Lightning Strikes Twice

Sixty Two

Isabel, Méalla, Klaus and Elijah stood at the loading dock, waiting for Tristan and the Strix. All Méalla could think about was what had he done to her child? Her sweet little girl. She would rip out his throat if he did anything.
"Méalla." Isabel whispered lowly. Méalla looked up at Isabelle. "Whatever I say to Tristan and faux against you, I do not not mean it on your part. Please believe and forgive me."
Méalla smiled softly at Isabel.

"Here they come." Klaus said as vampires started filling the room. Finally, Tristan, Aya, and Marcel stopped several feet away from the Mikaelsons looking displeased as they all stared at each other.

"I wish I could say it was a pleasure."
Klaus nods in acknowledgement and gave Marcel a knowing look. "Marcellus. Made your bed with the enemy, I see."
Marcel smiled fakely. "Membership has its privileges."
Klaus smirked. "Let's get on with this, shall we?"
Tristan turned back to a tall, blonde woman and nodded, so she and another male vampire bring the still-bloodied and shackled Hayley forward. She was so weak she couldn't stand on her own, and when the vampires let go of her, she collapsed onto the floor in between the two groups the Mikaelsons stared at her in horror.
"Hayley Marshall-Kenner, only slightly worse for wear. You'll have to forgive her if she seems a bit off. There's enough wolfsbane in her system to kill an entire pack. However, here she is, as requested. Now, where's my sister?"
Klaus sneered. "She lives. You can thank Elijah for that." Klaus walked right up to Tristan. "I wanted to flay her and hang her skin as a flag. Anyway, enough chit-chat. Let's conclude this tedious business, shall we?"
"Aren't you forgetting someone?" Méalla's ice cold voice slit through the air. Marvel looked at her with fear in his eyes. She imagined he could only imagine what she would do.
"My sisters first. And, if you're tempted to argue, consider the numbers."
"Oh please, like the Mikaelsons had me brother. All these years and you still can't tell when I'm going under. I've been spending months cultivating my end results and you had to go and ruin it by stealing a child you fool!"
"Oh?" Tristan looked at Isabel.
"Do you honestly think I would help either of you? Tristan de Martel, asshole of the year, locking his sister up because of mental illness. Méalla Mikaelson, who needs no explanation. The only innocent person here is that child you're hiding among your henchmen. The only reason I'm in New Orleans, is because I don't want to die, and I don't want the sireline wars to keep waging. I want peace and quiet and luxury." Isabel walked toward Tristan.
"This innocent one?" Tristan held up a struggling and shackled Alex. She was weak and barely moving but she was still fighting. "She's a little brat, hardly innocent."
"Say that again fucker." Méalla's vampire eyes came out. Marcel leaned back and whispered into Tristan's ear. Tristan held up a hand.
"Now I can give you a way to end the sire wars so all you little violent beasts can have at each other without killing an entire species but I will not if you have an innocent child suffering in your hands." Isabel said, cocking an eyebrow. Tristan looked at her for a hard moment then threw Alex on the ground next to Hayley.
"Aurora first, sirelines second."
Klaus smirked in amusement and walked even closer to Tristan so that their noses are nearly touching. Tristan looked slightly nervous, but stood his ground. After a moment, Klaus rolled his eyes and walked over to a rusty green shipping container, which he opened to reveal Aurora sitting inside with a black hood over her head and her wrists bound behind her back. Tristan, still suspicious, turns back to Aya.
"If they try anything, attack."
Aya nodded in agreement, and Tristan vamp-sped into the shipping container toward Aurora. He took off her hood, and her head rolled on her shoulders, still sedated from the drugs earlier. When Tristan looks back at Aya, Aya nodded at the vampires standing guard over Hayley and Alex, allowing Klaus and Elijah to take Hayley and Méalla to pick up Alex. Aurora woke up when Tristan started to break her bonds and smiled at him weakly.
"Oh, brother, you came for me."
Tristan smiled. "Always." Isabel made a show of gagging.
Tristan stood once he finished and pulled Aurora to her feet, and she wrapped her arms around him in a hug.
"Come on. Come on." Tristan urged Aurora forward.
While they're hugging, Aurora reached into Tristan's pants pocket and pulled out the Serratura. As soon as she had it, she yanked herself out of his embrace. He looked at her warily when he sees the medallion in her hand, and slowly reached out to take it from her, not knowing what she's trying to do.
"Rory...? What are you doing?"
Before Tristan can react, Aurora slammed the Serratura against the wall of the shipping container, which activated its power and caused the warehouse to shake for a moment as though an earthquake has just hit. The medallion remained stuck to the wall, and Aurora looked at Tristan with crazed eyes as Tristan, realizing what has just happened, trying to run out of the shipping container and being blocked by an invisible barrier. Tristan looked at Aurora in horror.
"No... Aurora... What have you done to us?"
"Not to us... To you."
Much to Tristan's horror, Aurora walked right past the barrier and joined Elijah, Klaus, and Hayley outside of it. Aurora turned so she could face Tristan, a magical haze disappearing and revealing Cami instead. Tristan stared at them with a look of cold fury from inside the shipping container.
"What is this?"
"You know what they say-- payback's a bitch."
"How is this possible?" Tristan was horrified, to say the least.
Klaus was smug. "The Serratura creates an impenetrable boundary. Nothing living or dead can pass through."
"And, thanks to your lunatic sister, I'm neither."
Tristan's eyes widened  in alarm when he realizes that he is truly trapped inside of the shipping container forever.
"No. No. NO!"
Méalla smiled an evil smile, feeling very satisfied as this man who dare threaten a child will suffer in a shipping container for the rest of his miserable days.
Méalla lifted Alex further up on her side and whispers in her ear. "Don't move, it'll be over soon. I'll keep you safe."
Tristan stared at the Strix vampires, who don't seem to know what they should do. Idiots.
"What are you waiting for? Take them! Now!"
Just as the Strix are about to obey this command, Elijah stepped forward to address them himself, putting his body protectively in front of Hayley, who was still barely standing on her feet.
"Before you rush headlong toward almost certain death... As your sire, I would like you to employ just a little bit of common sense."
"We are ancient vampires, Elijah-- each of us almost as strong as you."
Méalla laughed a very cold, very threatening laugh at that, scaring a few closer vampires into taking a step back.
Elijah shrugged. "You might almost be successful in subduing us, but at what price? Most of you will die in the process, and for what? To avenge a fool marching you headlong toward your very extinction in the name of a witch's prophecy? You do realize he engineered absolutely all of this purely to satisfy some petty grievance against my family?"
Elijah turned and walked toward the shipping container, smiling fakely at Tristan as he leaned against the metal door.
"Tristan doesn't care for any of you."
"Stop listening to him!"
Elijah ignored Tristan and continued. "The only danger here is the choice that you must make. You see, I am not your enemy."
He stopped in front of Aya and nodded in acknowledgement.
"It's true, I delivered you into this existence. I can just as easily pluck you out of it. The choice is yours to make."
Aya looked torn, but continued to glare at Elijah as though she's entertaining the idea of fighting them anyway. Marcel, seeing what she was about to do, walked over and blocked her way as he whispered in her ear.
"It's done. The moment has passed. Be smart, Aya. Smarter than Tristan. Don't waste any more of our guys."
Aya doesn't seem pleased, but after a moment, she turned back to the rest of the vampires.
"Stand down."
Tristan only became more furious to see that the Strix had been convinced not to avenge him.
"You will not abandon me!"
Aya walked toward where Tristan was trapped in the shipping container and gave him a regretful look.
"It's a shame it has to end like this."
"Aya, this isn't over!"
Aya put her right hand over her heart in a sort of salute to her former leader.
"May the ghosts of our fallen keep you company." Aya's voice was cold.
The Strix then began to leave the warehouse, Aya included, though Elijah and Hayley stay behind. Tristan continued to shout after them.
"Aya. Aya! AYA!"

After all the vampires leave, Klaus saw Cami walk away and chased after her. "Where are you going?"
Cami ignored him and continued walking, though it's clear that she's becoming weaker by the moment as she wobbled on her feet.
"Are you so eager to die?"
"I'm already dead." Cami said, an eye roll probably included.
Klaus continued to follow her despite knowing she's still mad at him.
"Well, at least let me thank you."
Cami finally stopped walking and turned to face him.
"Do not mistake me helping your family with forgiveness for what you tried to do! My choice in this is the only thing I have left, and no one is taking that away from me. You need to get that."
She turned to walk away again, but Klaus vamp-sped in front of her to block her way, and she sighed in annoyance as he pleaded with her.
"Camille, I'm begging you. Don't leave me."
Cami gave Klaus a look and continued walking, but when Klaus attempted to follow her again, he's stopped by Elijah and Méalla who look sympathetic to his situation but worried about the state of disrepair Klaus and Cami are in.
"I won't let her die."
Elijah sighed "If you care for her, you will let her choose."
Klaus, annoyed, swatted Elijah's hand away from him and jerked out of his grip.
"I will not lose her because of your stupid principles!"
"Allow her the dignity of this choice, Niklaus. You force her, you lose her forever."
"Nik..." Méalla said softly, trailing off.
Klaus gulped anxiously, and Elijah gave him a serious look before he continued tapping Klaus on the chest for emphasis.
"We finish this."

The Mikaelsons, including the slowly healing Hayley and Alex, walked over to the shipping container to talk to Tristan, who seemed resigned to his fate.
"So, this is to be my end?"
Méalla gave an evil grin, Elijah smiled at him patronizingly, and Klaus smirked as he leaned against the door of the container. However, Hayley and Alex continued to scowl at him with hatred and fury.
"No, no. This is the very beginning! You are going to the bottom of the ocean, where you will drown in darkness again and again and again over the course of centuries."
As Elijah spoke, Méalla saw a tear roll down Hayley's cheek.
"This will be your splendidly horrific and perpetual end." Elijah sounded gleeful.
Tristan was now anxious. "What have you done with my sister?"
Klaus smiled wider. "Nothing... yet. But, I assure you, her death will be spectacular."
Tristan looks even more scared now, but when Elijah and Klaus go to close the door, Hayley stopped them.
"Wait."
She walked forward so that she can look Tristan straight in the eye.
"You took a very good man from this world. He will be with me forever, but you? You will be forgotten. And as you rot in the ocean, remember my face."
She reached over to grab the shipping container door and began to close it.
"Because it's gonna be the last one you ever see."
Hayley slammed the door shut with a loud bang. Hayley stumbled to the ground after that, Méalla barely catching her.
After all that Isabel finally walked over to them.
"Are the two of you alright? Is Alex injured?"
"A brute rebroke my bad leg. It ain't healing well." Alex said for the first time since Méalla picked her up.
"Let's get you home." Méalla said grabbing Alex and Hayley, shifting them so she can vamp speed both of them home. She first walked over to Isabel.
"Thank you." Méalla kissed Isabel on the cheek and then took off.