Klaus had experienced quite an eventful morning since renewing his connection with the city he had helped create centuries ago and once ruled as king, indulging in its pleasures until his abrupt and untimely departure, forced by his father's hand.
He found quite a surprise, as well as hidden discomfort, in discovering that his late protégé, Marcel, was still alive and even ruling over New Orleans. The city that was rightfully his! as if he were the owner of the place instead of HE himself, having many followers and loyalties to what he made of the place, while having a smug actitude of showing off and dismissing his presence as if they had forgotten that HE was the hybrid, the man everyone in the supernatural world should quake at the mention of his name.
Yes...The surprises kept piling up, as it seemed there was more to his visit than just hunting down the witches plotting against him, as Katerina had informed him.
After presenciating the damn little expectacle of force of Marcellus with the witch Jane-Anne Deveraux and without getting information of any kind of what he needed thanks to the unilaterall courtesy of this new pumped up ego Marcel who ignored his word that he wanted to speak with her, he decided to look for other Deveraux witches to find Katerina reason of sending him back to this city.
It didn't take long before he found himself in a bustling French Quarter bar. The wooden floor creaked under his feet as he weaved through the patrons, his eyes locking onto a woman in the kitchen. Sophie Deveraux. She spotted him just as quickly.
"You're Klaus," Sophie said, her voice barely audible over the din.
Klaus offered a slight smile. "I am. And you're upset. Sophie, isn't it? I assume this has to do with what I just witnessed involving your sister."
Sophie's breath hitched at the mention of her sister. "Did you enjoy the show?"
"It was a touch melodramatic for my tastes," Klaus replied, his smile widening with a hint of sadistic humor before turning more serious. "What did your sister want with me? Why did Marcel kill her?"
Sophie's eyes flicked past Klaus to a pair of vampires seated farther back. "I see you brought friends."
Klaus raised an eyebrow, glancing back at them. "They're not with me."
"They're with Marcel, and that's all that matters," Sophie emphasized. "I know you built this town, but this is his town now. He killed my sister because she broke the rules. If I talk to you in front of them, I'm next."
Klaus felt a growing discomfort at being questioned and dismissed under Marcel's rule. Controlling his irritation, he smiled widely at Sophie before turning away and joining the two men at the bar.
"Are you two gentlemen following me?" Klaus asked, his voice laced with false friendliness as he grabbed them both by their necks like little chickens.
The vampires stiffened, one of them quickly speaking up. "Marcel said we're your guides."
"Oh, he did, did he?" Klaus's voice was low and threatening. "Well, then, let me be exceedingly clear about something. If either of you follows me again, you'll do so without the benefit of a spine."
As Klaus delivered his threat, the bar waitress, Camille, approached them, sensing the tension. "Sorry for the wait. If you're here for the gumbo, I'm about to break your heart. We just ran out."
Klaus turned to the pretty blonde, his expression smoothing out. He placed a large bill on the counter. "Your oldest scotch for my two friends here, love."
Camille took the money, offering a small smile before leaving quickly. Klaus looked back at the two vampires. "Marcel wants to know what I'm up to? He can ask me himself." With that, he left the bar.
Sophie sighed, watching Klaus go. She hadn't managed yet to rope him into their plan against Marcel. She slipped out the back for some fresh air, her emotions in turmoil after discussing her sister. Suddenly, the vampires from the bar appeared, flanking her.
"The doors work, you know," Sophie said, annoyed.
"You doing magic?" one vampire asked, eyeing her warily.
"I'm praying to my dead sister. Go ahead. Pay your respects," Sophie snapped.
The vampire's expression darkened. "Don't make this a thing, Sophie. The hybrid was looking for Jane-Anne, and Marcel wants to know why."
"Oh, that sounds like witch business. I'd say ask her yourself, but I guess you can't, seeing as how Marcel killed her," Sophie retorted, her voice laced with disdain.
The vampires bared their fangs at her disrespect, but before they could strike, one vanished, leaving only a heart in its place. The other was soon flung against a wall, a stake impaling his chest. Elijah appeared, cleaning his hands with a handkerchief.
"I'm Elijah. You've heard of me?" he asked Sophie.
She looked at him, stuttering slightly at his brutal entrance. "Yes..."
"So, why don't you tell me what business your family has with my brother?" Elijah asked, his voice smooth but commanding.
...
A while later, the Mikaelson brothers reunited once again in the French Quarter.
"Evening, Elijah," Klaus greeted, his voice laced with a hint of irritation. "What an entirely unwelcome surprise."
"Niklaus," Elijah responded, his hand casually tucked into his suit pocket, his tone measured. "And what an entirely unsurprising welcome. After you left for our sister's house, I became worried that something might have befallen you, as you didn't return. I thought perhaps Silas had appeared again to torment you."
Klaus offered a smirk, his eyes glinting with a mixture of amusement and annoyance. "Indeed, I paid our dear sister a visit and learned quite a few interesting things."
Elijah's eyebrows flickered slightly, a sign of his discomfort. "I must admit that I, too, have learned of these revelations, and while they were indeed surprising, some I wish I could unlearn."
"Then, seeing as you are here," Klaus continued, "you may already know that the lovely Katerina sent me here with a warning that the witches are plotting against me. And don't mistake me, brother, I appreciate that you've come to assist me instead of staying back with Katerina."
"I could see that you were becoming... attached to her as of late."
Elijah's expression remained stoic, but his eyebrows twitched slightly at the mention of Katerina. "My thing with Katerina didn't work out as planned..."
Klaus paused, a mocking smile playing on his lips. "Oh, dear brother, I'm sorry to hear that your little tryst with Katerina didn't quite go as planned. But I assume you're not here to discuss that."
Elijah's gaze sharpened, his voice steady, but his eyes denoted his happy and joyful mood. "Indeed, I am not. Come with me, brother."
Klaus hesitated for a moment. "I still have a matter to attend to here," Klaus said, his voice echoing slightly in the quiet night. "I can't return to Mystic Falls just yet. I need to uncover who's conspiring against me. And there are... other interests that may keep me here longer than I initially intended."
Elijah cast a sidelong glance at his brother, a small smile playing on his lips—a rare sight. "Well, brother, I'm not here to drag you back to Mystic Falls. I believe I may have discovered why Katerina sent you here and who is conspiring against you."
With that, Klaus looked at him and followed his brother as Elijah took him into the local cemetery.
Klaus followed Elijah through the cemetery, his curiosity piqued. They entered a crypt where Sophie Deveraux was waiting.
"Sophie Deveraux," Klaus acknowledged, looking at Elijah questioningly.
"He's all yours. Proceed," Elijah said to Sophie.
She took a deep breath before speaking. "You know you're famous in this town? Witches tell bedtime stories about the powerful vampire Klaus. We know Marcel was nothing but an orphaned street rat until you made him what he is. And now he's out of control. He does what he wants, kills whom he wants. I'm going to stop him, and you're going to help me."
Klaus listened half-heartedly, his impatience growing. "This is why you brought me here?" he asked Elijah.
"Hear her out," Elijah insisted.
"I don't need to hear her out." He laughs in ridicule. "I assure you, love, there is not a thing on this earth that will matter enough for me to waste even 30 more seconds of my time."
"Elijah, what madness is this?"
Before Klaus could protest further, Hayley entered the crypt, her eyes serious and soft. "Klaus… You need to listen to them."
Klaus looked shocked and confused at her sudden, abrupt appearance in the place more than anything else. When he started laughing in disbelief. "You're all out of your minds if you think some liquor-fueled one-night stand... No offense, sweetheart... Means a thing to me."
Sophie, seeing it was time, stepped forward. "Marcel may be able to keep us from practicing real magic in this town, but as keepers of the balance, we still know when nature has cooked up something new. For example, I have a special gift of sensing when a girl is pregnant."
"What?" Klaus's smile disappeared from his face as more striking emotions began to appear behind his eyes.
"I know. It's impossible," Hayley spoke with seriousness.
"What are you saying?"
Elijah smiled softly with joy. "Niklaus, the girl is carrying your child."
"No. It's impossible." Klaus quickly denied them, not believing it. "Vampires cannot procreate."
"But werewolves can," Sophie offered insight. "Magic made you a vampire, but you were born a werewolf, and you're the original hybrid, the first of your kind. This pregnancy is one of nature's loopholes."
Klaus, instead, growled at Hayley. "You've been with someone else. Admit it!"
"Hey, I spent days held captive in a freakin' alligator bayou because they think that I'm carrying some magical miracle baby. Don't you think I would've fessed up if it wasn't yours?"
Sophie pressed, trying to take hold of the situation. "My sister gave her life to perform the spell needed to confirm this pregnancy. Because of Jane-Anne's sacrifice, the lives of this girl and her baby are now controlled by us. If you don't help us take down Marcel, so help me, Hayley won't live long enough to see her first maternity dress."
Klaus, Hayley, and Elijah were surprised at her words.
Hayley, terrified, reacted strongly. "Wait, what?"
Elijah was worried at her threatening words against the child. "Enough of this. If you want Marcel dead, he's dead. I'll do it myself."
"No. We can't. Not yet. We have a clear plan that we need to follow, and there are rules." Sophie, seeing the situation becoming stable and going their way, interrupted them.
Klaus, meanwhile, was having an internal crisis, feeling despised that everyone thought they could push him around as they pleased since he appeared in New Orleans. "How dare you command me? Threaten me with what you wrongfully perceive to be my weaknesses? I won't hear any more lies."
"Niklaus, listen," Elijah tried to calm him down.
Klaus sighed as he focused, and they heard the baby's heartbeat coming from Hayley's belly.
Klaus's emotions were going haywire, wanting to just run away from there. "Kill her and the baby. What do I care?"
He left, and soon Elijah came after him.
"Niklaus."
"It's a trick, Elijah."
"No, brother. It's a gift. Don't you see it? It's your chance... It's our chance."
"To what?"
"To start over. Take back everything we lost. Everything that was taken from us. Niklaus, our own parents came to despise us. Our family was ruined, we were ruined, and since then, all that you have ever wanted, all that we have ever wanted, was a family."
"I will not be manipulated."
"So, they're manipulating you. So what? With them, this girl and her child.... your child... live."
"I'm gonna kill every last one of them."
"And then what? Then you return to Mystic Falls to resume your life as the hated one, as the evil hybrid? Is it so important to you that people quake with fear at the sound of your name?"
"People quake with fear because I have the power to make them afraid. What will this child offer me? Will it guarantee me power?"
"Family is power, Niklaus. Love, loyalty. It's power. This is what we swore to one another a thousand years ago, before life tore away what little humanity you had left, before ego, before anger, before paranoia created this person before me... Someone I can barely even recognize as my own brother. This is us. The Original family. We remain together, always and forever. I am asking you to stay here. I will help you, and I will stand by you. I will be your brother. We will build a home here together. So, save this girl, save your child."
Klaus paused, his voice hoarse as he spoke a final denial. "No." With that, he left, his internal struggle tearing at him as he fled from the responsibility and the chance at redemption that Elijah offered.
Elijah sighs as he gazes at the empty seat where his brother had been just moments ago. He retrieves his phone from his suit pocket, scrolls through his contacts, and calls his sister.
"Elijah?" Rebekah's voice echoes through the line.
"I found Niklaus in New Orleans."
"Pity," Rebekah replies, her voice laced with disdain. "I suppose I gave the French Quarter witches too much credit. I was hoping they'd found a way to rid us of him once and for all."
"Rebekah," Elijah chides, "in the name of our family, try to temper your expectations of misfortune befalling our brother."
"What family, Elijah? We're three distrustful acquaintances who share a bloodline. I, for one, was hoping they'd found a way to make that traitorous bastard rot."
Elijah massages his temples, feeling a headache coming on from listening to his sister's vitriol. "Rebekah, please be reasonable. You know Niklaus and why he is the way he is."
Rebekah bristles at her brother's words. "So, that excuses his behavior towards us, his family, all these years? Nobody ever could put him in his place; that's why he is like he is. The great hybrid."
"No, you're right," Elijah concedes. "But he is still our brother, Rebekah. Always and forever, we promised each other."
Rebekah scoffs but remains silent.
"I've discovered why Katerina sent Niklaus there," Elijah continues. "This is the key we've hoped for all our lives, sister. This time, Niklaus will change for the better."
"This is a chance for us to be a happy family again. To go back to those times when the time we shared was meaningful and alive."
Rebekah says, her voice tinged with a mix of anger, envy, and shock. "So it's true, the werewolf girl is carrying his child."
Elijah pauses, his voice laced with doubt. "Wait... did you know about the child, Rebekah?"
"Katherine told me from the start... after I made her tell me. I was worried about him, yes, even if I'm angry at him. After all, as you said, always and forever."
"Katerina..." Elijah murmurs. "Then you already know the importance of this."
"I'm not sure our brother shares your thoughts, Elijah. What is he doing now?" Rebekah sneers.
Elijah sighs. "You're right. Given a chance at happiness, Klaus runs in the opposite direction."
"Then let him run," Rebekah retorts. "That child, if it's even his, is better off without him."
"He's not better off without that child, Rebekah, and neither are we," Elijah insists.
"Darling, kind Elijah," Rebekah mocks. "Our brother rarely brings us anything but pain. At what point in your immortal life will you stop searching for his redemption?"
"I'll stop searching for his redemption when I believe there is none left to be found," Elijah states resolutely.
Rebekah hangs up the phone and turns to Katherine, who has been lurking and listening.
"So the child is real after all," Katherine says, leaning against the wall facing Rebekah.
"It seems so. Elijah was sure of it."
"What now?" Katherine asks, her eyes gleaming with interest.
Rebekah raises an eyebrow, then turns and walks into the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of wine for herself. Seeing this, Katherine picks up two glasses and joins her at the table.
"Nothing. I will not go to New Orleans. There is nothing for me there."
"Are you sure about that, Rebekah?" Katherine asks, taking a sip of her wine. "It is your niece or nephew, the child that wolf girl is carrying."
"Potential niece or nephew," Rebekah corrects. "And even then, the father of the child doesn't care. Why should I?"
"Here I still have a chance," Rebekah says with firm and hopeful eyes.
"A chance of what?"
"To be human! to get my dreams."
"What? Do you want to experience graduation and go to college like a human? That's what you mean?"
"No, I mean the cure."
"There is no more cure, I destroyed it."
"There is one, the one Joe mentioned to Silas." Rebekah's eyes gleamed. "I'm gonna take that when he gets hold of it."
"Stop dreaming, Rebekah," Katherine smiled with disdain. "Klaus couldn't do anything against Silas, and you expect to rob him of the cure?"
"Contrary to Klaus, I have Joe; he can help me." Rebekah said hopefully. "Are you gonna help me, Joe?"
"....."
"...."
"..." Silence.
"There you have it, he isn't going to help you take the cure." Katherine chuckled, amused. "He destroyed the cure so it couldn't exist, and you expect him to help you get hold of this one so you can take it?"
"Joe! I want the cure, do you hear me?" Rebekah yelled angrily. "I will not let you fuck me again if you don't help me get the damn cure!"
"...."
Silence.
"Finally, you've said something reasonable, Rebekah. That's a good idea, so you can stop hogging Joe all the time. I want to be pampered by him too." Katherine's eyes shone with desire.
Rebekah's veins bulged, as if she were about to pop one. "Bitch!" She angrily vamp-sped beside her and pulled her hair. "I will not let you have him, do you hear me, slut? Don't even think about it."
"Aaaahhh!!!-aaaah!" Katherine screamed in pain. "Slut, you were the one talking big about stopping fucking with him, why are you angry now?"
"Shut up!!! Don't even think about it!" Rebekah yelled back as she kept pulling Katherine's hair.
Joe sighed as soon as he materialized before them. "Rebekah, stop pulling Katherine's hair. Let's talk about it."
"Quickly, stop pulling my hair, it hurts dammit!" Katherine yelled angrily.
"Mhmp." Rebekah harrumphed as she stopped pulling Katherine's hair. "That will teach you not to talk too much, bitch."
"You damn slut! You were the one saying it."
Rebekah looked away. "Are you going to help me to get the cure, Joe? Yes or no." She asked, looking at him with expectant eyes.
"I will not..." Joe wrily smiled.
"WHY! Why don't you want to help me have it?" Rebekah became hysterical. "Haven't I been good to you? I considered you my closest person by now, even in this short time we shared. Why are you like that with me, Joe?"
"Why?" Rebekah started to have a breakdown, tears pulling at the corners of her eyes. "I need to know, Joe."
Katherine, seeing the extreme reaction of Rebekah, was a little surprised and chose to be silent instead of speaking. She opted to take her glass of wine and sip quietly.
Joe looked at Rebekah, experiencing an illusory headache. "I can't help you have it, Rebekah. The cure isn't what you think it is."
Rebekah stopped midway as she was about to start sobbing, choking on hearing his words. Katherine also looked at him in surprise.
"What does that mean?" Rebekah asked him doubtfully.
"The cure will not only bring your humanity back. It will kill you too."
"Huh?" The girls were dumbfounded at his answer.
"Well, not exactly kill you straight away. Let's say you take the cure. You become a weak human; the enemies that you or your family made throughout your long life will kill you easily. You will not have time to enjoy your humanity."
"Who will protect you? Your brothers? Can they be with you all the time if they even say yes?"
Rebekah was speechless, hearing him. He was... right about those things...
"Me? Yes, I'm bound to you both, and I would definitely protect you, but there will be a time when I wouldn't be able to do so..."
"What do you mean?" This time, it was Katherine and Rebekah's urgent voices questioning him.
"We will get there." Joe calmed them down.
"Besides, there is a problem you have to really consider. Silas."
"Can't you deal with Silas?" Katherine questioned doubtfully.
"I can keep him at bay, making him be an annoying fly, but like a fly, there is always one that comes back to bother you. Silas is truly immortal, and I don't have the means to truly kill him."
"Only the cure can kill him by making him be human again. That's why nature has made it possible for Katherine to exist, the doppelgangers to exist, to die in their place."
Katherine's eyes opened wide at that revelation. "You mean... there is an immortal besides Silas who is a woman who looks like me?"
"Yes, the true love of Silas... Amara. Whom he believes is dead, so he wants to truly die and be with her instead of dying and going to the other side to be a prisoner of another woman... the witch who made him what he is now."
"So he also needs to destroy the other side."
"But what he doesn't realize, even with all his great mind and long life, is... Amara isn't truly dead. If she were, you wouldn't even exist. There would be no need for you or Elena." He looks at Katherine.
"Nor would there have been a need for Tatia in the past..." Rebekah gasped at these revelations.
"Exactly."
"How do you know these things?" Katherine asks quietly as she looks attentively at him, the same as Rebekah.
"We will get there." Joe says as he continues. "This witch, a powerful one called Qetsiyah, was engaged to another witch."
"Can you believe to whom?"
"Silas." Katherine says without doubt, starting to understand what was happening.
"Yes, to Silas, with whom she was madly in love. As anyone in a position like her where one is blind by love, it will try to please her love with whatever he wanted. So, at his request, Qetsiyah concocted an immortality elixir that she had planned to share with him as a part of their wedding ceremony."
"However, Silas was actually the same as her but in love not with Qetsiyah but with her handmaiden, Amara, who was his soulmate. After Silas betrayed Qetsiyah by taking the potion with her, Qetsiyah retaliated by kidnapping Amara and using her immortal and indestructible body to bind the spell that created the Other Side."
"Deceived into believing that Amara was dead, she imprisoned Silas deep within a remote cave with the cure to his immortality. She believed that Silas would eventually take the cure and die as a mortal, thus joining her on the Other Side. In spite of this, Qetsiyah spent the next two millennia in her own purgatory as he refused and laid desiccated."
"So the best outcome is that Silas takes the only cure available and dies."
"But all this doesn't explain why you don't want me to take the cure!" Rebekah still protested unwillingly.
"Because you become human, that's true. But you will still be a target of the immortal Silas."
"The one who drinks the cure becomes human but also becomes the cure on its own. Your blood becomes the cure. And if Silas gets to you at some point and drains your blood and the cure with it..."
Rebekah and Katherine looked at him attentively, awaiting his next words.
"All those years since you became a vampire catch up to you..."
They gasped at that, understanding something but not yet fully.
"We will still die..." Katherine said, understanding it. "If a human body experiences hundreds of years at once, they don't have enough years of life to take them all."
"Quite, it's more like your body being removed hundreds of years of lifespan at once. So if you or Rebekah take it, you can only die in no time. It only works for a new vampire with a couple of years at most."
"There is no way?" Rebekah soullessly asked, her illusion of being a human crashing down.
"There is no way around." Joe said quietly. He was lying, but he wouldn't say why. Why should he? He didn't want her or anyone to be human; hell, he didn't want the cure to exist or anything to survive past Silas, Amara, and Qetsiyah.
"So you pointed Silas to this only existent cure to have him get hold of it, destroy the other side and die?"
"I'm just letting nature take its due course while removing a troublesome variable that was before." Joe shrugged with a little smile.
"Who are you, Joe? Why do you know these things? Why did you say those things before?" Rebekah looked at him again after getting a hold of herself. "Why are you bound to Katherine and me?"
Joe sighed as he looked at them both. He picked up the bottle of wine and drank from it, not actually feeling anything. It was an illusory body after all, at least the taste of the wine was there.
The girls looked at him silently.
"I'm not from this reality."
Katherine and Rebekah looked at him stupefied, as if they had eaten a fly. They looked at him with an absurd expression.
"Stop messing with us." Katherine rolled her eyes at him.
Meanwhile, Rebekah didn't understand what he meant with that phrase one bit... she was asleep for a long time, and there was no concept of what he was talking about when she was awake. "What does he mean with that? I don't understand." She asked Katherine.
Joe looked at Rebekah with an interesting expression at her words when he remembered she was ignorant of these things. "Well... how do I put it? I'm not from here... I shouldn't even exist right now..."
"But somehow, here I am. If anything, I'm alive thanks to you two. As I believe without you two, I would have been dead long ago."
"So... thank you, from all my heart."
"I still don't understand. I have more doubts now, Joe." Rebekah said as she looked at him with a questioning face. "Explain clearly to me."
"And even then... How do you know these things, Joe? Explain that too." Katherine instead asked again.
Joe looked at the two and sighed. "I suppose I'm dead in another place and time, or more likely, my body died... as I'm uncertain actually... and suddenly appeared here when you both got the marks in your neck. You both... made me."
"We made you...?" Rebekah looked weirdly at him. Katherine also had an interesting look on her face.
"You made me." Joe nodded with a smile at them. Then he looked at Rebekah's belly.
Katherine followed his look and gasped at his meaning. The same as Rebekah, who was looking at him as she followed his gaze. Her hands automatically touched her belly. "Y-You...You... You-..." she stuttered her words after being shocked beyond belief at the insinuation of Joe.
"Yes... It is what you think... Rebekah... or better said... Mom..." He then looked at Katherine. "You also are my mother... Katherine... You both are."
Rebekah felt her vision swim in response to his words, causing her to stumble into the chair. Katherine, her mouth agape in shock at the revelations, rushed to Rebekah's side to support her as she saw her beginning to faint.
She gazed at Joe with distraught eyes, her voice a mix of emotions. "Our son? My son?" she murmured, her eyes then falling to Rebekah's belly.
-------------
At the same time in New Orleans.
"For a thousand years, I lived in fear. Any time I settled anywhere, our father would hunt me down and... chase me off. He made me feel powerless, and I hated it. This town was my home once, and in my absence, Marcel has gotten everything that I ever wanted. Power, loyalty, family. I made him in my image, and he has bettered me. I want what he has. I want to be King." Klaus looked at his brother after reuniting with him again.
"And what of Hayley and the baby?" Elijah looked at him with a hopeful look.
Klaus had a little smile. "Every King needs an heir."
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It's better to write a rebirth story when the MC is born in the new world right away, rather than having them appear before or influence events before their birth. Shit like this will not be told then. It would have made everything easier, but the smut always wins. Anyway, let's continue.
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