I sat in the rocking chair in the nursery with a foot rest under my feet so I wouldn't rock as I wrote a letter.

"Writing a love letter? I looked up to see Nik smiling down at me.

"Something like that." I told him with a secretive smile.

"Who's the lucky recipient, then?" he asked me.

"In time you'll find out." I told him. We both laughed when the baby suddenly kicked me. "Oh!" Nik walked towards me as I rubbed the kick spot.

"How is our littlest cub?" he asked me and I smiled at his reference.

"Do you want to feel?" I asked him. He stepped back looking at our daughter nervously, and I gave him a look. "Come on!" I said motioning him towards me. He was this nervous with Nikolas too when I was so close to term, but I'd have thought that he'd gotten over it. "You won't hurt her." He reached out and placed his hands on my abdomen. He smiled as she moved inside me and I laughed when he jumped as he kicked.

"You feel that?" I asked him. We both laughed before he suddenly stood up.

"Right! I'll leave you to your secret letter, then!" he said before rushing off making me laugh lightly at him.


Dear Katherine… or Zoe...or Kaitlyn...or Angela. To my darling girl. Your dad just asked if this was a love letter. I guess it kind of is. I never got to know my mother when she was human. By the time I met her she'd already turned off her humanity as vampire, so I have no idea what she must have thought when she carried me.


I screamed during the labor at the witches stood around me. Somehow they had gotten my shoes and tights off me and moved me to the alter, laying me on it.

"AHHHH! Let go of me, you bitch!" I ordered them.


So, I thought I'd write to you, so you can know how happy I am at this very moment in time. How much your father, big brother, uncle and I can't wait to meet you...


I heard the doors to the church bang open and I looked at him in relief and almost smiled. Nik started towards us and tore off the heads of one of the witches who'd forced me into the church. Monique moved to the front of the alter I was on and she, Abagail and Genevieve telekinetically pinned Nik to the wall above us.


And, I want to make you a promise of three things that you will have: a safe home with no lies, someone to tell you they love you every day, and someone to fight for you, no matter what.


Nik fought against the spell pinning him to the wall as I continued to scream at them and from the labor. They anchored their spell before surrounding me.


In other words, a family who will never leave your side. So, there you go, my angel. The rest, we're going to have to figure out together. I love you. Your mom.


I watched as Genevieve grabbed an athame and screamed in terror and pain.

"You should know this brings me no joy. I promise I'll make it quick." Genevieve told us as one of the witches covered the lower half of my body with a sheet. "Let's begin, shall we?" I didn't want to help them by giving birth to my daughter, but if I didn't she would die. So I allowed the witches to help me give birth to my daughter as I screamed.

"I will bring hell to your family!" I heard Nik shout.

"One last push! Push! The baby's almost here!" Genevieve told me.

"I will bathe in rivers of your blood!" Nik shouted.

"No! No!" I begged my daughter.

"I can see the baby!" Monique said.

"Push! Gently! Gently!" I did as she said with the help of the witches.

"You will die screaming!" Nik shouted.

"There!" I stopped screaming and no longer needed the witch to hold me up. I saw Genevieve holding my daughter in her arms and another witch cut the umbilical cord as she wrapped the baby in a blanket.

"You have a beautiful baby daughter." Genevieve told us as we stared at her. "We must start the sacrifice as soon as the moon sets with the morning sky—"

"Please." I begged, drawing her attention. "Please, can I hold her Genevieve?" I asked her. Genevieve brought my daughter to me so I could hold her. I smiled down at her before looking up at Nik, showing her to him since he was still pinned. I leaned down to her and kissed her forehead before smiling down at her. Suddenly I felt someone's hand grabbing a large clump of my hair and pulling my head. I felt a knife at my throat before I couldn't breathe any more.

"NOOOOOO!" I heard Nik shout out as I grabbed at my throat while still holding my daughter in one arm before falling back gently. I felt my daughter being taken from my arms and heard Nik yell out again wordlessly. My world darkened quickly after that.


Later I looked around to see I was still in the church, but I was looking at Nik on the floor holding my body in his arms.

"Oh my god…" Soon enough Elijah burst into the church and looked around desperately.

"HAYLEY!" he called out. I looked around the church to see Hayley's desiccated body on one of the pews.

"Oh, Hayley." I said before kneeling next to her body. "I'm so sorry." I turned and watched Nik point to where Hayley and I were standing. Elijah moved to Hayley and I moved before he could step inside my body. Elijah looked horrified at the woman he loved while Nik was near tears, but other than that he looked numb.

"No. No, no. No..." Elijah almost begged her to wake up. Elijah looked over to my body and his eyes held the sorrow when we realized I was also dead.

"She's gone." Nik said. Elijah started to cry holding Hayley to him, which caused Nik to cry as well. "You've been bitten. Here." Nik bit into his wrist and offered it to Elijah. The elder Original was stunned by his display of kindness but drank from his brother's wrist. Once he was healed he went back to Hayley and knelt next to her as Nik picked me up and laid my body back on the alter.

"How?" Elijah asked Nik neither leaving the sides of neither Hayley nor myself.

"I was bested." Nik told him numbly. I watched Elijah's face go from one of horror to fury. "When I arrived Hayley was already dead and Nicole was about to give birth."

"You were bested. Huh." Elijah walked towards him still staring at him furiously. "You were BESTED?" Nik looked at him in shock at his loss of temper. "My invincible brother!" Nik pulled himself weakly to his feet and looked Elijah in his eyes.

"They took the baby. But there's still time. We can save her." Nik told him.

I followed them to the cemetery annoyed that I couldn't be heard. I sighed with unneeded breath.

"I'm so bored." I said knowing no one would hear me.

"The tombs are empty. The grounds are deserted. She's NOT HERE!" Elijah shouted getting angrier by the minute.

"This is the only place they can be! We'll keep searching." Nik insisted.

"They are NOT HERE, Niklaus! We're wasting time!" Elijah shouted at him.

"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!" Nik shouted getting desperate and fearful. Nik stopped talking when he noticed an angel statue on top of one of the tombs.

"Nik?" I questioned as he sighed in frustration.

"This statue- we've passed by this three times, all whilst going in the same direction." Nik told his brother. They both brainstormed silently as they both examined the various tombs.

"Come on guys! Please speak!" I ordered them.

"Nicole." I turned to see a strange man with long blonde hair.

"Who are you?" I asked him before I recognized him. "I know you."

"I'm not important right now." He told me. "He needs you. They both will with what's to come." Suddenly it got hard to breathe again. I looked at him fearfully as I was trying to breathe once more.


I woke gasping for air. I took deep breathes of air as I remembered everything that had happen to me up to my death. My daughter was born. My baby was taken ripped from my dying arms. My angel was going to be sacrificed by Genevieve and two of the Harvest bitches. I looked at the door darkly before jumping off the alter. I looked to Hayley and moved to her side. I could practically feel the magic around her, keeping her dead. I stood and looked around me for something. I found what they anchored their spell to and destroyed it. I watched as the desiccation receded and waited for her to wake up. She did slowly as if waking up from a deep sleep. She sat up looking around confused before her eyes fell on me.

"Oh my god. Nicole." She said and I moved past her.

"Let's go." I ordered and I heard her scramble after me as I moved towards my prince and my angel.


We moved our way through the cemetery maze that had Nik and Elijah so confused.

"We've passed through here twice already. We're running out of time." Elijah sighed ahead of us. I heard someone punch one of the walls and assumed it was Elijah.

"Then we move faster." Nik said.

"Or smarter." I offered them. They both froze in front of us when I spoke before turning to us. I stood in the doorway with Hayley behind me staring at them. Hayley moved past me to Elijah and hugged him to her tightly.

"Hayley." Elijah sighed hugging her back just as fiercely. I looked at Nik as he rushed to me and touched me gently. "How are you both here?"

"I woke up in the church. I felt this hunger... I knew what I needed." I told them before moving past Nik. "I can feel them. They're here. I can feel my babies."

"You died with the baby's blood still in your system. She's in transition." Nik told Elijah.

"Which means she has to drink the blood of the child if she is to survive." Elijah said horrified.

"To be reborn a hybrid." Nik added.

"I don't care about me. I'm gonna go find our daughter." I told him before turning to leave forcing the other three to rush after me.


When we found where the witches were performing the sacrifice we'd arrived just in time to see Genevieve holding a knife above my angel's head.

"NOOO!" I shouted out. Elijah picked up an urn and threw it at the witches. It slammed against Genevieve's hand and knocked her back forcing her to let go of the athame that cut my daughter's umbilical cord. The four of us rushed them, but Monique and Abigail held each other's hands and channeled their power with their ancestors' so they could throw us backwards.

"La mère, le père, le frère, la sœur... La mère, le père, le frère, la sœur..."

"You fools!" Monique called to us. "To come against us in our place of power in our strongest hour? You don't face three, you face us all!" I saw hundreds and hundreds of the dead witches protecting the Harvest Girls so they could perform their sacrifice. Nik and I shared a look and separated from Hayley and Elijah. I moved to Genevieve as she picked up the athame. I punched her in the face forcing her down again and kicked the athame out of her hand. I knocked her down to the ground and ran for my daughter only for her to drop me with that pain infliction spell. I fell to my knees clutching my head and screaming in pain. Suddenly I looked up to see Monique run to grab the knife and finish the sacrifice herself. She used her magic to keep Hayley, Nik and Elijah back with a wall of fire.

"Noooo!" I shouted at her though the spell. Just as Monique was going to kill my angel, she was hit with something that embedded itself in her stomach. Her body became covered in cuts and she coughed up blood and fell to the ground. Suddenly, Marcel used his speed to get to my baby before picking her up and leaving. Nik grabbed the still sleeping Nikolas and followed Marcel. Hayley rushed Genevieve and stopped her from using the spell on me. I stood up and moved to Monique taking the athame from her corpse and looked back at my friend.

"Tie her up." I ordered. Hayley and Elijah shackled her up in one of the tombs and I stared her down.

"Why?" I asked her furiously.

"The Ancestors left me no choice—" she told me and I glared at her.

"You were willing to sacrifice an innocent baby for more power?" I asked her remembering her words.

"No, not just power!" she corrected me and I raised my eyebrow at her. "It was the Ancestors' decree. It was her decree." Elijah grabbed Genevieve roughly by the face and forced her to look him in the eyes.

"It was whose decree?" he asked her.

"I'm surprised you have to ask." She laughed darkly. "After all, you were the one who convinced your siblings to consecrate her on New Orleans soil." Elijah let her go, visibly disgusted.

"Esther." I sighed.

"So, not even death can stop my mother from seeking the annihilation of her own flesh and blood." Elijah said.

"This isn't the end. As long as that child lives, the witches of New Orleans will never stop coming for it." She said starting to cry tears of blood. "Esther will never stop coming for it. It has been decreed- your baby will be consecrated among her ancestors. She will not live. They're coming for me, I can feel it. I failed them. Understand- I just wanted to live. Tell Klaus... I'm sorry." She started to choke up blood and I moved over to her stabbing her in her abdomen, her blood running over my hand.

"I'm not." I told her before slitting her throat. I dropped the knife and turned away from her and walking home.


Once back at the compound I showered and changed before holding my angel again. Hayley held Nikolas close to her constantly whispering sorry to him. I sat in the rocking chair holding my baby close to me as Nik and Elijah spoke quietly in our room.

"We should have felt our mother's hand in this. 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." Nik said.

"No." Elijah agreed.

"Nor would I expect the Guerrera wolves to back down." Nik told him. Hayley is wolf royalty, and as such, she is a threat to Francesca's claim to the leadership. That will draw the wolves to us and the children. 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 sighed in frustration. "I have brought into the world two weapons they can use against me."

"Then we will arm ourselves! 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." Elijah offered and I looked to Hayley.

"I will not have her live her life as a prisoner." Nik told Elijah quietly.

"Then we leave here, together. All of us." Elijah said.

"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." Nik told him.

"So, whether we stay, or we leave- we condemn her." Elijah said and I stood with her in my arms and looked at them both from the doorway

"There's a third option. I grew up in a warzone." I told them. "Granted it was a secret warzone that I had no idea existed. My parents thought they could protect me. But, in the end, they weren't able to keep any of the supernatural from my life, and I spent years hunting and trying to kill the man I would eventually come to love." I looked down at my baby in my arms and looked to Hayley holding my son. "I made a promise, to my children, and to myself, that they would not grow up in a warzone. That they would grow up safe, and loved. And yet, here they are, with a grandmother who is bent on sacrificing her and a-a mother who has to drink the blood of her own baby to survive transitioning into a hybrid. And I'm the one who loves her the most." I pulled in my tears before looking at the two men in my life as they looked at me with sadness in their eyes. "I think the only thing to do is... send her away... while we stay behind and clean up the mess that we've made."

"No!" Elijah turned down the idea. "This is insane. You heard Genevieve- so long as she lives, that baby will be hunted." Nik and joined me in the doorway taking Nikolas from Hayley.

"Not if no one knows she lives." Nik told his brother.

"What are you thinking?" Hayley asked.

"Whatever it takes to save our family." Nik told her.


During the night, I packed up things for my prince and angel. Marcel made the wolves believe they had killed my children and tonight Nik and I were going to convince the world that our children were really dead. I'd gone out and bought a large bouquet of flowers during the day to take to the memorial we'd had made for the large wall of everyone who'd died last night. I added my letter to both my kids in their bags. Hayley held Nikolas and I smiled down at him before explaining to him what was going to happen. He just looked at me and in a way I hoped he didn't understand what I was saying before grabbing a needle and pricking his finger. He started crying and tried to take his hand from me but I took it from him and kissed it, drinking the blood. Nik and I both said our goodbyes to our daughter, who we named Katherine Hope Mikaelson, and Nikolas and went to the candlelight vigil for the deceased community members. I set the flowers by Nikolas and Baby Makaelson's spot on the memorial wall and kissed my fingertips before touching them to the plaque that announced the death of our children. I started crying harshly before Nik pulled me into his side and we stepped away so others could place flowers and tokens at their loved ones sites before we walked away to grieve in peace.