Alright, first off: This story is of Canon AU and Post-S5 of the Originals. So, this story is under the Vampire Diaries because everyone is mostly caught up with all 3 shows and I think most of everyone can keep pace. This story is also in Ao3 under the same story title!
May 2nd, 2012.
The day everything changed for the Mikealson Family. It was the day was a battle began over the control of the French Quarter, the reveal of the revival of the supposedly long-dead Guerrera family, and also...the night Hayley Marshall went into labor.
At St. Anne's Church...
"AHHHH! Let go of me, you bitch!" Hayley screams at Genevieve in rage, pain, and fear as she feels another contraction pass through her as she struggling, forcibly held down on a table at the sacristy of St. Anne's, surrounded by multiple witches, including Monique and Abigail.
Taken against her will, suffering from a placental abruption, and now the incoming threat to her baby girl's life as a sacrifice o the withes of New Orleans was stressing Hayley and no doubt helping induce her labor! Hayley screamed and screamed for help to anyone that would listen!
Doors slammed open as a limping, blooded Klaus Mikaelson came through the door as a screaming Hayley was being subdued by the witches. Hayley looks up, shocked but relieved to see him as lunges toward one of the witch guards and rips his head off. But before he could take another step to kill the witches who dare lay a hand on Hayley and their child, Abigail and Monique quickly got in front and link hands, telekinetically lifting and pinning Klaus to the wall above them.
Klaus fights against the spell fastening him to the wall, but he cannot get free. Monique and Abigail anchor the spell and go back to help a screaming Hayley.
Klaus and Hayley watch fearfully as Genevieve grabs the ceremonial athame that was used for the Harvest. Hayley continues to groan and scream in agony and terror as Genevieve looks up to address Klaus.
"You should know this brings me no joy. I promise I'll make it quick," Genevieve said stoically as a witch placed a sheet over Hayley's trembling legs. "Let's begin, shall we?"
"AHHHH! NO! NO! NO!" Hayley pleads, shaking her head in fear as another contraction passes through.
The labor moved relatively fast as Genevieve kept watch as Hayley was fully dilated and the baby's head was in the birth canal. She tried her best to coach the crying werewolf through her labor as she screams and pleads for her child's life while Klaus yells and roars vengeful promises of death threats from above.
"I WILL BRING HELL TO YOUR DOORSTEP!"
"One last push! The baby's almost there!" Genevieve ordered as Hayley had no choice in the matter as she screamed in pain and pushes the child from out in-between her legs one last time.
"I WILL BATHE IN RIVERS OF YOUR BLOOD!"
"NO! NO!" Hayley cries, shaking her head as she continues to helplessly push.
"I can see the baby!" Monique exclaims as she saw the head exit from Hayley's folds.
"OK, now push!" Genevieve orders, moving her hand and grasping the head once it's fully out.
Hayley screams again and squeezes the sheet in her hand tightly as she pushes again.
"Gently! Gently!" Genevieve exclaims one last time, gently pulling the baby's body out as Hayley screams and pushes one last time.
"YOU WILL DIE SCREAMING!"
"There!" Genevieve shouts just as Hayley falls backward, exhausted and gasping as she felt her baby finally leave her body and into the arms of the witch who delivered it.
Hayley swung her head from side to side, delirious, and in pain. Klaus stopped screaming as Genevieve revealed a small, red-skinned baby as it intakes its first breath and breathes out its first cries into the world.
Hayley managed to get the strength to lean up and take a look at her newborn as Genevieve held it gently as Monique took the athame and cut the baby's umbilical cord. Lightly soothing the crying newborn that was just opening its eyes, Genevieve looked up at Klaus and said, "You have a beautiful baby daughter."
Klaus looked down at his newborn daughter and it was like everything faded. That nothing was important. Nothing was more important to him than the sheer existence of the miracle child, the child that was being held in his enemy's hands.
"AAAHHHH!"
Suddenly, Hayley screams and falls back abruptly as she howls in pain. The witches quickly turned their heads to the werewolf as she grasped her stomach tightly. Quickly handing the baby to Abigail, Genevieve rushes forward and as she places a hand on Hayley's womb and felt around, her eyes widen as she felt it.
Swiftly, she puts her hands back under the sheet and knew there was no mistaking.
"Genevieve, what are you doing!?" Monique exclaimed.
"She's crowning again!" Genevieve shouted behind her.
"WHAT!? Hayley, Klaus, and almost every other witch in the church shouted. Not that Genevieve could blame them, but she needed to focus! The afterbirth normally comes out pretty quick, and Hayley's baby bump had always been on the larger side, which was natural too but...TWINS!?
Genevieve had to hurry. The first baby paved the way, so it was relatively smooth sailing for the second born.
"Hayley, I need you to push again!" Genevieve ordered, ready to catch this next one.
Hayley lurches forward, screaming in pain again, though unsure if it was the physical pain over enduring another labor or the emotional trauma of another child being born into this world in immediate danger.
"Hayley, I need you to start pushing again! Your firstborn already did the hard part! Now I need you to begin pushing again" the witch commanded.
"No, no, no, please no!" Hayley cries in exhaustion as she subconsciously applies and pushes pressure down her pelvic.
This seemed to snap Klaus out of his state of shock, this time spewing more wrath than ever before. "I WILL SKIN YOU ALL ALIVE AND SCATTER YOUR REMAINS WITH NO END IN SIGHT FOR YOUR RETURN!"
"Hayley, push!" Genevieve commanded once more. Luckily, this baby's head is positioned down at the cervix like its sister, which is happily preferable to the possibility of cutting Hayley open if it was breached.
Hayley screamed out in agony and bit her tongue as she endured another contraction as she pushed one more time.
"I WILL RIPE YOUR FLESH APART AND LEAVE YOUR MANGLED, SHATTERED CORPSE ON THE DOORS OF YOUR FAMILIES!" Klaus screamed, tired but still fighting the spell that had slightly worn off due to the lack of focus. The situation was direr. They were already gonna sacrifice one child for power, but a secondborn? There wouldn't even be any hesitation to slaughter it in the name of greed and power! And that just fuels him more!
"Keep pushing! Keep pushing!" Genevieve encouraged. She had already gotten a grasp on the head and needed one last push to get the rest of the body out. Taking one last breath, Hayley gave into one last push, so terrible, so excruciating, that she unconsciously summons the strength from her werewolf-side and her irises change from hazel-green to gold in an instant!
"AAAAHHHHHHRRROOOOOOO!" Hayley let out an agonizing howl, almost akin to the mighty cries of a wolf pack running through the night under a full moon.
This was just what was needed as the rest of the baby's body came sliding out easily into Genevieve's arms while simultaneously letting out a shockwave through the entire church, shaking its infrastructure, sending some witches flying while others hold onto the table! This baby erupted high-pitched squeals out from her tiny lungs as it echoed and resonated through the room.
Hayley fell back again, full-on ready to pass out while fighting excessive fatigue at the same time. Somewhere in her mind, if the situation wasn't so dreadful, she'd probably be laughing in delirium in the absurdity at what just happened!
Another baby. She just gave birth to a second child. Another child had been growing inside her, and she didn't know it. Her unborn baby turned out to be a set of twins!
Genevieve quickly cleaned off the new child with Monique cutting this new umbilical cord and looked between both Klaus and Hayley, who had once again stopped screaming and looked at this new child surprise.
"It's another baby girl," Genvieve announce, trying to hide the joyous tone in her voice. Twin girls, tribrids, both born with extraordinary power! It was a Holy Grail of good fortune on this very day!
But it was not her joy to have and she dreaded what would be next in these girls' increasingly near future. So, Genevieve inwardly dreaded what she had to say next.
"We must start the sacrifice as soon as the moon sets with the morning sky," she announced as she looked down at the crying newborn. The implications dawned on the new mother and Hayley gathered enough strength to sit up.
"Please," Hayley begged, her eyes locked between her firstborn in Abagial's arms and her secondborn in Genevieve's. "Please, can I hold them?"
Genevieve looked up at her and feels like it was only right and merciful for the mother to hold her newborn children. Giving an affirmative nod to Abigail, both witches walked to each side of Hayley and gently placed each child in one of her arms. Hayley slowly caressed the two children in her arms, completely in awe, and marvels at their very beings.
She looked up at Klaus, who was marveling at them as well, and gave him a small smile before softly kissing their foreheads...
Not realizing Monique had crept up behind her, pulled her back by her loose hair, and slit Hayley's throat!
"NOOOOOO!" Klaus screamed in outrage and horror as Hayley gasped, gurgles, and chokes on her blood as it spilled out her throat, before falling backward, her grip on the twins loosening from her arms, Abigail and Genevieve quickly catching the twins before they got hurt.
Locking eyes with Monique, the other witches started to disperse while she, Genevieve, and Abigail walked up the aisle and away from Klaus as he started to scream, enraged.
"AGHHHHHHHH!"
Monique raises her hand and snaps Klaus's neck before lifting the spell and dropping him right beside Hayley's dead body.
"HAYLEY!" Elijah shouts desperately as he frantically bursts through the doors of St. Anne's, blooded, tired, and eyes blurry but recovering from the Guerreras' werewolf venom.
He stops dead in his tracks, panting and out of breath as a result of the werewolf bites, and struggles to focus his vision until he can look ahead, and he has to take a double-take...as he sees Klaus lying against the table on the sacristy, with Hayley lying dead with her head on Klause's lap, his brother in near tears. Elijah approaches them with a horrified look on his face.
"No. No, no, no..." he utters as he falls to his knees. He slowly reaches out to caress her face as her brother tells hi the two words he never wanted to hear.
"She's gone."
And with that, Elijah bows his head and breaks down in tears, which causes Klaus to do the same. But then Klaus takes notice of the two werewolf bites on his brother.
"You've been bitten," Klause states. He doesn't hesitate to bit into his wrist and over his blood to Elijah, who is shocked at the display of kindness.
Sometimes after feeding on his brother, Elijah places Hayley's body back on the table, slowly and morosely, while Klaus sits on the steps nearby.
"How?" Elijah choked.
Klaus kept his eyes forward, looking at the doors where his daughters were taken.
"I was bested," he said numbly.
At this, Elijah scoffed bitterly, his face twisting from horror to fury as he shouts exasperatingly, "You were bested. Huh... You were BESTED? My invincible brother!"
Walking towards Klaus, who was shocked at his brother's loss of temper. But he knew he had to put this to the side as they had bigger matters to deal with. So, rather weakly, the Original Hybrid stood up to his feet and looked Elijah in the eyes.
"They took the babies. But there's still time. We can save them," Klaus states, purposely using plurals as the anger briefly fades on his older's brother's face as he finally registers the shock of what he means.
At the Lafayette Cemetary...
As much as they didn't want to, the brothers left Hayley's body behind at the church and went to Lafeyette Cemetary. It was the beginning and ending of everything to the French Quarter witches and it would be the first place they would go if they intend to sacrifice two newborns to the Ancestors for power. Once there, Klaus and Elijah rush around the cemetery in an attempt to figure out where the witches are keeping the twins.
To be frank, Elijah wasn't sure what to feel about the news of the second child. And the very idea that Klaus never heard a second heartbeat baffled him!
Twins. Two babies. Baby girls. Girls whose arrival into this world was less than pleasant. Girls that Hayley delivered after being kidnapped and having her labor forcibly induced. Her daughters, daughters that she only held once before her throat was slit! The very image of such a scene made the Noble Mikaelson grit his teeth and his fangs threatening to show.
It should have been a joyous occasion. Hayley should have finished her pregnancy full-term and given birth in the Bayou, as she was considering. The arrival would have been strenuous, but rewarding. And if the same shock that Klaus recited about before should be the same again in that scenario, so be it. Twins meant double the care and double the love of the family waiting for them! And in a matter of seconds, rather than being safe and protected, those girls were motherless and practically ripped from Hayley's arms without a moment's hesitance!
After turning a corner again around another tomb, Elijah started to panic, frantically. "The tombs are empty. The grounds are deserted. They're NOT HERE!"
"This is the only place they can be! We'll keep searching!" Klaus demanded.
"They're are NOT HERE, Niklaus! We're wasting time!" Elijah argued.
Klause shouted, "The Harvest was here! The Reaping was here! They're about to perform a ritual which will feed their ancestors for centuries! Ancestors who are buried HERE!"
Klaus stops talking when he notices an angel statue on top of one of the tombs and sighs in frustration.
"This statue-", Klause pointed to the top of the tomb, "we've passed by this three times, all whilst going in the same direction."
Klaus and Elijah brainstorm silently as they examine the various tombs near them.
Elijah touched one of the tombs and examined it closely, just now realizing that it indeed looked the same as before. He slowly walked towards Klaus as the realization came to him. "They've fabricated some kind of illusion."
Klaus vamp-speeds to the top of the tomb with the angel statue and tries to get a better view of the cemetery. When he looks out, there seems to be an infinite number of tombs, stretching out to make the cemetery appear to be an endless ongoing maze with no end in sight, and his eyes widen in horror.
"That's one word for it."
Somewhere in a hidden tomb full of lit candles, Genevieve, dressed in a white dress, returned after communing with the Ancestors to inform them of the news of the arrival of not just one, but two Mikaelson children. She carefully sets each swaddled baby in a large basket.
"So how'd it go?" Abigail asked, both she and Monique coming in and dressed in white as well.
Genevieve exhaled. "They were extremely pleased. I had told them of the secondborn Mikaelson and that no one was aware of her existence. I'm still having trouble accepting it myself except for the fact I delivered them."
"So they'll take her too?" Abigail asks.
Genevieve nodded. "Yes."
"What do you mean? Of course, they will!" Monique rudely interjects. "One baby is enough to power New Orleans for centuries, but TWO? We might never have to do the Harvest ever again once we kill the other one as well! Besides, the Mikaelsons could be looking for us right now as we speak, so thankfully the Ancestors helped us put up the Maze Spell. By the time they do find us, it'll be too late. The second one needs to die anyway! We killed the mother of Niklaus Mikaelson's daughters! And the rightful heir to the Crescent Pack to boot! The brothers will be on a warpath for our heads even if we sacrificed just one child and let the other one live! Who knows what type of monster she'll grow up to be if we did so! Better to take both than leave loose ends!"
Then she turns to Genevieve. "Speaking of which, did they offer you any insight as to how one of them became cloaked in the first place? Was it Agnes? Celeste?"
The redheaded witch shook her head. The deceased witches from the Ancestral Well denied knowing about the secondborn as well, though she detected a bit of mirth from Celeste's spirit. Likely because she had predicted that A baby girl would be born and wasn't wrong.
Genevieve racked her head around, thinking of a solution. No witches did it. A human doctor didn't even catch the sight of another fetus nor the sound of a secondary heartbeat (from when Hayley told her what happened that night in the Bayou). Hell, not even a vampire or werewolf near her caught it! Something was wrong here! It was almost as if...
Suddenly, Genevieve gasped, coming to realize something astonishing. Extraordinary. Unheard of. "Dear God..." she uttered.
"What!? Monique demanded.
"She did it herself..." Genevieve muttered, looking at the secondborn in the basket.
"What?" the two Harvest girls exclaimed, causing the twins to stir.
"The baby cloaked herself," Genevieve explained, still staring at the sleeping child. "Throughout the pregnancy, even when Hayley went to see a doctor in the Bayou, there was no evidence of a second child. Not felt in the womb or the ultrasound. Not even a vampire or werewolf heard her. And especially even Klaus! She was completely hidden!"
"So what? They're twins!? Shouldn't the spell have clocked the other one as well?" Monique asked.
"Not quite," Abagail piques up. "I took the liberty of looking it up on my phone before we got to the cemetery. The twins are fraternal because they had two different umbilical cords. So the possibility of it just affecting one twin is possible. And Genevieve isn't that far off. C'mon Monique, we learned about it in the Lycée. Some of the most powerful witches could do magic when they were babies. And the minute the twin was born, a literal shockwave erupted simultaneously as soon as she came out of Hayley!"
"Think it's connected to the cloaking?" Monique asks, curious.
"It could be speculation...But if I had to guess: The shockwave was a product of the cloaking spell dropping. What else would you expect from a spell that lasted 8 months until birth? It could have been so powerful that it was essentially releasing energy after being held for that long," Abigail concluded. "Which means..."
"Now they have to be sacrificed together," Genevieve states with finality. It was unheard of for a fetus with the witch gene to do magic from the womb. The Ancestors wouldn't leave anything to chance if they didn't have that power. Especially if it was for the price she had to pay to live.
"Twice the sacrifice, double the power," Monique says, staring down at the twins.
"Yes," Genevieve says, unemotionally. "Twice the sacrifice...more power for the coven."
Meanwhile...
Klaus and Elijah are still walking through the maze illusion in the cemetery, using a stone as a piece of chalk to mark the tombs that they pass. Hours had passed and the sun was up and arisen over the cemetery.
Klaus sighs. "It's ingenious. I can see them, I can feel them, and yet they are not real."
Elijah is still visibly distraught as he runs his hands through his hair. "There has to be another way. Even if we could just push through-"
"-What we need to do is focus-," Klaus stated calmly before Elijah interrupted him.
"My only focus right now is those children and their safety, do you understand me?" Elijah exclaims, losing his temper as grief finally catches up with him.
He glares at Klaus furiously as his brother stares at him in shock at his outburst.
"This- all of this- this is the world that you created, Niklaus," Elijah yells.
"Brother-" Klaus starts to say before being interrupted.
"All of your scheming, the enemies that you have made every single day of your miserable life- what results did you expect? That your children would be born into a happy life? That the mother would be alive to know her daughters? That we could live and thrive as some- as some sort of family?" the eldest shouts in a fit.
"That was your fantasy, brother, not mine!" Klaus bellows, pointing an accusing finger at his brother.
Enraged, Elijah screams, "NO, brother! This was our hope. This was our family's hope."
Elijah begins to hyperventilate and stops to try and catch his breath.
"And now she is gone," he cries as his voice gets softer. He tries to hold back his tears but ultimately fails. "Do you understand? I let this person in. I let her in! I don't let people in! You knew this. You've taken her from me! I needed her, and you've broken me."
Elijah sits down on the stoop of one of the tombs and puts his head in his hands. Klaus quietly sits down next to him and grips his arm in comfort.
"You can tell your nieces how much you cared for their mother when we save them."
Elijah looks at him, his chin quivering, as Klaus nods encouragingly.
At St. Anne's Church...
Hayley's body is still laying on the table at the sacristy where Elijah left her. Her skin was becoming flush with color. Her bloody neck looks as though it has healed.
Suddenly, she awakens with a gasp and grabs her throat, the phantom pains of it being cut open slowing ebbing away, but there nonetheless. She looks around and sees she's all alone.
As she sits up, she's overwhelmed with flashbacks of being in labor, Klaus being pinned to the wall, the baby being born, then the excruciating pain and shock as she gave birth to another child, holding them, kissing their heads, and...and... and Monique slitting her throat. Feeling a sudden, deep hunger forming in her, Hayley realizes that her daughters are still alive, but has been taken by the witches, and she calms herself down before leaving to find them.
No matter what.
Back at Lafeyette Cemetary...
Genevieve looks up and through the skylight to determine the time of day.
"The moon has almost faded from the morning sky," she says as she grabs the athame from the table. "I need to prepare."
Abigail and Monique wait until Genevieve leaves before they begin to talk privately
"She'll go through with it," Abigail says. " The ancestors promised her life."
"What about their promise to us?" Monique asked. "Four Harvest girls sacrificed, four girls returned. But her friends hijack it, and our friends have to stay dead? Cassie was our friend. I hope she doesn't go through with it. Then, you and I can do what the Ancestors want, and they'll give us Cassie! And drag Genevieve back to where she came from."
Abigail nods in agreement. Monique grabs the twins in the basket, and she and Abigail go to join Genevieve.
Genevieve walks down between rows of tombs to the front steps of the Lycée, upon which a stone table has been set up to serve as their altar. Lit torches line the aisle as she lays the athame onto the altar. Abigail and Monique follow behind her with the latter carrying the babies in the basket in her arms. Once at the altar, they each take their places- Genevieve behind the altar and looking out toward the aisle while Monique and Abigail stand on her left and ride side, respectively. On the altar is a circle made of salt, with designs made within its lines.
"It's time."
Genevieve carefully fits and lifts both babies into the air, while Abigail and Monique hold up their hands toward the twins and begin their spell.
The three witches begin to chant simultaneously, "Nouvelle vie, nouvelle âme, mélange avec nous..."
Meanwhile, Klaus and Elijah are breaking their way through the illusion by destroying the tombs. When they reach a room full of candles, they stop and catch their breath.
Elijah sighed heavily. "We've passed through here twice already. We're running out of time!"
He punches through a wall in anger and frustration.
"Then we move faster," Klaus said seriously. He tried not to lose face, but he was itching to have witch blood on his hands.
He marks the wall with a third tally using a large rock just as a familiar female voice calls out from behind them.
"Or smarter."
Elijah and Klaus freeze when they hear her voice, and turn to see the source of the sound. Hayley stands in the doorway, dazed and exhausted-looking.
"Hayley ..." Elijah breathing astonishment. Did he still have lasting wolf venom in his system or was this a beautiful nightmare?
Elijah and Klaus are shocked to see her. Elijah rushes over to touch her face to make sure she isn't an illusion.
"How are you here?" he asked tentatively.
"I woke up in the church," Hayley began, looking dazed and numb. "I felt this hunger... I knew what I needed. I can feel them. They're here. I can feel my babies."
Elijah looks confused, but Klaus realizes what has happened. Between the placentas and the athame used to cut the umbilical cords, he should have considered the possibility!
"You died with the twins' blood still in your system," Klaus concludes, turning to Elijah, "She's in transition."
Elijah quickly formed a look of horror on his face once he realizes the implication. "Which means she has to drink the blood of the children if she is to survive..."
"To be reborn a hybrid," Klaus finished, feeling overwhelmed as all the past events finally caught up to him. He did his best to not fall in shock.
"I don't care about me," Hayley states, determination beginning to rise in her voice. "I'm gonna go find our daughters."
Hayley leaves, and Elijah and Klaus rush after her. The Hybrid-In-Transition may not know which child she's sired to, but sire bond between them was the only lead they had to find the girls.
Eventually, Hayley leads the brothers through the maze of tombs in the cemetery's illusion toward her and Klaus' daughters. Meanwhile, Genevieve, Monique, and Abigail continue their spell around the babies.
"Nouvelle vie, nouvelle âme, mélange avec nous..." the three witches consistently repeats.
Genevieve holds the athame above one of the newborns, preparing to start the sacrifice. Hayley, Elijah, and Klaus are still searching through the cemetery for the girls. Genevieve is about to sacrifice one of the babies.
"Nouvelle vie, nouvelle âme, mélange avec nous..."
Hayley, Elijah, and Klaus turn a corner and see Genevieve holding a knife above one of the baby's stomach.
"NOOO!" Hayley screamed in terror.
Elijah looks around sharply before he picks up an urn and lobs it at the witches, which slams against Genevieve's hand and knocks the athame onto the ground. The three of them start to run ahead but are stopped Monique and Abigail hold each other's hands and channel the Ancestors' power to throw them backward while Genevieve goes to find the athame.
"La mère, le père, le frère, la sœur... La mère, le père, le frère, la sœur... " the two begin to chant as rows of Ancestors and deceased witches began appearing in front of them and held three off.
"You fools! To come against us in our place of power in our strongest hour? You don't face three, you face us all!" Monique screamed.
As they continue to use magic against them, Elijah and Klaus can see that hundreds and hundreds of the dead witches have come together to protect them as they complete their sacrifice.
Hayley, Klaus, and Elijah are still fighting against the witches' magic. Klaus and Hayley each run in opposite directions, while Elijah continues to rush straight towards them, in hopes of overpowering them.
Hayley finds Genevieve picking up the athame, and starts to fist-fight her to keep her from using it against the twins. She once again knocks the knife out of her hand and into the ground. She knocks Genevieve down and runs toward the baby, but Genevieve casts a pain infliction spell on Hayley, which makes her fall onto her knees. Meanwhile, Monique and Abigail are still using their powers combined powers to channel the full strength of the Ancestors.
Klaus gets cornered by the spirits of Papa Tunde's twin sons, who telekinetically throw Klaus into a tomb, shattering it. As Elijah fights to get close enough to them to get the baby, Klaus pulls himself out of the tomb and angrily rushes toward the action.
"La mère, le père, le frère, la sœur... La mère, le père, le frère, la sœur... "
Klaus sees a wrought iron fence and breaks off one of the spikes. He throws it forcefully toward Abigail, which impales her through the stomach and kills her, breaking the connection that she and Monique had to the ancestors.
Realizing the duty is left to her, Monique quickly runs to grab the athame to finish the sacrifice herself. Klaus and Elijah vamp-speed toward her, but she uses her magic to block them using a wall of fire.
"Noooo!" Hayley screamed in terror as she watched one of her children about to be sacrificed, not being able to do anything with Genevieve subduing her.
Genevieve continues the pain infliction spell to prevent her interference. Just as Monique is about to sacrifice the baby, she's hit with the Devil's Star, which embeds itself in her stomach. Her body becomes covered in cuts, and she coughs up blood before falling to the ground. Klaus and Elijah turn around to see that Marcel was the one who saved the baby. Before they can say anything, Marcel vamp-speeds to the twins, taking a quick double-take in confusion to make sure he wasn't hallucinating at the sight of the twin girls, he takes one last look at Hayley before vamp-speeding away with them. Klaus follows after him.
At the Mikaelson Compound...
Klaus enters the compound to find the walls covered in blood and all of the bitten vampires dead, strewn across the courtyard. It looked like a slaughterhouse, fitting of the name of the building they died in. As he walked, he heard the sounds of a baby gurgling and humming from the center of the house. Walking faster, he stopped at the sight.
Marcel is holding the twins delicately in his arms as he sits by the fountain, waiting for him. He was gently rocking the girls in his arms as he sings a very familiar song:
Oh when the saints go marching in
When the saints go marching in
Oh lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
Marcel stopped to look at Klaus and gave him a sad but witty remark. "I guessed I had revoked my privileges to know you were expecting twins."
Klaus gave him a small smile as he walked towards his adopted son. "Unfortunately Marcel, you, me, and everyone else in New Orleans are on the same boat. I only got a good whiff of them before taken away from Hayley. The one fast asleep on your left is the firstborn, while the one looking up at you is the surprise twin. No one knew about her. No one. Sent a blast out to the witches as soon as she entered the world."
"A dramatic, magical entrance as soon as she's born? Sounds like a Mikaelson," Marcel laughed but it came out a choked sob as he looked at his adopted father, "I was too late. There should have been more time."
Klaus looks around the room and takes in the carnage that surrounds them, finally understanding what Marcel's purpose was,
"Looks like the wolves came back and finished what they started," Klaus stated, "You took my daughters so I would heal you and your friends."
The baby stirs and coos, and Marcel stares down at her. Marcel looks at him weakly, but Klaus just laughs and shrugs before holding out his wrist to him.
"Here," Klaus offers, but Marcel pulls away from him.
"This bite, all this..." He looks over at Diego's dead body. "I know it didn't come from nowhere. This is the last note in a song that I started a century ago...when I brought your dad to town. And for that, I am sorry."
Klaus looks at him sympathetically and kneels in front of him.
"No," Klaus states determinedly. "You saved my children's lives, Marcel. For that, you deserve this."
He holds out his wrist, and Marcel bites into it, drinking his blood. When he finally pulls back, he sighed in relief as the effects of the venom wear off.
Klaus looks directly into his eyes and vows, "We will take down whoever brought this upon us, I swear it."
Marcel looks up at Klaus in shock as heals. Klaus looks at his daughters in awe and relief.
"May I?" Klaus asks, gesturing with his heads to the girls.
Marcel nods and hands him the firstborn twin while he keeping firm hands on the secondborn. Klaus held the baby in his arms and stared down into her eyes as she starts to wake up.
"Shhhh. Oh! Hey! Hey there," Looking into her eyes, the very mirror of his, Klaus went speechless. That this one, tiny creature has him speechless. As if the mad beast that raged inside him for over a millennium had finally been tamed.
"She doses in and out a lot. Can't say I blame her. But meanwhile, this one," Marcel gestures to the secondborn staring up at him, her eyes a perfect spitting image of her mother's, "seems to like my tunes. A natural Jazz fan after my own heart. My singing and her, uh, gurgling...we make perfect harmony."
Marcel stood up and walked closer to Klaus, bringing the twins closer together as the babies look over at the men between them, and they smile and laugh from joy... not knowing the danger lurking in the shadows...
At the Latfeyette Cemetary...
Elijah and Hayley are shackling Genevieve in one of the tombs to get information from her. After Marcel left with the twins and Klaus followed him, Elijah quickly got Hayley out of the remaining witch's hold and subdued her. Now it was time to get answers.
"Why!?" Hayley askes furiously.
"The Ancestors left me no choice-" Genevieve starts.
Hayley gasps, appalled. "You were willing to sacrifice two innocent babies for more power?"
"No, not just power! It was the Ancestors' decree. It was her decree."
Elijah grabs Genevieve roughly by the face and forces her to look at him in the eyes.
"It was whose decree?" Elijah growled.
Genevieve weakly smiles before laughing darkly. "I'm surprised you have to ask. After all, you were the one who convinced your siblings to consecrate her on New Orleans soil."
Elijah lets go of her, visibly disgusted when he realizes who she's talking about. Hayley, too, seems to have figured it out as well. Of course!
"Esther," Hayley gasped, shocked.
"So, not even death can stop my mother from seeking the annihilation of her own flesh and blood," Elijah says bitterly.
"This isn't the end," the redhead declares anxiously before starting to cry. "As long as those children live, the witches of New Orleans will never stop coming for them. Esther will never stop coming for them. It has been decreed- your girls will be consecrated among their ancestors. The twins will not live."
"Especially the secondborn." Genevieve added, "I believe she cloaked herself in the womb. Powerful witches were known to do magic as infants and her existence was hidden from the beginning. If no one knew about her, then the baby did it herself. And there's no way a child that used magic before she was born will be allowed to live. The Ancestors won't have that."
Hayley and Elijah just glare at her. Genevieve begins to bleed from her eyes.
"They're coming for me, I can feel it. I failed them. Understand- I just wanted to live," Genevieve cried mournfully. She was gonna die, but she wanted to say a few things before she died. "Before I go, you should know...You s-should know that I was able to tell the twins apart. The firstborn, it's faint, but she has a birthmark on her shoulder. A-And t-the second one, her birthmark is on the back of her neck. It appeared later, but when I was talking to the Ancestors, she was crying, so I picked her up from behind and I saw it. I-I just thought you should know who's who before-before they're gone. Tell Klaus... I'm sorry."
Genevieve starts to choke up her own blood. Hayley watches her for a moment before sighing and stabbing her in the stomach with the athame (the same athame used to cut her daughters' umbilical cords, the same one used to slit her throat) and guts her abdomen open from the middle up. Anyone else would consider this mercy, but the new mother considered this "speeding up the process".
Hayley leaned in close and whispered furiously, "I'm not."
Hayley walks out of the tomb, as Elijah follows behind her. Genevieve dies, still restrained by her wrists against the wall.
At the Compound...
Klaus and Elijah sit in Hayley's room, while Hayley sits with the twins in the rocking chair in the nursery, located right off of her bedroom.
"We should have felt our mother's hand in this," Klaus growled, "We should have known she would not be bound by anything as obvious as death. And now she has control of the witches. They will never stop."
"No," Elijah agrees.
Klaus continued. "Nor would I expect the Guerrera wolves to back down. Hayley and the children are werewolf royalty, and as such, they are a threat to Francesca's claim to the leadership. They will never be safe. What was it you said to me earlier? That I have made enemies every day of my miserable life? Well, the worst of them are within these borders, brother."
Elijah sighs in frustration, clearly feeling guilty
Klaus sighed sadly. "I have brought into the world weapons they can use against me."
"Then we will arm ourselves!" Elijah argues. "Brother, we have fought every adversary in this town, and we have won. And we'll fight them again, no matter who they are! We will make this home a fortress."
Klaus lowers his voice so he doesn't disturb those in the nursery, "I will not have my daughters live their lives as prisoners."
"Then we leave here, together. All of us," he proposes.
"Wherever we go, however far we run, those who seek power and revenge will hunt us! They will hunt them. They have inherited all of our enemies with none of our defenses," Klaus rationalizes.
There was a harsh silence between them.
'So, whether we stay, or we leave- we condemn the twins," Elijah concludes, dismayed.
"There's a third option."
Klaus and Elijah look up surprised as they turn to face Hayley suddenly appears in the doorway with the twins in her arms, looking wrecked.
"I grew up in a warzone. My parents thought they could protect me," Hayley explains, looking down at the children, and smiles at them while trying to hold back tears. "But, in the end, they were slaughtered, and I spent my childhood alone and unloved. I'll always regret not knowing I was having twins. That another innocent soul, one that I feel I've neglected from the start, almost didn't get a chance to feel the love I have for her now. She's a surprise. An unplanned but not unwelcomed surprise. So I'll do my best so that she'll never doubt a day in her life that I don't love her.
But if twins mean double the love, then for that, doubles my promise. I made a promise, to both my girls and to myself, that they'll never grow up like I did. That they'll grow up safe, and loved. And yet, here they are, on their first day in this world, with a grandmother who is bent on sacrificing them-" She starts to stutter as she cries, "And a-a mother who has to drink the blood of her babies to survive transitioning into a hybrid. And I'm the one who loves them the most."
Klaus and Elijah just look at her, saddened and devastated by their current situation.
So Hayley voiced her decision: "I think the only thing to do is... send them away... while we stay behind and clean up the mess that we've made."
"No!" Elijah exclaims. "This is insane. You heard Genevieve- so long as they live, that they'll be hunted."
Klaus suddenly stands and joins Hayley and the twins in the doorway.
"Not if no one knows they live...and that there was a twin at all."
Elijah looked at Klaus in confusion. "What is it you intend to do, brother?"
With a heavy heart, Klaus says, "Whatever it takes to save our family."
As Elijah went out to ensure certain attendees of Hayley's labor were silenced, as well as have a small plaque made for the upcoming memorial for those lost at the French Quarter aftermath, the new parents found themselves contemplating an unspoken issue that needs remedying.
"They need names, Hayley," Klaus says, stating the obvious as the two babies sat in car seats.
Hayley started saying a list of names that come to mind. "Zoe? Caitlin? Katherine?"
"God, no," Klaus said in jest, with a tad bit of seriousness. Naming either of his daughters after that blasted Petrova doppelganger was a cruel and unusual punishment, not to mention unnecessary! Luckily, he had a feeling Hayley was joking at the suggestion.
"I never knew I could love something so much," Hayley whispered, staring at the girls, "It honestly feels... awful. Like it might kill me."
The image of Hayley lying on that table at St. Anne's with her through slit came to his mind. "It nearly did. I'm sorry the beginning of their lives was so violent."
"It's not your fault, Klaus," Hayley assured, "I know that you fought for us."
With just those words, the argument in the cemetery brought something to Klaus's attention, "You know, when Elijah thought you were dead, he said we'd lost our family's only hope."
"Hope..." Hayley pronounces, sounding it out in affirmation. "Hope Mikaelson."
"Hope Andrea Mikaelson."
Hayley looked up at him and couldn't stop the smile growing on her face.
Andrea. The first name she ever had and the name she never knew of until she came to New Orleans. The name that meant she had a family once, that she was loved and-
Love.
Hayley turns her eyes to her secondborn who, unlike her sister, was asleep in her seat, without a care in the world.
Hayley meant what she said. She saw and felt the shockwave emitted the moment this child was born, and like her sister, she was scared for her. She wasn't going to kid herself: Part of her killed Genevieve quickly rather than letting her suffer a long, agonizing death was an inaudible "Thanks" for telling her about the babies and whose who. But that didn't stop her from worrying.
"There's nothing you could have done," Klaus announced, knowing what she was thinking. "You couldn't have known about her. I'm the Original Hybrid with impeccable hearing. If I couldn't hear her, then no one could."
"You know, I still don't get keeping Hope's sister a secret," Hayley deflected, changing the topic. "I really thought you were talking about separating them."
"Genevieve told the Ancestors, and by extension, Esther about knows her, so there's no helping that. But what can be helped is that the witches don't think they can divide and conquer, even if we did separate them. Better together with someone we know, than divided and falling into the wrong hands. Besides, as long as Francesca thinks there was one child as well, then no wolves will go searching for them. Witches and werewolves are already a threat here, let's not put them on the hunt," Klaus explained.
And Hayley agreed. Better their enemies here than out and about.
"Genevieve said that she cloaked herself in the womb, evading everyone. And that the most powerful witches did magic as babies. I'll be honest, Klaus, I don't want to play favoritism with them. Both girls deserve our undivided love and attention. And the way I see it: They are both firstborns, no matter what anyone else says. Just because one twin showed magic first, doesn't mean the other is weaker. And I will feel guilty and carry it with me. No matter how I try to see it, I will always feel like I ignored her for Hope. I don't want anything I felt growing up to be replicated with either of them. I want the girls to be happy, with themselves and each other. I don't want to see them tear each other apart, hate each other, or ignore one another. They're twins. That's a bond that can't be replaced. I wrote a letter for one child and before I let them go, I need to rewrite it for both of them. They need to know how much I love them. For both Hope and her sister," Hayley says with finality. "And now that I think about it, Hope's sister should have the same initials as her. At least the first name. In the teen years, it might suck! But worth it."
Klaus laughed, but then he thought about it...and suddenly, he recalled what Marcel had said earlier.
"I'm sorry, love," Klaus starts, "but I am ashamed to say Marcel may have beat us to the punch..."
That night in the French Quarter...
A crowd of people gathers for a candlelight vigil for the deceased community members. Elijah and Hayley arrive to set a bouquet by Baby Mikaelson's spot on the memorial wall. Francesca watches as Hayley approaches the memorial. She breaks down in tears and kisses her fingertips before touching them to the plaque that announces the baby's "death." Elijah, who has been standing behind her, holds out a hand to Hayley, who finally stands up and takes it.
On a country road, Klaus sits on the hood of his SUV, holding his swaddled daughters, as he waits for the person who is taking in the twins for them.
A car pulls up to Klaus, and Rebekah gets out. However, she stops and blinks a few times, upon realizing that there were indeed TWO babies in his arms. Realizing why he suggested she'd bring an extra car seat, she smiles at her brother and her newborn nieces, she smiles. Klaus smiles back before greeting her.
"Hello, sister," he greeted.
Rebekah gently touches the twins and stares at them in wonder. "Surprise twins. Hayley must've hated you once the labor was over."
"Didn't really have the time to condemn me for how well my soldiers marched," Klaus smirks. Rebekah looked at him, sharply.
"First off, never say that again," she says with a deadpan expression before giving the twins a sweet smile, "Oh, they look like their mother. Maybe there is a God after all."
Klaus laughs. "Well, they have a hint of the devil in their eyes. That's all me. I need a witch you can trust to cast a cloaking spell."
"I'll get one," Rebekah assures.
"No one can ever find them."
"I know what to do, Nik," she understood. "Perhaps we'll get a white fence. I think that would be lovely."
Klaus holds up the twins to get a last look at them before they leave with Rebekah and lowers his voice to a whisper as he says goodbye.
"This city would have seen you both dead. But, I will have it your home. And every soul who wishes you harm will be struck down, just as sure as my blood runs in your veins. You will return to me," Klaus swore.
Rebekah looks on horrified, but Klaus just looks devastated.
Klaus kisses his daughters on the foreheads and the cheeks before handing them off to his sister. Then, he gives Rebekah the tiny wooden knight that he carved for Rebekah a thousand years ago, which causes Rebekah to grab his hand and start to cry.
"In spite of our differences, Rebekah, there is no one I would trust more with my daughters' lives," Klaus instates.
Klaus hugs Rebekah and kisses her on the cheek.
"Be happy, sister."
Rebekah smiles at them. "They will be happy, Nik. I promise. What are their names?
Klaus pauses for a moment before answering: "Hope. And Harmony. Their names' are Hope and Harmony Mikaelson."
He starts to cry. Rebekah leaves to put the baby in her car, as Klaus watches them leave. But now he must return the Quarter, for which he Hayley and Elijah will play the long game.
From then on, the next 15 years would be a tale of love, twists, and tragic turns following the Mikaelson family. The family grew, together and apart, and the Mikaelson twins found themselves sharing every bit of traits between their parents despite the current absence of 4 of their members after they took in the Hollow.
But with every family comes a loss that shook the very foundation it stands on.
And that's where the story takes a turn. For this isn't what happened in the 15th year that took a toll on Harmony Mikaelson's life.
It's what happened after that tells the tale...