A.N. - So this is where it all comes to an end, the moment you've all been waiting for, the climax. Expect one more chapter & an epilogue. Warning: tears may be shed.

Please review & enjoy!

Song: Passenger - For You

A high-pitched wailing came from Hope's nursery upstairs. It wasn't the usual cry he heard when she was hungry or needed to be changed. She sounded afraid - terrified. His paranoia kicked in.

Klaus dropped the blade in his hand, covered in Kol's blood, and turned quickly to Elijah. "Watch him while I get Hope."

Elijah nodded, bit into his wrist, and healed Kol, who wailed pitifully as the cuts on his face and arms healed quickly, with his blood.

Hope's cries seemed to get more desperate with each passing minute, or maybe that was just his imagination. He couldn't be sure.

When he got to the room the first thing he noticed was that the door was wide open; they had closed it earlier when Hope was put down for a nap. Once he stepped through the threshold a puddle of blood caught his eyes; it was fresh.

His eyes shot over to Hope, who, despite the screaming, was physically unharmed. She rolled over onto her side and looked him in the eyes, identical shades of blue merging into one. It was like she was trying to speak to him.

The thin white curtains blew outward before being sucked back again, then continuing the cycle. In, out, in, out. Like breathing. The window was open - wide enough for someone to fit through. He swiftly pulled the window close and turned to soothe the distressed infant.

"I've waited months for this moment, boy," spat a venomous voice. It was one that haunted Klaus' thoughts, his dreams, his every waking minute.

"Mikael."

Klaus turned to face the man he had once called "father" with a look of pure hatred, bearing his hybrid fangs without shame. He tackled him into the hallway, slamming his back against the wall. The drywall cracked under the force of the blow, covering Mikael's shoulders with white dust.

Mikael pushed back with equal force, forcing Klaus against the opposite wall. Klaus felt something sharp pressed against the fabric of his shirt, sharp enough to pierce the fabric, and, quite possibly, his heart. He looked down and his eyes fell upon a horrific, bone-chilling sight: the white oak stake in Mikael's grasp. He was clutching it so tightly his knuckles were bone white.

"Any last words before I drive this into your heart?" Mikael pressed the stake down harder, breaking the skin on Klaus' chest, just one flick of the wrist away from driving it through his pounding heart.

Before Klaus even had a chance to react, to fight back, something long and sharp pierced through Mikael's throat, sending a powerful stream of blood down his neck and across Klaus' face. Mikael let out a muffled wail as the rod was pulled out from the back. He collapsed to the ground on his knees, dropping the stake. Klaus looked up and met the cerulean eyes of his ally: Max.

Without another moment of hesitation, Klaus seized his moment of opportunity and dropped to the floor, snatched the stake and put his boot down on Mikael's torso, keeping him still. "Now, do you have any last words before I drive this into your heart, again?"

He reveled in the look of fear and pain that flashed across Mikael's face as he looked down upon him. It was a look he had only seen once before, when he had last killed his father back in Mystic Falls. In spite of what Mikael had done to Belle since his return, Klaus knew that this time it would be all the more enjoyable to watch his corpse burn to ash. But, hopefully, this time would be the last.

"I'm glad you aren't my son, you pathetic," before he could get another insulting, demeaning word in, Klaus drove the stake through his heart. He had heard every scornful comment Mikael could possibly think of in his depraved, sadistic mind over the years; he wasn't about to hear another.

Klaus hovered over Mikael as the light in his eyes went out and his final breath passed through his bloodied lips. He stepped back and watched Mikael's corpse burst into flames. The light from the fire illuminated the dim space, bouncing off the frames of the old painting and photographs that hung along the walls of the hallway.

Klaus turned to Max as his mind strayed to his initial concern, and asked a question that was burning in his thoughts, like Mikael's body was before their eyes, "Where's Belle?"

Max shook his head, eyes searching the orange flames for some answers to which he didn't even seem to know the questions. He seemed to be a million miles away. "I don't know. We were arguing downstairs and then Hope started crying. She went upstairs to check on her." His eyes flickered to Klaus', filled with undeniable guilt. "I haven't seen her since."

Pain shot through her entire body, radiating from her core, as two warlocks carried her through the threshold of her secret garden, the house in which Claudia and her siblings had lived when they had reunited roughly a year before. The men put her down on the floor in the center of the front room; the house was completely empty, unlike the last time she had been there.

A pale, blonde woman entered the room - a witch, Belle assumed. "We need to get the baby out as soon as possible," the girl said to Sabrina, who stood back with Ester, watching Belle groan in pain.

"Not yet," Sabrina said smoothly.

The agony became even more unbearable with each passing second. It was worse than the hours she had suffered periodically over the past few months, worse than the pain of childbirth itself. She knew why; her body was fighting itself, trying to heal as her innocent son unknowingly broke it down. It was an ongoing cycle of physical misery.

A scream slipped through her lips as she opened her mouth to speak. "Please," she pleaded, looking into Sabrina's cold eyes, "please don't hurt him. Whatever I did to you, it's not his fault. Don't make an innocent child suffer for my mistakes."

A menacing laugh echoed from across the room where Sabrina stood. She approached Belle slowly, creating an unnerving anticipation. "My dear sister, you don't even know what mistakes you've made, do you?" She got down on her knees, reaching out to stroke Belle's hair, which was matted with sticky sweat. "Well, fear not. I'd be happy to tell you." She smiled sweetly, contradicting to look of utter resentment in her eyes, and got to her feet again. She paced the room as she spoke, circling Belle like a vulture. "When you forced me into this life nearly a thousand years ago, you neglected to consider how it would ultimately effect me. Of course, I would expect no less coming from from you. You see, I had a life of my own. I had a husband." She paused, feigning sadness. "We were on the road to starting a family. And when you turned me, I was just a few months pregnant with a beautiful baby boy, just like you."

Belle's heart dropped. If her ribs and flesh weren't in the way, she was sure it would've dropped out of her body completely. "What? No, no, you're lying. You weren't pregnant."

"But, I was. When you turned me, when I died, he died - only, he didn't come back." Her face was stern, stone-like. Her lips pursed into a firm line as she paused, looking Belle straight in the eyes. "You killed my son, so now I'm going to kill yours, just like I did to your precious Lilith. You need to feel the pain of loosing a child before you can even hold them in your arms - and trust me when I say this: it'll rot you from the inside." Sabrina took in a deep breath and turned to the blonde witch, and nodded. "Let's get this show on the road."

"Ester was here, I know it. She's helping Sabrina, and Sabrina must have taken Belle. If we find Ester, we find them." Max anxiously paced the living room floor, just like he'd been doing for the past half hour. Klaus sat on the couch, tapping his foot with just as much anxiety. He hated not being able to do anything. He needed to act, to spill blood.

"How do you know that Ester doesn't have a cloaking spell on them right now? She's a thousand years old; I'm pretty sure she's smart enough to do that," Audrey interjected.

"She's right," Elijah added.

"I say we go in, guns blazing. You know, metaphorically." Colton shifted forward in his seat, eagerly trying to help. Unfortunately, he had the mind of a twelve-year-old boy, which was, for obvious reasons, useless.

Rebekah rolled her eyes. "We can't do that if we don't even know where they are, you bloody moron."

"I have a hunch," Max said.

Klaus couldn't help but scoff. "Well, there's our answer. Max has a 'hunch'. Surely he must be right." He continued staring blankly at the wall as he rolled his eyes.

Max rolled his eyes, as if to mock Klaus' annoyance. "I'm serious. Sabrina's a creature of habit, a there are only three places I can think of that they would go: St. Anne's church, Lafayette cemetery, and the plantation house. If we split up and try each place, surely one of us will find them." Max turned to each of them, desperate for someone to back him up.

Elijah nodded. "Max is right. It's our best option, as far as I can see." He turned to a brooding, frustrated Klaus. "Brother?"

Klaus looked Elijah in the eyes, determined as ever, and nodded. "Elijah, you and I will go to the plantation; Rebekah, Marcel, and Audrey will go to the church; Max and Colton will go to the cemetery; everyone else can stay here."

"The hell I am," Cal interjected. "That's my little girl, and I'll be damned if I sit by and do nothing."

"Well, I see who your favorite is," Audrey muttered.

Colton rolled his eyes. "We've known that for years."

"Cal and I will go with you," Ansel said to Klaus, locking eyes with him. Klaus nodded.

Max stood up with enthusiasm, a hopeful look in his eyes. "Let's do this."

This didn't phase Klaus' pessimistic attitude. What if they weren't in any if those places? And there was no way of telling what Sabrina would do to Belle, or the baby for that matter. What about Ester? He doubted she had given up on her crusade to "save" her children by making them mortal. There were too many unknowns for his liking, granted, he always preferred to know everything.

Klaus got to his feet quickly and turned to Elijah, Cal, and Ansel, the uncertainty mingling with determination in his dark, ocean blue eyes. "Shall we?"

Belle screamed at the top of her lungs as the little blonde witch drug a scalpel along her stomach; Sabrina was far too impatient to wait for a natural birth, hence her decision for an amateur cesarean section. The only problem was that, every time she cut her flesh, the wound would heal too quickly for her to move far enough, just breaking the first layer or two of skin. Belle had lost count of how many times they had cut her open; she wished she could lose any sense of feeling so she wouldn't have to continue the ongoing torture.

Frustrated, Sabrina took the blade from the witch and pushed her aside. "I'll do it, for fucks sake." She knelt down by Belle's side and pulled her forcefully to her. She took no time as she dug the blade into her flesh, opening her up and cutting through layers of skin and tissue, at last exposing a tiny, squealing infant.

Ester knelt down on her other side. "It's a boy," she said, fighting a smile. Ester took the child in her arms, tilting him toward Belle slightly. His face was as red as a cherry tomato and a mop of dirty blonde curls were matted to his head. Ester wiped the blood away from his eyes, mouth, and cute little snubbed nose.

As her body healed itself, Belle smiled, despite the pain. He was her little Klaus. Her Blade. He turned his head to her, flashing a toothless grin, and opening his far-too-large eyes. Her breath caught in her throat as she looked into his eyes, his dark brown eyes, so dark they were almost black. He had her eyes; he had Lilith's eyes.

Sabrina stood and walked around to Belle's other side to stand beside Ester. Ester stood, eyes darting from Sabrina's to Belle's.

"Please," she pleaded, eyes locked on Ester's. "Please, don't do this. Let me hold him. I just, I just want to hold him." Tears fell from her eyes, mingling with the sweat on her cheeks. "From one mother to another, please. You can't do this. You can't take him from me."

Ester's eyes, swimming with confliction, locked with hers. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.

Sabrina groaned, reached over, and snatched Blade from her arms. "Let's get this over with." She adjusted the screaming baby in her cradled arms and turned to one of the warlocks. "Take care of her," she said, nodding in Belle's direction.

"No," she shook her head with as much force as she could, and tried to sit up, but the gaping wound in her abdomen prevented it. "No!"

The taller warlock with dark hair walked quickly toward her, drawing a knife from the belt around his waist. He knelt down beside her and raised her head up slightly. The last thing she heard before the darkness overtook her was the desperate cries of her newborn son, begging her to save him.

When she awoke, there was an unbearable, searing heat surrounding her. She heard the crackling of flames. As she regained consciousness, the scent of burning wood filled her nose. Her eyes shot open and her senses were right; the house was on fire. Her instincts took over and she ran out of the burning house as it began collapsing around her. She had to get out; she had to find Blade.

She stood on the front lawn, watching the house in which she had once found solace fall apart and burn to ash, trying to think clearly.

She reached up with her right hand, bringing her thumb to her lips and biting her nail, an old, anxious habit. Seconds later, as her mind cleared, she brought her hand back down, noticing the blood that had rubbed off from her neck. Her survival meant that she was, once again, a full-blooded vampire. And a vampire could protect their own.

Suddenly, she heard tires on the gravel driveway, heading up to the house. She turned around quickly and immediately recognized Klaus' car. He stopped abruptly and got out, leaving the door open. She ran over to him as fast as she could, pausing in front of him, mouth gaping, eyes wide.

"What happened?"

"She, they, they took him." Her face was vacant of expression, her eyes indicating that she was somewhere else entirely. "I think know where he is. Ester's been consecrated, so she's using ancestral magic, right?" Her eyes darted to Cal, Ansel, and Elijah, who were getting out of the car, looking at her like she was a ghost. "She's at the cemetery." She scoffed without mirth. "New Orleans witches love that damned cemetery. It's where she cursed me, and probably where she resurrected Kol if she's a habitual witch. We should go there."

Cal nodded. "Max and Colton are there. I'll call and ask if he's seen either of them."

As if in cue, Cal's phone rang. It was Colton. Belle caught pieces from Colton's side; something was wrong, she could hear the urgency in his voice. As soon as she heard the words, "she's here," she took off running toward the city, determined. She had to save her son before it was too late.

Klaus threw the keys to Elijah and ran after her, quickly catching up. He didn't stop her, but she knew he wouldn't let her do it alone. They had to save their son.

She and Klaus got to the cemetery before the rest of them. Colton met them at the entrance. "Where's Max?" Belle demanded. "Did you find Sabrina? Ester?"

Colton hesitated. "Yeah, we, um, we did see them. Ester, she," he paused like he was out of breath, or trying to hold back tears. What happened? "She attacked us, took us off guard. Max, he," a sob slipped through his lips, followed by a few fat tears. "She, um. I don't know where Ester is. Sabrina, she took the baby, and Max went after her, but she stopped him." He ran a hand through his hair anxiously, biting his lower lip so hard he nearly broke the skin. "I don't know where she went. But, I uh, I trapped Ester in one of the tombs. You can deal with her. And Max, he's back there." Without looking, Colton turned his body and pointed behind him. A pool of blood stained the concrete ground behind one of the crypts.

Wearily, she stepped toward it. She felt like she was having a lucid dream; she was in control of her body, but nothing around her felt real. When she saw what was on the other side, she wished she were dreaming. A scream tore through her lips as she dropped to her knees, covering her mouth in a failing attempt to stifle her screams.

Max lay in a pool of his own blood, a metal spike from the fence through his shoulder, a wooden stake through his heart. His skin was cold and gray, veins raised. His eyes were closed, Colton's doing, she was sure.

"What a pity, that the people we love the most are always the ones we hurt. Even if we don't mean to."

Belle turned with tears streaming down her face, meeting Sabrina's cold eyes. "I didn't do this," she insisted. "This was your fault."

"No, sweet sister, it isn't. You brought Max to this city; you drug him into your drama. You did this. It's all your fault. Just like my husband's death was my fault - of course, I actually killed him. True, it was an accident, but murder is murder. It can't be undone. You know, he was my first kill, just like I was yours. Well, technically yours was a two-in-one. And now, the same thing will happen to your son." A mirthless grin played at her lips. "Karma's a bitch, ain't he?"

Fed up with her taunting, Belle forced Sabrina against the fence, letting the sharp metal spikes pierce her skin, digging into her arms and back. "I'm sorry for what I did to you, but I'm not sorry for this," she said, plunging her fist into Sabrina's chest, latching onto her heart. But before she could tear it from her, Sabrina forced her off, sending her flying into a crypt, shattering the stone into chunks.

Sabrina pulled herself off the fence and stood, arms spread boldly. "Is that the best you've got?" Sabrina rushed forward and tackled Belle to the ground, punching her in the face, busting her lower lip open. "You can do better than that."

Belle forced her off, slamming her into an adjacent crypt, the stone cracking under the force. She rammed her knee into Sabrina's left thigh, shattering her femur so she couldn't run. A mangled cry echoed from her lips. Belle wrapped her hand around Sabrina's throat, squeezing tight enough to nearly stop her from breathing. "You killed my daughter; you tried to kill my son; you killed our brother; you tried to kill me. Now, I'm going to kill you."

She looked into Sabrina's fearful eyes, but forced herself to look away as she tore Sabrina's head from her body. She couldn't bear to watch the light leave her eyes, no matter what she had done. She was still her sister, the little girl she had watched grow up. Though she was no longer a sweet, innocent child, her eyes said otherwise. They were still the same milk chocolate hue that they'd always been. Her eyes lacked the darkness that had rotted her soul for centuries.

Without looking back, unable to face the act she had been forced to commit, Belle followed the cries echoing from a tomb nearby; it was Blade. He lay swaddled in a white sheet, blood still staining his pale skin, watching her eagerly with his familiar eyes. There was a piece of her beloved daughter's soul in him; she could feel it. She reached out and lifted him into her arms, cradling him and rocking him gently, holding him for the very first time.

"It's okay, baby. Everything's going to be fine. I promise." She wasn't sure whether her words were meant for him or herself, but she didn't really care. She meant them either way. Footsteps echoed behind her; it was Klaus, she knew it without even turning around.

"Ester's dead. We sent her back to her rightful body; she won't be back." His words sounded hallow, like he was reciting lines from a teleprompter. His eyes were locked on the tiny, swaddled figure in Belle's arms.

She turned to face him, and nodded. "Sabrina's dead."

He nodded, eyes still on Blade.

"Would you like to meet your son, our son?"

He nodded and stepped closer. Carefully, she shifted the baby into Klaus' arm, placing a hand gently on the back of his head to help support it. His hair was dry now, letting his fluffy little blonde curls move freely between her fingers.

Blade looked up into Klaus' eyes, flashing a toothless smile, dimples and all, and latched onto his finger with his little fist. Klaus leaned down to kiss the baby on the his forehead, smiling with his identical dimples. Like father like son; Little Klaus and the original.

"Everything's going to be fine," Belle repeated. Only, this time she knew it was to herself. "I promise."

A.N. - In case anyone was wondering, yes, I did take inspiration from Hope's birth in 1x22. Of course, it's not the same by any means. Let me know what you guys think! Next chapter will tie up any loose ends, so don't worry.