The only thing to be heard were the sounds of the heavy raindrops ricocheting on the grass. The rain was heavy, and it only seemed to get thicker with each passing second.
Over five centuries of life – technically a thousand, but he preferred to skip the centuries Klaus kept him in a casket with a dagger on his heart – and Kol was still mesmerized by the way Nature found its way into anything and everything. Perhaps that was the reason he's always found himself drawn to witches.
Of course, even if he was a vampire, and therefore, immortal, he would have chosen to stay under a roof – perhaps spending time with Alistair – but his nieces asked, and he was barely getting to know Michelle. He had a soft spot, not that anyone needed to know.
No matter how much he thought about it, it was simply stupid of them to try and ambush these werewolves in the freaking school lacrosse field. But anyway.
There was the sound of running from here. The sound of hitting metal – perhaps a bus – from there. the sound of growling as they ran. Oh, someone fell, and, oh, someone got hit by an arrow. All the altercation followed until Lori – as the guy called her – stopped in the middle of the field.
One by one, all the lights of the field were turned on. It was so dark, and the only thing in the field were the two teenage wolves. Their soaked frames illuminated by over a hundred light bulbs. They were shivering, and probably resigned to death.
It was probably a smart move. All the assassins were under the lights, their identities hidden in the darkness, while they blinded the wolves. And one by one, at least twenty different laser sights appeared, all of them dancing over the shivering frames of the teenagers, from every direction.
"Brett, what's happening?!" the girl asked over the sound of the rain.
"Close your eyes," the boy said, his voice resigned to their fate.
And then came the piercing sound of an arrow being fired, crossing the field. It only took him half a second to leave his spot for Kol to appear right in front of the wolves, grasping the wooden arrow, and breaking it.
With a sharp inhale, both teens looked at him, but Kol only frowned.
"Get your arses off here!" he yelled. And the other followed his command. And one by one, at least fifty arrows were fired. But all Kol had to do was move one step at the time, to him, the arrows seemed to be coming in slow motion – blessed be the tarnished soul of his bitch of a mother for their vampiric senses.
From behind, he saw how Michelle took the other two to safety. One by one, he heard how Hope took care of the assassins. Michelle's family probably understood the necessity for a few necks snapped.
Because moments later, every sound stopped, and the arrows ceased. Hope walked into the light, under the heavy rain, and with a swift move of her hands, all the lights went off.
(...)
"What did she say?" Lydia pressed, the moment the sheriff walked out.
"Hard to tell. There were words, I'm not actually sure there were sentences," the man said.
"Nothing," Lydia concluded with a sigh. Poor sheriff Stilinski looked just as frustrated.
"You can't expect human answers if you're speaking with a Banshee," Alistair said. "Especially one that's so far gone in her gift as Meredith."
The sheriff moved to grab the telephone. "Tell me you're not trying to call a psychiatric or a medium," Alistair insisted. The sheriff made sheepish gesture, while putting the phone down.
"Is she even competent enough to be charged with something?" Lydia asked.
"If Meredith is The Benefactor, that means she was competent enough to trick Kate into breaking into the Hale Vaults, competent enough to blackmail Brunski into helping her, and competent enough to create a hit list and pay out money for its competition," said the Sheriff. "This girl is practically a criminal mastermind."
They looked through the window, from where Meredith looked back at them.
"There's still something we're missing," Alistair commented. The others looked at him. "The why," the Keeper pressed. "Why would a Banshee, looked in an asylum, bother to create a Deadpool of supernatural creatures? Why would she trick Brunski, to trick Kate, so they could steal the money from the Hale Vault? On behalf of who?"
"What do you mean who?" Sheriff Stilinski pressed.
Alistair rolled his eyes. "Is she were doing all of this for herself, why on Earth would she include herself on the list with a price for her head?"
"So, you think someone else is behind it all?" Lydia asked.
"All I'm saying is that we look like idiots trying to catch the pawns in this chess game. We'll never win that way."
But the injured and probably sleep-deprived sheriff was overwhelmed by desperation. "Look, I don't care about the whys if they don't take me to the how."
"Then, I would have to start to consider you an idiot," Alistair said. "'Why' is the only question that'll take you to the inside, to the core of anything, Socrates knew that, mind you, centuries ago."
The sheriff looked about to snap before Lydia spoke, "The 'how'? Do you mean how to stop it?"
"The payments are done automatically, and as long as they keep getting paid, the list will keep getting smaller."
"The most urgent thing is to stop the money," Alistair said, catching a glance of his father in his office. Without waiting for an answer, he made his way to his father.
(...)
Michelle opened the clinic's door, finding Scott.
"Thank you for coming on such short notice," the Keeper greeted.
"Did you find him? Did you find Brett?" the true alpha asked.
"We didn't just find him. We found them all," Michelle said, walking inside, with Scott behind her.
"What do you mean we? And who is them?"
Michelle ignored him, opening the inside door, revealing fifteen people, between them were Kol, Hope, Satomi, Brett, and Lori.
"Satomi San," Michelle greeted. "This is who I was telling you about."
The alpha turned to look at them. "I know who Scott MacCall is."
"Are we safe here?" Lori asked.
"We're gonna need help," Scott told Michelle. "A lot of help."
"That's why we're here," Kol said, walking up to them, Hope at his side.
"And you are?" Scott asked.
"Kol Mikaelson," the Original introduced himself, extending an arm for Scott. The alpha took it, receiving a hard grip.
"Scott McCall," he grunted. Kol sent him a mean grin. But seeing the exasperated look on his niece's face, he let go.
"Pleasure," the Original said without a care.
"Wait, did you say Mikaelson?" Scott asked, looking from Kol to Hope. "Does that mean...?"
"He's my uncle," was all Hope said. Scott looked back at Michelle.
"He's my uncle," the Keeper repeated what her twin said.
From the look on his face, Scott's brain was probably working over its natural capacity, as the boy gasped and breathed heavily.
"Then you are –"
"Faith Mikaelson, yes," Michelle cut him. And Scott was left with the flabbergasting revelation that Michelle – Alistair's adoptive sister – was the person with the highest price on the Deadpool, with forty million dollars offered for her head.
(...)
There were large structures with hydroponic equipment, all of them occupied with wolfsbane. Of course, somehow these people got their hands on a warehouse and used it to build a killing werewolf greenhouse.
But above all kinds of wolfsbane one stood out. The yellow wolfsbane. It was a new variation recently created that was ten times more lethal than normal wolfsbane. The warehouse had one single glass basin with a large growth of yellow wolfsbane.
As he was examining it, the door was open abruptly, and through it, came the body of an unconscious guard. Followed by non-other than Chris Argent.
"Took you long enough," said John, crocking a brow.
Chris sighed, as another guard came at him from behind. Chris raised the automatic rifle in his hands and used the butt to harshly hit the guard's head, rendering him unconscious.
"Let's take it," John said as he and Chris watched the yellow wolfsbane.
"What?"
"First of all, I'm not about to leave a killing machina of nature in the hands of this imbeciles. Second of all, if we plan on developing an antidote, we'll need large samples," John reasoned.
Under Chris' eyes, John moved quickly. He cut the yellow wolfsbane with a knife, guarding it in his pack. Next, he used a lighter to start a massive fire in the warehouse, that way, all the wolfsbane would be lost.
(...)
It was an hour later, when they arrived at the abandoned building belonging to the Argents, that they found Scott, with the remaining of Satomi's pack. Alongside them, were Michelle, Hope, and Kol.
Michelle handed Chris one of the arrows used last night.
"They're using crossbows. They were hunters, look at the logo," she said.
"Were?" Chris questioned.
"They're making a profit of this. We'll make sure they don't get a gun on their hands any longer," was all the Keeper said.
"They're not safe here," Chris warned.
"We're not safe anywhere. We've been trying to get out for days. Around each corner we find someone new trying to kill us," Satomi said.
"If they're here," Chris said, "They probably know it already, they must be waiting for the sun to set."
"Lydia and Alistair are trying to get answers from Meredith, they just need a little bit of more time."
"That's all we can give them."
(...)
"What took so long?" Alistair questioned the moment his father stepped out. They've been there for about two hours trying to get anything out of Meredith, but their faces revealed how much they got. Nothing.
"We went thought everything in Brunski's office. So long, everything sums up to nothing," Parrish informed. Then, he looked at the teenagers. "Haven't you gone home yet?"
"We still need to get anything out of Meredith," Alistair replied.
David nodded. "You have about half an hour to get something."
"What?" the sheriff asked. "We've already been through this, David."
"Sheriff, with all due respect, my son is the most appropriate person to question that girl, and Lydia's a Banshee too. If anyone's going to get anything from her, it's them."
And surprisingly, that was enough, as the sheriff opened the door for them to enter with Meredith.
After ten minutes of Lydia directing the questioning, it started to become clear to Alistair that she was too brush for it. She was too logical and thought everyone else responded in the same way. Standing up, he cut her speech, because all Meredith could say was that she wanted to help, but Lydia kept pressing the not necessary questions.
Taking the seat in front of Meredith, Alistair spoke, "Meredith, I know all you've ever wanted to do was help, thank you."
The girl nodded, "I just wanted to help," she said in a small voice.
"Can you tell me who you want to help?"
"Only one person. Peter... Peter Hale."
Standing up, Alistair approached his father. "You go and get Peter, and make sure to see through an interrogation, I need to go."
"Where are you going?"
"There's no sense for me to stay here, you're the police man, dad. Make sure it's successful," and with a parting hug, Alistair walked out of the station, towards his car with one destiny in mind. Argent Arms International.
Of course, even if there were alarms, it wasn't so difficult to pass through all of them unalerted.
"So, what's the situation?" Alistair asked, making everyone jump and look in his direction. "Damn, I expected more from werewolves, anyway, Scott."
The alpha approached. "How did it go with Meredith?"
"Do you remember what I told you about Peter?" Alistair asked. Scott nodded, gulping. "Well, I always enjoy being right. Meredith said she was helping Peter when she plotted the Deadpool. Dad went to get him, they'll interrogate them."
"We need to survive the night, at least," Scott said.
"That'll be harder with them here," Alistair gestured Satomi's pack. "They're not fighters, we'll need to make a contingency plan to protect them, while another group makes work of the assassins."
Scott looked pale, unsure of what to do. "I – I don't know what to do – I've – I've never had to do anything like this," he gave Alistair those puppy pleading eyes.
"It's simple. Michelle!" he called. The girl approached with a nod. "You'll take the pack to the back of the building. Can you maintain a cloaking and a barrier spell at the same time? Just in case of a stray bullet?"
"Easy peasy," the girl nodded.
"Great. I won't need many people. Kol!" Alistair called, a second later, the Original was in front of him with a flirtatious smirk.
"You called, darling?"
Alistair rolled his eyes with a smile. "I'll need you and Hope to make quick work of the first people who enters. They'll probably used some type of gas to take us by surprise, and after that, most of their force will probably force entry. You make quick work of the first ones, and together, we'll take the rest."
Kol gave him a nod and a mocking military salute. "Of course, boss."
Rolling his eyes, Alistair turned to Scott. "After they're done with them, you, John, and I will make work of the rest. Scott, I'm gonna be very clear with you right now, we'll kill them."
"Alistair –" Scott tried to argue. Alistair silenced him with a hand.
"Scott, we'll kill them, whether you approve of it, or not. If you can't stand that, then leave, they've tormented the supernatural community of this town, make profit of their suffering, of their pain, and of their loss, The Keepers will not stand and let that happen. Every single assassin that enters here tonight will die."
And without waiting for an answer, Alistair went to make a quick evaluation of Satomi's pack, trying to find the more secluded and hidden place for them to stay during the attack.
(...)
Parrish and David entered the small compartment for interrogation. On the table were Peter in front of Meredith.
If his reaction was to be trusted, Peter didn't seem sure Meredith could be the one behind everything.
Once seated at the table, Meredith, still not answering Peter's questions, extended an arm, touching the man's face with a confused expression. It was a tense moment, and Meredith examined every inch of his face.
"They are all gone," Meredith said. "The burns. They are all... gone."
But Peter, as usual, was not having any of it. "Meredith, you've put my son and my daughter on a death list. Don't you think you owe us the slightest explanation of why?
"You said it had to be kept secret," the Banshee whispered.
"I said?" Peter asked with a mean smirk. "I said that to you?"
"You said –"
"Meredith, allow me to remind you, yet again, we have never met before."
"You don't remember it," Meredith concluded.
"No," Peter growled. "But maybe you do," he said, and David already knew what he was going to do.
And before Parrish could interrupt, David grabbed him back. Peter moved the table out of the way, and approached Meredith, using his claws, he pierced the skin in the back of her neck, getting inside her memories.
The next moment, the sheriff entered abruptly, gun in hand, with Lydia on tow.
"Don't, don't touch them!" the girl exclaimed, stopping the sheriff. "If you break the bond, you could kill them. Both of them."
"What are we supposed to do?" the sheriff hissed.
"We wait," David said. "Let him get inside, he'll tell us what he sees."
Peter looked calm, as he searched into Meredith's mind. Both of them looked actually calm.
"What the hell is he doing to her?" Parrish asked. But before David could answer, Meredith took a deep inhale, and David knew Peter probably found what he was searching for.
Then, Meredith started to mumble, in a soft voice, but David, with all his enhanced senses, wasn't able to understand what the girl was saying, rendering them to trust Lydia to do it. Perhaps it was a Banshee thing.
"She was in a hospital," Lydia whispered. "The same hospital."
"Same as who?" Parrish asked.
"Peter," she answered. "It was right after the fire. Meredith could hear him."
"Hear what?" the sheriff pressed.
"Everything. She was hearing every thought in his head, like they had somehow found the same wavelength. And everything from his mind went right thought hers."
"For how long?" David asked.
"Weeks, probably months. It was like he was over her, speaking. About the fire, about getting revenge... it was his idea."
Then, before they could question further, Meredith took another deep inhale, and Peter let go of her neck, falling backwards to the floor. The girl's head shook, and Parrish rushed to stabilize her.
David moved fast, pinning Peter to the floor, claws on his neck to stop him from moving.
"It was your idea, and you don't even remember," Lydia said to Peter.
(...)
By the moment Satomi's pack was safely nested in one of the far corners of the building, the first gas bomb arrived. In front of them, sitting on the floor, was Michelle, candles all around, chanting the protection circle.
And the shooting started. Bullet after bullet, they all ricocheted like water drops in an autumn storm. From behind the wall covering him, Alistair guessed there were probably between twelve and fifteen of them, the first assault group.
Hope was the first to move, using her hands, she levitated three of them, using them as human shields for all the other firing behind. A simple snap of her thumbs, and three necks were broken.
Kol sped behind, in a quick succession of maybe thirty seconds, his hands pierced through three bulletproof vests, then flesh, and a second later, he was dropping each heart on floor. Other three gone.
One of them tried to jump on him, only to find his head rolling on the floor a second later. Hope made quick work of the gas, using it to suffocate two till they passed out or died, she didn't know.
The next ten minutes became a blur. There weren't many of them, but with all their equipment, it took a moment to think, to realize how to kill them. As Michelle still worked hard, protecting the pack from all the stray bullets from the rifles, Hope used her magic to snap other three necks, while Kol had to use his bare hands for the same effect.
They had been stupid. There were so many of them, but even in their team effort, they were like limbs with an own mind, each pressed in a different direction. They were all rendered dead in less than fifteen minutes.
After Kol and Hope finished, they stepped back. Another group of five men entered firing up.
Moving with the grace he's accumulated after a life of training, John found himself behind two of them, two large dragon shaped daggers on his hands. One of them pierced through one man's back and out his chest, the other crossed the other man's neck.
Taking another arrow, Alistair felt someone step behind him, he spooned around as soon as he could, soon enough to see Scott grabbing the man by his vest, before throwing him across the room. The man crashed into the last man, and both were left out of combat.
Taking another arrow, Alistair felt someone step behind him, he spun around as soon as he could, soon enough to see Scott grabbing the man by his vest, before throwing him across the room. The man crashed into the last man, and both were left out of combat, and if the sound indicated anything, with a few broken bones each.
(...)
"Are you kidding me?" Peter hissed. "How the hell was I supposed to remember any of that?"
Making enough pressure with his claws, enough to draw small perks of blood, David forced Peter up.
"She got it from you," Lydia insisted.
"I was out of my mind. Do you know what is like for one of us to be in a comma? Paralyzed but cognizant? Try to not go crazy."
"She was listening to you," Parrish insisted.
"She was listening to the ranting and raving of a lunatic," Peter said. "A former lunatic," he corrected himself. "I'm much healthier now. I had nothing to do with this."
"She was following your lead on this. How do we know there isn't more?" the sheriff asked, gun aimed at Peter's chest.
"Stealing my own money? Really?"
"Stop it," Lydia said. "This is what she wants. There's four people in this room, four people still on the Deadpool. Me, Parrish, David... and Meredith."
"But not you," David hissed to Peter, making more pressure on his neck.
"Listen to Lydia," Peter quickly said, pale. "We don't want to kill each other."
"The only one with claws on their neck is you, Peter," David hissed.
"Then you better make it swift and fast, I don't go down easily," Peter tried to taunt him.
David leaned his face closer to Peter's. "I've taken down men three times your size in seconds, don't you dare try and taunt me."
David made enough pressure with only one of his claws to pierce the skin of Peter's neck, bringing the claw inside, and just a few centimeters next to his carotid artery. Peter started to gasp in pain, the rest of David's hand was making enough pressure to cut his oxygen supply.
Lydia tried to stop him, and it took David a bit of control to not simply kill this idiot. Eyer gleaming bright red, and fangs out, David leaned in front of Peter's face one more.
"I'm gonna make myself clear, and you better listen," he hissed. Peter nodded. "This is the last time I want to see you doing something like this, next time you screw it, trust me, The Keepers will be glad you're dealt with."
As Peter nodded, David pushed his head against the wall hard enough to leave him out cold. And with Meredith's desperate screaming that it wasn't finished yet, David dragged Peter's body out. With zero care, just to be clear.
(...)
It all went to shit in just seconds. With another gas bomb, more than twenty men came in, shooting without care, hitting even their own.
Alistair knew at least three bullets were taking refuge in his body at the moment, one in an arm, and two on one leg, but it didn't stop him from firing arrow after arrow. Some landed on necks, other electrified, others exploded.
He could see a blur moving from one side to the other, Kol. After he stopped in one place, one or two people fell dead. Either alongside their hearts, or after their necks were broken. But Kol stood on one of the sides of the battlefield, and in front of Alistair were six men, all pointing at him.
With blood dripping from her leg, Hope, suddenly beside Alistar, extended her arms and cried, "Externa conatus," and with a wave of energy, all six men were sent across the whole place.
"There's too many of them!" Hope called.
"And just so few of us," Alistair added, making a perfect shot into the neck of a man behind Scott.
Kol appeared next to them. "If you want all those wolves to see another day, we'll need to wrap this up."
And through the door, another squadron appeared. More reinforcements.
"Leave it to me," Hope said, extending her arms towards the new fifteen men in the room. "Me ne de qual suurentaa!" she started to chant, and one by one, their head were propelled to one side, with such force, it broke their necks in the process. After those fifteen were done, Hope kept chanting, turning towards the remaining of them. And body after body, they fell. And soon, the sound of bullets abandoned the room.
Only a few of them were up, Kol and John making work of them. On the other side of the room, Alistair saw Scott over one of them, clawing at him with rage, probably letting all his contained fury out. But as he was to deliver the killing blow, a phone ringed with an incoming message. And after that, dozens of phones did the same.
Taking one phone, from the closest body to him, Alistair looked. It was a message from The Benefactor.
ALL CONTRACTS ARE TERMINATED.
Stiles and Malia had done it. And with that, the Deadpool was finished. Only three assassins survived the assault, and they left as fast as they could.
(...)
"So, I take it you guys are going back?" Alistair asked from the doorframe.
With a smile, Kol looked back from his pack. "Well, why? Missing me already?"
"Arse," Alistair mumbled, throwing a large glass flask with yellow wolfsbane.
"This is definitely the weirdest parting gift I've ever received," Kol said, looking at the yellow plant. "And as I've been on this earth for practically a millennium, that's saying a lot."
Alistair smirked. "Sadly, it's not for you. I talked with Elijah; you just have to deliver that to him. I trust you can do that."
"I promised you before coming, that I would behave, didn't I?"
"Well, you promised to behave here, I can't really hold you up to that outside."
"Clever boy," said Kol with a smirk, showing his fangs.
"Be a good boy a give that to Elijah for me, yes?"
"Consider it done, darling."
Alistair shook his head at the stupid nickname. "I heard Hope mentioning she was considering staying."
"Well, your adoptive sister is her long-lost twin sister, I think that's only fair. She still has to speak with Klaus, and I honestly don't see that coming down well."
"Yeah, Klaus streaked me like the possessive, overprotective type. Not that my father is any different," Alistair chuckled.
Kol closed his pack, walking up to Alistair. "You should consider coming to New Orleans for the summer, I'm sure the family would be glad to have you and Michelle over."
"We still have much to do after the dead pool disaster, but... I'll keep that in mind," Alistair whispered.
"You never did tell me why you were on that list. The dead pool."
Looking into his dark brown eyes, Alistair gulped. "The thing is, I don't know, and... wait, who the hell did you know I was there?"
Kol's smirk widened. "I only theorized. Thank you for the confirmation."
Alistair scoffed. "Arse," he said, punching Kol's chest. He shook his head, walking out to the hall. "I'll start driving in about an hour, with everyone who's ready."
And with that he went back to his room, getting ready for the trip to San Francisco.
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Author's note
Sooo, we're finally back!! And we're almost done with Season 4!!
Can't promise much with all that's going on in my life, but I'll do my most to provide updates once per week, or at least each two weeks!
Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, just a small warning: there will be what I consider major changes in the canon. I'm about to kill some bitches or something ;)
Anyway, thank you for being here. All comments, follows, and votes are always appreciated.
- 𝐣. 𝐟. 𝐜. 🐼💜