Warning: disturbing image ahead. I've marked around it with an asterisk (*) if you're squeamish but i doubt any of you are i f you're in this fandom. LOL. Sorry ive been gone so long. Life is busier than i expected it to be with everything going on in the world. Who knew?

Happy reading!

I have no idea where they've been taken. I can only imagine that wherever they are, they aren't having a pleasant time. And I imagine that whatever plans Celeste has for them are painful and to a detrimental end.

"Mother…" A haggard looking Marcel comes toward me.

I finish securing the fingerless gloves on my wrists that make it easier to wield my sword and turn toward him. "Marcel," I greet him in response.

He swallows before slowly dropping a knee. "I...I am sorry. You were right. I didn't understand. Not until Davina. Everything changes when you have a child and I couldn't see through my jealousy. I have made...so, so many mistakes. And now Rebekah will pay for them."

I regard him thoughtfully. "Celeste has done something unexpected. What?"

He swallows. "There was a witch that Rebekah and I manipulated to help us. Back in the day. We used her to call...to call him. Celeste has brought her back and now...everything that Rebekah and I fought to keep hidden is about to be revealed. And worse...it will be revealed to Klaus."

I attach my sword to my hips and slightly turn away from him while I adjust the dagger strap on my opposite thigh.

He continues. "I am asking...no begging...that you forgive me. That you save Rebekah from Klaus. I was a fool but I understand. I know that he listens to you. You and he...I can't pretend that I understand what happened but there is obviously a bond there, whatever it is, and it has to be you. I can't stop him from killing her. And he will. You know he will."

I look back at him and shake my head. "You have been projecting your blood father onto him for too long. Family has always mattered to Klaus. And you were always his family. No parent is perfect and I won't deny that he made mistakes. But you have to stop convincing yourself that he is the bad guy. He was learning from his mistakes and then you made yours."

I stop and kneel before him. "I forgave you a long time ago Marcellus. I won't deny that I was hurt and angry but I will always be here for you. My son, my first child. I loved Lana with all of my heart but that doesn't mean that I loved you any less."

He nods and we stand together. "So will you help her?"

"Klaus and I have a bond, yes. And that bond started with you. OUR son. We shared that love for you. It was always rooted in family first. I don't have to save her Marcel. She is perfectly safe."

His eyes narrow. "You give him too much credit, Mother. If you don't do anything I will be forced to do something."

"No. You are going to trust me. You came to me for help. This is me helping. Now if you excuse me…" I shrug my jacket on and head toward the city. "There's somewhere I have to be."

I stand across from Klaus in his room at the bed and breakfast. It's the first night I've seen him since everything went to hell. "There's a lot we will have to cover in a short amount of time. The longer we can keep everyone from knowing that we are working together, the better. There is something you need to know."

He nods once and sets another chair across the desk before sitting on his own. I take his cue and sit opposite of him. He leans back in his seat, the picture of nonchalance. "Well then," he smirks and rests his elbows on the arm rests before his fingertips come together. "Do tell."

"What do you remember about a witch named Celeste?"

"I seem to recall that she was a lover of Elijah at one point. What of her?"

"Yes," I reply. "She was killed when you redirected the blame of a string of deaths on the witches. She didn't take kindly to it, and somehow found a way to survive it, in mind only. It was she who cursed me to be tied to your family. Why I don't age or die."

"And what does she have to do with the current events?"

"Everything, I am afraid. She's alive, and she's stronger than ever. She stole my sight. I have no doubt that she knew that you would have a child one day. That she is the one who is manipulating events to drag you back to New Orleans. She is going to do everything in her power to take everything away from all of us. To utterly destroy us and I can only think of one way to keep that from happening."

"How?" he asks.

I take a deep and shaky breath. "I have to tell you what I discovered when I ran back into the fire for Marcellus."

He leans toward me. "What did you discover?"

I gulp down my pain at having to relive that day. "You must promise me that you will remain as calm as you can."

He smirks devilishly. "That bad hm?"

"Promise me," I say with force.

He nods. "You have my word."

"It was Marcel. And Rebekah. Who called for Mikael."

As I march into the city I recall the look on his face. The furry that slowly built. The disbelief, the denial. The papers and ceramics on the desk that went flying to the floor before he clenched his fists and returned to his seat. I remember the accusatory tone he used on me when he asked why I didn't tell him sooner. I explained as calmly as I could what happened. How Marcel kept me locked away for a time so that I couldn't reveal to Klaus what I had discovered. How I realized in that time that I had to play the long game. I tell him of the night Celeste came to me.

"Perhaps it is wishful thinking on my part, but there is a large part of me that believes that it is Celeste who arranged for the whole thing. I can't figure out how she did it, but I truly think that it was she who somehow convinced your sister and Marcel that they had no other option. That it was she who poisoned their minds and gave them the idea for the plan that they executed. All so when the time came, she could use that revelation against us in the most painful way possible."

He desperately wants to believe that to be true as much as I do. "The fact remains that they did do it. No magic in the world can truly make you do something so against your character. It was already in them to betray me. Even if this witch did somehow push them over the edge." He pauses and looks at me thoughtfully. "You expect Celeste to attempt to get me to murder them?"

"What better way to destroy you? To make you kill the man you called son. To kill your own sister? I've no doubt that Celeste will be itching to make you feel as guilt ridden and insane as possible. And she also expected me to keep it a secret. The way she was going on...I know that she expected me to choose protecting Marcellus from you, not realizing that the best way for me to do that is to in fact tell you the truth."

"She wanted you to lie to me. So that my anger would turn on you." He laughs. "Celeste has no idea who she is dealing with."

I smirk. "No. She does not."

I go to Elijah. I tell him that he need not worry for his siblings. I tell him what I know. He groans in frustration and shock at the revelation of the betrayal and immediately wants to go to them. To stop them from being stupid. But I tell him that Klaus already knows and that there will be no issues.

I send Elijah to the spot within the cemetery that Celeste's original bones lay waiting in my trap before I head to the abandoned asylum.

"I expected to see Elijah...not you," Celeste says with a raised eyebrow.

"Surprise," I say with a smirk.

"Rebekah!" I hear Klaus shot from somewhere in the building. I smirk.

Celeste looks at me in growing unease.

"Rebekah dear! Your lover sent you some reinforcements!"

Celeste smiles. "You're choosing Marcel."

Rebekah stumbles in. "You bitch," she spits at the witch as she shuffles behind me.

I pull my sword.

I catch Klaus sliding up to the doorway from the corner of my eye, awaiting to see what I'll do.

"We don't pick sides in this family. We're all on the same side. Unfortunately for you…"

Even after all these years, Klaus can still read my mind. He is behind her in a flash, hand clamped over her mouth and arms pinned to her sides so that she has no time to say or do anything to stop me.

The tip of my sword rests just under her nose. "...you have found yourself siding against us. You make an enemy of one, you make an enemy of all. But I really should thank you. Were it not for you, I probably would have died a long time ago. Instead, you gave me a gift. The gift of time. But yours is up."

*I slowly shove my sword up her nose and into her skull. Her eyes widen in fear and then pain and then roll back into her head as I hit brain matter which cuts like warm butter. I don't stop until she slumps in Klaus's arms and he drops her to the floor as I slip my sword out of her skull. *

On the other side of the quarter, I know that she has jumped back to her own body and into Elijah's waiting arms where she will die by his much more merciful (probably) hand.

Rebekah looks on in shock and confusion. She cowers further behind me as Klaus looks toward her again.

He huffs and grinds his jaw for a moment before looking at me and then her again. "Rebekah…"

"I am so sorry Nik. I know that doesn't mean anything. It was stupid of me. And horrid. I was just so tired of having to fight you for the right to love who I choose."

"I relented Rebekah!" He sighs. "I just wanted you to be happy. I wanted to protect you and Marcellus from a rather messy heartbreak. And you went behind my back and betrayed me in the worst possible way."

"Nik…"

"No. Do you know how difficult it has been not to dagger you and throw you into a box? To not take our father's white oak stake and to use it on you? In the last couple of months it has taken all of my will power to play these witches games. But no more."

He steps toward her and she flinches as his hand grasps the back of her neck and their foreheads come to rest together. "But you are my sister. And we made a promise. Even if you saw fit to break it. Elijah will want me to forgive you. But I can't. Not yet."

He steps back. "You wanted to be free? Fine. Go. Be free of me. Don't bother calling for a while."

With that, he limps out the door.

Rebekah stands there in shock. She looks up at me.

Neither of us seem to know what to say.

I wrap her in a hug for a moment. "Please call from time to time. I'd like to know how you're doing occasionally. Especially if my son decides to join you."

She hesitantly hugs me back "I doubt he will. It wouldn't be the first time that he chooses something else over me."

"People change and grow Bex. You never know unless you talk to him."

I am relieved to hear from Rebekah later that night. You were right. We are going to spend some time further north. Take care of Klaus, sister.

A flash appears before my eyes and my senses gloss over as they focus on a moment in time I've never seen. Rebekah is smiling at me, Marcel by her side, and on their left hands gleam matching golden bands.

I stumble slightly as the image disappears.

The witch who stole my sight is dead, and I can once again see.