Chapter 31: Confrontation p3 setup?

The question reverberated through Klaus's mind, a whirlwind of potential responses running through his head as he sought an answer that wouldn't open the door to something worse.

Taking a deep, steadying breath, Klaus approached his brother, halting just a foot away. "Very well, brother," he began, his voice calm but heavy with purpose. "I will tell you the truth, answer all your questions, and illuminate your suspicions. But be warned," his voice dropped, becoming darker and more foreboding, "once you know, your life will be irrevocably changed; everything you believed will reveal itself to be a lie. So I ask you... brother... is this a burden you are willing to carry?"

Elijah's stoic expression didn't betray his thoughts as he absorbed Klaus's words, offering a small, cautious nod of acceptance.

Klaus placed a hand gently on Elijah's shoulder, his eyes unmasked, revealing a vulnerability rarely shown. "The truth… I am..." His voice wavered as he lowered his gaze, trying to calm the storm within him.

Elijah watched him, a mix of fear and apprehension playing across his features, knowing that the answer might confirm his deepest fears.

After gathering his resolve, Klaus looked directly at Elijah with renewed determination. Keeping his hand on his brother's shoulder, he spoke with all the vulnerability he could muster. "Elijah, the truth is... I am your father."

...

Silence.

Both looked at each other with an unreadable expression. For a moment, Klaus thought he might have short-circuited his brother's brain.

A small smirk formed on Klaus's lips, but before it could manifest, he felt the ground give way and found himself flying backward until he reached a wall.

A flicker of a smirk crossed Klaus's lips, but before it could fully form, he was abruptly hurled backward through the air, colliding with a wall. "AHHH!" he growled, falling to his knees. Before he could regain his footing, Elijah had him pinned against the wall, fury etched into his features.

"DO YOU THINK THIS IS A JOKE?!?" Elijah roared, having reached his limit, his face filled with dark veins and eyes fierce enough to freeze death in its place, but Klaus would not be deterred.

"You'd better let go of me, Elijah, or I'll have you over my knee for a spanking worthy of lifetimes."

"ENOUGH!"

"ENOUGH!" Elijah shouted, swinging a fist at Klaus, who used the opportunity to wriggle free.

Klaus sidestepped the punch, which slammed into the wall, leaving a smoldering hole. Taking advantage of the momentum, Klaus grabbed Elijah's arm, twisted his hips, and flipped him, slamming him into the floor with a force that drove the breath from his lungs.

"Fighting me in anger, brother? You should know better," Klaus taunted, drawing back his fist to strike.

Elijah turned his head just in time, dodging the punch, which left another hole in the ground. Still, Klaus continued his onslaught from above.

Elijah dodged most of the blows until he managed to kick Klaus away, rising swiftly to his feet. But for Klaus, it was never about inflicting injury—merely a ploy to make enough noise to draw attention.

Elijah lunged at Klaus again with a flurry of punches and kicks at a speed with which even an ancient vampire would struggle to keep up, but Klaus had no such issue.

They were both Originals, but Klaus was an Original Hybrid, part werewolf, which heightened his senses even beyond that of his siblings, allowing Klaus to deflect Elijah's attacks without much trouble.

In the past, whenever Elijah and Klaus fought, they were always evenly matched. Klaus's anger often blinded him, and his pride forced him to fight head-on to show his superiority, but Jason, who had taken over Klaus, did not care for such trivial matters.

He kept his mind calm and deflected Elijah's punches, then struck at precise moments at weak points of the body, such as the liver, throat, knees, forcing Elijah to slow down before throwing him against a wall and then into a bookshelf, bringing it down with him.

Elijah threw the shelf off him as he stared at Klaus with murderous intent, completely consumed with anger.

It seemed Klaus's mockery and his humiliating beatdown awakened something within Elijah. His eyes were now completely void of humanity, with veins moving down his neck and under his shirt. He seemed completely devoid of any sense of pain, ignoring objects sticking out of his body, even a dagger in his backside that Klaus had nicely stabbed him with.

He lunged at Klaus, but this time there was no fluidity, no grace in his movements, just a reckless barrage of attacks all aimed at areas to quickly kill.

Klaus remained calm as he managed to dodge most of them by keeping control of the distance. When he saw an opportunity, he ducked and got right behind Elijah, gripping his arms around him and lifting him to slam him down as hard as he could, causing the house to shake.

"Give up, brother," Klaus said as he took a few steps back to create new distance between the two.

Elijah groaned in pain as he tried to rise, aware now of the splinters and shards embedded in his flesh. He began pulling out the debris, his gaze never leaving Klaus.

"No! Your behavior only confirms my suspicions," Elijah said coldly, wincing as he tried removed a large stake on his back. "Even your fighting style betrays you."

Klaus maintained a stoic expression, contemplating whether it might be prudent to temporarily incapacitate Elijah with a dagger. It would be easy to justify his actions to the rest of the family later. Yet a nagging doubt crept in as he surveyed the scene.

The room lay in ruins—furniture shattered, walls riddled with holes—and still, no one had come to investigate. They had been fighting for several minutes, and Klaus had deliberately made as much damage as possible to attract attention. The office's design was meant to ensure privacy; no sound, no matter how loud, should escape its confines however the fight should have rattled the entire house at his point. But the silence from outside unnerved him.

Something was amiss. Klaus's unease deepened as he saw Elijah struggling with the stake in his back. He slowly approached his brother, determined to end the skirmish.

"Brother, let's stop this madness," he urged, pulling the stake free. "I don't understand what's driven you to this, but we—"

Before Klaus could finish, Elijah drove a shard of wood into his gut. He gasped in pain, doubling over as Elijah moved behind him, securing a chokehold.

Before he could finish, Elijah had stabbed a small piece of wood into Klaus's gut, causing him to cry out in pain.

Jason may have had Klaus's memories and body, but the mentality was his own, and he was far from used to such pain.

Klaus quickly removed it, but Elijah had already gotten behind him and now held him in a chokehold.

"You do not call me ''brother''!" Elijah said in a low but menacing tone.

"Well in that case," Klaus choked out and bit down on Elijah's finger as hard as he could.

This time it was Elijah who cried out in pain as wolf venom entered his system, yet he refused to let go.

Klaus kept his bite, wanting to rip off his entire arm as he elbowed Elijah in the ribs to have him loosen the grip. Klaus was successful, but as he tried to vamp-speed away, Elijah had sunk his own teeth into Klaus's neck.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Klaus screamed again, completely overwhelmed by pain and falling to his knees.

In truth, if this was the original Klaus, he could have shrugged off the pain. Jason, by no means, was a stranger to pain—be it from fights on the street, clubs, or whippings he had received as a child from his own father. But this... this was on a whole new level, and the enhanced senses did him no favors.

Elijah now held Klaus by the hair as he looked down at him with pure disdain.

"Look at you, how pathetic... my brother would never..." This time it was Elijah who was cut off short as Klaus mustered all his strength and shot a beautiful uppercut right at Elijah's little children.

Somehow, to Klaus's shock, Elijah was able to withstand the pain but still forced him to let go of Klaus. This allowed Klaus to grab a piece of wood and stab it right at Elijah's foot.

Elijah growled in pain as he instinctively bent down just as Klaus wanted and met his brother with his own teeth digging through his neck.

As Klaus bit him, he tried to release him and get some distance to allow the venom to do its work. He attempted to vamp-speed out, but Elijah had managed to get a hold on his arm and again tried to bite down to get Klaus's blood.

Klaus snapped his arm back and returned with a right hook followed by a left and then a knee to his stomach.

Elijah, forced to bend down after being kneed, went for Klaus's legs. Klaus thought he was going for a double leg and went to defend, which was a mistake, as he suddenly found himself off his feet and crashed against a wall.

"Ahhh, fuck..." Klaus cursed himself.

While he was superior, he was never made more aware of his inexperience as he was now.

Jason held all the memories of Klaus, but he also had his own from his past life, and while it was no trouble keeping them separate, sometimes they would clash with each other, like now.

Since both were experienced in fighting, whenever Jason would fight as Klaus, he would often use his own memories rather than Original Klaus's as it came more naturally to him. Unfortunately, it would make him forget sometimes that some impossible techniques or form of attack would prove to be the simplest with the enhanced strength of a vampire.

Klaus slowly got up on one knee, spitting out his blood, or maybe it was Elijah's. A smirk formed on his lips as he saw Elijah on his knees as well, already being affected by the venom he had injected in his body a second time.

Klaus had grown sick and tired of this and decided there would be no point in trying to talk to him, at least not presently. He needed to finish this quickly.

He was about to get up on his feet when he saw something that caused the blood in his veins to turn cold, a feeling of horror taking over his body. The door... it was ajar.

This entire office of Klaus was designed to not allow any sound to enter or leave, not even his hybrid senses would be able to pick up anything, but it required the door to be completely shut.

The door was made from special materials so that it wouldn't be broken easily, but if it was ajar now...

Klaus glanced at Elijah and back to the door as panic continued to spread through his body. How long was the door... has it always been... dozens of questions raced through his mind, but they all concluded with the same realization... they know.

"They have been listening this entire time..." Klaus thought, finally understanding why none of his family had intervened. Elijah must have instructed them not to interfere, or worse... they were all part of this... even Hayley... he had been set up?!?!

For the first time, Klaus thought of running away, possibly jumping out of the balcony, but a worse realization came to him then - if this was all premeditated, then escape would be impossible. They would most definitely set up some kind of magical barrier to stop his escape.

With each moment, Klaus's anxiety and fear rose, realizing he had been completely outplayed. He had underestimated everyone, and now everything he worked for, everything he had planned, would all be for nothing, and he worried his fate might be worse.

A moment of solace, however, sparked within Klaus as he noticed his cellphone a few feet away from Elijah. ''Of course'', Klaus almost celebrated in his mind. One call and he could have dozens of vampires and humans in New Orleans come to his rescue... ''yes, I still have a chance...''

Elijah, who felt his blood boiling from Klaus's venom, was still able to notice the shift in Klaus's attitude and followed his gaze. He let out a chuckle with a smirk of his own and easily sped to the phone just a few feet away from him and stomped on it, breaking it into dozens of pieces.

Elijah's smirk turned into a grin as he saw Klaus's expression go from shock to complete anger, but he saw through the mask. He could see how he was trembling, hear how quickly his heart beat, and knew he was completely terrified, something his true brother never would be.

"I hope you weren't expecting a call."

Klaus was completely livid. He had completely lost his calm, and every single emotion he could imagine was now running wild in his body, but the one which stood out most was his own anger... but now at Elijah, not at his sibling... not even at Hayley... but himself. "How much did I underestimate them?!? How long had they planned this?!?!"

Fight scenes is not my best area, especially with super natural abilities while trying to keep it limited to the office. Let me know what you think