Chapter 21

As Kol watched Hope cradle the massive Monkey's Fist knot in her hands, he felt something prickle at the back of his neck. There was no yelling, no screaming or throwing of objects from another room, but he felt the very air around him grow cold and somehow knew Klaus was there.

"Now, concentrate on the knot, love." He told her as confidently as he could. "And I'll be right back."

Hope offered him a kind, sweet smile and a moment later, Kol was gone.

When he arrived downstairs, he met Klaus in the center of the courtyard. His elder brother stared blankly back, but Kol could see the rage.

"I'd imagine you're rather cross with me right now." He said honestly. Klaus' jaw tensed and relaxed a few times as he struggled to keep himself calm. "But you should know I have my reasons."

"Rebekah suggested I should hear them." Klaus said darkly. "I'd rather rip out your vocal chords."

Klaus flinched as he prepared to hit his younger brother, but Kol shot back and held his hands up.

"Nik, wait!" he exclaimed, hoping for only a few moments to explain himself. "Now, just listen to me, alright? I had no choice."

Klaus didn't listen, though Kol hardly expected him to. Instead, the hybrid raced forward and landed a fierce blow. Kol sailed through the air and smashed into the lawn furniture set up near the stairs. When Klaus closed in, Kol struck back and sent Klaus flying into the fountain filled with ferns.

"Stop it!" Kol bellowed. "Just listen. I did what I did for Davina." He said as he approached his brother. "The Hollow brought her back and now their linked. I just need a bloody second to undo the spell."

Still angered, Klaus raced forward, gripped Kol by his jacket and launched him into the distance. Kol crashed into a table, knocking the candles from the surface and crushing it beneath his body.

"Lovesick imbecile!" Klaus yelled. "The Hollow prays upon your weakness. She raised Davina to get you to betray your family, and you –pathetic as you are- leapt at the chance."

Klaus swung for Kol, but the younger vampire blocked the swipes expertly and turned them on his brother, smashing his fist into Klaus' face and knocking him to the ground.

"Our family owes Davina that much." Kol said as he stood over the fallen hybrid.

Klaus glared hatefully at Kol through his lashes.

"I owe nothing to her," he growled in a voice to match his deadly expression. "Nor to you."

The fight between them continued and became more aggressive than before. Kol was desperate to waste time, but Klaus was desperate to get a piece of his little brother and that created a problem for the vampire.

As they fought, Klaus again grabbed Kol by the collar and lobbed him into the distance. Kol slammed into one of the many concrete columns in the courtyard. The impact jostled loose the one thing he'd hoped to keep hidden: the glowing blue gem.

A wicked, evil smile crossed Klaus' lips as he placed his boot over the glittering totem. Kol couldn't keep the fear and horror from his features. He knew what his brother planned to do and a moment later, with the same effort as one would crush a grape, Klaus smashed the stone beneath his boot.

Kol pushed himself onto his knees as Klaus produced a blade from his jacket. The younger sibling felt his gut sink and his heart twist.

"No, Nik," he begged openly, "Please. I have to know if she's still alive." Klaus stepped closer, eying his brother like a predator would its prey, "Please grant me this one mercy."

"Mercy is a privilege reserved for family," Klaus' voice was twisted with anger and betrayal. "And your status has been revoked."

Klaus raised his hand high and brought the blade down. Kol quickly caught the glinting metal and struggled to keep it from piercing his chest.

"No, brother. No, please!" Kol pleaded and blood sprang from his hands like a fountain. "For a thousand years, I've never experienced love or peace!" Klaus remained emotionless as he tried to kill his brother. "Davina changed me!" The hybrid growled as he placed a second hand on the weapon. He just wanted to shut Kol up. "What if it were Kali?!" he continued to beseech the monster. His arms were beginning to tremble as he fought against Klaus' undeniable strength. "What if she was gone and you were given the chance to return her? Would you not do as I did?"

Klaus' jaw clenched so tightly it looked as though he may crack his teeth. A thought –faster than lightning- surged through his brain in an instant. He felt foolish for not realizing it before, but he'd been so deep in his hatred of Kol that it never donned on him that someone was missing.

Klaus' eyes darkened with murderous intent as he stared down at his brother.

"Where is Kali?" he queried.

Kol felt a shudder run through him at not only the look in his brother's eye, but the sound of his voice.

"She's safe." He felt the need to say as quickly as possible. "Honestly, Nik, Kali's safe. I just needed her out of the way. She never would have let me use Hope for the detangling spell."

Klaus shoved his body against the blade in his hands and forced it to inch closer and the distance between he and Kol to lessen.

"Where is she?" he growled again.

"In the other room." He said hastily. "She'll be perfectly fine."

Klaus' eyes nearly glowed with growing rage. But as he stared down at Kol, he could see his brother's desperation, his pleading, and realized that for once it wasn't for his own skin. Kol said nothing about letting himself live. He didn't beg for Klaus to spare him, or forgive him. He asked only that he be allowed to know if Davina was alive. He simply wanted to know that she was breathing, that she'd continue on with the life the Mikaelsons had once taken from her, before Klaus sent him once again into the Netherworld.

With an angry growl, Klaus relinquished his assault on Kol and took wide steps back. The youngest sibling remained motionless, breathing heavily and slowly healing as he stared wide-eyed at Klaus. The hybrid paced briefly before pointing the bloody dagger at Kol.

"If Davina was worth all of this, then go." He said sternly. "Go and be with your love, but remember this, brother, I want nothing else to do with you."

Kol slowly pushed himself to his feet. The disbelief, fear and relief that was painted across his face was undeniable.

"Thank you, Nik." He said with the truest reverence.

"Go." Klaus repeated.

Without another word, Kol did as Klaus demanded and disappeared.

Stewing in his rage and hurt, Klaus went in search of K. As Kol had said, she was resting in an adjacent room. She was sitting in a high-backed chair, leaning limply to the side and covered in protruding veins. The sight made Klaus' heart drop, but he knew it wasn't from being killed. Firstly, Kol wouldn't be so foolish. Secondly, there was no stake. And thirdly, she wasn't grey.

As he closed the distance between them, Klaus could smell the sweet, acrid stench of vervain and assumed he knew what Kol had done. It was most likely that his brother had snapped her neck and injected her with the toxic herb, ensuring that it kept her healing factor slowed to the point it was nearly nonexistent. The poison would account for the veins, too. She was 'asleep' at the moment, and he knew how to rouse her.

Carefully, Klaus lifted K into his arms and took the seat. He gently positioned her in his lap as comfortably as he could before biting into his wrist and pressing it to her lips. It took a moment or two for the blood to make it into her system, but when it did, he saw the 'wounds' begin to recede. He only had to reopen his wrist once more before the veins across her body disappeared and she bit down into his skin.

K drank for only a second or two before she felt her strength return. When it did, she released the one she knew to be Klaus and opened her eyes. He smiled kindly to her, but she was clearly agitated.

"Where is he?" she demanded as she pushed herself out of his lap.

"Gone," Klaus said as he rose to his feet. "If he's smart."

"You let him go?"

"Yes," he nodded.

She glowered deeply. Her anger was understandable, and while Klaus would have liked to give her the revenge she clearly wanted, he was glad Kol was gone.

"Come," Klaus said as he glided to his feet. He offered K an extended hand. "Freya should be nearly ready to wake Elijah."

While she wanted to find Kol more, K did take his hand and walk alongside Klaus to the upstairs room where Freya had setup her spell work.

~!~

Season 4, Episode 12

A Voodoo Child

K had just exited the shower in hers and Klaus' bedroom. A towel was wrapped around her body while she held another to dry the massive amount of thick, dark hair she now had. It was a process, especially considering her hair nearly touched her hips. She really needed to cut it.

A knock at the door barely had time to be heard before the door swung wide open. K expected to see Klaus, but he wasn't the one who'd come to speak with her.

"Dude!" she snapped as she did her best to secure her towel around her body when confronted with Hayley.

"I need to talk to you." She said without any indication that she knew she was invading someone's privacy.

"I'm naked." K exclaimed.

"You're in a towel." Hayley countered. K glowered. "Fine. Get dressed, but hurry up. This is important."

"Fine, just… get out."

Hayley said nothing else and did as K demanded. Alone again, the vampire sighed her aggravation. Being walked in on was something both adults had grown accustomed to when Hope was much younger –she didn't seem to understand knocking- but not something they had to worry about in recent years, so the shock of it was genuine. Still, if Hayley barged in on her in the bathroom, K wondered just what had her so bothered.

About ten minutes later, when she was fully clothed and her damp hair still hung heavily from her head, K sought out Hayley. She found the young hybrid pacing anxiously in one of the many rooms that was nowhere near the Originals.

"Okay," K sighed, "What is so damn important that you had to barge in on me in the bathroom, hm?"

Hayley stopped moving. She turned towards K, but didn't immediately offer an answer. Instead, she wrung her hands repeatedly and avoided eye contact for a moment or two. It caused K to narrow her eyes.

"What?" she asked with genuine concern as she stepped closer.

Hayley looked around briefly, as though assessing whether or not they would be overheard, and quickly closed the distance between herself and K as a result.

"I uh…" she began uncertainly, "I wanted to talk to you about Hope." K nodded and waited for Hayley to continue. The hybrid apprehensively met her stare, "About whether or not we should stay here…"

K's brows slowly twitched together as she did her best to discern what Hayley meant. She thought at first the young woman was speaking about staying in New Orleans, something all of them knew wasn't going to happen, but within seconds, she began to realize that no, the city had nothing to do with it. K's face fell blank and Hayley knew in that moment she understood.

"You want to take Hope away from the others." She muttered almost too softly for Hayley to hear. Given the conversation they seemed ready to have, it was the wisest option.

"I think so," she answered just as quietly. The two stepped closer to one another until they stood only arm's length from one another. She began to pick at her fingernails, "I think we have to."

"If you plan to separate her from them, you had better be damn sure." K said sternly.

Hayley sighed heavily and growled to herself. Her agitation was growing.

"You can't think staying with them is a good idea." She snapped under her breath. "In the last week, Hope's had to do spells, and she's been psychically attacked. She's had to deal with vampires and witches and being shut off it the bayou because of all of the crazy that follows the Mikaelsons around. You can't seriously stand there and tell me you think it's ever going to get better." K said nothing as she stared at Hayley emotionlessly. "She isn't safe here… with them…"

K took a deep breath and sighed. With it, her shoulders fell. K propped a hand on her hip while resting the other on her forehead. She felt heavy, all of the sudden.

"I know," she mumbled after a moment. K buried her face in both hands. "I know," her voice was muffled. After taking another deep breath, K dropped her hands and met Hayley's stare. "I've… been thinking the same thing."

A glimmer of hope, a light spark of relief, shined in Hayley's eyes. Knowing that she wasn't alone in her fear and desire to do something different was overwhelmingly welcomed. But, knowing that she had a comrade for what was coming didn't exactly help Hayley, either.

"What do we do?" she asked. "We can't just take her away. I tried that once… it didn't work."

A weak scoff of a laugh left K's lips. Hayley was referring to the time she and Jackson tried to take Hope away from the Mikaelsons and it ended in the entire wolf pack being cursed to remain wolves until the full moon.

"We can only talk to them." K replied. Hayley's face fell as she stared at K with an expression the vampire could only describe as the seriously? expression. "I'm serious. You can't just take her away, not when she knows everyone now."

"Klaus won't let us take her away from everyone. He's too protective."

K shrugged a single shoulder, "Maybe. Maybe not. The problem is finding out how to do it. Klaus isn't going to want to be away from her, obviously. You and I aren't going anywhere, and now that you're with Elijah-" K paused when she noticed Hayley immediately flinch at the mention of the eldest brother. She narrowed her eyes. "Are… are you still with Elijah?" Hayley continued to shift uncomfortably. "Hey, look at me."

"I don't know." Hayley mumbled as she barely met K's eye. "It's complicated."

"Yeah, so's everything else." She quipped sharply. "What's going on?"

Hayley chewed on her bottom lip, her brows pulled together tightly and for a moment, K wondered if she was going to cry. She suddenly looked so lost, so scared and it broke K's heart as a result. Through the last few years, the pair had grown incredibly close. Hayley was perhaps her best friend now, and seeing her hurt like she was made K feel the same.

"Hey," she cooed softly as she reached forward and wrapped her arms around Hayley. The hybrid hugged her back tightly, gripping fistfuls of K's shirt as she did. "It's okay." She reassured. "Whatever you saw in there, it's in the past, okay? You don't have to be scared of him."

"I'm not," she replied in a wavering voice. "And that's what scares me."

K pulled back just enough to look at Hayley questioningly.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Hayley's eyes were tinting pink, glassing over and she was near tears, but K could see the exhaustion. In that moment, she found herself wondering just how long Hayley had been struggling with this decision.

"I'm scared because it doesn't bother me." She admitted. "I don't want Hope to think that's okay. I don't want her to think what this family does to people who make them angry is right. She is too sweet, and kind, and innocent. We can't let that happen. We can't let this world get to her."

"Okay," K hugged her close again. "Okay, we won't. We'll think of something."

She felt Hayley nod into her shoulder.

K didn't know how they would solve their current problem. How were they going to extricate Hope from her family? They couldn't, honestly. Worse yet, they had to. Having all of them around her at once was a bad idea and both mothers had seen it on more than a single account since making their way to New Orleans. The others' willingness to thrust Hope into what they were doing was unacceptable as far as they were concerned.

~!~

As the day progressed and all of the family had spread out to contend with the issues at hand, a more disturbing truth made itself known. Not only was The Hollow still alive, but now she was swimming around inside Hope's body. She was slithering beneath the skin of someone all of them loved so dearly, and they knew that was the point.

Inadu was smart.

"We have to work fast." Freya said as K and Hayley joined her. "The necklace is meant to hold those of Mikaelson blood," she continued as K handed her the gemmed chain, "And I tried to repair the pendent as much as possible."

"So, we'll put Hope inside it and-" Hayley said.

Without warning, the gem burst. The miniscule pieces of blue stone rained onto the table top. There was no hope of repair now.

"Valiant effort," a dead, monotone voice replied. The three shifted their gazes to the figure in black. "But Hope belongs to me."

Inadu flicked her wrist and sent Freya flying into a wall. She crumpled to the floor, if not broken, then breaking.

"Over my dead body." Hayley growled.

Together, she and K launched themselves at the figment only to realize that was exactly what The Hollow had become, a figment. They passed through her like she was mist.

The fight between the ghost and the monsters raged, but no one gained any headway. Without something tangible, corporeal to get their hands on, Hayley and K did little more than annoy The Hollow. And after a few minutes of tossing them around like a ship in a storm, she had her fill.

"Enough," she sighed. With another twist of her delicate wrist, The Hollow sent a chunk of wood flying into Hayley's chest. The hybrid sailed through the air before becoming caught on the wrought iron door. Inadu turned to face K.

"I'm going to kill you, you hear me?" she growled at the ghost.

The Hollow's thin lips twisted into a smirk.

"Not if I kill you first."

K felt something pierce her chest. She felt her feet leave the ground and her back hit something hard. She felt the life drain out of her before everything went black.

~!~

"Hope is gone," Vincent declared.

"What?!" Hayley snapped as she and the others made their way into the courtyard.

"She's The Hollow now."

"We have to find her." Elijah said. "Vincent, you have to pull her out."

"Elijah, if it was as easy as pulling her out, I would not be standing here talking to you right now!" he said angrily. "The problem is, I have nowhere to put her. The book is destroyed and it was the only thing strong enough to hold her eternal soul."

Hayley was frantic. Her mind raced and she couldn't stand still. She needed to find Hope, to try and talk to her. Anything! But she didn't want to go alone.

Hayley's eyes danced along the surrounding area and noticed K was nowhere within the group. She took only a few steps before seeing something just hidden behind some of the greenery that hadn't been trimmed away. It was K and Hayley raced for her immediately.

When The Hollow attacked, she pierced K's heart with wood just as she had Hayley and Rebekah. The vampire was currently pinned to the stucco wall she'd been thrown against, left to dangle like a piece of meat in a freezer. Hayley didn't hesitate to grip the piece of wood and yank it from her chest. K's body crumbled, but Hayley caught her and waited. Within seconds, the grey veins began to subside and K woke with a start.

"Come on," Hayley said as she guided the dazed vampire to her feet.

"What's going on?" K muttered as she came to reality.

"The Hollow took Hope. We couldn't stop her."

"What?!"

Hayley said nothing as she stared at K. In that silent moment, both knew what had to be done and without a word, headed for the door. Neither even bothered to glance at the crowd.

"Hayley, wait!" Elijah called as he jogged after the two. "Where are you going?"

"To find my daughter." She snapped.

"You don't know where to start."

"I'll figure it out!" she barked.

"Hayley," Elijah snatched her arm and forced her to turn.

"Don't touch me!" she yelled as she yanked her arm away. The abrupt action caused K to pause as well.

Elijah took a breath and did his best to calm his trembling voice, "I am on your side."

Hayley radiated anger as she stared back at him. Elijah had never seen the emotion aimed in his direction before and it hurt. It physically hurt.

"Kali and I never should have brought her here." Hayley said as she stepped away.

Elijah watched as she walked passed K and to the door. When she had, his eyes instinctively darted to the vampire who shared the hybrid's rage. With a scoff and shake of the head, K left after Hayley.

The two disappeared into the night in search of the only thing either of them could think of.

Why did everything with the Mikaelsons have to be so goddamn hard? Why?!