Happy New Year y'all!

Thank you to Raven R. Mahmood, Bella-swan11, Chamberstaneshia69, GreenHoneyTea, and Guest 2.0 for reviewing. As always, responses will be at the end.

Fun fact: This is my least favorite chapter thus far. Also, I'm pretty set on Kol/Elena because it will work very well with what I have planned. That means Klaus will be with Caroline or a New Orleans person.

I hope y'all enjoy

EDIT: Fixed some grammar and other small things. I was very tired when I posted this.

The blare of Azalea's ring tone drew Rebecca away from the grimoire she was reading. She flipped open her phone, only to hear her father's voice.

"I need you to come with me."

Rebecca froze. She heard Azalea's voice ring out next.

"I'd rather not if it's all the same to you."

There was the tell-tale sound of displaced air that signified supernatural speed.

"Sleep until I wake you."

She heard the crack of Azalea's phone hitting the ground, and then the sound of her body going limp into someone's arms.

"Bring them to the caves. Stay out of sight."

Then there was nothing besides the background noise of everyday life.

She heard a gust of displaced air and looked up to see her eldest brothers in front of her, identical expressions of fear and fury on their faces. Finn's face was tight with pain, but he looked unhurt. That meant something had happened to Sage. Sage, who had gone with Azalea to meet up with Elena.

"What happened."

She met Elijah's eyes before replying to him. "Mikael took Azalea." She glanced over at Finn before continuing, "I don't know what happened to Sage." Or Elena, but Rebekah didn't care about the doppelganger and she doubted that her brothers did either. At that, Finn vanished.

Her eyes lingered after her brother before she turned back to Elijah, who was visibly locking down his feelings. They all knew that Mikael was stronger than they were at the best of times, but now he had the advantage of a hostage and whatever allies he may have gained. They couldn't afford to be blinded by their emotions if they wanted to get through this.

They also needed allies. And the only allies they could get quickly were Elena's friends. At the very least, the Bennett would be useful. By the look on Elijah's face, he was thinking the same thing.

"I will go speak with Elena's friends."

Given that Finn was going to be occupied until Sage was healed, Elijah was the best one to form alliances. Rebekah was self-aware enough to know that she didn't have the best temperament for it, and the less said about Klaus and Kol the better.

She decided to ignore the fact that Elijah was a hair's breadth away from violence at the moment.

Speaking of violence, there was also the matter of who had let Mikael out, and the list of suspects was quite small. Mikael was a greater scrounge on the supernatural world than her family could hope to be. The effects of his single-minded pursuit of Klaus was comparable to a natural disaster.

Only the stupid or desperate deliberately drew his attention.

Rebekah knew that certain inhabitants of Mystic Falls were both. Her voice made Elijah pause before he left.

"You know that they were the ones that let him out."

"I know."

He was gone in the breath that followed his statement

Finn hadn't felt this kind of fear in years. He recognized this pain - even if it was a pale echo of what Sage was feeling, there was no mistaking the feeling of werewolf venom coursing through her veins.

He followed his pulsing bond to his wife and appeared behind the Mystic Grill. She was sitting against the wall of the building, face tight with pain. She had her hand tightly clasped around her right arm, blood seeping between her fingers. There were three werewolves on the ground in front of her, their hearts torn neatly from their chests.

Finn took a moment to thank whoever was listening that no one had come across the scene yet. Uncaring of his clothes, he kneeled beside her and gently shook her shoulder.

"Finn…"

He shushed her gently before biting into his wrist and offering her his blood. He could not stop the poison - only Klaus could do that - but he could slow the infection and offer her some slight relief. She latched on gratefully, taking deep mouthfuls of his life force.

"Rebekah is fetching Klaus. Don't worry about Mikael, we already know."

She nodded, obviously exhausted. Now that he was looking closer, he could see that she had three bites, layered on top of the other. That explained why she was so unresponsive - a vampire of Sage's age could withstand the infection longer than a younger one. In fact, if she was any younger, she would most likely be dead by now.

Finn took a moment to force down his anger. He could worry about killing the pack that did this after Sage was healed.

He gently lifted her into his arms and held her close as he sped back to the mansion.

Klaus had thankfully been at the front steps of the mansion when he had arrived with Sage in tow. She was still weak, but she insisted on going with them. Finn knew that she was angry with herself for failing to protect Azalea from Mikael. To her, it didn't matter that Mikael was more powerful than she - the perceived failure still burned, and he knew that she wasn't going to sit back and not involve herself in things.

Which led to this.

'This' was a disaster.

Admittedly, Rebekah and Kol had added fuel to an already volatile situation by compelling their way into Elena's home, and he hadn't helped by appearing mid-conversation with his youngest brothers and wife in tow, but the blame wasn't solely on his family's shoulders.

It had started with that Bennet witch telling the blonde woman - Jenna, he thought her name was - about the supernatural and then everything devolved from there. Jenna had immediately faced the brunette teen - Jeremy, was it? There were so many of them.

"You're saying that you've been running around town with vampires and witches, putting your lives in danger without telling me?" As the teen cringed into the furniture, Jenna whirled on the rest of them and continued. "And now Elena's been kidnapped by some psychotic ancient Original vampire with a grudge against all of you. "

At this point Klaus, Kol, Rebekah, and Sage were just enjoying the show. There wasn't much use in strategizing before all of them were here, after all. Elijah and the Salvatores were still missing, though his brother had obviously spoken to the rest of Elena's friends.

The baby vampire that Finn was pretty sure Klaus was attracted to spoke up.

"Jenna, they're the only ones who can get Elena back. None of us like it, but we need them."

Obviously unconvinced, the woman gave a hard glare over to his siblings and himself - he was almost impressed, that was quite the glare she had - before rebutting.

"And why would they help? From what you told me, they're the reason why Elena disappeared in March."

"We have a stake in this too."

Jenna quieted at Sage's words, and shot them a look that told her to go on.

"Mikael took our sister along with Elena, and he's been our enemy for centuries. We want him dead just as much, if not more than you."

That was a bit of an understatement, but it was the truth. Jenna opened her mouth to respond before a knock at the door cut her off. Kol sat up in his seat with a grin, obviously anticipating the oncoming chaos.

"That's Elijah."

The door opened, admitting his brother.

Elijah was looking grimly satisfied as he entered the house. The Salvatores followed moving slowly, and they took the part of the room that was furthest from his brother. It seemed that the two were rather shaken under the bravado.

Elijah must have had a conversation with the two of them which explained why it had taken so long for the three of them to show up. His brother spoke without aplomb.

"Damon and Stefan were the ones to release Mikael."

Finn, like the rest of his family, already suspected that much, but that didn't do much to prevent the bolt of rage that went through his system at the words. He generally tried to be a peaceful vampire, but the actions of those two had nearly killed his wife and gotten his sister kidnapped by his father. He was beginning to think that the duo would be better dead than alive. A glance as his siblings told him that they were thinking the same.

Elena's friends, however, had clearly not known that bit of information.

"What." Their voices sounded out in five part harmony.

"What the hell would make you do something so stupid."

The younger one responded to the Witch's question. "We needed to protect Elena. Klaus has to die, Bonnie"

Well, that was rude. Not that he was feeling much more charitable towards them - though it looked like Klaus was getting a laugh out of the thought of a couple of young vampires trying to kill him.

"You're not protecting Elena. You're trying to get revenge."

"They killed her."

"They left. Elena specifically told us not to do anything. You might not like it, but you should have respected that. We would be in this situation if you listened to her."

At that, the older one decided to contribute.

"We wouldn't be in this situation if they hadn't killed Elena."

In response, Klaus spoke up for the first time. Finn was wondering when that would happen - he had been uncharacteristically silent.

"Releasing Mikael was entirely your choice. Mikael taking them is on your head."

" Maybe if you had left Elena alone, Mikael wouldn't have taken them."

Insinuating that Klaus - that all of them - were at fault for the near-death of his wife and the kidnapping of his sister?

If that wasn't the stupidest thing to say, Finn would go on the animal diet. He saw Rebekah place a hand on Elijah's arm before the tension was cut by a familiar echoing voice

"Please don't kill them right now - we need them alive."

Relief and surprise pervaded Finn at the sight of his almost-sister. She was drifting near Elijah, as was her custom when she was in the form of a Spirit. He saw some of the tension his brother was holding flee at her appearance, though he didn't seem any less angry with the entire situation.

Azalea obviously read the mood, or she had been eavesdropping, because she continued without prompting. Well, that and she certainly wanted to be unkidnapped.

"I drank Elena's blood. We're in the full moon caves. Someone took some of Elena and I's blood, and I don't know if Elena's been compelled or not."

Finn saw that another argument was about to start at her words, so he decided to kill it before it was born.

"There is a way to kill an Original."

He saw his siblings tense slightly at his words, but relax as he continued. "The wood from a birch tree grown in the area we were turned is the only way. Fortunately, we all died here in Mystic Falls. If we fashion stakes, we can kill Mikael."

He had no intention of revealing their weakness to hostiles, even if there was no way for them to get to the White Oak. Besides if they managed to get lucky and kill Mikael, he or one of his siblings could easily finish him off during his temporary death.

"Great!" Azalea somehow managed to clap her hands, before continuing brightly. "How about me and Elijah get to doing that while you all plan. Bye!"

With that she disappeared out the door, not waiting for any responses. Elijah cast one more look over the room, lingering on the Salvatores, before following her.

Honestly, it was most likely for the best that they were gone. Elijah was steadily going from bad to worse, for all that he was remaining silent, and Finn knew that the Mystic Falls crew - the Salvatores, in particular, because that's who his brother was especially furious with - dying would cause more problems than solutions at the moment.

Of course, things would change once Mikael was dead.

He was looking forward to it.

Raven R. Mahmood - It really had been a while. Finals were kicking my ass so I had no time to write. But I am back until I have Finals again!

Bella-swan11 - The Salvatores have crossed several lines, and they are quite aware of that at the moment - Elijah wasn't very kind to them when he got them. I didn't say too much it in the chapter, but he and the Salvatores were about 20 mins. late, and most of that time was spent making the brothers regret some of their life choices. Azalea will be offering reassurance next chapter, and Elena is now very aware of the issues she has with the brothers.

Chamberstaneshia69 - Unfortuently, Bonnie/Kol isn't going to work, but its looking like Klaroline or someone in New Orleans for Klaus is gonna happen.

GreenHoneyTea - Thank you! The real effects of the Salvatore/Originals thing is gonna start next chapter, because Azalea was focused nore on diffusing the situation via removing Elijah from it, because he was pretty close to doing something drastic. I based Azalea on Karen Gillan, though Azalea's eyes are a very light blue, and her hair is very red. I imagine that her hair and eyes are a touch too vivid to be human. I'm happy that my explanation helped you! Azalea is going to be talking to Elena about that pretty soon - either next chapter or the one after. Thank you again for reviewing!

Guest 2.0 - I, too, would like to avoid the Hope storyline. For many reasons, but mainly because I don't like her and I like my happy endings. Klaus dying is not a happy ending. Mikael has many nefarious machinations, and I will neither confirm nor deny the subject of Esther, but I think I wrote about her in one of my previous A/N's. She's a garbage parent tho - I tagged her as one on my ao3 account, actually.

BTW, If any of you want to see that 'conversation' Elijah had with the Salvatores, I wouldn't mind posting it at the end of the next chapter. It wasn't here cause this was POV Finn and Rebekah

Until next time y'all.