I chant quietly as I hold Elijah's hand in mine. He pants and sweats trapped in his own mind. I stop chanting and sigh.

"I know you are locked in battle. However deep in your mind our mother has set the stage, hear my voice." Klaus begins saying as he leans over to whisper to Elijah. "Our mother thinks she will win because she has left you alone, but you are not alone. Let me in."

Klaus puts his hand on his chest and his forehead and tries to go in his head. "Let me help end whatever torment she has forced upon you." Klaus' nose starts to bleed and I sit up from my spot of the bed and look at him. "Uh! Ah!"

"Klaus. You need to stop." I say but he doesn't listen to me. I stand up and touch his arm, about to pull it away but he lets go of Elijah and grabs my arms turning around. "Are you okay?"

"What are you guys doing?" Hayley asks entering the room.

Klaus pants and wipes the blood off from under his nose looking away. "I'm trying to enter Elijah's thoughts to wake him. Esther has locked me out."

Hayley walks up to him and pulls the neck of his shirt down. "Is this rash a side effect of the witchy acid trip he's on?"

"I haven't seen this since I was a child." Klaus says while looking at it. "Mikael would return home from battle more blindly temperamental than usual, and our mother would use the petals of a rare Marelock orchid to put him to sleep. She would mend his mind with a spell and then wake him with the roots of the same plant." Klaus turns to look at us. "If she has access to it now, then maybe it also grows in the bayou. You stay here with your wolves and mind the Fort."

"I'd rather rip your mothers head off." I say angrily as Hayley nods.

"Steer clear of her." I roll my eyes at him. "I mean it, Maddison. Hayley. She's already got you once. What would happen if Elijah were to wake and find you two a victim of her madness?"

"We won't go after her." Hayley says as I look at her with a questionable look. "I promise."

After Klaus walks out I turn to her. "We won't go after her?" I ask.

Hayley turns to the unconscious Elijah and talks to him. "I've learned a few things from your mother. We won't go after. We'll go after everything that she loves." I smirk at her words.

*

I walk to the bayou and watch as Jackson gives Oliver a proper funeral. I walk beside him and sit with him all night til dawn.

"I'm so sorry, jack." Hayley says as she walks behind him.

"This is bull, Hayley." He says and stands up to look at her. "Crescent tradition says you have a funeral at dawn, and no one is here. That loyalty...loyalty is gone."

As Jackson walks away, Hayley speaks up. "We're standing around moping over Ollie's body when there's a war to be fought. I understand that you have to grieve, Jack. You waited for me. So I'll do the same for you, but our people need their alpha." Hayley grabs the alcohol bottle from his hands and walks away. I kiss my brothers cheek and leave that part of the bayou looking for Klaus.

*

I find Klaus walking and speed in front of him. "How's the mission going?" I ask with a smile.

"Easier if you didn't get in my way." He says walking past me.

"Ouch. Harsh." I say and walk along side him. "Are you okay?" I ask while looking around. "I know your not." He ignores me and keeps walking so I continue.

"I mean I get it. Elijah's currently unavailable, Esther and Mikael are back from the dead, and your biological dad is alive." I step in front of him and put my hand in his chest making him stop and roll his eyes. "Are you really not gonna talk about this?"

"What is there to talk about." He goes to pass me again but I block him.

"Ansel. Your father, alive. You said his return changes nothing but I know you don't believe that." He looks down at me before he speeds away.

"Stop following me." I hear him say angrily and follow the sound of his voice and see him pinning Ansel to a tree. "I have no intention of taking Esther's bargain and no desire to be remade a mortal being. Now kindly piss off. I'm in a hurry to help my real family."

"You seek the Marelok orchid." Ansel says making Klaus stop walking.

"How did you know that?" Klaus asks turning around.

"I saw you carry Elijah home last night. Who do you think used to find the orchid for your mother to put Mikael to sleep? Without my help, you could search forever." I look to Klaus waiting his response.

"My mother brought you back from the dead. My sense of strategy tells me it wasn't to play a father-son game of hide-and-seek." He says and walks away again.

"You can storm off in a fit of stubbornness if you like, but I suggest you do so towards the west." Klaus looks to Ansel and sighs.

The three is us walk in some silence but Ansel speaks up. "1000 years estranged, and you chose to walk in silence. Surely, you have questions for me."

"Just one." Klaus stops and sighs. "Is there a way to cure Elijah without having to listen to the pointless ramblings of an old man?"

"I'm afraid the price of my expertise is conversation." Ansel says stopping right next to Klaus before starting to walk.

"You know, I used to tell myself that my real father must have had no idea I existed. Otherwise, he'd never leave me to suffer under Mikael." Klaus tells him.

"Esther forbade me from seeing you." Ansel interrupts. "So I waited, knowing that one day, you would trigger your curse and need your real father...but when that happened, Mikael found me first. I fought him for you."

"Yes. Well, your grand declaration is just a few years too late."

"Now, you joke, but I know you've always felt a void in your life. I've watched you from behind for centuries. You've travelled all corners of the world, seen monuments erected, feasted on the blood of history's most extraordinary men, but you've never found true peace. The only moments of joy in your life, however fleeting, have been simple pleasures..." Ansel smiles at him. "As you climbed the Himalayas, as you tended to your horses, quiet days teaching that boy Shakespeare, meeting Maddison."

I look at Klaus in shock but he looks to the ground. "Stop."

"I watched you paint." He continued. "I watched you feel your unborn daughters kick."

"I said stop!" Klaus yelled and grabbed Ansel's shoulder. "A millennium of observing me, were your eyes closed as I slaughtered whole villages, fed my way through thousands of innocents? Because, let's face it, I have a tendency to play with my food. Have I made you proud, Father." He spits out.

*

We arrive where the plant is but it's surrounded by vervain. "Vervain. It's everywhere. My relentless mother has set a trap."

"I'll retrieve the Marelok for you." Ansel says with a smile.

"At what cost?" Klaus asks.

"Klaus..." I sigh.

Ansel throws his knife in the ground angrily and stomps towards Klaus. "Why don't you use your vampire abilities to end your doubts? Search my mind. You'll see I'm not allied with your mother."

"I have absolutely no interest in the inner workings of your brain." Klaus says.

"I'm surprised at your cowardice. While you stand here in fear of me, your brother suffers further." I grow angry at him and step forward.

"Enough. If your gonna get the Marelok, then just do it already." I grab Klaus' hand and walk away.

*

It was dark by now and Klaus, Ansel and I were sat by a fire. I was sitting beside Klaus with my head resting on his shoulder. Ansel was sharpening his blade.

"I've always seen a blade to have a very different use." Klaus speaks up.

"Mikael taught you to kill, Klaus, but you were born to create. Power lies in embracing your true nature." Ansel's words made me think. I should try and embrace my magic and maybe it will help me.

"You think I should accept my mother's offer, sacrifice my vampirism. Then what, become a florist?" He asks which makes me chuckle along with Ansel.

"You wouldn't be sacrificing anything. As a wolf, you could be king to an entire species. You would feel true piece. You would be a better father." Ansel says looking down.

I could feel Klaus tense so I grabbed his hand and rubbed circles on it. "I am no longer a father." He says and stands up which makes me sit up straight and sigh at the loss of contact.

"In our animal form, we feel everything more acutely. When you were a boy, after each full moon, I would wake closer to your village, having been drawn to you in the night. Since I've been back, each month when I turn, I wake further from New Orleans. I know the call of my own blood, Klaus. I know your child is still alive." I look to Klaus with worried eyes and take a deep breath.

*

Ansel sticks his blade in the ground and stand up, giving Klaus the stuff to help Elijah. "This will help Elijah."

"Ansel..." Klaus says making him turn to look at Klaus. "I'd be lying if I said your offer wasn't appealing. I've never known a parent to be a benevolent force. I think I would have liked to have been your son," my eyes soften as I watch. "But a different path was chosen for me, and I have for the past 1000 years been son of Mikael...paranoid, vengeful...and powerful enough to protect to my daughter."

"I want to help you defend her." Ansel tells him.

"I believe you, but love is what Esther twists." He says as Ansel puts his hand on the side of Klaus' head. "She will take the best of your intentions, and she will use them to get to my little girl." Klaus takes Ansel's hand and grips it in his own. "You waited too long before you came to rescue me."

I watch as Klaus walks past him. "I won't make the same mistake with Hope." He bends down and grabs the blade Ansel had which makes me stand up.

"Klaus. Don't do this." I shake my head.

"No. No, Klaus. I know you. You are not capable of this." Ansel tries to convince him.

"That's the first lie you've told me." Klaus says and slashes Ansel's chest making him bleed. Klaus' eyes widen as he drops the blade and hugs Ansel. I cover my mouth with my hands in shock as Klaus lays him down and cries. I rush to Klaus and hold him close as he cries in my arms.

*

I let Klaus heal Elijah alone. Their brothers and I think he needs to this by himself. Afterwards, Elijah stands by the window as I sit on one of the chairs in the room and Klaus stands behind me.

"How do you feel?" I ask Elijah.

"The worst has passed...though I suspect the nightmares are far from over." Elijah says walking away from the window.

"Well, gather your strength. After the message I sent mother tonight, I expect hellfire to rain down upon us imminently." Klaus tells him.

"We need to make a move before she strikes." Elijah suggests.

"Actually, moves were made while you were sleeping." Dad announces as he and Hayley enter the room.

"It's good to see you vertical," Hayley says to Elijah, "Marcel and I each left a gift for you in the ballroom. Your welcome."

Klaus and Elijah walk out as my dad whispers your welcome. I laugh and nudge him, following the two brothers.

Klaus opens the door and I see Finn and Kol, who I learnt were in different bodies.

"Kidnaping." Kol says. "It's a rather unpleasant way to begin a family reunion"

"Well, wait until you see how we end it." Klaus smiles widely.

*

I walk to Klaus' room and sit on his bed waiting for him. This may be the worst time there is but with everything happening...I have to tell Klaus the truth.

I hear footsteps and see Klaus. He looks at me curiously as I stand up. "Maddie, what are you doing here?"

"I need to tell you something. I know this is not a good time but everyone's dying and if the next person is gonna be one of us then I need to be honest with you and myself." I say trying to control my breathing.

"What is it?" He asks walking towards me.

"I love you, Klaus." I look up at him not able to read his features. He takes one step closer and kisses me, making me kiss him back and wrap my arms around his neck. I smile into the kiss and afterwards we just laid in his bed and talked through the night.