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All the Same

"You're telling me your brother in law is back?" Marcel could hear Klaus asking from up above. That was what drove him mad the most, was hearing every movement, every voice in the home upstairs. Since Scarlett had left he had been waiting for this show down to start.

"Back, still around, who cares," Scarlett said in exasperation. "And keep your voice down!" she scolded in a loud whisper. After all, the girls were still in the house, up in the attic playing and exploring. "I think what we need to be focusing on is what we do next."

"What Freya and I do next," Elijah corrected her, heading for the door. "You're not going anywhere near him."

"The hell I'm," she started off arguing, both her and Klaus following him, both stopping at the invisible force keeping them locked in the house. "You've got to be kidding me," she was saying now in annoyance.

"Freya is looking further into the hollow and Dominic's reappearance, I'm off to see Vincent," he informed them. Freya had learned that the Hollow was looking for 4 bones, her bones specifically, so she could come back. "Freya put up a boundary spell to keep the girls safe." He smiled at them. "Who better to keep an eye on the girls than my two favorite hybrids?" And with that, he took off.

"I get why he's keeping you here," Klaus was saying to Scarlett, almost like it was her fault they were locked in the house.

"Maybe because, between the two of us, you're the one that's had to be cleansed of this thing already," she pointed out to him to which he rolled his eyes. "Besides," she was saying lightly now. "I've been watching them alone for five years, won't hurt to have help now."

"What are they up to up there?" Klaus asked, hearing their feet up in the attic.

"They make up games a lot," she shrugged to him, nodding for him to follow her now to her and Elijah's room. There, she had a stack of Natalie's books. "Honestly, I wish I could have sent them to school or something, that way they would have some other kids to play with."

"They have each other," Klaus said as though it were obvious. They had touched on this topic before, the three parents, what to do in regards to the girls' schooling.

"All the Mikaelsons have had were each other," she told him and he shrugged. "All I ever had were my sisters," Scarlett tacked on now.

"Ah, fair enough point," he teased her and she made a face in return.

"Help me look through Natalie's stuff," she told him now, passing him a book. "Old power in this city, she's got to have come across this before."

"Where are we going?" Aurora was asking Hope as she followed her down the stairs from the attic.

"SH!" Hope hushed her as they made it to the top floor of the house. Her dad and aunt were too involved in their research, they didn't even hear the girls. Hope lead the way down to the main floor, then to the basement.

"I don't think we're supposed to be down here," Aurora told her.

"Don't be a baby," Hope told her. The girls got along, but much like siblings they had their moments.

"I'm not!" Aurora protested.

"You girls shouldn't be fighting," they heard a voice saying and they both jumped. Moving through the shadows to where the voice came from, they saw Marcel. He smiled at them. "I haven't seen either of you since you were babies."

"Who are you?" Hope asked him.

"Are you Marcel?" Aurora was asking at the same time. She had heard her parents and uncle talking about him before, in hushed tones, not really allowing her to know much other than his name.

"I am," he nodded at her. "And you're Aurora, and Hope."

"Rory," she told him seriously.

"I'm sorry," he told her with a smile, holding up his hands; she reminded him a lot of her mom.

"What are you doing in our basement?" Hope asked him now.

"It's a bit of a long story," Marcel was telling her. "How about I tell you about it, if you get me some of your dad's stash?"

"We're not stupid," Hope informed him.

"If you don't want to tell us, my mom might," Aurora added on, opening her mouth like she was about to scream for Scarlett.

"All right, all right, all right," Marcel stopped her. "You ladies drive a hard bargain," he said, motioning for them to sit and they sat outside the circle he was locked in. "What do you want to know?"

"You're making me nervous," Scarlett commented from the couch, leafing through another book. Cramped in the study, she and Klaus moved to the main room with their research. She sat on the couch while he paced the room.

"You can't tell me you enjoy being locked in here all day," he snapped at her.

"Can't say I'd be doing much else today anyway," she pointed out with a shrug. "Magical barrier or no." She closed the book, surveying his movements. "...are you ok Nik?"

"Ok?" he asked her. "Ok, being locked in here, while this thing that wants our daughters-"

"What happened to you down there?" she stopped him.

"You're Rory's mother," he avoided the question. "Not mine."

"And thank God for that," she told him sarcastically, getting up now. "I am your friend though, Klaus, and if you need to talk..." She trailed off as her phone was ringing with a call from Elijah. "What's going on?" she asked, figuring if everything was all right he would have just come home.

"I need you, at the cemetery," Elijah told her vaguely, having already contacted Freya to allow Scarlett out. "Can you leave the girls with Klaus?" She glanced at Klaus who just waved her off.

"I'll be back," she assured Klaus as she hung up with her husband. "Make sure the girls eat something other than candy tonight," she told him as she grabbed her bag and prepared to leave.

"I'll have dinner ready when you get home!" he shouted after her sarcastically.

"Oh...my...God," Scarlett was gasping as she caught up with Elijah and Vincent in the cemetery that night. She had wondered what was going on, with Elijah not really giving her much to go off of, but as she stared at the bodies of the four teenagers laying there she quickly pieced together what was going on. "You idiots are trying to recreate the harvest?!" she snapped at them. "For what reason?"

"Not we idiots," Vincent answered her. "Just the one," he nodded at Elijah.

"The ancestors kept the hollow in check for all these centuries," Elijah explained to her. "Performing the harvest will re-establish the link between their world and ours."

"I wish you would have left me out of this," she told him seriously, looking around in disgust as she dropped her bag.

"I would have," Elijah told her, nodding at Vincent now.

"What your husband is trying to say is he's content to lie to you," Vincent told her, earning a glare from each of them. "He brought me here to perform the ritual, but this isn't my magic." He motioned to Scarlett who was pulling her hair back. "Given your age, I figured you qualified as an elder."

"Didn't your mother teach you it's rude to mention a lady's age?" Scarlett asked, kneeling next to the girls. She didn't want to be a part of this, but this was going to be the only way to save their lives. As she started the ritual though, something was very wrong. All of them felt like they were under attack, the ancestors not pleased with any of them.

"Scarlett," Vincent was shouting at her and she turned to him. "Get Davina!"

There were few moves she made in her life that she hated more than this one, damaging the grave of a loved one. She did what she had to though, pulling from Davina's remains and channeling her magic to her, asking her for help. After what seemed like forever, the chaos in the cemetery seemed to settle, the harvest girls waking.

"What did you do?" Elijah asked Scarlett, helping her to her feet.

"I reached out to Davina," Scarlett told him. "Pu her in control of the magic, made her the link."

"We have someone on our side then?" Elijah asked and she nodded.

"Let's go home."

"You lived with my dad when you were little?" Hope asked Marcel and he nodded.

"And you were best friends with my mom?" Aurora asked; he nodded again. He certainly wasn't going to tell her six year old the nature of their relationship. All he told her was when her dad and the rest of the Mikaelsons were gone, Marcel made sure she was taken care of. Aurora knew the story of how her dad was gone for decades, only to come back for her mom; she thought it was romantic.

"Then...why do you hate her?" Aurora asked, specifically of Scarlett though she knew the feeling was towards all the Mikaelsons.

"I could never hate your mom," he told Aurora. "Or your dad," he tacked on for Hope. "I've been with this family for so long..." He trailed off, shaking his head. "That I could never hate them," he repeated, giving them a soft smile.

Just then, they all heard something upstairs; fighting. It didn't take Marcel long to figure out that someone had broken the boundary spell and gotten into the compound. He was grateful that earlier in the night he had heard Scarlett leave, though he concern shifted to the girls. He shouldn't have been surprised that they both hopped to their feet.

"Girls, wait," he stopped them. "It's not safe for you up there." He looked at them seriously. "You gotta let me out of here."

"But my dad," Hope started to say.

"I have to go see my mom!" Aurora was saying at the same time, tearing off her bracelet, Hope now doing the same.

"Girls, stop," he told them. "Your parents would want me to keep you safe, all right?" They weren't so sure. "Look, your dad raised me," he reminded Hope; he turned to Aurora. "And your mom and I took care of each other, that makes us all family right? What did they tell you girls about family?"

"That it's always and forever," Hope told him. Aurora turned when she heard someone coming in the tunnels.

"Rory, Hope, trust me," Marcel encouraged them.

Elijah and Scarlett returned home, hearing a struggle inside. Realizing that something must have happened to Freya and the boundary spell was broken, they rushed inside. They came across a few of the Hollow's followers, fighting them off quickly. Hearing a familiar voice in the main room with Klaus, Scarlett flew in.

"Once I'm done with you," Dominic was telling Klaus. "I'm going to find my sister in law. Then, I'll finish with your-" He stopped suddenly, crying out in pain as he felt his legs snap underneath him. He turned to see Scarlett there.

"You wish," Scarlett told him before Klaus took his head off. "Where are the girls?"

"I'm checking upstairs!" Elijah called out to them.

"I think I heard them in the tunnels," Klaus said worriedly, both him and Scarlett speeding off. When they got there Marcel was gone and there was a pile of bodies; the only sign of the girls having been there was their bracelets laying on the floor.

"Dammit," Scarlett murmured, looking around in distress, running her hands through her hair.

"Did you..." Elijah started to ask about them finding the girls but quickly trailed off. Scarlett closed her eyes, focusing all her energy.

"This way," she nodded through the tunnels, able to follow the girls' magic like bread crumbs. They were lead out of the tunnels to the street where they spotted Marcel sitting on a bench between both girls.

"Rory!" Scarlett shouted as Klaus was yelling at Marcel. She honestly didn't care who they were with, just happy that they were in one piece. As she rushed over, Marcel stood up, moving to give her space. "Come here!" she said to Aurora, maybe more crossly than she meant to, though she did pull her into a hug. "Baby," Scarlett said, her mind racing a mile a minute, looking her daughter over to make sure she wasn't hurt. "What were you doing down there?!"

"It was my idea," Hope spoke up.

"You both know better!" Scarlett scolded, though she checked Hope over now too. She barely noticed Elijah or Klaus coming closer, Marcel continuing to stand behind her. "What did I tell you about going into the basement?!"

"Not to," Aurora murmured, looking at her feet.

"And you used your magic!" Scarlett continued, both girls looking a little sheepish.

"That was my idea," Marcel chimed in now, much like Hope had spoken up before. Scarlett stood fully to her feet, turning to glare daggers at him.

"Scarlett," Elijah stopped her, shaking his head. He had been just as afraid as she had been, but she had gone off enough.

"Marcel just wanted to keep us safe," Aurora told her mom now.

"He's our friend," Hope told them seriously.

"Thank you," Elijah was telling Marcel now; Marcel nodded silently. "Rory, sweetheart, it's late," he said, holding out his hand which she eagerly took.

"Your uncle is right," Klaus told Hope, nodding for her to follow. As they walked away, Scarlett went to follow, stopping briefly to look back at Marcel.

"Thank you," she told him softly before speeding to catch up with the others.

"Is mommy mad at me?" Aurora was asking Elijah that night as he tucked her in. She had already given Scarlett a kiss goodnight, leaving her downstairs as she and Keelin both fussed over Freya to make sure she was alright.

"Your mom was just very scared," Elijah assured her gently, resting his hand over hers. "She knows you did the right thing, using your magic." He gave her a soft smile. "You were very brave tonight sweetheart."

"I didn't feel brave," Aurora murmured.

"Believe me when I saw you were," Elijah promised, squeezing her hand before letting it go. "I can't imagine what you saw tonight Rory," he said seriously now. He had seen the bodies, the blood everywhere; it made him sick that Aurora and Hope had seen that happen. "But, your mom and I are here, if you need to-"

"I didn't see anything," Aurora stopped him and he looked at her curiously. "After we let Marcel out, he moved us to another tunnel. He said we just had to close our eyes and sing." She shrugged. "When we got through the song it was already done and we all went outside."

"I'm very happy to hear that," Elijah told her, kissing her forehead. "Get some rest Rory."

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