While seated at the head of the table, Klaus said to Kol and Finn, "We arrive into this world as innocents. Wide-eyed, vulnerable. It is the job of our parents to nurture and protect us. Unfortunately, our own parents failed miserably at even the most basic of parental tasks. But we are not beholden to the past they created for us. Today, a new future awaits. Forget your animosity toward Annabelle, Elijah and myself. Instead, join us against she who truly deserves your ire. Our mother. Do this, and we will welcome you with open arms."
It was then that Kol reached a hand forward as he started to say, "Well..."
After the plate Kol was reaching for was taken away from him, Klaus said, "But if you continue to oppose us, a denial of pastries will be the least of your concerns."
Kol replied, "If all you wanted was my allegiance against mother dearest, you should've said so. Saved me a night shackled to the wall."
Elijah told Kol, "Yes, this was Niklaus." As he gestured towards Annabelle, he said, "Annabelle simply remained unaware of what was to come until she arrived here in the early hours of the morning to find the two of you shackled to the wall. My recommendation was to remove your limbs one by one until you comply."
After moving to stand from his chair as he laughed to himself, Klaus said to Kol and Finn, "We've no desire to torture you, provided you vow to stand beside us as brothers."
It was then that Finn said to them, "'Brothers'. Does that word even apply to us after all these centuries of betrayal? And is loyalty to you ever really rewarded? If so, tell me, Niklaus, where is our sister Rebekah? She was blindly loyal to you for a thousand years, and now nowhere to be found. Where did our youngest sister go? And how did she escape your vile machinations?"
After scoffing to himself, Klaus turned to Finn as he asked, "You think me vile?" After sitting back down into his chair, he asked, "Well, what then do you make of the one who not only made most of Annabelle's human life a living hell, but also cursed us?"
While Kol looked over at Annabelle, who was much too quiet for his own liking, Finn told Klaus, "She was trying to make you mortal again. And the three of you had refused her... only proves how far you've fallen." While Annabelle slowly looked over at Finn with her eyes narrowed and her veins on display, Finn said to them, "But I expect Rebekah will have a different response to her proposal. See, unlike the three of you, she always did cling to her humanity."
Elijah said to him, "Rebekah's off limits to you. You pursue her and you will suffer."
After sighing to himself, Klaus said to Elijah, 'Do not let him goad you, Elijah. Neither he nor Esther will find Rebekah unless she wants to be found, and she does not."
With a shake of his head, Finn told them, "Esther is quite determined. She's been searching for Rebekah since the day she returned. I imagine it's only a matter of time."
Just as Annabelle's hands started to clench into fists, much to Kol's visible disapproval, Elijah quickly grabbed Finn by the front of his shirt and dragged him over the table before he quickly sank his teeth into Finn's neck.
* * *
With a sigh, Kol said to Finn, "Elijah's off his bloody rocker. We need to get out of here." When Finn didn't move from his spot by the door, Kol turned to him and asked him, "Are you gonna help me or what?"
After tossing the cloth aside, Finn told him, "If you were a little more clever, you'd recognize there's opportunity in our current circumstances."
Kol replied, "Opportunity to what, get a beating?"
It was then that Klaus said as he threw open the doors to the room, "Gentlemen, I apologize for keeping you waiting." As he went to enter the room with an apprehensive-looking Annabelle close behind him, he said to them, "Good news is I've returned with an old friend, someone who wants to say hello."
Not long after Klaus said that, Marcel quickly made his way into the room with a grin on his face as he said to them, "Hello. How's it going, fellas?"
Kol said to Marcel, "Oh, you again. You ever get bored of getting bullied by my brother?"
Marcel told him, "Oh, I volunteered for this."
Kol replied, "Did you?"
Marcel said to him, "Yeah, the way I see it, you have it coming." After pushing Kol back, he said, "First, you mess with Davina. Now I hear you wanna drag Rebekah into all this. Uh-uh. Not happening."
It was then that Klaus said to them, "Well, I'd prefer you both to join Annabelle and me against our mother. But I'll happily settle for one or the other. Either way, if you continue to defy me... your lives will be reduced to an unending sequence of agonizing torture." Then he glanced over at Annabelle, who was doing nothing but silently looking between Marcel and Kol with furrowed eyebrows, before he looked over at Kol and said to him, "And not to worry, little brother. It appears that despite all you've done ever since our mother had brought you back to life, she still cares for you, so if it does come down to being tortured, at least you won't have to deal with her being the one to do it to you. But Finn on the other hand..."
Not long after he said that, both Finn and Kol silently looked between Marcel and their two siblings with no intentions of saying anything more on the matter.
As soon as Kol turned his head to look over at Finn, Klaus asked them, "So... which is it to be?"
* * *
After being threatened with a dagger to the heart by Klaus, if she so much as attempted to follow Marcel into the room he was dragging Kol into, Annabelle found herself standing on the other side of the room with her arms crossed over her chest and her eyes narrowed, while she stared at Finn with a blank look on her face.
It wasn't until she heard someone humming that Annabelle turned her head to see Klaus entering the room with a thing of weapons rolled up before Klaus asked Finn, "Do you think our mother is even the least bit concerned for your well-being?"
After Klaus pulled out a knife, Finn said to him, "She knows I don't need rescuing." After looking between his siblings, one of whom was back to staring at him while Klaus was deciding on which weapon to use, Finn said to them, "The two of you can toy with me all you want, but the both of you have had innumerable opportunities to kill me."
As he raised one of the knives, Klaus replied, "But I didn't, did I?" When Finn only smirked in response, Klaus tossed his knife aside and said, "Finn, I understand your devotion to her. She must have clung to you with desperate need after our sister Freya died, making you believe it was your responsibility to care for her. Always and forever. Hm? A burden, which you accepted without question because you were a good son. Small children lack the capacity to question their parents. But you're a man now, Finn."
Finn asked him, "Is that the extent of your argument? I'm a man now, so I should join your wretched cause?"
Klaus replied, "Is it not better to join me than spend the remainder of your mortal life aligned to a woman who always manipulated you?" After turning to look back at Finn, Klaus said to him, "Brother, I offer you the opportunity to free yourself. Side with Annabelle and me, and we will give you the life she never once offered. A chance to choose your own path. The choice is yours, brother."
As soon as Klaus had left the room, Finn turned his attention over to Annabelle, who was still silently staring at him with that same blank look on her face and her arms crossed over her chest.
After a couple seconds of silence, Finn asked her, "Do you really have nothing to say to me?" When Annabelle only shrugged in response, he asked her, "Even after everything I did for you while we were human? Or even how I would attempt to comfort you from the loss of your husband and children when Kol wasn't around?"
When she still refused to respond, he said to her, "Come on, sister. Just get me out of these chains, and I promise that I will make it so Mother leaves you alone and doesn't continue to try and convince you to become a mortal."
After scoffing to herself, Annabelle replied, "Don't try and manipulate me into choosing your side, Finn. I would rather Mikael find me now and have the white oak stake shoved into my heart than to ever side with the very woman who made my entire human life a living hell."
Finn started to say to her, "Annabelle, you don't understand—"
As she started to slowly make her way over towards Finn, she asked him, "What don't I understand? Do you mean the bit where she started to torture me, not long after I had turned six-years-old? Or do you perhaps mean the bit where she threatened to make that pain and torture even worse when I started to be courted by Atticus?" When he didn't respond, she plastered a grin on her face as she said, "Oh, wait, I know now. You must mean the bit where she burst into my room when I was pregnant with Odin and knocked me out with this spell she put on me and did who knows what else while I was unconscious."
After sighing to himself, Finn told her, "Annabelle, she only did all of that to you to protect you and make sure you were ready for what would come to happen, if you had run off any earlier than you had and had given birth to Odin without her knowledge. She wanted to make sure that you didn't go through the same pain she had when she lost our sister Freya. That's all."
After scoffing to herself, Annabelle asked him, "And is that why she chose to torture me when I was six-years-old and why she forbade from any of you to help me with healing my wounds?"
With a nod of his head, Finn replied, "Yes. That is exactly why she did all of those things to you. She knew of the danger that lurked and that would come straight for you, if this danger were to learn of your pregnancy. She wanted to protect you from it. That's all."
It was then that Annabelle started to heavily shake from where she stood a little ways away from Finn, which got Finn to sigh to himself as he watched just how much worse her shaking was becoming with each passing second.
With a sigh, Finn started to say to her, "Annabelle, please, you have to understand—"
Not long after he started to say that, Annabelle quickly sped towards him and slammed the back of his head against the wall as she yelled, "What is there to understand?! That bitch put that damned spell on me that made me black out for ten whole minutes and got me to murder my own husband and children! What is there to understand about that?!" When Finn didn't respond, she asked him, "Do you even understand how horrible I felt and how much I hated myself when Kol had revealed to me that I was the one who murdered them? Because of what she did, I could barely even look William's way until he had spent nearly twenty years traveling with us. I had to force myself to believe that I wasn't in love with him until at least a hundred years before Mikael chose to lie to me when he said that he had killed William before he attempted to do the same to me. If it wasn't for Klaus and Elijah coming after me, I wouldn't even be here right now. So, brother, give me one good reason for why I shouldn't hunt down our cursed mother and rip her bloody head off and then return here to do the exact same thing to you."
Finn replied, "I said it once more before and I will say it again. She only did the things she did to protect you from this danger that she protected you from. If she didn't do what she did, then you would have lost your son just like she lost Freya and she didn't want to have to put you through that pain."
After scoffing to herself, Annabelle said to him, "If you really think I'm going to side with you after everything you said, then you have another thing coming. Because believe it or not, Finn, but I have wanted that woman dead ever since I was ten years old and the only person that kept me from doing just that was Kol. So believe me when I tell you this. I don't care for how long it takes, or who gets in my way. I will kill her, I will kill Mikael and I will kill whoever attempts to come after Kol once neither of them is no longer an issue. Do you understand me?" When Finn didn't respond, she quickly wrapped her hand around the front of his neck with a tight grip before she asked him, "Do you understand?"
After silently staring down into her eyes, Finn said, "Yes. I understand."
And not long after he said that, Annabelle released Finn and sped out of the room but not before making sure to slam the door shut behind herself.
* * *
While Kol continued to stare at the small knife that was still in the back of his head, Marcel said to him, "Now we can keep doing this as long as you want. Or..." After Marcel ripped the knife out of Kol's hand and Kol let out a yell, Marcel said as he forcefully fed Kol his blood, "... I can kill you now and turn you into a brand-new baby vampire."
After his wound had healed and Marcel had brought the same knife up to the front of Kol's neck, Kol said to him, "Go on, do it. My mother's got plans for me, whether I like it or not. If I die, she'll just pop me into another body. Not that anyone in my family but Annabelle would care that much if the death was permanent."
After pulling the knife away from Kol's neck, Marcel asked him, "What are you really up to? Hm? And what's it got to do with Davina?"
After letting out a chuckle, Kol said to him, "You're afraid I'm gonna break her little heart." After turning his head to look over at Marcel, he said, "That's down right paternal of you, Marcel."
Just as Marcel went to hold the knife high above Kol, he suddenly found himself coming to an abrupt halt when he found someone's arm wrapped around the front of his neck and the other positioned to be placed right at the front of his chest.
While Marcel made an attempt to break free of the grip his current captor had on him, which only resulted in his captor's grip to tighten even more, Klaus quickly stepped into the doorway as he said, "Easy, Marcel. Easy." Then he looked over at Marcel's captor as he said, "Let him go, Annabelle."
When Annabelle didn't make a move to release Marcel, Klaus asked her, "Or would you rather have a dagger shoved right back into your heart?"
With a scowl on her face, Annabelle shoved Marcel away from herself, which resulted in the younger vampire to try and regain his balance, while Klaus said to Marcel, "Let's give Kol a little longer to decide before we lop off his head. Hmm?"
While Annabelle slowly tilted her head and stared at Klaus with narrowed eyes, Marcel replied, "Comments like that, he already thinks that you don't care."
While Marcel made a point of avoiding Annabelle as he started to walk towards another part of the room, Klaus asked Kol, "Is that so, brother?"
Kol said to him, "You only daggered me a dozen times. You always cared more for Marcel than you did for me."
Klaus replied, "Well, I didn't realize I'd hurt your feelings."
Kol retorted, "Yeah, well, that's the thing of it, Nik. You don't know squat about me."
Klaus said to him, "But thanks to Marcel, I know all I need to." As he started to walk towards Kol, he asked him, "You're desperate to be a part of this family, aren't you? All of your mischief was just attempts for attention. You know, the truth is, Kol, you're right to feel slighted. I mean that, you're right. But perhaps there's still time to make it up to you."
* * *
While Annabelle silently stared at Klaus with her head tilted to the side and her eyebrows raised, Kol said to Davina, "That's impressive." After Davina turned around to see the Mikaelson twins standing a little ways behind her, Kol asked her, "What exactly did you do to him?"
As she started to walk towards them, Davina told him, "I channeled dark objects, turned my blood to poison." As soon as she stopped in front of Kol, she asked him, "How did you get free?"
Kol replied, "Uh, it's a long story. Better question is, if he's not dead, then what are you gonna do when he recovers?"
Davina said to him, "We have an hour, maybe less. Enough time to chain him, bleed him, dump him in the river."
While Annabelle simply raised her eyebrows even higher than they already were, Kol replied, "It's a bit harsh, isn't it?"
Davina asked him, "Since when do you care what happens to Klaus?"
It was then that Marcel let out a gasp and a groan, which got both Kol and Annabelle to turn and look over at him as he went to stand up and said to Davina, "Kol is with us now." When Davina only tilted her head in response, he told her, "We're gonna be going up against Esther, assuming Klaus is upright."
When Davina looked back over at Kol, Kol told her, "Look. Nik, he's a pain in the ass, but, well, she's a problem for us all."
Davina replied, "Klaus is the problem. I don't give a damn about what happens to Esther."
It was then that Cami said as she quickly made her way into the compound, "Yeah, well, I sure do." Then she looked over at Klaus, who was still lying on the ground, before she looked over at Marcel as she came to a halt beside him and asked, "Should I even ask?"
When Marcel only tilted his head in response, Davina said to her, "Cami, you should go. It's not safe."
Cami replied, "No kidding. I woke up with puncture wounds all up and down my spine and no idea how they got there. According to my uncle's files, they're a part of this ancient spell. And I don't know about you guys, but when I see 'ancient' and 'spell' in the same sentence, I think Esther."
* * *
Kol said to Cami, "Yeah, that's Mom's work alright. She must have wiped your memory."
Cami replied, "Not the first time that's been done by a member of this family. What does it mean?"
Kol told her, "It's a by-product of a preparation spell."
Davina asked him, "Preparation for what?"
With a nod of his head, Kol said, "To make her a vessel."
After Cami looked between the three of them before looking over at Marcel, Marcel told her, "He means Esther prepared your body for someone to jump into."
Kol said to her, "Likely herself. I mean, knowing Mother."
After looking back at Marcel, Cami asked him, "Where's Vincent?"
* * *
While she stared at the floor, Cami asked, "How long do I have?"
Kol replied, "Well, now that Esther knows where Rebekah's hiding, not long. The only way to stop it is to stop her."
In turn, Cami said to him, "Then let's do this. Marcel's a vampire, Annabelle's an Original, you both are powerful witches."
Marcel told her, "Esther's stronger than anything I've ever seen. We go up against her, we're gonna need Klaus."
With a shake of her head, Davina said as she went to stand from where she was seated, "No. No, we can do this without him."
Kol replied, "I'm never gonna say this again, but Marcel's right. We do need the bastard."
When Davina looked away from Kol and turned her head to look over at Annabelle, who was simply looking between Kol and Klaus's body with a frown on her face, Cami said, "Davina." After walking over towards the teenage witch, Cami grabbed her by the arms and said to her, "I know this is asking a lot, but please."
Without saying anything to any of them, Davina started to walk over towards where Klaus still remained lying on the concrete before she crouched down beside him and looked over at the two men and two women that were staring over at her.
After finally looking away from them, Davina started to quietly say in an incantation, which soon enough resulted in Klaus waking up with a gasp.
While Annabelle simply raised her eyebrows at the look Klaus had on his face, Klaus asked as he went to stand back up onto his own two feet, "What did she do to me?"
Davina replied, "All you need to know is that I beat you, again."
Klaus retorted, "And yet you relented. You need me, don't you? Did I really lose?"
* * *
After taking a bite out of the piece of bread he picked up from a plate, Kol said to Davina, "Quite nice of you, coming to my rescue like that."
As she started to make her way over towards him, Davina told him, "You know, it's a good thing you didn't actually steal the stake from me. Or I'd have been the one torturing you."
Kol asked her, "That mean you trust me now?"
When Davina only smiled with a shake of her head, Klaus said to Davina, "Provided you're not busy concocting a new paralysis to use against me, we'd like a word with our brother."
After looking between Annabelle and Klaus, Davina replied, "Well, to be honest, I can't stand being around you anyway."
While Annabelle did nothing but chuckle in response as she watched Davina leave the room with a smirk on her face, Kol said to Klaus, "For the record, didn't know a bloody thing about Mother's plan for Cami, I swear."
Klaus said to him, "Well, I think I can judge for myself which of her schemes she would entrust to you and which she would not." After sitting down in a chair close to him, Klaus said, "I believe this was Finn's task."
After leaning back into the couch he was sitting on, Kol asked him, "And where, pray tell, is he now?"
Klaus replied, "He's waiting uncomfortably for me to return and deliver his punishment."
After glancing over at Annabelle, Kol asked him, "And, what, Annabelle won't be joining you?"
With a shake of his head, Klaus told him, "No, she's not. She made a rather convincing case about why she should be spending her time around you and not wasting her time with torturing Finn, given that the last time she truly spoke to you in a private manner was shortly before you were murdered over in Mystic Falls." While Kol made a point of glancing over at Annabelle once more, Klaus asked him, "Pass the beignets, would you?"
As Kol went to do as he was asked, Kol said to him, "You know, it's only a matter of time before Mother gets bored of waiting for you to let us go." After Klaus said 'thank you' to him in a whisper, Kol said, "Well, Finn at least. Don't expect she'd care if I never came home."
Klaus replied, "A mother cares for her children. A monster does not. Once you accept she is the latter, you'll stop expecting the former. And despite what you might think, Kol, I did mourn you after your death. And I did attempt to avenge you. I would do nothing less because we are brothers. Always and forever." After watching Kol nod in response, Klaus sighed to himself before he said, "Although, Annabelle probably has a better chance of exacting revenge in your name than I did, given the fact that Rebekah had revealed to me her choice of befriending a young witch, who had a coven she was with place a rather nasty hex on Elena Gilbert and her friends. From what I hear, each of them had died a rather painful death before the Other Side's actual collapse."
While Kol looked over at Annabelle, whose jaw was currently clenched as she stared at the floor with narrowed eyes, Klaus's phone started to ring, which got him to say to Kol with a nod of his head, "Excuse me."
As soon as Klaus had left the room, he accepted the phone call and asked, "Where have you been?"
It was then that both Annabelle and Klaus could hear Rebekah say into the phone, "Nik, it's me. Something's wrong. Elijah slaughtered a dozen people whose only sin was their terrible taste in food. I mean, when have you known him to kill when he could otherwise compel? It's the kind of act that'll draw our mother's attention."
After sighing to himself, Klaus replied, "Her torture must have affected him more deeply than I realized. Where is he now?"
Rebekah told him, "I broke his neck to keep us safe. But I have no clue what to do next."
It was then that Annabelle quickly turned her head in the direction where she could hear Klaus's rather quick footsteps as he asked Rebekah, "Do you recall where we dined the Christmas after we fled Mikael?"
Rebekah replied, "Of course."
Klaus said to her, "Go there now." Not long after he said that, Annabelle could hear him say, "If you enjoyed last night's activities, then you're in for a treat."
In turn, Finn said to him, "Niklaus, listen to me. Our mother—"
Klaus replied, "Not another word. No more fairy tales about witches and curses."
Finn asked him, "If you think it's a fairy tale, then why do I see fear in your eyes?"
It was then that Klaus yelled, "Marcel!" Not long after she heard him yell Marcel's name, she heard Klaus say, "Bring it in."
In turn, Finn yelled, "No! No, no, no! No, Niklaus."
Klaus said to him, "Oh, don't worry, brother. I made some air holes... small ones."
While Annabelle simply raised her eyebrows in response as she listened to the sound of Finn's screaming, Kol asked her, "Annabelle, what's going on?"
With a shrug of her shoulders, Annabelle replied, "Based on Finn's current screaming, my guess is that Klaus shoved him back into his very own box." When Kol didn't respond, she said, "Serves him right. In my honest opinion, he deserves a fate far worse than just being shoved back into that damned box."
With a sigh, Kol asked her, "Are you sure you're feeling alright, Annabelle?"
After slowly turning her head to look over at Kol, she said to him, "Never better."
Kol opened his mouth to respond, only to stop when he saw the look she had on her face, which got him to sigh to himself before he simply nodded his head in response.