Um… hi.

Had I meant for this chapter to be late? No, I definitely didn't and I am so sorry for it. I'm slightly ashamed to say that not only did it completely slip my mind, but the lack of motivation to even get out of bed last weekend was almost suffocating leading to myself doing practically nothing productive all weekend. I do hope the chapter makes up for it. But as always, let's get on with it! I own nothing.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Kol… Kol… Kol…

He was sitting across from her.

For a moment, Aria felt numb as she just stared, searching his face for any trace of him not being Kol Mikaelson. But the look on his face told her all she needed to know. He was perfectly terrified. If he were Kaleb, he would have nothing to worry about. Yet if he were Kaleb, he wouldn't have that memory. That… that dark and delicate memory that she had hidden in the back of her mind so as to avoid feeling the sense of darkness again. The sense of hopelessness. That sense of uselessness that Dahlia had managed to instil in her.

The memory in itself was as delicate as a rose. A snowflake. Fine china.

But the thorns of a rose draw blood.

Snowflakes melt at the slightest of touches.

And china shatters.

"Kol?"

Her tone was breathless, fearful mingled with hope of the chance she'd be able to see him again after all this time. All her worries and denials of him not being Kol were quickly disregarded with his next words,

"Little witch."

He was scared, his tone showed that. And he should've been. Because as he knew all too well, Aria had never quite learnt how to control her anger what with having Marcel and Thierry raise her. And Dahlia had been the only one to ever teach her how to control her emotions; it was a recipe for disaster.

Letting out a shriek of fury, her hands were thrown out in front of her and Kol went flying backwards, his back hitting the wall with a loud, sickening crack. Kol let out a groan of pain as his body slid limply down to the floor, Aria standing up and facing him, eyes blazing dangerously, "You liar!"She shrieked, moving her hands to throw him against another wall viciously, curse words following each yell, "How dare you!" Her anger only slowly ebbed once she noticed Kol wasn't fighting back.

He doesn't want to hurt you, she reminded herself soothingly. He's never wanted to hurt you. Heck, he's saved your life.

Her hands lowered and he slid down the wall for what must have been the third time that evening, hitting the floor and letting out a groan as he did so, "That hurt, Aria." He ground out through gritted teeth, hands clenched into fists and knuckles going white as he desperately tried to keep his anger in check.

"Well excuse me for freaking out, I only thought you were dead!" She retorted vehemently.

"Yeah, well, it didn't stick."

Only when she realised what he'd done, did Aria's anger rise once more. Her hands flew out and Kol grabbed his temples in agony, "You bastard!" Despite his pain, Kol managed to choke out a small laugh as a smirk grew on his face, "That's Nik, Darling, not me."

The power of Aria's spell increased until it became too much, "Okay, okay, okay, okay!" He yelled out before it stopped, he sighed and took a deep breath, "Still got that fire in you." He murmured to himself, reminding himself, warning himself. Aria wasn't amused.

"You ruined the spell, and now my family is gonna die because of you! You know how important they all are to me!" She yelled, voice breaking at the end as she collapsed down to the ground, Davina by her side.

"Aria?"

Aria rubbed the space between her eyebrows to try and calm the headache that was quickly forming as Kol continued to speak, "My mother said, 'Kill the spell, or kill the spare.' She wants you, Aria, you're just too similar to Dahlia now and Esther has noticed. But I didn't want to break your heart by killing your little friend over there. I happened to pay attention when you were talking about her." His tone lowered and he glanced to Davina, "And I wasn't sure whether or not she'd set Mikael on me."

Davina scoffed, glaring at him furiously, "Oh, please-"

Kol sighed, now talking directly to Davina, "Listen, you don't disobey Mother Dearest without some consequences. Yes, she brought me back to life, but she's mad as a hatter. And, that man you have made your pet, my father? Well, he's more of a lunatic than she is."

"What, so you just unleash him?" Davina scoffed.

"You're the one who brought him back to life first, love!"

"Because you told me to!"

Aria's head suddenly whipped around to face Davina, "He what?"

Davina had the grace to look a bit sheepish, "I'm sorry, he told me not to tell you."

"And you listened to him?" She asked incredulously, ignoring Kol's small noise of offence.

"Back to the point." Kol interrupted, "You don't have Mikael under control, either of you. I never should have told Davina how to resurrect him."

Davina turned to him, "I would have found a way eventually because we need him to protect ourselves from your aunt if she ever tried something! Not to mention your brothers! And now apparently, we have to hide from your mother!"

"But you still can't control him, seeing as he threatened me! He wanted freedom, so I freed him. You wanna know my secrets?" Kol held his arms out to Davina, whose eyes widened in surprise, "Then here you go. Go on, have at it! Yes, I'm a Mikaelson, but I've got just as much reason to loathe the lot of them as you do." His voice dropped slightly, "Trust me, all I've wanted to do since my mother began talking about Aria is to protect her. I think that's something we can both agree on."

With a sigh that interrupted Kol and Davina's glaring battle, Aria stood up from her spot on the floor, face emotionless as she looked over to Kol, "You deactivated our bracelets. How?"

"It's a dark object. I know a little something about creating and destroying them. You know this, Aria." His tone had softened but it still held a tint of annoyance. She had known that he'd created several in his lifetime. And death.

"Show me."

Though Kol didn't quite relax, he certainly calmed a little once he realised that he wasn't in any immediate danger, "Alright, Little witch."

Aria turned, linked arms with Davina and walked out of the room. Kol looked after her suspiciously for a moment before he began to walk out behind them, finding himself tripping over nothing and ending up on the floor, all his breath suddenly leaving him.

Despite having little to no breath in his lungs, he let out a forced laugh. Aria wouldn't be her unless she included another petty trick. He only sobered up when he realised that the pretty witch might not limit herself to party tricks anymore now that he wasn't a ghost.

He gulped nervously.

~*•°•*~

Aria felt eyes on her as the door slammed shut and, knowing they belonged to two people rather than one as she'd hoped, she scowled darkly and gave the now closed door a withering glare as though the occupants inside could see it. Whilst she wasn't as mad with Davina as she was Kale-Kol, she was still seething with resentment for the both of them. Davina should have told her that she'd talked with Kol. She should have told her how she knew to resurrect Mikael. Granted, she also should have asked how the witch did it, but she hadn't really been focusing on anything in the moment. Only the blinding rage once she'd found out Monique was planning to sacrifice a newborn. A witch, of all things.

The Ancestors were truly insane.

Only when she almost tripped over a root sticking out of the ground, did she realise where she'd been heading. Looking around the glade in confusion, she frowned. She hadn't thought about where she was walking, where her legs were carrying her until she found herself in the middle of the woods – in an area she didn't know. Mild surprise made itself known on her face as she glanced around, noting the lack of leaves on the surrounding trees, none of which were Evergreens. There was also a distinct lack of broken twigs on the ground, in fact, looking behind her she couldn't even see the root she'd almost tripped over, it was as if it'd sunk into the ground. And left a pool of blood.

Her heart hammered against her ribcage as she slowly continued walking. Each step was careful. Deliberate. Matching her footprints with the bloody ones left on the floor. Her racing heartbeat was the only sound above the howling wind. Until she heard the snap of a branch behind her.

"I know you're there."

She sounded disinterested, and in all honesty, a little disappointed.

"Can't the big bad Hybrid come out in the sunlight?" She questioned a little too innocently, spinning around and meeting the bright golden eyes of the wolf in front of her. Her own eyes widened slightly in surprise at seeing the wolf rather than the man, but she quickly hid the confusion behind her curiosity.

She'd never seen Klaus as a wolf before – not up close, at least – and whilst she didn't like the man by any means, she couldn't deny that he was beautiful. Not to mention not nearly as intimidating as when he looked like a puppy. She barely stopped herself from cooing at the sight of him.

"Why're you here? And why are you following me?" She wondered.

His gold eyes stayed fixed on her own and just as she began to think he wouldn't answer, he whined slightly and nosed the bloody footsteps on the ground. Aria turned to look at the tracks and frowned, "Those are your footsteps, Klaus."

She could imagine him rolling his eyes at her before he paused slightly, as if thinking for a moment about how to tell her without turning back into a human – Hybrids were such a pain – before he let out a loud howl as though he'd heard something she hadn't and ran off.

Aria stared after him for a long moment in surprise, before she scowled and rolled her eyes.

So much for manners.

~*•°•*~

As the trio of witches walked through the woods in search of Mikael, Kol opened his mouth several times in an effort to speak before closing it as Davina's glare met him. Both were, in that moment, wary of Aria after she left angry with them both, and returned even angrier with not so much as an explanation. Paying no mind to the glare Davina sent him as he opened his mouth once more, he interrupted the strained silence,

"Bleeding power from a dark object is tricky, so it does help to know what kind of object it is."

"The White Oak stake." Davina answered after a second. Kol looked at her in disbelief, looking over to Aria but finding her annoyingly stoic before looking back to Davina and laughing patronisingly.

"You want to drain the white oak stake, do you?" He chuckled as Davina shrugged.

"It's a dark object. If we can't stop Mikael, we have to stop that stake from working."

"See, usually I like a girl with ambition." His eyes flickered over to Aria slightly, "But this is just beyond mad."

He began to walk away but Aria grabbed his arm and stopped him, "Just show us the spell, Kaleb! Kol. Whatever we should call you."

Kol softened slightly, "The problem's not the spell, Darling. It's the White Oak stake. It's too powerful, you can't just drain it. Best you can hope for is to disable it, just for a bit."

"You really don't know how powerful I've become, do you?" She asked, not even bothering to hide the mild threat.

Kol pursed his lips and chose his words carefully, "I know I should never and would never underestimate you, Aria, and I've heard of your new power. But I'm more concerned for your health if you do manage to drain the stake. You've been unconscious for hours. Draining the stake, whilst not only being difficult, will be dangerous to yourself. I won't let you risk that." He said, turning around and walking around to his car.

"So, do you have a better solution?" She called out, "Because there isn't any time to argue! So, show us the spell, and hand me the keys."

Kol scoffed and turned around, "And what are you going to do? Just drive around until you bump into them?"

Davina's eyes narrowed and she answered for Aria, "You may have messed with our bracelets, but I made sure months ago that I would always be able to find Mikael."

"Alright, fine. Your funeral, Davina. As for Aria." His voice lowered and he gradually moved closer to her, "If even one hair on your head gets harmed, I'll lock you away in a tower some place, am I clear?" He muttered, eyes intense and locked with hers, both as stubborn as each other.

Aria's eyes narrowed, "Are you threatening me?"

He scoffed, "Trust me, I'm the last person that would threaten you."

Aria rolled her eyes before she blinked and turned away from him, Kol straightening up again and turning around, "I'm still not going to allow you to drive me bloody car, though." He muttered.

Aria ignored the questioning stares from Davina and followed after Kol, climbing into the car and slamming the door behind her, vaguely hearing Davina enter the car in the backseat.

They were silent for the rest of the journey.

~*•°•*~

Aria looked up at the abandoned building they'd pulled up to a stop outside of with a small crease in her eyebrows, "Here, D? Wouldn't Mikael want to, I don't know, eat his way down Bourbon Street?"

She turned to look at her friend to see the same confused expression on her face before they made eye contact, "He's here. I can feel him. But I still don't get it."

Kol let out a low breath of understanding as both girls turned to him, "Nik didn't try getting into the cabin because your little blonde friend didn't answer him." His eyes flickered up to meet the blue he was fast getting used to, "That was after Mikael escaped."

Aria blanched.

That was why Klaus had shifted, gone through that pain. He could cover more ground in a less conspicuous way whilst still being quick as he did so. He was looking for Cami.

"Cami."

In a blur, she swung open the door and didn't even bother closing it before rushing towards the abandoned building. Before she could walk any further, she felt a hand close around her wrist and turned slightly, "Let go of me." She told him quietly.

Kol let go of her wrist like it was burning him before heaving in a breath, "We need to do this together."

"I'm strong enough on my own."

"No, you're not. Listen, I know neither of you trust me right now, and that's fair enough. But, these are your mates we're trying to save, here. Your family. The only way that we can do this, is if we work together." He grabbed Aria's hand in his own and held out the other for Davina to take, "You need to trust me. Alright? Take my hands. Take my power. Channel me."

With a small, distrustful look to Kol, Davina grabbed his hand and began to channel him and Aria as the trio chanted, "Mwen la bois. Donne m' la bois, la bois."

The wind began to rush wildly around them.

"Mwen la bois. Donne m' la bois, la bois."

"I can't hold it!" Aria called out frantically after another moment of chanting, knees almost buckling beneath her because of the force of the spell.

"Just trust me, Little witch." Kol muttered quietly as she steeled herself.

Before they could continue chanting, Mikael appeared out of what seemed like thin air and approached them threateningly, "Is this your doing, witches? Then you will undo it! Return the power to the stake!" He demanded.

Aria ignored him and began chanting louder. Mikael wasn't amused.

The Original Vampire began moving closer to them and Davina let go of Kol's hand to thrust it towards Mikael, keeping him from advancing to them whilst continuing to chant with Aria. As Aria's knees buckled beneath her and the link between the trio was cut off, Kol almost instantly let go of Aria's hand and lunged for Mikael in defence for Aria, seemingly forgetting that Mikael was more powerful in the moment as he was thrown across the room.

Mikael pushed Davina to the side in anger and advanced for Aria who scrambled back in fear. Her eyes locked onto Kol before they moved to Davina's crumpled form and she went deadly quiet before screaming, eyes slamming closed, the sheer force enough to throw Mikael back across the room, even as blood began to leak from her eyes.

When she opened them, the sapphire was gone and crimson narrowed at Mikael before she flicked her hand to the side carelessly, Mikael slamming through the doors to another room. Aria first ran over to Davina in alarm, checking her over for any damage before the witch stood up. With Kol now behind them, they walked into the room Klaus and Cami were in, the former now lacking the stake Mikael so desperately wanted imbedded in his chest.

They locked eyes for a brief moment and, knowing she wasn't in any immediate danger from him, she released a breath she hadn't realised she was holding.

"What do you think you're doing?" Mikael demanded as the group slowly began gaining people.

"It's over, Mikael. You're outnumbered. Are you going to beg for your miserable life?" Klaus asked coldly as Mikael laughed patronisingly.

"You think having people makes you strong? It proves how weak you are. Come find me when you don't have fools, women and children fighting your battles." He sneered before fleeing.

They were alone once more.

~*•°•*~

Outside the abandoned building, Kol sat on the hood of his car as Aria checked his wounds. Davina was still inside, attempting to explain as best she could to Marcel and Evanna – both of whom had tagged along to support Klaus for whatever reason – what had led them to the building,

"Are you okay?" Aria asked quietly, worry creased on her forehead.

"Uh, a bit light-headed. Might have something to do with being knocked arse over teacup by dear old Dad." Kol commented offhandedly as Aria smiled slightly in amusement before sobering up.

"Kol?" Aria asked suddenly as he looked up to her, waiting to let her continue, "When you and Freya… freed me from Dahlia…" She began before sighing, "I couldn't see you anymore. Was that a side effect or did you leave New Orleans?" She asked bluntly.

Kol stayed silent for a moment before he looked back up to her, "I'm not a good person, Little witch. It's foolish to trust me. But I will promise you, Aria Gerard, that once you came back to life, even though I was able to go back and get revenge on the ones who killed me, I never once left your side. And I know Freya didn't either."

And maybe she was crazy, perhaps she had finally lost it. But for some reason that was completely beyond her, she believed him.

Aria smiled softly to herself before she went back to looking at the cut on his forehead, unaware of his eyes staying glued on her until she heard footsteps towards them. She turned, catching Kol's eye in the process, before sighing as she saw Marcel, Evanna and a guilty looking Davina walking up to them.

Aria tensed before exhaling slowly and squaring her shoulders before turning around to face Marcel, the look on his face nothing short of completely livid. She simply raised an eyebrow, "Would you like to start, or should I?"

Kol had to supress a laugh at that.

"Gladly." Marcel bit out through clenched teeth, "You are lucky to be alive, young lady. You wanna tell me what the hell you were thinking?"

"You really want to know? Alright, I was thinking 'hey, Mikael's on the loose. I should probably find him before he kills anyone.' I can't imagine Klaus would be too happy if he found out I lost control of his father." She paused for a moment as if a thought had suddenly occurred to her, "Actually, he'd probably start yelling at me about keeping my pets on a leash before draining me dry." She mustered up the most serious face she could, "Some of us need blood to survive, dad."

She watched as Marcel opened his mouth to reply before it closed. It opened again, though no words came out and she had to stop breathing to avoid laughing at his spectacular impression of a goldfish, "Look, dad, all I know is that one of us is right here." She gestured to herself, before letting her hands flip to face him, "And the other one is you."

His eyes suddenly strayed behind her and his eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "Who's this?"

The amused look slipped from her face as Aria searched for an explanation, coming up pitifully short. She couldn't introduce him as Kaleb, Marcel already knew about him and thought that he was human, so that conversation wouldn't go down very well. Introducing him as Kol Mikaelson would probably give him a heart attack that would pull him down into the grave he was supposed to be in for the past hundred years. Thankfully, Kol spoke up, "Kaleb. Pleased to meet you, mate."

Aria rolled her eyes at his tone that was dripping in sarcasm. Marcel's own eyes hardened and Aria winced as she realised her father now knew he was also a witch, before the vampire gave Kol a brief glance over and sighed, "Your friend's bleeding." He pointed out.

Aria nodded, "I know."

He waited for her to continue. When she didn't, he gave her a look, "And? Why is he bleeding?"

"Because he's an idiot." She said simply.

"I didn't know that idiocy caused people to start spontaneously bleeding."

Aria lowered her tone so that Marcel could hear, but Kol couldn't "I think it's a new phenomenon." She said lowly, almost secretively. Marcel's lip twitched slightly and Aria smiled secretively to herself, before he forced his expression down. Then she turned to Evanna, and softened at the look of worry in her eyes.

"I'm sorry."

"You could have been killed, Aria. Do you understand that?"

Aria found it odd that she felt like a child being scolded by a parent considering she'd only known Evanna for a few weeks. She found it odd that her line of sight led straight to the floor. Found it odd that Marcel hadn't taken her away from the building and locked her in her room already. Never the less, she nodded silently.

"Aria, waging war on Klaus Mikaelson isn't a smart thing to do. You're better than that."

"Am I?" She let out a mirthless laugh and looked back up to her, "Am I better than that?" She turned to look at Marcel, "You may have forgiven him, dad, but Klaus walked into New Orleans like he still owned it and when he found out he didn't, he stole it from us. Do you remember that? Do you remember the decades you spent hating his family for abandoning you? You raised me to hate them and now you're Klaus' best friend again. You've done plenty of stupid things for family, and now what? You're saying I can't do the same?"

"Kid there's a difference between doing a stupid thing and asking for help and doing a stupid thing but not. You know I would've helped you with anything you needed. Aria, you come first. Not Klaus, not our guys, heck, not even Rebekah. It'll always be you. Just come home. Please."

"Is it my choice?"

Marcel nodded.

A disappointed frown tugged at Aria's mouth as her eyes zeroed in on the slight twitch of his eye, his blinks that were faster than usual, and the subtle but painfully obvious tensed shoulders. Her own shoulders sagged, "It's really not."

He wasn't begging her, he was telling her she would go back. It didn't matter what she wanted.

"Aria-"

"Alright, enough!" Kol interrupted, mild surprise showing on Aria's face as she'd honestly forgotten he was there. Amusement quickly replaced the surprise as he backtracked at Marcel's glare, "Well, I-I think it's enough. It should be enough. I mean, we're all friends here, aren't we?"

Marcel sighed and brought his hands up to his head in a calming motion, "Just stay here 'til I get back, alright kid? Evanna and I will handle Klaus."

Aria didn't respond but watched as Marcel and Evanna, with one final look over to her, walked away together, whispering between themselves the whole while.

"I take it that's the mother I've been hearing so much about?" Kol asked, almost teasingly as Aria nodded, "Well, I'm glad for you. I am. But as touching as this has been, we should get out of here. Trust me, my brother's not the forgiving kind. Even if you did help out back there, his hatred and betrayal outweighs his sense of gratitude, despite your apparent alliance with ever-noble Elijah."

"We're not afraid of him." Davina scoffed, pulling the White Oak stake out of the inside of her jacket, Aria and Kol's eyes both widening in shock.

"You out to get yourself killed?" Kol asked incredulously.

Davina shook her head, "I'm out to get even with Klaus. Or at least protect Aria from your crazy family. And, you're going to help us." She said decisively, handing him his car keys as she smirked.

"But first, you're right. Let's get out of here."

~*•°•*~

As Always, SecretMidnightRose