AN: UGH! I am so sorry it's been two weeks. Really. I'm not even going to go into the shit-storm that was my broken laptop and getting it fixed. Needless to say, not only did this story remain untouched, but so did two weeks of work. I was nt a happy camper. Anyway! This is the last and final chapter of all these books. It's long, which I hope makes up for it, and given how damn depressing the episodes were, hopefully this is a little lighter. I tried to cut out some of the sadness and add a happy ending. So, as always, please let me know what you think and enjoy! This was a fun experience and thank you to you all for staying with me. :)

Chapter Twelve

After the ceremony, the party began.

The music echoed through the grounds, Keelin danced with Hope, Freya looked on lovingly, Kol held Davina close while they swayed a bit too slowly for the quick tempo, and all were blissfully unaware of the truth of what was happening. No one needed to know, not yet, at least. Let Freya and Keelin have their moment. Too much heartache had already preceded it. No need to add more.

K held Matthew to her chest and danced languidly with him. She'd already done the same to Alexander. He was currently sleeping soundly on a blanket-covered haystack. Matthew would join him in a moment.

Klaus looked on at his family, Elijah sitting beside him at the small table. He saw his sister happy and joyful. He saw his daughter the same, and his wife with one of their sons. He was beside his brother, Rebekah close at hand, Kol, Davina and Marcel the same. For once, his family was in one place. Everyone he held close was together. There was no fighting, no angry words –nothing. It was just family.

"How could it take us a thousand years to reach this point?" he asked, not truly expecting an answer.

"How long is irrelevant." Elijah replied in a somber tone. "The point is we've finally reached it."

"Hm," Klaus mumbled. He didn't want to point out how fleeting a moment it was. Elijah already knew.

K diverting from the dance floor drew his eye. Cradling Matthew, she brought him to his brother's side and laid him down. The two shifted only briefly before falling fast asleep, side by side as they always did. K tugged the edge of the blanket over them so they could sleep.

"If you'll excuse me," Klaus said as he stood. "I'd like to dance with my wife."

Elijah offered a sad, half-smile and nodded while Klaus joined K. H took her hand, guided her to the dance floor, and let himself try to forget what loomed overhead.


In the week following the wedding, news about Hope had spread through the family. They all knew now how dangerous the situation truly was, and what the end result would be.

Another miracle cure was being searched for, but no matter how many eyes looked for one, it was never found. The books had nothing similar, which shocked very few of them. In all honesty, the Mikaelson family's exploits were generally what prompted the majority of the spells that had been created through the centuries.

But Klaus had an idea, an idea he knew would work, and one he didn't share with a soul because he knew no one in his family would support it. The only person that would was a thousand miles away.

He used the lie that they were going to take the boys back to school. Elijah knew his brother had something else in mind, and K was skeptical too, but Klaus didn't come right out and tell anyone what he was thinking. Instead, he just kept repeating, "The school knows how to deal with a werewolf's first transition."

Almost as soon as arriving, Matthew and Alexander scampered off to play with their friends. There were so few children younger than teenagers at the school that anyone even remotely close to their age was an automatic buddy. Truthfully, most witches' powers don't mature until a child hit puberty. In that regard, she pitied her sons. They've never known a time without their power.

While Klaus spoke with Caroline, K and Elijah waited on Hope to put her things away. She turned her attention to her brother.

"What's he planning?" she asked him under her breath.

"I don't know." He replied with a sigh. "But something tells me, neither of us will like it."

K grit her teeth. He was probably right.


K hovered round the school, trying to think of her own way to stave off Hope's inevitable decline, but she always returned to the same conclusion. One way or another, Hope would have to die, but at least one way, it wouldn't be permanent. After all, vampires can't us magic.

The one and only thing that kept running through her thoughts was turning Hope. If she were bitten and turned, the magic would leave her body, just like it did for Abby and every other witch who'd been turned through the years. Vampires are dead things. Witches are all about life.

But could she really ask Hope to do that? K remembered hearing from Bonnie how depressed Abby became because she couldn't feel the world anymore, she couldn't feel the magic running through everything around her. She said Abby actually felt dead, like her senses had been torn away. Abby said she felt cold and empty. Those were two emotions K wanted to keep as far from Hope as possible, but what else was there? Surely, she should at least tell Hope she had the option before Klaus does something stupid.

Deciding she had no choice but to at least speak the idea, K walked back into the halls of the Salvatore school. She wove through the corridors and towards a room in which she heard familiar voices. What they said, however, was probably not meant for her ears.

"…is the last remaining white oak stake." She heard Klaus say. "And when the Hollow is in me, there's only one way to make sure it's gone for good. Someone needs to kill me."

K felt her heart seize. Idiot. That damned idiot.

She pushed the door open harder than she meant to. It slammed into the wall, embedding the doorknob in the drywall.

Alaric, Caroline, and Klaus all spun to see her approach, but her eyes were only on one. He flinched under the intensity of her stare while she took slow, stilted steps forward. For some reason, he attempted to shield the stake behind his back, as though she hadn't already clearly heard what he had.

"Forgive me," she said in a voice that matched her demeanor, "But did I just hear you say you intend to die?"

He clenched his jaw and straightened himself. "It's the only way."

K was across the room faster than the others could register. It wasn't until she had Klaus by the throat, pinned to a distant wall that they realized what she'd done.

K stared at him through her lashes, her face stoic and cold, but her eyes beginning to well with tears. Her jaw was tight, the muscle beneath chording as she chewed on the inside of her cheek.

"You plan to kill yourself." She said through her teeth.

Klaus didn't bother lying. "Yes,"

K's fingers tightened around his throat. Klaus coughed and sputtered briefly, but did his best to remain strong.

"No, you won't." her voice quivered despite her attempts to remain strong.

"Uh…" Caroline's voice barely made it through the angry fog taking K's brain. "Maybe we should give you guys a minute."

She heard footsteps and a door close a moment later. When it had, K finally released him. Klaus again coughed as his throat healed.

"You selfish, egotistical, arrogant," she began to rant. "How could you possibly do this?"

"What else am I meant to do?" He dared. "That magic is too strong to divide up amongst us again, and it's killing Hope. There's no other way."

"There's always another way!" she yelled. "Killing yourself isn't it."

"She is dying, Kali!" he screamed back. Klaus began to shake. "Do you honestly expect me to allow that to happen?"

"I expect you to think! I expect you to…" her voice fell. K tried to stare back defiantly, but the tears were now gliding down her cheek and her jaw quivered. "What am I supposed to tell your sons, hm?" he flinched. "They need their father, too. Hope needs her father."

"Why?" he asked in a broken tone. Kali physically jolted. Calmly, he continued. "Why do they need me?"

"Are you kidding?"

"No," he shook his head and slowly approached her. "I am an evil thing, I know this. We all do. I bring nothing but heartache and pain down on their heads, and always will. Hope's already felt it in her short life, and thankfully Matthew and Alexander are too young to know the monster their father is, but someday they will, and I can't let that happen. If there's even a chance that I can save our children, all of them, from the hell I've brought, then I will." He tried to remain strong, but K could see the pain in his eyes. "Hope deserves a life, a real life, without my shadow being cast on her. All of you do." He stood less than arm's length in front of her. Klaus tenderly reached out and cradled the back of K's neck, bringing it forward, he placed a small kiss on her forehead. "I'm sorry."

And with that, he vanished. K let out a long, strangled gasp. This couldn't be happening.

Her knees trembled and before she could gather herself, K fell to the floor. Yes, she meant what she said, but her reasons for keeping him were much more selfish than that. She didn't want to lose Klaus. He was the only man –only person- that she'd ever loved in her unnaturally long life. He was her other half, the person that made her complete, and she wasn't going to watch him die.

Digging through her pocket frantically for her phone, K dialed the only number she could think of.

"Hello?"

"Elijah," her voice broke. "I know what he's going to do."


Later that night:

Hope raced through the woods, gone somewhere that wasn't near the chanting twins. Klaus stood outside the circle while they held the magic at bay with K and Elijah at his side.

Klaus turned to them both. He expected some interference. After the fight he had with his brother at the school in which K had to intercede, he expected some half-cocked scheme of theirs to be loosed any moment, but it didn't seem like either of them were going to act. It both saddened and relieved him. Klaus wasn't certain he had the strength to fight the pair, nor the desire.

Klaus approached his brother first and offered a half-hearted smile. "Thank you," he said warmly.

"For what?" Elijah asked, his jaw tight and clenched.

"For letting me go through with this." A smirk formed, one more akin to his personality. "Truthfully, I expected some ridiculous ploy at the last moment, some attempt to keep me from doing this."

"Did you?" Elijah asked coldly.

"I did." He nodded. "So thank you, for no interfering."

"I told you I wouldn't, Niklaus."

"Yes," he reached out and gently laid his hand on his brother's shoulder. "You did."

Elijah smiled lightly.

Without warning, the sound of breaking bones filled the air and Klaus collapsed onto the dirt ground. Elijah watched his brother crumble with a calm expression. He sighed, and glanced up to K.

"He won't be happy when he wakes." Elijah told her.

"I know." She nodded. "But he'll get over it."

"Perhaps." Elijah replied. His gaze drifted to the glowing blue orb being held aloft by two teenaged girls.

"Are you certain?" she asked out of some unspoken need.

"Completely." Elijah replied. Buttoning his coat, he stepped into the circle.

As they'd been told to by their mother only hours prior, the girls directed the magic into their intended target, Elijah Mikaelson.

K held the white oak stake she took from Klaus' body as Elijah screamed, allowing the magic to flow into him. For one last time, Elijah saved Klaus from himself.


Klaus woke with a start, lying on a couch in a familiar setting, one that was nowhere near Virginia.

"How did I get here?" Klaus demanded as he shot to his feet.

"By car." A calm, cool voice answered from behind. He spun and saw K the source.

"What have you done?" he growled.

"What I had to."

"You had no right!" he pointed an angry finger at her. "This was my decision!"

"And you made it wrong!" she yelled back.

Klaus raced forward and grabbed K's arms. He turned them over in his hands, noting the suspicious lack of black veins.

"Where is it?" he asked angrily. "Where's the power?"

K removed her arms from his hold and calmly left the room. Whether he wanted to or not, Klaus followed.

She led him to the study on the first floor and that's where he found Elijah, sleeping soundly on the couch, black veins infecting his body. Klaus' heart sank and a defeated breath left his parted lips.

He approached his silent brother tentatively, almost afraid he'd hurt him if he moved to quickly. Klaus sat on the coffee table across from him and tried to absorb what he was seeing. In his mind's confusion, it's inability to settle, rage again took hold. It was simply his default.

"What have you done?" he asked as he shot a murderous glare in K's direction.

"Exactly what needed to be done." She told him calmly. "Elijah wanted this, Klaus. He wanted to take the power."

"It wasn't his to take!" he bellowed as he rose to his feet. His eyes tinted pink and despite his anger, she could see his fear. "He wasn't supposed to do this."

"It's done."

"NO!" he shouted. "We are going back to Mystic Falls and those girls are going to do this right."

"No, we're not."

"If you try to stand in my way…"

"Enough," she said. She knew her constant calmness was probably pushing him closer to the edge, but it didn't matter. She wasn't going to scream and yell, too. "If you want to help Elijah, Freya found something."

His brows came together. "What?"

"There's a spell she found. It'll help take away some of the pain this will put him through. If you want to help him, that's how. But that's the only way."

He seemed to weigh his options. K could practically see the wheels turning inside his mind, the multiple ways he was trying to find a way to undo what they did, but he couldn't. At least not that quickly.

"Come on," K took his hand and guided him out of the room.

She knew the moment she and Elijah came up with their plan that there was a chance Klaus would react violently. Actually, it was more than a chance. It was an inevitability.

For some reason, Klaus assumed K was alright with the exchange. On some level, she was, but she knew what he didn't and what he couldn't accept. Elijah was tired. He was so drawn from everything that had happened and truthfully just wanted a way out. He wanted to be at rest, to be at peace for the first time in his life. He wanted to be with Hayley, and after what Hope said in town that night, he knew he could be. Elijah just wanted to sleep and never wake up. K was more than willing to give him that, because unlike Klaus, she was removed far enough to let him be free.

After the spell was performed, Elijah woke. He was surprised by it, honestly. He knew the magic was strong enough that Hope had to keep him under until he was staked. He never expected to wake, honestly, but a small part of him was glad he had, albeit confused.

"Dirty trick, brother." Klaus told him calmly, but with a hint of rage.

"Why am I awake?" he asked as he sat up.

Klaus arched a brow. "Did you honestly think you could simply disappear into the void without getting to hear my opinions on the matter? Honestly, brother, I thought knew me better." Elijah smiled to himself, but Klaus found no humor in the matter. "Why, Elijah?"

"Because it needed to be done." He replied.

"Sanctimonious to the end, hm?"

Elijah sighed and rolled his eyes. "You don't understand."

"Then explain it to me." Klaus snapped.

"I am tired, Niklaus." He said quickly. "I am so very tired. I look around and I see our beautiful family moving forward, leaving the darkness of our pasts behind us. I see love and peace. Rebekah, Kol, Freya, and you, you've all found someone to share the rest of your lives with, eternity if you chose, and me…" Elijah's head dipped as tears formed in his eyes. "I have no place in it, anymore."

"That is ridiculous."

"No, brother." Elijah looked up again, a single tear gently trailing down his cheeks. "My one and only hope for us, for you, was to be something better than we were. I wanted nothing in life but for you to be happy, Niklaus, for your redemption."

"And that's what you think I've become now, redeemed?"

"Yes," he answered as though it should have been obvious. "You have three beautiful children, a woman who has known the very worst of you and brings out the very best. You have everything I've always hoped you would, and I couldn't let you throw it away, not now."

Klaus blinked and soft tears trickled down his stubble-ridden cheeks when he did. "So you chose now to leave us?"

"I'm doing what I've always done, saving you from yourself." He offered a weak, heavy smile which Klaus barely managed to return. "This is my choice, a choice that was stolen from us centuries ago. Let me take it."

Klaus struggled to keep himself calm, to keep his swirling emotions bottled inside where they belonged. He could see the desperation in his brother's eyes, the longing to finally be free of such a long, lonely life, and whether he wanted to or not, he understood. See, the trouble with their kind was, suicide would always be the only way they could actually die.

Reaching forward, Klaus wrapped his arms around his brother and held tight, squeezing him so hard he knew it hurt, but he couldn't stop. He needed it to steady himself.


Kol, Rebekah, Freya, Davina, Hope, Klaus, Keelin, Marcel, K, Matthew and Alexander gathered around the dinner table, laughing, talking and sharing stories. They ate, those who could drank, and the world was a little brighter as a result. For those few hours, the world outside the Mikaelson manor didn't exist and they were grateful for it.

But the time did finally come, before the sun rose and when the youngest had gone to sleep. Klaus, Kol, Freya and Rebekah retired to another room with Elijah while the others remained in the courtyard. They'd already said their goodbyes, offered hugs and kind words, tried to say everything they could before Elijah was gone, but now it was time just for the siblings. They wanted to be together, like they were when they first started the journey a thousand years ago.

K paced, Marcel leaned against a pillar, Hope was sitting with her knee bouncing a thousand miles a minute, Davina sat on the fountain gnawing on her thumbnail, and Keelin was picking at one of the many plants adorning the walls. They were doing anything they could just to keep busy.

It felt like an eternity passed before the others finally emerged. They all broke off, tear-stained cheeks and rosy eyes, to hug their respective partner. Klaus went for K and Hope, wrapping an arm around them both and holding them close. H buried his face between them and struggled to keep the emptiness he felt inside at bay. These would be his new anchors, these two women and the boys upstairs. They would be what kept him sane.

Eventually, they knew the heartache would fade, but for the moment it was too raw. Without a word, the grounds slowly emptied and those who lived on the property retired to their rooms for the night.

It didn't seem real.


Eleven Years Later:

The gathered crowd sat silently beneath the brilliant afternoon sun. It was a bit warm for some, but the breeze kept the temperature down relatively well.

The nine of them were divided into two rows, sitting in a certain way so they could more easily whisper to one another as the proceedings continued at a languid pace. Hope shifted uncomfortably in her seat, drawing a few eyes.

"Are you alright, darling?" Klaus asked, calmly sat between Hope and Kali.

"It's this chair." She groaned. The hard plastic was unforgiving on her back.

"Do you want me to go grab the pillow from the car?" Landon asked. Klaus liked the boy well enough. He was kind, but soft spoken, and treated Hope as though she were a queen. He could appreciate that. Still, it was quite a shock for Hope's high school sweetheart to learn the truth of their family when he decided to join it some time ago.

"No," she grimaced again before finding a semi-comfortable position. "They're almost up. I can wait, then walk around for a minute."

She sighed heavily. The growing bump on her stomach was now bulbous, mere weeks from becoming a fully-formed human being. The trouble was, it made her rather uncomfortable.

"Elijah," Freya hissed softly.

Klaus' gaze drifted forward to the mop of unruly dark curls in front of him. Freya tried to calm her squirmy son, but he had the same issue as Hope. They couldn't sit still for long, but what could one expect of a nine-year-old?

"Sweetie," Keelin told him. "Just wait a couple more minutes, okay?"

He groaned and huffed in annoyance. Klaus never knew Elijah as a young boy, couldn't remember it at least, but Freya remembered their brother's youth clearly. Apparently, his nephew was rather like his namesake.

"Carrie Mason," the man behind the podium declared loudly.

A young girl in a cap and gown approached. With a smile, she took her diploma from an unchanged Caroline, the blonde smiling proudly as she handed off the paper.

"Alexander Mikaelson," Alaric read. Klaus honestly didn't recognize him when they'd arrived. With a grey beard and a great deal more wrinkles, he was a different man entirely.

A young man with long dark hair and teal eyes walked across the stage to the uproarious applause of his family and accepted his diploma from the Salvatore school.

"Matthew Mikaelson,"

A young man with the same face followed his brother's footsteps and accepted his diploma to the same loud claps and cheers. The two were tinted a bit pink, but what did they truly expect? Until Hope, no Mikaelson had ever graduated high school. Of course they were proud.

It'd been just over a decade since Elijah sacrificed himself for his family and there wasn't a day Klaus didn't think of him. Without Elijah, Klaus would have missed his daughter's graduation, her subsequent engagement and marriage, and the coming birth of his granddaughter. He wouldn't be able to see his sons, now nearly men, doing the same.

He wouldn't have met Freya and Keelin's son. He wouldn't have been able to attend Rebekah and Marcel's wedding. He wouldn't have walked his own daughter down the aisle.

Klaus couldn't put into words how grateful he was for Elijah, the man who'd always known what's best, who strove for something more. He wanted to make his brother proud any way he could.

Matthew and Alexander followed the slowly moving line back to their seats, but Alex caught sight of something just before he did. He nudged his brother. When Matt looked up, Alex jutted his chin, silently telling his twin to look behind him. Matt turned and saw something interesting.

There was a man in a well-tailored suit, a smile stretching across his strong jaw as he clapped. Beside him was a young woman with dark, short hair and bright green eyes. They looked happy and proud.

The pair stood side-by-side, together with a crowd most couldn't see. They were people lost, but not forgotten, remnants of a past life who'd come to bear witness to something special. They were the ghosts of Mystic Falls, of family and friends there to support those still alive.

Matthew and Alexander recognized their supporters instantly. There was hardly a wall at home that didn't have a picture of their uncle Elijah or Hayley Marshall. It wasn't the first time they'd caught glimpses of the pair through the years, either. A flash here and there, a whisper of something familiar. They were never frightened, though. For as long as they could remember, the boys knew about every member of their family, everyone who'd loved and cared for them, and they were taught the true meaning of always and forever.