A.N. – Classes start again next week :/ On the bright side, I'm taking my first creative writing class! Sorry if this chapter is a little boring; next chapter will be much more eventful (no spoilers!). Follow me on twitter at HaylijahIsLife for TO/TVD related things and a few pieces of my life. Without further ado, let's get into it. Please review and enjoy :)

Song: The Neighbourhood - Prey

Once again, Belle was dragged into another endless discussion about the current state of things in the French Quarter. The latest news Lucien brought to the table regarded a looming war between the three remaining sire lines: Klaus's, Rebekah's, and Elijah's. Apparently, each line sought to wipe out the two others through one move: Killing the Original who sired the line. They were all understandably skeptical, namely Klaus, when Lucien divulged this knowledge; the timing was suspicious.

Why wouldn't he have said this earlier? Surely, he'd known about this.

Belle was partly convinced that he had made it up. She was tempted to voice her opinion, but decided against it. She couldn't tell whether it was intuition or paranoia that led her to the conclusion that Lucien wasn't to be trusted. If her suspicions were wrong, if Dominic had lied, and Lucien was truly trying to help the Mikaleson's, she would be losing a valuable ally and friend.

Dozens of possible explanations ran through her head as she stared blankly forward, biting her thumbnail; she winced when she had bitten down to the skin and drew a single drop of blood.

What if Aurora was the ringleader and Lucien was being used? What if he was innocent and Tristan and Aurora were attempting to frame him? She sought desperately for an answer, some pseudo truth that would explain everything and wouldn't mean that she'd been sleeping with the enemy.

Logic told her to just confront Lucien about her suspicions and clear the air, perhaps slip him a truth-telling serum to make sure he was being honest. However, her heart told her to ignore it all, that she was being irrational. Maybe she'd just developed Klaus's talent for jumping to conclusions; it wouldn't be the first of his traits she'd unintentionally taken on.

"If the other sires learn of this alleged weapon, I'm afraid we'll all be in danger," Lucien said gravely, leaning forward with his elbows on his thighs, hands folded under his chin, dark eyes scanning their faces for a reaction.

"And why should we believe you?" Klaus narrowed his eyes. This caught Belle's attention immediately. This was a risky move, but she was interested to watch how it played out. Perhaps it would help her in her own investigation of her "boyfriend".

Smoothly, Lucien scoffed and straightened up in his seat. "Must you turn so quickly to paranoia, Nik?"

"I believe my apprehension to blindly trust every word out of your mouth is perfectly valid. Especially since my life is on the line."

"All of our lives are at stake, actually," Elijah interjected, getting to his feet before starting to pace the floor, shooting a glare in Lucien's direction every few steps. "To that extent, given our delicate circumstances, I believe that Niklaus's skepticism is valid."

Belle resisted the urge to smirk as Klaus rolled his eyes at the sound of his real name.

"I can hardly believe I'm saying this, but I agree with Klaus," Rebekah said. "How do we know you aren't working with the very people who want us dead?"

Marcel nodded in agreement from his position in the doorway, arms folded over his chest as he listened in. Belle hadn't seen him around much, outside of the gym. She wondered if he was just spending more time with Audrey.

The room fell completely silent as everyone watched Lucien intently, waiting for his reply; Belle's eyes, however, were fixed on her shoes as she anxiously waited for his to say something, wondering if she was in the wrong, wondering if he could be trusted.

Lucien took a moment to collect his thoughts, and coolly responded, "You have no reason to trust me." He paused and got to his feet, turning to look each one of them in the eye. "Not that I've given any of you a reason to question where my loyalties lie." This time, he turned to look straight at Klaus. "You are my sire. Regardless of what you believe about my intentions, I will always be on your side. I will do whatever is best for you, for all of you."

"Well, if that's the case then whose side are you on?" Rebekah shot at Belle, probably irritated by her lack of participation in this discussion. "Your sire's or all of ours?" She shot a pointed glare at her as Belle turned her head to meet her gaze.

"Well, considering I don't know who my Original sire is, do I really have a choice?" she replied sarcastically, rolling her eyes. As if any of them had any imaginable reason to distrust her; Marcel would surely betray the family before she ever would, yet his loyalty wasn't being called into question.

Out of spite, she wanted to press Rebekah's unnecessary question further.

Klaus, somewhat sadistically, raised an eyebrow at Lucien. "Really? Surely you would have told her by now, given the current status of your relationship." He slyly sat back in his chair, his back now flush against it, appearing all too confident – cocky, even. What did he mean?

Warily, she turned to Lucien. Her heart sank. Was this going to give her yet another reason not to trust him? What was he hiding? "What's he talking about?" she asked.

Once again, everyone was fixated on Lucien, only this time he was visibly cracking under the pressure. He refused to look at Belle, choosing instead to stare at the carpet. "That's none of your concern." His voice was low, gruff, and perhaps even a little angry. His head slowly lifted as his eyes met Klaus's, narrowed dangerously, like a threat.

"Actually, when it comes to my sires it is my concern."

Belle stared in disbelief at Lucien before turning to Klaus. "Wait, so you are my Original sire?"

Klaus smirked, splaying his arms proudly. "In the flesh. Congratulations, you're on the best side."

Suddenly, everything snapped into focus. "You turned her." She could hardly get the words out. After nine centuries of pure hatred for the woman who gave her new life, the one who murdered her beloved Lilith, Belle had wondered who to blame for Charlotte's wretched existence. And now she knew. "You turned Charlotte."

At last, he turned to face her. Lucien looked genuinely worried now, afraid even. He knew that he was in danger of losing her. "Belle, before you say anything else, just let me explain," he pleaded. She could practically smell his desperation; he also reeked of guilt.

Just as she was about to snap at him, her phone buzzed from its place beside her thigh. She glanced down at it before getting to her feet, stuffing the phone into her back pocket, and moving to leave.

"Where are you going?" Klaus demanded. She didn't have to look to him to know that the arrogant grin he'd worn before was now gone. He was growing irritated. "We're devising a plan, a plan which requires your help."

"You can figure it out without me," she snapped, pushing past Marcel as she left the room, striding as quickly as possible for the front door. In a sudden outburst of rage, she shoved her fist through a wall as she passed it, too occupied to register the pain.

Kol, amused, walked past her into the sitting room to join the discussion. "What the hell is her problem?" She didn't bother with a response.

By the time she reached her car, she was shaking with anger. She turned on the car, cranked up the radio to a deafening volume, and headed out to the country, using all of her willpower to avoid thinking about what had just happened with Lucien. She would deal with it later.

Instead, she focused on the task at hand. She was meeting with a builder at her old house, the one she'd discovered on the city's outskirts over a hundred years before – her secret garden, the one Sabrina burned to the ground.

She'd only recently decided to have it rebuilt, knowing that, in her absence, Blade would need a place to escape from the madness of the Quarter for a while, as she had. Klaus could use it, too. She began crying as she thought about him standing out on the front porch painting while Blade climbed in the trees on a warm spring afternoon. This would be her gift to them from beyond the grave. This way, they would always have a piece of her.

The thought of leaving them tore her heart in two. As she pulled up to the scorched, blackened remains, she broke down, realizing that this was exactly what she would do to everyone she had to leave behind; she wasn't ready. There was so much left she had to do. She realized in that moment that there was no point in trying to escape her fate. Alexis's vision was absolute. She had to stop focusing on cheating death and start focusing on the people she would inevitably be leaving behind.