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Thanks for all the reviews and follows!

guest: We're not supposed to like Sheila in this, Bennetts helped create prison worlds, which I think is a cruel and unusual punishment, and I'm sure that Sheila created Kai's, so if she knows how to do it, then that makes her very dangerous to Maya. I don't think that Caroline and Maya are stupid enough to believe that Elena's had a sudden change of heart, but it will be interesting to see what happens.

Dark Angels and Light Angels: The relationship would be with both of them, if it turns out to be a relationship and not just some fun that they have. I am of the same view that older vampires probably don't care as much about gender given that they've had such long lives. I would imagine that you would get bored of the same thing for a thousand years, so their sexuality is probably a lot more fluid. I knew that I would need to address the fact that the same things were happening, just because Maya has a leg up on her knowledge, doesn't mean that things are going to be easy for her.

Rhaelyant: Papa Klaus is always fun to write, but the apology is just Elena's attempt and getting into the party and into Maya's house. You'll just have to wait and see how well that works out for her.

heleana1: Unfortunately, the genuineness of Elena's apology was something that Klaus overlooked in his compulsion.

WiseGirlDivergence46: Thank you! I love writing Papa Klaus moments.

Blu3b3rryT3a: Thank you! I love the re-cap! The next clash will be Elena and Bonnie vs Maya and Caroline, the girls are not about to take any shit from their nemeses…

Ashes2Dust18: Thanks! They're some of my favourites!

Guest: I always thought that Witches were very odd when they said that vampires and hybrids were an affront to nature. Because if nature didn't want them to exist, then they wouldn't. The idea that they believed that any Witch could be more powerful than nature, and create something against her wishes, it didn't make any sense to me. Plus, none of the supernatural creatures want the human world to know that they exist, so what did the witches think would happen if the Originals were killed and thousands, probably hundreds of thousands of people just dropped dead all over the world. In fact, it doesn't make sense that after Finn and Kol's deaths there was nothing on the TVD news, reporting these mysterious deaths.

moonlightkiss1515: I think the worse thing for Elena, is going to be when everyone just leaves her behind, after the sacrifice, what is her purpose really?

Careena1: Bonnie and Elena grew up in the 20th and 21st century, they know that you can't hate someone for being born, that's just not right. But they are stupid if they think that Maya's going to fall for their tricks.

Heroina: Yep, Stefan and Elena both broke the unwritten rules of the supernatural world, you don't out someone if they haven't given you permission for it. And Stefan was especially stupid, because there's a lot that Maya could let slip about him to Elena, especially now that he's on human blood. And Elena picking and choosing when she wants to consider Maya family is a very 'her' thing to do, she did it a lot with Damon, when she needed something from him, she would bring him closer and when she didn't like what he was doing, she would push him away, telling him that she couldn't have him in her life if he was going to act the way he did. Maya's very loyal, if Elena didn't act the way she did, Maya would do everything she could to keep Elena safe, at this point, she's only working on bringing Elena back for Jeremy's sake, because he doesn't deserve the pain of losing more of his family. Bonnie and Elena planning on snooping through Maya's house is a bit like poking the bear, it's definitely not a smart thing to do, and they are definitely no Daphne and Velma. It would be great if someone could draw the family scenes, because we never got to really see them in the show, so it would be nice to see them in real life.

xotinkerbella: Klaus never said that the apology had to be genuine, something that he forgot to clarify in his compulsion. But the apology will only negate the nightmares, the rest of the compulsion would still be there. The family scenes are the best, and I can't wait for Elijah to come back and be completely sassed by Luna again. This is a Kol heavy chapter, so you should be happy about that, but yeah, he knows what's going on between Klaus and Maya because Damon can't stop gossiping about it with anyone that isn't Enzo (he is such a blabbermouth). Rebekah and Freya's spying isn't such a bad thing, because it's allowed Freya to see Klaus in a completely different light than what she already knows about him, and that is more likely to prompt her to actually help Klaus do what needs to be done for the sacrifice. Stefan and Elena should both know better, Stefan especially, because Maya could tell Elena a bunch of terrible things about him, not that Elena would believe her. Kai definitely snapped because of how his family treated him, I firmly believe that he was made into a monster, not born that way. He was touch starved, abused, told he was an abomination, and then when he found out that the only thing that he was looking forward to, the merge, he wouldn't be allowed to do, of course he went nuts. I don't like the fact that he killed most of his siblings, but I'm also not surprised by his reaction. You are correct, Vicki was 18 and Jeremy 14 in canon, and we know that they slept together, more than once, which is something that was so problematic, but wasn't addressed, other than 'Jeremy could be sneakier' and 'Vicki and Jeremy together are weird.' I get that Elena might not have seen it as completely terrible, but Jenna should have known that it was against the law, (I did some research, turns out that Vicki having sex with Jeremy was a Class 4 felony in Virginia, which definitely would have result in jail time for her if she'd been reported).

lillen20: It's not going to work out for Elena the way she wants.

Serena Salvatore: Rebekah is, it's taking her a long time to accept that she's not Klaus's favourite right now, I'm sure in canon, she's never not been the favourite.

Klaus and the children had followed Maya to the same Villa that she had lived in over the summer, and she set them up to stay overnight. Since the kids were in unfamiliar territory she put them in the same bedroom, next to Klaus's which was opposite her own. It took a while for Klaus to get them to sleep, and when he finally did, instead of going to his own room, he knocked on Maya's door. The Siphon opened the door and gave him a soft smile, she'd changed into a tank top and shorts, getting ready for bed, "Nik."

"Can I come in Sweetheart?"

Maya shrugged, "Sure," she stepped aside, and Klaus walked in, settling himself on her bed, "The kids alright?" she asked.

"They're asleep," Klaus said, "I don't think they like being in unfamiliar surroundings."

"Well, that's what you're there for right? To make them feel safe in unfamiliar territory." She said, going over to the bed and taking a seat next to him, leaning against the headboard.

"I suppose," he replied quietly.

"Nik…all jokes aside, what are you doing with kids?"

"What do you mean? I'm their Alpha."

"It's more than that, and you know it. If you were just their Alpha, they wouldn't be here right now, it's been a year Nik and they need stability."

"They have stability!"

"But do they know it? I'm not criticising you, or what you've done for them."

"That's not what it sounds like," he grumbled.

"I'm not," Maya insisted, "But they're kids, you gave them a pack when they had none, a home when theirs was destroyed, and a family-a family when theirs was taken from them. But they don't know that, because you haven't said it."

"Maya-"

"Nik, they need to know the truth."

"And just what is that?"

"That they're your family." Klaus made to protest, but Maya put her hand on his arm to stop him, "You don't have to admit it to me, or to the pack, or to your brothers and sisters, but you do have to admit to them, and yourself. One of the reasons that they're so afraid to see you go, is because they don't know for sure that you'll come back. They don't know that you see them as family, and they need to. I mean, you've had a kid before."

"And that went so well, last time."

"So mistakes were made with Marcel," Maya said, "You can't deny that you were in a different headspace than you are now."

"What's so different about me now, than back then?" Klaus asked.

"Other than the fact that you're no longer operating under the constant fear that your father will pop up and murder you? You have something now, that you never did."

"What, you?"

Maya smiled, "I know I'm amazing, but I wasn't actually talking about me."

"Then what were you talking about?"

"I'm talking about Kol… and Elijah, and Rebekah, and even Freya, I know that you're all still so angry with one another, but all of your deep dark secrets are out in the open now. Eventually, you are gonna be able to move forward, to trust each other. I mean you already trust Kol, don't you?" Klaus nodded, "You didn't have that before, but you do now…" then she rolled her eyes, "And you have me too."

Klaus smirked, tugging her into his lap, "You have proved useful in the past."

"You're damn right I'm useful. I'm also right about this, those kids need to know that you're going to be there for them while they grow up. They've lost so much already, they can't lose you too."

"If I agree to talk to them, can we move on to more pleasurable pursuits?" He asked.

"What more pleas-" He cut her off with his mouth on hers.

Jenna frowned as the two Vampires in her life told her about Miranda and Logan's request. "Why do they want your family's journals?" she asked.

"Beats me," Damon shrugged, "No one's ever asked for them before."

"Do you think that they suspect you?"

"That can't be it," Damon shook his head, "My father died before he could tell anyone that we were Vampires. Hell, Stefan killed him the night after the Battle of Willowcreek, and I made sure to burn any mention of us afterwards."

"Hang on," Enzo said, "If Stefan killed your father the night of your transition, then how was he buried with Emily Bennett's grimoire?"

"What?" Damon asked, "What are you talking about?"

"Just after Maya and Jenna rescued me, she told me that she could make me a daylight ring, if she could get a hold of the spell. She told me that the Bennett grimoire was buried with him, that he'd vowed to never let anyone get their hands on it, so I got it for her. How did he do that if he was dead?"

"He wouldn't have known about it," Damon said, "Emily was killed two weeks after my father died, which means someone else put it there, they must have covered up the way he died."

"Who else could have possibly known that you and Stefan were Vampires?" Jenna asked.

"I don't know," Damon said, "But I can't give away any of our family journals, Stefan and I stopped by almost every generation, they all wrote about the Vampires in the family."

"Then we need to find out why Miranda wants the Salvatore Journals," Enzo said, and looked over at Jenna.

When Jenna realised that his eyes were on her, she shook her head, "No, no way!"

"Come on! You're the only one that could find out what's going on in the Gilbert house!"

"That is not true! You have Jeremy!"

Damon shot her a look, "Do you really want Jeremy involved in this?"

She deflated, "No."

"So you're the only one who can do it. I mean, you don't want to make Maya do it, do you?"

"Damn it!"

"Excellent!" Enzo said, "It's agreed then, you'll make up with your sister to find out what she's up to!"

"Hey wait a minute! I never agreed to make up with her!"

Maya rolled off of Klaus, panting, she'd just put the breaks on their activities again. Klaus sighed, pulling her to his side, "I still don't understand why you're so insistent that we go no further than this." He motioned to them both, his shirt had been thrown in some corner of the room, and her hair was mussed, neck dotted with rapidly darkening marks that he'd left on her. But that was as far as they'd gone.

"We talked about this Nik."

"No, you talked about this, and I still don't understand your reasoning." He said, fingers dancing along the strip of flesh on her stomach that had been exposed when her tank top had ridden up during their activities. "Why put off something that's going to be inevitable?"

Sighing, she leant up on one elbow, and looked over at him, "It's because it's going to be inevitable, Nik." Causing him to raise an eyebrow in question, "You have to know what type of person I am by now. I'm vengeful, and vindictive, and possessive, and you'd need to be ready for that, because if we got together, I wouldn't be willing to let you go."

Klaus smiled, "I'd be ready for that."

"And what about Aurora?" Maya asked, causing his smile to disappear.

"What about her?"

"Nik," she reached up, running her thumb along his cheek, "She was your first love as a Vampire, you loved her more than Tatia, and you're still hurting over her departure from your life."

"I'm not."

"You are, because if you weren't, you would have forgiven Elijah by now. It's okay to be hurt over it still, I need you to work through that before we ever attempt to do this."

"Why is it so important to you?"

"It may take a while, but I know that she's going to come back into your life, and I need to know that you don't feel for her anymore. I need it, because while there's a lot that I will do, and be, for the person that I love, I won't ever be a second choice. I don't deserve that."

/ / /

Kol arrived at the Villa the next day, first thing in the morning, and he let himself in. He looked around and stopped short when he saw both Liam and Luna in the living room, he wasn't expecting the children to be here. "Well, if it isn't the baby wolves," he said, as he moved further into the house.

"Kol," Liam said, not so subtly taking a position in front of his sister.

Kol smirked at the move, ignoring the feeling that he got as it reminded him of himself and Rebekah, "Where's my brother?"

"In bed," Liam replied. Rolling his eyes, Kol took the stairs two at a time to find Klaus and wake him, "You shouldn't bug him!" Liam called, but the Original ignored him and continued on.

It was easy for Kol to locate his brother, his smirk widening when he heard two heartbeats coming from one of the bedrooms. He crept inside the room, finding his brother wrapped around the Siphon, both of them still asleep. Kol went to Maya's side of the bed and poked her in the nose, seeing if it would do anything. When it didn't wake her, he did it again, and again, causing her to sleepily smack his hand away and then snuggle further into his brother. Kol paused before trying again, talking out his phone and snapping a quick picture for blackmail purposes later on, and when he was satisfied, he poked at Maya again. This time when Maya smacked his hand away, she opened her eyes, and screamed in shock when she saw him looming over her, her hands shot up and he was thrown across the room.

"Seriously Kol?!" Maya yelled, sitting up, "Asshole!"

"Kol!" Klaus snarled, shooting from the bed at her scream, "I'm going to kill you!"

"That'll be difficult, considering that you gave me all the daggers!" Kol smirked, jumping up and rushing out of the room, Klaus following closely behind him.

Maya winced as she heard crashing coming from downstairs, "HEY!" she yelled, "YOU'RE PAYING FOR WHATEVER YOU BREAK!"

/ / /

It was just after lunch time when all of the occupants of the Villa went to the back. Maya spelled the pool so that the children could play in it, without fear of getting hurt, putting up a barrier to keep them safe. They were also being watched by her two Vampire bodyguards, while she, Kol and Klaus talked, out by the side of the pool. Maya explained everything that had been going on in Mystic Falls, and her fears that Nature was working against her.

"What are you really afraid off?" Kol asked, "So far you've been handling everything well. There's something else isn't there?"

"It's my Mom, and Enzo," she admitted, "This is the first time that I've gotten to have a family, if I lost them…there's no telling what I would do, there'd be no end to my rage."

Klaus looked at her, "How does your mother die?"

"Nik…" she didn't want to tell him.

"The only way we can stop it, is if it we know what we're stopping."

"You killed her," she whispered.

Klaus stiffened, "What?"

"In the other place, Damon was in love with Elena, and he thought that freeing your sacrifices would give him another month to try and save her. But he didn't realise that you were prepared, you know, backup Witch, backup Werewolf…"

"Backup Vampire," Klaus finished, it was certainly something that he would do.

Maya nodded, "You had Katherine pretend to be Elena and lured Mom out of the house. You turned her, specifically to kill her in your ritual and you did."

"Maya, you have to know that-"

"That you wouldn't do that to me. I know…I know that you wouldn't kill her…because of me. But… if everything's still happening, then does that mean that Mom's destined to die? Even if it's not at your hands, there's still so many ways that she could go. I just want her to be safe."

"Maya," Klaus took her hands in his, "I swear to you, I will never hurt your mother, and I will do everything in my power to keep her safe."

"You can't fight against Mother Nature, Nik."

"You are," Kol cut in, causing them both to look at him, "You're fighting Her, and you're doing it for us. So, I'm with Nik on this, you're protecting our family, and we'll protect yours."

"Thank you."

"What about Enzo?" Kol asked, "How does he die?"

"Stefan kills him. He had his emotions turned off, and Enzo was trying to stop him from killing Elena…and Stefan ripped his heart out."

"I'm not letting that happen," Klaus said coldly, he knew that if Damon lost Enzo, he would lose his friend, and he wasn't going to let that happen. "The first thing I'll do when I get to Mystic Falls will be to compel him, so that no matter what, he won't hurt Enzo."

/ / /

Rebekah and Freya watched from their perch in the balcony of a Villa a few doors down, "I can't hear anything!" Rebekah complained.

"She must have put up a privacy spell," Freya said.

"Could you take it down?"

"I could try," the eldest Mikaelson replied, "But the attempt would alert Kol to my presence, whatever our link is, he can sense whenever I do magic."

"We can't let them know that we're here," Rebekah said, "I'm not ready to face Nik yet, and this would only anger him further."

"You're right about that," Freya looked through the binoculars that Rebekah had procured for her, "Whatever they're speaking about, must be truly important, and look, Niklaus isn't letting the children out of his sight."

"Ugh!" Rebekah groaned, "I need to know what they're doing with him!"

/ / /

"There's also something else that we needed to talk about in person," Maya said, "Something that I didn't trust over the phone."

"What?" Klaus asked.

"The bridge that I crashed through, it was made of white oak."

"WHAT?" Both Originals yelled.

Maya held her hands up, "Calm down!" she forced them both to sit, "I said it was made of white oak. I destroyed it!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Kol asked, "How was there enough white oak to make a bloody bridge?!"

"A sapling grew in the place of the tree that you burnt down. 300 years later. It was cut down by the Salvatore logging company, and made into the bridge. I incinerated it."

"You crashed through it, some would have fallen into the lake," Klaus said.

"I know," Maya nodded, "I made sure I got everything out of the lake and destroyed it all."

"You have 'but face'" Kol said.

"What?" Maya asked, taken aback.

"You look like you're about to say but," he clarified.

"But…there was also a sign…and that I didn't destroy," she flicked her hands up, freezing them both in place, keeping them silent, before they could do anything. "Just hear me out, before you lose your shit, please." Waiting until she could feel them stop struggling, "I'm going to let you go, but I need you to listen okay." She released her hold on them, and the fact that they didn't immediately rush to attack her, was a testament to both men's personal growth. "When you burnt down the first tree, Mikael kept that one stake, and there was that little knight, and Nature didn't deem it enough. Everything immortal, has to have a way to die, and using white oak on an Original, it incinerates the Original and the wood, you know that." She looked at Klaus who nodded.

"That's why another tree grew, because one stake wasn't enough to kill you all. If I destroyed the sign, then another tree would grow, but we wouldn't know when, we wouldn't know if it was cut down, and spread across the globe. We just wouldn't know. So I couldn't destroy it."

"Where is it now?" Kol asked, his voice hoarse.

"Somewhere that no one can access."

"You'll have to be more specific than that Little Siphon."

"There are places, all around the world, where the veil between life and death is stretched thin."

"Meaning what exactly?"

"There are places where life and death kind of…intertwine, but only someone who's similarly intertwined with the two, can get to those areas. Enzo went with me, when I went to hide the sign, but he said that I just disappeared from sight when I hit the right spot. And I couldn't see him either. One minute I was underneath the Hollywood Sign, and then the next I was in this…beautiful cave. There was no entrance, I was just there. And there was a body of water, in the middle of the cave, I looked into it, and Death was on the other side, waiting for me. I put the sign in the water, and the next thing I know, he has it. The sign is under his protection now, close enough to life that another tree doesn't grow, but far enough away, that no one can get to it."

"But what if another Old Soul stumbles across the area?" Kol asked.

"It won't matter," Maya shook her head, "When I came back, after the accident, I told you that I came back different." Her eyes turned dark, hair going black, and Klaus was in front of her in an instant, tracing the now prominent veins on her face. "There's a little more Death in me than before, which lets me access the weak spots in the veil that no one else can." She closed her eyes, and when she opened them, she was back to normal.

"No one but you." Kol said.

"So the question is, do you trust me?" she looked at both of them, hoping that she hadn't been wrong to give them her trust.

"You didn't know that it was white oak before?" Kol asked.

Maya shook her head, "No, I was drawn to the crash site, the night before we were due to come here. When I touched the sign, I got an image of you," she looked at Klaus, "Desiccated, in a coffin, wrapped in chains, just like Mikael, with a stake in your heart, you were burning." Klaus frowned, and she turned to Kol, "And when I touched the bridge, I saw you, on fire, stake in your chest, thanks to Elena." Kol didn't look phased by the revelation, which both she and Klaus noticed, "You're not surprised."

Kol glanced between his brother and his student, "When I went to pull you from your mind, and we were drawn into Death's Reading Room, you told me about my end."

"What?" Maya asked, "Why didn't you tell me? You knew I wouldn't remember."

"Because I was dealing with it myself, I was killed for a reason, and I've been working on a way to stop it from happening, but I must admit the knowledge that there is no more white oak out there for certain. It is comforting."

"Kol!" Klaus exclaimed, "You never said anything to me! Why?"

Maya looked between the two brothers and stood, "I'm going to go and get the kids bathed and dressed, you two need to talk about this in private. I'll leave the spell up."

/ / /

Kol stood, moving away from his brother, and looked out over the ocean. "Why didn't you say anything?" Klaus asked, "I'm your brother, it's my job to protect you."

"I couldn't!" Kol hissed, "I just couldn't, not after what I saw!"

Klaus grabbed Kol's arm, making his brother face him, "What did you see?"

"I died more than once! And that first time- our bond was so broken, that I believed that you had helped orchestrate my death!"

"What?" Klaus was taken aback.

"In my final moments, I believed that you were trying to kill me, but then afterwards… Rebekah knew that I was dead, and continued to work along side the ones that killed me. And Elijah didn't care, he did nothing to avenge me. Even though I believed that you had come to kill me, you were the only one who tried to enact vengeance on my murderers, but your grief, meant you made a mistake, and you were stopped before you could."

"Kol-"

"And then I came back, in the body of a Witch, Finn was dead, and he too came back in another body. One more powerful than my own. And then he killed me."

"What?" Klaus whispered.

Kol couldn't bring himself to explain it, so instead showed his brother the memory, showed him his fear, his torment, his pain, all at the hands of his big brother.

Klaus pulled himself from the memory, and took Kol by both arms, holding on to him tightly, "I need you to listen to me Kol, you are my baby brother. For you, I would burn the world to ash, there would be no city I would not raze, no person I would not kill. I will never let Finn hurt you like that; this is my vow to you."

The next day, Klaus hadn't wanted to leave his brother's side, so Maya left the brothers, and the children at the Villa, while she went out, she was going to pick up some designer outfits for Caroline's birthday. If things were following down the same path then there was a very good chance that this would be Caroline's last birthday as a human, and she wanted to make it the best for her. The bodyguards took her to Beverly Hills and then disappeared from sight, only planning on reappearing when it was time to go.

At lunch time they took her bags to the car, and she sat down at a restaurant to eat, picking up the menu, Maya perused it for a moment, before snapping it shut, when someone dropped themselves into the seat opposite from her. "Hello Freya," she said.

"Maya," the older witch replied.

Kol eyed the children as they ran around on the beach, Nik was acting differently with them, he'd only caught glimpses of Nik interacting with Marcel, and it was nothing like this. Nik had been protective of Marcel, but with these two children, he looked like he did when he was mortal. Kol suspected that part of the reason was because the children were Werewolves, something about them, must speak to Nik's own wolf, despite it being locked away. But what had really surprised him, was his own complete lack of jealousy.

When Kol had seen Marcel, his first instinct had been to kill the little brat, he had taken Nik's attention away from him, and Kol couldn't stand it, going so far as to feed the boy his blood so that Nik could turn him, and then see just how unworthy Marcel was of the gift of immortality. But with these children, he didn't feel jealous, perhaps it had something to do with the fact that he was now the one in Nik's inner circle, and Bekah and 'Lijah were on the outside, looking in. Or maybe, it was because even he could sense the bond between the children and Nik, Nik was their father in all but name, something that he believed would change very soon. The children were family, that much he was certain of, they may not be Mikaelsons, but Kol had the feeling that Nik wouldn't allow a different last name to prevent them from being treated as such, picking a fight over these two children would guarantee him a one way ticket back to being daggered, and Kol had no intention of ever being stuck in a box again.

Kol raised his brow as he saw the little boy, Liam, make his way over to him, while Nik was busy trying to stop the girl from going too far into the water, "What can I do for you Little Wolf?" he asked.

"How did you get Klaus to let us play outside?" he asked.

Nik had been very reluctant to let the children out of the house and onto the beach while Maya was away, her abilities meant that she could prevent the children from being pulled away by a riptide, and without her there, there was a rise in danger. The rise wasn't significant, they were Originals and would be able to catch the children, should something happen, but still Nik didn't want to let them play on the beach. "It was easy," Kol said, cocking his brow, suddenly getting an idea in his head, he may not be jealous of the children, but that didn't mean that he couldn't cause a little mischief for his brother. "All you have to do is get the tone of your voice just right."

"The tone?" Liam asked.

Kol smirked, glancing at his brother, who still wasn't paying attention to them, "Let me show you."

"You want more freedom to use your powers, but you're still working with Finn. He doesn't want to help Nik, he wants to hurt him. And as long as you're still on his side, I can't help you." Maya said.

"He's my brother, I can't abandon him," Freya replied.

"I'm not asking you to, I'm not saying that you can't love Finn, I'm not saying that you can't work with him, and be on his side, what I'm saying is that you can't let Finn's own beliefs, affect yours. You've been alone your entire life," Maya replied, "I imagine all you really want is to have your family, whole, together."

"I do," Freya nodded, "It's all I want."

"Well, I can guarantee you that if you, or Finn, prevent Nik from being able to break his curse, he will ensure that you never get what you want. Nik's especially good at vengeance, he's had one Vampire running for 500 years, just because she had the audacity to want to live, instead of die in the ritual. Nik did that to someone he doesn't care about, what do you think that he'd do if members of his own family prevented the ritual?"

"I don't respond well to threats," Freya said.

"I'm not threatening you, Freya," Maya shook her head, "I'm just giving you the facts. There's a reason that Niklaus Mikaelson, is the most feared out of all the Originals, he does not suffer betrayal lightly. And the longer he's without the wolf, the worse he becomes."

"What do you mean?"

"Come on Freya! You must know what happens to a Werewolf if you try to cage the beast after it's been set free." Freya shook her head, Werewolves weren't something that she'd ever concentrated her studies on, she knew enough to keep away from them, but had never actively tried to learn about them. "People have tried, several times, to cast a spell which locks the wolf back up. But once it's free, it can't be done. Not really. A re-caged beast, drives the man insane, he either kills himself, or someone else kills him when he goes mad. The only reason that Nik is still sane, it's because the Vampire in him keeps him that way. But it's been a thousand years, he won't last another 500. And then you'll have a brother, that's impossible to kill, and has gone completely insane. You won't be the only person that suffers, the world will." Maya paused as a server picked up her plate and boxed up her food, leaving the bill on the table for her. "The deal I have for you is as follows, you help Nik break his curse, and I'll help you kill Dahlia."

"Dahlia's immortal," Freya said, "Impossible to kill, there's only one thing that could kill her, and I don't even know if it will work."

"Give me your hand," Maya said.

"What?"

"Your hand, give it to me." Maya refused to elaborate further and just waited.

Freya put one hand on the table, palm up, and Maya placed her own on top of Freya's and siphoned some magic from her, "Aah!" Freya snatched her hand back, and looked at the Siphon with wide eyes, "You're a Siphon!" she said.

"I am."

"I met one of your kind once, 600 years ago. I was still with Dahlia at the time."

"And how did that work out for you?"

"Dahlia wanted the Siphon to join our coven, she believed that Siphons were powerful in their own way, and that she could benefit from them."

Maya gave her a wry smirk, "She was right, we are powerful, and more often than not, we're killed for it."

Freya nodded, "The Siphon was murdered by another coven of Witches before Dahlia could extend her offer."

"I'm far stronger than the Siphon that you met, despite my age, my body is already capable of taking in immense amounts of magic without breaking down. I can help you kill Dahlia, but I don't do anything for free."

"You truly believe that you can kill my aunt?"

"I wouldn't bet against me, I found you after all."

"And all I have to do is help Niklaus break a curse that my mother set a thousand years ago?"

Maya nodded, "That's all, and then I will work with you, and Kol, to free you from your psychotic aunt's grasp. I swear."

"I need to think," Freya said.

"Fine, but it's worth remembering that once Dahlia's gone, so is your immortality, you'll only have one life to live, and the rest of your family will go on without you after you die. I imagine with you gone, Finn won't be a part of your family for long after that. Unless- no, never mind."

"Unless what?" Freya prompted, frowning at the thought of leaving Finn all on his own.

"It may be possible to gain that immortality back, by binding yourself to an Original, in the same way that Dahlia bound herself to you." Maya thought back to how Dahlia had bound herself to Klaus, so that she could remain immortal and kill Freya. There was no reason why it couldn't work for the Mikaelson sibling.

"I don't want to go back to being asleep for a hundred years at a time," Freya shook her head.

"You wouldn't be, the Originals already have the immortality, binding yourself to one, it would weaken them, significantly, but you could live for as long as you wanted, with your power."

"How weak would they be?"

"Truthfully, I don't know, it would probably be about half their strength, which still leaves them stronger than half of the Vampire population out there, but it would leave them weaker than the rest of their siblings. Also, anything that happened to them, say if they were daggered, it would happen to you, not to mention the fact that both parties would need to be completely willing for it to work."

"I- I can't make that type of decision now! I barely know my family!"

"Then I suggest you get to know them, all of them." Maya stood, picking up her leftovers, "You tell Rebekah that she should do a better job of hiding, I hope she hasn't killed my bodyguards, that would really piss Nik off." She left Freya sitting there, speechless at her revelation that she knew the Original was nearby all along.

"Kol," Maya said, finding him on the beach just outside the Villa, "I wanted to talk to you about something in private."

"You're not about to reveal something worse than what I've already seen are you?"

Maya laughed, "I don't think so, but you can be the judge."

"Alright Darling, what have you got?"

"Have you ever thought about being mortal again?"

Kol stiffened, she hadn't mentioned knowing anything about the supposed 'cure' that was possibly hidden away with Silas, was she telling him that it was real? "What do you mean? Why would I have thought about it?"

"It's just, your mother's going to come back to life soon, I can only delay it for so long, because she needs to be alive at some point so that I can use her. But as the Witch that cast the immortality spell on you, she would know how to reverse it without killing you. She could make you mortal again."

He shook his head, "Why would I want that?"

"Because you'd have your magic back." Maya shrugged, "I know you miss it, even now, and I've been thinking a lot about that, especially as we move closer to breaking your brother's curse. He's getting something back that was ripped away from him a thousand years ago. But something was ripped from you too."

"To gain my magic back, I would have to give up my immortality."

"I don't know if that's true," Maya replied. "I spoke to Freya and it triggered a memory."

"When did you see Freya?"

"Today, at lunch."

"WHAT?!"

"She and Rebekah followed you here, I'm guessing one of them got a hold of your phone."

"Damn it! This must be how Elijah feels every time I steal his phone."

"Does that mean that you are going to stop doing it to him now?"

Kol scoffed, "No!"

"Whatever," Maya laughed, "The memory I had, it was of Dahlia, she linked herself to Nik, because he was strong enough to sustain her immortality, and keep her awake. I may have mentioned to Freya, that it could possibly be done, but it would probably half that Original's strength."

"And if anyone would agree to that, it would be Finn, it would keep the only sibling he loves alive, and it would benefit us, because it would keep him weaker than us forever."

"Right," Maya nodded, "So I just thought that you should know that there is that potential option available to you. If it works for Freya, it means that you'd have an immortal sister, that could do magic. I don't want you to feel like you don't have that option, I want you to be happy. And I don't want you to hate me either."

"Why would I hate you?"

"Well," Maya sighed, "There's a reason that I'm so cavalier about having Vampire blood in my system, if I die, I'd come back as a Vampire…but I'm not a Witch. If I become a Vampire, I still retain my ability to siphon, I'd still be able to do magic-"

"Because a Vampire is a magical being," Kol said, "You'd be your own battery."

Maya nodded, "I wouldn't want you to hate me or your sister for having what you don't."

Kol sat down on the sand, and she followed, he looked out at the ocean as he spoke, "When I lost my magic, it the worst pain that I'd ever felt. I spent centuries unable to control my thirst, my rage. Niklaus handled the loss of his wolf much better than I handled my own loss. I spent 400 years trying to find a way back to my magic before I gave up." He looked at her, "I've embraced being a Vampire, accepted it, enjoyed it even. I haven't thought about being mortal in so long. I'm not sure that I want it anymore."

"Whatever your decision, I'll support you, I just…wanted you to know that."

Maya and the Originals went to the airport together, Klaus and the children would take one jet back to Arizona, and Kol and Maya would take the other to New York, and the bodyguards would drive her the rest of the way back home. She's missed too much school already, so she had to get going. Klaus was busy having a little chat with the pilot, Kol was having a little talk with Liam, causing Maya to raise her brows in surprise, when had that happened? Either way, it left her alone with Luna.

"Hey princess," Maya said, causing Luna to look up at her, Maya crouched down to make it easier to talk with her, "You're okay staying with the pack, right? I know that there aren't many kids in the pack and most of them are boys."

Luna nodded, "I'm okay, I stay with Liam, or Klaus, or Cary."

"Yeah, but they're all guys, and sometimes, we need a little girl talk. So here," she pulled out a piece of paper with writing on it, "This is my number, I won't always be able to pick up because I'm in school, but you can call me, text me, if you ever get tired of all the boys. I'll be here, okay?"

Luna beamed at her, "Okay," the little girl nodded.

"Good, and here's a little tip for you, if Klaus starts getting worked up about something, gets angry, or if you've done something that might upset him, ask him for a piggyback."

"A piggyback?"

Maya nodded, "It completely throws him off, and if you do it right, he'll give you one."

"How?"

"Well, you just got to use those pretty little puppy dog eyes that you've got, that's what I do."

"Can you show me?"

/ / /

Kol and Maya had just arrived at the airport in New York when Maya's phone rang. She put it on speaker, because Klaus was on the other end. "Nik?"

"What the hell did you two do to Liam and Luna?!" he demanded, causing Kol to burst out laughing.

"Uh…hold please!" she put the phone on mute and looked at the Original, "What did you do?"

"Young Liam just asked how I got Nik to do things that he didn't want to do."

"And what did you say?"

"I just showed him how to do the voice…what did you do?"

Maya's jaw dropped as she realised what had happened, "I showed Luna how to hone her puppy dog eyes." And Kol burst into another round of laughter, "Whoops!" Maya took the phone off of mute, "Kol and I plead the fifth!" she rushed out.

"Maya!" Klaus growled.

"Got to go!"

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