniture and doors. It ripped through the walls, shattering the windows, destroying everything until all the remained was a pile of ash and Marcel. Marcel was shocked. There was no way he should've survived the destruction. Her power was uncontrollably tearing through everything without basis and even as a vampire he body should've been ripped to shreds. Then he realized that even in her frantic state, Hope had still managed to put a force field around him to protect her brother.

Drained of all her energy, Hope's body hit the dirt floor like a log.

Rushing to her side, Marcel picked the girl's limp body up. He checked for a pulse and was swept with relief when he found it.

"Great." He groaned staring at the demolished remains around them. "Now what am I going to do?"

Chapter Text

Chapter 5

Marcel knelt on the roof of an old hotel, staring down at the Mikaelson Compound. Hope laid still unconscious on the roof beside him. He tried everything he knew to wake her but nothing worked. It had been hours since she passed out and she showed no sign of recovery. He was beginning to fear for her health so he decided to go to the next most powerful witch he knew – Freya Mikaelson.

He moved from roof to roof, peeking through the windows of the Compound, hoping to spot Freya alone in the mansion. He constantly came up short but his roof hopping did not go unnoticed.

"Marcel!" Kol sang tauntingly.

Marcel flinched at the cutting tone of the familiar voice. He spun around cautiously to see Kol walking across the roof towards him.

Kol's eyes held an impish glint. He'd been patiently hoping for Marcel's return so he could seek his revenge for being bitten all those years ago and he felt lucky to be the first Mikaelson to get to him before his brothers. But as his eyes fell to the young girl lying next to Marcel's feet, his face hardened. His feet froze as he listened for her heartbeat and found it soft and faint.

"What did you do to her?"

"Nothing. She did this to herself."

Kol refused to listen. He had already drawn conclusions of his own. The Mikaelsons killed Davina and so he concluded, to get back at them, Marcel was going to kill Hope.

Kol's nails dug deeply into the palm of his clenched fist. "You bastard!" he screamed as he lunged at Marcel, tackling the man over the edge of the roof. The two hit the pavement below with a great thud. They had both broken bones but Kol's raged fueled him on. He picked Marcel up by the collar of his shirt and punched him hard enough to send his body flying across the street.

Marcel quickly jumped to his feet but in the same moment, Kol came charging him again. He tackled the younger vampire through the doors of the Mikaelson Compound.

"Wait, wait!" Marcel stood fretfully in the middle of the courtyard, praying that neither Niklaus nor Elijah wouldn't show up. "It's not what it looked like. I was trying to help her. She's in bad shape."

"Oh yeah, mate, and who's fault is that?"

"That's what I was trying to tell you. She did it herself."

"I just bet she did."

Kol sped over to Marcel and hit him with an uppercut that sent him flying through the balcony into Elijah's rigid arms. Niklaus appearing next by his side.

Elijah wrapped his arms around Marcel, preventing the man from fleeing.

"What is the meaning of this?" Niklaus seethed through clenched teeth while staring Marcel down.

Kol jumped up to the balcony and growled, "It's Hope. He's done something to her."

Klaus's emotions began to rise uncontrollably, the strongest of which being fear.

Elijah swiftly snapped Marcel's neck rendering the man unconscious before turning to Klaus and saying, "Go see to your daughter. I'll handle Marcel."

-M-

When Marcel came through he was again in shackles. This time restrained to a staircase looking on as Freya performed a spell over Hope's still comatose body with Hayley holding the girl's head in her lap. His vision of them was soon blocked by Niklaus's surly mug.

"Tell me what you did to her and I'll make sure your death is swift and nearly painless."

"I never touched her." Marcel bit. Then he proceeded to tell them everything, omitting the part where he was the stranger in the hotel room Hope snuck off to see.

Freya let out a heavy sigh at the end of Marcel's story and asked, "Is that all that happened?"

"Yes. I didn't poison her or curse her or," Staring daggers at Kol he said, "Drain her dry. She just collapsed."

Klaus walked over to Freya feeling somewhat at ease by her sudden relief. "Is she going to be alright?"

"Yes. She simply released more power than her body was used to. She probably released more power than a girl her age should have. She's going to be unconscious for the next 24 hours but she'll be plenty replenished when she wakes up."

"Marcellus," Elijah swung in front of Marcel with his arms crossed enquiringly over his chest. "What exactly did you say to her to put her in such an uncontrolled state?"

Marcel considered keeping the truth to himself but he knew it would cause Niklaus to suffer as much as he had the past month he spent in the bayou.

He stared his maker in the eyes and said, "I told her the truth. That you were a monster. Seems it was just too much for her to take, knowing her precious Saint daddy wasn't the kindhearted soul she made you out to be."

Niklaus's fear for his daughter was soon replaced by sheer anger. He'd always known that Hope would find out the truth about his past but he thought it would be when she was much older. He wanted to protect her from the horrors of her linage for as long as he could so that she would not grow up with a monster for a father as he did.

"I was going to change for her," Niklaus muttered furiously. "I wasn't going to fail her the same way I failed you; by not protecting you from the one thing I should have most: The Mikaelson Bloodlust."

"You weren't going to change, Klaus. You can't. You've been a monster for a thousand years and you'll be a monster for a thousand more."

"Perhaps you're right." Niklaus rolled up the sleeve of his shirt so as not to get blood on it as he shoved his hand in Marcel's chest to rip out his heart. "I should just accept who I am. And who I am is the King of New Orleans and as King, I must now carry out a sentence as promised. Marcel Gerard – For the crime of treason and trespassing, I sentence you-"

"Brother, I do beg your pardon." Elijah interrupted with aplomb. "May I have a word with you in the foyer?"

Niklaus was aggravated but curious as to what his brother had to say that was so important. He quietly followed behind Elijah to the foyer.

"Brother, I cannot permit you to kill Marcellus just yet."

Niklaus stood stunned. "Excuse me. He disobeyed my decree. He deserves to be punished. I must be a ruler of my word."

"And you shall. I wouldn't dream of making you break your word but I do believe in this case you should consider altering Marcel's punishment. After all, is there not a decree against harboring a fugitive? And Hope has been harboring one for the better part of a month now, hasn't she?"

Niklaus' eyes widen at the realization.

"If you kill Marcel, you will have to think of a punishment as equally harsh for Hope because 'no one is above your laws', right? But you wouldn't want that, no one would. We would all sooner die than allow harm to come to that child. So, in the sake of fairness, I advise you to choose a different punishment for the man you once called son."

"What did you have in mind?"

Elijah reached into his jacket pocket and retrieved Papa Tunde's blade. "A dozen or so years with this stuck in him should be more than just."

Niklaus took the blade from Elijah's hand and he could almost feel the pain of the years he lost with it rush through his body. He dismissed those feelings with a heavy shrug.

"Okay." As Elijah started to walk away, Klaus added, "But Hope will always be above my laws."

Every muscle in Marcel's body tensed when he spotted the blade in Niklaus's hand.

"As I was saying." Klaus started again. "Marcel Gerard, for the crime of treason and trespassing, I sentence you to 12 years in the garden with Papa Tunde's blade."

Marcel shut his eyes as Niklaus advanced with the blade in hand. He didn't contest his sentence because although he feared it, he felt it was well-deserved.

Staring at Marcel's fear cringed face brought back memories Niklaus had been trying to suppress since he woke.

Flashback:

Marcel's small body laid quivering under a pile of blankets. His temperature was sky high and his stomach ached from his constant vomiting mixed with unbearable hunger. Only his terrible body aches were enough to draw his mind away from the pain in his stomach.

Niklaus and Elijah stood just outside the boy's door with a grave-faced doctor.

"I'm afraid the boy has the Fever." The doctor announced solemnly.

"And what is the cure for that?" Klaus asked confidently. "Come now, doctor, don't be bashful. Money is no issue. Tell me what I have to do to cure my boy."

"Mr. Mikaelson…there is no cure. The disease is quite advanced and…it doesn't look like the child will make it through the night."

Klaus chanced a glance into the boy's room and made eye contact with Marcel, the boy's face drenched with sweat and tears.

"I don't see how the illness could've progressed so suddenly." Elijah protested. "He only just complained of feeling badly this morning."

Confused, the doctor said, "This isn't an overnight disease, Mr. Mikaelson. For it to have gotten this bad, he would've had to be sick for at least a week."

"We had the hunting trip this weekend," Niklaus muttered. "He's been looking forward to it all month. He didn't tell us he was sick because he knew he wouldn't be able to go if he was."

Elijah watched Niklaus as he stared at the frightened boy in the bed. He decided to see the doctor out so the two could be alone.

Klaus went into Marcel's room and sat on the bed next to the boy's head. He used a damp washcloth to cool Marcel's hot forehead.

"Poppa," Marcel murmured hoarsely. "What did the doctor say?"

"He said…it's just a little food poisoning. You'll be fine by the morning, you just have to sweat it out."

A small smile came across Marcel's face. It faded as he said, "I've been sick since before the trip. I just didn't want to tell you because I was afraid you wouldn't let me go."

"I wouldn't, Marcellus. When you're sick you need to rest. You must always tell me when you're not well, Marcellus. I will always find a way to make you better. "

"I know, poppa. I'm sorry."

"It's okay, my son. Sleep. Everything will be fine in the morning."

Marcellus closed his tired eyes and began to drift off. Right before he fell asleep, he muttered, "Poppa…I'm cold."

Klaus knew that couldn't be true since the boy was wrapped in enough blankets to warm a small town so that only meant Marcel was getting worse.

Once he was sure the boy was sleep, Klaus bit into his wrist and dripped a few drops of his blood into Marcel's slightly parted lips. He hated himself for it. In the past he only fed his blood to an unwilling person only as punishment, to turn them into the monster he was so they could suffer eternally as he had but that was never his intention for Marcel. He saw the boy as all that was pure and good in the world and he wanted him to stay that way so Niklaus had made up his mind. If his blood didn't help to save his son from his illness, if Marcel were to pass away in his sleep and turn, Klaus would compel him to continue to sleep to prevent the boy from ever tasting blood and finishing his transition, keeping the memory of him untainted.

Klaus stayed in the room with Marcel all night, constantly checking his temperature and placing more blankets on him whenever the boy got a chill. At some point, he nodded off and when he woke, Marcel's body was gone.

"Marcellus," He screamed as he ran from the room.

Marcel stood at the end of the hall with a cup of water in his hands and a wide smile on his face.

"Poppa, you were right. I'm all better now, see."

Klaus ran to the boy and wrapped his arms around him. His joy was soon replaced with fear.

"How do you feel, Marcellus? Do you feel…a hunger?"

Marcel nodded solemnly. "I'm real hungry, poppa. I could hardly keep nothing down all week. Can we have breakfast soon?"

Klaus feared his worst nightmares were coming true. He called for a servant and whispered to them to bring him a cup filled with their blood. When the servant returned, Klaus held the mug in front of Marcel's nose while being sure not to get too close to keep the boy from tasting it. If the boy was in the midst of transitioning he would be able to smell the blood from a mile away and he wouldn't be able to resist partaking it.

Marcel stared at the thick red substance in the glass with an upturned nose.

"Is that more medicine, poppa? I'm better now, I swear. Please don't make me take any more. I don't think I could keep it down on an empty stomach."

Niklaus dropped the mug on the floor, spilling blood all across the hardwood as he fell to his knees and pulled Marcel into a tight hug.

"Oh, Marcellus," He exclaimed with joyful tears in his eyes. "Don't ever get sick again. I'll catch my death with worry."

Marcel wrapped both arms around his father, being careful not to spill his water. "I'm sorry, poppa." As the hug continued on, Marcel's stomach growled loudly.

Niklaus chuckled as he ended the hug and rose to his feet. He held a hand out to be taken by Marcel and said, "Come now, Marcellus. Let's go have breakfast."

End Flashback

Marcel waited with his eyes closed for the longest moments of his life to pass but when no blade came piercing through his chest, he opened his eyes to see Klaus standing in front of him – knuckles white from his tight grip on the blade and tense eyes flashing a speck of unease.

When Klaus rose his other hand Marcel prepared for a strike but his hand continued past his face to his shackled wrists hanging above him.

Releasing him yet again, Klaus said, "Get out of here."

"Wait. You're banishing me again?"

Walking over to Hope, Klaus dryly replied, "Leave New Orleans, don't leave New Orleans, I don't care anymore. Just keep my daughter out of it."

"So you're just letting me leave. Just like that? After everything I did."

"I turned you into everything you are. Whatever you did was my fault. I take responsibility for turning you into the monster you are today. I made you in my image."

Marcel took a look around at the other Mikaelsons. Kol looked as if he wanted to tear through his brothers to get another shot at him but no one dared move.

He teetered slowly over to the exit and just as he was about to take his final step out of the Compound, he looked back to see Klaus kneeling in front of Hope, softly rubbing his thumb across her pink cheek. There was once a time he used to touch him so lovingly.

He took a step back in and turned to them as confident as ever. "No."

All eyes turned to him.

"I'm not leaving. This place is my home and I'm going to die in it one way or another so let's go, Klaus. You and me, right here, right now."

Klaus simply shrugged off Marcel's challenge, focusing his attention back on his daughter before him.

Angered by Niklaus's disregard of him, Marcel prepared to charge him but Elijah sped over to the young vampire and picked him up by his throat. He threw Marcel out of the Compound with a flick of his wrist, sending him flying over to the storefront across the street.

By the time Marcel picked himself up off the ground, Elijah was back in front of him.

"Leave," Elijah bit. "And don't come back."

Overcome with frustration, Marcel stood firmly in front of Elijah and growled, "You wanna hit me, Elijah? Huh?! Then do it! Come on! Do it! Hit me!"

Marcel wasn't sure if he would fight back if Elijah hit him. But he needed the release. He needed to feel that someone in his family still cared about what happened to him, even if it was the uncle he spent so many years resenting. That he care if he was hurting. That he would do what was necessary to bring him back in line like he'd done a thousand times before, so many decades ago. Back when he was sure Elijah, like the man that he used to call father, cared for him like blood.

Elijah knew all of this. He could see the pain in Marcel's eyes as clearly as he saw it two hundred years ago. And still, he ignored his taunts and left Marcel standing in the middle of the public street, angrily yelling obscenities at him.

Chapter Text

Chapter 6

"How could you just let him get away?" Kol yelled as Elijah came back into the Compound. "After what he did to Hope-"

"He did nothing to Hope, brother." Elijah sighed. "And it was Klaus's will that he go free."

"That makes you both mad!"

"Kol," Elijah immediately cut off his brother before Kol could go on a rant. Elijah's intense glare was enough for Kol to know that his brother was serious. "Make yourself useful and carry Hope to bed."

Kol grumbled all the way to Hope and up the stairs to her room.

"So, brother," began Elijah. "What exactly is your plan for Marcel?"

"No plan. I just grow tired of the same routine. The dagger. It has forever plagued our family but not anymore, thanks to you."

"So you're admitting that Marcel is family."

"Twelve years ago I would've answered with a resounding yes and filleted anyone who dare say different. Now…I don't know and for the moment I don't care. Hope is my only concern. What am I supposed to do? She knows the truth."

"The truth won't change how she feels about you, Nik. Marcel knew the truth about you as a child and he still thought the world revolved around you."

"Marcel? The same Marcel that just challenged me to a match to the death? That Marcel."

"So he's gotten out of hand now. We will just have to take extra precautions to make sure Hope doesn't. For example: Let's try not hurting anyone she cares about."

Klaus scoffed at the implication.

"I'm serious, Niklaus. If you want Hope to forever see you as her knight in shining armor, never give her a reason to believe you the villainous dragon."

Klaus was unsure. He'd always been the dragon in these stories, it had become second nature to him. But for Hope he was determined to do whatever it took to be the Hero.

-M-

Marcel sat at the bar at Rousseau's drinking heavily. He'd been there for three days straight, leaving just long enough to sleep off his stupor at the hotel across the street but once he was back at full capacity, he'd just drink himself to near death again. He didn't know what to do. He was finally welcomed back into his city again but it wasn't the same. He wasn't the King. He wasn't the Prince. He was nothing. His home was gone. His friends were still in hiding from the Mikaelson rage. All he had was a bar stool and a bottle of bourbon.

On Thanksgiving Day he got especially drunk. Thinking about the Mikaelsons big family dinner riled him. He used to be an intricate part of those dinners. He used to split the wishbone with Elijah and sneak desserts before dinner with Rebekah. One Thanksgiving when Kol was undaggered, the two of them snuck off to go skinny dipping in the lake. But what he missed most of all were his morning rides with Klaus.

Each Thanksgiving morning, without fail, Klaus would wake before the sun and take Marcel on a ride out to the lake. The horses would trot slowly so they could observe the scenery. The view of the sun rising over the lake was breathtaking. They would get off their horses and lie down in the grass saying hardly anything to each other and yet for some reason, each year Marcel looked forward to those quiet moments with his father.

Drunken reminiscing lead Marcel to the entrance of the Mikaelson Compound.

"Klaus! Where are you, you bastard?" Marcel screamed as he staggered into the courtyard. The smell of alcohol on his breath equaled only by the smell originating from the bottle in his hand. In the middle of the courtyard set a feast. "You think you can just kick me out?! This is my home!"

He stumbled on a strategically placed wooden chair. When he turned to face it, he saw the Mikaelson Thanksgiving feast laid before him. In his drunken rage he flipped the table into the wall.

"Where are you, Klaus? Come out! I'm not leaving until you fight me!"

With his senses being severely impaired by the alcohol, Marcel didn't notice Klaus's presence until the man had his hands around his collar.

Klaus intended to fight Marcel over his ruined dinner but the smell of whiskey seeped heavily though his pores and disgusted him.

Through gritted teeth, Marcel growled, "Do it. C'mon. Give me a reason."

Hope ran to the edge of the balcony. She was about to jump over it to stop her father from hurting the only brother she knew when Rebekah caught her in midair.

"No!" The girl screamed. "Daddy, don't! Please!"

Klaus looked back at his daughter's big, teary eyes and felt his heart sink. He sped Marcel out of the courtyard to the basement where he snapped Marcel's neck and let his unconscious body drop to the floor like a sack of flour.

Elijah entered the basement seconds later.

"Seems you might actually have to dagger him to keep him from coming back after all."

"No, I can't. If anything happens to him, Hope would know and she would never forgive me."

"There's only so many times you can let him go, brother. He keeps coming back. Eventually, he'll return with reinforcements. What are you going to do then?"

"I'll figure that out when it happens. For now, let's just keep him restrained. Where are the Vervain shackles?"

Flashback:

Sixteen-year-old Marcel watched with fascination as Kol prepared to dive from a ten-foot-high tree branch into the cool lake beneath him. Kol made a show of flipping through the air in the water without as much as a splash. It took real talent to dive that well but Marcel was filled with youthful determination.

The two stayed out all day, Marcel practicing his diving and Kol jeering at every failed attempt until Marcel finally noticed the evening sunset marking his late arrival home to finish his chores.

Elijah and Niklaus waited anxiously by the door for Marcel and Kol's return.

"Perhaps you're right, brother," Klaus said uneasily. "Perhaps he does need a firm reminder to take his responsibilities more seriously. This is the third time this week Marcel has neglected his chores."

"Precisely," Elijah agreed. "Marcellus is a good boy but he gets easily distracted when offers of a good time are presented. Especially when Kol is involved, but I will handle our brother. You just ensure that Marcel understands what is expected of him and the consequences that will follow should he fail again."

"I understand but…are you sure a thrashing is in order? I mean, will that not remind him of the monsters whose whips he cowered under as a child. I love him, Elijah. I don't want him to fear me."

"That was not the same, brother. That will never be the same. Use only your hand and hit only his bottom. And watch your strength, be sure to never break skin or leave bruises."

Klaus listened and nodded at his brother's instructions. Elijah had spanked each of his younger siblings in the past years as vampires, some more than others, so Klaus was confident in Elijah's knowledge on the subject.

Marcel and Kol burst through the front doors hoping to sneak away and finish their chores before anyone noticed but with the stern looks Elijah and Klaus faced them with they knew it was too late.

End Flashback

Marcel woke again chained in the Mikaelson basement, this time to a metal chair bolted to the floor. The sounds of his futile struggling against the Vervain chains brought Niklaus down to him.

"Ah, you're awake," Klaus said calmly. "Good. I wanted you to be awake when I beat you for ruining my family's holiday."

Klaus closed in closely to Marcel's face. The younger vampire didn't flinch as Klaus wrenched his arm back to hit him.

Noticing Marcel's unwavering confidence, Klaus said, "I should end you, you know that. Do you have any idea how much Hope wanted this? She's been talking about it for weeks."

"I know. Who do you think she's been talking about it to?"

"Don't remind me. I want to kill you for what you told her. That was not your place. She should've heard it from me, or Hayley, or-"

"One of the Mikaelsons?"

"Don't you dare start with that 'not one of the family' poppycock! You were one of us. We never treated you like you weren't!"

Marcel sighed heavily. "Whatever," He grumbled. "Just do what you gotta do to me. I don't care anymore."

Once again, Klaus unlocked the shackles containing him and pointed to the staircase leading out of the basement. "Get out," He seethed with anger. "And never return. I mean it. Come back again and I'll let Kol have his way with you."

Marcel eyed the staircase for a long time before finally saying, "Then go get him because I'm not going anywhere."

Klaus was stunned silent.

Emotions boiling, Marcel barked, "What do I have to do to convince you I'm ready to come back home? What do you want me to do?! Apologize? Admit I was wrong? Well, I'm sorry, Klaus! I shouldn't have done what I did to your family but it killed me to see you like that too. The days after I bit your brothers, after the anger had subsided, when I thought they were dead, I grieved. I grieved to the point of not wanting to leave my room for God knows how long because I thought my family was gone. Every day I fought with the desire to pull that dagger from you, to have at least one piece of my family back with me, but this was just what I was afraid would happen. That you would...hate me. I didn't think I could take it and I was right. Don't...Klaus...don't turn you back on me. Please."

"What you did could never be forgiven," Klaus growled. "You tried to destroy my family. In all the world, in all eternity, I have only ever had my family. You knew that and you tried to take them away from me."

Marcel fought against the burning in the back of his eyes. "You said that I would always be forgiven." He muttered. "I made a mistake and I come to you now, not as a past ally or the former King of the Quarter, but…as someone you once promised always and forever. Please, Klaus…forgive me."

Klaus took steady, calculated steps towards Marcel until their faces were inches away from each other.

"Maybe, a week ago, had you come begging for my forgiveness, I would've granted you clemency but you told my daughter of the monster I was. Do you know how she looks at me now? I can see it in her eyes as if she's trying to picture the terrified faces my victims graced me with, as if she can see the blood staining my hands. Hayley spent 12 years telling her stories only of how much I loved her, painting a picture of only a loving, doting father, and in a matter of seconds, you managed to have her question everything she knew was true. Well, you were wrong, Marcel Gerard. I can change. For her, I can change."

Klaus brushed past Marcel and headed for the exit.

"No one knows better than me how much you can change, Klaus," Marcel barked with enough ire to turn Klaus back towards him. The young vampire could no longer hold his tears at bay and they dripped from his lashes as he fought to keep an angry scowl on his face. "Because there was a time when I didn't even have to apologize to you for you to know I was sorry. A time wh-when..."

His voice cracked and he paused. Klaus saw the tremble of Marcel's lip before his bit it.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Marcel said, "There was a time when you treated me like no one else mattered. Now it feels like everyone matters but me."

"You removed yourself from this family," Klaus bit. "Not me."

"And now I'm saying that I'm sorry!" Marcel could no longer fight the pain that washed away all pretense of anger he was trying to hold. "Please, Klaus. I-I...I want to come back home. I don't care that you're angry with me. Be angry!" He brought the balls of his palms up to his eyes, forcefully wiping away his treacherous tears. "But...you have to forgive me. You said you would. You promised you always would."

Klaus simply stared at him, his face cold and emotionless.

"What do you want from me?" Marcel ranted. "Do you want me to bow to you? Is that it?" Marcel threw his hands up in defeat. "Do you want me to prove that I can be one of your loyal dogs like Hayley and her pack? Fine! Klaus!"

As Marcel bent his knees to kneel before him, Klaus suddenly grabbed Marcel by the collar of his shirt and pulled him close as he growled, "How do you ever expect me to forgive you after what you did? You cannot be forgiven with mere words. You do not have a child for me to steal a decade of their life with you from, nor do you have siblings for me to torture with poisons. You can never feel the pain I felt and you have the audacity to ask for forgiveness. As if you should just be able to come back home and start life as usual after twelve years of betrayal. You had twelve years to remove that dagger from my chest but you chose not to. You left me to rot and had Hayley not saved us, I may have missed all the rest of Hope's life."

"What about my life? Where am I supposed to go, Klaus?"

"Where did Hope go when you ran her mother out of the city."

"I didn't run her out of the city. She had a choice. She could've stayed and bowed to me like everyone else."

"That was hardly a choice at all. Especially considering how you attempted to kill her lover. But she has proven again that she is more loyal to this family than you are."

Marcel stared at Klaus with unwavering eyes. "So...you're just going to throw me away. Just like that."

His jaw tense, Klaus responded curtly, "You threw us away, Marcellus."

Marcel's eyes finally fell to the cold cement floor. He did everything he could think of to get Klaus's forgiveness but it didn't seem the Hybrid wanted to give it to him. He walked slowly over to the staircase, prepared to leave the Mikaelson mansion for what was to be the final time, unsure of which city he would abscond to now.

Flashback:

Marcel waited patiently for Klaus to enter his room. The two oldest Mikaelsons seemed furious when he and Kol returned from the pond so late, their chores unattended to. He wasn't sure what to expect when he was sent to his room but he knew whatever it was, it wasn't good.

Klaus entered the room nervously, unable to look the boy in the eyes.

He started off shakily, giving a long, drawn-out speech about responsibility and adding random bouts of information about how much he cared for Marcel. At the end of his speech, Marcel thought it was over, that all he would get was a stern lecture and an early bedtime as had happened in the past. When Klaus sat on the bed beside him, he was not so sure anymore.

"Stand up, Marcellus, please."

Marcel rose, uncertain.

"Marcel," Klaus started slowly. "I am going to spank you for neglecting your responsibilities."

Marcel's eyes widened at the announcement and Klaus quickly looked away, unable to witness the fear in the boy's eyes.

"I know…it's hard for me too, son, believe me, but you deserve it. Now, let's get this over with." Klaus pat his knee. "Over my knees."

Marcel nervously draped himself across Klaus's knees. This wasn't his first spanking. Elijah would often give him and Rebekah a few swats whenever he caught them sneaking treats from the kitchen before dinner but it was his first spanking by Klaus.

It was a little awkward at first, with the boy being so long that his face almost touched the floor, but when Klaus pulled down his cotton trousers to reveal his round cheeks, things got even more awkward.

Klaus immediately started swatting away and all awkwardness Marcel felt was replaced with pain. As advised by his brother, Klaus stopped once Marcel's bottom was a bright red.

He righted the boy's clothes and tried to stand him to his feet but at seeing the tears coursing down Marcel's soft cheeks, Klaus pulled Marcel into a hug, tears nearly breaching his own eyes.

Once Marcel's crying had ceased, Klaus put the boy to bed and firmly said, "I don't ever want to have this conversation with you again, Marcellus."

Choking back sobs, Marcel replied, "Y-yes, poppa. I'll be m-more responsible next time."

Feeling horrible for being the source of his son's sniffling, Klaus made sure to tuck Marcel in tight and give him a gentle peck on the forehead and a caring 'Goodnight' before leaving, praying to never have to be so harsh with the boy again.

End Flashback

Klaus grabbed Marcel and dragged the man over to the steel chair in the middle of the room. He made quick work of baring Marcel's behind and didn't stand on ceremony before laying into it with a quick succession of smacks. Marcel bit his lip to keep from crying out at the rising sting of each smack but after a while, it became impossible to fight it. The power behind each smack was outrageous and Klaus laid in with another smack before he was able to heal from the previous. Eventually, his behind was a deep mauve color. When he was choking back sobs and losing the fight to stay strong, Klaus pushed him off his lap and onto the hard concrete floor.

"That was the first step to earning my forgiveness," Klaus grunted. "Don't expect the rest to be so easy."

As Klaus walked towards the staircase, Marcel struggled to ask, "You're...letting me come back?"

Klaus paused. He turned to Marcel, still sitting on his knees rubbing down the searing pain on his sore bottom, and said, "You will no longer be my right hand. You will hold no power in this new Kingdom whatsoever. You will do exactly what you're told to do when you're told to do it. You will work hard to earn the trust back of every single person in this household and if you ever give anyone any reason to believe you're up to any of your traitorous plots again, I will personally rip your still-beating heart out of your chest."

Marcel had expected Klaus's conditions to be of the sort and readily accepted them.

Then, continuing his departure, Klaus added, "Your old room is exactly as you left it. Breakfast is at 7, don't be late."

Chapter Text

Chapter 7

"What do you mean he's staying here?" Kol fumed. "If you expect me to go on acting as if that traitor didn't try to kill us you've got another thing coming!"

Klaus gathered his siblings and the mother of his child to the drawing room to discuss his new arrangement with Marcel. Freya wasn't sure how to feel about the man's return. She was afraid to trust him but she was also afraid to speak of her distrust: after all, she was technically the newest member of the family. Elijah and Haylee thought it was a splendid idea as they could both tell how much both Marcel and Klaus needed each other. No one was as happy as Rebekah. Elijah forbade her from speaking to Marcel after his banishment was lifted. She sometimes watched him at Rousseau's but she was never allowed to approach him. Now that he lived just down the hall from her there was nothing stopping them from being together.

Only Kol felt a red hot rage boil through his body at the thought of Marcel's return.

"I will rip the flesh from his bone should he even think of turning against us again." Kol barked, spit flying from his flapping mouth.

"Be my guest." Klaus said calmly. "I already promised him death at the first sign of betrayal. Your torture beforehand will only send a clearer message to any enemies who may lurk in the shadows."

Elijah stepped in before his two brothers could go on planning Marcel's end.

"There will be no torturing or killing of Marcel. I believe in his redemption. He came to you asking to be forgiven and we will, all of us, find a way to forgive him."

Rebekah jumped from her spot on the sofa beside Freya to her feet with a mischievous smile on her face. "Well, I for one, will gladly welcome Marcel back into our little family." She said happily.

His frown deepening, Klaus replied, "You will do no such thing. I forbid you from ever being alone with him."

Rebekah's smile immediately vanished. "What?"

"I don't trust him to not…corrupt you."

"You mean you don't trust me to not betray you."

"Well given your track record with him, I can't see a reason I should trust you two together. It seems that whenever you're with him, your only objective is bringing down this family. Or more specifically, me."

"Nik," Rebekah stomped furiously over to her brother, growling, "I agreed with your tyrannical decision to banish him, fearing that I would never see the man that I loved again, but I submitted to your decision for the sake of this family. Now that he's back you expect me to just, what? Avoid him?"

Klaus folded his arms angrily over his chest and replied, "I don't care what you have to do, little sister, but you and Marcel are not allowed to be alone ever again. As a matter of fact, you two aren't allowed to communicate with each other, in any form, if no one is around to monitor it."

Rebekah stomped furiously out of the room. Freya turned to follow behind her sister but Klaus paused her by saying, "Let her go. The rest of us have other matters to attend to. I want to break Marcellus. I want to prove to him what I already know: That if given the chance he would betray me once again without a second thought if it meant regaining his spot on the throne. So I want you all to help me give him a little nudge in that direction."

"Just so we're clear," Elijah started, immediately distrustful of his brother's plan. "You want us to push Marcellus to the break of betrayal?"

"I want you to help him see his true colors. That he is not meant to be subservient to anyone. He was born a fighter. He was meant to be a leader, he always has been."

"Once he realizes this, what are you going to do to him?"

"It all depends on how Marcellus chooses to exact this birthright. Should he decide to leave New Orleans and start a kingdom of his own elsewhere, I shall allow him. But should he the gall to try and take my city away from me again, I will do what is necessary."

~M~

Marcel woke with the rise of the sun. He got dressed but stayed in bed, staring up at the roof and reminiscing on his past memories in that room, back when he was a boy sheltered by the love of his family.

His thoughts were soon cut short when his door opened and in sped Rebekah. She was still wearing the same floral camisole and jeans from the quick glance he saw of her the day before so he was certain she'd been up all night.

"Are you on Vervain?" She immediately asked him.

Confused, Marcel answered, "No, not for a while, no. W-why?"

Rebekah ignored the man's distress and sped over to him on the bed, wrapping her arms around him and planting a big kiss on his tender lips.

As she pulled away, she said, "I don't have much time, the others are probably already waking, I just had to see you before Nik got his hands on you."

"What are you talking about? What's going on?"

"Nik has banned me from ever being alone with you. He fears I will turn against him in the name of love again."

Marcel's heart sank. One of the reasons he was so adamant about returning to the compound was to be with Rebekah again.

"Then what are you doing here now?" He asked.

"I refuse to be away from you any longer. When we woke, my brothers made us swear a pact of unity meaning whenever Klaus and Elijah made a decision, we all had to honor it so when they decided to banish you, I followed along. A hundred years ago when I thought you dead, somehow I managed to continue living so I thought with you banished I could do the same but this time you were not dead. This time, I knew you were out there and it doesn't matter how many times you break my heart or betray this family, Marcel Gerard, this crazy feeling inside of me won't let me hate you no matter how bad you might be for me. So it is with the love of a foolish, foolish girl that I beg you,"

Rebekah bit her lip, wondering if she should just compel him and make this easier but of all the people and vampires their family has compelled over the years, Marcel had always been the one that they agree would only be done if it were for his own good. And he trusted them to keep that promise.

"If we continue to see each other, you cannot tell my brothers."

Marcel's lip curled into a scowl.

"Just until things are back to normal," she added, knowing how much Marcel hated sneaking around. "I fear if we came out to my brothers right now, Nik will either banish you again or put a dagger in me to keep us apart."

"Fine," he agreed halfheartedly. "But this is temporary. I am not going to spend another century hiding my love. The moment I feel as though Klaus trusts me again, I am going to tell him. And if he tries to dagger you, I will find someone to pull it out every time."

Placing a hand on the back of her head, Marcel pulled Rebekah into a kiss.

As they pulled away, he said, "I am spending the next thousand years with you, Rebekah Mikaelson. I don't care how Klaus feels about it."

She had only a moment to bask in his smoldering gaze before she heard footsteps coming down the hall.

"I love you, Marcel Gerard," she muttered. "Always and forever." The lips met for a quick second before she vamped away.

Just as Rebekah disappeared out the window, Niklaus entered Marcel's room carrying a black one-inch three-ringed binder. He noticed the open window and strolled over to it. He saw nothing suspicious outside so he simply closed the window and said, "I'm almost certain that sleeping with an open window was the cause of most of your childhood illnesses."

Marcel rose from his bed and said, "Yeah, sorry about that." Nodding at the binder in Klaus's hand, he asked, "What's that? You giving me homework?"

Klaus smirked at Marcel's joke and said, "You won't find this little binder so hilarious once you know what's inside." Klaus flashes Marcel the cover and written in white marker across the front are the words Marcel's Rules.

Marcel instantly frowned.

With a wide smile, Klaus said, "Ah, just the reaction I was hoping for. You see, my siblings and I stayed up all night drafting this little manual especially for you. There are a lot of rules in here, two hundred and thirty-seven to be precise. Some of these are subject to change, of course, and more a sure to be added during your stay here so I wouldn't get comfortable."

Marcel took the binder from Klaus and opened it to the first page. "Rule number 1. Never tell a lie."

Klaus smiled proudly at hearing the rule. "I thought of that bit. Thought it was the most important rule of all. I won't be accepting any lies this go-round, Marcel so if you're even considering it, leave now."

After what he endured the night before, Marcel had no plans on ever walking out on his family voluntarily so even though he was angered by the rule, he buried his pride and began irately flipping through the rest of the book.

Stopping on a random page, he read aloud, "Rule 82. You are not allowed to leave the Compound without an escort during the probationary period. Are you serious? What the probationary period?"

"Ah, yes, you skipped that part. Rule number 3. You will be on an indefinite probationary period in which you are expected to follow all of these rules to the letter and obey every order given to you by any member of this household until our trust in you is restored, which, at this point, could take a few hundred years."

The heat of annoyance growing bigger in the pit of his stomach, Marcel scoffed and slammed the book closed.

Tutting, Klaus said, "Watch that temper. Rule 24. No ornery behavior."

"And what's my punishment for breaking any of these precious rules?"

Closing in the gap between them, Klaus muttered in the most menacing way Marcel had ever heard, "I know what you're expecting me to say. That I would skin you alive or chop you into pieces and scatter them across the bayou, or…I could be even crueler than that and banish from your home for good. But the actions I took last night seemed to incorporate all the elements I look for in a punishment. Your pain and humiliation."

"You-you're gonna…you would…you wouldn't really…?"

Niklaus smiled at Marcel's mortified stammering.

Regaining his composure, Marcel asked, "That's a joke, right? I mean, you wouldn't actually…you're Klaus Mikaelson. You kill, torture, and maim, not…that."

"It really depends on my mood at the time but if I were you, Marcellus, I wouldn't try me." Klaus stepped slowly over to the door. "Take your time and read that manual thoroughly. We'd hate for you to find yourself tail end up for a small mistake. Oh, and just a heads up. Rule 13, you must be on time for every meal, so that gives you about," Klaus flips his wrist up to read the time on his watch. "20 minutes before breakfast, so be quick about it."

Chapter Text

Chapter 8

Marcel made it to breakfast on time. Breakfast was a buffet, as it often is in the Mikaelson household. Marcel sat at the end of the table away from the others, who didn't seem to mind the man's withdrawn behavior, but when Hope entered she hurried over to Marcel and took the seat beside him.

"You're okay." She said to him happily. "Are you staying here now?"

The girl's giddiness lifted the somber cloud that hung over him and he replied with a smile, "I am…on a contingent basis."

"Contingent on what?"

Marcel chanced a glance at Klaus who was staring right back at him.

Loud enough for the entire table to hear, Klaus said, "Marcel, you seem to be done with your breakfast. Perhaps you should get to those chores."

"Chores."

"The chores outlined in your Manual," Kol responded. "You did read it, didn't you?"

Marcel had only skimmed through the Manual in order to be on time for breakfast though by the intense glare Kol was giving him he knew it was best not to admit that.

"Right, those chores. I'll get to them when I'm done here."

"I think you're done," Nik growled. "Go on."

Marcel left with little resistance.

"Hope, what are your plans for the day?"

"I'm just going to hang around here today. Get to know Marcel better."

"Come now, a girl your age spending a perfectly good Friday indoors, certainly not. What about that friend of yours, what was that lad's name…"

"Sebastian? Are you saying you want me to go out with him?"

"As friends," Klaus smiled. "I trust you. Your mother did a fine job raising you in my absence."

"Thanks, dad, but I really would rather stay here. Marcel's all alone now."

Niklaus was not happy with her response but he kept his displeasure hidden behind a smile.

After breakfast he found Marcel cleaning the paintbrushes in Klaus's studio as appointed to him in the Manual.

"Rule number two. What is it?" Klaus stated.

Marcel was caught off guard by the question and stammered out a 'what'.

"You heard me. Rule number two in that thick Manual I gave you this morning, what was it?"

"Something about Rebekah and Hope?"

"You don't remember?"

"Give me a break, there are over 200 of those damn rules, you can't expect me to remember all of them."

"Well, allow me to jog your memory. You are never to be alone with either Rebekah or Hope. Ever. Should you break that rule you will wish death was an alternative punishment."

Klaus turned to leave but Marcel yelled after him, "I would never hurt them! You know that, right?"

"It is not a matter of if you will hurt them, Marcellus, but of whether your double-crossing tendencies will rub off on them. I spent hundreds of years with Rebekah but in a matter of a short century, you managed to turn her against me. I refuse to let that happen with Hope. So should you ever break this rule, Marcel, the punishment shall be grave and unrelenting."

"Klaus, I came to you begging, and you still don't trust me!"

"I fear I will never trust you. Should you stay here and work your fingers to the bone doing the most menial tasks day in and day out I wouldn't trust you so if it's trust you're looking for you might as well leave now because I can all but guarantee you, you will never again find it from me."

Niklaus spun on his heels and marched heatedly out of the room. Marcel considered leaving at that moment. He thought it would be easier to find a new city to claim and build into his empire but his conscience wouldn't let him. He spent 12 years filled with regret over what he did to his family and if it took 100 years he was going to prove to Klaus that he was truly remorseful and deserving of his trust.

Moments after Klaus left, Hope entered.

"When you finish here do you wanna go see a movie?"

Marcel continued cleaning the brushes and refused to look at the girl. "Can't, I have to mend the banisters after this."

"What about after that?"

Marcel sighed, "Then I have to clean the gutters, wash the windows, and – y'know what, I just have too much to do."

"Oh…then what about tomorrow?"

Marcel turned to the girl and glared menacingly. "I'm just too busy to goof off with some kid. Now can you please go? You're becoming really annoying."

As Hope went running out of the room, Marcel felt his heart sink but he had to keep Klaus happy for now. He was sure he could make it up to Hope eventually.

-M-

Freya was working on a spell to protect the Compound from intruders when Kol entered fuming.

"I still can't believe they're letting that traitor live." He barked. "Y'know, I tried to betray the bastard once. Landed me a century with a dagger in my chest. But no, the rules have always been different for Marcel, he has always been their guy."

"Believe me, I'm just as mad about it as you are."

"Really? How's that?"

"He tried to kill us," Freya said angrily tossing a hand full of specified leaves in a blow. "Anyone who tries to hurt my family is my enemy, always."

"Now you're talking." Kol grinned evilly. Closing in on Freya, he whispered, "How's about you and me make a little alliance of our own."

"Are you proposing we go against Elijah and Niklaus? Because I saw what that got you last time and I would rather it didn't happen to me."

"Trust me, sister. It will be worth it to get rid of Marcel once and for all. It's in everyone's best interest that he is gone. Marcel's not one of us, he said so himself, he doesn't belong here. This is our family."

"So what did you have in mind?"

"We just have to wait a bit. Something's bound to come up."

Suddenly Haylee came in in a panic.

"We have a problem." She stated.

Kol smiled knowingly at Freya.

They quickly found the others so she could tell them all at once.

"When I left New Orleans the Crescent pack divided into two factions; those who remained loyal to their banished queen and those who considered me a coward. The rebels joined forces with Marcel while we were gone and banished my people back out to the bayou. I went out to the bayou today to pass out some much-needed provisions when I was told that there's been talk circulating that the rebels are planning a revolt. No one knows when but they seem pretty confident."

Niklaus was outraged. He feared something like this would happen.

"First thing first," Elijah took charge. "We protect Hope. We double her protection detail and keep her in at night, at least until we can confirm the authenticity of this information."

"Of course," Hayley agrees.

"Someone should go to Vincent's sanctuary and ask some questions. Figure out what those wolves know."

"I'll go." Niklaus volunteered.

"No, not you. We're not trying to start a war, we're just trying to get information."

Freya volunteered next and Elijah agreed because she was currently the least hated Mikaelson amongst them. He also hoped that her being a witch would prompt Vincent to be more cordial.

Niklaus then took over, saying, "Haylee, go back out to the bayou and put the word out. Any wolf ready and willing to lie down their life for my daughter is welcomed back into my home."

They were adjourning the meeting when Kol said, "So are we all just going to ignore the little spy outside the door?"

Marcel's entire body tensed at the acknowledgment. When he saw all the Mikaelsons run into one room he knew something big was going down so he immediately went to eavesdrop. He didn't expect someone would notice his presence.

With a sigh Klaus admitted, "I sensed him too but I was hoping he wouldn't be stupid enough to eavesdrop so soon into his probation. Marcellus!"

Marcel nervously rounded the corner to see a room full of disapproving stares.

"What am I going to do with you?" Klaus groaned. "I'm sure 'No eavesdropping' was covered on page one. Did you even read the Manual?"

Marcel considered lying but then he remembered rule number one. He was in enough trouble as it was.

"I skimmed it." He admitted. "I haven't really had time to read the whole thing yet."

"And yet you found time to listen in on conversations that don't concern you," Freya added.

With a heavy sigh, Klaus said, "Come on, let's go to the basement."

Marcel cringed. If the night before was any indication of what was about to happen in the basement now, he wanted no part of it; as if he had a choice.

"Actually, brother," Kol stepped up. "Let me take care of him this time. You already have so much on your hands as it is."

Niklaus was skeptical. He wanted to trust his brother but he didn't like how quickly he volunteered to perform a task that even he didn't want to do. Still, he agreed to it simply because he wanted to focus on the rogue wolf pack threatening his family.

Kol and Marcel walked silently down to the basement. The sight of the metal chair bolted to the floor sent shivers down Marcel's spine.

He waited for Kol to sit down. Though the idea of being over Kol's lap of all people angered him he was in no position to protest.

Kol, however, never sat down.

"Over the back of the chair." He ordered.

Marcel stared confused at the high-backed chair until he heard the unmistakable sound of leather being pulled through Kol's belt loops. He turn back to Kol, doubling the belt over in his hand, with his mouth agape.

"Ni-Niklaus would never use that." He stammered.

"Well, Niklaus isn't here, is he." Kol gave him a forceful nudge towards the chair. "Now, over the back."

Marcel hesitantly leaned over the back of the chair. His feet struggled to find ground as his hips settled against the cold, metal back.

Kol started swinging and Marcel gripped the iron seat and kept his mouth shut. He was determined to take the beating silently. He didn't want to give Kol the satisfaction of knowing how much that belt truly hurt him.

Kol grew angry when he realized what Marcel was doing and he wanted to unleash all of his strength on him but he held back. He wanted to wait until Marcel committed a bigger infraction to release his full strength on him so if Marcel should protest, which he was certain he would, he could end him in self-defense. That was the only way he could get away with it.

When he finished, Kol stood back and admired his work. Marcel may have remained silent to mask his pain but he couldn't control the shivers going through his body.

"Stand up."

Marcel took a few deep breaths to calm himself before standing on his shaky legs.

"Still wearing that shameless look of self-confidence, are ya." Kol jeered. "Even through the tears."

Marcel hated himself for the tears that escaped but no matter how much he fought them they just kept coming. He was grateful to feel the pain lessening and knew his body was beginning to heal itself.

"Don't worry, I'll break you eventually. Get out of here. You've got chores to finish."

Marcel wiped his face with the sleeve of his shirt and marched steadily to the staircase.

"Oh, and you better hope you can get those chores done before dinner, mate," Kol yelled behind him. "Or the two of us might be seeing each other down here much sooner than you'd want."

-M-

Freya was in her room studying an ancient grimoire when Kol found her.

"Sister, I need a favor." He said with a wide smile.

"Anything, brother. What is it?"

"I need you to nullify Marcel's healing ability." Seeing the look of confusion on his sister's face, Kol went on to explain, "I just spent twenty minutes giving that brat my best and he walked out of there with only a few measly tears on his face. I want to break him and to do that I need him to not be able to heal while I'm beating him."

"Brother, I think you've gone too far. I want him gone, not tortured."

"You want to get rid of him, sister, this is how you do it. You have to make it so he'll want to leave and never come back."

"Kol, this is crazy."

"No, sister, you don't understand. You and me, we're just hitchhikers. A couple of blokes just riding for a few miles. We can get dropped of at any moment and it wouldn't make a difference because Nik, Elijah, and Rebekah are the only main passengers on that trip and they can ride for centuries with just the three of them. I know because they have. But then Marcel showed up and suddenly another permanent seat opened up and it's just for him. If given a choice they'll choose him over us, trust me. So it's our job to get rid of him by any means necessary. Now, I need to know if you can handle that because if not I'll do it on my own."

When Freya didn't answer, Kol turned to leave in a huff. "Wait," she said stopping him at the door. "Fine. I'll do it. Just…make it quick."

Chapter Text

Chapter 9

Flashback:

In the days leading to Marcel's 16th birthday, Klaus promised to give him anything he wanted. The only problem was Marcel wanted for nothing. Klaus had always gotten him everything, against Elijah's advice of course, but even when showered with gifts Marcel remained humble and modest which made his father proud and only want to give him more things.

Marcel spent days thinking of the perfect gift until one night he stumbled across a dusty old coffin. Inside rested Kol Mikaelson. Marcel recognized his face. He was a child the last time they met but he remembered the fear Kol brought him.

Staring down at the man's face now he couldn't see why he was ever afraid of him. The man looked more mischievous than menacing.

"Marcellus," Niklaus called in search of the boy. Marcel called back, drawing his father to the coffins. "What in heavens are you doing down here?"

"I was trying to think of an idea for my birthday present, poppa, and then I saw him.."

Niklaus stood beside Marcel and stared down at the face of his sleeping brother. He thought about the last time he woke Kol – the massacre he forced Marcel to watch and the blood he fed the boy. For a moment, the sight of his own brother disgusted him and he closed the coffin.

"Well, did you think of anything?" Klaus asked attempting to divert his own thoughts from the heinous memories. "What about a new horse? Or perhaps one of those velocipedes. I'll probably have to do some searching but I'm sure I'll be able to find one for your big day."

Marcel smiled at how animated Klaus was becoming at the thought of getting him a gift.

"Poppa, there's really nothing I want this year. You've given me so much already."

"You say that like it's a burden. You're my son. I'll give you anything."

"Well," Marcel stared down at the floor, nervous about voicing his request. "Maybe…you could wake your brother, Kol, again."

Niklaus's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Marcel, Kol…is not an influence I want around you. Do you remember the last time he was awake?"

"Yes, but I'm much older now. Much more mature. And it gets boring here sometimes when you're away. I need a friend."

"That's what I fear most. Kol is not a good friend for a human. He's much too violent. You could get hurt."

"Then make me like you."

Klaus went silent. That was one request he wouldn't fulfill.

"I'm basically a man now. Boys my age go to war so if I am old enough to choose to go to war, I can decide to become like you."

Klaus couldn't help but smile. "Marcellus, you could live for as long as I have and still not be old enough to go to war."

"Please, poppa. I want to be great and powerful like you."

"You will be great and powerful, Marcel." Klaus put a finger up to his temple and said, "In here. Now go upstairs and prepare for bed."

Marcel slowly teetered away leaving Klaus alone with the coffins.

Niklaus wasn't going to turn Marcel, that much he was sure, but he wanted the boy to have a happy birthday so with heavy reluctance he opened, Kol's coffin and removed the dagger in his chest. He waited silently for his brother to wake up and when he did he welcomed him back with open arms.

"How long did you have me daggered for this time?" Kol grumbled.

"Just a few years. Marcel's turning 16 and as a gift, he requested you be undaggered."

"Marcel? Oh, that little welch you took in. He's still around?"

"He is and it seems he wants to be your friend."

"If you think you can just undagger me and force me to be that boy's friend, you're out of your mind."

"I don't care if you're his friend, I don't care if you two spend the next few years walking past each other in the halls with hardly a 'hello', but Marcel made a request for his birthday and I promised I would get him anything so here you are."

Kol mumbled obscenities under his breath as he got out of the coffin. "Just know that you signed up for this 'father' business, I didn't so I'm not changing my life to incorporate a kid. I'm still going to drink and party and live like tomorrow is a given for no man."

"By all means, dear brother, do as you please. Our home is your home. I'm sure Elijah will have something to say about that but I have only one request. No, one demand. Do not EVER hurt Marcellus."

End Flashback

Every day Kol found a reason to drag Marcel down to the basement and with his healing ability nullified, Marcel could feel every burning lash every second of every day. He thought about telling Klaus but after carefully reading his Manual he found a Clause that prevented him from complaining about his punishments. He wondered if the others knew what Kol was doing to him. He wanted to ask but it was an awkward conversation that he wasn't willing to bring up, especially after the wolves started moving in.

Marcel got one off day a week were he wasn't awarded chores and he was free to do whatever he wanted within the Compound. Klaus feared if Marcel were allowed to go out he would find other allies to betray him again and he wasn't willing to take that chance just yet.

It was on this day Klaus found him lounging in his room reading.

"Ah, there you are," said Klaus. "Been looking all over for you. I have some news. I'm sure you've heard about the Christmas party we're throwing tomorrow night."

"Yeah," Marcel answered without looking up from his book. "Let me guess; you want me to clean up after it."

"On the contrary. I'm giving you the entire day off…provided you stay in your room during the party."

"What?" Marcel exclaimed.

Niklaus sighed. He knew that was going to lead to an argument. "We're having very influential guests: the wolves from the other packs that moved in during your reign as King. Haylee is going to try to make an alliance with them for Hope's sake. We need as many allies as we can get during this time of impending war. You are still a security risk. Can't have you ruining things for us. Oh, that reminds me. With the arrival of all these new residents, we've decided to add a few more rules for you. Where's your Manual?"

Marcel walked slowly over to the Manual on his dresser. It hurt to walk at all but between Niklaus and Kol, he was always on the go.

He shoved the Manual into Niklaus's hands with more fervor than intended but that did not go unnoticed by Klaus.

"Watch that attitude," Klaus warned. "You've kept yourself out of trouble for the last few weeks, don't break that streak."

It was then that Marcel knew that Klaus had no idea of the torment Ko was putting him through. He wanted to blurt it out then. He thought that if perhaps Niklaus knew he would put an end to it but another, more frightening, thought occurred. What if he didn't? What if he told Klaus and he decided that he deserved what Kol was doing to him. It wasn't any worse than the pain that dagger put Klaus through for 12 years.

That fear kept Marcel from speaking up as Klaus walked away.

-M-

The night of the Christmas party, Rebekah snuck away to be with Marcel. Her brothers were all well distracted by the guests so she was sure no one would miss her so long as she was back before the toast at the end of the party.

When she made it to his room it was empty. She heard the shower running and knew that's where he was so she wanted to surprise him: lying out on the bed, her white gown in stark contrast to the warm colors of the room. She let down her hair hoping to entice him with her beauty.

Marcel entered his room with only a towel wrapped around his waist and the sight of his glistening body made Rebekah even more excited to see him.

"What are you doing here?" Marcel asked in shock.

"What do you think? I came to see you. We finally have some alone time. C'mon, my brothers are all distracted with the party downstairs."

Marcel wanted to be with her. He wanted to hold her, to be held by her. After the rough few weeks he had, he wanted nothing more than to feel a gentle touch. But he couldn't. Not at the moment. He couldn't let her see what he hid under that towel. He remembered the last time she saw his body so ravaged.

Flashback:

Marcel and Klaus sat in the barn, Marcel between Klaus's legs while Klaus carefully cleaned the wounds on the boy's back left by the hateful lash of the Governor's whip, when Rebekah came in carrying a bucket of warm water for them. That was the first time Marcel had ever seen her up close and he was immediately mesmerized by her beauty.

"The pain of those lashes must be unbearable and yet he doesn't shed a tear." She commented.

Marcel blushed. Had she seen him only hours ago she would've seen a very different side of him because he did cry as the whip bit into him and even more so when Niklaus first touched the wounds.

"Because he is a warrior. He's tougher than most and destined for greatness." Niklaus praised, causing the child in front of him to grin. But then his hands found a fresh wound and Marcel cringed, fighting the need to cry out in front of Rebekah.

"You poor child." She cooed kneeling beside them.

Marcel turned away ashamed of the way she looked at him. A mixture of pity and unease. He thought she was beautiful but he knew she saw him as damaged goods.

Rebekah put a placid hand on the boy's chin and gently turned his face back to hers.

"Don't worry, little one. No one will ever do this to you again. Niklaus would sooner kill them than let them even raise a hand to you."

Marcel smiled meekly. "Yes ma'am."

"You don't have to call me ma'am. I'm just Rebekah. But a boy as handsome as you, you can call me Bex."

Marcel's smile grew brighter as he watched Rebekah leave to fetch more freshwater. Without him saying a word, Klaus knew exactly what the boy was thinking.

"Great, just what her ego needs. One more lovelorn lad fawning over her." Klaus joked.

End Flashback

"You should go back to the party," Marcel said coldly. "I'm not in the mood."

"Well, that's a bit forward. I only wanted to spend time with you. I'm not that easy, y'know."

"Well, I don't want to spend time with you." Marcel continued trying to push her away. He turned his back on her as he walked over to his dresser searching for something to wear.

Angry at being dismissed so easily, Rebekah jumped from the bed and prepared to stomp out but before she did she wanted to embarrass Marcel as much as he embarrassed her so she grabbed his towel and wrenched it from his waist.

She has prepared to laugh at him, to mock his nakedness, but what she saw she couldn't mock. She could barely stomach it.

Marcel's entire backside was whipped raw. It was a wonder the man could walk, let alone do so with clothes rubbing against his tender flesh. She looked down at his towel, it was a dark blue to mask the possible seeping blood, but she still saw it though she wouldn't have if she wasn't so carefully looking for it.

Marcel quickly snatched his towel back and said, "You can't tell anyone."

"Who did this to you?" She asked in barely a whisper.

"No one. It doesn't matter. Just…don't tell anyone."

Rebekah shook her head, speechless. She ran out of the room with tears in her eyes. She ran back to the party and found Klaus immediately amongst the myriad of party-goers.

"Nik, you have to come with me now." She said, dragging him away from the werewolf royalty he was entertaining.

"Sister, get a hold of yourself." He scolded. "What is wrong with you?"

"It's Marcel. There's…there's something wrong with him."

"Marcel? Is that where you've been when you should've been socializing with our guests down here?"

"Nik, he's-"

"I told you I didn't want you alone with him anymore."

"But I-"

"I don't want to hear it. I'll deal with you both later. For now, we have guests so I suggest you put on a happy face and mingle."

As Niklaus turned back to rejoin the party, Rebekah called to him, "If you ever cared for him at all you'll come with me."

His curiosity peaked Niklaus left the party and followed Rebekah back to Marcel's room. Marcel was in bed fully clothed in pajamas and lying face down when they entered. He hadn't been able to sleep on his back since Freya cursed him and he excused himself early from every meal so as not to prolong his suffering but upon seeing the irritated face of his sire with the woman he'd been having a felonious relationship with, he sat up straight.

"Okay, now what is the meaning of this?" Klaus demanded.

Frightened, Marcel looked to Rebekah. "You told him?"

"I had to." She nearly cried. "Show him. Show him what has happened to you."

Marcel remained unmoved.

"Fine, then I shall tell him."

"Don't you dare!"

"Someone had better start talking or I shall start decapitating," Klaus said, growing angrier. "Starting with you, little sister, for dragging me up here."

"Look at his behind."

Klaus was astounded by his sister's uncouth demand. The sudden tension in Marcel's body, however, told him that there was some wisdom to the insanity.

"Stand up, Marcellus." He said red-faced. "Bare yourself."

"Klaus…don't make me do this."

"Please, Marcel. This brings me no pleasure either but you are both acting very strange so to put an end to my sister's pestering, I ask you to remove your pants." Niklaus only grew more embarrassed as he begged.

Slowly, Marcel rose. Rebekah ducked behind the door, unable to look upon the tortured flesh a second time. Marcel turned his back to his sire and eased the soft cotton pants below his behind, revealing the horrid truth.

Klaus was speechless, filled with disgust, heartbreak, and anger. He walked closer to Marcel, his feet moving upon their own volition.

Tears started down Marcel's cheeks and he righted his clothes to keep some semblance of pride.

"Who did this to you?" Klaus muttered, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Kol," Marcel finally answered, still refusing to look at Klaus. "Everyday…he takes me down to the basement and…"

"Why don't you heal?"

"I don't know." Marcel's tears came heavier and without a second thought, Klaus spun the man around and pulled him into his embrace.

"I'm sorry." Klaus apologized, tears of his own burning his eyes. He didn't know why at first but as Marcel broke into sobs on his shoulder he realized what Elijah had been telling him all along. No matter how much he tried, he could not will himself to hate Marcel. He was his son and even in his betrayal, Klaus would love him.

"Sister," he called out. "Go back to the party. I will handle things from here. And tell no one of this."

Rebekah shut the door to afford the father and son privacy before withdrawing back to the party.

"Why didn't you come to me?" Klaus asked, bringing his hand up to Marcel's head to pull his head closer to his shoulder as his body shook with sobs.

"I...was afraid you'd think I deserved it…for what I did to you. To your family. I do."

Klaus's hold grew tighter around Marcel. "No, you don't. I would never think such a thing, Marcellus. You...you never deserve anything like this. You have never deserved it. And I'm so...so sorry. Kol will not get away with this. I will fix this."

Then a thought occurred to him. Releasing Marcel, Klaus bit into his own arm and held it out to him. Unsure if it would work, he said, "Drink."

Having tried all else, Marcel drank Klaus's blood. He could feel the healing magic of Klaus's blood immediately.

"It worked," He announced as he pulled away from his sire's arm. "But…what does this mean?"

"It means Kol has a witch in his pocket. Someone or something has been hindering your healing capability."

A shiver went through Marcel's body as he realized that being healed now would only mean Kol would have a fresh canvas to mark up once again if given the chance.

As if reading Marcel's mind, Klaus cradled Marcel's head in his hands and vowed, "This ends today. Kol will not get away with what he's done. And he's not going to do this to you again. I promise."

Chapter Text

Chapter 10

Kol watched nervously as Niklaus and Rebekah ran out of the party. He could tell by the pained expression on her face that Rebekah knew something and he dreaded that it was about Marcel.

He calmly rushed around the room in search for Freya but his eldest sibling was nowhere to be found at the party so he searched the rest of the Compound. He found her alone with one of the Werewolf royalty in the den beside a roaring fire. It was a romantic sight indeed before Kol burst into the room.

"We have a problem." Kol stated.

Freya pulled away from her rugged suitor to growl, "Can't you see I'm busy, little brother. What do you want?"

Kol was too worried about Klaus finding out what they had done to respond with his normal level of spite. "Rebekah knows. About Marcel. I think she's telling Klaus right now. What are we gonna do?"

Freya's eyes widened with the same fear. She left her date behind and scurried out of the room to her workshop with Kol following close behind her every step.

Freya barged into her workshop unsuspecting of Klaus's presence. Everything was trashed: remnants of the spell she used against Marcel was tossed with reckless abandon about the room along with every other spell she had in place.

"I knew Kol had to have a powerful witch under his thumb in order to complete such a powerfully wicked spell." Klaus spoke with bridled intensity. "I just didn't think it would be my own sister."

"Niklaus," Freya started slowly but she didn't know what to say. Her brother was furious, that was easily enough to see, but she could also so his pain. She knew he was deeply hurt by their betrayal.

"Niklaus," Kol stated seemingly unbothered, hoping to talk his way out of this predicament. "You told us to drive him away. We were just doing as you ordered."

Niklaus gave no warning before he sped across the room, grabbing Kol by the throat, and slamming him against the wall.

"If you thought what you did was right you wouldn't have kept it from me. I should break you in half!"

"Niklaus," Freya grabbed Niklaus' arm and tried to pull it away from Kol as their younger brother struggled for air but Klaus was too strong. Elijah's entrance came as a blessing.

"Nik," he barked. "What is the meaning of this?"

Niklaus released Kol and he dropped to the floor gasping for breath.

"These two have been plotting behind our back! Betrayal once again running deep within my own family!" Niklaus went on to tell Elijah what he knew. Although Elijah was shocked that he didn't know what was going on under in his own home, he wasn't surprised by Kol's actions.

Attempting to defend himself before Klaus decided to put a dagger in him, Kol said, "We were only trying to get the treacherous bastard to run away like Nik wanted."

"Kol," Elijah snapped. "Do us all a favor and shut your mouth."

"I should've known you'd take his side!" Kol barked, his fear quickly replaced with anger. "We spend twelve years bonding, trapped in each other's minds – the most intimate situation you can be in with another person – but I see now that means nothing now that you have the bastard hybrid back."

"That is quite enough, Kol. Now…we have guests downstairs looking for their hosts so it behooves you all to put this issue away until after the party."

Without another word Kol stomped heatedly out of the room.

"He thought he was doing the right thing." Freya defended. "So did I. Marcel is not one of us. He doesn't deserve to be here and he doesn't deserve your forgiveness. We are your family. Not him."

As Freya tried to leave Niklaus slammed his hand against the doorframe, blocking her exit.

"Marcel is as much family to me as anyone, I see that now. If either of you ever hurt him again-"

"Niklaus," Elijah quickly interrupted. "Let her go, brother."

With a heavy grunt, Niklaus moved away from the door. Freya took one last sorrowful glance at her brothers before leaving to the party.

"You can't blame them for hating him." Elijah spoke to the quiet room. "Last I checked, you trusted him least of all."

"Distrust does not equate hate, dear brother. For example, I no longer trust my siblings but that does not diminish my love for them."

"Might I ask what brought about this sudden swell of emotion for Marcel?"

Niklaus thought back to the feelings he had when he saw Marcel earlier that night.

"Seeing him in that state…it reminded me of when he was a boy, right after I first took him in. For months he was afraid someone was going to come take him from me and return him back to those monsters. I swore I'd always be there to protect him but tonight I realized that my siblings are monsters all their own and I failed to protect him from them."

"As much as I admire your sudden paternalism towards Marcel, don't misconstrue these emotions. You may care for him but that does not mean you should trust him. Not completely. Not just yet."

Niklaus nodded in agreement but Elijah could see it in his brother's eyes. Niklaus was too trusting when it came to old friends. He knew he would have to keep an eye on them to make sure Marcel didn't take advantage of his brother's credulous ways.

-M-

Flashback:

Soon after Marcel's sixteenth birthday Elijah and Niklaus were called away to Baton Rouge to discuss and alliance with a coven of particularly strong witches, leaving Marcel alone with Rebekah and Kol. Klaus wanted to bring Marcel on the trip with them because he feared leaving him with Kol but Elijah believed in their brother's redemption and insisted Kol would do nothing to harm Marcel in their absence so Klaus relented and let the boy stay.

What Niklaus failed to see was the friendship that was beginning to bloom between Kol and Marcel. Once Kol stopped seeing Marcel as an obligatory nuisance, he realized that he actually enjoyed spending time with him.

"Oh, Marcellus," Kol sang as he skipped through the forest plied on German liquor. He found Marcel in the middle of a clearing practicing his archery. Marcel paused his practice to look on entertained by Kol's drunken antics. The man carried two bottles of the foreign drink, one in each of his hands. The bottle in his right hand was significantly less than the other and as Kol stumbled closer to him Marcel knew why. "Look what I compelled from a weary traveler along the road. Here,"

Kol tried to give Marcel the half empty bottle but the boy refused.

"I shouldn't." He said. "Poppa expects me to be on my best behavior in his absence. Besides, I'm not allowed to drink Spirits. Only wine and only if he says it's okay."

"Oh, c'mon lad. To hell with the rules. Niklaus and Elijah are gone now. I'm the head of the family now and I say you're allowed to have a bit of libation."

Curious because of never having had liquor before, Marcel took the bottle and began slowly drinking it. The taste was stronger than he was used to but after being mocked by Kol the first time he complained about the burning sensation he decided to ignore his discomfort.

The two drunken youths scuttled about the wooded area playing drunken games, paying no attention to where they were going until Marcel stumbled into the backside of a stallion. He looked glazy-eyed up to the man sitting on top of the horse and was shocked to see a stranger on what he thought was still the Mikaelson property. Two other men on horses appeared which only frightened the intoxicated child more.

"Lookit what we have here." The first man heckled. "Think we found ourselves a runaway."

Kol suddenly appeared by Marcel's side just as the boy was frozen with fear.

"What are you lot doing on my family's property?" Kol growled.

With a heavy scoff, the horseman replied, "You're one of those Mikaelsons, ain'tcha? Well I got news for you. Your property line ended about half a mile back the way you came."

"Oh," Kol smirked beguilingly. He grabbed Marcel's arm and said, "Then I guess we should be getting back."

"Wait a second. Does this boy belong to you?"

"He doesn't belong to anyone. He's a free man."

"Well, we're gonna need to see some 'free man' papers."

Marcel's fear grew. He didn't have papers because he never left the property without Niklaus and no one ever questioned Niklaus. He feared that his worst nightmares were coming true and the men were going to take him away from his home.

Kol had the same fear but for a different reason. He knew if he allowed these men to take Marcel, Niklaus would dagger him for at least a few centuries.

Without a second thought, Kol sped through and ripped off the heads of all three men. Marcel was left speechless. He hadn't seen such a vicious act since the last time Kol was awake.

"Wh-why didn't you just compel them? L-L-Like poppa does."

Kol wiped the blood from his hands on one of the saddles of the still-standing horses.

"Suppose I could've. Didn't really think about it." He chuckled. "Oh well. The world is better off without their kind anyhow. Now, where were we? Oh, that's right," Kol sped over to Marcel and gently pushed his shoulder. "You're 'it'."

End Flashback

"Stinkin' bastard!" Kol screamed to himself as he stuffed his collection of ancient mystical objects into an old tattered suitcase.

Freya entered his room just as he was about to leave it for good.

"Where are you going?" She asked surprised to see his room in shambles and his most prized possessions missing from their usual place.

"I'm getting the heck outta dodge and if you had any sense you'd come with me."

"Kol, I'm not leaving my family."

"Fine, stay, what do I care?"

Freya stepped gracefully in front of him as he tried to squeeze by her. "No, you're not leaving either. We are a family, Kol. You don't just get to leave when things get tough."

"You haven't a clue what you're in for, love. We've royally screwed up and that means a dagger for me and who knows what the bastard's got planned for you. Our only other choice is to get lost before the going gets tough and give Nik a little time to cool his head. Trust me, I know this family better than you."

Kol then pushed past his sister and stormed out of the room. He was in such a hurry to get out of the Compound that he didn't see Marcel rounding the corner in front of him until they were both laid out on the floor after the collision.

Kol jumped to his feet and grabbed Marcel by the collar of his shirt. Marcel stood stoic, prepared to take whatever Kol was going to dish out.

"You're always getting in my way." Kol growled. His anger boiling over, Kol punched Marcel sending him flying down the hall to the balcony overlooking the party.

Marcel wasn't expecting Kol to punch him but the second he was back on his feet he was primed to fight. Kol sped down the hallway to him, once again taking hold of Marcel's shirt but this time Marcel grabbed him back. The two wrestled against the banister until they fell over into the sea of partiers. The floor cleared around them with everyone looking on in shock until a sudden surge of magic broke the two squabbling vampires apart.

Freya stared down from the balcony in dismay but Kol and Marcel's eyes were focused on the sight of the eldest two Mikaelson brothers speedily making their way down the staircase.

"I would like to express my deepest regrets to everyone for tonight's events." Elijah stood before the guests and apologized while Niklaus quietly guided Kol and Marcel out of the courtyard. "I can assure you, it will not be happening again. Please, carry on."

As the band proceeded to play their music and Rebekah and Hayley did the best they could to renew everyone's spirits, the King of one of the werewolf clans came over to Elijah and grunted, "If you can't keep peace within your own family, how can we be sure you'll be able to keep the peace of an entire Kingdom."

"Travis, I can assure you-"

The werewolf King held up his hand in silence and continued, "Talk is cheap, brother. You've proven tonight what you and your family are capable of. I hereby reject your alliance."

"Let's not be imprudent," Elijah stated warningly. "If you're not with us, you're against us."

"Then I guess I made my choice."

As Travis and his werewolf brethren left the party, Elijah glared heatedly up at the balcony to Freya now as angry with her and his brother as Niklaus was. Travis's clan was the biggest of all his guest and in a time of impending war, the last thing they needed were more enemies.

Chapter Text

Chapter 11

Kol nearly walked a slump into the floor as he paced heatedly back and forth, grumbling to himself curses about his brothers.

Niklaus had thrown him and Marcel in the study like a couple of errant children and then left to go help Elijah calm down their guests.

Furious at being reprimanded like children, Kol paced. He considered leaving the room right after Klaus but at that point running away would've been seen as childish rather than an effort of self-preservation.

He was also curious to find out what Klaus's plan for Marcel was. He knew that by attacking him back, Marcel had broken the rules in his manual and Kol planned to demand the harshest punishment available for him.

"I'm going to tell'em to desiccate ya." Kol spat. "Then put you in the garden for a few hundred decades before finally putting an end to your treacherous life. That'll show ya."

Marcel sat quietly on the floor leaning against the bookcase across the room. His arms wrapped around his legs, his head resting against his knees. He could just barely hear Kol as he ranted because his attention was focused on the noise down the hall. He listened for Niklaus but he couldn't make out any distinct voice among all the party-goers.

"Do you hear me?" Kol yelled after realizing he was being ignored.

Marcel snapped to attention, his face hardened with anger at having his concentration broken.

"I hear you," Marcel growled. "You haven't shut up since we've been in here."

"We'll see how cocky you are with a dagger inside ya."

Marcel's arms tightened around his legs. He was afraid. He'd broken several rules by fighting Kol and Klaus had all but promised him death for breaking even one. That's why he was trying to eavesdrop. He had to know what Klaus's plans were – not because of his fear of the dagger, but of exile. It was his greatest fear.

"I'll probably get the dagger too. And it's all your fault."

"Wait, how is this my fault? You attacked me."

"You shouldn't have fought back. I was just in a bad mood. I would've calmed down had you not fought back."

Marcel jumped to his feet and stared Kol down. "If you think I'll ever just stand there and take a beating from you, you've got another thing coming."

"Oh yeah. That's not what you were saying when I had you down in the basement sobbing like a little boy."

Anger clouding his better judgment, Marcel's fist came crashing at Kol's jaw like a freight train. Kol's body went stumbling back across the room but he caught himself before he hit the wall. When he looked back at Marcel, the devilish grin on Kol's face made his skin crawl.

"Thanks," Kol jeered as he cracked his knuckles. "That's all a needed. An excuse to kill you."

Kol was in front of Marcel before he realized it. Two swift punches in the abdomen and Marcel had four broken ribs piercing him from the inside. Luckily from him, Klaus's thorough destruction of Freya's workshop effectively ended the spell she was using to suppress his healing ability. Unlucky for him, Kol had no intention of giving him a moment to start healing. He wanted to break every bone in Marcel's body before killing him.

Kol had the overwhelming advantage and for everyone hit Marcel miraculously landed, Kol had six. Marcel never knew the extent to which Niklaus held back on him when they fought until that moment.

When Marcel's body was sufficiently broken and he couldn't stand even on his knees, Kol grabbed him by the collar and slammed his body against the wall so they were seeing eye to eye.

The music from the party outside was loud enough to drown out any noise coming from the study so Marcel was sure no one was going to come to his rescue.

Blood dribbled down his chin as he asked, "Wh-why..."

"Why do I hate you? Why does the very sight of you send me into a blind rage? Because of Davina! I loved her…so much. But you tried to kill me over a mistake that wasn't even my fault. Then you come to my brother begging for forgiveness when mercy and understanding were the furthest thing from your mind that day."

Marcel didn't have the strength to argue. He gritted his teeth and shut his eyes, preparing for the final blow.

The door opened suddenly and Marcel opened his eyes to see Hope's shocked face. Kol immediately released the man after seeing his niece's terrified face.

"H-Hope. What are you doing?"

The young girl was frazzled by the scene before her. She wanted to answer him with the same question he asked her but she was too shocked for sass. "I-I saw the fight so I snuck away to check on you. Wh-what happened?"

"Hope, just…go. This is none of your concern."

She looked back down to Marcel lying supine on the floor, his limbs contorted unnaturally. The blood on his face brought tears to her eyes.

"P-please…" the words came softly from her lips, "D-don't hurt him…anymore. S-s-stop. Please…stop…"

The pain on the girl's face hurt Kol more than he thought anything ever could. He ran to her, pulled her into his arms, and hugged her tight as she wept.

As her tears began to quiet down, Kol said, "Hope, go back to the party and-"

"No!" Hope yanked herself away from her uncle's hold. "You're going to kill him if I do."

"Hope-"

"That's what you were about to do before I walked in, wasn't it?"

"No one is going to kill anyone." Kol begrudgingly promised. He'd waited twelve years for that moment and all it took was one puffy-eyed girl to ruin his moment of revenge. "Marcel here was just getting a bit insolent so I had to remind him who's in charge. Your family might be a bit nuts, love, but we're not monsters."

Hope wanted to believe Kol's ostensible lie, however, she still wasn't ready to leave. She couldn't leave with Marcel so obviously in pain.

"Can I help him? I know a spell that will make him heal faster."

"He's fine. We're not quite done talking yet."

"But-"

Kol began slowly closing the door on her as she tried to protest. "Bye, sweetie. See you at midnight for the bonfire."

When the door shut, Kol sighed. "It's a Christmas miracle. My love for one little girl is enough to keep you alive another day. When you can walk again, go to your room. I don't want to see your face for a few days."

"Klaus put me in here. I'm not leaving until he says so."

"Fine," Kol jerked the door open. "I'll go." He slammed it shut behind him.

Once completely healed, Marcel began leisurely cleaning the study as a way to take his mind off his current situation. When the door to the study opened again it was for Klaus.

Nodding to the mess of books under the fallen bookcase that Marcel had yet gotten to, Klaus asked, "What happened in here?"

"Uh…it fell."

"I can see that. How?"

"I, uh…got into a fight."

"With Kol? Another one? Where is he?"

"He left a few minutes ago."

Klaus took a deep breath to keep himself calm as he started helping Marcel with the cleanup. After a while of silence, he finally said, "The party's over, everyone is going home. Seems we lost a few potential adherents due to that little spectacle of yours."

"He attacked me first," Marcel quickly defended. He'd been waiting for Niklaus to mention the fight. "I was only defending myself. You can't expect me to not defend myself. I'll follow that damn manual to the letter but when provoked I have to be allowed to defend myself. And-and if you exile me, you have to exile Kol too. He started it. It's unjust to exile me when he incited the fight. I've done everything I'm supposed to do for weeks without giving anyone any problems. This one mistake can't be the reason I lose everything. I was defending myself. It's an instinct."

He prattled off the words without thought. He just wanted to convince Niklaus not to exile him, it didn't matter how pathetic he sounded doing it.

"Your instinct could end up costing this family its kingdom."

"It wasn't my fault! Your brother started it!"

"Did he start the fight in here too?"

Marcel's reply was a heavy huff. "Look, I'm sorry you lost some people tonight but I swear…if you let me stay I'll do whatever I can to get them back."

"I had no intention of exiling you for this." Klaus had no idea how much of a relief those words were for Marcel to hear. "And you will not be going to any of the faction leaders. We will handle this. You will do nothing but learn to stay in your DAMN PLACE!"

Marcel angrily threw the stone bookend in his hand across the floor. His chest heaved with rage but Klaus remained unruffled.

He waited for Marcel to calm back down before demanding he pick it back up.

Marcel didn't move an inch.

"I said. Pick. It. Up."

With a sigh of resignation, Marcel walked over to the discarded, and now chipped, bookend and sat it on the coffee table.

"Don't ever make me have to repeat myself to you again."

Those words ate at Marcel. He was so used to being in charge, to being the one making the demands. He held so much anger at his current position that he didn't even think about his next move before he picked up the coffee table and threw it at Niklaus in anger. Klaus had only a moment to react but he managed to dodge the table and let it smash against the wall behind him.

It was only after the deed was done that Marcel began to regret it.

He stood silently and wide-eyed. Klaus couldn't believe it himself. Attacking Klaus was treason and according to his manual, treason was grounds for automatic execution. Marcel knew that but he wasn't thinking about the rules when he acted. At that moment he was fueled only by rage.

"I…I'm sorry." He said. "I don't know what came over me. I-I wasn't thinking."

"Were foolishness admissible no man would face the gallows. You've just made a mistake that you might not live long enough to regret."

Klaus began to saunter towards him and Marcel took slow, careful steps back as he did. Not feeling up to the chase, Klaus sped to Marcel and slammed him against the wall.

"I should kill you right now," Klaus stated, his forearm across Marcel's chest holding the man to against the wall. "That's what your manual says you deserve!"

Ashamed of being ashamed, Marcel stared past Klaus at the floor. "I was just angry. It wasn't an act of betrayal. I'm used to fighting out my anger with you. I was just trying to blow off some steam not...not turn on you."

Klaus lifted his arm and released Marcel from his hold. Marcel stared at him in confusion, certain he was about to lose his life. To his dismay, Klaus walked over to the liquor cabinet that miraculously remained untouched during his and Kol's fight and grabbed a bottle of Scotch and crystal glass.

He watched silently as Klaus proceeded to pour himself a glass of the liquid.

After taking a sip, Klaus finally said, "I have done you a great disservice."

Confused, Marcel waited for him to continue.

"I should've never treated you like a brother, I should've never even thought of you in that way. When I see Hope in 15 years I won't think of her as a sister or as an ally to my family. She will still be my little girl. It should've been the same way for you, but it wasn't. I aim to rectify that. Come here."

He walked cautiously over to his maker. Klaus picked up a knocked-over end table and placed it before them.

"Bend over this and hold on tight."

Marcel stared nervously down at the table. "Klaus, c'mon, man. Just…just hit me. Punch me in the face. Hell, throw a table at me. Anything but this."

Finishing off the rest of his drink, Klaus said, "Not anymore, mate. I'm going to remind you what it means to be my son."

Apprehensive, but reminding himself that he agreed to this when he returned to the Mikaelson household, Marcel obeyed.

While he was bent over the table, Niklaus walked around the room until he found the meter stick that was thrown off the desk.

"Don't get up," He ordered as he stood back behind Marcel. "Or we're starting over."

Marcel clenched his teeth and anxiously waited for the first strike.

The glass of Scotch had done its job and calmed Niklaus. He took his time laying into Marcel, each lick more thought out and deliberate than the first. Marcel was handling the pain well but it was the excruciating wait between the spanks that was unbearable. But that was Niklaus's plan; to humiliate him. To remind him of Klaus's control.

There was a pause in the spanking that was suspiciously longer than the others and Marcel mistakenly celebrated to himself thinking his punishment was over.

"That was for disrupting my party with your quarreling. Now, drop your pants."

Marcel was in no hurry to obey but he did. With his pants around his ankles and his navy boxers exposed to the room, he resumed his position.

With his bare hand, Niklaus covered Marcel's entire bottom in harsh, stinging smacks in rapid succession. It was then that the tears began down Marcel's cheeks but he steeled himself not to scream out. He fought a hard battle but in the end, he lost. His face reddened at the sound of the small yelp that escaped his lips. He thanked God that Niklaus stopped right after.

"That was for attacking me. Let it never happen again or this is how I will choose to 'blow off some steam'. Pull your pants up."

Marcel was more than happy to obey. Shudders of broken sobs shook his body as he fastened his belt. As he turned to face Niklaus for further instruction, he was shocked to be pulled into the man's embrace.

"I care…so deeply about you. It breaks my heart to I live in fear that everything you do is likely part of a grander scheme to reclaim my throne."

"Niklaus, I-"

"Shh, don't say anything. I wouldn't believe it anyhow."

Niklaus brought his hand up to the back of Marcel's head and held him against his shoulder for a moment they both wished could've lasted longer.

"Clean up this room," Klaus ordered as he broke the hug. "And then go to bed."

Marcel glanced up at the clock still hanging on the wall. "But, the bonfire starts in half an hour."

"And you won't be attending it."

"But-"

"Rule 3, obey every order! I will not be entertaining any more questions. Clean this room and go to bed. That's all you have to do. Is that clear?"

Failing to conceal his contempt, Marcel barked, "Yeah, everything's real clear," before returning to cleaning the room, this time in haste.

Niklaus buried the intense feelings of disappointment bubbling forth inside him and left to find his youngest brother.

Kol's bedroom door was locked when Klaus made it there. He knocked and was surprised to see Elijah opening the door. He was missing the jacket to his tuxedo and his shirt sleeves were rolled up to his elbows.

"I was hoping to find Kol in here."

Elijah smirked knowingly and nodded to the changing screen at the furthest corner of the room.

"In the corner. He asked me to put the screen up in case anyone was to walk in and see him."

Amused, Klaus crossed the room to the screen and moved it aside. He almost laughed at the sight of his younger brother with his nose against the wall and his pants at his ankles showing off his bright red behind.

"Well isn't this a sight?" He mocked.

"Shut up, Nik." Kol sniffled, still fighting back tears after his recent spanking.

"Ah, I think the lad's embarrassed, Elijah. Having his bum exposed to the world like this."

"Perhaps," Elijah said as he rolled down his shirt sleeves. "But not as embarrassed as we were trying to convince our guests that the Mikaelsons are not as barbaric as he and Marcellus made them believe."

"That was a tad bit more embarrassing. Especially for the few that told us to sod off. That was just downright humiliating."

With his voice rigid from crying, Kol strained, "I said I was sorry."

"Sorry. That's the second time I've heard that tonight but, you see, I don't think you understand what tonight meant to us. We are trying to build an empire," Klaus took Kol's jaws in his hand and forced his brother to look him in the eyes as he spoke. "Your juvenile antics are working to destroy it before it hits its prime. Should you do anything else to hinder the progress of our kingdom, I will live with the sole purpose of making you regret it."

Klaus then took Kol's head and slammed it into the wall, breaking his brother's nose. Blood rushed down Kol's face as he let out a breathless scream.

"That's for the weeks of torment you put Marcel through. Do it again and you shall never know a day without pain again."

"Elijah!" Kol sobbed, cradling his broken nose gently between his hands.

Elijah sighed in frustration at the sight. "Stay in the corner, Kol. Your nose will heal before your ten minutes are up."

Kol cried angry tears as he stood in the corner with a throbbing nose and backside.

-M-

The Mikaelsons stood around the burning pile of lumber in the cool night air with slips of paper in their hands. They all scribbled their wishes down before the party in anticipation for the bonfire and when the time came, they threw the wishes into the fire together.

"What did you wish for?" Rebekah asked Kol who still wore the sour look on his face from earlier.

"Can't tell you or it won't come true."

"I sincerely hope it doesn't. In fact, my only regret is that my wish wasn't to wish that your wish doesn't come true."

"Well someone's a bit bitter."

"You're a jerk, y'know that. I saw what you did to Marcel."

"He deserved it. And more. He tried to kill me."

"I hope you get exactly what you deserve. And shame on you, dragging Freya into your misguided plot for revenge. Look at her, poor thing. Doesn't know what she's in for."

Across from them, Freya stood quietly watching the fire dance. Niklaus and Elijah had yet to confront her for her part in Marcel's torture so she spent the entire night on edge, waiting for one of them to approach her and give her, her first-ever Mikaelson family punishment.

"She knew the risks when she got into it. Besides, she hates Marcel as much as I do."

"Is that so." Rebekah made a note to keep an eye on Freya too. She first thought that Kol had tricked their sister into using the spell against Marcel but if Freya too had a grudge against Marcel, that was one more threat against him that Rebekah felt she had to protect him from.

Overlooking the bonfire was a balcony. Leaning against the railing of that balcony, staring wistfully down at the Mikaelsons was Marcel. He watched Hope and envied her joy. When he was a boy he too used to feel so loved with the Mikaelsons but it was different now.

He was so focused on Hope that he didn't notice Niklaus's presence beside him until the man began leaning over the railing with him.

"I thought I told you to go to bed," Klaus said calmly.

"Doesn't look like you sent Kol to bed."

"Kol was punished. It's none of your concern how."

Marcel stood up straight, infuriated at Klaus's statement.

"Well that's just…it's not…it's…it's not fair." He hated himself for how childish he sounded but it was how he felt. "You've never treated me like him and you never will."

"That's because you two are not the same," Niklaus growled. "I thought I made that clear. You are my son; he is my brother."

Marcel was left awestruck when Niklaus swiftly had him bent over the railing.

"I raised you, I punish you harsher because I expect more from you. Having high expectations for Kol was Mikael's problem. Too bad for him. Lucky for you, I'm still around and I'll still be around for a long, long time. Now, do you understand or should I use this position to my advantage?"

"I-I understand," Marcel whispered, hoping no one on the ground would look up to see him in such a vulnerable position.

Niklaus effortlessly stood him back on his feet. "Good. Now, go to your room before I change my mind."

As Marcel turned to leave, he was stopped by Niklaus's hand in his jacket pocket. Niklaus spotted the small slip of paper poking out the moment he got on the balcony.

"Wait," Marcel panicked, thinking Klaus was about to read it. "That's my-"

"I know what it is. Don't worry. I'll be sure to toss it in with the rest of them."

Marcel gave a halfhearted thanks because it wasn't the same. He wanted to throw his wish in. He wanted roast food over the open fire and lie in the grass staring up at the sky looking for shooting stars with the rest of them. He was missing out on a holiday moment he'd been looking forward to for weeks and he hated Klaus for it.

Flashback:

Klaus sat in bed with young Marcellus as the boy finished the last of his Christmas cookies and milk before bed. It had been a long day for him with the surprise party he set up for Marcel's first holiday and the family bonfire that night. It was all worth it though to see the look of joy on his son's face all through the day. It was Marcel's first holiday with the Mikaelsons and Klaus was determined to make it one he'd never forget.

"All done?" He asked as he took the empty plate and glass from the child.

Marcel nodded tiredly and laid back on his pillow.

"All tuckered out? The holidays will do that to you."

"Hm-mm, but it was so fun. I loved it. And I love you, poppa."

Those words warmed Klaus's heart. He kissed Marcel's temple and said, "I love you too, Marcellus. Good night."

"Good night, poppa."

Klaus turned down the lantern by Marcel's bed and slowly crept to the door. Looking back into the room before he made his final farewell of the night, he saw that Marcel was fast asleep. It was a deep, peaceful sleep unlike the ones the boy had when he first arrived. Now Marcel knew he was home, he was safe, and he was loved and at that moment Niklaus promised to make sure Marcel felt that way every night from then on.

End Flashback

Chapter Text

Chapter 12

Hope stood in front of the store mirror holding a little black dress in front of her. It was a little longer on her than on her Aunt Rebekah but she was sure she could pull it off, that is, if she was brave enough to leave the store with it.

She and Rebekah were out shopping for an outfit to wear to the secret New Year's Eve party the Tremé witches were throwing. She was invited by a friend but Niklaus wouldn't let her go unless she took a security detail with her. He had yet to explain to her the seriousness of the threats posted against their family and he didn't want her to feel afraid so he slyly talked her into agreeing to go to the party with Rebekah. Since Rebekah was so young at heart, the girl agreed with hardly an argument.

"How about this one," Rebekah brought her a white sequin dress.

It was far less revealing than the black dress as the girl held it up to her body in the mirror.

"There you are. All covered up. Nothing ol' mum and dad can say bad about this one."

"I don't know. This one's cute but," Hope held the black dress back up in the mirror. "This one matches Sebastian's tux."

"Sebastian," Rebekah mocked. "You two've been spending a lot of time together. Are things getting…serious?"

"It's not like that, Aunty," she laughed. "He's just a friend. Honest."

"Okay, okay, fine. Whatever you say. Go try on…the black one."

"Really?" Hope's eyes lit with delight.

"Really. I'll deal with your parents should they find out but let's try to get this between the two of us. Hope and Aunty Bex's little secret."

Hope jumped into Rebekah's arms, hugging her tight, before running off to the dressing room to change.

-M-

Marcel stood on the balcony overlooking the courtyard watching with envy the werewolves sparing beneath him.

He hadn't sparred against anyone in weeks. The last fight he'd been in was with Kol but that could hardly be called a fight. He spent all of his time doing chores and the one day a week he got off he spent locked away in his room trying to avoid Hope, Kol, and Klaus's dreaded werewolf lackeys.

"Something on your mind?" Marcel jumped at Klaus's lilted voice behind him.

"Just taking a break to watch them spar." He answered tensely.

Klaus nodded. "You've got twenty minutes and then you get back to work. Understood?"

The sound of a man's body being thrown through a banister diverted Marcel's attention back to the fighting going on below.

"Seems every time I fix something around here those mangy wolves break it again."

"And it's your job to fix it again."

Marcel sighed, silently reminding himself that he agreed to this.

As Niklaus started to walk away, he called out, "Wait. There's something I've been meaning to ask you."

Klaus turned around and gave the nervous man his full attention.

"It's about…my men."

"Your men?"

"Yes, I've been thinking, and…you already have the wolves living here, a few more bodies can't make that much of a difference."

"You want your men to live here? In my home?"

"I'm not asking for a lot. Just my core guys, like Joshua and-"

"We've seem to run into a dreadful misunderstanding," Klaus growled. "Not only are your men not welcomed into my home but if they show their faces anywhere in New Orleans, that goes for Tremé, the Quarters, the bayous, anywhere outside of Vincent's sanctuary, my men have been given the order to kill without mercy."

"But Klaus, I thought we were on good terms."

"Marcel, you are only here because you are my son. Had you been just another ally turned foe I would've dealt with you swiftly and certainly not in the way you are accustomed. I owe your men no such kindness."

Klaus stomped away, leaving Marcel to cope with the knowledge that he may never see his men again.

"Oh house boy," one of the wolves mockingly called up to him. "We're really working up a sweat down here. Bring us water."

"And the good stuff too," another added. "None of that tepid tap water stuff you tried to bring us last time."

"I'm not your house boy," Marcel growled loudly. "Go fetch your own water, dog."

Suddenly, the two werewolves jumped onto the balcony where he was.

"Sorry," the biggest and burliest of the two said, "We didn't quite catch that."

Their eyes flashed yellow and their fangs dripped with their toxic venom.

Marcel bared his own fangs and snarled, "I'm not afraid of a couple of mangy mutts."

Just as the two wolves were about to pounce on him, Rebekah appeared.

"What's going on here?" The Original demanded.

The wolves quickly retracted their fangs and said, "Just having a little talk with the help."

"He's not the help," Rebekah replied curtly. "He's family. And were either of you to lace him with your poisonous bite, well, let's just say I'm sure Niklaus would have a lot to say about it. Now off with you."

Without another word, they scurried away.

"You trying to get yourself killed?" She scolded Marcel.

"I can handle two wolves on my own."

"Hybrids, dear, and trust me it would've been a lot more than two. This lot fights as a pack and if they were easy to take down they wouldn't be a very good defense for my little niece, would they?"

"I'm still not afraid. And we shouldn't be seen talking together. You know what Niklaus would do if he found out."

Rebekah smiles teasingly. "Not afraid of the pups but you are afraid of Big Bad Poppa Wolf."

Marcel grunted angrily and walked away. Feeling guilty, Rebekah chased behind him.

"I'm sorry," she said speedily matching him step for step. "I was only joking. What do you expect? I get back from shopping to find my lover about to be mauled by a couple of venomous brutes and he tells me not to worry when, in fact, I should be worried. They could kill you, y'know that, and get away with it by simply claiming that you attacked them first."

Marcel stopped walking and faced her with a cold grimace. "I'm all alone." He stated. "Klaus is forcing me to stay away from you and he's promised to kill any of my men if they leave Vincent's Sanctuary. There are days where I can go a full 24 hours without holding a single conversation with anyone. I am suffocating with loneliness. Klaus says I'm part of the family but I don't feel like it. The only time he talks to me is to give me orders or to remind me of what'll happen if I don't follow them. I knew trying to pick a fight with those wolves was stupid but I did it because the day is already halfway gone and that was my first encounter with a person I could actually talk back to."

Rebekah stood silent as Marcel marched away, shocked by his confession.

-M-

Marcel laid in bed watching the clock on his wall loudly tick away to a new year. The Compound was empty except for him and a few sentry wolves left behind and everything was quiet.

Then he heard a noise. A buzzing sound coming from somewhere in the Compound.

Rule 12. You are not allowed to roam the Compound between the hours of 11pm and 6am – he remembered that.

He had memorized nearly all the rules in his manual but he was determined to find the source of the buzzing before the wolves did.

He crept quietly through the Compound using his vampire hearing to track the sound. The noise led him to Niklaus's bedroom.

Tucked away neatly in Niklaus's nightstand was a ringing cellphone. Marcel recognized it as his own. Klaus had taken it from him when he moved into the Compound. Written across the screen was the name Josh.

He quickly answered it.

"Marcel," Josh's voice barely carried over the phone.

"Josh, hey, what's wrong, man? Sounds like you're in bad shape."

"That's because…I might be." Each breath came out jagged and his words slowly fading. "Y'see, I left…the Sanctuary. I came…looking for you…in Tremé but…there are werewolves everywhere. I…I fought them off but…I got bit."

"Where are you?"

"At the docks," he forced a laugh. "I don't even know…how I got here. I just…started running and didn't stop…until I was sure…I'd lost them."

"Okay, Josh, hang tight, brother. I'm going to get Klaus's blood to you. I'm going to save you, alright?"

"Okay, no hurry. I'll just…hide between these stacks of crates until you get here."

Marcel hung up and kept the phone as he ran out of the room. He quickly changed into a pair of jeans and a T-shirt before vamping out of the Compound. He didn't know where Klaus was and he doubted the man would help him save Josh but he knew where he could find a cure just as good.

-M-

Hope danced carefree against Sebastian to the loud music. The Tremé witches had gutted out an old warehouse to host the party in so there was enough space between her dancing in the middle of the party and Rebekah watching hawkeyed from the bar to make the teen feel free.

"Want a drink?" Sebastian yelled over the loud music.

Growing weary of dancing, Hope nodded yes. The two waded their way through the crowd to the bar and ordered two virgin strawberry margaritas.

"Cute guy, 3 o'clock, totally checking you out," Sebastian said to her once the drinks arrived.

Hope looked to the end of the bar to see an older teenage boy making eyes at her. "Gross," She quickly turned away. "He's like 17."

"Well, with this hot makeover you got you could totally pass for 15."

Hope smiled. Her Aunt Rebekah did her makeup and made the girl look radiant for the night.

She looked back down the bar to the boy still eye-flirting with her and saw a teen girl with long black hair and mysterious dark eyes.

"Do you think she'll think I look 15?"

Sebastian eyed the stranger up and down. "Those boots with that dress, oh yes, she definitely bats for your team. Go say 'hey'."

Hope tries to build up the courage to talk to the older teen when she notices her phone buzzing in her purse. She doesn't recognize the number but she answers anyway.

"It's me." Marcel said quickly. Hope only had a moment to register who 'me' was before he said, "Go to the bathroom." Then he hung up.

Confused but curious, Hope excused herself to the bathroom. She waded through the crowd again to the other side of the warehouse where the restrooms were. They were packed with people and she couldn't see anything over the staggering ladies in heels but then she was suddenly pulled into a restroom stall.

Her hands lifted automatically to perform a stunning spell but she calmed once she saw it was Marcel.

"What are you doing here?" She whispered loudly.

"Don't freak out," Marcel started. "But I need your blood."

"What?"

"I know it sounds weird but I have a friend who got bit by a werewolf and he needs your blood or he won't make it through the night."

"Wait, let me get this straight. You completely ignore me for weeks but now that you need me you think you can just come and ask for my blood in a dirty warehouse bathroom?"

"Hope, I'm sorry and someday I hope I'll be able to explain this all to you but this guy is my friend and he was Davina's closest friend. He's the last link I have to her and I can't let him die knowing I didn't do everything I could to save him. I'm not going to try to force you to give me your blood, I don't even think I could, but you are my only hope so please, please…don't turn me away."

Hope didn't need another second to think. "Fine, let's go."

"What?"

"You said he needs my blood then I'm going with you."

"You can't. It's not safe for you to wander the streets this time of night."

"Please," she chuckled derisively. "Don't underestimate me."

The girl walked confidently out of the stall and with no other choice, Marcel followed.

-M-

They found Josh barely clinging to life behind a stack of crates at the docks. The venom had already started his hallucinations to the point where he didn't even recognize Marcel.

"So how are we going to do this?" Marcel asked, sitting Josh up so he could drink Hope's blood. "You gonna do a spell or something that-"

Marcel watched in horror as Hope took the knife from the holster on Josh's waist and slid it across her wrist.

"JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, GIRL!" He quickly clasped his hands around her wrist to stop the bleeding.

"No, stop, you're wasting it!"

Realizing her intentions, Marcel sat back and watched as Hope dripped her blood into Josh's parted lips. Once she felt he'd had enough she whispered an incantation and her wrist healed immediately.

"Next time warn me before you go slitting your own wrist like that."

"Sorry, he just didn't look like he had time for a formal ceremony."

"Ha, ha," Marcel helped Josh to his feet. "Let's get him out of here before the wolves come back."

"Too late."

Hope and Marcel spun around to the sound of the strange voice. Marcel's anger rose at the sight of the two werewolves he almost fought earlier that day.

"Check it out, Louie. It's the house boy."

"And he has a friend, how sweet."

"Forget the friend. Looks to me like we just caught the house boy trying to kidnap little Hope Mikaelson."

Hope quickly moved between Marcel and the werewolves. "Stand down," she ordered.

"Sorry, princess, but we're under strict orders by your father to kill anyone who tries to hurt you."

"No one's hurting me."

"Then why do I smell your blood on the half-dead one?"

"Hope, get out of here," Marcel ordered. "These guys gotta beef to settle with me and I'm going to end it tonight."

"No, Marcel, you get out of here. They won't hurt me. Get Josh to safety."

"Hope, I can't-"

Marcel paused when he saw the big wolf charging at them. Thinking fast, Hope performed a spell that broke the man's left leg, sending him screaming to the ground. The other wolf didn't waste a second before speeding past Hope to Marcel and Josh.

He grabbed Marcel by the throat and bared his venomous fangs. He was about to plunge them into the man when his hand became swiftly detached from his wrist.

Marcel had never been so relieved to see Rebekah.

The werewolf screamed in pain at having his hand cut off but Rebekah wasn't as focused on his howls as she was the sound of the clock tower ringing to signal in the beginning of the new year.

"Cutting off a man's hand to bring in the new year." Rebekah sighed. "That has got to be a bad omen. Let's get out of here before they get their wits about them."

The trio quickly escaped with Joshua in tow. They took him back to the Sanctuary before returning to the Compound.

Marcel thought they were home safe when they entered the Compound and saw no one in the courtyard but as soon as the other Mikaelsons sensed their presence they came vamping out of their rooms, surrounding the exhausted trio.

"Imagine my surprise," Niklaus started, anger clearly written on his face. "When I get a call from my wolves at the docks that my daughter, my sister, a werewolf-bitten vamp, and the 'house-boy' were having a little private New Years' celebration of their own. Who was the bitten vamp, might I ask?"

Marcel stammered, "J-Josh."

"Poor Joshua. Is he dead?"

Their silence was answer enough.

His anger rising to new levels at knowing what they had to do to prevent Josh's perishing, Niklaus forced himself to calmly say, "Hope, it's getting rather late, perhaps you should be off to bed. You look lovely, by the way. Quiet a stunning dress. I'll be sure to mention it tomorrow during our talk."

Hope wanted to stay and take up for Marcel but she had never seen her father so angry and didn't want to be around when he exploded. Little did she know that was only the tip of the iceberg when it came to Klaus's anger.

"Who did it?" Klaus growled once Hope was gone. "Which of you used my daughter's blood to heal that weasely little leech?"

"I did." Marcel said confidently. "But I didn't take it from her. She voluntarily gave it up."

"Rebekah, is this true?"

"I wasn't there for the bloodletting," Rebekah answered honestly. "But Hope was unafraid and unharmed when I found them and she's certainly not a girl to be easily taken advantage of."

Turning his anger back to Marcel, Klaus said, "Was my request that you stay away from my daughter too much to ask or did you just not understand it?"

"Oh I understood it but Josh is my guy and when it comes to saving his life I have to do anything in my power to save him, even if it means making you angry."

With a sullen scowl, Klaus dismissed everyone from the courtyard except Marcel and Elijah. He then pulled Papa Tunde's blade from his inner jacket pocket and Marcel froze with fear.

"This is what I had planned for you," Niklaus started. "Once I got the call I was determined to go out and find you and stick this in you for a thousand years if so much as a hair was out of place on Hope but Elijah here convinced me that I was overreacting. Now that I know the truth I see where I might have been overacting a bit. Still, your blatant disrespect for my rules cannot go unpunished so here's what I'm going to do. I am going to go to Vincent's Sanctuary and I'm going to demand he bring out your little friend, Joshua. Then, taking a page from your own book, I'm going to execute him publically."

"NO!"

"YES! You will soon learn that this is MY city. I make the rules and I decide who lives and who dies!"

"Klaus, please don't do this. You win, okay! I'll do whatever you say, I'll never leave this damn Compound again if you want but don't take your anger at me out on Josh. Please. He's my oldest living friend."

"You think I want to do this?" Klaus asked morosely. "Do you think I like seeing you like this? But it's the only way you'll learn. My rules are not made to be broken."

As Klaus tried to walk away, Marcel sped in front of him. With tears now unabashedly breaching his eyes he begged, "Please, I'll be alone for the next century if you want just, please, spare him. For me."

Suddenly Elijah came between them, pushing Marcel away from Klaus.

"You are dismissed, Marcellus." The older brother said with complete composure.

Marcel stood confused, unsure if he should leave since Niklaus hadn't yet responded to his pleas.

Niklaus refused to meet his eyes. There was once a time when he was unable to deny a request made by Marcel when he brought it to him in tears and all three of them knew that.

"Marcellus, you have three seconds to get out of my sight before I decide to dagger you myself."

Fearing the stern brother would very well follow through on his promise, Marcel sped off.

"He's trying to manipulate you, brother," Elijah warned.

"You think I should kill the vampire, Joshua?"

"I think whatever you decide should be your decision on your own and not motivated by the crocodile tears of Marcel."

"Then help me decide. This is our kingdom. Tell me what you want?"

"I have what I want, Niklaus. My only wish now is to give you what you want and if this kingdom is it then I will work to make sure it is a kingdom of your own creation. I suggest you go to bed, sleep on this, and decide what you're going to do in the morning. Agreed?"

"Agreed, brother." Niklaus walked side-by-side with Elijah out of the courtyard. "I'm exhausted. I haven't had a decent night's sleep since last year."

Elijah cringed. "It's been over a thousand years, brother. Let that joke die."

Chapter Text

Chapter 13

Flashback:

"Are you coming to the festival tonight?" the young man lying in the grass beside Marcellus asked.

"Uh, maybe," Marcel responded unsurely. He'd asked Niklaus about going to the festival twice already and both times his father said no. Elijah had it on certain authority that there would be a posse looking for the witch festival tonight and they weren't planning to take any prisoners. Klaus wanted Marcel nowhere near it. Although Marcel had grown into a man, like the rest of the Mikaelsons, his life was still dictated by Niklaus.

Since the Mikaelsons had witch allies, Elijah thought it was their duty to inform them of the posed threat. He tried to warn the witch leaders about the possible raid but they were all confident no one would be able to find them if they didn't want them to.

"You have to come. Witches come from all over New Orleans to participate in the Moonlight Festival. There will be music, dancing…drinking,"

"I know, I know, but…it's my family. They think it's too dangerous."

The other teen stood and continued to list off all the things Marcel would be missing by not coming to the festival. "Beautiful women, opium, blessings for your family, lucky charms, did I mention the beautiful women."

"Tell that to my father."

"Oh c'mon, you don't have to listen to Klaus anymore. You're eighteen now, you can make your own decisions. My father hasn't told me what to do since I was sixteen."

Marcel took his words into consideration. Although he didn't plan to confront Klaus over going to the festival again he had made up his mind to do what he thought was best and he didn't think going to the festival would be dangerous. So that night when all the Mikaelsons were asleep, Marcel climbed out of his bedroom window and snuck to the festival.

It was just as amazing as everyone described. He drank merrily and danced with every beautiful woman there.

He went home after he'd experienced everything he wanted. He decided to cut through the woods instead of taking the path since it would be quicker. Halfway home he heard screaming coming back from the festival. Not the joyous, carefree screams from before but terrified screams. He ran back to see the tents on fire and a dozen men on horses circling them with shotguns.

Frightened but believing he had no choice but to help, Marcel moved to run back to the festival.

A strong hand on his shoulder kept him in place. He looked up to Niklaus's cold eyes.

"Shh," was all his father said before speeding off to the terrified screams. Elijah, Kol, and Rebekah came speeding past behind him.

The Mikaelsons snatched each man from their horses one by one and compelled them all to leave and believe there was no such thing as witches. Once the men were gone the Mikaelsons worked to put out the fire engulfing the camp and heal the injured.

Once all was right, Klaus returned to his sobering son. He didn't give him a chance to speak before throwing the teen over his shoulder and beginning the long walk home.

"W-wait, I can walk."

Klaus landed a solid spank to Marcel's upturned bottom and growled, "Not another word out of you. You could have been killed tonight. I told you not to go."

"I-I didn't think-"

"I'm sure you didn't. That could be the only explanation for your foolishness." Another spank.

"Ow! But I'm a man now. I should be able to make my own decisions."

Niklaus landed two spanks in rapid succession. "Your first decision as a man nearly got you killed. If this is any indication for how you plan to lead the rest of your life I should never let you out of my sight."

"Poppa, please,"

The crack in Marcel's voice tugged on Niklaus's heart. He stopped walking and sat the boy back down on his feet. Marcel frantically wiped the stray tears from his face. It was hard to make his case as a man while crying like a child.

Niklaus grabbed both of his hands and held them by his side. Then, looking his son in his watery eyes, he said, "I don't want to control your life, Marcellus. I only want to protect you. If I thought the festival was safe I would've let you go, I might've even gone myself, but I was certain it wasn't and that's why I wanted you to stay home. If something were to ever happen to you," he brought his hand up to wipe the tears from Marcel's soft cheek. "I would never forgive myself. Sometimes, even when it seems cruel, I know what's best."

"I'm sorry, poppa."

Klaus picked Marcel back up, this time cradling him in his arms as he trekked through the woods home. Marcel was fast asleep in his arms before they even made it to the front door.

End Flashback

Elijah shook Klaus awake.

"We have a problem," he said as his brother slowly came to.

"What is it?" Klaus asked annoyed.

"Marcel is gone."

Klaus lept out of bed. "I want every wolf that's out tonight looking for him," He ordered as he got dressed. "Tell them to call it in when they find him and do NOT touch him. Leave him to me."

Klaus knew exactly what Marcel was planning to do.

He and Elijah were marching heatedly towards the Compound exit when Rebekah blocked them off.

"Out of my way, sister," Klaus growled. "Your little boyfriend has this coming to him."

"Oh, lay off the tough guy act, Nik, we all know how you feel about him." She responded calmly. "But Marcel isn't why I stopped you. Well, sorta. I want you to spare Joshua."

"I will do no such thing. If I was even considering the thought before, Marcel's constant acts of rebellion have done no more than show me he requires a firmer hand and if picking off his little friends one by one is what I have to do to ensure his obedience, so be it."

Niklaus tried to walk past his sister but Rebekah placed a firm hand on his chest and held him in place. "He's suffering, Nik." She asserted. "Constantly. Between Kol's torture, the wolves mocking, and his absolute isolation from the outside world he has been in an unbearable state of torment since he's been here. You of all people should know what that feels like."

Klaus cringed inwardly as he remembered the years he spent with the dagger in him.

"You are forcing your son to endure that same anguish and if you start killing off his only friends…he may never forgive you."

Klaus considered his sister's words as he continued past her without a word.

-M-

Marcel drove well over the speed limit as he made his escape. Josh sat in the passenger seat confused about why Marcel suddenly felt it wasn't safe for him to be in New Orleans anymore when just a couple of hours ago he'd told the young vampire Vincent's sanctuary was the safest place for him to be.

"Dude, can you just slow down for a second?"

"No can do." Marcel sped up. "Any second now Klaus is going to realize I'm not there and he's going to know that I'm trying to get you out of town. I have to get you out of New Orleans before then."

"Why? Where have you been?"

"I've been living with Klaus. It's complicated."

"You're living with Klaus? So he's forgiven us, right? We can come out of hiding?"

"No, you can't. He wants you, and everyone else, dead. Especially you, that's why I have to get you out of town."

"Why does he want me dead? What did I do?"

Marcel sighed, too stressed to explain anything to his friend at the moment. "It's not you, it's me. He's going after you to get to me."

"So let me get this straight. Klaus forgave you and you two became friends again and you moved in with him but the rest of us still had to live in hiding. Now he's mad at you again but he wants to kill me so…I still have to live in hiding?"

"It's more complex than that. We're not friends, I mean, not like we were before. It's…different. It's complicated."

"Marcel, man, give me something here. You've never run away from Klaus before so if we're running away now-"

"We aren't." He said steadily. "You are. Klaus won't kill me. He can't. I know that now but that won't stop him from making me wish I was dead."

A sudden strong force hit the side of the car and knocked it off its tires. It rolled off the road and into the woods with the two vampires bouncing around inside of it.

"You okay?" Marcel asked when the car finally settled upside down wedged between two trees.

"Besides a concussion and maybe a broken rib or two." Joshua tried to move but the harsh pain in his abdomen kept him in place. "Nope, definitely some broken ribs in here. And…there seems to be a bone protruding from my leg. That can't be good."

The doors to the car were ripped off and two werewolves yanked the injured men from the car with no remorse. Marcel immediately recognized both his foes: the brute Louie who had his wide hands wrapped around Marcel's arms and the fem-fatal Sammie who restrained Josh with one hand around the back of his neck as he struggled to stand on one leg.

Marcel struggled against his captor's hold but in his current state he couldn't fight a regular werewolf off so Klaus's hybrid henchmen were at a great advantage.

"Hold still," Louie grunted. "We already called Klaus. Daddy's on his way to pick up his little troublemaker."

Since Christmas night Niklaus had been very verbal around the Compound about Marcel being his son and the werewolves have given him hell about it every chance they could but instead of being embarrassed by the wolf's remark, Marcel grew frightened for his friend's safety.

This fear gave him the little burst of energy he needed to break free from the werewolf holding him. Ignoring the throbbing pain consuming his body, Marcel head-butted Louie hard enough to break his nose. As the werewolf released him, he grabbed the man's arm and twisted it around his back, locking him in place. Then he shoved his hand into the man's ribcage from behind and gripped his heart.

"Let us go," he said to Sammie. "Or I end him right here, right now."

Before Sammie could answer, her neck was snapped and Niklaus stood patiently before his son. Josh fell to the ground, his body still not healed giving him no chance of moving the inches it would take him to get out of Klaus's striking distance.

"I told you not to touch him," Klaus stated calmly but Louie was in no position to respond. "Marcellus, let him go."

"You let us go," Marcel demanded with little assertion for he was no longer as confident as he was with just the two wolves to deal with.

"Marcel, these wolves are the first line of defense for my daughter, and killing them would be an act of treason; one that I can't let go so easily. You kill him and you will be making yourself my enemy again. Is that what you're going to do? Choose him over me?"

"Klaus…don't make me choose."

"No, Marcellus, you have to choose. Kill that wolf and you're choosing your old life and proving me right for not trusting you all along."

Marcel nervously considered his options when he saw Klaus let down his guard. Using the moment to his advantage he released the werewolf and sped over to Joshua, picking the man up and moving him out of Klaus's range. He wanted to run him out of the area but neither of them was quite strong enough to try and make an escape just yet.

Niklaus smirked. "The ever discounted third option that burdens every good ultimatum."

"I didn't kill your wolf," Marcel said still unsure about the safety of his friend. "And we're past the county line. We're not in New Orleans anymore. Let Joshua go…please."

Klaus glanced off into the woods and nodded. Marcel feared he knew what that meant and in the blink of an eye Elijah was behind him. He snapped Marcel's neck and caught the falling man before he hit the ground but he made no such attempt to save Joshua.

With a thud, Joshua fell on his back. He struggled to crawl across the forest bed away from the Originals but Klaus still caught him with little effort.

"Calm down," Klaus grumbled as Josh flailed about in his hand. He placed his other arm in front of the vampire's mouth and said, "Drink, you'll heal faster."

Confused but ever trusting, Josh bit into Niklaus' wrist and drank from his vein until his body stopped hurting.

Once healed Klaus set the youngster on his feet and stared him up and down wondering why Marcel would even take the time to consider choosing Josh over him.

"Louie," he bit. "Let the others know: Joshua Rosza has complete immunity for all of his past crimes against the crown."

"You're letting me go?" Josh questioned.

"This time. To placate, Marcel." Klaus walked over to Elijah and stared favorably down at the unconscious man in his arms. "Should you move against me again, however, I will kill you before he even finds out. Is that clear?" Josh timidly answered 'yes'. "Good, now get out of here before I change my mind."

Josh ran appreciatively away and Niklaus turned his attention to Louie.

"I want you to make another note. Marcel Gerard is my son. He is not the 'house-boy' and he is not your plaything. Should any of the wolves treat him as anything less than my son I will burn you alive and sell your chard flesh as jerky. Understood? Good. Go let them now."

As the wolf made his exit, his unconscious friend in tow, Niklaus took Marcel's limp body from Elijah.

"Do you think that decree to the wolves was a bit harsh?" Elijah asked.

"He almost chose Josh over me, Elijah. Perhaps our sister is right. I'll only be pushing him further away if I let things continue the way they have."

Noting the fear in his brother's eyes, Elijah said, "He does love you, Niklaus. Nothing will ever change that. I wouldn't have let you take him back if I didn't believe that. If he was leaning more towards choosing Joshua earlier, it was only out of a sense of obligation."

"How I hope that is true, brother."

-M-

Marcel woke frightened. His eyes darted back and forth frantically looking for Josh when he realized he was no longer in the woods. He was sitting comfortably in an armchair in Klaus's studio. Klaus stood at his easel finishing a painting.

"Where's Josh?" Marcel rose to his feet in a panic.

"Ah, you're awake," Klaus ignored his question. "Good. I was just finishing up." Replacing the finished painting with a fresh canvas, he said, "Come start this painting for me, would'ya."

"Is he alive?" Marcel insisted.

Klaus picked up a clean, wide bristled brush and held it out to Marcel. "Liquid white across the canvas, please."

Unsure about Klaus's motivation behind the strange request, Marcel hesitantly complied.

"That's it. Nice even strokes," Klaus coached from behind. "Just like I showed you when you were a boy."

Pausing mid-stroke, Marcel turned to him with tears in his intense eyes. "Just tell me if you killed him. I deserve to know that."

Sighing heavily, Klaus answered, "You are in no position to talk about what you deserve. I can think of quite a few things you deserve after the night you've put me through."

Marcel was silent. All he wanted to know was if Josh was safe, he didn't care what Klaus did to him after.

Klaus took the brush from Marcel's hand and replaced it with his cellphone. "Joshua is alive." He finally answered. Marcel released a breath of relief. "You may call him," Marcel immediately unlocked the cell and prepared to dial Josh's number when Klaus put his hand over the face of the phone. "After I finish talking."

Marcel put the phone down to his side and listened. He was willing to listen to whatever Klaus had to say now.

Klaus picked the paintbrush back up and gave it back to Marcel. He began painting again, this time without a qualm.

"I realize how hard it must be living here with the wolves with your sordid history and all. This room, however, is off-limits to them. Even Hope must ask my permission before entering. I guess you could say this is my sanctuary away from the day-to-day monotony of Kingship." Klaus traded Marcel's brush for a fresh one with red paint. "Why don't you just paint in a little sunset skyline right there for me."

Klaus admired how Marcel managed to remember every technique he taught him. It had been over 100 years since the two painted together. Little did he know that in the years Klaus spent away from New Orleans and then daggered in the garden, Marcel would paint in order to feel closer to his father.

"Now it's yours too," Klaus continued. "Whenever you need time alone away from the wolves or Kol or whoever, feel free to come here and paint. Or just sit in the quiet. Whatever you want."

Marcel stopped painting to stare at Klaus in amazement. "Really? But…I thought this was your sanctuary."

"I couldn't possibly come in here to calm down knowing you're out there…suffering."

Marcel returned to the painting attempting to not show his overwhelming appreciation for the protection. "What brought about this sudden change?" He asked while continuing the skyline. "Is this your way of trying to be fatherly?"

"It is," Klaus answered honestly. Then he took the brush out of Marcel's hand and set it on the easel. "So is this."

Klaus's hand came down unexpectantly across Marcel's backside. Marcel flinched in shock but the pain finally set in with the second smack.

"Don't ever disobey me again."

"You wouldn't listen to me," Marcel argued. "I had to save my friend."

"I rule this Kingdom, Marcel. I decide-"

"Who lives and who dies," Marcel scorned. "Yeah, I know. That's why I had to save him because you already made up your mind to kill him and I couldn't let that happen."

"I have spent centuries controlling my family by killing off individuals who could potentially be a threat to their loyalty to me. I've granted Joshua immunity but if he becomes one of those threats, Marcel, I will end him. You may hate me for it and resent me for years but like Elijah, Rebekah, and Kol, you will forgive me. Eventually."

Marcel's face twisted with anger at the implication he could be so easily manipulated. "Are we done?" He grunted.

"We are," Klaus answered nonchalantly resuming the painting himself. "You've got an hour with the phone and then I'm coming to get it. Goodnight, Marcellus."

Marcel said nothing as he left. He called Josh as soon as he was out of Klaus's studio.

"Josh," he said with relief at hearing the man's calm 'hello' on the other end of the phone. "You really are alive. How are you, man?"

"I've been better. You want to tell me what the hell is going on now? Why hasn't Klaus killed you? Why hasn't he killed me?"

Marcel made it to his room and shut the door. "Josh, can I trust you?"

"Of course, man."

"No, I mean 100% trust because once I tell you what I'm about to tell you you'll have to take it to your grave."

"Y-yeah, brother. You can tell me anything. What's happening?"

Marcel went on to tell Josh about everything that's happened since Klaus's return even going so far as to tell him about Klaus's old-fashioned form of discipline.

"Get out," Josh said in disbelief. "Why…why do you let him…y'know…to you?"

Marcel laid back in his bed, now stripped down to his boxers, and sighed. "Because I feel like I deserve it after what I put him through. Because he's my…father…and I trust him. Or maybe because, in a strange way, it makes me feel…protected…like I used to feel when I first met him. Take your pick."

"Marcel…why are you telling me this? I mean, everything you say is safe with me but…I've never seen this side of you before. So…vulnerable."

"Because you're the only friend I have left. I'm sorry for confiding so heavily in you but I haven't had a conversation like this with anyone in…in a very long time."

"No, don't apologize. I guess until we start making new vampires we only have each other."

"Josh, I'm going to have to advise you not to do that. At least until I clear it with Klaus."

"What?"

Realizing how pathetic he must've sounded, Marcel explained, "Klaus is being extra cautious and extra paranoid now. If we start making vampires behind his back, he'll think we're trying to build an army against the wolves and he will shut it down and kill you in the process. Just give me some time. Even he will get tired of being surrounded by wolves eventually and then I'll ask him about it."

"Fine. I trust you but Marcel, if you ever get tired of the Mikaelson…dynamics, I'm renting out your old place in Algiers. I'll be there if you need me."

"Thanks, brother."

-M-

Klaus engulfed himself in his painting and lost track of time giving Marcel almost two hours with his phone instead of the one. When he finally showed up to Marcel's room the man was lying in bed with the phone still up to his ear. Joshua's call was still going on but even the other vampire had fallen asleep in almost the same way.

Klaus hung up the phone and put it in his pocket before covering Marcel. He absentmindedly tucking his son in before leaving.

Flashback:

Marcel spent days sulking around the Compound after Elijah's rejection. He thought the man was his first real friend but then, out of nowhere, he decided he no longer wanted the boy around him.

To combat his son's feelings of rejection, Klaus spent more time with him.

"Steady strokes, Marcellus," Klaus tutored as the boy painted his first picture. "That's right. Perfect. You have a real natural talent. But why act surprised, you excel at everything you set your mind to."

"Poppa," Marcel suddenly ceased painting. Staring down at the floor, he asked, "Does Uncle Elijah hate me?"

"No, Marcellus, your Uncle Elijah loves you."

"Then why doesn't he want me around anymore? Did I-I do something to make him mad? Does he…does he want you to send me back?"

Klaus picked the boy up and held him tightly in his arms as the child cried. "You're never leaving me, Marcellus. I promise you. I'm never going to let anyone take you away and I'm never going to leave you."

Although Marcel had heard this promise a hundred times before Klaus always felt the need to repeat it. His son was a strong boy but he was also broken and Klaus hoped that every reassuring word, every hug, and kiss, every act of love would work as a bandage to make the boy whole again.

End Flashback

Chapter Text

Chapter 14

"I don't understand why I'm being grounded!" Hope yelled indirectly at Hayley and Elijah sitting at the dining table with her. The long night before called for a late brunch the next day. Hayley, Elijah, and Hope were the only people at the table so far so Hayley thought it would be the best time to break the news to her daughter.

"You know exactly why," Hayley barked back. She wanted to ground the girl the night before but Klaus insisted she and Elijah sleep on the matter hoping that the mother of his child and his brother would wake up and feel like he did: Grateful for the girl's safe return.

"I saved a man's life," Hope defended. "Did you just want me to let him die?"

"Hope, you are a child," Elijah interrupted from his spot behind Hayley. "If you find someone who needs help, you get an adult, not skulk around the docks in the middle of the night."

"I was with an adult."

"You know what he means," Hayley spat.

A year ago she wouldn't have gotten so irritated with her daughter but the past few months she's spent with Klaus gave Hope the belief that she was impervious to punishment. All she had to do was get Klaus on her side and she could get away with anything. Hayley was determined to make sure that didn't happen this time.

"And the matter is not up for argument. You are grounded for three days. No phone, no internet, no friends."

"That's not fair!"

"I quite agree," a voice coming from behind drew their attention to Rebekah. "I think she's better off with her friends. I must admit, I dropped the ball babysitting last night but if it weren't for that Sebastian chap tipping me to Hope's location I would've been too late and who knows what could've happened."

Hope was grateful that her Aunt Rebekah showed up just in time to stop her from having to seriously hurt anyone but she couldn't help but feel slightly betrayed by her best friend whom she texted that night saying: Going to the docks to save a vampire. DO NOT TELL MY AUNT! BRB.

"All that proves, dear sister," Niklaus said silently sneaking up behind Rebekah. "Is your own incompetence. If I may throw my hat into the ring,"

"Certainly, Klaus," Hayley sat back and waited for Klaus's response which she was sure was going to be him in some way defending Hope's mistakes from last night. She had already made up her mind to ignore whatever he said.

"Hope, I agree with your mother," he said to everyone's surprise, especially Hope's. "What you did last night was very dangerous. The rules we set are for your own protection. We are the most powerful family in New Orleans and with that comes enemies; enemies who would try to hurt you to get what we have."

"I know, daddy," Hope stared up at her father with big, round sad eyes. "But…I was just doing what I thought you would do if your brother needed help."

Hayley and Elijah knew Hope had Niklaus exactly where she wanted him then.

Turning to them, Niklaus said, "Perhaps we are being a bit harsh. She's fine after all, and no one got seriously injured."

Amazed by the man's problematic sentimentality, Hayley stated, "She's grounded, Hope, end of discussion."

"But Mom," Hope whined.

"Hayley, let's be reasonable,"

Hayley pushed her chair back from the table and said, "I'm done talking about this, Klaus. Three days, Hope."

As Hayley left, Niklaus took a seat at the table beside his brother.

"Don't worry," he said noting the doleful look on his daughter's face. "Three days will go by before you know it. You can spend more time practicing magic with that little friend of yours."

"Hayley specifically forbade her from having friends over, Niklaus," Elijah warned.

"She'd go stir crazy here alone," Niklaus said sternly. "Wouldn't want that to happen…again."

Elijah understood the veiled reference to Marcel though he highly doubted Hope was in danger of becoming anything like Marcel and that was not a good thing.

Still, he remained silent on the matter. He vowed to not interfere with the way Niklaus choose to discipline his daughter (at least not in front of her and certainly not in a way Niklaus would see as interference).

The other Mikaelsons slowly made their way to the dining table. Kol just grabbed a blueberry muffin out of the basket of muffins in the middle of the table and darted out to start his day. Freya sat for a while with the family but she was completely focused on an old grimoire she found in a Tremé witch shop. When she left Hope followed her, intrigued by the little she read over her Aunt's shoulder. Marcel was the last to come down.

"Marcel," Klaus greeted. He and Elijah were still sitting at the table discussing their Kingdom when he saw Marcel groggily enter. "I thought you'd still be asleep after the night you had."

"I've been up since daybreak doing 'chores'," Marcel yawned as he slipped tiredly into a pulled-out chair and grabbed an orange.

Klaus was shocked to find out that Marcel had been up so long. He himself had only woken an hour ago but while he was fast asleep the man he called son was laboring tirelessly at purposeless work.

Niklaus gave Elijah a nod to leave.

"I want to talk to you about your manual," he said once they were alone.

"Yes, I know being late to brunch technically breaks one of your precious rules," Marcel said sardonically, "But give me a break. I'm running on fumes here."

"I perfectly capable of 'giving you a break'. I possess basic decency. That you felt you even need to ask that is why I think we should talk."

Marcel stopped pilling the orange to give Klaus his full attention.

"I don't want you doing those chores anymore, Marcel. Between the servants and the wolves learning to clean up after themselves this place doesn't need you to keep it in one piece. And you proved last night that it doesn't matter what the Manual says or even what I say, you're still going to do what you think is right so what's the point of it?"

Marcel set the orange on the table, his eyes staring straight ahead and his jaw tense. He knew he was risking exile to save Josh but he'd hope after his talk with Klaus that night exile was the furthest thing from his mind.

"I understand," He finally said but in fact, he did not because exile was indeed the furthest thing from Klaus's mind. "But I stand by my decision and if I had to choose between letting Josh die and exile again, I'll ch-"

"Whoa. Exile? Who said anything about exile? I'm telling you, you don't have to follow that Manual anymore. Well, nothing except rules 1-5."

Marcel's eyes narrowed as he paraphrased the rules, "Don't lie, stay away from Hope and Rebekah, and…"

"Obey every order, do not use Compulsion, and-"

"No unregistered associates. Yeah, I didn't forget, I just didn't want to say them." He grunted. "So, is Josh a 'registered associate' now?"

"He is but since I'm assuming you'll be spending a lot more time outside the Compound now I don't expect to be able to meet everyone you come in contact with but know that I have eyes everywhere and if I hear about you being seen with the same person too many times without giving an introduction to yours truly…we will be chatting."

"You're just never going to trust me," Marcel said with a wide smile.

Niklaus smirked back. "Not today, mate."

-M-

Three days couldn't have gone by slower to Hope. To fill in some of the hours of the day Hope studied spells out of Freya's old grimoires. Freya was focused on a particular section in a tattered, old leather-bound book that could help her restore the Other Side. It wasn't going to bring Finn back but at least then if another of her family members died she would have the option of bringing them back.

Hope had her sights set on a spell that could rewind the aging process, making an old witch young again.

"What would you want that spell for?" Freya asked glancing over Hope's shoulder at the book in her hands. "If you get any younger you'll be back in diapers again."

But maybe if I make a few adjustments I can pause time, Hope thought to herself. She had created a couple of new spells of her own under Freya's tutelage: one that could turn a mouse blue and another that compelled a pencil to do her homework. She was confident in her ability to transfigure a time-freezing spell from another vaguely similar spell.

"Aunty Freya, how can I use Callum root in a spell without the Lemma essence?"

"Callum root?" Freya took another look at the spell and realized that it was far too advanced for Hope. Spells that called for Callum root fed off the power of the witch which would weaken Hope. "Sorry, sweetie," She quickly snatched the book from her niece's hands. "But you're not ready for this yet."

"I am," Hope argued. "I knew about Callum root, didn't I?"

"You may be smart enough, Hope, but you're not physically there yet. You don't have the power to sustain this spell yet."

Hope watched her aunt walk out of the room with her arm wrapped around the spellbook. She knew Freya was taking the book to her room where she kept all the books she thought Hope wasn't strong enough for.

Hope suddenly thought of the best use of her time for the next three days: Finding that grimoire and learning that spell.

-M-

Freya, who was so engulfed in her studies that she barely registered the change between night and day, went days without leaving the compound. Hope kept close by her the whole time waiting for the perfect opportunity to get to the grimoire. It wasn't until the day after her punishment was over that she found a chance to get the spell.

Freya left the compound to shop for more ingredients (she wanted to keep her potion stash in good supply in case a war broke out) and Hope went in search for the book.

She quickly went through all of Freya's magical items, being careful to put everything back exactly how she found it. When she found the grimoire she snapped a few pictures of the spell with her cellphone and put it back, her aunty none the wiser.

Hope and Sebastian spent days secretly preparing the spell. When they thought they were ready, they went to the bayou to perform the spell.

Hope made quick work of losing her tail by conjuring an illusion to make her werewolf bodyguard think a stray Tomcat was her while they were still in the Quarter.

"Are you sure about this?" Sebastian asked staring down at the perfect circle Hope had drawn in the damp bayou dirt.

"Don't chicken out on me now. Just think about it, the next time you forget to do your fourth-period homework, you can just freeze time and copy someone else's. Just make sure it's not mine because I'm probably gonna have to copy yours."

"What if we freeze time and it stays like that forever."

"I know how to transfigure spells, Sebastian. I made sure that the effects of the spell never last longer than ten minutes."

Convinced by Hope's confidence, Sebastian continued putting the spell together with her. The sun slowly began to set. Just as they were prepared to start chanting the incantation, Hope noticed the size of the glowing moon above them.

"Oh no," she muttered. "I didn't know tonight was going to be a full moon."

"What? Will it still work?"

"Y-yeah, but we have to hurry. Full moons mean werewolves."

"I thought your mom controlled the wolves."

"The wolves of our pack. New packs have moved in since we came back and they don't have my mom's ability to change at will which means there will definitely be some wild wolves running around here tonight."

"Uh, then maybe we should come back tomorrow."

"We can't. Once my mom finds out that I tricked my bodyguard it'll be another week before we can get back out here. Let's just hurry and do it now."

Hope grabbed Sebastian's hands and pulled him into the circle with her. A goblet with a mix of ingredients stood between them.

For a long time, nothing seemed to happen as the two teens stood in the circle chanting. The sun had gone down and the moon was in full effect but they continued. Then, Hope began to feel a tug on her magic. From her studies of the spell, she knew that had to be the effect of the Callum root. She watched Sebastian's face contort with pain and knew he must've felt the effects too.

"What are you doing?"

Hope and Sebastian jumped from fear at hearing the man's voice coming from the thicket. They continued to hold hands so the spell wouldn't break but they were both trembling until out came Marcel.

"I said what do you think you're doing?" Marcel barked. "Do you know where you are? Do you know what tonight is?"

"Uh…what are you doing here? Did you follow us?" Hope said attempting to draw the line of questioning away from her.

"No, I came…to meet a friend."

"Yeah, right, my dad put you up to this, didn't he?"

Before Marcel could answer he felt a strange tingle go down his spine. He knew that tingle. It had kept him alive for over 200 years. It was the sensation he got whenever danger was near.

He glared out into the dark woods and saw the silhouettes of bloodthirsty wolves surrounding them. An entire pack. A dozen at least. Marcel was sure he could take them all on himself but he knew he couldn't save both children though it wasn't going to stop him from trying.

He sped to the circle prepared to grab Hope and Sebastian and run them to safety but he was blocked by the spell's protective barrier that kept everything outside the circle outside the circle.

The wolves came out one by one.

"Let go," Hope barked as she tried to pull her hands away to help Marcel fight.

"I'm trying," said Sabastian and it was then the two teens realized that the Callum root feeding off their magic wasn't going to let them go until the spell was over.

"We have to finish." Hope stated.

Reluctantly the two teens continued their chant, praying that the spell worked because once the barrier was down they were going to need to freeze time to escape the wolves.

Marcel fought valiantly outside the barrier. He tried to avoid killing any of the wolves since they were acting purely on their animal instinct but after the second venomous bite laced him he felt no other choice in the matter.

He went for the biggest wolf, putting its big furry neck in a headlock. In one easy move, he snapped it. Two more came lunging at him, one getting a big chunk out of his calf. He made quick work of them also. After seeing three of theirs perish, the other wolves scampered away, yelping for dear life.

The spell was nowhere near being complete by the end of the brawl but both teens were standing in silence, gripping each other's hands with all their might. The pain of the Callum root had become too painful to bear. Again, they tried pulling their hands apart but the magic was too powerful. The spell demanded to be complete.

The poison coursing through his veins made Marcel writhe in agony but he refused to leave without Hope. He knew that with the amount of venom in him right now, it would be a miracle if he could survive another hour without Klaus's blood but he refused to leave Hope out there with the wolves still roaming around.

As the spell began to draw to an end, Hope felt an ease to her pain. A big flash of fire in the goblet was supposed to be the sign that the spell was complete but as Hope watched Marcel staggering to stay on his feet while standing still, she knew it failed.

"Did it work?" Sebastian asked.

"Is time frozen?" Hope replied sarcastically.

"What were you trying to do?" Marcel began scolding. He stepped one foot into the circle and there was a flash like a lightning bolt that knocked all three of them out of the circle. Hope and Sebastian quickly made it back to their feet but Marcel didn't move an inch.

Hope hurried to his side. Marcel laid with his eyes closed and his body stiff as a board. He looked dead and his cold vampire body wasn't helping ease Hope's fear. Assuming the wolf venom was keeping him too weak to move Hope cut her hand, pried his clenched jaws apart, and dripped her blood into his mouth.

His wounds didn't heal.

"Maybe he's frozen," Sebastian suggested, trying to calm his frightened friend. "Yeah, I'm sure that's it. Something went wonky with the spell and it backfired and now he's frozen. You said it wears off in ten minutes? Well," Sebastian tapped the face of his watch. "We still have 8 ½ minutes to go."

Ten minutes turned to eleven, then twelve."

"We have to get him out of here," Hope fretted. "We have to get him to my Aunt Freya. She'll know what to do."

"Hope," Hope turned shimmering eyes to the trees where Rebekah was standing, staring at the sight in disbelief. "What happened?"

-M-

"I don't know how to wake him up," Freya announced somberly to the room of Mikaelsons. "I've tried everything. I'm not even getting a spiritual feedback from him."

Marcel had been unconscious for an hour with no sign of waking up.

"He may already be dead," Kol added sitting confidently on the armrest of Rebekah's chair.

"Kol," Elijah bit, furious at Kol's quip while Niklaus was so obviously afraid.

"What? I'm telling the truth. He's shown no sign of life in the past hour. Hope altered that spell and who knows what she's created."

"He will wake up," Rebekah said stubbornly. "We just have to figure out what that spell does."

"Which we will not be doing," Freya stated trying to remain calm in the midst of her sibling's passionate expressions towards Marcel's condition. "We don't know all the effects of that spell and the one we do know seems to be at least semi-fatal. Now, I'm going to need some time to study this spell and find a cure for Marcel. Let's just…hope for the best until then."

-M-

Niklaus sat in an armchair beside Marcel's bed all night. He didn't sleep a wink waiting for the man's eyes to pop open at any moment. Elijah brought him breakfast that morning and dinner that night.

"Why don't you go to sleep," Elijah said. He'd come to retrieve Niklaus's empty dinner plates but he couldn't pretend to not be aware of Niklaus's drowsiness.

"I'm fine, 'Lijah," Klaus responded gruffly.

"Just for a few hours, brother. I'll take over watching Marcel. You need your rest."

Niklaus stared down at his pale-faced son, his body completely indefensible. He'd never been so helpless.

"We had a terrible father, Elijah," Niklaus muttered. "But in the end, he managed to keep us alive, and isn't that truly the main goal of any parent. I mean, he lost one but then again, that was my fault…just as this was my fault."

"He's going to be fine, Niklaus."

"And what if he isn't? What does that say of me? My teenage daughter killed my adopted son. There's something vaguely Shakespearian about it, don't you agree."

Elijah stared down at Marcel's blank face. "What was he even doing out there?"

"He was meeting me." Rebekah stood at the doorway. Her face as emotionless as Marcel's was at that moment. She hadn't seen him since she carried his rigid body from the bayou to the Compound. "We met out there as often as we could. It was the only way we could be together outside of your prying eye."

Niklaus didn't know what to say. He wasn't angry; he couldn't be. Being angry at her would mean being angry with Marcel and he couldn't be angry at Marcel.

"Well, who would've guessed my paranoid distrust in those closest to me could lead to the death of someone I hold dear. Certainly, you lot could."

Elijah nodded for Rebekah to leave. She did so delightedly. It was eerie seeing Niklaus admit he was wrong.

With a heavy sigh, Elijah said, "Promise me you'll go to sleep eventually."

"Eventually," Klaus promised.

A couple of hours later, Klaus heard footsteps creaking in the hall.

"I can hear you," he said teasingly. "It's okay. You can come in."

A tiny foot in bunny slippers came around the corner. Hope's eyes fixated immediately on Marcel.

"I thought you'd be asleep." Hope tried to scold but the tears threatening to breach her eyes gave away true feelings.

Klaus held his arms open for her to come in for a hug. Hope hurried in but to Marcel's side instead. She held his stiff hand gingerly as if she was afraid he would break.

"I didn't mean to…I didn't think…Is he going to be okay?"

"He's gonna be fine," Niklaus said hopefully. "Come here,"

Hope flung herself into her father's arms, her tears freely falling. "What if he doesn't wake up?" She wept into his shoulder.

Niklaus stared at Marcel fretting the same thing.

Chapter Text

Chapter 15

"Still hasn't opened his eyes yet, huh," Kol mocked from the doorway of Marcel's bedroom. Rebekah was watching vigilantly over the unconscious man. Marcel had been asleep for a week with no change in his condition. Niklaus stayed by his side for three days straight. On the third night, Elijah practically begged him to return to his life before his kingdom fell into disrepair.

Klaus agreed only on the condition that someone was always there to watch Marcel in his absence and let him know the moment he woke. Rebekah spent almost as much time staring at Marcel's unresponsive face as Klaus did, wishing her lover would wake.

"Not yet," she muttered.

"I think we're wasting our time with this one. We don't know what's wrong with him. He could be in some kind of permanent stasis."

"Have a little faith," Rebekah growled. She didn't need him stating the obvious fear resting on everyone's mind. "Freya will find a cure."

"Would it really be so bad if she didn't? I mean, has the quality of our lives really been enhanced by Marcellus?" He said mockingly.

Rebekah was irritated by Kol's incessant jeering at Marcel's situation. She still hadn't forgiven him for the torture he'd put her lover through.

"Do not stand there and protest as if you didn't once too care about him the same as we do. His 'First Best Friend' is what he used to call you. Where ever the fracas was that's where we would find the pair of you."

"Dear sister, in all the time we've been alive I've found hundreds of rowdy mates to raise Cain with, and not once did I ever develop feelings for any of them."

"Well, you'd better learn to love this one because he will wake up and he will be around forever."

With a huff, Kol left his sister to waste her days like Niklaus.

-M-

The guilt of being the reason for Marcel's condition was too much stress for Hope. She was hardly ever at the Compound. All she could think about at home was Marcel lying in bed and Niklaus waiting hopeful beside him.

Instead, she spent most of her time at Sebastian's. In the back of Sebastian's home was a small garden in a room with floor-to-ceiling windows. Although it wasn't the biggest garden, Sebastian's family grew rare plants. Witches would come from all across the country to buy plants from the Dupeaux family.

It was from the Dupeaux family garden that Hope first got the Callum root.

Hayley didn't like Hope spending so much time away from home. She spent twelve years dragging her daughter around the country; she had hoped that once the Mikaelsons were restored her daughter would be able to live a normal life but hiding out away from home because your potentially deceased brother is lying in the bed down the hall from your room was not normal.

Hayley was looking to discuss this with Klaus when she found him surprisingly in the kitchen drinking a glass of tepid tap water.

"Taking a break from your usual post at Marcel's side," she ribbed. "Congratulations. Are you going to be at dinner tonight?"

"Not tonight. I'm watching Marcel."

"But you watched him last night."

"Your point is?"

"Do you know where your daughter is right now?" Hayley growled.

Niklaus put the empty glass on the counter and reached for a different one; a whiskey glass. "It's the middle of the day," he said while pouring himself a finger of Tennessee whiskey. "So my guess is...school?"

"It's Saturday, Klaus."

"Oh, is it now."

"This is unhealthy, Klaus. It's unhealthy for you and Hope. We have to move Marcel's body from the Compound."

"We're not moving him anywhere," Niklaus barked. "He's going to wake up!"

Hayley wasn't out to upset Niklaus, especially over a matter that was so dear to him, but she had to think about Hope too.

"I know he will Klaus," she said gently. "But he is immortal. He could live in stasis for a hundred years and if you spend every day waiting by his side you will miss all of Hope's life. And a little girl needs her father, Klaus."

Klaus downed the glass of whiskey and smacked the glass back on the counter. He stared down at it with intense contemplation.

"Where is Hope?"

"Where do you think?"

"Sebastian's?"

"Her home away from home nowadays."

"Then I will go get her right now and the two of us will…go fishing."

"She hates fishing."

"Then we will-"

"Go to a movie." Hayley's suggestion came out more like an order which is how she intended it.

"We will go see a movie." Niklaus agreed.

"Good," she smiled. "That should take your mind off Marcel for a while. And you can go out to dinner before it. It'll be just like a little date. How cute."

Klaus couldn't help but smirk at the thought.

"What are we so happy about?" Elijah asked as he entered the kitchen seeing his love so overjoyed.

"Klaus is taking Hope out on a date tonight."

"Really," A smile crossed Elijah's face as well. He was happy his brother was progressing further away from Marcel's bedroom. "How nice. Hope's first date."

"Is this her first date?" Niklaus questioned Hayley. He knew surprisingly little about the girl's social life except that she seemed to spend all of her time with Sebastian.

"Her first official date," she answered.

Elijah then asked, "Sebastian hasn't made his move yet?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Niklaus growled. "Sebastian isn't interested in girls. Why do you think I allow them to be alone together?"

"Um, Sebastian is straight," Hayley replied.

Niklaus's face fell. "Certainly not. He's so…flamboyant and…stylish."

Hayley's smile grew wider and she shook her head at Niklaus's archaic understanding of gender. "A lot has changed in 12 years, Klaus. Kids are far more fluid in their gender expression now. Sebastian is quite the Diva but as far as I know, he's smitten by the ladies. Hope, on the other hand, maybe in the midst of early experimentation."

Klaus gave a devilish grin. "So long as that experimentation does not include any hands-on experience, I'm fine with it."

-M-

Hope came running to the Dupeaux's front door as soon as she heard the knocking. Klaus called her and told her he was taking her out to dinner and she could barely contain her excitement. It had been too long since they had last spent any time together.

When Hope opened the door she was shocked to see her dad dressed in a stunning black suit with a stunning blue handkerchief that matched his eyes.

"Why are you all dressed up?"

"Well, your mother told me this was your first date. I just wanted to set the bar for the next unfortunate soul brave enough to ask my daughter out."

Klaus waved his hand out to the street to bring Hope's attention to the limo parked in front of the house.

"Your chariot awaits."

Hope sprinted to the limo. She'd never been in one before. She crawled around the inside of it amazed by the space. She found a mini-cooler with a bottle of Champagne underneath the partition.

Klaus immediately took the bottle out of her hands and said with a gentle smile, "Your mother would kill me."

The limo service offered a free bottle of Champagne with every rental. He'd asked the owner to leave it out but apparently whoever prepared the limo didn't get the memo.

Hope wasn't thinking about the Champagne. Like most thirteen-year-olds, she'd already tried her first drink. The experience was fun only because she was with a few of her friends but the bitter taste of alcohol was something she could definitely live without.

Hope bounced around the limo merrily as they drove to the restaurant.

Niklaus made reservations at New Orleans's most renowned French restaurant, Chez Henri. At first, Hope felt a little out of place in the restaurant, with everyone being dressed so formally and she being in a pair of jeans and vintage Hipster Tee that said 'this is not a pipe' with the image of a pipe above it. To make the girl feel more comfortable Niklaus took off his jacket and his tie, undid the first few buttons of his shirt, and rolled up his sleeves so he would look as casual as she did.

Klaus impressed Hope by ordering their food without a menu and in French.

"Dad, this is amazing," She exclaimed when the waiter left. "You have set the bar mighty high."

"This is the standard, sweetheart. You're a princess and deserve nothing less."

The waiter came back with their drinks: a glass of Red for Niklaus and a glass filled with a mix of lemonade and iced tea for Hope.

"Your favorite," Klaus said.

Hope chuckled, "Mom told you, didn't she?"

"Hey, I know a little about my own daughter." Hope glared at Klaus until he finally admitted that Hayley told him about the drink.

"So," she started lowly as Klaus took a sip of wine. "How's Marcel?"

"The same," Klaus answered curtly. "We're not here to talk about Marcel. We're here so I can get to know my daughter better so I don't have to ask her mother about her favorite drink."

"We can talk about him if you want," Hope said feeling guilty.

"Hope, we don't have to-"

"I'm sorry." She said staring down at the white table cotton cloth. "I didn't mean to hurt him. I don't know what went wrong."

With a sigh, Niklaus decided to indulge her conversation. "Freya looked at your spell. The structure was off. She said it looked like a blend of several spells with no real base. She also said you didn't have the power to support the Callum root."

"But…I'm powerful. I have more power than I know what to do with, Aunty Freya said so herself."

"You are extremely powerful, Hope, but your power is untapped. You haven't learned to reach into the source of all your power yet and until you do the only way you can reach that power is by accident. If the spell had held any longer than it did, both you and that Dupeaux boy could've been in the same state Marcel is in now."

"So…my cockiness got Marcel this way."

Klaus noted the look of disappointment on the girl's face. He motioned the waiter over to them and said something to him in French again. Hope waited curiously for the waiter to return soon after with a strawberry sundae big enough for two.

"I was saving this for dessert," Klaus started. "But I think you could use a little cheering up now."

Hope's joy returned as she dug into the sundae with her father.

"On the list of things I know about you," Klaus said, changing the subject from Marcel to a lighter note. "Is your favorite drink, your best friend, your favorite dessert, and your possible attraction to girls."

Hope's mouth fell open. She gasped. "Mom told you?"

Niklaus laughed at the girl's shocked reaction. "It's okay, sweetie. I like women too. Maybe it's genetic. Just remember that all sex is illegal for minors and you're not allowed to date until you're married." He laughed as he said the last part but Hope could tell he was serious.

She turned scarlet at hearing her father talk about sex and dating. "Can we not talk about…'it' right now?"

"Alright," Klaus said amused by the girl's embarrassment. "I won't bring 'it' up again."

The waiter came back with their entrées. For Klaus, he brought a beautifully seared lamb chop cooked to perfection with a side of steamed asparagus, and for Hope, a cheeseburger with lettuce and pickles and steak cut fries. It was a special order and Klaus had to pay extra for it but it was worth it to see the look on her face.

"My favorite," Hope laughed.

"That, I knew on my own," Niklaus smirked.

After dinner, Klaus took Hope to the theatre. Like her Aunt Rebekah, Hope was a sucker for romance and wanted to see the newest romantic drama featuring two of Hollywood's hottest actors. Klaus didn't argue with her as it was his duty to give her the best date possible but he had to feign interest in the movie and fight to stay awake.

"I can't believe Lee kept the napkin with Jen's kiss on it for all those years. That's so romantic." Hope exclaimed as they left the theatre in the crowd of doe-eyed moviegoers.

Niklaus faked a smile. "Yeah, that was…romantic, alright. Those two hours just flew by."

When they made it back out to the limo, he held the door open for Hope to get in. He was shocked to get a hug from her instead.

"Tonight was awesome. Thanks, dad."

Niklaus hugged her back immediately. "I love you, sweetheart."

"Love you too."

As the two piled into the limo, Niklaus decided to check his phone. He had to put it on silence in the theatre and restrained himself from checking it in order to seem engrossed in the movie with Hope.

He was surprised to see he had six missed calls from Freya. He checked the voicemail she left him with a look of apprehension on his face that worried Hope.

"What is it?" She asked.

Hanging up the phone, Klaus said, "Freya…thinks she's found a way to wake Marcel."

-M-

Marcel's still unconscious body laid in the middle of Freya's workshop. Underneath him was a chalk drawing of a circle much like the one Hope drew in the bayou with the exception of a few seemingly random lines drawn through it and the four candles surrounding the outside of it. The basin of ingredients sat on the floor right above his head.

When Klaus and Hope entered the Compound they ran directly to Freya's workshop where the rest of the Mikaelsons were already waiting.

"Is it true?" Klaus bellowed as they burst through the doors. "Can you wake him?"

With a proud smirk, Freya answered, "The answer has been right under my nose the whole time."

She went on to explain to them that it would take a tremendous shock to Marcel's system to wake him but she couldn't think of a spell that would shock him enough until she really examined the spell Hope tried to transfigure her spell from. She made a few tweaks to it, replaced the Callum root in it with Ancient Ginseng, and she realized that if used one of her brothers as an anchor to the spiritual world, she could reverse the aging process for Marcel sending his body and spirit back in time.

"That'll be enough to shock him awake?" Klaus asked.

"It should be," Freya replied confidently. "And once he's awake it's just a matter of using a counterspell to revert him back to his proper age."

"Exactly how young are we talking?" Kol asked, hoping there wouldn't be any infant diapers to change.

"I don't know. He'll get younger the longer the spell is held but if we stop the spell before it's through it might not work."

"What are we waiting for," Klaus grabbed Freya's hand and stood in front of the circle. "Wake him up."

Freya motioned for everyone to give them room as she took both of Klaus's hands into hers and began chanting the spell.

Marcel's body began to change before their eyes: his facial hair began to disappear, his face grew younger, his body smaller. The four candles lit one by one. As the last candle was ablaze, the spell ended.

Klaus looked down at Marcel in shock. He recognized his face. It was the face of his son. Marcel had the same 14-year-old appearance he had over two hundred years ago. His small body was swimming in his adult clothes. Marcel's eyes slowly fluttered open and the sight nearly brought Klaus to tears.

"P-poppa? What's going on?" Marcel stuttered as he sat up confused by the situation. He saw Elijah, Rebekah, and Kol and recognized them immediately but waking up with them and the three strangers looming over him was slightly frightening.

Niklaus was speechless. It had been years since the last time Marcel called him 'poppa'. He fell to his knees and wrapped his arms around Marcel's narrow shoulders.

"What's wrong, poppa?" Marcel asked after feeling Klaus's tears fall to his shoulder. It was then that Klaus realized that by sending back his body and spirit, Freya meant that Marcel's memory would go back to that of his fourteen-year-old self as well.

"It's nothing, Marcellus," Klaus said with a satisfied smirk. "I'm just happy to see you."

He had gone from thinking Marcel would never wake up to once again holding his boy in his arms. He rarely felt such joy.

"What's going on, poppa? How did I get here?"

"It's a long story, Marcellus. The short version is: there was an accident that left you…unconscious and we had to use magic to send your body and spirit back in time in order to shock your system awake."

"Back in time? Is this…the future?"

"It is, but don't worry. Everything will make sense when we bring you back to your rightful age." Realizing that he couldn't have little Marcel forever, Klaus stood and turned his attention to Freya. "Let's continue, shall we."

"Um, we have a problem." Freya brought his attention to the charred remains inside the basin. "Channeling you must've been too much power."

"Can't you just remix the ingredients?"

"It's simple enough but I need Ancient Ginseng."

"I can get some from the Dupeaux garden," Hope said eager to help.

"What I used today was the last of the Dupeuax's." Freya hurried over to the black book on her desk that she kept a list of all the contacts she'd acquired since she woke. "Wait, I think there's someone…YES! There's an old witch in Mississippi who might have it. I can go there tonight and be back by morning."

"Or," Niklaus sang, bringing all attention to him and his broad smile. "It's been such a long day. I say we all go to bed and deal with this issue in the morning. Marcel is awake, that's all that's important."

Marcel wobbled to his feet and his pants slipped right down to his ankles. Luckily his shirt was long enough on his young frame to cover all the parts it needed to. That didn't stop the boy from being embarrassed, however. He quickly grabbed the pants and held them tightly up to his waist.

"Come on, Marcellus," Niklaus chuckled. "Let's go find you some proper clothes."

"I've got clothes he can wear!" Hope exclaimed excitedly. "Sebastian leaves clothes here all the time."

"Sebastian does what?" Niklaus growled, suddenly losing his genial spirit.

Understanding what that must have sounded like out of context, Hope elaborated, "He goes shopping so much sometimes he runs out of space in his closet so he leaves stuff here so his parents won't complain."

Niklaus was still upset but he couldn't find a logical reason why Hope keeping a boy's clothes in her room was wrong so he didn't say anything else about it.

Elijah gently grabbed Niklaus's shoulder, stopping him from leaving with Marcel. "Actually, Kol, could you help Marcel and Hope, please."

Kol let out a small grunt but left with the two teens away. He liked Marcel more when he was younger so he was willing to be decent to him.

"You cannot keep him like this, Niklaus," Elijah stated once the children were gone.

"I know," Klaus growled back. "But we can't finish the spell tonight anyway so what's the harm in keeping him like this for one more night."

"One night, Niklaus. First thing in the morning, Freya and I are going to get the Ginseng and Marcel will be restored to his rightful self by lunch."

"Fine. Are you through? My son needs me."

As Elijah strolled calmly over to Hayley, Klaus sped out of the workshop.

"Think he's gonna let him go?" Hayley asked.

"He better," Elijah sighed. "Marcel deserves his life back. Klaus can't use this as an opportunity to try and fix past mistakes."

-M-

Klaus entered Hope's room happier than when he left Freya's workshop. He was happily surprised to find Hope, Kol, and Marcel running around the room firing Styrofoam darts at each other with Hope's Nerf guns. Marcel was shocked to see such a carefree side of the man that once seemed so diabolical to him but he accepted it, for now, knowing that his poppa was only a call away should anything go wrong.

"Now, now, children," Klaus chastised lightheartedly. "Playtime is over. Now it's time for bed."

As their laughter died down, Klaus heard the unmistakable sound of Marcel's stomach growling loudly.

"Marcellus, are you hungry?"

"Awfully hungry, poppa." Just as he spoke, Marcel's teeth grew long and sharp and black veins pulsated around his eyes.

Everyone was shocked by this discovery, especially Marcel.

"Poppa….am I…like you?"

Niklaus didn't answer. He had hoped that reverting Marcel's body back to that of a child would mean he would be without his vampirism but even going back in time could not cure the ailment.

Klaus forced himself to keep smiling to keep Marcel calm. "Looks like you are," he said. "Well, come on. Let's go get you a bite before bed."

Hope followed Klaus and Marcel to the dining room. Although she wasn't hungry, she was excited to have her brother back; especially now that he was fun.

While Marcel was busy chowing down on roasted chicken and vegetables, Klaus was in the kitchen draining the blood from one of the servant's wrists into an aluminum tumbler. He thought perhaps if Marcel couldn't see the blood he had to drink it would preserve his innocence.

"So you're my sister?" Marcel asked with a mouthful of chicken. "I've always wanted a sister…or a brother. Either, or. Wish I could've had you growing up. I mean, growing gup before...now. If this is 'growing up'. Poppa says vampires don't age so I probably won't be 'growing up' anymore, huh? I wonder what being a boy forever will mean? I could-"

Marcel was taken aback by Hope's sudden hug but he leaned into it anyway.

"What was that for?"

"I just…missed you. It was my fault you got hurt. You've been asleep for a week. I thought you were never gonna wake back up."

"Well…I'm alright now." Marcel laughed as he crammed a forkful of roasted potatoes in his mouth. "And I'm awake."

"Don't talk with your mouthful, Marcellus." Klaus scolded lightheartedly as he came in carrying the tumbler.

Marcel swallowed everything in his mouth and said, "Sorry, poppa, I'm just so hungry. It feels like I'm never gonna be full."

"Here," Klaus put the tumbler on the table beside him. "Try this."

"What is it?"

Klaus considered lying to protect Marcel but he figured the boy deserved to know what he was putting in his body.

"It's blood," he admitted sorrowfully. "You need it now to survive."

Marcel's eyes lit up. He remembered many evenings sitting by the fire with his family, him with a chilled glass of milk and the rest with their crimson nectar. He wished every day he could be like the rest of his family and now he was. It didn't even occur to him to wonder where the blood came from.

After struggling to open the strange container, Marcel drank every ounce of blood in it down to the last drop.

"That was…wonderful. I'm not hungry anymore."

All of Klaus's fears were washed away by the child's smile. He always feared that if Marcel became a vampire at such a young age he would become a monster but Klaus couldn't believe that someone with as loving a smile as Marcel's had at the moment could ever become a monster.

"Okay, you two. Off to bed," Klaus herded the two teens towards the staircase leading to their rooms. "We have a long day tomorrow."

-M-

Flashback:

Hayley drove through the night to Nashville. She had gotten a lead about a witch there who had something she needed. Six-year-old Hope slept soundly in the back seat through the night wrapped in a warm, brightly colored quilt, her stuffed bunny cradled in her arms. When Hayley first told Hope she planned to drive all night, the little girl tried to stay awake with her but as the night began to fall, so did her big round eyes.

They made it to Nashville just in time for breakfast. They ate at a retro 90's diner across from a cheap motel. Too drained to look for a better place, Hayley checked them into the hotel for a few hours so she could get a little sleep before finding the witch.

Hayley had just fallen asleep when Hope realized she left her bunny at the diner.

"Mommy," she called as she shook Hayley awake. "We left Fluffy Niki at the restaurant."

Exhausted, Hayley mumbled, "It's okay, sweetie. We'll get him after mommy's nap."

"What if someone steals him?!"

"He'll be fine, Hope, now let mommy nap, please."

Hope grew frustrated as Hayley fell back to sleep a third time. She decided then to take matters into her own hands. Once she was sure Hayley was fast asleep, she snuck out of the motel room. She thought that she could just walk across to the diner and get the stuffed animal without Hayley knowing but like most six-year-olds, she was afraid of crossing the street alone – especially the busy intersection she currently faced.

She stood out in the motel parking lot quietly psyching herself up to run across. She would always get really brave whenever there was a break in the traffic but never quite brave enough to actually go.

Deep within her dream, Hayley felt something was wrong. It was too quiet. She hadn't had a sleep this peaceful in five years. Her eyes shot open and she looked around at an empty room.

She called Hope's name and when no answer came she became afraid. She ran outside, heart racing and adrenaline kicking into overdrive, just in time to see Hope chicken out once again.

"Hope," She screamed.

Hope spun around to see her mother's face which was simultaneously covered with relief and anger.

"What are you doing?" Hayley asked as she marched over to Hope standing guiltily with her hands behind her back.

"I was gonna get Fluffy Niki."

Hayley's heart skipped a beat when she thought of her daughter trying to cross that street on her own. Hope's supernatural genes gave her the ability to heal quickly, it didn't make her indestructible.

Hayley grabbed the girl's hand and dragged her back to the motel room.

"You are not supposed to leave the room without me." Hayley scolded behind closed doors.

"I want Fluffy Niki!" Hope shouted. She was now angry with her mother. She was sure that she was just about to get the courage to cross the street before Hayley showed up.

"I told you we would get Fluffy Niki when I woke up."

Hope stamp her feet down and pouted. "I can get him on my own! I'm a big girl!"

Hayley saw that there was no reasoning with the girl at this point. The girl was as suborn as her father and if she thought she was right, there was no changing her mind. There was only one way Hayley could get the girl to bend to her will.

She picked the little girl up and sat down on the bed with Hope over her knees. Hope kicked and screamed as Hayley pulled her pants down around her knees, baring her bottom.

Hayley never had to use any force when spanking Hope. The embarrassment was always enough to bring the little girl to tears but Hayley was always sure to cup her hand so it made a loud noise with every soft pat so it would really scare the child.

Once her screams of frustration became tears of sorrow, Hayley stopped the spanking.

She stood Hope to her feet and held the girl in front of her as she looked into her swimming, brown eyes.

"Never leave the room without me again. Do I make myself clear?"

"Y-yes, mommy," Hope sobbed and Hayley's heart melted.

She righted Hope's clothes and picked the girl up in her arms. Sitting back against the headboard, she rocked the crying child to sleep before finally falling back to sleep herself.

End Flashback

Marcel jolted awake the next morning. Hope was smiling down at him, her smile as bright as the sun.

"Wake up," she announced. "It's time for breakfast."

Niklaus entered the room moments later. He found the stunned look on Marcel's face by the girl's loudness and disregard for personal space amusing.

"Alright, Hope," he said. "Let's get out and give Marcel a minute to get dressed."

"Okay," As Hope jumped out of Marcel's bed she said, "Clothes are on the dresser. Come right down for breakfast as soon as you get dressed, okay."

"O-okay," Marcel agreed although he still wasn't sure what was going on having just barely woke up.

-M-

Marcel entered the kitchen standing awkwardly in his bright, multicolored tights. He felt exposed in the tight clothing but he knew the long, black and white striped t-shirt Hope also left out for him was covering his important bits.

Kol, Rebekah, Niklaus, and Hope were at the breakfast bar eating their eggs and bacon when Marcel entered. Kol couldn't help but laugh at the sight.

"Is this lady's undergarments?" Marcel asked blushing deeply.

"Looking good," All eyes turned to the doorway where Sebastian stood dressed as outstandingly as ever in his fluffy, faux Mink coat. "But if you're gonna wear sneakers with leggings, make 'em high tops. But those are cute. I have a pair just like 'em."

"What a coincident." Hope teased. Sebastian had so many outfits that he didn't even recognize someone wearing his own clothes.

"What are you doing here so early, Sebastian?" Klaus asked, slightly annoyed by the intrusion.

Sebastian invited himself up to the bar between Rebekah and Kol. "Well, when Hope told me Marcel had become young, I just had to see for myself. I didn't expect he'd become so fashionable too."

Elijah and Freya came in next but they were just stopping through on their way to Mississippi. Niklaus hated that his brother was so eager to return Marcel into the man he could hardly trust but he thought it was for the best. Not allowing Marcel to return to his rightful self would be like killing the man and although he was afraid to trust him, he still cared about the man he had become.

What Klaus refused to do, however, was let the only day he'd ever get to spend with teenage Marcel just pass with them waiting for Elijah to come back. He took Marcel and Hope out to spend the day together. They went laser-tagging, to the indoor bounce house, and they ended the day at the amusement park where Elijah (having returned from Mississippi successful in acquiring the Ginseng) found them all stuffing their faces with funnel cakes.

"It's time to go back home," Elijah said sternly as Klaus walked through the park ignoring his every word. "We need to finish the spell."

"What could possibly go wrong if we wait a few more hours? Look at him," Klaus pointed ahead of them. Marcel bounced as he walked between Hope and Sebastian, who had invited himself everywhere they went as if he didn't have a care in the world. "They're happy. Let them be happy."

When she saw the Ferris Wheel, Hope became ecstatic. Ferris Wheels had been banned from most Amusement parks for being too dangerous so she'd never been on one. It didn't take much for her to convince Marcel and Sebastian to get on it with her.

Marcel was a bit dubious about riding the giant metal contraption but his delicate 19th-century machismo forced him to do anything Hope was brave enough to try. The three of them squeezed into one seat. When the bar came down around their waist Hope started rocking the seat back and forth only adding to Marcel's fear.

Elijah and Niklaus stayed on the ground watching them as the Wheel started. Klaus waved to his children and they waved back until they were so high up in the air, Klaus became just a speck on the ground.

Once their car was at the top of the Wheel, it stopped.

"Is it supposed to do this?" Marcel muttered, holding on tight to the bar.

"Yeah," Hope answered confidently. "I think so. Hey, I bet I can climb to the top of this thing."

Before either of the two boys could object, Hope summoned her Tribrid strength and pulled the bar off them. Marcel held on to the now unprotective bar for dear life but Sebastian just laughed, accustomed to Hope's wild nature.

Hope climbed to the top of the Wheel and stared down in amazement at the park beneath her. The sun was starting to set so it was hard for the people on the ground to see her but the other Ferris Wheel riders began losing their mind at the sight. A couple of kids in the car behind them started rocking their seats and pointing at Hope until it brought everyone's attention to her.

The ruckus even got Klaus and Elijah's attention.

"What's going on up there?" Klaus asked as he focused his sights on the top of the wheel. His heart began to pound uncontrollably when he saw what Hope was doing.

The only person who didn't see the scene was the absentminded Ferris Wheel conductor, who started the ride again at the worst possible moment. Marcel and Sebastian's car began to rock as the Wheel moved. Having no form of protection, Sebastian slipped from the seat. Marcel caught his arm as he fell, still holding on tight to the broken protection bar with his other hand.

"Hang on," Hope screamed as she climbed down to them. "I'm coming."

She jumped onto their car and suddenly Marcel lost his grip. As he fell, his entire life flashed before his eyes. He closed his eyes and resigned to his fate, unable to scream from fear. His Memoriam had just made it to the day he met Klaus when he felt a thick arm wrap around his waist. He opened his eyes to see Klaus holding both him and Sebastian safely on the ground. A second later, Elijah jumped from the top of the Ferris Wheel to them carrying Hope in his arms.

"Let's get out of here," Elijah said. In the middle of an Amusement park surrounded by baffled spectators was not where he wanted to have the discussion he thought they needed to have.

Chapter Text

Chapter 16

Niklaus quietly shut the door to Marcel's room after tucking the exhausted boy in. He was asleep before the door even closed. Klaus and Elijah agreed that returning Marcel to his rightful age could wait until after they dealt with Hope.

"She could've killed them," Elijah said furiously as the brothers walked quietly down the hall. They managed to sneak into the Compound without running into Haylee and he was not looking forward to his encounter with her. He knew he would have to tell her what Hope did and she was going to be angrier than he was. "I can't believe she would be so irresponsible."

"She's just a little adventurous," Klaus attempted to defend. "If you were gifted with such powers as a child, wouldn't you want to explore them?"

"I would have," Elijah admitted. "Maybe even more so because when I was thirteen I was naïve and impulsive just like Hope. But it's our job to put a stop to her dangerous behavior before it gets out of control and, Klaus, it's getting out of control. She could've fallen from that Wheel. Marcel could've fallen. Sebastian wouldn't have survived. Imagine the war the Quarter witches would've waged if something happened to that boy."

Niklaus's look of uncertainty frustrated Elijah even more.

"Fine. I'll just tell Haylee and she'll-"

"Don't tell Hayley," Klaus sighed heavily. "She'll overreact."

"And what is the proper reaction to this? Your cavalier approach to parenting is the reason we're having this conversation."

"I'm not cavalier. I'm…I just don't want her to hate me, Elijah. The kids are fine. No one got hurt. Can we just let this one slide? Please."

"She put their safety in danger, Niklaus. You can't possibly be okay with that."

Klaus remembered how afraid he was at watching Marcel plunge to the ground from the top of the Ferris Wheel.

"You're right." He muttered. "She's grounded. For the next two weeks. I mean it," He declared when Elijah stared dubiously at him. "I won't cave this time. I'm punishing her for her own good. Just, do me a favor. Don't tell Haylee before I talk to Hope in the morning. I don't want her lowering the boom before me."

-M-

Hope waited impatiently by Marcel's bedroom door for her brother to finish getting dressed so they could walk down to breakfast together. When Marcel came out he was wearing a pair of skinny jeans that he considered to be still way too tight but they were better than the tights so he didn't complain too much.

"How much trouble were you in last night?" Marcel asked once they made it to the kitchen. The kids had managed to wake up before anyone else and so they had the kitchen to themselves. He sat at the isle and picked the biggest, reddest apple in the fruit bowl while Hope browsed the fridge for a quick breakfast.

"None, I've got a secret weapon. Dad." She said as she shut the fridge, not finding anything she wanted. "There's nothing in the fridge so looks like we're gonna have to go out for breakfast."

Marcel jumped from his seat excited to go explore more of the city. "I'll go get poppa." He said throwing the apple back into the bowl.

"No," Hope shouted. "When he wakes up he's gonna try to turn you back into your old self."

"You don't want me to change back?"

"You were no fun as an adult. You never wanted to hang out with me, or talk to me, or-or….do anything with me. You're way cooler now. Even dad likes you more like this."

"Poppa…didn't like me as a man?"

The carefree look on Marcel's face that Hope had gotten so accustomed to vanished. Feeling guilty for being the reason behind his sorrow, she quickly added, "You two just fought a lot. Not like now. It's so obvious he loves you now. I mean, don't you want to stay like this too?"

Marcel didn't respond because he was indeed having doubts about returning to his old self as well. He couldn't remember anything about his old life as Marcel Gerard – King of New Orleans, the Beast that defeated the Mikaelsons – he couldn't remember any of it and if he couldn't remember it, he wondered if the 'real' Marcel would remember him either. He didn't want to be forgotten, it seemed like dying, but it was obviously what everyone else wanted for him so he took their word that it was what was best. If given the choice, however, he would choose to not change.

"C'mon," Hope grabbed Marcel's arm and started pulling him out of the kitchen. "Let's go before they wake up and try to change you."

"W-wait," Marcel tried to stop by digging his heels in as Hope pulled him but Hope was too strong and just kept dragging him along. "I-I'm not allowed to leave the property without poppa, or Uncle Elijah, or Bex-"

"That was, like, two hundred years ago. People are better now…well, sorta. But now you're a vampire so no one can hurt you. And I'm gonna be with you and I don't mean to brag but I'm pretty damn awesome."

Hope's 21st century vaunting disposition gave Marcel the courage to leave the Compound without a guard for the first time.

-M-

Elijah fidgeted nervously with his tie sitting beside Haylee at the dining room table. He felt guilty for keeping the secret of what Hope did from the woman that he loved but he promised to wait for Klaus to for once accept the negative role that came with being a parent.

"Have any of you seen Hope or Marcellus?" Niklaus asked as soon as he entered the dining room.

"They're not in their rooms?" Haylee asked.

"I've checked the entire Compound," Klaus responded exasperatedly. "They're not here."

"Perhaps they're off exploring the city," Kol said fiddling away on his new phone. He'd become quite fascinated with the latest intelligent innovations since his return. "You know how kids are. Especially Hope."

Klaus knew Kol was probably right in his assumption but that didn't make him any less worried.

"Okay, Klaus," Freya entered the kitchen with a wide smile on her face, ignorant to Klaus's current concern. "The spell is ready. Where is Marcel?"

"Apparently off exploring with Hope."

"What?" Freya's face lost all joy. Suddenly austere, she said, "Klaus, the spell I manufactured was not meant to last this long. Marcel will soon start to feel adverse side effects from it. We have to turn him back. Now."

Freya's warning did little to help with Klaus's worry. He immediately got his phone and called Hope for the third time that morning. Like the two times before, Hope's phone rang until it got to voicemail.

Frustrated, Klaus bellowed, "Why isn't she answering her bloody phone?!"

-M-

Hope muted her ringing phone for a third time as she and Marcel strolled through the busy Quarter streets to the Dupeaux home.

"What's that?" Marcel asked curiously.

"It's my phone." Hope answered but then seeing the still confused look on Marcel's face, she elaborated, "It's a device used to communicate with people far away. You make a 'call' to another phone and you can talk to that person or video chat with them or make a hologram call."

"Really," Marcel took the phone from her hand and began examining it. He didn't understand half of what Hope said but he was curious to find out. His excitement grew when he inadvertently turned on the screen. He was fascinated by Hope's many apps. He was deeply focused on defeating the evil pigs in the latest version of Angry Birds when he was interrupted by another call on Hope's phone.

"Dad?" He read aloud. "Is that poppa?"

"Yeah," Hope said as she casually took the phone out of Marcel's hand and once again muted the call.

"Let me talk to him," Marcel said excitedly. "I want to use the 'phone'."

"We can't talk to him. He's just trying to find us so he can turn you back into an adult."

"Oh. Does that mean…we're running away?"

"Nope," Hope stopped suddenly. Marcel examined the building in front of them and realized it was someone's home.

"I thought we were getting breakfast." He said absentmindedly rubbing his forehead. "I'm so hungry my head's starting to hurt."

"Just a minute. I just need to do one thing first." Hope knocked on the front door and moments later Sebastian came to it.

"Got the stuff?" She asked.

With a wide smile, Sebastian motioned for the two to follow him to the back of the house.

"My parents are out of town 'til the weekend so we've got the place to ourselves," Sebastian said as he led them to the garden where he had the ingredients to what Marcel knew was a spell, though he didn't know enough about magic to know what spell, waiting on an old wooden table for Hope.

"Great," Hope said as she started putting the spell together with Sebastian's help. "We need all the privacy we can get."

"What are you doing?" Marcel asked. Little did he know that while he and Hope were walking to the Dupeaux's, Hope was texting Sebastian with a plan of her own.

"We're creating a spell to keep you young so Aunt Freya can't force you to grow up again."

"But I want to grow up," Marcel said wearily. "Eventually. I don't want to stay a boy forever."

"Don't worry. I'll find a way to get rid of your vampirism so you can grow up right alongside me. It'll be great. Neither of us will have to be an only child."

"But…poppa said vampirism is permanent."

"They thought the Upgraded Original was permanent too but we found a cure for that."

"The Upgraded Original?" Marcel questioned and Hope remembered that he had no memory of his future-past.

"Don't worry about it. Just know that I will fix everything." She insisted.

Marcel was still very much worried. Living in the Mikaelson household he'd seen quite a bit of magic growing up and he never ceased to be amazed at what a powerful witch could be capable of but he held no confidence in his sister's ability to reverse his vampire ailment. If there was one thing he learned from his father it was that vampirism was permanent, that is why Klaus always refused to turn him.

As Hope and Sebastian worked tirelessly to put the makeshift spell together, Marcel's headache grew.

"Hope," he said breathlessly gripping his head. "I think we should go home. My head…is really starting to hurt."

"Just another minute," Hope said not looking up from the task at hand. If she did she would've seen the agonized look on her brother's face.

Marcel waited for as long as he could before the pain got the better of him. He fell to his knees, his hands tightly grasping his burning head, tears streaming down his face, and screaming and agony.

"Marcel," Hope fell beside him. "What's wrong? What's happening?"

"I don't know," he sobbed. "I need poppa! Call him! Please! Get…poppa…"

As Marcel writhed on the floor, Hope contemplated calling for help. She knew if she called home Marcel would be saved from his pain but they would also return him to his old self and she wasn't ready to let him go just yet.

"Do you know how to do a diagnostic spell?" She asked Sebastian and he nodded tentatively. "Okay, you figure out what's wrong with him and I'll finish this spell. Then we'll-"

"No," Sebastian surprisingly responded. "Look at him! Even if we knew what was wrong, I don't have a spell that can fix that and we don't have time to make one up. We have to get him some help."

Hope stared down at Marcel. Tears came to her eyes as she realized she was willing to let him suffer for a minute longer just so she could finish a spell that might not even work.

Sebastian hurried to Marcel's side and helped the sobbing boy to his feet using himself as a crutch for him to lean on.

Hope quickly got on the other side of Marcel and the three started walking quickly back through the house. "The walk back is too long for him," Hope said. "We'll have to flag a taxi."

When they made it to the front door, Hope released Marcel to open it. Standing in their wake, his hand positioned to knock on the door just before it swung open, was Klaus. He had hoped to find them there.

He was just about to warily scold Hope for not answering her phone when he noticed Marcel's tearful, puffy face.

"P-poppa," Marcel choked out.

Klaus sped past Hope to Marcel, practically snatching the boy from Sebastian's hold.

"Marcel, what's wrong?" He asked fearfully.

"It hurts, poppa," Marcel sobbed still holding on to his head. "I-I-I…" The pain became intolerable and Marcel suddenly began screaming hysterically at the top of his lungs.

Klaus scooped his son into his arms and said, "We have to get him to Freya, now." Holding Marcel with one arm, he grabbed Hope with the other and sped off to the Compound.

-M-

"Put him in the circle," Freya ordered bursting into her workshop followed by the rest of the Mikaelsons. She quickly put on her work apron and started putting together a new spell.

Klaus carried the boy gingerly in his arms. He hesitated at the circle, not wanting to release his crying son as he laid him down but Freya didn't have patience for her brother's sentimentality and quickly pushed him away.

"The spell is failing," She said as she hurriedly replaced the ingredients in the circle for her re-aging spell with other ingredients to a spell the others didn't know. Quickly, she mixed the ingredients to form a thick red paste. She turned to Haylee and muttered, "Get your daughter out of here. She doesn't need to see this."

Her warning incited Haylee's curiosity but she knew if Freya didn't think Hope needed to see what was about to happen, she had to prevent her from doing so.

Hope fought against her mother as Haylee dragged her out of the room. She begged for Klaus to make them let her stay but like Haylee, Klaus knew better.

"We should've finished the spell the night we brought the Ancient Ginseng back," Freya scolded over the sound of Hope beating on the locked door.

"What's happening to him?" Klaus anxiously questioned.

"The spell was only meant to be temporary. The old Marcel was lying dormant in his mind but it looks like now he wants out. No one's body can contain two spirits and right now the old Marcel and the young Marcel are having a battle of which spirit gets to stay. The problem is that this body is meant for the young spirit; the old Marcel cannot be tethered to it so if he wins…we're going to lose them both."

"And what do you intend to do to save him?" Klaus demanded. Freya ignored his anger knowing that it did not arise because of her but because of his own feelings of helplessness at not being able to help Marcel.

Freya looked down at Marcel's thrashing body. His heart-wrenching screams silenced to breathless sobs.

"I'm going to save him, Klaus," She said as she took the only knob of Ancient Ginseng they had from the old bowl of ingredients. "But I'll have to use this."

Rebekah shook her head 'no' understanding what using the last of the Ginseng would mean. "How will you return him to his original self?" She loved Marcel as a boy but she wanted her lover back.

"As we speak Charlene and Russell Dupeaux are on their way to China to pick up more of the Ginseng. They will be back at the end of the week and then we can restore Marcel. Until then," She took the last of the Ancient Ginseng and ground it as fine as she could. Then she added it to the paste and stirred it until its rusty red coloring magically became a murky yellow. "I'm going to trap the old Marcel's spirit again but this spell is…a bit archaic." She turned to Klaus, her eyes holding both a warning and a plea. "Whatever happens, you mustn't stop me or I can't save him."

"Poppa," Marcel's tiny voice softly broke through his sobs. "It…hurts…. Help …Please."

Turning back to Freya, Klaus ordered, "I don't care what you have to do. Save him!"

Freya nodded. She walked slowly to the circle, slowing even further down as she passed Elijah. "I'm going to have to hurt him to save him," She quickly whispered. "But he will live. If anyone enters the circle before the spell is complete, it will not work. Don't let anyone in."

Klaus was so focused on Marcel that he didn't hear anything Freya said to their brother.

Freya entered the circle and started the spell. As she chanted, she used the paste to draw a strange symbol on Marcel's forehead with her fingers. Marcel's crying began to cease. He took deep, steady breaths. Niklaus's distress withered as his son's did.

His calmness didn't last long though when he saw the dagger Freya pulled out of her apron. His first assumption was that Freya needed the dagger to draw some of her own blood that was possibly needed for the spell but as Freya held the knife over Marcel's head, still chanting while looking as if she was about to plunge the blade into the boy's skull, Klaus's emotions rage.

"What are you doing?" He barked. Elijah quickly sped across the room to his brother, wrapping his arms around Niklaus's shoulders and keeping him in place. "What are you doing, Elijah?" Klaus bellowed. "Let go of me! What is she doing? Freya!"

Freya ignored the screaming and continued chanting. Then she took the blade and pressed it firmly against Marcel's forehead, digging deep into his skin. She began etching over the symbol, carving it into Marcel's forehead. The boy's screams returned tenfold. Freya's magic kept him in place as she finished cutting into his flesh.

Klaus fought hard against Elijah and eventually got the better of him, knocking the older brother to the ground.

"Stop him!" Elijah screamed. Kol and Rebekah tackled Klaus just as he was about to vamp into the circle.

"Let me go!" He begged with tears in his eyes unable to stand the sound of Marcel's screams. "She's killing him! Can't you see she's killing him?!"

Klaus's screams were as loud as Marcel's. He was throwing such a fit that no one knew the spell was over until Freya, now drained of energy and power, stood shakily in front of them all in a tangled mess trying to keep Klaus down.

Elijah, Kol, and Rebekah moved aside so Klaus could run over to the circle where Marcel laid unconscious. The stress of the ritual on his young body was enough to knock him out.

Terrified of the answer, Klaus stuttered, "Is he…is he…"

"Resting," Freya answered the question he couldn't get out. "He'll be fine. You can hold him now if you want."

That was all Klaus needed to hear before falling to his knees and hugging Marcel close to his body.

Exhausted, Freya walked slowly over to the door and opened it. Haylee was standing with her back to the door blocking Hope from it when it opened.

"He's fine," Freya announced. "You can come in now."

Hope dashed between her mother and the door to Klaus still holding Marcel on the floor.

"Careful of his wound," Freya warned.

Klaus looked down at the indelicate abrasion on his son's face and cringed.

"When will it heal?" He asked.

"It won't. Not until I'm ready to release the old spirit. It'll hurt a bit when he wakes but he has the strength of a vampire so I doubt it will bother him much."

"Perhaps," Elijah moved to the circle where father and daughter were both embracing Marcel. "We should bandage the wound and put Marcel to bed. He's had a long morning." As Elijah leaned down to help his brother up, he noticed the shoulder of his jacket got ripped while they were trying to restrain Niklaus. "We've all had a long morning." He groaned.

"I certainly have." Said Freya. She released a loud yawn as she slipped the apron over her head and laid it back on the table. "I think I'm going to take a nap and sleep for a few hours…or days."

"That sounds like a brilliant idea." Elijah agreed. "I think we could all use a nap."

"Way ahead of you," Hope said, her slumped shoulders conveying her exhaustion as she dragged her feet out the room. She'd tired herself out trying to get past Haylee and now that she knew Marcel was safe, she was more than willing to take a nap. "No one wake me 'til lunch."

Niklaus chuckled at the girl's order as he followed behind her carrying Marcel in his arms.

"That nap would be optional, wouldn't it?" Kol asked with an impish grin once they were gone. "Because I sorta already made plans that don't involve me napping."

"What sort of plans," Rebekah teasingly asked.

Kol's face twisted in anger at his sister's pestering inquiry. "Private plans that don't involve you."

"You seem to have a lot of private plans lately," Elijah stated. "We've all been so focused on Marcel that we've seem to let you slip through the cracks. You wouldn't be doing anything I should be concerned with, would you, dear brother?"

Elijah's seemingly innocuous question held a known warning.

Kol grunted in frustration. He longed for the days when Marcel was laid comatose in bed and no one cared what he was up to.

"Twelve years trapped in each other's minds and you lot still don't trust me."

"Twelve years trapped in each other's minds and you still come out untrustworthy." Rebekah sneered.

"Alright, Rebekah," Elijah held up a silencing hand to Rebekah. "That's quite enough. Kol, I trust you. Because I know that you know if you do something remarkably stupid I will make you wish for those twelve years you couldn't feel pain."

-M-

On his way from putting Marcel to bed, Klaus stopped back by Freya's workshop. The destruction he caused trying to break out of his siblings' hold had disappeared. Freya was putting away the last Grimoire when she noticed Klaus.

"I was coming to lend a hand but I can see that you're all done here."

"It's not the first time I've had to clean this place after you destroyed it in a fit of rage."

Klaus blushed. "Listen, I'd just like to apologize for my behavior earlier during the ritual."

"You mean when you accused me of trying to kill your child?" Freya bit.

"Can you blame me all things considered?"

"I may have tried to get rid of Marcel before but I would never hurt an innocent child! That you would accuse me of it…When we first met I accepted your paranoid cynicism because you had no reason to trust me but now we are family, Niklaus. I have killed for this family and wouldn't hesitate to do it again but not even the monster inside of me is cruel enough to hurt a child. Let alone my brother's child who he cares so much for."

Tears of anger pricked Freya's eyes. Niklaus suddenly felt the guilt that he only ever felt after unintentionally hurting one of his siblings.

"Freya, I-"

"I don't need your apology, Klaus. I need you to be a better brother. And a better father. Your selfishness in wanting to keep Marcel a boy nearly lead to you losing him all together. You may be a great leader but when it comes to matters you're too emotionally involved in, you're an idiot. So I'm going to Big Sister you from now on and any time I know a spell needs to be done to save the life of one of our family members, I'm going to do it whether you like it or not."

Niklaus stared at Freya in awe. Freya's method of performing as an older sibling was much different than Elijah who would always offer Niklaus the option of doing things his way first. Freya was more demanding and Klaus hated it.

-M-

Kol walked into the dark, desolate Tremé bar looking curiously around for his friend. He spotted him sitting at a booth at the very back of the bar before the young vampire could notice the presence of the Original.

"Sorry about the wait," Kol greeted cordially as he sat across from Joshua Rosza. "Family problems."

With a meek smile, Josh said, "That seems to come par with being a Mikaelson."

Unbeknown to anyone, since Niklaus lifted Josh's ban from the city Kol had been keeping a secret friendship with him. It wasn't something Kol ever thought he'd consider before but one day when he was missing Davina more than ever he decided to contact Josh. One brief conversation about Davina led to a conversation about broken hearts and past regrets. The two soon realized they had more in common than they thought and without realizing it, a friendship had formed. Fearing someone would find a way to exploit this new friendship, Kol compelled Josh to keep their relationship a secret and they only ever met outside of the Quarter to avoid his family.

"Speaking of your family, how's Marcel?"

Kol sighed deeply. "I am fine, thanks for asking. Got a little lost finding this place even though it is the only bar open at 10 am on a Monday."

"You wanted seclusion, can't get any more secluded than the Witch Lounge. This place is where all the baddies go to do their business. And you can't get mad about me asking about Marcel. I can't talk to him now, what with him being a child and not even remembering who I am or what we've been through together. Also, have I mentioned how against this whole 'meeting in secret' crap I am? Even when I was in the closet I didn't have to be this cagey. And another thing, this compulsion thing, total BS. 'Friends Don't Compel Friends' should not be something I have to remind you of every day."

Kol rolled his eyes and curtly replied, "God, you're a talker. I pity the chap that has to listen to you whine all day."

"That's it," Josh rose from his seat. "I knew this was a bad idea. I'm out."

"Wait, sit down," Kol said coolly but much like his brother, Klaus, his eyes revealed his sincerity. "I was only messing around. Truth is…I value our friendship. That's why we have to keep it a secret. You were an enemy of our family. What would it look like for us to be seen in together?"

Josh sat back down with an angry scowl on his face. "It was fine when I was seen together with Marcel. Y'know, before 'the incident'."

"That's because Marcel still didn't hold any power in my paranoid brother's kingdom. I, on the other hand, am one-fifth of the Mikaelson monarchy but if Klaus knew about us I would be nothing. And he would probably kill us both."

I'd be dead for sure, Josh thought, You'd probably get away with a few swats on the bottom. Josh laughed to himself wondering if Kol really did receive the same punishment from Klaus that Marcel confessed to him of getting.

"What was that?" Kol asked feeling insecure about Joshua's private joke.

"Nothing," Josh chuckled. "Inside joke…with myself."

"Maybe I should compel it out of you so we can both share in a laugh."

"You compel anything else out of me and this friendship is over for good."

When the Mikaelsons returned they destroyed every bit of Vervain in the city and Klaus had his sentries on the lookout for any new Vervain shipments. They were under strict orders to dispose of all Vervain they came in contact with and anyone who dared distribute it. The Dupeaux family were the only people allowed to grow the plant and only in very limited supply. This led to an entire city of people, witches, and vampires now vulnerable to the Mikaelson control and, like everyone else, Josh hated it.

"Alright," Kol agreed reluctantly. "No more Compulsion. I swear."

"Good. Now, I'm about to go catch a matinee with my boyfriend. You can come along if you want."

"No thanks. I'm no third wheel. I'll just go back home and watch as my family continues to ignore and distrust me."

"C'mon," Josh grabbed Kol's arm and pulled him to his feet with little resistance. "I'll buy you the big popcorn and listen to you complain all about your family on the way."

"The big popcorn and the large soda," Kol stated as if it were a demand before leading the way out of the bar.

Josh sighed, once again rethinking his newfound friendship for the hundredth time.

Chapter Text

Chapter 17

Marcel's eyes fluttered open. The warm sun shining against his face through the crack in his curtains woke him just as Niklaus was coming into his room.

"You're awake," Klaus said obviously relieved. Although Freya all but guaranteed him Marcel would wake this time, there was still a part of him that feared he wouldn't.

"What happened?" Marcel asked drowsily.

Klaus explained everything to Marcel as simply as he could and when Marcel found out about the wound on his head he immediately reached up to touch it. He flinched at his own touch and fought the tears daring to breach his eyes.

"Does it hurt?" Klaus asked.

"Only when I touch it," Marcel muttered.

"Well try not to touch it," Klaus teased and Marcel smiled. "I know what will take your mind off of that scar. A nice big sundae."

-M-

When Klaus sat the cherry sundae on the kitchen counter in front of Marcel the boy didn't know what to think of it. It was ice cream, which he loved, topped with cherries, which he also loved, and a red syrup sauce, which he was skeptical about trying.

Hope sat beside him with a strawberry sundae of her own and unlike Marcel, she started digging in as soon as Klaus finished it.

"Is this blood, poppa?" He asked. It didn't smell like blood but thought maybe it just smelled sweet with the ice cream.

"No, Marcel," Klaus laughed. "It's cherry syrup. Try it. It's good."

Marcel took a small spoonful of ice cream covered in syrup and tasted it. He fell in love with the tasty confection.

When Elijah entered the kitchen, however, Marcel immediately threw his spoon down in the bowl and stared at him with wide, guilty eyes.

"Giving them sweets before lunch," Elijah reprimanded Niklaus. "You're going to spoil their appetite."

"Come off it, Elijah. They had a stressful day. And I'm sure they're going to eat whatever unbearably healthy lunch you want to make for them."

"I had something special planned but after this perhaps a few stalks of celery and a small pile of cauliflower is what you all need."

Klaus turned to the children and playfully whispered, "Then maybe we should sneak out for burritos before lunch."

Marcel's nodded vigorously. He didn't know what a burrito was but he was excited to go explore the city more.

"Only kidding, Elijah," Klaus said after receiving a threatening look from his brother. "We will eat whatever you serve for lunch…provided it's not stalks of celery."

Elijah took all three sundaes and put them in the sink.

"Have you spoken to Hope about what we discussed?" Elijah asked as he started preparing lunch.

Kol entered the kitchen just in time to overhear Elijah. "Sounds like I came home at a bad time," He joked sitting at the isle on the other side of Hope. "Is this about her not answering the phone this morning or ditching her bodyguards again?"

"My client pleads not guilty on all counts," Rebekah joked as she came in with Freya. "It's not her fault these wolves are so easy to lose. You'd think a dog would have a better sense of smell."

"You won't think it's so funny once you know what she really did," Elijah stated. "She damaged the safety system of a Ferris Wheel and climbed it, putting herself, Marcel, and the Dupeaux boy at risk of falling to their deaths which they nearly did had Niklaus and I not been there to save them."

"She did what?!" They all yelled.

"My God," Rebekah said in awe. "Hayley's gonna flip. I'm only assuming you haven't told her yet; otherwise, Hope wouldn't still be in one piece."

"What were you thinking?" Freya scolded. "You could've killed yourself."

Marcel shrunk deeper and deeper into his seat the more the adults scolded Hope. Although he felt bad for his sister he was glad he wasn't on the receiving end of their anger.

"Niklaus, what are you planning to do about this?"

"I was just getting to that." Clearing his throat to sound more commanding, Niklaus said, "Hope, you're grounded for two weeks."

Hope gave her widest puppy-dog eyes and jutted her bottom lip out to look as innocent as possible before saying, "But daddy, we were supposed to do stuff with Marcel. He's only gonna be like this for a week."

Seeing the look of contemplation on Niklaus's face, Elijah immediately stopped prepping lunch and said, "Perhaps we should adjourn to a different room. Hope and Marcel, wait here. We'll be back."

-M-

"You promised not to cave," Elijah started as his siblings filed into the drawing-room. "Hope deserves a father that cares about her wellbeing, not a man who would voluntarily let her kill herself and everyone around her because he's too afraid of a teenage girl being a little angry at him."

"You say that as if her being a little angry now won't end with horrible results. Need I remind you of Marcel?"

Suddenly feeling guilty, an emotion he rarely felt, Kol stepped forward and said, "Nik, it's time I told you something I should've told you a long time ago. Actually, no, if I could've I would've taken this to my grave but since you've apparently gone completely bat shit anyway, why not. I'm the reason Marcel called Mikael to you all those years ago."

"Don't be absurd," Rebekah said in disbelief. "Marcel called Mikael so he and I could be together. You had already been daggered for years before he even got the idea."

"He may have done it for you, my sweet, naive little sister, but I gave him the…motivation. I'm the one who convinced him that he shouldn't have to take orders from you and that he should be running his own kingdom. He was nearly a hundred years old and as prideful as his dear poppa so it wasn't hard to convince him that you shouldn't go on dictating his life."

"You turned my son against me?" Klaus growled.

"That was never my intent," Kol said throwing his hands up in surrender. "I would never want him to call Mikael upon us. That crazy bastard would've done us all in. All I wanted was my mate back. You lot had turned him against me; had him thinking me the villain when all I wanted was a little fun. I'm sorry if my words in anger turned Marcel into the patricidal Beast we all despised but that little girl out there needs a good thrashing and you are not helping her by blinding turning the other cheek all the bloody time. And that's coming from the Master of Mischief himself."

"Our demented brother's right, Klaus," Rebekah stated. "I love Hope but nobody likes a spoiled brat."

"You should know," Kol muttered under his breath.

"You're her father, Nik," Rebekah continued, ignoring her brother's sly comment. "But right now you're certainly not acting like it. So what if she gets angry. She's supposed to get angry at you. I get angry with you. But you're my brother and I will always love you. Marcel was a good boy and he grew into a great man with you as a father but at the rate she's going, Hope will be lucky to become an adult at all."

Just then Hayley came in through the arched doorway and everyone stopped talking immediately.

"Okay," Hayley looked suspiciously around the room. "I'm just going to pretend like everyone didn't stop talking when I came in. What's the hold up with lunch?"

"Sorry, we got…distracted," Elijah answered shadily.

"No problem. I'll just go start it and you all can just continue with your secret Mikaelson siblings' discussion."

Elijah laughed nervously and said, "Hope and Marcel are in the kitchen, I'm sure they'd love to help you."

"No, they're not," Hayley replied. "They left a few minutes ago to get Sebastian to eat lunch with us."

"They did what?" The Mikaelsons said in a furious unison.

-M-

Marcel and Hope raced down the Quarter sidewalks, each trying to outrun the other. When they hit vampire speeds the game became to avoid running into other people and things. The game came to an end after Marcel ran into a light pole after just barely avoiding a blind lady.

"Are you okay?" Hope ran to help him up.

"I'm fine," Marcel said rubbing his forehead where it smashed into the pole.

Hope lifted the bandage to get a look at the scar. She sighed with relief after finding that it looked exactly how it's supposed to.

"Be careful," she scolded. "If anything happens to that scar the old Marcel will try to come back again. Now c'mon," She grabbed Marcel's hand and they walked the rest of the way.

"Where are we going?" Marcel groaned. "Uncle Elijah said to stay in the kitchen. We're gonna get in trouble."

"That's why we have to go now. They're trying to ground me which means I'm not gonna be able to finish the spell to keep you a kid which means Aunty Freya's gonna turn you back into boring, ol' old Marcel. That's why we have to go back to Sebastian's now so we can finish the spell before I get grounded."

Just as they made it to the Dupeaux home, Hope's phone began to ring.

"Uncle Elijah," She groaned looking at the screen. "I guess he knows we're gone by now."

"Answer it," Marcel urged.

"So he can yell at me? Yeah, right," Hope sent the call to voicemail and knocked on the door. It eased open at the weight of her knock. "Hello," She called into the dark house.

"Um, in the living room," Sebastian called back.

Hope and Marcel walked cautiously to the living room where they found Sebastian standing uneasily in front of Elijah and Niklaus.

"I'm going to pretend that was a dropped call," Elijah growled. "Because I know you did not send me to voicemail."

"D-dad, Uncle Elijah…what are you doing here?"

"We could ask you the same question since last I remember, I told you two to stay in the kitchen, and yet, here you are."

"Elijah, Nik," Kol came running from the back of the house. "We found something Freya thinks you should see."

Kol led them all to the garden where Freya, Rebekah, and Hayley were all examining the spell Hope had still in progress.

"What is this?" Freya asked glowering at Hope.

"It's…it's a spell I was gonna use to keep Marcel like this so you couldn't change him," Hope admitted.

"You were going to do what?" Hayley barked. "What have I told you about performing experimental spells like this without Freya's supervision?" Turning to Freya she asked, "Would it have even worked?"

"No," Freya answered curtly. She picked up an ash-colored root from a small basin on the table and said, "And you've wasted a lot of rare ingredients creating it. Do your parents know you play with their plants when they're away?"

"Please don't tell my parents," Sebastian begged. "My dad'll kill me. I'm not even supposed to be in here when they're not home."

Klaus took notice of the boy's fear of his father.

"Whatever he does to you wouldn't be half as bad as what would've happened if you two completed this spell," Freya continued. "It's completely unstable. Neither of you is skilled enough to create spells from scratch and that's exactly what this looks like you tried to do. If you would've tried to perform this spell it would've backfired and let's just say, losing your spirit would be the best possible outcome."

Sebastian absentmindedly rubbed his behind and groaned. Niklaus realized then that the Dupeaux's apparently spanked their son. This was a boy who, like Hope, got everything he could ever want from his family but when he intentionally misbehaved he was still punished harshly. This led to the boy's evident contrition whenever he was caught misbehaving. He noticed Hope staring spitefully at the table with her ruined spell and realized she had too much pride to be contrite.

"Wait until we get home," Haylee growled at the girl. "Between this and the Ferris Wheel incident that I just found out about," She quickly turned her anger to Elijah and then back to Hope. "You're going to get exactly what you've been asking for. And you," She turned to Sebastian. "You're going to stay with us until your parents get back because your mom asked me to check in on you and make sure you didn't get into any trouble while they were away and this," She motioned to the table. "Is trouble. And yes, I am going to tell them about it."

Klaus noticed Sebastian's shoulders slump further, his fear growing, but Hope stood ever proud. He found out the reason why when Hope turned to him and said, "Daddy, tell them they're overreacting. It-it wasn't that bad. And I said I was sorry about the Ferris Wheel thing."

"But are you?" Klaus's deep, grumbled question surprised everyone.

"Y-yes," Hope stuttered. "I am. I wasn't trying to hurt anyone."

"You never are, Hope. Your disobedience and disrespect for the rules always end in injury or near death and I don't think you care one bit so long as you get to keep doing what you want."

"B-but daddy, I-"

"I…" Klaus boomed but at seeing the frightened look on Hope's face he immediately calmed down. "I don't want to hear another halfhearted apology from you."

Elijah was shocked. He had never seen this side of his brother shown to Hope.

"Marcellus, Sebastian," Elijah said sternly grabbing the boys' attention. "Come on, I'll take you boys home."

"I'll go with you," Kol said, uncomfortable with the growing tension in the room. Usually, when things got this heated, he was the one in trouble.

"Me too," Rebekah said followed by Freya.

Once the room was cleared of everyone but mother, father, and daughter, Hope's emotions began to rile.

"It's not fair that you're all ganging up on me!" She screamed. "I didn't do anything wrong!"

"And that's just the problem," Niklaus growled. He marched over to Hope and grabbed her by the top of her arm, pulling her over to the chair sitting by the table. "You think you know everything. You're prideful, disobedient, and your disrespect for the safety of those around you has gotten out of control." Niklaus sat in the chair and swung Hope of his lap in one swift motion.

Haylee stared on in surprise at the situation but relieved that Niklaus's eyes were finally open to their daughter's dangerous faults.

"No, daddy, stop!" Hope threw her hand back to protect her behind. Klaus easily pinned it to her side with one hand and freed her from the protective covering of her jeans with the other.

Tears were already forming in Hope's eyes but they came even harder as Niklaus began raining down swats over her nearly bare bottom.

"Climbing that Ferris Wheel was stupid and dangerous," Klaus lectured as he began alternating swats between cheeks. "You could've killed yourself and not only that, you put Marcel and Sebastian in danger as well. You do not know everything. You are still a child and when your mother or Freya tells you not to do something you will obey them. Do I make myself clear?"

Hope kicked and screamed but Niklaus didn't stop spanking until he heard her squeak out a tiny 'Yes sir'.

Her bottom was a bright scarlet easily visible through her thin, white undies when he finished with her.

Once his fervor had subsided, Klaus felt a weight of guilt set on him. He redressed Hope and sat her upright on his lap, hugging her tight as she cried against his neck.

"I-I-I'm s-sorry, daddy." Hope sobbed.

Klaus fought a losing battle against the tears forming in his own eyes. He had hoped for this, prayed for it even, but he didn't expect it really. His only regret was not having done it sooner.

He stood up with Hope in his arms and followed behind Haylee out the garden. "Let's get you home," He muttered. "You've had a stressful day."

Chapter Text

Chapter 18

Flashback:

"Marcellus, what do you think you're doing?"

Marcel, sitting comfortably atop his black and white pinto, jumped at the sound of his uncle's booming voice coming from the stable door.

Elijah was furious. It was only a short hour ago that he had the argument with Marcel on whether the boy could ride his horse before he finished his studies. Elijah thought he'd won but obviously Marcel had a different understanding of the conversation.

"I-I was just going to go for a short ride," Marcel muttered.

Elijah's anger grew as the boy tried to defend his actions. "Get down from that horse this instant."

Marcel climbed down despondently.

"Now go finish your studies." As Marcel stomped away, Elijah considered tagging him with a few swift smacks to the bottom but decided against it. In the year since Marcel moved in Elijah had refrained from punishing the boy in the same manner he did his siblings but it was times like this that he felt like making an exception. "And consider your riding privileges revoked until Klaus and Rebekah return from Tennessee."

"But they won't be back for four more days," Marcel said pausing at the stable door.

"Yes, too bad for you,"

Marcel sulked around the house for two days. Elijah never wanted to do anything with him so without Niklaus and Rebekah all Marcel could do was study which normally he enjoyed doing but after forty-eight hours with no fun, studying became a chore.

Then one night after Elijah went to bed, Marcel snuck out of the compound and out to the stables.

"Just a short ride," Marcel said to himself as he guided his horse from her spot in the stable. "We'll go around the property line once and Uncle Elijah will never know."

"I think I just might."

Marcel stood guilty before Elijah. With the reins in his hands and his pinto saddled up, he was definitely caught red-handed.

"Remind me, Marcellus, but I thought I told you no riding until your father returned yet here you are, sneaking around a quarter 'til midnight when you were supposed to be in bed hours ago."

"But I just wanted to ride her a little bit," Marcel grumbled. "It's not fair that I can't ride her for four days. Poppa said I can ride whenever I want as long as I stay on the property."

"Well Klaus isn't here right now and I say you can't. Now get back to bed and don't let me catch you out here again until I speak with your father about your blatant disobedience this week."

With a big huff, Marcel folded his arms tightly over his narrow chest and barked, "Poppa said I can get what I want and I wanna ride!"

Elijah was floored by the boy's response. Marcel was certainly not the timid, frightened boy he came as a year ago. Somehow during Klaus's endless surplus of unconditional love, Marcel became spoiled which was a trait Elijah was not used to. Even his sister, who Elijah thought was the most cossetted a Mikaelson could ever be, wasn't as spoiled as Marcel had become.

"I don't know about what you want," Elijah said grabbing Marcel by the arm and dragging him out the stable. "But I know what you need."

Marcel marched frightfully behind Elijah as he dragged him through the compound to Marcel's bedroom. Elijah brought him over to the desk chair and sat down with Marcel over his lap. Marcel was still wearing his nightshirt but he'd put on a pair of pants to go riding in but Elijah made quick work of removing those as he laid the stunned child on his lap but left his nightshirt covering his bottom. It did little to protect Marcel from his uncle's stinging smacks anyway.

As strong as Marcel was, he was in tears after the first smack to his tender backside. Elijah simply ignored the boy's tears and focused on how much strength he was using to spank the child. He knew had to be much gentler on him than he did on his siblings but he hit him so softly he wondered if he was even hurting the boy at all. After 10 spanks Elijah lifted the boy's shirt to see Marcel's behind was a bright as the reddest of apples.

"Hush now, Marcellus," Elijah said calmly as he stood the boy back to his feet. "You brought this upon yourself."

Just as he was about to begin a lecture, Marcel blurted through ragged sobs, "Please don't send me back to the Governor!"

Elijah's mouth dropped in shock at the boy's request. "Marcellus, I would never…. What would make you think such a thing?"

"I kn-know you hate me," Marcel stammered. "And you don't want me around no more b-but please don't tell poppa to send me away 'cuz of this. I'm sorry. I won't do it again, I swear. Please don't send me back."

Elijah suddenly hugged Marcel tight enough to ease the boy's wretched sobs.

"I don't hate you, Marcellus," He said. "I love you as much as anyone in this family does. As much as your poppa does."

"B-but…you hit me."

Elijah pulled Marcel back so he could look the boy in the eyes as he explained. "I spanked you, Marcellus, because you were disobedient and increasingly disrespectful. Parents only spank their children when they love them too much to let them continue down the bad path they're headed towards."

"Poppa's never hit me."

"Parents can show their love in many different ways. Niklaus shows you love by giving you gifts and being there when you need him."

"And you show your love by spanking me?"

"That's one of the ways," Elijah smirked sheepishly. "It's like when I try to make you eat healthy food and you get upset because you would rather eat cake than spinach. You're not going to always like the things that are you for you."

Marcel's hands went back to rub some of the sting from his cheeks. "Can't you show it by just being there when I need you like poppa?"

"I promise I'll always be there when you need me, even if it's just for one of these character redeeming spankings you'll be getting from now on if you misbehave," Elijah said firmly. "But I don't want you to ever be afraid of being sent back to that despicable place, Marcellus. You are one of us now and I would sooner burn that plantation to the ground than let them get to you again."

End Flashback

On their way home with Marcel and Sebastian, Elijah decided it would be best to stop at a local diner for lunch since he was in no mood to cook.

Marcel sat nervously between Elijah and Freya on one side of the table and Sebastian sat across from him between Kol and Rebekah. Marcel couldn't take his mind off of Hope and what Niklaus was going to do to her. He was sure she wasn't going to be spanked. His father didn't spank, unlike his Uncle Elijah.

"Uncle Elijah," Marcel muttered and Elijah leaned his ear closer to the boy's mouth. "Am I in trouble for leaving the Compound when you told us not to?"

"Well, Marcellus," Elijah opened a menu and skimmed across the artery-clogging selection. "That's for your father to decide. I believe he's handling the matter of discipline in this particular case."

Marcel celebrated silently. He thought perhaps Hope was right and in this time he would be exempt from punishments as long as he had Klaus on his side.

Elijah ordered a burger for Marcel while the others ordered their own food and when Marcel's giant burger came (being much bigger than Elijah had anticipated when he ordered it) Elijah absentmindedly tucked a napkin in the collar of Marcel's shirt and laid another one across the boy's lap to protect his clothes from any of its dribbling juices.

Kol smirked impishly at the sight. "Jeez, Elijah, being a bit anal, aren'tcha."

"Please abstain from vulgarities in front of the children," Elijah scolded half-heartedly because he was indeed a slave to his own meticulousness.

Marcel used a fork and ate each of his fries one by own at first but then he noticed Sebastian using his hands to chow down on his burger and he wondered if that wasn't the proper way to eat it.

Kol's snickered from across the table. "It's okay to use your hands. See," Kol picked a fry from Marcel's plate and ate it. Marcel didn't know what to make of the man. The last time he met him Kol had forced him to watch a slaughter but here he was now seeming just as kind as the rest of his family.

Marcel picked up the burger cautiously expecting to be reprimanded for his poor table manners but Elijah said nothing.

Marcel just so happened to glance out the window as he was biting into his burger and saw Niklaus and Haylee walking across the street headed towards the Compound with Hope asleep in Klaus's arms.

"It's poppa," Marcel sprang to his feet and ran out of the diner. "Poppa," He called as he sprinted out the door. He didn't see the car coming until he stepped off the curb. Suddenly he felt someone's arm lift him from the ground and the next thing he knew he was standing on the other side of the street.

"My, my," Elijah said as he set the boy down in front of Klaus. "You certainly are accident-prone."

"Marcellus, are you alright?" Klaus asked relieved that Elijah was there.

Marcel was happier than ever. So far in this time, every time something bad almost happened to him his family has been there to save him. He was feeling invincible.

"Yes, poppa," He said excitedly. "I'm perfectly safe."

-M-

The Mikaelson home was not without room and finding Sebastian a room to stay in for the week was an easy task.

"This is nice," Sebastian said admiring the bedroom furniture with Hope and Marcel. "It's very…Classic Nola. Is this bedframe an antique?"

"Yep, Uncle Elijah tries to keep as much of the old stuff as possible. The mattress is new though and super comfy."

Sebastian pressed his hand against the mattress and the foam mattress molded to his handprint. "Oh yeah, this'll work nicely. At least I'll have a nice rest the week before my parents come back and skin me alive for playing in their garden."

"We weren't playing," Hope bit. "We were trying to do real magic."

"Trying and failing, if I might add. My dad went berserk the night he found out we put Marcel in a coma. I can already imagine his reaction when he finds out about this. I'm not going to be able to sit again for a week."

"We're lucky," Marcel said proudly. "Our dad doesn't spank. Isn't that right, Hope?"

Hope blushed as she thought back to what had happened in the Dupeaux garden only a few short hours ago. She decided not to tell them about it because she was too proud to admit she was wrong.

"Yeah, right." She lied. "Hey let's go see what's going on in the Tremé. There's always some kind of witch gathering happening there."

"I don't think so," Hope jumped at the sound of her mom's voice from the doorway. "You're grounded, Hope. Remember?"

"But...what about what happened in the garden?"

Haylee took note of her daughter's attempt to dance around using the word 'spanking' and decided to follow along. "What happened in the garden happened because of your disobedience and that little spell you were trying to put together without our knowledge. You're grounded because of that little stunt you pulled on the Ferris Wheel."

Hope tightened her fists at her side but she didn't dare throw a tantrum in front of her mother. She knew better than to push Hayley.

-M-

Marcel woke with tears on his face. He had a dream he was on a bridge arguing with Niklaus when Elijah came and ripped out his heart and let his body fall into the river beneath. He didn't know this dream was a memory of the 'Old Marcel' creeping into his mind thanks to his current condition and he wouldn't have guessed it because the Marcel in his dreams wasn't the adult Marcel that Elijah attempted to kill, but him now in his teenage body.

All Marcel knew was that the dream was terrifying and he knew where to go when he had a terrifying dream.

As he trekked down the hall looking for his father's room, he heard talking coming from the courtyard. He walked quietly over to the banister to see Kol fuming at the sight of Josh.

"What are you doing here?" He whispered harshly. "If my brothers saw you-"

"I know, I know, unending torture. But I've got news. The rogue wolves of Haylee's line have aligned with another pack. A pack lead by a guy called 'Travis'. He seems to have some beef with your family and I think they're planning to settling it soon."

"This information couldn't have been conveyed over the phone?"

"I called you twice when I found out! You sent me to voicemail both times."

Kol sighed at his friend's justified vexation. Josh had called him during their family's dinner and Kol feared if he left the table to answer the phone someone would decide to eavesdrop on his conversation and hear him talking to Josh so he had no choice but to send his friend to voicemail to avoid being found out by his family.

"I'm sorry," Kol sighed. "Thank you. I appreciate your help now leave, please, before someone else wakes up and finds you here. And be careful. I don't doubt the wolves know about your Pardon from Niklaus and they would probably come after you in spite."

"I'll try to stay alive. You try to answer the phone when I call or else I can't keep doing this. I promised myself a long time ago to avoid anyone who was ashamed or afraid to be seen with me. That includes Original Vampires."

Marcel watched curiously as Josh stomped out of the courtyard. He looked back to where Kol was and was shocked to see the man had gone.

"Somethings you just never grow out of," Kol said from behind him.

Marcel spun around to face Kol slightly afraid. He didn't know much about Kol. The man was violent and cruel when he met him all those years ago but now he seemed to be no more malicious than the rest of his family, still, Marcel was cautious.

"What are you doing lurking the halls this time of night? It's certainly past your bedtime."

"I...I was looking for poppa. I had...a nightmare."

"What did you hear?" Kol asked about the conversation Marcel had overheard between him and Josh.

"There are wolves coming. We should tell poppa."

"We should. And I will." As Kol took a step forward he could see from the look in Marcel's eyes that the boy was about to run. He sped over to the child and looked deeply into his eyes, "You will forget everything you just saw. You had a bad dream and on your way to find Klaus, you bumped into me. That's all that happened."

Marcel was fooled by Kol's compulsion.

"S-sorry," Marcel muttered. "I was just...looking for poppa. I had a bad dream."

"Didja now?" Kol stated as if it were his first time hearing. "Well, you can't just go running to dear ol' dad whenever you're afraid. You're nearly a man now. Go on back to bed and deal with your fears on your own, like a man."

Broken-hearted, Marcel obeyed in fear of Kol's reaction if he didn't. Kol smiled proudly behind the boy. He's much more pliable now, Kol thought. Maybe I can have my old friend back after all.

Flashback:

New Orleans, New Year's Day 1900

The Mikaelson home was filled with jubilant party-goers who drank insatiably and could see no end to the night. It was truly one of the Mikaelsons' unforgettable celebrations.

Marcel sat at a table in the courtyard staring lustfully across at Rebekah at the bar.

"Chipper up or you might scare off the women," Kol said as he sat in front of Marcel, blocking his view of Rebekah.

"You're soused," Marcel groaned. "Why do you always overindulge at these things? You know Elijah's is going to be furious."

"Elijah can bugger off. This is a night of celebration. I do love the turn-of-the-century celebrations the most. The liquor never stops flowing and the girls are as loose as my trousers are tight."

"You're disgusting," Marcel laughed.

Kol waved over a waiter carrying a tray of champagne glasses. He grabbed two glasses and said, "That's the spirit. Now drink up and come have a little fun."

"How am I supposed to be happy when the girl I love is right in front of me and I can't even touch her."

"You only think you love her now. Wait until you see her without her makeup on. That's not a sight you want to see in the morning." Kol smiled at his own joke but Marcel remained stoic. "You have got to get over Rebekah, mate. Klaus will never let you two be. But I happen to know two very available lasses waiting for us. I have it on good authority that they're...well, let's just say we won't need to compel our desires out of these women."

"There's only one girl I want anything from, Kol." Marcel glanced around Kol's head back at Rebekah. "But your brother won't let me have her."

"So, I say, in the meantime, you satiate your lechery with finer, more accessible women. One night of meaningless passion in between the many nights without the one you love."

Kol brought Marcel's attention to the doorway where two beautiful women batted their eyes at him.

"I could use a night of meaningless passion."

It didn't take long for the two to captivate the women with their Mikaelson charm. They tipsily climbed the stairs with their women and were almost at their bedrooms when two men came and grabbed the ladies.

"You moving in on our fiancés?" The man standing with Kol's almost-date barked.

"Oh, you're engaged?" Kol mocked. "Congratulations! Why don't you go dance with him downstairs for about an hour while she and I go celebrate."

Marcel chuckle at Kol's quip and in the same instant, the man punched Kol. The Original barely flinched at the strike. When Marcel saw the look in Kol's eyes, he stopped laughing immediately. He knew that look. Before he could stop Kol, hit the man one time and sent him flying down the stairs and into a crowd of people. He hit the ground with enough force to end his life. His fiancé went running down the stairs shrieking in heartache and terror and Marcel knew the party had come to an end.

"Oops," Kol muttered. "Guess I got a bit carried away there."

Marcel stared into the crowd looking for Niklaus and when he saw him and Elijah he knew they were livid.

-M-

Marcel let out a sigh of momentary relief as the last guest left the Compound. He worked with the rest of the Mikaelsons and their vampires to compel all the guests into forgetting the death they'd all witnessed and think the night ended pleasantly for them all.

His relief was short-lived, however, because as soon as the last guest was gone Klaus started in on his rampage with Kol.

"You will never just behave for one night, will you?" Klaus bellowed.

"He has a penchant for mischief," Rebekah said from the sidelines with Elijah and Marcel. "We can never have a decent night with him around."

Kol grunted, "Oh, come off your high horse; as if you all never committed an act of bloodshed during a party before."

Kol hated himself for not being more prepared when Klaus sped across the room and placed the point of a dagger against his rib cage.

"I usually have a reason for a public execution. You, I am beginning to believe, just gain some kind of lewd pleasure from ruining my night!"

Realizing that Klaus was considering actually daggering his friend again, Marcel intervened.

"I killed him," Marcel lied. "We were just having a little fun, we didn't know those girls were engaged, but when that guy attacked me I had to hit back. You always told me if my enemies strike first we must strike back even harsher."

Klaus stood back from Kol with a frustrated look on his face. "You're becoming more like Kol every day," He said. "Keep it up and I'll have to start punishing you like him."

Marcel glared shamefully at Kol wishing he'd let the man take the fall for his own crime. Kol was harboring hate of his own but not at Marcel, but at Klaus. He hated how the man managed to always single him out as if he was the only monster in a family of beasts.

"It's getting late," Klaus continued as the Grandfather Clock in the courtyard chimed out three loud gongs. "We should turn in before sunrise."

"Sounds good to me, brother," Elijah stated. "Perhaps next year's celebration will be a little less murderous."

As the other Mikaelsons began to leave, Marcel went over to check on Kol.

"Of course," Kol grunted, "I nearly get daggered for killing a man while you get coddled and a pat on the back."

"Only because those daggers won't work on me," Marcel defended. "I mean, what else could he do? I'm too old to be spanked."

"So am I but that doesn't stop my brothers from roughing me up when they feel the need be," A spiteful thought came into Kol's mind and he spoke it before he could consider the effects. "Perhaps it's the whole orphan thing that steadies his hand when it comes to you."

"What are you talking about? I'm not an orphan."

"I know you'd like to think that but we both know my brother only sees you as the orphan he took in to protect from the monsters. I doubt he'll ever see you as a man. That is...unless you could somehow break free of my brother's hold and start a kingdom of your own. Maybe even with the girl of your dreams. Perhaps even his very own kingdom. He'd have to see you as the man you are then. Oh, what beautiful irony there is in a son forcefully taking over his father's empire."

"Betray Klaus? Are you insane?"

"Fine, stay under my brother's thumb. But keep in mind, eternal servitude doesn't suit you. Klaus says so himself: You were born to be a leader. Why not start with the place you call home?"

End Flashback

Chapter Text

Chapter 19

Marcel dragged his feet into the dining room. He was exhausted. His nightmares plagued him all night, first with Elijah killing him and then with him killing his own family. When he woke the second time that night he was afraid to go back to sleep. If those were the dreams he was now doomed to have he was determined to never sleep again.

"Why the long face, Marcellus?" Niklaus asked as he shoveled a stack of buttermilk pancakes on the boy's plate.

Ashamed of the contents of his dreams and the fear they caused him, Marcel simply answered, "Nothing, poppa. Yesterday was just...very long."

"Perhaps you could use a few more hours of sleep," Freya suggested. "You don't need to put any additional strain on your body. You're being held together by a string as it is."

Marcel stiffened with fear at the thought of going back to sleep but before he could oppose Freya's suggestion, Hope spoke up.

"He's fine. All he needs is a little air. Coming to school with me and Sebastian should do the trick."

"Marcel isn't going to school with you, Hope," Hayley said bursting the girl's bubble. "He doesn't need to be too far away from Freya in his condition."

Hayley didn't want to tell Hope just yet because she didn't want to start the morning with an argument but last night, after Kol's emergency family meeting where he told them that one of his 'contacts' believed Travis and his wolves were going to make a move soon, the Mikaelsons decided that they would need to keep the children under their own supervision, seeing as how Hope could so easily lose Hayley's wolf bodyguards. Since Hope was grounded and would be coming straight home after school, Niklaus agreed there was no need in telling her of this new threat. As an extra precaution, Rebekah agreed to walk them to and from school every day. Hope didn't suspect a thing. She just assumed it was her Aunt wanting to spend more time with her as her family often did.

"Maybe you should take a nap, Marcellus." Elijah insisted. "You look exhausted."

"I'm fine!" Marcel snapped, to everyone's surprise, even his own. "S-sorry, it's just...I don't need to go back to sleep." Turning to his father with pleading eyes begging for Klaus to take his side, Marcel repeated, "I'm fine. Honest."

Niklaus put a calming hand on Marcel's shoulders as he took the seat beside him.

"You know your body better than we do," Niklaus said. "You don't have to go back to sleep if you don't want to. You can just spend the day with me."

Hope couldn't help but feel slightly jealous of her father showering Marcel with all the affection that, just weeks ago, he had reserved totally for her but she reminded herself that she was just being selfish and that not being the only child anymore meant she would have to share Klaus too.

-M-

In the course of three days, Marcel had gotten a total of four hours of sleep. Everyone could tell the boy was having a rough time getting to sleep but he refused to come to anyone for help, not even his father.

Kol entered the kitchen with his pants hanging low on his waist. Elijah had given the servants the morning off and was busy cooking the large family breakfast himself when he saw his brother come in. He noticed Kol's disheveled dress before he noticed the scowl on his face.

"Forgot your belt, brother?" He asked while kneading the dough for their breakfast pastries.

"More like someone stole it. Every belt from my closet is gone. Bet it was those mangy wolves."

"Nonsense, Hayley makes sure the wolves are well cared for. If your belts are missing it's because of your own incompetence."

"Are you accusing me of simply misplacing two dozen belts, Elijah? Have I ever been so irresponsible?"

Elijah sighed, "Perhaps you're right. I'll look into it."

-M-

On his way to retrieve Hayley for breakfast, Elijah glanced into Marcel's room and happened to notice a drawer in the boy's dresser slightly ajar. Fastidious as he was, Elijah went in to close it. It popped back open as soon as he pushed it closed. Confused, Elijah opened the drawer to see what was keeping it open and he was surprised at the sight of Kol's belts stuffed into the drawer. He was more confused by the sight than shocked. Marcel had never been one to steal and Elijah imagined if he were to take something that didn't belong to him it would be something he needed. A drawer crammed full of an assortment of belts was not a necessity.

"Uncle Elijah," Elijah turned to see Marcel standing at the doorway. "What are you d-"

When Marcel saw the open drawer exposing his theft his eyes widened in fear.

Elijah was slightly confused by the boy's unexpected fear. Sure he had been somewhat of a stern disciplinarian to the boy in the past but never had the boy looked at him so terrified. Little did he know that Marcel's nightmares had warped Marcel's view of the man into the monster who would kill him on a bridge and let his body get washed away in the river. Marcel didn't trust that monster and he wouldn't put it past the monster to use those belts in the same manner Kol did in his nightmares.

"Might I suggest the next time you require a belt you ask Kol before simply taking his things?" Elijah said calmly. "Or you could just come to me or your father and we'll get you a new belt."

Marel nodded bashfully. Elijah could feel something was wrong with the boy. He was simply off.

"Marcellus, are you feeling alright?"

Again the boy nodded. Elijah expected as much.

"Alright," Elijah sighed. As he was leaving he said, "You return those to where you found them before you come down for breakfast."

"Yes sir," Once Elijah was gone, Marcel let out a sigh of relief.

-M-

"Marcel is not sleeping well," Elijah said to Freya and Niklaus in Freya's workshop. He pulled them away after breakfast so he could have a private conversation with them about Marcel. "His lack of sleep is causing him to behave very uncharacteristically."

"Not to mention the strain it's putting on his spell," Freya added. "The Dupeauxs won't be back until Saturday. That's two nights away. I fear the spell I have in place won't make it that long if he doesn't get some rest soon. Best case scenario: I have to redo the spell and subject him to that torture again."

Niklaus's jaw tightened in fear of the answer to his next question. "Worst case?"

Somberly, Freya replied, "The spell breaks and Old Marcel's spirit returns too quickly for me to stop it and Marcel's brain will become...what's the saying? Soup?"

Niklaus cringed. "Fine, do whatever you have to do to get him to sleep."

"I actually think I might have something." Freya walked over to an old trunk in the corner full of her collection of cursed objects. She found an old, tattered teddy bear and brought it back to them.

"A dirty old bear?" Niklaus said sardonically. "Why didn't I think of that? A good dose of toxic mold always puts me right to sleep."

"Okay, so maybe he needs a little wash but this will work, trust me. It was created by an au pair living with a family of twelve children in 1914. It's how she put them all to sleep at the same time every night. You just put this by his bedside and the next time he's in bed he'll sleep like a rock."

Niklaus didn't like how deceitful it seemed but since Marcel wasn't making an effort to help himself Klaus felt it was his duty to make sure the boy got a good night's sleep.

-M-

Hope lounged back on her bed in relief of having just finished the last problem of her Algebra homework. Sebastian sat at her desk rocking back in the desk chair staring up at the ceiling.

Seeing Hope finally relax thirty minutes after he'd finished with the Civics homework, he said, "Finally. God, I thought you'd never finish."

Hope waded up a sheet of paper and threw it at the back of his head. "Shut up, you got the easy stuff. And you could've helped when you finished yours, slacker."

The two had made an agreement the night Sebastian moved in. Since they had most of the same classes, every night they would split the workload of homework and share their answers with each other so they could get through it all quicker. The problem was neither of them ever wanted to do the Algebra so whoever lost the coin flip that day always took the longest to finish. Unfortunately for Hope, she'd lost two days in a row.

As Hope stood to pass Sebastian the Algebra answers, Marcel walked by.

"Hey, Marcy," She called.

Marcel smiled at hearing the affectionate name his sister called him and came to her door.

"Come in," Hope hurried over to the door and pulled Marcel inside. She took a quick glance around the hallway to make sure no one was coming before closing the door. "Party in the Tremé tonight. Wanna go?"

"Um...I thought you were grounded."

"Yeah but it's a witch party and those go on until sunrise. I figure we'll wait until around one in the morning to make sure everyone's totally asleep and then we'll sneak out and be back before anyone realizes we're gone."

Marcel agreed immediately. Going to a party with Hope and Sebastian had to be better than staying up alone at night and staring at a dark room.

Suddenly the door opened and there stood Klaus with a fearsome scowl on his face. All three children stiffened, afraid he'd overheard their plan.

"I like to keep an open-door policy on bedroom doors around here," Klaus said while glaring dangerously at Sebastian.

Hope let out a sigh of relief. It was just Klaus being overprotective again. "Sorry, daddy," She said sweetly, calming her father's nerves.

"Perfectly alright, sweetheart, just...don't let it happen again. Now, I was just about to go work on a new landscape portrait. Care to lend a hand?"

"Actually, dad, me and Sebastian are working on a new spell."

"Does your Aunt Freya know about this new spell?" Klaus grunted.

Hope blushed as she remembered the last time she was caught doing a spell without Freya's supervision. "Yes, dad," she groaned. "She's going to be there with us."

"Good. That's good. Then I guess it'll just be me and Marcellus."

Marcel nodded with a smile. He liked that he was an automatic addition to his father's plans. It reassured him that his dreams were false. He thought since Klaus wanted him around so much he obviously wouldn't banish him like the Klaus in his nightmares had.

"That reminds me," Klaus revealed the hand he had hidden behind the door, and in it was a very clean, old teddy bear. "I have something for you."

Hope's mouth dropped as she watched Klaus hand the bear over to Marcel. Her father lavished her with gifts but that bear looked very old and sentimental and she envious of not being the one bestowed such a present.

Marcel stared down at the soft bear with a wide smile on his face.

"I know you might be a little too old for this sort of thing but I've noticed that you've had a rough couple of nights. I think this may be able to help you get to sleep."

Marcel doubted it. His lack of sleep had been completely voluntary and he doubted a stuffed bear would stop his nightmares so there was no chance of him getting a good night's sleep with it either.

That night Marcel prepared for bed just as he always did but when Klaus said 'goodnight' to him, instead of lying in bed for hours forcing his eyes open, Marcel drifted off to sleep.

His nightmares were torrential that night. In six hours he was forced to endure all the pain and fear he felt since the Mikaelsons return. He woke to a dark room just at the end of the six hours. Standing in the light of the window stood a figure that he didn't immediately recognize.

"Did you see it?" The strange man asked. "What they did to you?"

"Wh-who are you? How did you get in my room?" Marcel stammered. He threw the covers from over him, ready to run if the need came.

"You don't recognize your own face?"

It was then that Marcel realized the strange man was him - adult him, the him that Hope said his father hated. What he didn't know, however, was that the figure wasn't really the adult Marcel but a manifestation of the adult Marcel's fears - his own fears; a hallucination conjured by his lack of sleep and deep-seated insecurities.

"H-how...?" Little Marcel begged for answers but the older figure wasn't willing to answer.

"Those dreams weren't just dreams. They were memories. When the barrier between you and me almost broke, it severed the wall between my memories and yours and now you can't stop seeing them."

"No...no. Those are just bad dreams. None of it happened. It-it couldn't have. Poppa would never-"

"But he did and deep down you know he did. You've always known what he was, what his family was, but you thought he could never do anything like that to you. You thought he would love you forever but what he and his family did to us...what we did to them. We are not a family. They are not your family. You don't have a family. You're all alone. You're broken. Nobody wants a broken boy."

Marcel pulled his knees up to his chest and buried his face between them, chanting 'he wouldn't do it' to himself over and over until he felt a hand on his arm. His eyes shot up, afraid the phantom in the corner had come closer when he saw Hope standing in front of him.

"Are you okay," she asked concerned by Marcel's frightened state.

Marcel looked around the room to see it empty save for himself, Hope, and Sebastian.

"Y-yeah," he stammered. "Just...a bad dream."

"Well hurry up and get dressed. We have to go. I checked, everyone's asleep."

-M-

When the three teens got to the Tremé party they had a blast. They danced, they were amazed by the magical entertainment, they even had a little to drink. When Hope's 4am alarm went off signaling their time to leave they almost didn't want to go but they knew they had to or risk being found out.

The walk home seemed longer on the way back because the teens rapturous dispositions made everything an ordeal.

"Bet I can climb this pole," Sebastian said as the three walked down the quiet back street trying to avoid Hayley's wolf sentries and before anyone could retort he started climbing it.

"Watch this," Hope whispered to Marcel. She quickly sped up the pole past Sebastian and to the top.

"Show off," Sebastian mocked.

Marcel laughed as Sebastian struggled back down the pole but then he heard some fast approaching footsteps. Before he could warn the other two they were circled by three of Hayley's rebel wolves.

"Marcel Gerard and Hope Mikaelson," One of the wolves said as he cracked his knuckles preparing to fight. They knew the teens weren't going to go down easy, that's why they sent their toughest foot soldiers to acquire them.

"We only need Klaus's two," Another of them said. "Get rid of the third one."

As the third kidnapper moved to attack Sebastian, Hope cast a spell to break his legs. The first man sped over to Hope and wrapped her in his giant arms around her and pinning her hands and arms down so she couldn't cast another spell. Marcel flew through the air unto the man's back and sank his teeth into the kidnapper's neck. The man released Hope to try to get Marcel off his back and when the second kidnapper came to help, Sebastian used his magic to send him flying off into a brick wall. The third man managed to grab Marcel and get him off his partner but then Hope used her spell to break his arms.

"That's it!" The second man said as he stood back up. "We really only need one of you." Suddenly all three rogue wolves bared their venomous teeth.

The first kidnapper grabbed Sebastian by the throat. Hope raised her hand to do her bone-breaking spell again when the second man sped over and grabbed her hand, crushing her bones in his grip. She let out a head-splitting scream. Marcel tackled him away from Hope and wrestled with him on the ground. Summoning all of his vampire strength to get on top of the man, Marcel prepared to take another bite into his neck when he was suddenly lifted off by the other wolf. The man sunk his toxic teeth into Marcel's neck and the effects were immediate.

The wolf tossed Marcel aside on the ground and for a second it looked to Hope to be all over but then suddenly all three wolves dropped to the ground with their neck snapped.

Vincent came running across the street from his sanctuary. "Are you kids alright?" He panicked. He saw the commotion through a window in the attic and knew he had to come help. Even if he hated the Mikaelsons, he wasn't the kind of monster to let children get hurt without doing something to stop it.

With tears on her face, Hope focused her magic in her broken hand and fixed every broken bone in a matter of seconds.

"Marcel," she uttered. She ran over to her brother. Marcel was on his hands and knees on the ground, sweating profusely, and hallucinating the Old Marcel standing above him, taunting him.

"You will never be one of them." He ridiculed. "You're not his blood. They have no reason to love you. You're broken."

"You're wrong," Marcel muttered aloud to himself. "They love me. I know they do. They're my family."

Marcel felt a hand on his shoulder. He again assumed it to be the Marcel of his hallucinations and without a second thought, he spun around and shoved his hand through the man's chest. But it wasn't him. Hope's telltale glass-shattering scream echoed in Marcel's ears and brought him back to reality. He was horrified to find his hand splitting through Hope's rib cage.

With a snap of his finger, Vincent sent the boy flying away from Hope. Marcel looked on in abject dismay at the scene of the girl kneeling on the ground, breathing heavily as she struggled to heal the hole in her chest.

"Now look what you've done," The older Marcel hallucination stood beside Hope. "Now they're definitely going to kill you. There's no coming back from this. You should run, now. Before they catch you."

Marcel believed the illusion. If Klaus didn't kill him, according to his resurfacing memories Elijah certainly had no qualms about ripping out his heart. Terrified of the thought, Marcel sped away.

"Marcel," Hope stammered through ragged breath. She rose to her feet, ready to chase after him when Vincent grabbed her arm.

"I'll go after him. You get home and get your Aunt Freya to do something about that wound."

Hope had healed the wound just enough to keep herself alive but she was still missing a few layers of epidermis clearly visible through her ripped blouse.

"It'll heal!" Hope pulled her arm out of the man's grip and looked back in the direction Marcel ran off to. "I'm going after him too! He got bit! He needs my blood!"

"Hope, look!" Sebastian pointed at a ring shining under the light of the lamp post.

"Marcel's daylight ring," Hope muttered as she picked it up. "It must've gotten snatched off during the fight." She saw the peak of the sun over the horizon. She took a deep breath and resigned. "We're not going to be able to find him on our own in time. We have to tell my family."

Sebastian sighed, thankful that Hope came to that conclusion on her own without any coaxing from him.

-M-

The Mikaelsons barely had time to throw on clothes before Niklaus had them out in the streets searching for Marcel. He had every available wolf scouring every abandoned warehouse, every old junkyard, every possible hiding spot a narrow-shouldered teenage boy could squeeze himself in. They were to leave no rock unturned until Freya could finish the locator spell and give them an exact location as to where the boy was.

When Klaus finally got the text from Freya of Marcel's coordinates, he still couldn't breathe easily. Not until he saw Marcel with his own eyes and knew he was okay.

Marcel paced back in forth on the roof of a radio station.

"You should run away." Old Marcel said. "They're just gonna banish you anyway. Or worse. You hurt his daughter. His real child. You saw what they did to me when they just thought I hurt her. You don't stand a chance."

"Shut up and go away!" Marcel screamed with tears flooding his eyes. The hallucination was beginning to break him. The venom was coursing quickly through his tired, panicked body and the closer to death he became the more real Old Marcel seemed. "Please...go away,"

"Marcel,"

Marcel heard the man's voice behind him but he thought it was just another illusion conjured by his tired mind.

Then Klaus touched him. He wrapped his arms around Marcel and held him. Marcel struggled at first but Klaus kept a tight hold on the boy, squeezing him tightly against his body until Marcel's struggles became halfhearted at best.

"It's okay," Klaus repeated softly into the boy's ear. "It's okay. Poppa's here."

Once the boy was calm enough, Klaus slipped the daylight ring back on his finger and just in time too as the sun was beginning to rise high enough to burn.

"He's going to kill you."

"Don't kill me," Marcel sobbed. "P-Please. I didn't...I didn't mean to."

Niklaus ignored the boy's pleas. He knew one of the side effects of a wolf bite was terrifying hallucinations and he assumed the boy was talking to some horrible figure from his past at that moment.

"Shh, Marcellus, it's alright," Klaus bit into his wrist and held it against Marcel's mouth. "Drink, son. That's it,"

Marcel drank until the hallucinations were no more. Then the warm sensation of his father's blood lulled his exhausted body to sleep.

Klaus lifted the limp boy in his arms and carried him the long walk back home.

Chapter Text

Chapter 20

Marcel woke in his bed to the smell of freshly cooked bacon. Klaus's blood had healed him of his wolf bite and of his perpetual exhaustion and he slept only for a couple of hours before waking fully refreshed and nightmare-free for the first time in days. When he woke to see his father sitting in the chair by his bed eating breakfast, he smiled. His smile broadened at the sight of Hope fast asleep at the foot of his bed. She fought her father tooth and nail for the right to stay and wait for Marcel to wake up but half an hour after she won the argument she fell asleep.

"Good morning," Klaus smiled back at the boy. He held the plate closer to Marcel and said, "Bacon?"

Marcel took a crispy strip and sat up to talk to Klaus.

"You really had me scared this morning," Klaus admitted. "When we couldn't find you, I was afraid...something terrible had happened."

"Sorry, poppa. We were just...trying to have some fun. We didn't expect to be attacked."

Niklaus smirked. "Most attacks are done in surprise," Then his mood suddenly became dour. "But when we say you shouldn't leave the Compound without us, you shouldn't leave the Compound without us. If that seal had broken last night without Freya around to help you...we could have lost you."

Marcel remembered the phantom that followed him last night and the horrible things he was saying about Klaus. He couldn't believe it. Even now Klaus seemed so sincere in his love for him. He didn't want to believe the man could ever hate him.

Staring down at Hope's sleeping figure, Marcel muttered, "Poppa...did Uncle Elijah...ever try to kill me?"

Klaus blanched. "What would make you ask that?"

"I had a dream that he did. I've been having these horrible nightmares that I couldn't tell you about because I thought they were just bad dreams and I had to deal with them on my own but I don't think they were just dreams. Poppa...I dreamed you hated me."

"That was certainly a dream, Marcellus," Klaus grunted. "I have never and I will NEVER hate you. You are my son."

"But not really. Not like Hope is your daughter. I'm just a boy you took in, not your real son."

Niklaus put the plate of food on Marcel's nightstand and climbed into bed beside the boy. He wrapped his arms around Marcel and held him close against his chest. Marcel couldn't help the tears that started down his face and Klaus was unashamed of his own watery eyes.

"Family is not determined by blood, Marcel. Family is those that you love, those that you fight for, and those who fight for you."

"But you didn't fight for me," Marcel cried. "You let him pull my heart out. You left me alone in that cold river. You abandoned me. You banished me."

Klaus listened brokenheartedly to his son's words. He knew. Niklaus was filled with contempt for himself. His son suddenly knew the egregious acts his family committed against him and all he could say in return was, "I'm so sorry, Marcellus. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

Marcel's tears were heavy enough to speckle his sheets. "You were supposed to protect me always, but you didn't...because I'm not your son."

Klaus lifted Marcel's head so the boy was staring into his tearful green eyes. "Don't you ever think that again. I am your father, your poppa. I made a mistake, an appalling mistake, but I am so sorry, Marcellus."

"He said I was broken," Marcel mumbled. "The man in my nightmares, the 'me' from before. I think he's right. When I was little Momma was the only person who cared for me. Then she died and for a long time, nobody cared about me. Until I met you. But I...can't stop thinking about the time when I was alone. The time when nobody cared. The time...when my own father...despised me. I don't ever want to go back to that time, poppa. Please, don't...don't ever stop loving me again."

Klaus squeezed Marcel tighter. Though the physical scars were apparent when they met, Marcel had never spoken about his past emotional trauma, though Klaus always knew. He suffered a similar childhood so he knew from the moment he met Marcel that the boy was 'broken', like him, though he did everything he could to try to fix him. But as he sat there now, thinking about how he still fought every day to escape the effects of Mikael's abuse, he wondered if Marcel too had walked brokenly into adulthood behind a mask of prideful self-reliance. It would explain a lot.

He wanted to reassure the boy that he had never stopped loving him but his past actions surely said otherwise.

Unsure of any way to convince Marcel unequivocally of his love, Klaus said straightforwardly, "The man who raised me was not my biological father but in a thousand years I never stopped thinking of him as my father. He was...a horrible man and I grew up thinking that as long as I wasn't like him, I would be a good father. It never occurred to me that I would someday have a son who required me to not only be unlike Mikael but also so much better than myself. That's a lesson I learned regrettably late but from now on, I'm going to be what you need, Marcellus. In a thousand years, I will still think of you as my son. In a thousand years, I will still love you and a thousand years later I will love you even more. This I promise, always and forever."

Marcel held on to Klaus until he was out of tears. As his sobs quieted, his stomach grumbled.

"C'mon," Klaus chuckled. "Let's get you downstairs to this delicious Brunch Elijah cooked. Who would've known he was such a capable chef. We should make him cook every meal from now on."

All the movement on the bed as the two climbed out stirred Hope awake.

"Marcy," She jumped out of bed and ran over to her brother, hugging him as if he'd been gone forever.

Marcel was just as happy to see her alive and well. As she pulled away from him, though, Marcel noticed the rip in her blouse. She was still wearing the same clothes from the party and seeing that rip in her shirt reminded Marcel that he'd put his hand through her chest. His smile faded and the light in his eyes grew dim.

Hope brought her sight down to the hole Marcel's eyes were fixated on.

"It's okay," she mumbled. "I'm fine."

"I'm so sorry, Hope."

"Don't be. It's my fault. It was my idea to go to the party. None of this would've happened if it weren't for me."

"Finally, something we can agree on." Hope spun around to see Hayley standing in the doorway, her intense eyes showing all of her emotion. "Are you okay, Marcel?"

Marcel nodded yes timidly. He didn't have any strong memories of Hayley from his past but in the past week he had gotten to know that look very well and he hoped that he was not the reason for it.

"That's good," Hayley said genuinely glad. She considered Marcel a friend once and now he was family. "I'm happy to see you up and about. Elijah's finished cooking."

"We were just on our way down," Klaus said. "But first, Marcel, I think we should go see Freya and see what she can do about these…'dreams'."

"We'll meet you downstairs," Hayley said. "Hope and I need to have a little talk of our own first."

Niklaus shot a pitiful glance at his daughter but he didn't try to intervene. Someone could've died last night. He knew she deserved whatever Hayley was going to do to her even if it hurt him to agree with it.

Hope followed silently behind her mother to her bedroom.

"Do you wanna take a moment to explain yourself?" Hayley asked as she sat at Hope's desk chair. "Or should I start?"

"I didn't know that there would be wolves out looking for us."

"That's beside the point, Hope. You're not in trouble for being attacked. You're in trouble for leaving the Compound in the middle of the night. Especially since you're already grounded."

"In my defense, if those stupid wolves would've never shown up we wouldn't have got caught," Hope mumbled off to the side to herself but Hayley heard every word of it.

"Keep the attitude if you think I won't get the Brush."

Hope straightened up immediately. Hayley had a wide, flat-backed wooden hairbrush that she'd picked up at a strip mall in Texas a few years before. She originally bought it to use on her hair but after finding out the sting it could leave on an upset upturned bottom she retired it from use on hair and used it exclusively as an attitude adjuster for Hope whenever needed.

"Do you realize how grim last night could've turned out? You left without telling anyone. If those men took you no one would've known." Hayley suddenly reached out and pulled Hope into a hug. "You are my little girl. If someone..." She fought to keep her voice from cracking as she thought about something happening to Hope. "I don't even want to imagine."

Hope was not used to seeing her mother so emotional and it brought tears to her eyes as well.

"I'm sorry, mom."

Hayley sat up straight and quickly pulled herself back together. "Okay, let's get this over with. Pants down,"

"B-but mom-"

"Now, young lady. You know what you did wrong and you know how I feel about being disobeyed."

Hope slowly undid the button of her jeans and took her time getting her pants around her ankles. Hayley knew the girl was being intentionally slow and she aimed to make her pay for it during the spanking.

She grabbed Hope's arm and guided her across her knee, pinning the girl's legs between her thighs because Hope was a kicker and Hayley had no patience for it.

Hope yelped as her mom brought the palm of her hand down over her bottom half a dozen times in rapid succession. Hayley remembered a time when Hope's spankings were just a performance to get the girl's attention. Now she actually had to put force behind each smack to leave behind a stinging bottom that would hopefully teach the girl a lesson.

After fifteen of her best Hayley had Hop in unabashed tears. She landed four more slightly harder smacks just above the girl's tender sit-spot to drive the point home.

"You are not an adult," Hayley scolded as she stood Hope back to her feet, the girl still sniffling back tears. "You do not just go wherever you want whenever you want and you do NOT disobey me, do I make myself clear?"

"Y-yes ma'am."

"And don't you dare use your magic to relieve any of that sting. I want you to remember this."

Hope groaned as that was exactly what she intended to do. She decided to rub as much of the pain away as she could before leaving to sit at one of the hard dining room tables for Brunch.

-M-

Flashback:

New Orleans, 1914

Marcel scowled as he listened to Niklaus's lecture on why he shouldn't leave New Orleans to go on a spontaneous trip across the country alone. He had never left the city by himself and he was pushing a hundred years old, much too old to be so sheltered by his father. Klaus begged to differ.

Still, Marcel listened and nodded when necessary.

He hated Klaus for being so overprotective but he was that way with all of the Mikaelsons. Rebekah had to check in with Klaus almost as much as Marcel did and that consistency made him feel like a true Mikaelson brother.

When Klaus finally stopped lecturing, Marcel went roaming around the Compound in search of Rebekah. If there was one Mikaelson he was sure could cheer him up it was her. Unfortunately, he ran into his old friend Kol first.

"Marcel," Kol sang as he came drunkenly down the courtyard stairs to Marcel. "I'm feeling a bit peckish. Let's go for a bite."

Marcel knew the man was not referring to food but rather blood.

"Not while you're drunk," Marcel said. "Last time we went out with you like this you drank a whole saloon without touching a drop of liquor."

"Oh, yeah…wasn't that fun."

"It wasn't. Klaus was furious. I had to beg him not to dagger you again."

"Can't say I'm surprised. You're always begging my brother for something or another. I must say for a man, and a vampire, he certainly has you under his thumb like a little boy."

Marcel's nostrils flared as did his anger "I've told you to stop calling me a boy."

"Hey, I know you're not a boy, and you know you're not a boy, but I wonder if Klaus knows. I heard your little trip got canceled. What's the matter? Poppa doesn't want his little Marcellus getting too far out of his sight?"

"If only he could treat me more like you. He doesn't seem to care where you go, though maybe he should. I wonder what he would do if he knew you were sneaking around the Quarter with witches in the dead of night."

"Do you catch me leaving at night as you're sneaking into my sister's bedroom?"

Marcel's mouth dropped as Kol revealed his knowledge of Marcel's illicit relationship with Rebekah.

Kol smirked slyly at the man's surprise. "See, I've got dirt on you too and if you don't want Klaus to find out you'll keep your mouth shut about me and the witches."

At first, Marcel didn't suspect Kol was doing anything felonious with the witches but Kol's willingness to expose him and Rebekah invited his curiosity. He made up his mind to expose Kol before he could expose them.

End Flashback

Freya's diagnostic spell had revealed what Marcel's hallucination had said as true. Although her spell was able to stop Old Marcel's spirit from taking over, she didn't catch it before some of his memories flooded into Young Marcel's mind.

"So you mean to tell me he remembers everything?" Niklaus fumed. He stood outside of Freya's workshop with his older sister and Elijah while Marcel waited patiently inside.

"I can't be sure," Freya said morosely. "He definitely remembers some things but I can't tell you what exactly."

Recalling his last interaction with Marcel, Elijah muttered under his breath, "He remembers the basement."

"What?" Niklaus asked, urging him to speak out.

"Yesterday, I found Marcel's drawers full of Kol's belts. I...I thought he was just behaving erratically because of his lack of sleep but...he remembered what Kol did to him in the basement. He...he was afraid. And the way he looked at me. It was as if..."

"He remembered you killing him?" Klaus said knowingly.

Elijah cringed at the thought. "I think it's best if Kol and I spent a little time away from Marcel for a while. Just until he's returned to his proper self. I don't want to be the subject of any more of his nightmares."

Freya thought it was a good idea but she knew Kol wasn't going to like it. "Let me tell Kol," She insisted. "If either of you do it he might take it the wrong way."

"I don't care how he takes it," Klaus growled. "He shouldn't have put Marcel through that hell to start with."

She sighed, "I know, just...let me talk to him."

"Fine," Klaus gripped the handle to the workshop but didn't yet open the door. "But I want him out of here immediately. Marcel will not suffer a minute longer."

-M-

Freya caught Kol just as he was about to enter the dining room and pulled him into another room away from curious ears. When she told him of Elijah's plan to move the two of them to a hotel until Marcel was back to normal, Kol flipped out.

Standing in the middle of the living room, he picked up the crystal glass bottle containing some of the most finely aged whiskey West of the Mississippi and smashed it against the wall.

"I told you," he screamed. "This is how it starts. They always choose him over me! Always!"

"They're not choosing him over you," Freya said trying to calm her brother down before someone else overheard the racket he was putting on. "Marcel needs to be away from you for a little while. He remembers the torture you put him through and he's terrified. Elijah's leaving too."

"See, the difference is that Elijah will come back. Elijah always comes back. Elijah, Rebekah, and Klaus. They can spend a few months apart, maybe even a few years, but in the end, they always come back together. Not me though. They can get rid of me for decades, centuries even. No one mourns the loss of the duplicitous Kol! But they conveniently forget that the only reason I'm so untrustworthy is because I can't trust them to look after me like they do each other. They're always the ones turning against me! I thought that since Marcel betrayed this family things were gonna be different but it's all still the same. Marcel gets a seat at the family table while I am left out in the cold."

Freya suddenly smacked Kol hoping to snap him from his self-pity.

"You're not being abandoned, you fool. It's for one night. Just so the kid can have one good night's sleep. Tomorrow night you'll be sleeping in your own bed again, I promise."

"No, I won't because tomorrow Marcel is gonna be back and Klaus, Elijah, and Rebekah will have no need for me now that they've all just suddenly forgiven him! As if he didn't try to kill me!"

"Kol, just calm down. You don't know what Klaus has planned for Marcel when he's back to normal. I don't even know."

"Because you're not a part of their circle either, sister. That's what I'm trying to tell you. You and me, we're nothing to them."

"Kol-"

"No!" He boomed. "They want me gone, fine, I'm gone. No one's gonna miss poor untrustworthy, deceitful...unwanted Kol Mikaelson."

Before Freya could stop him Kol sped out of the room and out of the Compound.

Chapter Text

Chapter 21

Freya decided to keep her knowledge of Kol running away to herself. She figured if Kol's fears were real then their siblings might well give up on him once they found out he ran off on them. She spent a thousand years promising to keep her family together should she ever have one and now she did and she wasn't going to let Marcel tear them apart again.

"So just got off the phone with my parents." Sebastian groaned as he flopped down on the sofa in the den with Marcel and Hope. "They're on their plane. Your mom told them about the party last night. Between that and us using those rare ingredients, I'm basically grounded forever."

"But they're still going to let you come over here, right?" Hope asked afraid of being without her friend.

"I doubt it. Mom really laid into me on the phone. Dad would've too but he was afraid his voice would carry over the plane and all the passengers would hear that he's going to kill me."

"Now what am I supposed to do," Hope sank back in her cushion. "I'm still grounded for another week and now I won't have you or Marcel."

"I'll still be here," Marcel declared.

"Yeah, but as adult you. Nobody liked adult you."

Marcel sat back, those words lingering in his mind like a haunting refrain.

"Then I don't wanna grow up." He muttered.

"What?" Hope asked.

Marcel repeated louder, "I don't wanna grow up. Hope, you have to help me."

"I...I can't. You heard Aunt Freya. That spell we concocted wouldn't help anyone."

"There has to be some witch around here that could do it."

Hope thought about the witch they'd met the night before. "Vincent. Mom says he's one of the most powerful witches in New Orleans. I'm sure he could do something."

Marcel jumped to his feet. "Then let's go. What are we waiting for."

"Hello," Hope stood up. "Still grounded, remember. We can't leave here without getting in trouble. You'll have to go alone."

Marcel's eyes turned somber remembering his father's warning about him being too far away from Freya. "I can't go alone. If my seal breaks while I'm by myself I could die." Marcel slumped back on the couch devastated.

"Wait," Hope paced the floor thinking. "I have an idea. The problem is that you can't be alone too long, right? Well then, here's what we do. I'll compel a guard to contact Vincent tonight and ask him to do the spell for us tomorrow. When we go to drop of Sebastian, I'll ask mom to stop at the bakery across the street from Vincent's Sanctuary. Then you could run off and get the spell done. We'll be with you the whole time."

"He's not just going to do the spell for us." Sebastian pointed out. "He's gonna want something in return."

"Well, what do we have to trade? I could go get some of my Uncle Kol's dark objects. He doesn't use them anyway."

"He's a witch," Sebastian scoffed. "He has dark objects. We need to trade him something he doesn't have already."

The three teens try to think of what they had of value in the Compound that no one would miss if it were gone.

Suddenly Sebastian jumped up with an idea. "What is the rarest and most valuable commodity in the Quarter these days?" He asked. He waited for a second for the other two to shrug their answers and blurted, "A cure for wolf bites, i.e., your blood. We offer to trade Vincent a vial of your blood for him doing a spell to keep Marcel a kid."

"Vincent's not a vampire." Hope stated the obvious. "Why would he need the cure for a werewolf bite?"

"Because then he'll be the only man that's not a Mikaelson that has the cure so Vampires from all over New Orleans will be at his door trying to trade him anything for it."

"That's brilliant," Hope exclaimed. "I'll go find a guard to set it up right now."

-M-

Klaus gently shook Marcel awake the next morning.

"Good morning," He greeted his son with a smile. "The Dupeauxs plane landed a couple of hours ago. Hope, Haylee, and Freya left a little while to take Sebastian home."

Marcel umped up in a panic. "Why didn't anyone wake me. I was supposed to go with them."

"Well, he's hardly gone forever," Klaus answered thinking that Marcel's panic was because he was going to miss his new friend. "I'm sure he'll find his way back over here before the day is over."

Marcel forced himself to remain calm. He grabbed his phone off his nightstand about to text Hope for an idea on what to do next when he saw he already had a text from her saying, 'Dad wouldn't let me wake you. Change of plans. Don't worry.' Marcel let out a heavy sigh of relief.

"Of course," Klaus said, drawing Marcel's attention back to him. Marcel looked up to see the smile still on his father's face but ambivalence in his eyes. "You won't be quite the same person the next time you see Sebastian."

"What will happen to me?" Marcel asked, no longer worried about becoming a man since he was sure that day wouldn't come just yet. "If his spirit comes back, I mean. What's gonna happen to me?"

Klaus sat on the bed beside the boy. "I talked to Freya about this and she says that since you are a part of Marcel, once she reverses the spell you'll return to being a part of him. When you wake up as an adult you will have all the memories of this past week So you don't need to worry. It'll be just like going to sleep and when you wake up, you'll still be you. Just a little taller, with a bit more memories, and a more...abrasive personality. But you'll still be Marcellus. And I'll be there the whole time. You know I wouldn't let anything bad happen to you."

Marcel nodded still afraid of being a faint memory lost in the mind of the man that tried to kill his family.

"Is it true," Marcel mumbled. "Did you hate me as a man?"

"No," Klaus stated. "We fought. We both did things that we regret. But no matter what happened between us, I could never bring myself to hate my son. Do you remember what I promised you, Marcel?"

Nodding again, Marcel said, "Always and forever."

"Always and forever," Klaus repeated. Hearing a slight noise in the distance, he listened in closer to hear Haylee and Freya talking downstairs. "Seems they're back." Klaus rose from the bed and held out his hand to Marcel. "Shall we go down together?"

"What if...I don't want to grow up."

"You have to Marcel," Klaus stated trying to convince himself of the same. "That seal could break at any moment. Every second you exist how you do is another second that you could just slip into nonexistence and I won't let that happen."

"Would you force me to do it even if I didn't want to?"

Klaus was silent wondering how he should answer then without apprehension, he answered, "Yes. I will always do everything I can to protect you, Marcel, even if you think it makes me the bad guy."

Just then Hope came tearing down the hall stopping at Marcel's bedroom door. "Dad," She smiled brightly. "I know I'm still grounded but I was wondering if, and mom says it's okay with her if it's okay with you, if me and Marcel could take one last walk around the Quarter." Before Klaus could open his mouth she let out a series of 'pleases' that immediately won his heart.

"Fine," He gave in. "Be back in an hour. That's one hour. I mean it Hope."

"Yes sir," She smiled thinking to herself an hour was all they needed. When Klaus left, Hope said, "Get dressed. I'll text Vincent we're on our way."

-M-

Hope and Marcel marched quickly down the busy New Orleans street attempting to 'accidentally' lose the tail Klaus had follow them. Once he was gone, they sped their way to the Sanctuary. Vincent was at the door waiting for the teen. Marcel didn't like the way he looked at him, as if he didn't trust him after their last encounter.

"You brought the blood?" Vincent asked closing the church doors behind them.

Hope reached into the pocket of her vintage denim jacket and pulled out a narrow vial of blood.

"Y'know, if I thought you were actually going to bring me that vial, I might've turned down your offer," Vincent said walking slowly away.

Confused, Hope asked, "What are you talking about?"

Feeling an uneasiness with the strange man, Marcel attempted to open the church doors but they were sealed shut with Vincent's magic.

Hope dropped the vial and it shattered. "What's going on?" She asked, prepared to fight.

"Now I don't fight children," Vincent said calmly. "So put your hands down before I make an exception."

"Did you double-cross us?" She barked.

Vincent looked grimly at Marcel. "There was nothing I could do for you kid. I don't have the spell that can cure you but I knew if I turned you down you'd go looking for another powerful witch who would tell you they could, one who would take all of your blood if they wanted. I couldn't let that happen to a couple of poor, naive kids. Marcel, man, you might not believe this but as an adult, you helped a lot of people. We need you in this world. So yeah, I betrayed you. I called Freya as soon as you texted me you were on your way." Vincent pushed open the church's second set of double doors to reveal a circle drawn in the middle of the aisle and standing beside it was Klaus, Freya, Hayley, and Rebekah.

"Marcel," Klaus said softly. "It's over, son. You have to do this."

Marcel shook his head no. "I don't wanna be forgotten."

"You won't be," Freya insisted. "The older Marcel will remember this you."

"I don't believe you! If he remembered me at all before then he wouldn't have tried to kill you all. You wouldn't have tried to kill him!"

"Marcel, it's not how you think," Klaus said. "Life gets complicated when you're older. People make mistakes, decisions are made that have to be followed through, but it doesn't mean that we hated you."

"They did!" Marcel yelled. "Uncle Elijah tried to kill me. Kol...Kol..."

"I know, son, and I'm sorry but-"

"No! I'm not doing it." Marcel had worked himself up into a tizzy and was prepared to fight in order to stay a child. Then he felt a splitting headache right where his scar was.

"He's put too much strain on the seal. It's breaking." Freya stated, noting the boy's pain. "Quick get him into the circle."

As Klaus took a step towards Marcel, the boy took one back.

"No," He screamed. "I'm not going in unless you promise I can stay like this."

"Marcellus-"

"Promise!"

The boy fell to his knees in pain.

Freya could see the moment of contemplation in Klaus's eyes and decided to make the choice for him. Using her magic, she pulled Marcel into the circle kicking and screaming.

"Freya, what are you doing?" Klaus demanded.

"I'm saving his life," Freya stated calmly. She locked the boy into place and started the spell. As Freya started chanting Marcel felt his eyes getting heavy. Just before he sleep off to sleep, he heard Klaus's voice say 'It's gonna be alright, Marcellus. Poppa's right here.'

Klaus took Freya's hands to anchor her to the spirit world. As she changed, a candle at the top of the circle lit. Marcel's body began to change in front of their eyes. When the candlelight went out, his eyes opened. He sat up staring around the church with a look of confusion on his face. He looked down at his hands. They were bigger and held the hardship of two hundred years of life.

"Marcel," Klaus got into the circle and bent down to his son sitting on the floor. "Are you okay?"

Marcel turned to Freya standing over him and said, "Thanks. That kid was gonna kill me."

"It was no problem," Freya said but it was in fact a problem. If it were solely up to her she would've preferred the child Marcel over the adult she still very much loathed after what he did to her family.

Marcel saw Hope staring crestfallen at him from the church entrance. His memories from the past week seemed far away but he did remember them. He smiled at her trying to show her that he remembered but she just turned and ran out of the church.

"I'll go talk to her," Hayley said. Before she left she nodded to Marcel and said, "Good to have you back."

-M-

Marcel's bedroom door opened just as he slipped his shirt on. He'd burst out of the clothes the younger Marcel wore before the ceremony but Klaus had brought him a change of clothes expecting that much. Still, wearing clothes that Klaus picked out for him reminded Marcel of a life he could never go back to so when he made it back to the Compound he made an immediate change.

"There you are," Rebekah sang. Marcel turned to her with a debonair smile. "I missed you, y'know. What was it like? Being a trapped spirit? Could you see us?"

"I don't remember." He pulled her into the room and shut the door. "But I remember what it was like before I was a trapped spirit."

He kissed her and she kissed him back. Seconds later she pulled back.

"We mustn't. Klaus is probably on his way up here-"

"What's he going to do? Punish us for being in love?"

"He has before." She pushed him away remembering the many lovers Klaus had taken away from her.

"He punished you for your love by killing your lovers." He said to her. "I think we both know by now he's not going to kill me."

Irritated, she reminded him, "We knew that when he punished me by daggering me for 52 years."

"If he tries again I'll pull it out," Marcel promised, stepping closer to her. "Right then and there. Because I don't want to lose you again, Bex."

Rebekah heard footsteps coming down the hall.

"Let's talk about this later," She said opening the door. "But in the meantime, don't tell Klaus."

She sped off down the hall and moments later Klaus appeared.

"How are you feeling?" Klaus said genially, obviously unaware of what had just happened in there.

"Okay. I'm just happy to be myself again."

Klaus smirked. "Y'know, the young Marcel was determined to not become you. He was afraid he'd be forgotten."

"I remember," Marcel said.

Klaus felt genuine relief. If Marcel remembered the boy-Marcel then Klaus hoped his memories would change Marcel for the better.

Marcel suddenly turned somber. "I remember everything you said to me. Always and forever. I was just wondering...if you still meant it, even with me like this."

"C'mon, mate," Klaus chuckled. "Forever didn't end twenty minutes ago. You will always be my son. But I realized something over the past week. You are not the little boy you were back then. Young, innocent, and naïve. When you became a man and I finally started treating you like one, you did become my brother. And in my return to New Orleans after my hundred-year absence, you became my friend. My son, my brother, my friend." Klaus placed a hand tenderly against Marcel's neck. "I will always cherish our relationships. For as long as I live you never need to question my feelings for you."

Marcel smirked. Klaus's sentimentality made him feel loved for the first time since the Originals retook New Orleans but it also made him blush.

"So we're friends now?" Marcel joked hoping to lighten the mood as he walked out of the room with Klaus by his side.

"Passing acquaintances." Klaus teased.

"Well as your friend I'm asking you for more freedom."

"What do you mean? You're free to go where you want now."

"You think I don't know you have me followed?"

Klaus scoffed. "Well, since I found out that you've managed to ditch your tails to go traipsing about the bayou with Rebekah, I'll stop having you followed. But I want to know where you are every time you leave this Compound."

"Seriously, Klaus? My friend wouldn't ask me to send them location notifications every time I move."

"Then consider this an order from Dear Ol' Dad or Paranoid Big Brother Klaus."

"I can't believe you still don't trust me."

"Did you think a week with my child would erase all the betrayal I was been dealt by my dear friend?"

"Alright, fine," Marcel gave up. "Then since you want to know everything," He thought about telling Klaus that he was seeing Rebekah again. He wanted to just let the words fall from his lips but then he remembered the promise he made to Rebekah. Getting one in on Klaus wasn't worth making her hate him. "I'm going to Josh's." He bit.

"That's the spirit," Klaus teased as the man stomped down the stairs. "Text me when you get there."

When Marcel was gone, Klaus called Elijah.

"He's back to his petulant self," Klaus said. "You can come back home now."

"That's good. Have you seen Kol today?"

"No, I haven't seen him since you left yesterday."

"Neither have I. He never showed up to the hotel."

Klaus marched down the hall to Kol's bedroom. There were clothes thrown across the bed and dresser and the closet was opened and empty of all Kol's dark objects. "His room is ransacked."

"You don't think he ran away?"

"I wouldn't put it past him. But he won't be gone for long if I have anything to say about it."

-M-

Flashback:

New Orleans, 1914

Kol tore his bedroom apart looking for the diamond he planned to use to make a dagger that could take down Klaus. He knew he put the jewel in a box on his dresser but when he went to get it it was gone.

"Looking for this?" Marcel stood in the doorway holding a giant diamond in his hand.

With a half-smirk, Kol said, "Thanks for finding my jewel, mate. Now hand it over."

"I don't think so," Marcel clasped his hand over the diamond. "Not til you tell me what it's for."

Kol groaned. "You don't wanna know."

"Oh, I think I do because I think this little rock has something to do with why you've been going around the city befriending witches."

"You trying to blackmail me?" Kol growled. "You really don't wanna know what I want to do with that diamond. It might insult your delicate sensibilities."

"Just tell me," Marcel said annoyed.

Kol sighed. "I'm going to use it to make a dagger to put Klaus down."

"You want to kill Klaus?" Marcel said suddenly defensive.

"Not kill him," Kol quickly corrected. "Just put him down. Klaus has daggered me dozens of times over the years. I deserve to get him one back."

Marcel stared down at the diamond. "So…you can use this to dagger him? And…you can take it out at any time and he'll just wake back up?"

"Exactly," Kol said smirking. He knew he had him right where he wanted him. He walked slowly over to Marcel. "We could put him to sleep for a few years. I'll be without my wicked brother, you can go wherever you want, be with whoever you want, we could all finally be happy."

Kol put his hand over the diamond in Marcel's hand.

"Just give it to me."

Marcel yanked his hand away from Kol's. "No," he said calmly. "I don't think I will."

Indignant, Kol grabbed Marcel's arm and tried to wrench the diamond from his hand and Marcel fought against him. Growing frustrated, Kol jabbed him in the chin.

Marcel stood stunned. He had never been hit by one of his family members before.

Kol felt instantly remorseful but he refused to show it. "Give me the diamond." He demanded.

After the initial shock of being hit, Marcel was angry. He put the diamond in his pocket. He tackled Kol into the room and wrestled him on the floor. Kol threw Marcel off him into the dresser, breaking it in half. As Marcel staggered to his feet, Kol grabbed him by the collar and slammed him against the wall. He didn't get another chance to get the diamond when, suddenly, he was pulled away from him and thrown into the hall.

"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?" Klaus barked at Kol.

Kol jumped to his feet and glared at Marcel.

"Just got into a little tif." He muttered.

"How dare you put your hands on him." Klaus continued angrily. "You do not hit my son!"

"Klaus, stop," Marcel demanded.

Klaus turned to him and grew even angrier with Kol at the sight of the cut on Marcel's cheek.

"He does this to you and you want me to stop?"

"I can take care of myself."

"Evidently not." Klaus grabbed Kol by the shirt. "If you ever hurt him again I'll dagger you for a century."

He pushed him away and marched out of the room.

"You're lucky daddy came to your rescue." Kol mocked. He was surprised when Marcel suddenly tossed the diamond over to him.

"Do it," Marcel said. "I'm tired of .him treating me like a child."

End Flashback

Since Josh's door was unlocked, Marcel walked into the loft without knocking.

He saw a shoe attached to a foot hanging off the back of the couch and assumed it was Josh fallen asleep on the couch again after a long night. "Hey Josh," He hit the shoe and the person sat up straight.

Kol's fangs shot out immediately assuming he was going to have to defend himself. They retracted when he saw it was Marcel but he didn't calm down.

"What are you doing here?" Kol growled.

"I was just about to ask you the same thing," Marcel said just as defensive. "Where's Josh?"

Josh came stumbling out of his bedroom with a bedsheet wrapped around his waist. "Marcel," He laughed embarrassed. "You're back to you. That's...awesome. Um, so...um, you already know Kol. Uh...I'm just...gonna go get dressed. Please don't kill each other while I'm gone. Also, my boyfriend is in here and he's just a mere mortal so, uh, remember that if you start throwing tables or whatever."

"What are you doing here?" Marcel said as soon as Josh was gone.

"What's it look like? I fell asleep here."

Marcel noticed the half-empty bottle of whiskey sitting on the coffee table next to three glasses. He realized that Kol fell asleep after spending the evening drinking with Josh and his boyfriend and that only made him more irritated to think that his enemy shared a drink with his closest friend.

"So, what? You two are friends now?"

"The best." Kol mocked.

"I doubt it since your family killed his last friend."

"No fighting, no fighting, no fighting," Josh came running out of the room pulling a dark-haired man behind him. He dragged his boyfriend to the front door and said, "Um, neither of these are my ex's, by the way, and I'll explain everything to you later. Promise." His boyfriend nodded, keeping his eyes on the two men staring each other down. Josh shut the door behind him and turned back to the danger radiating in the next room. "Can everyone please just calm down? Marcel, Kol is my friend." Knowing that Marcel was about to make another comment about Davina, Josh said, "I know what you're thinking but he had nothing to do with Davina's death. He was fighting to save her."

"Josh, you can't him. He uses people, just like his family used Davina."

Enraged, Kol tackled Marcel. The two fought around the room until Josh stood between them.

"You two are really ruining the 20th-century French décor." Josh barked. "Can we please talk like civilized adults?"

"I loved Davina!" Kol yelled, tears breaching his eyes. "I loved her…more than I love myself."

"Then you should've left the city," Marcel said in anger. "And let the ancestors kill you to protect her."

Kol cringed. He thought about that every day. He felt that Davina was the only person who ever truly cared about him and it broke his heart that he couldn't save her.

"Marcel, man, give him a break," Josh said softly. "Davina loved us all. She wouldn't want us fighting over who loved her the most."

"Fine," Marcel said. "But what about the weeks you had me down in the Compound basement torturing me for your own amusement."

Josh stood dumbfounded. No one had told him about that.

"I'm sorry," Kol said. "I was angry. I hated you for blaming me for Davina's death."

"You whipped me with a leather belt." Marcel bit. "You're no better than the monsters that thought they owned me."

"Don't you dare compare me to them!"

"What's the difference?"

Kol said nothing.

"That's what I thought. Get out of here. Stay away from Josh, I don't care how much you claimed to have loved Davina. You are nothing."

Kol looked to Josh but his new friend couldn't even look at him. Ashamed and angry at himself and Marcel for exposing him, Kol left.

Chapter Text

Chapter 22

Flashback:

New Orleans, 1914

Marcel stood in the mirror admiring himself looking dashing in his tux. The Mikaelsons were going to the Opera and he was hoping to sneak away to be with Rebekah.

He saw Klaus through the mirror standing in the doorway and his smile vanished.

"Looking dapper." Klaus complimented but Marcel's face remained stoic.

"What do you want, Klaus?"

Klaus strolled into the room and sat on the bed. "Klaus." He repeated the same as Marcel. "You are as charming and elegant as any Mikaelson, Marcellus, so tell me why my name moves so abrasively in your mouth, my son."

Marcel ignored the question and continued to fix his tie in the mirror.

"Are you upset about something?" Klaus asked.

"Why would I be upset? I'm Klaus Mikaelson's son. The most protected man in all the Quarter. I can't even get into petty familial squabbles without my father running to my side."

"Is this about your fight with Kol?" Klaus jumped to his feet. "Did he hurt you? Tell me what he did and I'll-"

Marcel spun around to his father and barked, "No, Klaus, you're the problem! I'm almost a hundred years old and you still run behind my every move like my overprotective father but I'm a man now. I'm a vampire. I can take care of myself. I haven't needed a protector for years now, Klaus."

Klaus stood dumbfounded. "I was just…" he stammered, surprised by Marcel's response. "Kol is much stronger than you. You can't expect me to just stand by when you're in danger."

"I can handle Kol. I can handle anyone but you won't give me a chance. Everyone just thinks of me as Klaus's son. I can't tell if I earn the respect I get or if people are just afraid of pissing you off."

Klaus sighed. "I guess you have a point. You aren't my…little boy anymore. I should stop treating you like it."

Marcel was shocked and delighted at how easy Klaus was to convince.

"Of course," Klaus started. "That doesn't mean you can't still be part of the family. You're still a Mikaelson even if you continue to refuse to take my name. Always and forever."

Marcel smirked. He went by Marcel Gerard because he hoped, even though most of the Supernatural populace of New Orleans knew him as the son of Klaus Mikaelson, having a different surname will distinguish his deeds away from that of the Mikaelsons earning him the respect of being his own man. Klaus, however, never stopped treating him like a Mikaelson and Marcel was sure Klaus never would.

His smile faded remembering what he planned with Kol. He ran out of his room to Kol's but the man was gone when he got there. Sensing Marcel's distress Klaus followed him.

"What's wrong?" Klaus asked.

Marcel turned to Klaus and muttered fretfully, "Klaus, I'm sorry. I did something…terrible."

Truly concerned, Klaus cradled Marcel's face and replied, "Tell me what happened."

-M-

Kol came out of the Dowager Fauline Cottage with a proud smirk. Right now the two witches he was working with to create a dagger that could take down Klaus were working inside to create a dagger that could take down Klaus. He stepped out to retrieve the ancient Grimoire they needed but before he was even past the gate, he was met by Klaus dressed up for the Opera. He had a wide smile but tense eyes. Kol wasn't foolish enough to believe his brother's sudden appearance was friendly.

"I heard a nasty rumor that you were plotting to create a dagger that could take me down," Klaus said.

Kol smirked and retorted connivingly, "Such slanderous hearsay, brother. Certainly, you don't believe it."

"I wouldn't have it not come from Marcel."

Kol's eyes furrowed and he immediately became defensive. Marcel had betrayed him.

"C'mon, brother, let's be sensible. Who are you going to believe? The brother you've been with for nine centuries or-or...the man who's been after my position in the family since you turned him into a vampire!"

Klaus revealed the silver dagger hiding in his sleeve and held it to Kol's chest. "I believe him." Klaus quickly drove the dagger into his brother's chest and caught his limp body before it fell to the ground.

End Flashback

"About time you got here." Klaus barked at Elijah as soon as the older brother walked into the courtyard. "The enemy has begun their invasion."

"Are you sure?" Elijah asked.

Klaus nodded for the wolves standing around the courtyard to leave.

"Three of our wolves guarding the north quadrant of the Quarter were found without hearts," Klaus answered. "We need Kol if we plan to defend this home from an invasion."

"Then we need Freya."

-M-

Freya was struggling to find Kol with a locator spell but she couldn't find him anywhere in New Orleans. She got a bigger map stretching the span of the world but still her search turned up empty. It was then that she realized Kol must've had a witch hiding him from her locator spells.

Elijah and Klaus burst into the room ready to tell Freya about Kol's disappearance and ask her to perform a locator spell for them when they noticed the spell she had already in progress.

"What's this?" Klaus asked knowing full well what it was.

Freya stammered for an excuse.

"Did you know Kol was missing?" Elijah growled. "And you didn't tell us."

"There's nothing you can do to get him back," she answered. "Short of getting rid of Marcel."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Klaus said irritatedly.

"Kol ran away because he didn't want the old Marcel back. He thinks…he thinks you all prefer Marcel to him and if given a choice between the two of them everyone would choose Marcel."

"You should've told us he was thinking of leaving," Elijah said in a controlled yet commanding voice. "We could've talked him out of it."

"There's nothing you could've said to convince him to stay. It obvious how you all feel about them."

"And what is that supposed to mean."

Ready to express her distaste of Marcel's return, Freya spat, "Kol told me stories about you all's lives over the years. About how you would constantly dagger him for years over the smallest infraction but Marcel can lie to you, betray you, attempt to wipe out our entire family and you welcome him back every time like an old friend."

"He is my son!" Klaus barked. "That little boy you spent a week with is how I saw him for a century! It's how I still see him and I will protect him til my dying breath!"

"And that moment will come sooner than you think if you continue to trust him."

"Would you be advising me to turn my back on him if he were Hope?"

"That's the difference between him and Hope, Klaus. She cares about her family. She would never try to kill us."

Klaus huffed in indignation and started walking towards the door. "I refuse to listen to any more of this."

With Klaus gone, Elijah turned his attention back to the matter at hand. "The rogue wolves are making their move. We have dead wolves littering the streets and they could be headed here. I suggest you finish that locator spell so I can find Kol and bring him home before we have to fight this war without him."

Freya grew nervous at the idea of impending war. "I'd love nothing more than to bring Kol home but my locator spell isn't working. He's been cloaked."

Elijah grew increasingly frustrated. "So you kept Kol's disappearance from us for 24 hours and now he's being cloaked from your magic so he could literally be anywhere when we need him here!." Elijah moved slowly closer to her. "Our enemies are coming for this family at this very moment and we must focus on protecting ourselves from them while our little brother remains lost or captured. We have enough to deal with already! We do not need our own family turning against us. The lies end today!"

"I didn't lie to you."

"I consider withholding the truth the same as lying."

"Then I had to lie. You two obviously care more about Marcel than Kol. If I told you he was making you choose between them, you would've chosen Marcel."

"We wouldn't have made the choice. We are a family and we stick together always and forever. He could be in danger right now but we wouldn't know because we can't even find him!"

Freya stared down at the empty map in front of her. She was afraid of the same thing.

"We have to find him." She muttered. "He's alone. I know what it's like to be alone, without the people who love you. No one should feel that way. Especially not our little brother."

"We will find him," Elijah said confidently. "And when we do I will remind him of the resilience of family bonds."

"Elijah," Freya said softly. She had done everything she knew how to get through to Kol that his family did care about him but her best efforts failed. Elijah's method had worked to keep their family together for a thousand years. Realizing that his way was the best way to get Kol's attention, she said, "Make sure it's thorough. That's not a lesson he ever needs to forget again."

-M-

"I should go after him," Josh said minutes after Kol stormed out of the apartment. "He's going through some stuff right now. He could use a friend."

"You're still his friend?" Marcel barked. "I don't see why you would befriend a Mikaelson anyway."

"I'm sorry about what he did to you, I know it must've been hard for you, and I don't plan on forgiving him about it any sooner than you but he's run away from his family. He has no one. I can't just abandon him right now."

Marcel had never been so angry about Josh being a good friend.

"Fine," Marcel said marching for the door. "Find him if you want but I'm not going to be around when he comes back." He was out of the door before Josh could stop him.

As Marcel got into his car his phone rang.

"What, Klaus?" He answered aggressively.

Klaus was quiet for a moment on the other end and then he answered back just as aggressive, "I have enough to deal with without your attitude so unless you're upset about something other than me checking in on you, lose it."

Marcel sighed. He didn't want to have the conversation about Kol with Klaus so he replied calmer, "Did you call to scold me?"

"I called because I want you to come back home."

Marcel started his car. He wanted to drive around the city a while to calm himself down before being cooped up in the Compound with the wolves again. "I'll be home before dinner. I'm going to drive around for a bit."

"No," Klaus growled remembering how much easier Marcel was to deal with as a child. "Come home now. The rogue wolves are in the city and they're killing wolves. They've already come after you once, don't give them a second chance."

"I'm not a little boy anymore, Klaus. I can handle a few wolves."

"Why must everything be an argument with you? Come home. We are already looking for Kol, I don't want to have to worry about the whereabouts of any more of my family."

Marcel put the phone on mute and cussed Klaus until the man on the other end said, "Did you hear me?"

"Fine," Marcel answered taking the phone off mute. "I'm on my way."

Marcel hung up from Klaus and sped down the street. As he parked in front of the Compound he spotted a movement on the roof out of the corner of his eye. He got out to see Hope sneaking out of one of the windows and jumping across to the roof of the building next door.

Shocked, he sped on to the building to see what she was up to.

Hope was surprised to see Marcel on the roof with her but she thought if she ignored him he would do the same.

"What are you doing?" Marcel asked as Hope tried to walk quietly past him.

"I'm going to see Sebastian if you must know." Hope spat.

"Whoa, whoa," Marcel grabbed her arm and stopped her from walking away. "Didn't Klaus tell you there are wolves out? You can't go anywhere."

Hope cringed as Marcel said Klaus's name. To her, that reaffirmed the notion that Marcel no longer viewed himself as Klaus's son and thus he wasn't her brother.

"I'm not afraid of any wolves," she said snatching her arm from his hold. "I beat a group of wolves once, I can do it again."

"Hope, you know I can't let you go out there alone."

"Well I am," Hope said standing on the edge of the building. "And you can't stop me. Unless you're going to tell my dad."

Marcel smirked at being accused of being a tattletale. "I don't tattle…although, I can't lie to Klaus."

"You don't have to lie. Just don't tell him the truth."

"I don't think he sees a difference in the two." Marcel walked slowly over to the edge of the building. "However, if I go with you he won't have a chance to ask me about it and I can make sure you stay alive."

"You'll come with me?" Hope asked surprised. "But…I thought you didn't like hanging out with me anymore."

"Really? After the week we had, I thought we were best friends."

"Yeah but…before when you were an adult you never wanted to be around me. You…acted like you hated me."

Marcel stared back at the Compound. "That wasn't me." He said. "When I came back Klaus gave me these rules to follow and if I broke any of them I was risking being banished again. One of them was that I couldn't interact with you."

"But why? Why would dad force me away from the only brother I got?"

"It wasn't you, it was me. He was afraid I would…turn you against him."

"W-why would he think that?"

Marcel sighed. He decided to be honest with her because he cared about her too much to lie. "Because I've done it before with Rebekah. I wanted to be with her but Klaus wouldn't allow it so I convinced her to join me in bringing down Klaus."

"Wait, you were in love with my Aunt Rebekah? But she was your…that's so gross."

"Life is complicated, okay." Marcel defended. "But I loved Rebekah, I still do. We made a mistake all those years ago but I promise I have no intention of ever trying to turn you against Klaus or any other Mikaelson. That includes your mother."

Hope stared at Marcel's face for a moment and she saw the boy she'd learned to trust with her life over the past week.

"Okay," she nodded. "I trust you."

She timidly took his hand hoping that he wouldn't pull away and when he didn't she smiled.

The two jumped from building to building through the Quarter until they were on the roof of the Dupeaux resident. They climbed down the fire escape in front of Sebastian's window and knocked lightly on it.

Sebastian's dad had just left his room and he was lying in bed still crying when he heard the slight tapping on his window. He opened the curtain to see Hope's smiling face and his tears subsided.

"What are you doing here?" He whispered as he opened the window.

"I came to see my best friend, dummy." Hope slid into the room and walked over to Sebastian's bed. "So…your dad was pretty mad about the plants and stuff, huh?"

"Hell yeah, he was. Look at what it did to my ass."

"Wait," Marcel said just as Sebastian was about to bare his butt to the room. "I'm an adult man now. I don't need to be in a teenage boy's room with his pants down."

Sebastian turned to Marcel standing beside the window as if he'd only just noticed him.

"What are you doing here? I thought adult Marcel didn't like Hope?"

"I've always liked Hope," Marcel corrected. "Things are just complicated."

"That's always what adults say when they just don't want to tell us the truth."

"Well, truthfully adult Marcel is starting to not like you."

Sebastian smiled. "I'm only kidding. You had a better sense of humor as a kid."

"Yeah, and you were funnier when I was a kid too."

Suddenly Hope's phone began to ring.

"Turn it off before my dad hears it," Sebastian whispered frantically.

Hope quickly muted the call. "It's my mom." She muttered.

"Are you going to answer it?" Marcel asked.

"Of course not. She obviously knows I'm not at home and if I answer it I'll have to tell her where I am and we'll all get in trouble."

As soon as Hope's phone stopped ringing, Marcel's phone started.

"It's Klaus," he announced.

"Don't answer it," Hope begged.

"I have to. I don't get the luxury of not answering calls like you do." Taking a deep breath Marcel answered his phone. "Hello,"

"Where are you?"

"I'm…on my way to the Compound." Marcel lied hoping that since the lie was small he could get away with it.

"You said that over half an hour ago. The drive from Josh's isn't this long."

"What can I say, traffic is a beast today."

"How long are you going to continue this charade? Your car is parked right outside the Compound. I saw it on my way out to look for Hope who has gone missing, by the way. Freya is currently running a locator spell on her, Elijah is out searching for our still missing little brother, Haylee is rousting about her best wolves to go defend our city from the wolves still lurking in our city killing our men by the hour, so the last thing I want to hear from you is another bloody lie."

The cold tone of Klaus's voice urged Marcel to take the conversation out to the fire escape so Hope and Sebastian wouldn't happen to overhear anything.

"Klaus, I'm on my way, okay?"

"Rebekah and I are scouring the city for Hope but Freya is still at the Compound. I will call her in five minutes to confirm your whereabouts. Be in this Compound in the next five minutes or in six minutes I will come find you and you will find yourself over my knee where you are."

"You wouldn't dare," Marcel muttered, eyes wide with fright.

"I wouldn't try me if I were you. And if you spot Hope on your way to the Compound, call me."

Marcel hung up from Klaus and came back through Sebastian's window with a new hastened attitude.

"Hope, we have to go." He said urgently.

"Why? We just got here."

"Klaus wants us back at the Compound now."

"He already knows we're gone so we might as well have fun while we're out."

Before Marcel could think could convince her to come back with him he heard footsteps coming down the hall. He didn't have time to warn Hope about the person coming before they grabbed the doorknob. As Russell Dupeaux opened the door, Marcel sped up the fire escape. Sebastian's dad was on the phone with Klaus. He'd come to ask Sebastian if he'd heard from Hope but he was furious at what he found.

-M-

Marcel managed to make it home before Klaus on his way back from picking up Hope so he was in the clear however he was feeling guilty about leaving Hope to deal with their angry father alone.

"Klaus," Marcel greeted as Klaus came into the Compound dragging Hope behind him. "You're back."

Klaus glared knowingly at Marcel and Marcel turned to Hope fearful that she might have told Klaus that he was with her at Sebastian's.

"Hope, go to your room," Klaus ordered. "I'll be there in a minute and I expect you to be there when I get there this time."

Hope stamp irritatedly away.

"I find it strange," Klaus started once they were alone. He slowly circled Marcel. "That while you claimed to be on your way back from Josh's your car remained parked out front. Would you care to explain?"

Marcel kicked himself for forgetting about his car.

"I, um, took a cab." Marcel continued to lie.

Klaus stopped in front of him, glaring as if he already knew the truth.

"Were you under the assumption that the first five rules of your manual no longer applied?"

Marcel knew Klaus knew he was lying then. Hoping to not get into any more trouble, he said, "Alright, I came back early but I didn't want to be home so soon so I went for a walk around the block."

"And I suppose that's when you met up with Hope on her way to Sebastian's?"

Marcel was shocked silent.

"Hope was more than forthcoming with the truth once she realized you abandoned her." Klaus declared.

"I didn't have a choice. I didn't want you finding out I was with her. I knew you'd be pissed."

"I am furious. Because you disobeyed me, because you lied to me, because you thought you could get away with it all without me ever finding out."

"Because your rules are ridiculous, Klaus." Marcel bit. "You are my father, my friend, my brother. I'm not going to betray you."

"I thought the same thing a century ago but you proved me wrong then."

"And I learned from my mistakes. I regret calling Mikael to you all those years ago. I should've just been with Rebekah whether you liked it or not."

"Excuse me."

Marcel stood proud and announced, "I love Rebekah and I'm going to continue to be with her whenever I can, wherever I can. And Hope is my little sister. I am supposed to protect her and be there when she needs me and I can't do that if you forbid me from being near her so I say to hell to that rule. I'm not going to follow it so you might as well forget it."

Klaus wanted to be angry but he couldn't be angry about his son being the man he raised him to be.

"Go to your room." He ordered trying to keep his angry façade. "We will discuss any amendments to your rules after I deal with Hope."

"Are you going to…" As fearless as Marcel was he couldn't muster up the courage to ask the question he was really worried about. "What are you going to do?"

"To Hope or to you?"

"…both."

"I think you know."

"Klaus, c'mon. I'm-"

Klaus put a hand on the back of Marcel's head and pulled him closer to him.

"You don't get to lie to me and put your life in danger and expect not to be punished for it," Klaus growled.

Marcel blushed. "I'm just asking for a different punishment."

"You are a Mikaelson. You will be punished like a Mikaelson." Klaus started walking towards the staircase and said back to Marcel, "I'll make it quick. I still have a brother to find and wolves to kill after all."

-M-

Hope paced her room trying to think of a way to get out of the trouble she was in. She knew she had to lose her attitude and at least pretend to be apologetic if she was going to get on Klaus's good side.

When Klaus came into the room he could hardly look his daughter in the eyes.

"What do you have to say for yourself?" Klaus asked standing beside Hope's bed. He wanted nothing more than to get things over with.

"I'm sorry, daddy. I was just…so stressed out about Marcel changing I-I didn't want to be in the same house as him."

"And yet you went to the Dupeaux's with Marcel after I ordered you both to stay here."

Hope smiled nervously. "He turned out to not be so bad."

"I'm happy to know that you two are getting along," Klaus said sitting down. He took Hope's hands into his and continued, "But you cannot disobey me, Hope. I am very lenient with you already but when I give an order I expect it to be followed."

"But daddy-"

"No 'buts', Hope. My top priority as a father is your safety but I can't keep you safe if you intentionally defy the measures I take to protect you."

Hope huffed and pouted at her father's relentlessness.

"Okay," Klaus said releasing her hands and patting his knee. "Let's put an end to his, shall we."

"No, daddy, please,"

Klaus knew he wouldn't be able to be resolute on his decision to punish her if she started begging him with her big pleading eyes so he pulled her over his lap before her crocodile tears could affect him.

He bared her bottom in a matter of seconds and started swatting her behind with just enough strength to bring her to tears.

"Your disobedience ends now." Klaus barked. "You do not get to pick and choose which rules you want to follow in this house. I am your father and when I tell you to do something you do it, I don't care who you're crossed with."

"Okay, okay, okay," Hope screamed begging for the spanking to end.

Ready to put an end to his daughter's misery, Klaus landed three solid smacks to her lower bottom and stood her back to her feet.

Unable to stand seeing his little girl crying, Klaus sat her on his lap and held her until her tears quieted.

"Stay in here until dinner," Klaus ordered.

"But daddy," she whined.

Klaus cut his eyes at her and the little girl stopped talking immediately knowing her father was not in the mood for an argument.

Klaus left Hope's room and walked the short distance down to Marcel's bedroom only to find the man not there.

Marcel stood at the balcony overlooking the courtyard at the group of wolves standing before Haylee. He listened as Haylee gave her war speech to the wolf pack and they cheered at her every remarked. She'd even managed to inspire Marcel from the sidelines.

"What do you think you're doing here?" Klaus's voice dropped like a hammer to Marcel's ear.

He turned tensely to face his father. Motioning to the wolves below, he stammered, "I was just...listening in."

"That's not what you were told to do."

Marcel gulped nervously. "I should be out fighting the wolves. Not...doing this."

"You wouldn't be out fighting the wolves even if we weren't doing this." Klaus asserted.

"What's that's supposed to mean?"

"Had they been vampires, maybe I'd let you join in the fray but there's no way I'm going to let you risk your life fighting those venomous mongrels."

"But Klaus,"

Klaus held up a hand to silence Marcel, not wanting to argue past the sounds of incessant wolf cheering.

"Let's take this conversation to your room," He demanded.

Marcel walked steadily behind him as Klaus lead the way back down to his bedroom.

"I should be fighting those wolves alongside you and Hayley and everyone down there," Marcel said as soon they entered the room.

"It was mere hours ago that your body and soul were ripped from another dimension into the present one. The last thing you need to do is fight in a war."

"I'm fine." Marcel smacked his chest to demonstrate his indestructibility. "I demand to fight for my city."

Klaus's jaw tensed with anger. "Why must my children disagree with me trying to keep them safe."

"Because I don't need you to worry about my safety, Klaus. I'm a big boy. I've been in a lot of wars."

"You may not need me to worry," Klaus growled as he took a step closer to Marcel. "But as a father, it's what I do. I haven't stopped worrying since the day I took you in and I won't stop worrying until I'm long gone from this world. So as long as I'm alive you will not go into battle with werewolves or anyone else who could so easily kill you with a simple bite."

"You're going to be out there too, right? If I get bit, you could give me your blood right there on the battlefield and I can keep on fighting."

"I'm sure they would assume the same so they'll take you on as a group lacing you with enough venom to put you down before I can get to you."

"Klaus, I won't let that happen."

"Neither will I. You're staying here, end of discussion. Drop your trousers, pants too."

"No," Marcel stated defiantly. "We're not doing this until you agree to let me fight."

"This was not a matter up for debate. Your survival is more important to me than being liked. You are my son and if there's a chance for me to protect you from unnecessary danger, I will and the only choice you have in the matter is to do what I say or do what I say with a throbbing red behind."

Suddenly Klaus grabbed Marcel by the collar and swiftly threw him over his lap as he sat on the bed. Marcel struggled as Klaus worked to strip him of his pants and underwear but Klaus wrapped an arm around his waist and kept Marcel in place, his thousand-year-old strength too much for Marcel's young vampire body. Klaus began raining down heavy-handed smacks to Marcel's fiercely wriggling bottom. Each smack came with enough heat to ignite a fire across his behind. Klaus didn't start his lecturing until he heard the solemn, heart-wrenching sob quietly escape from Marcel's throat.

"You do not lie to me about anything," Klaus scolded. "And when I give you an order I expect you to follow it. Don't ever lie to me about where you are again because I'll assume the worse and if I assume the worse when I find you, you'll get the worse. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Klaus." Marcel piped. "Please stop. I've had enough."

Klaus brought his hand down even harsher. "You don't get to say when enough's enough. Are you going to lie to me again?"

"No." Marcel's vow was emphasized with another harsh spank.

"Are you going to disobey me again?"

After a long moment of silence, Klaus brought his hand back down across Marcel's bottom and repeated the question. Marcel was at an impasse. He had already made up his mind to sneak off and fight in the wolf battle when Klaus left the Compound thus disobeying Klaus. If he answered the question truthfully, the spanking would continue but he couldn't lie after only just promising not t lie again.

"I want to fight the wolves," Marcel struggled to say through the sobs that threatened to break with each passing smack.

Klaus swiftly brought his hand down three more times. "I said no."

"K-Klaus, please-"

Three more solid spanks. "No, Marcellus,"

"B-be re-reasonable."

"I am being reasonable." Klaus released his hold on Marcel's waist and grabbed him by the arm, lifting him off his lap so he could look Marcel in the eyes as he said, "There is no weapon that can defeat me so if I go out there and fight, even if I lose, you will see me again. If you lose to the wolves...you'll be gone forever."

"But...Hayley-"

"She's their Queen. They won't go into battle without her there to lead them. And she's a Hybrid which makes her about as strong as you are minus the vulnerability to wolf venom so she's more of an asset in this fight than you would be."

Klaus stood up, guiding Marcel to his feet as well. Marcel awkwardly eased his pants over his burning rear end. His lip trembled as he tried to fight the sobs shuddering through his body.

Klaus placed a soft hand against Marcel's face, forcing him to look him in the eyes. "Stay here," He ordered gently. "Protect Hope. she is your little sister after all."

Chapter Text

Chapter 23

Elijah's slowly pushed open the thin wooden door of the antique record store. It was dark inside but with the light shining through the window, he spotted Kol sitting against the wall with an old record in his hands. He was in tears. Unashamedly and uncontrollably in tears. Elijah walked slowly over to him.

"How'd you find me?" Kol asked.

"You shielded yourself from magic but you forget that your cell phone is just as easily traceable."

Kol smirked. How did he let something so simple slip through the cracks?

"This is where we first met, y'know," He muttered.

"Now, Kol, I think you met in a little birthing shack somewhere in Virginia."

"I meant me and Davina."

"I know," Elijah smirked. He snatched his handkerchief from his pocket and laid it on Kol's raised knee. Kol didn't touch the handkerchief. He wasn't ready to stop crying just yet.

As his brother took a seat beside him, Kol said, "She was carrying this record. Ancient Icelandic Folk music. She was such a brilliant, eccentric girl. Don't know what she saw in a fool like me."

Kol fell into a bout of heavy sobs and Elijah wrapped his arm around his shoulder. Kol pushed his face against his brother's lapel and cried. Elijah felt a pang of crushing guilt for being the reason for his brother's tears. He made the decision to sacrifice Davina to the ancestors, he was the cause of Kol's misery.

"I'm sorry, brother," Elijah said tensely. "This is my fault. We shouldn't have sacrificed Davina. I...I could've found another way. I should've found another way."

"No. I did this to her. Marcel was right. I should've left the city and died rather than come back and hurt the only girl who could make me feel human in a thousand years."

"In a thousand years, dear brother, I have felt love...a few times. And each of them was ripped from me in one way or another. Sometimes even by the hands of our selfish brother. I know your pain," Elijah leaned in closer to Kol and the younger brother fell helplessly into his hold. "I'm sorry," Elijah muttered against his brother's head. "I'm sorry you have to feel this pain. And I'm sorry that you can't take this time to grieve. The wolves have invaded our city and right now Klaus and Haylee are on the front lines defending us but they need us with them."

Elijah stood and held his hand out to Kol. Kol picked up the handkerchief that had fallen to the floor and wiped his tear-drenched face. "I'm not going with you."

"I'm not going with you," Kol stated firmly. "I don't care about this city. And I don't care about our so-called family."

Elijah closed his hand and sighed. "Brother, I do understand that you are a bit unsatisfied with the current arrangement of our family but do take a second to think about what you're doing. You're trying to leave the family who has loved you and cared for you for a thousand years."

"I'd hardly say that any of you lot have cared for me in a thousand years. Least of all Niklaus."

"What is the crime that you hold against him? Forgiveness? Keeping a promise that he made to his son two hundred years ago? Being a decent father to the boy he took in and swore to love always and forever?"

"When Marcel betrayed this family he released himself from that vow. He shouldn't have been let back into the family, Elijah, and you know it."

"And what about you and the vows that you broke," Elijah barked. "When this family was divided you were glad to hop from side to side, joining whichever side benefited your agenda at the time. You betrayed us at one point, Kol, but we let you return. We granted you that forgiveness that you consistently refuse Marcellus."

Kol hurried to his feet and growled, "I am your brother."

"And Marcel is his son."

The two Originals stared each other down, both believing they were in the right and both refusing to give in to the other.

Suddenly the store door opened. They spun around to see Josh standing in the doorway with a panicked look on his face. Josh quickly shut the door and shushed the two brothers as he sped over to them, grabbed them both by the arm, and sped them to the back of the store.

"What is the meaning of this?" Elijah griped as he yanked his arm from Josh's hold.

"There are rogue wolves outside. I just witnessed them rip one of Haylee's wolves apart."

Elijah's face contorted with shock. "How did they get so far into the city? Haylee and Niklaus were supposed to be keeping them at bay at the fringe."b

"I guess some got loose because they're out there." Turning to Kol, Josh smile facetiously and said, "Hi, by the way. Been everywhere in the middle of this Mikaelson-werewolf feud looking for you. Thought you'd got caught up in the war and decided to just go throw myself in the thick of it to help my friend and here you are hiding away in an old, dusty record store."

"I thought you'd be too busy bandaging the wounded pride of your old friend Marcel to care about finding me." Kol spat with just as much bitterness.

"Enough," Elijah interjected. "We don't have time for any petty squabbles about Marcel. We have to go stop these wolves before they tear up our city."

"I told you I don't care about the city."

"What about Hope?" Kol's anger seemed to cool at Elijah's mention of Hope. "Is she not still your niece? Did you not promise to protect her?"

Kol took only a moment to think it over before he said, "Alright, fine. I'll fight. For Hope."

As the two Mikaelsons were leaving the back of the record store, Josh said, "Alright, I'll just stay hidden in here until it's over because there are like a dozen of those guys out there and, y'know, I'm not an Original. Super vulnerable to wolf venom and stuff. Kinda digging the 'staying alive' thing, wanna try that out for a few more years."

"Don't be a coward," Kol grunted, holding the door open for Josh to follow them. "I'm sure your dear friend Marcel is out there fighting a group of these mangy wolves already. Are you really gonna leave him to the slaughter?"

Taking only a moment to think, Josh took cautious steps to the door. "I'm gonna die, aren't I," he groaned.

"Probably," Kol mocked.

-M-

Meanwhile...

Marcel paced the courtyard, his patience wearing thin the longer he didn't know what was going on in the ensuing battle across town.

He heard a creak on the stairs behind him and spun around with his guard up, prepared to fight.

"Calm down," Hope stated walking slowly down the stairs to him. "It's just me."

Marcel let down his guard but he didn't calm down. He was tense thinking about how Hope must've hated him after ditching her at Sebastian's house.

"How are you feeling?" He asked knowing what Klaus had put her through only an hour ago.

Hope shrugged. Since Young Marcel knew about her parents' preferred form of discipline she knew that Older Marcel would know too, still she hoped he wouldn't automatically assume that's how she was just punished by their father. What she didn't know was that Marcel was also a recurrent victim of Klaus's old-fashioned punishments and he hoped it stayed that way.

"Hope, look, I'm sorry about running off on you back there," Marcel apologized. "I just...didn't want Klaus to find out we were together."

"You're afraid of my dad," Hope scoffed. "What happened to the fearless Marcel I met when we first came to New Orleans?"

"I'm still fearless," Marcel replied indignantly. "But if I want to stay here I have to obey Klaus's rules and one of those rules was that I couldn't be around my little sister but Klaus and I have talked and we both agree that the rule was irrational so he lifted it."

"Oh goodie," Hope's voice was filled with unhidden sarcasm. "Now that dad says it's okay for us to be seen together, maybe you won't abandon me to take the heat for running away by myself anymore."

"I'm sorry I left you, okay. I admit it ways selfish-"

"Damn right it was."

"But, hey, you knew what you were getting yourself into from the beginning. Even if I didn't show up to tag along on your little trip, you would've still gotten caught."

"But since you were there, you could've taken me with you when you heard Mr. Dupeaux coming."

"I tried to get you to leave with me. I told you Klaus wanted us back here and you wouldn't listen to me."

"Well in case you haven't noticed, I don't really do everything my parents tell me to do. I have my own mind and I do what I think is right even if..."

"Even if it means getting your behind blistered every time."

Hope stood on the bottom step of the staircase with her eyes wide and my jaw dropped. "How...how did you know..."

Marcel fought to keep a straight face, hoping to not reveal anything about his own form of punishment from their father that day. "I was raised by Klaus," he said calmly. "I know how he does things."

Hope straightened her face and fanned her hand as if to shoo away Marcel's accusation. "Well, jokes on you because I don't get spankings. I'm thirteen, not three."

Marcel knew she was lying. Klaus had already told him that he was going to spank her. She was just trying to save face and he was going to do her the courtesy of letting her believe he didn't know.

"And even if I did have the threat of being...spanked looming over me," Hope grumbled. "That still wouldn't stop me from doing something I think is right. Like, I wouldn't abandon Sebastian somewhere because I was afraid dad would find out and punish me for being there."

"You think you have it all figured out, huh?" Marcel bit. "Life isn't so easy for all of us. Your place in this family is practically guaranteed. You're just a thirteen-year-old kid. You can do whatever you want and get away with just a scolding or a time out or whatever punishment they do give you in this place but some of us have to be constantly on our toes because messing up for me doesn't mean I get 'grounded' for a week. If I mess up, I spend the rest of my life roaming the world for a new place to call home. I mess things up here again and it's over for me in New Orleans. So yeah, I ran away when I thought we were going to get caught because I just got back home and I'm not ready to leave again just yet."

"Dad wouldn't really banish you again," she mumbled. "...would he?"

Marcel looked straight ahead out the courtyard opening. "He said he wouldn't," he admitted. "He promised. But there's still an inkling part of me that's afraid if he did it once he'd do it again."

"I won't let him do it again," Hope stomped her feet. Her anger towards Marcel was suddenly replaced by anger at Klaus.

"And what would you do to stop him," Marcel scoffed.

"I'd...I'd run away with you if he tried to banish you again."

"Don't be stupid," he bit. "There's no way I'd let you come with me. You're just a kid. You belong in New Orleans with your family."

Hope ran over to Marcel, wrapping her arms around his waist and burying her face in his abdomen as tears began their way down her cheeks. "You're my family," she cried. "I don't wanna lose you again, Marcy."

Marcel bent down on one knee and pulled the girl into a hug as she cried against his neck. "Hey, now," he cooed. "I'm not going anywhere. I was just saying that was a fear of mine. It doesn't mean it's actually going to happen. It's probably never going to happen."

Marcel suddenly felt guilty about confiding in a little girl about his fears and decided as Hope relinquished all of her sorrow onto the collar of his shirt to never do it again.

"What's going on down here?" Marcel's eyes diverted over to the doorway where Freya stood.

"Sibling bonding," Marcel replied curtly. Although he appreciated Freya saving his life, he still hadn't forgiven her for her part in helping Kol torture him. It irked him to see her standing in the doorway then looking as if she belonged in the Mikaelson Compound when he didn't believe she deserved to call herself a Mikaelson.

"Anybody wanna clue me in?"

"Not really," Marcel stood up as Hope's tears began to stop. The young girl stared down at the floor, ashamed of having broken down in front of both her big brother and her Aunt.

"Hope is standing in the middle of the courtyard crying," Freya said, her eyes intensely focused on Marcel. "I think you should tell me what happened."

"It's none of your business,"

"Then how about you make it my business."

"How about you make me." Marcel stepped around Hope putting the girl behind him as he faced off with Freya.

Freya raised her hand and with a flick of her wrist, she sent Marcel flying into the balcony.

"No," Hope screamed. "Stop. Leave him alone."

"Get out of here, Hope," Freya ordered, ignoring the girl's pleas.

When Marcel got back to his feet, he vamped down to Freya, wrapping his hand around her throat and pinning her against the wall.

As Marcel bared his fangs to her, Freya used her magic to cause his body to seize up, releasing her and leaving him in a state of physical paralysis. Marcel's body fell limply to the ground. He could still see, hear, and feel everything but he couldn't move.

Hope ran over to her fallen brother. She grabbed his hand and felt a sense of relief when his fingers moved with her assistance. If he wasn't stiff then he wasn't dead.

"What did you do to him," Hope demanded.

"He's fine," Freya insisted. "It's a simple paralysis spell."

"End it. Let him go."

"I will when I figure out what to do with him."

A loud noise suddenly came from the entrance of the courtyard. Hope and Freya turned around to see three of the rogue werewolves standing in the doorway blocked only by the protection spell Freya had placed over the Compound.

"Don't worry," Freya assured her niece noting the girl's sudden fearful tensing. "I have a Protection Barrier up. We can get out but they can't get in."

"C'mon Mikaelsons," one of the wolves taunted. "Take this barrier down so we can finish this."

"How did they get so far in the city," Freya growled. "Where is Klaus?"

Freya's muttering about Klaus made Hope anxious. Where was her dad? Where was her mom? Where were the wolves that were supposed to be protecting the city from the rogue werewolf invasion? Had they all been defeated already?"

Freya held up her hands and caused the three wolves to drop to the ground screaming from the spell making their brains boil.

Wanting to take advantage of the opening, Hope said, "Keep 'em like that. I'll be back. I'm going to find my mom and dad."

"What?" Freya asked but before she could get a reply, Hope vamped out of the Compound past the incapacitated wolves and down the street. Freya screamed after her but it was too late, Hope was gone.

With a snap of her fingers, Freya snapped the necks of the three wolves and ran to the Compound opening. She looked in every direction but couldn't see any sign of Hope. The girl moved too fast for Freya's human eyes to keep up with so she didn't know where she'd gone.

Freya looked over at Marcel still lying on the ground and knew she didn't have a choice. If she was going to get Hope back she was going to need his help. She raised her hand and released the spell keeping Marcel paralyzed.

When Marcel had the ability to move back, he jumped to his feet. "Where did she go?" He asked having heard it the moment Hope left.

"I don't know but you have to find her before one of these wolves do."

Marcel remembered the night he fought off three wolves with Hope. She survived then but she had him and Sebastian with her to help fight. He didn't want to think about what would happen to her out there on her own.

"Alright," he said marching out the Compound. "Let's go."

"No, I have to stay here to let her back in the Compound in case she comes back. You go on without me. We can finish our fight later after we know she's safe."

-M-

Klaus's left hand was wrapped around the throat of one werewolf while his right hand plunged into the ribcage of another. He gripped the wolf's heart and ripped it out before throwing it across the ground and shoving his hand into the chest of the other wolf.

"Hayley," Klaus yelled out across the battlefield. In the abandoned side of town, he, Haylee, and Rebekah had their hands full killing rogue wolves. "How are you holding up?"

Hayley mournfully broke one of the wolves' spine across her knee and threw their body to the ground. Most of the wolves they fought came from Travis's pack but every once and a while she would have to fight one of her ex-wolves. Whenever she recognized a face like the one she'd just fought, it would break her heart. She wished she wouldn't have to fight her own people but that was the way things were.

"I'm staying alive," Hayley yelled back. "What about you?"

"I'm the Original Hybrid, love. How do you think I'm doing?" Klaus chuckled as he killed another wolf. "What about you, Rebekah?"

Rebekah spat out a disgusting chunk of wolf flesh from between her bloody fangs and said, "Other than the disgusting taste of dog, I'm alright, brother. Though after this, I'm never going to complain about drinking AB neg again."

"No need to dirty yourself up with this lot, little sister. Most of them are fangless. They should be easy to kill. They're basically human."

"Don't get too cocky," Hayley yelled. "The sun's starting to set."

"And?"

"Tonight's a full moon."

Klaus released a deep growl. A full moon would mean Travis's pack would transform and they would have to fight actual wolves, an ordeal Klaus was not looking forward to. Enraged at the thought, Klaus bit into the nearest wolf's throat and pulled out her jugular.

"Let's end this quickly then," Klaus yelled to Hayley.

"My thoughts exactly."

As they fought, they started to realize that they were hardly putting a dent in the number of wolves coming into the city. They knew then that Travis must have combined his pack with other rogue packs to get his numbers that high. Haylee knew they weren't going to be able to get rid of all the wolves before nightfall so, with no other choice, she decided to pull her men out of the fight before they had too many casualties.

"Everyone, get back to the Compound!" Hayley screamed as another dead body dropped from her hold.

All of her Hyrbids sped off in different directions away from the fight.

Rebekah, Hayley, and Klaus vamped onto the top of a nearby building looking down at the sight of Travis's wolves storming into their city.

"We failed," Klaus bit.

"We didn't fail," Hayley corrected. "We can hold them off at the Compound until daybreak and start again then. But we need more people. Right now they outnumber us 4 to 1. We have more Hybrids so we have an advantage there but if they ever realize they can take my guys out by ganging up on one of them at a time they'll have us."

"We need to get the witches on our side," Klaus stated. "I'll talk to the Dupeauxs and have Freya speak with-" Through the corner of his eye, Klaus spotted a fight going on on the ground beneath them. From 50 feet in the sky, he recognized the assailant fighting a pair of Travis's wolves. "Marcel," he barked and without a second thought, he jumped from the roof down to the ground on top of one of the venomous brutes that had their clutches around Marcel. He yanked out the wolf's heart and quickly spun around and chopped his hand through the neck of the other wolf, knocking his head clean off his shoulders.

From the moment he saw Klaus, Marcel stopped fretting about the wolves and started worrying about Klaus. He didn't expect to find him while he was about looking for Hope. In fact, he was doing his best to avoid him when he wandered into the sea of wolves crashing into the city.

Klaus grabbed Marcel by the collar of his shirt and pulled him inches away from his face. "I told you to stay in the Compound," he growled. "What are you doing here?"

Marcel didn't have time to think of a lie before he spotted another werewolf coming up behind Klaus. He opened his mouth to warn his father when Haylee appeared and snapped the wolf's neck. Klaus turned around just in time to see the wolf's body hit the ground. Rebekah jumped down to Haylee's side staring longingly at Marcel. She wanted to take up for him being out there but she knew her speaking on Marcel's behalf would only make her brother angrier.

Seeing that the battleground was not the optimal place to reprimand his son, Klaus said, "You are in for one hell of a lecture when we get back to the Compound."

Klaus released Marcel's shirt and grabbed him by the upper arm. As Klaus was about to speed off to the Compound, Marcel said, "Wait, we can't go back yet." Marcel considered not telling them the truth about why he was out of the Compound but he knew if there was one thing they deserved to know it was the truth. "Hope's out here somewhere."

Klaus and Hayley stood still at the news.

"Hope is out here?" Hayley's voice trembled. She looked anxiously around in circles as if she was afraid to spot her daughter in the middle of one of Travis's groups of wolves fighting for her life.

"What is she doing out of the Compound?" Klaus screamed at Marcel.

Marcel quickly answered, "She got scared after she saw some wolves that made their way to the Compound. I think she was afraid something had happened to you two."

In a sudden fit of rage, Hayley slammed her fist into the building next to her, cracking the concrete wall. "She's gonna get herself killed out here."

"We will find her," Klaus reassured them both. "Marcel, go back to the Compound and wait there. If she comes back, call me and make sure you keep her there."

"Klaus, no. I should be out here looking for her."

"Looking for who?"

Everyone's attention turned to Elijah walking confidently through a couple of the straying rogue wolves. When the wolves tried to attack him, they were surprised by Kol speeding through and ripping out their hearts. Josh lingered cautiously behind.

"Hope is somewhere out here in this mess," Haylee informed Elijah. His once cool demeanor immediately disappeared.

"Which way did she go?" He asked anxiously.

"We don't know," Marcel answered. Shamefully staring at the ground he said, "I was indisposed when she ran off."

"What do you mean indisposed," Elijah barked. He was too worried about the safety of his niece to be concerned with etiquette.

"I got into a spat with Freya and she pinned me down with some kind of paralysis spell so when Hope ran off I wasn't able to see which way she went.

"So she could be anywhere in this bloody city," Kol grunted. "Great. You had one job, to keep her in the Compound, and you couldn't even do that."

Quickly coming to Marcel's defense, Klaus said, "Maybe if you were here helping us hold off the wolves we could've killed them all already."

"Excuse me for wanting to have a moment to myself away from this insane family."

"That is enough," Rebekah yelled. "I'm sure we'd all loved to tear into each other for whatever reason right now but we've got more important things to worry about. We have to find that little girl before it's too late."

"Rebekah's right," Hayley spoke. "Let's separate. We'll cover more ground that way."

Before his family could go their separate ways, Klaus said, "Call me the moment you spot her."

Klaus still had Marcel in his hold as everyone else vamped off.

"You go home," he ordered.

"But, Hope-"

"We have enough people looking for Hope. In the next hour, every wolf in this city will have the ability to kill you, and trust me, they will try."

"Then I'll find Hope and take her back with me."

The sound of Klaus's hand making contact with the back of Marcel's jeans echoed throughout the empty street. Marcel stood in silent shock of Klaus's public chastisement but Klaus's eyes looked just as stern as ever.

"This is not a discussion, Marcel, and I do not want to tell you this again. Go home and stay there. Your safety is just as important to me as Hope's and I can't go off looking for her if I'm worried about what monster could have you. Do you understand me?"

Marcel wanted to argue but he didn't put it past Klaus to give him another spank if he objected again.

"Fine," Marcel agreed. "I'll go."

"To the Compound," Klaus wanted to clarify.

Marcel growled out, "I'll go to the Compound."

"Good," Klaus released Marcel's arm, and his eyes finally softened as he saw the petulant look on his son's face. "I'm sorry, Marcel, but I don't want anything to happen to you."

Marcel sped off away from Klaus first. He went back to the Compound as promised. Dead wolf bodies littered the ground surrounding the Compound and Freya stood in the opening of the courtyard holding two wolves outside the door on the ground with her magic. Seeing the wolves struggling to get back up, Marcel sped over to them and ripped out their hearts.

"You're back," Freya sighed. "Did you find Hope?"

"Not yet. I found the others though. We're going to look for her now. You hold down the fort until we get back."

Before Freya could respond, Marcel vamped back off away from the Compound with a proud smirk on his face. He went to the Compound like he promised Klaus. He never agreed on staying.

Chapter Text

Chapter 24

Hope hid behind a rancid dumpster hoping that the stench of the trash would hide her smell from the ravenous wolves slowly making their way down the street. She'd been running through the city looking for her family for half an hour. She was careful to avoid every wolf she came across but when the sun went down it became harder to keep out of wind of their heightened werewolf sense of smell.

She jumped at the sudden appearance of Marcel by her side. He shushed the tiny squeak she let out and peeked around the side of the dumpster at the group of four-legged beasts marching by.

"I think they're gone," he whispered. "C'mon, let's go."

He grabbed her by the arm and prepared to scale the wall up to the roof when Hope yanked her arm out of his hand.

"No," she whispered harshly. "I have to find my parents."

"Your parents are fine. They're out here looking for you. The sooner you get back to the Compound the sooner you can see them again."

Knowing that her parents were safe made Hope willing to follow her brother back to the Compound. She stood up ready to go when they both heard the sound of fighting happening down the street.

"The wolves have someone," said Hope.

Marcel sighed. New Orleans was still his city. If someone was in trouble, he needed to help them. "Stay here," he ordered Hope. "I'll be right back."

"I can help."

"I don't need your help. I need to get you back to the Compound unharmed."

"I'm a Mikaelson," Hope said as she ran down the alley towards the street. "I'll be fine."

"Hope," Marcel ran after Hope as the girl vamped over to the group of wolves.

Josh was surrounded by five blood-thirsty wolves with his fangs bared prepared to fight his way out when Hope and Marcel suddenly sped behind the pack.

"Josh," Marcel exclaimed.

With a relieved smile, Josh said, "Marcel. You found the girl, great. Now we can get off the streets before someone gets mauled by one of these roaming wolf packs. Speaking of wolf packs...do you think you could, uh, help me out here? I'm sorta outnumbered."

Marcel turned to Hope and said, "Stay out of this. We can handle it."

"I can help."

"We don't need your help,"

The wolves used their distracted state to their advantage and all swiftly attacked. Hope raised her hands at one of the wolves and muttered a spell under her breath. The wolf howled in pain as its bones were crushed by Hope's magic but another wolf quickly tackled her down to the ground ending her spell.

Marcel sped over to the four-legged beast on top of his sister and snatched it off Hope before it was about to sink its teeth into her. He wrapped his arms around the wolf's neck and crushed it. The other wolves knew then that Marcel was the toughest threat of the three vampires so the remaining three wolves all attacked him at once. The giant beasts launched themselves at Marcel, taking him down effortlessly.

Marcel grabbed one of the wolves by its throat and held its venomous teeth an arm's length away from him. The other two wolves spotted his vulnerable areas and attacked, one latched on to Marcel's leg, and the other bit into his side. Josh vamped over to Marcel and grabbed the wolf locked on to his leg and snatched it away. Hope promptly did the same to the wolf biting into Marcel's belly with her magic. The wolves went flying in different directions but not before lacing Marcel with their poison.

Marcel snapped the neck of the wolf in his hands and vaulted back to his feet. He could feel the poison coursing inside him but it wasn't bad enough to slow him down yet.

"Hope, get out of here," Marcel barked.

"No," the girl screamed back. "There's only two left now. You might as well-" Hope released a heartfelt screech as teeth pierced into her leg. The wolf's who's bones she'd previously crushed had healed enough to grab the girl by the leg and swing her body into a nearby lamppost.

"No!"

Marcel ran over to the wolf and picked it up by the big tuft of fur under its neck before punching his fist into its chest and ripping out its heart. Dropping the dead wolf to the ground, he ran over to Hope. She laid unconscious beneath the dim light of the now broken lamppost.

"C'mon, now," Marcel gave Hope a gentle shake trying to wake her up but her eyes didn't open. "You're okay," he said for his own benefit. "You're gonna be fine. It's just...a little bump on the head. You're a Mikaelson. You're gonna be fine."

The other two wolves began to move again. Josh ran over to one, tackling it to the ground and ripping its heart out but before he could get to the second, it was upon Marcel.

Marcel was too focused on his injured sister to notice the wolf coming from behind him until it was too late. The wolf bit into the arm Marcel had Hope's head lying against and in a fit of rage at seeing the beast so close to his little sister, Marcel laid Hope back on the ground and stood up, wrapping his arms around the wolf's neck and with one fell swoop he ripped its head off.

"Marcel," Josh ran over to the injured siblings. "God, man, you are...covered in wolf bites."

"I'm alright," Marcel said as he bent back down to pick Hope up in his arms. "Let's get off the streets before any more wolves show up."

"Shouldn't you drink from her first," Josh insisted. "I mean, to cure your bites?"

Marcel stared down to Hope's soft face. She seemed so much more innocent and defenseless when she was asleep.

"No," Marcel muttered. "I can't take her blood without her permission. Let's just get back to the Compound."

Josh seemed skeptical about letting Marcel go so long with so much wolf venom streaming through his veins but he knew Marcel knew his limits. If Marcel thought he was fine then so did Josh.

-M-

Freya was ecstatic to see Hope in Marcel's arms as the trio came speeding to the Compound entrance. She let down the barrier just long enough for Marcel and Josh to speed in before any more wolves showed up. Hayley's wolves were all in the courtyard surrounding them when they came in. Marcel snarled at the sight of the wolves glaring at him. He had actually hoped that more of them would've died in battle.

"Is she alright?" Freya panicked when she saw that Hope was unconscious.

Marcel walked over to the sofa sitting in the middle of the Courtyard and laid Hope's body on top. Freya's heart sped anxiously when she saw all the blood on Hope's clothes. She began nervously checking Hope's bodies for wounds but luckily her wolf bite had already healed. Seeing that her wolf bite healed, Marcel let out a breath of relief. If the wolf bite healed then perhaps whatever head injury she sustained from the lamppost had healed as well.

"We got into it with a few of the wolves," Marcel admitted. "She hit her head. Could you...run a diagnostic spell on her to make sure she's alright?"

Freya was surprised by the worry she saw on Marcel's face as he stared down at Hope.

She put the thought of Marcel's feelings for his family being true out of her mind and placed her hands above Hope's body. As she ran the spell, she noticed Marcel holding Hope's hand and further up she noticed the wolf bite on Marcel's arm.

"She's fine," Freya breathed once the spell was done. "But you're not." She grabbed her phone from her pocket and started dialing Klaus's number. "You need Klaus's blood and since you saved my niece I'm gonna get him back here so you can get it."

Marcel stayed silently holding Hope's hand as Freya called Klaus.

"So do you think Klaus is going to offer me some sort of reward," Josh joked.

Marcel looked away from Hope to Josh and asked, "A reward for what?"

"I'm the hero who fought off the wolves and brought his kids back safe and sound."

"If I remember correctly, we saved you."

"Yeah but he don't have to know that." As Marcel let out a hearty chuckle, Josh walked closer to him. His face suddenly becoming somber, Josh said, "Listen, man...about Kol-"

"We don't have to talk about Kol," Marcel said coldly. He was irritated at Josh for even bringing the subject up.

"We do," Josh insisted. "I'm sorry about...whatever Kol did to you. If I knew about it I never would've tried to be his friend in the first place. And, uh, I've been thinking about it and...you're my closest friend, my best friend now that Davina's gone, and if you don't want me being friends with Kol anymore then I won't."

Marcel wanted to say yes immediately but he took a second to think about it.

"We're not middle school kids," he grunted. "You can be friends with whoever you want."

"I don't wanna be friends with anyone you're...uncomfortable with. It's you and me, y'know." Josh glanced over to the myriad of wolves surround them. They all seemed focused on their own conversations so he felt safe in whispering, "If you ever decide to revolt against the Mikaelsons again, I'm on your side 100%."

Marcel looked at Freya. She didn't seem to hear Josh's muttering and he was glad she didn't. The way she felt about Marcel he was sure she'd gladly lead the pitchforked mob to get him out of town or dead.

"There won't be a revolt," Marcel whispered harshly. "You keep your head down and you stay out of the Mikaelsons hair. Eventually, Klaus is going to get tired of New Orleans and when he leaves we can take over again."

"But that could be years or...or centuries."

Marcel knew Josh was right. It was selfish of him to think it was okay to want to be with his family when his remaining men were scattered about Louisiana hiding from that very family that had tried to kill them.

"At least let me start making vampires again," Josh begged. "We wouldn't have had this werewolf problem if we had more vampires."

For a moment Marcel was silent. Then he said, "Y'know, there has been a terrible lack of vampires in this town lately. Starting tomorrow, let's fix that. But keep it under wraps. Don't let the Mikaelsons get wind of it. Not even your good friend Kol."

Josh nodded vigorously. He was ready to get back to his old way of life.

"M-Marcel," Hope murmured.

Marcel turned back to his sister and smiled warmly down at her. "'Bout time you woke up. I was beginning to worry."

Hope quickly sat up looking around afraid that there were wolves still nearby. She seemed relieved when she recognized the Courtyard of her home.

"What happened," she asked.

"You got attacked by one of the wolves but you're okay now. I brought you back to the Compound."

"And your parents are on their way," Freya announced as she hung up from the last Mikaelson she called to inform them of Hope's safe return.

Within five minutes the Originals were at the Compound. Freya lowered the barrier and Hayley vamped over to Hope, hugging her daughter tight in her arms.

"Thank god," Hayley said kissing Hope's forehead. "I thought something was going to happen to you out there." Forcing Hope to look her in the eyes, Hayley began to scold, "What were you thinking leaving the Compound like that."

"I was looking for you and daddy," Hope answered softly, hoping to garner her mother's sympathy. "I-I thought something had happened."

"Marcel," Klaus's voice boomed. "What happened to you?"

Looking down at the wounds on his body, Marcel answered, "On my way back to the Compound I was attacked by some wolves. That's when I found Hope and Josh."

Walking over to Marcel, Klaus bared his fangs and bit into his own wrist. "This is exactly what I was afraid of," Klaus said holding his wrist out in front of Marcel.

Marcel didn't immediately take Klaus's wrist as he expected he would.

"Klaus, I survived," said Marcel. "I fought and I won. You've got to stop worrying about me like I'm some helpless kid. I'm a fighter, right? Isn't that what you always said? I can't be a fighter if you're always trying to protect me from the blows."

Klaus put his arms to the side and stared at Marcel. In his eyes, Klaus could still see his little boy but the rest of him was strong. Even as he stood there suffering from the burn of the wolf venom in his body, he showed no weakness.

"I only mean to keep you safe," Klaus muttered.

"Just like you tried to do a hundred years ago and I went to fight a war in another country just to be free from your tyranny."

Klaus thought back to the days Marcel was gone during the war. Every day he was afraid somehow some shard of wood would somehow unintentionally find its way into Marcel's chest or that Marcel would run into an older, stronger vampire in Klaus's absence and be killed. The months that Marcel was gone seemed to Klaus to last centuries.

"Fine," Klaus relented. "I don't want you going anywhere so...I'm going to do my best to let you make decisions regarding your own safety." Hold his wrist back out to Marcel, Klaus said, "Just promise me...you'll find me if you need me."

With a content smirk, Marcel made a new bite in Klaus's healed wrist and drank from his vein.

"I can't believe you disobeyed us again," Hayley continued to scold Hope. "How many times do I have to tell you not to go running off into dangerous situations. You could've been hurt! Or killed!"

As Marcel pulled away from Klaus's wrist he thought it better not to tell Hayley about Hope's little incident with the wolves. His sister was in enough trouble already.

"She was unconscious when she got here," Freya tattled earning an intense glare from Marcel. "Marcel had to carry her in."

"It was just a bump on the head," Hope quickly defended. "One of the wolves-"

"Attacked you," Hayley spat. "That's what happens when you run in the middle of a war zone!"

"M-mom, I'm sorry," Hope stammered. Hayley's eyes exuded fear and anger and Hope didn't know which one of those she was more worried about. "I was just trying to help."

"We don't need your help, sweetheart," Klaus started to lecture as well. "You are just a little girl. You being out in the middle of a war would only put more of a burden on us."

Tears began to weld in Hope's eyes as both of her parents began to scold her. Usually, it was one or the other and most of the time Klaus was on her side. They'd never both been equally as mad at her.

Her shame of being singled out was soon replaced with anger.

"I helped Marcel fight those wolves," she asserted. "Tell them, Marcel."

Klaus's attention turned to Marcel and Marcel stood silent. He wanted to defend his sister but Hope was a burden on the battlefield just like Klaus said. He and Josh could've taken those wolves out a lot faster and with few to no bites at all if he wasn't so worried about protecting Hope.

"She...helped," Marcel finally said.

"It doesn't matter, Hope," Elijah bit. "We told you to stay at the Compound. If Marcel wasn't out looking for you in the first place, he wouldn't have needed your help. You are thirteen-years-old, you don't get to decide when to put your life in danger."

Frustrations boiling over, Hope jumped from the sofa and stood in front of her family with her arms crossed over her chest and a surly frown on her face. "I'm not just some little kid," she stamped. "I am a Tribrid! I'm a witch, a werewolf, and a vampire and I can take care of myself in battle."

"That's it," Hayley threw up her hands, giving up on trying to reason with her daughter. "I've had enough."

Hayley suddenly vamped away leaving everyone to wonder where she went. Moments later she reappeared in front of Hope holding the Brush.

"No, mommy, please," Hope muttered, taking slow steps away from her mother.

Hayley quickly grabbed the girl by the arm and sat back on the sofa, pulling Hope over her lap as she did. She wasted no time in raining down harsh stinging smacks to the seat of Hope's pants. Hope bit her lip trying to keep from crying out but the more Hayley tenderized her bottom with the brush the worse each smack felt. The moment she let a tear fall from her eyes she fell into sobs.

Marcel felt a sudden surge of secondhand embarrassment at watching his sister being punished in front of every inhabitant of the Compound. He wished he could step in and stop it but Hayley was her mother and it was not his place to try to stop her. He looked to Klaus, hoping he would step in but Klaus stared across at the Compound entrance, refusing to even look at the site.

When Hayley finally stopped Hope's face was covered in a layer of tears, snot, and slobber. As her mom sat her back to her feet, Hope vigorously wiped her face with the sleeves of her shirt but the tears kept coming so eventually she gave up on trying to wipe the tears away and just stood with her arms covering her face to hide her shame.

"Look at me," Hayley ordered, pulling Hope's arms away from her face and forcing her to look her in the eyes. Tears of her own burned Hayley's as she saw her daughter so broken and ashamed but she successfully kept them at bay. "You do not get to put yourself in danger ever again, do you understand me?"

"Y-yes, ma'am," Hope wept, fighting the urge to cover her face again from all the leering eyes.

"You are a child, Hope. You are not a soldier and you are not anyone's protector. We are yours but we can't protect you if you keep disobeying us."

"Yes, ma'am."

Feeling that her daughter had finally accepted the lesson she was trying to instill, Hayley reached out to hug her but Hope sped away from her to Marcel, burying her face against her brother's chest as she sobbed.

Hayley felt a rush of guilt flooding her but he quickly pushed it aside.

"Marcel, could you...take her to her room, please," Hayley asked.

Marcel lifted Hope in his arms and moved quickly to get her out of the sight of all the spectators who'd just witnessed her punishment.

"You did the right thing," Elijah muttered to Hayley, seeing the shame on the woman's face. "She was getting out of control. Sometimes a little embarrassment is needed to drive the point home. I should know, I've embarrassed my share of Mikaelsons over the years."

"She hates me," Hayley muttered.

"I am far from an expert," Freya said, "But I hear it's common for teenagers to hate their parents every once and a while. So...I guess, congratulations? She's normal."

"It could've been worse," Kol spoke. "Her friends could've been here...or she could've had it bare...or you could've made her stand in the corner afterward like someone...I once knew used to do to further the humiliation of his victims."

Elijah smirked at Kol's reference of him.

"Either way, it's over. Nothing you can do about it now, love, so you might as well be proud of your decision."

"Those wolves could've ripped her apart," Rebekah added. "But she seems to blind to the fact of her own mortality, you had no choice but to give her something to fear and as someone who's lived many teenage lives, I can assure you a bit of humiliation is the best way to get through to a teenage girl."

"They're right," Klaus finally spoke. "As much as it pains me to say, perhaps the fear of public humiliation is exactly what Hope needs to keep her from getting into more trouble."

Hayley felt comforted by the Mikaelsons all commending her choice to punish Hope publically. She knew Hope was going to be angry about it for days to come but she reminded herself that she was her mother, not her friend. It wasn't her job to be liked.

"Now then," Klaus said confidently. "About these wolves that currently threaten our city. We need more soldiers so, Freya, I need you to talk to Vincent. Tell him that any witch in his Sanctuary that will fight the wolves with us gets full immunity for their crimes and can return to their lives in the Quarter after the war is done."

Suddenly excited, Josh asked, "What about the vampires? I can convince some of them to fight if-"

"Excuse me," Klaus quickly cut him off, glaring at Josh as if he didn't belong. "But, what are you doing here?"

"I...I'm, uh," Josh looked over to Kol but as always, the Original seemed ashamed to look at him. "I came to help Marcel, uh, fight the werewolves."

"Well Marcel is safe, he doesn't need your help, so you may go."

"But...the wolves..."

Klaus smirked, not caring whether Travis's wolves ripped Josh apart or not. He knew Marcel would grieve over his friend's death but compared to Klaus, Marcel was still young. He had plenty of years to make new friends and grieve over each of their unfortunate, yet inevitable, deaths.

"Then you'd better be quick," Klaus mocked. "Don't let them catch you."

"Klaus," Elijah said warningly. "He's Marcel's friend."

"He's just a traitor in my eyes and I don't want him around while I'm making military decisions."

"You're being paranoid," Kol grunted. "What does he care how we fight the wolves? He wants them gone just as much as we do."

Klaus glared at Kol in disbelief. His brother had always been a proponent of violence so for him to take up for this strange vampire who could pose a threat to their family made Klaus even more paranoid.

"What do you care what happens to him?" Klaus growled.

Kol looked away, saying nothing. Klaus sped over to Josh and tightly grabbed him by the collar of his shirt causing Kol's eyes to widen with fear.

"Ah, so you do care about him," Klaus said. "What for? Has my traitorous brother been plotting behind my back again with the second most deceitful vampire I've ever met?"

"No one's plotting anything," Kol fervently denied. "He's just...he's my friend."

"And I'm supposed to believe that?" Klaus suddenly shoved his other hand into Josh's rib cage and grabbed his heart. "Tell me what you've been plotting with my brother or I'll kill you right here."

"Klaus, it's nothing!" Kol screamed. He never thought he'd be afraid of something happening to a vampire who wasn't his family. "He's just a friend, I swear. We're not plotting against you! I just...I just needed a friend who knew what it felt like to miss Davina and he is the only one I have. Please...don't do this."

"If you two were such close friends, why bother hiding it from me?"

"Because I know you! I knew you'd assume we were conspiring against you and I didn't want you to kill my...my friend, Klaus. Please! Let him go. We're not plotting, I swear, brother. Please."

Elijah walked over to Klaus and put a calming hand on his shoulder. "Let him go," he murmured in Klaus's ear. "Don't take this friendship away from him. He's our little brother. We should be protecting him from the grief of losing someone, not constantly adding to his pain."

Looking back at the pleading eyes of his younger brother, Klaus felt obligated to remove his hand from Josh's chest and drop him down to the hard ground.

"You are the luckiest man in the world," Klaus growled down at Josh. "You're the only vampire who isn't a Mikaelson that I'm not at liberty to kill."

Chapter Text

Chapter 25

"I can't believe she did that," Hope grunted as she paced anxiously in front of Marcel who was sitting on her bed pretending to listen to the girl's rambling while actually straining to listen in on the conversation happening in the courtyard. Hayley had ordered those of her wolves who were still capable of fighting to ward off Travis's wolves with the help of the witches that Vincent had rounded up. The sun was starting to come up and Travis's wolves would be turning back to their human form so, even though Travis had the numbers, they would soon gain the advantage.

"Hello," Hope sang, waving her hand in front of Marcel's blank stare. "Are you listening to me?"

"Not really," Marcel answered honestly with a sigh. "Aren't you tired yet? It's almost morning and you haven't slept a wink all night."

"How do you expect me to sleep after my mom just humiliated me in front of her entire werewolf army?"

"What did you expect," Marcel growled lowly. "You had her terrified, Hope. We were all terrified. I thought you were gonna get yourself killed out there." Although he felt bad for his sister, he didn't object to the way Hayley handled her punishment. It wasn't something Klaus had ever done to him, although he had threatened him with similar punishments since he returned to the Compound, but it was something Marcel thought Hope definitely deserved.

Hope stood with her jaw hanging in shock of Marcel's declaration.

"You're supposed to be on my side." She proclaimed.

"I'm on whichever side keeps you alive. It's my job as your big brother to protect you and bring you home safely. For normal older siblings, that job is easier than it sounds but it seems like I am constantly just pulling you out of the jaws of danger."

"You sound just like dad."

"Well, maybe Klaus is right in this case. You need to be more careful about what battles you charge into, Hope."

"I don't see what's the big deal," Hope shrugged, a huff of indignation escaping her lips as she did. "I'm a Tribrid. I'm practically indestructible."

"Practically does not mean totally," he barked, growing irritated at her obstinacy. "Just like being spanked by your mom hurt, if one of those wolves would've torn you limb from limb, you would've felt every second of that pain. And if they had..." Marcel paused at the heartache his thoughts brought him. "If they had ripped out your heart, you would've died, Hope. You can still die. You know that, don't you? Just like me, just like your mom."

Hope folded her arms over her chest and pouted. Of course she knew she was mortal. It was something her family never failed to remind her of but like most 13-year-olds the prospect of death seemed like something that could never happen to her.

"Can you please leave," she grunted.

"What? Now you're angry at me for telling you the truth?"

"I'm not angry," she said obviously angry. "Please go. I wanna be alone."

Marcel knew that Hope was only asking him to leave out of a fit of teenage angst over being scolded by her big brother so he stood up and left without her having to ask again. He hoped giving her a moment alone to ruminate over the dangers of her actions would help her see things their way.

Marcel went back to the banister overlooking the courtyard expecting to see Hayley's wolves scattered about it but was surprised by the absence of everyone but Freya. She stood at a table covered in a range of ingredients for another boundary spell.

"Where'd everyone go?" He yelled down to her.

"To fight a war," she replied coldly. "Where do you think?"

Marcel jumped down from the balcony onto the dusty ground. "I'm going to join the fight," he said walking toward the exit. "Keep an eye on Hope."

"I don't need you to remind me to keep an eye on my niece."

Marcel paused his gait to glare at Freya. With unhidden mockery, he said, "Now, you say that as if she didn't run away before while you were standing 5 feet away from her."

"I was as busy fending off the wolves. If you hadn't forced me to restrain you, you could've stopped her."

"Forced you to restrain me," he repeated incensed. "C'mon, Freya, let's not play games. We both know you've had it out for me ever since I came back. That's why you helped Kol with his little torture experiment in the basement."

"I wanted you gone, he said he was going to run you out of town, so yeah, I helped." Freya's anger slowly subsided. "But when I found out what he was doing to you...it made me sick. Marcel...I don't like you and I don't trust you and I don't know if I ever will but...I am sorry for my part in what happened to you down there. I prefer getting rid of my enemies in one swift move. Torture would not be the way I would've gone about it if it were up to me."

"Is that supposed to be some sort of apology?"

Freya nodded. "Guess I could've been more clear about that. I...I'm sorry for my part in your torture. It's not something I will ever agree to again."

Marcel stood silently, surprised by Freya's admission of guilt. Still, like with Kol, he didn't think she was deserving of forgiveness.

"Just keep an eye on Hope," he repeated as he started his stroll back out of the Compound. "I'll be back when the city is ours again."

-M-

Flashback:

New Orleans, 1915

The sound of Marcel's fist striking a potato sack full of sand hanging from the rafters echoed throughout the courtyard. He gave it a series of quick double jabs and then a powerful sidekick. As his foot made contact with the bag, the worn fabric ripped, spilling sand down to the dirt floor. This was the third makeshift punching bag he had gone through in the hour he'd been practicing his fighting skills but he was prepared. Two more bags waited against the wall.

"What do we have here," Klaus's voice rang out as he walked down the staircase towards Marcel. "Potato sacks filled with sand used to practice fighting? Quite innovative but if you don't mind me asking, why?"

"I'm training," Marcel answered coldly as he took down the shredded remains of the old bag and hung the new one in its place.

"What for? You're a vampire now, lad. You can easily overpower your opponents. You don't need to fight them."

"What if I meet an older vampire? I'll need to defend myself."

"That's what family's for, Marcellus. You know I wouldn't let an older vampire with even a hint of malicious intent anywhere near you."

Marcel focused his attention back on the bag in front of him, hitting it over and over until Klaus stood in front of it, staring down at him.

"I was talking to you, Marcellus. Don't be rude."

Marcel let out an exasperated huff. "You promised to stop trying to protect me."

"I promised to stop treating you like a child," Klaus corrected. "I will never stop trying to protect you."

"That's exactly why I need to train," Marcel said, walking around Klaus to the other side of the bag where he continued hitting it. "So I can become a better fighter and prove to you that I don't need you anymore."

Once again Klaus stepped between Marcel and the punching bag just as Marcel was about to throw a punch. Klaus caught Marcel's fist in his hand and held it tight as he looked into Marcel's eyes and said, "No matter what you call yourself, you are a Mikaelson and Mikaelsons will always need their family. Remember that."

Klaus released Marcel's fist and stomped away towards the staircase again.

"Train all you want," he yelled over his shoulder. "You're only wasting your time because I will always be there to protect you, Marcellus. Always and forever."

End Flashback

Klaus stood over the bloody corpses of dozens of dismembered werewolves. He watched as Hayley ripped the heart out of the last man in their area and his body fell to the ground. Once the wolves turned back to their human form defeating them all was only a matter of time.

The Mikaelsons had separated into different parts of the city in order to wipe out the werewolf infestation quicker. Kol and Rebekah went off to fight with half of Hayley's clan while Klaus and Hayley took the other half to fight on the other side of town. Elijah went with Vincent and the witches to create a barrier around the city to keep any more of Travis's wolves from entering.

"That's the last of them," Hayley announced, wiping her hands on her blood-soaked shirt. "How do you think the others are doing?"

"Just fine, love," Rebekah's voice called from the top of the building overlooking the massacre.

Kol stood beside her with the wide grin of a Cheshire Cat. "We've been waiting for you lot to finish for half a bloody hour."

"That's because we gave you the easy half of the city," Klaus chuckled. Klaus and Hayley lept to the top of the building with the other two Mikaelsons. "Where's your little friend, Joshua? He didn't fare too well against the wolves?"

Kol rolled his eyes at Klaus's taunting. "I escorted him back across the river. The city was festering with venomous beasts and he is but one vampire against an army. Either he would've died fighting or I would've spent the entire battle watching out for him which would've only made fighting this degenerate filth more annoying."

"Good call," Klaus added patronizingly. "I assume you disposed of your share of the wolves."

Rebekah nodded. "Everyone we didn't rip to pieces, we made swear never to return to New Orleans again."

"You left survivors," he growled. "Since when do we let our enemies live?"

"Since we returned to this city and swore to turn over a new leaf. You want to be seen as a just and benevolent King, don't you? What better way than to spare the lives of soldiers of the man who tried to take over your city."

Klaus gritted his teeth. As much as he wanted his kingdom to adore him, he was too overwrought with anger to view releasing enemy soldiers as anything but a sign of weakness.

Elijah suddenly appeared in the midst of his siblings before Klaus could bite off Rebekah's head for showing Travis's men any amount of mercy.

"The barrier is around the city. I also had Vincent do a spell to trace any of Travis's wolves who may still be hiding within our borders and he found none. None living, anyway. I think it's safe to say that we are through our rebel-wolf-pack-problem. At least for now."

"And what about Travis?" Klaus asked. "Any sign of him?"

"None. I don't think he actually ever came into the city."

"Well that's disappointing," Everyone turned to see Marcel standing on the other side of the roof. He wore a cocky half-smirk on his face as he slowly strolled over to the Mikaelsons. "I was hoping to join in the fight. I only got to kill twelve of those backwoods dogs on my way here. Lucky for me they were all ex-wolves of your pack, Hayley, so they really put up a fight."

Klaus's eyes grew hard as he stared at Marcel. He didn't like the idea of Marcel out fighting Travis's men since some of Hayley's ex-wolves were now a part of Travis's pack and could shift at will which meant that even though the sun was rising and all of his wolves were human again, there was still a chance of Marcel getting bit.

Since he had promised Marcel to be civil and treat him like an adult capable of taking care of himself, Klaus forced a smile onto his face. "That's twelve more than I would've liked but congratulations. I suppose you need some of my blood now."

Marcel stretched his arms out to his side so everyone could see his flawless skin. There wasn't a scratch on him.

"Not this time," he stated proudly. "I told you I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself when I'm not trying to protect a stubborn little teenage Mikaelson."

"Well," Klaus took slow, deliberate steps towards Marcel, eyeing him up and down as he did in search for any wolf bites Marcel might have missed. "You never cease to impress me. You took on a dozen wolves and came through the fires of combat without a single scratch on you. You certainly have the spirit of an Original even if you don't have the blood."

Klaus wrapped his arms around Marcel and gave him a quick hug. When they pulled apart, Marcel stared at his father with confusion etched clearly across his face.

"What was that for?" He muttered.

Suddenly feeling flustered by his blatant display of emotion, Klaus crossed his arms over his chest and said, "I'm still not...completely on board with the idea of you risking your life to fight wolves so I just needed to...hug you to make sure you were indeed alright and you were so...I'm satisfied."

Marcel's smile grew wide as he watched Klaus's face bashfully contort with the embarrassment of needing to show his son affection.

"Alright," Kol spoke up, drawing everyone's attention to him. "Now that all the wolves are dead and the city is safe from being overtaken by someone other than a Mikaelson, it's time for me to leave."

"And where are you going?" Klaus asked as Kol turned to walk towards the edge of the building.

"I'm leaving the city," Kol grumbled back at him. "I agreed to stay only long enough to help fend off the wolves to protect my niece. The wolves are gone, now so am I. I need a break from this wretched family for a few centuries. Call me when you've lost that pest, Marcel."

Marcel gritted his teeth at Kol's proclamation. He wanted to angrily spit back with his own venomous tongue but he decided to take Kol's departure as victory enough. He had his family, his city, and Kol had nothing. He had won and Kol knew it.

"Marcel's not going anywhere and neither are you," Klaus grunted. "You always pretend to run away but in reality you end up hiding out in some beautiful city with charming women, like Paris or Venice, all the while taking your lechery out on the local quarry. But you're always back within the decade so why don't you skip this little tantrum and fall back in line and do as you're told."

"Klaus," Elijah bit frustratedly. He wanted to keep his family together but all Klaus's taunting was serving to do was push their brother further away.

Just as frustrated, Kol spun around to face his irritating older brother, barking, "I'm not one of your little wolf lackeys, Klaus, and I'm not your lover-boy, Marcel. I don't have to do what you say."

"Hey, keep me out of this," Marcel interrupted.

"Then stay out of it," Kol yelled back. "I wasn't talking to you."

"And yet you can't seem to keep my name out of your mouth."

"Aw yeah? Well, how about I put my foot in your mouth."

As Kol and Marcel stared each other down, their clenched fists and bared fangs clearly indicating their overwhelming anger towards each other, Klaus squared his shoulders to Kol's, prepared to attack him if Kol looked like he was going to make so much as a move towards Marcel.

"Let's put the fangs away, gentlemen, and calm down," Elijah said calmly making his way between Kol and Marcel. "Kol, you're not going anywhere. I said this family is staying together and I meant it."

"I'm not staying in the same household as him," Kol bellowed, wagging his finger towards Marcel. "You all have to choose right now. It's either him or me. One of us has to go and if you choose him this time then know that I am never coming back."

"Enough of the Unloved-Mikaelson routine. You are our brother. We care about you and you're not going to just abandon your family because of whatever insecurities you have about Marcel."

Kol's eyes furrowed deeply as the snarl on his face grew. "I have no interest in being in this family as long as he is still in it."

As Kol turned to walk away, Elijah sped in front of him. They stood inches from each other. Elijah's heated breath blew threateningly from his flared nostrils against Kol's face.

"I'm not going to let you abandon this family," His harrowing voice rumbled.

"You can't stop me, Elijah,"

Elijah suddenly grabbed Kol by the waist and lifted him over his shoulder.

"Let me go!" Kol screamed, trying to push himself off of Elijah.

Elijah walked to the edge of the building, his arm wrapped tightly around Kol's thrashing body. "Clean up this mess," he yelled back at the others. "We'll meet you back at the Compound."

Elijah disappeared as soon as he made his declaration.

"Who put him in charge?" Klaus grunted.

-M-

"You're back," Freya said as she released the barrier around the Compound to let Elijah and Kol in. She was surprised to see Elijah still carrying Kol over his shoulder and even more surprised by the way Elijah didn't seem to think it was worth mentioning as he walked through the door. Kol was still putting up a small struggle against his brother but he had mostly resigned to his position.

"Where's Hope," he asked, toting Kol over to the staircase.

"Sh-she's sleeping," Freya stammered. "What are you doing?"

Firmly, Elijah replied, "I'm going to have an important talk with our little brother. See that we are not disturbed."

Freya knew what their talk was going to entail and she let out a heavy sigh of relief. She hoped Elijah's efforts in getting through to Kol would fare far better than her's.

Once in Kol's room, Elijah threw his younger brother on the bed and shut the door behind him.

"You can't force me to stay here, Elijah," Kol barked as he jumped back up to his feet. "As soon as you leave me alone, I'm gone."

Elijah remained calm through Kol's turmoil. He slid his jacket off and draped it smoothly across the dresser. "I have my ways of keeping you here."

"You can't stay by my side forever, Elijah."

"And I won't have to." Elijah began moving slowly over to Kol. "For some reason, baby brother, you think yourself unloved in this family. You think that any of us would just stand by and watch you break the bond that has held this family together for a thousand years. You can't just toss aside a promise of always and forever just because it has become inconvenient for you."

"That's just it, Elijah! That damn promise. If we had never made it you lot would've abandoned me a long time ago. Admit it."

"I will admit no such thing because it isn't true. If you think we stand by you out of some sense of rueful duty, you are sadly mistaken. We stand by you and we care for you because you are our brother. Because we were once children who played together. Because you survived the same hellish parents that we did. Do you understand?"

Kol's angry demeanor did not pass. His tightly held fist twitched with agitation. "If you really cared about me then get rid of Marcel. He doesn't belong here. He's not a Mikaelson."

"For all intents and purposes, he is. He is Klaus's son which makes him a Mikaelson. One would think that after all these years you would've gotten used to that by now."

"I don't want him here, Elijah," Kol barked, slamming his fist down on the dresser beside him with enough force to split the antique maple wood. "Either he goes or I go. Choose."

Growing tired of arguing with his brother about the same thing, Elijah sighed and began rolling up his shirt sleeves. "I care about you Kol, I really do," he said as he loosened his tie and undid the top button of his shirt. "So know that I do this out of love."

Kol opened his mouth to ask Elijah what he was doing but before he could get a word out, Elijah sat on the bed and pulled him over his knee.

"Elijah, wait," he begged, fighting harder to get back to his feet then than he did to get from over Elijah's shoulder. "Please! Don't do this."

Elijah had an arm wrapped around Kol's body to keep him in place as he began raining down harsh smacks over the seat of his pants. "You cannot just wiggle your way out of your family like you do everything else. We are here for each other through the rough times and the good, always and forever. Do you understand me? Marcel is family and that means you will learn to get along with him or you two will learn to tolerate each other's presence until the time should come when you cease to loathe each other."

Kol clenched his jaw shut attempting to remain silent during the ordeal while tears freely ran down his face. "I...can't," he said through gritted teeth.

"You can," Elijah replied, landing another powerful smack to his brother's bottom. "And you will because this is where you will find yourself each and every time I find you trying to abandon this family."

Elijah landed a strategic, heavy smack to Kol's upper thigh and Kol found himself grappling for breath. Another heavy-handed spank from Elijah and Kol let out a wretched sob. Elijah continued to land spank after spank until Kol was wailing uncontrollably.

He stood up, pulling Kol to his feet with him so that they were standing eye to eye.

"You will not try to abandon this family again and you will accept Marcel's place in this family."

"No," Kol sobbed. "He doesn't belong here! He's not one of us."

"Is this your way of asking for another trip across my knee? Perhaps this time without the protective layer of your trousers?"

"He won't forgive me." Kol blurted out before he could stop himself. He immediately sealed his lips together afterward, ashamed of his admission.

"Who won't?" Elijah asked.

Kol remained silent, determined to take the shame of his regret to the grave.

Frustrated with his brother's stubbornness, Elijah said, "Two choices, brother. You can tell me now or you can tell me after a little further prompting over my knee. Your choice."

Staring down at the floor, tears dripping down his cheeks, Kol whispered, "Marcel. He won't forgive me. I've done everything short of begging him on my hands and knees and he still won't forgive me. You all have forgiven me for far worse crimes against this family. Finn murdered me and I hate him far less than Marcel hates me. That's why I don't want him here. I'm probably going to betray this family again in some seemingly unforgivable way at some point and you all are going to hate me again and Marcel's going to take your vulnerable state to his advantage and convince you to get rid of me once and for all so I'd rather leave now while it's still my choice rather than wait for you all to turn your backs on me."

Elijah wrapped his arms around Kol's shoulders and pulled him into a tight embrace. Kol buried his face in the crook of Elijah's neck and sobbed, soaking the collar of Elijah's shirt with his tears. Elijah whispered soft shushes into his brother's ear until Kol's harsh sobs became quieted sniffles.

"You're not going anywhere," Elijah promised. "You are my little brother and I'm not going to let anyone push you out of this family. This is where you belong. We are all we have in this world."

"But what about Marcel?"

"Marcel will forgive you. Whether it happens tomorrow or a century from now, he will forgive you. He's a Mikaelson, it's in his nature to forgive his family."

Chapter Text

Chapter 26

Flashback:

Kol searched the entire Compound for Marcel. It was the day before his 18th birthday and Kol wanted to spend the day with him because he knew Klaus was going to occupy all of Marcel's time on his birthday and he wouldn't be able to have any fun with his best friend.

He found Marcel in the middle of the woods tying together a makeshift punching bag made out of a bedsheet filled with dirt.

"What are you doing?" Kol asked as he watched his friend throw the other end of the rope over a tree branch and hoisting the heavy bag up leveled with his chest.

"It's my new creation," Marcel said proudly. "I use it to practice fighting."

"And why would you need to practice fighting," Kol mocked. "Klaus would kill anyone who even thought about raising a hand to you."

"But I should still know how to fight. Boys younger than me know how to fight. I can't be a man and protect my family if I can't fight. Besides, poppa isn't going to be around forever."

"Try convincing him of that." Kol laughed. He walked over to Marcel's punching bag and eyed it. He remembered the time before he was a vampire when he and his brothers made a similar contraption to hone their sword fighting skills. "This is pretty good. But, y'know, this thing doesn't hit back." He punched through the bag with all his vampire might and it burst into a million pieces. "Certainly hope that wasn't the good linen, mate. Elijah would kill us both."

"Kol!" Marcel screamed as pieces of the bag fluttered to the ground. "Now I have to go back and get another sheet."

"C'mon, can't you do this some other day? Tomorrow's your birthday. Let's go celebrate."

"It's not my real birthday," Marcel groaned. "It's just the anniversary of the day poppa took me in."

"Well, it's the day you were born a Mikaelson so close enough. Let's go find some beautiful witches and start your celebration early."

"I wanted to improve my fighting skills," Marcel groaned. He examined the pieces of fabric scattering the ground and realized just how strong Kol was. He would definitely make a formidable opponent. "Didn't your father teach you how to fight before your family became vampires?"

"Sure did. I also spent about 40 years in a monastery training with Shaolin monks once because I...got on your dear-ol'-dad's bad side and didn't want to get a dagger in me and at the time, that monastery was pretty much unknown."

"That's perfect," Marcel exclaimed. "Then you can teach me to fight."

Kol smirked, quickly responding, "There's no way that's ever happening, mate."

"Please, Kol! I really want to learn how to fight but poppa won't teach me."

"What about those fencing lessons you have with him and Rebekah."

"Oh yeah, that's really going to come in handy if I'm ever face to face with someone who wants to bash my skull in. I'll just grab one of the many convenient sabres that you can find lying anywhere and fight back with that."

Kol shrugged. "Maybe you could tote one around with you like some sort of...mix-raced French Samurai."

"Kol," Marcel whined.

"I'm sorry, Marcel. Although I do think a man should know how to defend himself, if I hurt you, Klaus would rip my head off. And I mean that quite literally."

"You could never hurt me. You care about me too much. I'm your only friend."

Kol chuckled at Marcel's lighthearted joke and how true it actually was. He didn't want to teach Marcel to fight because he was his only friend and if Klaus did find out that he was teaching him to fight, Kol was afraid he'd get a dagger in him and wake up a century from then when Marcel was long dead and he would be alone with Klaus, Elijah, and Rebekah - the trio that never failed to leave him feeling like an outcast in his own family.

"Marcel...if Klaus found out-"

"He'll never find out, I promise."

With a sigh, Kol shook his head and looked deeply into Marcel's eyes. "Forget about wanting to learn to fight. All you want to do today is drink with your best mate and kiss pretty girls." Ending the compulsion, Kol stepped back from Marcel and said, "So what do you say, mate? What do you want to do to celebrate your birthday?"

Marcel's lips slowly curled into a wide grin. "I think I wanna drink and meet some of those witches you were talking about. Do you think you can sneak a bottle of bourbon out of the Compound without poppa finding out?"

Proud of his compulsion working, Kol said, "You're speaking to the Master of Mischief himself. Of course, I can."

End Flashback

The morning sun peeked through the sheer curtains in Rebekah's bedroom, stirring Marcel awake. His arm automatically reached for the empty space beside him. He opened his eyes to see Rebekah sitting on the edge of the bed, sliding her shirt over her soft skin. As she swept her golden locks over her shoulder, Marcel got a clear view of the sun illuminating her beautiful profile.

Sensing the man behind her waking up, Rebekah said, "Good, you're awake. Now get out of here before Niklaus wakes up."

"Y'know, I'm too hot for you to be so ashamed of being seen in daylight with me?" Marcel droned as he sat up straight, resting against the headboard as he continued to admire the beauty of the woman he loved. "Keep this up and I'll develop a complex."

Rebekah leaned over and kissed his supple lips. Pulling away from her gentle lover, she said, "Don't want Klaus to walk in on his little sister in bed with his adopted son."

Marcel cringed at her statement. "You Mikaelson women have a knack for making that sound wrong."

"If loving you is wrong..." Rebekah joked with a bright smile.

Marcel moved behind her, pulling her back against his chest as he kissed lightly against her neck. "So," he muttered between kisses up to her chin. "You love me."

Rebekah craned her neck around to Marcel and pressed her lips against his. "I've loved you for two hundred years, you beautiful fool."

"Then lie back down and spend the day right here with me. Klaus already knows about us. You don't need to kick me out at sunrise anymore."

"You told Klaus about us?" She barked, spinning around to face him.

Marcel sat back away from the angry Mikaelson and said, "You're mad, I know, but I had to. I love you and I don't want to have to keep hiding my love from Klaus or anyone else."

"When did you tell him?" Rebekah jumped to her feet.

Marcel shrugged. "About two weeks ago. The night Travis's wolves invaded."

"Tw...two weeks ago? Klaus has known about us for two weeks and neither of you thought to mention anything to me?"

"I knew you'd be angry...so I thought I'd wait for a good time to tell you. Clearly, this was not a good time."

"You're right! I'm furious. I've been walking around pretending like everything's the same old same when this whole time Klaus has known that you've been sneaking into my bed every night."

"Well, if it's any consolation I don't think he really knows the details. I just told him that I love you and that I want to be with you and he didn't fly into a blinding rage like usual so I assumed that meant we had his blessing."

Panicked, Rebekah began to pace the room. "Or he's waiting for the right opportunity to put a dagger in me. Perhaps he's waiting for us to get nice and comfortable in each other's love again. He wants to make sure that I'm at my happiest before he snatched that happiness away from me once again."

"If he was going to dagger you he would have by now," Marcel said trying to calm her down. "He hasn't so, obviously, he accepts us."

As angry as Rebekah was at Marcel for telling Klaus about them and keeping it a secret from her for two weeks, she couldn't help but wonder if he was right. Did Klaus really accept them? Was she finally free to find peace with the man she loved?

A rapping on her door caused both of them to jump in shock.

"Rebekah," Klaus's voice called through the door. "Family meeting in the study in ten minutes. Something important's come up."

Rebekah stared wide-eyed at Marcel. She quietly mouthed, 'Does he know you're in here?'

As Marcel shrugged his uncertainty, Klaus said, "Bring Marcellus too. This involves every vampire in this household."

Marcel smirked as they listened to Klaus's footsteps move down the hall. "See," he said haughtily. "And you were afraid he was going to dagger you."

-M-

Rebekah and Marcel walked into the study together, side by side. Rebekah's heart fluttered as her hand brushed against Marcel's. For the first time, she was able to stand next to the man she loved without the fear of having a dagger shoved into her heart. Marcel took her hand into his just as they walked through the threshold of the study. As he walked in he expected the looks he got from the other Mikaelsons - the looks of surprise and/or approval. What he wasn't expecting to see was the body of a young man lying in the middle of the floor, his big brown eyes wide open and staring up at the ceiling. His head lying separately from his stiff, heartless body.

"A bloody body on the floor before breakfast," Rebekah ridiculed. "Some things never change."

"Don't be so rude, sister," Klaus said condescendingly. "This is my new friend, Drew. I met him last night as I was getting a bite to eat. So was he."

"You found a vampire within the border?" Freya questioned.

"Not only was he in the border, he was in the Quarter. My Quarter. The Quarter where my daughter roams freely. The Quarter I allow her to roam freely in because I assumed that it was free from any possible threats to her safety, including ravenous vampires."

"That's impossible. I have a boundary spell around the perimeter of New Orleans that alerts me the second any Supernatural being enters or exits the city. I would've known the moment a new vampire entered New Orleans."

Klaus's eyes knitted together. "So that means someone turned a vampire inside of my city?" His fuming glare immediately fell upon Kol.

Immediately knowing what his brother suspected, Kol growled, "Why are you looking at me?"

"Let me think. Who among us is notorious for his lack of patrimonial loyalty and his unwavering duplicity?"

"You mean besides Marcellus."

Marcel's face remained stoic, hiding his guilt. He recognized the dead vampire before them. He had turned the young man himself. He was one of the new vampires he had turned over the past two weeks. He warned his new vampires to stay hidden in Algiers and to never enter the Quarter but apparently Drew was about as obedient to his leader as Marcel was to Klaus.

"There you go again," Klaus grunted, his fierce eyes burning into Kol. "Trying to turn me against my son." His yellow eyes shined with fury and his hybrid teeth dripped their venom. He sped over to Kol and grabbed him, his slender fingers wrapped around his brother's neck, keeping him in place. "Perhaps a few days with my venom coursing through your insignificant veins will help you learn your lesson."

"Niklaus, that's enough," Elijah barked. "Let him go."

"I don't think so, Elijah. First, he turns a new vampire behind my back, then he tries to blame Marcellus for his treachery. Who knows how many other vampires he has turned. Are you building an army to try to take my city away from me?" His grip tightened around Kol's neck. "I should rip your throat out."

Suddenly Elijah sped between his brothers and shoved Niklaus away from Kol.

"What would Kol do with an army?" Freya asked, frustrated by her brother's endless cycle of distrust of his family. "This is his city too. He gets everything he wants, he lives how he wants. There's only one thing that he wants that he can't have and having an army of stupid baby vampires is not going to get her back to him."

"Then you explain where this filth lying on my floor came from," Klaus demanded.

"You ever think maybe he escaped from Vincent's Sanctuary?"

"Thought of that first but Vincent doesn't seem to recognize this one. Even after I chopped off the lad's head and threw it through the window of the church. Vincent couldn't find any record of this vampire ever living under his protection. So, please, waste more time thinking of more rubbish explanations when we all know that Kol has once again betrayed this family!"

"I didn't turn this vampire," Kol yelled. "I didn't betray anyone!"

"Shut up," Klaus demanded. "I don't want to hear another word from you unless it's the truth."

"Maybe he was always here," Rebekah continued trying to think of other possible solutions for the appearance of the new vampire in the hopes of calming Klaus down so there wouldn't be any bloodshed. "Maybe he's been living under the radar in the Quarter since we returned this whole time and last night he just slipped up and ran into the loathsome, paranoid Mikaelson."

"She's right," Marcel immediately agreed. "About the vampire, I mean. I...I remember him. Yeah...he was, uh...one of my newer converts. A bit antisocial. He liked living in an empty warehouse by the docks. Maybe you just overlooked him when you ran all of my men out of New Orleans."

Marcel feigned confidence in his lie in order to convince Klaus that he was telling the truth.

"There we go," Hayley stated. "A vampire hiding away in an overlooked warehouse. If it'll make you feel better, I'll have my wolves search every nook and cranny of every empty warehouse in the city to find any lingering vampires."

When Klaus's tightly knitted eyebrows relaxed, so did everyone else.

"If they find any," Niklaus growled as he strolled towards the door. "Bring them to me. I want to kill every one of them with my own hands."

"I don't get an apology?" Kol yelled as Klaus walked out of the room. Klaus kept walking as if he didn't hear a thing. "Bastard!"

"Kol," Elijah bit. "That's enough. Let him be."

"He was going to bite me, Elijah. He didn't care to investigate who really turned that vampire, he had already made up his mind that it was me. I'm always guilty until proven innocent! Every time!"

"I know, Kol. I'm sorry. I'll speak with him."

"I'm sure that'll make a difference. Klaus is always receptive to a good talking-to." Kol sped out the room, infuriated.

Elijah released a heavy sigh of frustration and Hayley came to his side. She placed a gentle hand on his chest and said, "Let's go. You need to relax. I'll give the order to my wolves and then you and I can go take a nice, relaxing bubble bath."

Elijah cupped her cheek in his hand and kissed her. "That's exactly what I need."

As Elijah and Hayley walked out of the room, Rebekah reached for Marcel's hand and said, "I'm feeling a little stressed myself. How about you and I go take one of those relaxing bubble baths together."

"No," Marcel muttered. Rebekah stared in shock at his response. Even if he didn't really want to take a bath with her, she didn't expect him to be so blunt about it. "I...I have to go," he leaned over and kissed her lips. "When I come back, we can do whatever you want."

"Where are you going?" Rebekah yelled at his retreating back but he was gone before he could answer her.

"Seems like he was in a bit of a rush," said Freya. "Where do you think he's going?"

Rebekah stared at the open door Marcel had sped through only moments before, wondering the same thing. "He must have...something important to do."

"Something Klaus knows about?"

"Don't tell Klaus," Rebekah begged, turning a pleading eye to her sister. "You saw how he acted with Kol. I don't want him to start acting that way towards Marcel again."

"Rebekah, I know he's your boyfriend but if he's planning to betray this family again-"

"He's not planning to betray us."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I know the man I love, dear sister, and I would know before anyone if he was planning something."

"Are you sure about that?"

Rebekah turned back to the open door as if she was waiting for Marcel to walk back through it at any moment. A moment that never came. She remembered all the nights she woke in the past two weeks with Marcel missing from her side. She always assumed that he had snuck back to his bedroom but then the next morning he would be mysteriously by her side again acting as if nothing ever happened. She always thought it was suspicious but she was blinded by love. She refused to believe that after all they'd been through Marcel would do anything to hurt his family again.

"Don't tell Niklaus," she repeated. "Whatever Marcel's up to...it's alright. I know it is. He wouldn't dare betray this family again."

Marcel walked briskly through the Compound on his way out. He was hoping to get out of the Compound before anyone spotted him but unlucky for him Hope was looking for a little attention from her big brother.

"Marcel," Hope sped in front of Marcel just as he made it to the Courtyard. Her arms were crossed over her chest as she glared daggers at her quickly escaping brother. "Where are you going?"

"I...need to see Josh."

"Good. We can go see that new street artist everyone' been talking about that you promised to take me to see...last week."

"I can't today, Hope. I need to go see Josh alone. I'll take you to see your little street show tomorrow."

Marcel tried to walk around Hope but she vamped back in his path. "You've been putting off hanging out with me all week."

"I've been busy."

"Busy with Aunt Rebekah?"

Marcel released an exasperated sigh. In the past two weeks, Hope has been pinning for his attention and as much as Marcel wanted to be the brother he was to her when he was in his teenage body, he had been too busy handling other matters over the past two weeks to spend any real quality time with his little sister.

He leaned down and kissed her forehead. "I could never resist a jealous Mikaelson woman," he smirked. "I promise when I'm through with my business with Josh, you and I will feast on greasy street food and enjoy whatever artist you want to view."

Hope let out a long, drawn-out groan. "Fine," she resigned when Marcel didn't fall victim to her brattiness. "I'll give you two hours with Josh but then I want the rest of the day, without Aunty Bex. Deal?"

Hope held out her hand, her pinky extended, and waited for Marcel to do the same.

With a smile, Marcel wrapped his pinky around Hope's and said, "Deal."

-M-

The three vampires living in Josh's apartment managed to make as much ruckus as two dozen. When Marcel came through the door, they joyously greeted him, eternally grateful to the man who found them as individual lost souls and brought them together as an immortal family.

"Marcel," a green-eyed vampire in a denim jacket was dancing on the kitchen counter with a beer in one hand and a blood bag in the other until his fearless leader came in the door. He jumped down from the counter and sped over to Marcel's side. "You're back! Please tell me you brought more beer. We're down to the last six-pack and all Josh has is Bourbon. I hate Bourbon."

"No," Marcel mumbled. "I thought you would all be asleep when I got here. I told you, Zane, you need to sleep in the daytime and wake at night."

"Lora woke me."

"Did not," barked a petite girl with silky curls that fell down her back. She was holding a small device in her hand that changed the song blaring from the speakers with every flick of her finger.

Another girl with short black hair sat in a chair in the corner reading from an encyclopedia of communicable diseases. "You did so," she stated loudly. "You woke us all up with that damn music. Everyone but Josh. He could sleep through a nuclear bomb."

"Gwen, put the book down and come here, please. Lora, turn off the music. I need to talk to you all about something."

"I don't mean to be a tattletale," Gwen started as she sat the book on the table and walked over to Marcel. "But I think whatever you're about to say should wait until you go find Drew. He left right after you last night and he hasn't been back since. He probably got caught up on feeding on someone and got trapped somewhere by the sun."

"Ohhh," Lora joked. "He's only been here six days and already Drew's the biggest troublemaker of the four of us. He's definitely last in line to get a daylight ring."

"Drew is what...he's what I need to talk to you about." Marcel took a deep breath and moved between the three young vampires. "...Drew was killed last night."

A hush fell amongst the three vampires.

"Wh...what do you mean?" Zane stammered. "Who...how...why?"

"It's a long story." Marcel walked over to the bar and grabbed a bottle of bourbon and four glasses. Pouring bourbon in all four glasses, he said, "I know you don't like bourbon but perhaps you'll make an exception this time. Let's drink in honor of our fallen brother."

The three vampires circled the bar, each taking a glass of bourbon.

"Six days ago," Marcel started his solemn speech. "I found a homeless boy, a runaway from an abusive father and a drunken mother. He had no one and when I found him he was in the process of drinking himself into a coma in the bayou hoping that the Gators would do the work of ending his life so that he wouldn't have to face another day alone. I saved him. I brought him into our family. And last night he died for the final time. But he did not die alone. He died loved by each and every one of us and with him went a little part of us. To Drew," Marcel held up his glass and the others did the same.

Marcel drank from his glass but the others did not.

"Who could kill him?" Lora asked with tears in her eyes. "He-he's a vampire. Who...who could've...who could've..."

Marcel took another sip of bourbon and said, "He was found in the Quarter last night by Klaus Mikaelson."

Gwen shook her head in disbelief. "Klaus? Your father Klaus?"

"Yes, my father Klaus. I told you all that he has banned vampires from New Orleans but as long as you stay out of the Quarter you should be safe. Actually...I think that you all should stay indoors for the next week or so until I say it's safe. Hayley's werewolves are going on a vampire hunt and they've been ordered to bring any vampires they find to Klaus and if I know Klaus he is not going to make your end swift or painless."

Josh came out of his room just as Marcel was warning them about the werewolves.

"Wait...what's Klaus doing to vampires?" Josh asked surprised.

"Don't worry, you're safe. You've already been pardoned from him, remember."

Before Josh could relax in relief, Gwen blurted, "Klaus killed Drew."

Josh's mouth fell slack. "Wh...when," he managed to mutter.

"Last night," Marcel answered. "Klaus found Drew feeding in the Quarter and he ripped his heart out."

"We have to retaliate," Lora insisted. "We can't let him get away with this."

"You have to," Marcel stated. "Klaus is a thousand years your senior and he holds no remorse for killing those outside of his family."

"Then we will turn more vampires." Zane declared. "We will turn a thousand vampires to fight that thousand-year-old asshole."

Marcel cringed at the memory of the last time he tried to bring an army to fight Klaus. The invincible Original made quick work of his century-old friends, he knew a thousand baby vamps would die twice as quickly, especially now that Klaus had the entire Mikaelson clan by his side.

"We don't need to fight Klaus," said Marcel calmly. "I will talk to him. I will convince him to let the vampires back in the Quarter again and once I do you all can come out of hiding."

"What was the point of turning us if you didn't want to use us to fight Klaus," Gwen barked. "Are we supposed to just cower in the shadows away from the Mikaelsons for the rest of eternity?"

"I turned you to give you a gift. When I found you, you were all lost or in pain and contemplating taking your own lives to end your suffering. I turned you into immortal beings and made you a part of our family. I want you to live but if you ever try to go up against any of the Mikaelsons, they will kill you without hesitation. Let me speak to Klaus. He will listen to me. You three will be fine. I promise."

The three young vampires marched angrily away from Marcel. Their minds were flooded with feelings of fear and disappointment. Fear of Klaus and Hayley's werewolf army hunting them down and killing them like they'd done Drew and disappointment in Marcel for failing to be a leader who could protect them.

Marcel could feel their hateful stares burning into him and he could no longer stand it. As he opened the front door to leave, Kol stood on the other side of it, his fist raised as if he was just about to knock before Marcel opened the door.

"Ugh," Kol grunted upon seeing Marcel standing in the doorway. "Of course you're here too."

"Kol," Josh sped to the door, blocking Kol's view of the three vampires standing in the middle of the room surrounded by clumsily discarded blood bags. "I thought we agreed to meet at the restaurant."

"Yeah," Kol said trying to brush past Marcel and Josh but the two locked shoulders so Kol had to stand at the door. "But I had to get away from my lunatic brother for a while so I decided to meet you at your place today. Uh...care to step aside you two?"

"No," Josh answered quickly. "Let's just go to the restaurant."

Kol raised a confused eyebrow as he looked down at Josh's blue silk pajamas. "Are you going to get dressed first?" He asked.

"Um...this is what I'm wearing," Josh smirked. "It's the latest trend in France. You've been away too long to keep up with fashion."

"That may be," Kol said as he gruffly pushed his way past Marcel and Josh. "But I'm not going out with a man who looks like he's dressed for bed."

At first sight of the three vampires, Kol thought nothing of them. They looked like normal college-aged kids so he assumed that they were just a few friends of Josh's and he suddenly felt embarrassed at pushing his way into the room. Then he began to sense something strange about them. The blood bags scattered across the floor confirmed his suspicions.

"What is this," he growled, spinning around to Josh and Marcel.

"Kol, I can explain," Josh said.

"Oh, I think I can figure things out quite well on my own. You've been making vampires behind my back."

"I've been making vampires," Marcel said confidently. "I turned them all with my own blood. Josh had nothing to do with it."

"You?" Kol smirked maniacally. "You turned these vampires? The headless one in the study this morning, that was one of yours too?"

"He was," Marcel admitted. "I turned him six days ago, not years ago like I said."

Kol gripped Marcel's shirt collar and slammed him against the wall. The three young vampires all bared their fangs at the stranger who dared come into their home and manhandle their sire.

Ignoring the threat of the baby vamps, Kol focused his attention on Marcel. "You were going to let him bite me when you knew that I didn't turn that vampire. You were going to let me suffer the consequences of your mistake!"

"I wasn't going to let him bite you," Marcel growled. "I was trying to think of a better explanation than the truth."

Kol released Marcel, a thought suddenly occurring to him. "That's right," he chuckled to himself. "You lied to Klaus. You broke a rule. Not only that...you've been making vampires behind his back. You have once again proven your disloyalty to this family. This...this is it. This is what's going to get you banished from this family once and for all."

Josh moved between Kol and Marcel, blocking Marcel from the crazed sight of Kol. "Kol, please," he muttered. "Don't tell Klaus about the vampires. We were trying to build an army against the wolves, not against your family. You saw the numbers Travis has. It's not fair that there are that many wolves around here and a hand full of us vampires."

Another thought crossed Kol's mind as Josh spoke. Josh was an accomplice to Marcel's crimes. Kol knew the worst Klaus would do to Marcel was banish him but Josh would receive so much worse. Klaus would make sure he suffered as an example to anyone else who ever thought of betraying the Mikaelsons before finally killing him.

"You," Kol's voice came out low and gritty. "You should not have been a part of this. Klaus will rip you to pieces."

"Klaus isn't going to do anything to him," Gwen spoke out angrily. "We're not going to stand by and let you Mikaelsons kill our people off."

Kol was boiling over with rage. He wanted to take every ounce of his anger out on someone. He wouldn't hurt Josh and he couldn't hurt Marcel but when Gwen spoke, he realized that there were three people in the room that he could do whatever he wanted to.

Turning to the three vampires, Kol sped over to Gwen and shoved his hand through her ribcage. He felt her cold, dead heart clasped in his hand and it felt so nice to have complete control over someone's life again.

"Kol, no," Josh screamed.

"Let her go," Marcel demanded.

Fearing for their friend's safety, Lora and Zane vamped over to help her but Kol was expecting that. In the blink of an eye, he snatched out Gwen's heart and wrapped his hands around the throats of the two other vampires.

"No," Marcel screamed as Gwen's heartless body dropped to the floor, her flesh turning a sickly grey.

Kol slowly turned to face Josh and Marcel with the two young vampires tottling around with him as he squeezed the life from their body. "Since I can't tell Klaus about this failed attempt of a coup of yours, I'll just punish you myself. And what better way to punish you for creating vampires than to take them away from you."

"Kol, stop it," Josh yelled. "If you're truly my friend, if you ever want to be my friend after this, stop it now."

As filled with rage as Kol was, the thought of losing Josh as a friend managed to calm his temper enough for him to decide not to rip off the other two vampires' heads. Instead, with a flick of his wrists, he snapped their necks and allowed their bodies to fall to the floor.

"I'm going to let you two decide how to dispose of these two yourself," Kol muttered as he slowly stepped over the two fallen bodies before him. "Either kill them or get them out of New Orleans and make sure Klaus never finds out about this." He paused in front of Marcel on his way out. "Because if Klaus kills Josh for this," he grabbed Marcel's collar again and pulled him inches away from his face. "I'm gonna kill you."

Kol pushed Marcel back against the wall and stomped out of the apartment, slamming the door behind him.

Chapter Text

Chapter 27

Marcel and his vampires held a wake for Gwen in the basement of Josh's apartment building. After speaking a few comforting words over her body, Marcel sent Lora and Zane back to the apartment and he and Josh burned her corpse in the furnace.

"So what are you going to do about Kol?" Josh asked as they watched Gwen's body burn.

"I don't know," Marcel growled. His fists clenched tighter at his sides. "I want to tear his head off...but he's too strong. Too strong for just me...but..."

"But...?"

Marcel shut the door to the furnace so that they wouldn't have to watch Gwen's body turn to ash.

"She was my first turned of the four of them," he said changing the subject. "She was a prostitute and after being attacked in the middle of the night by one of her Johns, she managed to bash his skull in with the base of a lamp. But not before he managed to slice into her abdomen. She wandered out into the street and that's where I found her lying in the road. I turned her to save her...and Kol killed her. I want nothing more than to kill him but if I go after Kol I'll be making enemies of my entire family."

He angrily slammed his fist against the burning furnace door. It scorched his flesh but he wasn't in the headspace to care. The scorching of his hand didn't burn nearly as bad as his anger for Kol.

"Marcel," Josh called his name, drawing him back to reality.

Marcel pulled away from the furnace and stared down at his hand. Layers of skin had been burned off. As his charred flesh slowly began to regenerate, he realized his injury was the perfect metaphor for his relationship with Kol. Kol would burn him and eventually he would heal but he would never forget how the pain felt.

"Are you okay," Josh asked, concerned about his friend's silent stare.

"I will be," Marcel answered in a hostile growl.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means, I won't be fine until I exact my revenge on Kol."

"Marcel...he...he was angry."

"He killed Gwen," Marcel turned heatedly to Josh, staring at him as if he was the one who'd ripped the heart out of Gwen.

"I know and I'm not making excuses but-"

"That's exactly what you're doing. You're making excuses for him just like Klaus tried to make excuses for him when he killed Davina. You all fall victim to his...Mikaelson charm or whatever it is that makes you blind to his faults but I will not! Kol has to pay for this."

Marcel swept past Josh without another word.

-M-

The door to Klaus's private study crept slowly open. Elijah stood in the doorway watching as his brother stood at a canvas behind Hope, guiding her hand with each stroke of the paintbrush across the sky blue canvas. Klaus relished in pride at his daughter's natural talent for the craft. Every stroke was calculated yet effortless. She was without a doubt his child.

"Hope," Elijah finally spoke. "You are quite the artist." He walked over to the canvas to closer admire his niece's work.

Hope shined with pride at her uncle's compliment. Klaus always praising her work but it was so much more flattering to hear coming from someone else.

"Thanks. I had a lot of time to practice in the hotel rooms while mom and I were on the road."

"Well, you've really honed your craft. In fact, what do you say that for your birthday you have your own art gallery show?"

Hope nearly dropped the paintbrush in her hand from shock.

"Are you serious?"

Elijah smirked at the girl's excitement. "I'll take that as a yes."

Hope threw the paintbrush on the table of paint supplies and lept into her uncle's arms. Elijah squeezed the girl tightly as she hugged him. It wasn't moments like this that made him regret his vampirism because it meant that he would never have a moment like it with his own child.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," Hope screeched as she climbed down from Elijah's arms. "I have to go tell Sebastian."

Klaus and Elijah watched with joy as the girl ran giddily out of the room.

"Well, you certainly set the bar for her Birthday high," Klaus halfheartedly complained as he began cleaning up the mess Hope left behind. "How is her father supposed to top that?"

"I'm sure you'll think of something," Elijah smirked. His face became suddenly somber as he remembered the reason he came to interrupt their father-daughter moment. "But that's not what I came in here to talk to you about. We need to talk about Kol."

Klaus sighed harshly. "What did he do now?"

"Well, that's just the point, brother. Kol hasn't done anything to warrant your anger in a long time and yet every day you treat him as if he'd just sold his family out to the devil."

"He's done it once. Why put it past him to do it again?"

"Because he's our brother and deserving of forgiveness."

"I'll forgive him for all he's done when I think he's ready to be forgiven and your interference isn't going to change my mind any sooner."

"You forgave Marcel."

"Because it's my duty as a father to always forgive him. Kol, on the other hand, warrants no such courtesy from me. Perhaps if I see a change in his behavior that resembled contrition I would be more willing to change my position."

"You won't give him a chance to exhibit any changes in behavior. Whenever something happens you accuse him immediately.

Elijah's heated glare stayed fixated on Klaus as he continued to clean the paintbrushes, evidently unaffected by Elijah's anger.

-M-

"Marcy," Hope came running down the steps of the Courtyard to Marcel. She was on her way to go tell Sebastian about Elijah's birthday gift to her when Marcel walked into the Compound. "Guess what? Uncle Elijah's gonna have a gallery showing for me on my birthday."

"Congratulations," he said curtly moving past her to the staircase. "Where's Kol?"

"I don't know and I don't care. Come with me to tell Sebastian. Then we can go see that street performer like you promised."

"I can't right now."

"But you promised!"

"Hope, I can't deal with you right now. I need to find Kol."

"You can't deal with me?" She stamped her feet offended by the implication that she was a nuisance to be dealt with.

Marcel stopped at the end of the staircase and looked down at his incensed sister. "Tomorrow, Hope. I promise."

"It's always tomorrow with you nowadays. But tomorrow never comes. Unless I'm Aunt Rebekah. Or Uncle Kol, apparently."

"My ears are starting to burn," Hope and Marcel turned to see Kol standing on the balcony looking across at them. He was missing his signature smirk, his eyes cold as he stared at Marcel. "Is someone talking about me?"

"We are," Hope huffed. "Marcel is looking for you."

"That's strange because I think the person you should be looking for is Klaus."

Hot air blew from Marcel's nostrils. "I found exactly who I was looking for." He wanted to charge Kol on sight but he fought the urge to unleash his rage in front of his little sister. "Get out of here, Hope."

Hope noticed the intensity radiating from Marcel and Kol and knew she couldn't leave them alone. "Wh-what's going on?"

"None of your business, love," said Kol. "Why don't you go on out and find something to entertain yourself for a while. Away from the Compound."

"N-no. I'm not leaving until one of you tells me what's going on. What are you going to do?"

Furious, Marcel yelled, "Dammit, Hope, for once in your life just obey when someone tells you to go!"

"You're gonna fight, aren't you?" She asked, ignoring her brother's anger. "Please, don't. Let's just...let's just go w-watch the street artist and-and eat greasy food...like you promised."

"Just get out of here, love," Kol insisted. He started walking slowly over to Marcel. "If little Marcellus wants Unky Kol to teach him a lesson before telling his poppa about all the naughty things he's done, then so be it."

As Kol made his way towards Marcel, Marcel walked briskly over to him. His fists gripped tightly at his side, Marcel was going to make sure Kol didn't get the upper hand on him this time.

Once in arm's reach of Kol, both Marcel and Kol wrenched their fists back and swung it full force at each other. Niklaus caught Marcel's hand before it made contact with Kol and Kol's fist smacked right in the center of the palm of Elijah's hand. Hayley stood down the hall with a shocked look on her face at the sight of Marcel and Kol's almost fight. She, Elijah, and Klaus were on their way to gather the family for Brunch when the three of them wandered upon Kol and Marcel's quarrel.

Klaus looked between Marcel and Kol with fire running through his veins. "Fighting in my own home?" Klaus growled. "Somebody explain. Now."

"Marcellus," Kol taunted, stepping back away from Elijah. "You want to tell your poppa about your naughtiness?"

"I am going to rip your tongue from your skull," Marcel snarled as he lunged at Kol again. Klaus stopped him with an arm around his waist and pulled him back away from Kol.

"That is enough," Klaus barked, setting Marcel back to his feet. "Kol, what did you do?"

"What did I do," Kol bellowed back. "Ask him what he's done."

"I don't have to because I know whatever he's done is in retaliation to whatever it is you did to provoke him."

"Oh, is that so? Your perfect little Marcellus is incapable of wrongdoing, is that right? He acts only in retaliation? Then tell me, brother, what was the reason behind him deciding to create new vampires behind your back?"

Klaus stared at his brother in angry disbelief. He assumed Kol was lying to him to get him to turn on Marcel again and he refused to believe him.

"More of your deceitful lies," Klaus growled.

"Don't believe me? Ask him yourself."

When Klaus turned to Marcel, Marcel refused to look at him. He kept his burning glare focused on Kol.

The palpable tension emitting from the Mikaelsons made Hayley uneasy and she decided that she should take Hope away from the situation before violence erupted as it often did in the Mikaelson household. She crossed past Klaus and Marcel down to the courtyard where Hope stood staring wide-eyed up at them. "C'mon, Hope," Hayley placed a kind arm around Hope's shoulders. "Let's go out for brunch today."

"But, mom," Hope sank her heels into the ground to keep Hayley from moving her. "I wanna talk to Marcel."

"Later, sweetie," Hayley asserted as she gave Hope a light tug towards the Compound exit. "Let your father talk to him first."

"But-"

"Hope." Hayley's brusque statement ended Hope arguing. Hope could tell that her mother was not interested in negotiating whether she could stay and talk to Marcel or not and since the last time she failed at persuading Hayley ended in her being punished in front of her mother's entire army, she did not have the courage to try a second time.

Hope couldn't take her eyes off Klaus and Marcel as she allowed her mother to walk her out of the Courtyard.

"Marcellus," Klaus stated firmly. "Tell me he is lying."

Vexed at his brother's refusal to believe him, Kol goaded Marcel, snapping, "Yes, Marcellus, tell him about the headless boy in the den this morning and how you turned him only 6 days ago, not before we returned to New Orleans like the lie you told us this morning. Or better yet, tell him about the two still living vampires you have hidden away in Algiers."

When Marcel remained quiet at Kol's accusations, Klaus began to wonder if his dishonest brother was actually telling the truth this time.

"Marcel," He growled, stepping in front of Marcel so that he was staring him in the eyes instead of Kol. "Answer me. Tell me he's lying?"

Fueled by rage, Marcel answered, "I did it. I turned vampires. The boy on the floor of the den, the two vampires in Algiers, THE GIRL THAT KOL MURDERED IN FRONT OF ME AN HOUR AGO, I DID IT. I TURNED THEM."

Marcel sped past Klaus and Elijah to Kol, talking him through the banister. They crashed through a table beneath them but that didn't hinder Marcel. After rising to his feet, Marcel punched Kol, sending him flying into a wall.

Enraged, Kol pulled himself from the indention in the wall created by the power of his body being thrust into it. He sped forward, his arm stretched out to grab Marcel by the throat when Klaus vamped between them and grabbed Kol's arm.

"Enough," He bellowed. "If you two think that hitting each other is the best way to solve this problem then I'll be happy to oblige you later, after," He turned heatedly towards Marcel. "You tell me where to find these new vampires so I can dispose of them properly."

"No," Marcel didn't hesitate to state.

Klaus was floored by his blatant refusal. He released his grip on Kol in order to give Marcel his full attention. "No," he repeated in disbelief. "I gave you a command, Marcellus. Tell me where they are."

Marcel was unfazed by Klaus's growing anger. "They're my people," Marcel growled. "They look to me to lead them and protect them. What kind of leader would I be if I allowed you to kill them for simply existing."

"It is your fault for creating new vampires in the first place," Klaus yelled.

"I did it for us!" Marcel yelled back with the same ferocity. "We were outnumbered in that fight against Travis's men. Hayley's wolves are outnumbered 4 to 1. The reason my vamps and I were able to run the wolves out of New Orleans in the first place was because we had the numbers. The only way for us to defend our home is to make more vampires."

"Perhaps that's something you should've talked to me about before you decided to take it up amongst yourself to start turning vampires."

"Then punish me, not them. Let them live."

"I decide who lives and who dies," Klaus growled. Then looking deeply into Marcel's eyes, he began to Compel him. "Tell me where the vampires are."

Completely under the control of Klaus's compulsion, Marcel answered, "They're at Josh's apartment in Algiers."

Knowing that Josh had a part in the making of Marcel's new vampires only made Klaus angrier. "I knew it," he said looking up to Elijah. "You should've let me kill that one when I had the chance. Now we have to go find him."

Kol stepped in Klaus's path as he turned to leave the Compound. "Don't, Klaus. He's innocent in this. He didn't turn any of those vampires."

"He had a choice in helping Marcel or not and I think we both know who's side he would be on if the vampires revolted and tried to take my throne again."

"He wouldn't turn on me. He's my friend."

"That makes him loyal to you, not me, and quite frankly I don't need anyone in my kingdom who's not completely loyal to me."

As Klaus took another step forward, Kol sped behind him and, catching his brother off guard, he snapped Klaus's neck in one swift move.

"Kol," Elijah growled as he jumped down from the balcony. "What are you doing?"

"I'm not going to let him kill Josh, Elijah," Kol replied.

"And you think this is going to convince him otherwise? When he wakes up he's going to want to kill Josh and anyone around him at the time. All you've done is proven him right for never trusting you."

A growing regret surfaced in Kol's stomach as he stared at Klaus's sprawled body.

"He's gonna dagger me for this, isn't he," he muttered.

"No," Elijah stated firmly. "You're not getting daggered." He sighed abjectly. "But I can't let this go unpunished. Perhaps...Josh should die."

"Elijah, no!"

Elijah lifted a hand of silence. "I'm sorry, brother. You will grieve but you will get over it in time. Better he dies than you."

"Elijah-"

Before Kol could beg for his friend's life, Marcel's hands were around Elijah's head and as swiftly as Kol did Klaus, Marcel snapped Elijah's neck.

As Elijah's body dropped heavily to the ground, Kol stared confusedly at Marcel.

"I'm not going to let any of my men die," Marcel stated firmly.

-M-

Flashback:

Marcel woke lying on a sofa in the parlor of a home he barely recognized with a splitting headache surrounded by sleeping witches. The last thing he remembered from the night before was drinking with Kol and kissing pretty girls. He passed out before he could take things any further. Kol walked into the room eating a turkey leg the size of his head.

"Happy Birthday," Kol joyfully screamed. "Come downstairs. My good friend, Daphine, has cooked you up an excellent birthday breakfast if I do say so myself. Pardon me for starting in on the festivities a little early."

Every word Kol spoke felt like another nail being hammered into Marcel's skull.

"Could you not talk so loud," Marcel whined. "It feels like someone's raising a barn in my head."

"Sounds like you have your first hangover," Kol chuckled. "How cute."

"This is a hangover," Marcel continued to groan as he stood up. "This is terrible. How do I make it stop?"

"You don't. It'll go away eventually. But that's a perk of being a vampire, we don't get hangovers."

"Yeah, but poppa won't let me become a vampire so-" Thinking about Klaus paused Marcel mid-speech. "Oh no, what time is it? We have to get back home before poppa wakes up."

Kol scoffed as he took another bite of the turkey leg. "I'm sure Klaus is already awake but don't worry, he doesn't know where we are. And as long as we get back home before your celebration starts, Klaus won't care that we stayed out all night doing a little celebrating of our own."

"Are-are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Is that so," Kol spun around to see Klaus standing in the doorway of the parlor, a sour look on his face. "Don't look surprised, brother. It only took compelling a few witches to find out where you were."

He was furious at the sight of his son standing around a slew of empty bourbon bottles and passed out witches but he managed to keep his anger hidden in front of Marcel.

Kol wasn't sure what to make of his brother's tense glare but he knew it wouldn't fare well for him.

"Marcellus," Klaus held out his hand and motioned for Marcel to come to him.

Nervous of his father's reaction, Marcel moved slowly over to Klaus. When Marcel was in arm's reach, Klaus whipped the handkerchief from his pocket and used it to wipe the smutch from Marcel's cheek.

"How do you feel?" Klaus asked concerned.

"F-fine," Marcel stammered, taken aback by Klaus's apparent calmness.

"You didn't have too much to drink?" Klaus continued to question.

Marcel considered denying that he'd had anything to drink but he hoped that Klaus could do something about the throbbing pain in his head.

"A...a little, poppa. Now I have a hangover."

"Well consider that your punishment for drinking. You know you're not supposed to have spirits, Marcellus."

Marcel's face dropped at Klaus's response. He was still not used to his father denying him anything, especially if it would alleviate his pain.

"Yes, poppa," he said solemnly. "I'm sorry,"

Swayed by his son's despondent attitude, Klaus wrapped his arm around Marcel's shoulders and guided him out of the room. "Let's go. I'm sure we can find a witch somewhere who knows a remedy to your particular problem."

Kol followed behind Klaus and Marcel, surprised at what seemed like Klaus's apparent forgiveness of him taking Marcel away all night.

"So, brother," Kol started cautiously as they made their way downstairs to the front door. "You seem to be in a good mood...all things considered."

"Well, I was incensed when I first went out looking for you but I managed to find an outlet." Klaus stopped at the door and turned to face his brother. "Oh, that reminds me. Don't forget to say goodbye to your little friend in the kitchen before we leave."

Kol's skin was suddenly covered in goosebumps. He knew Klaus didn't care about his friends so for his brother to take a sudden interest in the witch made him nervous.

Leaving Klaus and Marcel by the front door, Kol went to the kitchen. Cautiously, he pushed the door open.

His heart jumped into his throats at the sight of the blood-splattered kitchen. The breakfast his friend had cooked for Marcel was coated in her blood. Her body laid sprawled out on the floor, her throat ripped open.

He could feel Klaus's heartless presence looming behind him.

"Marcel will remain innocent for as long as I can possibly keep him that way," Klaus growled. "If you ever involve him in your proclivities again, I'll dagger you."

Kol stared straight ahead, too afraid of the prospect of Klaus having a dagger in his hand at that moment to turn around. He didn't realize he was holding his breath until Klaus left the room and he could finally breathe again. At that moment, a bud of jealousy began to blossom in Kol's heart. A jealousy of Marcel, his friend whose feelings apparently meant more to Klaus than his own brother's. A jealousy that was unconscious yet overwhelming.

End Flashback

Marcel and Kol barged into Josh's place and the three vampires all jumped to their feet, ready to fight.

"Let's go," Marcel huffed. "We have to get out of New Orleans."

"Now," added Kol.

"Why," asked Josh, panicked by Marcel and Kol's sudden unanimity. "What happened?"

"We killed Klaus," Kol stated bluntly.

Josh's mouth dropped open.

"We snapped his neck," Marcel clarified. "Elijah's too."

"W-why?"

Ready for an opportunity to ruin Marcel's friendship with Josh, Kol said, "Marcel told them the vampires were staying here and you know my paranoid big brother."

"He compelled me," Marcel corrected Kol's unfair accusation. "And once he found out he wanted you dead. All of you. So you see why we have to get you out of the city now."

"Actually, you lot might want to leave the country. Klaus is a mean, vindictive son-of-a-bitch. He will hunt you down just to spite us."

Marcel knew Klaus well enough to know that Kol was right. He didn't know how long Josh was going to have to be gone and he didn't want to think about it.

"Let's go," he barked. "Klaus has to be awake by now and this is the first place he'll come looking. He probably already has a couple of Hayley's wolves on their way over here."

Although the thought of being anywhere near Kol without trying to rip his head off made Lora and Zane sick to their stomach, their sire bond forced them to obey Marcel when he said it was time to leave.

-M-

The group of vampires didn't make it far through Algiers before they had to stop again. Just as Marcel predicted, Hayley's wolves were flooding the streets looking for them. They stopped at a motel to regroup.

"We need to get you three to the airport," Marcel said as he paced the floor in front of the others. "We'll order room service then compel the attendant to make the arrangements."

"What about you?" Zane proclaimed. "You're coming with us, right?"

Marcel sighed thinking about his next interaction with Klaus. "No. New Orleans is my city. I have to stay."

"But...Klaus'll kill you for what you did."

"He won't kill me." Marcel cringed thinking about what Klaus was going to do to him. "I'll be fine."

"Then we're staying too," Lora asserted. "If you're going to stay then so will we."

Kol was shocked by her decree. "You'll risk your lives just to stay with Marcel?" Kol noticed the intense looks of loyalty in their eyes. It was all too familiar. "They're Sire Bonded to you, aren't they?"

Marcel's response was a smug smirk.

"How is that even possible. It's for a vampire to have one of their Sired bonded to them, let alone two."

"All four of my new vampires were Sire Bonded to me," Marcel confessed. "As you know, a Sire Bond for a vampire only occurs when the human has strong feelings of love towards the vampire who turns them. When I turned them all, it was out of kindness, to bring them into the family they never had. That was enough apparently."

Kol chuckled. "Well you might want to break that bond before you get rid of them or they'll always come back looking for you."

Offended by the notion that their feelings towards Marcel would change if they weren't magically bonded, Lora said, "We would always come back to Marcel regardless."

"Is that so," Kol taunted. "Then we might as well kill you right now because that's exactly what Klaus is going to do if you come anywhere near Marcel again."

Lora opened her mouth to protest but Marcel interrupted her.

"He's right," Marcel said firmly. "Once we get you out of New Orleans you can't come back." When Lora still looked like she wanted to protest, Marcel added, "That's an order."

Lora resigned to her sire bond to obey Marcel.

Suddenly Josh's cell phone began to ring. He fished it out of his pocket thinking it was his boyfriend calling. They had a date planned for today but Josh had to abruptly change it due to their current situation. The number on his phone screen, however, was Kol's.

Turning the screen towards Kol, Josh said, "You're calling."

Kol and Marcel locked eyes.

"It's Klaus," Kol announced. "We left our phones at your place so they couldn't track us. He must've found them."

Nervous, Josh asked, "Should I forward it to voicemail."

"Sure, that'll work," said Kol sarcastically. Taking the phone from Josh, he answered. "I sure hope the person on the other end of this phone is as handsome as me or else you should've called from a different number."

"Always full of quips," Klaus snarled. "I suppose that means you're around your little protective custody vampires. Then you might want to get rid of them before I tell you what I'm about to."

Kol had a strong inkling of what Klaus was about to say and he didn't want any witnesses for it.

Looking to Lora and Zane, he said, "Get lost for a bit,"

"No," Lora growled. "We want to know what he has to say."

Frustrated, Kol sped over to each of them and compelled them to go to the bathroom and do their best to not hear anything that's about to be said. Obediently, he left.

Turning to Josh, he said, "Don't suppose I'll have to compel you to do the same."

"Just tell me whatever he says about me," Josh said.

Kol nodded his agreement.

With the others gone, Kol put the phone back to his ear and said, "Alright, say what you have to say, Klaus."

"You're upset, brother," Klaus said calmly. "Don't be. I'm not mad at you. I know you only did what you did to protect your friend, Joshua. So I have a proposal: Come back home, bring Marcel and the other two vampires with you, and I'll let Joshua live."

Kol was quiet for a moment. "Promise?"

"I swear on our mother's ashes."

Marcel heard every word Klaus said and for a moment it looked like Kol was actually contemplating Klaus's offer. Marcel was prepared to attack Kol and escape with the others if the need came.

"You must think me some kind of fool," Kol said to Marcel's surprise. "I know you, Klaus. I've known you for a thousand years. You're going to kill Josh the second we step foot back into New Orleans."

Klaus chuckled heavily. "You got me. But remember, dear brother, I am no fool either. I know you haven't left New Orleans yet. I have wolves guarding every exit out of the city. They'll spot you the second you try to leave and I will know. You can't hide forever."

"We could very well try."

Klaus groaned loudly. "Give Marcellus the phone."

Kol turned the phone to Marcel and said, "It's for you."

Marcel almost didn't want to take it but he did anyway.

"Yeah," he answered briskly.

"Marcellus, I am very disappointed in you. After all that you promised, you betray this family again."

"I'm not betraying you, Klaus. I'm just protecting my people. I'll come back home when I know they're safe."

"Come home now, Marcellus. Sure, you will be punished, as you should, but the long and thorough spanking you're going to get for lying to me and betraying this family will amount to nothing compared to the one you will get if I have to go out and find you."

Marcel sighed. He expected as much.

"I mean it," Klaus continued. "If I have to find you, I will bare you where ever you are and I will lay into you until you beg me to stop and then I'll keep going. I will keep going until the thought of ever betraying me again is conditioned out of your naughty little behind."

"Klaus," Marcel barked, red-faced by his father's threat being overheard by Kol. "Just let me get them out of New Orleans,"

"Do you think the issue was that they were in New Orleans?" Klaus barked. "You've been building an army behind my back. I haven't felt so betrayed since the day you shoved Papa Tunde's blade in my chest. Or the time that you and Rebekah concocted the scheme to..." Klaus paused, a thought suddenly occurring to him. "Rebekah. Did she know you were building another army?"

"No, Klaus, she had nothing to do with this."

"I don't believe you. I won't believe you until I have you in front of me and can compel the truth out of you. Come home, now. And just in case you're still thinking of hiding Josh and those other vampires, let Josh know that I have his little boyfriend and if he wants him to go only slightly maimed, he'll come back to the Compound with the other two in tow."

Klaus hung up before Marcel could respond.

"We can't tell him," Kol muttered. "He'll go back."

Marcel was so angry he wanted to crush the phone in his hand. "We have to." He growled. "If Klaus kills the guy and Josh finds out he had a chance to save him, he'll never forgive us."

"At least he'll have a chance to never forgive us. If Klaus kills him I lose the only tie I have left to Davina."

"It's not always about you," Marcel barked. "Josh going back means he'll have to take Lora and Zane with him. They're almost as loyal to him as they are to me. Unless I invoke their Sire Bond and keep them from going back, they're gonna follow him and...and they'll all be dead."

"Then don't tell them," Kol yelled.

Marcel was conflicted. He thought Josh deserved to know the truth but at the same time, he feared his friend would give his life to save his boyfriend's and that thought frightened him.

"I know what I have to do," said Marcel. "I have to go back home."

Chapter Text

Chapter 28

"You have to come back with me," said Marcel.

Kol's jaw dropped at Marcel's proclamation. "I have to do no such thing."

"If we both go back, we stand a better chance of convincing Klaus to let them live."

"No. If we both go back, here's what'll happened: Klaus will yell at you, maybe call you a few foul names or threaten to exile you, but we both know for you exile never lasts for more than a few months, or better yet he'll thrash you and send you to bed with an early supper."

Marcel's nose flared in anger at Kol's obvious taunting of Klaus's current treatment of him but he said nothing because he knew it was all probably true.

"But for me," Kol continued heatedly. "My big, bad brother will have the dagger waiting for me as soon as I walk through the door. He'll put me down for half a century and when I wake up Josh'll be dead, Davina will still be gone, and my little niece will be an old lady with a family of her own. And that's if I'm lucky."

"Klaus isn't going to dagger you. They promised no more daggers."

"My wicked big brother's made that promise a dozen times over in a thousand years and like a fool I've always believed him. Not this time. No, this time I'm going to take Josh and we're going to get out of town and then maybe in ten years after Klaus has cooled down a bit, we'll come back."

"What about Hope? You've already missed so much of her life growing up, are you really willing to miss the rest of it?"

"And who's fault is that?" Kol growled.

Marcel cringed. "What's done is done. You can either move forward and be there for her from now on...or you can run away."

Marcel saw the look of contemplation on Kol's face and knew he was grappling with running away or going back home and so he made the quick decision to help him with his choice by pushing him.

"Y'know what, why don't you go ahead and run away. It's what you've been wanting to do all along anyway. And let's be honest, you're not really an integral part of the family so Hope probably won't even miss you."

"Shut up," Kol said, shoving Marcel back a step.

"But, hey, I was practically adult when Klaus undaggered you and we were best friends. Maybe it'll be the same for Hope. Or...maybe she'll grow up to hate you, just like her big brother."

"And if I go back and get the dagger and she finds my body lying in a coffin one day, what would she think? Klaus'll tell her that I was a monster that couldn't be controlled. At least...if I run away I could call her, I could still talk to her. We could still have a relationship but if I go back-"

"He won't dagger you."

"You don't know that!" Kol immediately quieted down after he raised his voice, knowing that the vampires in the bathroom wouldn't be able to help to overhear him yelling. "The rules have always been different for you. You've never had to live in fear of the dagger. To wake up decades later, everyone you know gone. The world as you knew it completely changed. Klaus dragging your body across the world at his leisure. Being daggered in Venice, waking up in Timbuktu. And then...then they have the nerve to pretend like I'm some sort of lunatic for being outraged about it because..." He paused, forcing himself to restrain his growing emotions. "Because in the years I spent lying in a box...they never once missed me. I can't...I can't do it again. No. I won't. I deserve to be missed. And mourned. I deserve to have people who love me and I mean truly love me, not people who just say they do because they're my family and feel like they're supposed to. I deserve a real family and right now Josh is the closest thing I have to that and I'm not going to let Klaus kill him."

"Klaus will never stop hunting you and when he finds you he will make you suffer by making Josh suffer. If we go back now we can talk him into showing mercy."

"I'd rather die than beg the bastard for mercy."

"And would you rather Josh die?"

Kol knew Marcel was right. He had an overwhelming fear of the dagger but his fear of Josh's death was even more powerful. Outraged at what he knew he had to do, Kol punched through the wall creating a hole that went straight through to the bathroom. Josh's eyes peered through the hole, shocked by the sudden blast from the other side of the wall.

"So, uh," he said jokingly. "I guess it's safe for us to come out now."

-M-

Flashback:

Klaus sat at the head of a large wooden table, Elijah by his side. Werewolves, witches, and humans all sat across from each other at the table, staring down the members of the other factions as if they didn't belong at the same table with them.

"As the newly self-appointed king of the emerging town of New Orleans," Niklaus spoke commandingly. "I find it my duty to bring together the heads of each of your factions, werewolves, witches, and humans, and broker a treaty of peace amongst us all."

Bothered at being surrounded by so many supernatural beings, one of the humans spoke, "There can be no peace amongst us as long as the rest of you have the humans at a disadvantage."

"We may have the advantage individually," Klaus corrected. "But you humans have the numbers. If the lot of you ganged up, with the exception of my siblings and I, there isn't a faction in this town you couldn't takedown."

"Then perhaps that's what we should do," The other human spoke cockily.

Elijah smirked at the man's hubris. "I believe that is what we are here for," he stated. Looking around at each faction member, he said, "My siblings and I are immortal and more powerful than any of you. Should any of your factions act to break this peace treaty, we will swiftly move to kill you all, leaving only enough members to start over from scratch."

The faction members all stared nervously around at each other.

"Now that we've gotten that out of the way," Klaus said, beaming with pride at the fear his brother inspired in the skeptical leaders. "Let's get down to business, shall we. I'm sure you all have certain conditions you would like to be met in order to promote harmonious living amongst us all. Since the humans seem to have so much to say, why don't you start us off."

As the first human moved to open his mouth, Klaus held up a hand to silence him. The man was rightly outraged but Klaus didn't seem to care. He rose from his seat and moved quietly to the slightly cracked parlor door.

Young Marcel jumped in shock at the door opening revealing his father standing in a room full of serious-looking adults. He managed to catch the stern glare of his Uncle Elijah and it only made him even more nervous.

Klaus knelt down so that he was eye to eye with the boy and said, "Marcellus, what are you doing out of bed?"

"L-looking for you, poppa," he answered, timidly twisting the back of his nightshirt and staring down at his bare feet. "I-I had a bad dream."

"Didja, now," Klaus ran a gentle finger under Marcel's chin, guiding the boy's gaze back up to his eyes. Marcel relaxed at the sight of his father's soft smile.

Klaus looked back at Elijah and gave the slightest of nods and Elijah nodded back, taking over the meeting as Klaus took Marcel's hand and closed the parlor door behind them.

"I'm sorry I interrupted your meeting, poppa," said Marcel as he and Klaus walked side by side down the hall.

Suddenly, Klaus lifted Marcel up with one arm and rested him on his hip.

"Don't be sorry, Marcellus," replied Klaus. "You should always come to me when you're afraid."

"But..." Marcel stared down at the floor, a reticent look in his eyes. "You looked busy. I shouldn't have interrupted."

"Can I tell you a secret?" Klaus whispered, capturing Marcel's curiosity.

The boy nodded yes, waiting earnestly to hear Klaus's secret.

Cautiously looking around, attempting to really sell the covertness of this secret, Klaus whispered, "You are the only person in the entire world that I would never be too busy for."

"R-really?" Marcel stammered, too insecure to believe that his father would put him before anyone else. "Not even Bex or Uncle Elijah or-"

"Not Bex, not Elijah, not anyone. Just you. You're the most important person in the world to me, Marcellus. Always and forever."

Marcel shined a beguiling smile and Klaus couldn't help but smile back.

"But...don't tell Bex. She gets unruly whenever she thinks she's not the center of the universe."

"I won't, poppa. I promise." Marcel suddenly wrapped his arms around Klaus's neck and hugged him tight as he nuzzled against his father's neck. "I love you, poppa," he whispered.

Klaus wrapped his other arm around Marcel's back and held him tighter. "I love you too, my little Marcellus."

End Flashback

Hope stood outside her father's studio staring at the closed door. If the door was open, she knew that was an open invitation for her to come in and paint with him, but if the door was closed, it meant he wanted to be alone. She wanted to see him, to ask him about Marcel and Kol, but she didn't want to get in trouble for bothering her father during his alone time.

Suddenly the door opened, Klaus standing on the other side with a brush coated with red paint in his hand.

"Hello, little wolf," he greeted her with a kind smile. "I see you're back. How was brunch with your mum?"

"It was okay," she answered, her nerves settled by her father's apparent calmness. "I missed everyone else though."

Klaus leaned down and kissed Hope's forehead. "I missed you too, sweetheart. Care to paint with me?"

Hope nodded yes immediately, walking into the room past Klaus and over to the easel.

"So," Hope started as Klaus began to set up a fresh canvas for them to paint on. "Where's Marcel?"

"He went...out," Klaus evasively answered.

"And Uncle Kol?"

"Believe it or not they went out together."

"So...they're friends now? They seemed really angry with each other when I left."

"Well...I wouldn't say that they're friends. They've just found mutual ground to stand on."

"And what's that?"

"Unimportant," Klaus held up a fresh paintbrush in front of Hope. "Now, what shall we paint?"

Hope took the brush, dipped it in deep umber paint, and began painting the canvas.

"Uncle Elijah says you paint when you want to strategize. It helps clear your mind."

"Your Uncle Elijah is right."

"Then what were you strategizing about before I came in?"

Klaus chuckled. "Well, just because I paint when I strategize, it doesn't mean I can't paint when I'm not strategizing. Sometimes painting is just a good way to clear my head or to have a little fun."

"Then what were you clearing your head for?"

Klaus smiled. The girl's wit never ceased to amaze him. She was definitely her mother's daughter. "Perhaps I was just having a bit of fun."

Hope stopped painting and turned to face her father, her face serious. "Marcel isn't answering my phone calls. I'm worried. Please, just tell me the truth. What's going on?"

Klaus's immediate reaction was to lie to her, to spare her feelings, but the way she looked at him then - as if she had all the maturity of someone twice her age - he knew she deserved to know the truth.

With a sigh, he said, "Kol found out Marcel has been creating vampires behind my back so now Marcel's run off with the vampires to try to get them out of the city before I find them."

"And...what are you going to do when you find them?"

Klaus shook his head. That was not something she needed to know.

"You're going to kill them," Hope stated knowingly.

Klaus released a reserved exhale. Sometimes his daughter knew too much. "They shouldn't be alive, sweetheart. They're enemies of this family."

"If Marcel turned them, they can't be our enemies. He...he had a good reason for turning them, I'm sure."

"That doesn't matter. The point is, Marcel should have discussed it with me before he made a move to create new vampires."

"Are you...are you..." Hope could barely get the words out of her mouth. "Are you going to banish him again?"

Klaus paused. The thought had crossed his mind but only for a brief moment. He knew that Marcel didn't have any malicious intent behind creating the new vampires but that didn't mean that he didn't deserve to be punished for it.

"No," he answered earnestly. "Marcel isn't going to be banished but he will be punished."

"How?"

"Never you mind that," Klaus took Hope's hand holding the paintbrush and he guided her strokes on the canvas. Hope pretended to be focused on painting with her father but her mind was a million miles away, wondering what Marcel was doing and where he was.

The door opened while they were halfway through the painting with Elijah on the other side.

"Do you mind, brother," Klaus grunted, obviously irritated at the interruption. "Hope was just about to try her hand at Impressionism."

"I'm sorry, brother, I just thought you'd like to know that Kol and Marcel are down in the Courtyard waiting for you."

Hope sat the paintbrush down instantly and moved to leave the room when Klaus put a hand on her shoulder, keeping her in place.

"Stay here," he ordered.

"But dad-"

"Stay, Hope. Work on the painting. This'll be over soon."

Klaus and Elijah left Hope standing alone in Klaus's studio alone and hurried downstairs to where Kol and Marcel stood waiting in the Courtyard.

"I honestly didn't think you would have the gall to return," Klaus mocked as he strolled over to his brother and son. "Actually, I was hoping to have the pleasure of hunting you down myself."

"Well, we're here," Marcel announce. "Just like we agreed."

"If I remember correctly, we agreed that five vampires would come back, and yet, I only see two."

"We left them in hiding to come negotiate with you in person."

"There will be no negotiating," Klaus growled. "You made new vampires behind my back and now they have to die and Josh along with them for his part in it."

"He didn't have a part in it," Kol barked. "If you want to punish someone, punish Marcel. This is all his fault to begin with."

Marcel glared angrily at Kol for so heartlessly throwing him under the bus.

"Marcel will be punished. So will you. So will Joshua. I still have his boyfriend, remember?"

"Where is he?" Kol demanded. "He's just an innocent human. Josh has kept him out of all of this, don't drag him into it."

"Too late. Oh, Theodore," Klaus sang the man's name out and it echoed throughout the Courtyard. A young, dark-haired man appeared on the third-floor railing overlooking the Mikaelsons. "Chaps, you've met Josh's boyfriend, Theodore, haven't you? I think he goes by Teddy but I think Theodore is so much nicer, don't you agree?"

"Klaus, let him go," Marcel implored. "Please,"

"Well, I promised I would, had you two lived up to your end of the bargain and brought me my vampires but since you didn't, Theodore, tell them what you're supposed to do on my command."

His voice shivering with fear, Theodore answered, "I-I'm supposed to jump over the railing."

Klaus winced at the thought. "Now, that fall might not kill him so just in case he lives, I've also compelled him to walk back upstairs and try, try again until he can't try anymore."

"You sick bastard," yelled Kol.

Klaus sped across the courtyard to Kol and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, lifting him off the ground. "You turn on your family to protect a nothing-vampire and you have the audacity to judge me."

"They aren't nothing to us, Klaus," Marcel barked. Klaus turned around to see the pained expression on his son's face. "They aren't just pawns that we're using to make the century go by quicker. They're our friends." Marcel slowly moved closer to Klaus. "I know that I was wrong for making vampires behind your back and we were wrong for attacking you and Elijah earlier but we did that. You have no one to blame but us. No one should be punished but us."

Marcel's docile presence seemed to calm Klaus's temper. He sat Kol back down to his feet and turned to face his son. "Fine," he muttered. Then, yelling up to the top floor, he said, "Theodore, come down. And do take the stairs. I really didn't want to clean your body up anyway."

Teddy began to breathe easier after he was allowed to step away from the railing. Once in front of Klaus, Klaus looked into the man's eyes and said, "Forget everything that happened here today. You never met me and you've never been to this place. You're going to go back home and wait for your dear love, Joshua, to call."

When Klaus ended his compulsion, Teddy walked out of the Compound unaware of the danger he was previously in.

"So you're going to let Josh come back?" Marcel asked once Teddy was out of the Compound.

"Josh may return to his life," Klaus answered somewhat reluctantly. "But he is on thin ice. Should he be at the core of another plan to usurp my power I will take pleasure in his torturous end."

"Klaus, I wasn't trying to usurp-"

Klaus held up a hand to silence Marcel's comment. "As for the other two, I will grant them mercy at my son's request and allow them to keep their lives but they are hereby banished from the French Quarter."

Marcel released a sigh of relief. "Then they can continue to live in Algiers?"

Klaus grabbed Marcel's arm, gripping it tight and reawakening the tension Marcel had only just released. Looking deep into his son's eyes, Klaus asked, "Are you on Vervain?"

"No," Marcel answered immediately.

"Prove it," he held out his hand to Marcel and said, "Give me your daylight ring."

"Klaus," Elijah barked. "You are out of line. You had all the Vervain in the city destroyed."

"If he was able to create new vampires behind my back, Elijah, there's no telling what else he's been up to. Marcel, give me your ring."

Under Klaus's compulsion, Marcel removed his daylight ring and slid it into Klaus's hand. He took a deep breath, preparing for the burn of the sun shining above the courtyard but Klaus kept a hold of his hand, pressing the daylight ring into his palm.

"Alright," Klaus relented. "I believe you. Put your ring back on."

Marcel quickly took the ring out of Klaus's hand and slid it back on his finger.

Klaus forced Marcel to look back in his eyes and said, "How many new vampires are there left?"

"Two," Marcel answered honestly under the force of Compulsion.

"Did Rebekah know about your plan to create new vampires?"

"No. I acted alone."

Klaus stepped back away from Marcel, satisfied with his answers. "Good. We have enough to deal with just you two. What do you say, Elijah? You get the old one, I get the young one?"

"Actually, brother, I think we should switch it up this time."

All three other vampires gawked in surprise at Elijah's suggestion.

"Marcel was the one who snapped my neck after all," Elijah elaborated. "And Kol yours."

"But...Marcel defied me by creating new vampires."

"And I shall be sure to punish him for that too. Come along, Marcel."

Marcel stood in quiet shock for a while, staring at Klaus as if he expected him to object and march him away from Elijah.

"Marcellus," Elijah bit. "I do not expect to have to ask you twice."

With his heart nearly pounding out of his chest, Marcel followed Elijah upstairs to his bedroom. Elijah took off his suit jacket and hung it neatly over the bedpost while Marcel stood as far away from him as he could get without going out the bedroom window.

As Elijah sat down on the bed, Marcel's crossed his arms protectively in front of him. "I-I haven't been over your knee since I was a boy."

"Yes, well, you're a Mikaelson so you should've suspected this moment was coming sooner or later. Please remove your jacket and trousers."

Hearing Elijah ask him to remove his pants reminded Marcel of a time when he could be found dashing through the Compound to avoid his uncle's stinging spanks after breaking some valuable antique while playing ball in the house.

"I...I change my mind," Marcel murmured. "I want Klaus to do it."

"I apologize if I gave you the misconception that you have a choice in the matter."

In a split moment, Marcel decided to make a break for it. He sped to the door but, calculating that he would do such a thing, Elijah was one step ahead and sped in front of the door before Marcel, blocking him from the handle.

"Come now, Marcellus," he tutted. "You're much too old for such childish antics. Do you recall what used to happen when you were a boy and tried to run away from a well-earned punishment?"

Marcel immediately remembered all the bare-bottom blisterings he received for trying to run away from a spanking. They were always worse than Elijah's normal spankings.

"Why do you want to be the one to punish me?" Marcel asked, attempting to prolong the moment.

"It's not my desire to punish you, Marcel, but I think Kol and Klaus could both use this moment to mend their fragile relationship."

"Alright, then I can just wait for Klaus to finish with Kol."

"Now, that wouldn't be fair. I made a deal with Klaus and I wouldn't be holding up my end of the bargain if I didn't punish you for your misdeeds."

"C'mon, Elijah. You haven't spanked me in two hundred years."

"Then it seems you're long overdue. Jacket, trousers. Off. Now."

Marcel took off his jacket slowly. He draped it across the bed and reached down for his belt. He barely got the belt unbuckled but his trembling fingers couldn't be moved to unbutton his pants.

"I can't do it," he muttered.

"That's alright, Marcellus. You don't have to."

Marcel's eyes optimistically shot up to Elijah hoping that the man had given in to his request to have Niklaus punish him. Before Marcel could react, Elijah sped over to Marcel, grabbing him by the arm and vamping over to the bed, baring his bottom and pinning his legs between Elijah's all in less than a second.

Marcel struggled against Elijah's hold but the ancient vampire was unfazed by the younger's futile struggles.

Marcel fought tooth and nail against his tears as Elijah started raining down smacks, each one precisely on target. Elijah focused most of his smacks on the undercurve of Marcel's bottom, being sure to hit his tender sit-spot with tear-jerking ferocity. As the first tear broke Marcel's will, Elijah began landing smacks with more speed and vigor.

"No, Elijah, stop," Marcel bellowed, reaching back to cover his aching behind with his hand.

Elijah made quick work of pinning his hand to his side. "I thought I'd spanked that habit out of you when you were a boy," he said, quickly peppering Marcel's behind with a dozen of his harshest spanks. Marcel fell into heavy sobs, struggling to stifle the sound of his wails by crying into the bend of his arm.

When Elijah felt that the man had had enough, he righted Marcel's clothes and stood him back to his feet. Going over to his jacket hanging on the bedpost, Elijah grabbed the handkerchief from the pocket and came back to Marcel, gently wiping the man's tear-soaked cheeks.

"Now, now, Marcellus," Elijah cooed. "It's all over. You disobeyed Klaus, you attacked me, you apologized, you were punished, and now you're forgiven."

Marcel was slightly shocked at how gentle Elijah was being with him. Surely the man was kind to him as a child after a spanking but Marcel didn't expect the same kind of gentleness from him now as a man.

"I-I...I want to see Klaus," Marcel mumbled, embarrassed at wanting to see his father right after being punished by Elijah.

"Of course," Elijah smirked. It was a habit of Marcel as a child to go running to Klaus immediately after any spanking. Yet another habit the man hadn't grown out of.

-M-

Meanwhile

Klaus had to drag Kol from the Courtyard all the way to his bedroom. Kol tried to fight him but the Hybrid was too strong to overpower.

"Enough," Klaus barked as he threw Kol into the bedroom and slammed the door shut behind them. "I don't want to be here any more than you do but here we are."

Kol's chest heaved with fear. He backed away from Klaus, seeking refuge in the furthest corner of the room as he scanned the room for any sign of a dagger but there were none in sight. He guessed that meant Klaus had already had one on his person. His pulse began to race as Klaus came closer to him. His first instinct was to fight but he knew from previous experience that he wouldn't last in a fight against Klaus. As Klaus got closer, his fear grew, waiting for the moment his brother revealed the dagger and shoved it into his chest. Before he knew it, there were tears in his eyes.

"P-please, don't, brother," he blurted out.

Klaus paused in his stride over to Kol. He hadn't spanked Kol in years but he didn't remember the man being so terrified of the experience before. Assuming that it was just Kol trying to con his way out of punishment, Klaus scoffed at his crying.

"Save the tears, brother. They won't work on me. You have once again proven your disloyalty to me and now you're going to get what you deserve."

"Brother, I beg of you, please," Kol's tears came harder. "Please, don't do this."

Klaus's smug smile faded. He knew then Kol's tears were not an act.

"Pull yourself together," Klaus scolded halfheartedly. "It's just a spanking. Nothing you haven't received a hundred times before from Elijah, I'm sure."

"Y-you can't trick me," Kol stammered nervously. "I know that you have a dagger on you. Y-you're waiting for me to let my guard down and then you're gonna...you're gonna...Please, brother...please, don't. I want to see Hope grow up. I want to enjoy this life. Please don't put me back in that box."

"Kol, I had no intention of daggering you," Klaus responded as if his true intentions should have been more obvious to his brother.

"Don't insult my intelligence by lying to me! I know you. It's what you do! I mess up and you punish me with the dagger. Well, I'm sorry for messing up this time brother. I betrayed your trust and I apologize but I don't deserve the dagger! I was protecting my friend. I was acting selflessly. I DON'T DESERVE THE DAGGER!"

Klaus was confounded. He knew Kol hated the daggers, almost as much as Finn did, but he never suspected his brother's fear of them would be enough to bring him to actual, heartfelt tears.

"Kol," Klaus took his brother's trembling shoulders in his hands and held him steady. "I do not have a dagger on me. I am not going to dagger you. I swear."

Kol stared into Klaus's eyes, they seemed earnest and trustworthy. He took deep, heaving breaths trying to calm himself down but in doing so he was forced to remember all the times Klaus was waiting to catch him unsuspecting before surprising him with the dagger.

"I...I don't believe you," Kol sobbed.

Unable to think of any other way to convince his brother of his honesty, Klaus pulled Kol into a hug, gently caressing the back of his head with one hand while squeezing his trembling shoulder with the other.

"Don't do it, Klaus," Kol quietly whimpered, still expecting a blade to come piercing through him at any moment. "Please don't do it. I'm sorry."

Klaus held his brother whilst he soaked his shirt with his tears, all the while hating himself for being the reason for Kol's fear. For a thousand years, he only thought of the daggers as a convenient way to keep his siblings out of his hair. It didn't hurt them for more than a second, they were immortal so whenever he deigned to remove their daggers they could just pick up life wherever they wanted and so he never thought of it as any more than a slight inconvenience for them. But as Kol stood there, sobbing at the mere thought of being put down again, Klaus couldn't help but reconsider his view on the matter.

There was a light rapping on the door and Klaus knew it was Elijah.

Pulling away from Kol, he whispered, "You're okay, brother. I promise," before calling out, "Come in."

When Elijah saw Kol in such heavy tears, he knew the two of them had had a serious heart-to-heart and by their familiar embrace, he knew that they were getting closer to becoming loving brothers again.

"Seems things went as planned in here."

"Yes," Klaus agreed, still comfortingly rubbing Kol's shoulder. "Everything's fine in here. Kol...has learned his lesson. We're done."

"Good. Because Marcel is currently down the hall in tears asking for his father."

Klaus nodded at Elijah and turned back to Kol to once again repeat, "You're okay. I promise."

Chapter Text

Chapter 29

Flashback:

Little Marcellus screamed at the top of his lungs as his uncle laid heavy smacks against his tiny backside. In the year since Marcel's first spanking, Elijah had mastered the technique of spanking a human child. He'd learned the longer the spanking, the less likely Marcel was to repeat the action that earned him a trip over his knee in the first place.

"No, no, no," Marcel screamed, attempting to end the assault on his bottom by covering it with his hands. Grabbing both of his tiny wrists in one hand, Elijah pinned Marcel's hands to his side and tilted his bottom-up so he could land more stinging smacks to his tender sit spots.

"Trying to prevent your punishment only leads to a harsher spanking, Marcellus," Elijah scolded. "Remember that."

Elijah ignored the boy's wails and continued to land a steady stream of spanks on the bare, upturned bottom before him until a red tint shined on Marcel's burning cheeks.

Elijah righted the boy's clothes before standing him back to his feet. Marcel's face was covered in tears and he sniffled constantly to keep the snot from running from his nose.

Elijah whipped the handkerchief from his jacket pocket and began wiping Marcel's tear-streaked face.

"There, there, Marcellus. You're alright. I don't like having to spank you but little boys who disobey their uncles' direct order to not play with balls indoors deserve to be punished. Especially when disobeying me ended with you breaking a priceless antique vase given to Niklaus by the Emperor, Shizu, five hundred years ago."

"I-I...I'm sorry, Uncle Elijah. I-I didn't mean to."

Elijah sighed. He hated seeing Marcel in such heavy tears but he felt he needed to be harsh with him this time. Normally if he caught Marcel playing ball indoors he would just give him a stern talking to or take the ball from him for a week but when he found the shattered vase and Marcel admitted to accidentally knocking it over with his ball, Elijah knew he had to set a harsher precedent for playing ball in the house.

"I know you didn't mean to, Marcel, but it wouldn't have happened if you hadn't disobeyed me in the first place. And running away from me after I confronted you about it only led to you having a longer spanking."

Tactlessly wiping his remaining tears on the sleeve of his shirt, Marcel stammered, "C-can I g-go to poppa now?"

Elijah sighed once more. "Of course," he said pulling Marcel's arms down from his face. "And don't wipe your face with your sleeves, Marcellus. Here," When Elijah gave Marcel his handkerchief, the boy covered his face with it and continued letting his tears fall.

It wasn't easy being the strict parent but Elijah knew somebody had to do it.

"Go to your poppa," he urged Marcel with an affectionate nudge against his hip. "I believe he's painting right now."

Marcel darted out of the room and down the hall to Klaus's studio. Klaus couldn't help but hear his son's punishment and with every wail, he wanted to march into the room and rip Marcel from Elijah's lap but he trusted his brother and if there was one thing Elijah knew, it was how to keep unruly Mikaelsons in line. When Klaus heard Marcel come running down the hall, he hurried to meet him at the door.

Marcel pushed the studio door open slowly. When he saw Klaus standing behind the door, Marcel's hands automatically slinked down into the pockets of his pants and he stared nervously down at the wooden floor.

"P-poppa, I did something bad."

"Oh," Klaus feigned surprise. He knew already what Marcel had done but if the boy wanted to admit his mistake himself, Klaus wasn't going to stop him.

Cautiously nodding his head 'yes', Marcel continued, "I...I...I b-broke a real old vase that someone real important gave you a real long time ago. I'm sorry, poppa. P-please don't be angry."

Klaus knelt down to one knee and looked into Marcel's turbulent eyes. "Hey, now, it's okay," he said kindly. "I promise I'm not angry. What do I always tell you?"

Roughly wiping his face with Elijah's handkerchief, Marcel stuttered, "Th-that...that I'll always be forgiven? No matter what?"

"That's right. You're my little Marcellus and you mean more to me than some old vase."

Marcel suddenly felt all of his fears wash away.

Tenderly rubbing his sore behind, he said, "Uncle Elijah blistered me for it."

"How dastardly of him," Klaus stood up, lifting the boy up onto his hip as he did. "Perhaps you should stay in here with me so that you won't have to see mean ol' Uncle Elijah again until supper."

Marcel nodded vehemently. There was nothing he loved more than spending time with his father.

End Flashback

Klaus entered Marcel's room, a forced frown upon his face. Marcel was sitting on the edge of his bed waiting for Klaus to come in but upon seeing the surly face of his father, he stood up.

"I'm sorry," he muttered fearing that Klaus's harsh glare indicated his desire to punish Marcel in spite of Elijah's previous spanking.

With his arms firmly crossed over his chest, Klaus walked over to Marcel. "In a thousand years, the only thing I have ever been certain of is that no one can be trusted but time after time again, I have made allotments for my family that no one else has been privy to and time and time again my family has proven to me that they don't deserve my trust. And yet, like a fool, I continue to give it to them. You, my dear Marcellus, have betrayed my trust more than any of my siblings and yet, every time, I forgive you. Because you are my son and whether you betray me every day for the rest of eternity, my love for you forces me to always forgive you and that is my crux to bear. But know this: my forgiveness does not come with the return of my trust. Every time you betray me, you lose more of my trust and it'll take a lot more than just a red bottom to win it back."

Blushing in shame, Marcel said, "I know. I don't expect it to be so easy. But...I also know...that you won't ever give up on me. And that's enough. For now."

"Good." A smirk appeared on Klaus's face. "So, how was your little conversation with Elijah?"

Marcel's blush grew. "He was...a lot harsher than I remember."

"Well, the last time you were unfortunate enough to find yourself over his knee you were still human. I'm sure he was careful to use only a fraction of his power on you then."

"Just because I'm a vampire now doesn't mean he needed to go all out on me."

"Aw, poor Marcellus," Klaus said with a mocking smile. "Was Uncle Elijah too rough with you? Perhaps I should give him a stern talking to."

"It's not funny," Marcel growled. "It...was humiliating. And then afterward he...he treated me as if he were consoling a child."

"Would you prefer that he treated you like the man who snapped his neck and left his dead body lying in the dirt?"

Marcel glanced away from Klaus, embarrassed at the reminder of his act of betrayal. "How long are you going to hold that over my head," he muttered.

"The poet, Maya Angelou, once wrote: 'The thorn from the bush one has planted, nourished and pruned pricks more deeply and draws more blood'." Klaus stood silently, allowing Marcel to completely take in the meaning of his words. "I could never forget the pain of being betrayed by a member of my family, Marcel. It cuts too deep."

Klaus suddenly pulled Marcel against his body, tightly wrapping his arms around the man. Marcel was unsurprised by the sudden bout of affection. He buried his face against Klaus's shoulder as his father held him.

"But it's alright, Marcellus. Even if I can't forget, I will always forgive you."

Marcel's arms slowly slunk around Klaus, tightening the hug they shared. He felt an unparalleled comfort in Klaus's arms that he couldn't explain, neither did he want to.

"Maybe you forgive me," Marcel said as he forced himself to pull away from his father's hold. "But I'm pretty sure Hope is pissed at me for breaking our plans today."

Klaus thought about Hope still standing in his studio waiting for him to come back to get her.

"Well, she's right down the hall in my studio if you want to talk to her," said Klaus.

Marcel sighed. "Spanked by Elijah, tongue-lashed by you, now I have to deal with a surly teenager. Looks like I've hit the angry Mikaelson Trifecta today."

-M-

Marcel opened the door to Klaus's studio expecting to see Hope working on a new painting but as soon as the door opened, she dove against his abdomen hugging him as if she hadn't seen him in a lifetime.

"Hey, now," he said a bit surprised by her reaction. Jokingly he stated, "If I'd known blowing off our plans would make you miss me this much I'd do it more often."

Hope looked up to Marcel, melancholy etched on her face, and he suddenly became serious.

Putting his hands on her shoulder, he pulled her back away from him so he could check for any signs of physical injury. "What's wrong," he asked.

Unsure of how to say what she wanted to say any short of being totally blunt with it, Hope muttered, "I...I...I heard. Everything."

Marcel wasn't sure what she meant at first but all at once the realization hit him.

"What do you mean," he panicked. "Heard what?"

"You and Uncle Elijah. I heard you crying and I heard...I heard everything."

Marcel walked on unsteady legs past Hope. He couldn't believe that his little sister had heard him being spanked by Elijah. The moment was almost surreal. He walked over to the sofa and flopped down on it, staring straight ahead at the unfinished painting on the canvas.

"I was worried," Hope felt the need to explain. "Because dad seemed so angry when he left to go meet you in the courtyard, I wanted to know what he was going to do to you. I was going to stop him if he was going to try to banish you again. I couldn't hear anything from the courtyard but when you guys came upstairs, I...I could hear everything."

She moved over to the sofa beside him.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he grunted. "It takes a little more than that to hurt me."

"Sounds like it hurt to me," she muttered. "Wh-why did you let him,"

"It's the way of the Mikaelsons," he muttered. "I fucked up and I had to be punished before I could be forgiven. That's just the way it is."

"You mean it's happened before," she nearly yelled.

Marcel shrugged. "A couple of times in the past year."

"You mean this whole time you've been getting spanked and you never told me?"

Marcel smirked awkwardly. "Why didn't I tell my kid sister I still get spanked," he asked sarcastically.

After hearing Marcel say it out loud Hope understood why he didn't want to tell her.

"I can't believe you still get spanked," she mumbled. "You're so...old."

Marcel chuckled. Those were his thoughts exactly. "You should watch out yourself," he kidded. "I wouldn't be surprised to someday find you draped over Klaus's knee in your dorm room."

"He wouldn't dare," she barked.

"Oh, he would. Trust me." He laughed at the mortified look on his sister's face. "Hey," he started softly, his laugh tapering off. "Do me a favor and don't tell anyone about this. It's sort of a Mikaelson family secret. If it got around the Quarter how the Mikaelson family was really run, we might lose the respect of our enemies."

"As if anybody would believe me," she scoffed. Then another thought occurred to her. "Does anyone else get spanked? Does dad?"

"Uh, no. I don't think so," he answered, a small abrupt laugh escaping him. The thought of Klaus fighting against Elijah as he tried to force the Hybrid over his lap tickled him.

"What about Uncle Kol? Was he spanked too?"

"Um," Marcel was quiet for a moment, contemplating whether or not he should tell her. He had always known how the others were punished growing up. Painful trips over Elijah's lap was just life for him, Rebekah, and Kol. But then he thought maybe he didn't have a right to disclose anyone else's punishments. "Well, I wouldn't know. You should ask him."

"Yeah right, like he'd actually tell me." With a huff, Hope stood up. "Well, I for one have had enough excitement for one day."

"Is that right? And here I was just about to ask you if you wanted to go see that street show in Algiers."

Hope snickered derisively, "Like I'm going to let you out of your promise so easily. Let's go. We're going to Algiers and you're buying me a corndog."

On their way out of the Compound, Hope and Marcel ran into Kol also leaving the Compound.

"Where are you two off to?" Kol asked as the three of them stood under the arch leading outside.

"To see the new street performer in Algiers," Hope replied smiling from ear to ear. "Wanna come with us, Uncle Kol?"

Kol looked from Hope to Marcel. The scowl on Marcel's face was a clear indication of how Marcel felt about Kol coming with them but that only incited Kol more.

"Why not," he smirked. "I was just on my way to check on Josh anyway. Care if we carpool?"

Marcel's lips tightened but he didn't want to ruin the day he promised to Hope anymore. So begrudgingly he responded, "I'm driving."

-M-

"Don't turn," Kol berated Marcel's driving from the passenger's seat. "Keep straight or we'll run into traffic."

"I've been driving through this city for a hundred years without you," Marcel growled. "So keep quiet and let me..." He speech tapered off as he brought the car to a slow stop. His teeth gritted at the sight of the line of cars in front of him all moving at a consistent six inches an hour.

"Told ya," Kol scoffed.

"Shut up,"

"Hey, let's play a game to pass time," Hope stated excitedly. "Truth or Dare. Marcel, you first. Truth or Dare?"

Marcel sighed. "I'm not playing that, Hope."

"What's wrong," Kol mocked. "Afraid we'll find out something about you, you didn't want us to know?"

Marcel smirked. He wasn't the one with secrets to hide.

"Alright," Marcel relented. "If you're so eager to play, Truth or Dare?"

"Dare," Kol fearlessly declared.

"I dare you to get out of the car and walk the rest of the way to the ferry."

"Ha, ha," Kol laughed sarcastically. "How about I dare you to take a long walk off a short cliff."

Hope's loud, frustrated groan from the back seat brought their attention back to her. "As I was saying, Marcel, Truth or Dare?"

"Fine," he groaned. "Dare."

"I dare you to prank call dad."

Marcel chuckled dismissively. "Yeah, that's not happening."

"C'mon, you have to. You picked dare,"

"She's right," Kol egged on with a sinister smirk. "You chose dare."

Marcel was adamant about not going through with the dare at first but as traffic seemed to not be going any faster, he finally gave in just to pass time.

"Hello," Klaus answered the blocked number, a clear frustration in the timbre of his voice. He almost didn't answer the phone but he knew only a select people had his number so whoever was calling must've been important.

Marcel's phone was on speaker in the car so everyone could hear. Disguising his voice to sound old and feeble, Marcel said, "Um, hello, this is Mitchell from 'Big Rob's Kitchen Appliances'. Is your refrigerator running?"

Klaus sighed, his anger growing. He didn't know how a telemarketer got his number but he was livid.

"Yes it is," he answered angrily but before he could go into a detailed rant on what Mitchell could do with his call-list, Marcel interrupted, "Then you better go catch it," and hung up.

Hope fell into laughter in the back seat but as funny as they thought the prank was, Marcel and Kol fought the urge to laugh out loud in order to seem superior to each other.

"Your turn," said Marcel, looking back at Hope through the rearview mirror. "Truth or Dare?"

Hope thought for a second and then confidently said, "Truth,"

Marcel was hoping she'd choose Dare so he had to take a moment to think of a 'Truth' for her. "How's school going?"

"Ew," Hope derided. "That's the best you could come up with?"

"At the moment," Marcel chuckled. "Unless, of course, you want to tell your big brother and Uncle Kol if you have a secret crush."

"Gross, that's worst." Hope sat back in her seat, folding her arms over her chest. "I don't wanna play this anymore."

Staring at the petulant girl in the mirror, Marcel said, "Sounds like someone is not passing."

"I am too passing," she bit. Then quieter, she added, "Everything but World History."

"What," Marcel and Kol both exclaimed in shock.

"Your family's a bunch of ancient vampires who have traveled the world ten times over, love," said Kol. "How are you not passing World History?"

"That's exactly it," Hope defended. "Everything I need to know about history I can learn from you guys. What's the point of even showing up to class?"

"You've been skipping class?" Marcel growled.

Hope's eyes widened in fear at realizing she'd overtalked herself. "Um...just once or twice. It's no big deal."

"It is a big deal if you're not passing the class, Hope."

"What's the worst that can happen? I don't get a High School Diploma? So what? None of you have a High School Diploma."

"Because we didn't need one," Kol barked. "We were born in a time where things like High School Diplomas didn't exist but in this time, you need one to make your way in this world."

"No, I don't. I can just compel myself into college. Or a job. Or I could just become a professional witch and sell herbs and remedies like the Dupeauxs. School is for anyone who wasn't lucky enough to be born a Mikaelson."

Marcel and Kol were both fuming in the front seat. They had both compelled themselves into Universities before so they knew how easy it would be for a vampire to get into college without a High School Diploma but they both also knew what it felt like to struggle through learning college material without the fundamental concepts most other students learned during their formal education. They hated the thought of Hope going through that but most importantly they feared that if she could give up on 8th Grade so easily, what was to stop her from giving up on everything else as well.

"Marcel," Kol said more friendly than he'd spoken to Marcel in years. "Do is a favor and make a right on this street."

"Why," Hope questioned. "That street is just a loop. It'll take us back the way we came."

"Exactly," Kol stated. "We're going to drop you back off at the Compound."

"Why," she yelled.

"Because I am hereby grounding you. You are not to leave the Compound unless it's to go to school."

"But that's not fair," she continued to bellow. "You're supposed to be the fun uncle!"

"I am fun, dear," Kol smirked. "Maybe when you're older you'll see that. For now, until you're at an age where any reckless decisions you make is beyond our control, you get 'Stern Uncle Kol'. Not to be mistaken for 'Stern Uncle Elijah'. I am still far nicer than him."

When Marcel did as Kol asked and ventured right at the next street, Hope's frustration grew. Throwing herself back in her seat, she kicked the back of Kol's seat.

Kol turned around to cut his eyes at the girl. He thought back to his youth, knowing exactly how his father would've handled such blatant petulance.

Flashback:

"Kol," Elijah shook his brother's shoulders attempting to wake him. "Wake up, brother. It's nearly sunrise. It's time to practice hunting."

"No," Kol groaned as he turned back over on his cot. "I don't wanna."

"Kol," Elijah muttered warningly. "You're fourteen now. It's time to start pulling your weight around here."

Klaus sat on the edge of Kol's cot, nervously wringing his hands. He was afraid of being found in the hut when they were supposed to be outside with Finn but he was also afraid of what would happen to Kol if Mikael were to come in and find him still sleeping.

"Get up, brother," he anxiously shook Kol once more. "If father catches you sleeping when you should be practicing...you know what he'll do."

"I don't care," Kol barked. "We've been practicing from dusk til dawn for three days. I'm tired, Elijah. I just wanna sleep!"

"What was that?"

Kol immediately sat up at the sound of Mikael's voice. Mikael stood in the archway of the boys' hut, a menacing scowl on his face. Klaus jumped to his feet immediately, fearing being down at the man's mercy.

Realizing that his father overheard his exclamation, Kol stammered, "I-I just...I'm tired, sir."

"Is that so,"

A chill ran down Elijah's spine as Mikael came closer.

"It's alright, father," he said, standing up to greet Mikael. "I'll wake him. I'll have him out at the training field before-"

A back-hand slap across his face silenced Elijah immediately.

"You couldn't get him out there at first," said Mikael, his menacing voice causing all three boys to shiver. "What makes you think I'd leave it to you again."

"F-father," Kol rose to his knees, prepared to leave the hut without further coercion but then Mikael sent a swift kick across his face, sending him back down to the cot.

"Only the sick," Mikael swung his foot into Kol's ribcage, "And the lame," he stomped down on the boy's hip, "Don't hunt for their food. So if that's what you want, I will gladly make you lame!"

Kol covered his head with his arms as his father's heavy foot came down upon him again and again. He begged for the beating to end but his pleas seemed to only spur Mikael on. Elijah and Klaus stood back, watching heartbrokenly as Mikael continued to kick and stomp Kol.

A loud popping noise sounded throughout the hut followed by Kol's breathless screech. Mikael had stomped Kol's shoulder out of the socket but that didn't stop his onslaught.

End Flashback

"Kol," Marcel yelled, bringing Kol's mind back to the present. Seeing the focused look on Kol's face, Marcel knew he was deep in thought and curiously slipped into his mind while his guard was down. When he saw the memory Kol was reliving, he knew he had to pull him out of it before Hope's curiosity got the better of her and she saw the Mikaelson's greatest shame.

It took a second for Kol to remember what he was saying before his mind slipped back to the past. Glancing at the back seat where Hope still sat, her arms tightly crossed over her chest and a scowl on par with her mother's resting on her face, he suddenly remembered.

"You're grounded, Hope," he stated calmly. "End of discussion. And I will be telling your mum and dad about your little class skipping escapade."

"That's not fair! You can't ground me and still tattle."

"I can and I will."

Growing increasingly angry, Hope kicked the back of Kol's seat again.

Kol took a deep breath in and a long sigh out. He calmed himself with thoughts of Davina.

-M-

Kol took it upon himself to walk Hope back into the Compound and upstairs to her room where he told her she was to stay until supper.

As he was walking out of the Compound, he sent a message in the 'Mikaelson Family' group text, saying 'Just found out Hope's been skipping school. Did the adult thing and grounded her. Somebody owes me a cookie.'

"Who are you texting?"

Kol looked up to see Marcel standing beside his car, waiting for Kol to come back.

"Family group text," Kol answered, waving his phone in the air. "Thought it would be the quickest way to get the word out about our little issue with Hope."

Marcel took his phone from his pocket expecting to see a new notification from Kol but none came. "I'm not in the Family Group?"

Kol smirked. "I venture that's for the same reason Hope's not in it. Don't worry, I hear from Rebekah they have a separate group without me as well. It figures."

Marcel thought about the group message he had with Josh and the other vampires he sired. He supposed that Klaus had his reasons for leaving him out of the group.

"What do you think you're doing?" Marcel growled when Kol opened his car door.

Confused, Kol answered, "I thought we were going to see Josh."

Marcel walked over to the driverside door and said, "You were riding with me because that's what Hope wanted. Hope's not here anymore so...looks like you're gonna have to walk."

"Fine," Kol slammed the door shut.

He walked over to the edge of the street, preparing to hail a cab when Marcel said, "One question,"

Kol scoffed, ready to pretend to ignore whatever Marcel was about to ask.

"Why is it...when you find out Hope's been skipping school, you suddenly become her stern, protective Uncle but...when I was a child...you forced me to watch a company of actors kill each other under your compulsion. You force-fed me your blood, prepared to kill me, all in the name of fun."

The stress in his voice as he asked the question forced Kol to look at Marcel as the man fought to keep his emotions at bay. He couldn't help the sense of jealousy that flooded him at seeing Kol being so paternal towards Hope when he had never seen that side of Kol.

Kol sighed. He knew it would be a good time to give some sort of witty, sarcastic answer and leave Marcel wondering the truth for the rest of his life but his mind was also still crowded with thoughts of Davina and he knew she would want him to answer Marcel honestly.

"Truth is," he muttered. "I was a different person back then, mate. I was filled with jealousy and anger. I'd spent so many years as the backup brother to Klaus, Elijah, and Rebekah that when I met you and saw how much they actually cared about you - that you weren't just something they were going to use to past the time, that you were family - I began to hate you. It didn't matter that you were a child or that you had nothing to do with why I was feeling the way I was. All that mattered was...that you got the love and the trust that they so frequently denied me. I was afraid...that they would love you so much, they'd forget about me. That day...I knew they wouldn't choose to turn you into a vampire but I was forcing them to choose between you and me. If they chose me they would simply send you away to protect you from me. But...obviously, they chose you and decided to put me back in a box."

"You wanted...you wanted Klaus to get rid of me?"

"At the time, more than anything in the world. But...had I been a proper uncle to you back then or had they'd sent you away, you and I might've never become friends," Smirking devilishly, he added, "Then again, we might not've become enemies either."

The end of Marcel's lip curled into a smile. He didn't consider Kol his friend but he didn't consider him an enemy either. He was right in the sweet spot where Marcel could stomach his presence but at the same time, he'd prefer to never be around him.

"So what changed you?" Marcel dared ask. "With Hope, I mean? She's a permanent fixture in this family too, y'know. Klaus is never going to send her away just because Uncle Kol is a little jealous she's getting all the attention."

Kol's cheeks tinted with a hint of a blush. "To be honest. You did, mate."

Marcel stood shocked at Kol's answer.

"We were best friends for almost a century," Kol smirked. "And...I can't help but wonder, had I not been so jealous of your relationship with Klaus...perhaps we'd still be friends. I don't want to repeat the same mistakes with Hope. I'm going to be better with her this time. I want to be a man Davina would be proud of."

Marcel was speechless. He stood beside his car trying to think of some way to respond to Kol's proclamation but he couldn't get his mouth to move. Before he could regain control of his faculties, Kol had flagged down a cab and was getting in the back seat. "See you in Algiers, mate," said Kol slamming the cab door close behind him.

Chapter Text

Chapter 30

Klaus stopped in the middle of his painting and fished his phone out of his pocket at the sound of his text alert going off.

'Just found out Hope's been skipping school. Did the adult thing and grounded her. Somebody owes me a cookie.' - Kol

Klaus scoffed and put the phone back in his pocket. That wasn't his concern. Hope being kidnapped by his enemies: Klaus problem. Hope attempting to perform magic beyond her skill level: Klaus problem. Hope skipping school: Not a Klaus problem.

"I'll just let Hayley handle that," Niklaus said to himself as he picked up a paintbrush and restarted his painting. "Or Elijah. He lives for stuff like this."

He continued on with his painting, relaxing his mind more with each stroke until the studio door burst open with Hayley on the other side.

"Did you see Kol's text?" She asked walking heatedly over to the father of her child.

Klaus sighed heavily as his peace was disturbed but continued with his painting, not looking back at the woman even once. "It's a non-issue, Hayley. Or should I say, it's not my issue."

"Excuse me?" Hayley marched over to Klaus and snatched the paintbrush from his hand. He glared down at her, his teeth gritted in anger knowing that he couldn't dare retaliate to the mother of his child the way he would normally do to someone who dared interrupt his peace. "Your daughter and throwing her future down the drain and it's not your issue?"

"She's a tribrid, dear," he retorted irritably. He picked up another brush from the set and dipped it in the paint. "And a Mikaelson. We will take care of her."

"That's...besides the point, Klaus! Skipping school is irresponsible. Not to mention if she's not going to class, what is she doing?"

"She's probably selling drugs," Klaus joked. "Or maybe she's joined a violent street gang. Oh! Perhaps she's started her own secret coven of evil witches and 4th-period gym is the only time they can meet."

"That's not funny, Klaus!"

"It is funny because you seem to forget how wonderful our daughter is. If she's skipping school it's because she's bored with it, not because she's up to something nefarious. Maybe she's using all of her extra free time to brush up on her magic."

"That's not a good enough reason to skip school, Klaus. I know school means nothing to someone who's been alive since forever but our daughter needs an education. I won't let her go through life compelling whatever she wants out of people. She will finish high school, go to college, become a lawyer or doctor or anything to keep her out of Mikaelson drama."

"Once a Mikaelson, always a Mikaelson. She could make it to the highest office in the country and Mikaelson drama will always be her drama. You should know that by now," Klaus flicked his paintbrush, ending the last stroke on his painting, and finally looked Hayley in the eyes. "But I am working to put an end to all Mikaelson drama so she won't have to face it. So, just in case the thought of taking her from her family ever crosses your mind again, don't."

Hayley raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest. "Wow, no threats of violence against me or my wolves. I'm impressed."

Klaus stood back to take a good look at his painting. "I told you, love. I'm changing for the better."

"Fine. You want to be a better father, care about your daughter's future. Help her have more options than just being a Mikaelson."

Irritated by Hayley's persistence, Klaus said, "If you want me to be on board with her grounding, then I am, but only because in skipping school she disobeyed you and lied to us. But I am not going to be a hypocrite and pretend like I care about her skipping a few days of middle school. Sure, I aspire for her to be great one day but she can do so without middle school. Marcel was taught exclusively by Elijah during his formative years and he went to college. Twice. As a matter of fact, I've been against her going to school with the threat against this family still looming all along. I say we pull her out of school for the rest of the semester until this Travis business is taken care of."

As Klaus moved to grab the painting and put it somewhere to dry, Hayley vamp-sped in front of him. "That is not happening, Klaus," she growled, her eyes cutting deep inside him. "I want Hope to have a normal childhood. She spent twelve years living in hotel rooms and traveling the country with her mom. We have never stayed in one place long enough for her to complete a full year of school. We've had to move so much that it was nearly impossible for her to make lasting friendships. But now she is back home. She's with her family who loves her more than anything. She has a best friend who would do anything for her. And she's going to school like a normal thirteen-year-old girl. If you want our daughter to have a happy, normal childhood, you won't even think about pulling her out of school again."

Klaus rolled his eyes, annoyed that he hadn't considered Hope attending public school so rationally at first. Hayley was the one to talk him into letting her go to school in the first place. If it were up to him, he would have kept his little girl at home with him forever just like Marcel.

"Fine," he relented. "I won't pull her from school. If you really think that her attending class with a bunch of unambitious, pubescent knuckle-draggers is what's best for my little girl...I will learn to care about middle school. But for the record, if you wanted someone to agree with you on this 'school skipping' case, you should've gone for Elijah. I'm sure he's far more invested in this than I am."

"Oh, he is. He's in her room lecturing her about it right now."

Klaus smirked. I knew it.

-M-

"Boy, it is good to be home," Josh exclaimed as he walked through the front door of his apartment. Kol entered behind him followed by Marcel and his two sired vampires. "I can't believe Klaus just let us go,"

"Sure," Marcel mumbled sarcastically. "He just let you go. No horrible debt was paid by anyone."

"I know, I know," said Josh having overheard Klaus's mumbling with his vamp hearing. "You guys probably sold your souls to the devil, quite literally, to get us free and for that, I am eternally grateful." Josh's eyes lit up as he had a sudden idea. "Let's go to a club to celebrate."

Marcel groaned as Josh put his arm around his and Kol's shoulder, squeezing them together.

"What do you say, fellas? Beautiful people, amazing drinks, awesome music. Could be just like old times."

Before Kol or Marcel could answer, Lora barked, "I'm not going anywhere with him! Have you forgotten that he killed Gwen?"

Kol rolled his eyes. "Kill one worthless vampire, save two. I think things have sorta evened themselves out."

Marcel shook his head, a knowing smile on his face as he pulled away from Josh. "Y'see, I knew you were never gonna change."

"C'mon, mate," Kol groaned as every vampire in the room glared at him. "What do you want me to do? Apologize? Because that's not gonna happen. I'm a Mikaelson. We have the tendency to not care about any vampire who isn't friend or family. Your friend Gwen was neither."

"To me, she was both."

Kol closed in the gap between him and Marcel and whispered tensely, "You start getting attached to every vampire you create and you're gonna live a long, miserable existence, mate. They all die eventually. If you're going to call yourself a Mikaelson, you need to learn that family is all you're ever gonna need."

"What about me," Josh spoke up, interrupting Kol's speech. Kol looked over to his friends noting the betrayal in his eyes. "Am I...am I just nothing to you?"

"Don't be silly," Kol grunted. "You're my best friend. You know what you mean to me."

"But I'm just going to die eventually, right? So what's the point of getting attached."

Kol's nose flared at the mention of Josh's death. "You're never going to die. You're under my protection and I'll never let anything happen to you. You're a Mikaelson by association."

"Then so are they."

"No, they're not," Kol barked angrily. He was getting irritated by the argument. "They're just a couple of broken kids Marcel turned to fill a gap in his life but I've got news for you, mate. They will never replace Davina."

Marcel's hands formed two tight fists. The night he turned Gwen, he knew he was only doing it because she looked like Davina. He tried to convince himself that she would be a valuable part of his army but deep down he knew the truth. But Kol was right. She couldn't replace Davina. No one could. But that didn't mean that he didn't still care for each of them.

Kol surveyed the room, taking in how each of the vampires was starting to feel towards him and he realized he was making more enemies than friends. To him Lora and Zane meant nothing and he wished Josh and Marcel felt the same but it was clear that they didn't, nor were they going to change their mind anytime soon.

All he wanted to do was celebrate their victory over Klaus with a nice stiff drink so to end the argument, he forced himself to calm down and said, "They are not family but...maybe I was too quick to dismiss them as friends." Looking past Marcel at the two vampires behind him, Kol smiled and said, "Let's go grab a drink and get better acquainted. I'm sure after you're properly buzzed you might start to like me."

Zane gave a wily half-smirk. "You killed our friend. You should hope that we don't get drunk and try to kill you."

"Well," Kol stared Zane down, making a note to not let his guard down around him. "That sounds like a fun night too."

-M-

Klaus sat in a wooden chair completely immobile in the middle of an empty white room. He struggled to move an inch of his body but no matter how strong his will was, he body wouldn't budge. Only his mouth was still able to move, allowing him to scream for help but no one came.

After what felt like hours of him sitting cemented to the chair, his captor finally appeared. Mikael.

Mikael stood in front of him, the white oak stake in one hand, a long silver blade in the other.

"Mikael," Klaus growled. "What did you do to me?"

"Nothing yet," Mikael replied, his sharp glare focusing intensely on Klaus. "Boy."

Just as suddenly as Mikael appeared before Klaus out of thin air, so did Elijah. Elijah scanned the room, looking over Mikael and Klaus as if he couldn't see them. "Hello," he called out. "Is anyone here?"

"Elijah," Klaus screamed. "Elijah, I'm right here."

"He can't see you," Mikael explained. "I didn't bring him here so the two of you could share your feelings with each other. I brought him here," Mikael took the silver blade and ran in across Elijah's throat. Elijah fell to his knees, struggling to keep his hands over the wound on his neck but the blood was coming too fast. "To make you suffer." Mikael raised the white oak stake in the air and Klaus anticipated his next move.

"No!" he screamed but his terror did nothing to impede Mikael's strike. He plunged the stake through Elijah's back, hitting his heart. Tears flooded Klaus's eyes as he watched his brother's skin begin to pale, the life draining from his body.

He had no time to mourn Elijah's death before Rebekah appeared.

"What the bloody hell," Rebekah exclaimed as she was snatched into existence. Then her eyes fell upon Elijah's dead body. "No," she muttered, falling to her hands and knees over her brother. "No, no, no. Elijah, please no." She caressed his cold cheek, her tears dripping down her face onto his cheek.

"Rebekah, get up," Klaus screamed. "Run! Get out of here,"

Mikael sneered, "Haven't you learned yet, boy? They can't hear you."

He stabbed Rebekah through the heart with the stake. Her head jerked at the sudden sharp pain going through her chest but it only lasted for a second before her body began to wither and die.

"Such a shame," Mikael tutted. "She was my favorite. Once."

"I am going to kill you," Klaus screamed hysterically. "When I get out of this I am going to rip your body apart piece by piece before ending you with your own filicidal weapon!"

"You're never moving from that seat. You're not ever going anywhere. Not as long as the boy you call son has that blade stuck in your chest."

Klaus suddenly gained the ability to move his head. He looked down to see the long discolored scar indicating that Papa Tunde's blade was still in him.

"You're weak," Mikael continued to degrade him. "And pathetic. Too much so to save your own family."

Marcel appeared in the room, a confused look on his face until he saw the lifeless bodies of Rebekah and Elijah piled up before him.

"Bex," he fell into sobs cradling her body in his arms. "No, Bex, no, god no!"

As Mikael took a step closer to Marcel, Klaus's heart began to pound. "Leave him alone," he begged, tears coursing down his cheeks. "He has nothing to do with this. Leave him alone!"

"According to you, he is a Mikaelson," Mikael scowled. "That means he has everything to do with this."

"If you want to kill me then kill me! But leave my son alone!"

"Son," The word left a bitter taste on Mikael's tongue. "He's the reason you're here now and you still regard him with such affection."

Klaus's eyes fell to Marcel. Seeing the mournful look on Marcel's face as he sobbed over Rebekah's body broke his heart.

"I deserve it," Klaus muttered. "He's innocent. I made him do this to me. I gave him the Mikaelson bloodlust. It's my fault. If you want to kill someone for it, kill me. Leave him alone."

"How touching," mocked Mikael. "If you really don't want him to die, then I will give you a choice."

Mikael lifted the hand holding the white oak stake and for a moment Klaus thought his end hand finally come. Then, right before his eyes, Hope appeared.

She couldn't see Marcel or Rebekah and Marcel couldn't see her. She saw only Elijah. As the little girl fell to her knees, sobbing over her uncle's death, Klaus wondered what Mikael had planned.

"Time to choose, boy," Mikael stated. "Either he dies or she does."

"No! Leave them alone! Kill me! Leave them alone...please," Klaus's gut wretched at that word fell from his lips. In a thousand years he always thought he'd die before he ever begged Mikael for anything again but at that moment he didn't care about his pride. He only cared about saving his children.

"Choose," Mikael demanded.

"I won't!" Looking down at the sullen faces of both his children, Klaus muttered, "I would never..."

"Fine. Then I'll choose for you."

Mikael dropped both of the weapons in his hands and knelt down behind Marcel and Hope. Pointing a finger at Marcel, he said, "Eenie." His finger swung to point at Hope. "Meenie." He pointed back at Marcel. "Miney,"

As Mikael turned his attention back to Hope, his hand forming a claw prepared to rip through the girl's back and grab her heart, Klaus screamed out but Mikael ignored his screams of terror.

"Moe,"

Klaus woke in a cold sweat. His heart racing, his eyes ardently scanning his empty bedroom to confirm that he was indeed alone, Mikael was indeed still dead.

He laid back on his sweat-drenched sheets and took deep calming breaths. He couldn't go back to sleep if he wanted to. Instead, he went down to the kitchen and started a pot of coffee. Just as the aroma of Jamaican coffee beans filled the air, Elijah entered dressed in silk pajamas and soft loafers.

"I thought we agreed that I would pick the coffee tonight," Elijah complained as he grabbed two coffee mugs from the cabinets for them.

"You were late," Klaus smirked. "I didn't have the patience to wait for you."

"Sounds about right," Elijah chuckled. As he poured the coffee into the mugs, he watched Klaus sitting at the kitchen aisle, staring forlornly at the granite countertop.

Elijah's body had become attuned to sleeping lightly throughout the night so that he could hear it when Klaus woke in the middle of the night. Sometimes he would mistakenly drift off into a heavier slumber but the scent of coffee in the dead of night was almost like an alarm, urging him to wake up and take care of his brother.

"So, what was your nightmare about tonight?"

"What makes you think I had a nightmare," Klaus scoffed.

"Dear brother, must we play these games," Elijah tutted. "We go through this at least twice a week but yesterday was rather long so why don't we skip the introduction and get straight to the problem. If you don't mind.

Klaus smirked halfheartedly. He hated talking to Elijah about his nightmares but if there was one thing he learned from Cami it's that he should trust his family to help him through the hard stuff.

"Mikael got a bit creative tonight," Klaus admitted. "He decided to torture me by torturing and killing you all in front of me while I helplessly watched."

"That sounds like our father," Elijah sighed as he slid Klaus's cup across the counter to him.

The two sat in silence for a bit, just sipping on their drinks. Elijah waited for Klaus to give more details about his dream but if there wasn't anything he'd taken away from the many nights he spent awake with him since their return it was that if he tried to push him for answers, Klaus would shut down and keep his pain to himself.

"He tried to make me choose," Klaus mumbled.

"What was that?" Elijah urged.

"Between Marcel and Hope. He...he was going to kill one or the other and he tried to make me choose...and I couldn't. I couldn't even try."

Elijah stared down at his coffee. That wasn't the first time Klaus had told him about a dream in which Mikael was trying to force him to choose between Hope and Marcel. It seemed to occur at least once a week and every time Klaus would be more devastated by it than any other dream.

"Of course you couldn't. You love them both. It makes sense that you couldn't choose between them."

"He's trying to break me," Klaus uttered, his voice swollen with emotion. "He's trying to force me to pick which one I love most."

"Mikael is dead, Klaus," Elijah stated calmly. "The man in your dreams is nothing more than a manifestation of your fears brought about by the lingering remanence of having Tunde's blade in you for twelve years. It can't hurt you or Hope or Marcel."

Klaus knew Elijah was right but that didn't stop him from fearing whatever psychological damage his nightmares were causing.

"What if someday...," he spoke softly, ashamed of the thought that dared to cross his mind. "I choose? How...how can I live with myself knowing I sentenced one of them to death to protect the other?"

Elijah walked around the counter to his brother, placing his hand gently upon his back attempting to comfort him without pushing Klaus beyond what he was willing to accept at the moment.

"Whatever happens in your dreams," Elijah started. "Is not your fault. You are not in control of them. They are just a manifestation of your greatest fears so if you do choose one day...that's only because the act of choosing is what you're most afraid of. Not what you most desire."

Klaus sat staring at the black coffee in front of him ruminating on his brother's words. Elijah sat quietly beside him, hoping that his presence would be comfort enough for Klaus but waiting prepared to pull him into a hug should it not me.

In the same instance, they both heard someone enter the Compound. "It's Kol," Elijah sighed, recognizing his brother's energy.

"And Marcel," Klaus added, sensing his son's presence. He glanced up at the clock hanging in the kitchen and saw that it was after three in the morning. He was curious to know where they were coming from so late at night.

As Klaus rose heatedly to his feet, Elijah got up and followed him. He had no idea what Kol and Marcel were up to but he knew whatever it was, Klaus was in no state of mind to peacefully accept it.

Marcel laughed at Kol as he stumbled into the courtyard still trying to finish off the last bottle of vodka they compelled from the bartender from the last club they went to that night.

"Marcellus," Klaus's voice bellowed through the courtyard.

Marcel stiffened at the sound of his father's voice. Klaus's booming call started Kol so much that he dropped the bottle, spilling the rest of the vodka in the dirt.

"Well, well, well," said Klaus as he walked with heavy, determined steps through the courtyard. "What do we have here? Since when are you two such close friends?"

"We're not friends," Marcel answered immediately. "We...we went to check on Josh earlier and Josh suggested that we all go out together to celebrate your decision to spare his life."

"Is that so. My ever-loyal son out all night with my most trustworthy brother and the vampire who has never orchestrated a plot to bring me down."

"He's telling you the truth," Kol grunted, annoyed by Klaus's sarcastic descriptions of them. "We went out and we had a few drinks and a little bit of fun. The only crime we committed is refusing to invite you and considering how large that angry vein on the side of your head is right now you can understand why we didn't invite you."

Klaus sped over to Kol and wrapped his hand around the collar of his shirt. "I showed you mercy. Don't make me regret it."

Kol released a heavy huff from his nose thinking about the punishment Klaus neglected to give him.

Seeing that his brother had received his threat, Klaus turned his attention back to Marcel. "Marcellus," he called, waving Marcel over with a wag of a finger.

Marcel knew exactly what Klaus intended to do. He was going to compel him to tell him the truth but Marcel felt that was unnecessary. He knew Klaus wasn't going to trust him with important things anymore but this was something that he could take his word on.

"C'mon, Klaus," said Marcel a bit annoyed. "You know I wouldn't put Josh back in the middle of something like this. I'm telling you the truth. All we did was party."

Furious at Marcel's disobedience, Klaus sped across to him, gripping his son's jaw in his hand as he forced him to look him in the eyes. "Tell me what you did tonight," Klaus compelled him.

"I had a few drinks" Marcel answered honestly. "And I danced with some familiar locals and drank from the vein of some unfamiliar tourists."

Klaus released Marcel from his compulsion but he continued to squeeze his cheeks in his hand. "How did you get away with feeding on tourists if you didn't use your compulsion?"

Marcel went silent. In his drunken stupor, he'd forgotten about his order to not use compulsion. Since he was no longer under Klaus's compulsion he considered lying, telling Klaus that Josh or one of the others had compelled his victims for him but he knew that's what Klaus was waiting for. He wanted to catch him in a lie to prove to himself that his son couldn't be trusted.

"Just as I thought," Klaus said reading the look of guilt on Marcel's face as he released his face.

"I forgot," Marcel admitted. "I was drinking...I wasn't thinking."

"Go to your room," Klaus growled. "And stay there until I say otherwise. I'll have a servant bring you your meals."

"Wait...are you grounding me to my room," Marcel boomed.

"Call it what you will just as long as you do as I say."

"Klaus, that's not fair! I made one little mistake."

"Then maybe next time you'll learn to think before you drink," Klaus yelled back. "Now get out of my sight before I decide 'grounding' you is not a strong enough punishment."

Marcel wanted to argue more but he knew Klaus and he knew that with the mood he was in now, he wouldn't listen to a word he said.

As Marcel sped out of the courtyard, Kol lingered behind. "Well," he muttered. "I'd just like to state for the record that I had no idea he was compelling anyone tonight."

"Of course not," Klaus growled. "Everything's always about a good time with you. Marcel could've been secretly making more vampires tonight but you were too soused to notice."

"B-but he wasn't. H-he would've told you if he did while he was under your compulsion."

"I know that! The point is that he could have. And you, my useless little brother, were too focused on having fun to notice it if he had. Perhaps I made a mistake sparing you from punishment earlier." Klaus stepped closer to Kol and froze in his spot. His eyes shot to Elijah standing quietly at the entrance of the courtyard watching everything. "Elijah can't help you know," Klaus growled, noting the pleading look in Kol's eyes.

He sped over to Kol and grabbed him by the arm. Kol immediately tried to pull out of Klaus's grip but the Hybrid was too strong for him. Tears breached his eyes as he thought about the pain Klaus's Hybrid strength would bring to his tender behind.

"Calm down," Klaus demanded, giving Kol a small shake. As Kol stopped fighting against his brother's strength, his tears began to fall.

Seeing Kol in tears reminded Klaus of his own tears from his nightmare. Then he thought about the look of fear that was in Kol's eyes earlier that day when he was begging Klaus to spare him from the dagger. It made Klaus sick to his stomach to think that he had the same effect on Kol as Mikael had on him.

Releasing Kol, Klaus said, "Get out of my sight. And if I ever see you with another drink in your hand, I'll make you wish that the daggers were still an option for you."

Kol wasn't sure what that meant but he wasn't going to stick around long enough to ask. He sped out of the courtyard, leaving Klaus and Elijah alone.

As soon as Kol was out of his sight, Klaus lost the fight against his stomach to keep his dinner down. Elijah hurried to his brother's side as Klaus threw up. He was a bit repulsed by Klaus using the sleeve of his shirt to wipe his mouth but he didn't complain since he didn't have a handkerchief handy to give him.

"Are you okay," asked Elijah.

Klaus nodded. "That little con-artist manages to cheat his way out of anything even when he's not trying."

-M-

Marcel walked into his room fuming but at seeing the sleeping figure of Rebekah lying in his bed, his anger slowly dissipated.

He tried to take his clothes off quietly but she woke at the sound of his belt buckle hitting the floor. "Sorry," he muttered as her eyes fluttered open. "I didn't mean to wake you."

"Where have you been," she asked, not believing her eyes. After the day Klaus put her through she thought she wasn't going to see Marcel again for a very long time. "Klaus has gone mad, swearing that you and Kol are plotting against him and trying to start an army of vampires. He had the wolves scouring the city for you. I've been out all day trying to find you before they did. Then I got this text from Kol saying that he had to ground Hope and I knew he must've been back home and I hoped that meant you were too but when I got here neither of you was here. I've been waiting for you to text or call or do something to let me know you were alright. You couldn't have been bothered to pick up a phone?"

Marcel suddenly felt overwhelming guilt about going out with Josh and Kol that night and forgetting to even text Rebekah to let her know where he was.

He leaned over the bed and placed a firm kiss on her soft lips. "I'm sorry," he said as he broke the kiss. "It'll never happen again."

"Where have you been?" she insisted, worry still gracing her tense eyebrows. "Have you worked things out with Klaus already?"

"Don't worry," Marcel calmly said as he pulled his shirt over his head, revealing his broad, bare chest. "I talked to Klaus. Everything's alright now."

"Are you sure?"

Marcel slipped under the covers beside her, pressing her lovingly against his chest. "I'm sure," he promised. "I am exhausted. Can we please talk about this tomorrow?"

"Fine," Rebekah agreed, resting her head against Marcel's smooth pecs. "But tomorrow I want the whole story."

"Alright," he chuckled at her persistence.

Rebekah cuddled closer to Marcel, her arms wrapped securely around his waist to keep him close to her so that he couldn't sneak off again and enjoying his robust scent as it lulled her back off to sleep.

Chapter Text

Chapter 31

Although Marcel resented Klaus for grounding him, Rebekah made his first forty-eight hours of house-arrest bearable. They never left the room, enjoying the comfort of each other's touch and hold freely for the first time in centuries.

It was on the third night that Marcel received an urgent text from Josh. Marcel was fast asleep with Rebekah in his arms when he felt the unexplainable urge to wake up. He saw the glow of his phone in the dark. Easing Rebekah on to the mattress, he grabbed his phone and read: New Vampires have moved into the Treme. Say they're looking for Klaus. They're at the Witch Lounge rn. Zane and I are here keeping an eye on them.

Marcel's immediate reaction was to go to the Treme and find these new vampires who dared come into his town uninvited but then he remembered his grounding.

He started on a text to Josh telling him to sit tight and wait for reinforcements but before he could get the message out, he got another text from Josh.

There on the move. We're following.

Unsure about the strength of these new vampires and afraid for the safety of his friends, Marcel called Josh.

"Hello," Josh answered lowly.

"Where are you?" Marcel muttered, trying to keep from waking Rebekah up.

"We just left the Lounge."

"Go back, now. I don't need you following those vampires. If they're looking for Klaus, they'll find us eventually."

"Too late, bro. I think we've made it to their hideout. Oh man...there are more of 'em. There are like...a dozen of 'em and that's just outside. Wait, I recognize one of them. I think these guys are a part of Klaus's old sireline."

"What," Marcel barked, waking Rebekah from her slumber. "Josh, get out of there right now."

"Y-yeah, maybe you're right. We're just gonna-" The call suddenly went silent.

"Josh...Josh," Marcel barked into the silent phone. He hung up and immediately called Josh back but the phone went straight to a dial tone.

"What's happened," Rebekah demanded. "What did Josh do?"

"Some of Klaus's ex-sireline are in the Treme and Josh and Zane followed them to their hideout and now I can't get him on the damn phone!"

"Calm down," said Rebekah, softly stroking Marcel's back. "I'm sure Josh is fine. He's a smart man. He wouldn't put himself in something he couldn't get himself out of."

Rising to his feet, Marcel declared, "I have to go find him."

"No," Rebekah stated firmly as she stood up beside him, her pink negligee making her serious glare less threatening. "You're not going anywhere near that lot. For all we know those vampires are older and stronger than you. Let's just go tell Klaus and he, Elijah, and I will go see what's what."

"Josh is my guy," Marcel yelled, furious that she suggested they turn over the life of his friend to someone who could clearly care less whether he lived or died.

"And you're my guy," Rebekah yelled back, unaffected by her lover's rage. "And I'm not going to let you run to your death. We're going to Klaus and we're not going to argue about it because it is the only logical solution. You know Klaus's sireline goes back centuries. The last time you met those monsters you were the Beast and you could take down anyone. Now you're just a two-hundred-year-old vampire that could be easily trounced by, say, a three-hundred-year-old vampire or a four-hundred-year-old vampire."

Marcel's lips tightened in anger but he knew she was right. His anger and fear made him want to run blindly into the dark to find Josh but he wouldn't be able to defeat a dozen of Klaus's vampires on his own. Besides, if they were back in town after the killing spree the Mikaelsons went on after their return to New Orleans, he knew they had to be up to something nefarious and Klaus definitely needed to know that.

Still worried about Josh, Marcel decided to call Zane's phone, hoping that he'd answer.

The ringing phone brought relief to Marcel but only until the ringing ceased.

"Hello," Lora answered. Marcel recognized her voice immediately. "Marcel?"

"Lora," he stated disappointedly. "What are you doing with Zane's phone?"

"He forgot it here. I was just about to bring it to him. He's at the Witch Lounge with Josh if you're looking for him."

"No, Lora, he's not. He's gone somewhere with Josh and I don't know where. You stay at the apartment until I call you and tell you it's okay."

"But, why? Did something happen?"

"I don't know yet. I'll call you as soon as if figure it out."

~M~

Klaus found himself in a long stretch of dark hallway in the Compound. He moved slowly through it, an inkling feeling urging him to be cautious. And then he stopped at a familiar door. Marcel's bedroom. The sound of a child's laughter moved him to open the door.

Ten-year-old Marcel sat in the middle of the room, his back to the door, playing with something in his hands.

"Marcellus," Klaus spoke with relief.

"Hello, poppa," Marcel said happily but didn't turn around.

Intrigued by what could keep the boy's attention so firmly, Klaus asked, "What are you doing, son?"

"Playing," Marcel answered innocently.

"Oh. Playing with what?"

Marcel stood up and slowly turned around. Klaus's breath caught in his chest at the sight of the boy's plaything: the white oak stake embedded with the magic of the hunter's ring.

"M-Marcellus," Klaus said softly. "You shouldn't play with that." Holding his hand out, he prompted, "Give it to poppa."

"Okay, poppa. After I kill you with it."

Klaus froze. His little Marcellus had just promised to kill him. He knew it had to be a dream but he could not force himself awake.

Just then, Elijah entered the room. "What's going on here?"

"I'm going to kill poppa," Marcel stated calmly. "And you. And Kol and Rebekah."

"What," Elijah barked angrily.

Regaining the ability to move, Klaus turned to Elijah and said, "Leave him to me. He's just a boy."

"A boy that's promised to kill you!"

"He doesn't mean it, Elijah! He is my son, let me talk to him."

Suddenly, while Klaus's back was turned, Marcel lunged at him with the white oak stake. Seeing the impending danger, Elijah pushed Klaus out of the door just in time but then Marcel's stake went plunging into his own chest.

"No," Klaus screamed as Elijah's dying body fell to the floor. When the body caught fire, Marcel reached into the blazing flames and pulled the stake out. The fire had burned layers of flesh from his arm but Marcel didn't seem bothered by it. He was focused on Klaus.

With a cheerful smile, Marcel said, "You're next, poppa."

"Klaus," Marcel gave Klaus's shoulders a fervent shake. He noticed the stress on Klaus's face and wondered what he could be dreaming about to cause him to look so distressed but he didn't have time to think about that now. Now he had to find Josh.

Rebekah stood behind him wondering the same thing. She had heard from Elijah about Klaus's frequent nightmares but she had never been privy to witness them herself. Staring down at Klaus's terrified sleeping face, she suddenly felt guilty about never being there to comfort her brother like Elijah.

"Klaus," he shook him again. "Wake up."

"What is going on in here," Elijah's voice came in a heavy, angry whisper from the doorway.

Marcel turned to Elijah, a look of confidence on his face as he stated, "I have vampire problems that I need Klaus to deal with."

Elijah glanced at the pained expression on Klaus's sleeping face. "C'mon," he waved for Marcel and Rebekah to follow him. "Tell me your vampire problem. Let him sleep. It only exasperates his condition when you try to wake him from a nightmare."

"His condition," Marcel repeated softly. He looked down at Klaus. It was obvious by the tension in his eyebrows that Klaus was having a nightmare but Marcel didn't think twice about waking him from it. He had always found someone waking him from a nightmare as a welcomed reprieve.

Elijah watched as Marcel's face went from furious confidence to frightful concern. Klaus didn't want Marcel to know about the nightmares caused by his years of torture with Tunde's blade, Elijah suspected that was more to protect his son from feeling more guilty about what he did to his family than it was because of Klaus's pride.

"Come with me," Elijah said as he walked away from the door. Marcel and Rebekah followed behind him, leaving Klaus to deal with his nightmare alone.

"I need Klaus to save Josh and Zane," Marcel firmly stated when the three of them entered the study. "Why can't I wake him up?"

"Because you couldn't wake him now if you tried," Elijah sighed. "Trying to wake him up when he's in the middle of one of these torrential nightmares only makes it worse on him and it is not my endeavor to see my brother suffer any more than he is already."

"I don't understand. Why, all of a sudden, is it not okay to wake him from a nightmare. Has some witch cursed him?"

"No. Not a witch." Elijah left the vague statement lingering in the air. "Now tell me your problem so I can advise you on how to deal with it and send you back to your room where you're supposed to be, Marcellus."

Marcel grew furious. Now wasn't the time for Elijah to play mocking Uncle. "Klaus's sireline has come back into town. Josh and Zane were following him and now they've gone missing and Josh isn't answering his phone. I need to find them before something happens."

Elijah was silent for a while, contemplating the dilemma before him. "This is quite serious," he stated. "I'm glad you came to us about it before running off to fight them yourself. But, since Klaus's sireline already knows where we live and they haven't come to confront us yet, I have to assume they're planning something and it would be unwise to go barging in on them without a plan of our own. So, I'm going to wait for Klaus to wake up and discuss this with him."

"No, we don't have that kind of time." Marcel barked. "They could be dead already. We need to go find them."

"These are his friends, Elijah," said Rebekah. "His family. We can't just let them die."

"We can't be sure they're dead, sister. Josh has the tendency for betrayal. For all we know he could be in line with Klau's enemies, preparing to take this family down as we speak."

Marcel slammed his fist down on the table beside him with enough force to split the wood. "Josh isn't with them and the more time we spend here arguing about it, the more danger he could be in."

"I'm sorry, Marcellus, but I've said no. I promise you, as soon as Klaus wakes we will go looking for those vampires but right now the safest place for you is right here in this Compound."

"I don't care about what's safe for me!"

"I know you don't, but we do. If Klaus were to wake up and something had happened to you, an eternity wouldn't be long enough for him to forgive me."

"What if I went with him," Rebekah suggested. "I don't care how old Klaus's sireline is, they can't get past me. I'll protect Marcel."

"Rebekah, we don't know how many of them there are and we don't know what they want. The last time Klaus's sireline came to New Orleans they brought with them the knowledge of a new species of vampire. If they have similar knowledge now, you two killing them all before Klaus or I have a chance to question them could put us all in danger."

"Fine, then I'll be sure to ask a few questions in between the killings."

"Rebekah, I said no. End of discussion. Now both of you," Elijah fanned his hand towards the door, motioning for them to leave. "I need some time to myself to contemplate their reason for being here."

Marcel walked briskly out the door, Rebekah following him while lacing Elijah with a disappointed glare.

"I'm not going to let them die," Marcel stated once the study door closed behind them. "I'm going to find them."

"Then I'm going with you."

Marcel wasn't surprised by Rebekah's immediate proposal. He knew with an Original by his side he had a far greater chance of getting Josh and Zane out alive.

"Can I go?"

Rebekah and Marcel turned to the end of the hall to see Hope standing there watching them, nervously twiddling with the last button of her pajama top.

"Hope, darling," Rebekah said surprised. "What are you doing up?"

"I had to go to the bathroom," Hope answered, walking closer to them. "Then I heard you all in dad's room."

"And you've been eavesdropping this whole time," Rebekah scolded.

"I was just curious. No one ever tells me anything."

"Because you're a child, Hope. This has nothing to do with you."

"But I can help. I'm strong."

"I know you are, love, but we don't need your help right now. We can handle this. Go back to bed."

Hope folded her arms obstinately over her chest, a stern pout on her face, and said, "I'm just going to follow you anyway so you might as well take me with you."

Shocked at the girl's blatant disobedience, Rebekah turned to Marcel. Marcel simply shrugged. "This is what I have to deal with," he stated.

Turning back to Hope, Rebekah put her foot down and said, "I am your Aunty, little miss, and what I say goes. Now, you're not coming with us. You're gonna go back to your room and stay there. Do I make myself clear?"

"Fine," Hope stamp. "Leave without me. I'll just tell Uncle Elijah that you left. I'm sure he'll be excited to hear that you two deliberately disobeyed him."

"Why you little stinker,"

"Alright," Marcel agreed. "You can come but you stay out of the action. If I find you anywhere near one of those vampires I'm dragging you back to the Compound myself. Deal?"

Hope smiled from ear to ear. "Deal."

"Are you insane," Rebekah scolded Marcel as he started walking away, Hope closely following behind them. "She can't come. We don't know how dangerous these guys are or what they want."

"She's going to follow us anyway," said Marcel. "The only way to stop her is to wake up Klaus and he's not really in the 'waking up' mood right now."

"What about Hayley?"

Hope felt a chill run through her at the thought of them telling her mom what she planned to do.

"We tell Hayley and she tells Elijah and he ends our rescue mission before we get to the Treme."

Rebekah knew Marcel was right but she still thought it was dangerous to bring Hope along with them. Turning to her eager niece, Rebekah said, "You may think I'm the fun Aunt now, love, but if you put yourself in danger tonight I will come down on you with all the wrath of Elijah. Do I make myself clear?"

Hope had never seen her Aunt so serious before. Rebekah could be quite intimidating when she wanted to be.

"Y-Yes ma'am," Hope answered, deciding to not join in the fray should there be a fight as she initially intended.

-M-

Kol walked out of the blaring nightclub significantly buzzed. He'd left Josh at the Witch's Lounge when Zane came in since there was still bad blood between the two of them but it was nearing morning now so he assumed Josh was beginning to get a bit bored with Zane and was craving the company of his fun friend. When his second call didn't go through he was beginning to get a bit worried. That's when he noticed a slight movement on the roof across from him. A normal person wouldn't have noticed the impressive vampire speed but he did. And he also recognized the sense of the three vampires running by.

Rebekah and Marcel came to a sudden stop when Kol appeared before them. Not anticipating their sudden stop, Hope slammed into Marcel's back and fell to her bottom.

"Ouch! What the hell, Marcel," she barked, rubbing her smarting bottom. Then she looked up to see her Uncle Kol who didn't seem happy to see her.

"Well, well, well," Kol grunted as he looked at the watch on his wrist. "I do believe it's past your bedtime." Looking to Rebekah he asked, "What is she doing out this time of night?"

"Calm down, Unky Kol," Rebekah said brushing off Kol's concern. "She's with us."

"And, yet, somehow that still doesn't answer my question. And in her pajamas. You couldn't be bothered to let her dress before dragging her out into the night?"

"Josh and Zane are missing," Marcel stated, ending Kol's rant. "They were tracking some vampires nearby and now Josh isn't answering his phone."

"Josh is a strong, vamp," Kol scoffed. "He's probably fine."

"The vampires they were tracking were of Klaus's old sireline," Marcel admitted. "And Josh recognized one of them from...12 years ago, so it was probably an old one."

Kol suddenly understood Marcel's worry. As strong as Josh was, an older vampire could easily kill him.

Kol didn't know how to process his feelings of fear so he converted them to anger, a much easier emotion to handle.

"So you thought bringing Hope along was the way to go about finding him," he barked.

"No, I didn't, but she wouldn't take 'no' for an answer."

"She usually takes a smack to the behind as an answer," Kol bit. "Didja try that?"

Marcel held his arms out and said, "Be my guest."

Kol stared down at his niece, her big, wide eyes full of gloom in anticipation of her uncle's imminent spank, and he chickened out. None of them could bear to spank the girl. They lacked the fortitude that only Hayley, Elijah, and Klaus apparently possessed.

"Stay here with her," Kol ordered Marcel. "We'll find Josh."

"Are you crazy," Marcel barked, angry that Kol could even suggest that he stayed behind. "I'm not going to just sit on my thumbs while my guys are missing. I'm going to help look for them."

"Somebody has to stay here with Hope."

"Then you stay."

"Let's do the math. Who would fare better against a group of unknown vampire enemies? Two thousand-year-old vampires or one thousand-year-old vampire and Klaus's protected baby boy?"

Enraged by Kol's constant mocking, Marcel threw a powerful punch to his jaw, knocking Kol down. Kol's anger surging, he hopped back to his feet, prepared to fight Marcel when Rebekah sped between them.

"Don't you dare touch him," she growled, the memory of Marcel's scarred backside forever imprinted on her mind. "Never again."

Kol could have tried to speed around his sister to get to Marcel but the look of utter disgust she laced him with paused his anger.

"We all need to calm down," Rebekah insisted, taking a second to clear her mind. "We can't find your friend if we're fighting each other."

"Fine," Kol growled his agreement. "But I still think-"

His speech was cut short when he looked to see Hope sitting on the ground and instead saw nothing.

"Where'd she go," he asked looking around the roof. "Where'd she go!"

All three vampires began running from roof to roof, screaming Hope's name but she never answered.

"Dammit," Kol screamed into the air once the three of them met back up. Turning his anger to Marcel, he pointed his finger at him and said, "If anything happens to that little girl-"

"Nothing's going to happen," Rebekah calmly said. "We all know Hope's a bit of a wanderer. She probably knew you were going to try to leave her behind and went ahead to search for the vampires on her own."

"And what if she finds them?"

Rebekah quieted. She feared the same thing. Hope was always so eager to prove her power. She feared that if her niece did find the vampires she would try to rescue Josh and Zane herself.

Little did the three older vampires know, not three feet away from them stood Hope, cloaked under her own perception spell. She thought she was absolutely clever, hiding right under her family's nose so she could still be around when they found Josh.

"We should go tell the others," Marcel muttered under his breath. Rebekah and Kol looked at him in surprise. He wanted to go tell Klaus that they lost his daughter? "If Hope is lost with these other vampires roaming the city we'll need all the help we can get to find her before someone else does."

"He's right," Rebekah agreed.

Kol nodded, knowing that it was the best plan to find Hope, but as he nodded his head, he glanced down at the crowded bar across the street from them. It was unusual for so many people to be at a bar that time of night when most bars were closing, but even more unusual was the car he saw parked outside of the bar.

"Hey," he pointed down at the car. "Isn't that Freya's car?"

Rebekah and Marcel turned around to confirm Kol's findings.

"What is she doing in a place like that at this time of night," asked Rebekah.

A face appeared in the window of the bar and Marcel recognized it immediately. "That's them," he bellowed. "Klaus's sireline."

Rebekah shook her head in disbelief. "That...that couldn't be them. Freya wouldn't be involved with that lot...would she?"

"I don't know and I don't care," Marcel said walking to the edge of the building. "But if Josh is in there-"

Suddenly Marcel's phone began to ring. He was surprised that he hadn't put it on silent to go skulking in the night but as he fished it out of his pocket and saw Josh's name across the screen, he felt a tension growing in him.

"Hello," he answered the phone.

"Marcel, man, I'm glad I caught you," Josh's peppy voice came across the line. "Dude, my phone died in the middle of our stakeout. Those vampires looked pretty formidable so Zane and I left as soon as it died. Lora said you were looking for us. I hope we didn't make you worry too much, man."

Marcel couldn't be angry over the wave of relief he felt. "Yeah, man, you had me a little worried but, uh...as long as you're alright..."

"Yeah, we're fine. But you should stop by tomorrow. These two are wearing me out. You know I can't handle baby-vamps alone."

"Y-yeah. I'll see what I can do," Marcel agreed but he knew once Klaus found out that he left the Compound when he wasn't even supposed to leave his room, and brought Hope along with him only to lose her, he was never going to see the light of day again.

"So," Kol growled from behind Marcel as he hung the phone up. "Josh is fine. That's nice. You brought my niece out here in the dead of night for no reason."

"I didn't bring her," Marcel barked. "She followed me."

"And if you were man enough to tell her no she'd still be home where she should be."

"If you weren't dumb enough to try to make her stay behind she wouldn't have run off in the first place."

The rage that radiated between the two of them ceased immediately when they sensed Freya exiting the bar. She had a long wooden box in her arms and looked completely unharmed. She got in her car and drove away, unaware of her siblings staring down at her. Moments later the vampires all came out of the bar and filled up the remaining cars on the block before all driving off in the same direction.

"Should we follow them," asked Rebekah as Freya.

"No," Marcel mumbled, very curious about what Freya was up to with those vampires but he was more worried about Hope. "We have to find Hope."

Suddenly, Hope appeared in front of them. "No," the girl demanded. "Let's follow them!"

"Hope," Marcel exclaimed. Realizing that his sister had performed the same trick she used on him in the hotel when they first met to keep him hidden from Elijah, he became infuriated. "Where you here the whole time?"

"There's no time for this," Hope barked. She wanted to know what Freya was up to much more than she wanted to explain a simple magic trick to them.

She turned to run after Freya's car but Kol sped ahead of her, blocking her way.

"I can't believe this," he scolded. "Did you see we were worried? Didn't you care that we thought something terrible was going to happen to you?"

"I'm fine," she exhaled, a bit annoyed by Kol's obstruction. "I just didn't want you to send me home."

"Worried about going home, were you?" Before Hope could react, Kol was behind her. He picked the girl up under his arm by her waist, leaving only her behind presented before him. He landed three firm smacks on the curve of her pajama bottoms with his bare hand but Hope could've sworn he had her mother's brush.

When he put the girl back down to her feet, she was in irrepressible tears. The pitiful look on his niece's face as she struggled to hold back her sniffling broke Kol's heart.

"D-don't ever...scare us like that again," Kol managed to say but his words came out as more of a plea than a reprimanding.

"I-I'm sorry," Hope stammered out before folding her arms over her face to hide the shame of her ensuing tears. They had all seen her crying after a spanking before so she wasn't embarrassed about that, not completely anyway, but Kol was supposed to be her fun Uncle. If she made him mad enough to spank her then she knew she'd really messed up.

"C'mon, love," Rebekah affectionately whispered to Hope as he lifted the girl into her arms. "Let's get you home before your mum and dad wake up."

Rebekah carried Hope back to Kol's car not far from where they were. Hope had cried herself to sleep in her arms so she decided to ride in the back seat with the sleeping girl on her lap on the way back. As soon as they were back in the Quarter, Rebekah's phone began to ring. She struggled to find the phone in her jacket pocket with Hope still lying heavily against her but she managed.

"Damn," she muttered at seeing Elijah's name. "And we were almost home free."

Elijah waited for all of a second for Rebekah to say hello before he began to bark, "Where are you? Hope has gone missing. Wherever you are right now, stop what you're doing and come help us find her."

"She's alright, Elijah," Rebekah sighed. "She with Marcel, Kol, and I on our way back to the Compound."

"With you? Looking for vampires at 3 in the morning?"

"Well...she sorta forced her way into the search party. You know how hard it can be to upset this adorable little face."

Standing out on the balcony of Hope's room, Elijah saw Kol's car driving down the road. He couldn't relax until he saw Hope's face through the back window, peacefully sleeping.

"You too have an adorable face, little sister," Elijah calmly stated. "And in about five minutes, I'm going to show you how easy it is to bring that face to tears."

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Chapter Text

Chapter 32

Elijah, Niklaus, and Hayley were waiting at the entrance of the Compound when Kol pulled in front of it. Neither Marcel or Rebekah were eager to open their doors but the three furious parental figures waited patiently for them to realize they had no other choice.

"What are we going to say about what we saw tonight," Marcel asked to the silent car.

"Y'mean about Freya," asked Kol.

Rebekah sighed, "Telling them about her will certainly take some of the heat off of us."

"Depending on what she got from those vamps, they might even forget about you lot altogether," said Kol. "But...if whatever she was up to proves harmless, turning Klaus's rage on her now will make it seem worse than it is and she could be thrown in the crossfire for nothing."

"Nothing," Marcel bit, turning to Kol. "It's her fault we were out tonight anyway. She's the reason those vampires were in New Orleans and why Josh followed them, causing the chain of events that led us here."

"You don't know if she brought them here. They could've already been here and for all we know, she convinced them to leave."

"You're just defending her because she's the only one who is always on your side."

"So what if she is," Kol bit. "She is still my sister after all." Turning to Rebekah in the back seat, he added, "Yours too. She wouldn't do anything to betray this family. Let me talk to her. I'll find out what she's up to and I'll tell you two as soon as I do."

Rebekah nodded her agreement but Marcel still wanted to hear the truth from Freya's mouth himself, not through Kol.

Looking back out the window at Klaus's surly mug, Marcel cringed.

"Do you think they were listening to us," he asked, concerned about the intense glare Klaus was lacing him with.

"I don't think so," Kol answered. "They'd be far angrier if they did. They probably just think you two are trying to think of a way to get out of this."

"Should I wake her up," Rebekah asked about Hope still sleeping soundly in her lap.

"Might as well," said Marcel. "She's not going to be asleep for very long anyway."

Hope's eyes slowly fluttered open at her Aunt's gentle urging. "Are we home already," she yawned.

"I'm afraid we are, love," Rebekah answered. "But we are about twenty minutes too late."

Confused, Hope looked out the window to see what was causing her Aunt such distress. Her eyes bucked at the sight of her mom and dad standing in the Compound entrance beside Elijah, all of them with a look of pure anger on their faces.

"H-how much trouble do you think I'm in," Hope asked.

"On a scale of 1 to 10," said Rebekah. "I'd say...8...maybe 8 and a half. Definitely not in the range you wanna be in. "

"We can't sit in here all day," said Kol. He was the only confident one in the group because he was the only one who had done nothing wrong. The other three Mikaelsons, however, were all at fault and none of them were ready to face the music.

Deciding it was best to get things over with quickly, Marcel was the first to get out of the car. Rebekah opened her door next, easing Hope out of the car before she stepped out.

"I told them," Kol called out loudly as he stepped out of the car. "I told them they shouldn't have brought her along."

Marcel rolled his eyes at Kol's brownnosing.

"Everyone inside," Elijah ordered. "This isn't an issue that should be discussed out in the open."

When Klaus, Hayley, and Elijah didn't move to go inside, the rest of them didn't move either. The fear that walking past one of the angry disciplinarians would end with a swift swat plagued all of them but when Kol so boldly walked past them all into the Compound they realized they had no choice but to follow or let their fear be known to everyone.

As Hope dragged her feet past Hayley, she grabbed the girl's arm and dragged her the rest of the way into the Compound. The courtyard was free from all of Hayley's werewolves, a fact that Hope was glad of since she was certain that she was about to be punished in front of her entire family again. Freya stood at the top of the staircase staring down at the scene, a look of disappointment on her face. Little did she know that the wayward Mikaelsons she was looking down on knew exactly what to say to turn all the attention from them on to her. In Freya's hand was an ancient medallion she was using to keep any of the sounds in the courtyard from escaping to the rest of the Compound, a precaution for what she was sure to come.

"What were you thinking, young lady," Hayley began scolding Hope as soon as they entered. "You know better than to go running off in the middle of the night. And to do something as stupid as going to look for dangerous vampires."

"I'm sorry," was all Hope could say. She didn't have a viable excuse for her behavior. She knew it was dangerous to go with Marcel and Rebekah and she knew if she were caught she'd be in a lot of trouble but she was banking on not getting caught.

"You're sorry?" Hayley grabbed the girl by both of her shoulders and forced Hope to look her in the eyes. Hayley's eyes suddenly held more fear than anger and that only caused Hope to feel worse. "You can't keep putting yourself in dangerous situations like this, Hope. You have to realize that you are just one little girl. You can't do everything."

Hayley let go of Hope's shoulders and grabbed her hand, pulling the girl over to the nearest wooden chair.

"No, mom, please, no," Hope tried to pull her hand out of her mother's grip but Hayley's Hybrid strength was too much for the young tribrid.

"Yes, Hope," Hayley scolded. "If you have to spend a trip over my knee every week to instill the lesson that I'm trying to teach you then so be it."

Hayley sat in the chair and pulled Hope, still trying her hardest to break free of her mom's hold, over her lap with little effort. She pinned the girl's legs between hers and began spanking her with a steady stream of heavy licks. She saw the moment the girl tried to cover her bottom coming and grabbed Hope's hand before she could block a single smack.

Between the pain and humiliation, Hope couldn't force her tears back for long and started sobbing after the first few spanks.

Rebekah and Marcel stared anywhere but at the scene of Hope's punishment, guilt filling the pits of their stomachs for being the reason the girl was being spanked. If one of them had done like Kol and given her a firmer 'no' or even a few spanks then they could've prevented this.

When Hayley landed the first smack to the undercurve or Hope's bottom, the girl let out a heartfelt wail that broke Klaus's heart but that was his sign to grab another chair and sit beside Hayley.

Hayley finished the last few spanks across Hope's sit-spots and stood Hope up in front of her. As Hope began wiping the tears from her cheek, she couldn't help but feel grateful that she didn't get the brush.

"Hope," Niklaus calmly called.

Assuming that her dad wanted to comfort her after the spanking, Hope hurried over to him, her arms thrown out looking for a hug. Klaus allowed her a moment of his comfort, hugging her tightly, before he broke the hug and said, "It's not over yet, sweetheart."

Hope's face dropped at his announcement. She thought that she had had enough. Hayley laid into her heavily and her pajamas did little to protect her from the pain.

"We have had enough of you running off into dangerous situations," Klaus lectured and Hope's tears started flooding back down her cheeks. "It is our job as your parents to protect you but we can't do that if we don't know where you are."

"I know, daddy. I'm sorry. Please, don't spank me. I've learned my lesson, I promise."

"There's only one way I can be sure of that, Hope." Before Hope could put up a fight, Klaus had her flipped over his lap. He held her down with a hand between her shoulder blades as she kicked and struggled to push herself off his lap while he used the other hand to pull her pajama bottoms down around her knees. He left her with the protective layer of her panties but he needed to see the extent of damage Hayley had already done to her bottom before he proceeded with his portion of her punishment. Hope's throbbing bottom was a dull red but Klaus knew it could be redder.

"From now on, if you put yourself in danger, this is how your punishments will go," he lectured as he brought his powerful hand down on her aching behind, his wide palm stretching across her entire bottom with each smack. "First Hayley will spank you and then I will," He brought his hand down to her already sore sit-spots and landed harsh spanks to the tops of her sensitive thighs.

Hope fought and kicked with such vigor that she kicked her pants off but that didn't slow down the rhythm of Klaus's spanks.

Marcel's stomach began to churn with dreaded anticipation. He knew he was next over Klaus's knee and he hated himself for thinking it, but he held hope that Klaus would feel so guilty about spanking Hope that he would let him go.

As the spanking ended, Klaus let Hope lie over his lap and finish out her last few wails before sitting her up on his lap and engulfing her in a tight hug.

"There, there, now," he tutted softly, rubbing calming circles into the small of her back. "It's all over."

Hope tried to be angry at Klaus for spanking her but she couldn't help but find comfort in his loving hold. She pressed her face deeper into the crook of his neck and decided that soaking the lapel of his jacket with her tears was vengeance enough.

Knowing that Klaus still had three siblings to deal with, Hayley picked up Hope's pants from the ground and pryed the crying girl from her father's hug. Hope almost didn't want to let go but she was also ready to get out of sight of everyone who'd just witnessed her humiliation. She wrapped her legs around her mom's waist and buried her face against Hayley's shoulder to hide her shame from the rest of her family as Hayley carried her out of the courtyard.

"Now then," Klaus said as he straightened his clothes. "Would any of you care to explain the happenings of tonight?"

Rebekah looked to Kol, expecting him to be the first one to speak up and gladly clear himself of wrongdoing, but then, to her shock, Marcel said, "I went to you about this problem first but I couldn't get you to wake up and then Elijah's solution was for me to just sit back and wait when for all I knew, my guys were lying on their deathbeds at the hands of your old sireline."

"Elijah told me about the vampires of my sireline making their way back into the city and he also told me that he instructed you to not go running into the night after those vampires. And yet, where were the three of you tonight?'

"I was already out," Kol quickly came to his own defense. "I was out tonight having a bit of fun on my own when I spotted these two with Hope. I'm the reason we got her back here when we did. These two were too afraid to show the girl a little discipline."

"Is that so," Elijah looked to Marcel for confirmation. The look of anger on Marcel's face as he glared at Kol told him that it was. "Then Kol, I believe you are free to go."

Kol was more than happy to leave the scene of what he was sure was about to be another brutal spank session. On his way up the staircase, he paused at Freya, who had been silently watching everything, and said, "We saw you tonight."

Freya went flush at Kol's proclamation. "What are you talking about," she tried to play innocent.

"I feel like you know exactly what I'm talking about. You went into that bar with those vampires and came out with a little gift. What was it?"

Freya grabbed Kol's wrist and pulled him away before anyone could overhear his scandalous speech.

Niklaus stood up and walked slowly over to his son and sister. "So who was it," he stated firmly. "Which one of you decided to bring my thirteen-year-old daughter along on your little vampire hunt?"

"I did," Marcel answered without hesitation, wanting to protect Rebekah as much as he could.

"It was both of us," Rebekah corrected, fearing for the safety of Marcel's behind far more than he was at the moment. "She threatened to follow us anyway if we didn't take her and we didn't see a choice. It was safer to have her with us where we could keep an eye on her than have her running around out there by herself."

Rebekah turned cautiously to Elijah as he strutted over to her, saying, "Really sister? Because I think the safest place for her to be would've been in her bed asleep, which she could have been had either of you simply come to me and told me what she was planning to do."

Marcel let out a derisive scoff and said, "As if you wouldn't have tried to stop us too."

"He would have," Klaus growled. "As he should. You had no business out there tonight. You could've gotten yourself killed."

"I wouldn't have let that happen, Nik," Rebekah insisted.

With a snap of his finger, Elijah drew Rebekah's attention back to him. "We've discussed this," he said, fearfully calm. "I told you not to go looking for those vampires with him. Not only did you disobey me, you put Marcel in danger and you put Hope in danger."

Marcel could see where this was going and he didn't like it. "Elijah, I decided to go out there on my own. There wasn't anything she could've done to stop me."

"Coming to me would've stopped you," Elijah bit. "I could've stopped you, I could have stopped Hope, and put an end to all of this before it happened."

"I was afraid," Rebekah murmured. "I knew what you would've done to try to stop him...and I was afraid. I would've rather fought an army of vampires than see him hurt like that again."

As Rebekah stared down at the ground, her eyes glossy with tears, Marcel's eyes were suddenly opened. He didn't realize until that moment how much he took Rebekah's loyalty for granted. She loved him so much she was willing to extinguish an entire line of vampires to protect him but all night, all he could think about was making sure nothing happened to his guys.

"Rebekah," Elijah placed a gentle hand under her chin and lifting her eyes up to meet his. "I love Marcel. He is my family and I would never hurt him in the same way Kol did."

I-I know, Elijah. Deep down I know you love him but... every time he gets into trouble with one of you, all I can think of is...what if, in your anger, you forgot your own strength. You're eight hundred years his senior and he's much more fragile than he looks. Sometimes I can't even be as rough with him as I want when we're..."

Both Rebekah and Marcel blushed as she nearly overtalked herself and disclosed their moments of intimacy.

"Y-You know what I mean," she stammered. "I love him too, Elijah. More than any man I've ever claimed to love before and...the thought of ever seeing him like that again...I can't bear it."

Elijah understood his sister's sentiments well. He never saw the effects of the torture Kol inflicted on Marcel but from what Klaus told him, it was truly sickening and that coming from a man who was an expert on inflicting pain. He knew that if something like that had happened to Hayley, he'd want to kill the man who did it but Rebekah couldn't do that because the man who dared torture her love was her own brother.

"Marcellus," Elijah stated loudly. "When you were a boy, approximately how many spankings did you receive at my hand?"

Marcel was caught off guard by the question and admittedly a little bit embarrassed but he still answered, "I don't know, Elijah. Too many to name."

"And at any point during any of those spankings, was I ever too severe with you or make you feel unloved?"

Suddenly understanding what Elijah was trying to do for Rebekah, Marcel answered, "No. Never."

"Did I ever make you feel like you would rather not be a part of our family than contend with another spanking?"

"I hated every spanking I got," Marcel confessed. "But there wasn't a day I wished to be free from my family."

Looking back into Rebekah's eyes, Elijah said, "You see, Rebekah, all the years I've spent as the patriarch of this family has taught me patience, restraint, and kindness to those I deem my family. Marcel might be two hundred years old but to me, he will forever be that small boy I taught to read, Klaus's son, my family. I would no sooner hurt him that way then I would Hope."

Rebekah's eyes welled with tears. "I-I'm sorry, Elijah."

"I know, sister, I know," Elijah placed a tender kiss on Rebekah's forehead, his arm wrapped lovingly around her shoulders. "But...the issue of your disobedience and putting Hope in danger must still be addressed."

Rebekah tensed knowing exactly what he had in mind.

Before she could try to flee, Elijah sped her over to the chair Niklaus was sitting in and flipped her over his lap. She was mortified when she felt her brother's hands go into the waistband of her panties, pulling her pants and underwear below her bottom in one swift move.

As Elijah landed the first heavy-handed spank to his sister's upturned bottom, Marcel felt every protective instinct in him lurch forward and before he knew it he was speeding over to stop Rebekah's inevitable punishment. Just as he made it to them, he felt a hand wrapped around his wrist.

"What do you think you're doing," Niklaus growled, tightening his grip around Marcel's wrist.

Marcel looked from Klaus to Elijah who had stopped spanking Rebekah to fasten him with a stern glare.

"I-I was...just..."

"You were going to try to stop Rebekah's punishment, weren't you?"

Suddenly, Elijah lifted Rebekah to her feet, leaving the woman confused. Certainly her brother wasn't going to end her punishment at one smack.

"Find a corner, Rebekah," Elijah stated. "I will be back with you shortly."

Rebekah knew what that meant and her first instinct was to protect Marcel but as she looked at her lover's pouty face she knew that he wasn't afraid. She had to trust her brother. Trust that he loved Marcel enough to know when enough was enough.

As she reached down to right her pants, Elijah's cold glare paused her hands.

"You know better," he coldly said.

Realizing her mistake, Rebekah left her pants where they were and waddled over to the nearest corner, her face a bright red at the embarrassment of standing in a corner like a child with her butt exposed to the courtyard.

"Marcellus," Elijah said folding one leg over the other. "If it is impermissible for you to try to prevent your own punishment, what would make you think I'd allow you to try to stop someone else's?"

"I...I had to try," Marcel muttered. "I love her. What sort of man would I be if I didn't try to keep her from harm?"

"Like I told Rebekah, you don't need to protect her from me. The punishment I delve out is warranted, even Rebekah would agree with that, if not somewhat reluctantly."

"I know but-"

"But you love her, yes, yes, I know." Elijah and Niklaus shared subtle looks, having a silent conversation with each other that ended with Niklaus released Marcel's wrist. Elijah then grabbed Marcel's other wrist and pulled the man down over his lap. "Perhaps a short demonstration of what Rebekah is to endure will put your mind at ease."

"No, no, wait," Marcel screamed as Elijah reached his arms around his waist and unbuckled Marcel's belt before unbuttoning his jeans. Marcel reached down to grab the waistband of his boxers, keeping them up as Elijah yanked his pants down.

"Remove your hand, Marcel," Elijah commanded.

Shoving his heated face into the crook of his bent arm, Marcel let go of his underwear and allowed Elijah to pull them down to meet his pants.

The first smack Elijah landed on his bare bottom was hard enough to make him swear but he wasn't given any time to recover from it before Elijah landed a series of others. He wriggled his bottom from side to side, fighting the urge to reach back, and before he knew it there were tears in his eyes. As the first sob broke through his chest, Elijah stopped.

He held Marcel's body on his lap until he could feel the hitching of his breath begin to dwindle. "Alright, Marcel," he said softly. "That wasn't so bad, now was it?"

Marcel begged to disagree but he remained silent except for the few sniffles that forced their way out.

With a slight tap on his waist, Elijah let Marcel know that it was okay to stand up. Marcel rose slowly, too ashamed to even glance in the direction of Rebekah for fear that she had taken her eyes away from the corner long enough to see his punishment.

As soon as Marcel was on his feet, Klaus pulled him into his body, hugging him tight as his heart broke at the sight of his son's tears. "It's okay, Marcellus," he whispered to him. "Shh, shh, now, it's okay."

Marcel reached down to pull his pants back up but then Klaus smacked his hand away.

"Not yet," Klaus corrected him. "It's not over,"

Marcel let out a small groan. He knew that Klaus was still going to spank him for going after those vampires and taking Hope with him but he had hoped that it wouldn't be bare.

Pulling Marcel back so he could see his face, Klaus said, "Go to the corner and trade places with Rebekah. Stand there until I tell you, you can come out and leave those pants right where they are."

As Marcel marched solemnly over to the corner, he was silently grateful that Elijah left him the dignity of leaving his underwear up far enough in the front of hid his manhood.

"You went easy on him," Klaus muttered to Elijah once Marcel was far enough away.

"Not as easy as I'm going to go on our sister, I can assure you that."

"You didn't have to go easy on him," Niklaus looked in the direction of Marcel, now at the corner mumbling to Rebekah that her time was up and that he loved her. "He's already starting to heal. He could've taken a real spanking then and another one from me in a few minutes."

"Perhaps," Elijah said, patiently waiting for Rebekah to get the lead out of her shoes and get over to him. "But then he'd spend his corner time worrying about just how hard I'm going on Rebekah instead of thinking about just how hard you're going to be on him when his time is up."

"Ah," Niklaus was truly impressed. "How clever of you, brother."

"A thousand years of dealing with Rebekah and Kol will make a person so."

When Rebekah was in front of him, her bottom lip was poked out in a small pout attempting to garner some sympathy from her stern brother. Elijah gave her no such kindness. He flipped his sister over his lap, lifting her bare bottom with his knee, and smacked his hand down across her right cheek. He alternated cheeks, giving each one a harder smack than the last until she started begging for him to stop. He then focused in on her lower bottom, spanking her until she was in inconsolable sobs.

Marcel pressed his head against the corner, tensely listening to every smack land on Rebekah's bottom. As her wails began to echo in the courtyard, he wondered if he would be that loud when it was his turn again.

When Elijah landed the last smack on Rebekah's bottom, his hand was sore but that didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was the heavy sobs trapped in his sister's chest. He lifted her up so that she was sitting on his lap, her sore bottom hanging over the side.

"There, there, little sister," he cooed. "I love you but there is order to this family now. You can't just run off and do whatever you want. When I give an order, I expect my little sister to obey it even if her lover won't. Do I make myself clear?"

"Y-yes, Elijah," Rebekah stammered, snuggling in closer to Elijah. There were times when she hated her family, times when she wished she was born anyone but a Mikaelson, but strangely enough, in the loving arms of her Big Brother Elijah after a thorough spanking was not one of them.

"And you will never let Hope put herself in a dangerous situation ever again," Elijah continued.

Rebekah nodded softly, sobs hitching in her chest as she thought about how foolish she had been by letting Hope coerce them into letting her go with them.

Elijah landed a firm smack on the side of her thigh, causing his sister to scream out.

"I require a verbal answer, Rebekah. Do you understand me?"

"Y-yes sir." Her face flushed red as she had meant to answer 'yes, Elijah' but the honorific naturally slipped out.

"Good." Elijah stood her up and righted her clothes as he did so. "Now, go to your room and stay there until brunch."

Rebekah shot a timid look over to Marcel still standing with his face to the corner. She wasn't ready to leave him and she had hoped to be able to be with him after all this was over so they could spend the night comforting each other.

"Do not make me repeat myself, Rebekah," the bite in Elijah's voice drew her attention back to him. "Go."

Without further prodding, Rebekah gradually made her way out of the courtyard.

"Our stubborn little sister," Klaus chuckled as Rebekah finally disappeared through an upstairs corridor.

"Yes," Elijah sighed. "She could probably do with a few more swats but that's an issue for another time, I'm afraid. Right now, you have your own stubborn Mikaelson to deal with."

"He will prove less worrisome than Rebekah, I'm sure. Marcellus,"

Marcel still wasn't ready when Klaus called his name. He considered staying in the corner and forcing Klaus to come to him but he knew that would be far too childish. Reluctantly he dragged himself over to Klaus, now sitting in the seat Elijah previously occupied while Elijah stood by providing Klaus with the audience he needed to ensure Marcel felt as embarrassed by his punishment as Rebekah and Hope did.

"Remind me why you're here," Klaus demanded.

Marcel bit his lip, refusing to subjugate himself any further than he has to already.

Elijah let out a small chuckled at the frown that graced Niklaus's face due to Marcel's continued disobedience. "And you thought he would be easier to handle than my Rebekah."

"My mistake," Klaus growled. "How should I expect a man about to be punished for his defiance to suddenly be the pillar of obedience."

Klaus grabbed Marcel's wrist and pulled him down over his lap, swinging down spanks with no further warning. He made sure that Marcel was leaning further over towards the ground so that he could get a precise shot of his entire bottom while also putting Marcel in a position to have to hold his face up from the ground so he couldn't hide his embarrassment.

"When I ask you a question I expect an answer," Klaus lectured, punctuating each word with a heavy smack. "Do I make myself clear?"

Marcel's self-preservation instinct suddenly kicking in, he screamed out, "Yes!"

"That's better. Now remind me why you're in this position."

Niklaus didn't stop raining down smacks to Marcel's reddening behind as Marcel stammered for an answer.

"B-because I...I let Hope put herself in danger."

"And,"

Klaus's spanks started coming down heavier and the latent tears hiding behind his eyes after Elijah's spanking suddenly found their way down Marcel's cheeks.

"And...I...I disobeyed Elijah when he told us t-to not go looking for those vampires."

"And why wouldn't Elijah want you to go looking for those vampires?"

Marcel struggled to wipe his tears away with the back of one hand as he balanced himself with the other while Klaus's heavy spanks kept pushing him further towards the ground.

"B-Because...because it was dangerous. I-I could've been..."

"Hurt," Klaus barked as he once again increased the power he was using to spank Marcel. "Or worse! Don't ever put your life in danger again. Your life is too important to be lost over something so imbecilic." With each word came a sharper lick, peppering Marcel's entire bottom with painful, sob-provoking, smacks.

Marcel lost the will to keep wiping his tears away. He hung his head and let his tears fall where they may.

Sensing Marcel's subtle compliance, Klaus landed three more spanks to the undercurve of each of Marcel's burning cheeks and ended his torment.

He pulled Marcel further up his lap so that he wasn't hanging uncomfortably off anymore but he left him lying on his lap so he could calm his sobs down before they spoke.

"Are you ready to talk?" Klaus asked once Marcel's weeping had quieted down more.

Marcel gave a curt nod. A stinging smack on his backside caused an unexpected cry to escape him.

"Try again, Marcellus," Klaus warned.

"Y-yes," Marcel immediately answered.

Klaus stood Marcel up beside him, gently pulling his underwear and fitted jeans over his son's sore bottom. Marcel whimpered as the tight jeans put more pressure on his throbbing cheeks.

When Klaus stood up, he pulled Marcel into a tight hug, pushing his face into his shoulder so Marcel could finally have a reprieve from Elijah seeing his humiliation.

"I love you," Klaus whispered in Marcel's ear. "You know that don't you?"

Marcel nodded against Klaus's shoulder. Klaus simply smiled.

"I love you and I don't care if you're too crossed with me to say it back right now. You are my son and I would do anything to protect you. Even if that means taking you to task every single time you even think about doing something this selfish and dumb again."

Niklaus's arms tightened around Marcel and for a moment, as he breathed in his father's calming scent, the pain of his bottom seemed to vanish. But only for a moment.

"Is this what it's like?" Marcel muttered so low Klaus could barely hear him.

"Is this what what's like?"

"Being a Mikaelson. Is this...is this what it feels like."

Klaus let out a heavy sigh. "Marcellus, I've told you over and over again, you have always been a Mikaelson."

Marcel pulled away from Klaus, confident in his ability to now keep his emotions at bay. "I can't explain it," he started. "But...it feels different now. When I was a boy I never questioned it. I was showered with love and gifts and I was punished just like Rebekah and Kol. But then...when I became a vampire, I stopped calling you 'poppa' and you stopped...treating me like Rebekah and Kol. I-I never thought of it before now but...this is it. This is why I felt like you stopped caring."

"Because I stopped spanking you," Klaus stated in shock.

"N-not just the spankings," Marcel's face burned with the embarrassment of admitting that being spanked made him feel like family. "It's the moments after too. The moments when you-you're..." barely audible, he muttered, "holding me."

Marcel was more embarrassed by admitting that he has subconsciously been always craving the attention being spanked gave him than he was by the spanking he'd just received.

"It was like...once I became a vampire, I was no longer a Mikaelson. I was just: Marcel Gerard, formerly the boy you loved so much."

"Marcel," Klaus pulled Marcel back into his hold. "You are still the boy I love so much."

"I know that now. But back then...sometimes I felt like an outsider in my own home."

Klaus pulled back so he could look in Marcel's eyes. He used the pad of his thumb to gently wipe away Marcel's straying tears while tears of his own began to breach his eyes. "I am so sorry that I made you feel that way, Marcellus. That was never my intention. I thought...I was afraid that if we kept spanking you, you'd leave us. I just wanted to do whatever I could to keep our family together."

"I will never leave you, Klaus," Marcel hugged Klaus tighter, pressing his tear-soaked face back into the crook of his father's neck. "You're my family. This is my home. Always and Forever."

Seeing that the two of them needed some privacy, Elijah quietly slipped out of the courtyard.

-M-

"Who all saw me," Freya yelled at Kol as she slammed the door to her workshop closed.

"All four of us did," Kol answered smugly. "But don't worry, I convinced the rest of them not to talk. That is, of course, if you tell me what those vamps gave you."

Freya stared at her brother, trying to decide whether or not she could trust him with such an important secret.

"You can't tell anyone," he growled. When Kol's smirk turned devilish, she added, "I mean it. If you tell anyone, I'll never trust you again."

"Fine, fine, whatever you say," Kol agreed. He had initially planned to go straight back to Marcel and Rebekah with Freya's secret but the sudden illicitness of it all made him feel special.

Freya went over to the sofa sitting against the wall in the room. With a flick of her wrist, the sofa pulled away from the wall. Kol followed her behind the sofa to a small cubby in the wall. There she hid the wooden box they saw her come out of the bar with.

Kol waited on pins and needles for Freya to open the box. When she did, he was taken aback by what was in it.

"Is that..." he couldn't get the words out of his mouth.

"Rawthul," Freya answered. "Father's sword."

"So that it," Kol said suddenly upset. "You call those vampires into our city for some cruddy old blade? Someone could've gotten hurt tonight, y'know."

"I didn't expect anyone to be there. I asked Vincent to put the word out to some of his witch contacts that I was looking for this sword and I was willing to negotiate a trade with some old witch relics to do it. But then I was sent a letter from one of Klaus's old sirelings. It appeared on my workshop desk with no name and no return address so I knew they had to have had a witch send it by magic. They said that they had the sword and they were willing to trade for it."

"What would vampires want with an old witch relic?"

"They didn't want the relic," she answered softly.

The ominousness of her answer made Kol worry. "What did they want?"

"Nothing anyone would miss."

"Freya. What did they want?"

"All they wanted was...Klaus's blood."

Kol could barely contain his rage. "Have you lost your mind? Do you remember what happened the last time Klaus's sireline came through here collecting blood? They created a beast that nearly wiped this family out."

"I know that, Kol. That's why I didn't give it to them. I tricked them. I gave them my blood that I spelled to smell and taste like the Original Hybrid's blood and in turn, they gave me this."

"Oh, so all you did was bamboozle a bunch of ancient vampires," Kol said sarcastically. "What could possibly go wrong?"

"You wanted to know what I did, now you know," Freya snapped. "Don't take it out on me because you couldn't handle the truth."

"What is so bloody important about this sword that you would put this family's safety in danger?"

Freya slammed the wooden box shut, no longer in the mood to share with Kol while he was so obviously angry with her. "None of your concern."

"I think it is," Kol growled. "You've told me about your colossal mistake with the vampires, might as well tell me why doing something so STUPID was necessary."

"Swear you won't tell," Freya demanded.

"I already-"

"Swear again! On Davina's grave, swear you won't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you."

"Fine, I swear," Kol answered, thinking whatever she was going to do with the sword couldn't be as bad as she was trying to make it out to be.

Running a gentle hand over the surface of the box, Freya said, "I found a way to bring back our father and brother. This sword was the last thing I needed."

Kol's jaw dropped. In a thousand years, he never expected her to say that.

Chapter Text

Chapter 33

Previously:  Freya said, "I found a way to bring back our father and brother. This sword was the last thing I needed."

Kol's jaw dropped. In a thousand years, he never expected her to say that.

A hundred thoughts went through Kol's head all at once but there was one that screamed the loudest. "You cannot bring those psychopaths back to life," he stated harshly.

"They are our family," Freya defended.

"They are monsters," Kol yelled. "Mikael tormented this family for centuries. Finn tried to kill us more than once. If you bring them back, they will end this family."

Freya stared down at the box containing Mikael's sword. All of her memories of her father were loving and wholesome. She couldn't believe that he had become the monster everyone tried to paint him as.

"They will listen to me," Freya insisted. "They wouldn't do anything to hurt me, that includes hurting my family."

"You don't know them like we do. Mikael has never been a loving father to any of us, not as children, not as vampires. And Finn has spent a thousand years hating us. That's not going to change just because he has his favorite sister back."

"You don't know that. They deserve a second chance. If Marcel could get one after what he did, why can't they?"

"Finn. Killed. Me." Kol yelled, not knowing how to state his reservations any clearer. "He put a curse on me, ME, his little brother and I died, Freya."

"The only difference between Finn's attempt to kill you and Marcel's is that Finn succeeded and not from lack of effort on Marcel's part. Why should he be granted a second chance and not Finn."

"No," Kol barked, going frustrated with arguing over bringing back the man who hunted his family for a millennium and the brother who killed him. "I am putting my foot down. You cannot bring them back to life."

Freya shook her head in disappointment. She knew she shouldn't have told him. Her plan was to just bring Mikael and Finn back to life and keep them hidden away for a while until she could convince her siblings that they weren't so bad. Now that Kol knew, that would add an extra facet to her plan that she wasn't quite ready to deal with.

With a sigh, she said, "I'm sorry, Kol, but there's really nothing you can do to stop me."

"Oh, yeah," Kol sped over to the wooden box and swiped it away from Freya before she could stop him. With a satisfied smirk, he said, "You need this to bring 'em back, right? Well, now it's mine."

Unbothered by her brother's scheme, Freya lifted her hand and flicked her fingers towards her. The box shot out of Kol's unsuspecting grip, back onto the table beside her. When Kol ran to grab it again, she used her magic to throw him back onto the sofa. Determined, Kol got up and went for the box from the other direction but just as easily as the last time, Freya flicked her wrist and he went flying into the air, landing safely on the sofa.

"Dammit, Freya," he screamed, jumping to his feet. He thought about going for the box again but Freya was quick with her magic, quicker than any witch he'd ever gone against, and he knew he'd just end up sitting back on the sofa. "I've had it. I'm done with these games. If you try to bring them back I...I'm going to...I'll tell Nik and Elijah."

"You promised," Freya bit.

"That was before I knew you'd gone batshit."

Kol waited for Freya to promise that she wasn't going to bring Finn and Mikael back but she never did. Deciding to be true to his word, he started marching to the door, prepared to tell the first brother he saw about their sister's insane plan.

As he reached for the doorknob, Freya blurted out, "What if I said I could bring Davina back too?"

Kol paused. Turning slowly to Freya, he muttered, "What are you talking about?"

"The spell I'm using to bring father and Finn back requires an item of sentimentality of the person and a few drops of their blood. If you could get those things of Davina's too, I could bring her back when I bring them back."

"And where am I supposed to get her blood," he grunted. Then, remembering that Finn and Mikael have been dead just as long as Davina, he asked, "How did you get Mikael and Finn's blood?"

Freya smirked. "I've always had it. The blood of a close relative works just as well. My blood plus father's sword and the locket I trapped Finn's soul in before will work to complete the spell."

"Well, bully for them," Kol mocked. "You're going to use your own blood to bring them back. Too bad for Davina her mother's dead and she didn't have any siblings."

"What about her father?"

Kol thought back to what Davina had told him about her dad. "She never met him. He left before she was born."

"Well, did she have a name or address or something?"

"I-I don't know. We never really talked about him."

Freya took a second to think of how to find Davina's father. "We could use a locator spell but for that, we need something he owns which is hard since we don't know anything about him. But...you know who might know something about her dad..."

Kol saw the glint in Freya's eyes and knew exactly who she was talking about. "Marcel," he asked.

"Why not? He is the only father she'd ever had. You don't think she ever mentioned her biological father to him maybe once or twice."

"Maybe but...he would never be okay with this, not if you're bringing Mikael and Finn back too. He'd never betray Klaus like that."

"It's not an act of betrayal," Freya said, cautiously walking over to Kol. She placed her hands softly on the sides of his face, lovingly caressing his cheeks with her thumbs. "I am going to reunite our family. It was Esther who made them evil. Now that she's gone for good, we can all be together as one big happy family. Our father, our brothers, our sister, Marcel, Hayley, Hope, and Davina."

Kol stared down at the floor, still unsure. It wasn't Esther's boot that left its mark on his ribcage so many times as a child. But his love for Davina was overwhelmingly more potent than his hatred for his father.

"I'll talk to him," Kol muttered. "But I make no promises. As much as he loves Davina I'm sure he would rather find another way to bring her back than do something like this behind Klaus's back."

"He would if you don't tell him I plan to bring back our brother and father."

Kol nodded. That was the best way to go. If he told Marcel they found a way to bring Davina back, no strings attached, he would jump at the opportunity. But he knew if Marcel found out Kol used him in a plan that brought Finn and Mikael back, any chance of them ever reconciling would be destroyed forever and he would also lose the fragile thread of trust he had with Klaus. He was conflicted.

-M-

Marcel was still wiping tears away from his emotionally vulnerable moment with his father as he entered his bedroom. When he batted his eyes open to see Rebekah half asleep in his bed, he couldn't help but smile. He had hoped to find her in there.

"You're back," Rebekah said drowsily. "What took so long?"

"I had a little conversation with Klaus after...y'know."

"Oh really? What about?"

As Marcel got undressed, he recounted his conversation with Klaus to Rebekah. He finished just as he came out of his closet from putting his clothes in the hamper.

"I can't believe you told him you told them you wanted to be spanked," Rebekah said staring wide-eyed at him.

"That's not what I said," Marcel chuckled. "I said that when they stopped punishing me, I started feeling less and less like a Mikaelson."

"And feeling like a Mikaelson is your goal?"

"Right."

"Then you were asking to be spanked."

Marcel jumped into bed, straddling Rebekah on all fours, and gave her a deep, hot kiss. Pulling away from her, he said, "Let's agree to disagree."

"That's what the loser says to get out of the argument," she grinned.

"Oh, I'm a loser, huh," he said as he began placing delicate kisses down her collarbone to the thin strap of her nightgown.

"What are you doing," she moaned softly.

Marcel's lips moved down the curve of her breast. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

Rebekah carefully pushed Marcel's boxers down over his bottom, a dull heat still radiating from his cheeks.

A sudden knock on the door paused them both.

"Marcel," Hope called softly through the door as she twisted the doorknob only to find it locked.

Marcel's head fell disappointedly on Rebekah's chest. "I thought she'd be asleep by now."

"Ignore her," said Rebekah. "Maybe she'll go away."

"Marcel," Hope called again. She knew he was inside but she didn't want to call his name too loud and risk waking someone else up. "Marcel, open the door. Please,"

"She's not going away," Marcel said with a resigned sigh. He pulled his boxers up and got out of bed.

"What are you doing," Rebekah whispered harshly, fixing her nightgown and climbing out of bed behind him.

"I'm opening the door."

"She can't see us like this."

"Why not?"

"Because." Rebekah's whispers grew harsher. "I don't want my niece to see me in a compromisable position with her brother, that's why."

"She sees her mother together every day with her Uncle. I think she can handle this."

Before Rebekah could protest anymore, Marcel opened the door to Hope standing in the doorway in a fresh set of pink footy pajamas.

"Aunty Bex," Hope said with a tinge of confusion. "What are you doing here?"

Marcel couldn't help but be a bit entertained as Rebekah struggled for an answer. "Um, well...Marcel and I were just...um, well...enough about me. Hope, what are you doing out of bed?"

"I couldn't sleep." Hope walked right into the room without further invitation. She climbed onto Marcel's bed, being careful to not put too much pressure on her still smarting behind.

Seeing the pout on Hope's face along with her drooping eyelids, Marcel knew exactly what she needed. He lifted her from the bed in his arms, her light body falling into his hold almost instantly, and began walking around the room, softly humming to her. In no time at all the girl was asleep.

"Well, who would've guessed that you were the 'teenage girl' whisperer," Rebekah beamed.

"She gets the way after a spanking sometimes," Marcel said. "She still won't go to sleep without being tucked in but if she's too mad at Hayley or Klaus for spanking her she won't let them do it so she ends up coming to me."

Rebekah couldn't help but be mesmerized by Hope's innocence. She had always wished for a child of her own and even though she couldn't have one, Hope had always been good enough. Seeing Marcel so naturally care for Hope, however, made her wish again that she could have children for him to father.

Watching Rebekah lavishing her sleeping niece with attention, Marcel knew the time for their romantic escapades had passed.

"Thanks a lot, Klaus," he murmured indignantly.

"What's that," Rebekah asked, still a bit enchanted by Hope.

"Thanks to Klaus and Hayley being so rough on her, she needed me to go to sleep which is why my night is ending with me holding her instead of you."

"Oh, love," Rebekah smiled, running a finger down his taut jawbone. "You have no one to blame but yourself. If you hadn't decided to go running after the vampires tonight, none of this would've happened."

"Yeah, well, if Klaus had woken up when I tried to wake him he could've gone with me and none of this would've happened." Marcel laid Hope down in his bed as he ranted, "I mean, since when does he have nightmares so bad that he can't be woken up?"

Rebekah looked guiltily away from him. A few months ago she walked in on Klaus and Elijah talking about one of Klaus's nightmares. She badgered them for the truth until finally, they told her but Klaus made her promise not to mention anything to Marcel. He had only just agreed to let Marcel come back home and he told her he was afraid that if Marcel knew when he was most vulnerable, he'd use it to his advantage.

Since Marcel now knew about Klaus's vulnerability, Rebekah thought it was finally time to share with him why Klaus's nightmares were so bad.

"Marcel," she whispered lowly. "There's...something you should know."

The concern in Rebekah's voice worried Marcel but he stayed calm while she spoke.

"Klaus's nightmares are not natural, nor are they from some curse. Klaus...is still feeling the effects of Tunde's blade."

"W-what?" he asked confused. "What do you mean he's still feeling the effects. Tunde's blade has never left after-effects before."

"Tunde's blade has never been left in someone for twelve years straight before."

Those words hit Marcel so hard he had to sit down. Discombobulated by the news, he could barely speak a clear sentence. "H-how long...when did...wh-why didn't he...why didn't anyone...I..."

Rebekah sat down beside him, softly caressing his arm. "He asked me not to tell you but since you already knew about the nightmares, I thought maybe you should know how they started. I'm sorry."

He stood up suddenly. "I need to talk to him."

Rebekah didn't stop him as he hurried out the door. Even if Klaus was mad that she told him, she felt it was time Marcel knew.

Marcel ran to Klaus's room to find it empty. He searched the parlor, Klaus's studio, every room he thought Klaus would be in but again he found no one. As he was hurrying to check the drawing-room, he heard talking coming from the kitchen.

He found Klaus sitting on a stool at the kitchen counter with Elijah, both sipping on a cup of coffee.

"Marcel," Klaus said surprised by Marcel's sudden appearance. He was so focused on his conversation with Elijah that he didn't hear Marcel coming. Attempting to push down the emotions reporting his latest dream brought up, Klaus said, "What are you doing?"

"I need to talk to you," Marcel answered. "Alone."

Elijah looked to Klaus for confirmation that he was alright before he stood up. "I'll be in the parlor," he said to Klaus on his way out. "Find me when you're done."

Klaus nodded and waited until his brother was out of the room before saying, "What's wrong, son?"

"Why didn't you tell me about the nightmares?"

Klaus stood up and started walking around, turning his back on Marcel so his face wouldn't give anything away as he lied. "I'm a thousand years old and I still have nightmares, is that so hard to believe," Klaus said trying to sound casual. "You didn't think people just grew out of having nightmares, did you? I can assure you, Marcellus, the older you get, the worse they become."

"You know what I mean," Marcel slammed his hands down on the counter in anger at Klaus patronizing him. "I'm talking about the nightmares that you can't wake up from. The nightmares caused by Tunde's blade. Why didn't you tell me about those nightmares?"

Niklaus paused in his stroll. "Who told you," he mumbled, still refusing to look at Marcel.

Demanding Klaus look him in the eyes as they spoke, Marcel walked around the counter and stood directly in front of him. "Rebekah," he answered. "How long has this gone on?"

"Since the first night I woke," Klaus admitted gravely. "But Freya's been working on a sleeping draught that should help. The first two were unsuccessful but...third time's the charm." Klaus didn't even sound confident in the third draught to himself.

"Freya knows," Marcel bellowed. "Does everyone know but me?"

"I didn't want you to know."

"Why not? Why didn't you tell me? I should've been the first to know!" Marcel's voice cracked suddenly. Ignoring his cracking voice, he said quieter, "I did this to you. I should've been the first to know."

"I was trying to protect you. There is nothing you can do to stop them so you shouldn't have to feel this way for something you can't help. What's done is done."

"I shouldn't have to feel this way? I-I put you through unmentionable torture for 12 years. You, my family, my...my father. I did that. And even now you can't escape it."

Marcel tried to fight back his tears. His heart was breaking but he didn't feel like he deserved to cry, not when Klaus was the one suffering.

Klaus could see the strain to fight the tears on Marcel's face. He pulled him into his arms without a second thought.

"Let' me go," Marcel muttered as he pushed against Klaus's chest but Klaus didn't relent his hold no matter how much Marcel fought. "Stop treating me like a child. I should be...I should be doing something. It's my fault. I need to do something."

"Hush now, Marcellus," Klaus cooed. "There's nothing you can do. It just has to run its course now. I'm okay."

Marcel passionately shook his head 'no' as he lost the fight to the tears.

Maybe there wasn't a way for him to fix it, but there was a way for him to make things even.

"You have to dagger me," Marcel said softly. Klaus didn't want to believe he heard him correctly until Marcel said, "It's the only way to make things right. You-you have to put Tunde's blade in me for 12 years."

"Don't be stupid," Klaus bit angrily. "I won't even entertain the thought of submitting you to that sort of torture."

Marcel cringed. He'd done something Klaus couldn't even think about doing.

"Fine," Marcel pushed against Klaus once more, this time with more force until Klaus finally let him go. "Then I'll put it in myself."

As Marcel tried to walk away, Klaus wrapped his arm tightly around his upper arm, keeping him in place. "I'll thrash you before I let you anywhere near that dagger."

"It's the only way-"

"To make you suffer the same fate as me? To what end? In the first year, I forgot about everything that made me human; love, joy, hope, everything left me but an undying thirst for vengeance. That blade made me want to do nothing more than kill every vampire I ever sired, including you, and it was the thought of getting revenge on the ones who put me in there that kept me sane. You don't have the black heart I went in there with so that dagger will tear you apart and leave nothing behind. You wouldn't survive one year, let alone twelve."

Marcel's tears came heavier and this time he didn't fight against it when Klaus hugged him.

"I'm sorry, Klaus," he mumbled. "I'm so sorry,"

"It's alright, Marcellus. I'm okay. Everything's going to be alright."

Marcel didn't believe him. He saw the pain on Klaus's face earlier that night. That nightmare was horrible to watch from the outside, he could only imagine what was happening inside.

Klaus held Marcel until his crying subsided and then he walked with him back upstairs to his room. When he opened the door to Marcel's bedroom, he was surprised to see Rebekah lying in Marcel's bed, her arms wrapped tightly around Hope, both of them fast asleep.

Klaus smiled at the sight. Rebekah still had her baby-soft features from being but a teenager when they were transformed into vampires so the two sleeping girls looked more like sisters than aunt and niece. He almost hated having to pull Hope from her hold and putting an end to the cuddling.

"I'll put her to bed," Klaus said, cradling Hope in his arms. "You try to get some rest."

Marcel nodded but as Klaus left and he crawled into bed staring up at the ceiling, he didn't think he could go to sleep. How could he sleep when he knew Klaus couldn't.

"Marcel," Klaus's sudden voice in his doorway made him jump. He was lost in thought when the man snuck back into the room. "You're supposed to be going to sleep."

Marcel laid back in bed and said, "I'll sleep when you can sleep in peace."

"Marcellus, you have to stop beating yourself up about this. I've already forgiven you."

"But you shouldn't have. Not if you're still suffering."

Klaus sat on the bed beside Marcel and sighed. "This is why I didn't want them telling you. I didn't want you to feel this way."

"They should've told me sooner. You should've told me."

"A loving father would never want to put his child through pain that could be avoided."

"I'm not a child, Klaus."

"I know, I know," Klaus chuckled lightly. "You're two hundred years old, far from a child. But my father was so horrible to me for so long, I promised myself the day I became your poppa that I would protect you from anything for as long as I live. And I mean to keep that promise, Marcel, even if it's against your own stubbornness." As Klaus stood and walked to the door, he said, "Go to sleep, my son. Or I shall resort to my sister's magic to help you get there."

Marcel glared angrily at Klaus but Klaus didn't seem to mind it.

"Good night, Marcellus," he said, closing the door behind him.

-M-

The day of Hope's birthday couldn't have made it soon enough. As promised, Elijah rented out the biggest studio in New Orleans and all of Hope's art was proudly displayed for all the public to see. Klaus had a three-tiered strawberry-vanilla cake made special for the occasion. 'Hope Mikaelson' was written in pink frosting on the bottom layer and a tiny, fondant statue of Hope painting the number '14' on an edible canvas and easel was sitting on the top layer. Two pink candles were on the front of the second tier and fourteen sparklers went around the tier waiting to be lit right before it was time for Hope to blow out the candles. The Mikaelsons had even gone as far as to have a giant strawberry sundae made. It sat next to the gift table between the cake and the chocolate fountain.

Hope walked around the studio excitedly showing all of her friends her artwork while her family stood around in strategic places all around the studio supervising the party.

Elijah found Klaus at the punch bowl refilling his cup. When Klaus saw the indignant mug on her brother's face, he had a feeling about what he was upset about.

"Why is the food here," Elijah growled. "I thought we agreed to have the food delivered to the Compound and end the party there. There shouldn't be food here. There is no food allowed in art galleries."

"Calm down, Elijah," Klaus chuckled. "Hope wanted the food here and what the birthday girl wants, the birthday girl gets."

Elijah glared at the line of tables on the far wall covered in a motley of different foods all in accordance with Hope's wish list. "Children," he growled. "They have no class."

"Don't worry. I'm sure you'll inculcate your predilection for sophistication in her eventually."

"Not soon enough."

Elijah saw a boy with a handful of potato chips reaching out to touch one of Hope's paintings but just as his grubby little hand was about to make contact, Elijah appeared beside him, grabbing the boy's hand.

"The artwork is priceless," he growled. "Please, do not touch."

"S-sorry, mister," the boy said, slightly frightened by Hope's uncle. Being a part of the witch community of New Orleans, as most of the kids at the party were, the boy knew all about the Mikaelsons and he knew not to get on their bad side.

Just then Hope and Sebastian came to the boy's side. Hope was staring daggers at Elijah and Elijah had to still himself from hurting the boy. He was just a child after all. When Elijah let him go, the terrified teen ran off into the crowd of kids.

"Hope," Elijah leaned down and kissed the girl's forehead. "You look beautiful, sweetheart."

Hope wore a lovely pink maxi dress that cost almost as much as what Elijah spent on renting the studio. The jewelry she wore was just as expensive. Her parents wasted no expense in making sure the first birthday the girl spent with her family was one to be remembered. Sebastian stood beside her with a wide smile in his lush pink tuxedo that matched Hope's dress.

"Thank you, Uncle Elijah. But could you please try not to scare my friends on my birthday?"

Elijah smirked. "Sorry, sweetie," he said although he wasn't the least bit sorry. "Are you enjoying the party?"

"I absolutely love it," Hope said giddily throwing her body into Elijah, giving him a warm hug. "Thank you so much."

Placing one hand on her soft hair and one around her shoulders, Elijah hugged Hope back. Although he knew the girl loved him, she didn't always show him as much affection as she showed Klaus so he made sure to soak in the moments she did.

"Elijah," Sebastian started as Hope and Elijah pulled apart. "Love the party, it's totes Bosch, one-hundred, heart emoji, seriously. But uh...no shade, the rotation is so circa 1698s. Gag. Can you get them to play a bop? Maybe Lydenwood or some throwback Carrie?"

Elijah stood silent. He understood less than half of what the boy was trying to say. He wasn't sure if he should be offended but he definitely was.

"He wants to know if you can get them to change the music," Hope clarified, amused by the look of confusion on her uncle's face.

Sebastian smiled innocently. "That's what I said."

Hope smiled at the annoyed look on Elijah's face. "Take it easy on my Uncle, okay. He's been asleep for twelve years. He still needs to catch up on today's slang."

"That was slang?" Elijah questioned. "I'm not even sure you were speaking English. Or any language, really. I'm fluent in several."

"Sorry," Sebastian rolled his eyes. "Could you please get the DJ to play something from this century?"

Elijah was a bit irritated by the boy's attitude but since it was Hope's birthday, and he was her best friend, he let it slide.

As Elijah left to speak with the DJ, Hope smacked Sebastian's arm.

"Oww, what was that for?"

"Lose the attitude. It's my birthday."

"Fine," he groaned. "Guess I'll go back to being myself tomorrow."

Sebastian glanced across the room and his eyes immediately landed on a tomboy in blue jeans and a button-up shirt. She wore red suspenders that matched her red bow tie and had her dark black hair tied back in a ponytail.

"Ommfg," Sebastian exclaimed. "You won't believe who just walked in. Three hints, they're in the ninth grade, a magical prodigy, and probably, definitely, maybe crushing on you." Before Hope had a chance to answer, he blurted out, "It's Izzy,"

Sebastian saw all of the excitement rise to Hope's face immediately.

"Girl, calm down," he quickly chastised her. "Don't come off as needy. You're the Queen B of this hive. Take three deep breaths." He counted each of her breaths aloud and by the end of the third one, she was calm. "Okay, remember that you are a strong, independent woman and anyone would be lucky to have you. Now go say hi and remember, today is your day. She should be grateful you invited her."

Klaus and Kol watched from across the room as Hope made her way over to the strange new girl.

"Uh-oh," Kol said jokingly as he watched the tension rise in his brother. "Looks like our little Hope is making a move on someone."

Aggravated by Kol's teasing, Klaus decided he needed to know more about the kid his daughter was talking to. Making eye contact with Sebastian, he nodded for the boy to come to him.

Sebastian was more afraid of Klaus than he was of any other Mikaelson and he wasn't sure what the Hybrid wanted when he nodded him over but he made sure to get there as quickly as possible.

"Who is Hope talking to?" Klaus couldn't hide the contempt in his voice as he asked.

"Oh, that's Izzy. She just moved back here a few months ago."

"Moved back? Where did she move to?"

"Um," Sebastian knew Klaus wouldn't like to hear the next part but his fear of the man made him say, "She did a stint upstate for, uh...beaming a girl with a Louie during a brawl on the diamond."

Klaus's face went blank at the boy's explanation. Realizing his brother didn't understand the kid's slang, Kol translated, "She did time in juvenile for hitting a girl with a bat during a brawl on the baseball field." Kol was a bit amazed that he could translate that himself. All the time he was spending with Josh was really paying off.

"Yeah," Sebastian nodded. "That's what I said."

Already Klaus didn't like Hope being friends with Izzy but because her family was no better, he felt he didn't have the right to judge.

Noticing the height difference between Hope and Izzy, Klaus asked, "Just how old is she?"

"Uh...I'm not sure. She's in the ninth grade now but I know she was held back at least once. Some kids say three times but I think that's just an urban legend."

Klaus had one more question and the answer to it would decide how he proceeded from there. "Sebastian," Klaus stared into the boy's eyes and began compelling him to make sure he got the truth out of him. "Does Hope like this girl?"

"Yes sir but we don't really know how Izzy feels about her. She kind of hard to read."

"Alright," Klaus pulled away from Sebastian's eyes. "Thanks, Sebastian. You've been very helpful. Run along now."

Sebastian raced out of Klaus's sight as soon as he was given the okay.

"Klaus, calm down," Kol pleaded with his brother. "It's Hope's big day. Don't ruin it for her by...being you."

"I'm calm, Kol," Klaus reassured. "I'm not going to ruin Hope's party. What do I have to be worked up about? They're just having a conversation. Am I supposed to be angry that my daughter is just having a conversation with a violent witch who could be three years older than her? I mean, what would a seventeen-year-old want with my little girl anyway? Hope just turned fourteen today which practically makes her still thirteen and that's only a year away from being twelve which basically makes her a baby and this Izzy girl is, what, seventeen? Supposedly, of course? But that's one year off from eighteen. Maybe sooner, we don't know that girl's birthday. Why would an 18-year-old be talking to my baby? What could they possibly have in common? Hope is just a little girl and that Izzy woman is up to no good. She's probably plotting on how to take my sweet little Hope's innocence as we speak. She's planning to make my daughter fall in love with her just to break her heart. She's going to leave her coked up in the bathroom of some house party wondering why the girl she'd given her everything to is all of a sudden bored with her."

Giggles force their way out of Kol. He couldn't believe how far Klaus had taken things. He knew essentially nothing about Izzy but he had already figured out her entire relationship with Hope.

"Nik, you're being paranoid. They're just talking."

"Yeah," Klaus mumbled. "Of course. You're right."

Kol was shocked that Klaus would admit that he was right but then the distant look in his brother's eyes. He wasn't even listening to Kol anymore. He had focused his hearing on listening to Hope and Izzy's conversation.

Rolling his eyes at Klaus's stubbornness, Kol decided to go find Marcel. He had been trying to ask him about Davina's father all week but it seemed like every time he found some time to speak to him, Klaus was there.

On his search for Marcel at the party, he ran into Freya who seemed uncharacteristically nonchalant by his presence. She had been urging him all week to ask Marcel about Davina's father so she could get on with bringing back Finn and Mikael but now she didn't seem to care at all.

"Sister," Kol greeted. Freya smiled warmly at him. "You're in a chipper mood today. Someone finally take my advice and find someone to...take the tension off of ya?"

"As if I'd ever tell you," she continued to smile. "I'm just happy. My niece is turning fourteen, what's not to be happy about?"

Kol wanted to believe that was all there was to Freya's happiness but he couldn't shake the feeling that there was more.

"On another note," Freya started. "Have you gotten around to talking to Marcel yet?"

"Not yet. I haven't been able to find any time alone with him."

"Hm," Freya took a sip from her punch. "That figures. Y'know, I'm starting to feel like you aren't as invested in bringing Davina back as I am. Why's that? Is it because you know that once you finally do what you have to do to bring her back you'll be signing over your consent to bring Finn and Mikael back as well?"

"Maybe," Kol growled lowly, nervous about Freya speaking so openly about such sensitive matters while their siblings were roaming around. "Can you blame me? You're making me weigh my love for Davina against my hatred of them."

"Then what if I said I'm taking that stipulation off the table? I'll bring Davina back without bringing them back too."

"A-are you serious," he asked in disbelief, his heart fluttering with joy. "Why...why would you do that?"

"Because I love you, little brother," Freya smiled. "I want to see you happy and if bringing Davina back will make you happy then, as your big sister I should do it without holding something over your head."

Kol hugged Freya as tightly as he could without breaking her bones.

"Whoa," she laughed. "Don't forget I'm not an immortal vampire."

"Thank you, sister," Kol said as he set her back down on her feet. "You don't' know how much this means to me. You're doing the right thing by leaving those other two dead. They're nothing but trouble."

"Oh, but, I didn't leave them dead," Freya said bluntly. "They've been alive for two days now."

In that instant, Kol hoped that he was dreaming but as the seconds of silence lingered he knew that he was awake.

"Wh-what do you mean...they're alive," he demanded.

"I knew that you were holding back on bringing Davina back because you didn't want me to bring Mikael and Finn back too so I made it easier for you. I brought them back first so now you can bring Davina back guilt-free."

"Have you lost your mind?" Kol wanted to yell but he didn't want to draw any attention to them. "They will try to kill us all. Where are they now?"

Freya rolled her eyes at her brother's obstinacy. "They're enjoying beignets in a shop in Algiers, where I left them. I told you, you were wrong. They've been alive two days and they haven't made a move against this family yet. They want us to be together as much as I do."

"You are a fool, Freya," Kol bit. "They will end this family and it will be all on your hands." Kol stamp away from his sister. He wasn't sure where he was going but he knew he had to get away from her before he did something he may regret. He spotted Elijah taking a handkerchief to a smudge on the frame of one of Hope's portraits and knew he had to finally do the right thing.

Chapter Text

Chapter 34

Finn and Mikael sat enjoying the gentle breeze of the New Orleans weather at a patio table at one of Freya's favorite bistros. Finn ate the last beignet slowly while keeping a cautious eye on his father. The night Freya brought them back to life, she revived him first and he had begged her not to bring Mikael back but he was too weak from hunger to stop her. The moment Freya revived Mikael, he looked to Finn as if he were looking at a sack of meat and he attacked him, draining him of ounces of blood before Freya could finally get him to stop. Finn knew if he weren't a vampire he would've died but Mikael didn't seem to care about his suffering, only about satisfying his hunger. It had been two days since that night and Mikael hadn't had a drop of blood since. He refused the bags of human blood Freya provided them and Finn feared that at any moment the man would attack him again.

"I can smell your fear," Mikael growled lowly as he stared off at the crowds of people moving through the city. "Stop staring. I taught you to be braver than that."

Finn jumped, embarrassed at being so easily detected.

"You cannot blame me," Finn uttered. "From what Freya says I am the only vampire in this city besides those of our family she is hiding us from and you feed on vampires. The wise gazelle does not take his eyes off of the hungry lion."

Mikael scoffed. "How prudent of you. Although, I believe our dear Freya was wrong. There are other vampires around. In fact, there is one nearby."

Finn scanned the area, searching for anyone who looked or smelled like a vampire but he couldn't find any.

"Where," he asked. "I don't sense one."

"Because your senses have grown dull, no doubt an effect of your time spent as a witch under your mother's coddling." Mikael closed his eyes and concentrated on finding the vampire. He was growing hungry for lack of nourishment but he was still as strong as ever. A thousand years of training his body to withstand an immense amount of torture made him able to stave off starvation for weeks at a time. "I can smell the cursed blood running through his veins. He's getting closer." Black veins outlined Mikael's eyes. "It's almost feeding time."

-M-

Flashback

Their swords came together with enough strength to elicit sparks. Marcel had taken off his shirt to spar with Rebekah in order to, as Rebekah understood it, move more freely. Rebekah had agreed, so confident in her own skill that she was willing to give Marcel an advantage he could cease.

Rebekah was amazed by how strong Marcel had become. When he was younger she would swing her sword with grace, careful not to hurt the boy, but now he was nineteen, older than she was when she became a vampire, and with the strength of a man. Marcel was keeping up with her every strike, skilled enough to trick her into a corner, trapping her into his victory.

With a proud smirk, Rebekah removed her mask. "Seems you've improved since our last match."

Marcel lifted his mask, his smoldering eyes gazing into hers. His tight jaw leading a straight line to his strong chin lifting his supple lips into a smile. For the first time in nine years, Rebekah found herself not staring into the soft eyes of Klaus's little boy, but into the fierce glare of the man he had become.

"I had a good teacher," Marcel's said, his voice velvety smooth.

He placed his sword down to his side, inching closer to her until they were nearly touching. He could see it in her eyes, the way she stared down at broad chest, the timid glance away, she was seeing him the way he'd always hoped she would.

"We...should," Rebekah cleared her throat to get her voice above a whisper. "We should...go again. I won't hold back this time."

As she tried to move past Marcel, he took his shot, forcing his lips on hers. Rebekah didn't fight him, embracing his sweet, mortal taste, nipping slightly at his bottom lip with her canines. The sharp point of her teeth would have deterred a normal man but Marcel was special. He encouraged her roughness, bitting back with a bit of fierceness of his own.

Coming to her senses she pulled away from him.

"We can't," she pressed her hands against his chest. "You...you're my brother's son."

"Not by blood," Marcel defended. "And I've never thought of you as an aunt. To me, you're just...Bex, the pretty girl who likes to steal sweets with me when Elijah's not looking. The girl who taught me Fencing and who rides horses with me and, and...and the girl I compare every other girl to."

Rebekah shook her head trying to convince herself that Marcel's feelings were wrong and she was wrong for thinking about him as a sexual being for even a second.

"You-you're just...19. I'm eight hundred and-"

"It doesn't matter," Marcel pressed his pelvis against hers. "I'm a man. I know what I want and so do you. We can't fight it forever."

Looking into his eyes, she wanted nothing more than to feel his body wrapped around hers but she knew that was just her lust controlling her. She didn't love him, not like that. She couldn't. It wasn't right.

Hoping that the threat of Niklaus' disapproval would snap Marcel out of it, Rebekah started, "Klaus would never allow-"

"I don't answer to my father anymore," Marcel scoffed. "And neither do you. We're both adults now. If I want to say I love you I should be able to scream it from the rooftops."

"You don't love me."

"I do. And it's not just the boyish affection I had for you when we first met. I have known many girls in my 19 years, Bex, but you are the only one who can wake the passion in me. I don't want to hide my feelings for you anymore."

"You should. Niklaus has never liked any man I've ever dared to love. He killed the last one."

"I think we both know that I'm not just some man that my father would ever kill."

"You're right. You're special to him. In all the years my family's been alive I've never seen Niklaus love anyone the way he loves you so it's not you I fear for. It's me. My brother has a certain method he employs when he wants to keep his siblings in line and I would rather not be on the receiving end of it."

Rebekah pushed Marcel away and started walking to the staircase.

"The daggers," Marcel asked. Rebekah stopped and slowly turned to him. "That's what you're talking about, right? That's what you're afraid of? Well, you don't have to be anymore." He moved tentatively towards her, afraid that in her fear of Niklaus she would move away from him again. "I found the daggers a week ago and I've hidden them somewhere poppa would never think to look so we can be together and you don't have to be afraid."

The worry creasing Rebekah's eyebrows suddenly vanished. Her shimmering eyes grew gentle as Marcel announced her freedom from the daggers that plagued her siblings for centuries.

"Finn's coffin," a voice called out into the courtyard.

Rebekah's body tensed at the terribly familiar voice.

Klaus's voice hit Marcel like a blow to the ribs. They looked to the archway to see Klaus standing underneath it, his eyes narrowed with anger.

"You're right, I would have never thought to look there," he reached into the inner pocket of his jacket and pulled out three silver daggers. "Not for these, anyway. But a few days ago, Kol was being particularly annoying and since I couldn't find these daggers, I began fretting over whether I should make the decision of un-daggering boring ol' Finn just so I could use his dagger on Kol. Then last night I went down to look at Finn hoping it would make the decision easier for me, but what should I find tucked underneath his back but my trusted little friends."

Marcel's eyes dropped to the ground, embarrassed at having done such a poor job in his attempt to free Rebekah from her fear of the dagger.

"Marcel, go to your room," Niklaus demanded. "I want to speak to my sister alone."

"She had nothing to do with it," Marcel quickly said. "It was my idea. She didn't even know I was planning it."

"I am perfectly aware that this was something you planned on your own and I intend to deal with it accordingly," Klaus growled. "Now do as I say and go to your room."

Marcel clenched his jaw wanting to argue that he was a man now and Klaus couldn't just send him to his room when he felt like it but he looked to Rebekah. The soft, pleading look in her eyes urged him to leave them. She didn't want Marcel to witness it if Klaus was going to dagger her. He was still young, he didn't need to see the woman he loved stabbed through the heart even if it was just a temporary death.

Marcel left, a glare on his face as he marched out of the courtyard.

"What do you think you're doing," Klaus asked as he closed in the distance between him and Rebekah. "Trying to win my son's heart so you can use my affection towards him for your own agenda?"

"The thought never crossed my mind, Klaus," Rebekah stated quickly. "I know how you feel about him. But he claims to love me. I cannot stop that."

"One would be amazed by the power of a little Compulsion."

Rebekah's eyes widened. "Y-you can't. Whether or not he loves me should be his decision. You can force him to do what you want. He...he's your son, not just some pawn whose fate you decide."

"I can and I will," Klaus remained unmoved by Rebekah's declaration. "He doesn't deserve to be toyed with like all the other suitors you fell 'madly in love' with, Rebekah. He's too caring and too kind to be hurt by your capricious love. If Compelling him to forget his feelings for you is what it takes to protect him then I'll do it."

End Flashback

Kol stood staring at Elijah trying to build up the courage to approach him. He knew his brothers would be furious with him when they found out he kept such an important secret from them but he couldn't bear to keep it any longer. If Mikael and Finn were alive it was only a matter of time before they came after his family again and he had to do what he could to protect them.

Freya saw Kol's hesitation as he stood a few feet away from Elijah and she knew what he was thinking. Hurrying to her brother, she pulled him into a corridor and growled, "What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm going to tell Elijah what you did," Kol bit, snatching his arm from her grip.

"You tell him what I did and you put him and Niklaus in danger. I have father and Finn under control but if our brothers go after them looking to start a fight, I can't stop them from retaliating. Give me a chance to prove that they have changed and then I will tell Elijah myself. I swear."

Kol scoffed and tried to move around Freya. She placed a hand on his chest and said, "I won't be able to bring Davina back if you tell them."

"So now you're holding Davina over my head again, are ya," Kol bit, growing a distrust for his older sister rivaled only by his distrust of Finn.

"I'm not. You bring me what I need to bring her back and I'll do it in an instant but if you tell Elijah and Niklaus about father and Finn first, after they kill them they will destroy every resurrection spell I have to prevent me from ever trying to bring them back again."

Kol silently berated himself for even considering keeping the existence of two of the most horrible men he knew a secret. But he loved Davina and he blamed himself for her death so he had to do whatever he could to bring her back. Even if it meant keeping his mouth shut.

Angry at himself, he stomped away from Freya and Elijah towards the exit.

Kol didn't see Marcel until he bumped against his shoulder. "Hey," Marcel said, grabbing Kol by the arm. He could see the focus in Kol's eyes but he wasn't interested in that at the moment. "Have you seen Hope?"

"She's around," Kol replied curtly. "Go find Klaus. I'm sure he knows exactly where she is."

Just as Marcel was about to make a joke about Klaus's micro-managing, Kol yanked his arm from his hold and continued stomping away.

Marcel was very curious about Kol's sudden aggressive behavior but he thought that perhaps he had gotten into a little disagreement with Klaus or Elijah and was just being the drama queen he was known to be. A hundred years ago Marcel would have run after him and helped him get over his anger by drinking, shit-talking his brothers, or bedding strange women but they weren't best friends anymore and Marcel had a little sister to surprise.

He went further into the studio looking for Hope but he couldn't spot her amongst the sea of teenagers but Klaus stood out like a solid tree amongst saplings blowing in the wind. He went over to his father curious about what could make the man have such a dour look on his face.

"Let me guess," Marcel started jokingly, drawing Klaus's attention away from Hope and her new friend. "Someone took the last beignet before you could even have one."

"Don't be ridiculous. You know I've set aside a reserve of beignets for myself in the studio office," Klaus scolded and Marcel laughed. "This is more serious. Look,"

Marcel followed Klaus's eyes across the studio to Hope's mop of blonde hair. She was talking excitedly to a tall girl who eyed Hope with a suspicious amount of interest.

"They're flirting," Klaus bit. "I've been listening in. First, she asked what sort of perfume Hope had on and then she asked what kind of shampoo she used. If things get any more intimate I'm stepping in."

Marcel was suspicious of the girl as well but he could tell Klaus was at a dangerous level in his query. "I think you're reading too much into it. I mean, of course she asked about Hope's shampoo. It's weird. I mean, who has mint scented shampoo?"

"I bought her that shampoo," Klaus growled. "And I have it on good authority that she has a 'thing' for this girl."

"Oh, yeah, whose authority?"

"Sebastian,"

Marcel couldn't argue with that source. Who best to know who Hope likes than her best friend.

"Don't overreact," Marcel warned. "You remember what you did on my fourteenth. You threatened to snap a girl's neck."

"Because she kept making advances at you that you were clearly uninterested in."

"Because I didn't know they were advances. I liked that girl and had I known she was flirting with me, I would've most certainly lost my virginity to her that night."

"Then it's a good thing I stepped in when I did. Perhaps I should do the same now just in case the littlest Mikaelson is thinking the same." Klaus nodded to Hope and Izzy who were now standing side by side admiring one of Hope's paintings, their hands dangerously close to touching.

"Ooh, they're holding hands," Marcel mocked. "Better watch out, Klaus. That's practically one step from full-on intercourse."

"Is my paternal anxiety entertaining to you?"

"A little bit. It'd be more if I could get that little vein in your forehead to pulse erratically like it does."

As if prompted by Marcel's coaxing, the vein on Klaus's forehead grew bigger and Marcel let out a hearty chuckle.

"This is not funny," Klaus growled. "That girl is a criminal, she was just released from a juvenile detention center for attacking a girl with a baseball bat. And she's eighteen!"

Marcel's laughing ceased immediately. If all that were true he was surprised at the restraint Klaus took in keeping himself from towing Hope out of the party over his shoulder.

"Alright," Marcel stood in front of Klaus, blocking his sight from Hope. "I'll step in. You stay here, count to ten, and try not to kill a child today."

"I make no promises."

Marcel waded through the crowd over to his sister, stepping in between her and Izzy.

"Happy birthday, little sis," he said excitedly, pretending that he didn't notice he'd just broken up their intimate moment. "Who is...uh, this?"

Hope knew exactly what her brother was trying to do and she almost didn't want to introduce her to him but a little part of her was excited about her Izzy showing interest in her and Hope wanted to brag about it to everyone. "This is Izzy. Izzy, this is my brother, Marcel."

"How's it going, Izzy." Marcel held his hand out for the girl to take. Izzy secured him with a firm handshake. With a chuckle, he said, "That's quite a grip you have, Izz. You play any sports?"

There was a hint of knowing in his voice that did not go unnoticed by Izzy. "Not anymore," she answered curtly. "And it's Izzy. Not Izz."

"Uh, Marcel," Hope interrupted. "We were kind of...in the middle of a conversation here. Do you think you could, uh...y'know...go somewhere else? Please." Hope shined the most innocent smile at Marcel, causing him to instantly forgive her rudeness.

"I'd love to," Marcel glanced over Hope's shoulder across the room at Klaus still eagerly watching them and no doubt listening to everything they were saying. "But I was kinda hoping you wouldn't be too busy for me to give you my gift."

Hope was so excited at the prospect of her brother's gift that she immediately forgave his rude intrusion. She held out her hands excitedly expecting him to place a gift-wrapped box in them.

"I'm afraid its a bit bigger than that," he said. "It's outside."

Hope's eyes lit up even more. She had to restrain herself from bouncing on the balls of her feet in front of Izzy.

"C'mon," Marcel said, leading the way outside.

Hope turned to Izzy, unsure if she should walk away from the girl while she finally had her attention but then she remembered what Sebastian warned her about. She had to play it cool. If she came across too clinging, Izzy would drop her like a Hot Pocket.

"Be right back," Hope said to the girl with a smile. Izzy smiled back, watching curiously as Hope walked away.

"So," Marcel started talking as the two of them made their way to the door. "Izzy. She seems...nice."

"She is. We're in the same art class. She does the most amazing drawings. Her shading, attention to detail, everything is just...amazing."

Marcel couldn't help but smile at his little sister's fawning over her crush's artwork but that didn't make him like the idea of Hope with Izzy anymore.

"Oh, you met in art class, huh? You mean, like, at school?"

Suspicious of Marcel's line of questioning, Hope answered slowly, "Yeah,"

"Isn't it a bit weird for a girl her age to be in an eighth-grade art class?"

"It's not an eighth-grade art class. It's Art I. And, no it's not weird. She's only in the ninth grade. She used to be really into sports but when she stopped playing she needed something to take its place so she joined art."

"Only in the ninth grade, huh," Marcel continued questioning. "That's funny, she looks a little older than that."

Hope paused in the middle of their stride and Marcel slowed to a stop. "What is that supposed to mean?" She asked frustratedly.

"Nothing. I'm just curious. You like this girl, right?"

Hope folded her arms over her chest in a mix of embarrassment at Marcel knowing about her crush and angry that he was clever enough to figure it out.

"So what if I do," she muttered. "Is there something wrong with me liking girls?"

"Of course not," Marcel growled, coming closer to his sister and placing a guiding finger under her chin. "You know it doesn't matter to me who you love. I just want you to be happy." Glancing back over at Izzy, her eyes glued to another of Hope's paintings, he added, "But not this girl, Izzy. I don't like you with her. She's not right for you."

Hope yanked her head from his hand. "You don't even know her."

"I know of her. And I know girls like her. For Christ's sake, Hope, how old is she? She doesn't even look young enough to be in the ninth grade, let alone dating my fourteen-year-old sister."

"She is sixteen," Hope tensely answered trying to not draw attention to them but she was getting far more frustrated with her brother than she'd ever been. "Two years older than me. How many years older than you was Aunty Bex when you realized you liked her?"

Marcel opened his mouth and then shut it.

"Exactly," the irritated teenager growled. "You don't get to say who I can date."

"Then it's a good thing I do."

Hope spun around to see Klaus looming over her, his arms casually held behind his back as a method of restraint.

"Hope," Klaus began softly. "I'm sorry, love, but Izzy just isn't the girl for you. I forbid you from seeing her."

Hope was confused about how Klaus knew anything about Izzy but she quickly deduced her father's eavesdropping and as the knowledge hit her, she felt suddenly violated. What all had he heard them say? Did he sense her heart racing and her palms sweating as she talked to Izzy? Was he also invading her private thoughts?

Her anxiety rising beyond what she could handle, Hope sped to the office, slamming the door shut behind her. For a moment the party seemed to pause and all eyes fell to the closed office door.

Hayley, Elijah, and Freya were by Klaus's side in an instant.

"What did you do," Hayley barked.

"I didn't do anything," Klaus groaned, rolling his eyes as the four members of his family glared at him like he didn't know the best way to protect his daughter.

Angry at the way Klaus handled the situation, Marcel said, "Hope has a crush on that girl over there," he pointed at Izzy who was still staring at the office door, "And being his paranoid, controlling self, instead of trying to reasonably talk Hope out of dating the girl, he tried to forbid their relationship."

Turning a disbelieving eye to her younger brother, Freya asked, "You have a problem with Hope dating girls?"

"Come off it, love," Klaus rolled his eyes. "You know it has nothing to do with her being a girl. It's because she's a violent, ex-convict nearly old enough to vote while my little girl is just barely on the precipice of being a teenager."

"She's not a little girl, Klaus," Hayley growled. "She's a growing teenager girl who needs space enough to figure out what she likes and she doesn't need her father breathing down her neck as she does."

"Then let her grow," Klaus bellowed, drawing all eyes to them. "But with another fourteen-year-old. With a girl who is interested in dolls and makeup, not baseball bats and attempted murder."

Every teenager in the room knew exactly who they were arguing about at the mention of the baseball bat. Their eyes darted from Klaus to Izzy and Izzy stood stark still for the longest while, humiliated at being the subject of discontent. With her head hanging low, she made a speedy exit out of the party past the Original family, avoiding eye contact with everyone.

"Well," Elijah sighed. "I guess the party is over."

Hayley shook her head, disappointed that the father of her child managed to ruin the girl's first birthday with her whole family.

"I'm going to go check on Hope," she stated furiously walking away.

Seconds later Rebekah entered the studio dressed in fitting equestrian pants and leather boots. When she spotted Marcel she didn't immediately notice the look on everyone's face as she had her own agenda to get to.

"What the bloody hell is taking so long," she barked as she walked over to the circle of her family. "You're supposed to be getting Hope."

"Ohh, sister," Elijah slightly turned his nose up at Rebekah. "I don't mean to be rude but, you smell...somewhat pungently like a horse."

"A Clydesdale, actually. Mine and Marcel's present to Hope. Where is the little munchkin anyway? I don't want her to sneak outside and see the horse before I can get a picture of her reaction." Rebekah held up her camera with a big smile on her face but she was the only one smiling. "Did I miss something?"

"Niklaus," Elijah growled. "Being Niklaus, ruined Hope's birthday."

"I didn't ruin it," Klaus retorted. "She was trying to 'hook up' with some sixteen-year-old criminal and I refused to allow it."

"Christ," Rebekah exclaimed. "Can this family get through one celebration without a fallout?"

"Don't overreact," Klaus grunted. "We've had plenty of celebrations that ended peaceably. Most of Marcel's birthdays went nearly seamlessly."

"Nearly seamlessly," Marcel repeated.

"No one died," Klaus corrected. He saw Marcel about to object and quickly added, "No one died during the celebrations. Before or after the party doesn't count so I stand by my statement: No one died."

"You need to put a bridle on that anger of yours, brother," Elijah scolded.

"It's not my anger I'm worried about," Klaus growled. "It's keeping my daughter away from sex-craved women who would try to influence her into losing her innocence."

Elijah let out a heavy sigh and said, "You can't shield her forever, Klaus. You need to trust your daughter to make the right decisions on who she should date."

"I trust my daughter," Klaus said. "I don't trust 16-year-old ex-convicts."

Hayley came back with her face in a tight frown, glowering at Klaus. "Thanks a lot, Klaus. Hope's locked herself in the office and she's not even opening the door for Sebastian."

They all looked back at the office door and saw Sebastian with his body pressed against it, muttering soft, encouraging words to his friend through the door but she still wouldn't open it.

"I'm sure Klaus would love to go break the door down for you," Rebekah taunted. "Being the expert birthday ruiner he is. Or Kol. He's always an overflowing reservoir of trouble. Where is he anyway?"

Freya folded her arms across her body, shrinking herself from her family's gaze in order to seem less suspicious.

"He was leaving when I came in," Marcel said. "Didn't say where he was going."

"Perhaps it's better that he's not here right now," said Klaus. "He probably would've taken you up on your suggestion to break the door down but as long as Hope's in there she's not out here with Izzy."

"That's your plan," Marcel said mockingly. "To keep her locked away like some kind of fairytale princess?"

"Well, she is a princess," Klaus defended.

"You can't be serious," Rebekah said, a snarl on her face. "You have to learn to trust your daughter. Let her date who she wants to date. When she's ready to...get intimate with a person, she'll know when the times right. I'm sure Hayley has already had 'the talk' with her so she knows how important her first time is."

Hayley looked away from everyone, shifting from foot to foot.

"You did have 'the talk' with her," Rebekah questioned noticing Hayley's sudden discomfort. "Didn't you?"

Hayley shrugged. "It's not as easy as everyone makes it seem. When she first hit puberty, I psyched myself up for weeks just to tell her but then she told me that she had a crush on a girl in the werewolf tribe we were traveling with at the time and it threw a monkey wrench into my whole plan. I am, sadly and embarrassingly, uneducated about same-sex relationships. I was hoping I would have more time to prepare before we had to have that talk."

"Oh yeah, that's great," Marcel said sarcastically. "I hear that kids in the LGBT community have far less sex than straight kids. Most of them wait until marriage so you have absolutely nothing to worry about. Just keep waiting until the time is more convenient for you, I'm sure Hope'll be fine."

"I don't need your sarcasm, Marcel. I know I'm a couple of years too late but in my defense, I've had to deal with raising a stubborn werewolf, vampire, witch tribrid on my own which, as you all know by now, isn't easy. There's no parenting book to help you teach your tribrid daughter the safe way to make love to a woman. Trust me, I've looked."

"If you want," Freya softly interrupted, bringing herself back into the conversation. "I could talk to her. I...have some experience in the area."

"Really," Hayley's eyes lit up. "Freya, that would be great! Thank you!"

"I really don't think anyone should be talking to her about anything," Klaus said stubbornly. "Because she's not going to be having sex with anyone for a very long time."

"Don't be stupid, Nik," Rebekah scolded. "She's at that age. She's bound to do a little bit of experimentation."

"And I will flay anyone she experiments with."

"You will not," Hayley growled. "This is not the archaic times you grew up in, Klaus. Girls do not have to get their fathers' permission to be with someone anymore."

"My girl does,"

Sebastian managed to pop the door open with his I.D. when Hope stopped responded back to him. He went in expecting to be bombarded with hateful shouts of anger but he was surprised to see no one.

"She's gone," he screamed back into the studio.

Without a second to contemplate their next move, all the Mikaelsons sped into the room to find only a tray of beignets thrown haphazardly across the floor.

-M-

Flashback

Klaus was slightly irritated that he did not find Marcel in his room where he'd told him to go after talking to Rebekah but as he searched the entire Compound with no sign of his son, he began to get worried. He was afraid that in his anger, Marcel had left the property. In all the years he'd been alive, he never felt as much fear as he did whenever he didn't know where Marcel was. He was mortal and vulnerable and in the world they lived in, anything could happen to him.

Klaus went out to the stables to saddle up a horse to go looking for Marcel but to his surprise, Marcel was already there brushing the coat of his new stallion. Marcel expected Klaus to come find him so he wasn't surprised when he heard the stable door open, nor did he bother to acknowledge Klaus's presence.

With a sigh of relief, Klaus calmly said, "I thought I told you to go to your room."

"And I decided not to," Marcel said firmly, still brushing his horse.

"Excuse me," Klaus grunted, angered by Marcel's proud admission of his blatant defiance. "You don't make decisions when I give orders. I don't know where this sudden surge of rebellion came from but you'd better place the reigns on it before I do so myself."

Marcel dropped his brush and turned to face Klaus, his face hard with anger. "It's not defiance. It's me being a man. I don't do things just because 'you said' so anymore. And I will not be sent to my room like a disobedient child anymore either."

Klaus's eyes narrowed. Kol had tried to use that argument dozens of times in the past and every time the conversation ended with him face down over Klaus or Elijah's lap. Klaus wanted to do the same thing to Marcel in that moment but as he saw him standing there then, proud of himself, his back straight and no sign of fear in his eyes, he had an epiphany: Marcel was not Kol.

The world they lived in was full of people who wanted to force Marcel, and men like him, to believe they weren't men, that they weren't even 3/4ths of a man. They wanted to break them like wild horses, to control them, to subjugate them, all because of arbitrary phenotypes that had no bearings on their worth as men. This was the world Marcel existed in.

Klaus was used to controlling his family by any means necessary even if it meant using the occasional corporal punishment. That was the way he raised Marcel, that was the way Elijah reigned in Rebekah and Kol when they thought to question his authority. But for the first time, Klaus found himself questioning his own methods.

If he treated Marcel as he would have Kol just then, would Marcel understand that he was punishing him because he required obedience from every member of his family or would he think that Klaus was punishing him because he didn't see him as a man, that ultimately Klaus was no different than the others in their world that though Marcel didn't deserve to be considered a man.

The thought of his son believing something so contemptible about him turned Klaus's stomach.

"I know you don't like the idea of your son being with your sister," Marcel said, drawing Klaus from his unending invasive thoughts. "But...I can't help what I feel for her, Klaus. It's not...me falling in love with my Aunt. It's me...falling in love with my best friend. And I can't apologize for that. You told me to never apologize for who I love."

A soft small crossed Klaus's face. He walked slowly through the stable to Marcel, still standing proud.

"I know you think you feel something for her," Klaus said warmly. "But those feelings are not real. You only think you love her because she's young and pretty, and considering that you two live in the same home, she provides an easy accessibility you can't find in other girls."

"Don't talk about her like that," Marcel yelled.

"Why not," Klaus continued, ignoring Marcel's rage. "It's the truth. My sister finds a new beau every decade. You are just one of many."

If there was one thing Marcel learned from Kol and his witch friends, it was that when a man disrespected his girl, it didn't matter who he was, there was only one thing to do.

Klaus didn't expect the punch to come or he would've dodged it but moments after he spoke, Marcel's fist collided with his jaw. It didn't hurt, Klaus barely flinched, but it was the act itself meant enough.

"Don't ever talk about her like that again," Marcel growled lowly. "I don't care if she's been with ten men, or a hundred, or a thousand. She is perfect to me and I won't ever let anyone talk about her like that. Not even you."

Klaus's jaw tightened. He couldn't believe Marcel had the fortitude to strike his father but he was strangely grateful for the lick because it had made his decision much easier for him. Marcel was a man and he could fight. Even if Klaus spanked him and Marcel understood that his being punished had nothing to do with the color of his skin, only that Klaus wanted control over him like he had with the rest of his family, Klaus feared that with Marcel being so self-sufficient now, no longer a boy in need of his father's protection, he would decide to leave their family.

The rest of his family only stayed with him because they had spent so much time together running from Mikael over the past eight hundred years that they all believed nobody would understand them like they did each other. Marcel, however, was still young and unencumbered by their burdens. There was nothing tethering him to their family. If he wanted to leave, he could. And there would be no reason to come back. Maybe he would come back for Rebekah and she would realize she loved him just as much as he loved her and they would run off together, leaving him behind. And in his heartbreak, he would become cruel and torturous to the point where Elijah couldn't handle it anymore and then he would leave. The heartache would force him to turn off his humanity. Maybe he could travel the world with Kol, killing and maiming for fun but even Kol had his limits - a weakness for witches. If Klaus went overboard and harmed a coven of witches, as he often did since fighting witches was a lot more fun than fighting humans, Kol would become disgusted with him as well, leaving him all alone without son, sister, or brother.

Klaus fought to keep his emotions hidden and won, but the gut-wrenching feeling of losing his family, the people he loved so deeply for so many years, lingered on.

Forcing himself to focus on the matter at hand, Klaus stared Marcel in the eyes and said, "Forget any romantic feelings you have towards Rebekah." Then he walked away, leaving Marcel in the stable.

Marcel reached to his neck and grabbed the silver chain necklace Rebekah gave him. She said it was magic and it would protect him from Compulsion. Marcel never thought that would be something he would have to worry about before that moment.

End Flashback

Hope ran through the Quarter, tears of anger blinding her but she didn't need her sight. All she cared about was getting as far away from her father as possible. She was humiliated. Even though she and Izzy weren't talking about anything serious, it was the fact that her father would dare to eavesdrop on their conversation that angered her.

She didn't remember boarding the ferry but when she had finally calmed down, that's where she was, staring out over the dull blue water. It managed to calm her mind for a moment before her head was overwhelmed with questions about whether Izzy was still going to be interested in her after seeing her childishly lock herself in the art studio office.

A hand on her shoulder made her jump. She spun around and saw Kol standing behind her, his eyebrows drawn together and jaw tight.

"What's the birthday girl doing on a ferry to Algiers when her party is going on in the Quarter?"

"I'm running away from dad."

"Oh great," with a sigh, Kol leaned over the railing and said, "Klaus ruins another party. And he acts like I'm the wild one who can't be controlled. What did he do this time?"

Hope remained silent, unsure if she should say what Klaus had done. She didn't want Kol to try to talk her into forgiving him. She wanted to stay mad at him for as long as possible. He deserved it. He ruined her birthday.

"Guess I'll take a stab at guessing," Kol said noticing the girl's reluctance to tell him. "Klaus has never been one to be intentionally cruel to his children so I'm assuming he did something...overbearing. Pretending that he has your best interest at heart when he really just wants to control your life. A thing for control, my dear brother has."

Hope's petulant pout as she stared at the slow-moving water confirmed Kol's assumption for him.

"And I'm guessing it has something to do with that girl you were talking to. What's her name? Mitzy?"

"Izzy," Hope finally spoke. "Her name is Izzy." Nipping at the raw skin of her bottom lip, she muttered, "Uncle Kol...can I tell you something and you promise never to tell anyone else?"

"Of course, love," Kol said sliding closer to Hope so she didn't have to whisper very loud. "You can always tell ol' Uncle Kol anything."

Hope was silent for a little longer, afraid to speak; ashamed really, and ashamed of being ashamed.

"I...I," taking a deep breath she blurted, "I like girls."

Kol didn't react which was not the reaction Hope was expecting.

"I mean," she started to clarify. "I...like-like them. Like...I really like girls."

Realizing that he was supposed to be news to him, Kol forced a look of surprise on his face. He already knew Hope liked girls, their entire family did. It wasn't hard to figure out by the way she interacted with other girls, like whenever she blushed when a pretty girl gave her a compliment, but since she wanted to officially 'come out' to him, Kol was going to indulge her with an act of astonishment.

"So, you're a lesbian," he asked.

Hope stared down at the railing, chewing incessantly on her lip at this point. "I like boys too," she admitted. "They're cute and stuff but...sometimes they're just really dumb. Girls are cute and sometimes they're more mature than boys. Like Izzy. She's only sixteen but she acts so much older. She lost her dad when she was little and her mom ran out on her family a few weeks ago so she works and takes care of her little brother all on her own. I don't know any boys who would do that."

Kol chuckled. "Don't let Klaus find out any of that about Izzy or you'll never be allowed to see her."

Turning hopeful eyes towards her uncle, Hope asked, "You're not going to tell him?"

He shook his head 'no'. "I am a master at keeping secrets," he winked at her. "And I think you should be free to be with who you want to be with, without getting Klaus's permission first."

As the ferry docked and the people began departing, Kol knelt down so that he was staring up at Hope and said, "Just make me one promise," he took both of her hands into his. "I know that you're fourteen now and you think you can figure out anything the world throws at you on your own, and you probably can since you're such a clever girl," he smiled, brushing a lock of her hair behind her ear uncovering his niece's smile too. "Just promise me, if the world drops a load on you that you just can't carry, you'll come to me. I'll always keep your secrets and I'll do anything to help you. Okay?"

Hope wrapped her arms tightly around Kol's neck and he immediately hugged her back. "I promise," she whispered.

Chapter Text

Chapter 35

Flashback

Elijah walked into the parlor of the Mikaelsons' newly acquired manor hoping to find his youngest brother but he was disappointed with the sight of only Finn.

"Have you seen Kol?" Elijah asked.

"Not since sunrise when he woke me with the head of a shepherd lying next to my face." Finn continued staring down at the book in his hands.

Elijah wasn't surprised by Finn's news. In the ten years since they had become vampires, Kol had gotten more and more violent towards humans. He lacked empathy when it came to 'playing' with them, treating them like disposable paper dolls. It was only with the witches that his brother seemed to show any restraint but that wasn't good enough for Elijah. He needed all the members of his family to be in control, if not their own then his. That was the only way he could ensure the safety of his siblings from their hateful father.

"Then we need to go find him," Elijah demanded. "He could be out finding more trouble."

"I do not deign to keep up with that snake. I have more important things to do," Finn lifted the front of his book to show Elijah that he was reading from their mother's grimoire. "Like finding a way to reverse this curse that plagues us."

Elijah shook his head disappointedly but said nothing about Finn's desire. They all knew that Esther's curse was permanent but Finn lived in constant denial and Elijah had grown tired of arguing with him about it.

"He is our little brother, Finn. We are responsible for whatever he does and whoever he kills if we don't try to stop him."

"We cannot stop him. He doesn't listen to reason. This cursed blood in our veins has gone to his head and made him a madman. All we can do now is let him kill until I can figure out a way to get a witch to reverse this curse and free him, and all of us, from these bodies."

"If he continues to cause mayhem in this town, he will draw Mikael to us," Elijah firmly reminded his brother of the threat they were all hiding from.

"Then let Mikael come," Fine grunted. "Our foolish baby brother was always more receptive to Mikael's abuse than any of us. It has always proven a sure way to keep him in line in as children."

Frustrated with trying to reason with Finn, Elijah spun on his heels and ventured out to find Kol on his own.

End Flashback

Hope and Kol walked side by side through the streets of Algiers with no real destination in mind. Kol had planned to meet with Josh to talk about the predicament his sister put him in but he was with Hope now and he didn't think Klaus would be too happy about Hope being with one of the vampires he trusted the least. So they walked through the streets, talking to each other, with Kol reminiscing on all of the times Klaus had interfered with his siblings' love-life in the past to prove to Hope that she wasn't the first Mikaelson broken-hearted by Klaus's annoying need for control.

"Coast of Ireland, May 12th, 1414," Kol started. "I fell in love with a beautiful young witch without a coven. She was a loner and didn't like answering to anyone and so she was definitely not a fan of Klaus. She proposed we ran away together, just the two of us, and live on an island away from all civilization. It sounded so perfect the way she described it. I wanted to run away with her at that moment, leaving everything else behind but she insisted we wait until sunrise when Klaus would be just getting to bed after a long night. I didn't want to. I knew if we didn't leave then Klaus would find out and try to stop us but she said I was being paranoid. She said 'Sunrise is only six hours away. There's no way your brother will discover anything in six hours'. That sounded reasonable to me. I thought she was right, I was just being paranoid, so I said, 'Alright, see you in six hours'. Six hours later we were supposed to meet at the stables. I waited in there for hours and she never showed. I searched everywhere, all of Ireland, and I couldn't find her. I knew Klaus had something to do with it so I confronted him. When I did, he said that he was disappointed in me for falling under the enchantment of a necromancer. He thought she put some sort of love spell on me and she was just trying to lure me to do all her bidding." He scoffed as he said, "He actually thought he was helping me by getting rid of her."

"What did he do to her," Hope asked.

Kol looked down at his niece, her big saucer eyes staring back up at him, and he knew he couldn't tell her the truth. She wasn't ready to know the extent Klaus would go to to keep his siblings from falling in love.

"He found her right after I talked to her that night and he...compelled her to leave, to forget about me, and to never come back. I never found her."

Hope didn't want to believe that her dad would do something so mean, but she knew that Kol wouldn't lie to her about something like that either.

"He would never do that to anyone I liked, would he?"

Kol knew he would burn he didn't want to ruin Hope's Birthday anymore than it was already with the truth. "Probably not. Klaus would never do anything to make you hate him. You're his little girl."

Hope walked along in silence a little longer, hoping that her uncle was right.

"Do you think Aunty Freya was meeting those vampire scenes in secret that night because she's in love with one of them and thinks dad is going to try to break them up too?"

Kol was taken aback. He'd forgotten that Hope had been privy to Freya's secret meeting too.

"I wish that was what she was as up to," Kol muttered. "You haven't told anyone what we saw that night, have you?"

"No. I was too mad at mom and dad after what they did to me that night to tell them anything and then I just forgot about it until right now. What do you think she was meeting those vampires for?"

"Um...she was probably just...in the wrong place at the wrong time. She's lucky nothing bad happened. You remember to never go anywhere without telling someone where you are first."

"But that's not fair. I'm supposed to just check in every time my friends and I decide to go get some ice cream or take a walk in the park. No other teenager has to tell their family about their every move."

Kol chuckled lightly. He had the same reaction the first time Elijah tried to impose rules on him.

"Trust me, sweetheart," Kol chuckled. "Dropping a pin of your location is a lot easier than the alternative."

Flashback:

Kol screamed in pain and anger as Elijah dragged him by his ear into the common room where their other siblings patiently waited.

"Damn you, Elijah," Kol yelled as Elijah released him. He rubbed fervently at his burning ear hoping that the pain would lessen.

"Next time you'd fare better to listen when I give you a command, little brother," Elijah growled. He found Kol in the nearby village, making a game of compelling people to jump from different size buildings so his new witch girlfriend could practice stopping a falling body. Needless to say, some of their test subjects didn't make it.

"You can't 'command' me, Elijah," Kol bellowed. "I am just as immortal as you and just as powerful. We are equals now!"

"If you were truly my equal, little brother, you would realize how dumb you are for killing so many humans without regard. If an entire village of people were to all suddenly commit mass suicide, wouldn't that strike suspicion into the average man? And if the average man would be suspicious of it, just how do you think Mikael would react if the news traveled to him? He would go searching for that village until it led him back to us."

Klaus was sitting in an armchair watching a bit irately as Elijah scolded Kol for having fun until Elijah mentioned Mikael. He would have rather found a way to put Kol out of commission before he allowed their annoying little brother to lead Mikael to them.

"So what," Kol yelled. "Mikael is out there and he will always be out there, just like we'll always be here. Are we really to live the rest of our immortal lives running from our father like scared children?"

"Until we can find a way to kill him before he can get to Klaus, yes, that's exactly what we'll do," Elijah barked. "We will keep our heads down and act like thorough-born aristocrats lest we draw that monster out of hiding."

"You know what would make everything easier," Kol continued to yell. "If we all went our separate ways! Mikael is only after Niklaus. If he finds any of the rest of us, he'll let us be but not if we're running with the werewolf bastard-"

Rebekah sored from her spot on the couch beside Finn and sped over to Kol, slapping her brother across the face before he could let out any more foul remarks about Niklaus.

"How dare you," she spat. "Niklaus is our brother. We will lot leave him to fend off our father by himself."

Kol glared daggers at Rebekah. His first instinct was to hit her back but the last time he hit Rebekah he was twelve and Mikael beat him so thoroughly afterward that Kol would've sooner broken his own arm than hit the girl again. As he stood there then, however, the bright handprint painted across his face marked with searing pain brought by her vampire strength, a strength to match his own, he wondered if he could get away with hitting her just one last time.

Although Kol was in pain, the tears were in Rebekah's eyes. Tears of absolute anger towards her family. She looked towards Niklaus sitting quietly on the couch. After nearly a decade of running away from their abusive father, he was still fretfully conditioned to look away from direct eye contact, even from his loving little sister.

"I would never leave you, Niklaus," she swore. "Even if we have to run for eternity."

Kol looked back at Niklaus to find his big brother cautiously avoiding making eye contact. Kol wasn't stupid. He saw the abuse Mikael doled out to Niklaus his own life. He always knew it wasn't fair that Niklaus was punished so much more and so much harsher than any of the rest of them and he was ashamed of the relief he felt whenever he heard Mikael screaming obscenities at Klaus in his hut followed by the sound of Mikael striking him with some sort of stick or horsewhip or some other weapon he rarely used on the other children. With every heartwrenching scream Niklaus let out, Kol's stomach would knot with disgust and relief. Relief...that it was better it was happening to Niklaus than himself.

As Niklaus sat quietly in his chair, Kol realized that Niklaus wasn't going to ask him to stay. In the ten years they'd been on the run, not once had Klaus ever asked any of them to stay with him. Elijah told him that it was because Niklaus didn't think he deserved them or anyone's love. Mikael had beaten him so, he thought he'd be better alone and forgotten than with the people who loved him unconditionally. Kol believed Elijah. It was obvious in the way Klaus would do anything to make his siblings happy, as if he was afraid that if they were angry at him for even a moment they would leave him, but at the same time thinking that he didn't deserve the happiness his family brought him.

"I was only jesting," Kol scoffed, rolling his eyes. "What would I do? Spend eternity alone? Pssh. That's worse than spending a year locked in a room with father."

As Klaus relaxed the tight grip he had on the armrests of his chair, Elijah sighed. The cotton cushioning seeping through the holes dug into the leather by Klaus's fingers indicated clear enough how Klaus felt about losing any of his siblings even if their brother wouldn't say it himself.

"But," Kol sang. "Since I've already killed so many people in the village, the news has probably spread already and Mikael is probably going to figure out where we are any minute if he hasn't figured it out already."

"I certainly hope there's a point in there somewhere," Elijah growled.

"Maybe I could...finish off...the rest of them," Kol asked hopeful. "Or we could do it together. Make a game of it," he grew excited the more he talked. "C'mon, it's been years since the five of us played a game together."

"That's because we're not children and those people are not wooden toys," Elijah yelled. Forcefully calming himself down, he said, "We will pack our things tonight and we will leave at sunrise WITHOUT killing anyone else."

With a smug smirk, Kol moved to walk out of the room past Elijah, mumbling under his breath, "I could kill half a dozen humans before you could leave this room and there's nothing you can do to stop me."

Elijah didn't know why the thought that came to his mind did at that moment and he didn't care because what he had just heard Kol say made him want to follow through on that thought instantly.

Before Kol could step over the threshold of the room, Elijah had grabbed him by the arm and vamped over to the wooden chair sitting in the corner of the room. All of his siblings turned wide eyes at the sight of him slamming Kol forcefully over his lap and raining down swats to Kol's seat.

"What are you doing," Kol screamed as he wriggled fiercely over Elijah's knees. "Let me go! Stop it!"

Struggling to keep Kol in place, Elijah grabbed one of Kol's arms and locked it behind his back, keeping him securely in place. Having now gotten the upper hand, Elijah took advantage of Kol's current sedation to flip up the bottom of his tunic and pull down his tights, revealing Kol's bare behind to the entire room. Rebekah blushed and turned away from the sight but Klaus and Finn were too curious to turn away.

As Elijah started spanking away Rebekah turned back around, too amazed at seeing Elijah spanking Kol to register that she was seeing her brother's naked bottom. Elijah began alternating from cheek to cheek to ensure the entirety of Kol's behind felt his disappointment as he began to lecture, "I've had enough of your recklessness and heartlessness. Since we were turned into vampires you have shown less and less regard for human life but that ends now. Our mother may have turned us into bloodsucking beasts of the night, little brother, but that doesn't mean we have to be monsters. I will not let you turn into Mikael."

"You can't tell me what to do," Kol screamed. "I am a man! You can't do this!"

Elijah started hitting Kol harder, peppering every inch of his bottom with singing, painful smacks until his bottom changed from pink to a bright, glimmering red.

"Stop," Kol screamed, tears trickling down his eyes. His fighting had died down some but he still felt the need to kick his legs every once and a while to shift the center of his bottom so Elijah wasn't hitting the same spot too many times.

"Not until I feel like we have an understanding," Elijah growled. His hand was as heated as Kol's behind was at this point but he wasn't ready to end Kol's punishment until he was sure Kol would agree to stop killing people.

Glancing down at Kol's feet, Elijah noticed that his brother had kicked off his slippers while he was fighting to free himself from Elijah. Getting another idea, Elijah stood Kol to his feet and sped over to the discarded slipper, returning to his seat and throwing Kol back over his lap before Kol could even register that there was a pause in the spanking. When the sting of the slipper slapped his bottom, Kol screamed out. Then it came down a dozen more times, adding a deep glow of mauve to Kol's red bottom.

"Stop," Kol wailed, his body lying limply as the hateful sole of the slipper landed sharply across his sore bottom. "Pleeeasssse, Elijah."

"Promise me," Elijah barked, not ceasing in his endeavor to cover Kol's bottom with sharp smacks as many times as it took to get him to agree. "Promise me you won't play games with human lives anymore! Promise me!"

Kol's face was covered in tears and snot that he couldn't wipe away because he was holding up his face from the ground with one hand and Elijah had the other hand pinned firmly across his back.

"I promise," he finally screamed. "I won't do it again, I promise, I promise. Please, PLEASE, STOP, 'Lijah! I'll be good, I swear!"

Elijah stopped immediately. He waited for Kol's crying to turn into soft sobs before they both stood back to their feet.

Elijah placed his hands on both sides of Kol's face and looked him in the eyes, saying, "I will not let you become Mikael. I will not let you become a monster. Do you understand me?"

Kol was too focused on rubbing the sting away from his stinging behind to listen to anything Elijah was saying until he got to a point that sounded like he was supposed to reply but he didn't know how exactly he was supposed to reply. Realizing that his brother was ignoring him, Elijah grabbed Kol's hand and pulled it away from his butt and landed three solid smacks to his brother's already aching bottom. Kol danced from foot to foot, screaming as more tears made their way down his cheeks.

"I see that you're not ready to talk yet," Elijah growled as he dragged Kol over to the nearest corner and stood him there facing the wall. "Stand here and do not move from this corner. Do not attempt to pull up your tights. Do not attempt to rub away the sting. Disobey me and I will drag you kicking and screaming back across my knee, do you understand me?"

Kol's reply was a heartfelt sob.

Elijah went back over to his other siblings and took his place in the armchair next to the fireplace as he picked up a book and proceeded to read it as if nothing had happened.

"Elijah," Finn muttered, still surprised by the turn of events. "Wh-what do you think you're doing?"

"I'm taking control of my siblings," Elijah answered straightforwardly. "Something you never bothered to do."

"Even if I did this is not how I would've chosen to go about it. You can't just spank him like he's some...some...rambunctious child. He would be thirty years old right now if he could age."

"I don't care if he's a hundred years old," Elijah stated plainly. "If my little brother is doing something that could endanger the safety of this family, I will stop him by any means necessary."

"And what makes you think we would start listening to you all of a sudden now after this?"

Elijah glanced over to Kol still sobbing with his face pressed against the corner. Nodding for Finn to look back at Kol, Elijah said, "He's doing a good job of it so far."

No one said anything else the following ten minutes Elijah had Kol standing in the corner. Kol thought the moment he heard Elijah walking over to him would never come. He wanted to run out of the corner and hide somewhere with every ticking of the clock but he was afraid Elijah would make good on his promise if he moved and considering that even after ten minutes his bottom still held a bit of sting to it, he knew he didn't want to go through another spanking ever again.

"Turn around," came Elijah's voice behind him. Kol turned with a tight-lipped frown on his face and still sniffling back tears. "Have you learned anything?"

"No," Kol bit indignantly.

Elijah sighed. "Fine. Then I guess we will have to try again until you do."

As he reached out for Kol's hand, Kol pulled it back, crying, "No, no, I have learned, I swear."

"And what have you learned," Elijah insisted.

"...I've learned...that you will thrash me like a child if I don't start respecting human lives more."

Elijah chuckled. That wasn't quite the lesson he was trying to teach his brother but it was close enough.

When Elijah first pulled Kol into a hug, Kol was stiff, unsure of how to react to the unsolicited burst of comfort but then as Elijah began rubbing his hands gently up and down his brother's back, Kol began to relax, burying his face in Elijah's neck to hide the few straying tears from the sight of his onlooking siblings.

"I love you, little brother," Elijah mumbled softly against Kol's ear. "Do you know that?"

Kol didn't trust himself to speak without his voice cracking so he opted to just nod against Elijah's shoulder.

"And I punished you so harshly because I needed to get you under control before you did something to harm yourself or this family. Do you understand that?"

Again, Kol nodded.

Lifting his brother from his shoulder, Elijah stood Kol up straight and forced him to look him in the eyes. "I didn't do it because I wanted to hurt you. I didn't do it because I wanted to see you in pain. That's never what I want. I don't ever want you to be afraid of me. do you understand?"

Kol understood. Elijah was trying to reassure him that he didn't want to ever be equated with Mikael by his siblings. What he did was out of love to protect his family, not because he was a hateful man who couldn't control his temper like their father.

"I-I understand," Kol stuttered, forcefully wiping away tears from his eyes with his hands. "B-but you say that l-like y-you plan to do this again."

Elijah walked over to the side table beside his chair and grabbed the handkerchief sitting on it. He walked back over to Kol and pulled his brother's hands away from his face as he began wiping away Kol's tears with the handkerchief.

"Unfortunately, this will probably not be the last time you find yourself in this predicament, little brother," said Elijah woefully. "But it took us ten years to get here. Perhaps the next one is twice as long away."

End Flashback

-M-

Finn waited at the end of the alley, a shiver of disgust going through his body with every gulp Mikael took. Mikael had dragged the body of his vampire victim to the back of the alley so he could take his time feeding on him, draining the young vampire of every drop of his blood, savoring the taboo indulgence. He ordered Finn to keep a look ut so he could take his time and not have to worry about nosey interruptions. Fearing that he would be next on his father's grocery list if he didn't comply, Finn obeyed.

He was trying to ignore the sound of the young vampire's struggling when he spotted Kol walking hand-in-hand with a teenage girl. From her soft blond hair to her intense blue eyes, she was the spitting image of their little sister Rebekah and he knew who she was immediately.

He heard Mikael drop the limp body of the dead vampire on the cement behind them.

"Well, well, well," Mikael growled deeply. He closed his eyes, focusing on the presence of the two vampires across the street from them. "Is that Kol," he asked.

Realizing Mikael had sensed Kol and Hope nearby, Finn reluctantly answered, "Yes."

"And who is that with him? She seems...familiar. I can't quite place this feeling..."

"It's Niklaus's daughter," said Finn.

"Ah yes. The bastard's offspring. She's still alive after all this time. Bully for her. Let's go introduce ourselves," Mikael reached down and grabbed the sleeve of the vampire he'd just drained and wiped the blood from his mouth. "Shall we."

Finn couldn't understand why every fiber of his body urged him to stop Mikael from going near Kol or Hope. He didn't care about the girl, she was just Klaus's kid - no more important to him than Marcel was - and he had cursed Kol to death before so he was sure that he didn't care about him either. Yet, still something tugging at his heart made him stand in front of Mikael, blocking his exit from the alley.

"What are you doing?" Mikael growled.

Scrambling for an excuse, Finn said, "Freya told us to stay away from them."

"Freya asked us to stay out of the Quarter. They're in my territory now."

As Mikael pushed his way past Finn, Finn barked, "Was our entire human lives not enough? Haven't you had enough of torturing us? Do you exist solely to make this family miserable?" The words escaped his lips before he could stop them.

Mikael pivoted as if the ground didn't exist beneath him and faced Finn with a fierce scowl.

Finn feigned bravery although every part of him wanted to run and hide. He wished at that moment that he was still a witch. He felt so much more powerful as a witch. As if it was what he was always meant to be.

Remembering his promise to Freya, Mikael calmed himself down and was amazed by his own willpower to keep him from attacking Finn just then.

"I'm just going to say hello to my granddaughter," Mikael smirked. "No need to worry."

Before Finn could try to stop him again, Mikael sped across the busy street to the other sidewalk, stopping just in front of Kol and Hope.

"M-Mikael," Kol stammered in surprise. He wasn't expecting to find Mikael only a block away from Josh's apartment. "Wh-what are you doing here?"

"Funny," Mikael smirked. "You don't seem surprised to see me back."

"Uncle Kol," said Hope as she glared suspiciously at Mikael. She could tell he was a vampire, and she could tell that he was very stronger, but there was something else about him that seemed strange to her. "Who is this?"

Before Kol could think of an answer for her that wasn't 'this is your psychopath grandpa', Mikael stated, "The child doesn't know it's rude to interrupt when adults are speaking? What are you people teaching her."

Frightened of the sinister look in Mikael's eyes, Kol gracefully moved between Hope and Mikael before his father could think to use some of his old teaching methods on his granddaughter.

"Well," Mikael smiled. "It's a good thing her grandpa has come back to life to teach her all the things that bastard failed to."

Chapter Text

Chapter 36

Hayley used the app on her phone to track Hope's, hoping that the girl hadn't turned her phone off in anticipation of her parents tracking it. She was relieved to see the little blue dot on the map of New Orleans moving.

"Looks like she'd headed to Algiers," Hayley announced to the other Mikaelsons standing in the office of the Art Gallery with her.

Freya went stiff at the mention of the area she was hiding their recently resurrected family members but everyone was too focused on where Hope was to notice Freya's reaction.

"What is she doing in Algiers," Klaus growled.

Irritated at Klaus for being the reason Hope ran away, Marcel said, "She probably knows it's the one place you won't go looking for her. You've pretty much avoided the place like a plague since the other vamps moved in."

"She'd be foolish to think that I wouldn't scour this entire dreadful planet for her."

Marcel rolled his eyes. "Just let me go get her. I'm sure she's pissed enough at you already, she doesn't need you chasing her down while she's already upset. Especially not on her birthday."

The reminder that it was Hope's birthday was the push Klaus needed to stay calm. He was furious at the girl for going all the way to Algiers without telling anyone even if she was mad but he was going to grant her this one leniency since it was her birthday and he was the one to spoil it.

"Fine," Klaus relented. "Find her and take her home. I'm sure it's safe to say the party here has ended."

"I'll go with you," Freya said as Marcel turned to leave. "Um...I have to...pick up the final ingredient to the spell I'm going to teach her as her birthday gift. It's in a little shop in Algiers...so I should just tag along with you."

Marcel nodded for Freya to follow him, suspecting nothing of her request.

As they went back out to the party, the rest of the family followed them and Hayley broke the news to the party-goers that they were going to have to, unfortunately, cut the celebration short.

"Do you like the horse," Marcel asked Freya once outside. She was staring straight ahead as they walked to Marcel's car parked on the curb. She was so focused on wondering what Mikael and Finn were doing that she didn't notice the brown and white horse standing on the street next to its handler.

"Oh, yeah," she answered absentmindedly. "It's beautiful,"

"Yeah, it was my idea," Marcel smirked proudly. "Every kid deserves an animal companion. I remember my first horse."

As Marcel went on reminiscing out loud about his first horse, Freya's mind returned to thoughts about Mikael and Finn.

-M-

Kol stood in front of Hope, staring Mikael down while also glancing around for the nearest escape route. He noticed a speck of blood on Mikael's chin. He hadn't noticed it immediately when he first appeared, he was too shocked to notice anything besides his father's unwelcomed return, but now that he saw it he couldn't take his mind off of it. He took a long whiff, trying to place the smell. He knew it. He knew he knew it. But he couldn't remember where from.

Then he remembered that Mikael only drank from vampires and suddenly the source of the smell came to him immediately.

"I see you're back to your old tricks," Kol grunted. "Marcel isn't going to like that you've been feeding on his vampires."

"Marcel," Mikael scoffed. "Are you referring to that abomination Niklaus calls a son?"

"That vampire you just fed on, he had striking green eyes, right? Yeah, that was Zane. One of Marcel's newest baby vamps. He's taken a real liking to this new couple since they're so scarce around here now. He's gonna be devastated to find out that you killed one of 'em. But I'll tell you what. You promise to leave New Orleans and take that fiend, Finn, with you and he'll never have to know. I'll even tell him that I accidentally killed the vamp myself."

Mikael chuckled heavily. "As if I'd be afraid to face that half-blood myself. I'd revel in the opportunity. Too bad his vampire isn't really dead. Perhaps I should go finish off the job just for the hell of it."

"He's not dead," Kol asked surprised.

"Not permanently. I drained him of his blood but he should wake up soon enough. That is, of course, unless Finn decides to kill him. You know how much he despises vampires."

"Uncle Kol," Hope rose her voice once more, tugging angrily at Kol's shirt sleeve. "What's going on? Who is this guy really and what-"

"Shut her up before I do," Mikael barked. "Children have no business contributing to the conversations of adults."

Hope could tell that Mikael was trying to intimidate her but she wasn't the littlest bit afraid of him. And Kol envied her for it. She knew nothing about the impending threat of torture Mikael instilled into his children. She was ignorant of the pain of an actual beating. She was innocent and Kol knew he had to keep her that way.

"Hope," he said giving her a slight push away from him. "Go back to the ferry and wait for me."

"Why? Tell me who he is."

"He's no one, sweetheart. Just an old friend."

"I'm not stupid, Uncle Kol. Why did he say he was my grandpa?"

"I don't know why he would say a thing like that," Kol glared at Mikael. "He must be getting senile in his old age because you'd have to be a father to be a grandfather and he's never been a father to anyone, least of all Niklaus."

"Perhaps," Mikael smirked. "But, as the saying goes, I have turned over a new leaf. Freya has shown me the errors of my ways. I chased Niklaus for a thousand years seeking retribution for him killing my wife but it was my wife who deserved my ire. She made me a fool. Made me call a bastard 'son'. Niklaus had as much of a choice in the circumstances of his birth as I did. However,"

Mikael moved closer to Kol, his body angled towards Hope. Kol tried to push Hope further behind him but the stubborn girl didn't want to stand behind her uncle and miss the action happening in front of her.

"I did love Esther, even in her betrayal. And Niklaus must be punished for taking her away from me. So I should take something he loves."

Kol wasn't sure if Mikael was prepared to make a move for Hope on the crowded streets surrounded by mortals but he definitely was.

Before either of them could make a move, Finn appeared between them. "That's enough," he demanded, staring Mikael down. "We promised we wouldn't bring attention to ourselves."

Mikael growled deeply at Finn's unsolicited reminder.

"Finn," Kol greeted, for the first time ever feeling a sense of relief at seeing his oldest brother. "Nice to see you up and about. Last I saw you you were struggling to expel deadly venom from your veins."

"And last I saw you you were running that impudent mouth of yours," Finn retorted spitefully. "Some things never change I see."

"A bit has changed, I'd say. I've gotten more responsible thanks to the little lass behind me. Speaking of which; would you mind doing us a favor and distracting this psychopath a bit so I can get her out of this situation unscathed?"

"Go," Finn agreed. "If he tries anything I'll stop him."

"Stop me," Mikael burst into a curt laugh. "And how do you plan to do that, boy?" Suddenly, Mikael sped up to Finn and pushed his hand into his chest, gripping his son's heart in his fist. "You're the weakest of them all." Mikael held his body close against Finn so anyone passing by wouldn't see his hand penetrating Finn's chest. He wrapped his other arm around Finn's back so it looked like the two of them were just in the middle of a tight hug instead of a violent encounter.

Kol's first instinct was to help Finn but then he realized that that was his opportunity to get away. He lifted Hope in his arms and vamped into the crowd, disappearing from the scene.

Angry that they'd gotten away, Mikael ripped his fist from Finn's chest with his heart still tightly gripped in his hand. He quickly hid the organ in his jacket and caught Finn's falling body. Needing to get his dead son out of sight of the public before anyone noticed, Mikael sped back across to the alley where Zane's unconscious body still laid.

Dropping Finn on the filthy, hard alley ground, Mikael growled, "You are lucky I've changed or that would've gone far worse for you."

Zane stirring back to life drew his eyes to the end of the alley.

With a heartless smirk, he said, "I guess I'll have to take my anger out on you."

-M-

"She has finally stopped," Freya said to Marcel as she tracked Hope's phone from her own. She read the address of Hope's location out to Marcel and he suddenly hit the breaks. "What the hell, Marcel,"

"Let me see that." Marcel snatched the phone from Freya. He read the address himself to confirm it and said, "That's Josh's place. What is she doing there?"

Freya grew tense again. She knew Mikael had a proclivity for feeding on vampires. She begged him constantly to drink from the blood bags she provided but he refused them all. She feared that he would eventually find where Marcel's remaining vampires were hiding and use them to satiate his bloodlust and she didn't want Hope anywhere near the place when it happened.

"I don't know," Freya answered. "But let's go get her. Klaus would be furious if he knew she was there."

"Yeah," Marcel started driving again. "You're right. But I just don't understand what she's doing there. I've never even taken her to Josh's place for that very reason so how does she even know how to get there?"

Just then Freya's phone began to ring. "It's Kol," she said as she answered the call. "Hello,"

"We've run into a bit of a problem, love. I think your favorite brother might be in a bit of trouble with our dear ol' dad."

"What," Freya and Marcel exclaimed in unison. Marcel decided to listen in on the conversation in hopes that Kol had some answers on why Hope was at Josh's place but he was not expecting what he heard.

"What is he talking about," Marcel asked but Freya decided to focus on one problem at a time.

"What's do you mean he's in trouble," she questioned.

"Hope and I ran into Mikael on the street and he was going to hurt her to get back at Niklaus (like I said he would, by the way) but then Finn interrupted him and allowed us time to escape but I'm afraid that may have only angered Mikael more. I'm only telling you this because I feel like I owe Finn as much for helping me keep Hope safe but that's as much as I plan to do. If you want to save him from the monster that is our father you'll have to do that on your own."

Kol hung up before Freya could try to talk him into helping her find Finn.

"Mikael is alive," Marcel barked. "Finn is alive? How is this possible?"

"It's complicated."

Freya's curt response was answer enough.

"You brought them back to life," Marcel asked although he felt as if he knew the answer already. When Freya remained silent, he knew he was right. "How?"

"It's complicated."

"I'm a lot smarter than I look," Marcel growled. "Try me."

With a sigh, Freya said, "I found a spell that can resurrect supernatural beings and I used it to bring back Mikael and Finn."

Marcel was more shocked by the fact that Freya decided to bring back the worst members of their family than by the news of her finding a new resurrection spell.

"Why would you choose to bring them back. All they've ever tried to do is tear this family apart."

"They are a part of this family too and they deserve a second chance like anyone else."

Marcel's hands tightened around the steering wheel. He bit violently at his bottom lip. He couldn't believe anyone would be so naive to think Finn and Mikael could ever be anything but a burden to their family.

"What gives you the right to decide who can come back to life," he growled.

"How ironic coming from an immortal being who should've been dead two hindered years ago."

"They can't be helped, Freya," he barked. "They've hated and hunted this family for centuries. When I was a boy, the one warning Klaus gave me was to run if I ever heard the name Mikael because he knew that it didn't matter that I was just a kid. To Mikael, all I was was a way to get to Klaus. If he feels the same way about Hope, you have put her in danger along with the rest of us."

Freya shook her head. "My father and brother were manipulated by Esther and twisted into the monsters you knew. They had no more decision in becoming who they were than any other abused person."

"Maybe so but when the abused become the abusers, they must be held accountable for their actions."

"They were! They were killed. More than once. I'd say death is a suitable punishment for any offense."

"Only if the dead stay dead."

"Have you not killed people? Have you not tormented the innocent? What makes you or Klaus or anyone else any better than them?"

Marcel parked the car in front of Josh's apartment building and said, "We know where to draw the line. Anyone who comes after a child forfeits their right to live in my book."

"Well I'm sorry you feel that way," Freya stated coldly. "But they are alive now and I promise that they have changed. Just give them a chance to prove it."

Marcel got out of the car and Freya followed suit. He was confident that Finn and Mikael hadn't changed. People like them didn't change. He knew that from experience.

"Nothing I say matters," he finally spoke as they trekked upstairs to Josh's. "Klaus killed Mikael once, he'll do it again."

"You can't tell Klaus he's alive. I need time to prove that he's changed before Klaus finds out."

"He came after Hope," Marcel replied curtly. "If I had the White Oak stake I'd kill him myself."

"If you tell Klaus I won't be able to bring Davina back."

Marcel stopped at the top of the staircase and looked back down at Freya, a sense of disbelief in his eyes. "You can bring Davina back?"

Freya nodded excitedly, knowing that she had convinced Marcel to stay quiet about Mikael's return the same way she'd done Kol.

"I can," she answered. "All I need is an item she loved or used a lot when she was alive and a few drops of her blood."

"I don't have her blood."

"It could be the blood of a close relative. Her father maybe."

Marcel was silent. In a matter of moments, all the anger he felt towards Freya for bringing Mikael and Finn back was replaced with memories of Davina. She didn't deserve to die. The Mikaelsons took her away from him so it was only fitting that the Mikaelsons brought her back.

"If I could find her father and get you his blood, how long will it take you to bring her back?"

"An hour," Freya answered confidently. "One hour and she'll be yours again. But if you tell Niklaus I brought Mikael back he will destroy every resurrection spell I have and you will never see Davina again."

Marcel's stomach clutched at the thought of keeping something so important a secret from Klaus. He had been the source of so much pain for his father already. The least he could do was tell him the bane of his existence had come back to life.

"You're not lying to Klaus," said Freya noticing the look of contemplation on Marcel's face. "You're just...keeping a secret for me."

"A secret for Mikael," Marcel growled. "How do you think Klaus will feel if he found out I knew Mikael was back all along and didn't tell him. He already barely trusts me."

"He doesn't have to know you knew. I won't tell him. Kol won't tell him."

"I will tell him."

As Marcel turned to continue up the stairs, Freya grabbed his hand, stopping him. "This loyalty you feel towards Klaus, your father, that's what I feel towards Mikael. I know he's done terrible things in the past. I've heard the stories. But...he is my father, Marcel. He loved me once more than anyone else has in a thousand years. I just...have faith that he can change. He just needs someone to love like that again."

Marcel yanked his hand from Freya's hold and growled, "He had six other children he could've loved like that. He chose not to."

As Marcel began up the stairs again, Freya followed slowly behind him. She couldn't understand why everyone hated Mikael so much. She'd heard the stories of her siblings' childhood and she knew that Mikael dedicated a thousand years of his immortal existence to hunting Niklaus down but she refused to believe that the father she remembered could ever be so hateful. She assumed all of their stories were exaggerated. Childhood memories tend to get distorted with the passage of time with normal people. A thousand years could've certainly affected the way her siblings saw Mikael.

Standing in front of the door of Josh's apartment, Marcel twisted the knob to find it unlocked. He felt a slight flutter in his chest, unsure of what he was opening the door to.

Hope stood in the middle of the living room, an impudent pout on her face and her arms tightly crossed over her chest as she stared daggers at Kol who sat at the bar with a glass of whiskey, his back to her as he completely ignored his niece's anger. Josh stood by the window with his phone to his ear and Lora stood beside him, anxiously waiting for him to greet the person on the other end. As soon as the door opened, all eyes fell to Marcel and Freya.

"Marcel," Hope exclaimed, happy to see her brother after spending the past fifteen minutes badgering her Uncle for answers to no avail. "Who is Mikael?"

Without turning around from the bar, Kol yelled to Marcel, "She doesn't need to know."

"Stop saying that," Hope stamp. "He's my grandfather, isn't he. He's my dad's dad."

"Mikael is a sociopath," Marcel answered. "He's not someone you should ever be around so if you see him, run."

"So my grandfather is a sociopath?"

"He's not your grandfather," Kol grunted. "I told you. He's nothing. Just a monster we knew when we were kids and he's still a monster now."

Angry at Kol and Marcel disparaging Mikael to Hope before she had a chance to meet him, Freya walked over to her niece and said, "Mikael is your grandfather,"

"Freya," Kol barked, finally turning around.

"She deserves to know the truth," Freya bit. Giving her attention back to Hope, she calmly said, "He is our father. But...your dad doesn't like him very much so you should avoid him for a while. Just until Klaus says it's okay."

Hope's eyebrow's knitted to the top of her forehead. "But...why doesn't dad like him?"

"Because he's a sociopath," Marcel stated firmly.

"He's not a sociopath," Freya spat. "Or a psychopath or anything else you people call him. He's a victim of betrayal and manipulation by that witch, Esther."

"Say what you will about our mother," Kol stood up and finished off the finger of whiskey in his glass before finishing, "But she loved us more than Mikael ever did."

"Loved us," Freya repeated as if the words with bitter on her tongue. "Loved us? She bartered me away like cattle. Me, her firstborn. A little girl who trusted her more than anything in the world. She gave me away to be used as a siphon of magic for an eternity. What kind of loving mother does that?"

Kol suddenly sped over to Freya and placed his hands on the sides of her face.

Flashback

Four-year-old Kol dragged pieces of wood across the ground from the pile of chopped lumber sitting behind their family's cabin to the tree stump Finn was chopping firewood at. He was too small to pick the large chunk of wood but he was determined to prove to his older brothers that he could do anything they could do. He envied Klaus for being so much stronger than him and carrying the wood cradled in his arms with little effort. Logically, he knew it made sense that his older brother should be stronger than him but he didn't want to be the weakest. Their father didn't respond well to weakness.

As Elijah and Klaus lapped Kol once again, the boy grew frustrated. But then he got an idea. Klaus and Elijah might have been stronger than him, but he was a better witch. He knew a levitation spell that would help him move the logs with far less effort and time.

He knew he wasn't supposed to do magic outside of his mother's supervision and certainly not out in the open but they were behind the cabin and concealed by trees so he hoped no one would see him.

When Elijah, Klaus, and Finn saw the floating log moving through the air as if possessed, they dropped everything.

"Kol, what do you think you're doing," Elijah scolded. "Stop that right now."

Kol snickered and continued levitating the log over to the tree stump. He dropped the log at Finn's feet and turned to lift another one.

"Kol, stop it," Niklaus begged. "You're going to get in trouble. We're not supposed to do magic outside the cabin."

"No one can see me," said Kol. "And no one has to know."

Out of the corner of his eye, Kol spotted movement in the trees across from him. He dropped the log immediately and waited for the source of the movement to reveal itself.

Mikael came trudging through the trees dressed in leather hunting gear with a bow in his hands a scowl on his face. "Was that log just floating," he growled.

No one answered him. Kol's body went cold with fear.

"Answer me," Mikael bellowed. But again no one said anything. "Who was it?" Mikael asked growing angry. Turning his rage to the favored victim of his torment, Mikael barked at Niklaus, "Was you it you?"

"N-no, father, it wasn't me. I swear," Niklaus stammered, his body shaking with terror.

"Then who was it?"

Niklaus looked down to the ground, too afraid to look anywhere else for fear of indicating any of his brothers as the true offender. There was an unspoke rule amongst his siblings: No matter what, don't ever tell their father the truth.

"Tell the truth," Mikael yelled. "It was you, wasn't it?"

"N-no," Niklaus's lip trembled and a tear slipped down his cheek. "I swear it wasn't. I swear-"

"Liar," Mikael suddenly smacked Niklaus down to the ground and began kicking him, yelling, "I've had enough of your lies and deceit, boy! If I have to beat you every day to teach you who is in charge here, I will!"

End Flashback

Freya pulled away from Kol's hands, unwilling to see any more of the violent monster that was their father brutalize Niklaus.

"You missed the best part," Kol grunted, unfazed by the look of shock painted on Freya's face. "Elijah was just about to step in and try to stop it. Then Mikael starts in on him too."

Freya shook her head no. She refused to believe her father could be anything less than the loving man she remembered.

"It's true," Kol insisted. "That's the father we had. That's the man you brought back to this family. If he loved you, congratulations. You were the only person he's ever loved."

"What did you show her?" Hope asked excitedly. "I want to see too."

Ko walked back over to his drink and said, "It's nothing you need to see."

"That's not fair. First, you won't tell me who Mikael is, now you won't show me what you showed her. I'm not a little kid. I can handle the truth."

"I decide what you can handle, love," Kol growled angrily. "And I said 'no'. Now sit down and stop pouting before I give you something to pout about."

Hope stomped heavily over to the couch and flopped down on it, glaring at every adult in the room so they would know just how angry she was.

Noticing Josh and Lora standing by the window making call after call on their phones, Marcel decided to ask, "What are you two doing?"

Josh looked nervously over to Kol and Kol stared back at him, the intense look in his eyes urging Josh to keep quiet.

Marcel noticed their shared looks immediately. "What was that," he asked. "The look. Why did you two just share a look?"

"We didn't share a look," Kol spoke before Josh could. "Now why don't you take Hope and get back across to the Quarter before it gets dark and Klaus starts to worry."

"I'm not a fourteen-year-old girl," Marcel replied calmly. "You can't tell me what to do. Now tell me what that look was about?"

"Don't say a word, Josh," Kol's eyes narrowed as he turned to Josh. "You promised."

A look of panic in his eyes, Josh replied, "He's not answering the phone."

"Who's not answering the phone," Marcel asked. Then, glancing around the room, he noticed that there was one vampire missing. "Where's Zane?"

Kol glared at Josh as if daring him to speak.

"Mikael has him," said Hope.

"HOPE," Kol exclaimed.

"What? You told them not to tell him, not me."

"Mikael has Zane," asked Marcel, interrupting their argument before it gained traction. "And no one was going to tell me?"

"He told us not to," said Lora, waving annoyedly over to Kol.

Marcel looked at Kol expecting him to look even the least bit remorseful but Kol's face had returned to its original nonchalant smolder.

"You weren't going to tell me that Mikael had my guy," Marcel barked.

"For what," Kol scoffed. "So you could go running to your death? You forget. You're only partially immortal. Mikael would kill you without thinking twice about it just like he did your little friend."

"He's dead?" The sound of Marcel, Josh, and Lora all blurting out the same question at the same time made Kol chuckle.

"If he's not answering the phone either he's dead or Mikael still has him and is using him as an endlessly replenishing food source. Either way, there's nothing you can do to save him now."

Marcel's first instinct was to go out and find Mikael and Zane on his own but then he remembered Klaus and his reaction the last time Marcel ran off to a dangerous situation to find his friends. He never wanted to relive that moment again.

"We have to tell Klaus," he suggested.

"Klaus wouldn't care about saving Zane," said Josh.

"He will if I asked him to. He'd do anything for me."

"We can't tell Klaus," Freya finally spoke again. "You know what he'll do if he found out about Mikael."

"I don't care! I have to get Zane back!"

"You would choose Zane over Davina?"

The vein visible on Marcel's forehead began to throb with rage. As much as he cared for Zane, his family was the reason Davina was dead and he owed it to her to bring her back.

"Fine," he grunted. "Then I'll go get him myself."

As Marcel turned to leave the apartment, Kol sped in front of him, blocking his path to the door.

"This is exactly why I didn't want them to tell you," he growled. "Mikael is an Original. Arguably the most ruthless of us. He would kill you without thinking twice about it and Nikalus would kill me for letting it happen to you."

"We have to do something! I can't just let him keep him without at least trying to save him."

"I'll go." Everyone looked to Freya, surprised by her decision to go save a man she didn't care about. "Mikael won't hurt me. I'll go get your guy and bring him back here and then everyone here has to promise not to tell anyone about Mikael being back."

Marcel thought about her proposal for a few seconds but then agreed, knowing that he didn't have much in the option of choices. It was either Freya got him back or Klaus and with Freya going there was a higher chance of her actually bringing Zane back alive.

"Fine," Marcel said. "Bring him back alive and I won't tell Klaus about your little secret."

Freya's lip turned up in a little snarl, annoyed that Marcel was threatening her with Klaus, but she left to find Mikael still. She had an idea of where he was hiding.

Just as Freya left the apartment, Marcel's phone began to ring.

"Dammit," he growled at seeing Klaus's name across the screen. "It's Klaus. Damn." He hesitated to answer the phone but he knew that if he didn't answer Klaus would just call back or, worse, he would come to Algiers looking for them and run into Mikael. Taking a deep breath, he answered the phone, "Hey, Klaus, I was just about to call you. We found Hope, she's safe. She was with Kol."

"Good," Klaus sighed. Then in a low voice, he muttered, "Is she still angry with me?"

Marcel looked over to Hope who still sat with a pout on her face, evidently angry at everyone, and said, "She's a teenager, Klaus. They're mad at everyone."

"You were never an angry teenager. Maybe I'm doing everything wrong this time. What if she grows up to resent me more than you did."

Marcel marched out of the apartment to grant them some privacy and as the door closed behind him, he said, "You aren't doing anything wrong, Klaus. You didn't do anything wrong with me. You were a great dad and that's a hell of a statement considering who your father was."

Klaus was silent on the line for a while, then he finally said, "If she grows up to be half the person you are, Marcellus, then I've done a good job." Then with a heavy, reluctant sigh, he said, "Let her do whatever she has to do to quell her anger, just have her back home by midnight."

"Hey, Klaus, look, I would love to hang out with Hope right now but...something's come up and I kinda need her to...not be here right now."

"What's come up that's more important than spending time with your little sister on her birthday?"

Marcel's lips tightened. This was the moment a lie would just naturally roll from his tongue but he could not open his mouth to even form the words.

"Marcel," Klaus stated agitated. "What's going on?"

"Nothing, it just...I think I've found a way to revive Davina."

Klaus's silence spoke volumes. "Really," he muttered. "How?"

"I...I can't tell you yet. I'm still figuring this out myself but I don't want to jinx it. I'll explain everything to you later."

"Okay," Klaus agreed. "I can't say that I am Davina's biggest fan, nor is she mine, but you love her, as does my brother, so in the name of our new arrangement, I wish you the best in your efforts. You do whatever you have to do to bring her back. And if you need anything, Marcellus, come to me. I will do anything in my power to help you. Tell Kol to stay with Hope. He took her to Algiers, he can bring her back home."

"Alright," Marcel smirked. "I'll see you later."

As he hung up the phone, he went back to the door and twisted the knob. The door smacked heavily against the solid surface behind it and Josh let out a loud scream, grabbing his nose to stop the sudden flow of blood. Marcel was furious at seeing the four vampires in the room all gathered around the door, obviously eavesdropping on his conversation with Klaus.

"Seriously," he growled at Kol. "You're better than this."

Kol ignored Marcel's teasing and said, "I can't believe you of all people, actually lied to Klaus."

"He didn't ask about Freya or Mikael so I didn't volunteer the information. It's not lying if he didn't ask."

"Your life slogan, I'm sure."

Marcel smirked as he said, "I'll be back. Stay here and keep an eye on Hope for me."

Hope wanted to object to the idea that she needed to be 'kept an eye on' but before she could open her mouth, Kol asked, "And where are you going?"

"I'm going to follow Freya. She might need some help getting Zane from Mikael."

"If anyone can handle Mikael is Freya," Kol objected. "She might be the only one, in fact. So you should stay here with the rest of us and wait for her to come back."

"I'm going," Marcel stated calmly. "If you're that afraid that he's going to do something to me, come with me. But I am going."

"I'm going too," said Josh.

"Me too," Lora added.

"I wanna go too," Hope said as she jumped up from her seat.

"No," Marcel and Kol replied together.

"You all stay here," Marcel stated. "We already have one rescue mission. We're not going to put anyone else in danger."

"Except yourself, apparently," Kol grunted.

"I'm a two-hundred-year-old vampire," Marcel scoffed. "I've earned the right to decide when I can put myself in danger a long time ago."

"Is that so? Well, perhaps we should call Klaus and ask his opinion on you voluntarily going to face utter doom."

"Do what you want," said Marcel walking out the door. "But Freya's getting away so I'm going to follow her before she gets too far. Let me know what Klaus says when I get back."

Marcel sped down the hallway before Kol could object anymore. He knew that Kol wasn't going to tell Klaus anything or else risk getting himself and Freya in trouble with their brothers too, not to mention exposing Freya's secret about Mikael and Finn. Kol slammed his hand against the counter, angry at Marcel for putting him in a predicament where he had only one choice.

"Watch my niece," Kol told Josh as he threw back one last finger of whiskey. "I have to go make sure my old friend lives through the night."

-M-

Freya caught a taxi to the secret apartment she was keeping Mikael and Finn in. She wasn't sure what to expect when she walked through the door. Maybe Mikael sucking the life from Zane. Maybe Zane's dead body sprawled out across the floor. She was almost too afraid to open the door but she took a deep breath and opened it.

Finn sat anxiously in the arm chair facing the door. His leg bounced incessantly and he dug nervously into the leather upholstery with his fingers nails. But as soon as Freya opened the door, all of his worries disappeared at once.

"Freya," he breathed her name like it had the power to erase all his woes. He stood and hurried over to her, taking her in his arms and squeezing her like he was seeing her for the first time all over again. "You shouldn't be here," he mumbled into her ear as he continued to hold her tight, not actually wanting her to go but knowing deep down that she should.

Freya was not blind to her brother's distress. She wrapped her arms around him and stroked gentle circles across his back. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Just as Finn was about to answer her, a scream came from the back of the apartment.

"Mikael's back to his old self," Finn muttered, finally breaking the hug with his sister so he could edge her towards the door. "You should go. You don't need to see him like this."

"Wait, is he back there with Marcel's vampire?"

"Not for long," Finn listened intently into the other room and heard the vampire's limp body fall to the floor. "I think he just finished with him."

"No," Freya screamed. She ran past Finn and into the back bedroom.

Mikael stood hovering over Zane's lifeless body with blood covering his face and a bloody heart in his hands. His eyes were black with heartless desire.

Freya's stomach turned at the sight of Zane. Not just because he was dead, but because of the state his body was in at the time of his death. There were wide, jagged gashes across his face and arms. His legs and arms were bent in all directions, broken. His fingernails were broken down to the root and his left ear was hanging on by a sliver of loose flesh. It was clear that just prior to his death, Mikael had taken his time torturing Zane until the man begged for the sweet relief of death.

"Freya," Mikael said her name as if he didn't have the dead body of a tortured young vampire lying at his feet. "You're back. How was the party?"

Freya fell to her knees in front of Zane, pushing her hands over the hole in his back as if that would somehow stop the bleeding and help the boy when he was so obviously dead.

"He's gone," Mikael stated. "Don't waste your time sobbing over the wretched."

"I was too late," she said to herself. "I couldn't save him."

"He was an abomination, sweetheart. He wasn't meant to live longer than it takes to feed an Original anyway. He should be grateful for the time he did spend on this Earth."

"You don't understand," Freya jumped to her feet. "I was supposed to bring him back alive or Marcel is going to tell Klaus that you two are back."

"Am I supposed to be afraid of the bastard, Niklaus?"

"You should! He has the White Oak stake and he's killed you twice before, he won't hesitate to do it a third."

A commotion in the living room ended Freya's scolding Mikael. She moved swiftly, yet cautiously into the living room, afraid of who she might find there.

She was shocked to see Finn with his hand clutching the collar of Marcel's shirt and pinning the young vampire against the wall. Kol stood leaning against the doorway, evidently unconcerned with the scene. He was keeping an eye on Finn just in case his brother tried to pull a fast one on Marcel but at the moment he felt that pinned against the wall was the best place for Marcel. He could smell the death in the apartment just as well as Marcel so he knew what they were walking in to and he didn't want Marcel to see it.

"Let me go," Marcel screamed at Finn with tears burning the back of his eyes. He could smell Zane's blood flowing heavily somewhere in the apartment. He wasn't naive to not know what that meant but he held out hope that he was wrong.

He swung at Finn's jaw but the older vampire gave a swift duck and he missed.

"What are you doing here," Freya asked.

"We followed you," Marcel barked. "He's here, isn't he? I can smell him! Bring him out! Let him go!"

Freya's hands began to tremble nervously. "Marcel...I...I'm so sorry."

Marcel knew what those words meant but he wouldn't believe them. Even as the tears that burned his eyes made their way down his cheeks, he refused to believe it.

"Mikael!" he screamed. "Come out here, you coward! Bring him to me! Give him back to me!"

As if on cue, Mikael came out of the room carrying Zane's dead body in one hand and his heart in the other.

Marcel refused to believe Zane was dead until Mikael dropped his body on the floor and tossed his heart across the room, landing at Marcel's feet.

"He was tasty," Mikael taunted. "A bit of a fighter. But the fear is what really brings out the flavor."

Finn released Marcel so he could say a proper goodbye to his friend. Marcel walked slowly over to Zane's body and fell to his knees. He against the sobs that threatened to break through his chest.

Kol saw the moment Marcel decided to attack Mikael from the sudden glint in his eyes. As soon as Marcel made his move, Kol vamped across the room and slammed Marcel against a wall.

"No," Marcel screamed.

"You can't beat him, mate," Kol said drearily. "It's over."

Staring Mikael down, Marcel vowed, "It won't be over until he's dead for good."

"Such a foolish boy," Mikael tutted. "I suppose that's what happens when you're raised by a bastard. But I know exactly how to fix insubordination."

Before Mikael could take a step towards Marcel and Kol, Freya moved in front of him.

"Let them go," she stated firmly but in her eyes lied a soft pleading. "You've had your fill. Our family is off-limits, remember."

Freya's pleading eyes were enough to warm Mikael's heart. "Fine," he agreed. The turning to Kol, he said, "Get him out of here. And take this putrid body with you. It's beginning to smell."

Kol slowly released Marcel, keeping a steady eye on him to make sure his brother's stubborn son wasn't going to do anything stupid as he picked up Zane's body.

"No," Marcel said calmly. He held his arms out to Kol and said, "Give him to me."

Kol handed the young vampire's limp body over to his sire and watched as Marcel woefully marched out of the apartment without looking back at anyone.

"This is what he does," Kol muttered to Freya as he walked by. "This is our father. Congratulations on bringing him back. You really did us all a favor."

Chapter Text

Chapter 37

Flashback:

Mikael laid in a meadow of tall grass with his two children lying on his stomach. Finn had fallen asleep having tired himself out chasing his father and Freya around the meadow but with every passing blink, Freya fought the urge to go to sleep. She enjoyed basking in the warmth of the sun, spending as much time with her father before Mikael had to leave for battle.

Freya hated it when her father left. Their mother was always busy with something or the other and she never had time for them but Mikael made time for them. Even if it meant staying up late and listening to his children prattle on about nonsense, he would stay up just to listen to them no matter how tired it would make him in the morning.

"Poppa," Freya muttered, looking up to her father with droopy, tired eyes. "Do you have to go?"

Mikael reached down to Freya's head, gently placing his hand on top of her soft hair. "I must, my little Freya. Someone must protect this land for you and your brother and your mother."

"Let the others p'tect the land. You stay here with us."

Mikael chuckled. "I would that I could, little one. But I don't trust anyone to protect this family but me. I'll fight all of Valhalla for you, Freya."

She snuggled closer to her father's leather vest. "I don' want you to go. I miss you when you gone."

"And I miss you every moment that I'm gone," Mikael swore. "But, when I get back, perhaps your mother would've taught you now spells and you can wow me with your fantastic magic."

Excited by her father's desire to see her magic, Freya sat up and looked around the meadow until she spotted a butterfly sitting on top of a lone purple flower. She closed her eyes and focused her power on the butterfly until it magically split into two butterflies and they flew away, their identical wings glimmering under the sun.

Mikael was amazed by the sight. He knew that his daughter was powerful, Esther never ceased to remind him that the firstborns of her bloodline held inexplicable power, but he was always so surprised whenever he saw Freya's magic.

"You, Freya, are going to grow up to be the most powerful witch in all the land. And I am going to be the proudest father who ever lived."

End Flashback

Freya stood with her back to Mikael, unable to look at the man after what she saw of Zane's remains. Finn stood by the door unsure of how to proceed. It was obvious that Freya was upset, but so was Mikael.

"Detach yourself from your feelings, Freya," Mikael said. "He was just some lowly, pathetic wretch. He didn't mean anything to anyone."

"He meant something to Marcel," she muttered, remembering the look on Marcel's face when he saw Zane. "Marcel made me promise to bring him back alive or he would go to Niklaus."

"Marcel," Mikael spat. "You all keep saying his name like it's supposed to mean something. He's just another vampire, just like the boy I killed. He means nothing either. They all have to die eventually."

"I have to die one day too," Freya spun around to face Mikael, anger painted on her face. "Does that mean someone should just kill me now too?"

"I won't ever let anyone take you from me again," Mikael growled. He placed his hand on the side of her cheek, caressing it with the pad of his thumb. "Never again."

As she stared at her father's familiar face, tears broke from Freya's eyes. She leaned into his touch as if it were the first kind touch she felt in a thousand years.

Knowing that he could no longer stay in New Orleans, Freya pulled away from Mikael and said, "Marcel is going to tell Niklaus and...Niklaus is going to come after you and he won't stop until you are dead. So you have to leave."

"Let him come. I won't give him the chance to kill me a third time."

"No. I can't let that happen. As much as I love you, father...Niklaus is my brother and I swore to protect him. Even from you."

Mikael smirked. "Not to worry, my child. I won't try to kill him unless he comes at me with intent."

"No, father," Freya stated, her lips tense from the fight to keep herself from crying. "I can't let you get that chance. You are a threat to this family and Niklaus will come after you because of that and so it's best if you're not in the city once he finds out you're back."

"Wait. Are you asking me to leave? Did you bring me back to this life just to cast me away?"

"I don't want to, father," Tears brimmed Freya's eyes but her face remained firm. "But you've proven that you can't be trusted with this family and my duty is to them first."

"You would choose them over me," Mikael barked.

"I am their eldest sister."

"And I am your father!"

"And that is why I am asking you to leave! I don't want to see you die again but I know Niklaus is going to come for you...and if I'm forced to choose between you...I will choose him. Always."

Fueled by anger and betrayal, Mikael suddenly grasped her shoulders between his tense hands, glaring heatedly down at her. Finn stood at attention, preparing to attack Mikael.

"Hurt her and I'll kill you myself," Finn barked.

Freya stared up into her father's cold, fearsome eyes but she said nothing. Waiting for him to act.

Staring down at his daughter, the look of uncertain fear in her eyes, Mikael was suddenly reminded of her frailty. He released her, an unexpected uncertainty suddenly filling him.

He sped out of the apartment without looking back, leaving Freya staring blankly ahead.

Finn sighed as he sensed Mikael's presence fade away. "It will be a long time before I can forgive you for resurrecting that monster, sister."

"It'll be a long time before I can forgive myself."

Finn spun around to Freya, surprised by her sudden change of heart. "You're finally beginning to regret bringing him back? What brought about this change?"

"That boy," Freya shook her head. "He tortured that boy so...mercilessly that his body didn't even have time to heal itself before he died. And he came after Hope...and Kol...and Marcel. If he would've done that to any of them...I don't know what I would've done. The Mikael that I loved would've never been so cruel." Freya turned sternly to Finn and stated, "If you're going to stay here, brother, I only have one rule. Follow it and I will stand with you even against Klaus no matter what he throws at us. But you can never, ever, do anything to hurt a single member of this family. Not Kol, or Marcel, and especially not Hope. Never again."

Finn sighed and stared at the open door where Mikael disappeared. "If I have to choose to a forced reconciliation with my repugnant siblings, an eternity alone, or one on the run with...Mikael...then I guess I choose to learn to love my siblings."

He turned to Freya with a smirk, finally able to smile now that Mikael was gone, but it quickly faded when he saw the tears in Freya's eyes.

"What's wrong," he asked coming quickly to her side, checking her shoulders for bruises Mikael might have left behind. "Did he hurt you?"

Freya reached up to her cheeks, surprised by the wetness. She hadn't realized she was crying.

"I'm fine," she mumbled. "I'm just a little overwhelmed. Dahlia was awful, y'know. I spent every moment of my life trying to escape her. She gave me such low expectations for what a decent parent looked like that I actually thought, with all I knew about how he treated you all throughout your childhood, that he would be better. My Mikael wasn't so cruel."

Finn wrapped his arms around Freya, holding her as a few more tears forced their way out though she tried hard to keep them in.

Pushing herself away from her brother, Freya said, "Stay here. I'll call you tonight. Don't leave before then."

"Where are you going?"

Freya glanced around at the bloody splatter on the floor where Zane's body once was. "To see if I can find a way to make this up to Marcel. We might not be friends but...he is family."

-M-

Marcel carried Zane's body out to his car and laid him comfortably in the back seat. He wasn't bothered for a moment by the curious eyes that followed the man carrying the dead body so Kol had to compensate for his nonchalance by catching each passerby who saw Marcel and Zane and compelling them to forget what they saw. When Marcel got in the car, he sat in the passenger seat, a signal to Kol about just how upset he was because Marcel never declined an opportunity to drive himself.

After compelling the last onlooker, Kol slid into the driver's seat and sat quietly for a moment, waiting for a declaration of anger from Marcel. When none came, he released a heavy sigh and started driving.

"I know you're angry," Kol finally spoke after riding in silence for a few blocks. "I would be too if I were in your shoes. Hell, I have been in your shoes. Between Niklaus's jealous rage and Mikael doing whatever it takes to hunt us down, I have lost more friends than anyone ever should. But that's just the way it is and if you're going to be a part of this family, you've got to learn that. The Mikaelsons are the only people that get to last forever."

Marcel clenched his jaw but said nothing as Kol babbled on.

"But I did save your life back there, didn't I. Mikael would've torn you to shreds. So I guess that means you owe me one. Not a big one. Just...a little favor. I know you promised Freya that you would tell Klaus that Mikael was back if you didn't get your vampire friend back alive but...Davina is more important. Just let this one go, mate. He's just one vampire. You got over the last two quick enough."

Marcel remained silent. His stoic mug giving telling little of his true feelings.

Kol rode in silence the rest of the way to Josh's loft. When they parked outside of it, he said, "Wait here. I'll send Josh and the other one back down and then you three can dispose of the body. Hope doesn't need to see this."

Kol left Marcel still silent in the car. He went upstairs as promised and told Josh that Marcel as waiting for them in the car. When Josh asked about Zane, Kol simply said that he needed to talk to Marcel. He didn't want Hope to even know someone had died. It was bad enough she met the bane of their family's existence.

"Is Marcel alright?" Josh decided to ask, trying to buy time before he had to go out and face what he was sure was horrible news.

"He'll survive," Kol muttered. "He'll be better when we find Davina's father."

"Her father? What do you need that scumbag for?"

"He's the key to bringing her back to life. We just need a few drops of blood from Davina's birth father and we'll have her back."

"Wait, so is that what he wants with me," Josh asked, becoming slightly relieved. "He wants me to go with him to Florida to pick up Davina's dad?"

Kol's eyes bucked. "You know where he is?"

Realizing by Kol's shocked response that that couldn't have been what Marcel wanted, Josh muttered, "Yeah. So do Marcel. We found him a few years ago. And I'm guessing that not why Marcel wants us to come downstairs. Just...tell me...is it good news or bad?"

The disheartening look on Kol's face answered for him.

Nervous about whatever Marcel had to say to about Zane, Josh and Lora went downstairs but to their surprise, Marcel's car was nowhere to be found. They searched the entire block but found nothing.

"What do you mean, he's not outside," Kol asked when the two vampires came back and told him what they found.

"If we knew, would we still be here?" Lora bit.

Josh's text alert suddenly rang and he fished his phone out of his pocket. "I got a text from Marcel," he exclaimed as he unlocked his phone and began to read the message aloud. "Compel your neighbor to let you stay there tonight. Right now. Do not leave the apartment."

Josh and Lora locked eyes, unsure of what to make of Marcel's mysterious text. Josh quickly texted back: What's going on? Where are you?

They all waited in silence for a few minutes but Marcel never replied.

"What the hell," Lora exclaimed. "What's he doing?"

"Seems like he's being very prudent to me," said Kol. "Mikael's still on the loose. You two are safer in an apartment vampires can't get in.

"But Zane's still out there," Lora said. "I'm not just going to hide out somewhere while he's in danger."

"You are quite the little pest," Kol smirked. "And I don't have time for it. I have to get my niece back to her birthday party." Before Lora could blink, Kol was standing directly in front of her, gazing into her eyes. "Go to the nearest neighbor, compel them to let you inside, and stay there until Marcel tells you otherwise."

Lora tried to fight the compulsion as her feet forced her out the door and down the hall.

"Are you going to compel me next," Josh grunted.

"I was hoping I didn't have to," Kol growled. "I thought my friend was smart enough to know what's best for him without me having to force him."

"I can't just leave Zane out there. Not when Mikael's-"

"Zane's gone, mate," Kol blurted out. "Mikael got to him before we could get there. It's too late."

Josh's face fell. Kol's heart softened at the sight of his friend's pain. He pulled Josh into a hug and held him Josh struggled to keep back the tears.

"It's gonna be alright, mate," he said as he ended the hug with a firm pat to Josh's shoulder. "Now grab some blood bags and get to your neighbor's. And call me if Marcel shows up."

-M-

Flashback

Marcel heard strange noises coming from the parlor as he made his way to the kitchen for a glass of water. It was after midnight so he was sure his family was asleep and that only frightened him more though he hid his fear behind a gauze of bravery. He was 17, too old, in his opinion, to be afraid of monsters lurking in the dark.

He peeked through the cracked parlor door to see his father standing above a stranger, a sharp wooden stake in his hand. Elijah stood behind the stranger with his hand on the man's head, forcing him to look up to Niklaus.

"You were foolish enough to think that you could break into my home," Niklaus growled deeply, the rage in his eyes hotter than Marcel had never witnessed. "And kill me, Niklaus Mikaelson? Simply asking me to kill you would have saved you time."

"Vampires are an abomination," the man yelled. "I anticipated this to be a fruitless endeavor but if I had to chance dying to kill Klaus Mikaelson then I am willing to take that chance for the sake of humanity."

"Too bad you failed at killing me," Klaus scoffed. "But not to worry. I'll still help you to die so at least you will have succeeded in something."

Before the man could retort, Klaus wrapped his hand around his jugular and ripped his throat out.

Marcel gasped, shocked by his father's unexpected display of violence.

Klaus heard the small sound come from the other side of the door. He peered through the crack with his heightened sight to see Marcel standing in the hall, his eyes wide and mouth wide open as he stared at his father in disbelief.

"Marcel," Klaus whispered his name, all of his rage vanquished. He couldn't believe it. He was so enraged by the attempted assassin that he didn't consider checking the hall for his curious son before committing an act of murder in front of him.

He hurried to the door, completely unsure of how to handle the situation.

"Marcellus, you should be in bed," Klaus cooed as he stepped outside, closing the door behind him as if no longer seeing the body would somehow help Marcel forget what he saw.

"I...I heard talking and I grew curious," Marcel answered. "Is that man dead? Or...will he come back...like you?"

Klaus clenched his teeth. He had never told Marcel how a vampire was made but obviously, someone had and he had an idea of who it was.

"That's not something you should have to worry about, Marcellus." Klaus tenderly gripped Marcel's shoulder and said, "Let me help you forget it. It'll help you sleep better."

As Klaus began to gaze into Marcel's eyes, Marcel muttered, "You promised you would never Compel me, poppa."

"Unless it was for your own good," Klaus corrected.

"I won't become afraid of you just because I've seen you kill someone, poppa." Marcel's announcement took Klaus off guard. "That's what you're afraid of, isn't it," Marcel continued. "Well, I won't be. I've seen Kol kill people dozens of times and I'm not afraid of him. Kol says humans are most useful as founts for our family and only the ones that we like are worth letting live."

Klaus stepped back, shocked. He couldn't believe it. He had daggered Kol for six years to keep him from hurting Marcel but apparently, that did nothing to change his brother's behavior.

"Marcel," Klaus spoke softly, afraid of the answer to his question. "Has Kol fed from you?"

Afraid of getting his friend in trouble, Marcel quickly answered, "No, poppa. Kol says I'm different than normal people because I'm going to become like you someday."

"You will not become like me, Marcellus," said Klaus firmly. Klaus knew that Marcel adored him. In all the time he's been in with family all his son had ever wanted to be was like Klaus, but Klaus knew that he was no one to be admired. "You will be kind, and loving, and gentle. All things that I am not."

"You are those things, poppa. And more. You are powerful. And wise. And no one can stand in your way. I am going to be just like you, poppa. I will wait until you think I am ready, whether it's a year from now or 10 years, I don't care. But I will turn, poppa. And then I'll be a real Mikaelson because I will be connected to you by blood."

"Marcellus," Klaus brought his hand up to Marcel's soft cheek. "My little warrior. You will always be a Mikaelson, it doesn't matter whether my blood runs through your veins or...the Governor's."

Marcel hung his head at the mention of his birth father.

"It's not the same," he muttered. Tears pooled at the sides of his eyes. "I hate him, poppa. I just wanna be your son. I don't want anything to connect me to him ever again."

Klaus pulled his tearful son into his arms, hugging him tight as Marcel released a heartfelt sob.

"I know it hurts, Marcellus. The man who was supposed to protect you caused you more pain than anyone else in your life ever could. And you think that if you could somehow separate yourself from him and be as unlike him as you can...it'll make everything better. But it won't, Marcellus. Eventually, you're going to have to confront it."

Marcel shook his head fervently. He didn't want to confront his feelings about the governor. He knew what he felt about him: hate and anger.

"Please, poppa. I only want to be like you. It's all I've ever wanted. I don't care if I have to kill people or if I have to drink blood. I just wanna be a Mikaelson forever. Please,"

Klaus squeezed Marcel as if he was afraid that if he loosened his hold for even a second he would lose him. He spent so many years trying to keep Marcel pure but somewhere along the way he failed. Marcel was just as infected with the Mikaelson Bloodlust as any of them. He knew he could have compelled it out of him but that wasn't the same as taking away a bad memory. If he forced him to forget all the atrocities he witnessed his family commit, he would essentially change who Marcel was and he loved his son just the way he was.

Klaus placed a soft kiss at the top of Marcel's head and mumbled, "I'll do it."

Marcel was stunned still. He had been begging his father to change him for years but Niklaus rejected his request every time. He didn't really think Klaus would ever agree to let him turn. Now that Klaus had finally caved, Marcel wasn't sure how to respond.

"When I think you're ready," Klaus added. "I will turn you. And not a moment sooner."

Pulling away from Klaus's hug so that he could look him in the eyes, Marcel asked, "When will I be ready?"

"When I say you are."

"But when will that be?"

"Marcellus," Klaus asserted warningly.

"I'm only asking because I think I'm ready now. What do I have to do to prove it?"

"There's nothing you can do to prove to me you're ready to die, Marcel," Klaus bit heatedly. "This is not the same as proving you're responsible enough for a new horse. This is me having to make the choice to kill my son or not."

"But not really. I've seen Kol do it before. It only hurts for a second and then I'll wake up and I'll be like you."

Klaus was furious to find out that Kol had been turning people in front of Marcel again but he was more worried about how cavalierly Marcel was treating death. Vampirism was death. The two were equal in Klaus's opinion. Vampirism was technically living but doing so in constant suffering and that's why he used it as a punishment for his enemies but now Marcel had grown to idolize the very ailment that people begged Klaus to spare them from because he had witnessed firsthand through the love of his family the happiness and security that could be attained by becoming a vampire and he wanted it more than anything. So Klaus had made up his mind that he was going to keep his promise to Marcel and turn him but not until Marcel was much older and had experienced the joys of being a husband, a father, a grandfather, all the things that he never could, and when his son was finally on his deathbed he would turn him so that he could spend eternity with his family.

He wrapped his hand carefully around the back of Marcel's neck and said firmly, "Until you have a child of your own, you will never know the absolute revulsion that encompasses your being at the very thought of taking that person's life with your own hands."

When Marcel heard the soft tremble in Klaus's voice as he spoke, he knew the real problem. "So...it's not about me not being ready. It's about you not being ready to have to take my life."

"I will never be ready for that, Marcellus. But I promise you still, when the time is right, I will turn you."

"If you're not ready, poppa, that's fine. Kol said that he would-"

Klaus gripped the back of Marcel's neck tighter, pinching him as he said, "If you and Kol attempt to turn you before I decide you're ready, I will lace both of your behinds with enough licks to warm you through the night for a week. Is that understood?"

"But, poppa-"

"I mean it, Marcel! You may think being like me makes you immune to pain but, au contraire, my son. It just means I'll have to work a little harder to make it hurt worse." Realizing that he was becoming angry, a state that he hated Marcel to see him in, Klaus released Marcel and said, "I think it's time for you to go back to bed. Good night, son."

"I wanted a glass of water," Marcel muttered irritably, realizing that now wasn't the right time to talk to Klaus about turning.

"I will bring you up a glass before I turn in for the night," Klaus said calmer. "Now, go."

Marcel marched away with a pout on his face at being sent to bed like a child.

As soon as Elijah heard Marcel's footsteps disappear, he opened the Parlor door. "I don't mean to eavesdrop, brother," he said. "But it sounded to me like your conversation with Marcellus may have brought up some...deeply buried memories. Would you like to talk about it?"

Klaus smirked knowingly. Elijah was always trying to get him to talk about how their father's abuse made him 'feel' but Klaus hated the very notion that bringing forth his darkest memories could lead to anything but more pain and resentment - the very opposite of what he had taught Marcel.

"Not tonight, Elijah," Klaus sighed as he began walking down the hall towards the kitchen. "I promised my son a glass of water. Mustn't keep him waiting."

End Flashback

At the ring of his text alert, Niklaus quickly shuffled to unlock his phone. He was standing in his studio with Elijah, Rebekah, Hayley, and Kol and all of them had a glint of hope in their eyes when they heard the message. Marcel wasn't answering his calls or Rebekah's. With the sudden arrival and disappearance of those unknown vampires from Klaus's sireline, Klaus began to fear the worst and then finding out from Kol that a vampire was found dead in Algiers mere minutes before Marcel went missing did little to ease his anxieties.

"I'm fine," Niklaus read out loud. "That's it. 'I'm fine'."

"We can't even be sure that's him," Rebekah worried. She didn't believe Marcel would send such a curt response. They were worth more than an 'I'm fine'. "Surely our enemies would text back if they had taken him for whatever reason to keep us from finding him. Try tracking his phone like you did Hope's."

Grateful for his sister's quick thinking, Klaus opened the app to track Marcel's phone but there was no little blue dot on the map like they had hoped.

"There's nothing," Klaus exclaimed. "They must've turned it off to keep us from tracking him."

"We'll get Freya to do a tracking spell," Rebekah stated.

"Oh, he's not kidnapped, you dolts," Kol shouted, growing annoyed at all of the fretting going on over Marcel. "He took the car with his dead vampire's body in it. Obviously, he's going somewhere to bury the lad and he'll come back home when he's ready."

"Are you sure about that, Kol?" asked Elijah.

"Positive." Realizing that he would need some sort of explanation as to why he was so certain Marcel was fine, Kol quickly said, "He called Josh a while after he left and told him about that vampire dying and gave him a secret time and place to meet him to have their little burial."

It never ceased to shock Kol how quickly he was able to lie to his brothers and with such confidence.

Niklaus stared Kol down attempting to find any sign of deception but Kol showed none but he often looked innocent when he wasn't. Still, Niklaus considered all the times he thought his brother was deceiving him and he turned out to be wrong.

"See brother," Elijah insisted to Niklaus. "Marcel is fine. He probably just wanted to bury his friend alone because he knew how you felt about his vampires."

Niklaus tightly clenched his jaw and said, "He has one hour to call me or I'll have every wolf combing the stretch of the city to find him."

"My wolves are not bloodhounds, Klaus," Hayley rolled her eyes on her way out the door. "Marcel's a big boy. He'll be home when he's home. I'm going to take our daughter to the mall to see if shopping will be enough to salvage this birthday."

"Hayley, wait," Rebekah said. "I'll go with you. There's still something out there killing vampires so it'll be better if there are two of us. They can't get through us both."

Hayley and Rebekah left the room and Niklaus began painting, trying to take his mind off Marcel, and Elijah sat down in an armchair and opened the nearest book, knowing that he would have to play sentinel over Niklaus for the rest of the day until Marcel either called or returned.

Kol stood still in his same spot, shocked that everyone had just taken him at his word. There was no second-guessing, no third-degree, no threats of imminent pain. He just told them a story and they believed him. He suddenly felt a knotting in his stomach that he had never felt before. He ran his hand across his stomach thinking that maybe one of their enemies had shot a dart through the window and poisoned him but there was nothing there. The pain was coming from the inside.

He quietly left his brothers and hurried to Freya's workshop where his older sister was.

"Freya, I think I've been hexed," Kol said as soon as he entered the room.

Freya dropped the grimoire she was reading and hurried to his side. She immediately began searching his hands and arms for some mark of hexing but found nothing.

"What does it feel like," she asked.

"Like...someone's stabbing me in the gut."

"You're gonna be okay," she said hurrying over to her workshop table and began setting up the base of a diagnostic spell. "Tell me what you were doing leading up to this feeling."

Kol sat down on the sofa in her room and recanted the past few minutes to her. "And everyone just...believed me. I lied to them but they just took me at my word and went about their day. And that's when the pain started."

Freya stopped what she was doing and looked back at Kol. He was now lying down on the sofa, his knees tucked between his arms and his face buried between the couch cushions.

"You're not hexed," she sighed. "You feel guilty for lying to everyone the one time they decided to believe you."

"This is what guilt feels like," Kol groaned. "It must be terrible being a normal person."

Freya walked over to Kol and sat beside him. She gently stroked his arm as he continued to groan in pain. "I'm sorry I dragged you into this," she said. "You were right all along. I shouldn't have brought Mikael back. If it'll ease your conscience, you can tell everyone the truth as soon as we bring Davina back."

"How? We don't even know who he is. All I know is that he's in Florida and surely Marcel will be back before I can get all the way to Florida and back."

"It's worth a shot," Freya said standing up and walking over to the grimoire she dropped. "I think I found a spell that traces family lineage. All I need is a possession of Davina's to start it."

All of Kol's guilty pain diminished immediately. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the giant paragon diamond he had been carrying around to use as the item of value to bring Davina back. "I gave her this when we first met."

"It'll do."

When Hayley and Rebekah proposed going to the mall to Hope, she agreed but only on the condition that she could bring Sebastian too. She knew that if she was just with her mom and Aunt they would try to force her to engage with them but all she wanted to do was sulk in silence about Klaus embarrassing her at her party and trying to force her to stop talking to Izzy and Marcel's mysterious disappearance. If Sebastian was with them then she could go off with him and they wouldn't try to butt into their conversations even though she was planning to be just as silently brooding with Sebastian. But he was her best friend and knew when to let her sulk and when to try to get her to talk, unlike her family.

As Hayley, Rebekah, and Hope attempted to leave the Compound they were stopped by an invisible barrier surrounding the home.

"Freya," Rebekah screamed immediately assuming that it was some enemy that had trapped them all inside and her sister would know what to do.

Freya came running from her workshop at the sound of her sister's scream. She stood at the top of the balcony staring down at them, her heart racing expecting to see Mikael standing at the Compound doorway.

"Freya, there's a barrier around the Compound," said Hayley and Freya's anxieties wained.

"I know," she breathed. "I put one up."

"Why," Rebekah asked, wondering why no one informed her that they were planning to put up a barrier.

"A vampire died right across the river and Marcel is missing," Freya stated plainly. "And we don't know if it's of his own volition or not. Until we find out where he is and what killed that vampire, I think we should all stay inside."

Freya couldn't that what she really feared was that Mikael was lurking somewhere in the city waiting to pounce on one of her unsuspecting family members. She hoped that Mikael took her advice and left the city so he wouldn't force her to hurt him for the sake of her family after bringing him back from the dead but there was no telling if he did or not. She just needed everyone to stay in the Compound long enough for her to track Mikael with a locator spell after she finished helping Kol with the linage spell for Davina.

"You don't need to worry, Freya," Hayley said. "Rebekah and I can protect Hope. And if it'll make you feel any better I'll even bring a few of my wolves with me to stand guard."

Freya knew that Hayley's wolves might have been formidable enough for normal threats but she knew they wouldn't stand a chance against Mikael and she doubted Hayley could. Rebekah, on the other hand, was Mikael's daughter and for a moment Freya thought that maybe that would be enough to still their father's revenge but then she remembered all the stories she'd heard from Rebekah about their time on the run from Mikael and how he always swore that he wouldn't hesitate to go through her to get to Niklaus. After seeing what Mikael was willing to do to Zane, Freya didn't want to take the chance of putting Rebekah in that position.

"We can finish your celebration in a few days, sweetheart," Freya said looking over to Hope. "It's just not safe right now."

Before Rebekah or Hayley could disagree, Elijah came out of Klaus's workshop and came over to the balcony. He shined a quick smile down at his despondent niece, hoping to get her to smile back though she didn't, before saying, "Freya, it seems I cannot walk out on the balcony. Do you know anything about this?"

"I did it," Freya admitted. "I was just telling Rebekah and Hayley, until we know what sort of threat we're dealing with I think it's best if we all stayed in and kept everything bad out."

"Normally I would agree," Elijah muttered. He grabbed Freya tentatively by the elbow and guided her further away from Klaus's studio door. "But a vampire was just killed in this city and Marcel is missing. I am doing my best to keep Niklaus calm and that is why I haven't told him there was a barrier around us. You know how he gets when he feels like he's being held somewhere against his will. The agitation, the paranoia. He spent twelve years trapped against his will and you and I know better than anyone how deep the fear of being back in that predicament again goes."

"I know, Elijah, but it is my duty to protect this family. I can't put you all at risk."

"Word has spread throughout the world of what we did to the last army that tried to come after our family. Any enemy would be foolish to come after us with anything less than the power of Hell itself would be suicidal. Now, please," Elijah stepped to the side to give her a pathway back to her workshop. "Release the barrier."

Freya wanted to argue with him but she didn't have an argument against Elijah that didn't involve telling him the truth about Mikael. She knew she would have to tell him eventually but she wanted to wait just in case Mikael had listened to her pleas and left the city and Marcel decided to keep his existence a secret for Davina's sake.

Being outnumbered by the number of family members who did not agree with the barrier, Freya reluctantly went to her shop and released it.

"We need to put a halt to the spell for a moment, brother," Freya said as she moved to a second table in the workshop and began gathering the ingredients for a locator spell. "I need to locate our father."

"No," Kol disagreed. "We have to find Davina's father before Klaus finds out. Every second we waste doing this is precious time that could be spent bringing back Davina."

"Mikael is out there and I need to know where. What if he comes after Hope again. Hope is fine. The others are on guard now, they won't let anything happen to her."

"Kol-"

"You promised," Kol screamed. "After all this time, after all the lies and deception, you promised you would bring her back! You have to!"

Freya sighed. She knew it wouldn't take long to complete a locator spell but Kol was right, they needed every moment they had if they were going to bring Davina back. Ignoring the locator spell, she went back to trying to translate the dead language of old grimoire containing the linage spell.

Sebastian met Hope, Hayley, and Rebekah at the mall, a wide grin on his face as he greeted his friend a the door, excited to do his favorite pastime: shopping. Hayley had hoped that shopping would distract Hope for the remainder of her birthday but Hope couldn't help but continually wonder where Marcel was, even with Sebastian talking endlessly be her side.

"Hey, Hope," Hayley pulled a pair of stonewashed jeans from the pile of jeans on display at the first store they stopped at. "These are cute."

With a sly smile, Sebastian said, "I don't mean to be lewd, Mrs. Marshall-Kenner, but I'm currently working on getting your daughter out of jeans. Denim is so 2020."

Hayley chuckled as Sebastian dragged Hope through the store away from the jeans section.

"Denim's out," Rebekah laughed. "When did that happen?"

Hayley nodded her head and sarcastically said, "There goes my wardrobe."

"That's it, I'm officially an old woman. I don't even know what's cool anymore."

"You just need some time to catch up on things. I mean, you were lying unconscious in a box for twelve years."

Rebekah could hear the concern in Hayley's voice.

"I've done longer," she said jokingly. "That's the trouble with loving our family. Although, if I want to get a head start at this anti-denim fashion age perhaps I should ask Sebastian for pointers. He seems to know a thing or two about fashion."

"And Hope knows absolutely nothing," Hayley smirked. "They're perfect for each other."

Hope stood by a dressing room door staring absentmindedly at the wall while she waited for Sebastian to come out. When he popped out of the room wearing a faux fur vest.

"What do you think," he asked spinning around so Hope could see the vest in all its glory.

Hope indulged her friend's whimsy, bringing her finger up to her lip and furrowing her brows as if she was seriously contemplating the look of the vest. "I think...it looks like you're carrying a baby Ewok on your back."

Sebastian smiled and started checking himself out in the mirror. "That means its gorgeous." Out of the corner of his eyes, Sebastian spotted the glistening brown curls of the girl he deemed the most beautiful girl in their grade. She was with four other girls from their class and across the way Hope spotted three more teens she knew.

"Tanya Wong," Sebastian breathed softly.

"What's everybody doing here," Hope asked, ignoring her friend's sudden infatuation.

"I sent out a mass text and told everyone that we're finishing the celebration at the mall."

"Wait, you sent it out to everyone," Hope suddenly perked up. "Even...Izzy?"

Sebastian rolled his eyes and said, "No, I invited everyone in the school except the one girl my best friend is crushing on. Of course, I invited her."

"Then c'mon," Hope grabbed his wrist and dragged him out of the changing room area behind her. "Let's go find her,"

"Hold on," Sebastian pressed the heels of his shoes. "What about Tanya?"

Hope put on a fake pout and stared Sebastian down with big, puppy-dog eyes. "It's my birthday," she whined. "And I need my best friend with me while I talk to my crush or I'll freeze, and you know it."

Sebastian sighed. He did know it. "Fine," he groaned. "But you owe me. I'm passing up a chance with Tanya Wong, the only girl in our school whose fashion sense is almost as ridic as mine."

"And I'm sure you'll look fabulous as Prom King and Queen one day now let's go,"

As Hope began dragging Sebastian out of the store again, she was spotted by Rebekah standing near the exit at the front of the store with her phone ringing up to her ear.

"Hope," Rebekah called out, spotting the girl trying to make a quick escape. "Where are you going?"

Hope paused in the doorway knowing that she was not going to get away without answering her Aunt first. "We're just going to look around on our own a little, Aunty Bex."

With Marcel missing and not currently answering her call, Rebekah felt nervous about letting her niece out of her sight.

She was just about to think of an excuse to go with them when Hayley appeared and said to Hope, "Just stay close by and answer the phone when we call. Okay,"

"Yes, mom," Hope answered quickly and proceeded to drag Sebastian away.

"Are you sure that's a good idea," Rebekah asked. "I mean, with Marcel missing and all...maybe we should stay close to Hope right now."

"She's a teenage girl in the mall surrounded by her friends. I know you never went to middle school but trust me, if we chaperone her too closely we might as well pin a 'Kick Me' sign on her back and slather her in pig's blood. We'll just follow her at a safe distance and inspect the surrounding area of every store they go to."

Rebekah smirked. "You're much better at this than me."

"I've been a mother to a very independent girl since she was seven. I've learned a few tricks."

Rebekah stared at her phone screen noting all the unanswered calls she made to Marcel. "I just don't understand why he's not answering. If he just lost one of his vampires then he should be with his family."

"Maybe he just needs some time alone. He did just lose his third vampire in two weeks. I attend every one of my pack's funerals, even the ones in the bayou, and it never gets any easier."

"But I know Marcel. Even if he were hurting he would answer the phone for me. What if he's in danger? What if whatever got his vampire got him too. Kol said they didn't find what killed him, they just found him with his heart missing. What if Marcel is lying in some ally somewhere with his..." she couldn't bear the thought of finishing her sentence.

"He's fine, Rebekah," Hayley reassured. "Marcel has been alive for two hundred years, one hundred of those without your family. I think he can spend a few hours...grieving."

Rebekah felt a slight sense of relief at Hayley's words. She was so sure that Marcel was fine wherever he was that her confidence transferred over to Rebekah.

"He's fine," Rebekah repeated to herself as she turned back to a stack of pleather shorts sitting on the display table in front of her that she was definitely not considering purchasing but they worked to distract her from her thoughts of Marcel. "He's fine."

Chapter Text

Chapter 37

Hope and Sebastian went to every store in the mall looking for Izzy but she was nowhere to be found. They talked Hayley and Rebekah into staying until the mall closed just in case she came late but she never appeared.

Hope was silent as she got in the back seat of the car, her mind once again flooded with fearful thoughts of where Marcel could have been. She remembered Mikael and the almost innate, gutwrenching hate she felt the moment she saw him. Kol told them that Marcel's other vampire was killed but he didn't know what by and Hope couldn't help but think maybe it was Mikael. She promised Kol not to say anything about meeting Mikael or anything about them seeing Freya meet with the vampires of Klaus's sireline but as she stared at the empty passing storefronts, she wondered if not telling anyone was best. On one hand, she knew Mikael had to be the worst of the worst since everyone was so intent on telling her to stay away from him so if there was a chance that he did have Marcel then she was obligated to tell her parents. But on the other hand, she trusted her Aunt and Uncle immensely and didn't think they would ask her to keep a secret that could get her brother hurt.

Sebastian climbed into the backseat from the driver's side but then he continued scooting over on the seat until he was pressed leg-against-leg next to Hope and took her hand in his. Hope didn't pay any attention to Sebastian's gesture. They held hands all the time but usually only when there was a cute girl around that he was trying to make jealous.

"Mrs. Marshall-Kenner," Sebastian called into the front seat as Hayley started driving, Rebekah by her side still checking her phone for missed messages from Marcel. "Is it alright if Hope spent the night at my place?"

"Uh, I don't know, Sebastian. Did you ask your mom?"

"I did and I kinda already told her that you said it was okay so she's already expecting four for dinner and she's already made me make up the guest room and put fresh towels in the bathroom so if you say no, all that work would've been for nothing."

Both Hayley and Rebekah let out a small chuckle at Sebastian's little tale. Looking through the rearview mirror to see if Hope was laughing too, Hayley was dishearted to find the girl with her forehead pressed again the window, staring blankly out of it.

"Hope," Hayley said, drawing her daughter's attention. "What do you say, sweetie? Do you wanna spend the rest of your birthday with Sebastian tonight or do you wanna stay home with mom and dad?"

Sebastian looked back to Hope and for a split moment, he actually feared she might say no.

Hope rolled her eyes and teasingly said, "I want to go with Sebastian. As long as we stop and get earplugs on the way home. His room is right next to the guest room and I can hear him snoring all night."

"I have a sinus problem," Sebastian muttered as the three women laughed.

Glancing over in the mirror at Sebastian, Hayley's laughter tapered off as she said, "Sebastian, sweetheart, I know you're a witch but in this car, even the supernatural have to wear seatbelts."

Sebastian looked over at the seat belt lying on the seat next to him and rolled his eyes, which was not missed by Hayley. "I can't, Mrs. Marshall-Kenner. This shirt has a high wrinkle point."

With a smile on her face, Hayley replied,"Sebastian, seatbelt on or I pull over and we don't start this car again until it's on."

Sebastian sighed softly as he scooted over away from Hope to put his seatbelt on, all the while still holding her hand.

Hope watched with marvel as Sebastian struggled to get his phone out of the right front pocket of his pants with his left hand, his other hand still tightly squeezing her's.

"You could just let go of my hand," she laughed as he fumbled the phone into his lap. "It would make that a whole lot easier."

"No, trust me, I've got this." Sebastian successfully balanced his phone in his left hand and began strolling through it as if it were second nature to him. "I've logged in a lot of time using my phone with my left hand."

"That's disgusting," Hope scolded jokingly as she quickly pulled her hand out of his.

"I'm kidding," he laughed.

As she placed her hand back down on her knee, Sebastian reached out and took it back in his again.

Confused by his uncharacteristic neediness, Hope asked, "Why do you keep holding my hand?"

Sebastian shrugged and started going through his phone again as if a shrug was a good enough answer.

"Y'know, if my dad saw this he would probably literally rip your arm from its socket."

"Then good thing my mother's a good healer," Sebastian smirked.

"Seriously," Hope turned in her seat so that she was facing him directly. Raising their intertwined hands up to his eyes, she said, "What's with this?"

With a sigh, he mumbled, "If you must know...it's just that..." Failing to think of a concise way to put his thoughts, Sebastian rambled out, "You're my best friend and as your best friend, I pretty much feel like I need to - No! - I am REQUIRED to make you feel better but the only way to make you feel better is to find Marcel and I can't do that. So I'm sitting here feeling pretty much useless because the only thing I'm good for is talking and you don't want to talk right now but that's okay because at least I can hold your hand so that you know that I'm right here when you decide you're ready to rant to somebody about this or we could just sit here holding hands and never say anything else about it all night. Whatever you want, Hope, that's what I'm here for."

Hope's lips curled into a small smile. She sat back in her seat and started staring out the window again, her hand tightly woven with Sebastian's as he got back on his phone.

Hayley took them back to the Compound so Hope could pick up a few things before she took them back to the Dupeaux resident. Hope quickly packed a bag with clothes, her toothbrush, and her grimoire to practice magic with Sebastian and his parents while she was there. She left the Compound without saying anything to Klaus. He was still in his studio painting, trying to take his mind off of Marcel and although they shared a common fear, Hope was still too upset about Izzy to say goodbye to him.

"Okay, sweetie," Hayley said as she opened Hope's door in front of the Dupeaux' home. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay."

Hope nodded her head softly as she climbed out of the car, Sebastian scooting out right behind her with her bag hanging from his shoulder.

"Call me before bed," Hayley asked, trying to not push her daughter to talk if she didn't want to.

Again, Hope nodded.

Hayley leaned down and kissed Hope's forehead as she squeezed her tightly in her arms. "Stop worrying, sweetie," she whispered. "Marcel's going to be fine."

"Call me," Hope finally spoke in a low mutter. "If Marcel shows up. Call me as soon as he shows up. It doesn't matter what time of night it is. Please."

"Of course," Hayley squeezed her tighter. "But promise me you'll stop worrying. It's your birthday. Try to be happy, okay."

"Okay mom," Hope agreed, finally wrapping her arms around Hayley.

Hayley walked Hope and Sebastian to the door where Sebastian's mom was waiting with a genial smile on her face.

"Have fun, sweetheart," Hayley called behind Hope as Sebastian dragged her to the back of the house. Turning to Mrs. Dupeaux, she said, "Hope's having a bit of a rough day. Could you...just try to take her mind off of it? She has her grimoire in her bag. Doing magic always makes her happy so, if it's not too much to ask-"

"Say no more," Mrs. Dupeaux said reassuringly. "We absolutely love having Hope over. She's such a gifted little witch. She even pushes Sebastian to take his studies more seriously. I'm sure my husband and I can think of a good spell to keep them distracted."

"Thanks," Hayley smiled, glancing back into the house hoping to catch a glimpse of Hope but she and Sebastian were already gone. With a sigh, she said her goodbye and went back to the car where Rebekah waited.

Hayley couldn't help but roll her eyes when she got in the car and saw Rebekah still staring down at her phone.

"Geez, Louise," she groaned. "How many times do I have to tell you guys that Marcel is fine for you to believe me?"

"A hundred more times should do the trick," Rebekah joked.

Hayley started the car and held her hand out to Rebekah. "Alright," she said. "Give it to me."

"Excuse me," Rebekah exclaimed.

"Your phone. Give it here. You and I are about to go to Rousseau's and drink until you forget about Marcel not calling and I don't want to see you checking your phone every five minutes."

"But...what if he calls while we're not paying attention?"

"Then you can call him back when we're sober. Now give it,"

Rebekah held her phone out to Hayley but held on tight to it as Hayley tried to take it out of her hand until she unwillingly gave up.

"That's better," Hayley sighed, exhausted from trying to pry the phone from her ancient friend's hand. She put Rebekah's phone in her pocket and started driving towards the bar. "Now, let's go be irresponsible adults for the first time in a long time."

-M-

Josh and Lora sat in Mrs. Fuentez's apartment patiently waiting for Marcel to call back. Mrs. Fuentez, a lonely widower who was always happy to have company over, didn't even need to be compelled to agree to let her two neighbors in her apartment. She stayed up with them all day, talking and cooking, until she made a dinner big enough for 12. It wasn't until the sun began to set and she went to bed that they could finally focus on Marcel in peace.

It was also then that Josh decided to tell Lora about Zane. He expected to have to console her but her anger superseded her grief. All she wanted to do was get her hands on Mikael. It didn't matter if he was stronger than her. At the rate she was losing friends, it was only a matter of time before she died anyway.

A knock at the door startled both of them.

"Josh, man, if you're in there, open up." Vincent's voice came calling through the door.

Josh hurried to the door and opened it.

"What are you doing here," he asked confused when Vincent came right into the apartment carrying a large leather bag.

"I got a call from Marcel," Vincent answered a bit irritable. "He asked that I meet him here. Said you were hiding out at one of the neighbors. Inconsiderate of him to not tell me which neighbor. Had me looking like a fool knocking on random doors."

"Marcel called you," Josh asked, still hung up on the beginning of that story. "Why? Did he say where he was?"

"No, but he said he wasn't far away," Vincent flopped the bag down on the sofa.

"What does he need you for?"

Vincent stared Josh down. He was a bit shocked that Marcel hadn't told his closest friend about his plan but he realized it must have been for a reason and he figured he had no right to tell him anything Marcel didn't want him to know.

He shrugged and said, "He just asked me to bring him some things."

"What kind of things," Josh continued to badger. He walked over to the couch and went for Vincent's bag, curious about what he brought. "Like...magical artifacts or-"

Vincent grabbed Josh's hand before he could touch his bag. Staring him down with a cold stare, he said, "Trust me. You don't wanna know what's in there, man."

Josh had an idea but he hoped he was wrong. "Is it...is it something for Mikael? Is he going after Mikael?"

Lora scoffed loud enough to be heard across the room. "Armed with what? The Mikaelsons have the only weapons that can kill an Original."

A loud thud in the hallway brought their attention to the ajar door. Marcel stood in front of Josh's apartment with an obviously terrified man at his feet.

"I don't need to kill him," Marcel growled. "I just need to put him down."

Josh rushed out of the apartment over to the man lying on the floor, Lora close behind him. It took him a moment, but he soon recognized the man by his shabby beard and the track marks running down his arms.

"Davina's dad," he said surprised. "You found him? Just like that? In all of Florida? How?"

"You didn't think I'd let him exist without keeping tabs on him?"

Josh knelt beside the man and poked his cheek. When he felt the heat of his cheek, he knew that he was still alive. "What are you doing here? Kol has a way to use him to bring back Davina. You should've taken him to Kol."

"That's why I came here," Marcel stood back away from the man, motioning for Josh to pick him up. "I need you to take him to the Compound so Freya can finish her spell to bring Davina back."

"Me," Josh stood up, disbelief in his eyes. Marcel knew as well as him what Niklaus would do if he caught Josh or Lora in the Quarter. "Why me? Why can't you do it?"

"Because if I show my face at the Compound, Klaus is going to try to make me stay." Marcel took out his phone and flashed the screen at Josh. He was shocked by the number of unopened texts and missed calls Marcel had from Klaus, Rebekah, and Hope. "And I have some business to take care of, so I can't really be bothered with...Klaus right now."

Marcel shoved his phone back in his pants pocket, silently wondering what his family was doing right now. Since no one had found him yet, he assumed that Klaus hadn't gotten Freya to perform a locator spell on him...yet. In his distress, Marcel buried Zane's body in the bayou and went straight to Florida without a second thought. He didn't consider the possibility of Klaus finding him with a locator spell until he was halfway to his destination. He knew that once Klaus found out where he'd gone with Mikael on the loose he was going to be in a world of pain when he got home but that didn't matter at the moment. He had to focus on the task at hand.

Marcel nodded to Vincent and Vincent nodded back. Then he went back into the widow's home and grabbed his bag off the couch.

"Where are you going," Josh asked, stepping between Vincent and Marcel, irritated that Marcel would make a plan involving Vincent but not him.

Marcel considered not telling Josh the truth. He knew how cautious his friend was and he knew that what he was about to do was one of the most dangerous things he'd ever attempted but he needed to do it. Deciding that Josh deserved the truth if only because he considered him a close friend, Marcel said, "Vincent is going to perform a locator spell on Mikael for me. And then we're going to take him down before he can hurt anyone else I care about."

Josh was stunned silent for a moment. Then he started nervously laughing. He looked between Vincent and Marcel, waiting for one of them to break character and reveal that it was just a joke but neither did.

"You can't be serious," he muttered, his laugh ending and his face dropping. "Marcel, you can't take down Mikael. He's Klaus...but worse because he doesn't care about not killing you."

"And that's the problem," Marcel growled. The memory of Zane's tortured body flashed back in his mind and he quickly forced it away.

He buried Zane on his own so Josh and Lora wouldn't have to witness the same terrible sight of their friend that he did. But that memory had been his driving force for twelve hours. Zane was the reason he'd kept out of contact with anyone else. He didn't want anyone to try to talk him out of his plan. He made a promise to protect his people at all costs and he had failed too many times before. He needed to do what was right this time.

Josh looked back at Vincent, his bag slung over his shoulder and ready to go at Marcel's request. "At least..." he paused, only just brave enough to say, "At least let me come with you. We're partners and if you're willing to risk it all, so am I."

"No," Marcel stated obstinately. "All of this was for Davina. Kol allowed Freya to bring Mikael back to life for Davina. I drove all the way to Florida to get this guy so we could bring her back. I need you to make sure he gets to Freya so all of this wouldn't have been in vain."

"No, Marcel." Josh shook his head and stepped closer to Marcel. "I'm not letting you go against that guy on your own. It's suicide. He can't die."

"He can still be put down." Marcel looked over to Vincent still standing in the widow's apartment. "Do you have everything?"

Vincent slapped the side of his packed bag and said, "Everything I need for both spells."

"What's all that for," Josh asked, nervous by his friend's secrecy. "What are you planning to do?"

"We're gonna find Mikael," said Marcel, his voice unreassuringly flat. "And desiccate him using magic."

Josh was stunned silent for seconds. "A-are you sure about that? Mikael's like...an Original. Not to mention he has a reputation for killing vampires."

"I don't care. I'm not losing any more of my guys to the Mikaelsons. I'm putting him down even if I have to die to do it."

"Marcel, this won't bring them back," Josh cautioned, fear for his friend's life causing him to anxiously flail his hands around as he spoke. "Think about what you're doing. You-you're walking to your death." Marcel scoffed and tried to brush past Josh into his apartment when Josh grabbed his arm. "Zane wouldn't have wanted this."

Marcel snatched his arm out of Josh's hold and growled, "We don't know what Zane would've wanted because he's not here to tell us."

"This is stupid," Josh shouted. He turned to each of the other people in the hall hoping for someone to agree with him but everyone just looked at him as if he was the one insane. "Do you people not understand that you could die? I didn't survive with you and-and fight by your side for this long just so you could die doing something so incredibly stupid."

"It's not stupid," Lora spat. Josh spun around at the sound of her voice. "Marcel's right. I'd rather die avenging Zane than live knowing his murderer faces no consequences for what he did."

"Oh," Josh exaggerated flung his arms up. "So now you have a death wish too. That's great. That's just great. My closest living friends are all going to die, one by one, by the same man. That's just...great."

"You're too worked up over this," Vincent spoke up. "I'm not going to let anything happen to them. I want that menace out of my city as much as the next guy, that's why I agreed to be the witch for this spell."

"And Lora isn't coming," Marcel stated firmly.

Lora stamp her foot and barked, "But Marcel-"

"This isn't up for discussion," he bit. He cut his eyes sharply at her and Lora ended her fit immediately. "I know that you're angry but you're still just a young vampire and you're too inexperienced for a fight like this. I'm not going to lose you too."

"Then I'm going," Josh stated. "I'm not going to let you face that monster alone."

"No, you're not," Marcel repeated, growing annoyed by Josh's persistence. "For the same reason. I'm sorry to say this but my chances against Mikael aren't any better with you at my side. If things go wrong, I could lose you too. But...there is something you can do."

Josh waited intently for Marcel to tell him whatever you go do to help him.

"I need you to take Davina's father to the Compound. Let Freya get whatever blood she needs from him to do the spell and then bring him back here."

"What for," Josh questioned.

Marcel turned to Vincent and Vincent explained, "We need a human heart to stop in order to perform the desiccation spell. Marcel has volunteered this lucky man for the job."

Marcel glared at the terrified human with his back pressed against the wall, trying to get as far away from them as he could but unsuccessful thanks to Marcel compelling him to not run away. "It's about time he did something useful for his daughter. When you get there, Josh, find Kol and bring him back here. After everything he's done, he owes me his help on this."

Marcel spat Kol's name out like a bad taste. It was his anger at Kol's advice in the car on their way to Josh's apartment that helped Marcel realize what he had to do. He had lost two of his new vampires to Klaus and Kol respectively and he did nothing in retaliation.

He blamed himself for Drew's death. If he had told Klaus the truth about the vampires sooner, he wouldn't have killed him. He should've known that Klaus wouldn't hesitate to kill a strange vampire if it meant keeping the city safe for Hope. Kol killed Gwen in a fit of rage and hatred to get back at Marcel but Marcel still hated himself because of it. He hated himself for not retaliating against Kol for what he did. At least, not successfully. Klaus had stopped him before he could get back at Kol but he wasn't going to let Klaus stop him from getting Mikael. He was going to avenge Zane if it was the last thing he did.

"What if Klaus sees me," Josh asked.

"Don't let him see you," Marcel responded firmly. "But if he does...I know he won't kill you. He wouldn't do that to me...or Kol. But if I go and he catches me, he'll try to stop me, and I can't have that."

"But...Marcel...," Josh felt no fear for his own safety. Every Mikaelson could have greeted him at the Compound doors with their fangs ready to rip him to shreds and all he would've cared about was what was happening to Marcel at that moment. "You could die."

Marcel nodded to Vincent. "It'll be worth it," he said. "As long as Mikael goes down with me. Now go." Marcel clasped his hands around Josh's shoulders. "And stay safe, brother. Keep your eye out for Mikael, and promise me, if you see him, run."

Josh stared down at Davian's father and nodded his head. He was going to get the man to Freya to bring Davina back even if he didn't do anything else.

"And Josh," Marcel's rumbled voice urged Josh to look him in the eyes. "If you do see Klaus, don't tell him anything."

Josh's mouth tightened and obstinate line. "Marcel...he could help you."

"He will stop me," Marcel stated. "So would Rebekah. That's why you can't tell either of them. Promise me."

Josh fought with every ounce of common sense urging him to say no but then his mouth opened and he said, "Okay. I promise."

-M-

The night drew on at the Mikaelson Compound. Soon it was time for bed but no one could sleep.

As Niklaus painted in his studio, Elijah sat in an armchair keeping his brother company as he read a book of his own. The gong of the grandfather clock in the courtyard could be heard even in the studio.

"It's midnight," Klaus announced as he slapped his paintbrush roughly down on the easel. "He's been missing twelve hours, Elijah. Now, something must be done."

"You're overreacting, brother," Elijah spoke calmly. "Marcellus will come home when he's ready to come home."

"If he's able to come home," Klaus bellowed. "You don't know where he is, Elijah. He could be somewhere holdup by one of my enemies and we're all just sitting around as if life could never be more grand."

"Niklaus I can assure you no one under this roof is thinking that. I too have my anxieties about where Marcel may be at his moment but we must keep our wits about us and remember that Marcel is perfectly capable of taking care of himself."

"Not against everyone," Klaus slammed his hands down on the table in front of Elijah and Elijah finally turned from his book to face his brother. "He is just a..."

"A what," Elijah shut his book and stood to face Klaus. "He is not a child in need of your protection anymore, Niklaus. I allowed this domineering control over his life at first because there was still the looming fear that he may have been plotting to take this family down again but Niklaus...at some point we are going to have to loosen the reins. In wake of his friend dying is a nice start."

"I've given him twelve hours to grieve alone," Klaus retorted heatedly. "Now it's time for him to be with his family!"

"You're over-"

"Don't you dare say I'm overreacting, Elijah. Our brother finds a dead vampire in Algiers missing a heart and you dare think I'm overreacting for not wanting my very-killable son out there when there is a hunter on the loose. Or worse, an ancient vampire with a grudge to settle with me and is willing to go through my family to do it."

Elijah opened his mouth to retort when they both heard the sound of footsteps coming into the Courtyard.

In Freya's workshop, Kol and Freya were hiding from the other Mikaelsons they were keeping secrets from when the alarms she set to alert her if anyone came over the threshold went haywire.

"Mikael," Kol asked attempting to mask his fretfulness with contempt.

Freya, fearing the same, said nothing as she hurried out of the workshop to the balcony overlooking the courtyard, Kol hurrying along right behind her. She had been so focused on helping Kol find Davina's father that she forgot to complete the tracking spell she was working on to find Mikael. Now he could be coming right through their doors.

The four Mikaelsons stood on the balcony overlooking the courtyard where Josh stood dragging Davina's father behind him.

"You," Klaus growled. "I suppose you're finally ready to die, otherwise you wouldn't be here."

"Ignore him," Kol said, calmly looking down at his friend. "He's upset because Marcel is still gone."

Josh stood Davina's father in front of him and pushed him forward as if he was making an offering to the Mikaelsons. "Well, I actually come bearing gifts. Marcel said you might need him?"

"And who is he," Klaus demanded.

Nervous by Klaus's growing anger, Josh said, "D-Davina's father."

"What," Kol and Freya exclaimed.

Kol jumped from the balcony down to the stunned man. "You found him?"

"Um...no. I didn't, Marcel did."

"You've seen Marcel," Klaus jumped from the balcony down beside his brother. "Is he alright?"

"Y-yeah," Josh muttered, forcing himself to bite his tongue. He knew that Klaus would stand a better chance against Mikael so every fiber of his body was urging him to tell Klaus what Marcel and Vincent were doing but his loyalty to Marcel fought against it. "He...he was totally okay when I left him."

"Where is he?"

"Oh...y'know, around."

"Joshua," Klaus growled, taking slow deliberate steps towards Josh. "I have not seen or heard from Marcel since he left this morning. If you have any idea where he might be right now, you should tell me before I get it out of you the fun way."

Josh looked at Kol hoping he would come to his rescue but Kol's attention was focused on the man standing beside him. Josh had compelled the man to stay quiet and go willingly wherever he's taken so all he could do was stare in amazement at these men who could jump from balconies and not get hurt.

"I-I can't tell you," Josh stammered. "B-because...I don't know. He left right after he dropped this guy at my doorstep. Said you needed him to bring Davina back."

Klaus spun around to Freya, glaring up at her. "You...were the witch Marcel was using to bring Davina back," he asked softly. Then realizing that Freya had a spell to resurrect the dead all along and didn't tell him he barked, "You know how to bring her back?"

"I found a spell in an old grimoire," Freya admitted. "If you wanna question me about it later, I'll be happy to stand under your scrutiny, but for right now, Kol,"

Kol looked up to the balcony at his sister's booming voice.

"Bring him up here. Hurry, we have work to do."

"No," Klaus held his hand out to Kol, pausing him. "No one's doing anything else until I know where Marcel is. I'm tired of waiting. Freya, perform a locator spell on Marcel right now. And if he is hurt in any way when I find him," Klaus turned to Josh and slammed his hand down on his shoulder, squeezing it until Josh fell to his knees in pain. "I am going to take my time killing this one."

"He didn't have anything to do with it," Kol came to Josh's defense. "If Marcel didn't tell you where he was going, what makes you think he would tell Josh."

Grabbing Josh by his collar and hoisting him in the air, Klaus growled in a dangerously low voice,"Because this one is his most loyal ally and Marcel knows that it would take a lot for dear Joshua to turn on him. That is why," Klaus brought Josh's face closer to his. "I'm willing to do anything short of killing you to find out the truth."

"Klaus," Kol yelled. "Put him down!" When Klaus wouldn't budge, Kol turned his pleading eyes up to Elijah. "Make him stop, Elijah. Please!"

Elijah knew that Klaus was only trying to scare the truth out of Josh because he wouldn't have wanted to do anything to make Marcel angry with him when he already had Hope refusing to speak to him. But he was moved by Kol's teary eyes. "Klaus," he called from his perch. "Let him go."

"He knows where Marcel is, Elijah," Klaus stated plainly. "I'll relieve him from the burden of carrying his head on his shoulders before I let him go without telling me."

Through choked breath, Josh said, "I...can't...tell you. I...promised...Marcel."

Immediately, Klaus dropped him. "You promised him what?"

Holding his aching throat, Josh said, "I...promised him...that I wouldn't tell you...where he was going."

"Where is he going," Klaus demanded. When Josh stayed silent, he grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and forced him back to his feet. Staring into Josh's eyes, he began to compel him. "You will answer me and you will answer me truthfully. Where is Marcel going?"

Josh felt a weight of relief being lifted from his shoulders. He was trying to get Klaus would compel him so he could tell him the truth without actually betraying Marcel.

"He's going to fight Mikael," Josh stated. "He and Vincent are gonna try to desiccate him with magic."

Klaus dropped Josh to the ground again, this time staring straight ahead at the wall, unwilling to believe what he'd just heard.

"What did he say," Elijah asked, running gracelessly down the staircase. "Did he say...Mikael? Mikael's back?"

Kol bit his lip and looked nervously up to Freya but Freya seemed just as calm as ever.

When Elijah made it to Josh, he pulled him back to his feet and said, "Where are they?"

"At my place," Josh muttered. "Waiting for me to bring Davina's dad back so they can use him in the desiccation spell."

"How did Mikael come back," Elijah growled, shoving Josh away from him. Josh backed away from the Mikaelsons, irritated by their constant manhandling of him, but too worried about Marcel to leave. "When did he get back? Who would want..."

The answer suddenly hitting him like a brick, Elijah turned his eyes up to the only witch he knew with any ties to Mikael and a resurrection spell at her disposal.

"You...you wouldn't. Not him...not after all this."

Freya's eyes were unwavering. She stood on the balcony, staring straight down at Elijah with the same intensity. She wasn't going to let him intimidate her like he did their siblings. "He's my father, Elijah," she answered evenly. "I did what any loving daughter would do if given the chance."

She was somewhat happy that they knew. Now she could finish her locator spell on Mikael without anyone trying to interrupt her because she hadn't been at peace since he left.

Klaus slowly turned to Freya, fear evident in his eyes. The sight of her once proud brother suddenly with the eyes of a frightened child broke Freya's heart.

"You brought him back," Klaus asked barely above a mutter. "Wh...why? What did I do? I...I thought I was doing everything right. I thought we were all...all of us...happy. What did I do this time...t-to my sister to make you... J-just...tell me where I went wrong?" With tears fighting for escape, he bellowed, "What did I do?!"

Freya felt her heart sink at Niklaus's scream. Like Elijah, she had been privy to many of Klaus's violent nightmares so she knew the torment Mikael caused him. And twelve years with Tunde's blade in him only twisted Klaus's view of Mikael into an even more heinous creature.

That's why she was hoping she would have time to change Mikael before anyone found out. When she first resurrected him, she hoped that she could keep him at the edge of the city, somewhere Klaus never went, and after years of bonding with his long-lost daughter, she thought maybe Mikael would realize his mistake in mistreating his children. She hoped that he would change and make amends with Klaus and the others and then, like a fool, she thought they would just be one big happy family. And if she brought Davina back as well, Kol and Marcel would be happy. Everything was going to be perfect.

Seeing the distress painted on Klaus's face, she began to hate herself for ever being so naive.

"You didn't do anything, Niklaus," She said softly. "I did not bring him back to punish you. I just...I love him. I know that none of you do and you probably think me crazy for doing it but I do. He's...he's my..." Her voice cracked as a tear trailed down her cheek.

She couldn't bear to look Klaus in the eyes. She was torn between her loyalty to the only parent who'd ever loved her and her loyalty to the siblings he persecuted for a thousand years.

She backed away from the balcony, gently patting her tears away. "I'm sorry, Niklaus. I'm...I'm going to go perform a locator spell on Mikael right now. I'm going to find out where he is and I'm never going to let him near you again, brother. I give you my word."

As Freya disappeared back down the hall, Klaus stayed staring at the spot she once stood.

Seeing Klaus in a state of fear that he hadn't seen in a thousand years made Kol's stomach constrict. It was a tight, painful constriction that hurt him to his core. The pain of guilt that he hated more than anything.

"Elijah," he muttered.

Elijah's eyes were focused on Niklaus. The way his brother's shoulders slumped and his head hung, Elijah knew Klaus was hurting and it took every ounce of self-restraint in him to not run over and immediately console him. As Kol muttered his name, Elijah welcomed the respite from his worry, only to see Kol with a similar look of distress on his face.

"I...I'm sorry, Elijah but I...need to come clean." Kol looked over to Klaus and he was afraid to speak. If Klaus knew what he'd done he was sure he'd get the dagger. Freya could get away with it because she was still mortal but he was not granted such privilege. But he needed the pain of his guilty conscience to stop.

Walking to Elijah, he put his hands on the side of his head and began showing him all the memories he had of knowing about Freya's plan to bring Mikael back to the last moment he saw Mikael standing in the apartment with Finn.

When he pulled away from Kol's hands, Elijah was speechless. Then Kol watched as his eyes filled with anger.

Afraid Elijah would blurt out his secret, Kol whispered, "Please, don't tell Niklaus. He will never forgive me."

As angry as Elijah was, his concern for his little brother's fear of Niklaus still fought it's way to the surface and he obliged him by not speaking the atrocity aloud.

"Kol," Elijah spoke, a hint of anger still in his voice. "Call the Dupeauxs and tell them to keep an eye on Hope tonight and to not let her go anywhere tomorrow until we tell them otherwise. Then call Hayley and Rebekah and tell them what's going on. Klaus."

When Klaus didn't turn around to face him, Elijah knew that his brother was going back to that dark place again. He hurried in front of him and put his hands on both sides of Klaus's face. Klaus's eyes immediately adverted to the ground.

"Look at me," he demanded. Klaus dragged his sight weakly up to his brother's face. "Can you hear me, brother? You need to snap out of this. We have to go get Marcel before something happens to him. He's out there right now and he's about to go face Mikael by himself. Do you hear me, Niklaus? Marcel needs you."

Klaus's lifeless eyes suddenly held a sharp gleam. Elijah moved his hands down to Klaus's shoulders and gave them a firm squeeze before releasing him.

Klaus looked cautiously around at the others in the courtyard, embarrassed by his episode. His eyes fell to Davina's father, still standing by the courtyard entrance with a frightened, confused look on his face.

"Joshua," Klaus barked, his old self returning. "Take this...'potion ingredient', upstairs to Freya. After she performs the location spell, tell her to bring Davina back."

"S-sure thing," Josh happily grabbed the man by the arm and started dragging him upstairs.

"I called the Dupeauxs'," Kol said, once again hanging up his phone. "And Hayley and Rebekah are on their way."

"Good," Klaus said. "Now go to the Dupeaux's and stand guard over Hope just in case Mikael tries some kind of trick to get inside."

"The Dupeaux's are strong witches," Kol dismissed Klau's fears, his eyes focused on the balcony where Josh was now dragging Davina's father to Freya's lab. "I'm sure they can guard off Mikael if she shows up."

"No," Klaus's growled deeply. "You will go now."

Kol turned sharply to his angry brother. "I have to be here when Davina comes back."

"She will be here when you return," Klaus bit. "The safety of this family comes before anything. Now do as you are told."

Kol chanced one more glance up at the balcony just as Josh and Davina's father disappeared behind the wall. Then he sped out of the Compound, deciding that he would go get Hope and bring her back to the Compound so he could be there when Davina came back.

"It's good to have you back brother," Elijah said once the Courtyard was clear. "Shall I go get the White Oak so we can hunt our father down once again?"

"Yes," Klaus uttered, a shame suddenly setting in on him. "When Rebekah returns, you and she will go after Mikael...but I'm afraid I will have to set this battle out."

Elijah nodded. He had hoped Klaus would come to that realization on his own without Elijah having to convince him. The way Klaus froze at the very mention of Mikael's resurrection showed them both that Klaus's nightmares were gravely affecting him. He was more afraid of Mikael now than he ever was before and Klaus didn't trust himself not to freeze in front of Mikael like he did in front of his siblings.

"But," Klaus said more confidently. "There's somewhere I need you to escort me first."

"Of course," Elijah agreed, knowing where Klaus wanted to go. Then his mind went back to the memory Kol showed him. The pain on Marcel's face as he carried his dead friend's body was wretched. "There's something else you should know, brother. About Kol."

Chapter Text

Chapter 39

Hope laid in bed in the guest room of the Dupeaux home, staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep. She had been lying there for hours. Everyone else had gone to bed without a care but her mind was still racing with thoughts of Marcel, Kol, and Freya. And Mikael. She knew he was out there somewhere and so was Marcel and as long as Mikael was out there, Marcel wasn't safe.

"You're still awake," she was pulled from thought at the sound of Mrs. Dupeaux standing in the doorway, her husband by her side. Their serious eyes made her nervous.

"What's going on," Hope asked as she sat up, her heart racing. "Is Marcel okay? Did they find him? Is he okay? Please, just...tell me he's okay."

"W-we don't know yet, sweetie," Mrs. Dupeaux hurried to the bed and sat down beside her, enveloping her in a comforting hug. "Your uncle Kol just called and asked that we make sure you were alright. Apparently...there's a vampire called Mikael on the loose somewhere in the city. But don't worry, sweetheart. You'll be fine as long as you stay inside. We're not going to let anyone in here, okay. You're safe here."

Hope felt a slight relief in knowing that nothing other than what she already knew had occurred but since she was not supposed to know about Mikael's existence, she feigned surprise and worry. Mrs. Dupeaux held her, rocking her from side to side until Hope insisted she was fine and just needed to get some rest.

As soon as she heard the bedroom door to the Dupeauxs' room close, she hurried out of bed over to the dresser where her things were. She pulled her grimoire from her bag and fanned through the pages until she found the spell she was looking for. The spell that she and Sebastian tried to use to freeze time. The only thing it was good for was putting people in comas but that's all Hope needed.

"What are you doing?"

Hope slammed the book shut at the voice surprising her from the doorway.

Sebastian let out a yawn as he stretched his arms above his head. "I thought you were asleep," he asked through his yawn.

"Um, I couldn't go to sleep. I can't stop thinking about Marcel. And...there's something else." She walked slowly over to Sebastian, her grimoire clutched tightly at her side. "My...dad's dad is alive. And apparently he's a pretty bad dude. He killed one of Marcel's friend and with Marcel in the wind...I'm afraid..."

"I'm sure Marcel's fine," Sebastian reassured smiling weakly, moved by the anxiety in his friend's eyes.

"You don't know that. The way everyone talks about Mikael...it's like he's some sort of monster and Marcel is just one vampire. He won't be able to protect himself from Mikael. That's why...I have to help him."

"What could you do," Sebastian questioned, surprised by Hope's sheer overconfidence. "If Marcel, a two-HUNDRED-year-old vampire, can't defeat Mikael, what makes you think you'll stand a chance?"

"I have a plan," she stated plainly. "I'm going to put Mikael down without ever having to fight him."

Sebastian stared down at the book in Hope's hands. Earlier, while his mom and dad were teaching them about all the different plants in their garden, Hope had sparked his curiosity with all of her questions about Oleander roots. She wrote everything they said down in her grimoire and now his curiosity was piqued again.

"What are you going to do with that?"

Hope was silent for a moment. "I can't tell you," she muttered.

"Why?"

"Because...you're going to try to stop me and this is something I need to do."

Afraid that she was going to do something stupid, Sebastian demanded, "What are you going to do?" Again Hope was silent. "I am your best friend. You have to tell me."

Hope sighed, bound by the unspoken covenant of friendship, and answered, "I'm going to use the spell that we tried to use to freeze time against Mikael and put him in one of those semi-permanent sleeps like we did to Marcel."

Sebastian's eyes widened and he felt his sleepiness suddenly fade. "Are you serious? But...what if he kills you."

"He won't get the chance. I know where he is. When my Uncle Kol was taking me out of Algiers, I could smell a lot of vampire blood coming from inside a building not far from the river. I didn't tell my uncle because I knew he was going to lie to me but I'm sure that's where Mikael killed Marcel's friend. And it might be where I'll still find Mikael. I'm going to find him and keep myself hidden just long enough to start the spell. According to your mom, Oleander root has similar effects in spells as Callum root. If I replace it in the spell, it should take away the pain we felt from the spell siphoning our power. Then I'll just call out to Mikael and when he comes out, I'll goad him into attacking me but when he tries to cross over the circle, he'll be knocked unconscious like Marcel was. Then I'll hide his body so no one can find him and he'll never hurt my family again. Simple as that."

Sebastian took a deep breath, calming his racing heart, before saying, "So that's the plan, huh? Seems like you thought it out. Guess it's worth a shot. I really hope we don't die."

"We," Hope repeated, her eyebrows arched in disbelief. "You're not coming with me."

"Like hell I'm not," Sebastian quickly retorted. "If he's as bad as you say he is, there is no way I'm letting you go after him yourself. If anything happened to you and I wasn't there to stop it, I would never forgive myself."

"And if anything happened to you because of another one of my ideas, I would never forgive myself."

Sebastian clasped his hands together in front of him and said, "Either I go with you or the minute you walk out of this house, I call Mrs. Marshall-Kenner."

Hope's mouth dropped open. "You wouldn't dare."

"Oh, I would so dare."

Hope was in a stalemate. With an angry snarl on her face, she bit, "Fine. But if anything goes down, you run. Even if I'm not behind you. I'm a tribrid, I'll catch up."

"Deal," Sebastian smiled.

The two teens snuck out of the guest room and down the hall to the garden. Sebastian knew that his parents were going to be furious with him when they saw that he and Hope were taking some of their rare plants again but he hoped that they would be so impressed that they took out a vampire all by themselves that they'll forgive him. Or, if they failed and made it out alive, maybe his parents would be so grateful that he wasn't dead that would forget about the plants. Either way, he was sure he was going to get away with taking the plants.

They put everything they needed for the spell in Hope's bag along with her grimoire and hurried to the front door. As Sebastian reached for the doorknob, Hope smelt a very familiar scent coming from the other side of it. She grabbed Sebastian and vamped away from the front door to the kitchen.

Sebastian was shocked by Hope's sudden forceful command but before he could say anything about it, someone knocked heavily on the front door.

The two teens were completely silent as Mr. and Mrs. Dupeaux came out of their room and moved cautiously to the door. After peeping through the viewing glass at the top of the door, Mr. Dupeaux let out a sigh of relief. He opened the door to see Kol standing in it.

"Sorry to bother you," Kol said with a cocky smile on his face. "I've just come to pick up my niece. We've decided that it's best if she comes home since things have gotten so...messy."

"Of course," Mr. Dupeaux said. "Please, come in."

As the three adults began down the hallway to the guest room, Hope realized that now would be her only chance to get to Mikael before her family tried to interfere. Holding Sebastian tightly with one hand and her bag in the other, she vamped out of the door and down the road a ways before she finally stopped.

"Jeez," Sebastian exclaimed as they jerked to a sudden stop. "You should warn me before you do that."

"Sorry," Hope breathed. "But I didn't want my uncle to spot us. They probably know that we're gone by now. We have to get across the river before he tells the rest of my family and they form a search party for us."

Sebastian nodded reluctantly. He hated being vamped around by Hope. It gave him motion sickness but now wasn't the time to complain about it.

Giving the bag to Sebastian, Hope lifted her friend on to her back and said, "Hang on tight," before she vamped back off down the road again.

Kol's stomach dropped when he saw Hope's empty bed.

"Where is she," he asked. Mrs. Dupeaux came into the room behind him, just as surprised by the empty bed.

"Maybe she's in the bathroom," she suggested. She rushed down the hall to the nearest bathroom only to find it empty. She and Mr. Dupeaux ran to every room in their home looking for Hope - the kitchen, the dining room, the garden - but she was nowhere to be found.

"She was just here," Mr. Dupeaux said exasperatedly returning back to the hall where Kol so impatiently waited. "We just checked on her not ten minutes ago."

"Maybe Sebastian knows where she is," said Mrs. Dupeaux. She opened Sebastian's door only to find another empty room. "God," her hands shot up to cover her agape mouth, every horrible scenario playing through her mind at once. "You don't think they would actually go out there, do you? S-Sebastian wouldn't deliberately disobey us like that."

Kol grunted. He knew his niece would definitely disobey someone if she thought her idea was better.

Immediately taking out his phone, her called Freya hoping that she would have good news for him. Luckily for him, she picked up on the second ring. "Please tell me you've located Mikael."

"You called just in time. I just finished the spell."

The flatness of her voice did little to reassure Kol. "Alright, love, spit it out. And then I'm going to need you to make a second one for our niece who has seemed to have gone missing from the Dupeaux's."

Freya little out a small chortle. With everything going on, she half expected Hope to run off at some point. "Well, you should go find her if only to remind her of the consequences of running off. But you don't have to worry about her running into Mikael while she's out there. According to my spell, he is in the middle of the ocean. Moving. Probably headed to some European country."

"What," Kol couldn't believe his ears.

"Yeah, I know. I was...pretty shocked too."

Kol could hear the disappointment in Freya's voice but he was apathetic to it. He hated Mikael. The only better news from that was that the man was dead again.

"In that case," Kol continued. "Forget about the location spell for Hope. I'll find her myself. You just focus on bringing Davina back." As he hung up from Freya, Kol said, "Mikael's gone so they're in no danger of running into him out there tonight. But," he slid his phone into his back pocket with a playful smile. "When I find them, I will be sure to give them something new to fear."

-M-

Marcel paced the floor of Josh's apartment waiting for the call to come through of Josh telling him he was on his way back. He had timed everything to the minute but Josh was twenty minutes late on his call back. Marcel was beginning to get worried. Best case scenario, Josh got hung up trying to convince Kol to come back with him to fight Mikael. Worst case...Josh found Mikael. He didn't want to think about that. He wanted to call him but he didn't want to blow his cover in the Mikaelson home just in case he was in a precarious situation.

"Would ya sit down," Vincent bit, sitting on the sofa across from Marcel as he continued to pace. "You're making me nervous. I'm already agreeing to jump back into this Mikaelson bullshit with you, the least you can do is not get me worked up before we have to face an ancient murdering bloodthirsty beast."

"I shouldn't have sent him alone," Marcel muttered. "I should've gone with him. For all I know, Mikael has him right now."

Marcel looked towards the door but before he could decide to go after Josh, Vincent stood up and blocked his path. "Calm down. I'm sure he's fine. Perhaps Freya needed to keep Davina's father a little longer than expected. She probably wasn't expecting to have him there so soon and it's taking her a bit to get the spell together."

"Or Josh is out there fighting for his life right now and he can't contact us because Mikael has him just like he had Zane." Marcel speech only managed to work himself up more. He sped past Vincent to the door and opened it, about to run through every street in Algiers looking for his friend.

He was paused by the sight of the men standing behind the door. Lora jumped to her feet, her fangs bared and ready to fight. Vincent's forearms twitched in anticipation, prepared to throw a spell if the necessity came.

"Tell her to put those fangs away," Klaus's voice fell monotonously from his mouth. "Before I remove them."

"Lora," Marcel stated without turning away from Klaus. "Put your fangs away."

Obedient to her sire, Lora's fangs shot back into her mouth but she stood defensively in place.

"I would ask to be invited in," Klaus said as he took an unobstructed stepped into the apartment past Marcel, Elijah entering right behind him. Marcel took a small step to the side, not wanting to bump shoulders with Niklaus or Elijah as they came in. "But I know this apartment isn't owned by a human. So any vampire that desires is free to just...walk through the front door. Isn't that right."

"What are you doing here," Marcel growled. He knew there was only one way Klaus could've known where he was and he was afraid to find out what he did to get that information. He knew Josh wouldn't just volunteer it. "Where's Josh?"

Klaus walked over to the rectangular lamp sitting on Josh's coffee table. He flicked the turquoise lampshade with his finger and it spun a little. "Joshua has...quite the eye for interior design. We should have hired him to renovate the library."

"Stop playing games, Klaus," Marcel barked. "What did you do to him?"

"Games," Klaus growled, cutting his eyes sharply at Marcel. "Like the games you've been playing all day by not answering a single one of my calls. Twelve hours I spent locked in my studio, on my daughter birthday, worried about where you were. Only to find out that you found the time to come visit your little friends in Algiers before you could be bothered to call home."

"I've been busy."

"I don't doubt it. A road trip to Florida can really take a lot out of you." Turning his attention to Vincent, he tutted, "Vincent. I can't believe he talked you into this. Did you really think you could take on Mikael with just him?"

Marcel was shocked to know that Klaus had found out about Mikael. He knew if Klaus knew that Mikael was back, there was no way he was going to let him out of his sight, let alone fight Mikael.

"From what I've heard through the grapevine," Vincent started cockily. "Mikael has been desiccated before and the witch that performed that spell didn't have a Mikaelson helping her then. Did she?"

Klaus smirked. "That sort of luck only happens once in a lifetime."

"Well, I'm willing to take the chance."

"I suppose you are too, Marcel," he cut his eyes back to Marcel. "Ready to give your life for what? For Mikael? Because he killed some vampire you sired?"

"Would you be saying that if he had killed me," Marcel asked, annoyed by Klaus's statement as if Zane was supposed to mean nothing to him.

"That's different," Klaus bit. "And you know it."

"No, Klaus, what I know is that you and your siblings...and your father...treat the lives of anyone you don't care about as dispensable. That's why I came after this family twelve years ago. That's why I became the Beast that nearly ended our family. All of that anger didn't stem from nothing, Klaus. Zane mattered to me. Mikael has to pay for what he did. Even if I have to die fighting for it."

"That's never going to happen," Klaus muttered to himself.

Then Elijah's phone began to ring. He took it out of his jacket pocket and felt an uneasiness at seeing Freya's name. This was the call he and Klaus had been waiting on. He answered with a cautious, "Tell me you have good news, sister."

"He's not in New Orleans," Freya answered somberly. "My spell shows he's mid-way across the Atlantic."

"The Atlantic," Elijah repeated in confusion.

"He's gone," Marcel bellowed, angered that he wouldn't be able to exact his revenge any time soon.

"Yes," Freya answered Elijah. "I guess...I guess he took my advice and left New Orleans and...he decided to go to Europe instead."

"Good," Elijah stated. "As long as he's as far away from this family as possible. After you finish the spell for Davina, I want you to put a boundary spell around New Orleans. Make sure Mikael can never get back in. And sister," Freya waited patiently as Elijah took a suspenseful pause. "Don't bother adding Finn to that boundary spell. We will take care of him."

Freya's breath caught at finding out Elijah knew about Finn too. "What are you going to do to him," she demanded.

"Nothing permanent," Elijah stated calmly. "I'm sure you will find a way to see him again one day."

Elijah hung up before Freya could retort.

"You're still bringing Davina back," Marcel asked.

"Did you think we wouldn't because of the means you took to get her back," Klaus charged.

Marcel's jaw tightened tensely. "Actually, I did."

"You should know me better than that."

"If Mikael is gone," Vincent began as he walked over to the sofa where his bag sat. "Then so am I." He knew from past experience that after the threat was gone, all there was left was Mikaelson drama and unless you were a Mikaelson, it was best to stay as far away from Mikaelson drama as possible.

"No," Marcel sped over to him, grabbing the strap of his bag before he could put it over his shoulder. "We can still do this. If he's in Europe then we'll just have to go to him."

Klaus's face became red with anger at hearing Marcel declare his intent to chase after Mikael.

Vincent chuckled derisively. "Are you insane?" The serious look on Marcel's face answered his question. Shaking his head, Vincent continued, "Look, man. I only agreed to this because I wanted to protect my city from another Mikaelson war. If Mikael's gone, then there's no reason for me to go after him."

"I need to go after him," Marcel barked. "He killed Zane."

"I'm sorry," Vincent shrugged. He snatched his bag out of Marcel's hand with little resistance and started for the door. Looking back at Marcel one more time, he said, "I really hope you come to your senses and decide against it, but if you're still planning to go after Mikael, good luck." Then he left, shutting the door behind him.

Marcel squeezed his hands into tight fists, furious at everyone - Vincent for abandoning their plan just because Mikael was no longer in New Orleans; Klaus and Elijah for interfering; and Freya and Kol for being the reason behind it all.

Elijah walked over to Lora and the girl backed away, her defenses still up around the two Originals. Seeing that the girl was about to run, Elijah sped over to her, clasping her shoulders between his hands, and stared her in the eyes. "Go take a long walk around Algiers and don't come back until the night is over."

Against her own will, Lora's feet began dragging her out of the apartment. Elijah shut the door behind her and watched Klaus as he watched Marcel.

"Do you have any idea how foolish it was for you to try to go after Mikael on your own," Klaus scolded.

Marcel was unmoved by Klaus's anger. He had a rage of his own that showed no sign of diffusing any time soon.

"Zane was my responsibility," he bit. "I should've been the one to kill Mikael."

"You can't kill Mikael," Klaus shouted, growing irritated at his son's stubbornness. "He is an Original, Marcellus. He's more powerful than you and essentially indestructible."

"I've taken down Originals before," Marcel retorted in anger. "Originals aren't indestructible. You're just like cockroaches. All I need is the right equipment."

Klaus saw Elijah's eyes narrow at Marcel's menacing speech. He watched as Elijah's body tensed, immediately on the defensive as he always was whenever he heard a threat towards an Original, but just as Klaus thought he would have to put his brother down before he did anything to hurt Marcel again, he saw a calmness enter Elijah's eyes.

Elijah's natural response to hearing something that could be perceived as a threat to an Original was to put an immediate end to it by any means necessary but as he stared at Marcel's angry face, his heart softened. He was instantly reminded of the horrible, impulsive mistake he made on the bridge those twelve years ago, the mistake that nearly led to the destruction of his family. And he was reminded that his duty to protect his family extended beyond his siblings as it had been for so many years. Marcel was also his obligation to protect and he was bound by his duty to his family to protect him. He failed him once, but he wasn't going to fail him again. At that moment, he became determined to protect Marcel, even if he was protecting him from himself.

"You seem to have forgotten, Marcel," Elijah started calmly. "That you are no longer the Beast that so effortlessly took down our family. You, just like any other vampire, are now at the mercy of the Originals' strength and as an Original, let me be the one to remind you that taking us down is not as easy as you may remember."

Marcel turned to Elijah, the flame of his anger growing with the fodder of their unrelenting attempts to reason with him. "I don't care if it's not easy! I'm not going to let him get away with it. I'm going to kill Mikael even if I have to do it alone with my own two hands."

"You'd be a fool to think we would ever let you go chasing after him," Elijah stated plainly, fed up with Marcel's stubbornness. "An ordinary vampire like you stands no chance against an Original. You will leave the dealings of Originals to the Originals. Do I make myself clear?"

Marcel chewed viciously at his lip as he glared at Elijah. There was nothing he hated more than when Elijah attempted to patronize him. It only made him want to do exactly what Elijah was advising him against.

"I'll show you exactly what a vampire like me can do to an Original," Marcel stated. As his fists tightened, ready to attack Elijah, Klaus vamped over to him, grabbing him by the arm.

"That's enough," Klaus growled.

"Brother," Klaus looked over to see Elijah delicately removing his jacket and draping it neatly over one of Josh's kitchen bar. "Let him go."

Klaus's face scrunched into a hateful snarl. "If you think I'm going to let you hurt him, Elijah-"

"He is recalcitrant, Niklaus. He is going to go after Mikael lest we show him how vulnerable he would be to an Original. We both know that you don't have the fortitude to do this with him, not to the extent that he deserves, so I will gladly assume the mantel."

Marcel snatched his arm out of Klaus's hold and glowered furiously at Elijah. As he watched his son's anger grow, Klaus felt his heart begin to break. Looking into Marcel's shimmering eyes, Klaus realized how much pain he was in. Marcel had lost three of his people in one week and it obviously hurt him so badly that he had turned to anger to avoid feeling the pain. Klaus knew the feeling well.

Stepping back away from Marcel, Klaus threw his hands up and muttered, "If you two want to fight. Go on. But, Elijah. Know that I would sooner see you with a dagger in your chest than watch Marcel suffer."

"Don't worry, little brother," Elijah said confidently rolling up his sleeves. "This won't take long. Little Marcellus just needs to release a bit of this anger and his Uncle Elijah would be honored to be of assistance."

Moved by his anger at Elijah's constant condescending attitude, Marcel sped over to him in a blind rage, his arm wrenched back as far as he could get it. As fast as Marcel had moved, Elijah moved faster, anticipating Marcel's every move. Marcel missed his first strike as Elijah made a quick, yet small, sidestep. He swung again, and again Elijah dodged him. His anger clouding his better judgment, Marcel decided to try to tackle Elijah and just as his shoulder made contact with Elijah's abdomen, he felt his feet lift from the floor and his body hovering in the air. With a slight twist of his waist, Elijah pulled Marcel from his body and threw him across the room. Marcel crashed back first against Josh's old record collection.

"Elijah," Klaus growled deeply as he watched Marcel burst angrily from the pile of broken records.

"We're almost done, brother," Elijah calmly stated.

Marcel looked down to the broken shelf that once held Josh's records and saw a thick piece of narrow wood broken from it. Elijah saw the short hesitation in Marcel's eyes as he quickly assessed where should aim the makeshift stake. In one swift move, Marcel bent over, grabbed the stake, and threw it across the room at Elijah's heart.

Anticipating Marcel's actions, Elijah caught the wood between his fingers and before Marcel could react, he chucked it back across the room at him.

Marcel's breath caught in his chest when he saw the stake soaring at him at a speed quicker than he could dodge it. He didn't release his breath until he heard the sound of the stake sticking into the wall behind him, having passed swiftly underneath his left arm without ever touching his body. In the next second, Elijah was standing inches away from his face.

"That is how easy it would have been for Mikael to kill you," he growled.

Refusing to be bested so easily, Marcel took another swing at Elijah's face. Elijah blocked Marcel's wild punch with the palm of his hand and gripped his fist tightly within it. Marcel screamed as Elijah crushed his knuckles within in his hand. He tried to punch Elijah with the other hand but just as before, Elijah caught his fist within his palm and began crushing it with as much force as he did the other.

Having Marcel at his mercy, Elijah twisted Marcel's arms behind his back and spun him around. He slammed Marcel's chest into the wall, his arms pinned tightly behind his back, and growled, "This is how easily he can subdue you. You take for granted the kindness Klaus exhibits when fighting you but I guarantee Mikael will be far from merciful."

Elijah grew annoyed at Marcel's constant struggles to break free from his immutable hold. He realized that Marcel was as stubborn as his father and if he were to let things go on any further, Marcel would fight until he couldn't fight anymore and that would have done nothing to assuage Marcel's anger or change his mind about going after Mikael.

Changing tactics, Elijah ordered, "Tell me his name." Marcel ignored Elijah's request and continued to struggle against him. Attempting to get Marcel's attention, Elijah took both of Marcel's wrists into one hand, freeing the other to land a firm smack on the side of Marcel's thigh. "Call down and answer me or this fight will take a far different path than you would like. What's his name?"

"Who's name," Marcel yelled in frustration.

Elijah thought back to the memory of Zane lying on the apartment floor that Kol had shown him. "Your vampire that died. The young man Mikael killed. What was his name?"

Remembering Zane's green eyes, full of life, and then immediately with that life completely drained from them ended Marcel's struggling.

"Z-Zane," he muttered. "His name was Zane."

"Such a dull name," Elijah said, tightening his grip on Marcel's wrists anticipating another burst of futile struggles. "I can't imagine someone with such an unextraordinary name could be worth all the fuss."

"You didn't know him," Marcel roared, resuming the fight to free himself from Elijah. "He was innocent. And loyal to a fault. He would've done anything for his friends. He would've done anything for me..." Marcel's passionate struggles began to fade as his mind was flooded with memories of Zane. He had known him for mere weeks but he cared for him as much as he cared for Davina and he had been fighting all day to avoid feeling the pain he felt when he lost Davina. Standing there now, trapped in Elijah's grip, he realized that he couldn't do anything other than face his feelings. "He would have done anything for me," he repeated. "And all I had to do was protect him...and I couldn't even do that."

Accomplishing what he set out to do at the start of the fight, Elijah released Marcel's arms and stood back, waiting for Marcel to make the next move.

When Marcel turned to face the room, there were tears shimmering in his eyes. He kept his lip tucked tightly between his teeth to keep it from quivering but Klaus and Elijah knew his pain.

"Innocence...like his...is not easy to come by. But when you find it, all you really have to do it is protect it. And I failed."

"Marcel," Elijah reached out to Marcel and he immediately pulled away.

"It should have been me," he shouted. The moment the first tear broke free, Marcel fell into heavy sobs. His mind was flooded with images of Zane, the horrible way his body looked when he found him, and he remembered how helpless he was to save him. He hadn't felt that helpless in a long time and it only made him cry harder. "I would have gladly taken his place...to keep him from suffering."

"Don't be stupid," Klaus bit as he marched past Elijah to Marcel. Cradling Marcel's head between his hands, he looked him in his tearful eyes and said, "I know your pain, Marcellus, but don't you ever wish to take the place of a dead man, do you hear me?"

"He was just a kid," Marcel sobbed.

Surprising even himself, Klaus yelled, "I don't care! I don't care that he was a kid and I don't care how innocent he was. I know that you do, Marcel, and you probably hate me for saying this but. I. Don't. Care. You are what I care about, Marcel. You and Hope. And I would kill every vampire you ever sired before I ever let you give your life for one."

Furious at Klaus's proclamation, Marcel pushed against Klaus's chest, attempting to push him away but Klaus resiliently held on. Wrapping his arms around Marcel's shoulders, Klaus forced him into a hug, pressing Marcel's tear-streaked face against the crook of his neck.

"I'm sorry. I would do anything to keep you safe, Marcel," Klaus whispered as Marcel cried heavily against his neck. "The next time you feel like something is worth dying for, come to me. I will sacrifice it all for you."

Marcel's breath hitched with heartache. "You didn't see what he did to him. I wanted to rip Mikael's head off! But...Kol stopped me."

"And I am grateful for it," Klaus bit. "Mikael would have slaughtered you."

Now that he had let his anger go, Marcel was beginning to see how impulsive he had been in the past day. He realized that Josh was right. Dying fighting against Mikael wouldn't have solved anything. He had a chance of survival when he was going into the fight with Vincent and Kol but even after Kol didn't show and Vincent decided against chasing Mikael, Marcel was still considering going to Europe to hunt the man down alone. He couldn't believe that he ever thought something so stupid.

"Freya," he muttered against Klaus's shoulder. "And Kol...they did this. They brought Mikael back. They're the reason Zane is gone."

Klaus looked backed at Elijah, who had made his way back to the bar pouring himself a glass of Josh's most expensive wine, and he remembered what his brother had shown him about Kol at the Compound, how he was an accessory to Freya's plot to bring back Mikael.

"I know," Klaus said, rubbing his hand gently across the length of Marcel's back. "And I promise they will be dealt with. I love you, Marcellus. You know that, don't you?"

Marcel's rigid brows softened at Klaus's question. He pushed his face further into the crook of Klaus's neck and nodded yes.

"Then you should've come to me when you knew Mikael was back. I know that you think you can handle anything but there are just some things that even a two-hundred-year-old vampire can't handle alone. Mikael is five times older than you and five times stronger. You could have...you would have been slaughtered."

"It didn't matter," Marcel muttered. "Zane was my guy. I let Kol get away with killing Gwen. I can't let Mikael get away too."

Klaus's hand suddenly came down sharply against Marcel's backside and he let out a small yelp.

"No more talk of you going after Mikael," he ordered. "He is gone now. And if he ever returns, he will feel the pierce of the White Oak in his cold, dead heart." Klaus held Marcel in his arms until Marcel's crying had calmed enough for him to pull away. Holding Marcel at arms' length, Klaus asked, "Better?"

Embarrassed at his emotional breakdown, Marcel stared sheepishly down at Klaus's chest and nodded 'yes'.

"Good, because you have something more important than Mikael that requires your attention. There's a teenage girl about to wake in my home to a father she's never met while the father she does know is across the river from her."

Marcel wiped the tears fervently from his cheeks. He needed to get back to the Compound before Davina woke. He didn't want her to meet the man who aided in her conception. There was nothing good about him and Davina's ignorance of him was more of a blessing than she realized.

Pulling away from Klaus, Marcel hurried for the door, paused only by Klaus calling his name.

"One more thing before you go," said Klaus. "According to Kol, Freya has brought Finn back as well. And you know where he is."

"I know where the apartment that Freya had him stashed at before is," Marcel admitted. "But there's no guarantee he's still there."

"There's no harm in looking," Klaus smirked.

"What do you want with him?"

Again Klaus looked to Elijah and this time Elijah looked back at him, setting his wine glass on the counter in front of him.

"Finn is an Original," Elijah stated thoughtfully grabbing his jacket and carefully draping it back over his shoulders. "It is better that he...returns to his family than be left of his own accord."

For a moment, Marcel was for the idea if only because it would anger Kol to have Finn around so much but then he remembered how Finn and Esther came after Hope as an infant and he was immediately repulsed by the idea of having him around Hope again.

"He gave up his right to be a part of this family when he came after an innocent child," Marcel stated firmly. "He can't be trusted."

"I agree," said Niklaus. Then he nodded slightly to Elijah.

Marcel's watched with shock as Elijah unbuttoned his suit jacket and reached into his two inner pockets. In one hand, he held a silver dagger and in the other, a small glass jar with a few ounces of white oak ash left.

"When I say that he should return to his family," Elijah said, examining the amount of white oak ash they had left and determining it was more than enough to put their brother down. "I didn't mean to imply that he would be doing so upon his own conscious, voluntary will."

Marcel couldn't help but remember the conversation he had with Kol about his fear of the dagger. He could only assume that Finn's fear probably steeped even deeper after spending nearly a millennia with a dagger through his chest.

"Are you sure about that," he asked cautiously. "Kol...talks about those things like they're worse than death."

Klaus scoffed. He could be sympathetic to Kol's fears because he knew Kol was mostly a victim of his brother's impatience and short fuse which lead to most of his daggerings but Finn was a threat to their family. More importantly, he was a threat to Hope. If something were to occur that made it beneficial for Finn to hurt Hope for any reason, Klaus couldn't trust that Finn would choose to do the right thing.

"It is the only way, short of killing him, to ensure that he doesn't come after Hope again," said Klaus. Then with a wry smirk, he added, "And Elijah insists that killing our dear brother is not the answer."

"What happened to 'no more daggers'," Marcel continued to object.

"Finn can't be trusted," Elijah said. "We will reconsider the proposition to undagger him in a few hundred years when Hope and her grandchildren are long gone and her great-great-grandchildren are scattered across the world where Finn will never find them."

Marcel still didn't like the idea of daggering Finn again but he didn't want to argue about it anymore. He needed to get back to the Compound so he could get rid of Davina's father before she came back.

"Fine," he said walking towards the door again. "I'll show you where the apartment is but then I'm leaving. I need to get back to Davina. And I've had my fill of daggering Mikaelsons."

-M-

Hope and Sebastian wandered the streets of Algiers following the faint scent of vampire blood leading Hope to a mostly dilapidated building. She went bravely inside, Sebastian apprehensively following behind her taking every step with more caution than his tribrid friend.

"Are you sure this is the place," he mumbled. A car drove past the building, it's lights causing shadows to dance across the wall and Sebastian felt his heart skip a beat, fearing that each shadow was Mikael.

"Shh," Hope hissed. "Yes, I'm sure. The scent is getting stronger. Now, be quiet. He's a vampire, remember. He can probably hear us."

"M-maybe this was a bad idea. We should just go back home and let your family deal with this Mikael-dude. They're like...immortal and junk. And we're just a couple of kids with a magic book. We can't fight an ancient vampire."

"We don't have to fight him," Hope whispered. "I told you. We're just gonna use the spell that knocked out Marcel on Mikael and put him out of commision before he ever has a chance to hurt my family. I just hope he's here."

"But we don't even know if this spell will still work with the Oleander root. We should have at least ran a test spell before we came here. We should go back home and test the spell and then-"

Hope stopped suddenly in front of a quiet apartment. Her sudden pause ended Sebastian's speech. He stood silently waiting for her to say something, preferably that she was wrong and Mikael was nowhere around.

"This is it," Hope whispered. "The smell's coming from in there." She listened intently for any sounds coming from inside. When she heard feet shuffling across the hardwood floor she said, "Someone's inside. C'mon,"

Still anxious about facing their unknown enemy, Sebastian reluctantly helped Hope set up the spell. Just seeing the circle painted on the floor in white paint reminded him of the last time they tried to perform the spell.

"You sure it's not gonna hurt this time," he asked.

Setting the bowl of mixed ingredients in the center of the circle, Hope answered, "Yes...I think. According to my calculations, yes...maybe."

"You do not inspire confidence, woman," he bit tensely.

"Well, I only had a few hours to think about this. The worst that could happen is...it doesn't work at all. Which, probably means it still won't hurt."

Seething through his teeth, Sebastian said, "It'll hurt if he kills us."

"Hey, you didn't have to come. I told you I could do this on my own."

Realizing the extent of his own cowardice, Sebastian got in the circle and grabbed Hope's hands. "Like I'm ever gonna let you die alone."

The two teens took a deep breath and began chanting the incantation. As they chanted in silence, no pain or any sensation at all, Hope began to wonder if she had made a mistake by taking the Callum root out. Sebastian closed his eyes and started focusing as hard as he could on the spell. He didn't want to face Mikael but he knew that Hope was going to face him regardless and at least if the spell worked, they would stand a chance.

And then the ingredients in the bowl caught fire.

"You did it," Sebastian exclaimed in an excited whisper.

Hope wanted to celebrate but she had more important things to focus on. Taking the knife that Sebastian didn't know she had out of her bag, she ran the blade quickly across the palm of her hand. She stifled her scream through gritted teeth as the blood began to pour out of her wound. Sebastian instantly wrapped his hands around her's, putting pressure on her injury.

"What are you doing," he barked in shock.

"I'm getting Mikael to come out," Hope responded as if cutting her hand was the most natural thing in the world.

"You said you were going to call him."

"Because I knew you weren't going to be okay with me doing this."

"Gee, I wonder what would make you think that."

Hearing the anger growing in Sebastian's sharp tone, Hope said, "If I started yelling in the middle of the hall, his neighbors might have come out and we would be putting more people in danger. This way, only Mikael knows we're out here."

Sebastian was still angry with Hope's deceit but he understood her reasoning. Moving his hands to take a quick peek at her palm, he was glad to see her supernatural genes already working heal her.

Just as Hope expected, the apartment door they were in front of opened soon after the first drop of blood hit the ground.

Finn stood standing in the doorway, curiously eyeing the blood covered kids standing in the hall.

"You're not Mikael," Hope muttered.

"I'm not," Finn agreed. He recognized the girl from the street earlier that day. "You're Hope. Klaus's spawn."

"And you're the man who saved me and my Uncle Kol from Mikael," Hope said, looking the man up and down. There was no doubt in her mind that he was a Mikaelson. "Finn, right? You're my dad's oldest brother."

Finn smirked. "Klaus talks about me?"

"Nothing good," Hope replied coldly. "He just says that you were boring and that you hated our family. I guess that's why you're here with Mikael, huh? Since you both hate us." Craning her neck to look into the apartment past Finn, Hope asked, "Is he in there?"

Aggravated by the girl's candor, Finn bit, "Who?"

"Mikael, duh. He's who we're here for."

"Then I'm afraid you came for nothing because he's long gone. You should get going too. I'm sure it's past your bedtime," he said mockingly.

"I know he's in there," Hope persisted. "I can smell blood."

Finn smirked. "You certainly know Mikael. Where he is, death follows. But as I said, he's gone. And I'd prefer it if you left too. I don't want Niklaus sniffing around anywhere near me with his damned daggers."

Just as Finn was about to shut the door, he looked down and saw the circle intricately painted on the floor. He had never seen anything like it before.

He knelt down in front of it to examine it closer. He reached out to it and before Hope could tell him not to, he touched it. A blinding flashed knocked all three of them away from the circle.

-M-

Meanwhile

"This is the place," Marcel said as he stopped his car in front of the apartment building he and Kol followed Freya to. "Last door on the left."

"Wait here," Elijah ordered as he opened the back door. "I don't want to have to carry his body back to the Compound."

"Then call a cab," Marcel bit. "I want to be back at the Compound before Davina wakes up."

"That wasn't a request, Marcellus," Elijah replied coldly. "We shan't be very long."

Klaus let out a heavy sigh as he opened his door. He knew that he was going to have to endure a long argument on their way home between Marcel and Elijah about Elijah's lack of respect and he knew that he would have to endure more of the same from Marcel when they returned home if he didn't take up for him then. As Klaus opened his mouth to censure Elijah, he got a sudden whiff of all too familiar blood. Elijah and Marcel smelled it in the same instant. They all sped out of the car and into the building without a second thought.

When they stopped in the hall, none of them had the strength to move. Hope and Sebastian laid on the hall floor across from Finn's apartment, their eyes closed. Klaus was too afraid to listen for their heartbeats so Elijah did it for him.

"They're alive," he announced and like magic, Niklaus gained the ability to move again.

He rushed over to Hope, lifting her into his arms, her face scrunched up at him as she regained consciousness.

"D-dad," she asked, her eyes fluttering open.

"It's me, sweetheart," he replied, squeezing her in his arms to confirm to himself that she was perfectly alright. "What are you doing here?"

Hope looked over to Sebastian who was beginning to sit up himself, rubbing the soreness from the back of his head after having it smacked against the floor when they flew away. Then she looked back into the apartment. Finn laid on the floor of his apartment, still unconscious.

"Is he..."

Klaus followed Hope's eyes into the apartment. He was shocked to see Finn lying on the floor, his eyes closed and his body rigid.

"Elijah," he nodded towards the apartment.

Elijah walked into the living room and knelt in front of Finn. He tried to move his hand but his body was unyieldingly stiff. Looking back to Klaus, he uttered, "Well, he is certainly out of our hair for a while."

Chapter Text

Chapter 40

Hope and Sebastian passed out in the back seat of Marcel's car, both sitting close enough together to share a seat belt. They were exhausted, especially Hope. It had been the longest day of her young life but the moment she saw Marcel standing safely in the hall with their father and uncle, she knew she could finally go to sleep in peace. Sebastian followed her example only because he didn't want to be trapped in a car with Klaus glaring angrily at him every few minutes.

"There won't be much room in the back seat," said Elijah, awkwardly carrying Finn's stiff body in his arms. "It might be easier for me to carry him across the bridge."

Marcel paused as he threw Hope's bag into the backseat beside her, a realization hitting him. "Wait. I'll take him across."

"You," Elijah questioned. "I didn't know you were so concerned about Finn."

"I want to get back to the Compound as fast as I can," Marcel corrected. "I wouldn't care if he stayed like this forever."

Klaus couldn't help but smirk at Marcel's reaction. "Give him to him, Elijah. He wants to be there when Davina wakes."

Understanding Marcel's long-awaited desire to see Davina again, Elijah handed Finn over to Marcel and without another word. As soon as the man's heavy body was situated in his arms, Marcel sped off towards the bridge.

As Niklaus slipped into the passenger's seat, Elijah got behind the wheel of the car. "You should call the Dupeauxs," Elijah began as he started driving. "They are probably unaware that their son has snuck out with Hope, yet again."

Klaus glanced into the back seat at his daughter sleeping soundly, her head resting against Sebastian's narrow shoulder.

"Hope has quite the brave heart," he stated, seemingly unrelated.

"You call it brave," Elijah disagreed. "I'm sure Hayley will have a different word for it."

"It has been a long day, brother." Klaus sighed. "Hope has been through enough today as is. Perhaps...you could talk Hayley into laying off of her tonight."

"Excuse me," Elijah stated flatly. "She nearly runs to her death and you think Hayley should take it easy on her."

"I'm not saying that she should go easy on her, I'm just saying that this is probably the longest birthday she's had since the day she was born and we would not be doing her any favors by making it any longer. I am still going to punish her for this but...she was only trying to help. Her heart was in the right place."

"Her heart is always in the right place, Niklaus, but that doesn't excuse her actions. She intended to challenge Mikael. She could have died."

"I told you I will punish her but Hayley will not be lenient about this. When she found out Hope put herself in danger again..."

"Whatever she does, Hope will have deserved."

"It's her birthday, Elijah," Klaus pleaded as a last resort. "And Marcel was missing. Certainly, you can sympathize with her fear. We all do impulsive things to protect the ones we love."

"And what of Marcel," Elijah asked heatedly. "I suppose you intend to pardon his impulsiveness as well."

"I'm not pardoning anything. Marcel and Hope will both be punished when I feel the time is right but not tonight. And weren't you the one who has been urging me to not overreact about Marcel's disappearance all day?"

"Because I thought all he was doing was taking time to grieve over his fallen friend. But, apparently, he had been planning his attack on Mikael in his disappearance and had we not thwarted his plans, we may well have spent the night traveling across the globe to retrieve his dead body. If Mikael was generous enough to leave a body to bury."

Niklaus let out a breathy sigh. "You may think me a pushover, brother, but I am actually being quite practical. We still have Finn's body to deal with, plus Freya and Kol. Not to mention Davina. If we add Marcel and Hope to the mix, the night will never end. I promise, if I haven't punished them by tomorrow evening, I will turn over Hope's discipline to Hayley and Marcel's to you. Just, please, let's not drag this night on. It is her birthday after all."

Elijah stared straight ahead, contemplating Niklaus's plea, but as hardhearted as he wanted to be on the subject, he and Niklaus both knew that he could never say no to Niklaus when if he begged.

"Fine," he relented. "You have until dinner tomorrow night but that is as long as I can restrain Hayley for."

Niklaus smiled triumphantly at Elijah.

"Don't smirk," Elijah scolded, catching a glimpse of Klaus's face in the corner of his eye. "You need to reign in your children before they get themselves killed."

"My children," Klaus chided. "And who's responsibility is Kol? And Freya's lab is right down the hall from your bedroom but I suppose you were too busy in there with Hayley to notice our sister reviving the wickedest members of our family."

"Had she revived them down the hall from my bedroom I'm sure I would have noticed, Niklaus," Elijah bit, irritated by Klaus's implication that he was to blame for not keeping an eye on Freya. "She obviously did it in some other location. Probably that secret apartment she was keeping for them. But don't you worry about Kol or Freya. I will handle them."

"You will handle Freya," Klaus corrected. "Kol is mine."

"No, brother," Elijah firmly objected. "I will handle Kol. He is terrified of you enough already. I think he still fears you will dagger him for his misbehaviors."

"Trust me, Elijah, it is not the dagger he should fear from me right now. He lied to me. To my face. He knew Mikael was alive and he convinced us to not search for Marcel as if he could have possibly known he'd be safe out there. If anything would've happened to Marcel..." Klaus dreaded the thought. "No, Elijah. Kol is mine."

Elijah glanced over at Klaus and saw how serious he was about the matter. "If you really intend to punish Kol for this," he complied with Klaus's decree. "You must handle it with tact. Treat him no different than you would Marcel or Hope."

Klaus scoffed. "I think he can handle a little more than Marcel or Hope."

"No he cannot, Niklaus," Elijah stated firmly. His sudden intensity piqued Klaus's interest. "I know that he comes across as indifferent when it comes to matters of loyalty and disappointing his family but Kol is just as emotionally vulnerable as Marcel. As any of us. He shared the same father we did and he has been at the mercy of your pitiless daggers for a thousand years. If you really intend to punish him, you must be cognizant of his sensitivity."

Klaus sighed. Had he known that punishing Kol would require a lecture prior he would not have so eagerly volunteered. "Fine, Elijah. I will handle Kol's emotions with sensitivity but I will not relate that same sensitivity to his backside. He has been begging for this thrashing for weeks and I will oblige him."

When Elijah parked in front of the Dupeaux's home, he and Klaus weren't surprised to see lights on through the windows. Klaus climbed out of the car and grabbed Sebastian from the back seat, carefully laying Hope's head over on the car seat. Then he carried the boy to the door and gave it a firm knock.

Mr. and Mrs. Dupeaux opened the door almost immediately, Kol by their side.

"Well, well, well," Klaus sang as he stared Kol down. "I was not expecting to find you here. It's funny, I sent you to protect my daughter and yet here you are, where she isn't, while she was across the river attempting to face down Mikael."

"What," Kol exclaimed, for the moment electing to ignore Klaus's anger. "I-I mean, I knew that she had run away but Freya said Mikael was somewhere across the Atlantic so I didn't think she was in any real danger. I've searched the entire Quarter for her and when I didn't find her, I just assumed she'd come back here. Is she okay?"

"Of course she is," Klaus bit. "You wouldn't be standing here if she wasn't." Klaus passed Sebastian's sleeping body over to his father and said, "Let's go, Kol. The night isn't over yet."

Cautious of his brother's anger, but too embarrassed to cause a scene in front of the Dupeauxs, Kol dragged his feet behind Klaus to the car. He slid into the back seat, a sense of relief filling him at seeing Hope sleeping so soundly but also a bit of jealously nagging at him because he knew he was not going to get as sound a sleep that night.

"Was Marcel okay," Kol dared speak after driving in awkward silence with his brothers for a while.

"Marcel is fine," Elijah answered. "He was a bit distraught about losing his vampire but he is finally starting to grieve. That's a step in the right direction. I think having Davina back will help to ease his grief."

Kol's heart fluttered at the thought of Davina being back. He wanted to beg Elijah to drive faster but his brothers seemed tense enough without him making demands.

"I can't believe she's really coming back," Kol murmured to himself, a soft smile plastered across his face. "Do you think she's already there waiting for me?"

"Can't be sure," Klaus uttered. "How long did it take Freya to bring Mikael and Finn back to life?"

Kol went flush. He didn't know how to respond. He begged Elijah not to tell Klaus that he knew about Mikael and Finn but obviously he did. Kol feared that his end was near and just when he was getting everything he wanted.

"'L-Lijah...I asked you not to tell him," Kol mumbled.

"He did," Klaus bit before Elijah could explain the reason why he felt it was necessary to show Klaus the memories Kol showed him. "Because he is more loyal to this family than you."

"I just wanted my girl back," Kol mumbled lowly, as ashamed of his actions as Klaus wanted him to be. "I just wanted to see her again. I thought that maybe I could try to stop Freya before she brought Mikael back but she tricked me. And then...I was just too afraid to tell you. I waited too long to tell anyone and I was afraid you would..." Kol could see the emotionless look on Klaus's face through the rearview mirror. He thought that his defense was falling on deaf ears and feared that Klaus had already made up his mind on how he was going to punish him. With tears falling down his cheeks, he begged, "Just let me see her, please. B-before you put the dagger in me...let me just see that she's okay, that this all wasn't for nothing. P-please, Niklaus."

"Enough," Klaus snapped. "You're not getting the dagger, how many times do I have to tell you that."

"Swear it. Swear it on Hope and Marcel's life."

"I will not." Klaus turned around in his seat to face Kol, his intense eyes burning into his brother. "I will not because you can trust that I'm being honest with you, because since our return, all I've been is honest with you. Which is far more than I can say for you."

"I can't help it." Kol stammered, his tears falling heavier. "I don't mean to be so deceitful all the time, Niklaus, I swear. I'm just...I'm always so afraid that the truth will make you angry enough to put me back in a box. A-and I know that we all promised to change this go-round but if that's true then why do you still have those daggers? Why haven't you destroyed them if you don't ever plan on using them?"

Elijah waited as patiently as Kol for Klaus's answer. That is a question he'd been wondering himself. Prior to Finn's resurrection, there should have been no reason for Klaus to need the daggers and yet, he kept them.

Klaus said nothing. They rode in silence for the rest of the ride. Only the sound of Kol's sniffling and Hope's deep breathing could be heard until Klaus's text alert sounded. He looked down at his phone to see Freya's message typed across the screen.

"Well," he muttered as Elijah parked the car in front of the Compound. "Looks like we made it just in time. You're girlfriend's awake."

Kol's heart skipped a beat. He wanted to burst out of the door and vamp through the Compound to Davina but he restrained himself, waiting for Klaus to make the first move.

"Go see your girlfriend," Klaus said. "Tell her how much you love her and how you would do anything for her. Enjoy the next hour with her because afterward, she is going back across the river with Joshua and you will not be allowed to see her for at least the next week."

Kol couldn't believe it. He had gone twelve years without Davina and now that she was back, Klaus expected him to go another week without her. "Please, don't do this Klaus. Beat me if you must. Put me under the same restrictions you had Marcel under when he returned. Anything but this. Please don't keep her away from me."

"You're wasting time," Klaus coldly muttered. "You only have an hour."

Realizing that he wasn't going to change Klaus's mind at the moment, Kol quickly jumped out of the car and vamped into the Compound.

"That was very sinister of you, brother," Elijah said. "He did all of this just to have Davina back."

"And that is the reason I allowed Freya to bring her back. Because he and Marcel seem so attached to her. But humans have an average lifespan of about eighty years. Davina wasn't even nineteen when she died so he still has at least sixty years to spend with her. One week won't kill him."

"Clever," Elijah gave a small smirk. "Although I'm sure he'd beg to differ. Does this mean you've decided against spanking him?"

Klaus cut his eyes at Elijah. "His restriction from Davina is his punishment for keeping Freya's plans a secret from me. The spanking he will most certainly still receive will be because of his lies that kept me from searching for my son when his life was in danger."

Elijah sighed. "Just remember what we talked about. He's obviously contrite about it, there's no need to make him feel worse."

Klaus rolled his eyes at Elijah and opened the car door. "I've given spankings before, Elijah. I know what I'm doing."

-M-

Flashback:

Finn entered his family's hut to see Mikael kneeling on the floor wrapping the remainder of the cooked chickens Esther had made for his hunting excursion with his sons. Elijah and Niklaus stood quietly by his side, their quivers fixed to their backs and their bows in hand. Esther sat across from them mending a pair of Mikael's leather pants with another scrap of leather, baby Koll in her lap chewing innocently on the loose scraps of material.

Surprised by the sight, Finn asked, "We're going hunting? Wh-why didn't anyone tell me?"

"Because you're not going," Mikael stated plainly.

Finn looked at Elijah and little Niklaus, barely big enough to hold a bow, and said, "But...Elijah and Klaus are going."

"Because they need to learn," Mikael continued giving Finn curt answers.

Finn was no fan of hunting, especially with their father. It was tiresome and if Mikael was in a mood, the one-day excursions could seem to last forever. But it was what the men in their village did and even when he had to contend with Mikael's temperament, it felt good to be a man. But Mikael rarely took him out on the hunt. Most boys in their village had been hunting since they were six or seven but Mikael didn't take Finn on his first hunt until he was nine and in the three years since Finn could count on one hand the number of times he'd been hunting.

"B-but, father, I want to learn too," Finn pleaded.

"I said no," Mikael bit.

All of the boys could tell that their father was getting irritated and it was usually then that they would stop talking to him but Finn persisted.

"Why can Elijah and Niklaus go on the hunt but not I," Finn asked, a sudden bravery coming over him. "This is Elijah's twelfth hunt and Klaus's sixth. They've both been hunting more than me. I'm the only boy over ten without a hunting scar to show off."

When Mikael's eyes cut at him, Finn felt a sudden overwhelming regret. He realized that he might have over spoken. If Mikael thought that he wanted a scar to show off, he might have been inclined to give him one.

Glowering at Finn's tender cheeks, Mikael considered running his knife over the boy's face and giving him the scar he so angrily demanded, but at looking at his face, Mikael was reminded of Freya. He was always reminded of Freya when he looked at Finn. The two of them were inseparable the last he saw of her and now whenever he looked at the boy he was only reminded of the daughter he lost. That was why he was always so hesitant to take him on the hunt or spend any time with him. He couldn't bare the reminder constant reminder.

Standing up with the sack of chickens in his hand, Mikael walked over to Finn and the boy dropped his chin down to his chest, preparing for a strike that never came.

"Klaus, Elijah," Mikael called as he walked past Finn to the door. "Let's go."

Elijah and Niklaus ran behind Mikael, both giving their big brother sorrowful looks as they left.

As tears began to fall down Finn's cheeks, Esther sat Kol down on his pallet on the floor and went over to her son. She pulled Finn into her embrace, squeezing his shoulders as he cried.

"Why does he hate me, mother," he sobbed.

"He doesn't hate you," was all the words of comfort she could give the boy. She knew not why Mikael so adamantly refused to acknowledge their eldest son's existence but she knew how to help Finn take his mind off of it. "Would you like to learn a new spell today," she asked smiling down at him.

Finn wiped his cheeks clean and nodded fervently. There was a benefit to never being invited to the hunt; when his brothers were gone, he had his mother's attention all to himself. Thanks to their father's attentiveness, Elijah and Klaus may become better hunters than him, but Finn was determined to be a better witch.

End Flashback

Kol burst through the doors of Freya's workshop as if he was afraid that Davina was a phantom that would disappear if he didn't come fast enough to see her.

Davina stood surrounded by the Mikaelsons and Joshua, soaking wet with a thick blanket wrapped around her body. The tub of water she was 'reborn' in sat on the floor behind her, still slightly bubbling from the fresh spell. When Kol cam bursting through the doors, she wanted to run over to him and hug him like it was the last time she would ever see him again but regard for her modesty kept her from doing anything that could cause her blanket to drop. So in response, Klaus sped over to Davina, past Marcel and Josh, and kissed her. She kissed him back, their bodies pressed so tightly together one would think they were trying to fuse into one body. Their passionate embrace didn't end until Davina needed a break for air.

"I'm sorry," Kol pronounced instantly. "I'm so, so sorry, love. I'm sorry for what I did. I'm sorry I couldn't save you. I-I'm sorry-" Davina's lips back on his ended Kol's apologies.

"I love you," she said after ending the kiss once more. Then with a sincere laugh, she said, "I just came back from the dead...again," Looking over to Marcel and Josh, she continued, "To the people that I love most in the whole world. I have to be...the luckiest girl in the whole world."

Kol wrapped his arms around Davina's shoulders, a smile on his face as he stared down at the girl that he was to have for only an hour. "No, Davina Claire. I'm the one who's lucky...because it could have only been by a sheer stroke of luck that a no-good scoundrel like me could ever have a girl like you love me." Tears of joy breeched his eyes. "I...I've been waiting twelve years to say that."

As the two began kissing again like two lovestruck teenagers, Rebekah stood beside Marcel with an armful of clothes. She made a scene of clearing her throat to get Davina's attention.

"Freya said you might need these," Rebekah smiled as Davina blushed deeply, forgetting that she was completely naked under the blanket while she was so passionately making out with Kol.

"Thank you," she mumbled shyly as she took the clothes from Rebekah. "I'll just...go put these on." She chanced another loving look at Kol as she made her way to the door. Kol moved to follow behind her but a wide hand pressed firmly across his chest paused him.

"Don't play with me," Marcel said coldly.

Kol pushed Marcel's hand away and bit, "She's a big girl. She knows when to say 'no' on her own."

A deep, aggressive growl rumbled through Marcel's chest.

Realizing that he wasn't going to be able to get past 'Daddy Marcel' without a good excuse, Kol said, "C'mon, mate. I only have an hour with her and I don't want to waste even a minute of it."

"What," Marcel and Josh exclaimed in unison, both fearing that there was some sort of stipulation to the resurrection spell that they had missed.

"Niklaus is punishing me," Kol explained further. He cut his eyes at Freya and said, "Because I didn't tell him about your plan to bring Finn and Mikael back. So he's only giving me an hour to spend with Davina and then I'm not to see her again for a week."

Guilt rested like a stone in the pit of Freya's belly. Her eyes drifted over to the sofa where Finn's unconscious body laid. Following her sight, Kol looked over to the sofa and saw Finn for the first time. He didn't know why he was there or why he was unconscious but he didn't want to waste any of his time that was supposed to be spent with Davina asking questions about Finn.

"She should be at least partly dressed by now," Kol stated, waiting for Marcel to give him a nod of approval.

Although Marcel didn't like the idea of Kol attempting to make a move on Davina so soon after she was brought back to life, he knew that if Klaus were to give him the same punishment regarding Rebekah, he would be devastated if someone were to interfere with their hour together.

"Go," Marcel relented. "But if you ask me, Klaus is letting you off easy."

As Kol left the workshop, Freya started putting together the spell she needed to wake Finn.

"What are you doing," Rebekah asked curiously.

"I'm setting up the de-aging spell to shock Finn awake," Freya answered plainly. "And then, I'll just need to-"

"Wait," Hayley interrupted. "You're not serious, right? Finn tried to come after Hope. He's better the way he is. No, scratch that. He was better the way he was before you brought him back to life."

Freya looked around the room at the other two Mikaelsons, expecting them to be on her side but Rebekah and Marcel both seemed just as against Finn's revival as Hayley.

"He paid the price for his crimes against this family," Freya defended. "He died...he spent nine hundred years in a box...he has suffered more than any of you, so how can you say he doesn't deserve to live."

"We can't trust him, Freya," Marcel insisted. "If he came after Hope once, what's to say he wouldn't do it again."

The workshop doors opened and in walked Klaus and Elijah, both with stern looks on their face as they'd heard the argument on their way from Hope's bedroom. Elijah carried Hope's backpack in his hands, deciding that just in case Niklaus failed to punish Hope as he promised, he would take a preemptive approach and keep Hope's grimoire until he and Hayley decided she was ready to get it back.

"Marcel is right," Klaus said. "Finn can't be trusted. We might as well put his body back in a coffin the way it is."

"No," Freya crossed the room and stood in front of Finn's body, ready to attack anyone who dared to come near him. "You all are judging him based on past mistakes, mistakes that he has already faced the consequences for. That's not fair. None of us are blameless enough to pass judgment on him. You forgave Marcel. He attempted to kill us and you forgave him." Klaus gritted his teeth at Freya's mentioning Marcel's culpable mistake. "But that's okay because he is your family. Well, so is Finn. He is our brother. He deserves another chance."

Rebekah unconsciously slipped her hand into Marcel's. When he returned to the Compound with Finn in his arms, she nearly knocked her unconscious brother's body to the ground trying to hug her lover. She worried about him enough in those past twelve hours to last a lifetime. Freya reminding them of Marcel's past injustice to their family reminded her how easy it was for their family to commit ostensibly inhumane crimes against each other and yet still they always found a way to forgive themselves. She thought maybe Freya was right. Maybe they were being unfair to Finn.

Elijah, Klaus, and Rebekah all shared silent looks. After a thousand years together they had developed a language of facial expressions all their own. It was Rebekah's compassionate eyes that convinced her brothers to give Finn his second shot.

"Alright," Elijah finally said. "Wake him. We will give him a chance. One chance. That's all he gets, Freya. If he does anything to betray this family, anything to hurt Hope, despite my previous promise of 'no daggers', Finn will find one situated in his heart permanently."

Freya was too relieved that her speech had worked to ease her siblings' hearts to argue with Elijah.

Marcel watched heatedly as Freya began setting up the de-aging spell. He didn't care that they had given him another chance, he didn't think Finn deserved one. He felt his rebellion against his family was justified but Finn was just selfish and looking out for his own self-interest, like Kol, except Kol had his limits and it started with Hope. Finn didn't seem to have any limits. When he returned to the mansion, he compelled Davina's father to leave town and to never return because he didn't want the man anywhere near his family but now everyone was allowing Finn to return as if Davina or Hope would be safe anywhere near the man.

"Alright," Freya said as she placed the last candle on the floor. "Put him in the circle."

No one was eager to move Finn's body but eventually, Elijah did. After he laid Finn in the circle, he held onto Freya's hands and worked as the anchor for her magic. As she began chanting, Finn's body began to change. Everyone watched in amazement as body changed. He shrunk into his clothing, disappearing beneath a pile of heavy denim and leather.

When the last candle lit, Freya stopped chanting. She looked down at the pile of clothes, waiting for it to move. She refused to let go of Elijah's hands until it did.

Finn's head popped out of the neck hole of his shirt, long, wavy brown hair framing his young face.

Elijah knew that Finn had to be no more than fourteen years old because it was in his brother's fifteenth year that Finn had his growth spurt and shot up nearly two feet what seemed like overnight.

"Wh-what happened," Finn asked, looking down to his thin fingers poking out under his shirt. "What did you all do to me?"

Confusion set in around the room. When Marcel was brought back as a child, he didn't remember anything about his adult life but Finn seemed to be aware that something was wrong.

"F-Finn," Freya started softly. Finn turned his wide brown eyes up to her. "Do you know who I am," she asked.

"Of course, y-you're Freya," he answered cautiously, confused as to why she would think he wouldn't know who she was. "Wh...What happened to me?"

Ignoring Finn's question, Elijah turned to Freya and said, "What is this? Why does he still remember everything? Marcel remembered nothing of his adult life when he reverted."

"I...I don't know. Hope must have...done something different with the spell this time." Deciding it was best to turn Finn back into an adult immediately before anything else new happened, Freya began setting up the second spell. Since the Dupeauxs last trip to Asia, she had more than enough Ancient Ginseng to complete the second spell. "Lie back down, Finn," she instructed as she placed the mixture of ingredients back down at the head of the circle. "You'll be back to normal in a second."

Trusting his sister, Finn laid back down and waited for her to start the spell. Once again anchoring Elijah, Freya began chanting. She chanted for much longer than she did the first time, and even as she chanted, Finn's eyes did not close. After ten minutes of failed chanting, she stopped.

"I don't understand," she muttered. "It should've worked. It's the same spell as last time. What could be different?"

"That girl did this to me, didn't she," Finn bit angrily, struggling to hold his pants up as he staggered to his feet, his once fitting t-shirt now a baggy blouse on him. "She turned me into this...child."

Finn felt an insatiable hunger come over him. A hunger he knew well. A hunger that he hated more than anything.

"I'm still a vampire," he mumbled, turning a pleading eye to Freya, hoping that she would tell him different.

Freya didn't want to answer him because she was afraid to break his heart. She knew that he hated being a vampire and if she could cure him of his ailment she would have done so the moment she brought him back to life but there was no cure, and she dreaded telling Finn that.

Turning her attention to Klaus, Freya said, "I need to know what Hope did to that spell."

Remembering the girl's bag in his hands, Elijah opened it and dug out Hope's grimoire. Freya ecstatically snatched the book from Elijah's hand and looked for the 'Time Freezing' spell. When she found it, the first thing she noticed was the purple ink standing out amongst the black, crossing out 'Callum root' and re-writing 'Oleander root' above it.

"Oleander," Freya muttered."Oleander?"

"Is there a problem," asked Rebekah."

"Y-yes, there's a problem. This spell was already nonsensical to begin with and now she's changed it again."

"So," Klaus uttered. "Start back from the drawing board as you did before."

"You don't understand, Niklaus," Freya barked. "That the Oleander adjusted the spell enough to allow him to keep his memories is absurd all its own. His old spirit is not supposed to be able to tether to this body. Plus, it's a mystery why my de-aging spell worked on him but my second spell didn't. I don't even know where to start from here. Not to mention that anything could happen to his body at any moment. He is supposed to have a child's spirit in this body. What if that spirit tried to breakthrough? Anything could happen!"

"W-wait," Finn's small voice peeked over Freya's yelling. "A-are you saying...that I could die at any moment?" Freya's desolate eyes answered the question for him. Tears began down his cheeks as he remembered all of his past deaths. "Why do you people keep bringing me back just so I can die again," he yelled.

Freya slammed the grimoire shut and hurried over to Finn, pulling his head onto her shoulder as he cried. "You're not going to die, brother," she whispered calmingly into his ear. "I'm not going to stop until I fix this."

"It's not fair," Finn continued to yell. "That stupid girl...this is all her fault. She did this to me."

Freya's arm tightened around Finn, holding him protectively away from her other siblings. "Hush," she warned him, hoping he wouldn't say anything to threaten Hope in front of the rest of their family.

"N-no," Finn pushed against Freya's abdomen, angrily wiping the fallen tears from his cheeks. "I-I don't care. It doesn't matter if I die. Better dead than an abomination!"

No one expected it when he kicked the bowl of ingredients on the floor across the room. Josh had to duck just to dodge the straying Ginseng.

"Better dead than a Mikaelson!" Finn lifted the sofa off the floor and chucked it with all his might toward the others. Klaus caught the flying furniture before it could hit anyone and Elijah sped over to Finn, clasping both of his wrists tightly in his hand before he could throw anything else. As Finn's pants began to fall, Freya used her magic to keep them up and give her brother a semblance of pride in his madness.

"Let me go," Finn screamed, fighting futilely against Elijah.

The other Mikaelsons were surprised by Finn's reaction. Though he was often regarded as the most dramatic of their siblings, he was never one to cause a scene so his tantrum then had them all at a loss for words.

"Let me go, Elijah!" Finn kicked Elijah's shin with enough force to shatter it and Elijah finally released him.

The boy quickly vamped out of Elijah's reach and over to Freya's shelf of ancient grimoires.

"I hate this family," he screamed as he picked up one of the grimoires and opened it to a random page. "It's not fair that I'm always the one who has to die!" He ripped a handful of pages from the book.

Freya ran over to him, screaming for him to stop, but as soon as she made it to him, Finn vamped to the other side of the room and continued ripping pages from the book.

"You care about these, do you," Finn asked, waving the torn pages in the air. "Well, I don't!" Finn dropped the grimoire so he could tear the pages into tiny, shreds of paper. "Magic is useless! It can't do anything! All it's ever done is hurt me!"

Fed up with Finn's tantrum, Elijah ignored the pain of his still healing leg and vamped over to Finn, wrapping his arms around him and lifting the boy into the air, pinning his arms to his sides so he had no way of attack.

"Joshua," Elijah stated calmly as if he wasn't struggling to keep a thrashing Original in his hold. "I think it's almost time for you and Davina to leave. Go find her and take her home with you tonight. We will find more permanent accommodations for her in the morning."

Josh couldn't have been more relieved to be dismissed from the scene. As much as he cared about Marcel, he hated being around the Originals, especially when they were in a violent mood.

"I'm going to escort Davina back to Algiers," Marcel said as Josh left but he didn't move.

Klaus eyed him for a while in silence, and then he said, "Be home by morning, we still have things to discuss."

Marcel nodded, assuming he knew how his discussion with Klaus would go, and then he left, Rebekah following close behind him.

Once the room was clear of everyone except for Freya, Klaus, and Hayley, Elijah sat Finn back down on the floor and released him.

Finn's first instinct was to hit Elijah again but as he wrenched his arm back to strike him, something stopped him. He felt like his body was being held still by an invisible force.

Freya hated that she had to resort to using magic to keep her brother from destroying anything else in her workshop but Finn was being absolutely reckless and should not let it go on any further.

Elijah walked over to the wooden chair sitting behind Freya's workshop table. "Y'know, brother," he began as he picked the chair up and started walking slowly back over to where Finn stood. "I am truly sorry that you are in this predicament. I would never wish this on you. But alas, this is your reality for now. And I know that you're angry," Elijah set the chair down in front of Finn and sat in it. "So let me help you alleviate some of that anger."

Elijah gave Freya a slight nod and she released the spells she had on him. Finn's pants fell to the floor as his hand came flying back towards Elijah. In one swift move, Elijah caught Finn's fist and flipped him over his lap, trapping Finn's flailing legs between his as he began raining down slow, methodical smacks to Finn's bare backside. The tail of Finn's baggy shirt fell to the center of his back as Elijah lifted his knee to get better aim at his reddening behind.

"Stop," Finn screamed, humiliated by the very idea of being punished by his younger brother. "Let me go, Elijah!"

Elijah's hand came down heavier. "I will when you've released some of this rage you're harboring."

"I deserve to be angry! I'm going to die!"

"No," Elijah's wide hand moved down to the undercurve of Finn's behind, lacing him with a series of quick, painful smacks to his sit-spot. "You're not because we are not going to let you. Trust your family, brother. We. Protect. Each other." Elijah emphasized each word with another powerful smack to Finn's bright red behind.

Finn's body fell limp on Elijah's lap. With each falling smack, he lost more and more of a will to fight until he had finally just resigned to his brother's discipline.

When he felt as if Finn had had enough, Elijah ended the spanking and placed his hand gently on Finn's back, rubbing calming circles against his shuddering body.

"You don't care," Finn mumbled quietly to himself but Elijah still heard him. "You all want me to die. You always have."

Elijah lifted Finn from his horizontal position and sat him on his lap, his chest still heaving with sobs. Then he pulled his brother into a hug and held him even when Finn tried to pull away.

"We do care," Elijah muttered. "You are our brother and we would do anything to keep you from dying, brother. I promise."

"L-let me go," Finn struggled halfheartedly against Elijah's hug. "You can't just treat me like you do Kol and Rebekah and expect me to be okay with it. I am your older brother."

Klaus scoffed. "One never would have guessed by that little show you just put on."

Finn felt another swell of emotions come over him and he began crying even harder. "Shut up, Klaus," he yelled as he buried his face further into Elijah's lapel. He didn't know where all of these strange emotions were coming from but he hated them. He hated not being in charge of how angry he would get or how much he would cry, and that hatred only made him angrier and more tearful.

Elijah stood with Finn still in his arms and carried him over to Freya's workshop table. He sat his young-older brother on the table and Finn's eyes caught Klaus. A deep frown crossed the boy's face, a look of pure hatred in his eyes. Noticing the animosity growing within him, Elijah stood between Finn and Klaus."

"Freya," Elijah called out. "The spell that you used to trap Marcel's young spirit in his body, can you still do it?"

"I could," Freya sighed. "But there's no telling if it'll work. So much is different now."

"It's worth a try," Elijah said. "Until we can find a way to fix this, that is our best option."

Freya was exhausted from all of the spells she'd done that day but she would've given up all of her magic forever to protect Finn. Without another word, she began setting up the spell she needed and ordered Elijah to put Finn back in the circle.

As Freya entered the circle with a pestle and mortar in her hand, a knife tucked into the back of her pants, Elijah stepped out.

"Lie back," she muttered calmingly to Finn as she knelt down beside him. Finn obeyed, trusting Freya far more than he did his other siblings. "This will hurt," she told him. "A lot. But it'll be over soon, I promise."

Nervous of the impending pain, Finn nodded his agreement.

Freya started the spell just as she'd done with Marcel. She painted the symbol on Finn's forehead with the paste in the mortar and when she pulled the knife from behind her, Finn closed his eyes and clenched his teeth. He wasn't sure what she was going to do with it but he knew from experience that spells that involved knives very rarely ended pleasantly. He screamed out when the knife pierced his skin but then he quickly shut his mouth, determined to make it through the rest of the ordeal with as much pride as he could. But as Freya lifted the knife and cut it into another part of his forehead, he screamed again, heartfelt sobs immediately following.

When the spell was finished, Freya's body felt ten times heavier. She could barely stand but she managed. Finn had passed out while she was carving the symbol on his forehead and she was grateful that he didn't fight it so he could stop feeling the pain.

"Let's hope this works," she said with a heavy sigh.

"What are we going to do with him in the meantime," Klaus grunted. "I suppose he'll have to stay here since he's a possible ticking time bomb. For himself and others."

"I don't understand his outburst," said Elijah. "That was so...unlike him."

"It was childish," Klaus bit. "I wouldn't expect as much even from Kol."

"I'll run some more spells on him," Freya said, dragging her feet back over to her shelf of grimoires. "I'll figure out what's wrong with him."

"You need to rest," Elijah directed. "You're exhausted."

"I'll rest when Finn's safe."

"Freya-"

"I mean it, Elijah," she snapped, her eyes cutting deeply at him. He knew that she was determined to save Finn even if it killed her.

Looking to Niklaus and Hayley, Elijah said, "Could you two give us a moment?"

Niklaus nodded, knowing why Elijah wanted a moment alone with their sister and Hayley suspected the truth too. Neither of them could help the concerned looks they laced Freya with on their faces as they watched her searching tirelessly through the grimoires on their way out.

Elijah walked calmly into the circle where Finn's body laid and lifted his brother into his arms. He laid him on the displaced sofa as gently as he would've done any child and then turned his attention to Freya.

"What were you thinking," he dropped immediately into the meat of their conversation. "You brought back Mikael. Finn, I can understand but there's nothing good about Mikael. There's never been any good in Mikael."

Slamming close another grimoire, Freya said, "He was once good to me."

"What, when you were five? He was rarely so violent with us when we were that age. It wasn't until we became old enough to take a punch and live that he became the true monster of our nightmares."

"It was a mistake," Freya bit. "I know that now. If I could take it back I would but I can't. The best I can do now is make sure that he can never get to Niklaus, or anyone in this family, ever again."

"There's only one way to do that." Elijah felt the side of his jacket where the White Oak stake still rested beside the silver dagger. He took it out and held it in his hands as if it were the last object of any value in the world. "We have to put him back down."

"He's across the ocean," Freya said matter-of-factly. "I'm not letting you go chasing after him."

"You're not letting me go," Elijah repeated in surprise.

Flipping speedily through another grimoire, Freya said, "I said what I said. Despite what you might think, Elijah, I am still your big sister and it is my job to protect you. To protect everyone in this family." She stopped flipping through the pages so she could focus her attention on Elijah. "I thought that I was doing the right thing. I thought that he could change. I was wrong, I admit it. But I'm not going to let you or anyone else sacrifice themselves for my mistake. I will figure out a way to get rid of Mikael after I figure out a way to save Finn." As she began flipping back through the grimoire, she added, "And you can forget about any ideas to 'punish' me for this."

Elijah's eyes widened at Freya's quick dissection of his obvious intentions.

"I let you get away with it once because you took me by surprise," she said, shutting the grimoire and placing it back on the shelf and immediately reaching for another one. "But, little brother...there will not be a second time. Do I make myself clear?"

Elijah's jaw slacked in surprise. He spent two thousand years being the patriarch of his family, he was not used to someone giving him commands. He made sure that even Niklaus relented to his power when he needed him to. But here was Freya, his older sister, taking command all her own. He was not so much surprised by her taking command, however, as he was by the sudden relief he felt at hearing her do so. For a thousand years he had played judge and juror for his family, doing everything in his power to make sure his siblings stayed together, and for the first time someone else was taking on that mantle. And he didn't want to stop her.

He waited patiently for Freya to finish her scan of the third book and finally look back up to him. "The safety of this family comes first," Elijah stated, firmly planting his foot on the ground. "Before your love of Mikael, your loyalty to us comes first. Always."

Freya laid the grimoire on the shelf and stared Elijah in his eyes. "Always," she promised.

In an instant, Elijah felt a thousand years of Mikaelson weight lift from his chest. He was so happy he wanted to cry, but he restrained himself. He slipped the White Oak stake back into his jacket and left Freya to her studies, a small smile fighting it's way to his lips.

Chapter Text

Chapter 41

Flashback:

Klaus's finger tapped incessantly against his folded arms as he watched Elijah shove clothing into a leather-bound chest.

"Must you leave alone, brother," Klaus asked once again, his anxiety growing with each passing second of Elijah preparing to abscond from their small village in the heart of Portugal to travel East.

There was rumor that Mikael was closing in on their current hiding spot but the family had gotten comfortable there. They had farmland and workers, a witch community that accepted them, and a werewolf community that feared them. They weren't ready to leave it just yet. So Elijah decided to go off on his own and create a ruckus in far-off countries to draw Mikael away from their current home. Klaus hadn't been without his brother in two hundred years and it made him nervous to even think about being without Elijah.

"Perhaps we should all go together," Klaus insisted. "Let's just move on again. Mikael is always going to find us. We should just cut our losses and move on again."

"Mikael is not going to find us," said Elijah as he shut the lid of his chest. "Because I'm not going to let him. I will compel strangers into thinking they are you. I will set fire to cities. Whatever I have to do to convince Mikael that we're far away from here. This is our home now. We haven't had a home in a long time and I'm not going to let Mikael drive us away from it."

"How long will you be gone," Klaus asked softly, ashamed of his need to have Elijah around. "You promised you would help me lift this curse our mother put on me."

"And I will, brother, I swear it. But right now, keeping Mikael away from you is more important. I will return as soon as I know that you are safe."

"How long with that take," Klaus grumbled. "You know...how I get when you're not around. I...I need you here lest I become...like before. In York."

Elijah remembered the night a few decades back when he woke to the terrified screams of townspeople crying through his window as Niklaus led a violent mob of newly-turned bloodthirsty vampires through the village. Elijah blamed himself for that night. He had just met Lady Emma and she had done much to take his attention away from Niklaus for months. He knew that if he had been paying more attention to Niklaus than Lady Emma, hundreds of people wouldn't have died that night.

Elijah turned kind eyes to his brother. He walked over to Klaus and placed his hands on the sides of his brother's sullen face. "I will be back before you start to miss me. You will be fine brother. Keep an eye on Kol and Rebekah while I'm away. Keep them from doing anything that would drive Mikael back here."

Niklaus pulled his face sullenly out of Elijah's hands and leaned against the doorframe. "Rebekah is hardly a problem. Kol, on the other hand, I'm not so sure about. He never heeds my warnings. He doesn't respect me as he does you." Staring straight across at the floorboards, Klaus muttered, "He still calls me 'The Bastard'."

Elijah brought his hands up to Klaus's shoulders and gave them a firm squeeze before saying, "You can do this, brother. I won't be away long, I promise. And I will talk to Kol about calling you that when I return. In the meantime, if our brother starts any mischief, you know how to handle him."

Klaus scoffed. Whenever he wanted to create a ruckus, he knew he could trust Kol to be his willing sidekick but even Klaus had his limits on mischief and too much of it would make him annoyed. Kol had absolutely no limit to his mischief and could carry on for years if no one was around to stop him. Luckily Elijah was always there to stop him with his own unique method of chastisement, a method Klaus could barely stand to witness let alone administer.

"I certainly hope you don't expect me to take him over my knee as you do," Klaus mocked.

"If he deserves it."

A feeling of uneasiness made Klaus's skin crawl. "I can't...hit him, brother. He already thinks of me as a monster. What if he...what if he starts to hate me just as he does Mikael? Or worse, as I do."

"If he does not hate me, Niklaus, he will not hate you."

"We are different, you and I," Klaus thundered. "You are Elijah - our trusted, noble brother who would sooner sacrifice himself that bring harm to his siblings. I am the Bastard! The cursed Hybrid! There are entire civilizations that hate me, why wouldn't my own brother."

"Because we are a family, Niklaus, and we made an agreement to stand by each other always and forever. He will be angry with you after, as any reasonable person in his position would be, but he will not hate you." Seeing the uncertainty still in Klaus's eyes, Elijah said, "Don't fret, brother. You don't have to do anything. Kol will be on his best behavior while I am away. If not, I will deal with him on my return. Until then, wait for my letters. I won't be able to stay in one place long enough for you to write me but I will try to write you every chance I can and as soon as I'm sure Mikael is following my trail, I will compel someone to continue it under the guise of Klaus Mikaelson." Placing his hand gently against Klaus's face, Elijah said, "I won't be gone long, brother. Less than a year. I promise."

End Flashback

Freya's slippers shuffled slowly down the hall. She walked at pace, her weak eyes glued intently at the grimoire in her hands. The night had dragged on and with each passing hour, her eyes grew heavier. She decided to go down to the kitchen and start a pot of coffee before her eyelids won the battle against her will to stay open.

Just as she entered the kitchen, she saw a movement in her peripheral vision. She looked up to see Klaus sitting at the bar with his back to the door, a glass mug in his hand. The fragrance of freshly brewed coffee filled the air.

Klaus knew who had entered the kitchen without turning around. He sensed his sister coming down the hall. He wanted to leave before she got there but he couldn't seem to find the strength to move.

"Would you mind picking up those blasted slippers as you walked," he bit. "You'll wake Elijah."

Freya wasn't surprised by Klaus's apparent vexation to her appearance. After what she'd done, she wouldn't be surprised if he hated her for years. Still, she couldn't help but be sympathetic to his pain. If even half of what everyone had told her about Mikael were true, he had every reason to feel angry, hurt, and betrayed by his own sister.

"He should probably be here," she said gravely as Klaus took a sip from his mug. "He always knows how to help when you have a nightmare."

Klaus wanted to slam the mug down on the counter but he was afraid any noise would wake their brother.

"I didn't have a nightmare," he corrected her. "I haven't been to sleep."

"You haven't been to sleep," Freya asked with surprise as if she herself hadn't been up for more than twenty-four hours herself. Assuming she knew why Klaus was forcing himself to stay awake, Freya said, "You have nothing to be afraid of, brother. I haven't ended the tracking spell I have on Mikael and I'm not going to so I'll know exactly where he is at all times. Right now he's in Reykjavik, over five thousand miles away from us."

"He'd be further if you hadn't brought him back."

Freya sighed and closed the book in her hands. She hadn't planned to be in the kitchen longer than it took to get a cup of coffee but she knew she would have to face Klaus's anger eventually.

"I'm sorry, Niklaus," she muttered. "I know that he was awful to you...but you must see things from my point of view. I was raised by Dahlia but she never loved me. She treated me like nothing more than a rechargeable power source for her magic. And she never ceased to remind me how unloved I was by her...and Esther. I hated Esther so much for giving me away. For...for not fighting for me. For ripping me out of the arms of my little brother. When I cried myself to sleep at night, I wasn't praying that she would come save me. I was praying...for my papa. The Viking warrior who would fight all of Vahalla for me. Then a thousand years later I find out that he thought I was dead and had he known about Esther's betrayal, he would've come for me."

Heaving a big breath of air through his nose, Klaus quipped, "And that would've made everything all better, wouldn't it. If Mikael had just focused all of the hate and rage he's been doling out to his children for a thousand years on Dahlia, the surreptitious source of his most devastating loss, he would have been a much better father. Perhaps he would've lost the strength to strike his children."

Freya slid the grimoire on the counter beside Niklaus's mug as she moved beside him. "Nik, I want him to suffer...so badly for what he did to you. I'm sorry that I brought him back. It's just...he's been the hero in my mind for so long, it was hard for me to see him as anything else. I see now that I was wrong. He's not going to change."

"Could've saved you some time had you just asked me," Klaus muttered, taking another sip of coffee.

Freya reached her hand out to touch Klaus's and he immediately pulled it away, the scowl on his face was a clear enough sign of how he felt about any attempt of comfort from her at the moment.

"I'm going to get Elijah," she mumbled. "You don't need to be alone after a nightmare."

"I didn't have a bloody nightmare," Klaus bit.

"Then why are you still awake," she demanded. "Everyone else is asleep. I'm only awake because I can't sleep until Finn is back to normal. So, what's your excuse?"

Klaus sat quietly staring at his coffee mug, contemplating whether or not he should tell her the truth about why he was refusing to go to sleep. He knew with more certainty than he'd had in a long time that if he went to sleep that night, his dreams would be plagued with visions of Mikael torturing him and killing his family over and over until he went insane with fear and woke in a bone-chillingly cold sweat. He was ashamed of himself for being afraid, and he hated Freya for being the person to put that fear in him.

"I'm waiting up for Kol," Klaus finally spoke.

Freya was startled by Klaus's response. She had peeked on Kol on her way to the kitchen. There was a person shaped lump in the middle of his bed covered by his blankets. It was normal for Kol to sleep with his blankets pulled above his head but Freya assumed that he was so upset about being separated from Davina that he wanted to mope under her covers for a while and eventually fell asleep.

"What are you talking about," she questioned. "Kol's in his room. I just saw him."

Klaus smirked, a bit amused by his sister's gullibleness. She was still naive to Kol's surplus of childish antics. "What you saw was three pillows lined under a blanket," Klaus informed her. "Kol snuck out when Davina left with the others."

Freya shook her head in disappointment. "Maybe you should just...forgive him. After all, he was only keeping Mikael's resurrection a secret because I asked him to."

"He was keeping your secret because he wanted to bring Davina back and he was afraid if we knew about your plan to bring back Mikael, we'd put a stop to all of it." Klaus slammed his mug on the counter, irritated by the very idea that Freya and Kol would think him so heartless that he wouldn't allow Freya to bring back the girl his brother and son loved just because Freya had intentions to bring back Mikael with that same spell.

"Okay, so maybe he acted out of fear," Freya continued trying to defend her brother. "But it still wasn't betrayal. I'm the only one who should be punished here."

"I agree you should," Klaus grunted. "Especially since you put my son and daughter in danger by bringing that maniac back. You should've most certainly been punished and your punishment should've been worse than any of theirs."

Freya stared down at the counter, the shame she felt made her eyes heavier. Her hand crept across the counter once more attempting to take Klaus's hand and again he pulled away from her. This time he stood up and walked around the aisle just so he wouldn't have to regularly withdraw from his sister's touch.

"The fact that my brother can't even look at me," Freya muttered, watching with a heavy heart as Klaus's vision stared pointedly away from her. "Is punishment enough. I'm truly sorry, Niklaus. Please believe that I sincerely never meant to hurt you. I thought...that I could make our family whole. I thought that I could turn Mikael back to the father that I loved. That...that he would feel guilty for what he did to you and he'd spend the rest of eternity trying to make things right."

Klaus huffed but continued looking away from her. He didn't want to talk about Mikael right now. The sun was beginning to rise and he was fighting exhaustion.

"Don't you have anything better to do than bother me? Perhaps you should go check on Finn. God forbid something go wrong with him while you're down here...consoling me."

Freya sighed but didn't press the issue anymore. Niklaus was still angry. She decided to give him some time to be angry and try to talk to him again later.

As Freya left the kitchen, Klaus took his seat back on his stool and took a sip from his coffee mug. His face blanched as the cold, bitter coffee touched his tongue. He went to pour it out and refill the cup when he heard the door to the courtyard ease open. He heard the soft tap of feet moving across the courtyard and waited until they were at the stairway to speed out of the kitchen.

"It's about time you all made it home." Klaus's cold voice sent a chill down the spines of the two young vampires. "I was beginning to worry I would have to go out and find you."

Marcel stood frozen at the bottom of the staircase, Rebekah the only one of them brave enough to face her brother.

"Of course we were coming back," she stated. "What? Did you think Marcel would be dumb enough to try to hide out across the river knowing how terrible you can be about showing respect for someone's privacy?"

Klaus smirked knowingly and glanced guiltily away from Rebekah. "Let's not rehash old memories," he tutted. "Not while the present looms ever ahead. Marcel,"

At the snap of his name, Marcel slowly turned to face Niklaus. His eyes were steady in an attempt to keep his facade of nonchalance.

"How is Davina," Klaus asked truly concerned.

Marcel wasn't expecting Klaus to ask about Davina and his cool disposition was shaken. "Uh...fine," he stumbled. "She was starving on the way to Josh's place and made us stop for burgers. I think she ate more tonight than she ate in her entire life."

Marcel smirked as he remembered Davina fighting sleep to stay up with them through the night despite being exhausted from her resurrection. He thought that she was just excited to be back, excited to be with her family again, but that was only partly true.

Davina knew that Marcel couldn't know the whole truth. It would devastate him if he did. The truth was that she was afraid that if she fell asleep, she'd wake up and it would have all just been a dream. They'd all disappeared again and she'd be trapped in the dark void of nothingness all dead supernatural beings were condemned to after the fall of the Otherside. Davina couldn't remember anything about her time in the Void but she could remember every feeling she had there like a phantom pain incessantly pecking at her soul.

It felt like drowning on dry land.

The cold, clammy hand of the Void dragging her through the empty void of endless nothingness.

It was impossible to tell how much time was passing in the Void and the dead silence was dense enough to drive a person insane.

An endless abyss of abject loneliness.

Davina refused to tell anyone of what she dealt with in death because she didn't want them to worry. She was fine now, she was with the people that loved her. Still, she fought sleep that night until she couldn't fight it anymore.

The pride in Marcel's eyes as he talked about Davina brought joy to Klaus. Moving closer to Marcel, he placed his hand gently on the nape of his neck. "I am happy that you have her back. I cannot promise that Davina and I will ever get along the way you would like, I feel that my past with her is too intense to be forgiven by anyone who isn't a Mikaelson." Marcel's eyebrows formed a deep frown at Klaus's words so Klaus quickly added, "But, I can promise that I will never let any harm befall her ever again. I will protect her as if she were your own."

"She is mine," Marcel stated firmly. "In the same way that I am your son. There can be no wiggle room, Klaus. Do you understand? It's not enough for you to promise to protect her, the rest of your family must promise to protect her as a Mikaelson as well. Sacrificing her to save another Mikaelson can never be an option again." Marcel's eyes held a sudden coldness in them. "She matters, Klaus. Just like you'd do anything to protect me, I'll do anything to protect her. Even from your family."

Klaus smirked at Marcel's subtle threat. "Understood," he agreed. Then giving Marcel a firm tap on the hip with the back of his hands, Klaus said, "Now get some rest. I'll see to it that you aren't disturbed before noon."

Marcel turned to go upstairs and said, "Don't bother. I'll be down for breakfast. I told Davina I'll be there when she wakes up again so I don't plan on staying here long. Just long enough to shower and change."

"Marcel," Klaus's stern voice caused Marcel to pause at the bottom step but he didn't turn around. He could feel Klaus's eyes glaring at him without having to see it. "Need I remind you, you and I have unfinished business."

Marcel let out an audible sigh. "Then let's get it over with," he grunted. "Just...make it quick."

Klaus's jaw tensed in annoyance at Marcel's attempt to guide the terms of his own punishment but he was sympathetic to Marcel's desire to be with Davina. If he'd lost either of his children for twelve years, nothing would be able to keep him from them upon their return.

"Go to your room," Klaus grunted. "I'll be up in a while." Remembering that he had more pressing matters to undertake with his still missing brother, he asked, "Was Kol with you in Algiers?"

Rebekah sighed. She warned Kol not to come with them to Algiers but he insisted that Klaus would never find out he snuck out but evidently he was wrong. When they made it back to the Compound, Kol snuck back into his room through the window in order to avoid running into either of their older brothers.

"I guess you found the pillows," she asked.

Klaus scoffed. "Has that trick ever worked on me?"

With a smirk, Rebekah said, "Not in a thousand years." Then, focusing her hearing further into the Compound, she heard the unmistakable sound of Kol's bedroom window slamming shut. Rebekah's heart went out to her brother but she wanted him punished as much as she wanted Mikael back dead. Kol's lies put their family in danger and they could have cost Marcel his life had Mikael not left town. She knew that her brother deserved whatever punishment Klaus gave him. But that didn't mean she couldn't still sympathize with him.

"Sounds like he just made it back," Rebekah said calmly taking Marcel's hand and starting back upstairs.

Klaus sped past the other two vampires up to Kol's bedroom. He slowly pushed the door open to see Kol standing shirtless in the middle of the room struggling to pull his feet out of his boots without untying them so he could quickly get into bed before anyone heard him. He was horrified to see he'd failed.

"I certainly hope you had fun on your little escapade across the river," Klaus growled as he entered. "Because you won't be seeing outside these walls again for an absurdly long time."

Kol stood up straight and stared nervously away from his brother.

"What was your plan exactly," Klaus continued. "To sneak out and back into bed without me noticing?"

In a low mutter, Kol answered, "I was hoping you lot would be too distracted by the Finn issue to notice me gone. Since you did, I'm guessing Freya was unsuccessful in reviving our poor brother. Is he dead again?"

"Not exactly," Klaus smirked. "Freya performed the de-aging spell she performed on Marcel but it turns out Hope got a bit more creative with the 'time-freezing' spell and things are a little...uncertain at the moment. For him, anyway. Your future is quite certain."

As Klaus walked forward again, Kol took a stumble backward. "N-now wait a second, brother," Kol stammered. "Y-you said that I could only spend an hour with Davina. You didn't say where that hour had to be spent."

"You've been gone for more than an hour," Klaus bellowed. "Where else have you been if not with the love of your heart?"

"Y-you have no proof that I did spend it with her," Kol insisted, his fingers dancing nervously against his thumbs. "I...I've just been wandering the city...trying to relax my mind after the end of one of the longest days of my life."

Klaus went slack-jawed at his brother's continued lying. He was about to be punished for lying and yet he couldn't seem to stop. "Do you really expect me to believe that you spent all of this time away from the Compound not with Davina?"

Kol stayed silent. He knew Klaus knew he was lying but he couldn't help himself. After a thousand years of trying to save himself from the dagger, lying had become second nature to him.

"Alright," Klaus turned to the door. "I'll just go ask Marcel. Or better yet, I'll just compel him to tell me the truth of whether you were with them in Algiers or-"

"I was there, alright," Kol blurted. "No need to go ask your favorite, Little Marcellus. I admit it. I was there. But how could you expect me not to, brother? I've been without the girl I love for twelve years and now that she's back, now that I can finally hold her in my arms, you expect me to be fine with spending a week without her."

"You have a lifetime to spend with her," Klaus barked back. "A week won't kill either of you. It's called self-restraint. A concept you will learn intimately in the MONTH you spend away from her!"

"A month? You can't be serious, Klaus!"

"I am quite serious, brother. And the more you disobey me, the more that time will extend. Keep it up and the next time you get to see Davina, you'll be checking her into her first retirement home."

Kol's heart sank at the thought of not seeing Davina for a month. He didn't think he would be able to go the next day without seeing her, let alone a month.

"I won't do it," he mumbled under his breath, and then louder for Klaus to hear, he said, "I'll run away to her. We'll run away together. We'll go to Paris or Spain. Somewhere across the pond so I know you won't follow."

"You...you'd leave our family," Klaus asked, his voice tense with disbelief. "For her."

Tears began to weld in Kol's eyes. He didn't want to leave his family but his time with Davina was limited and he wanted to spend every second he could with her. His family was immortal. He could come back in sixty years and he would be just as welcomed as if he were only gone a week.

"I don't want to, Nik, but you're not giving me much of a choice. I love her. I do. I can't spend a month away from her, I just can't. Please understand, brother."

The look of shock and disgust evident on Klaus's face told Kol that his brother had no desire to understand his dilemma and he wasn't going to try to.

Klaus was furious at the news that Davina was now someone with the power to tear his family apart. He thought about all of the lovers his siblings had over the years that he'd killed to guarantee their love for them didn't grow to this extent - the extent to which his siblings would choose to be with their lovers over him, to love someone more than they loved him, to leave him alone and unloved.

Hayley once had this power over him with Elijah but Klaus's jealousy of her ended the day Hayley saved their family from death and agreed to become a Mikaelson. She was no longer a stranger with the power to tear their family apart because she was their family. Davina, on the other hand, was just a girl Kol and Marcel loved. A girl with her own power and free will, a girl whose actions were outside of his control. He began to wonder, what if the day came where Davina wanted to leave New Orleans. Would Kol leave with her?

He could feel the cold claw of loneliness scratching at the surface of his skin from Kol's proclamation alone. He felt the immediate desire to get rid of Davina once and for good but in the same instant, he realized he couldn't.

Marcel was right. Davina was not disposable. Killing her once in 'necessity' nearly tore his family apart. To do so in anger, in jealousy, would destroy them. The heavy brick of helplessness rested against his chest, a feeling that he felt very rarely in his life. A feeling that he hated more than any other. For the first time, there was nothing he could do to get rid of the threat to their family. But he refused to be powerless.

In a heavy growl, Klaus said, "You're not going anywhere and neither is Davina. So long as having that girl around brings Marcel happiness, I'm not going to let you or anyone else take her away. I don't care about whatever fleeting affection you think you have for her."

"I love her!"

"Do you really, brother," Klaus said with sudden mockery, attempting to distance himself from his feelings about the situation by making it a joke. "Or do you just love the idea of her. Twelve years apart can certainly warp a person's memory of a person they once felt affection for. If I recall, Davina was a bit stubborn and over-zealous. Certainly more of a headache than a true love, don't you think?"

"I know what I feel for her Klaus. I felt it for twelve years and it all came back ten-fold when I saw her tonight. She is the only girl I ever felt this way about, Nik. Nothing you say will change that."

"Whatever you say, brother," Klaus scoffed. "The fact remains she isn't going anywhere.

He had always hated Klaus for his obstinance. His hybrid brother was never as understanding as Elijah when it came to his crimes and he'd always hated how cruel his wicked brother could be.

Flashback:

Kol sat sulking in his bedroom, a servant standing by his bedside with a long slash across her wrist as she bled out onto the floor, compelled not to move. The bodies of dozens of other servants laid dead on his floor. Elijah had been gone from their estate for eight months and in that time Kol had caused more havoc that Klaus could bare. He'd burned down a neighboring village, compelled the son of a Lord to eat his horse alive until it killed him, and incited a war between two werewolf packs that brought both packs to the brink of extinction. Klaus didn't know what else to do with his brother other than find a witch to put a barrier spell around his room that kept Kol trapped inside until Elijah could return and handle their brother as only Elijah could.

The prospect of being trapped in his bedroom like a petulant child until his big brother came back home to punish him enraged Kol. For days he was uncontrollable, threatening every servant that passed his door with death lest they brought Klaus back to him but Klaus always refused. It wasn't until he began to realize the sudden drop in servants around the Estate that Klaus began to grow concerned about his brother's activities and finally dragged himself up to Kol's bedroom.

Klaus was stunned at the sight of dead bodies scattered across Kol's floor. The sight of death and the strong scent of blood wafting around the room reminded him of his last bloody-bender. His fangs extracted automatically and a ravenous thirst befell him but he restrained himself from bursting into the room and feeding from the still bleeding servant girl.

"There you are," Kol growled, jumping up from the chair in the corner of his room and stomping over to Klaus. "Let me out of here, Klaus! Tell your witch to take this spell down or I will kill every servant we have."

"I suppose I could just seal off this hall," Klaus responded calmly, forcing himself to ignore the blood constantly pouring onto the floor. "Then you won't have any more servants to torture and kill."

"This is not fair, Klaus," Kol bellowed, his foot slamming down on the hardwood floor. "You kill people all the time but because I convince the spoiled wretch of a Lord to eat his own horse, suddenly I'm the out of control one of our family."

"Because you are out of control," Klaus yelled. "Only Elijah has the means to bring you in tow so you will stay in here until he returns. Your thoughtless antics will drive Mikael back towards us and all of the effort Elijah is putting in to keep our father away will be for nothing."

"In Elijah's last correspondence, he said that Mikael had finally taken his scent and was crossing to the East. That means he's far enough away for us to have some fun."

"You are becoming...a brute." Klaus's voice tinged with heartache. "You are letting the bloodlust turn you into something other than the little brother I once knew."

"Me a brute? You wipe out entire kingdom so in your rage. I only seek the fun of a few, unexceptional deaths."

"You seek mayhem," Klaus shouted. "I bring destruction only to those who would seek to harm our family. To strike fear into the hearts of anyone who dares raise their voice in a sign of protest against the Mikaelsons so that our enemies may never gain the courage to take up arms against us. You seek only entertainment from the deaths of innocents."

"I can do what I want, Niklaus! I am just as immortal and powerful as you! You can't force me to do what you want me to do." Suddenly Kol sped over to the candle sitting by his end table and held it up to the sheer curtains behind it. "Release me or I will turn this entire estate to ashes."

Klaus glared at Kol, his lips pursed in anger. Kol knew he had him then. Klaus didn't put it past Kol to burn their home to the ground because he'd done it before. Threatening to set a fire was his brother's go-to move ever since they realized that their family couldn't die in a fire but because everyone else could, Elijah would always be the one to step in and 'convince' Kol to calm down. Klaus hated that Elijah wasn't around to take care of their brother then so now he had to step up.

A silver dagger pressed against his waist hidden by his coat, already coated in white oak ash. His first instinct was to use it to put his brother down and end all of his annoyance at once but then he remembered Elijah's plea. Kol was impulsive but he loved his siblings and trusted them more than he did anyone. No matter how much Klaus doubted it, he knew he had to trust his brother to continue to love him even after he did what he knew he had to do.

Klaus sped into Kol's bedroom and grabbed the candle from his hand, extinguishing it with one finger and throwing it back on the table. Then, before either of them knew what was happening, he grabbed Kol's arm and spun him around. Klaus's hand came down harshly against Kol's backside. The shock of Klaus spanking him silenced Kol until he smacked the same spot for a third time and ignited a flame on Kol's behind. The younger brother let out a small squeak and Kalus finally stopped.

When Kol turned back to face Niklaus, he had his hands pressed against his behind, rubbing away the pain and hoping to protect himself from anymore spanks.

Kol was shocked by Klaus's actions. Sure, his brother had hit him before, more so now that they were vampires than when they were kids, but never had Niklaus hit him like this. Like Elijah. When Elijah spanked him, Kol knew it was because he'd done something wrong and Elijah was trying to correct his behavior but Klaus...Klaus was not Elijah. Kol doubted whether his half-brother even liked him most of the time, let alone cared about correcting his behavior.

Tears began to shimmer in his eyes but he fought against them. Elijah was the only person he felt comfortable crying in front of and even that comfort took years to cultivate. He scrunched his face, forcing himself to keep his tears at bay as he stared Klaus in the eyes.

Klaus's pulse had been racing from the moment he released Kol. He waited for his brother to say something, anything, to ensure him that he wasn't angry. That he didn't hate Klaus like Klaus feared he would but Kol didn't say anything but when Klaus saw his brother's face scrunched into an unmistakable scowl, he felt he knew what Kol was thinking. He hated him. Klaus had overextended his jurisdiction and punished Kol in a way that only Elijah had the authority to do and humiliated his brother and now he was sure Kol hated him.

He couldn't bare the thought. He loved his siblings so much though he knew that he himself was no one deserving of love himself. He was lucky to have his siblings affection but every day he feared that luck would run out and now as Kol stood glaring at him, he thought that moment had come for his youngest brother. The thought of Kol hating him even for a moment made him panic.

Kol's eyes bulged when he saw the dagger coming from behind Klaus's jacket and his tears finally escaped but it was too late. Klaus shoved the dagger into Kol's chest without a second thought and stared stone-faced as the life felt Kol's body. He was too proud to allow Kol to see the pain he felt but as soon as Kol's limp body fell into his arms, he allowed his tears to fall.

End Flashback

"I'm sorry, Nik," Kol finally mumbled. "I'm sorry that I disobeyed you and left with Davina but, please...please don't keep us apart for a month. You can let Elijah thrash me every day for a month if you want, just please don't do this."

"As just as that sounds," Klaus smirked. "Elijah would never agree to it. Besides, I'm the one in charge of punishing you for this."

Those words made Kol seize in fear. Klaus 'punishing' him almost always ended with the dagger. Even though Klaus promised not to use the dagger on him anymore, Kol refused to believe him as the dagger had always been Klaus's chosen form of punishment for his siblings. For a moment he considered trying to speed past Klaus and go to Elijah for refuge but he knew his hybrid brother was faster and he feared even the thought of crossing him any more than he already had.

"Wh-what are you going to do to me," Kol asked though he feared he already knew the answer.

"You're a Mikaelson," Klaus said as he walked over to Kol's bed and sat down, surprising Kol with his nonchalance. "You know what is about to happen."

Klaus beckoned Kol over with one finger but Kol refused to move. He didn't want to put himself in such a vulnerable position with Klaus. If he was face down over his brother's knee, he'd never see the dagger coming.

"P-please, Klaus," Kol stuttered. "I-I'm sorry that I lied to you. I feel guilty about it enough as it were. And I mean I actually feel GUILT. Me. I hardly ever feel guilty for anything but I do for...for lying to you then. The first time you took me at my word and I lied. My stomach's been in knots ever since."

"Yes, well, this lesson should reinforce that feeling so that it does not happen again."

"C'mon, brother. I apologized. Doesn't that count for anything? Can't we just let bygones be, and all that?"

"Bygones," Klaus repeated heatedly. "Your lies put Marcel in danger. Had Joshua not been so easily manipulated...who knows what would have happened to him. You won't be so easily forgiven for this, Kol. No. Punishment is in order. Now stop trying to weasel your way out of this and get over here."

When Kol didn't move to come to him, Klaus sped over to him and dragged his brother back over to the bed. Kol fought weakly against Klaus, knowing any resistance would be futile against Klaus's hybrid strength.

Klaus pulled Kol over his lap as he sat down on the bed. As Kol struggled to stand back up, Klaus placed his hand on his brother's back and held him down before easing Kol's pants from his waist with his other hand. The temperate bedroom air hit Kol's exposed behind, so did Klaus's hand. Kol's hands knotted tightly in his bed sheets as Klaus rained down smack after smack. The Hybrid held a steady pace yet the strength he held behind every smack grew sharper with every passing one. Kol sucked his lip between his teeth and bit down on it, forcing himself to keep quiet. He hadn't begged for his brothers to stop spanking him since the first time he found himself over Elijah's knee. He was so humiliated afterward that he'd sworn to himself that he'd never do it again and he hadn't broken that promise in a thousand years. He took every lick they gave him in silence, letting out only his tears and the occasional tenacious sob.

Klaus knew Kol was not going to beg for a swift end to his punishment. He never did. But on the rare occasion Klaus had Kol over his knee, he made it his mission to try to get Kol to break and so when he felt Kol tensing, refusing to give into the pain, he decided to put a bit of extra strength behind each lick.

"If you ever do anything to put Marcel's life in danger again," Klaus barked as his hand came down even harder. "You will never know a pain-free day for the rest of eternity."

Thinking about what all Mikael would have done to Marcel had he been misfortunate enough to run into him seemed to send Kalus into a rage. He could see Marcel's bloody face before his eyes. He could hear his screams, feel his pain. He imagined the man that made his human life hell on earth taking his time to hurt Marcel in new, torturous ways before ending him in as painful a way as Mikael could think of. All of his fear blinded him to his own strength and he didn't realize the force to which he was beating Kol with until horrible, gut-wrenching screams tore him from his imagination back to reality.

Kol's behind was painted frightful shades of dark purple and red. Klaus knew that at some point Kol must have tried to stop the beating by blocking his behind from Klaus's onslaught because Klaus had both of Kol's arms twisted firmly up his back with enough strength to nearly rip his shoulders from their sockets.

"Niklaus!"

The shout of his name from the doorway caused Klaus to release Kol and the young vampire's body fell limply to the floor, sobs wrecking havoc through his chest.

Elijah and Rebekah stood in the bedroom doorway, their eyes wide in disbelief of what they were witnessing. Seeing Kol lying on the floor with his arms covering his shameful tears, Rebekah sped over to him, pulling Kol into her tight hold as tears of her own began to weld in her eyes.

"What did you do to him," she asked Niklaus, unable to even look at him as she did.

Klaus sat with his mouth agape, unsure of what he'd done himself. Never had he lost control while punishing his brother. Not like that. Even when they fought he was always sure to hold back on his siblings but seeing Kol now, he wasn't sure if he'd held back any strength at all.

"Niklaus," Elijah muttered as he walked into the room, his eyes fixed on Kol still crying in Rebekah's arms. "What did you do?"

Elijah repeating Rebekah's question did not help Niklaus think of an answer any quicker.

"I...I didn't mean to," Klaus finally stuttered. "I...I wasn't...trying to...I didn't mean to..." He suddenly couldn't sit down any longer but as soon as he jumped to his feet, Kol's heavy sobs restored to their original vigor.

"I'm sorry," Kol screamed, burying his face against Rebekah's neck and squeezing her tighter in his arms as if he were afraid Klaus was going to rip her away from him. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." He couldn't stop repeating those words. Klaus had beaten him mercilessly and now Kol was sure the dagger was to come. "I'm sorry. Please...don't... I won't lie again, I swear it. P-please, stop. 'Lijah, don't let him get me. Please, 'Lijah, please. I'm sorry."

As Elijah moved past Klaus to their sobbing brother, he uttered, "Go. We've got this."

Klaus's feet were cemented to the floor. "Elijah," he whispered softly. "You have to believe me. I didn't mean to do this to him."

"Go, Niklaus," Elijah repeated firmer.

Looking back at Klaus, Elijah's cold heart began to melt at the sight of trapped tears at the corners of Klaus's eyes. He believed Klaus when he said he didn't mean to hurt Kol the way he did but the damage had been done and now their youngest brother was sobbing in in their sister's arms as he'd done so many times before when they were children.

"Go," Elijah muttered softer. "He doesn't need you here right now."

Knowing that Elijah was right, Klaus left the room, shutting the door behind him so he wouldn't have to hear Kol's pleas for forgiveness anymore but even through the thick wooden door he could still hear it. He hurried down the hall to get as far away from the room as possible but as he passed by Marcel's bedroom, Marcel came out.

"How's Kol" Marcel asked condescendingly. With a slight laugh, he continued, "Rebekah and I heard him crying a little while ago and she ran out of here like she was going to save him from a demon. I told her she was overreacting. She freaked out when he started begging. Said something about Kol never begging. Pssh, like he's Kol's ever been anything but dramatic."

"He was...begging," Klaus muttered, his eyebrows narrowing into an arch.

Klaus's apparent shock confused Marcel. "Y-yeah. We could hear it through the closed door even without vamp hearing. But don't worry, I think Hope's room too far down to have heard anything if that's what you're looking so worried about."

Klaus was speechless. Kol was known for saying whatever he needed to say to get out of trouble, whether it was ingenuine pleas or half-hearted apologies, but once he was over his brothers' knees, he'd always refused to give them the satisfaction of repentance no matter what. Even if apologizing meant receiving a shorter spanking, he refused.

But Klaus hadn't heard Kol say anything when he was beating him. His fear of Mikael returning to hurt his family had somehow made him block out everything. He couldn't help but wonder how long it took for Kol to start pleading for him to stop, at what point did it become too much for him to take? How long was he begging for?

As Klaus began to walk away, Marcel called, "Wait. Aren't we going to...y'know, get this over with?"

Klaus's stomach jumped to his throat as he pictured Marcel lying on his lap in the same position as Kol. He'd sooner tear the skin from his own body before he hurt Marcel like that and if he couldn't stop himself from hurting Kol, he refused to trust himself to not hurt Marcel.

"N-no," Klaus muttered. "I...can't. Go...see Davina. I need time to myself...to think."

As Klaus took another shaky step forward, Marcel noticed the strain of his movement, as if he were about to faint with every step.

"Klaus," Marcel's calm voice stilled his father once again. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Klaus answered immediately though his stressed tone did not convey 'fine'ness. "I just need a moment alone. Do me a favor? Take Hope with you. I don't want her around the Compound today. There's...a lot going on."

Marcel knew Klaus was lying about being fine but he didn't want to pressure him to talk about it anymore. He knew that he would find out the truth from Rebekah eventually so if Klaus wanted to pretend that everything was alright now, he would let him.

"Yeah," Marcel agreed. "Sure. Just...get some rest, okay. You look exhausted."

Klaus began his slow stroll down the hall to his studio. "I'm fine."

Chapter Text

Chapter 42

When Freya made it back to her lab, the first thing she did was run another diagnostic spell on her still sleeping 'little' brother. She knew that until she could find a way to return Finn back to his rightful age, she would be constantly running diagnostic spells on him for safe measure.

She grabbed a piece of parchment from her desk and brought it over to Finn. Taking one of his fingers, she used a small pin to prick the tip of it and dripped a few drops of his blood onto the parchment. Then she began to chant over the parchment until his blood began to move and write out all of Finn's vital signs across the parchment. She relaxed at seeing all of his vitals come up normal.

As Freya went back to her desk to continue studying her grimoires, Finn began to stir. It was subtle at first, his eyelashes slowly batting open, but then he shot up on the sofa all at once, his chest heaving heavily as if he'd been running a hundred miles.

Freya hurried over to his side, afraid that her spell had misdiagnosed him and he was about to be taken from her again.

"Finn," she said placing her hand on his forehead to test his temperature. "Are you okay?"

Seeing Freya sitting in front of him, touching him, reassuring him that she was indeed real and not just an apparition of his desperate lonely mind eased Finn's worry and his heavy breathing began to slow.

"I'm fine," he muttered. Looking around to see that they were alone, he asked, "Where is everyone?"

Freya released a calming sigh at hearing Finn's snippy response indicating that he was still himself. She'd just gotten her little brother back and she was going to do everything she could to keep him.

"They're in bed," she answered him. "It's 5 a.m."

Finn stared down at his hands to see they were still the thin hands of a teenage boy. "You haven't figured out how to change me back yet?"

Freya was a little taken aback by Finn's rudeness but she knew that his feelings were justified. As long as Finn was a child, there was still the imminent fear that his soul would rip from his body and disintegrate into nothing.

"I'm working on it," Freya sighed. "I've read through every grimoire I own but there's really nothing in any of them about this. Hope is quite the creative and powerful little witch. There's no telling what her spell could do."

"That damn girl," Finn bit, remembering the last moments he spent as an adult. Hope had ruined his life by not only returning him to an age he hated and had no fond memories of but by also forcing him to return to the family that never loved him.

"She's just a child," Freya calmly stated. "You can't be angry with her."

"The hell I can't," Finn barked. "This is all her fault. Any second now I could be ripped from this body and return to that hell."

Freya turned troubled eyes to her brother. "You were in hell?"

Finn went silent. He couldn't remember much about his time in the afterlife but he knew he wasn't in hell. He wasn't anywhere. All he could remember was darkness, loneliness, and heartache.

"No," he muttered. "I was nowhere. There is no afterlife. There is nothing. It may have been better to have gone to hell. At least then I wouldn't have been alone."

"What about Mikael? Wasn't he there with you?"

Finn's face contorted into a deep scowl. "He was there," he growled. "In my mind. Constantly. As was Klaus and Elijah. Kol. Our mother. Everyone who had ever hurt or betray me. I was constantly reminded of them. Constantly reminded that my suffering was their fault. Just as it is now."

Despite his angry facade, Finn's eyes gave way to his emotions, tearing up as he was forced to remember the pain he felt while in the Void.

He was a bit surprised when Freya pulled him into a hug, forcefully placing his head against her shoulder as she hugged him tightly but it only took a moment for him to lovingly accept his sister's embrace, wrapping his arms around her and falling into soft tears of comfort. Those twelve years in the Void felt like an eternity and he'd never thought he'd feel the love or warm touch of another person ever again.

"You're going to be okay," Freya whispered reassuringly to him. "I'm never going to let anyone take you from me again."

Finn's arms tightened around Freya as if he were trying to prove to himself that she was real and not just a figment of his imagination in the Void. "Please, sister," he mumbled through tears. "Don't let me go back there. I don't wanna die again."

Freya promised Finn repeatedly that she wouldn't let anything happen to him but she couldn't help but hate herself for not protecting him from the Void. When her family awoke she worked tirelessly on restoring the Otherside so she could use a different resurrection spell to bring Finn and Mikael back but all of her research always ended in a dead end. But luckily in her search, one of her witch contacts had given her an ancient spell used before the time of the Otherside to bring back dead Supernaturals and all she needed was the blood of the dead and something they held of value before their death. Now that she knew that dead Supernaturals would face an eternity in the Void, she made the unconscious promise to herself to find a way to restore the Otherside before she lost anyone else she cared about.

As Finn's crying began to die down, Freya could hear a rumbling coming from his stomach.

"You must be starving," she said as they slowly separated. "Come. Let's go to the kitchen and I'll make you breakfast and have a servant bring you blood."

A disgusted frown came across Finn's face at the thought of drinking human blood.

"I hate this," he grunted. "I hate being forced to survive on human blood." Finn's eyes suddenly brightened with an idea. "You could put me back in a witch's body!"

A bit surprised by Finn's pronouncement, Freya asked, "You don't want to be back in your Original body?"

"No. I hate being a vampire. I've always hated it. The only time I've ever been happy is when I was a witch. That body that I was in before, the one mother put me in, is it still alive?"

"You mean Vincent," Freya stated. "Yes, he is alive and I'm not putting you back in him. He's a friend of mine, not some sort of spare hull you can inhabit whenever you want."

"Why not? Do you know how hard it is to find a body that can house and Original?"

"I do, but we will find one. I swear." Seeing the downtrodden look on her brother's face, Freya walked over to him and cradled a hand around his cheek. "I want you back, Finn, and I want you happy. But not if that happiness is at the expense of someone I care about."

Finn pulled away from Freya's hand and bit, "If you really cared about me you wouldn't force me to stay in this body when there's a perfectly fine vessel out there for me to inhabit."

"He's not a vessel, he's a person. And my friend."

"Fine, then I'll just find some other witch to do it for me."

Finn knotted his hands tightly in his belt loops and marched towards the door. As he reached out for the door handle, his body froze. He struggled to move it but every muscle felt as if it were being held in place by a thousand pound weight.

"I'm not letting you use my friend as a vessel, Finn," Freya growled, her hand outstretched towards Finn as she used her magic to keep him in place. "And I'm not letting you out of my sight. As long as there's a chance of something happening to you, you're not to go anywhere without me. Clear?"

Finn struggled to move his head to glare at Freya but her spell kept him in place. "How dare you...and Elijah...have the gall to tell me what I can and cannot do? I was once a powerful witch! I am a thousand years old! I do whatever I please and no one can stop me! I'm not going to return to that hell. I need to change bodies and I need to change now! We don't have time to wait for another vessel to appear."

A deep gloom fell over Freya as she listened to her brother's frantic ravings. She knew he was afraid, he had every right to be, But in the past few months she and Vincent had become close and she couldn't imagine betraying him by snatching away his life the same way their mother did.

She walked slowly over to Finn and released the spell once she was standing in front of him. Placing her hand back on his cheek, she looked into his eyes and said, "I promised that I wouldn't let anything happen to you, and I meant it. But you have to trust me. Okay? If you truly want to be in a witch's body again, I will find a vessel that's suitable."

Finn stared down at the floor with a relentless pout on his face. He loved Freya and he wanted to trust her but she was a Mikaelson and if there was one thing he knew, it was that he couldn't trust his family.

-M-

Klaus had trapped himself in his room for hours. Since no one bothered to come check on him, he figured Elijah and Rebekah had told them what he'd done to Kol already and they were as disgusted with him as he was with himself. Still, after hours of forcing himself to stay awake on willpower alone, he realized he would soon pass out if he didn't have something to boost his energy again so he left his studio for the first time that morning to go get a cup of coffee. As he walked down the quiet hall, he saw Kol's bedroom door slightly ajar. He could hear mumbling coming from inside so he knew his brother was inside. He didn't want to pass it, fearing his next encounter with Kol, but that was the only way to the kitchen lest he went out of a window.

He moved slowly and quietly past the door when he heard a second voice coming from Kol's room.

Elijah set the book he was reading down on Kol's desk and sat back in his chair, stretching his arms out wide. "I am starving. Rebekah is taking ages with breakfast," he said looking over to Kol lying in bed. Kol hadn't come up from under his blankets since he finally tore himself out of Rebekah's arms. That was hours ago. "I hope she brings beignets back for making us wait so long."

Kol was silent. He'd been too ashamed to speak to his siblings after being beaten by Klaus and breaking down on Rebekah like a sobbing toddler. Still, Elijah and Rebekah stayed with him all morning, Rebekah leaving only to gather food and blood for the three of them.

Elijah couldn't believe what Klaus had done when he saw Kol lying on the floor, his behind so damaged that if he weren't a vampire he would have needed a doctor immediately. As cruel as Klaus was to Kol, he'd never done anything so horrible to him before. Klaus had spent his entire life trying to avoid becoming anything like their father but after seeing the effects of Klaus's anger across Kol behind, all any of them could picture was Mikael. Now Kol was a silent shell of what he once was and Elijah feared there was nothing he could do to help him.

"Perhaps I should go see what's taking her so long,"

As Elijah stood from his seat, Kol threw his blanket from over him and shot up, fear and tears covering his face. "No," he begged. "Please don't leave, Elijah. What if he comes back?"

Elijah's heart sank at seeing Kol's fearful eyes. "He's not going to hurt you again, Kol."

"Yes, he will," Kol said, a new batch of sobs working their way to his chest. "He's angry that I lied to him about Mikael and now he hates me for putting Marcel in danger. He's gonna dagger me the moment you leave me alone."

"Kol," Elijah hurried over to his brother's side. Pulling Kol into her arms, he said, "He doesn't hate you. And he's not going to dagger you."

"He does," Sobs broke through Kol's chest as he remembered his last encounter with Klaus. "He hates me. I know he does. I begged him to stop. I begged him. But he just kept going...harder. He...he hates me for every wicked thing I've ever done against Marcel. Like...the basement." Kol tightened his hug around Elijah fearing that bringing up his most heinous atrocity against a family member would make Elijah feel as disgusted with him as Klaus did. "I'm sorry, Elijah. I'm so sorry for everything. Please don't let him put a dagger in me."

Elijah held Kol closer when the bedroom door slowly creaked open. He glanced up expecting to see Rebekah with a tray full of treats but instead, there was Klaus. Kol sensed his Hybrid brother without having to look up from the safety of Elijah's shoulder and he squeezed his brother tighter, signaling that he didn't want Elijah to break their hold to confront Klaus. He was safe in Elijah's arms. Klaus rarely had a dagger for Elijah, the physical manifestation of his conscience.

"You shouldn't be here, Klaus," Elijah calmly stated. "He doesn't want to see you right now."

"I just need to speak with him, Elijah," Klaus said softly, weary eyes watching Kol's body tense as he spoke. "Just for a moment. Alone."

"No," Kol muttered, squeezing Elijah tight enough to hurt him. A new set of tears fell from his eyes. "He's gonna dagger me, Elijah...or worse."

"I won't harm him again. I swear." The timid passivity of Klaus's voice urged Elijah to believe him.

Pulling Kol back so they were looking into each other's eyes, Elijah said, "It's alright. He's not going to hurt you."

"He-he will. He'll-"

"He won't." Elijah looked up at Klaus, a threatening calmness in his eyes. "If he truly cares about keeping this family together, he won't."

Klaus glanced away from Elijah ashamed that he even felt it necessary to make that threat.

Kol hung on to Elijah for as long as he could as he stood up. "I'm going to help Rebekah. I won't be gone long."

As soon as the door closed behind Elijah, Kol jumped from his bed and sped across the room as far away from Klaus as he could get. Klaus sighed. He expected as much. He sat on the edge of Kol's bed with his back to his brother. "I don't hate you," he muttered. "You're my youngest brother and I've loved you for a thousand years."

"Just not as much as you love Marcel," Kol muttered under his breath.

"That's different," Klaus bit. "My first job as a father is to make sure my children survive so yes, I was angry when I found out you lied to me and that lie could've gotten Marcel killed but I didn't hate you for it. Even after everything you've done, you will always be my little brother."

"Then why...why did you do it? Why did you...why did you do that to me?"

Klaus tried to think back to his punishing Kol but he couldn't remember anything about it. All he could remember from his blur of emotions was an overwhelming sense of hatred towards Mikael.

"I didn't mean to," he said quietly. "I would never do that to you intentionally. I would never do anything to make you...fear me like this. I've tried so hard for the past millennia to avoid doing anything to make any of you...think me the same monster as Mikael. I just...I don't know what came over me."

"Hatred," Kol stated. "You thought about how I could've gotten Marcel killed and you hated me because you love him. Because you've always loved him more than you've loved me."

"That's not true," Klaus turned sharply to Kol and the youngest brother flinched, afraid that Klaus was about to vamp over to him but he stayed sitting. "I get angry with you, that's true, but I don't hate you. I've never hated you." Klaus stood and tears began down his cheeks and he didn't have the power nor will to stop them. "But my anger is not an excuse for my actions. I don't know what came over me, brother. If I could have stopped myself, I would have. I never...my entire life, I have never wanted to be an object of fear for you or any of our siblings."

As Klaus moved slowly towards him, Kol's anxiety rose. Klaus paused. He could hear the race of Kol's blood and knew that he had failed. He was no better than Mikael.

"Please...Kol...forgive me."

Kol's fight or flight responses were at their peak when Klaus started walking towards him but the closer Klaus got, the clearer the pain on his face became and Kol couldn't help but wonder if Klaus really was telling the truth and not simply trying to catch him with his guard down.

Daring to believe Klaus could care about him, Kol said, "Destroy the daggers." Klaus stared at him in silent confusion and Kol continued, "If you were telling the truth about never daggering us again then prove it. Destroy the daggers...and I'll believe that you care."

Klaus's jaw tightened with apprehension. It was Elijah's idea to do away with the daggers, not his. He did mean it when he said he wouldn't dagger his siblings anymore but there was always a looming fear that something would happen that would necessitate he dagger them again. What if another of his siblings were cursed like Rebekah. Daggering her until they found a cure was the best course of action. If they destroyed the daggers, what would they do then?

Still, seeing the frightened look on Kol's face was more than Klaus could handle. If an enemy was dumb enough to come after their family with another curse, they would figure out another way to stifle the effects of it without the daggers. Whatever he had to do to keep Kol from fearing him, from hating him, he would do it.

"Okay," Klaus agreed. "The daggers, the last of the white oak ash, I'll destroy them both today. I'll do whatever I have to do to make you believe me, Kol." Klaus started walking towards Kol again, this time slower, fear of Kol recoiling from him flooding his mind.

Kol didn't move as Klaus approached him. An inkling in the back of his mind kept warning him that Klaus was still lying to him, that at any moment his brother would reveal a dagger and put him down for another dozen years or so, but he fought against that little voice, trusting his brother for the first time with the same trust Klaus extended him.

Once he was standing mere inches away from Kol without his brother wincing at his every move, Klaus released a heavy breath of relief. Suddenly, he pulled Kol into a hug and squeezed him as his tears began anew.

"I'm sorry, brother," he muttered. "I'm so sorry. Please forgive me."

Kol's initial reaction to Klaus's unexpected embrace was one of fear. He thought his worse fears were coming to life and he was about to have a dagger shoved into him but it only took a second to realize that he was wrong. Hearing the shiver of Klaus's voice as he spoke shocked Kol. He couldn't imagine what sheer contriteness felt like. Even after it was found out what he had done to Marcel in the basement, he had only apologized because Elijah wouldn't stop blistering his bottom until he did. He never really felt bad for what he did, only for getting caught. He wondered what Klaus must have been feeling to bring him to such heartfelt tears.

Wrapping his arms around Klaus, Kol said, "I forgive you, brother. Always and forever."

-M-

Marcel couldn't help but smirk as he watched Hope through the corner of his eye, skipping along down the sidewalk beside him. Her attention was focused on her phone, texting away, completely unaware of the potted plant in front of her until it was too late. She tripped over the plant and went tumbling face forward to the ground but paused in mid-air before she could hit it. Marcel tightly gripped a handful of Hope's shirt keeping her suspended in the air and safe from marring her face on the unforgiving pavement.

"You should look up from your phone every once and a while," he chuckled as he sat her back to her feet.

Hope huffed. "You could've warned me."

"It wouldn't have been nearly as fun."

Hope laughed mockingly at Marcel before returning to her phone.

"Who are you texting anyway?"

"Sebastian," she answered curtly.

"And..." Marcel could tell by the silly grin Hope wore that she wasn't just talking to Sebastian. That was the grin of someone talking to their crush and he had an idea who she was talking to.

Noticing Marcel glancing over her shoulder at her phone, Hope immediately exited out of her messages and put her phone in her pocket.

"And no one," she retorted.

"Alright," Marcel chuckled at his sister's sudden defensiveness. "Don't tell me. But, if it is that Izzy-girl, be careful."

"Stop trying to tell me who I can be with," Hope bit. "You're just like dad."

"We're only trying to look out for you. We've been around for a lot longer than you and we've seen what people like her are like."

"People like her," Hope repeated with irritation.

"Violent criminals," Marcel clarified. "Is it true? Did she really attack a girl with a baseball bat?"

Hope stared guiltily away from Marcel at the passing storefronts. "Yeah," she answered lowly. "But she had it coming. She was making fun of Izzy's family."

"That's always a good reason to resort to violence," Marcel said sarcastically.

"Like anyone in this family has any right to judge," Hope bit. "If what you say about my dad's past is true then he has less of a right to judge her than anyone."

"Hey, Klaus might have done some terrible things in the past but he wants you to have a different future. He doesn't want you to carry on the same violent pattern as the rest of our family."

"Izzy isn't violent. She just had one bad day. You would know that if you tried to get to know her."

"Alright," Marcel stopped walking. "Then set it up. How does next Saturday sound?"

"Wh-what," Hope asked confused by Marcel's sudden interest in meeting Izzy.

"You don't want me to judge her before I get to know her, right? Let's go somewhere to get to know each other. Just the three of us."

Hope began to blush. "I-I don't know. That sounds kinda intimate. What if she thinks I'm just trying to ask her out on a date and just using you as a cover. I'm not ready for that yet."

Marcel's smile widened at the sight of his little sister getting flustered thinking about her first real date. "Then invite Sebastian along. And maybe Davina will come along so it will just seem like a group of teenagers hanging out."

Hope stared contemplatively at the apartment building across the street. She recognized it as Josh's apartment and realized they'd made it to their destination.

"Fine," she agreed, taking the first step off the sidewalk into the street. "But once you get to know her and see that she's not as bad as everyone tries to make her seem, you have to tell dad to leave us alone and stop eavesdropping on our conversations."

"Yeah," Marcel groaned thinking about all of the times Klaus had eavesdropped on his conversations. "He does that from time to time. I'll talk to him about it, but I can't make any promises."

-M-

Flashback

"Kol!" The parlor doors flew open to reveal Marcel standing angrily behind them holding a broken saddle embellished with silver and ornate jewels, the Mikaelson crest predominately displayed both sides of it.

Kol was lounging lazily on the sofa after having a long night out causing mayhem with some of his newly turned vampire friends so he wasn't expecting anyone to come bothering him lest it was Elijah coming to scold him for loafing about. He was especially not expecting Marcel to come bothering him so early in the day. Young Marcel had been out with him and his vampires for the earliest part of the night until his young, human body grew too tired to keep up with their vampire stamina.

Since Marcel was finally eighteen, Klaus allowed him the choice to spend time with Kol in the night with the stipulation that Kol stayed completely sober and made sure that absolutely nothing bad happened to Marcel. Either that or Kol would be allowed to drink but Klaus would tag along on their excursion and play bodyguard for Marcel himself...but they both knew that no one would be having any fun with Poppa Klaus around. So Kol stayed sober while Marcel was with them but the second Marcel was back in bed, he released his inner party animal and took to the streets in search of bourbon and women.

Marcel marched over to Kol and dropped the broken saddle at his feet.

"One of your degenerate vampires broke my saddle last night," Marcel barked.

Kol glanced down at the saddle, nearly split in half, and scoffed. "It's just a saddle, mate. Just ask Klaus for a new one."

"Poppa got me this one for my birthday. He had it made specifically for me. It has my name engraved on it." Marcel pointed to the back of the cantel where the name 'Marcel Mikaelson' was engraved in cursive letters.

"So," Kol turned over away from the light peering into the parlor from the open door. "It's nothing for him to have it made again. If you want, I'll ask him. Later. Now leave so I can sleep."

Frustrated with Kol's callous response to his damaged property, Marcel lifted the saddle high above his head and slammed it down on top of Kol.

As the Original jolted from his peaceful slumber and threw the saddle across the room, Marcel stood back, his hands tightly clenched and ready to fight.

"You're going to regret that," Kol growled.

He jumped from the sofa and grabbed Marcel by the collar of his shirt, speeding him across the parlor until he slammed his back against the wooden bookcase. He knocked the wind from Marcel but it only took a moment for him to regain his composure. Reaching out for something that could hurt Kol, Marcel's hand wrapped around a stone bookend. He slammed the thing against Kol's head but Kol barely flinched.

Marcel hated that Kol was immune to most of his attacks. He would often witness Kol and Klaus in a bout of fisticuffs to settle whatever disagreement they had before Elijah would step in as the voice of reason and he longed to be able to settle his disagreements with Kol the same way but he could never fight Kol. Every punch he threw was like hitting a brick wall and Kol never tried to hit him back. He always just held Marcel until he'd tire himself out and then he'd leave him feeling like a frustrated child in the midst of a tantrum. He just wanted some way to hurt Kol so he could feel some relief from his anger.

Thinking quick, Marcel aimed his attack lower, hitting the man in the most sensitive part of his body. He got exactly the reaction he was expecting as Kol fell to his knees clutching his crotch with tears in his eyes.

It was only after he'd done it that Marcel realized that he might have gone too far. He had never witnessed Klaus or Kol go for such a low blow but the drunk street urchin in the city did. He always thought himself better than them and as he watched Kol writhe in pain, he began to hate himself.

"Are you alright," he asked kneeling down beside Kol. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"

Before Marcel could finish his apology, Kol had tackled him to the ground. He grabbed both of Marcel's hands into one of his and pressed them against his chest as he straddled him, keeping Marcel pinned down.

Acting solely in anger, Kol wrenched his arm back and prepared to bring it down crashing against Marcel's face when he was suddenly lifted into the air and thrown against the wall across the room.

Struggling back to his feet, Kol was not surprised to see Klaus standing above Marcel with a look of pure anger on his face.

"Have you lost what little wit I presumed you have," Klaus growled. "It would be detrimental to your continued existence for you to even thought about laying a hand on my son."

"He started it," Kol yelled back. "That little wretch hit me with a saddle and then he clocked me in the family jewels with a bookend."

Klaus looked back at Marcel, now standing on his feet but too ashamed to look his father in the eyes, and asked, "Is this true, Marcellus?"

Marcel's silence was answer enough.

Klaus's jaw tightened in irritation of both his son and his brother. "I don't know what's gotten into you two," he said moving swiftly across the room to Kol. "But if you two want to throw blows, then allow me to join in."

Klaus grabbed Kol by the wrist and dragged him back to the sofa. Kol struggled against Klaus's hold knowing what his brother had planned for him and dreading the thought of having his humiliation performed in front of Marcel.

"No, Klaus, don't," Kol pleaded, attempting to pull his wrist from Klaus's grip but his brother was just too strong.

Klaus sat on the edge of the sofa and pulled Kol across his lap in one swift motion. Kol's face burned even more when he felt Klaus's hands go into the waistband of his pants and pull them down to his knees. He hid his shame by burying his face into the crook of his arm so Marcel wouldn't see his tears as Klaus began raining down painful smacks to his sensitive bottom.

Marcel watched with growing nervousness as Klaus laid relentlessly into Kol. He could hear Kol's pitiful crying even though the man was attempting to hide it behind his folded arms and knew that if his father could bring an Original Vampire to tears, he wouldn't stand a chance at keeping his dignity.

It wasn't the first time Marcel had witnessed Kol being taken to task but only by Elijah and Elijah had a way of making even the most demeaning task look elegant. Klaus had the total opposite effect.

Kol's legs flailed about with every harsh smack to his bottom but Klaus didn't care. As Kol began rocking his hips from side to side in hopes of avoiding another spank, Klaus wrapped a hand around his waist to keep him in place and continued spanking.

Marcel was always amazed by Kol's ability to take a spanking without begging for an immediate end. He envied his resolve and he tried to emulate it with every spanking he got but he could never stand more than thirty seconds over Klaus or Elijah's knee before he started pleading for them to stop.

Once Kol's bottom was a balming red, Klaus lifted him from his lap and walked over to Marcel, taking his son's hand and pulling him back over to the sofa. As Klaus expected, Marcel put up much less of a fight than Kol had, mostly because Marcel was still too shocked by witnessing his father spank his best friend to put up a fight.

It wasn't until he was face down over Klaus's lap with his nake bottom pointed up to the room that Marcel began to struggle.

Klaus brought his hand down a dozen times in rapid succession, careful to use much less strength on him than he did on Kol but still enough to bring Marcel to tears. Marcel's hands shot back over his bottom and Klaus immediately caught it. He held Marcel's hand to the side and landed three harsh smacks to the curve of Marcel's already sore bottom.

Releasing Marcel's hand, Klaus said, "Try to cover your bottom again and this will only get worse. Understood?"

"Y-yes p-poppa," Marcel stammered out in tears.

As Klaus restarted the onslaught on Marcel's tender mounds, Marcel fell into heavy sobs.

"Stop, poppa, please," he cried, wriggling his body hoping to avoid another stinging smack. "I won't do it again, I swear!"

At hearing Marcel's pleas for a quick end, Klaus landed three more smacks to his sit-spot and brought Marcel's punishment to an end. Klaus grabbed Marcel's arm and sat him up straight on his lap. Marcel tried to stand but Klaus pulled him into a hug and held him as he sobbed until his crying had become soft sniffles.

Kol watched enviously as Klaus dotted on Marcel. His brother had never treated him so affectionately after a spanking. On the rare occasion that Klaus spanked Rebekah, he treated her with just as much tenderness but Kol always assumed that was because Rebekah would wail so wholeheartedly during the spanking that she needed the extra attention. She was their little sister after all. Now, as he looked on to Klaus being just as loving with Marcel, he wondered what it was about him that made Klaus unable to treat him with the same compassion.

Klaus didn't notice the spiteful look in his brother's eyes as he continued to hold his son. It had never even occurred to him that maybe Kol would need extra attention. His brother took his spankings so well Klaus always thought that he would be too headstrong to be coddled afterward.

Standing Marcel up next to Kol, Klaus stood in front of them both, waiting for their collective hitches to quiet down before he spoke.

"Let this be the last time I ever catch you two fighting again or I will unleash a hell upon your backsides that will reign for a week."

"That wasn't hell?" Kol muttered under his breath. When Klaus cut his eyes at him, Kol unconsciously reached back to protect his behind from any more smacks.

"Marcel is my son and you will never raise a hand to hurt him ever again," Klaus growled at Kol. Then turning his attention to Marcel, he said, "If you have any disagreements with Kol or any other vampire, you come to me. The fighting ends here. Do I make myself clear to both of you?"

"Yes, poppa," Marcel answered immediately.

Kol gave a curt shrug of acceptance, still trying to rub the heat from his sore behind.

Standing directly in front of his younger brother, Klaus said, "I am not opposed to taking you over my knee a second time, brother." The firmness of his voice made Kol shiver. "I said, do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Klaus," Kol grunted shamefully.

"Good. Now both of you go wash up for supper. This little fiasco has earned you an early bedtime so off to bed right after."

Marcel and Kol began to protest, both feeling they were too old to be sent to bed early but Klaus lifted his hand in a gesture to silence them both.

"Any further argument will not be met with anything less than another dozen licks across my lap. Perhaps this time with the slipper to truly drive my point home."

Klaus smirked as their protests came to an abrupt end.

"Now make haste or I will revoke your dessert privileges as well."

As Marcel and Kol walked briskly toward the door, Marcel mumbled, "This was your fault."

"You started it," Kol bit back.

"You didn't have to retaliate."

"What, and let you get away with smacking me with a saddle. Not even in your dreams."

"Oh yeah, well-"

"I said no fighting," Klaus roared. His commanding voice caused them both to pause in fear.

"Sorry, poppa," "Sorry, Klaus," they said in unison, both too afraid to look back, and then they hurried out of the parlor away from terrifying Mikaelson.

End Flashback

When Hope and Marcel entered Josh's apartment, the first thing they noticed was the overwhelming aroma of hot, homemade food. There was a variety of different food lined up on every surface in the kitchen and living room. The dining table was covered with desserts.

"You're here," Josh greeted them with a wide smile.

"What's with all the food, Josh," Marcel asked.

Josh looked around as if he was surprised by how much food he'd cooked himself.

"He's been at it all night," Lora groaned from the couch, the only place besides the floor that didn't have a serving tray on it.

"I'm just taking precautions," Josh defended. "I didn't know what Davina would want for breakfast after being dead for twelve years so...I made her everything."

Marcel chuckled at his friend's excitement. Just like him and Kol, Josh had been devastated by Davina's loss and now that she was back, he was going to go above and beyond to make sure she was happy.

"I sure she will love it, Josh," Marcel commended. "Where is she, by the way?"

"Still in bed. I was just about to see if she was ready to wake up."

"Good. I'm right on time. I'll go check on her."

Just as Marcel was walking towards Josh's bedroom where Davina had fallen asleep the night before, they all heard a terrible cry come from the room. "Marcel," Davina shrieked.

All of the vampires vamped into the bedroom without a second thought to see the teenage girl lying in the middle of the bed, perfectly safe, though you wouldn't have known it by the abject terror in her eyes and the breathless heave of her chest.

"Hey," Marcel hurried over to her, climbing into the bed beside her. "Are you alright?"

Davina pulled him into her arms and squeezed him like he was the first solid thing she'd touching in twelve years.

Marcel allowed her to hug him in silence for a while, rubbing gentle circles against her back, before saying, "It's alright. It was just a bad dream. You're okay now."

Davina knew that he was right, that her dream of being back in the Void was indeed just a dream, but she couldn't help but want to hold on to him for just a little while longer.

The feeling of all the eyes in the room lingering on her made Davina suddenly self-conscious and she forced herself away from Marcel as she said, "Sorry. I guess...it just felt so real." She reached down to the collar of the large black t-shirt Josh loaned her to sleep in and wiped the tears from her face.

"You don't need to apologize," Marcel uttered. Seeing the pain still in her eyes, Marcel looked to Lora and said, "Lora, could you take Hope to the kitchen and make her some breakfast, please."

"There's food all over the apartment," Lora scoffed. "She can just go take her pick."

Cutting his eyes at his youngest vampire, Marcel said, "That wasn't a request. Take Hope into the other room. Please."

Moved by her sirebond, and a slight fear of disobeying Marcel, Lora nodded for Hope to follow her out of the room. Hope left willingly but only because she wanted the moment away from Marcel to continue texting Izzy without him looking over her shoulder.

When the door closed behind them, leaving only Marcel, Josh, and Davina, Marcel asked her, "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine," Davina answered softly.

"Are you sure," Josh questioned. "Because, I'm not expert, but judging by that scream that brought us all in here, you're probably the least-fine 'fine' person I've ever seen."

"It was just a bad dream," Davina insisted.

Marcel didn't know how to respond. He wanted to help her but he couldn't if he didn't' know what the problem was and right now Davina was being too suborn to tell him anything. He made a mental note to ask Rebekah to talk to her. She had always been fond of Davina and he had hoped that she would be more open with a girl who had spent her fair share of time 'dead'.

"Well, why don't you get dressed," Marcel said glancing over to the clothes Rebekah had lent Davina the night before folded neatly on Josh's dresser. "And after breakfast, I'll take you and Hope shopping."

The thought of going shopping finally put a smile on Davina's face.

Marcel and Josh went back out to the living room where Hope was sitting on the couch texting Izzy and Lora was in the kitchen scrambling the girl up some eggs at her sire's direction.

"Do you really think she'll be okay," Josh asked.

"I think she will be," Marcel answered honestly. "Eventually. It'll take some time. We just have to be gentle with her. But not too gentle. She hates being babied."

Josh chuckled. "Yeah, I haven't forgotten that."

When Davina finally stepped out of the room fully dressed, the first thing she noticed was Kol wasn't there. She had hoped that when he didn't come running into the room at her scream it was just because he was running late but she thought that he had had plenty of time to get to the apartment by then.

"Where's Kol," she asked.

Josh immediately looked to Marcel.

Unsure of how to explain the new Mikaelson-regime, Marcel cleared his throat and said, "He's...at the Compound. And...I'm afraid that you won't be seeing him again for a little while."

"Why not," Davina asked, her eyes widening with fear that something bad had happened to Kol.

Marcel noted the look on Davina's face and knew that there was no way to tell her the truth without telling her the absolute truth, or as much of it as he could without revealing the Mikaelsons' number one secret.

"Do you remember what I told you last night about the Mikaelsons being back in charge," Marcel asked.

Davina's eyes grew dark with a sudden anger. "You mean how Klaus came back and stole your throne from you? Yeah, I remember."

Hearing the bite in Davina's voice as she spoke about Klaus brought Hope's attention from her phone. She may have been made at her father for the moment but that didn't mean that she was willing to sit idly by while someone disrespected him.

Ignoring Davina's bubbling anger, Marcel continued, "Well...he's not just in charge of the city. The Mikaelsons...have this...way of life, different from most people's. Klaus and Elijah kinda...run things. For the city and for the family."

"What are you talking about, Marcel," Davina demanded, wanting Marcel to stop beating around the bush and just say what he meant.

"What I'm trying to say is, the way the Mikaelsons have been able to stay together for as long as they have is by following a certain order. Kol broke that order when he kept secrets about Mikael's resurrection from Klaus and so...Klaus's punishment for him is a week without you."

Davina's mouth dropped in surprise that the love of her life had been 'punished' by her enemy. "What do you mean 'punished'? Kol's an Original. Klaus can't make him do anything he doesn't want to do."

"That's not the way things work in the Mikaelson household, D. What Klaus says goes or-"

"Or what? He'll dagger him? If he does I'll break into that Compound and undagger Kol myself and then I'll stick that dagger into Klaus's cold, dead heart."

Having heard enough of Davina disrespecting Klaus, Hope jumped up and said, "Like a tiny, little pathetic witch like you could ever hurt my dad."

Davina was shocked by the girl's outburst. Marcel and Kol were bragging to her the night before about how much of an exceptionally strong witch Hope had grown into but strong witch or not, to Davina she was still just a fourteen-year-old girl.

"How about you sit down and let the adults talk," Davina bit condescendingly. "Little girl."

Once again angered by Davina's disrespect, Hope acted without thinking. Holding her hand out to Davina, she sent the older teen flying into the wall, slamming her back into the hard concrete accent. Davina let out a small scream from the shock of it but then her anger revived ten-fold. With a flick of her finger, she sent Hope soaring into the air and then released her letting the girl fall helplessly onto the couch beneath her. The sudden shock of being lifted into the air was enough to force Hope to release her spell on Davina and she fell down to her knees.

"Stop it," Marcel barked, terrified by the girls' apparent lack of care for the other's safety. "Both of you."

Davina rose from the floor, prepared to let their little skirmish come to an end but Hope wasn't finished with her yet. The young Mikaelson jumped off the couch with her hands pointing towards the table of food sitting off to the side. Using her magic, she picked up the table and sent it flying at Davina. Seeing the table coming, Davina deflected it with her own magic and sent it flying towards the kitchen. Lora sped away from the kitchen, just barely dodging the incoming table as he slammed against the stove. Her anger getting the best of her, Davina used her magic to pick up the skillet Lora was frying Hope's eggs in and sent it flying across the room aimed directly at Hope's head.

Hope flinched, not expecting a skillet to come flying towards her, and she was too late to stop it. Then Marcel sped in front of her, catching the skillet just before it could hit her.

"That's enough!" His deep, bellowing voice caused them both to jump in fear.

Marcel threw the skillet on the floor with the rest of broken dishes scattered about from their fight and grabbed Hope by one ear and Davina by the other as he dragged them both back into Josh's room.

He pushed them both toward the bed and slammed the door closed behind him.

"You two should be ashamed of yourselves," Marcel lectured. "Someone could've gotten seriously hurt."

"It wouldn't have been me," Davina muttered under her breath.

"I'm a tribrid," Hope said just as cockily. "I would've healed."

"I said enough," Marcel barked, catching both of their attention once again.

He eyed them both angrily. He never thought he would have to break up a magical bout between his adoptive daughter and little sister and yet here he was. And neither of them seemed the least bit remorseful about it. They cut their eyes at each other as if they were silently daring the other one to make a move against them again.

"You know what Klaus would've done to me and Kol if he caught us fighting the way you two just were?"

"Threatened to kill everyone you love," Davina replied sarcastically.

"Davina," Marcel bit her name with a ferocity that startled Davina.

"What," she said nervously. "It's not like that isn't his M.O."

"Not anymore. I told you, he's changed."

"Not that much, I'm sure. He's been a monster for a thousand years and he'll be the same monster in a thousand more."

Growing agitated by Davina's continuously badmouthing her father, Hope quietly moved her hand and Josh's deodorant went flying from the dresser and hit Davina in the back of the head.

"You little brat," she screamed.

Before Davina could retaliate, Marcel grabbed Hope by the arm and dragged her to the bed. Before Hope could realize what was going on, Marcel had her over his knee. Her face burned with the humiliation of being put in that position in front of a stranger but Marcel ignored his sister's embarrassment and began laying down stinging smacks across her backside.

Hope didn't know how to react. She never thought she would be put in that position by Marcel of all people but now that she was, she wasn't sure how to feel. But her mind was quickly distracted by the build-up of stinging smacks to her tender behind.

"Marcel," she screamed reaching back to cover her behind. "No, what are you doing? Stop!"

Marcel grabbed Hope's hand and held it away from her butt as he lifted his knee to aim more spanks to her sensitive sit-spot. "Keep your hands to her side," he punctuated each word with a harsh slap to her undercurve.

Hope's legs began to kick wildly and she wriggled fiercely from side to side, doing her absolute best to escape Marcel's relentless palm. Marcel suddenly understood why Klaus and Hayley found it necessary to lock the girl's legs between theirs and he didn't hesitate to do the same. Once she was trapped between Marcel's legs with no discernible way free, Hope began to wail.

"I'm sorry," she finally cried. "Please stop, Marcy! I'm sorry! I'll stop, I promise."

Feeling that he had finally gotten through to his little sister, Marcel stopped spanking her and sat her up on his lap. As he pulled her into his arms, he whispered soft shushes into her ear.

Davina was stunned. The last time she witnessed a spanking was when she was nine and she and her best friend, Monique, had gotten caught by their parents sneaking out to the bayou after school to catch a glimpse of the wolves. It turned out their coded letters weren't very hard to figure out and when they made it out there, their parents were out there waiting for them. Her mom didn't spank her but Monique's dad didn't even wait to get the girl home before he laid into her right there in the bayou. She never dreamed that she would witness another spanking and certainly not one being performed by Marcel.

Once Hope's crying had subsided, Marcel stood her up and turned his attention to Davina. The intense look in his eyes as he stared at her made Davina's palms begin to sweat.

Marcel thought hard about his next decision. He made Klaus promise to treat Davina like a Mikaelson, like her life was worth as much as anyone else he cared about, but he knew that if he expected Klaus to treat her like a Mikaelson, he would have to too.

He lifted his hand and beckoned Davina over with one finger. "Come here," he ordered.

"Wh-what are you gonna do," she stuttered.

"You're not blameless," Marcel stated. "You engaged in that fight just as much as Hope did."

"Y-you're not going to...to...to do that to me too, are you?"

"I am," Marcel answered plainly. "And you can come over here and it will be quick and easy or you can put up a fight and get a dose of what Hope just got."

"You can't spank me, Marcel," Davina exclaimed in shock. "I-I'm eighteen, I'm a woman."

Marcel scoffed as he rose to his feet. "You will soon learn that in this family, that means very little."

Before Davina knew what was happening, Marcel had her face down over his lap. She stared at the floor, her eyes wide with shock, and remained absolutely silent until the first smack came ringing across her bottom.

"Marcel," she screamed. "Stop! What are you doing?"

Marcel continued to spank her, his pace quickening after each smack, giving the girl no time to prepare for the next.

"Marcel," he voice soon became less demanding and more pleading. "St-stop. It hurts!"

"That means I'm doing my job right," Marcel said calmly as he began landing a dozen smacks across the girl's tender undercurve. Davina's instinct was to reach back and cover her bottom but she couldn't find the strength to cover anything but her face as she fell into heartwrenching sobs.

Feeling Davina's body go limp on his lap, Marcel knew that it was time to draw the spanking to a close. He gave her a few more harsh smacks to each cheek and then sat her up. Her tears covered his shirt as he held her against his shoulder, squeezing her tightly in his arms.

"It's okay," he mumbled against the top of her head. "You're okay. Your poppa's right here."

Marcel immediately tensed as the word 'poppa'' slipped from his mouth. As natural as it felt, he didn't expect himself to say it and he was afraid of how Davina would react to it.

Suddenly the girl wrapped her arms around his abdomen and held him tighter as she cried and Marcel felt a wave of relief wash over him. He held her against him and continued whispering softly to her until her crying died down.

Once she had her hitches under control, Marcel stood her up next to Hope. Standing in front of the two sniffling teens, he began, "That deplorable act of senseless violence you two just displayed in the living room will never happen again. Do I make myself clear?"

"Y-yes," Davina sniffled.

Hope gave a hesitant nod. Marcel knew that if she were dealing with Elijah or one of the others they would've demanded she answer them verbally but he was not that strict. As long as Hope acknowledged his order that was good enough for him.

"Good, now you two apologize to each other."

Feeling that it was her place to apologize first since she was the oldest and should've known better than to engage Hope in a fight, Davina turned to the younger girl and said, "Hope, I'm sorry for fighting with you and trying to throw a pan at your face."

With a dry huff, Hope responded, "And I'm sorry for throwing a table at you...and the deodorant."

Marcel almost wanted to smile as his first attempt at corporal punishment ended in success but he fought it.

"Now," he started, forcing his face stoic. "Since you destroyed the kitchen and everything Josh cooked, we're going to have to go out for breakfast. But first, we have to help Josh clean his apartment." Nodding to the adjoining bathroom in Josh's room, Marcel said, "You two clean yourselves up and meet us in the living room."

Hope and Davina marched solemnly to the bathroom, both too ashamed of being punished in front of the other to say anything else.

Marcel left Josh's room expecting to see Josh and Lora hard at work cleaning up Davina and Hope's mess but he was instead greeted with wide, surprised eyes.

"What," he asked.

Josh walked slowly over to Marcel on unsteady legs. "Did you just..." he couldn't get the words out but by the shocked looked on his face, Marcel knew exactly what he was going to ask.

Marcel had forgotten that the vampires would be able to hear everything that went on in the bedroom and suddenly felt shame burn across his face even though he wasn't the one being punished.

"I did," he answered honestly. "And I'd do it again if they ever acted so recklessly."

Josh gave a slight chuckle, surprising both Marcel and Lora. "What," he asked looking to both of them as if they were the ones acting out of character. "It's just, super ironic. I guess the apple really doesn't fall far, huh."

Chapter Text

Chapter 43

Flashback:

The three months after the Mikaelson siblings escaped from their home felt like years. It was rough leaving their home to find someplace to hide in a world they knew nothing about, running from their murderous father, fighting an almost uncontrollable lust for blood, but most importantly, they were all still heartbroken from the loss of their mother. None more so than Klaus.

Every time he closed his eyes he saw his mother's terrified face in the moments before he ended her life. He couldn't find comfort in any of his siblings because he feared if they knew it was he that killed their mother and not Mikael, they would never forgive him. They would hate him as much as they did their father and they would leave him to wander the Earth alone. Fear of being abandoned kept him from ever saying anything but lack of consolement drove him into a depressive spiral of self-hatred and anger.

The night his siblings stopped at a small town south of France, Klaus found settlement on a stool in a local tavern while his siblings went out testing their newfound ability of 'Compulsion' in order to find a place for them to stay the night. Elijah was a bit worried about Klaus spending all of his time in a tavern but he didn't bother him about it. Klaus had taken the death of their mother harder than anyone. Even Rebekah, who was inconsolable after finding their mother's lifeless body that night, had begun to grieve with more control than Klaus had. Elijah guessed that Klaus's disconsolate nature was probably because he was unable to handle the news of being found a bastard and his mother dying all in the span of a few short days. So he gave his brother space to grieve over everything on his own since that seemed to be what Klaus was so intent on doing, even though Elijah dreaded the fact that his brother would rather find solace at the bottom of a bottle than in the arms of his siblings.

"Another!" Klaus slammed his empty mug on the surface of the bar with a resounding thud but the noise could hardly be heard over the rowdiness of the tavern. A generous knight had wandered in and had buying an endless stream of alcohol for all the patrons and the chattering and dancing had not stopped since.

Klaus turned his anger to the 'chivalrous' knight being handsy with the wait staff - flipping the ends of their skirts with his feet, pulling them on to his lap and groping them - this was the loud, obnoxious man keeping him from getting his mead. The longer the waitress took to serve the knight and his posse, the more sober Klaus became and the soberer he became, the clearer the memory of killing his mother became. He wanted nothing more than to end his misery but there was nothing he could do. He killed his mother and deserved to suffer.

A heavy thud against his shoulder brought Klaus's attention back to the room. Two drunken men playfully jostling each other near the bar had accidentally bumped into him. A little voice in the back of Klaus's head told him that it was an accident. It urged him to calm down and realize that people make mistakes sometimes and not every situation needed to be settled in violence.

Klaus ignored that voice. Instead, his listened to the loud shouts driving him to attack the roughhousing drunkards. Grabbing them both by the throat, Klaus brought all eyes to him as he choked them with one hand. His dark eyes were encased in a frame of dark veins. The room went silent with fear and only the knight had the bravery to stand up.

Grabbing his sword from the table, he stood and shouted, "Release them, demon!"

Klaus turned his attention to the knight. "Demon? If that is the extent of your cruelty, Sir Knight, this will turn out to be one battle you are ill-prepared for."

In a split second, he snapped their necks and sped over to the knight. Armed only with his sword, the knight was no match for Niklaus. Baring his fearsome fangs, Klaus bit into his neck and ripped out a chunk of flesh between his teeth. The tavern with wild with screams and people scrambling for an exit. Lost in the thrill of the chase, Klaus chased them down one by one, killing as many people as he could before the tavern was empty of all living things.

It wasn't until he was stuck alone in silence, the scent of blood and death filling the tavern, that Klaus realized what he'd done. He looked down at the faceless body of one of his victims and suddenly felt sick. He threw up a majority of the blood he'd just consumed but releasing the weight of his stomach did not ease his heavy heart.

"Father was right to hate me," he mumbled to himself, tears streaming down his face. "I am...a monster."

He fell into the nearest chair and cried and as he cried, he remembered his siblings were only minutes away in town. It would only be a matter of time before they found out what he did and when they did, he was sure they would hate him. Hate him just like Mikael did, though they should hate him more. He killed their mother. He tore their family apart. He was the reason their youngest brother was dead. He was the reason they were now monsters cursed to feed on their fellow man and burn in the sun. Everything bad that had ever happened to his family, he was the cause behind it.

Drawn by the screams of people running through the streets, Elijah hurried to the tavern to see what havoc had been wrought. He was speechless at the sight. He had to wade through bodies and blood to get to his brother sitting quietly at the bar with his head hung low. The stale scent of death was heightened by his vampire senses and he couldn't remember a day that he so wished to be free of his vampirism than then.

"What happened," he muttered breathlessly. He'd never seen such bloodshed. He and his brothers were lucky enough to never have seen the throes of war but he imagined this is what the carnage would look like.

"I was bothered," Klaus stated in a quiet reply. "So I took my frustration out on the townsfolk."

"Why...why not come to me," Elijah spun slowly round to get a better look of the room. "Why...kill all of these people? Niklaus..." He didn't know what to say. His brother was the most innocent person he knew. Even with all of Mikael's abuse, Klaus had never returned violence for violence. Elijah was stunned. 'Is this what it does,' he thought. 'Is this what the curse our mother inflicted upon us is bound to drive us to?'

"I don't know," Klaus mumbled. "Maybe...father's suspicions of me were true. Maybe...I am no good. Even as a bloodsucker."

Hearing the pain in his voice, Elijah turned to see Klaus sitting with tears breeching the corners of his eyes. "Klaus," he reached a gentle hand out to his brother. His heart was broken when Klaus pulled away from his touch.

"No," Klaus bit. "Do not pretend as if the death doesn't bother you. I know you hate it. I can hear it in your voice," Klaus looked up to Elijah to stare his brother in his shimmering eyes. "I can see it in your eyes. You're disgusted. You want to leave, leave." Turning back to the bar in front of him, Klaus added, "I will understand."

Elijah stared down at the dead bodies still in disbelief that his sweet brother could ever do something so monstrous. "This...isn't your fault. Our parents turned you into this."

Klaus slammed his hand down on the counter and bellowed, "I did this, Elijah! I...I slaughtered these people. Not father, not...mother." Memories of Esther's terrified face as his hands wrapped around her neck flooded his mind. "I did it. I...don't deserve your attempts at comfort, no matter how apathetic they may be."

"It is not apathy you hear in my voice. Wish that I could be apathetic but when a man enters a tavern to see his brother surrounded by the bodies of the dead he's slaughtered...he tends to feel emotions he'd never before contested. I am still...incredulous."

"There's a simple solution to your Delphic emotions," Klaus muttered into his empty flagon. "Walk out of that door and never come back. Take our siblings with you. Leave me here to rot with the corpses."

The sound of Elijah's hand slamming against the wooden bar echoed through the empty room. "Stop asking me to leave you," he barked. "I am not leaving you! I am never leaving you! We made a vow, always and forever. This...this was a mistake that, in time, we will forget. You could not help yourself. This...blood that flows through us makes us...not human. This unquenchable hunger made you do it."

"It wasn't hunger! I did it because I wanted to. Because I could! Because there wasn't anything any of them could have done to stop me. I did it...because I am a monster."

"If you are a monster then so am I. Rebekah, Kol, Finn...we would all be monsters. Is that how you see us?"

"You did not slaughter a tavern of drunken fools."

Elijah was silent. He couldn't even imagine killing one person, let alone dozens, and yet here he was standing in the aftermath of his brother's own massacre.

"You must forgive yourself," Elijah muttered. "You would not have done something like this if you were still yourself. This thing that mother turned us into...sometimes even I find it hard controlling my emotions."

"But you do! You all do! You all are capable of restraint, of foresight."

"Restraint," Elijah repeated in disbelief. "Do you know how many people Kol has drained in the past six days? Fourteen. He knows nothing of restraint. Rebekah has drained seven. Finn and I, three. We are all struggling, brother. This...this was just a moment of weakness. You must forgive yourself."

"No, Elijah." Klaus rose from his stool and turned to face his brother. His eyes were colder than Elijah had ever seen them. "It wasn't a moment of weakness. I have been sitting here for hours, contemplating it. With every passing moment, I convinced myself more and more that I should act, that I should kill them. I thought about it, Elijah. It wasn't a moment of weakness, it was a calculated response to an insignificant nuisance. I...I," Klaus's cold eyes turned soft. He glanced down at the body of the dead knight lying on the floor. "Retribution is needed."

"Forgiveness is needed. You are not inherently evil, brother. You must forgive yourself for your moment of weakness. It is obvious you are contrite."

"Not contrite," Klaus bite. "Anxious. Waiting for you to grasp just how far gone I am and walk away. Leave your freak, bastard brother to his corruption."

Elijah cupped his hands around Niklaus's neck and looked sorrowfully into his brother's eyes. "I will never leave you," he repeated more forcefully. "You are my brother. If I see you traveling down the wrong path, I do not turn my back on you. I help guide you to the correct one."

"There is no turning back for me, brother. Blood has been shed."

"What will it take for you to forgive yourself," declared Elijah.

"Retribution for the dead," Klaus barked back. "But you cannot seek retribution for death on a man that cannot die. I have killed...so many people," Tears welled heavily in Klaus's eyes as he remembered his reflection in the river as he washed the blood from his hands, his face coated in more of his mother's blood. "There is no going back to the brother you once knew."

"I don't believe that. I believe in your redemption, brother. You are not evil. I will convince you of that even if it takes the rest of our immortal lives."

End Flashback

Klaus sat in his studio staring blankly at his unfinished painting. He'd been fighting sleep all day but his exhaustion was keeping him from continuing his work. He heard the studio door creak open and he sensed his brother standing in the doorway but he couldn't find the courage to turn around.

"I didn't mean to hurt him," he muttered.

"I know," said Elijah.

"I shouldn't have touched him. I was so...all I was thinking about was Mikael. I didn't even realize what I was doing until it was too late."

"I know. I've spoken to Kol," he said walking over to the sofa where Klaus sat. "He seems a different man after your talk. A lot less...troubled."

"I am ashamed," Klaus muttered. "Kol may be...an occasional pest but he is still my little brother and I...what I did to him...I would think it unforgivable yet he forgave me. As he always does. As you all always do even when I don't deserve your forgiveness."

"Niklaus, there is little that you can do to not receive the forgiveness of your family. You, of all people, should know this by now."

Finally facing Elijah, Klaus jumped to his feet and barked, "Do you not see anything fundamentally wrong with that, Elijah? I BEAT our brother with the same ferocity as our father once doled out and he forgave me. Why? Because of some insignificant vow we made a thousand years ago? It cannot be that simple! He deserves better! He...,"

Klaus stood silently, his eyes swimming in anger and self-hate.

"Niklaus," Elijah reached out to his brother but Klaus quickly pulled away.

"No," he grunted. "I...I can't let this be. I still do not quite forgive him for what he did to Marcellus in that basement. Sometimes when I'm down there I get so angry at the memory that I entertain thoughts of dragging him down there and giving him a dose of his own medicine. Of course, I never follow through but that's how angry I still get at him. But I am forgiven in an instant. Why? Why, Elijah? Why does he..."

"Forgive his brother?"

Klaus could feel the tear about to fall from his lash and decided to turn and walk away from his brother to save face.

"Perhaps because you are his brother, Niklaus. Because he loves you and he doesn't want to see our family be torn apart because of this. Perhaps because he wants to believe in your redemption in the same way I do."

"Or perhaps it's because he's afraid that if he doesn't...everyone else will be forced to choose a side between he and I. If we take a look back through history, you and Rebekah usually take my side. Even when I am in the wrong...you never abandon me. No doubt Hayley will choose you, and Hope is a child so she has no choice but to follow her mother and father. Marcellus hasn't been very fond of Kol for more than a century and I've made it clear that I will never let Davina leave Marcel so long as Marcel is happiest with her around. And his pal, Joshua, if forced to choose between Davina and Kol, would no doubt choose Davina. Kol would lose everything. His family, his home, his friends. All because of me."

"That is simply not true," Elijah stated firmly. "When we returned to New Orleans, I made a new vow. I vowed to keep this family together, whatever it takes. If Kol decided to never forgive you, then he would have simply sulked around this Compound for an eternity angry at you until he does eventually forgive you or the sun devours us all in an all-consuming explosion, whichever came first. No one will abandon him."

"You know that...and I know that...but I have been where he has."

Klaus thought back to the first century of his life when he feared the love of his family was contingent upon him being the absolute perfect manifestation of a brother, bringing only happiness to the lives of his siblings, fearing that any wrongdoing would cause them to resent him as their father did.

"Feeling as though everyone you love only cares for you under the condition that you remain someone worth loving. I'm sure you've never felt that fear because you have been the backbone of this family for a thousand years and had it not been for you...who knows what would have happened to us by now. But Kol and I...we know that feeling all too well. Our father instilled that fear in me at a young age and for the longest time...for too long, I lived in constant fear that I would never be good enough to be loved by anyone, not even by those with whom I share blood. It took decades, nigh on centuries, before I finally realized that you weren't going anywhere. But Kol...I did this to him. With those bloody daggers and my...incessant paranoia. I made him think that he was nothing more than a play-thing that we could take out and have a bit of fun with whenever the moment suited us but the moment we got bored with him, it was time to put him away again. Even when he takes off to another country to be free of us for a few years, he eventually always returns to face the same looming torment every day because...because despite all of his fears, he wants us to want him. And I make him feel unwanted."

Elijah stood with his hands in his pockets, his lips pursed. There was nothing he could say to comfort Klaus that wasn't a lie because he knew his brother was right. For centuries he had begged Klaus to get rid of the daggers and free his siblings of their torment but Klaus was always blind to their fear. He felt relief knowing that his brother was finally beginning to understand the pain to which he'd subjected his family for a thousand years, a mental anguish that went overlooked by their invulnerable Hybrid brother.

"Klaus," Elijah took slow deliberate steps towards Niklaus. "You're right. I see it in him too. I've seen it for centuries. But the fault is not on you alone. We all had a hand in cultivating his fear. The first time you, Rebekah, and I made the vow of 'Always and Forever', we did it without Kol and Finn because we didn't suspect either of them cared enough about keeping our family together to agree to it but once Kol found out, he was heartbroken. And when we extended the vow to him, it had to have seemed...to him, it must've seemed done out of pity, to placate him. He has never felt as though any of us would ever stand behind him if he felt wronged by another. He needs proof."

Klaus's eyes perked up as an idea began to form in his head. "Do you remember the first time you tried to convince me that nothing I could do would drive you away from me, that I was a person worth forgiveness?"

Elijah arched an eyebrow of uncertainty. He had so many rough memories with his siblings in the first century of their lives that he couldn't be sure which memory exactly Klaus was referring to.

"My first drunken tavern slaughter. I thought that you would think me a monster and leave me forever. I think...deep down...I was hoping for it. I had...killed our mother and I hated myself every second of every day for it. And I could never find comfort in the arms of my big brother because...I was afraid that that would be the one thing that would make you truly hate me... So in a fit of unbridled emotion, I slaughtered an entire tavern of innocent folk. You saw the worst part of me that day, Elijah. But you stayed."

"Are you suggesting that we should get Kol to show us the worst part of him?"

"It's how I learned to trust you. At my very worst, I am an unbridled force of death. You saw that, and you stayed. You had every right to leave. We were both immortal and indestructible, we could have...survived apart. But you stayed and you spent the next thousand years on an unending quest for my redemption. That is the unconditional loyalty that Kol feels we lack towards him."

"And what, I fear, is the worst of Kol? He's not paused by the thought of taking a life in front of us. In fact, he takes nonpareil joy in doing so."

"I do not know, brother." Klaus sighed and flopped heavily down on the sofa behind him, still fighting a losing battle against his exhaust. "Kol has spent a thousand years keeping his deepest fears hidden from us because he felt like an outsider in his own family. We just have to figure it out and make him believe that we will stand by him no matter what. What was it you told me that day? 'Even if it takes the rest of our immortal lives.'"

Elijah smiled softly. "Indeed."

He watched as Klaus's eyes slowly fluttered, Klaus's face stern as he tried to force himself to stay awake. He grabbed the old quilt off the back of the couch and draped it across Klaus's knees. His brother was exhausted and Elijah felt that he was better rested than he was exhausted. Klaus had had a long couple of days and Elijah knew that with the fretful state everything had left him in, Klaus was going to have another of his terrible nightmares, probably the worst of them yet, but he also knew that if Klaus didn't get some sleep soon, the worse his emotional control would become.

He left Klaus's studio hoping to get a few hours of sleep in himself while Klaus slept. As he passed Freya's workshop, he heard the sound of soft snoring coming from inside. He peeked in to see if his sister had finally fallen asleep as well and was relieved to see her head lying heavily against the surface of her desk. He expected to see Finn lying on the couch fast asleep as well but was shocked to see it empty. In fact, as his eyes scouted the room, he realized that Finn was nowhere in the workshop at all.

As fast as his alarm rose, it quickly lowered. He didn't trust Finn outside of direct supervision if he didn't know where he was at all time, not while his family was still unsuspectingly roaming the city, but remembering that Finn was still trapped in his teen body and was not stupid enough to jeopardize his relationship with his family while the threat of him being unsuspectingly snatched from existence still loomed calmed him back down.

"Freya," he barked his sister's name, waking her instantly.

Freya woke with a start, for a moment forgetting why she was waking up at the desk in her lab surrounded by an array of old Grimoires instead of in her bed like normal, but then she remembered all at once.

Her eyes immediately scanned the room for Finn, her anxiety rising at his absence.

"Judging by the look on your face, you have no idea where Finn is either," Elijah tutted.

"He was just here," Freya said, jumping from her seat. "I...I was just…resting my eyes for a second. He was just here."

"Well he's not here now, and since he's back in his Original body, he has the speed and power to go anywhere."

"He isn't stupid," Freya growled. She quickly moved from her desk to the door, briskly brushing past Elijah. "He knows his life is still in danger. He wouldn't go anywhere without me."

"You don't know him like we do," Elijah called behind Freya as she walked purposefully down the hall. "The only person Finn's ever trusted is our mother. Now that she's gone he's going to go back to the self-centered, cold-hearted brother he was when we were first turned."