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Betraying who, exactly?

[Bela is smarter than Cooper. She knows the double speak of compulsion, and she's going to attempt a way around it with a little more finesse.]

Because that all depends on who your loyalty belongs to. Are you loyal to the cause, are you loyal to Monroe, or are you loyal to him?

He betrayed the hunters. Monroe's hunters and I'm loyal to them, that is what I can say.

( And what he used to be... ring ring Bela, per Mr. Elijah Mikaelson

"Where are you right now?" )

[She huffs as the phone rings, before she steps back.]

Hold on.

[Then she answers, frowning at the question.]

I'm down by the river, why?

( "Not in a van," he muses. Not the time. Dire things afoot. "Klaus has tasked me with meeting up with you. We're to investigate Davina's."

Mickey just -- watches Bela because, really? Taking a call now? And he turns back. )

Man, get out of the water. You're probably freezing.

[Bela snaps her head around at that because yes, she is listening, she's not completely ignoring you and points to Cooper.]

No, no. Don't you move. We don't know what might retrigger the compulsion.

[Sorry, Cooper. But then she goes back her call.]

Actually, I need your brother. He has to come help me clean up one of his messes. Would you mind seeing to Freya?

( As he turns back around and calls out to Klaus, speaking to him on their end.

Meanwhile...

"I'm not - I don't want -- I love him. I know what I know. And I know what I need to do. But, that cause -- I love him." He turns to Mickey who's also just... treading water and has no choice but to hear this, absolute go figure, best time ever but whatever. "I love you. That I can say. I'm stubborn. I believed in this cause. In Monroe's -- I was made this way. But, I wasn't made to stop loving you. So. Hold me back, or whatever. Or, I'll sit in the car." (16) on the conviction with what he's working with, but it would be very apparent in any case, he's desperate. Distraught. And was asked to kill his former? best friend.

Breaking this declaration of love. )

Fine. We are swapping assignments. Cami and I will see to Freya. Here's Klaus.

( "Where are you, exactly, and what mess is more important than my sister's fiery brush with death." )

[Cooper's face softens, because it does mean something to him, and he hates that his friend is this fucked up because vampires got involved. It would have been better if he had died for good, rather than being at war with himself.

"We'll fix this, man. I promise. And I'm fine. Water's not too bad."

He's so going to have a cold when this is over, but maybe his cute boyfriend will be here in time to take care of him.

Meanwhile, on the phone:]

Oh, nothing, just a certain hunter that you supposedly compelled to working as a double agent for us, but can't make any decisions for himself so he might kill our actual inside man who has been burned.

[You can almost hear her smile.]

And personally, I don't care how you wish to resolve the situation, but I think that getting someone back inside and actually useful is probably better for locating the missing faction heads, don't you think?

[Cooper's head snaps towards Bela. "Wait, what?"]

( Real Shakespearean. Literally at war with himself when he has been all his life and now the very thing he was taught to hate. Granted, that teaching was accelerated thanks to School of Monroe, but, he knows what it's like being him. )

You're not. You're burned. And I'm --" also not fine.

( As for Klaus!

"What actual inside man?" )

Isaac Lahey recruited one of Monroe's team in Prague to try and get us ahead of the game. Though it seems he was quite terrible at his job and got himself caught.

["First of all, I volunteered, he didn't recruit me. Second of all, you're a bitch."]

Ah yes, the hunter status quo. I'm not wrong though.

[Back to Klaus:]

I've been requested by our allies to keep the terrible inside man alive, but we're going to have to do something with him to make it seem as though your compelled friend fulfilled his role.

[They can brainstorm when he gets here.]

I'll drop you a pin.

You were flipped.

( "Ah. Mickey Mouse," Klaus said, from over the phone. "Perfect. Let's get this parlor farce over with."

Click. )

["I wouldn't call it flipped so much as having a crisis of conscience." Or, at least, that's how he prefers to look at it. Because William totally didn't flip him. It was a mutual ... something.

Wasn't it?

Let's not get into the details. "I don't know man, sometimes the Winchesters aren't actually crazy."]

That, we agree on. A broken clock is right twice a day.

The Winchesters got to you?

( Of all of the hunters, of everyone against Monroe? )

But, the Winchesters.

["Oh, no. I've never met them. Never want to either. Isn't that how you wound up dead?"

He fires back at Bela, because he can and she rolls her eyes.]

I got myself dead, thank you. But they certainly weren't any help.

And what did I do? Get myself dead?

( Why the comparisons? As it is, he can't... speak about who was there. )

The Winchesters weren't involved.

[She doubts that the Winchesters hands are completely clean in anything, but that's a conversation for another time.]

Who was? Other than Klaus, obviously.

What part of "I can't say anything" don't you understand?

( Talking around it only counts when it's something he can answer, Bela. I was captured, Klaus was involved. I escaped.

[She rolls her eyes.]

I don't know where the limits of your compulsion are. I'm trying to find them. There has to be someone you can speak freely with.

[She steps closer, ticking names off on her fingers.]

Klaus, probably. I'm going to assume one of the Salvatores, and I've met Stefan recently. He seems like he's on the wagon rather than off, which means turning random hunters on an impulse is likely more Damon's idea than his. Am I wrong?

Damon. Damon Salvatore. And Klaus was brought in after. It was either death or do this. And, I can't say the words out loud, not in front of Cooper, or any other Monroe lackey. He was very specific. And condascending.

( But, his mind is working through the intricacies. )

That is his brand.

[She makes her way closer, before gesturing for Mickey to turn around and face her, taking Cooper out of his line of view.]

Keep your voice low, and he won't be able to hear you. And if he can't hear you, he can't rat you out. Now, I am Team Klaus as it were, and have a vested interest in keeping him alive - [More for Elijah and Hope's sake than her own] - so I am an ally. I'm on your side, and I was never on Monroe's.

Can you tell me what you know?

( He follows her, turning to face her, away from Cooper still in the water. )

I know I'm not Team Klaus. I know I was sent back to take Monroe down. I know what I can't say. I know Monroe is setting a plan in motion, but even I'm not privy to whatever it is. His dad's higher in the ranks than the both of us, but Damon didn't think about that when he turned me.

( Mickey also severely stonewalled all of them. And didn't make his part in it easier. )

Yes, well, it sounds like things then were a bit impulsive.

[Because Bela agrees.]

Does his father know Monroe wants his son "taken care of"?

He wasn't in there with me. It was me and her. I think she found a poetry to me being the one to do it. She's got a sadistic streak I didn't see before.

( He pauses, lower lip dropping. )

No, he wouldn't waste his own kid. But, this might be what I need to start to turn the tide.

Yes, I think we can definitely use that. We just need to get you back inside and keep Monroe thinking you're a trustworthy soldier.

[There's a reason she gave the job to Mickey not Cooper. Perhaps she thought they would kill each other and resolve the problem for her, but Mickey was the one she gave the advantage to survive.]

She didn't ask for proof. She just said 'take care of it.' This isn't a matter of bringing back a finger or an ear. I come back, say the job's done, the faster I can -- try and flip the script. But, you need to keep me as far from him as possible.

( "What's a little bloodshed between two friends," Klaus says on cue, coming up to the very strange scene. "You must be the one who was bad at your job," he first says to Cooper before turning to Mickey. "Hello, Mouse." )

I don't like you.

Edited 2021-12-02 01:18 (UTC)

You're not the first darling, and you won't be the last.

[Bela tips her head to the side.]

Are you sure she didn't ask for some kind of proof? With the moves she's been making I would assume she wants some kind of display. And in order to get the father on your side, we need him to believe his son is dead.

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