| Explosion | Crush Injury | Trap
Second Chances - Marcel steps out for a break and find one he hadn't expected. after all this group was certainly going to Break something
Marcel had needed an escape, a break from the oppressive silence and emptiness the compound had become.
When he had ruled the city it had been his home base, a place where all of those he trusted could come and pass the time, even months ago it had been filled with the wolves that hadn't sided with Esther.
Since Dahlia’s defeat, the air had been thick, Klaus unrepentant in his actions and the rest of them enduring in resentment, Elijah only returning to the place for Hope and Freya, Marcel forcing himself to return himself for Rebekah’s request and to ensure Davina was safe even when the memory of Klaus' compulsion or Gia’s body never faded from his mind.
He hated how he still loved Klaus after he once again took from him.
Then months ago, Elijah returned to help Freya with a spell and Freya had vanished leaving an unresponsive Elijah for Klaus to find. Marcel had never seen Klaus so panicked and lost even as he tried to hide it behind the rage.
He had messaged Rebekah to call her back from her search for a way to bring Kol back, unsure she would have a family to bring him back to if she didn’t as Klaus flicked from blaming Freya to accusing the witches of New Orleans of taking her and cursing Elijah as a distraction.
Davina had been very obviously surprised by the news and accused Klaus of being behind it instead, as a ploy to drag Rebekah back and remove the unknown witch from his family, something that had clearly hit close given Klaus’ reaction.
Davina had been trying to help although he wasn't sure if it was out of concern for Freya, helping him or just to prove Klaus had something to do with it.
His break was ruined as he watched a small figure carelessly step into the road in front of a car.
“Watch out!” he shouted even as his body was already moving.
He grasped the boy and stepped them back onto the sidewalk he had just left, releasing him as the car sped behind him where the boy had just been.
“Are you alright?” he asked, taking in the boy’s appearance, maybe nine, pale skin and shoulder length brown hair managed with a few braids, it was a hairstyle that seemed out of place but Marcel couldn't place where.
The boy looked at him with a strange expression and Marcel has as suddenly hit with a sense of familiarity.
“Where are you parents?” He added when he got no reply from the first.
“We left them.” The boy answered, a strange accent to his English that Marcel couldn't place, he continued cryptically “it was for the best, bad thing were going to happen.”
Before the could ask anymore about that a hand pulled the boy from him.
“El.” A dark haired woman hissed as she crouched in front of the boy, leaving her back to Marcel, who noticed the braids in her hair matched the boy's, “you shouldn't wander off, your siblings hate me enough without blaming me for-”
“You won't let me die,” El apparently cut her off, with a soft smile.
An odd name but Marcel brushed the thought away it was likely short for something.
“Child, you're ten,” she sighed, “You know well enough Death isn't the only thing to fear.” she moved her hands over his body, likely checking for any injuries. “I doubt a coalition with one of those devices would be pleasant.”
It was only Marcel's history with witches that had him able to feel the magic, a witch he realised, one so close to the Abattoir wasn't a coincidence.
“We're almost there.” the child argued slightly, pouting when he found he could pull away from the hand on his shoulder.
“And we'll arrive together.” The woman replied, pushing herself up and turning to look at Marcel.
“Thank you,” the woman said even as she regarded him with a narrowed eyed look. “I’d hate to think of what would have happened if you hadn’t gotten involved.”
Marcel stared, his body shifting into a defensive stance; she looked different, years younger, lighter maybe but he recognised her.
The threat to Hope that made Klaus turn against them and cursed Hayley, the one who killed Josh's Aiden.
He had still failed to find his words when another adult joined them.
“What's wrong?” A man asked, a vampire Marcel's senses tell him before he looks away from Dahlia to him.
He was tall and bouncing a wriggling child on his hip, regarding Dahlia with a suspicious glare that Marcel would have found reinsurance if he didn't also recognise the man.
Once, long ago when Marcel was a child, he had snuck down to where Klaus kept his family coffins, he had woken from another nightmare featuring Kol and was still wondering what he had done to make Elijah hate him so suddenly and had wanted to make sure Kol wouldn't come back for him.
Instead he had opened the wrong coffin and seen the eldest Mikaelson.
Klaus had found him before he could close it again and explained why he kept Finn daggered, ‘for his own good’ and ‘he hated what we were’ Klaus had told him and that was the last he had given much thought to him until he learnt he had returned in the body of a witch to threaten his vampires.
For all Klaus' claims of Finn being too weak and hating being the monster they were made into, Marcel had noticed Finn's cruelty, disregard of innocent lives and spite made him as much a Mikaelson as the rest of them, even as he tried to excuse it with righteousness.
The vampire standing before him was the same one he had found in the coffin centuries ago, meaning the same man that had cursed and killed his guys and tried to kill Hope.
However unlike Dahlia who looked at him without any recognition, Finn knew him.
“Marcel-” He started only for the child he was holding the mange to land a kick to make him wince, “Stop kicking me, Kolr.”
A sudden idea on where Freya had vanished to and how a young Dahlia had arrived appeared in his mind but Marcel ignored it along with the similarities of the child’s name, because it couldn’t be that.
The boy let out a frustrated growl instead of words.
“He's overtired, “ Dahlia and El said at the same time.
“I know that,” Finn snapped, aiming it at Dahlia as he tried to shift Kolr, “they all are.”
“Almost there.” El added brightly, appearly ignoring he tension and attempting to pull himself out of Dahlia’ hold, the movement brought Finn’s eyes to it and his glare darkened.
“He was almost crushed by the vehicles when I wasn't holding him.” Dahlia defended herself, and Finn’s eyes widened before he returned them to look at El for any injuries, “We have this vampire to thank for him remaining unharmed.” she added, returning Finn’s attention to him and Marcel was lost.
Dahlia and Finn working together? No doubt Freya was somehow involved but nothing explained the children, although it was clear the boys were related with their matching features.
He was torn over concern over Freya’s absence and the worry over the boy’s safety, neither Finn or Dahlia had a history of safety around children as far as Marcel knew and cared about.
They had fought to protect Hope from them and Marcel wasn’t okay leaving other innocent children to them, however before he could act another voice joined them.
“Marcel!” Freya’s voice called relief audible so much he knew her expression before he looked up.
He hadn’t had much time to get to know the long lost Mikaelson sister, besides the fact she had been desperate to escape Dahlia, willing to kill Klaus and himself for it but she had bonded with Rebekah quickly granting her the wish Klaus had forced Rebekah to give up, which had won her points with him.
He understood between Rebekah leaving and her own disappearance Freya had been working to get to know her brothers better and in the state both her in it was a harder task than normal, and relearn a world that had changed much in a century, so he stayed out of her way, at most communicating about Elijah and Klaus’ moods.
But he couldn’t help but see her siblings in her, the woman he loved and the men that raised him even, she was family, even if his own placement in it felt shaky and unsteady, and so her disappearance had worried him and seeing her walking toward him in his city settled a fear he hadn’t allowed himself to dwell on.
Freya smiled at him with relief, Marcel noted it looked like a mix of Rebekah’s and Elijah’s, before he noticed the exhaustion she was showing and what surrounded her.
She was holding a baby, dark haired maybe Hope’s age, in one arm while the other was holding the hand of a small blonde boy who was attached to a smaller blonde girl.
“Freya, where have you been? What happened?” he asked before adding, “It's been three months.”
“Only three here.” she commented with surprise, and Marcel frowned.
“What happened?” he repeated,
“It’s a long story.” she sighed, however before she could start to explain her eyes landed on EL’s shoulder and she glared at Dahlia.
“He almost ran into traffic.” Dahlia explained, her tone bored, clearly unsurprised by the distrust and suspicion from her traveling companions. Leaving Marcel questioning why they would allow her near any of the children, if they had so little trust and why El seemed both unsurprised by it yet trusting of Dahlia.
“El, you shouldn't walk off.” Freya turned a stern look towards the boy. “Nicky and Becky look up to you and may copy-” she started but El interrupted
“It's in there.” El said firmly pointing across the road and Marcel followed the direction to the upper floor of the Abattoir, and Marcel realised it was exactly where Elijah's body lay.
Freya vanished with her pendant holding Finn’s soul and Elijah consciousness, apparently and here she was with a living Finn, so where was Elijah? His mind pushed.
Marcel looked at group Freya with a dark haired baby in her arms and a small blond boy and girl at her side, Finn with a restless dark hair boy on his hip, Dahlia, younger than Marcel met her as and the boy, long dark hair and Elijah's eyes.
El, Kolr, Nicky and Becky.
Elijah, Kol, Niklaus and Rebekah.
The numbers were adding up but Marcel's mind refused to accept the answer, it was harder to argue against as he took in two of the three teenagers following them, a younger looking Freya and Finn.
Not possible, he wanted to say for sure, but magic did what it wanted.
“Elijah?” He asked, hoping it would be met with confusion, and laughed off.
“El.” The boy corrected, pulling his gaze from the upper floor to look up at Marcel, a pair of brown eyes Marcel was very familiar with, stared up at him “we decided big Elijah keeps his name, to make it easier when we’re two.”
Marcel’s thoughts vanished at the answer,
El clearly had enough waiting and moved his hand to hold Dahlia's and remove it from his shoulder so he could pull her into the now clear road. Finn followed, Kolr-the very small Kol Mikaelson, his mind pointed out, in his arms angrily chewing his sleeve.
Marcel had the sudden knowledge that the emptiness and silence he had stepped out to escape was about to be banished.
First it would likely be by Klaus' screams, he only hoped the man restrained himself in the presence of the children.
The small blond boy of the group, ‘Nicky’ he remembered Freya calling him, smiled up at him shyly as he passed him, leading an even smaller blond girl, ‘Becky’ by the hand.
Tiny Niklaus and Rebekah his mind told him even as the words refused to make sense in his head but the sight in front of him didn't change.
Freya followed with the baby, a sharp pull at his chest made him realise that it was likely Henrik, the one bothe Klaus and Rebekah spoke of with aching hurt even after centuries gone, the boy whose death had started it all.
“It was for the best, bad things were going to happen.” the boy- Elijah- El had said, and Marcel couldn’t argue.
The three teenagers in the group gave him curious looks, as if they weren't getting those looks themselves as they walked with two goats on leads and a rolling suitcase between them.
They were a similar age to Davina when he found her at the harvest; young Freya, Finn and a red head he was sure was Sage, the woman he had only met in passing, attached to the family by a boxed Finn and Elijah's manners, he had thought but apparently enough to be brought forever in time with the rest.
Marcel pulled his phone from his pocket as he followed the group crossing the road, sending a message to Rebekah, who had taken Hope out for a walk.
Get back to the compound ASAP
He wasn’t facing this alone.