Dragon's Keeper

Chapter 30

~Previously on Dragon's Keeper~

"Marcel! Come and finish this! Marcel is up to run to Klaus, but Rebekah holds him back. "No! Take the coin!" Rebekah states. "What?" Marcel asks, confused. "He won't stop until everyone is dead. And he will kill you too. End this. Pick up the coin!" Rebekah says. "Enough!" Marcel yells. Suddenly the room falls absolutely silent. Marcel takes the coin. "Well, well, well. The great Marcel, self-proclaimed king of New Orleans, bowing before me." Klaus says. Marcel throws away the coin in Klaus' direction. "There. I hereby pledge my allegiance to you. You have the keys to my kingdom. It's yours." Marcel says. Klaus smiles.

Camille is cleaning the gravestone of her twin Sean. "I was on my way home. Saw you dock in here. I knew exactly where you'd be." Kieran says. "It's getting old. It's the second time this week." Cami says. "Third. I cleaned it off the day before yesterday." Kieran states. "It's pointless. I just do it again." Cami says. "Folks need time to heal. Sean killed innocent people. No one's getting over that any time soon." Kieran states. "I think... I think I'm losing it like he did. I found this in my pocket." Cami says. She shows Kieran the paper with the signs on it. "The lines - it's a secret code Sean and I used to use when we were kids. I have no memory of drawing it. Something's not right, I just can't figure it out." Cami says. "Come here." Kieran hugs his niece. "Maybe... you should leave town for a while. Give your head some space. I know your dean. You could put your thesis on hold." Kieran tries to convince her to leave. "I can't. This means something. I just don't know what." Cami says, looking at Father Kieran with tears in her eyes. "Not everything has meaning. Sometimes you just have to let go. You should leave New Orleans. This town isn't for everybody. Please." Kieran states.

.o0o.

MayBeth and Eve are talking outside, near a bonfire. "I'm sure you got questions." Eve says. "Only a thousands of them. Like who are you, why are you following me, where the hell is everyone and if the people in this book really are my family, what happened to them?" Maybeth says. "I'm Eve. I'm following you because you brought an Original to a werewolf country which is pretty much the same reason why everybody else skedaddled. If you wanna know what happened to the people in that family tree, I summon it up nice and quick: Marcel happened." Eve states. "What did he do?" MayBeth asked. "He killed most of them. Later, the descendants of the ones who dodged death 1000 years ago, he strong-armed a witch into putting a curse on them." Eve says. "What kind of curse?" MayBeth asked confused. "Swap nature around, inside out. Made it so they naturally stay as wolves. They only turn back human on the full moon. We're hunted by the marks we carry. That crescent moon birthmark - that's why I got rid of mine. I didn't wanna get found up." Eve says. Elijah appears. "Good evening. Think I might have something which belongs to you." Elijah says. He shows the stake Eve used to dagger him. "Lijah, I've got this. Are you okay?" MayBeth says and asks. "The wound is healed, the fever is broken but for some strange reason I have this sharp and lingering sensation in my back." Elijah says. Maybeth turns to Eve. "I have to get him home. But I'll be back, okay? I need to know more." Maybeth says. "Keep that mark covered up." Eve says and leaves. "What happened?" Elijah asks. "I just met part of my family." Maybeth states.

.o0o.

The dead vampires are covered with shrouds. Diego and some other vampires pour some alcohol on the corpses. Marcel is standing on the balcony. Klaus comes to join him. "Looking at what you've wrought?" Klaus asks. "Look, if you're gonna kill me let's get this over with." Marcel says. "Why would I kill you? You picked up the coin. There are rules of engagement in battle, Marcel. Without them, you'd have anarchy. I would, however, like to talk about accommodations. Your living quarters, for example. I believe they used to be mine." Klaus says. "You own this, fine. It's yours. You can put me back on the street for all I care. But let's make one thing clear. - You will never have this: loyalty. You can't buy it, you can't own it, you can't force it. It comes only out of love and respect for the people who believe in you. You taught me many things, Niklaus Mikaelson, but this I learned myself. And it is something that you will never know. Enjoy your kingdom." Marcel says walking away. Klaus watches Diego dropping a lighter and the corpses are catching fire.

.o0o.

Elijah and MayBeth are sitting in a car. "So thanks for the ride." Maybeth says. "Quite the awkward little adventure, wouldn't you say? I'm sorry I tried to hurt you, I would never want that." Elijah smiles. "Elijah, tell me what happened to Celeste. You never really told me, neither did Nik." MayBeth asks. "That's not important." Elijah moves on. "It is important. Thousand years of memories and that's what breaks through your fever brain? I wanna know. Show me!" MayBeth says. Elijah lays his hand on the back of MayBeth's head.

ELIJAH'S MEMORY

Celeste is lying in the bathtub underwater, dead. Elijah lifts her up, lays his forehead on hers. He screams.

PRESENT DAY

"It was a cruel and bloody time to be a witch. Courtesy of my wonderful brother." Elijah said. "She died because of Nik?" MayBeth asked. "She died because of me. Because I cared too deeply for her. I had allowed my brother to slip through my grasp. I loosened the reins while Celeste consumed my every moment. I had abandoned him in the name of my own happiness. Celeste paid the price." Elijah says. "I don't get it." Maybeth shakes her head. "Why are we here? Why are you trying to put together our family when it's so clear that one part of it is broken?" MayBeth asks. "To me, the very definition of the word "broken" suggests that something can be fixed. I have a whole eternity to accomplish one single task: My brother's salvation. If I surrender this, then tell me what value would I be to my family, to myself, to... to yours and Nik's child?" Elijah says. MayBeth lays her hand upon Elijah's. "Please, Beth. You've seen what happens." He says. Elijah holds her hand in a sisterly way. After a moment he leaves the car. "Elijah's home, there's only one dagger. Which one of us will you be punishing today?" Rebekah questions him. "I contemplated a game of eenie-meenie-miney-moe. You betrayed me. My own sister!" Klaus says. "Niklaus, don't you dare!" Elijah says. "Perhaps it should be you, brother! Telling MayBeth what I would do to our child when it's born! Feeding her lies!" Klaus yells angrily. "This has nothing to do with MayBeth." Elijah states. Klaus points the dagger at Elijah. "It has everything to do with her! You feeding her these lies. And now my child, my blood will grow up to being scared of its own father!" Klaus yells back. "Is that what it is? You are once again worried that you will be left behind. Has history taught you nothing? We don't abandon you, Nik, you drive us away!" Rebekah says. "Is that so? What have I done lately, other than cooperate? I bow down to you, brother, to make up for daggering you. For the greater good of our plan to reclaim our home. Looked the other way, sister. While you repeat the same cycle with Marcel, falling again for a man you shouldn't be with, while he controls the empire that we built! That he took! Now, I make no excuses for past sins. But in the one moment when you two could have chosen to stand by me - to believe in me - to believe my intentions for my own child were pure. You chose to stand against me, to side with my enemies. I wanted our home back. Now I have it. So I'm going to live there. And the two of you... you can stay here together... and rot." Klaus says. He hands the dagger to Elijah, who takes it. Klaus leaves the house. "You're coming with me, little wolf." Klaus says. "Why Nik?" MayBeth questions, having heard the whole conversation inside. "Because, Maybeth, that child you carry is the only thing on this earth that matters to me. Now you can fight me on this, but you will lose." Klaus says. He opens the car door. "As will anyone else who tries to stop you getting in this car." He continues. MayBeth stands up and gets in the car.

.o0o.

"I figured it out. The note. I was thinking about it. My lost time, my foggy brain. I thought I must be going crazy, like Sean. But then I thought: "What if somewhere in my subconscious, I was trying to send myself a message?" Cami says. She shows the paper to Father Kieran "I was." She continues. The letters on the note say: KLAUS M PICAYUNE 1919. "I found this in the Picayune newspaper archives from 1919." She hands another sheet of paper to Kieran. "Look at this photo." On the picture, Marcel, Klaus and a few other persons can be seen. Cami and Father Kieran exchange confused glances. "Those men, I know them. I know both of them." She concludes.