save my soul : k.m.

dahlia - chapter 19 part 1

'Talk.'

Astrid pulled up a chair and sat in front of Finn with her dagger in her hand. Finn looked confused and Astrid rolled her eyes, 'I said talk or I'll start carving up Vincent Griffith's cheekbones bit by bit.'

'What do you wanna know?' He asked. Astrid played with the tip of her blade, twiddling it around her hand as she contemplated. 'How about you start with why you had Nik's baby killed?' Finn suddenly looked fearful as if he suddenly got flashbacks. He took a long and shaky breath, 'You remember Freya, right? Our sister?' Astrid nodded her head, 'Nik told me she died of the plague before we were born. You're the only sibling who knew her.'

'She didn't die, Astrid. Dahlia took her.'

Astrid screwed her face up and Finn seemed hysterical, 'Don't act like you don't know about Aunt Dahlia. I know Rosaline told you.' Astrid facepalmed and crossed her legs, leaning back on her chair and crossing her arms, 'Why are you telling me this instead of Nik? Or Elijah?'

'They wouldn't believe me. I've always had faith in you, Astrid. For a thousand years you've been our sister and you've managed to do what my parents and I never could.'

'And what might that be?'

'Keep this family in check. Sure Elijah comes in with his suits and his cleanliness but you.' Finn put emphasis on the last word and Astrid suddenly didn't know how to respond and Finn finished his sentence, 'The Mikaelson brothers don't listen to anyone like they do you.'

The two stared at each other for a moment and Astrid managed to slip in one last comment before Klaus interrupted them again. 'You're just as much a Mikaelson as the others, Finn.'

'So, brother-- ready to embrace your new life of freedom?' Klaus came in dangling the keys to his chains. He looked at his wife's stony face in confusion but turned back to Finn when he made another brainwashed comment, 'I'm already free, brother.'

He pocketed Finn's key and sighed, 'You're aware our mother cares nothing for you?'

'Niklaus, I assure you, my mother loves me. She loves all of her children. You would not exist without her sacrifice.' Finn was so confident in his plight that Astrid felt sick to her stomach. 'Finn get to the point.' She stood up and kept her arms crossed, the grip on her blade getting looser and Klaus smirked. He characteristically didn't believe his brother and went to walk out until Astrid grabbed his shoulder, 'You need to listen to him.'

Nik looked shocked and almost betrayed at her sudden compliance, growing slowly angry as Finn began to speak.

'Do you even know the truth? That she was barren? And she grew so desperate for a family that she begged one of the most powerful witches in history for help-- her sister, Dahlia. Of course, Dahlia's price was high. She agreed to make our mother fertile, but in exchange, she sought the first-born as sacrifice. Having no other choice, our mother gave away our beloved Freya.'

'Our sister died of plague.' He growled.

'Esther gave her away. Think about that. The pain, the grief.'

'It's a little hard to imagine Esther sad over her children, Finn when all she's done for a thousand years is attempt to murder the lot of them! And her best friends daughters too! Not to mentioned she nearly succeeded with one of them by body jumping one of the most twisted wolves in history into her!' Astrid lost her temper at Finn's defiance and suddenly everything made sense to Finn.

The hybrid King and Queen of New Orleans stood in front of him with shadowed eyes and bellowing voices. That was the thing that stumped everyone about Astrid Mikaelson, she could be as gentle as the roses that grew in their home in England or as wild and temperamental as the fires Mikael left behind in his wake.

'If what you say is true, then death is far too delicate a fate for her.' Klaus came intimidatingly close to his brother and growled lowly. 'She loves us more than you realize.' Finn's voice was low and shaky, he sounded like he had given up.

'And is love the reason she wanted my child dead?'

'She was trying to protect you from Dahlia's curse!' Finn was still being vague and Klaus yelled at the top of his lungs, 'WHAT CURSE?'

'Dahlia demanded the first-born of every generation' Finn finally let the cat out of the bag. 'Had your child lived, she would have paid the price! And, if anyone had tried to protect her, Dahlia would come and destroy us all.'

'Rosaline used to tell me that fable as a child. She never told me about Freya.' Astrid's voice broke the tension, 'Or maybe she never got that far. I used to worry about her coming after you because I never grasped the "first born" side of things.' She turned to Nik as she spoke.

'You were six when she first told you that.' Deryn came to the top of the stairs, 'You were worried about that at six years old?'

'It's Nik we're talking about.' Astrid looked up at her sister before smiling shyly at her husband, 'Age never mattered when it came to defending him.' Klaus turned away from Finn to smile at his wife before wrapping an arm around her and walking out.

'Deryn come on! You're not being alone with him!'

...

'I'm done leaving messages, Elijah. To say that this is urgent would be a gross understatement. We need to speak immediately.' Klaus hung up the phone and sat back down next to Astrid, 'Are you alright love?' She knew what he meant instantly. 'I only just got him back. Then I lost him again because of her.' She spoke with a repulsion in her voice and tried to steady herself by falling back into her husband's chest and sighing until she sensed a presence near the gates and sat up again, alerted.

Klaus sensed it too, and smiled. 'I was wondering whether you would show up. I'm afraid I'm not done torturing your darling Kol. You best run along while you still can.'

'I'm not going anywhere, Klaus.'

Davina stood proud and Marcel overheard the commotion. 'Whoa, D, today is not the day.' He came down the stairs trying to stop it but she wasn't having any of it, 'Actually, I think it is.' She snapped Marcel's neck with a flick of her wrist and he fell down the stairs as Astrid stood up, 'Davina!'

Without thinking, Davina snapped Astrid's neck too. Klaus noticed that the young witch seemed to have a moment of realisation before putting her act on again.

'Looks like it's just you and me now.'

...

'It's impressive. What exactly did you do to him?' Kol looked down at his unconscious brother and Davina sighed, 'I channeled dark objects through my blood to poison him.'

'How did you get free?' She asked him and Astrid suddenly awoke with a jolt and vamped to her feet. 'That's something I want to know too.' She growled and Davina grew nervous, 'Astrid..'

'I'll talk to you later.' Astrid was visibly annoyed at her and Kol tried to ease the question, 'Oh, it's a long story. Better question is, if he's not dead, then what are you gonna do when he recovers?'

'We have an hour, maybe less. What I wanted to do was chain him, bleed him, dump him in the river. I didn't realise Astrid was here.' She spoke as if Astrid wasn't listening and she rose her eyebrows, 'Yeah because I would've been fine with that wouldn't I Davina?'

'That's a bit harsh, isn't it?' Kol was equally as dismayed as Astrid and Davina questioned it, 'Since when did you care what happened to Klaus?'

Marcel awoke whilst the three were in conversation and began to reason with Davina, Astrid used an opportunity to run over to Klaus's body and kneel down beside him.

'Klaus is the problem! I don't give a damn what happens to Esther.' Davina began to protest and Astrid had enough, 'The rest of us do Davina! Not everything is about you!'