The ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah stretched before them.
Ash coated everything in sight - not the soft gray of a hearth fire but a sulfurous yellow-white that spoke of divine judgment.
The ground was cracked and barren, occasional pools of bubbling liquid emitting noxious fumes that stung the eyes and burned the throat.
Elena Gilbert walked at the center of their group, her small form surrounded by a nimbus of blue-white light that extended outward in a protective dome.
The barrier rippled slightly with each step she took, its edges pulsing with her heartbeat. Sweat beaded on her forehead despite the unnatural chill of the ruins.
"Are you alright, love?" Klaus asked, his voice gentle as he matched her pace.
Elena nodded, though the tightness around her eyes betrayed her strain. "I can keep going."
Trevor led the way, the Vampire Killer whip coiled at his side, his hand never straying far from its handle. His eyes constantly scanned the horizon, body tense like a hunting dog that's caught a scent.
Behind Elena walked Katherine and Nadia, mother and daughter, moving together.
Katherine's gaze remained fixed on the distant silhouette of Dracula's castle - a dark, gigantic structure that seemed to float among the clouds, defying gravity.
The Mikaelson siblings formed a loose perimeter around them all - Klaus and Elijah at the front, Rebekah and Kol flanking the sides, with Finn bringing up the rear, his expression remote and contemplative.
After an hour of trudging through the desolation, Elena's steps faltered. The barrier around them flickered momentarily, its edges contracting before stabilizing again.
"We should rest," Elijah suggested, his tone making it clear this wasn't actually a request.
They gathered on a relatively flat expanse of ground. Elena sank down gratefully, her shoulders slumping as she focused on maintaining the protective dome around them.
Klaus crouched beside her, surprising everyone when he gently ruffled her hair. "You're doing admirably well for someone so young," he said, "Most beings, twice your age would have faltered long before now."
Elena looked up at him, confusion evident in her expression. There was something disarming about the ancient hybrid's kindness, yet her instincts still whispered caution.
Klaus Mikaelson was a predator first and foremost - a wolf in elegant clothing.
"Thank you," she replied simply, unsure what else to say.
Trevor paced the perimeter of their small camp, never settling. "We should keep moving soon," he muttered, eyes fixed on the distant castle. "The longer we stay in one place..."
"The boy will survive," Elijah assured him, though his own gaze betrayed his concern. "Dracula won't kill him - not when he's gone to such lengths to acquire him."
Klaus settled himself on a rock nearby, his eyes never leaving Elena as she worked to steady her breathing.
His siblings arranged themselves around the small clearing, each maintaining a careful distance from the others - a family eternally together yet perpetually apart.
'She is amazing, isn't she?' Klaus's voice echoed in his siblings' minds, initiating their private telepathic connection.
Rebekah glanced at Elena, then back to her brother, a knowing smirk playing at her lips. 'Going to adopt another one, Nik?'
Klaus's expression remained neutral, though his eyes crinkled slightly with amusement. 'I could. But I have a better idea. The girl is clearly quite dependent on Lucien - seeking him despite any fear. Perhaps it would be better to... bring the two of them closer.'
Kol rolled his eyes dramatically, though his face remained impassive to outside observers. 'Oh God, don't tell me you're going to play matchmaker.'
Klaus merely shrugged, a slow smile spreading across his face. 'I wonder, truly, how powerful a child between the Son of God and a half-angel, half-human doppelganger would be. It would be... spectacular.'
'Perhaps it would be best to let nature take its course,' Elijah contributed, adjusting his already immaculate cuffs. 'I don't believe it would be difficult for Lucien and Elena to form an attachment naturally, given her dependency and need to feel safe around the boy - as you pointed out, Niklaus.'
'Though I admit,' he added after a moment, 'I share your curiosity about such a union's potential.'
Rebekah scoffed internally. 'Have you all forgotten that Lucien is clearly possessive of Katerina? When he grows older, he'll likely choose her over Elena.'
Klaus dismissed her concern with a mental wave. 'The boy can have both. It's not as if I haven't had half a dozen wives simultaneously.'
'Times have changed, Nik,' Rebekah countered. 'It is no longer the time of nobility.Modern people frown upon such relationships- I've checked after you gave me that box you call a Tablet, and the... "internet." Besides, Lucien isn't necessarily like you. Perhaps he wants to be with only one person.'
'What man wouldn't want to be loved by two beautiful women?' Kol interjected with a mental smirk. 'Besides, the boy is clearly love-starved - this could be good for him. It's honestly a great boon for our family that these two have been found and can be taken under our wings.'
Kol's mental voice took on a more serious tone. 'Though we may deny it, there are higher beings on the food chain than us. Nik literally found the golden ticket of status - the Almighty's own bloody son, adopted into our family. Marvelous, really!'
Throughout this silent conversation, their faces remained largely impassive, with only the occasional subtle shift in expression that might betray something to a keen observer.
Katherine noticed these microexpressions, her eyes narrowing slightly as she watched the siblings.
Five centuries of survival had taught her to recognize when others were communicating in ways she wasn't privy to.
She said nothing, however, focusing instead on maintaining a protective stance near Elena.
"We should continue," Trevor announced, breaking the silence. "The castle seems no closer despite our walking. I suspect Dracula is manipulating the distance somehow."
Elena pushed herself to her feet, the barrier around them brightening momentarily with her renewed concentration. "I'm ready," she said, her voice stronger than before.
They resumed their journey across the blasted landscape.
The ground gradually shifted from ash-covered flatlands to more treacherous terrain - jagged rock formations that might once have been buildings, now twisted into unnatural shapes.
'You truly don't see it, do you?' Finn's voice suddenly cut through their telepathic conversation, startling his siblings who had grown accustomed to his silence.
'See what, Finn?' Rebekah asked, genuinely curious at this rare act of him actually talking.
Finn's mental voice carried centuries of weariness. 'The two children aren't like us. They are pure. They are good. They aren't monsters who prey on the innocent and weak. They won't accept you.'
'I don't know about that,' Kol replied flippantly. 'Katerina's hands aren't exactly clean, yet Lucien clearly loves her and would murder the world to keep her safe.'
Finn shot Kol a withering glare. 'Katerina has chosen to change. For her love toward Lucien, for Lucien to love her and always be with her, she has decided to adjust herself to his wants - to no longer harm innocents, for she knows the boy could never accept her in his heart if she remained a monster.'
His mental voice hardened. 'I cannot say the same about the rest of you.'
Finn turned his attention to Klaus. 'Do you actually think the boy will ever call you 'Dad' and love you like one? Do you truly believe he will call us his aunts and uncles with love in his heart? Of course not!
The boy is pure through and through - to the bone and soul. He is the literal Son of God, for Heaven's sake!'
Each of the siblings' moods soured visibly at Finn's words, their expressions darkening despite their efforts to maintain neutral facades.
'Is there a point to your words, Finn, besides being a bore?' Elijah asked, his mental voice carrying the same cultured disdain as his spoken one.
Finn fell silent for several moments as they continued walking, navigating around a pool of bubbling, foul-smelling liquid. Then, unexpectedly, he continued.
'There is a point. For the first time, there is actually... hope.'
He focused his attention on Klaus. 'For the longest time, for the centuries I was daggered, I thought you an irredeemable monster.
But after waking up, despite how much I want to hate you, how much I want to make each and every one of you pay for leaving me daggered because I did not accept your monstrous actions. Leaving me suffering for over 900 years-'
'Though I won't make excuses for Nik,' Kol interrupted, 'it is bloody sleeping. There's no suffering besides the loss of time and things after waking up. And you didn't ever have much to lose anyw-'
'HAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!'
Finn's telepathic roar of rage cut through Kol's flippant comment like a blade, so intense that all the Mikaelsons physically stopped walking, momentarily stunned by the outburst.
Trevor, Katherine, and Elena halted as well, noticing the siblings' sudden stop and their surprised expressions.
"Mr. Elijah?" Elena asked hesitantly. "Is everything okay?"
Elijah blinked, composing himself instantly. "Everything is fine," he assured her gently. "Let's continue."
As they resumed walking, Trevor cast suspicious glances at the Mikaelsons, while Katherine studied them before returning her attention to the path ahead.
'Being daggered for decades and being daggered for centuries are very different things,' Finn continued, after a long moment of silence, his mental voice trembling with suppressed fury.
'It... It starts like a dim pinprick, growing brighter year after year - a slow consciousness wherein I was paralyzed, entombed in my own mind. That despair... utter loneliness... All amplified and made endless.
The pain of hunger, the cold, the fear of never being free of this prison... Of simply being forgotten. By my very own family. None of you- none of you could ever... understand.'
After several long moments of tense silence, everyone processing what their eldest brother said, Finn gathered himself and continued his original point.
'Kol was right.'
Kol perked up, genuine surprise and curiosity in his mental voice. 'Right about what?'
'What you said during our dinner after the family finally reunited, when Klaus undaggered the rest of us. This boy can give us everything we've wanted. He IS our hope - our chance to regain everything that was taken from us by our mother and father out of their own fear.'
Finn's mental voice softened. 'Despite how you all are now, I... I don't want to hate you. You're my family, the only thing I have left, as Kol so delicately put it.'
Kol looked uncomfortable for the first time, his earlier flippant comment about Finn having nothing to lose clearly beginning to weigh on him.
'As Kol said, Lucien can make it so we no longer need to drink blood to survive. The boy can make it so we can experience being truly human again while still retaining all our capabilities as vampires - and more.
The ability to start families again, to no longer be monsters - this boy- he is our salvation.
Finn's mental voice took on an almost pleading tone. 'All I ask is that when the time comes, when the boy grows into his power, we seek it.
A family living forever, with all our power and safety, but also the purity that was stolen from us.
All we need to do is stay our hand, control ourselves, not kill innocents - and then we can have an existence that is no longer unnatural, but a true Paradise.
A true eternal "always" of family.'
The Mikaelsons walked in silence, each processing Finn's words in their own way.
Elijah glanced sideways at Klaus, who walked beside him, and was startled by what he saw.
Elijah could swear he was seeing it - the yearning on Klaus's face, the near acceptance, his younger brother actually finally seeking the redemption Elijah had been pursuing for him and their family for centuries.
Klaus almost seemed to taste... happiness.
But then his brother's face hardened, his expression closing off like a door slamming shut.
'How pathetic you are, Finn,' Klaus replied telepathically, his mental voice cold and dismissive. 'You truly are and will always be a dullard. An ever-simpering sycophant.'
Before any of his siblings could respond, Trevor suddenly raised his hand, signaling for everyone to stop.
"Be careful," he warned, his voice tight. "I sense... something."
They all began to focus, looking.
When they began to... hear it.
Like the... howling of the wind.
"Do you all hear that?" Rebekah asked.
The earth beneath their feet suddenly began to tremble.
Elena stumbled, her concentration wavering as the protective barrier flickered dangerously. Katherine moved in a blur, fast, catching the girl in her arms and holding her protectively.
Hundreds upon hundreds of dark clouds of smoke began to erupt from the ground around them, causing the ground to break and pieces of it fly into the air, the dark smoke swirling upward in spirals of darkness.
The ruins darkened further as the smoke blotted out what little light filtered through the ashen sky.
"Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu." The sound came from the countless smoke trails.
Trevor let out a hysterical chuckle, sweat beading on his brow, as he saw it converging. "Bloody hell, we truly are fucked, aren't we?"
"What is that?" Katherine yelled over the growing rumble and howling winds, still clutching Elena tightly.
Kol stepped forward, his normal look replaced by genuine concern. "These are if I'm correct - and I bloody hope I'm not - the witnesses. The damned souls of these cities, bound by God here in eternal torment."
He swallowed hard. "It seems... Dracula has somehow found a way to... weaponize them."
The clouds of smoke continued to rise and coalesce, forming a massive shape above them.
First, a head emerged, then a sinuous body that seemed to stretch endlessly into the distance.
The giant serpent made of black smoke towered over them, its eyeless head turning as if to regard them.
As one, they stood frozen, staring up at the horror that had been unleashed against them.
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(Author note: Hello everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the chapter.
Do tell me how you found it.
So... What did you guys think of the conversation the Mikaelsons had with each other? Do you think they will ever accept Finn's proposal?
And if not, do you think, Lucien will like Finn says never care for them like they want, or he still will?
I'm interested in your thoughts.
I hope to see you all later,
Bye!)