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chapter nine:
you're down and you're pleading
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"HAVE YOU SPOKEN TO OUR GOOD FRIEND TODAY?" Klaus questioned Rebekah.
"No, should I have?" Rebekah responded.
"He's been mysteriously silent — avoiding me, some might say." Klaus shrugged. "I thought perhaps he may have whispered reasons into your ear. Along with all of those sweet nothings."
"If I see him, I'll be sure to ask if he's still sore at you."
"Let me give a voice to that look in your eyes." Klaus began to mock her, "my saintly noble brother lies writhing in agony in the Bayou, victim of my bastard brother's bite, when just one or two drops of his blood would ease his pain.'"
"On the contrary, Nik, I am simply enjoying my brekkie, waiting for Elijah's healthy return." Rebekah took a sip of her tea.
"Oh, come on Rebekah, you've been giving me the devil's eye all morning. Out with it!"
"Perhaps I'm concerned that if I voice my opinion about what you did to Elijah, I will end up on the wrong side of your toxic hybrid teeth."
Klaus slammed his hand in the table. "Poppycock! I would never bite you. Elijah made some very offensive accusations about my intentions towards my child. He deserves a day or two of discomfort. Besides, you know my preferred method of punishment for your indiscretions is the dagger."
"There is something fundamentally wrong with you." Rebekah stood up and left.
Klaus looked to Belle, "so you were just going to sit there and not defend me?"
"There is something fundamentally wrong with you." Belle shrugged. "I don't have any good defenses."
✶
THANKS TO JOSH, BELLE AND KLAUS HAD THE MEANS TO FIND A LOST DAGGER THAT MARCEL STOLE.
"Klaus. Belle." Marcel approached them.
"You've been avoiding my calls." Klaus mused.
"Little pissed off lately."
"Apologies for my behavior can come later." Klaus smiled before turning serious. "You have something of mine. I want it back."
Marcel pulled out the dagger, smirking. "Sorry, but I can't do that." He held the dagger to his side and Rebekah walked in, taking it from him.
Belle frowned, a feeling of betrayal washing over this. "What is this?"
"Apologies for Klaus' behavior?" Rebekah scoffed before turning back to Klaus. "You don't apologize, Nik. You just act. I've had enough. We have had enough. Belle, you can either take our side, or side with Nik as always."
Klaus glanced at Belle, who had an unreadable expression. For a split second, he was worried she'd chose them. "Look at you. Finally in possession of the one thing that can take you down. How does it feel?"
"Great." Rebekah seethed as Marcel whistled. His vampires began to circle the hybrids.
Klaus laughed. "So this is it? The evil bastard Klaus and his accomplice Belle have gone too far, must be punished. And by their own sibling, nonetheless. How positively biblical. And you, Marcel, is this your idea of a hit? I taught you better than this paltry excuse for a take-down. Do you think you can subdue us with this!?"
"No. But I think I can with this." Marcel whistled again, dozens more vampires appeared.
Belle sighed in annoyance. Something to know about Belle was she didn't enjoy killing for sport. Yes, she's killed ( a lot ) but most of the times it was necessary to save her family.
"Let's end this charade, shall we?" Klaus quipped. "Vampires of New Orleans! Do recall that we are Originals. Hybrids. We cannot be killed. Eternity is an awfully long time. How long, do you think, Marcel will stay in power? What if one of you lot were to release us, knowing we'd will be eternally in your debt? Oh, I would pity those of you who dared to cross us. I can assure you, your ends would be spectacular. To borrow a trick from an old friend . . ."
He pulled a golden coin out of his pocket. "Whoever picks up this coin gets to live." He dropped the coin. "Now, which of you magnificent bastards wants to join us?"
"Anyone wants that coin, pledge allegiance to Klaus and Belle. Take it now." Marcel ordered, looking around. "Go ahead. The choice is yours."
No one moved. Belle could almost admire their loyalty. They knew most of them would die die to Marcel's pride, and yet they'd stayed with him.
"Take 'em."
Two vampires came at Belle, she easily backhanded them, snapping their necks. Another two came at her. She grabbed them by their necks and bit them.
Once she tossed them aside, four circled around her. One of them charged at her, pushing her into a wooden table. She picked up two legs from the chair and threw the legs hard even to not only go through those two vampires' chests, but through the other two vampires' chests.
While she was distracted, vampires managed to grab her arms with chains, pulling her right next to Klaus.
Rebekah began to walk towards Klaus with a dagger in hand, a triumphant look on her face until Belle and Klaus looked up. They forced themselves out of the chains and began killing as many as they could.
"Marcel! Come and finish this!" Klaus bellowed.
Minus the yelling, and the sound of blood splattering, there was a pause. That was until Marcel yelled. "Enough!"
Belle and Klaus stopped the killing and Klaus walked over to Marcel, who had picked up the coin. "Well, well, well. The great Marcel, self-proclaimed king of New Orleans, bowing before me."
"There. I hereby pledge my allegiance to you." Marcel's eyes looked glossy. "You have the keys to my kingdom. It's yours."
✶
THE COMPOUND MASSACRE WAS A PRIME EXAMPLE OF HOW BELLE HELPED HER FAMILY SURVIVE FOR SO LONG. In order to protect her family from all threats, fear had to be instilled. She may not have been the most feared, but she was the most defensive ( when it came to fighting enemies, at least ).
"Elijah's home. There's only one dagger." Rebekah spoke, entering the room. "Which one of us will you be punishing today?"
"I contemplated a game of eenie-meenie-miney-moe." Klaus vamped to Rebekah. "You betrayed me. My own sister!"
"Niklaus, don't you dare!" Elijah ordered as he entered.
Klaus pointed the dagger at Elijah. "Perhaps it should be you, brother! Stealing my child away with every fawning moment of tenderness you show to Hayley!"
"This has nothing to do with Hayley."
"It has everything to do with her! She's adored you since she arrived. And now my child, my blood, will grow up to call you father!"
"Is that what it is? You are once again worried that you will be left behind?" Rebekah questioned incredulously. "Has history taught you nothing? We don't abandon you, Nik, you drive us away!"
"Is that so? What have I done lately, other than cooperate? I bow down to you, brother, to make up for daggering you. For the greater good of our plan to reclaim our home. Looked the other way, sister, while you repeat the same cycle with Marcel. Falling again for a man you shouldn't be with, while he controls the empire that we built! That he took! Now, I make no excuses for past sins. But in the one moment when you two could have chosen to stand by me — to believe in me, to believe my intentions for my own child were pure — you chose to stand against me, to side with my enemies. I wanted our home back. Now I have it. So, I'm going to live there. And the two of you . . . you can stay here together and rot.
Klaus shoved the dagger in Elijah's hands and shoved past him, leaving Rebekah and Elijah with guilty looks.
Belle stood up from the chair she sat in. "You both know how much he feared Father, you both know that before we turned, his worst fear was to turn out like him, so why would you even think for a second that he would do to his child what Mikael did to him?"
authors note, first of all why would rebekah think that dagger would work
second of all why would elijah think that klaus wanted to use and abuse his child's power after what mikael did to him and especially after elijah himself had been searching for klaus' redemption their whole lives