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He despised us. Yes, he was our friend; yes, he was our family. The moment Davina Claire was lost, he became our foe, and a formidable one at that. He was the leader of the Strix, entrusted with all of our secrets and, Niklaus, we betrayed him. I had no choice.

The relationship between the Original vampireElijah Mikaelson, and the Upgraded Original vampire, Marcel Gerard.

Their relationship began in the 1800s after Elijah's brother Klaus adopted Marcel into their family when he was a young child. The two were very close for a time, until Elijah purposely pushed Marcel away to improve the boy's relationship with Klaus. Since the Mikaelsons' return to New Orleans, Elijah and Marcel have worked both together as allies and against each other as enemies. Currently, the two maintain a prickly but tolerant working relationship while they rebuild their vampire community following their loss of control over the city.

History[]

Marcel and Elijah first met in 1820, when Elijah, Rebekah, and Klaus met Marcel at the funeral of the Governor's son, Emil, who was also Rebekah's former boyfriend and Marcel's half-brother. After Klaus witnessed Marcel being verbally and physically abused by the slave-master on the Governor's plantation, Klaus killed the slave-master and brought Marcel back to the Mikaelson compound to live with him and his siblings, giving him the name Marcellus. From there, Elijah began homeschooling Marcel in various subjects, such as teaching him to read and how to play the piano. During their lessons together, Elijah and Marcel began to grow very close, and Marcel idolized Elijah's ability to play the piano, admitting that he wanted to learn how to play like he did. Shortly afterward, Elijah began to worry that his relationship with Marcel was beginning to have a negative effect on Klaus and his general behavior when Klaus, feeling lonely as a result of the amount of time Marcel and Elijah were spending together, decided to undagger their wild brother Kol so the two could have some fun together.

However, Kol's return to their life resulted in several tense encounters between the brothers, which came to a head when Kol decided to test Elijah and Klaus' loyalty to him. He invited Marcel to watch some actors perform Hamlet in the courtyard, complete with the compelled actors killing each other with swords, and fed him his blood so that he could be turned into a vampire like the rest of the family. It was then that Klaus and Elijah realized Marcel wasn't safe with Kol around, so Elijah and Klaus daggered Kol once again to protect him. Elijah, afraid of the consequences Klaus' jealousy and subsequent extreme behavior as a result of Elijah's relationship with Marcel, decided to purposely treat Marcel cruelly and sacrifice the bond he had with the young boy in favor of the possibility of Klaus' redemption through caring for Marcel. This ultimately became one of many relationships Elijah felt obligated to sacrifice in the name of Klaus' happiness.

As Marcel grew up, Elijah and Marcel presumably maintained a chilly but mostly amiable relationship, as evidenced by their interactions after Marcel returned home from fighting in World War I in 1919. However, when Marcel and Rebekah succeeded in luring Mikael to New Orleans in hopes of chasing Klaus away and allowing them to finally be in a relationship, Mikael ravaged the town, killing many of the city's supernatural creatures and forcing Elijah, Klaus, and Rebekah to flee their home in the French Quarter for nearly a century. Following their encounter with Mikael in 1919, it was presumed that Marcel had been killed by their father in the chaos, and according to Klaus, each of the Mikaelson siblings mourned him in their own ways; it wasn't until Klaus and Elijah returned to New Orleans in 2011 that they finally learned that Marcel was not only still alive, but had taken control of the supernatural community in their absence.

Throughout The Originals Series[]

In Always and Forever, Elijah followed Klaus to New Orleans, and, after meeting with the witch Sabine (who, unbeknownst to him was possessed by the spirit of Elijah's ex-lover Celeste Dubois), he saw Marcel for the first time since he and his siblings fled New Orleans in 1919. He was shocked at the revelation that not only was Marcel still alive, but he had declared himself the king of both the city's vampire clan and the supernatural community of New Orleans at large, and was appalled to learn that he and his vampires had killed witches and left their bodies laying in public for any human to find. Elijah was also suspicious and intrigued as to how Marcel was able to control the witches by enforcing his rule that any witch who practices witchcraft in the French Quarter without permission would be sentenced to death. After Marcel killed Jane-Anne Deveraux for performing magic, her sister, Sophie, arrived to collect her body so her remains could be consecrated and properly laid to rest. However, Marcel, knowing that Sophie knew more about why Jane-Anne was doing magic than she let on, took possession of her body and told her that she could get it back if she told him what Jane-Anne's plans were, even despite Sophie's argument that Jane-Anne's spirit wouldn't be able to find peace unless she was entombed in the cemetery. Elijah watched this exchange go down from afar and was troubled by Marcel's rule of their former home.

At the party at the Abattoir, Marcel inadvertently started a fight with Klaus when he said that New Orleans was his town, and when Klaus continued to taunt him, Marcel ranted that while Klaus made him the man he is today, it was his work that restored order in New Orleans after Klaus ran away like a coward. This angered Klaus so much that he bit Marcel's right-hand-man Thierry, which put Elijah's plans to protect Hayley Marshall-Kenner and the baby by joining forces with Sophie and the witches in danger.

To try to salvage his deal with the witches, Elijah tracked down Marcel, who was instructing his vampire minions to find Klaus and tell him where he was, as he knew how to deal with him. Elijah tried to use this opportunity to find out how Marcel controlled the witches, but Marcel refused to tell him. Elijah then managed to convince Marcel to release Jane-Anne's body to him, in exchange for Elijah sending Klaus to heal Thierry's hybrid bite, hoping that returning Jane-Anne's body to the witches would be a sign of good faith to buy him some time to convince Klaus to embrace the baby and Hayley into their family. When talking to Rebekah on the phone, Elijah appeared to be of the opinion that Marcel had become arrogant in the decades since they left New Orleans, and referred to how "confident" he had grown in their absence. Elijah was later daggered by Klaus and given to Marcel as a peace offering to try to regain his trust, in hopes that Elijah being taken out of the picture would reassure the vampires who were nervous about the Originals returning to town.

In Sinners and Saints, Elijah, having accidentally been undaggered by Davina, tried to persuade her to work with him against Marcel in exchange for Elijah sharing the spells in Esther's grimoire with her. That night, Elijah broke up a fight between Marcel and Klaus and insisted to Marcel that if anyone would be teaching Klaus a lesson, it would be himself.

In Bloodletting, Elijah and Marcel's interactions during Elijah and Klaus' attempt to find Hayley were frosty and antagonistic at best; Elijah made a rude comment about the class and intelligence of Marcel's vampire army while knowing full well that they could hear them, and Marcel replied that he preferred Elijah when he was daggered in his coffin.

In The Casket Girls, Elijah and Marcel formed a very uneasy alliance in order to find Davina and protect her from Klaus. The two ultimately ended up working together to get a witch to cast a protection spell on her, which allowed her to come back to life after Klaus compelled Timothy to poison her. Despite the strain in their relationship, Elijah was sympathetic to Marcel over his dismay that Davina no longer trusted him and gently encouraged Marcel to fight for Davina's trust back.

In Après Moi, Le Déluge, Elijah and Marcel don't interact much but Elijah continued to show sympathy towards Marcel for his unwillingness to let Davina be sacrificed, stating that he didn't want to do it either but at the same time waiting until the Harvest was over would only lead to both the destruction of New Orleans and Davina's death, and when Davina was finally sacrificed but she didn't come back, Elijah looked at Marcel sympathetically.

In Long Way Back From Hell, Elijah works together with Marcel to find the captive Klaus and Rebekah, in the process of which he learns about Rebekah and Marcel's scheme in 1919 to bring Mikael to New Orleans, enraging Elijah who responded by furiously pinning him to a wall but relented as Marcel revealed he still loves Rebekah and he only did it so that they could be together. Despite his anger towards Marcel, however, Elijah trusted him to take care of Rebekah and leave with her to escape Klaus' wrath.

In Farewell to Storyville, with Rebekah now saved, Elijah, upset about the fact that Rebekah had been exiled from New Orleans, angrily banished Marcel from the Quarter, only allowing him to leave with his life out of respect for his only sister.

In The Battle of New Orleans, Elijah awakened after being attacked by the Guerrera werewolves and realized that Hayley was gone. He immediately tracked down Marcel, believing he had taken Hayley, since he had been the one who led the vampire attack against the compound. When he demanded to know where Hayley was, Cami jumped between the two of them and insisted that Marcel didn't have Hayley and reminded him that he could trust her. Marcel then informed Elijah that Klaus had attacked and bit him before being incapacitated by a witch's spell, which led Elijah to go to the church to look for her.

In Rebirth, Marcel aided Elijah, Klaus, and Hayley in their plan to take out the Guerrera werewolf pack members who had the moonlight rings made out of Klaus' blood.

In Alive and Kicking, Elijah visited Marcel across the river to find that he was rebuilding his vampire community. He and Elijah made a deal, where Marcel would help Elijah find the missing white oak stake in exchange for Elijah allowing their community to continue. Marcel helped him get in contact with Davina in hopes that she could use a locator spell to find the stake, but when Davina figured out that Klaus and Elijah were involved, she refused, which led Elijah to the realization that Davina had the stake the whole time. They both tried to track her down so that Marcel could talk Davina into giving it back, and ended up finding her at Rousseau's, having first been attacked by werewolves under Esther and Finn's control, and then again by Mikael when she lost the bracelet she needed to control him. Elijah and Marcel saved her, and, in turn, Davina used her bracelet to force him to stop fighting Elijah and leave, though she was still not happy with Elijah or Marcel and fled before they could track her down. That night, Marcel informed Elijah that it was time that he picked a side in the now-brewing tensions in the city's supernatural community. He also reminded him that while he may feel inclined to join Klaus, Hayley, and the werewolves, he will never be one of them, which is why it would be in his best interest to join the vampires. He then snapped Gia's neck, after she had accepted Marcel's offer to become a vampire and drank his blood, and Marcel told Elijah that she would need a mentor when she woke up, one he hoped would be Elijah.

During the episode, there were also many flashbacks to 1821 experienced by Elijah, to a time when he and Marcel had a much stronger relationship. When Marcel had first come to live with the Mikaelsons, Elijah had taken him under his wing and began schooling him in the typical education of the time period. He was in the middle of a piano lesson with Marcel when Klaus returned home, drunk and bored, and revealed that he had undaggered their brother Kol to give himself some company, citing the fact that Elijah and Marcel were spending so much time together as the reason he needed another companion. Klaus and Kol then went on several blood-drinking benders, at one point killing nearly sixty people in a boarding house in a nearby town, which didn't please Elijah. Elijah argued that since Klaus and Kol were doing nothing to keep Mikael from eventually finding them, Marcel was going to need to be sent off to a safer home, but Klaus refused to allow it, going so far as to say that he would sooner redagger Kol than allow Marcel to be sent away.

Kol, jealous of the attention and loyalty Marcel was receiving from his brothers, fed Marcel some of his blood before compelling some actors to perform Hamlet for them, complete with live killings via sword. Elijah and Klaus arrived just as Kol had killed one of the actors for getting the dialogue wrong, and they were so upset that Kol nearly killed and turned Marcel when he was still a child that they daggered Kol, both in punishment and to protect Marcel. It was then that Elijah realized that his relationship with Marcel was having a negative effect on Klaus, and decided that Klaus' bond with Marcel was more important to Klaus' future happiness. He then purposely treated Marcel rudely by telling him that he was bored of him, that the world did not revolve around him, and by telling Klaus that Marcel was his burden to bear right in front of him. Klaus felt so badly for the boy after Elijah's cruel behavior that he took him away to comfort Marcel himself, the exact reaction that Elijah was hoping would happen.

In Every Mother's Son, Elijah went to Marcel's apartment to ask for his help in finding a cooperative witch who was willing to do a soul-branding spell on Esther. Marcel, still wanting Elijah to take the newly-turned Gia under his wing, sent Gia with Elijah to go visit his friend Lenore, a witch who owned a convenience store across the river. Elijah resisted Marcel's attempts to convince him to mentor Gia at first, but after a disastrous dinner with his mother and eldest brother Finn - during which Finn told him that he had accomplished nothing in a thousand years but bloodshed and violence - ultimately decided that he wanted to help Gia learn how to embrace her new supernatural abilities. That night, Marcel revealed to Gia that his goal was to help strengthen their new vampire community by getting Elijah to appreciate it as well, in hopes that he would eventually come to see all of them as his family.

In Live and Let Die, Marcel and Elijah teamed up to teach the new vampires how to fight against werewolves after an attack at Marcel's apartment, knowing that another confrontation between the two communities was inevitable. They later worked together with Hayley, Aiden, Oliver, and Josh to help rescue the teenaged werewolves who were about to be forced to trigger their curses by Finn.

In City Beneath The Sea, Elijah stands in front of Klaus' desiccated body and coffin. Marcel walks up to Elijah and Elijah tells him he now knows Klaus didn't kill Aiden. Marcel asked him who did it. Marcel asks Elijah if he will undagger Klaus. Elijah said he doesn't want to "unleash that Shakespearean rage" And now that Klaus was out the way. Marcel told Elijah he needs to think like Klaus.

In Ashes to Ashes, they lay Gia's body to rest with two other bodies. Elijah takes Gia's violin and Marcel lights the bodies on fire.

In For the Next Millennium, after Marcel got a fighting cage at St. Anne's Church . Elijah has been going there to fight Marcel. He goes there to take his anger he has towards Klaus on Marcel.

In I'll See You in Hell or New Orleans, Marcel assists Elijah and Klaus while they question Lucien Castle about the serial killings happening around New Orleans. Marcel investigates this further to try and uncover if Lucien is responsible for the killings, even Josh assists him. However, Marcel is later sidetracked when a mysterious woman approaches Marcel in his loft. Aya Al-Rashid approaches Marcel with an "offer he can't refuse." Marcel attempts to fight her off, which ends sourly for him being Aya has centuries of fighting experience over Marcel. Elijah interrupts them before Aya leaves her card for Marcel to consider applying for the Strix. Marcel watches Elijah and Aya's reunion distastefully before Aya lets herself out of Marcel's loft. Elijah rebukes Marcel to be careful about who he trusts. Marcel then responds saying that Elijah should know who his friends are and that he is going to need them. Elijah sighs and then leaves Marcel alone in his loft to contemplate his offer to join the Strix.

In A Walk on the Wild Side, Elijah and Marcel, along with Hayley Marshall-Kenner, decide to attend the Strix's gala. Elijah and Marcel agree to let Marcel apply to the Strix in order to gather intelligence from the Strix's inner circle and its leader, Tristan de Martel. Marcel successfully becomes a member of the Strix's inner circle thanks to the help of Elijah and Hayley.

In The Axeman's Letter, after confronting Tristan about a possibility of a threat headed Elijah's way, Elijah goes to Marcel and asks him to keep tabs on Tristan to try and find out what exactly Tristan and the Strix are hiding. After having one of Marcel's men tail a member of the Strix, he comes to find out that Lucien and Tristan are working together. This doesn't sit well with Elijah when Marcel breaks the news to him.

In Beautiful Mistake, Elijah, Hayley and Marcel ally together to go to the Strix's party in order to get Marcel inside the Strix. This worked out when Marcel defeated Mohinder, a longtime member of the Strix, and became a member of Tristan de Martel's inner circle.

In The Other Girl in New Orleans, Marcel and Elijah stage a coup d'ètat and Marcel gains Tristan's trust by kidnapping him from Mikaelson imprisonment. Thanks to this fake uprising by Marcel, Tristan now trusts Marcel enough to induct him inside the Strix's inner circle. Marcel later checks up on Elijah and they both are smiling triumphantly at how their staged fight worked in favor of the Mikaelsons. Marcel now has access to all the Strix's inside secrets.

In Alone with Everybody, Marcel helps Elijah by locating and stealing back the white oak bullet from Sofya and her quest to bid away the white oak bullet. Elijah and Marcel are successful in obtaining the bullet. At the end of the episode, they share a drink at the Mikaelson Compound and discuss the events of the day. They both acknowledge that there are more threats ahead of them all.

In Where Nothing Stays Buried, Marcel begs Elijah and Freya to help with the resurrection of Davina Claire. Elijah and Freya end up betraying Marcel and Kol by using Davina to get to Lucien Castle. This works out for the Mikaelson family, but this destroys Marcel and Elijah's friendship.

In Give 'Em Hell Kid, Marcel is fed up with the Mikaelsons destroying everything he loves. So he teams up with Vincent Griffith against the Mikaelsons and contributes to the destruction of the Ancestors' turf, crippling the Ancestral Spirits' power. Elijah later confronts him and kills him, which starts Marcel's transition into the "Beast". This destroys Marcel and Elijah's broken friendship even more so. Elijah regrets killing Marcel to the point of crying upon seeing Hayley and falling to his knees but he still believes it was necessary and unaware Marcel was still alive.

In The Bloody Crown, Marcel decides to storm the Mikaelson Compound with Klaus' former sireline and bites Elijah, along with Kol, with his deadly bite as a new, Enhanced Vampire. Elijah later suffers and starts to die from his bite. Elijah is forced to undergo a temporary slumber, spelled by Freya, until Hayley finds a cure for the rest of the Mikaelson family.

In No Quarter, despite the fact that Freya has not yet made enough antivenoms for the Upgraded Original Vampire's venom, Elijah decides to rescue Klaus from Marcel, as he suffered enough on behalf of their family, Elijah faces off against his former adopted nephew, although he is no match for the latter, he managed to put up a much better fight (unlike before when he was caught-off guard, after his adopted nephew first became became an Upgraded Original Vampire) against Marcel, he is also distracting the latter long enough for Freya to free Klaus.

When comes between the two, she asked the latter go, including Klaus, he then asked why, "because that would be justice for your family", he then states that they were his family to, then Elijah literally ripped his heart out his chest and through off a bridge, trying to justify his unspeakable actions against his former adopted family (Marcel was clearly, disregarding the fact, that the only reason why former adopted uncle tried to kill him, was because he was threatening the Mikaelson family, as well as acting more like an enemy then a member of the family) although Elijah did look somber for a moment, he refused to show Marcel any sympathy, showing that while he clearly once deeply regretted what he did to Marcel, the latter's treachery against his family has greatly reduced such feelings, just as Marcel is getting ready to bite Elijah and affect him with his venom again, Klaus, after being freed, stabs Marcel with Papa Tunde's blade, saving Elijah's life.

In I Hear You Knocking, when Marcel sees Elijah in the cemetery, he is quick to get aggressive and remind Elijah he had beat him down once but soon learns that it is not Elijah and a manifestation of the Hollow. The Hollow states that Marcel is, despite having defeated Elijah, deep-down afraid, even terrified, of Elijah, which Marcel responds aggressively towards. Elijah saves Klaus from Marcel and although he is quickly overpowered, Klaus saves him and captures Marcel, imprisoning him in the same cell Marcel put Klaus in. Elijah is there to greet Marcel upon his waking up and he coldly tells Marcel that due to his betrayal after all the Mikaelsons had did for him and Klaus being there as a father to him, he is not a Mikaelson anymore and threatens to deliver upon him another nightmare if he dares to oppose the Mikaelsons before he leaves Marcel in his cell. He even taunts Marcel by saying sweet dreams and calling him Marcellus. Marcel angrily shouts for Elijah as he leaves.

In Voodoo in My Blood, Elijah is reunited with the freed Marcel and though they ally together, with Elijah showing some remorse upon Marcel bringing up his murder at Elijah's hands, which he made it clear he would never forgive him for, Elijah is quick to attack Marcel when he refuses to hand in the Hollow's bone, which Marcel mocks him for. Despite this, however, Marcel refuses to bite Elijah again and kill him in favor of killing Klaus and later on he admits that he believed he only gave Elijah what he deserved but came to see that putting down Elijah didn't do any good as Davina is still gone.

In The Feast of All Sinners, after the ritual Elijah asks Marcel to meet him in front of the Mikaelson Mansion. Elijah remembers with him the first time they met. Marcel mocks Elijah saying that he gets nostalgic in his old age. Then Elijah asks Marcel to make him forget his family for their own safety. Marcel seems rather reluctant and not at all relishing over the fact he gets to help in destroying the Always and Forever vow but in the end accepts, and with Vincent's help he erases Elijah's memories.

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