Disclaimer: Still not the owner of The Originals or Saving Hope.

I know it's late again, sorry, but it has my sisters birthdays these past couple of days.

"words" = telepathic talking

'words' = thinking

Chapter 4

Joel unlocked the door and Zack came out holding a very tired looking Luke.

"Hey Joel."

"Hey what's wrong?" Joel ran a hand through Luke's hair. The 5 year old opened one of his eyes and peered at him, before detaching himself from his uncle's neck and holding his arms out. Joel took him from Zack and Luke buried his face in his father's neck. "What's wrong, Little Prince, hmm? What's wrong?"

"I'm cold, dad. The others are too. It wants us, and it's so cold." Joel just held him, a worried expression on his face.

"You'll be OK kid. I promise you, you will be OK. I'll make sure of it."

-TO/SH-

Vincent watched as Will ran out to join the other acolytes of the Hollow. He still couldn't believe Will was doing all this, sacrificing children, of his own free will. Elijah stood.

"Any other bright ideas?" he asked, slightly sarcastic.

"I tagged him with magic. Now we can follow him right back to the kids."

"Let's go." Elijah called Haley and Klaus to join them on the way there.

-TO/SH-

Haley joined Elijah, Vincent, Marcel and Klaus to find the other kids, her encounter with Lara still on her mind. She had known that girl, and now she was dead because of this thing. Because she followed it and decided she would now rather die than follow it, and it was too late to stop.

And now it was after her daughter.

The guys were talking about them leaving after saving Hope.

"Clearly, we're skipping all the hugs and hellos," she announced herself. Everyone turned to her. "Vincent?"

"Trail leads this way," Vincent started. "So I guess we follow the breadcrumbs."

"Tactless savages holding a ghost raising rave," Klaus said. "Best make short work of them."

"They have got 6 kids tied into this spell. One of them is Hope, you've got her safe at home. Another kid I personally escorted to his father, so they've got 4 kids here with them. We need to get them safe and break the spell. That will break the link the Hope and Luke as well."

"I'm assuming Luke is the one at home with his father?" At Vincent's nod, Elijah continued. "Should you not attempt to get in contact with him to explain what's happening with his son?"

"From what I can tell," Vincent stated, "he can figure it out himself. I sent him a text earlier telling him it was being sorted."

"When did you get that guy's number?" Marcel asked confused. Klaus spoke up before Vincent could.

"Does it matter? Back to the missing children and evil spirits, I say we–"

"We split up," Marcel interrupted. "Klaus, you're with me. I'm not letting you out of my sight. If anybody has a problem with that, I don't give a damn."

The group separated.

-TO/SH-

"So I assume you're embarking on this journey out of the kindness of your heart," Klaus said after they started walking in another direction to everyone else.

"There are kids in trouble," Marcel said. "Including yours."

"It's a bit late to start caring about my child, given how you left her fatherless for five years," Klaus said, holding back the anger in his tone. He had missed most of his daughter's life, because of the man next to him.

"Well speaking from experience, I figured I was doing her a favour," Marcel retorted, thinking about his life with Klaus. Sure, they were close when he was a child, but then came the threats and the pain. He actually thought Hope would be better off without him and his psycho siblings.

"Careful," Klaus warned. "Lest your insults mar our already tentative peace."

"I don't care about our peace," Marcel snapped. "I care about finding these missing kids and wiping out the messed up people who took them. Route out the problem, make them go away, that's what you do when you're king."

"All I see is a petulant prince."

"Always with the insults. You never learn."

"On the contrary," Klaus said. "My time in your dungeon clarified my priorities. My concerns are with my child. As for you... I could think of no better revenge than to leave you with the endless struggle to prove yourself my better. You're welcome, by the way."

The two of them continued walking in silence, tension thick before coming to the clearing where the Hollow's witches were doing their ritual, the four missing kids wrapped in cloth head to toe.

"Now that you have returned brother, you may join us as we claim our power. Our rightful place, and lay waste to all those who would deny our master," one of the five witches in threes clearing said to Will. "Are you prepared to prove your loyalty to the Hollow?"

"I know what I have to do," Will stated firmly. "I'm not afraid."

"We should begin."

"Enough of this circus of sadists," Klaus said, sharing a look with Marcel. He broke off a piece of the sigil hanging from the tree next to him and threw it at the leader, piercing right through his chest. The clearing burst with sudden activity as the group of five attacked, Elijah, Klaus and Marcel killing the witches and Vincent and Haley getting the kids off of the large circular alter.

Marcel yelled add he was dragged back with magic. Will started chanting and Klaus rushed over and grabbed him by the neck.

"You can't stop what's coming," he said with a triumphant smirk. Klaus snapped his neck, leaving the body to fall to the ground, before collapsing into his knees before a statue next to Marcel, who was also on his knees. A ring of fire sprung up around them both. Elijah was pushed back by the boundary.

"No no no," Vincent muttered, horrified. "We got it all wrong. It wants us here."

"Why," Elijah asked, holding back on rushing towards his brother again.

"They want to channel your power to anchor the Hollow to the living world."

The three of them turned to where the New Zealand accented voice spoke up. Haley gasped, Elijah stared, and Vincent just scoffed and said, "took you long enough." As if he actually believed he would stay home while they're off trying to destroy an evil spirit who was trying to kill his son. Joel gave him a look before smirking.

"You know, if you had told me you were going after this thing now, I would have been here from the start." He looked around. "And no one would have died," he added giving a pointed look at Elijah, who was now hiding his shock a lot better and met his eyes evenly.

"OK well, that doesn't change what's happening," Vincent said. All three of the others looked at him before Joel spoke.

"You try and wake the kids," he said before looking at the ring of fire containing the two vampires. "I'll do something about this." Vincent looked at them as well.

"I get the feeling there's not much you can do against a spirit without killing one of the kids."

"You should really stop underestimating me." Vincent just shook his head sighing, before going over to the kids with Haley. Elijah stayed. "You should go with them. They'll probably need you."

"I'm staying here."

"All night? I'd imagine even Originals need sleep every once in a while," Joel said cheekily with a grin. Elijah just rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, giving him a look. He sighed, shaking his head. "Suit yourself." Joel closed his eyes.

"Elijah," Haley called. Joel smirked slightly as Elijah was gone in a second.

"So whipped," he muttered to himself before touching their minds. The first thing he noticed, was that it was freezing. Not even just slightly cold but freezing. The second was that this Hollow was actually slowly taking over Marcel and Klaus's minds.

'Well screw that,' he thought to himself. And considering he was in 2 other minds at the same time with another intruder meant that all three of the others probably heard add well, which would explain why that light has pulsed. "Leave them," he demanded. It seemed like The Hollow laughed at him, flashing brighter. "I mean it. These people aren't for you to play with. Their minds are their own, so leave them alone." The whole time, Joel was gradually pushing the Hollow back from their minds, loosening it's hold on them slowly enough that it would definitely make a difference when Vincent broke the spell, but the Hollow wouldn't feel it until it was too late. "You came to this city and you manipulated witches, wolves and humans into doing your will, but now I'm involved. And you tried to kill my son. You're not hurting anyone else. So-"

He was interrupted by the sudden disappearance of the Hollow and being thrown out of their minds. He stumbled slightly, then steadied himself. He looked around to see that the ring of fire was extinguished and Marcel and Klaus were walking over to where Vincent was calming the kids and Haley was cradling Elijah's dead body.

"You're welcome, by the way. I just stopped the Hollow from completely taking over," he said, before offering to drop the kids off in the Cauldron to their families. Klaus narrowed his eyes at him, slightly confused about how he can be standing there, whilst Marcel looked incredulous between him and Elijah before shaking his head.

"How the hell did I not notice that?!"

"Because you were being too stubborn and wrapped up in your hatred of him to realise that I'm human and therefore definitely not him. Not to mention, that apparently you're also deaf enough not to hear that millions of times that I've actually said it," Joel retorted. Marcel scowled and opened his mouth to reply when Vincent cut in.

"Yeah, you get these kids home, we'll deal with the bodies." Clearly, he didn't want any arguments to occur and was trying to separate them. Joel just nodded and took them home to their parents before getting himself home to his son.