(from tvdversegifs on tumblr)
Welcome to some utter Mikaelson Clownery starring these two dramatic lil shits <3

...if you can remember the effects of hosting Floare magic from S4...welcome to what that was set up for ;)

Cami decided to let Klaus deal with his father's body on his own, going inside the cabin to check on the still unconscious Davina and the friend she had with her – someone she vaguely recognised but didn't actually know anything about. Kol had moved Davina to the sofa and stepped back to look around for anything he could use to help with head trauma as Klaus appeared in the doorway, White Oak still in his hand, watching Cami rub Davina's head.

"We should get her to a hospital," She decided.

Kol clocked his brother, "Oh. Hello, darling."

Klaus raised an eyebrow.

"Back to huff and puff and blow the house down?"

"It's funny," Klaus kept his voice slow and collected, "How often a person's sharp tongue can end up cutting their own throat."

"Klaus," Cami sighed at him, then looked Kol up and down, "...We've met before."

"For about five seconds,"

That information got Klaus to stare at him.

Meeting Cami enough to have made an impression, then befriending Davina felt like too much of a coincidence for a stranger in a pretty well-populated city.

Cami noticed the shift and put a hand forward, "He's just a kid. Give him a break."

"Yeah," Kol nodded falsely, "She's right."

He definitely thought he deserved a break, but he wasn't exactly a kid.

"You may want to try a bit of lavender under your pillow," He taunted, "Does wonders for stuck-up pillocks with anger issues."

"Hey," Cami snapped at him that time, "Shut it."

"I promised not to kill Davina," Klaus pointed the stake at him, "I said nothing of this insolent sod."

Kol just smirked at him, putting a cloth on Davina's head while Cami tugged Klaus back onto the porch, shaking her head.

"A minute ago, you had the opportunity to kill your father with this thing," She poked the stake, "And you didn't. You're not going to kill this kid with it either."

Klaus looked back through the door, watching how Kol added a spritz of a herbal mixture to the cloth before waving a stick of incense under Davina's nose.

Something about it lingered in his mind.

"Fine."

"Thank you."

He reluctantly handed the stake over, as well as the key's he'd stolen from her at the bar.

"Go get the car," He had technically caused Davina's injury, "Let's take her to hospital."

Cami smiled, leaving him to help carry her out once Kol brought her over the threshold, unaware Klaus had wanted a second alone with the stranger to get his head around his suspicions. He stood, really looking at how the 'stranger' moved around the room, interacting with ingredients and spell pages in a manner he recognised a little too well.

"You've got a way with words," Klaus finally commented.

"Well," Kol came closer to the door, "I've travelled."

"You seem to have crossed continents to weasel your way into Davina's good graces – thereby meddling in my family business," Klaus smiled, voice going up, "Strange, isn't it?"

Kol just raised his eyebrows innocently.

A look Klaus knew far too well.

"Unless it's your family business," He straightened up, his suspicion confirmed, "Ever since I met our mother and Finn, I was wondering when you might make an appearance, Kol."

He laughed and bowed dramatically, safe thanks to the threshold of the house, "Then the jig is up!"

For a second, Klaus genuinely smiled.

"Hello, brother," Kol couldn't wipe the smirk off his face even if he'd wanted to.

Then Klaus really focused on him.

Kol was living, and breathing, and standing right in front of him.

In Davina's cabin.

Alive.

Alive and smug, like everything was right in his perfect world as he worked for their mother.

His expression went dark, "You treacherous bastard."

Kol started to scowl.

"It's not that I begrudge you for hitching a ride back to the land of the living, and I'm not going to pretend I'm all that surprised by what you've done with your new life, but I am completely disappointed."

"What could I have possibly done now?"

"Made all the wrong friends," Klaus's eyes moved to Davina, "Jumped straight onto the first pretty face with magic in their veins."

Kol clenched his jaw.

"Like I said, I'm not surprised," Klaus crossed his arms, "Mira was always too good for you, and her death has given you such an easy out!"

He'd defended MJ's resurrection plan to Rebekah and Elijah. He'd told them to let her look because he'd actually believed Kol had cared enough about her to not let her use the spell if it would kill her.

And yet, Kol was alive, and she was dead.

Even if Klaus knew MJ hadn't died resurrecting him, it still felt like a gut punch to see him standing there while MJ's spirit remained lost. It was more than a gut punch. A betrayal maybe?

A level of self-loathing.

Because if Klaus hadn't constantly forced himself to acknowledge their relationship, especially in relation to Kol and how she was the first person he seemed to truly care for in centuries, several of his conversations with MJ might've ended incredibly differently. Several of his own relationships might've played out differently, feelings focused on rather than sublimated, his attention allowed to exist rather than guided towards others.

But now, all of that was a joke.

Because MJ was dead, and Kol was alive.

"If she'd been here, you might've had to pretend she ever really meant anything to you all over again."

Kol lunged, just managing to stop himself before he crossed the threshold.

"Oh?" Klaus taunted, "Have I struck a nerve?"

"You, of all people, question my feelings?"

"I do!" Klaus gripped onto the side of the doorframe, crushing it, "The little charade of sweetness you presented was quite convincing, but, once again, it's proven to be nothing more than a momentary show."

He gestured to Davina.

"Watching you find a way to tear through her, even without fangs, will at least be entertaining," He mocked, "Have at it."

Klaus was leaving Davina to Marcel, both to protect and to deal with.

"But deciding to side with our mother aft – "

"God!" Kol snarled, "I'd momentarily forgotten how many worms had taken root in your shrivelling brain."

For a moment, they'd both been happy to see each other, but that moment was over.

"I was dead, now I'm not," His hand was ready to start firing spells, "And I'm in her city, only to find out she's dead?"

"And you expect me to believe that you care when I find you playing house with the next girl in line?"

"I'm siding with our mother because I'd quite like to see you rot," Kol said bluntly, "You want to talk about disappointment? For once in my life, I put my faith in you."

Klaus started to growl.

"I thought, for once, you might actually come through for me, and then I find out she's dead! That you didn't keep her safe – and not even that you didn't keep her safe – "

Kol was fuming.

"You were using her."

"Mir – "

"I've been around here long enough to get up to speed, Nik!" He hissed, "I've been surrounded by French Quarter Witches and wolves for the past few months, and they know all about The Hybrid and his 'Siphoner-Witch-Pet!'"

He'd been poking around for information ever since Esther had officially taken everything over, and each new piece just added fuel to the fire.

"They all talk about actually quite liking her," He added, "Only problem? They could never truly trust her because you were using her for power – the way you use everyone!"

The wolves had liked MJ, and so had the vampires, but that didn't change the fact they all viewed her as The Mikaelson's Witch.

"You want to talk about not deserving her?" Kol pressed a hand into the doorframe, "You have forced her hand every moment since you met her. You manipulated, and it worked!"

Klaus matched the level of crazy in Kol's eyes at that statement.

"My death was perfect for you! It meant she left with you, and you got to continue using her like a toy until you probably found some flaw and let her end up dead."

Klaus was against the invisible barrier, "I'm going to cut your tongue out and choke you with it."

He should've just denied the comment and told Kol what actually happened, but when has Klaus Mikaelson ever taken the easy option?

"I dare you to try," Kol leant forward to whisper at him, "Your little blonde friend told you to leave me alone."

Klaus bit his cheek, chuckling, all his anger bubbling up.

"I'm curious, does she take one of those little baggies with her when she takes you for a walk?"

"Cami?" Klaus called over his shoulder, "I changed my mind; I am going to kill him after all!"

Kol just stepped back, arms forward and happy to fight.

Cami didn't respond.

There also wasn't any sound of a car starting in the driveway.

Klaus turned from his brother, "Cami?"

Nothing.

He kept an ear listening out in case Kol tried to run with Davina, walking off the porch and into the driveway area.

The SUV door was open, its window smeared with blood.

His heart started to pound.

Rushing to the truck, Tunde's blade had been left, discarded in the back, slightly stained from blood, but no Mikael, and no Cami, and no White Oak Stake.

Klaus started to pace, phoning the brother he wasn't at war with, "Elijah."

Voicemail.

"Where are you?" He hadn't heard from him all day, "Mikael is loose with the stake, and Cami is a hostage, and I am weaponless and in need of reinforcement. Urgently."

He glanced towards Kol.

"And I've found the lump of foul deformity that calls himself our younger brother."

Kol made a rude gesture with his hand. 

"I'm currently planning all the ways I could rip him to pieces to avenger our fallen. If you'd like to stop me, or join me, pick up your phone."

"Foul deformity?" Kol sneered, calling out to be heard on the message, "If we're going with Shakespearian insults, I have a list I'll happily work through; you abortive, rooting hog."

He recited the words perfectly, skipping a few lines of Richard III to get to the next one, arms going out dramatically as he sat down in a rocking chair just inside the house.

"Thou loathed issue of thy father's loins."

"Call me back," Klaus said through gritted teeth before hanging up and storming back to the door, "Wake her up. Tell her to get Mikael back here."

Kol tilted his head.

"Now."

"Well – let me think about that," He rubbed his chin while looking up, then to Davina, then pointed a finger at his brother, "No."

Klaus truly did look ready to murder him, but Kol was as unbothered by it as ever. You can only get stabbed by your siblings, physically and emotionally, so many times before threats began to feel less daunting.

At the end of the day, if Klaus did kill him,

1.       Kol wouldn't be surprised.

2.       He'd be body jumped again.

3.       He didn't exactly have anything to lose.

"In fact, you should probably get going, Nik," He rubbed his hands together, "Mikael? He's probably jonesing for a restorative snack about now. It'd be a shame to find – uh, Cami, is it?"

Klaus's face went slack.

"It'd be a shame to find Cami as nothing more than a bloodless husk."

Klaus knew he was right, "We're not done here, you and I."

"Hardly," Kol smiled at the ceiling, eyes cold and hard, "You talk of 'avenging our fallen' with Elijah? She was mine, Klaus."

He gripped the arms of his chair to lean forward and push up.

"Mine," He enjoyed the sound of Klaus starting to growl as he stretched the word out, "And I will enjoy watching you fall at my father's hand, knowing you will end up in hell. While she finds peace with spirits like Carol Lockwood – you know, that guardian that she loved, who you killed?"

Klaus slammed a hand into the wall, shaking it with the impact, "You were planning to kill her, her best friend, her father figure, and you tried to chop off the arms of her other close confidant."

"But I didn't actually do any of it!"

"No, because you failed to do that last one," He answered smugly, "Because – oh, yes, you got yourself killed!"

And Kol was back on his feet and fighting all his instincts to attack.

"And my friend, who I actually enjoyed the company of, outside of the ways I could use her for my own satisfaction – "

"You were always jeal –

" – Decided to come with me after it all."

"You piece – "

"For her."

"Because of – "

"And for me," Klaus was determined to have the last word, "Not you."

As Kol's mouth opened to make another retort, he vamp-sped into the night, knowing he couldn't let himself be too goaded while Cami was out there, alone, with Mikael.

Once he was gone, Kol closed his eyes and took a long breath in. He turned back to face the room until he stopped seeing red. Once again, he found himself outlining the things he hadn't expected to have to deal with in a human body. Intense rage. He had genuinely thought his anger issues would've been left behind, but they seemed to be the only thing unaffected by both vampirism and his slightly out-of-touch emotional balance, meaning they were all him.

Most witches did tend to have anger issues themselves, so it did make some sense.

Instead of letting himself focus on that, avoiding having to address his reset head and what it meant like it was a plague, Kol headed over to Davina to check on her again, moving a pillow from the chair under her head.

"It'd be really useful if you woke up about now," He tried to sound light, "I kicked a few familial hornet's nests, and we really need to scarper."

His phone rang, but he knew it was Finn, so he turned it off instantly.

Then he felt something on the top of his lip.

Blood.

His nose was bleeding, and his phone was ringing again.

Kol grabbed a tissue while answering, "Did you have to do that?"

"I despise voicemail," Finn summed up, "Do you have the White Oak Stake?"

He headed onto the porch, watching Davina in case she did wake up and hear them.

"Hit a bit of a snag," He answered carefully.

Finn laughed, "Is that what you would you like for me to pass along?"

"Tell her that I've got everything under control," Kol rephrased, "I'm keeping an eye on Davina. She's working on a spell to unlink her mates from Klaus's sire-line so that she can kill him without them dying too."

He'd finally clicked why he'd recognised them beyond the familiar handwriting covering them. They were the same pages MJ had been working on when they'd been in Mexico. When she'd pointed out that a way to keep Alaric from hunting Originals was to force him to genuinely hunt every vampire individually to complete the task ingrained in him by Esther by breaking the sire lines.

"I'm sure the stake will come back into play when she's ready."

"How close is she to completing the spell?"

"Well, she's got the reverse of our mother's linking spell."

Finn hesitated, impressed, "She's written it already?"

"I said, she's got it."

"And what does that mean?"

"It means MJ had to write the reverse for the spell that broke Klaus's hybrid curse."

Finn paused.

"Davina's using her notes on the sire-bond and working out how to join the potential spells together," Kol had to admit she was closer to figuring out how to break it than he thought she would be.

He crept back inside to properly read the notes.

That's when he realised something else important.

In Mexico, MJ had been working on a whole de-siring spell to smokescreen them, but originally she'd only been working on a sole one for Tyler Lockwood. The mess of potential ingredients on the page and the crossed-out lines and ticks showed she'd figured out how to, in theory, unlink one person.

His voice went a little softer, "It's quite clever, really."

"What's she using as a binder?"

"Still trying to work that one out."

"Work harder. Mother needs Klaus alive and connected."

Kol didn't know why.

"So, may I suggest that if you can't find that stake, you either kill that girl's spell, or you kill the girl."

Kol hung up on him for that suggestion.

He looked over to Davina, then back down at the notes.

MJ's complete disregard for what should be considered sacred texts made him smile, and seeing how Davina had carefully rewritten most of them out, in full, on separate pages so she could add her own thoughts made him laugh. Davina liked MJ, and she'd learnt from MJ – that much was clear in how she laid spells out. But she wasn't about to mimic her treatment of texts as she tried to figure it all out without MJ there.

Kill the spell or kill the girl.

Davina was right there, already knocked out, and he was Kol Mikaelson.

Killing her should've been easy.

He turned and looked to a root pinned to a different page, reading over it.

"You used Kandahar root as a binder..."

It had been on a list on one of the pages, but it was a rare ingredient, one Kol was pretty sure it wasn't grown in The States. Davina must've been sleuthing through a lot of odd online places to order it, or she must've somehow travelled to the Middle East, which Kol strongly doubted was the case.

"Now, where'd you find that?"

It felt somewhat slimy in his hands, full of life, his fingers gripping it tightly as he closed his eyes and began chanting a spell to destroy it.

As it shrivelled slightly, turning a darker colour, Kol put it down to die in peace, stepping away as Davina came too, groaning and rubbing the injury on her head under the healing cloth.

"What happened?"

"Davina," He quickly sat down opposite her, "You're awake."

She started to look around.

"I was starting to freak out – are you okay?"

She sat up, groaning again, "My head..."

What happened hit her all at once, eyes going wide.

"...Klaus?" Her features flooded with panic.

"Angry bloke with the deadly aim?" Kol played dumb, "Yeah, he smashed the place up, then he left."

Davina's mouth opened, "Where'd he go?"

"To hunt down your pet serial killer friend," He liked that title for his father, "Listen, not to be Mr Judgmental here, but I'm starting to question the company that you keep."

Davina tilted her head, then looked around the room.

She pushed to her feet, her ankle properly healed up after all that 'rest,' desperately searching.

"The White Oak Stake?"

"It's gone, I'm afraid," Kol admitted, "The serial-killer one took it."

They were all serial killers, himself included.

Davina took a long breath in, scared and shaking as the gravity of the situation hit her.

She gripped her bracelet, "Mikael?"

She needed to summon him back.

"Mikael?" She couldn't feel anything, "Mikael!?"

With no magic in the air, she entered full panic mode, voice going high.

"Why isn't this working?"

"Sit down, alright?" Kol led her back to the chair, talking calmly, "You were out for quite a long time. Maybe that's got something to do with it?"

He was a trickster by nature so lying to her to keep his cover wasn't exactly hard.

"Here," He poured a glass for her, "Have some water."

"No – you don't understand," Davina stood straight back up, "If Mikael's free, he can kill Klaus, and then my friends die too!"

"If I understand all this," Kol wasn't bothered, "Mikael's been trying to kill Klaus for aeons."

Part of his ease with releasing Mikael?

Klaus had been evading Mikael for centuries.

He wasn't too worried about his brother actually getting killed, given that his track record said he wouldn't.

"How are you going to stop him?"

Davina realised that was true, "I'm not."

She could do something else, though.

"I need to finish my spell – now."

She rushed to the table, rereading all the notes she'd spent her summer practically memorising, waiting for it all to click together. Three potential spells recreated a sire-bond. Well, three MJ had rated as options anyway. And Davina had used all the information MJ had written about why she'd picked them to narrow it down to one, getting angrier and angrier as more seconds flew by.

"I – I – " She was failing, and she couldn't deal with it, "If – "

"Um," Kol couldn't tell what she was about to do, but she clearly wasn't okay, "Perhaps we should hold off on this...?"

Davina was staring at the page, scanning one line in particular, eyes following the curve of the handwriting as the sparkly gel colour burnt itself into her head.

"I have everything I need!" She had to believe that, "Combine a knotting spell with a sire-bond spell."

That's what the notes said.

"I just have to combine them the right way..."

"And do them in reverse," Kol reminded her, "That's pretty advanced for a wee girl like you."

He didn't mean to hit exactly where it hurt, but he had, and Davina crumbled, leaning onto the table, elbows thumping down, hands covering her face.

Kol took a half step back.

"I can do it!" She sounded like she was crying.

"Um..."

"Oh my god," Her hands went to her neck, eyes red even though the tears hadn't actually started falling, "I should be able to do it."

Davina had to believe she could.

"I could give you a list of people who have underestimated me," Her voice sounded just slightly firmer, making Kol smile at her determination, "Not one of them has done it a second time."

Then she looked at the page again.

"But stuff like this?"

Eyes shutting to stop tears, head trembling left and right.

"This – I – I have it all on a silver platter! I didn't even have to figure half of it out, and now my friends are in danger, and it's my fault, and I don't even know if it's right because Klaus has her freaking spellbooks!"

Kol blinked slowly, "Davina..."

"No...sorry – you've just," She swallowed, "It's just been a lot recently."

The guilt was climbing up his throat.

"I'm good at this," She knew she was, "But when it's something connected to people you care about, you've always got that little voice of doubt in your head, and right now, that voice just keeps telling me all the ways someone better than me would do it."

And the other reason it was so much worse after the summer?

"I can't be the reason my friends die again."

Silence.

"The friend you lost?" Kol came to rest on the table next to her, "You had something to do with it?"

"No," Her voice was quiet, "But I could've saved her."

And that knowledge had been eating her alive since Tyler and Caroline's visit.

"And I wasted the chance on the guy who's about to kill everyone."

Kol felt his body tense, "What?"

"Um," Davina hadn't expected to start unloading, but she'd been holding it in all summer.

She'd basically had no one all summer.

Josh was out of town with the vampires. Sam had been forced to hide the second his mum had almost been dragged into Francesca's mess. Cami was human and in her mid-twenties, while Davina was a senior in High School.

It had officially been over a year since she'd lost her mum; she'd lost Monique and Tim, and then MJ.

"Her name was MJ," She started, clearing her throat to try and speak normally, "My old best friend hexed her to leave town because the ancestors needed her out of the way."

Monique had been the one to tell Davina she'd done it, openly saying some ghost had given her the curse.

"Because they wanted to wage war on the guy you just met."

Unintentionally making it seem like she'd gotten hurt because of Klaus.

"She died while she was gone."

Finally, Davina started to cry, unable to stop her voice from breaking

"We found out a few days later...she was – these are all her notes...and I see her handwriting, and I hear her voice, and it's like..." Davina wanted to curl into a ball, "I need her here."

Everything about her posture became hunched, already big eyes getting even larger.

"I need her telling me that I can do it and that I've got it – because when she said things, they sounded right."

Not just because MJ had supposedly figured out how to unlink Tyler from Klaus, but because it was the energy she carried in New Orleans. Calm intelligence, warmth and acceptance, joy and learning.

"Because doing this stuff? Trying to save people and changing nature? That was just what she did!" Davina had watched MJ operate and been told enough about her, "It was literally how she died! No matter how impossible, she just did it, and it would work. And, now I'm just on my own."

She could barely get through her sentences, every word faster than the one before it.

"I brought someone back from the collapse of The Other Side, and she was there, and I didn't know, and it should've been her."

"You're not on your own, Davina."

The whisper of Kol's voice caught her attention.

"I'm pretty good at stuff like this...if you let me help you."

She managed a laugh, "I don't think so. It's not just saying the spells backwards; it's changing the verb tense into – "

"Nemo Unus Animabus," He wasn't even looking at the page, "Carnem Et Sanguinem De Ista Duo."

Davina's tears dried slightly.

"Like I said, I'm pretty good at what I do," Kol forced his words to sound natural, rather than letting his regret seep into them, "And I'm pretty sure you picked the right spells; it's the binding ingredient I don't agree with."

"No," Davina let herself have hope, "The friend – she got it during a summer travelling because she was sure it would work on a small level version of the spell. I only need small."

MJ had wanted people like Caroline and Stefan free to relieve a little bit of stress in her life, even if she didn't want to break the sire-line.

"Let's do this," She smiled, grabbing candles to start placing them in a circle on the floor.

Kol couldn't help but smile too as he watched her.

Smile and carefully make sure she didn't clock the way his eyes had watered too.

Davina had summed up a lot of how he'd felt too. The things he hadn't been allowed to talk about because his mother or Finn thought he needed to focus on their mission more than his grief. Not that he wanted to talk about MJ with either of them, his mother's distaste for her pretty obvious, even if Kol didn't fully understand where it came from.

MJ had been on The Other Side, and Kol hadn't known.

He'd technically left her there.

He'd given messages to the group of people in Mystic Falls, and he should've known that by doing that, it would mean MJ would somehow end up there too. He should've been waiting for her, not taking the quickest exit out.

He'd got out. He got to be alive.

He'd been alone as a vampire, he'd been alone as a ghost, and somehow, that feeling was just as suffocating as ever, and what was the point of a second go at life if he was just going to be repeating the first one?

~***~

Slowly the birds splintered, wings contorting into glowing ash on the streets of Mystic Falls until only one remained, hidden from Kai's view and snapping back to human form.

MJ hit the road, skidding across the tarmac outside a convenience shop.

Landing's weren't a thing she had much experience with.

The entire left side of her body was grated by the impact, road burn pulling skin off as she rolled onto her stomach, head and joints spasm in with pain, her own fist shoved into her mouth as she screamed. MJ didn't want to risk actually making a sound in case Kai had been able to follow her, gagging on her hand and sobbing her life out, barely able to move from the position.

The undestroyed skin stung from the burns, merging with the pain of her open stomach, turning the world grey as her vision faltered. Black and white and grey – colour blind with pain.

MJ had to move her fist to breathe.

In.

Out.

She couldn't lie there.

But she couldn't move, completely exhausted and beaten up, yet not blacking out.

The universe was making MJ feel every agonising moment as she pulled herself out of the road and onto the pavement, gripping her fingers onto a parked car to stagger back to standing.

Her body lurched, throwing up over the side of it, hanging on for dear life.

She couldn't lift her head without seeing stars.

"Bonnie," She needed to find Bonnie.

What if Bonnie went back to the apa –

MJ slammed her lips shut as a scream sizzled through her body, the metal hood she was propping herself up with warming under her touch, cooking her and melting to stick her fingers in place. Pulling away meant falling back to the ground, but her magic was spiralling out of control, making her support her enemy.

"I ne – "

Vomit spewed out, bird feathers cutting her throat, swimming among the black vile she produced.

"I'm sorry," She whispered, "I won't – I didn't want to use it."

She couldn't hear the screams, but she knew they should've been there.

MJ couldn't use Floare power anymore, and forcing it to work for her by bargaining her life wasn't fair on the magic. It was abusing it all over again, and even though she'd had no other choice, whatever was controlling her ability to cast Floare spells didn't care. It was still punishing her for stealing it all then dying. 

More puke came up.

"MJ!" Bonnie was rushing towards her, a shopping bag in hand, "What the hell?"

MJ stumbled towards her, only for their hands to touch and Bonnie to cry out, magic siphoned out of her.

"I'm sorry!" MJ hadn't meant to, pulling back, "I – "

She couldn't stop the upchuck.

It wasn't even food and feathers anymore.

It was black goop and blood and bird beaks.

Beaks.

Her shoulders shot back, the noise of bones cracking echoing through the abandoned street.

"Hey, hey – hey," Bonnie was behind her, hands under her armpits, trying to hold her up, "What – Kai?"

MJ managed to nod, shoving her hands over her mouth as more just kept coming.

"MJ – " Her teeth were gritted as she winced, "You gotta – "

As Bonnie tried to help her, MJ was still siphoning. She wasn't the one making direct contact, Bonnie's fingers on her, but her body was still stealing, latching on to anything it could, whether MJ wanted more power or not. Because she really didn't. She hadn't unintentionally leeched on someone since she was...

A kid?

Stefan.

When she'd passed out from power-low after controlling Anna like a puppet in the tomb, Stefan letting her siphon him while she'd been unconsoius to wake her up.

Bonnie's body started to shake as she couldn't hold on much longer, having to let go.

"No, no, no," MJ bawled, "I don't want it – "

"It's okay," Bonnie tried to touch her again, but MJ shoved herself into the car, "MJ, let me help you."

"I used my boost up," She whimpered, "I need – I need – "

"You need magic?"

"I don't want it," MJ begged the unanswering sky, "I don't need it, so why make me take it!?"

She was sick of hurting her friends.

She was sick of being a siphoner.

Her body responded.

She didn't throw up again, but something was moving inside of her body.

Her clothes were melding with her skin as it healed, trapping itself with the drying blood to become a part of her being unless she ripped it out and restarted the process all over again.

"Stop."

Yanking at the shirt didn't help as it tried to become one with her.

"I said stop."

She managed to shove it over her head and into the street, leaving her in her bra and jeans.

Bugs were crawling under the surface of her skin, MJ screaming at the sight of them moving, heads clear, acting on instinct to rip them out like a splinter, screaming at the self-inflicted pain.

Beetles under her flesh, swarming out once one gap was made.

"STOP"

The entire town started to shake.

"Let. Me. Go." She slammed her fists into the street, "Stop it, Kai."

She felt her wrists break on the third hit, car alarms blaring, Bonnie trying to wrestle her back and shut it down.

"STOP IT."

The shop roof next to them collapsed, the windows of the street shattering.

"Get out of my head Kai!"

"This isn't me," Kai was strolling towards him, "This is genuinely you."

A beetle head broke through a point by her collar bone as MJ started to choke on them.

"I wish this was me."

MJ smashed her elbows down, losing control of her body, but managing to stop the earthquake with the gesture.

Stillness.

Bugs escaping her body, but no more alarms, or shaking, or collapsing graffiti-covered buildings.

As MJ stood up, she collapsed.

Kai smiled at the girl left standing, "I think it's time to go home, Bonnie."

"No."

"Then MJ dies," He shrugged, "All the same to me. I'll still have you."

Bonnie's eyes radiated hatred, "What did you do to her?"

"Held up the mirror."

She stared at her friend and started to realise just how many places MJ was bleeding from.

"It's an interesting phenomenon."

"The magic should keep her alive."

"It should," He agreed, looking at the body like it was a science experiment, using a finger to lift up a baby beetle, "And yet..."

She was forced to let the conversation happen, "Why isn't it?"

"Beats me."

"You're lying," Bonnie challenged, "You know something."

"Gemini and Floare have been tied together for two thousand years," Kai shrugged, "Gemini hunt Travellers."

"...And Travellers hunt Floare."

"Ana Ruiz is famous in the community as the only Floare who wasn't a pacifist push-over."

"And?"

"She used to write to my dad," He let the beetle fall to the floor, "Letters about a siphoner kid – because the Floare were so wishy-washy on what to do...she'd met enough Gemini through the years who'd offered her help with her magic situation. Thought they might be able to help back then too."

Bonnie shifted.

"Found the letters about a decade back," He lowered to his knees, "Read them over and over again..."

Slowly, the bugs stopped appearing, returning back to blood pouring out of MJ's body.

"Learnt all about the kid she had and how much she hated every piece of advice my dad gave her."

"So you're hurting MJ out of jealousy?" She scoffed, "A crappy childhood is an explanation – not an excuse."

He looked at her, face expressionless, "I don't want to hurt her."

Bonnie looked at him like he was crazy.

"I've never met anybody else like me, Bonnie," He slowly stood back up, "Anti-siphoner propaganda is in every coven, but I didn't believe it. I didn't know there was anyone else genuinely out there until those letters."

She was completely tense, ready for an attack.

"For the past ten years, I've read them so many times that if the world didn't reset, the paper would've fallen apart," He was still toneless, "Picturing what the person in them might be like and how her life might've gone."

Because it sounded like she should've had a better one.

"And then she found me."

"And she didn't meet your expectations?"

"And I found out that she'd needed me growing up as much I'd needed her."

"You're distracting me," Bonnie panicked, "What's happening with her magic?"

He grinned and shrugged again.

"Tell me!"

"Take us home."

"No."

"Then you'll never find out."

"Tell me first."

"You'll go without me."

"I'm not leaving her behind," She couldn't exactly carry MJ and outrun Kai at the same time, "Tell me first."

"Fine," He winked, "Like I said, Ana had come to the Gemini for help before."

"Kai – "

"It's relevant!" He waved a hand, "There's this massive health log in the coven library."

"And?"

"It documented exactly how her body responded to certain injuries while she was hosting six-sevenths of the Floare power," He'd had years to read through the library, "What it healed, what it didn't, what took time, and what spells resulted in what."

"And MJ's only got one-seventh on her side."

"Ohhh no! The magic isn't on the host's side," He corrected, "The magic was put into stones because it was killing them off. It's too much for a human body."

"No," She shook her head, "MJ was dying when she didn't do a hosting spell first; she did that this time."

He nodded rapidly, "Yeah, so while the magic burns her up, it's also healing her. That doesn't mean it's on her side."

She blinked.

"It only cares about making sure it's okay, and retained, to be returned to the other Floare."

Bonnie tried to work out just what Kai knew that she didn't.

"She can still die."

MJ had literally died with it in her before.

"You just gotta pick the right method."

And, at that moment, she was literally unconscious, meaning Kai could do whatever he wanted to her.

"And if I siphon it..."

It would become his, and he'd be all-powerful.

Because even if he used the power, it would regenerate – because that was its nature. To save itself until someone returned it to either a stone, or the Aonso Floare.

And MJ would be dead?

Bonnie didn't know.

If Kai only took the Floare power, logically, MJ would be okay. She was a New Orleans witch, meaning she did have ancestral magic in her – and she was naturally a siphoner. If her Floare store was taken, she might not die?

"Which means you have two choices," He held up a peace sign, waggling the digits in the air, "You escape while I take her magic, get home, and leave her with me."

Implying MJ wouldn't die.

"Which is where she's meant to be."

Looking down at MJ, her skin was deathly pale, blood still trickling out of the massive wound from where her spleen used to be.

She had to be healing.

She was losing too much blood for the magic to not be doing its thing – but the Floare magic was also making bugs pour out of her because she'd shifted form, so it probably wasn't going to do much to help beyond keeping her heart beating.

"Or, you get the three of us home now, and Little Miss Semi-Immortal's magic will start working again, and instead of bugs, she'll be a shiny penny."

"...MJ's magic will work properly when she's home?"

"As long as she's here, she's cut off," Kai spelt it out, "Cut off means she can't give it back, which means it hates her and does the bare minimum when it could've healed up everything in a few seconds."

There was a chance he was lying.

Bonnie knew that there was an incredibly high chance he was lying, because it was the perfect way to manipulate her.

But MJ looked dead.

"Then let's go home."

"Perfect."

Kai needed to be banned from rolling r's.

~***~

Once Davina was set up, she practically pulled Kol down to sit cross-legged opposite her, both holding an end of the Kandahar Root. Setting up had taken the rest of the night, daylight streaming into the little cabin, cueing the start of the spell.

"Ready?"

Kol nodded, ignoring the tug in his stomach as it attempted to weigh him down.

Yes, he knew the spell wouldn't work, but if he told Davina that, she'd rush off to try and stop Mikael herself, and then she'd end up in danger, and that was the opposite of what he wanted.

She'd also demand to know why he was so sure, and hate him for killing the spell.

"Nemo Unus Animabus," Davina started, "Carnem Et Sanguinem De Ista Duo."

The flames of the candles grew bigger.

"Nemo Unus Animabus Carnem Et Sanguinem De Ista Duo," They spoke together, "Sanguinatum Venetus Barkael."

He let his eyes close, following the faulty spell.

"Nemo Unus Animabus Carnem Et Sanguinem De Ista Duo."

Power was moving, but nothing was happening.

"Sanguinatum Venetus Barka – "

"Stop!" Davina yanked back, "This isn't working."

She started rereading the sheet, moving through ingredients to find power boosters that could help them, eyes glancing back to the root every few seconds like she'd started to realise there was something wrong with it.

"Well, maybe you're just..." Kol was walking on very thin ice, "Doing it wrong?"

"No, we have to do this right," Davina's panic started to roll back in, "Josh and Marcel – their lives depend on it."

She slammed the paper onto the floor in frustration.

"Look, just stop chanting," She grabbed his wrist, "I'll chant but channel your power."

As she closed her eyes to draw power in, she got hit with a glimpse into his head.

An image of him holding her Kandahar Root and muttering words to make it shrivel up.

Her grip tightened so he couldn't stop her, focused on seeing just what he'd done as the paranoia she'd grown used to living with fully kicked in. The person she'd invited in had destroyed the root. He was the reason it wasn't working, and then she got to see that he was also the reason Mikael had escaped – then, the worst bit.

Klaus standing in a doorframe calling him Kol

Calling him brother.

"You're one of them!" Her hand shot up and slammed him into the wall, shrieking, "YOU LIAR!"

Kol was then battered into the next wall, then back, then back again, until his own hand came up, dragging her into the blast zone and placing her in his grasp. Her back hit the wall instead, him standing in front of her, keeping her there.

"That hurt," He complained.

Her brows furrowed, and his brain started to explode, her magic overpowering his.

"Okay!" He flinched back, "Okay, okay – okay!"

"You ruined the spell," She raged, "My friends are gonna die because of you!"

"I was told to 'Kill the spell, or kill her,' and I wasn't in the mood to kill you, so!"

"Oh please," She glared, releasing him from the spell but not believing him for a second, "I know exactly what the rest of your family are like."

He bit his lip.

"Killing me wasn't enough; you had to take everyone else down too."

"That's not what happened!"

"And why should I believe that?"

"I..."

She stared at him, waiting.

But as she waited, she was hit with a different realisation.

"Kol..."

He forced himself to stand up properly, "That is my name."

"MJ's Kol."

Silence.

"You're – you – Kol..." Davina stepped around him, walking aimlessly into the middle of the room, "You're MJ's Kol."

Her hands came up to her head.

"She said she dated Klaus's brother, an Original Vampire who knew stuff about magic...you...oh my god! You!" Her brain was half exploding, "Kol – MJ..."

"You want to know why I killed the spell, Davina?" He swallowed, "Why do you think?"

She slowly turned to look at him again.

"She told me about you."

About a witch she'd taken in.

"While I was dead, she spoke to me a few times," He phrased it like it wasn't the bad habit it had been, "I'm brought back to life, and my one task is to go after a witch MJ Floare-Ruiz took under her wing."

It felt like a cosmic joke.

"I was never going to kill you."

Davina looked down at the mess on the floor from their attempt.

"You don't disobey Mother Dearest without some consequences," He tried to explain himself, "Yes, she brought me back to life, but she's mad as a hatter. And, that man you've made your pet? My father? Well, he's more of a lunatic than she is."

"What?" She snapped, "So you just unleash him?"

"You're the one who brought him back to life first, love!"

"I had him under control!"

"Yeah, right up until the point you didn't, which is when he threatened me!"

And he'd been at Rousseau's with her the first time, so he'd seen her lose control of him before.

"He wanted freedom, so I freed him. You wanna know my secrets?"

Each word got louder, his arm held back out.

"Then here you go. Go on! Have at it!"

Davina half reached up, then stopped.

"Yes, I'm a Mikaelson," He's missed saying his real name, "But I've got just as many reasons to loathe the lot of them than you do – more actually!"

Davina scoffed, rolling her eyes.

She turned away to start brainstorming how she was supposed to put out the fire she'd technically started.

She'd started it, but Kol had poured gasoline on it and cackled as it blew up.

"Not to point out the obvious," Davina chided, "But if you cared about MJ, or what happened to the people she cared about, you wouldn't have done that."

"Why not?"

"Because wouldn't, like, all her friends in Mystic Falls also die with Klaus?"

Kol's had momentarily forgotten about that.

"Her friend Caroline's been searching for ways to bring her back, and you just signed her death sentence."

Considering Davina hadn't really thought about that until then, she was being a little high and mighty.

"I mean, I'll happily let Stefan Salv – " Kol's voice stopped as he got kicked in the head with a vital piece of information, his eyes closing, "...I'm going to be the reason Tyler Lockwood dies..."

He didn't know Tyler wasn't a hybrid anymore.

His fixation on Stefan had only gotten worse once he'd died, able to see MJ cradling his face in a forest to help him with breakdowns, hugging him in the Grill, and kissing his cheek. Listening to him talk about love and the potential to love her.

He'd let Stefan bite the dust, but he couldn't be the reason Tyler, of all people, died.

Tyler or Caroline.

He'd had a bit of a soft spot for Caroline ever since his days of compelling her.

"We need to stop him," Kol said clearly.

Davina paused at the instant shift response once that had been pointed out to him.

She looked at her wrist, "You deactivated my bracelet. How?"

"It's a dark object. I know a little something about creating and destroying them."

"Show me."

Kol relaxed a little, taking the momentary acceptance, "Alright."

Davina grabbed her jacket and headed out the door, having a way to track Mikael even without it. She wasn't stupid enough to put all her spells in one easily de-activatable place, and they didn't have time to waste, so he was gonna have to teach on the go.

"Bleeding power from a dark object is tricky," Kol said as they walked to the road, "So it does help to know what kind of object it is?"

"The White Oak Stake."

He stared at her, waiting for the punchline that never came.

She was fully serious.

He laughed, "You want to drain the white oak stake, do you?"

"It's a dark object," She shrugged, "If I can't stop Mikael, I have to stop that stake from working."

"See, usually I like people with ambition," He walked faster, getting ahead of her, "But this is just beyond mad,"

"Just show me the spell, Kaleb," She grabbed his arm to stop him, "Kol – or whatever your name is."

"The problem's not the spell, love. It's the White Oak Stake."

She glared.

"It's too powerful," He clarified, pulling himself free to keep going, "You can't just drain it. Best you can hope for is to disable it, but just for a bit."

"So, do you have a better solution?" She called as he reached his car, "Because I don't have time to argue! So, show me the spell, and hand me the keys."

"And what are you going to do?" Kol liked the familiarity of her harsh attitude.

It reminded him of a witch he'd known in the 14th Century.

"Just drive around until you bump into them?"

"You may have messed with my bracelet, but I made sure months ago that I would always be able to find Mikael."

"Alright," He motioned for her to get in the passenger side, "Your funeral. I'm still not going to allow you to drive my bloody car, though."

She frowned, eyeing him suspiciously, but not having time to protest.

~***~

Bonnie and Kai were in the cave. They'd rushed straight there, carrying MJ's body together, managing to make it with five minutes until the eclipse. Kai had originally camped out at the spot to try and catch them, so all his things were waiting for them, Bonnie summoning the things she knew MJ wanted to keep.

He crouched down to poke MJ's forehead.

"Even if it's broken, it's still impressive."

"Hm?"

"I cut her spleen out, no pain killers, no proper surgery, just out...She should be dead – yet," He lifted the bottom of her shirt up, Bonnie having returned it to her, "Healing."

The skin had sewn itself back together and into a scar during the journey there.

A faded scar.

Like an injury from years prior, rather than a few hours.

"A month back, this rock cut her head open during a spell mishap, the same thing," He ran his hand over it, "And that one's completely gone now."

Bonnie didn't respond.

"All gone," He tapped her chin, "Except these two."

A line up the centre of her face, and one across the bridge of her nose.

"And let me guess," She smiled falsely, "You know why those aren't healing too?"

"No clue actually," He put his palm on MJ's forehead then stood up to smile at Bonnie, "How's the arrow injury?"

"MJ stocked me up with pain killers."

The witch in question screamed awake.

She gasped, looked around the space, then settled on Kai.

"Stop going in my head," She could barely speak.

"Don't try and act like didn't enjoy ripping their hearts out."

"Stop it – "

"It was Damon!"

The little head tap had been him diving in, using nightmares to wake her up all over again.

"How could you of all people not enjoy it?"

"Stop making me hurt people!"

"I'm not doing anything!" He beat her volume, "The only thing I did – "

The sudden drop back to a reasonable tone sent shivers down her spine.

"The only thing I did was unchain your mind. Let the desires out."

"I killed all of my friends," She whispered.

"They're not your friends; they're your waiting room."

"You don't make sense."

"But I do, though," He opened a bag, "I brought Bon-Bon a present for making my death quick and easy."

Both girls looked at him.

"Ta-da!" Kai was holding a familiar soft yellow bear, "Ms Cuddles!"

Bonnie helped MJ to her feet instead of taking it.

"Thought you might want to bring her along," He waved it in her face.

MJ went to take a step on her own, knees cracking like a knuckle.

"Ah," She would've fallen if Bonnie hadn't had an unnatural amount of tension in her body, "Ah – I – down, down."

She sunk back to sitting, Bonnie shuffling her into the spot they knew the eclipse shone over.

MJ's shoulders slumped.

"Though I think you might need it more," Kai ruffled her hair, making her flinch, then leaving the bear on her head, "I missed having that much magic in my body."

"I..."

"Shh, shh," He crouched down to look directly in her eyes, "Don't frown, bunny. Next round, you'll do it to me, and then I'll pull your hair out, and you'll break my arm, and then you'll wake up, and you'll finally have peace."

"Wait," MJ took the bear in her hands, "...Am I not awake right now?"

"You tell me."

"You are," Bonnie glared at him, "You're awake, and we're going home."

MJ's head shot towards her, "We are?"

"Yeah."

"Bonnie..."

"You're going home, MJ, and it'll all be okay."

MJ froze.

"MJ?"

"That's – that's what he kept making Caroline say..."

Bonnie grabbed MJ's bag from the corner, "I promise you, you're awake, and you're going home."

MJ felt the weight of the universe lift from her shoulders.

"Everything will be better."

"If we're home, the magic'll return to the earth," She sighed in relief, "It'll let me die."

"What?" Bonnie started to panic, "M – no, you're not gonna – "

"Bonnie," MJ shook her head, "I don't deserve to make it back – going back and trying to live – god – "

She couldn't do it any longer.

"I'm a bomb waiting to go off."

"You're a person."

"I'm a natural disaster."

"You were in perfect control before you died," Bonnie kept her voice calm and firm, "You were on the top of your game."

MJ looked down.

"Oohh," Kai taunted, "She's waiting for you to realise something."

Bonnie glanced at him, "What do you mean?"

"She was in control because she was with people she didn't need to be in control around," He spoke with a 'duh' voice.

"You're going home, MJ," Bonnie didn't falter at that, "That's not just Mystic Falls – that's wherever you wanna be, but to be somewhere, you need to be alive."

Silence.

"Say it."

Nothing.

"MJ – "

"I'll be alive."

Bonnie smiled genuinely for the first time since Damon had left, "Then let's go."

The sky started to change.

Kai was staring at them.

The softness with which Bonnie held MJ's left hand, her own brushing through Mrs Cuddle's fur.

"I know you think I'm a monster," He ruined the quiet, "I mean, I did murder or heavily maim most of my immediate family, but..."

MJ's tired eyes were trying to scan him, barely able to move with the corners of them achey.

"After a long period of self-reflection, I've come to the conclusion that," His long breath in was something, "I could have handled my anger better."

"Could have?" She looked at her blood-soaked body, "That's the phrase you wanna go with?"

"You said," Bonnie pointed at him, "And I quote, you wanted to get out of here 'to give the rest of the Gemini coven an excruciating death.'"

"I didn't mean it," He defended, "Honestly! I would do anything to get my family back."

MJ wanted her family back.

She wanted to hug the brother who'd carried her home from school on the bad days, racing her through the park on the good.

"And the thing I'm most scared of is trying to figure out how to live in the world again."

MJ also related to that feeling.

She didn't even want to live, so how was she supposed to figure it out?

Especially when she had no clue how the magic would react to being back in the world of the living, the spirits getting access to her head again, Floare magic drawing on any piece of grass she touched – the air she breathed. The entire universe might turn against her the second she returned to it, purely because she'd had no choice but to cut off the line.

What if it killed her friends?

What if Kai had shown her the future?

"Sort of hoping you've been a positive influence on me," He walked towards Bonnie, "You're a good person, Bonnie. Brave, loyal, patient."

MJ had wanted to save Bonnie.

She'd tried to save Bonnie, and she'd gotten them trapped with a sociopath.

"I want to be more like you," He used Damon's bear voice, "What do you say?"

His face looked too genuine.

MJ hated it.

He was looking at Bonnie like she was the only thing that mattered, and it made her want to have faith in him.

She was covered in blood because of him, but she wanted to have faith in him.

"Friends?"

"Let's just go home," Bonnie rolled her eyes.

Kai pulled the fixed ascendant out and handed it to Bonnie.

MJ couldn't do anything other than sit, her entire body a fixed point in reality with no energy to make Bonnie feel less alone by standing up. She couldn't even lift her arm to hold her hand, only able to grip Ms Cuddles tighter as Bonnie letting the bear go, all of her senses muddled, still not convinced she'd woken up from Kai's nightmare yet.

"All your stuff is still in your bag," She started to talk to MJ, "And I'm pretty sure I saw the White Oak Stake in there?"

"You did."

"Why?"

"I..." She didn't know how to explain it without revealing the power of the weapon to Kai, "Tell you on 'The Other Side.'"

Bonnie smiled, "You phrased that deliberately."

"A little bit," MJ managed a smile too.

The eclipse started.

"It's now or never," Kai joined them in the circle of light.

Bonnie cut open her hand and dripped it onto the device.

"Sangina Mearma – "

Kai roughly grabbed her arm, Bonnie tensing mid spell in panic.

"Just in case you thought you'd try to go without me," His eyebrows went up innocently.

She swallowed and nodded, blood dripping onto Ms Cuddles in MJ's arm.

"Sangina Mearma, Ascendarum Cavea."

The ascendant clicked open.

"Sangina Mearma, Ascendarum Cavea," Bonnie breathed power out of her body, "Sangina Mearma, Ascendarum Cavea."

MJ felt something shift.

"Sangina Mearma, Ascendarum Cavea."

"So long, 1994."

"Sangina Mearma, Ascendarum Cavea," Bonnie had changed something in the spell, "Sangina Mearma, Magica Traca – "

MJ started to panic, "Bonnie – "

Her words were cut off by an overwhelming bright light, and a rush of power filling her arms like she'd somehow wrapped it up in a ball to carry. It was somewhat unfamiliar, and it wasn't hurting her, which was a first, but she certainly didn't want it, feeling her body about to suck it into her on instinct.

"No – Bonnie!" MJ lashed out, trying to grab her friend's hand, "What are you – "

Her body hit the hard ground.

"Bonnie!" She screeched, "Come on, Bonnie."

She was in the Mystic Falls Cemetry.

"Follow me through – you – you need to – " She tried to stand up, dropping Ms Cuddles to the floor, "AH AAaa – a – shit – "

Her stomach and collar bone were opening up again.

"Bonnie – "

"Sabrina?" Damon was in front of her, a bottle of bourbon in his hand, its smell following him like a cloud, "Sab – where's Bonnie?"

"I don't know," She grabbed at the ground – at Ms Cuddles.

Electricity in her veins.

"No..."

She gripped the bear again and let her body do its thing.

"No, no, no – "

"I need words, Sabrina."

MJ was alive, and she'd siphoned ancestral magic, shoving the bear away before she took too much.

A match was lit inside her head, and the voices she'd lived without for months were back in full force, screaming in her ears to let her know just how mad they were, the ground beneath her becoming as sticking as quicksand, sucking her hands down as more voices cried out at her.

"No – " She scrambled against it, but swimming against quicksand never ended well, roots racing out from the nearest weeds to wrap around her fingers and pull.

Except, none of that was really happening, and all Damon could see was her writhing in front of him, screaming for help.

"MJ."

Her heart was racing in his ears.

"Ah – why – "

The colour was back in her eyes. She hadn't even noticed the lack of it in the cave, too focused on her body's complete inability to do anything after her nightmare session and spleen removal. Colour wasn't good though. It was slamming into her eyes and blasting them open as the smell of life rushed up her nose like venomous smoke trying to snuff her out.

"Da – " She choked on the words, eyes glowing golden, "It sho – "

A shooting pain ran up her arms, the centre of her chest pulsating like it was being squeezed.

"I think – "

She couldn't feel her fingers as a cold sweat formed on her back.

"Heart – "

Her heart stopped.

~***~

It was a quick and tense drive, Davina barking directions for him to take and Kol explaining the words to the spell and correcting pronunciations as she repeated them back to him. They were pretty lucky Mikael hadn't wanted to drag out killing Klaus too much, actually running would've given him time to get proper re-enforcements and protect himself.

He'd only traipsed through the bayou until he'd found a nearby Warehouse.

The fight had already begun, Cami having momentarily gotten herself free just in time for Klaus to arrive, but just like last time, Mikael kept managing to get the upper hand, and Klaus didn't have a surprise blade on his side this time.

Davina rushed straight through the doors, Kol just behind her, able to hear the sound of people being thrown into things.

They found where Mikael and Klaus were, Mikael over him on the floor of the main room, about to drive the stake into his chest, Klaus just managing to get him in the gut and yank them both to their feet before tackling his father back down, smashing through the concrete and into the next section.

Davina went to follow, but Kol stopped her.

"We need to do this together."

"I'm strong enough on my own."

"No, you're not," Kol said bluntly, "I know you don't trust me, and that's fair enough. But, there are people we're trying to save here, and are you really going to blow that by not working with me?"

He grabbed the nearest hand, then held up his other for her to take.

"You don't trust me, but you need to. Alright?" He held it closer, "Take my hands. Take my power, and channel me."

Klaus pulled the stake from Mikael's hand, only for his father to throw Papa Tunde's blade at Cami's face, full force, meaning Klaus had to speed over to her in order to catch it just before it cut through her forehead.

The stake had flown out of his grip in the rush, Mikael scooping it back up.

Davina took the hands, and they began to chant.

"Mwen La Bois. Donne M'La Bois, La Bois."

The wind picked up around them.

Mikael didn't hesitate to ram the stake through Klaus's back, into his heart that way, while he was still standing in front of Cami, momentarily focused on whether or not the blade had actually managed to touch her skin.

"Mwen La Bois. Donne M'La Bois, La Bois."

Cami gasped in shock, barely breathing as Klaus fell to the floor, crying out in pain, the White Oak piercing into him, pain worse than he'd imagined.

"Mwen La Bois. Donne M'La Bois, La Bois."

Klaus's face began to desiccate, Cami shrieking, sinking down by his side.

"NO!"

Mikael backhanded her away and into a wall with a hard smack. He wanted a full view of the body as it went up in flames.

Except, it didn't.

Klaus had desiccated, but there had been no fire.

"Why aren't you burning?" Mikael growled, "If you were dead...it would burn."

Nothing

"BURN!"

He closed his eyes, trying to work out what could've interfered, finally noticing the chanting.

"Mwen La Bois. Donne M'La Bois, La Bois."

Davina started to stumble on the words, getting light-headed.

"Mwen La Bois. Donne M'La Bois, La – la...la – I can't hold it," She was shaking.

"You can," Kol tightened his grip, opening up his mind slightly more to let more power flow through them, "Trust me."

A mental block would stop the power as much as an actual one.

Mikael appeared in the centre of the room they'd taken base in.

He tilted his head at her, "Is this your doing, little witch?"

They just continued with the spell, half unaware of him as magic pulled and whipped around them, consuming their senses.

"Mwen La Bois. Donne M'La Bois, La Bois."

"Then you will undo it!" He demanded, "Return the power to the stake!"

Cami had crawled back to Klaus's body from where she'd been thrown, hands wrapping around the wood to pull at it. She didn't understand how it seemed to be fighting her; it was just a stake, but it was firmly lodged, and she was already weak from blood loss and a concussion.

Using all her remaining strength, it finally started to slide up.

"Mwen La Bois. Donne M'La Bois, La Bois."

Mikael was sick of being ignored, stepping towards them, finally getting a response from Davina as she released one of Kol's hands to thrust it at his father, keeping him down.

Cami pulled higher and higher.

Kol focused on saying the words while Davina multitasked, technically taking control of his brother's life, "Mwen La Bois. Donne M'La Bois, La Bois."

Cami finally got it out.

Kol dropped the chanting, getting in between his dad and Davina, only to be thrown across the room.

Without Kol's power to keep her going, Davina was tapped out, and Mikael raced her into a chain-link fence on one side of the space, feeding without a second thought, wanting to completely drain her.

She screamed her lungs out, squirming to try and fight out of his grip, only succeeding because Mikael decided to stop.

He'd heard Klaus gasp back to life.

No more paper-like complexion, colour filling his features, Cami hunched over his body.

Mikael vamped directly behind her, "What do you think you're doing?"

Cami turned, sitting up straighter and gripping the stake tightly in her hand.

"Stay the hell away from us!" She pointed it at him, "Or, I swear to God, I'll kill you myself."

He raised an eyebrow, "You have a warrior's heart."

Cami hardened her gaze.

"Perhaps I'll keep it as a souvenir."

When he went to grab her, he was ripped back by a familiar face, Marcel instantly pummelling him back with as many punches as he could land. The fact he'd surprised Mikael gave him a leg up, and as long as he didn't falter, Mikael was staying down.

Marcel had a lot of pent up rage about the Original Vampire himself, so the hits weren't exactly slow or light.

Mikael rolled, reaching for a stray piece of wood to target at his heart, tripping him.

"Enough!" He roared, shoving Marcel across the floor and taking to his feet, "This night has been a long parade of fools. I'll enjoy killing every last one of you."

Klaus was finally awake but still weak, Cami taking a breath and standing up herself.

Even if she was only a human, she technically had the stake that controlled whether they lived or died.

A chain swung around Mikael's neck, Hayley having arrived with Marcel, wanting a sneak attack moment too, so searching for the perfect weapon to use to yank him down to his knees.

"Yeah," She shook her head, "I wouldn't bet on it."

She whipped the chains up so the 'chord' whacked him in the face.

Klaus took them all in, returning to his feet and ready to fight, just as Davina ran in, hearing Marcel's voice and panicking that he was in even more danger than before.

She skidded to a stop by his side, turning to face Mikael too.

"It's over, Mikael," Klaus smiled, "You're outnumbered."

He had no weapon and no back-up, while for all he knew, Klaus could have Elijah and/or Rebekah on their way there too.

"Are you going to beg for your miserable life?"

"You think having people makes you strong?" Mikael laughed at him once again, "It proves how weak you are. Come find me when you don't have fools, women and children fighting your battles."

He threw the scrap of wood he'd picked up at them and vanished as fast as he could to give himself time to heal.

They could relax.

Klaus's shoulder dropped, sighing in relief that it was over, and he wasn't alone.

Davina got out of that room as quickly as she could, not wanting to talk to any of them, and because, as much as she didn't want to admit it, she wanted to check on Kol. He'd been knocked down, then left to get a healing lotion while she ran to check they'd actually deactivated the stake.

He was sitting on the hood of his car, rubbing cream into his left temple when Davina joined him.

"...Are you okay?"

"A bit light-headed," He admitted, "Might have something to do with being knocked ass over teacup by dear old Dad."

He'd never understood his dad, and he'd never known if his father had liked him or not either, and most importantly, he liked to think he didn't care if he never found out. Most of his family, Kol still thought he could happily live without, especially after his confrontation with Klaus that morning.

Before either of them could say anything else, Marcel marched out of the warehouse, going straight for Davina.

"You are lucky to be alive, young lady," His dad hands went on his dad hips, "You wanna tell me what the hell you were thinking?"

She groaned, "Can we not do this right now?"

"Am I gonna embarrass you in front of your friend?" Marcel looked him over suspiciously as Davina pulled a disgusted face, "Who the hell is this guy, anyway?"

"Oh," Kol muttered, "We've gotta stop meeting like this, pal."

Marcel didn't follow, trying to place his face.

"He's my friend," Davina crossed her arms, "And he's helping me."

"Helping you do what? Wage war on Klaus, getting me killed in the process?"

"I just saved Klaus's life trying to protect you!"

"Yeah, from a psycho-vampire-hunter that you brought back to life!" Marcel fumed, "Why now, D? After everything that's already happened this year, why does it have to be now that you get your own back?"

No response.

"He lost MJ, too – we all did."

She glared at the floor.

"On top of his kid."

Which was worse, but Marcel knew MJ was the one he had to address.

"And you know damn well she wouldn't want you risking an entire sire-line on a revenge quest – one that's gonna get me, and Josh, and every single person that's sired to him killed – "

"Alright," Kol interrupted the scene, "Enough."

Marcel turned to face him, rage rolling off, giving Kol a moment of hesitation.

"Well, I think it's enough," He kept Marcel's glare as it intensified, "It should be enough. I mean, we're all friends here, aren't we?"

Marcel gave Davina a look that said, 'seriously?'

Davina just shook her head, sighing.

Marcel focused back on her, "Just stay here 'til I get back."

She scowled at that instruction.

"I'll handle Klaus."

Marcel headed back into the building, to where 'the adults were talking.'

"We should get out of here," Kol wanted to anyway, "Trust me, my brother's not the forgiving kind."

If the daggers had taught him anything.

"Even if you did help out back there, his hatred of betrayal outweigh his sense of gratitude."

"I'm not afraid of him," Davina revealed the White Oak Stake from the inside of her jacket.

Kol's eyes widened, "You out to get yourself killed?"

"I'm out to get even with Klaus."

Which had been her goal since he'd killed Tim and tried to kill Josh.

"And, you're going to help me," She handed him the car keys, "But first, you're right – let's get out of here."

Davina climbed into the passenger seat, Kol hesitantly returning to the driver's side, following her lead, a mix of impressed and worried about what that statement meant, but happy to help/have someone on his side.