➖
MARCEL GERARD WAS A HANDSOME, CHARISMATIC MAN. If Rory didn't know any better, he looked very well like someone she would go home with, you know if she wasn't pregnant and was a little more idiotic than she already was. But there was something about the glint in his eyes as he broadly smiled at Rory. There was no question he was Klaus' protégé.
"So, you're the pretty little secret Klaus has been keeping all the way out here," Marcel grinned despite not receiving the same energy. He was confident and arrogant and dangerous. "Can't say I blame him—he always liked to keep his prized possessions to himself," he leered at her.
Rory tensed as she stared at the vampire king of New Orleans. "What do you want?" She almost shouted for Hayley, for anyone to come, but she didn't want Marcel to do anything rash, so she did her best to remain calm and unbothered, as usual.
He whistled at her sharp tone. "Mmm, should've known you wouldn't be nice. He never had a sweet tooth. Maybe that's why he's kept you around—wait a minute," he paused to sniff the air, his eyes widening in amusement, "so it's not that Klaus has been hiding a werewolf girlfriend from me. You're not a wolf after all."
Rory stared at him defiantly, daring him to utter the words.
"You're pregnant."
Marcel stared at her in a mix of amazement and shock, glancing down at her belly, hidden underneath the baggy paint-stained shirt she wore, but he could hear the multiple heartbeats.
He wondered why Klaus was suddenly in the business of taking in pregnant girls under his protection and keeping her secret for some reason. But that matter was neither here or now.
She didn't bother to correct him or convince him otherwise. There was no point. Her body was on high alert at the proximity to danger. Rory slammed the door shut, but his hand stopped her. Marcel tilted his head and smirked at her attempt. She jolted back from the impact.
"Don't be rude," Marcel warned her, his eyes darkening. If it wasn't obvious by the way he pushed open the door again that he could very well enter the house, he leaned in real close to Rory. "You have no idea just how interesting the game has become."
Rory clenched her jaw. The familiar threatening words coming from Marcel brought her back to a time she was a naive, love struck girl. That girl was long gone.
"Touch me and that'll be the last time you have a hand." She raised her hand in front of her to reveal she had been carrying a knife the entire time—she had learned not to trust anyone outside the Mikaelsons and Hayley. She itched to slice the snarky smirk right off his face.
He raised his brow and shook his head and chuckled at her. "I don't hurt innocent, pregnant girls. I'm not him." He scrunched his nose in disgust at the insinuation. Well, he did have every intention of taking her away, to show Klaus he wasn't as much of a fool as he believed, but he wasn't a monster. He would leave her untouched, yes, but he now knew to keep tabs on this development that had been hidden right under his nose.
"What do you want?" she asked again.
"Your name?"
She exhaled slowly. It was simple enough, but if it would make him leave..."Rory," she said finally.
Marcel smiled satisfactorily. Unexpectedly, he backed away and smiled at her again, as if his mere presence on the porch wasn't a threat. "Send Klaus my regards."
She nodded wordlessly.
And he left.
She slammed the door shut again, but stood in the foyer for a few minutes longer, prepared to stab him if he tried to ambush her, or changed his mind and decided to kidnap her.
"What are you doing?"
Rory nearly jumped right out of her skin at the voice that came behind her. Hayley stared at her weirdly from the last steps of the staircase, her gaze going from the knife in Rory's hand to the door and back again.
"Should I even ask?"
Rory shrugged. "We've been compromised."
Hayley sighed, unsurprised at the statement. "What else is new?" She continued straight into the kitchen while Rory went to grab her phone from the side table, to let the Originals know what just occurred.
Without looking up from the screen, Rory busied herself with typing out a long text message to send to the three siblings as she walked into the kitchen. Only to trip over what felt like a log. The world went sideways as Rory fell onto her ass, her phone with the unsent message, went flying across the room and clattered on the marble tiles.
Rory blinked as realty fell back into place. She craned her head up to see the unconscious body of Hayley lying beside her and then just before darkness filled her sight, a pair of dirty, mud streaked shoes in front of her. Then it all went black.
➖
"They're gone." Elijah announced dully as he walked down the staircase, meeting with his two siblings at the bottom, all empty-handed, or lacking the presence of Rory or Hayley, both of whom had mysteriously disappeared without a trace.
"Not possible."
"She was unlinked just last night and her and Hayley were left alone for a few hours." Rebekah looked away. She thought she could leave town before thing got uglier. She should've made sure Rory and Hayley were fine, in fact, she wished she had taken them with her, taken them away from the mess. "What did you expect, Nik?"
"You were meant to be watching her!" Klaus shoved his finger at his sister who glared back at him.
Rebekah narrowed her gaze icily at her brother. "Perhaps if you weren't such an arse, who didn't bother coming back even when she nearly lost the baby, she would still be here!" She couldn't deny the knot of guilt inside her chest—if she wasn't so reckless, if she hadn't been such a fool to believe Marcel would run away with her, he wouldn't have been led to the plantation in the first place.
Klaus reeled back, his jaw clenching as his eyes filled with unbridled rage. A look very familiar for the other two siblings who knew it often precipitated being stuffed in a coffin for a hundred years.
"Rebekah, I'm sure it was not that case." Elijah stepped between the two. "Maybe they decided to go search for their long-lost family in the Bayou again, it wouldn't be the first time." As always, Elijah was the voice of reason and proponent of logic. "Besides, they have no way of getting out of the city, no money or means of transportation."
The hybrid released a growl of frustration, pacing up and down. "No! She-she swore she wouldn't...not without..."
Elijah and Rebekah exchanged confused faces. Never had they ever witnessed their brother so bent up over the possibility someone had betrayed them. With their family, it was almost guaranteed.
Klaus marched into the kitchen, searching for any hint of Rory's whereabouts. Perhaps they were out of ice cream and she had a craving... The large kitchen appeared untouched, but abandoned, a glass of orange juice on the counter and an half-filled bowl of soggy cereal. His lips curled. Rory had not left willingly.
"Isn't that her phone?" Rebekah zoomed over to the small rectangular object in the corner of the room, screen cracked and the unmistakable picture of the ultrasound Rory had taken as the screensaver.
Klaus and Elijah appeared beside the blonde and read over her shoulder at the last message Rory had been in the midst of typing.
to: Klaus, Bex, Elijah
yo, pretty sure we're all fucked.
marcel just came to the house
believing me to be the werewolf
hiding in the quarter that klaus
is explicitly keeping a secret
from him and as well as
the fact that i am pregnant.
thought he was gonna kidnap
me lma
The message was obviously unfinished.
If Klaus' glare had been withering, it was now blazing. He growled deeply, "Marcellus."
➖
Waking up in the back of a strange van, her wrists tightly bound together, in desperate need to use the toilet, and drenched in sweat probably made it up on the list to the third worst way Rory had ever woken up in her life.
"Ah, shit, I've been kidnapped. Again."
"Correction," a tired voice came from beside her, "we've."
Hayley looked even worse for wear, a nasty bruise on her temple and her wrists were angry and swollen red from struggling against the rope to no avail.
Rory sighed deeply. Well, it was gonna be a long day indeed.
They quickly abandoned getting out of the intricately tied rope and turned to trying to kick out the windows of the van doors. They didn't try to be discreet about their escape attempts either, but their kidnapper must have been listening to very loud music or was possibly deaf, as they carried on. Rory wished she had chosen to wear some combat boots like Hayley, instead of sneakers, so she could be a better help. The right side was a good kick or two away from being busted open from their efforts (mostly Hayley's) when the two girls suddenly flew back, hitting the floor hard.
The van had stopped.
"Shit."
They braced themselves for confrontation and the moment the doors cracked open, Hayley threw herself onto the person, no time to look at the kidnapper's face as Hayley shouted, "Run, Rory!"
Rory went for the small opening between them in an earnest attempt, but Hayley was finally sucker-punched into the floor of the van.
"Ah, no you don't!" The kidnapper grabbed Rory quickly and promptly threw her into Hayley, but it wasn't the impact of crashing into each other that caused them to gasp.
It was the fact they both recognized the voice of their kidnapper.
"Tyler?" Hayley and Rory said simultaneously, sitting up to face the irritated man who watched them carefully.
The girl's heads snapped to each other in bewilderment. "You know him?"
"Stop that, that's creepy," Tyler interjected with a roll of his eyes. He looked like hell, untypical for the wealthy heir.
"Tyler's my uncle's wive's sister's son," Rory quickly explained to Hayley. She glanced back at Tyler, the boy she had known since she was a child, looked physically the same, but there was this emptiness in his eyes and lack of humanity in his features that made him look so strange. "When I lived in Pennsylvania, we used to play as children. Family holidays. Communion." Rory glanced between Hayley and Tyler, "I assume you know each other from Mystic Falls."
"He was a werewolf."
"Was?" Rory looked back at him and Tyler raised his chin, fury burning in his brown eyes at the reminder of what he used to be. She paused, piecing together what she knew of Mystic Falls and the Originals—her eyes widened magnificently. "You're a hybrid."
"I helped Tyler break his sire bond from Klaus, taught him some things about wolves," Hayley confirmed her assumptions, all the while glaring at the tanned boy, "and now I'm going to teach him one last lesson. Don't fuck with my pack." She sounded very much like someone who would beat the hell out of Tyler, but with her wrists bound, it wasn't as scary.
Tyler chuckled at that, finding her immensely hilarious and completely unthreatening. "You don't wanna fight me, Hayley. You know you can't beat a hybrid."
She snarled as she threw herself at him again, intent on wrecking him up with just her legs and bound fists. But he grabbed both sides of Hayley's head instead and slammed his head into hers, knocking her unconscious.
Rory scrambled back as Tyler reached out for her. "Ahh! Let me go, you fucking asshole—"
SLAP
"Shut up!" he roared and Rory held onto her hot cheek, staring at the man she once loved like a brother in disbelief. Who was this monster in his skin?
Tyler pulled Rory out of the trunk by her wriggling legs, tossing her his shoulder despite her efforts to spring loose. She did her best to get comfortable. With his other hand, he yanked an unconscious Hayley out of the trunk and dragged her like a rag-doll as he walked down the beaten path further into the Bayou.
The stifling humidity and endless walk wrought out the fight in Rory. She couldn't fall fall asleep under the rough walk and constant bugs buzzing around her face, but she merely closed her eyes, waiting.
She was unceremoniously plopped on an old wood chair. She looked at her surroundings half-delirious from the heat and humidity. He had left Hayley in the dusty corner, still knocked out from his punch. Rory hoped she would wake soon.
Tyler had brought them into some sort of shack. It was filled with old furniture and tools, but Tyler seemed to know his way around just fine. He walked over to a crate where he pulled out a bottle of water.
"Here. Drink." He pressed the lip of the newly opened plastic bottle to her cracked lips.
She would've protested accepting any food or drink from her kidnapper on principle if not for her baby's wellbeing. Rory drank as much as she could, before Tyler yanked the nearly finished bottle away and placed it on the counter cruelly. She stared at the last inch of water longingly.
"What is this place?" she asked warily as Tyler strapped her wrists to the arms of the chair and her ankles to the feet. She didn't see the point in making it difficult for her cousin—he had the upper hand in both strength and energy. She needed to save hers.
"The armpit of Louisiana." Rory couldn't mask the disgust on her face. Tyler snorted as he crouched besides Hayley, attaching a heavy chain to her wrists connected to an exposed metal pole. "Not up to your high standards, huh?"
Hayley finally raised her head, her mind foggy from the concussion but she was wide awake now. She had forgotten how much stronger hybrids were. If she weren't a wolf in her own right, she imagined the impact would've killed her, as it was now, her brain was throbbing painfully. It made it hard to think, let alone devise a way to get both her and Rory out of the mess they found themselves in.
"How's the head?" Tyler asked her, raising his brow as he walked back to the counter, his back faced them as he fiddled with something.
The werewolf growled at the wolfsbane laced silver chains preventing her from moving more than a two feet radius in the corner of the shack, but still, she squared up her shoulders defensively, her eyes narrowed. "Let us go, Tyler."
Tyler rolled his eyes as he set up his tray carefully, "Don't play stupid. We all know I'm not going to do that." He didn't bother to look at them as he worked.
Hayley and Rory exchanged a frustrated look.
Rory bit her lip, but in the corner of her eye, she noticed movement outside the dusty window. There were many tents outside surrounding the shack. A blonde woman stood right next to the window, busy with something but definitely close enough for Rory to try to get her attention.
"Hey!"
Startled, but not surprised to see them tied up on the other side of the glass, the woman immediately backed away like a scared mouse.
"Help us!" Hayley yelled desperately. "He's crazy!"
But the woman merely ran away, disappearing into another tent and leaving dread to twist in the two girl's chests.
Tyler shook his head, "They can't help you! They're in the woods, hiding, because they have nothing left. Just like me. And I'm gonna help them."
Hayley glanced at Rory worriedly. An idea hit her, well, more of a curiosity. "Tyler, there's been a wolf watching over Rory lately...protecting her like she's part of it's pack, saving her from hunters. You're a hybrid, you can turn into a wolf whenever you want. Was it you?"
It would make sense then if he were the mysterious wolf-protecter, how he had been observing them for so long that he had nabbed them in the off chance that all the Originals had left the mansion as well as any "babysitters" AKA Josh or any other compelled vampire.
Tyler looked confused, bringing only more mystery to the situation, "No, but you're right—only hybrids can control when they change. And I'm the only one left, besides Klaus. Which is why we're here," he said vaguely. It was clear he was only going to share answers on his own time by his casual countenance as he turned back to his task.
"You ambushed me, in my own house, damnit! I deserve answers, Tyler Lockwood!" Rory demanded, straightening up as much as she could tied up in the chair. "You could've bloody knocked on the door like the others, save me the walk."
"It's not your house, it's Klaus'!" Tyler roared furiously. His eyes darkened, "He's the monster here! He's killed thousands, he doesn't care about anyone else besides himself, or has he fooled you that much? He killed my mom." The agony in his eyes was suddenly clear and Rory understood. Pain made you do crazy things. She understood more than most.
"No..."
"Thanks for coming to the funeral, so much for family, right?" he spat out in disgust at Rory's look of sorrow. "And now you're shacked up in that mansion with that psycho. A long way from the girl I used to play tag with on Easter Sundays."
"Ty...I'm sorry about Aunt Carol, but a lot has happened since the last time I saw you." She didn't know what to say, how to stop her cousin from hurting them in his anger.
"You mean that you're pregnant?" he scoffed, and for the first time, Rory felt ashamed under the scrutiny of her own family member. "A hybrid baby, yeah, I know all about it. I've been roaming around the Bayou, asking questions. Let me tell you what I learned!" He yanked down Rory's sweater-sleeve, revealing the birthmark on her shoulder. "This crescent birthmark means you come from a big-shot family. Some kind of royalty for the werewolves of this region."
Hayley's brows furrowed at that tidbit. Werewolf royalty? She had never heard of such a thing, but New Orleans had proven to be a very different world from the rest of it. She could bet that whatever genocide had occurred had erased much of werewolf culture in the south. As it was, packs were few and far in between.
"My parent's are completely normal, human," Rory swore. They had researched her family tree up and down, trying to fit the puzzle of where her birthmark had come from. Her mother didn't have the mark, and she voiced this to the two.
Tyler smirked darkly. "What about your dad?"
"Elijah said Aden wasn't a recorded werewolf line." She didn't remember ever seeing such a distinctive birthmark on her father either, and so the mystery continued to elude them onto how she had it. "We traced my father's parents and grandparents and found no sign of any werewolf heritage."
He laughed mockingly, "Tom Aden didn't exist before 22 years ago. Has living with the Originals drained your intelligence as well?"
Tyler couldn't grasp how his genius-artist cousin had fallen so far. She was choosing the Mikaelson monsters over her own blood. Choosing to carry the demonic spawn of satan himself and looked all too happy about it from his observations. She was not the same girl either.
"I told you I did my research. Your dad was adopted at the age of sixteen, I bet you didn't know that? Sometimes, the truth lies right in front of you."
She looked away, overcome by the bold truth of his words. Thinking back, her dad's parents didn't look a thing like him, their fair hair and eyes were noticeably different from Tom Aden's darker coloring. It never made sense, why she never knew how her dad grew up. The murkiness of his past eclipsed by the scandal that took over her teen years. Curiosity was replaced by loathing and later on ambivalence.
"Twenty-five years ago, Marcel's vampires began wiping out the werewolf population by the hundreds, starting with the royal families of the region. They were supposedly all wiped out. But here we are, two girls both baring the mark of the crescent wolves and missing their family." Tyler leaned in even closer, the gleam in his eyes only growing more crazed in the heat and humidity. "And it only gets more interesting from here—the official police report kept in the foster system's records revealed that Tom was found in some small town in Texas, near the borderline of Louisiana, suffering from nasty cuts and bruises and burns. Oh, and carrying a baby."
Rory's eyes snapped to Hayley's.
"The system separated the two," Tyler continued, walking back to the counter again, "Tom was sent to a foster home where he eventually took on the family's name—the Aden's—who treated him like he was always one of theirs. He met Aunt Stella at college where they had you. And whatever happened to the baby? She was adopted by the Marshalls."
Rory had suspected as much. But Tyler didn't share the relationship between her father and the baby who was assumably Hayley. How deep did her father's secrets go?
➖
"DAMNIT!" Klaus slammed his fist into the wall. It cracked under his strength.
Some part of him had hoped Marcel was the culprit behind all of this, partly so he could finally reclaim his city, but more so to find Rory safe and untouched. He knew Marcel wouldn't hurt a pregnant girl, but there were others out there who had no problems doing so. And that's what Klaus was afraid to find out.
"We will find them Niklaus," Elijah reassured him, standing by the desk Sabine sat at, staring at a map of the state that had a pool of Klaus' blood on it. "Both of them."
Klaus didn't care for his brother's interest in Hayley, so he ignored that comment. He expected the werewolf to have protected Rory in his absence so he didn't really care if she was dead or not as long as Rory and his child were unharmed.
"Found her." Sabine didn't glance up as Klaus and Elijah surrounded her, leaning in close to stare at the map. "She's in the back country. Way up, past Houma, deep in the bayou."
Sabine barely finished her sentence when a sudden wind hit her, causing her hair to whoosh back as the two Original brothers disappeared. She sighed and stood up. "I need a drink."
There were only a few roads leasing into the Bayou from the plantation, so whether it were luck or the owner of the van's pure sloppiness, the brother's quickly found their lead. After all, who needed wolfsbane ropes?
Klaus sniffed the air, his eyes marked with suspicion as he looked around.
"Have you found their scents?" Elijah asked pressingly.
Klaus shook his head, his jaw tightening in fury. "I found someone else's. This vehicle reeks of someone I thought I was rid of...Tyler Lockwood."
"And why would your little hybrid-sidekick from Mystic Falls have any interest in Rory? They've never met?"
"He wants revenge because back when I had the means to sire hybrids, he was my first, although, I didn't give him much choice in the matter." Klaus pulled a blanket out of the abandoned car and sniffed it, wrinkling his nose at only finding Hayley's. He needed to make sure Rory was with them. "He was loyal in the beginning, but he grew insubordinate, turned my other hybrids against me. I couldn't have that, so I massacred the lot of them. Tyler ran like a coward before I could finish him off."
Elijah knew there had to be more. "Anything else that you would like to share?" They began following an unmarked path, Klaus sniffing the air every so often to ensure it hadn't shifted.
Klaus paused, considering his past actions that may have triggered Tyler's vengeful streak. "Well, there was this business with his mum."
Elijah stared at him incredulously. "You killed his mother. Wonderful."
"He needed to be taught a lesson!"
The older brother scoffed. "And what lesson will you be taught, Niklaus, if he retaliates by harming the girls? Your child?"
This stopped Klaus in his tracks. The hybrid had a look on his face, a look Elijah hadn't seen for centuries. Regret.
"If he harms a single hair on her, I will shred him apart," Klaus murmured lowly.
"So you do care about her," Elijah concluded in a softer voice. He was almost amazed at how obvious it was.
"She carries my child."
"You gave her your art studio." Elijah tilted his head, giving his brother an understanding look. He considered Klaus' recent emotions and how focused he was on making sure Rory, not only his child, was alright. "Niklaus, have you considered the possibility that you may care more about this girl then you intended to?"
"Enough." He had locked onto the other hybrid's scent. His eyes darkened. "I'll kill Tyler Lockwood myself," he said before vamp-speeding away, following the scent.
➖
The concern and anxiety in her chest only deepened the longer Tyler rifled through things on the back counter. "Whatever you think you're doing, you know that whole Original family has made some sort of pact, or something, to keep me and the baby safe. Hayley is included in that protection. So, if you hurt us, they'll kill you."
"Who says I'm hurting you?" He finally faced them, a huge steel syringe in his hand, freshly sanitized and empty, with a long thin needle the length of Rory's forearm.
Their eyes widened in terror as Tyler approached.
Rory pushed her back further into the seat as much as possible, but she couldn't escape her crazed cousin. "W-What are you doing?" she asked tearfully. She knew what was coming.
"You backstabbing half-breed piece of shit!" Hayley snarled, the clang-clang-clang of the chains were the only things stopping her from outright murdering Tyler right then and there.
"Klaus destroyed everything good in my life. So, I'm gonna take away the thing he wants most!" He crouched in front of her and lifted the bottom of her shirt to expose her tiny bump.
Her heart hammered against her chest in panic. She couldn't breath as the needle came nearer and nearer.
Hayley fought against her restraints even more, "Let her go! You don't have to do this!" she pleaded.
"NO! Tyler!" Rory begged, thrashing as much as she could, but failing with all her limbs tied up. She barely registered the pain, it was the fear that broke her. "AHHHHHHH! NO! PLEASE! TYLER, PLEASE!" she begged him with every inch of her soul for him to stop, but he took what he wanted without a word.
In the moment, all she could think of was her child. Her innocent baby. One wrong move and the needle would undoubtedly stab her baby, both mother and child helpless to the whims of a madman.
As soon as the syringe was filled with dark, crimson blood, he withdrew the needle from Rory's stomach, the skin healing just as he turned to Hayley and jammed the needle into her neck, injecting the entirety of it's contents, and snapping her neck all in one move.
Hayley collapsed to the floor, sprawling freely as much as she could under the chains.
No hesitation. No warning. No goodbye.
Numb from the trauma of Tyler's attack and of his subsequent murder of her closest and most trusted friend, Rory stared at him blankly, her mouth ajar in a mixture of shock and trepidation and pain.
He glanced at her.
"You killed Hayley."
Tyler huffed, speaking to her like she was a child. "Hayley is a werewolf who died with your blood in his system. The same blood you share with your hybrid baby," he intoned, gesturing to her healed stomach. "And look, like I said, no one got hurt."
"Hayley is dead."
"Don't get all judgy! She'll be fine!" he assured her airily. "Probably."
Her eyes widened magnificently, filled with clarity at what he was getting at. Or what he was trying to accomplish. "You're trying to turn her into a hybrid? Klaus said it's impossible!" Something about a doppelgänger being dead and other logistics that turned out how bothersome the venture had turned out for Klaus.
"I've been running with wolf packs all over the country," he explained, carefully watching Hayley's limp body. "One of them was tight with a witch. She had nightmare visions about your baby and how Klaus could use it's blood to make an army of hybrid slaves."
"You hedged your bets on a fucking nightmare? Killing Hayley and hurting me and my child, for what? A slight chance it would actually work?" Rory growled, her eyes flashing with red-hot fury. "I am sick of these witches and their premonitions about my baby. She's just a baby!"
Tyler shrugged. "Maybe. Maybe not. That's where Hayley comes in."
"Why not just kill me and the baby?" she asked defeatedly. "That'll solve the nightmares of my innocent baby's hand in the armageddon and avenge what Klaus did to you." She was surprised that hadn't been his plan. Why would he want to create more hybrids if they were as troublesome as she heard?
"Look around you." He pointed out the raggedy tents. "Those people, they're what's left of the crescent wolves. If you haven't noticed, these people don't have much to live for."
"So, what? This is a favor to them? To turn them into monsters like you?"
"They'd all welcome the chance to become the superior species. Trouble is, all hybrids are sired to Klaus." Tyler curled his upper lip at the memories of how willing to do anything and everything for Klaus after he had turned. "They follow his every move. No way I let that happen."
Rory raised her brow, "How can you be so sure Klaus knows what the baby's blood will do?"
"What do you think? Klaus Mikaelson, killer of men, women, and puppies, all of a sudden wants to be a daddy?" he laughed mockingly, "You haven't known him long enough, but he's pure evil, Rory. He doesn't actually care about taking care of you or your bastard."
Her nostrils flared at the insult, but his words got her thinking. Of course, she didn't know Klaus very well. She didn't want to doubt his intentions, or of the promises he swore to her, but she couldn't help but think back to how Tyler had a point. How had she put all her trust in someone she has known for less than half a year verses her cousin she had known all her life?
"He always has an ulterior motive," Tyler stated firmly. "Hybrids can walk in the sun. Their bite is lethal to vampires. They'll take over New Orleans by the end of the week. And you know what's going to stop Klaus then? Nothing." He stood in front of her, holding her by her shoulders. "If Klaus gets a hold of you, if he gets that kid?" he glanced at her bump. "He wins." And Tyler would die before he let that happen.
"Then help me hide the baby from him!" Rory suggested, feeling like she had no other option. She didn't want to be an instrument in the horror-fest that was undoubtedly becoming New Orleans. "We're family, doesn't that mean anything? Help me run!"
He shook his head. "He'll find you, he'll take your kid away, and he'll make more hybrid monsters. Slaves who do everything he says."
Rory was terrified of the size of the knife her cousin picked up from the counter. "Tyler, whatever you're thinking of doing, there has to be another way. You're not like this!"
Hayley awakened with a pained gasp. She looked the same, not dead, but she had indeed changed. She sat up, clutching her throat.
Tyler glanced at Rory before addressing the newly awakened Hayley with a smile. "You're gonna have to feed on her."
"What? No," Hayley refused, shaking her head as Tyler approached Rory with the knife.
"Don't! Stop!" Rory screamed as Tyler sliced a thin line on her exposed shoulder, beads of crimson blood appeared, filling the air with her scent.
"Do it." He dragged Hayley to Rory. The chain was just long enough for her to reach the chair Rory was tied up in.
Hayley tried to resist, but once she got close to Rory and her open vein, she lost control. Overcome by her hyperactive senses and her unexpected, ravenous thirst, Hayley mindlessly bit into Rory's neck, the human blood too tempting to not give into.
Rory thrashed about in pain of her friends sharp teeth implanted in her shoulder.
The old chair broke under the weight, the legs snapping and sending both girls to the ground. The impact forced Hayley to stop feeding, and she quickly crawled back, away from the blood, but suddenly fell to the floor, convulsing sporadically as the change made itself permanent.
Not as completely detached as he had been acting, Tyler kneeled beside her body worriedly. "Look at me! Look at me!"
The familiarity of Tyler's voice brought Hayley back to reality. She blinked, her mind all right and running smooth as any machine. The fogginess was lifted. Everything was much more intense, her senses, the world around her was almost too much to bear with both vampire and werewolf within.
Tyler breathed out a sigh of relief. "You're okay."
That's when Hayley's hybrid face emerged, her eyes glowing neon gold and dancing with black veins around the sockets. She smiled sharply.
"I'm better than okay." With her newfound hybrid strength, she shred off the ropes tying her to the metal pole with little effort and easily tore open the doubled-rope binding her hands together.
She looked up at Tyler with a smirk.
He cursed inwardly as the newborn hybrid suddenly launched herself at him, teeth snapping and claws retracting.
Now only half-restrained, Rory's ankles freed with the broken chair legs, but her wrists were still attached to the arms, which left her in awkward, extremely uncomfortable position on the dusty floor. She could feel her shoulder had healed already, thanks to her baby's vampire blood, but her shirt was now soaked in blood.
Rory noticed the knife on the ground and strained to reach for it as Hayley and Tyler rolled around the small space of the shack, snarling and growling and punching each other.
She managed to just wrap her fingers around the handle, scooting forward to fully grasp it and flip it upside down to reach the ropes. Once she managed one hand free, the other joined a lot faster.
She saw an open escape, a streamline for the entryway, but Hayley was still distracting Tyler. She stood shakily, on the sidelines of a losing battle. Tyler had straddled Hayley and was about to twist her neck again when he was stopped. An unexpected sharp, pain began from his back, the tip of the weapon just barely brushing the side of his heart.
Rory stood behind him, staring at the exposed end of the broken chair leg she had shoved into Tyler's back. He reached behind himself to yank it out, but in his distractingly, Hayley took the moment to reach up and snapped Tyler's neck.
"Run, Rory!" Hayley shouted as she crawled out from under Tyler's momentarily unconscious body.
Rory nodded and sprinted away.
Hayley knew it wouldn't take long for the hybrid to recover. She followed after the path she thought Rory had taken, too overwhelmed to use her newfound hybrid senses, but instead of crashing into the pregnant girl, she crashed into a tall figure wearing a full suit in summer.
"Elijah!" Hayley gasped.
"Forgive me! I thought you were in danger. It appears I was mistaken," he joked, looking around, hoping to also find Rory somewhere. But Hayley dived into Elijah's arms, filled with relief that they had come and that Elijah had found her.
Hayley pulled away first, "Wait, Rory is somewhere out here. She ran first while I distracted Tyler."
"She shouldn't be too far away then." He turned to continue searching, but Hayley stopped him, grabbing his bicep worriedly. Elijah looked up and frowned, realizing there was something different about Hayley.
"Elijah, there's something you need to know about the baby."
Meanwhile, Rory was currently stuck between a rock and a hard place. Literally. She clutched the large knife even tighter.
"RORY! Don't make this harder than it has to be! Give up now... I'll end it quick." He knew where she was, the overpowering scent of her blood making her a beacon to every supernatural in the area. He tapped his foot. He heard a leaf crunch behind him. He whirled around, expecting to find his cousin giving herself up.
"Quite an offer!" Klaus grinned broadly. He held up the blood soaked shirt of Rory's. She had left it behind a tree in hopes of misleading Tyler and ran the other direction. Klaus found it first and used it to lure Tyler away. "Though, not one I'll be extending to you."
"Klaus." Tyler braced himself for the inevitable fight.
The Original hybrid smiled.
➖
"Is this your idea of revenge, Tyler? A grueling game of hide-and-seek?" Klaus didn't expect that the so-called reclusive werewolves had such a large encampment. He didn't know where they had run off to now, but he suspected no one wanted to get in between a hybrid fight.
Tyler ran up behind Klaus and stabbed him through the chest with a stake. He roared in pain, backhanding Tyler away a few feet, before pulling the stake out of his back.
Klaus glares at him coldly. "Let's end this, shall we?"
The two continue to glare at each other, their hybrid faces making an appearance. Tyler tackled Klaus, sending both of them rolling down a small hill until they landed in front of the shack. Tyler gained the upper hand, punching Klaus in the face plenty of times before the older hybrid grew tired and flipped their positions, choking Tyler from behind.
"How dare you!" Klaus growled, "I gave you everything. I allowed you to live your life in peace and you return my favor by kidnapping the helpless pregnant girl in my care? You must have a death wish or something is the matter with you."
"That helpless pregnant girl is my cousin," Tyler glared at Klaus' look of surprise at the revelation of their connection, "You've infected every inch of my life. Call it a death wish, I'm just getting started!" He pulled out a knife from his pocket and stabbed Klaus again.
Klaus chuckled, growling at the painful nuisance of the dagger. "You've grown bloodthirsty. Perhaps it's best your mother didn't live to see you like this," he taunted him.
Tyler grew more enraged at that and began to pummel Klaus' face. He grabbed his fists after minute, flipping him over until Klaus is on top of him, and staking the boy in the chest with the dagger that had been stuck in his side. Tyler groaned in pain, and yanked it out, tossing it away, both standing to their feet once more.
"It's sad, really." Klaus tsked, shaking his head, "I thought I made you better. Turns out you're quite the disappointment."
Tyler spat in his face. "I guess I'm another one of your failures. Like how you failed at making hybrids. How you failed your family! Now it looks like you're going to fail your own kid!"
The hybrid roared in anger, grabbing Tyler by the throat and pinning him against a tree.
"And thus ends your tedious little life. At least it was brief!" He shoved his hand into Tyler's chest, wrapping his claws around his heart as Tyler shouts in agony.
"Do it!" Tyler struggled, gasping in pain. "You're never gonna break me! Only thing you can do is kill me, so go on! Go on, get it over with!"
Klaus paused, his growl turning into a chuckle. "Ahhh, you want me to end your suffering, don't you? Hmm?" He stared into Tyler's empty eyes. "I did break you! I took everything from you, and now you're begging me to sweep away the shards of your shattered little life."
Klaus stared at him for a moment longer, and just as Tyler closed his eyes, glad to be relieved of his life, he is able to breath again. Klaus had retracted his hand from his chest, but continued to choke him with his other hand.
"Death offers more peace than you deserve. It's better to let you live. And each morning, you will wake knowing your wretched existence continues only by my will." He began to compel him, staring into the younger hybrid's pained eyes. "Now go, and live the rest of your days knowing that you are nothing to me."
Tyler stumbled away the moment Klaus stepped back. He disappeared in the next second, not bothering to fight against the compulsion. He was defeated. For now.
"Rory." He said her name, staring at the boulder she had hidden herself behind nearby. He had heard her follow them the entire time, relieved she was okay and smart enough to stick close. "It's safe to come out now."
The pregnant girl slowly emerged from her hiding place, wearing just her bra and cotton pajama shorts. She was covered in blood and sweat. But she was okay. Klaus' expression softened. She offered him a small smile.
They waited on the porch of the shack, in near silence, sitting beside each other on the dilapidated stairs, when Elijah and Hayley appeared, walking out from the woods. Rory stood at once, filled with glee at seeing Hayley alright and happy Elijah was with her. She waved at them, her fingers barely peaking out from the long sleeves of the leather jacket Klaus had given her.
Klaus raised his brow at their tedious approach. "There you are! I see you've found our wandering stray. Perhaps you could shed some light on the situation as to Hayley's new state as a hybrid, any idea how that's possible?"
Rory had nearly forgotten that had happened with everything. She worried for Hayley's state of mind. She hadn't wanted this. Part of her felt guilty she ever let Hayley get involved, she could've left town ages ago, spared herself from the chaos, but no. And now Hayley was something she never wanted to be.
The new hybrid started forward, "As if you didn't know!"
Elijah held her back, walking in front of her to protect her from Klaus, who stood in front of them now.
Klaus was unamused by the pair's new alliance. "Ahhh, well, aren't you two fast friends? Found yourself a girl, Elijah? Oh, come on, then. What kind of horrible accusation have you conspired to levy against me?" He waited to hear the newest wave of his his supreme evilness.
Elijah looked from Hayley to Rory and then locking his gaze with Klaus. "Tyler Lockwood brought then here to test a theory." Klaus nodded for him to continue. "That the blood of Rory's child could be used to sire hybrids. He fed Hayley her blood and killed her—now she's a hybrid. He claims that you knew that. Furthermore, that you intended to use this knowledge to build an army."
His eyes tightened in betrayal and hurt. "And, of course, you assume it's true. I mean, why else would I show interest in my own flesh and blood?" He glanced at Rory, listening to the little heartbeat within her. "A heartbroken little crybaby points his finger at me, and my own brother falls in line, eager to believe it! How quickly you believe the worst of me!"
Rory felt her heart pang at the hurt in his voice.
"Oh, spare me your indignation." Elijah berated him, "And what was it you once said to me? 'Every king needs an heir!'," he mimicked Klaus to his annoyance.
"My big brother, so, you doubt my intentions," he had turned back to Rory, who had said nothing. He read her tense body language with an exacerbated look. "Well, I can't say I'm surprised, standing next to the noble Elijah, how can I be anything but the lesser brother? A liar, a manipulator, a bastard," he hissed, and Rory was brought back to how Tyler insulted their child just an hour before.
The two brother's stared each other down. Elijah reconsidered his position, looking at a tense Hayley to his brother's obviously hurt look.
Klaus laughed darkly. "That's all I am to you, isn't it? And Rebekah. And, judging by the way they hang onto your every word," he gestured at Hayley and Rory, "it's clear they feel the same way!" He paused, looking even more forlorn. "No doubt my child will as well," he said bitterly.
Rory was speechless at the demonstration of the depths of Klaus' feelings. She had sensed it before. His fickleness made sense to her now. It wasn't a need to take over the world. It was a need to prove himself as worthy. Worthy of his power. Worthy of acceptance. And worthy of having a family.
Elijah started again, more receptive to Klaus' emotions. "Brother, if—"
Klaus interrupted him, "—You've said all that needs to be said, brother." He backed away a few steps and held his arms up in defeat. "I'll play the role I've been given."
Those words struck a cord of fear. If Rory knew Klaus, he was about to do something drastic, to prove himself even more. "Hey," she got everyone's attention, "I think we've all said and done a lot today. Why don't we just finish this discussion at home?" she glanced around at the darkening sky. She met their eye's pleadingly.
Klaus huffed and turned to walk away, but just as Rory took a step to follow him, he whirled around and vamp-sped over to Elijah instead, savagely biting into his neck. The girls screamed. Hayley flashed to his side, supporting him half-lying on the porch as he clutched his bloody neck.
"What the hell, Klaus!"
Klaus pointed at Rory who was stood frozen, not expecting the turn of events, his expression hard and unforgiving. "You're coming with me, little wolf."
"No way!" She tried to back away. "Hayley's a newborn hybrid and you've just bit Elijah! I'm not leaving them!" she insisted, stomping her foot on the ground petulantly.
"Rory, that child you carry is the only thing on this earth that matters to me. Now you can fight me on this, but you will lose." She stared at him in disbelief as he looked beyond her to Elijah and Hayley. "As will anyone else who tries to stop you from coming with me." Klaus wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, "You two enjoy each other's company. Have fun dealing with your newfound bloodlust, Hayley. You'll have much to bond over, once the hallucinations and dementia set in. Consider that bite to be my parting gift to you both."
He glared once more as he picked up Rory in his arms without warning and sped away.
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ok yall i know i said i would update more in the summer but i forgot how hectic life actually is ughhh sorry also it took a long time to edit this chapter and episode so that it made sense and all lol
hope yall enjoyed
**also to make it clear, rory is 4 months pregnant and has been living with the mikaelson's for a 2 and a half months**