AN: The hunt for Hope through Rafael's P.O.V.

29 August 2040

Hope had been in the wind too long and it was his fault. Raf had seen her sneak out of the reception, but had done nothing. There were times when a person needed a crew and times when they just needed to be the lonely girl for a while. Raf shouldn't had let her be the latter. Because sneaking out of the reception was the last time he saw, then she disappeared.

No matter what Hope had been feeling she wouldn't have just disappeared unless she wasn't feeling anything at all. No more pain, suffering and hurt, but also no more remorse. They had to find her soon before she did something she could never come back from.

The problem was the world was just a lot larger than Mystic Falls, New York and New Orleans. And Hope was a fully realized tribrid on the loose, one without a pattern or an M.O. that they could follow to track her down.

She may not have been practicing magic for a while but she was still an all-powerful witch capable of easily avoiding any locater spells. She was impossible to find. But there was one person on the planet that could find her. He was just as much of a ghost, but he was easier to find. Raf just had go through his assistant first and Sofya wasn't as impossible to find as the both of them. Raf tracked her down and after some bargaining she let them know where to find his targets.

Raf and Landon got out of the car outside a bar in Marrakesh. Raf had convinced almost everyone that he should go alone but Landon cared about Hope as much as he did so he forced Raf to bring him along. They walked into the bar to find him the only one alive.

"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, they walk into mine." Duncan said at the counter which was the least damaged part of the bar.

The rest of the bar was filled with carnage, the aftermath of his slaughter of the vampires that were now rotting corpses. There were 23 of them with either their hearts or heads missing from their bodies.

"You know there is a difference between Marrakesh and Casablanca." Landon said as they walked over to him.

"Come on Kirby, you got to admit that's a cool opening line. Or would you prefer a phoenix, a hybrid and a tribrid walk into a bar." Duncan said as he took a big gulp from a bottle. Actual gin instead of whiskey.

"I would prefer it if you ended up in a ditch." Landon replied

"The days still young one of us might." Duncan threatened.

"We are not here to pick a fight with you." Raf said stepping in. Regretting bringing Landon along. He had unlocked more of his powers, but that still wouldn't be enough.

"Of course not." Duncan said not even registering them as a threat. If it ever came down to it, Landon would be dead in less than second, but Raf had immunity from Duncan "So sit, drink and tell me what it is that ails you so badly that you had to come to me." Duncan said as grabbed 2 more glassed and poured Gin in them.

"It's about Hope." Raf said sitting down, He couldn't tell what went through Duncan's mind because he was wearing his sunglasses and Duncan easily controlled his body language and heartbeat.

"I heard. It's tragic what happened to Jay and the kids." He said and in the same in the same breath he cracked a smile "Now that she's single is one of you here to claim dibs?"

"That's not funny." Landon immediately admonished.

"Nothing as ever truly funny humor's too subjective for that." He said awfully glib. There was something off about Duncan, even more than him being wasted.

"We are also not here to argue with you over semantics." Raf stepped in to be the mediator again. Calmer heads had to prevail when talking to someone like Duncan "Hope died and activated her vampire side. But she flipped her switch and disappeared about a week ago. Since then no one has been able to find her." Raf explained. Despite his flippant disregard for Jay, Hope was one of the few things Duncan considered dear.

"So you came to the best vampire hunter in the world to find her." Duncan said. Jeremy had admitted once that Duncan was a far better hunter than him

"Yes we want you track her down," Raf said. Duncan could theoretical overpower any cloaking spell that Hope had and even if he couldn't do that his ear to the ground could find Hope in no time "but we also want you to stay as far away from her as possible."

With her humanity off Hope wasn't in her right mind and there was no such thing as a right state of mind for Duncan so adding him to the mix was at best nothing short of a catastrophe. Raf didn't have to worry about Duncan killing her, but there were worse things Duncan could do.

"Well I can easily do the first one, she's on route to Mystic Falls" Duncan said. "But as for the second one, it's a little too late for that… seeing as we slept together." He said with a straight face.

"What?" Landon asked standing from his chair pissed at Duncan insinuation. They both hoped it was just a cruel insult. But even then Landon didn't care, he was just restraining himself from attacking Duncan.

"I screwed her yesterday." Duncan said offhandedly taking another drink.

It was the worst possible outcome of what would happen If Duncan and Hope met while she was like that. But his attitude was the final straw for Raf. He forgot everything in that moment. How much he wanted to remain calm and cool throughout his dealing with Duncan. How much stronger Duncan had always been than him. Even before he became a hybrid and later a tribrid. Raf forgot all of that because it didn't matter. The only thing that did was that Duncan ruined her.

Raf eyes glowed yellow and he tackled Duncan to the ground and started beating down on him.

"How could you do that to her." Raf asked landing another punch breaking Duncan's glasses that he never seemed to take of "She had her humanity off. You screwed her at her lowest and most vulnerable. A week after she lost everything. Why? Why? Why?" Raf asked punching him harder and harder. At any point Duncan could have easily stopped him, from when Raf tackled him to when Raf started raining down hits on him and breaking his glasses. But he didn't and Raf didn't care either way "Why would you do that to her?" He asked.

Duncan had done a lot of bad things to them but this was easily the worst.

"For the same reason I told her I had her family killed." He said making Raf freeze "Because every story needs a villain." Duncan laughed.

But there was nothing funny about his laughter. It was too morbid for that.

"You always have to do things in the worst possible way." Raf said looking into Duncan, understanding what he did but hating him all the same for it.

Trevor Denzino killed Hope and her family. Because Hope was a Labonair. The Crescents were a part of the 7 and highly regarded among wolf circles. And within that pack Labonaris stood as the pinnacle of wolf royalty. Especially in New Orleans and the whole of Louisiana. The Gévaudan Pack were back on the rise and trying take over the whole of Louisiana. Something they couldn't do without first weakening the Crescents and even if Hope had taken a step back it was still her birthright. Trevor Denzino had the stupid idea in his head that he could make a name for himself outside of his father's shadow by not only combining the Denzino's and the Gévaudan Pack but by also crippling the Crescents.

Raf had beat that information out of Trevor and since Hope had been going through so much he held off on telling her that. Telling her that her family was collateral damage in a power play. She didn't know and it was probably why she would have believed Duncan.

It wouldn't matter if her humanity were off, she would feel that pain. Maybe enough to flood her with emotions and switch on her humanity.

"There was no other way." Duncan said as his defense but even he was reluctant to defend his actions.

"Bullshit!" Landon called him out on it "There's always another way."

"But he's Duncan,"Raf said his disdain for the other paxon showing "his first choice is always the most hurtful one. Consequences be damned." His excuse always being that it had to be done. Abandoning Raf, Fi, Hope and failing Tess.

"Tell me." Duncan said getting up "What other way was there? How would you two have done it? How would you have turned back her humanity?" He asked them but they could think of one. They hadn't planned that far ahead. They first needed to find her, but even after that they wouldn't have known how to do it.

All he knew was that they would have done it.

"In any way that didn't involve using a tactical nuke." Raf said.

"I had been tracking ever since she left New York. I watched her as she progressed from party crazed jet setter to callous psychopath in the span of 3 days. I had to step in in Ibiza because she had compelled an entire club of 200 people to party with her into the morning while she kept using the as blood bags. She almost drained 10 of them and left them to die. I stopped her and asked her to show me a modicum of restrain, but all she did was try to trick me into sleeping with her so she could go unencumbered on a feeding frenzy. She needed her humanity back before there were any casualties." Duncan explained trying to justify to not only to them but himself.

"But you broke her to do it." Raf criticized "She was the one person that didn't hate you. The one person that had actually made their peace with you and moved on with her life." Everyone else way of dealing with him was pretending he didn't exist. And when he became too much noise and couldn't be ignored, they just pretended he didn't once matter to them. Tess and Fi had gone the furthest never even uttering his name. Raf had buried him too not even bothering open the package he gave them for their wedding, Hope was the only one "And a week after she lost her everything you allowed her to disrespect Jay's memory like that and put all of that on her." He shouted at him "She finally put your ghost to bed. Why would you take everything away from her?"

"To give her a villain." He answered "someone to blame other than herself. Someone she could focus all of the pain, guilt and anger. I gave her a purpose."

"So that she can end up like you?" Landon asked.

Everything that Duncan became was all due to his purpose. The purpose that left destruction in his wake.

"No, she won't end up like me." Duncan said for once being actually convinced in his belief "I could never open myself up to people and let the help me. I was too busy thinking of how I didn't deserve to be saved. But she's different. She always shut people out because she thought she wasn't good enough for people to stay. She could open up to you all in time because you guys will never leave her. Not her friends, not her family. It's why I shipped her body back to Mystic Falls, where most of you are. She can be saved."

"She'll never forgive you." Landon said. It was an unquestionable fact. A line that could never be uncrossed no matter the justification.

"She would have never forgiven herself, for any of it. It's a small price to pay." Duncan accepted the consequences for his choices as he always did. With bitter regret and reluctance but accepting of them nonetheless "So go back and be her shoulders to cry on, her ears to confide in and her knights in shining armor. Let the villain of the story wallow in his own misery."

With Hope on route to Mystic Falls they were done there. But there was one more thing Raf wanted to do.

Raf punched Duncan one more time with everything he had. It wouldn't do much damage to Duncan but it was some well needed catharsis for Raf.

"What was that for?" Duncan rubbed his jaw

"For hurting everyone by always being the worst version of yourself. Including yourself." The scorpion that always stung the frog. "And stay out of New York Duncan. There's been enough blood shed there." Raf said as he and Landon walked away.

"Always the protector aren't you?" Duncan asked "I heard about what you did to the Denzino family. I wonder did you kill hundreds to save thousands from me, or did kill hundreds to get your pound of flesh and more?" He asked.

Raf clenched his fist a little tighter. Thinking back to that day and those 36 hours.

"I killed hundreds to save the city from you." He admitted, he had accomplished that in 31 hours. Raf could have left it at that while still telling the truth. And as good as Duncan's ear to the ground was, he wouldn't have known about those extra 5 hours "But," He said deciding not to hide from what he had done "I beat Trevor Denzino to death to get my pound of flesh and more for Hope." Raf said to Landon's surprise. He hadn't told one person about. He told everyone else from his friends to the Mikaelsons that he had executed Trevor just after capturing him.

Raf could have killed Trevor instantly but he didn't. He prolonged it for 5 hours. He could have used as spell to inflict just as much pain on Trevor but he didn't. He spent 5 hours breaking his face with his fists. Magic powers were great and all but they couldn't substitute the raw and harsh contact his fists made with Trevor's face. The feeling of Trevor's skin against Raf's knuckles. Raf got his pound of flesh.

"Now that sounds less like the protector and more like the prodigal son." Duncan said. And it twisted Raf inside because the comparison to rang true. "Be careful not to gaze at the abyss too long." Duncan warned.

Raf had been surprised how much he had enjoyed dishing out all of that pain to Trevor and his boys. He hated how much he liked how right it felt. It only made him sick to his stomach when he told Fi what he did.

He had promised her once everything was done that he would tell her everything and he did. She even did her best not pass judgement and just hugged him. Raf never wanted to be like them again. The age of the Nolans, Brendens and Duncans of the Walsh family was over,

"But since you have already taken care of it, the streets of your kingdom are safe from me. I give you my word. Anything for the favorite son." Duncan said.

Raf and Landon left the bar with the 23 dead vampires. The last 23 vampires not just in Marrakech or Morocco but in all of Northern Africa. Soon enough Duncan would run out of vampires to kill. Soon enough the last remaining vampires on the planet would all be in Mystic Falls.

Duncan's war on vampires was coming to an end. Raf dreaded thinking about what would happen after it, especially since Duncan had truly lost Hope.

AN: As always thank you for reading and please leave a review.