"What is it with you people and appearing out of nowhere? Seriously, is there a mandatory 'Dramatic Entrance' seminar you all take in after becoming vampires, or is it just a family trait?"
Damon from behind Bonnie. He kept his posture casual, but his eyes locked onto the tall, somber figure of Finn Mikaelson standing on the threshold.
Bonnie's hands began to rise, "Oh, I wouldn't do that, witch," Finn said softly, seeing her try to cast a spell. He tightened his grip on the iron rod, the tip hovering inches from Jamie's throat. "I could kill the boy before you even finish the first syllable of your incantation. It is simply a matter of reach, and as you can see, I currently have the advantage. I could just as easily rip out his beating heart or simply... smack his head off his shoulders with a flick of my wrist. It would be a messy, regrettable end for such a young life."
Bonnie's hands froze and lowered them slowly with a frown on her face. Abby stepped forward with fear for Jamie's life, "Look, Finn, can I call you Finn? Or is it 'The Honorable Martyr' today?" Damon asked. "I don't suppose you'd mind letting the boy go, would you? He's not really a part of the 'Original Family Circus.' He's just the guy who picks up the groceries. Not exactly high-value collateral."
Finn's gaze didn't waver. "I hate being kept waiting, Mr. Salvatore. My siblings have kept me in a state of stagnant waiting for far too long you see, nine hundred years of silence and darkness. I find my patience for delays has quite literally evaporated."
"Right, the coffin nap," Damon quipped, though his smirk didn't reach his eyes. "I hear the 14th century was a snooze, but you really didn't miss much in the 1920s. Terrible fashion, even worse gin."
Finn ignored him before shifting his focus to Abby. He looked at her with a chilling, polite expectation. "You should invite me in, Mrs. Bennett. It would be far more civil than the alternative."
"Bad idea, Abby," Damon warned, his voice dropping the humor. "Don't let the politeness fool you. He's just as much a monster as the rest of them, only he's got a complex about it."
Finn's expression didn't change, but his hand shifted and the iron rod pressed harder into Jamie's skin. "Oh, well. If we must be difficult..."
"Stop! Please! Okay, stop!" Abby screamed, her voice cracking.
Finn halted the movement instantly, his eyes returning to Abby with a terrifying calmness.
"Why the hell are you here?" Bonnie demanded, her voice thick with venom, "What do you want from us?"
"I am here on behalf of my mother," Finn replied.
"Oh, right. The psychopathic, filicidal matriarch of the year," Damon scoffed. "The woman who decided that the best way to handle a family squabble was to turn her children into a ritualistic barbecue. Truly, the Hallmark cards for your family must be fascinating."
Finn looked at Damon, a flicker of genuine pity crossing his features. "You young vampires... such a pity you lack the capacity for respect. You see the surface of a mother's love and call it madness. You simply cannot comprehend the burden of correcting a thousand-year mistake."
He turned back to Abby, his gaze expectant. "Well, Mrs. Bennett? The door is open, yet I am still waiting for the words."
Abby nodded frantically but her eyes never left the iron rod pressed against Jamie's throat. "Okay. Okay, please. Just... don't hurt my son."
Finn's expression remained unsettlingly placid. "You shouldn't worry, Mrs. Bennett. As long as you remain cooperative and refrain from any 'witchy' theatrics, I have no desire to touch the boy. I am a man of my word."
Abby swallowed hard, and with her trembling voice, she spoke the formal invitation. "Come in, Finn."
Bonnie and Damon instinctively stepped back, creating a wide berth as Finn crossed the threshold. He kept a firm, proprietary hand on Jamie's shoulder, guiding the tense teenager into the house like a prize captive.
The eldest Mikaelson paused in the center of the living room, his eyes scanning the modest decor, "What a lovely home this is," he mused with a smooth and low voice, "Quiet and uncomplicated. I will allow it to continue standing along with everyone within it, as long as you don't try anything foolish, of course."
"We're past the interior design review, Finn," Bonnie snapped, as her hands balled into fists at her sides. "What do you want with us?"
Finn sighed with genuine disappointment. "How rude, I travel all this way to deliver a message of great importance, and I'm not even offered a seat? I suppose centuries of 'freedom' have truly eroded the concept of hospitality."
"Well, we're fresh out of tea, and I'm pretty sure the only thing I have to offer you is a one-way ticket back to that coffin," Damon remarked, "So, why don't you skip the pleasantries and tell us why the Original Boring Brother is playing messenger boy?"
Finn's eyes flickered toward Damon, then settled back on Bonnie. "My mother would like an audience with the Bennett witches. She believes it is time for a formal summit between our bloodlines."
"Not going to happen," Bonnie said firmly.
The air in the room grew suddenly cold as Finn turned his full attention toward Bonnie. Damon immediately moved, stepping squarely in front of her and squaring his shoulders, his blue eyes flashing with a silent warning to the Original.
Finn didn't seem intimidated, in fact, he looked amused, as if watching a small child defend his toy. "Hmm, how protective and quaint. But you should listen, witch. She has a proposal for you and your family."
He looked away from Damon, addressing Abby directly. "Help us cleanse the world of these abominations and parasites," he said, gesturing vaguely toward Damon. "Undo the mistake my mother made a thousand years ago. In exchange, she will guarantee that the Bennett family remains untouched by the fallout of the ritual. She offers you safety, restoration of your line, and a guaranteed safe passage to the Peace of the Other Side when your time eventually comes."
Abby stared at him, bewildered. "But, you are one of them. You're an Original. If she 'cleanses' the world, that means you die too. Why would you help her?"
Finn's face softened into a look of profound, weary relief. "Because this existence is a curse, Mrs. Bennett. I have spent nine centuries in a box, and the time I spent awake was filled with the screams of those we devoured. I would gladly give up this hollow life to ensure the world is purged of our stain."
"Yeah, well, speak for yourself, Eeyore," Damon interjected, pointing a thumb at his own chest. "Some of us actually enjoy the 'hollow life.' I've got a car to drive, a brother to torment, and a lot of people left to annoy. I'm not exactly ready to head into the great beyond just because you're having a thousand-year mid-life crisis."
Finn looked at Damon with a chillingly detached gaze. "Your desires are irrelevant, young vampire. You are a shadow of a mistake. You have no choice in this matter.
Finn let a thin, ghostly smile grace his lips as he surveyed the shock on their faces. "But, if you want to live so badly then, something can be done. I heard what you were discussing before I knocked. The 'Geometry of the Impossible,' was it? You seek a backdoor to a room that's already burning."
He looked directly at Damon, "My mother is not unreasonable, you see I believe she is willing to make compromises if it means her children are finally returned to the earth. She understands that not every soul tainted by our blood is beyond redemption. She is prepared to perform an unlinking, an effortless task for the woman who wove the spell in the first place. You, your brother, and a selected few of your choosing would be severed from the Mikaelson line. You would be free and when we die, you would simply... continue."
Damon's brow furrowed, his eyes darting to Bonnie, his sarcasm was gone as the offer was placed in front of him, replaced by a calculating look, "She can actually do that? Safely?"
"She is the weaver of the web, Salvatore," Finn replied with calm voice, "What do you think? She created the curse; she can certainly prune the branches. The question is no longer about the how." He turned his eyes toward Abby, "The question is: what say you, witch? Will you choose the world, or will you choose your family?"
A heavy, suffocating silence filled the kitchen. Bonnie looked at her mother, her head shaking in a slow, panicked 'no.'
But Abby wasn't looking at Bonnie. She was looking at Jamie, whose neck was now leaking a trail of blood from the iron rod. After a long, agonizing moment, Abby gave a single, sharp nod.
"Alright," she whispered. "I'll do it."
"Mom, no!" Bonnie cried out, "You can't! You don't understand, Esther isn't just killing the Originals. What happens after she gains that much power will put the entire planet in jeopardy. She'll unleash a literal hell on earth! How do you not see that she's using you?"
Abby looked at Finn, "Promise me, promise me you won't harm my children."
"You have my word," Finn said, bowing his head slightly. Abby turned to Bonnie, her expression breaking into one of profound grief, "I'm sorry, Bonnie. I'm so sorry."
As Abby began to walk toward Finn, Jamie was shoved forward, stumbling into the room as he was finally released. Bonnie moved to grab her mother's arm, to cast a spell but Abby's voice stopped her cold.
"No! Bonnie, please don't! Don't make this harder!"
Abby reached Finn's side, standing next to the Original. Damon shook his head with raised eyebrows, "You can't trust Esther not to screw us Abby, damn it!" Damon said, Abby looked at Damon with a look of bone-deep pity. "Maybe, but at least my family will be saved."
The rejection snapped Damon's control. He let out a snarl, his hand shattering the wooden chair behind him and launched himself at Finn in a blur.
Finn didn't even flinch as he saw the attempt. Before Damon could even reach Finn, the Original had spun around and caught Damon by the throat with one hand, lifting him off the floor, and in the same fluid motion, he drove the iron rod upward.
The sound was a sickening crunch of cartilage and bone as the iron rod pierced straight through the side of Damon's neck, pinning his windpipe and vocal cords.
Damon's eyes went wide, his hands clawing uselessly at Finn's wrist as he began to choke, blood bubbling at the corners of his mouth. Finn held him there effortlessly, his strength making the elder Salvatore look like a ragdoll.
Bonnie screamed and ran toward them, but Finn's cold, dead eyes snapped to her, stopping her in her tracks.
"Be quiet, youngling," Finn hissed, "The adults are in the middle of something. If you value the life of this vampire, you will stand back while we conclude our business." He looked back at Damon, "Perhaps that deal was too generous for you after all," he murmured, his eyes flicking to the blood pooling on the linoleum. "Gratitude is clearly a concept that died with your humanity."
Abby bowed her head, her shoulders trembling. "I'll lead the way," she whispered, stepping toward the front door. "Just... leave him. Let's go."
Finn gave a curt nod, releasing his grip on the iron rod and allowing Damon to slump to the floor in a heap of tangled limbs and crimson stains. With a proprietary hand on Abby's shoulder, the Original stepped toward the open doorway.
But as his leading foot crossed the threshold, the air around him solidified.
Finn slammed into an invisible barrier with a sound like a physical strike. He recoiled at the unexpected impact, his brow furrowing in genuine shock, "What is this?" He lunged forward again, his hand raised to shatter the obstruction, but the moment his skin touched the air, his entire body seized.
His muscles were locked in place along with his joints freezing in place. He remained pinned on the doorway as a statue, "What is the meaning of this, witch?" he hissed as he tried to move.
Abby stopped and slowly turned back to face him. The maternal terror was gone, replaced by a cold fire in her eyes.
On the floor, Damon let out a ragged, wet gasp. With a snarl of agony, he gripped the iron rod and pulled it slowly out of his neck. The sound was nauseating, and his shirt was instantly soaked in a fresh wave of blood, but his eyes were fixed on Finn with a vengeful mirth.
"The spell wasn't designed to hold an Original," Abby said calmly. " I had to charge it as quickly as possible while you were busy enjoying the sound of your own voice. You were so convinced of your own tragedy that you didn't notice the air changing around you."
She stepped closer to the frozen Mikaelson with her gaze unfaltering, "I would never, in a million years, agree to help the woman who desecrated this world. Esther wants to 'cleanse' the earth by unleashing a darkness that will swallow everyone, vampire, witch, and humans alike. I may be a flawed mother, Finn, but I am still a Bennett."
She leaned in, her voice a sharp whisper. "No deal."
Finn's eyes bulged, the veins in his face darkening as he fought against the paralysis. "You... you will regret this," he rasped. "If you will not help us, then you are nothing but a target. I will kill you, and I will kill your daughter, and I will watch your line end in ash!"
Abby didn't flinch. In fact, she laughed in genuine amusement, "How foolish of you to come after me here. Did you really think 'he' would make it that easy for you to get the last two Bennett witches?"
Finn's confusion flickered through his rage. "He? Who—"
His eyes suddenly widened in realization and at that same moment from the darkness of the left side of the house, something huge and impossibly fast moved in a blur of shadow and raw kinetic force.
Before Finn could even draw a breath to scream, the shadow tackled the Original, the force of the impact shattering the doorframe and throwing both figures out into the night with the force of a wrecking ball.
Abby nearly collapsed against the shattered doorframe, her lungs burning from the effort of holding the paralysis spell.
"Mom!" Bonnie cried, rushing to her side while Jamie scrambled up from the floor to support her other arm. Damon followed, still clutching a hand to his blood-soaked throat as his skin knitted back together with his vampire healing.
"What... what the hell took you so long?" Abby wheezed, looking toward the dark treeline.
Immediately, a man stepped out of the shadows. He wore a long, tactical duster, and his eyes held a cold, predatory stillness, "We were waiting for a clean opening, Abby," he said with a grave voice. "He is an Original, after all. A premature move would have resulted in a corpse, specifically your son's."
Damon, finally able to speak through a half-healed windpipe, glared at the newcomer, "And who the hell are you? The welcoming committee for the 'I-Wear-Too-Much-Leather' club?"
Before the man could answer, a deafening CRASH echoed from the yard as Finn had been launched through the air, his body smashing into a rusted tractor with enough force to warp the heavy steel frame.
Damon's jaw dropped. Standing over the Original was a creature that defied every law of nature he knew. It was a wolf, but it was the size of a horse of at least six to seven feet tall, its fur was a matted obsidian black and its eyes glowing with a feral, yellow light.
"Is that a werewolf or did someone feed a Husky a bunch of Gamma rays?" Damon rasped out barely masking his genuine shock, "Because that is a very big dog with a very big problem."
"I am Nolan," the man in the coat said, ignoring Damon's jab. "One of Lord Michael's Death Dealers, assigned to protect Abby."
Abby wiped sweat from her brow, leaning heavily on Bonnie. "You were cutting it close, Nol. Another ten seconds and he would have turned us into food."
"We didn't expect the boy to show up as a human shield," Nolan countered, his eyes fixed on the battle. "Any move we made while he held Jamie would have ended the boy's life, Abby. We had to wait for you to create the chance."
In the yard, Finn roared in fury and grabbed a broken irrigation pipe from the wreckage of the tractor and swung it with supernatural strength, trying to impale the massive wolf. The beast dodged with impossible grace, its claws shredding the earth as it circled him.
Suddenly, a second man sprinted from the side of the house, moving with a speed that rivaled a vampire's.
The second man didn't slow down as he hit a fallen log and launched himself into the air. Mid-flight, his body exploded into form. Bones cracked and reset in the span of a heartbeat, fur sprouted like a dark shadow, and by the time he reached Finn, he was a second massive wolf. He slammed into Finn's shoulder, his jaws clamping down on the Original's neck with a bone-crushing snap.
Finn let out a high-pitched, agonized scream that echoed through the Monroe woods.
"How are they doing that?" Bonnie whispered, her eyes wide in amazement. "There's no moon and no pain? They're... they're in total control?"
"It is one of the perks of serving under Lord Michael," Nolan said as a hint of pride echoed in his voice, "We are the Apex of the pack, unbound by the lunar cycle and fueled by his grace."
Damon let out a low whistle, leaning against the porch railing as he watched the two massive wolves tear into the oldest Mikaelson. "So, Michael's been hoarding the 'Super-Wolf' serum for himself this whole time? Typical. Why have a regular bodyguard when you can have a pair of prehistoric werewolves who don't need the moon to change?"
He glanced at Nolan. "So, what's the plan? Do they just play 'chew toy' with him until he daggers himself out of boredom, or are we actually going to finish this?"
"An Original cannot be killed by our teeth alone," Nolan replied, pulling a pair of weighted knuckles from his pocket. "They are merely tenderizing the meat. Now, we contain the mess."