A few weeks later found Hope walking down the stairs headed towards the library one morning. Ryan was prepping for classes, so he didn't have time to keep her occupied in more pleasurable ways at the moment, so she decided to see what sort of books the school had on hand that might be able to help her get out of her predicament. Maybe they had something on Malivore, on how to destroy him that Ryan wasn't willing to share just yet.
"Hi, Hope." Landon stepped in front of her.
"What are you doing?" Hope asked.
She raised, an eyebrow at his partially unbuttoned shirt and the way he was leaning against the banster with his hands in his pockets and looking at her from under his lashes. Was he trying to look sexy? If so, why?
"I just wanted to see if you wanted to go to dinner with me?"
"Are you on the menu?"
"Depends on how you mean."
"I mean with you dead and me fed."
How else did he think she meant? There was only one way she was interested in him, and that was draining him dry whenever she got a little peckish. Otherwise, his whiney 'I'm special because I'm a phoenix and pity me because I'm Malivore's biological son' persona made her want to kill him on sight.
"That wasn't exactly what I had in mind."
"I've been sleeping with your brother and you want to take me out to dinner."
"What do you see in him? He's little more than a mud robot. He's not even alive, really."
"You're the son of a mud robot so you don't have much room to talk."
"I can be more than he is for you, if you'll give me a chance. I can be what you need."
"You don't know me and I have no use for children, so what makes you think I want anything to do with you?" With a quick flick of her wrist, she snapped his neck and turned away. What gave him the right to talk about his brother like that?
"Hey!" Kaleb called.
"Yes?"
"Could you not keep killing him inside the house?" Kaleb gestured to the dead phoenix on the floor.
"He's not bleeding."
"No, but he'll be burning in a few minutes."
"I'll be sure to make sure he accosts me outside next time, just for you, Kaleb."
Kaleb shook his head and threw Landon over his shoulder, then flashed away again.
"Was that necessary?" Klaus demanded as he descended the steps.
"Was what necessary?"
"Killing Landon."
"I don't like to be threatened."
"How was he threatening you?"
"He had his shirt undone too much." Hope shrugged.
"How was that a threat?"
"I'm now in need of brain bleach. How is that not a threat?" Hope crossed her arms across her chest and raised her eyebrow at her father. If only he knew that him continuing to judge her, of him not remembering that she was his daughter only served to make her more determined than ever to keep her humanity switch firmly off.
"If you're going to kill someone, make sure they actually deserve it."
"You're the one to talk, considering you've killed people for less than unwanted sexual advances."
Klaus's face twisted, and he said, "I could compel you to feel again, heretic."
"I'd like to see you try," Hope shrugged lightly. She was a sireless vampire, so no one could compel her, no matter how hard they tried.
Hope and Klaus continued to stare each other down until Ryan broke the spell by wrapping his arm around Hope's shoulders.
"I take it you killed my brother again?"
"I did."
"You're supposed to keep her under control," Klaus snarled at Ryan.
"I'd say considering that Mikayla is surrounded by people, some of them very vulnerable, yet she only goes for the one who can come back after being killed, is very under control for a humanity free vampire who's endured what she has," Ryan replied.
"Niklaus was just attempting to throw his weight around, not realizing that he doesn't hold the power over me that he thinks he does." If only that traitorous part way down deep in her soul could stop reacting to him, either by taking the bait when he challenged her or lashing out when he treated others the way he would have treated her if he had memories of her.
As was her intention, Hope's words only served to enrage Klaus and he grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at him.
"Turn your humanity on."
"Nice try." Hope yanked her face out of his hand.
"I will drain every drop of vervain from your body and you will feel again."
"Did you ever stop to consider that you don't know everything there is to know about vampires? Or that there might have been something about them that you forgot? Not everyone needs vervain to be immune to compulsion."
With another raised eyebrow, Hope walked away.
"You knew him before, didn't you?" Ryan asked as he fell into step beside her.
"Does it matter? Does any of this matter? Malivore won. There's no way to bring memories back, there's nothing. So why should I even bother with anything?"
"Who were you, Mikayla?"
"No one. I'm no one."
"I didn't ask who are you? I want to know who were you?" Ryan searched her face, his dark eyes intense.
"I don't have the right to refer to myself as that anymore, so why should I tell you who I was?"
"You had a family, you were important, and you flipped the switch because when you lost your family, you lost your sense of identity, so why try to be a person, when you were a shell of who you were?"
Hope stared at him. Was she truly so transparent?
Ryan glanced at the clock. "I have a class in ten minutes. The library is open if you want to read or something."
"What I want, is to take you back upstairs, but since you're trying to be a responsible adult, I suppose a book or two will have to suffice to keep me occupied until you're available to entertain me." Standing on tiptoe, Hope caught his lower lip between her teeth and tugged lightly.
"I'll be there as soon as I can be."
Something about his eyes, how tight they were at the corners, warned Hope that he had something planned that she might not particularly want, but what?
Turning on her heel, Hope walked away.
Hours passed and suddenly, Hope realized it was dark out. Classes should have been over a while ago, yet Ryan hadn't come to find her. From somewhere in the school, she could hear raised voices, so she put the book back on the shelf and headed out to find her lover.
When she got to the foyer, Hope realized it was Klaus and Elijah going toe to toe.
"I don't see how this girl is any of your business. You're interfering."
"And yet, Ryan seems to think I can reach her."
"What if she doesn't want to be reached?" Hope folded her arms across her chest and raised an eyebrow at her uncle.
Elijah looked up at her, his expression going from blank, to one of….. recognition?
"That's her, isn't it?" a small brunette woman that Hope couldn't place off the top of her head asked from Elijah's elbow.
From their joined hands, Hope knew they were together.
"I take it you and Hayley didn't last."
"No. It's hard to have a relationship and keep secrets from the person you claim to love."
"So, what secrets does the great Elijah Mikaelson have that caused him to end a relationship he pursued for over half a decade?"
"You."
"Me. Now, what could I have to do with it?" Hope sneered.
"I know you, Hope."
Hope froze, staring at him, her breath catching in her throat.
"I named you."
"You remember me?" her voice came out in little more than a whisper. The switch was crumbling beneath his gaze.
"I do, Hope."
"How?"
"In the fight against the Hollow, I died. When I was resurrected, I remembered you, but no one else did. So I kept it a secret that the most important piece of our family was missing."
"And that came between you and Hayley?"
"Don't blame yourself, Hope. I made my choice. I became focused on finding you, on at least figuring out what happened to you, and Elena became my ally in that." Elijah walked up to her slowly, then cupped her cheek. "I never gave up that you'd come home, Hope Andrea Mikaelson."
That did it. Tears welled in her eyes and she clung to her uncle as she cried.
"I tried so hard. I tried to be good." Hope's cries turned near hysterical.
"I know, Hope. You did what you had to to survive and still you stayed good." Elijah ran his hand over her hair soothingly.
"I didn't tell them anything. They tortured me and I didn't tell them. I took it and I kept quiet." Hope mumbled into Elijah's jacket.
"Oh, sweetheart." Elijah kissed the top of her head, tears falling into her hair.
"I tried so hard, but it became too much. It was too much. I was so alone."
"You were so strong, Hope. You're not alone now, I promise. Always and forever."
"I flipped the switch. I hurt people."
"You never killed an innocent person who couldn't come back from your actions, did you?"
"I tried not to, even when I triggered the curse right after I was taken."
"You wouldn't be a Mikaelson if you didn't have at least one questionable death on your hands."
"How did you find me?" Hope finally asked.
"Ryan Clarke. He knew about you from before you were taken and he discovered that I was looking for you, so he asked me to come up here."
"What the bloody hell is going on here?" Klaus demanded before Hope could ask anything else about Ryan's involvement.
"Meet your daughter, with Hayley Marshall-Kenner, Niklaus. She's reason we returned to New Orleans, the one the witches wanted to sacrifice when she was born to take her power for themselves, the reason Dahlia came after us so hard, and why the Hollow targeted us. She was taken by Triad and thrown into Malivore, which you know erases people from the collective consciousness."
"You're lying."
"He's not lying, Klaus," Elena said softly. "He showed me his memories of her and those pictures that were around the house of the girl no one could remember, they're of the girl who called herself Mikayla, as a child."
"You'll always side with him, Elena," Klaus sighed.
Hope took the magic canceling bracelet off and dropped it to the floor. Holding out her hand, she allowed the wolf to rise to the surface and her arm started to transform.
"I'm not a heretic. I'm the tribrid. Werewolf, witch, vampire, all in one." Hope leaned closer to Elijah. "I'm not asking that you treat me like your daughter, because you don't remember me. I just want you to know, I am your daughter and I miss you."
"You're lying!"
"I'm tired. I don't want to fight. I've been fighting every day for the last ten years. I just want to rest." Hope leaned her head against her uncle's chest. As she moved, she caught Ryan's gaze. His brows furrowed and Hope's heart dropped. Would he not want her anymore, now that she could feel?
"We can talk in the morning," Elijah said, pressing a soft kiss to the side of her head and tugged Hope towards the stairs.
Outside her bedroom, Elijah cupped Hope's cheek and smiled down at her.
"I'm glad you've been found."
"Dad doesn't remember me," Hope whispered.
"If I can remember, there has to be a way that doesn't involve dying."
"I love you, Uncle Elijah."
"I love you too, Hope. Get some sleep and talk to Ryan, but be gentle with him. He was only trying to do what's best for you."
Hope nodded and went inside her room.
After she'd dressed for bed, someone knocked on the door and Hope answered it, to find Ryan standing on the other side, his hands in his pockets.
"Come on in." Hope opened the door wider.
"Are you okay?"
Her throat tightened and her eyes burned as she shook her head.
"I'm sorry, Hope. I just wanted to give you back what had been taken from you."
"Will you hold me?" Hope whispered.
Ryan toed his shoes off and then joined Hope on the bed, pulling her tight against his chest.
