Two Weeks Later

It had begun as a fairly standard day, with a negotiation with the New Orleans witches scheduled for the early afternoon. The coven had been branching out lately and contacting old bloodlines. Vivienne was quite sure that it should have been obvious that it was inevitable that Klaus and Elijah would feel the need to intercede and speak with them – keep them in line, essentially.

The walk to the meeting ground in the center of the wooded area near the bayou, however, was fraught with tension at the moment. Klaus had made a comment about bringing Vivienne along due to the fact that she frightened their opponents. Usually it would be quite a compliment concerning her prowess, but…

Vivienne no longer wanted Klaus to see her as merely a formidable presence to dispense when he wished. She had longed for him to see her as an equal, of course, and they were at that point. But in recent weeks – in recent weeks she'd been hoping that he would have expressed some sort of change in his view of her.

Hades knew that Vivienne had been nothing short of transparent in her own affection. It was all Rebekah's fucking fault – Vivienne knew the girl had some sort of scheme. She'd been the one to make sure Klaus's sarcastic and humorous side emerged whenever Vivienne was around, as well as the brief moments of brotherly concern he showed for her. Being around him nearly constantly certainly didn't make it easy for her to put him out of her mind.

It was embarrassing that Vivienne's feelings for the hybrid had become a bit more than friendly, at least in her own opinion. She hadn't meant to start liking the hybrid. For starters, it was massively inconvenient. But from what she vaguely remembered of her human life, 'asshole' had always been her type when she'd searched for one night stands during her college years.

Vivienne was repulsed by herself. She was on Earth to guard this family, not become an immature, desperate slab of worthlessness. Because truly, when it came to the hybrid she sometimes caved. Letting him do dangerous things and put himself in danger was easy as soon as he even began flirting with her, even though she knew it was mockery.

It. Was. Disgusting.

She was pulled out of her musing when Klaus walked up just beside her after leaving his original place at Elijah's side. He seemed entirely too relaxed when he asked, "So, ready to terrify the foreign witches, love?"

When she opened her mouth to retort she was still utterly unprepared as to what it was she could even say. How did you tell someone that you were perhaps fond of them when you were an integral part to their multi-centurial power takeover? The short answer: you didn't. So Vivienne was stuck in a strange emotional limbo – looking for a moment too long at Klaus like a pathetic mortal and forced to embrace his view of her as some inhuman body guard or perhaps, if she was lucky, someday a friend.

Her dilemma concerning what she wanted to say was taken care of however, by the group of approximately twenty assorted magical beings that leaped out from the woods to attack, having previously been cloaked in complicated spell work.

The fighting was as quick as usual to care of. Vivienne truly didn't understand how people still hadn't accepted that the Mikaelsons were unbeatable. Word had spread about Vivienne's power as well, though nobody knew what she was. However, in the midst of her musing she saw something that made a surge of panicked rage flood through her, a feeling she was unused to.

The unlucky witch that held her ire was somehow holding a white oak stake and trying to move towards Elijah. Vivienne of course dematerialized and appeared between the witch and her charge, immediately grasping the witch's wrist and crushing it. The pained scream made no difference in her mind, and she grasped the stake for herself, shoving it into her pocket quickly. Without any remorse or hesitation, Vivienne felt black veins cover her face, allowed her dark irises expand to cover the entire sclera, and extended her talons before she tore out the witch's throat, all the while ignoring the knives and stakes that were glancing off of her skin as others in the attacking group tried to harm her.

After realizing that there were no more white oak stakes and only a few of the attackers remained alive – most likely for questioning – Vivienne materialized a bit closer to Klaus's side to check if he was okay, seeing Elijah already cleaning the blood from his hands with a silk handkerchief.

"You are both unharmed?"

Klaus let out a lightheartedly mocking snort and replied in a lofty tone, "I'm offended you doubted my wellbeing in the first place. Only a few pesky injured ones to finish off."

Vivienne nodded in agreement and sensed one of the injured rising to their feet just behind her, separating her and the elder Mikaelson. With a low sigh of annoyance, she turned around and materialized closer to the figure to dispose of the stupidly persistent warlock, catching sight of the glint of metal that signaled a weapon being held in his left hand. She stepped closer to the man, intent on knocking him unconscious as he thrust the weapon toward her.

Vivienne felt herself take a half step backwards and her breath left her in a small, punched-out huff, which she – she hadn't meant to do. The warlock had pushed her backwards? But he looked as though he was about to collapse and hadn't looked like he was going to shove at her, just try to stab –

The pain hit a second later, the very same second that the warlock smiled cruelly without teeth before he hissed out, "The Mikaelsons thought they were the only ones who knew about the Underworld's demons?"

It was ironic, or perhaps cosmic turnabout seeing as Vivienne's own pride had grown tenfold since she'd stood beside the Mikaelsons. She was their protector, yes, but she was not entirely invincible.

Vivienne's gaze followed the man's arm down to his hand, which was tightly gripping the soulflesh blade that was imbedded to the hilt in her stomach.

Elijah looked down at the single unconscious witch he had left alive, determined to figure out what had happened. More specifically, why exactly the allies of the New Orleans coven believed they could take his family on. Even while separated from his other two brothers and sister, Klaus and Vivienne were the only back up he needed to take out a coven if he wished. He could hear the thumping sound of yet another body hitting the ground and he looked over the total of their efforts. When he saw Klaus leaning down over a witch he recognized as one of the leaders of the New Orleans coven, he knew that the real difficulty lay ahead. Instead he chose to walk over to Vivienne to brainstorm with her as to what had happened while Klaus got over some of his initial raging.

When he approached her he saw a warlock standing in front of her begin to weakly sway, so Elijah reached forward to throw him to the side so he could begin speaking with Vivienne.

But what he saw when she was finally revealed to him completely was not what he expected. She looked so very, very young with an earnestly confused expression on her face that was matched with a wince as the black film covering her eyes disappeared and the darkness of her veins dissipated. But what was most disconcerting was the black blood staining the inside of her mouth and her teeth, making her look entirely grotesque.

Elijah was so startled by the liquid that he didn't immediately examine the rest of her.

"Vivienne, what – "

His question was answered when his gaze was drawn away by Vivienne lifting a trembling hand from where it had been at her side to her stomach, where he now saw a large knife was still inside of her. Before she could touch it, the blade seemed to disintegrate. However, the black blood continued to spread all down her front, gushing from the wound that wasn't healing.

Vivienne produced a cough and her blood seemed to choke her as she stumbled a step toward him, and Elijah was jerked back into the moment as he caught both of her forearms to steady her. He had no idea what to do – Elijah didn't know what weapon had just disappeared from her body, a body he had wholeheartedly believed to be indestructible.

Elijah opened his mouth to call out to Klaus when she cut him off in a dazed, remorseful tone, reaching out to pet at his shirt, which he noted was marred with drops of her blood.

"That might wash out."

And with that, she bent over and threw up viscous black liquid.

"Niklaus, I need help!"

Klaus dropped the heart that he had been holding and let out an annoyed sigh. Elijah was a grown man, why on Earth should his fun be cut short to aid his brother who more than likely didn't actually need his assistance?

"Elijah, I would have thought you could handle yourself."

When he turned, it became apparent that Elijah's cause for concern was not his own safety.

Vivienne was leaning against Elijah heavily, looking as though she was about to pass out and covered with what he guessed was her own blood, based on the bizarre color. Klaus immediately sped over and unthinkingly swung her up into his arms. Instead of protesting or shouting at him as she usually would, Vivienne's head simply lolled back in exhaustion. Klaus and Elijah seemed to have the same idea and began speeding back towards their house.

Just as they walked over the threshold, Vivienne craned her head up and looked at Klaus with deliriousness covering her features. Something looked… off about her, something besides the repulsive sight of black blood. A second later Klaus realized what it was when he met her gaze.

Vivienne's demonic black irises had vanished, and in their place for the first time since they'd met was a painfully human light green.

When she spoke, it was in a weak, earnest tone that faded in and out as she bordered the edge of consciousness before finally passing out.

"Has Henrik wandered off again? He's always causing trouble…"