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Chapter Text

Kol had his arms wrapped around Davina, swaying to the sound of soft music. He didn’t understand how he always had to be the one to pay for everything. First, he was killed because he wanted to stop those idiots from resurrecting Silas and now… Now, he was being killed by his own brother. He knew that he was never really a part of that family. It didn’t matter what Niklaus said. They never cared for him. Maybe it was for the best that he died… Only this time – this time he would stay dead. Just as he had found something – someone to live for as well.

Kol pulled away to look into Davina’s eyes “I know that we’re in a cemetery and I happen to be terminal.” He tried to laugh at his own joke but it fell flat when tears welled up in his eyes “You’ve got to admit, the stars are lovely.”

Davina looked up at him incredulously “How can you joke right now?”

“I’m not,” Kol murmured “We’re under the same stars. It’s some guy and he’s with his girl and he thinks he’s got all the time in the world and he’s right.” He let out a laugh as Davina started crying again “And I hate him.” He was going to say something else when he doubled over in a coughing fit.

“Are you okay?” Davina whispered, lifting his head to look at him. She felt her heart ache at the tired resignation in Kol’s eyes. While she knew about his past, she also knew that he had changed. His family – if you could call it that – had never put him first and Davina had taken it upon herself to change that. The number of times Kol had been surprised at simple gestures had tugged at her heart time and time again. 

Kol smiled, trying to ignore the pain that shook his body “Yeah.” When Davina pressed a kiss to his hand, he swallowed “I think… I think I want to be alone for this bit.” He didn’t want Davina to see what would undoubtedly be a very painful death, so he pushed away from her and tried to make his way towards one of the tombs, trying to stay on his feet as more coughs wracked his body.

“I’m afraid that’s not an option,” a voice spoke up behind him. Kol froze and turned to see Klaus, Elijah and Rebekah standing not far from him.

“‘Always and forever’ is not something that you just weasel out of, brother,” Klaus told him firmly as Kol just stared at them in shocked surprise. 

“Kol?”

He shook his head, backing up a step “I…” He didn’t get further as his legs gave out on him and he landed on the floor in a coughing heap. Klaus and Elijah were by his side instantly as they helped him up, leading him into the tomb. Kol stumbled along with them as he felt blood dripping from his nose “Why are you here?”

“I told you,” Klaus started, gently lowering Kol to the ground in the middle of a ring of candles “You’re a Mikaelson. And we stand together.”

Kol’s incredulous laugh turned into another coughing fit “Something you only remember when you see fit. I stood by you for centuries. Yes, I made mistakes but so have you.” He looked up at his siblings, trying not to show them how much pain he was in. Behind him, Davina started whispering a spell over a necklace. Not that it mattered. Nothing they could do would save him. Finn had made sure of that “All my life, all I ever wanted was for you lot… to care about me.”

Klaus struggled to hold back his tears as Kol fell into another coughing fit that caused Rebekah to kneel down behind him. After it subsided, the three Originals eased him back into Rebekah’s lap as he grimaced in pain. Kol grabbed onto Rebekah’s hand, his eyes searching hers as he whimpered.

“Kol,” Rebekah whispered, ducking her head to rest it on his “Listen to me. You don’t have long. You’re going to die. But you will die a witch and we will consecrate your body.”

Kol squeezed her hand tighter, cutting her off “No,” he breathed, a pleading note to his voice “Please… I don’t want to come back. I thought… I thought things would be better now, that you would care after I died once before but – I can’t do this again. Please, just let me go.”

Davina crawled over to him, trying to press the necklace into his hands “I tried a different spell.”

“It’s okay,” Kol whispered, looking Davina in the eyes even as he felt the darkness close in on him “I’m not scared.” He managed a last look around the room before the pain faded and everything went black.

Chapter Text

“Elijah,” Klaus breathed, his eyes widening when his older brother entered the room with Damon “Why haven’t you left?”

Elijah smirked at him “Where are your manners, brother? We forgot dessert.” He turned to the blonde servant beside him and pulled the cover from the tray, revealing the two daggers on it.

Klaus froze “What have you done?”

“What have you done?” Elijah countered, unconcerned with Klaus’ panic “You see, I’ve learned not to trust your vulgar promises, Klaus. We’re doing this on my terms now.”

Klaus shook his head and backed away as Finn appeared in front of him, a dagger from the tray clutched in his hand “Finn, don’t.” He was ignored when the dagger was stabbed through his hand. The moment Finn had let go of him, he made to rush out of the room only to be stopped by his sister “Rebekah.”

“This is for our mother,” Rebekah hissed at him, pulling another dagger out of Klaus’ stomach.

Kol was watching the interaction from the doorway, not moving any closer to his siblings. He still wasn’t sure what was going on. He died… Years in the future, he died and now he was here? Before their mother was brought back, before Finn’s death, before Silas, before all of it. He swallowed back the panic that was starting to creep up on him again. He had just barely managed to hide his earlier attack from his siblings - if not from the dark-haired vampire who had gotten him a blood bag. Kol was just glad that he hadn’t alerted Elijah or any of the others, just quietly helped him to breathe.

“You’re free to go,” Elijah told the Salvatores, his eyes glued to Klaus “This is family business.”

“I like what you’ve done with the new place, Nik,” Rebekah smirked, throwing a vase into a painting. 

Kol slowly inched away from Finn, desperately trying to forget that his own brother had cursed him to die. He wasn’t surprised that his siblings seemed to have forgotten his existence once more. None of them noticed that he didn’t join in on the torment of Niklaus. They were all too busy getting in cheap shots. Not that it would help them in the end. 

“I wanted it to be for all of us,” Klaus told them, shooting his siblings a pleading look “A place we could all call home. A place we could all be a family. None of us would ever have to be alone again.”

Elijah uncrossed his arms and moved over to stand between Kol and Finn “Well you’re right. None of us will be.”

“You’re staying behind,” Finn agreed, causing Kol to flinch violently as his oldest brother walked past him to stand by Rebekah’s side. His head was killing him and it was getting hard to keep things straight as memories whirled around in his head. It had started after he woke up but now, it was like an all-out war between the things that already happened and the things that were in his future and he didn’t know what to do about it at the moment. Maybe once he had some peace and quiet, he could at least try and bring a semblance of order to his memories but not now. Not this close to his so-called family. He glanced up at his siblings before staring back down into the glass Elijah had handed him earlier.

“If you run, I will hunt all of you down,” Klaus snarled, glaring at them.

Elijah raised his eyebrows mockingly “Then you’ll become everything you hate. Our father.”

“I’m the hybrid,” Klaus shouted, his voice going red “I can’t be killed. I have nothing to fear from any of you.”

Rebekah frowned when she realised that Kol had been watching their interactions quietly and not joined in the way he usually would. He was standing further away than he had before, looking as if he was miles away. She had never seen him act like that “Kol?” she called out quietly, trying to catch his attention.

Kol’s head shot up at her call, catching the attention of his other siblings. He shook his head, trying to clear his mind enough to at least pretend that everything was alright but it was proving hard. There was no way he would stay here again. Not with everything that happened - would happen “No. Just… No.” With that, he skirted around Finn and ran out of the door, barely missing running down Esther as she walked into the room.

Of course, things couldn't have been that easy. Before he was down the steps outside the front door, he was roughly grabbed from behind "Let go of me," he hissed, standing frozen in the grip of his older brother "I mean it, Niklaus. You better let go of me."

"What the hell is going on with you?" Klaus demanded, shoving Kol away from him and back into the house.

Kol huffed, getting up slowly "What do you want me to do, Nik? Play happy family with you? Why should I? You never cared for me. Not you, Elijah, Rebekah or Finn. Hell, mother only cared for me because of the magic I possessed and not even then could she muster any interest in me. Whatever you planned, leave me out of it. I want no part in this." With that, he dodged past his brother and hightailed out of the house and into the town. He really needed a drink now and not whatever it had been that Elijah had handed out earlier.

“Escaped the family, have you?” Damon asked, sliding into the seat next to the Original “You look better.”

Kol blinked at him for a moment, trying to remember who the man was “And you are?”

“Damon Salvatore,” Damon introduced himself. He looked at who he assumed was Kol curiously. Something seemed off about him. He heard stories about him from Sage but he didn’t seem as... psychotic as the stories had made him seem. That and the panic attack the Original had when he woke up. Then again, how would he know how they felt when waking up. It could be normal for all that he knew “Don’t blame you for not remembering. Stabbing your brother was more important.”

Kol snorted into his drink “That was Finn,” he pointed out, narrowing his eyes on the younger vampire “And anyway, I’m not going to be here much longer, so whatever you’re planning on doing to my siblings, do leave me out of it. I don’t really care either way.” He stiffened when he noticed Elijah walking through the door of the Grill

“Damon,” Elijah greeted, nodding at Damon “Kol.”

“Elijah,” Damon smirked “I kept your brother company, I hope you don’t mind.”

Elijah ignored the implication, staring at Kol “Mother wishes to see you, Kol. If you could.”

Kol rolled his eyes, waving at the bartender to pour him another drink “I told you before and I’m going to say it again. I have no wish to play happy family with any of you and mother can go back to hell for all I care.”

“Watch your tone with me,” Elijah warned quietly, grabbing Kol’s arm to pull him along. 

“Let go of me,” Kol hissed, freeing his arm to grab the drink “Elijah, I don’t want to go back. Is that so hard to understand?”

“Don’t make this difficult, Kol,” Elijah sighed, grabbing the whiskey from him “Now come along.”

“Like hell,” Kol shook his head “I’m not going to sit back and let the person who turned us into this manipulate us again. And neither am I playing happy family with the people who are responsible for sticking a dagger into my chest again and again and again.”

Damon raised his eyebrows at the youngest of the brothers. He thought he and Stefan were dysfunctional. Then again, he should have realised that Klaus and his siblings were so much worse than them. He did cart them around in boxes for centuries. Well, it seemed like Elijah hadn’t quite been right when he assumed all of his siblings would stand with him against Klaus. Damon couldn’t blame him though. From what he knew, Elijah helped with daggering Kol over and over again. Damon really hated the feeling but a part of him actually felt a bit sorry for Kol. The last thing the Original seemed to want was to get back into that house and Damon didn’t blame him at all. 

“Kol,” Elijah warned, his eyes narrowing “You will be coming with me whether you wish to or not.”

Kol let out a wry laugh and made to push past his older brother “Oh, that’s just brilliant. You never did listen to anything I said. None of you ever did. Listen to this. I do not want to come back with you. I’ll be leaving this infernal town and be done with you once and for all.”

Elijah grabbed his arm “I’m afraid I can’t let you do that,” he said, plunging a syringe of vervain into his brother’s neck as he twisted the arm he was holding behind Kol’s back. Elijah caught Damon’s eyes and nodded “Damon. We’ll be leaving now.”

“Let go of me,” Kol hissed as he struggled against the grip. He gritted his teeth at the burn of vervain that set his head ablaze even more than it already was. Being weak was one of the worst feelings in the world. He had only just died thanks to Finn and now that he was back in his vampire body, he was subdued by yet another of his siblings, making it clear that he had been right. They only cared for themselves “Elijah…”

“Do be quiet, Kol,” Elijah sighed, shoving him into the passenger side of his car.

“What did you do?” Finn demanded, shooting up from the armchair when Elijah dragged Kol through the doors.

Elijah deposited his youngest brother on the couch with a shrug “He was hellbent on leaving. It’s the only way I could get him here.”

Finn scoffed “What? Pump him full of vervain? Are you out of your mind?”

“Enough, Finn,” Esther sighed and knelt down by her youngest son’s side. She placed one hand on his head and the other on his heart and started chanting “Imperium monstrum. There. He will not be able to leave this house. I ask of you that you try and convince him to stay as the spell won’t last forever.”

Finn shook his head “You’re all out of your mind,” he mumbled and sped up to the room Niklaus had shown him earlier. Would they do the same to him if he were to decide to leave? He wasn’t sure what was wrong with Kol but maybe his youngest brother had changed over the past nine hundred years. It still wasn’t right. Confining Kol to this house after having confined him to a coffin for a century - more if you counted the previous times he was daggered.

Chapter Text

When Kol woke up he knew something was wrong. First of all, he was in the room he recognised from last time, the room Klaus had given him in his mansion. Secondly, he could still feel the vervain that Elijah had injected him with before. He was alone in the room which gave him a really bad feeling. If they wanted to make sure he was going to stay put, one of them would be here… Unless they could be sure he wouldn’t be able to leave.

Kol sped to the window, opening it without a problem. It was only when he went to lean forward that he snarled quietly. A boundary spell? His mother had put a spell on him without his consent and now he was stuck in this stupid house with all the people he didn’t want to see.

He gritted his teeth and threw himself onto the bed. Well, there was nothing he could do. He didn’t know any witches in this time apart from the little Bennett and he was sure that he would hate him the way she did in the last timeline. After all, Bennett witches had always been ‘special’ in the way that they were too arrogant for their own good. How Ayana’s descendants managed to turn this self-centred he didn’t know. He didn’t really care either.

While he didn’t have a way out of here quite yet, he needed to plan. Mother would be trying to kill them during the ball which was the priority for now. Then, he needed to take care of Silas before they found out about him and the Wickery Bridge still had too much White Oak. This time he would have to make sure to burn the sign as well. Another thing he was going to try for was to stop the little Gilbert from becoming a hunter. They had been friends for a while and Kol had been a bit sad when the Doppelgänger and her pet Salvatore had stormed in and ruined everything. 

Kol chewed on his lip, debating whether he would trust Finn enough to try and talk to him. He knew that Sage was alive and that she would be here. Maybe it would be enough to get Finn to at least think about what he was going to do - not only to them but to all vampires on Earth. He would have to at least try. Without Finn keeping an eye on their mother, Kol wasn’t sure whether he could do this. He was never her favourite and never even got close. Once upon a time, it had hurt but by now, he was over it. Why should he need his mother’s approval? She was the one who made them the people they were today. She and Mikael both.

That was another thing Kol would try and stop. Davina had brought back their father for a reason he couldn’t fathom at all. Maybe he could get Marcellus to step down in case Klaus wanted to go back there… He shook his head. It wasn’t any of his business but he would have to go and talk to Marcellus whether the man believed him or not. But the least Kol could do was warn him. He could do that on his way to Vancouver. The further he got away, the better. 

"Finn," Kol called, seeing his older brother enter the living room "A word?"

"What do you want, Kol?" the oldest of the brothers sighed, rolling his eyes. While he was feeling sorry for his brother, he wasn’t sure what to think about him quite yet. Kol had always been a wild card and they had left him in a coffin for nine hundred years "I was under the impression that you were avoiding us."

Kol huffed, walking over to pour himself a drink. If he couldn't leave, the least he could do was drink his way through Niklaus' alcohol storage "It would work so much better were I not trapped in this godforsaken house, don't you think?" He leaned against the wall, narrowing his eyes on Finn "I know that you're helping mother and I know that she is trying to kill us. You never truly liked what we became, did you, Finn?"

Finn was by his side in an instant, pinning him to the wall "What do you know?"

"Oh, I know a lot, brother." Kol tried to smirk but he was sure it ended as something of a grimace. Being pinned against the wall by Finn was taking his memories back onto being cursed. He hated that it was bothering him so much being this close to his siblings but then again, there was a reason he had stayed away all those centuries. The problem wasn't that he didn't care for his family... Rather the fact that they could make him feel. Mostly it was hurt, anger but now, after being stuck in a witch's body and slowly dying at the hands of his own brother... He was scared "What would you say if I had a way to grant your wish? You could become a witch again, become human. Of course, that would mean that you would have to leave your precious Sage behind."

"Sage?"

Kol just looked at him until his throat was released and Finn stepped back "Oh yes, did you not know? I thought Elijah or Niklaus would have told you by now. Your darling Sage is still around and while I do not know where she is, I know that should you die, she dies as well." When Finn didn't respond, Kol continued "Should we die, our sirelines die with us. Did mother tell you that part? Do you really hate yourself that much that you want all vampires to die? Had nature not wanted us to exist, we wouldn't, Finn. Did you ever think about that?"

"What - What do you mean?" Finn asked, looking at Kol in confusion. He seemed so different from the boy he remembered. Then again, even the rest of their siblings seemed surprised by Kol's change in attitude if the conversation he had overheard between them was to be believed. 

"Why don't you ask mother since you seem to be so close now?" he asked "You never bothered to listen to me before. None of you did. Why should that change now?"

"Kol..."

"No," Kol shouted, throwing the glass he had been drinking from before against the far wall "I'm done with this shit. Done with this family. Make no mistake, Finn. If you help our mother, I will find a way to make you suffer. Whether we die or not. I may not hate you as much as the others but that doesn’t mean that I like being around you."

"What is going on here?" Elijah asked, entering the room.

Kol stepped away from Finn, shooting a glare at Elijah. He was pissed about being stuck here. They hadn't even let him go out to get new clothes after Elijah dragged him from the Grill like a petulant little child "Absolutely nothing," he spat, pouring himself another drink before stalking out of the room.

“What was that?” Elijah asked after Kol was gone.

Finn looked at him expressionlessly “What is it to you?” he asked, crossing his arms.

“Finn, do you know what’s the matter with Kol?”

“No,” Finn shook his head “He doesn’t talk to me either. Not that I expected him to.”

Elijah tilted his head “What do you mean?”

“You’re treating him like an errant child,” Finn pointed out “Is it such a wonder that he won’t talk to you? I’m not sure what happened these past centuries but Kol isn’t doing this for attention. He wants to leave. This doesn’t strike me as an act to get attention.”

“You don’t know Kol,” Elijah sighed, sitting down on the couch “He’s always been this way.”

Finn rolled his eyes. He was less than impressed with his ‘noble brother’ “Maybe that behaviour of yours is the problem,” he shrugged “I won’t say I know what you all turned into but I do know that Kol isn’t playing. He wants to leave and the only thing that’s stopping him is Mother’s spell. You won’t be able to keep him here if that’s what you’re planning. The moment he’ll be able to run, he’s going to be gone and I’m sure that you won’t see him again.”

“Now you’re being dramatic,” Elijah snorted “Kol is showy. It will only be a matter of time before he’ll massacre a town or a whole city.”

Finn stared at him in open disdain “If this is how you always react to him, I can’t blame him for wanting to leave. I would look to myself if I were you. Maybe it’s not Kol who’s the problem but you, Rebekah and Niklaus.”

After his conversation with Finn, Kol was lying on his bed playing with the phone Rebekah had given him when Elijah entered, throwing a garment bag at him. He looked at the suit for a moment before looking up at Elijah "And what am I supposed to be doing with this?"

"Mother plans on holding a ball tonight," Elijah told him "To celebrate the reunion of our family."

Kol blinked at him "Are you even hearing anything I've been saying? I'm not attending this stupid ball. Being stuck here with you lot is already bad enough."

"Kol," Elijah warned "I have been willing to put up with this... temper tantrum you're throwing but no more. You will be attending the ball and you will behave."

"Tantrum?" Kol demanded through gritted teeth, speeding to his brother. He didn't waste a second, throwing his older brother through the doors "You think this is what? Me trying to get you back for repeatedly stabbing me with a dagger? Wake up, Elijah. I gave you so many chances but I'm done now. The moment you remove this spell from me, I'm gone."

"What is the meaning of this?" Esther asked, surveying the scene in front of her. She had spent most of her day in her study, trying to make the last preparations for the ball when she heard the crash above her head.

Elijah got up smoothly, straightening his suit "My apologies, mother. I was just informing Kol about the ball you had planned."

"Of course you go and throw me under the bus," Kol grumbled under his breath before he turned to walk back into his room.

"Kol," Esther called out "I expect you to be there tonight and to behave yourself."

Kol snorted "I'm not going to this stupid ball. How often do I have to say it?"

"This is not a matter of discussion, Kol," Esther told him, her eyes narrowing. Why did he always have to make things so difficult? He never listened to her. Not when he was human and not now. 

"Of course not," Kol growled seeing that the rest of his siblings had joined the show "Why should any of you ever let me do anything I want? Or don't want for that matter. Tell me, Nik, is it funny to you that I'm locked in this house? That I've been locked in a coffin time and time again? Hell, maybe it's funny that Finn spent 900 years with a dagger in his chest?"

"Enough," Elijah snapped, grabbing Kol's arm "I don't know why you're acting this way but it stops now."

Kol shoved him away "Saint Elijah. You pretend that you're so much better than us but you're not." He felt his anger subside, leaving only hurt and tiredness in its wake "Why can't you all just leave me alone?"

Rebekah took a step towards him, a look of concern on her face. This was what she had been talking about the whole time. Something wasn't right with Kol. He had never acted like that before but Elijah and Klaus hadn't listened to her. They were convinced that he was merely sulking about being daggered "Kol..."

"Leave it," he snapped, the heat behind his words long gone. He was exhausted and it hadn't helped that his night had been full of dreams of the past. It was like all of his memories had been stirred and thrown around. The walls he had put up centuries ago nothing but ruins at his feet. If that wasn't a metaphor for his life, he didn't know what was.

Soft music was playing in the background as the Mikaelson siblings bar Klaus were in the living room. For the first time since the daggers had been removed no one was fighting. It might have something to do with Kol having dropped off to sleep not long before the others joined him in the room. Several people were around them, helping them with the last-minute preparations for the ball. 

Rebekah looked from the girl who was doing her nails to Kol, placing a gentle hand on his ankle “He looks so young. I haven’t seen him this peaceful in years,” she murmured, watching his face “Why do you think he is...?”

The door banged open as Klaus stormed into the room, glaring at Rebekah “You went after Elena? What’s wrong with you?”

While Klaus and Rebekah started bickering, Finn watched Kol’s reaction to the whole thing. His youngest brother had flinched awake at the loud noise the door had made and he even thought he saw some semblance of fear in Kol’s eyes for a moment before it was gone.

"Go and get changed, Kol," Elijah told his youngest brother now that he was awake "The first guests will be arriving any minute now."

Kol clenched his hands into fists "I told you a hundred times that I'm not going to this stupid ball. So you go and have fun but I'm staying up here."

Finn looked up from adjusting his bowtie and sent Kol a small smile. After his talk with Elijah, he had decided to try and be as understanding as he could. Maybe one day Kol would talk to him about what’s bothering him. Not that he was actively trying to get him to talk but he hoped it would be enough to be there "I thought you'd love the chance to wreak havoc."

"Finn," Elijah sighed "Don't encourage him. Mother doesn't want anything to go wrong tonight."

"Of course, she doesn't," Kol muttered "Which is exactly why it's a good idea for me to stay up here. Less of a chance of me making a scene. Or am I wrong?"

"Kol, I don't care what is wrong with you but I had it with your attitude," Klaus rolled his eyes as he walked into the room "You had your say now suck it up."

Kol narrowed his eyes and made to attack Klaus when Elijah stopped him with a hand on his chest "I haven't said nearly enough yet."

"Oh, spare me," Klaus groaned, moving over to the full-length mirror to check his suit.

Kol backed away, shaking his head as he sped out of the room. He moved towards the garden door and snarled when he hit the barrier harshly "Fuck this," he hissed, bashing his hand against it hard enough to hurt.

"Kol," Finn spoke up, his voice calm as he appeared behind his raging brother. He hesitated for a moment before he gently cradled Kol's face in his hands. By the time he started speaking, Kol was close to hyperventilating  "I need you to take a couple of deep breaths, alright? Just breathe nice and slowly."

It took a while for Kol to get his breathing under control but when he did, he slumped against Finn "Why me?" he breathed tiredly "Why is it always me? I just want to be left alone."

Finn sighed, running his hand over Kol's hair soothingly "I'm so sorry, Kol."

Kol pulled back reluctantly, unsure why he felt so safe with Finn of all people. He wiped at his eyes and let out a slow breath "I better go change."

"I'll see you downstairs," Finn smiled sadly as he watched his brother walk away from him. He had never been closest to Kol but maybe he should have tried sooner. He always thought it was impossible to break his youngest and wildest brother but now... Kol was so broken and none of their siblings even knew what was happening. They still dismissed him and wrote his behaviour off as a tantrum.

Chapter Text

“Are you ready?” Finn questioned when Kol came to a stop next to him.

Kol tugged at the bowtie, eyes darting around the room nervously. There were way too many people and too many old enemies around to let his guard down “Yeah,” he nodded, stiffening when Finn started leading him towards a familiar woman.

“Mayor Lockwood,” Finn nodded, moving over to the woman with a reluctant Kol by his side. He took her hand, pressing a kiss to the back “We haven’t formally met. Finn Mikaelson.” Finn glanced at Kol whose eyes were drifting over the people scattered around the room before he gently placed his hand on Kol’s back to bring him back to the situation at hand “My younger brother Kol.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Carol smiled, looking from one to the other. The similarities to Elijah were staggering and she wondered whether she would have recognised them as siblings without being told. Neither Klaus nor the girl - Rebekah - looked much like Elijah at all but these two were practically carbon copies of the other Original.

Damon held out his hand “Damon Salvatore,” he introduced himself, a small smirk on his face as he looked at Kol “Have we met?”

A small spark of mischief lit up Kol’s eyes, chasing away the haunted look he wore just a moment ago “I’ve met a lot of people and you.” Here he exaggeratedly looked Damon up and down “You don’t particularly stand out.”

Carol snorted, trying to hide it behind her glass of champagne. She looked up at Finn, seeing the small grin on the man’s face “So, excuse me for my lack of information but I do not know much about your family. Are you the oldest?”

“Apart from the obvious,” Finn nodded in acknowledgement. He didn’t mind answering questions so long they didn’t place any of his siblings in danger  “Yes, I’m the oldest. Even if Elijah mostly took on the role when it came to our siblings.” He let out a sigh “Well, most of our siblings.”

Damon watched Kol again. He felt that despite the masks, he could read the Original surprisingly well. Maybe it was because their masks were similar or because Kol allowed him to see. He wasn’t quite sure which one it was but he couldn’t help but murmur under his breath “Are you alright? After what happened at the Grill.”

Kol studied him for a moment before he nodded jerkily before turning to Finn and the mayor, his quota for small talk already met. He just wanted to get out of here “Please excuse me.”

“Kol, you know you can’t…” Finn started.

“I know,” Kol shrugged and wandered away.

Finn sighed and watched him for a moment, trying to return to his conversation. He kept glancing over his shoulder, keeping track of Kol. It was then that he caught sight of his mother on top of the staircase “I apologise for cutting our talk short.”

Carol waved him off “Don’t worry about it. It was a pleasure to meet you.”

“The pleasure was mine,” Finn smiled lightly, making his way through the crowd when he realised the Doppelgänger had finally arrived and she was alone. He stopped by her side, handing her a flute of champagne, keeping one for himself “Elena Gilbert, I presume. I’m Finn Mikaelson. You’re here to see my mother.”

Elena stared at him for a moment, seeming to be gobsmacked. Just when Finn went to speak, she glanced around “Is she here?”

“Her request did not include your friends,” Finn told her, having seen the younger Salvatore hanging off her arm earlier. Had Damon not been distracted by him and his brother, he assumed the other vampire would have been with her as well.

“They’re protecting me. You may not know but your mother’s already tried to kill me once,” Elena smiled wryly.

Finn barely refrained from rolling his eyes. Really, what did others see in the Doppelgänger? She seemed incredibly dull “If you want to see my mother, you’ll need to be alone.”

“If everyone could gather, please,” Elijah’s voice rang out over the sound of people talking.

Finn looked over to see his brother standing in the middle of the staircase with Niklaus and Rebekah a little behind him before he turned back to Elena “Excuse me.” He glanced around for Kol, seeing him on the other end of the room, trying to melt into the shadows. If he didn’t want to be on display, who was Finn to make him. Hopefully, the others would leave him be for now. He wasn’t sure just how many pushes Kol had left before he breaks completely.

“Welcome,” Elijah started, biting his tongue to stop himself from calling Kol out. He glanced over at Finn, seeing the silent warning in his eyes “Thank you for joining us.” He turned to see his mother walking down the stairs to join them “You know, whenever my mother brings our family together like this, it’s tradition for us to commence the evening with a dance. Tonight’s pick is a centuries-old waltz. So if all of you could please find yourselves a partner, please join us in the ballroom.”

“Where are you going?” Rebekah asked when she noticed Kol ready to slip up the stairs.

He let out an annoyed groan and turned to his sister “I was escaping this torture.” He glanced around in confusion “I thought you brought a date?”

“I did,” Rebekah huffed, leaning against the wall next to Kol “He’s flirting with his ex.”

“I don’t understand why you’re going through all the trouble,” Kol shook his head “I don’t understand why any of you are going through the trouble. This whole thing is utterly useless.”

Rebekah raised her eyebrow “I did bring him here to kill him,” she pointed out “I thought you would enjoy that. He’s Elena’s friend. If he dies, she suffers. But I’ve already been scolded once.”

“You want me to kill him,” Kol finished for her. He let a bitter grin creep onto his face “I’ll pass. I have no wish to get involved in any of your schemes anymore. You may forgive Niklaus for stabbing you with a dagger but I am not so quick to forgive anymore. I mean what I said, Rebekah. I’m done with you all and once I’m rid of Mother’s spell, there’s nothing holding me back from leaving all of you once and for all.”

Rebekah stared at him in shock. If she hadn’t already known that something was wrong with him, she would know now. How Elijah didn’t see, she had no idea but this wasn’t the Kol she remembered. Somewhere along the way, he had changed into this and she didn’t like it “Kol…”

“Save it,” he shook his head, turning to walk away “I don’t want to hear another lecture. Elijah is on my ass more than enough. If you so desperately want your date to die then do it yourself.” He ran a hand down his face as he tried to move through the crowds without touching anyone. The mere thought of touch made his skin crawl. Apart from Finn, none of his siblings had deemed him worthy of their touch - at least not without violence involved. Gods, how he wished that Davina was here. She had been his rock not so long ago and yet… He feared she never could be again. He had loved her but it had taken too much - too many sacrifices to get there and he wasn’t willing to go through them again. Without her, he wasn’t sure if he was even worthy of happiness. Davina had been his humanity. Without her, he was nothing. Without his magic, he was nothing but an empty shell. His life had been without a purpose for too long. At least now, he could think of a few things to change. 

Kol flinched when he felt a glass being pressed into his hand, his head snapping to the side to see Finn standing there. His older brother grimaced apologetically “It is almost time for the toast,” he murmured, making sure to keep his voice down.

“So the Doppelgänger went to see her,” Kol hummed, glaring down at the glass in his hands “Not that I doubted it. Niklaus certainly left an impression on her.”

“So much so that she wishes us all dead,” Finn agreed “What is your plan?”

Kol tilted his glass slightly, making the golden liquid slosh around “I thought that was obvious. Do not drink the champagne,” he told Finn “If the two of us don’t drink it then her spell won’t work.”

Finn frowned “How can you be so sure?”

“Because I know the ritual she is going to use,” Kol pointed out “The moment she has all of our names on the parchment, we all must drink. Otherwise, the spell is useless.”

“So if she were to only write Rebekah, Niklaus and Elijah on the parchment and the three drink…?” Finn questioned, his thoughts whirling around in his mind. He never heard of such a spell before but then again, he had missed nine hundred years. 

Kol glanced at him “They would be linked as one. None of them would be willing to die for her cause though, so we’re in luck.”

“That I’m such a good actor?” Finn smirked lightly, nudging Kol.

“That she is desperate enough not to look too closely,” Kol snorted, rolling his eyes at his oldest brother’s behaviour.

Finn’s eyes caught the Doppelgänger a bit further away “It seems that at least one of our siblings seems suspicious of our mother’s intentions.”

Kol frowned and turned to see Elijah speaking with the Gilbert girl “It would be him,” he muttered “She won’t tell him the truth. She wants to see us dead too much for that to work.” 

A hush fell on the room when Esther tapped a silver spoon against her glass “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Waiters are coming around with champagne.” Both Finn and Kol put their still full glasses onto the tray, grabbing some of the pink champagne as the waiter stopped in front of them “I invite you all to join me in raising a glass. It provides me with no greater joy than to see my family back together as one.” She looked around the people, making sure that all of her children had taken a new glass “I’d like to thank you all for being part of this spectacular evening. Cheers.”

Kol exchanged a quick look with Finn, raising his glass just enough so it looked as if he had taken a sip. He stiffened when he realised that there were too many people at his back, too many unpredictable variables. While he had been talking with Finn, he hadn’t noticed it much but once everyone started chorusing his mother’s words, he couldn’t help it “I need to get out of here,” he breathed, swallowing harshly. 

Finn glanced over just in time to see Kol’s glass splintering in his hand “Hey,” he urged, smiling at the people around them reassuringly. He placed a gentle hand on Kol’s arm and guided him to the backroom “Deep breaths, Kol. Just breathe. Everything is fine.”

“I don’t want to be here anymore, Finn,” Kol said, his voice breaking “I can’t.”

“I know,” Finn murmured, pushing Kol down in one of the chairs “I promise you, Kol, I’ll find a way to get you out of this house.”

Kol looked up at him, his eyes bordering on vacant “Why don’t they understand? I’m tired…” He shook his head and hid his face in his hands “You should go back. Mother will have noticed my… display out there and if you stay in here with me for too long, she will get suspicious.”

Finn closed his eyes for a moment, glancing down at his brother “I’m sorry, Kol.”

“Don’t be,” the younger Original mumbled “Stopping Mother is more important. Go. I’ll survive without you for a while.”

By the time someone else entered the room, Kol had his forehead and his palm pressed against the barrier. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed since Finn had left but he didn’t care much either “Come to gloat?”

“What is going on with you, Kol?” Elijah asked “First your reaction when you woke up, then your behaviour and now this?”

“Mother is trying to kill us,” Kol said instead of answering “Did you know?”

Elijah took a step back “How do you...?”

“A thousand years. She comes back after a thousand years and you actually believe she wants to be a family again?” Kol asked, watching Elijah with hard eyes “If you truly believed what she said then you’re a fool.”

“What’s her plan?”

“The girl. Nik’s Doppelgänger. Mother took her blood for a spell. Of course, that’s pretty much useless now that neither Finn nor I drank anything.”

“Finn knew?” Elijah wasn’t sure what to think anymore. He had seen his oldest brother talk to Kol more than he had in the past when they didn’t know about the daggers. 

Kol rolled his eyes and hit the barrier, ignoring the comment about Finn “I assume that her plan is part of the reason why I’m still here. Me not being here would mean that she wouldn’t be able to kill me.”

Elijah’s eyes narrowed “Excuse me. It does seem as if I have a Doppelgänger to talk to.”

“Yeah,” Kol mumbled when Elijah started making his way out of the room “Go on and leave me again. It’s what you’re good at aren’t you?”

“So that’s why your mother wanted to meet with Elena?” Damon spoke up, stepping out from the shadows.

Kol barely reacted, still staring at the place Elijah had been but a minute earlier. A wry grin crossed his face “I don’t see why everyone seems so surprised. She is a witch and most witches hate vampires.”

Damon leaned against the wall by Kol’s side “Maybe it has something to do with the fact that she created vampires in the first place,” he pointed out.

“That just makes her all the more likely to try and eradicate her ‘mistake’,” he muttered bitterly, driving his fist against the barrier.

Damon was watching him silently, brows furrowed as he took in the seemingly invisible wall that held Kol back “Is that why you haven’t left?” he asked quietly, catching the Original’s hand when it looked like he was going to break his knuckles.

“They decided it would be for the best to lock me in this house,” Kol explained, looking from Damon to his hand in confusion. Since when was the younger vampire this nice to him? It didn’t make any sense to him. He should hate Kol. After all, that’s what happened all those years ago, right? He couldn’t quite remember what he had done to make Damon hate him so much in the original timeline nor did he care.

“No wonder why you wanted to run if all of your siblings treat you the way Elijah does,” Damon snorted “It’s funny how different Elijah is all of a sudden.”

“He is the noble one,” Kol spat, rolling his eyes “All for family unless it involves Finn or me. Both Niklaus and Elijah seem to be caught in the Doppelgängers’ nets. Starting from Tatia and ending with…” He gestured to the ballroom “The newest one.”

Damon wanted to defend Elena from the harsh words but he stopped himself. Kol didn’t know Elena and he didn’t know that she was different from Katherine. 

“Kol,” Finn called out from the doorway, raising his eyebrow at his younger brother “It’s time.”

Kol pulled his hand from Damon’s grasp. He hadn’t even noticed the other vampire had been holding it still “Go,” he nodded “And remember…”

“Act as if I don’t know what happened,” Finn smiled before his face turned serious “She won’t be happy, Kol.”

“I don’t care,” Kol snorted “She can go choke on her spell for all I care.”

“She just might,” Finn smirked “Once she feels her spell fail.”

“I would ask you to record her reaction but alas, you don’t know how to work a phone yet,” Kol sighed in mock sadness “Go, Finn. I shall be alright on my own. It’s not like I can go anywhere.”

Finn raised an eyebrow and looked from him to Damon “For some reason, I do not think you will be alone, brother.”

Kol followed his gaze and must have seen something in Damon’s eyes because he smirked “You might just be right about that.”

Damon rolled his eyes, turning to Finn when the Original glared at him “I don’t mind keeping him company. He seems to be saner than your other siblings,” he offered with a wry grin “No offence.” Damon didn’t know Finn or Kol well enough to form a final opinion on them but from what he had seen, the two were far more down to earth than either Elijah or Klaus. 

Finn nodded and turned to leave the room. Once he was gone, Kol turned to frown at Damon “Why are you still here and not with your Doppelgänger? You don’t like my siblings, so why are you talking to me? What makes you so certain that I’m not like them?”

Damon shrugged “Call it a hunch but I really think that you’re different from your brothers. As to why I’m not with Elena.” His eyes darkened “She had Stefan break my neck because I wouldn’t let her meet with your mother. She didn’t listen when I tried to tell her that something was wrong.” He ran a hand through his hair “Not like she ever listens to me.” Elijah was one of the big things that he had tried to caution her about but she ignored him and just went with whatever the Original said. 

Kol studied him for a moment before he nodded. For now, he would believe him. Damon had always followed the Doppelgänger but at least he seemed to have a brain “Did you know that once my siblings and I are dead, all other vampires will die with us?” he asked, going back to staring at the open back door wistfully “Every vampire descended from my siblings and me. Either we directly turned them or they’re linked to us by a Sireline. In killing us, my mother would eradicate the entire vampire race.”

Damon froze, his entire body going stiff “What?” he choked out, trying to calm his racing thoughts enough to formulate a response. He took a step closer to Kol, practically glowering over his shoulder to where he assumed Elena was “You mean… Elena is helping your mother to kill us?”

“It is likely that she doesn’t know about that part,” Kol told him, trying not to flinch back at the look Damon had on his face as his mind flashed back to all the times Damon and he had clashed before “But I can not be certain. All I know is that Mother dosed the champagne they used for the toast and is trying to link us together with the help of your Doppelgänger’s blood.”

“That would be so like her,” Damon rubbed the bridge of his nose, filing away the panic he had seen on the Original’s face as he took a quick step away “She is too trusting.” He paused for a minute, putting the puzzle pieces together “Your mother is planning to kill you all. Only you and Finn know which means…” He smirked “You didn’t drink anything, did you? Will that spell still work?”

A mischievous smirk crossed Kol’s face “No. Hence my conversation with Finn. He is with her right now playing the ‘willing sacrifice’ she demanded him to be. Of course, she doesn’t know that I know of this. It’s her mistake for underestimating me.” He glared at the wall darkly “She should have just let me leave. But no… That would have ruined her plans.”

“Genocide seems to be a family trait, isn’t it?” Damon asked, not really thinking about his words. As soon as he finished that question, he winced, unsure what Kol would do.

“You’re talking about Niklaus and me, aren’t you?” Kol noted and let out a small sigh “I may not be on the best terms with my siblings but you have to try and see it from Niklaus’ perspective. He spent a thousand years yearning for something just out of his reach. When Katerina betrayed him… He changed. I can’t say that he had been my brother for a long time - longer than I care to admit - but… a part of me still loves them all. Despite the way they treated me.”

Damon raised his eyebrows in surprise “You defend them and yet you haven’t said a word to defend your own actions?”

Kol shrugged “I fucked up,” he mumbled, leaning against the wall tiredly “I will not stand here and make excuses for anything I did. At the time, I wasn’t well.” He looked up at the younger vampire, his gaze haunted with past and present horrors “I know better now.” Kol ran a hand down his face and fought to get back to his feet, prodding Damon towards the door “You should head back to the ball. Wouldn’t want your Doppelgänger to start missing her knight in shining armour.”

“I think you’re confusing me with my brother,” Damon grimaced “But you may be right.” He glanced down at Kol’s healed hands “Take care of yourself. Breaking your hands on invisible walls won’t make them disappear.”

“No,” Kol agreed with a huff “But at least I can take my frustrations out on something.”

“Try your siblings’ faces,” Damon grinned at him, disappearing to the sound of Kol’s amused snort.

Finn froze for a moment when he found Elijah exiting his mother’s study. They stared at each other before Elijah moved past him without another word. Finn shook his head and stepped into the room, closing the door behind him “Are we alright to speak freely?”

Esther barely looked at him, focusing more on what she was doing than him “Yes. The sage still burns.”

Finn moved to stand behind her, glancing over her shoulder as she hesitated “You’re not having second thoughts, are you?” He doubted that was the case but who knew. There had been a time where she loved them all. 

“Of course not,” Esther huffed, starting to write the names onto the parchment “It’s just Elijah. He’s so moral.”

Finn bit his tongue to keep from saying something he would regret later “You’re doing the right thing, mother,” he encouraged.

“You understand what this means, don’t you?” Esther still hadn’t looked at him more than once since he entered the room. It made something in Finn break. She really had been manipulating him from the start. Even during their human lives. A part of him had hoped that Kol had been wrong in this part of his assessment but it seemed as if he was right “This spell I’m casting tonight will bind you all together as one.”

“I understand,” Finn nodded, speaking the words he knew she wanted to hear “When it is time, I will be ready to die.”

Esther took a deep breath “Then we must complete the link.” She stood up, grabbing Finn’s hand. He froze when she placed the knife into his open palm, yanking it back as soon as his hand had closed around it. She watched dispassionately as Finn’s blood hit the parchment “Phasmatos inta grum vin callus...Amalon callagius accodam...Cosom naben dox...Callagius amalon...Gaeda callagius ceremum...Phamato descendium vinum...Phasmatos inta grum vin callus...Cosom naben dox.”

Finn watched as the blood spread from where it had dropped. It wandered upwards to Kol’s name but didn’t touch it before veering off towards Rebekah’s. A quick glance at his mother revealed that she had her eyes closed, trying to focus on the spell. His name stayed blood-free the same as Kol’s did while Elijah’s and Niklaus’ met the same fate as Rebekah’s.

Once the chanting had stopped, Esther opened her eyes to see a half-finished tree on the parchment. She dropped Finn’s hand and snatched it from the table “What?” she frowned “No. The spell should have worked. You all drank at the toast.”

The sound of a door opening caused her to whirl around. Kol was leaning against the door, smirking at his mother “Are you really surprised? I mean, did you really think that I would be stupid enough to believe anything you said after you locked me up in this house?”

Esther froze, looking up at her youngest son “Kol. What have you done?”

“What makes you think I did something?” Kol asked, doing his best to send her an innocent smile. He leaned forward, glaring at her “You know, Finn was surprisingly easy to convince once I found the right argument. Ruining your plans is just a bonus.” He glanced at his brother, lips twitching when Finn walked over to stand beside him.

“Finn?” Esther clenched her hands into fists, unsure of what to do now. She couldn’t repeat the spell. Not if Kol was aware. He would make sure not to eat or drink anything she gave him.

"You should just let me leave, but no... mass genocide was a bit more important, wasn’t it?" Kol gave her a smile that was anything but innocent "And you wonder where we got it from." Kol ducked the bowl that was magically hurled at his head and frowned at his mother “Good luck with your plans.”

Chapter Text

“What do you mean she was trying to kill us?” Klaus shouted, glaring at Kol angrily.

Finn looked over at them from where he was staring into the fire “She wanted to link us together and with a willing sacrifice, kill all of us.”

“And that willing person was you, wasn’t it, Finn?” Klaus demanded, turning his attention to his oldest brother.

“You locked me in a box for nine centuries,” Finn snapped, clenching his hands into fists “None of you cared enough to wake me up… I may have had trouble accepting what we were but you just let me to rot, Niklaus.”

Elijah shook his head “Fighting won’t tell us anything. What happened last night?”

“Your pet Doppelgänger happened,” Kol smirked darkly, crossing his arms. He was tired of this whole shit. If avoiding his siblings won’t work then he would at least annoy them as much as he possibly could “She willingly gave her blood to kill us. Whyever do you think she would do that, Niklaus?”

“You shut your mouth,” Klaus snarled at his younger brother “I’m going to kill her.”

Rebekah let out a laugh “After attacking me for trying the same thing just yesterday? Classy, Nik.”

“This isn’t helping,” Elijah sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance. He turned to Finn and Kol “You two knew what was going on. I can understand Finn. How did you know about this, Kol?”

Kol made a noise at the back of his throat “You really think that our mother would come back after a thousand years on the Other Side and do what? Reunite the family? You forget that witches and vampires don’t get along. She may have made us into what we are now but the Other Side will have been unforgiving to her. She saw everything we did.”

Finn frowned, tilting his head “How do you know so much about the Other Side?”

Kol stared at him silently, his eyes practically screaming out his pain before it disappeared in a blink of the eye “Does it matter? She’s gone now. And I for one don’t really want to know what she is planning.”

“But how do we find her?”

“We don’t,” Kol shrugged “She is most likely shielded and you don’t have a witch powerful enough to go against her anyway. Then all we’ll do is sit… stuck…” He narrowed his eyes at the others before he whirled around “Good luck with that.”

“Where do you think you’re going?” Rebekah asked, speeding to block the doorway.

Kol bared his teeth angrily “Get out of my way, Rebekah.”

The blonde shook her head “We’re in this together, Kol. You’re the one who knows the most about magic.”

“Well, then I guess you’re out of luck,” Kol shrugged, barely managing to hide the apathy he felt when Rebekah looked at him pleadingly. Once upon a time, he would have enjoyed that look on her face, the fact that she needed his help with something but he was so past that point that he just felt nothing. If there was one person who had seen him without a mask, it was Finn. Funny how the person who killed him managed to bring out that reaction in him. That hadn’t been this Finn though. This Finn was jaded but he hadn’t yet been broken by the apathy their siblings showed them both. Kol was more than bitter about the whole thing and he had long since blamed himself for not paying more attention to Finn than he did. He was his big brother and Kol hadn’t cared until he died “You’re welcome for stopping her spell, by the way.”

Finn moved through the quiet hallways of the house until he reached the door to Kol’s room. He had spent a couple of hours trying to figure out what to do next. 

After the rest of his siblings left the house, he decided that he had enough of leaving Kol to rot. It wasn’t fair to have him alone in his room, stewing after the others treated him questionable. Finn wasn’t going to forgive his siblings for what happened either. Leaving him daggered for nine hundred years was the worst experience ever. It hurt to think that his siblings hated him enough to leave him in a coffin. The only reason he was still here was because he was waiting for Sage and he wanted to make sure that Kol was alright. 

They may have had trouble and Finn had misjudged his brother just like the others did but he saw what he did wrong. He wanted to make things right with Kol. They had been the black sheep long before they were turned. Maybe his own isolation had been his fault. He just didn’t trust himself to get close to yet another sibling after what happened to Freya. Elijah had tried but Finn spent most of his time with Esther or with Mikael hunting. Mikael had given up on him eventually. While Finn wasn’t a bad hunter, he wasn’t the best either, and that had enraged Mikael the longer he took to teach his oldest son something new. He had never done anything about it - not like he had with Niklaus but the fact that he had given up on Finn altogether had hurt. 

“Kol?” Finn called quietly, knocking on the door. He hated living in the past. Kol had started teaching him how to use a phone which had been all kinds of surprising. Where Kol had learned all that, Finn didn’t know. He had tried to talk to Kol about his knowledge but his brother had skillfully avoided all questions “Can I come in?”

“Would you leave if I said ‘no’?” Kol’s voice came through the door.

Finn snorted “Not really.”

“Then yes… You can come in,” Kol sighed, his voice slightly more muffled than before.

Finn opened the door to see that Kol had buried his face in his pillow “Are you alright?”

Kol looked up at him with a small glare “I’m getting sick of being asked that. No, I’m not alright. I will be though. Once I’m as far away from here as I can be.”

Finn sighed and moved to sit on the bed by Kol’s feet “The others left. They’re trying to contact some witches to find Mother.”

“They won’t find anything,” Kol shook his head “I told them that she’s probably shielded. There’s no way she will make the same mistake twice. I messed with her plans once. Somehow I feel like that made me her target.”

“What do you mean?”

Kol shook his head “I don’t really know. It’s just a hunch. When we were human, she mostly overlooked me. I may have played a lot of pranks but in the grand scheme of things, I was unimportant. Apparently not so much anymore.”

“You’re a thorn in her side,” Finn realized.

“And I got her loyal lapdog to switch sides.” Kol blinked and looked up at Finn “No offense.”

Finn snorted “Some taken. What are we going to do now?”

Kol shrugged “Not much we can do until she shows up again. I’d rather be long gone by the time she does come back though.”

“Do you have any idea what she might do?” Finn asked curiously. Kol had a lot more insight than he would have thought possible. Not only because it’s Kol but also because he still had trouble seeing through Esther’s masks.

“I can tell you one thing. We’re not going to like whatever it is,” Kol grumbled and ran a hand through his hair “How is your search for Sage going? Did the others know anything?”

Finn grimaced “No. And if they did, they didn’t tell me. Rebekah pretty much called her a strumpet to my face and Niklaus was… Well, he was Niklaus. Not sure how much we can expect there.”

“Hm,” Kol rolled his eyes “Honestly… I never had much to do with Sage but she was alright. I don’t even have to like her to know that I will accept having her around. She makes you happy. That’s all that counts.”

“Thank you, Kol,” Finn whispered, reaching out to touch his brother’s arm “I wouldn’t have killed myself.”

Kol frowned, tilting his head “What?”

“Back then… When we first discovered the daggers,” Finn pointed out “I spent a lot of time away from you guys and Niklaus, Elijah and Rebekah thought I was up to something. They picked up on the fact that I disliked our nature and ran wild with the idea.”

Kol narrowed his eyes in thought “You snuck away to meet Sage, didn’t you?”

“I did,” Finn nodded, his lips twitching “I was about to ask her to marry me when… when Rebekah started dating this Alexander person.”

“You’ll get your chance,” Kol told him “Fuck the others. You’re allowed to have your own life. If they annoy you with the ‘Always and Forever’ bullshit they have going on then just ignore it. Elijah loves to preach it but it never has included us. They made that vow, we didn’t.”

Finn shook his head “I… I don’t think I can forgive them for what happened.”

“You don’t have to,” Kol told him softly “I love them - all of you - but I just can’t do this anymore. I don’t want to look over my shoulder every minute to see if someone is about to stab me in the back for stepping a toe out of line. I’m tired of being Klaus’ lapdog and being pulled into their schemes.”

“Then what do we do now?”

“We wait,” Kol mumbled “Not like I can do anything else. All my contacts are long gone and you wouldn’t have any. Maybe there is a chance that you can talk to the older Salvatore. Maybe he could help but I don’t know whether we can trust him…”

Damon stared at the ceiling of his bedroom with a frown. He had no idea what was going on with the Original family. The talk he had with Kol the night before was alarming if nothing else. From the moment he met Klaus and Elijah, he had been suspicious of them. And after seeing Kol’s reaction to his siblings, he felt he’d been right to be cautious. The weirdest thing was that whatever he heard about the Originals - and hadn’t that been a surprise when he remembered what Sage had told him. She had warned him to stay away from Klaus and Elijah and even told him a little about the others.

“ Hello? ”

“Sage, it’s Damon,” Damon said, blinking in surprise. He hadn’t even noticed that he dialed the number he had of his old mentor. The two stayed in touch because they had both been looking for someone and promised to help each other out if they could “I think you’re going to be interested in what is happening in Mystic Falls at the moment.”

“ I heard you found your Katherine, ” Sage told him, the tone of her voice light and exactly the way Damon remembered it “ I’m glad. You have been looking for her for a long time. ”

Damon closed his eyes for a moment and closed his eyes “Not nearly as long as you have been looking for yours.” He licked his lips “Sage, the Mikaelsons are in Mystic Falls.”

“ What? ” Sage exclaimed, her voice trembling “ Who? Elijah and Niklaus? ”

“And Rebekah, Kol and Finn.”

Sage let out a gasp “ Finn? ” she asked, swallowing back the tears “ Tell me everything, Damon. ”

And that’s what he did. He talked about Katherine coming back and about Elena and how Stefan fell in love with her. He talked about Elijah and Klaus and about the ritual that almost killed Elena. Then he talked about Elijah’s plan and how different Kol was from everything she told him.

“ That’s interesting, ” Sage frowned “ Kol was the only one of Finn’s siblings that never said anything bad about me. He didn’t care much at all but he never outright insulted me… But I don’t remember him being anything but obnoxious and mischievous. ”

“Yeah, obnoxious is the last word I’d describe him with,” Damon snorted “Sage, I don’t know what to do now. Elena gave her blood to the psychotic witch and didn’t even ask questions. She just heard that it would kill Klaus and went with it.”

Sage ran a hand through her hair and looked around the room. During her talk with Damon, she had been rushing around, trying to pack as much of her stuff as possible. It would be easy to stuff it all in the car and take off “ I don’t know what to tell you. Where did you get that information from? That killing an Original kills their entire line? ”

“Kol.”

“ Hm. Normally I would have said that he’s lying about it but I don’t think he is. It would make sense. Every vampire came from one of them. Maybe there are hundreds of thousands of vampires between an Original and a new vampire but they… ” Sage broke off “ I’ll do some research and get back to you, alright? ”

Damon nodded before he remembered that Sage couldn’t see him “Thanks, Sage. I’m sorry for dumping all of this on you. I’m sure you just want to get here and to your Finn?”

“ It’s quite fine, Damon, ” Sage laughed lightly “ I have been trying to get Finn back for nine hundred years. Another few days won’t make a difference at this point. Just… try not to give away that I’m coming to see them. ”

“Scout’s honour,” Damon told her with a smirk.

“ You were never a scout, brat, ” Sage scolded lightly “ I’ll see you soon, Damon. ”

“Be careful, Sage,” Damon whispered before he hung up, his thoughts turning back to Kol. He couldn’t imagine how hard it was to be stuck in a house with people he hated and not have the opportunity to just get out and get away for a moment. He sighed and moved off the bed with a groan “I really need a drink.”

Kol stood at his window, meeting the sun rays with his hand. He watched dispassionately as his arm started to blister and burn, trying to just feel something other than tiredness. 

He didn’t even turn when he heard a gasp behind him until he was shoved against the wall by the window, the back of his head banging against the wall with a dull thump “What the bloody hell do you think you’re going, Kol?” Rebekah demanded, tightening her grip on his shirt.

He sighed and slipped on the daylight ring he had dropped earlier “Nothing, Bekah.”

“Don’t lie to me, Kol,” Rebekah snarled, tears swimming in her eyes “This wasn’t nothing.”

Kol looked at her and her watery eyes for a moment before he rolled his eyes “Oh come off it. It's not like I could actually die from that." His tone took on a scarily sarcastic edge "Perks of being an Original."

“Doesn’t mean that you have to go and meet the sun,” Rebekah told him. 

He grimaced remembering the show that Davina had made him watch because she was amused at his reaction “Do you have to make it sound so... True Blood?”

"True Blood?" the blonde asked, a perplexed frown on her face.

“Never mind that. What are you doing here?”

Rebekah narrowed her eyes at him but let it go "I wanted to talk to you."

Kol sat down on his bed “Then talk.”

She looked at him before sitting down beside him "What is wrong Kol? You are not usually like this. This determination to leave us, how you react to us, it..." She trailed off, biting her lip "It almost seems like you are scared... of us."

Kol shot up from where he was sitting “I’m not scared.” He sneered the last word as if it had offended him “I’m just sick and tired of always being the one left behind. The one who is forgotten and stabbed whenever I do things Nik or Elijah don’t approve of. I was serious when I said I wanted nothing to do with all of you.” A part of him wondered how often he would have to repeat those words before they would take him seriously “We’re not family. Not for a long time. Maybe we never were.”

The blonde actually flinched a bit and looked down on her lap "I... I got that but I... " She cut herself off. If Rebekah was honest, she could understand where Kol was coming from. They had wanted to leave not a week before and now they are still here with Kol practically locked in the house.

“So... We talked,” Kol told her, turning back to look out of the window “Can you leave now? I want to be alone.” Without waiting for a response, he leaned against the window sill, going back to staring outside at the sun, imagining his skin prickling with burns from the gentle rays of the sun “After all, it’s not like I can run, can I?”

Rebekah sighed "For what it's worth... I'm sorry for my part in this." She gestured around them as she stood and walked to the door. Just before she reached the door she turned back to shoot him a sad smile "Just... Please, don't take off the ring again, please?"

“Have you ever heard of knocking?” Kol asked, not turning around when the door to his room opened. He didn’t even have to look to see who was standing there “Let me guess… Rebekah came running to you.”

Elijah looked at his younger brother, for the first time actually seeing him. He saw the way Kol was holding himself and had to hold back a grimace. It was their fault he felt like that “Kol… Why?”

Kol raised his eyebrow and turned to face his older brother “Why what?”

“Why do this? Rebekah is worried for you, Kol… And so am I.”

Kol snorted “Yeah, right,” he mumbled “I’m not stupid enough to believe anything you preach anymore, Elijah. I trusted you and Nik. Over and over you broke my trust and stabbed me in the back. Literally on some occasions. What do you want me to do? I can’t forgive that anymore. I’m tired of being carted around in a coffin, tired of looking over my shoulder and tired of never being good enough. You never asked me if I was alright, Elijah. I wasn’t. I really, really wasn’t alright after we were turned. But I forgave you for that because it wasn’t easy for any of us.”

Elijah stepped forward, reaching out with his hand “Brother…”

“No,” Kol shook his head, backing further against the wall “Just listen to me for once in our miserable lives, Elijah. Please. I know that you can’t stand me and I’m sorry I’m not what you want me to be. But I can’t do this. Being trapped here…”

“I…” Elijah broke off and sighed “It was wrong of us to allow Mother to do this. I’m sorry, Kol. I just wanted us to be a family again.”

“Too little, too late,” Kol told him quietly. He wasn’t trying to be cruel but Elijah had stood beside Klaus and allowed him to dagger him over and over again for too long “Even if you have seen the error of your way. I’m not trying to say that I’m innocent - far from it. But I just wished that my siblings would see that I was hurting.”

Elijah sank down on the edge of Kol’s bed and ran a hand through his hair “I never did pay you any attention, did I?”

“You felt so guilty over what happened to Klaus that you didn’t notice much outside of righting your wrongs. That and the oath you did with Rebekah and Niklaus? It never included me nor Finn. You might preach about ‘Always and Forever’ but that never meant anything to me.”

Elijah closed his eyes, listening to his brother’s words. How hadn’t he seen how serious Kol was about this whole thing? He couldn’t believe that he had been blind to his family’s suffering “If we were to lift the barrier around the house… Do you think you’d ever be able to forgive us? You and Finn… Do you think we could become a family once more?” 

Kol watched him for a long moment, studying Elijah’s expression cautiously. He hadn’t expected him to listen to anything he had to say but for once… For once it seemed as if Elijah truly understood “I can’t speak for Finn because that’s a whole other can of worms that I won’t be getting into but just… give me time. I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to trust you again. Not after everything that happened but maybe in time I can forgive…”

“That’s all that I can ask,” Elijah nodded.

Chapter Text

A couple of days had passed since Kol last saw any of his siblings apart from Finn. It seemed as if they had decided to stay out of his way for now, whether that was Elijah’s doing or not. He didn’t really believe that Niklaus would understand what his problem was but it didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered now was getting out of this house and away from everything for a while. He still had so much to do and so little time to accomplish everything he needed. Maybe some time away from this forsaken town would help him with his plans.

Kol leaned against the doorway, a small, almost nonexistent smile on his face as he watched the reunion between Sage and his oldest brother. While he wasn't sure what to think of the redhead. He didn't hate her, he never had. Not like the rest of his siblings. She was what made Finn happy and that was all that counted.

"Sage," Finn smiled, pulling back from the hug "I'm not sure if you remember Kol?"

Sage raised her eyebrows at the younger male. He looked exhausted but his eyes were glinting with the smallest spark of mischief "We met, yes. But I don't think we ever had the chance to get to know each other?"

"It's nice to meet you," Kol nodded at her "Excuse me."

Finn's shoulders dropped once Kol was gone "I'm sorry," he murmured "Kol is..."

"He's not well, is he? I remember him being a lot different," Sage looked up at him, seeing the concern in his eyes.

Finn sighed tiredly "I was... not well when I woke up and I let myself be talked into some things... among them helping my mother to bind Kol to the house."

"What does that mean exactly?" Sage raised her eyebrows.

Finn closed his eyes "I let her talk me into helping her with a spell. A spell that would link my siblings and me. What happens to one, happens to all."

"She wanted to kill you?" Sage breathed, her eyes wide "How did you...? Why?"

"Kol," Finn shrugged as if it explained everything and to him it did. He hadn’t seen Kol in nine hundred years and the younger vampire wasn’t the same person he remembered "I don't know how he knew but he stopped me. Told me you were alive... That mother was lying to me."

"And seeing as your mother pulled a disappearing act and you both were asleep for so long, you don't know anyone who can free Kol from the house," the redhead realised.

"Something like that," Finn winced "I’m sure Niklaus and Elijah have witches they could call but they won't do it. According to them, Kol is throwing a tantrum and they don't want to free him in case he goes on 'another murder spree' apparently."

Sage licked her lips "I know someone who might help. I - I think she is a descendant of one of the covens Kol ran with centuries ago. At least, she told me of him and all that he had taught them."

"Hm," Finn hummed, a small grin on his face "Kol mentioned something about that. It was the closest he had to having magic again. Teaching and being taught by witches."

"Does that mean you want me to call them?" Sage smirked, she would not pass up the chance to fuck a bit with Elijah and Klaus. "I certainly would not mind."

"I think Kol would appreciate you doing that, my love," Finn whispered, pressing a long kiss to her hair "He's been stuck in this house for close to a month and I believe he ran out of things to do."

Sage propped herself up on Finn’s bed when her phone chimed from the bedside table. She had been with Finn for a couple of days already and over that time, she had seen exactly what was going on in that house. A part of her wanted to get Finn and Kol out of the house and as far away as possible. It was toxic and she hated that the two had to go through all that. 

Kol’s mood was getting worse the longer he stayed locked up and Sage had noticed that he tried to avoid everyone as if they had the plague. He spent most of his time in his room and if he wasn’t in there, he was in the kitchen being forced to eat or fed by Finn.

“Good news?” Finn asked, opening his eyes to see Sage on her phone.

Sage hummed “The witch friend I told you about… She wrote me that she’d get here by early morning, so if things go well, Kol will be able to leave in a couple of hours.”

Finn’s face lit up “That’s good.” He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his love’s lips “What would I do without you?”

“Hm,” Sage chased his lips, capturing them again “Despair?”

“Too right,” Finn snorted, burying his face in Sage’s neck. He had missed her and had barely left her side since she showed up.

“Who’s going to tell Kol the good news?” Sage questioned, running her hand through Finn’s hair. It was shorter than it had ever been but still long enough to feel like silk through her fingers.

“I’ll tell him tomorrow when the witch is here,” Finn decided after a moment of silence “It’s too late to disturb him now and if he’s sleeping, I really don’t want to wake him up again.”

“Understandable,” Sage hummed. She returned her phone to the bedside table before looking up at Finn “You’re really worried about him, aren’t you?”

Finn sighed “I haven’t seen Kol like this ever. Not when we were human and certainly not after. He’s always been the showy one of us - and that’s saying something. I talked to Rebekah about him and she hasn’t seen him act like this before either. It’s just… I don’t know what to do, Sage. I want to help him but I don’t know how. The world has changed so much and I’m having trouble adjusting without adding Kol to the mix.”

“But you’re still going to try?” Sage asked. The words had sounded harsh but she had an idea of how Finn was feeling. Everything was so different from what he last remembered nine hundred years ago and now one of his siblings was obviously not going very well. It would overwhelm anyone.

“Of course, I’m going to try,” Finn exclaimed, looking at Sage with a hint of annoyance “He’s still my brother. We might have had our differences but he’s the only one who genuinely cared about me. He told me that you were alive and that mother was playing me. Despite what the others say, Kol is a good person. He just lost more than he gained from being turned into a vampire. At least the whole thing gave me you.” He leaned down to press a long kiss to Sage’s lips “I don’t know how I would have taken it otherwise. I remember that I wanted to die for the longest time before I met you.”

Sage swallowed. Finn had never told her how bad he had been before they met. Sure, she knew that he hadn’t been happy but wanting to die was something totally different “I’m glad I met you, Finn. These past nine hundred years without you were a pain. I missed you so much.”

“I love you,” Finn breathed, tightening his arms around her body, burying his face in Sage’s hair.

“I love you too,” she whispered, closing her eyes.

Kol stumbled through the door, the first time not being stopped by a barrier. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before moving to kneel in front of the witch on the ground "Thank you," he whispered.

"Anything for you," the witch smiled shyly, unsure how to deal with the sheer emotion in the Original's eyes. If she hadn't known how he had been centuries ago, she would have thought he was someone else. There was something about him that made her head hurt some but before she had time to think about it, Kol was gone.

She started gathering her ingredients, glad that she could help but a little disappointed as well. Kol was known as very knowledgeable when it came to magic and she had hoped to talk to him about a couple of her ideas and problems.

“What’s your name, by the way?” The witch let out a yelp and let go of the bowl she had used to break the spell. Kol reached forward to catch it “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“You just startled me,” the witch shook her head “And my name is Lucia. Lucia De Leon.”

Kol blinked “De Leon. I remember that name,” he murmured “Your ancestor was one of the first witches I took in.”

“And we’ve been with the Coven ever since,” Lucia smiled “The witches you taught passed on their knowledge to the next generation and so on.”

“And you’re doing alright?” Kol asked. He hadn’t seen any of his Coven since before he was daggered in 1914. Despite the fact that he had been working with witches, he hadn’t wanted any of his in the crossfire. That, and it was Mary Alice and Astrid who had come to him. While he knew what they wanted to do with the knowledge, he had been a bit hesitant to go through with his plan at first. Not that he didn’t want Klaus to pay for constantly putting him down but he hadn’t planned on the dagger being used on his older brother. The only reason he helped was to put down Mikael for longer than it would be in normal circumstances. The dagger would have been spelt to only be removed by certain individuals, which wouldn’t have been possible with the current silver ones. Rebekah had drawn her own conclusions after she found out and immediately snitched on him. How that ended was with a dagger in his chest. 

Lucia gave the Original a small smile when she realised that he was actually interested. Not only in the Coven but in her personally “The Coven has grown a lot in the last one hundred years since some of the other Covens decided to rid themselves of more members than they did in the last centuries.”

“Prejudice,” Kol grimaced in disgust, running a hand through his hair “I’m glad the Coven is a refuge. I always wanted it to be that.”

“It is,” Lucia nodded “I can put you in contact with the Coven elders of the States. They would have more contacts around the world.”

Kol’s eyes lit up “I would love that. Thank you… For getting me out of here and for telling me about the Coven.”

“You’re one of ours,” Lucia shrugged, sliding her notebook into her bag with the rest of the ingredients “It’s only natural. Plus, I couldn’t resist the chance to meet you when the call came in.”

“You’re very much like Maria,” Kol snorted “Far too curious for your own good. You could have been in danger. Originals and all that.”

Lucia raised her eyebrows “I am capable of defending myself. Plus, I think your brother and yourself would have something to say as well.”

“Confidence,” Kol shook his head, relaxing some more. He liked the little witch.

“Kol,” Klaus called out, storming into the house angrily. He had been out trying to get a hold of a witch. They needed to find Esther fast. Before she could fuck anything up or try to kill them again.

Finn appeared at the top of the stairs, leaning against the bannister “He’s not here.”

“What do you mean?” Rebekah asked, coming up behind Klaus.

“Sage called a witch friend of hers and she managed to break the barrier,” Finn shrugged, making his way down the stairs. He bit back a smirk at the look on his siblings’ faces “I have no idea where he went but he left.”

Klaus growled “Mother is out there. What do you think will happen with Kol up to his usual shenanigans?”

“Do you think it likely?” Elijah questioned, shaking his head. After his talk with Kol, he had pondered his younger brother more than once “Kol has changed, Niklaus.”

“He’s as dramatic as ever,” Klaus snorted, transferring his glare from Finn to Elijah.

Rebekah rolled her eyes “Says you, Nik. You’re the dramatic one.”

“I’m not dramatic, Rebekah. Just get him back, will you?” The last part was said in Finn’s direction “We have to figure out mother’s plan before something worse happens.”

“Mother is gone,” Finn told him “She’s licking her wounds. I trust that she won’t show her face so soon. Not without a new plan. She had a thousand years to cook up this scheme, she barely had a week thinking of something else. Plus, she has nothing. No money, no place to stay and no idea about this world.”

Klaus ran a hand through his hair “I wish I could trust that. Just find him and bring him back.”

Finn bit his lip “I’ll try but if he doesn’t want to come back, I won’t force him. In fact, I’ll join him.”

“You would leave?” Rebekah asked quietly. She didn’t want to lose any of her brothers. She hadn’t treated either of them well but she wanted to better herself. If they left, she wouldn’t get the chance to make it right.

“If Kol leaves, I certainly won’t stay,” Finn told them seriously “You left me in a coffin for nine hundred years. Why would I stay where I’m not wanted.” He wrapped an arm around Sage’s shoulder, pulling her outside with him.

Kol was standing in the middle of a clearing when they found him, head tilted upwards, just letting the rain beat down on him “I almost forgot how it felt,” he murmured once they were close enough. 

“How are you doing, Kol?” Finn asked, making his way over to his brother. The two had become so much closer over the past months and Finn almost ached at the pain his younger brother had gone through. Kol had told him a lot of what he had felt when they were human after they had been turned. 

“Better,” Kol nodded resolutely before he grinned at Sage, silently challenging her “So, I hear you’ve been a professional boxer before. Wanna put it to the test?”

Sage smirked at him, barely wasting a moment before she tackled the Original to the muddy ground. Kol’s laughter echoed through the clearing, causing Finn to smile as he moved to take cover under a tree. 

“Or a mud fight,” Kol relented, his eyes alight with mischief “Pity that I’m not a woman. I’m sure Finn would have enjoyed it.”

Finn choked “Kol,” he exclaimed, causing both Kol and Sage to laugh.

“Are you hungry? I’m hungry,” Sage grinned “How about we go to the Grill?”

Kol frowned. He knew the Grill from before but hadn’t been there since Elijah vervained him and his mother trapped him in Niklaus’ infernal house. He knew that he couldn’t give away too much, so he would have to act accordingly “I think I’ve been there before? They have food?” He looked down at himself before studying her “We look like we just had a mud fight.”

“Oh yeah,” Sage nodded “Damon told me their burgers are to die for.” She smirked at him “Well, that’s what just happened. If anyone cares then that’s their problem, no?”

Finn raised his eyebrow at her “You know the older Salvatore?”

“Yup,” Sage bounced on the balls of her feet “Met him in the early 1900s. Taught him all about being a vampire.”

“Does he know you’re here?” Kol asked curiously.

Sage smirked “Nope. Well, he knew that I was coming. But I haven’t actually seen him yet.”

“I like you,” Kol snorted, wrapping his arm around Sage’s shoulder “Maybe you can get Finn to be less boring.”

“Hey,” Finn huffed in amusement “I’m not boring.”

Sage patted his shoulder “Sure you’re not, love.”

Chapter Text

Damon looked up when the door to the Grill opened. He had been pretty much living here since Esther’s attempt murdering all vampires failed. Being in the Boarding House was an absolute pain. Elena was moping around, Stefan was still an asshole and he didn’t even want to think about Barbie or Witchy. His eyebrow shot up when he saw Kol and Finn with a person very familiar to him “Sage,” he greeted when they walked up to him “How are you doing? I didn’t know you were here already.” He blinked when he realised that both Kol and Sage were covered head to toe in mud “Did you… have a mud fight?”

“Yes,” Kol grinned, practically vibrating as he looked around. He still didn’t enjoy being around all these people but at least he was out of the house. Another stop before he could leave town once and for all and build himself a nice and quiet life somewhere away from all of this bullshit. He had a few things he needed to do before that but there was still time. Silas would stay asleep for another year and if he could find some members of his Coven, he could get them to call Qetsiyah. There was something he needed to know from her.

“Well, you seem to have cheered up,” Damon smiled. It was nice to see the younger of the two Originals this happy. There were still shadows hidden in his eyes but a weight seemed to have dropped off him and Damon could admit that Kol was really attractive with the way his eyes was glowing and the manic danger that radiated from him.

Finn placed a hand on Kol’s shoulder “We were looking for something to eat. Would you like to join us? Sage has told me a little of your time together and I would like to hear it from your side.”

Damon froze for a moment, his eyes a little wide “What did you tell him?” he demanded, turning to his former teacher.

Sage let out a laugh “All the stories, Damon. All the stories.”

“Oh God,” Damon mumbled, throwing back the alcohol that was still in his glass and got up to lead the others to one of the booths in the corner “If I’m about to get humiliated, I better get some good stories out of this.”

“I have some stories about Sage and how she…” Kol broke off when he saw Sage’s warning look. He sent her a teasing grin before turning back to Damon “Let’s just say I have some good stories about both of them.”

Damon smirked “I can imagine. There any stories about you as well?”

“Course not,” Kol said, leaning forward to look at Damon more intently “I’m an absolute angel.”

Finn coughed loudly “An angel? Kol, you wanted to practise sword fighting when you were five and killed one of our cattle. Father was spitting mad.”

Kol winced “I forgot about that. Thanks, Finn.”

“Sorry,” Finn mumbled, realising that maybe bringing up their father wasn’t the best idea. Not if Kol was in this good of a mood.

“Eh, he’s dead and hopefully burning in some of the deepest pits of hell,” Kol shrugged. He tried not to show it but now that mother was gone, he was scared that she would once again bring their father back. They barely managed to hold him off once and that was because Niklaus had the upper hand and the stake. If it was their parents against them, they would lose spectacularly. They had once before.

They quieted down when a young man stepped up to the table with a notepad in his hand “Welcome to the Mystic Grill. Anything I can get you?”

Sage looked up at him “I’ll take two tequilas and could you bring us a menu?”

“Sure,” the waiter nodded “Anything else? Damon?”

“Whiskey,” Damon hummed and turned to Kol “Do you want something to drink?” 

Kol chewed on his lip for a moment before he sighed “Something sweet. I don’t feel like alcohol today.”

“A coke then,” Damon said “Thanks, Matt.”

“You’re welcome,” Matt gave back. He didn’t like Damon much at all but that didn’t matter right now “I’ll be right back with those drinks and menus.”

Finn watched as the waiter walked off towards the bar “He doesn’t seem to like you much.”

“Seems to be a popular opinion around here,” Damon sighed and ran a hand through his hair “This town is going to be the death of me one day.”

“Why are you here anyway?” Sage asked “When you called and told me you were in Mystic Falls I was quite surprised since you told me about your relationship with your brother.”

Damon ran a hand through his hair “I don’t know. At first, I was here to torment Stefan and ruin his picture-perfect, bunny-eating life. Then Elena got in the way and… She looked so much like Katherine.”

Sage reached out to place her hand on Damon’s “You fell in love with her, didn’t you?”

“No. Yes. I don’t know,” Damon admitted, his voice getting more and more quiet until the only reason they could hear him was because they were vampires “It’s stupid. She is with Stefan and I really shouldn’t care… Just, I don’t understand why no one ever chooses me. Why is it always perfect Stefan?”

Kol swallowed and clenched his hands “You’re going to find people who like you for who you are. I have… Finn has and I’m pretty sure Niklaus will as well once he gets over his complexes. People can be cruel and judgemental and that sucks but there’s also those rare people out there who are going to care. You made mistakes? So what. Someone once told me that one good friend is more than enough and that most people don’t get that.”

Finn blinked at Kol, tilting his head in confusion “Who told you that?”

“A very stupid person,” Kol said with a sad grin.

“Stupid?” Sage frowned, not able to put her finger on the emotions in Kol’s voice.

Kol stared at the table “Stupid for loving a monster like me. Stupid because she believed I could be better. Stupid because I hurt her.” He left out the part of how he hurt her by dying in her arms but it didn’t matter. They would draw their own conclusions about it either way.

“Kol…” Finn broke off when the waiter, Matt, came back with their drinks and a couple of menus.

“Here you go,” Matt said, looking around the table in confusion. The mood had fully changed from before “I assumed you don’t need one, Damon.”

Damon swallowed violently and tried to shake off Kol’s words “It’s okay. Thanks, Matt.”

“You’re welcome. I’ll be back in a few minutes to take your order,” Matt nodded before leaving them to their own devices.

“You’re not a monster, Kol,” Finn spoke up, his hand resting on the closed menu.

Kol snorted “Don’t be a hypocrite, Finn. You were trying to kill us all because you thought we were monsters. I killed so many people over the years. I don’t just believe that I’m a monster, I know I am one. It’s not a bad thing. That’s who we are. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t suck.”

“When did you learn slang?” Damon asked in surprise.

“I was locked in a house for ages. I googled,” Kol deadpanned and picked up the menu. He wasn’t very hungry but he had never tried the food here. And in general, he had very little of the modern foods before. When he was possessing Caleb, he had more important things to do than to try out foods and before his death, he had preferred not to eat human food and just drank blood or alcohol. 

Damon leaned over “If you haven’t had any of these before, you should try a classic. I’d go for a cheeseburger.”

“I was gonna recommend the same thing,” Sage nodded “Neither of you had one of those before, did you? Kol?”

Kol frowned “I don’t think so. There were burgers when I was last awake but Elijah was always too stuck up to eat something like that back then and New Orleans was famous for other foods.”

“Cheeseburgers it is then,” Damon grinned and let his eyes wander over the menu “I might go for a bacon burger actually.”

Sage looked at the menu with interest “Ooh. Bacon. But I think I’ll go for the sweet chilli burger. Think we should get fries to share?”

Damon hummed “And onion rings.” He looked at Kol “How have you never tried that stuff? It’s amazing.”

“I had fries before, I think,” Kol shrugged, wondering the same thing. He had loved his life before but now he was seriously wondering whether it had been worth it. While he had seen the world, he hadn’t been interested in the art like Niklaus or the literature like Elijah. He had mostly enjoyed spending time with people of different cultures and had been trying to find witches wherever he went to learn more about magic “But I was never too interested in trying human food.”

Sage shook her head in amusement “You’re missing out, Kol. You both are.” She looked up when Matt came back and ordered the food they had decided on “What’s the plan now anyway?”

“How do you mean?” Finn frowned, looking at his lover curiously.

“Well, now that Kol is no longer tied to the house, are you going to leave?” she questioned, meeting the younger Original’s eyes. 

Kol ran his fingers over the rim of the glass and shrugged “I’m not staying here in any case. I’ll go back to the house to grab some of the clothes Elijah gave me and then I’ll leave. Find the Alpha Coven and stay with them for a while.”

“Alpha… Coven?” Damon repeated.

“Kol is known to run with witches,” Sage explained to Damon “The witch who helped break him out of the house was one of his. The Alpha Coven is known all over the world by this time.”

Damon blinked “Bonnie never talked about it.”

“That’s because none of Ayana’s descendants do. I made sure that they were going to stay out of the loop. Same with the other prejudiced witches around,” Kol grumbled “The Coven is supposed to be a sanctuary. Not just for witches but also for new vampires and werewolves who are looking for packs.”

“There’s something like that?” Damon gaped “How long has it been around?”

“Since the late 1600s,” Kol shrugged “I’m not sure when they spread since the others threw me into a coffin around that time because I was drawing too much attention. As if they would have cared if Mikael had found me. They weren’t nearby anyway.”

Finn ran a hand through his hair “I’m not sure what’s worse,” he started “Laying in a coffin for nine centuries or waking up and being put back down.”

“They kept me like a dog on a leash,” Kol told him “At least that’s what it felt like sometimes. Whenever I did something wrong, I was put back down. Don’t you just love hearing about Rebekah’s woes of being put in a coffin once? Once since Niklaus got them. I don’t even remember how often they made a spectacle out of me by sticking a knife into my chest.”

Damon nudged him lightly “At least you’re here now. I might not be able to protect you but I can help you torment your siblings if you help me with mine.”

A small smile crossed Kol’s face, though it once again didn’t reach his eyes “Deal.”

Welcome to New Orleans

The sign seemed to mock him as Kol slowed down. He hadn’t been here in a hundred years and he wasn’t sure whether it had been a good idea coming back.

After he had been freed from the house, he had left. He knew that he needed some time on his own to get used to the situation he found himself in. Even after months of being in the past, it was all so weird. He had already changed a lot within the first couple of days but that didn’t matter. The old timeline had utterly gone to hell. Maybe he should warn his brother about getting the little wolf pregnant but he wasn’t sure about that yet. It wasn’t his priority at the moment. First, he needed to figure out what to do about his mother and then he would go and kill Silas. Without them, he would need to start figuring out what to do about Marcel and the Harvest but he probably could set his Coven on the New Orleans witches and stop them. 

“Soon, Marcellus,” he whispered as he saw their former home in the distance. He didn’t want to hurt him or anything but maybe Kol could reach out to him and make peace without Niklaus and his high and mighty behaviour. New Orleans had been his home, more so than Mystic Falls. It didn’t mean that he wanted to stay here but his siblings might want to come back. 

He was about to leave the city when his phone started ringing “Finn, is everything alright?”

“Can’t I call my brother to see how he is doing?” Finn shot back, his voice clearly showing his amusement.

Kol snorted “I assume the others found the letter and came to harass you?”

“They did,” Sage’s voice sounded through the phone, causing Finn to huff “How they found us, I don’t know. We have been staying in McKinley for the past couple of weeks.”

“Sadly, they have contact which is why I’m going to keep moving for now,” Kol sighed and leaned back against the wall of the house behind him “I’ll keep you updated, alright? I just need a bit of time to get my head on straight.”

Finn made a noise at the back of his throat “You don’t owe them anything, Kol. Neither of us do.”

“We might not but Mother is still out there and she won’t stop until she either dies or manages to kill us,” Kol explained patiently. He didn’t like it much either but the scene from before his death was still on his mind. They had cared for him, a bit late admittedly but they had been there. Maybe he would give them one more chance but it was something to decide another time.

“We’ll figure something out about this,” Finn told him “You don’t have to do this alone, Kol.”

“I know, I…” Kol broke off with a scream, clutching at his head.

“Kol?” Finn shouted “Kol? Talk to me.”

Kol fell to his knees, still groaning at the pain in his head. He looked up when he heard footsteps coming closer “Hello, boy.”

Chapter Text

“ Hello, boy .” Finn heard just before the call cut off. He stared at the device in his hands in horror. That was their father’s voice. Niklaus had promised them that Mikael wouldn’t bother them anymore, that he was dead. How was it that it was he who had caught Kol now?

“Finn?” Sage asked, having heard her mate shouting from where she had been babysitting his siblings who had refused to leave their house “What happened?”

Finn sank down on their bed, his head in his hands “Mikael,” he said roughly “I don’t know how but Mikael has Kol.”

There was a crash from downstairs before Niklaus stood in front of his oldest brother “What do you mean ‘Mikael’?”

“I thought you killed him,” Finn snapped, glaring at the Hybrid angrily.

“I did,” Klaus snapped “He burst into flames in front of me. The bastard is dead.”

Finn’s shoulders dropped “I heard him. Before the call cut off.”

“Try calling Kol again,” Elijah ordered, stepping into the room.

Finn picked up his phone, dialing his youngest brother’s number. He frowned when a robotic voice told him that the person he called was unavailable “Nothing,” he shook his head.

“Damnit,” Klaus cursed, running a hand through his hair “This has mother written all over it. How else would he be back? How the hell are we supposed to fight both of them? Mother on her own is already bad enough.”

Elijah straightened his suit, looking deep in thought “I don’t know. There is nothing we can do at the moment. Kol has the help of witches to keep him hidden. We wouldn’t be able to find him. The only thing we can do now is…”

“Witches,” Finn exclaimed, turning to Sage “Do you think…?”

Sage’s eyes widened “I’ll take care of it. You think of a plan.” With those words, she was out of the room.

“What are we going to do?” Rebekah asked quietly, finally stepping into the room “Where did Sage go?”

“Kol’s Coven.”

“You think they will be willing to help us?” Elijah questioned “Where was Kol headed, do you know?”

Finn ran a hand through his hair “He was on his way to Mexico, I think. Last time we spoke he was on his way out of Tallahassee heading towards New Orleans.”

“New Orleans,” Klaus repeated “You don’t think…”

“We have spent years there and Kol seemed happy back then,” Elijah continued “Maybe Mother expected him to go there?”

Rebekah looked between her brothers “We’re going back to New Orleans?”

“I don’t know,” Elijah shook his head. All of them had fond memories of New Orleans that had gotten overshadowed by their grief.

Finn raised his eyebrows “What happened in New Orleans?”

Elijah met his eyes “It’s a long story and it did not end well for any of us.”

“Let me guess,” Finn snorted sarcastically “It ended with Kol in a coffin?”

Elijah grimaced before jumping into the story of Christmas in 1914.

Kol was standing on the staircase between Elijah and Klaus at his brothers’ holiday party was in full swing. He looked around for his companion for the evening. When he first met her, he barely believed his eyes. Even though he had never met her, he recognized her on sight. Not only did she feel familiar, she looked like Rebekah with more of their father thrown in. 

When he finally spotted her, he was about to walk forward when he saw Rebekah walking up to her “You’re here with my brother,” Rebekah started “A word of advice? A witch as lovely as you has no business dating Kol.”

Freya grimaced at the thought “Oh, it’s not a date.”

“You can do better,” Rebekah told her, touching her arm gently. She turned to walk up the stairs towards him, joining them in posing for a family picture. 

Freya looked after Rebekah before her eyes met Kol’s who nodded at her. She had a feeling that he knew more than he let on. It would be something to talk to him about later. Out of all their siblings he seemed like the one who was the most aware of magic. Maybe she could use that to her advantage.

After the photo was taken, Klaus tapped his glass with a knife to get the party’s attention “As you know, when the Mikaelsons arrived in Louisiana, we brought with us the tradition of holiday bonfire season. Now, we invite you chosen few to join us in our family’s tradition of writing wishes for each other and burning them for luck. The holidays are a time for celebrating family and friends.” He looked over at Marcel before glancing up at Kol.

Kol froze at the look in Niklaus’ eyes. He knew what was going to happen. Rebekah had told Niklaus everything he had told her as he knew she would. No matter what, it was always Nik… Never him. It had been a calculated risk, telling Rebekah that the dagger he was trying to make was for Niklaus instead of what he had truly intended to use the dagger for. Served him right for wishing to test that his trust in his sister wasn’t misplaced.

“It is especially gratifying in time when treachery runs deep,” Klaus continued “To know you have someone you can trust. A toast, to you, my sister.”

Rebekah smiled up at Klaus who returned it as the crowd chorused “To Rebekah.”

Kol backed away, shaking his head in disbelief. He caught Freya’s eyes again, mouthing a quick ‘sorry’ before he headed up the stairs to get away from his siblings. Before he could make it to the top, Elijah sped after him, blocking Kol’s path. When Kol turned around, he flinched at Klaus who was inches from his face. 

Elijah grabbed him from behind, pulling his jacket off as Klaus once again turned to speak to the crowd “Ladies and gentlemen, I apologize for the disturbance. But, what’s a Mikaelson party without a little squabble?” He smirked at Kol before pulling out the dagger, stabbing it into Kol’s heart.

Finn snorted at the retelling. He wasn’t sure what Kol was thinking exactly when it came to the dagger but something told him that there was more to the story. It didn’t fit with what Kol told him “Typical. It’s always the three of you against the world. There is no space for us, is there?”

“That’s not true,” Rebekah insisted.

“Oh yeah? Your behaviour towards Kol and myself would say otherwise. I’m not an idiot nor do I forgive you for what you’ve done to either of us,” Finn told them “The only reason you’re still here is because Kol is in the hands of our parents and you’re going to help get him back. I don’t care how or why but if you even think of disappearing, then you have been my siblings for the longest time.”

Marcel had been alerted to a strange vampire in the Quarter about two hours ago and had been about to go check it out when he heard a voice he never wanted to hear again. Instead of charging in, he held up his hand, stopping his entourage from moving around the corner “Don’t.”

“What is…”

“Shh,” Marcel breathed as quietly as he could “Do not make a sound if you can help it.”

Thierry exchanged a look with Diego. He had never seen Marcel acting the way he was now. He seemed almost scared of whatever was around the corner. Instead of making their presence known, Marcel inched forward to peak around the corner with Thierry and Diego following suit. 

In the middle of the deserted street were three people. One man was lying on the ground with an obviously broken neck, while another was about to haul him over his shoulder. The two men were being supervised by a woman with blonde hair.

“Grab him and follow me,” the woman said haughtily, turning on her heel to lead the way.

“Shit,” Marcel hissed under his breath, ducking back into hiding after snapping a quick picture with his phone “This is bad.”

Once they were gone, Diego straightened, raising an eyebrow at Marcel “Who were they?”

Marcel ran a hand over his face “I only really know two. Mikael - the Original Vampire Hunter and Kol Mikaelson.”

“You mean…”

“The Original family has returned to New Orleans and I’m not looking forward to the chaos they will bring,” Marcel groaned.

Thierry looked thoughtful. He had been around since shortly after the Mikaelsons abandoned New Orleans and had been trusted by Marcel with his story “Who was the woman?”

“If I had to guess I would have said she is the Original Witch. Esther Mikaelson.”

“This is bad,” Thierry mumbled “What do we do now?”

Marcel grimaced “As much as I’d like to avoid it, I think we should contact Klaus. Whatever is happening here, this is their mess and I honestly don’t want to deal with any of this. We have enough trouble with the Witches and the Wolves.”

A good hour later, Marcel was back at the Abbatoir, pacing in his study. By then, he had gotten word from multiple people all over New Orleans and what he had heard was bad. 

He chewed on his lip. On one hand, he was still hurt by Klaus and the others abandoning him after the whole Mikael situation but if what he was being told by his spies in the witches Esther had assembled around herself was true, then he could get over himself. He didn’t have the best memories of Kol but he did remember the wild Mikaelson being someone he could have come to respect. He wasn’t overbearing like Klaus and Elijah. Sure, Kol had gone about it in completely the wrong way but after a hundred years as a vampire, he could see where Kol had come from. Slightly.

Closing his eyes, Marcel let out a sigh before grabbing his phone, hoping that he was not going to regret this. Oh, who was he kidding? This was totally going to come back to bite him in the ass.

Despite his mixed feelings, he typed in the number he had been given and never used before. Without thinking much more about the issue, he pulled up the image he had taken earlier, quickly typing out a message “ Clean up your own mess. I’m not going to do it for you… Not again .”

“I’m only doing this because I don’t want Esther and Mikael to be in town. Anything they’re planning with Kol can’t be good,” he told himself, sinking into his couch.