The Boy King's Journey in TVD/TO As A Mikaelson

The Impala cut through Chicago's night, moonlight catching on its chrome like liquid silver. Inside, the air felt thick with unspoken tension.

"It's fascinating, really," Vali broke the silence, his eyes finding Stefan's in the rearview mirror. "This peculiar loyalty of yours."

Stefan met his gaze, in question. "What are you talking about?"

"Damon." The name dropped like a stone in still water. "Your beloved brother who can't seem to decide if he wants to love you or destroy you." Vali's smile curved sharp in the darkness. "Tell me, does Elena know about Zach's wife? About the child she carried?"

Elena hearing his words, already knew where this was going, causing her to tighten her grip on Stefan's hand in support.

"That's different," Stefan's voice carried an edge he couldn't quite control. "He wasn't himself-"

"Wasn't he?" Vali's laugh was rich with dark amusement. "Like he wasn't himself when he spent months trying to seduce Elena? When he forced his blood on her? When he snapped her brother's neck in a fit of rejected passion?"

"Stop it," Elena whispered, yet deep down unable to deny anything being said.

"Why?" Vali's eyes gleamed crimson in the darkness. "Because truth reveals the falsehoods that you delude yourselves into believing - those same falsehoods that hurt you more than anything?

Tell me, Stefan - how many times has your brother destroyed everything you love? How many 'accidents' with Elena's blood have there been? How many 'misunderstandings' that always seem to end with his hands on what's yours?"

The shadows in the car seemed to pulse as Stefan's fingers tightened on the leather seat. Each of Vali's words struck with surgical precision, hitting truths he'd tried so hard to bury.

"He's killed members of your own bloodline," Vali continued, his voice silk over steel. "Betrayed every trust, broken every promise. Yet you forgive him, time and time again. One has to wonder if it's loyalty..." his smile turned knowing, "or weakness."

"And Jeremy," Vali mused, watching their reactions in the mirror. "That was particularly artistic, wasn't it? Snapping the boy's neck just to make a point. Only alive because of that ring - a chance your brother didn't even know about. Tell me, Elena, how does it feel knowing he'd have let your brother stay dead just to spite you?"

The car's interior grew colder as something shifted in the air between them. Stefan sat silent for a long moment, feeling power he didn't yet understand coiling inside him. Then his eyes met Vali's in the mirror, and his smile turned sharp.

"You know," Stefan's voice carried new weight, "it's interesting hearing you lecture about brotherly betrayal." His gaze flickered meaningfully to Rebekah. "Tell me, how many times has your family forgiven you for daggering them? For stealing years of their lives whenever they dare to disagree?"

The temperature in the car dropped further as Vali's eyes narrowed, but Stefan wasn't finished.

"At least Damon's honest about his demons. He doesn't pretend his cruelty is for some greater purpose." His smile turned knowing. "He doesn't lock his siblings away in boxes and call it love."

The silence that followed was razor-sharp. Rebekah's breath caught, fear flicking across her eyes as she glanced towards her brother.

Vali's laugh, when it came, was unexpectedly genuine. "Oh, you are going to be magnificent," he murmured, genuine appreciation coloring his voice. "Such delicious defiance..."

The Impala turned down a darker street, Gothic spires of an abandoned church rising before their supernatural eyes, like accusing fingers against the night sky.

"But you're missing a crucial difference, dear Stefan," Vali continued, his voice carrying certainty.

"Your brother destroys without purpose, breaks what he claims to love out of mere spite or momentary passion." His smile showed too many teeth. "While I... I craft my family's pain into something greater. Every moment of suffering serves a design."

"And that makes it better?" Elena's voice carried strength, pushing past her fears.

"Better?" Vali's eyes gleamed crimson in the darkness. "No. It makes it necessary." 

"You see, Damon breaks things because he can't bear to see them whole. I break things because I understand exactly how they need to be reformed."

"Why?" Elena burst out suddenly, frustration and genuine confusion breaking through her fear. "Why do they even put up with you?" She turned to Rebekah, desperation in her voice.

"You're all Original vampires, aren't you? Why do you let him do this? Why do you call him King when you should be equals?"

The shadows darkened as Vali's eyes found Elena in the mirror, but there was something almost like amusement in his gaze.

"Oh, sweet girl," Rebekah's smile held something between affection and pity. "We call him King because that's what he is. He simply... is."

"What does that even mean?" Stefan asked, feeling something stir beneath his skin at her words.

"Tell me, do you two understand what the very defintion of 'King' is?" Rebekah questioned, nonchalantly as she looked out the window.

Stefan and Elena looked towards one another for a moment in confusion, until Stefan gave the text book answer, "It means the male ruler of an independent state, especially one who inherits the position of authority by right of birth."

"Yes," Rebekah began with a distant smile, "and if you both look deeper into the meaning of the words you just uttered, you would understand why your question, Elena is nonsensical. Vali was born as one that shifted the balance of the universe, he turned all the powers that be upside their heads. 

Made them run like headless chickens in their attempts to end him and his reign.

For, my brother is one who does as he so wishes, whenever he wishes it. He eats when he wants, sleeps when he wants, fucks whoever he wants, kills whatever he wants, that is simply who he is.

It is his right as the Strongest.

His authority comes from himself, not from anyone allowing him to have it, for if it was so, then we would be the King, not he himself. 

So understand this, throughout Heaven and Earth, he alone is the Honoured One, only his pleasure and displeasure matter." Rebekah explained, the last words feeling more quoted than her own words, yet fully believed with all her being.

Stefan and Elena sat in stunned silence, but it wasn't just Rebekah's words that struck them. Something deep within them, resonated with the words, accepting it as absolute truth. 

"Oh, dear sister, if you continue, you will make even me blush," Vali remarked playfully, bringing Stefan and Elena out of their shock.

"Honoured One? That's the second time I hear it. First Kol, and now you. Why does he even have that title? Who gave it to him?" Stefan questioned.

"It was, at first, a self-proclaimed one," Rebekah answered. "But as more time passed, none dared deny it. Every power in the world, be it the angels or the demons, all call him the King, for even they despite their hatred, can not deny that they only remain alive by his permission.

Their continued existence only to further his amusement.

However do know, these titles, the way they are presented is not the way it should have him. For, Vali wasn't supposed to be like this."

Vali at her final words, finally lost his playfulness, glaring towards Rebekah in warning, "Sister..."

"No, brother. If you truly wish to continue with what you are doing, they have a right to know."

"Know what? What's going on?" Elena questioned in confusion and wariness as she looked between the two of them.

"The Mark on Vali's arm, it wasn't meant to make him as you would call 'evil.' At least, that is what the witches that were questioned, have admitted. My brother, when born into this world, was intended by nature as some sort of saviour.

He was born with such strength, that the universe believed him capable enough in the absence of God, to be able to sustain it as the container of all evils in the world and therefore directed them all towards him.

My brother, even as a newborn soul, was so mighty in his will, he indeed did, even as they threatened to consume him.

He sealed them instinctively into the very Mark you see now that is seen across the supernatural world as the symbol of ruin, while it was meant to be the world's attempt at salvation."

"But if so, then why is he like this? Why is the supposed saviour, the monster hated by the world?" Elena questioned.

"Because our mother-"

"Rebekah!" Vali finally snapped causing her to flinch for a moment. "Do not speak what you have no right to tell."

Rebekah took a steadying breath, as she turned her gaze towards him, while he continued to look towards the road as he drove, "No, Vali. Since you are so vehement at keeping them by your side, they need to understand that they don't have to be like you."

"Sister, you are treading on very dangerous ground here. Keep your silence, if you do not, be not suprised if I drive another dagger into your heart." The King threatened, his tone soft as snow, yet colder than any ice.

"Our Mother," Rebekah once more began, hastily explaining, "hated Vali since his birth. She wanted him dead since the very moment he came out of her womb, because of her foolish understanding of what the Mark was supposed to be. Her attempts at his life-"

Vali, roughly pulled the car to a stop on the empty road.

The Impala's sudden stop made them all lurch forward, the silence that followed heavy with unspoken threat. The air itself seemed to crystallize around them as Vali slowly turned in his seat.

"I warned you," his voice carried weight that made the air itself shudder. His eyes fixed on Rebekah with fury.

But something had changed in his sister. Perhaps it was the decades in the coffin, or perhaps it was seeing what he planned for Stefan and Elena. Whatever the reason, she met his gaze steadily.

"You want them to be your perfect creations?" Rebekah's voice trembled slightly but didn't break. "Then they deserve to know why their creator became what he is. Why the world's intended savior chose to become its nightmare instead."

Elena's breath caught as something stirred deep within her, that sleeping white light responding to Rebekah's words. Beside her, Stefan felt golden fire pulse beneath his skin, his transforming nature desperate to understand its origins.

"Last warning, sister," Vali's voice made the shadows in the car writhe. "Some stories aren't yours to tell."

"Then tell it yourself," Stefan spoke up suddenly, feeling courage he didn't quite understand. "If we're going to become whatever you're making us into, don't we deserve to know why?"

Elena and he for some reason, despite Rebekah's words, didn't feel afraid, rather... Anticipation, that they did not understand.

As if deep down they already realised they were changing, and now were able to understand the reason why.

Vali's laugh was soft, almost gentle, but carried weight that made the shadows writh with fear. "You think you want to know? To understand?" His eyes found them in the mirror, crimson depths holding centuries of bitter amusement.

He remained silent for what to the three of them felt like centuries, until he finally spoke up, "Very well." he said.

"I was born to be salvation as my sister so wonderfully described," he began, his words a bit mocking towards the end. The mark on his arm pulsing once, making the air itself grow heavy with memory.

"A vessel chosen, unwillingly, to contain all the world's evils. But my mother..." something flickered across his face, too quick to name, "she saw only what she feared, not what I was meant to be. Though to be fair to her, none of us knew my purpose."

"She tried to kill me," Vali continued, his voice carrying terrible calm. "Again and again, in the name of goodness. Each attempt at earning her love only convinced her more of my inherent evil." His smile turned sharp. "Tell me, what lesson should a child learn from that?"

"That love is weakness," Rebekah whispered, her voice carrying old pain. "That acceptance is just another weapon to be used against you."

"Precisely." Vali's satisfaction filled the car like smoke. "So I became what she feared. If salvation was denied me, I would master damnation instead." The mark pulsed again, stronger.

"But that isn't something necessary, V," Rebekah stated, her tone desperate, echoing centuries of failed attempts, "You don't need to reject our love. To always doubt it. You don't need to be the one the witches call the Fallen, the disgraced, because of his once pure path."

Vali's expression hardened, the temperature in the car dropping sharply. "Need?" His laugh held no warmth. "You still don't understand, sister. This isn't about need. It's about choice."

The mark pulsed crimson as he continued, "I chose this path, not because of Mother or someone else, but because I myself gained clarity.

When the world made used me, denied me salvation, I didn't just fall into darkness - I mastered it. Made it my own." His smile showed too many teeth.

"The witches call me Fallen? They speak of disgrace? Let them. Their judgment means nothing to one who judges all, himself."

"And us?" Stefan asked, softly. "What choice are you giving us?"

"The same choice I made," Vali replied, his voice carrying certainty. "To become something beyond what others intended. To master what they fear."

Without another word, he once more started the car, and drove further, for soon, he will no longer be alone in what he is, in this world...

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(Author note: Hello everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the chapter!

Do tell how you found it! I hope this clarified more who Vali is, and gave a deeper understanding of his character. 

Did this clear up where the Mark came from? If not, then do ask, I would be happy to explain.

Also, tell me if you find these conversations boring. If you find chapters focused on them dull or not.

Personally, I like writing them, because the main reason I write fanfics like this, is because I like the characters a lot and enjoy their interactions.

So yeah, hope you all enjoyed,

I hope to see you all later,

Bye!)