Chapter 59

Freya allowed her brother to gently set her down as they watched Niklaus angrily make his way into the building. The fact that today had been a failure struck the family. Freya steeled herself for the next battle by taking her favorite brother's hand. Dahlia knew the Mikaelsons were on alert and prepared for battle. As powerful as she was, the oldest Mikaelson child knew her maternal aunt was overconfident in her power.

Half of her power came from binding herself so closely to Freya. While still attached in a way to the woman, Freya's power was still her own. Dahlia was formidable but unable to tap into Freya's power if the witch herself was using it. Freya shared a small smile with Finn as they walked into their temporary home behind the rest of their siblings. Niklaus had left the door wide open, and they could hear Caroline from inside the building.

"Nik?" They could hear her voice full of concern as the blondes crossed each other's paths. Niklaus didn't respond, but his head turned towards the sounds of his children's heartbeats.

Caroline watched as her fiancée stormed past her. She turned toward his siblings with a look of concern. As the last of the group walked through the door, Freya looked towards her newest sister and clasped her hand over the younger woman's shoulder.

"We lost Dahlia's trail."

Caroline's lips thinned as she pressed them together, nodding to her future in-laws before following her lover with a determined look on her face. Sage watched as the young blonde walked away, everyone hearing as she reached the door. It clicked shut, and the privacy wards were enacted.

Sage leaned her head against Finn's shoulders, "Think she'll need backup?"

Finn smiled at the love of his life softly, "If anyone can handle one of Niklaus's moods, it would be Caroline."

"Still seems a bit unfair when you lot have so much more practice at it" Sage looked up at her lover with a quirked brow.

Rebekah sighed, "We may have more practice, but I dare say Caroline will be able to do it without embracing our murderous family bonding traditions."

Elijah nodded, "As understanding of our ways Marcel is, I doubt he would appreciate the amount of bloodshed that Niklaus would require."

Katherine locked her arms around Elijah, "Honestly, you underestimate him. Besides, anyone raised by that demon loves bloodshed."

Freya let out a frustrated groan, "We need to focus on Dahlia. Not giving into your need for a new blood source."

Kol stretched out his arms as he looked over at his remaining siblings, "I'm all for bloodshed; we haven't had a family murder bonding session in a while. However, who wants to bet she uses sex to get him out of his funk?"

"Kol!" Rebekah and Freya hissed, the sisters' noses twitching in disgust. The youngest male adult Mikaelson, shrugged, "What'd I say?"

Elijah rolled his eyes toward the back of his head in an effort not to throttle his youngest brother, "Perhaps you shouldn't make lewd suggestions regarding our brother's sex life."

"Oh please," Kol scoffed. "You know when Nik gets this upset, the only way for him to get some sort of balance is to get it out physically."

Katherine snorted, arm still wrapped around Elijah's middle, "Kol darling, most of your siblings don't enjoy your filthy mouth as much as you think they do."

Kol sighed deeply, "It's sad when one's genius is unappreciated."

Finn looked down at Sage with a long-suffering look, "We still have to deal with Dahlia."

Freya nodded her head in agreement, "We will. This gives us more time. We have to stand together even when we annoy each other."

Rebekah snorted, "Easier said than done. Have you met our family?"

Elijah shook his head, "Marcel said he would have his vampires keep a lookout. We have the doppelganger out of the way, and the Gemini Coven has been warned. Caroline has little knowledge of the battle with Dahlia; we can't rely on her knowledge."

Kol perked up, "Do you think Mother will allow herself to be used as bait?"

Finn balked, "You want to use our mother as bait?"

Elijah looked thoughtful, and Katherine and Sage both eyed the younger male Mikaelson with a bit more respect. From her perspective, all of this started with sisterly drama, something she tried not to overthink, so why not end it the same way? Despite knowing her lover would dislike the idea, Sage knew it had some merit.

Rebekah sighed, "Esther is still our mother, Kol. I'm not sure how I feel about you eagerly wanting to hand her over to her deranged sister."

"All our drama seems to start with insane family disputes," Kol said wisely. "Most of the answers are more about reuniting our family rather than destroying our enemy. Could the reason Caroline doesn't know much about it be because it wasn't simply us defeating Dahlia?"

Finn was silent; his lips pressed tightly together. His ordinarily warm, if not distant, eyes were cloudy. Sage squeezed his hand as his siblings continued to bicker over Kol's suggestion.

Rebekah argued that their brother would never go for it despite her cooperation. Elijah said that he could talk some sense into their brother if necessary. Katherine unhelpfully muttered that it would at least get rid of two problems.

"What? Based on Kol's suggestion, the best-case scenario is that Esther can be a distraction, but both women will be killed in the process," Katherine explained, looking toward Elijah.

"Lover, you know I speak the truth. Esther admitted to leaving her sister for your father and then asked for her help but was reluctant to pay the price. Even if Dahlia would leave it alone, magic demands payment."

Kol nodded, "I hate to say it, but Dahlia used magic to allow Esther to bring life into this world. The price was the firstborn of each generation. Based on how long they've lived, their lives might have been enough to cancel the magic. Seeing as how Esther's womb was spelled, and Dahlia was the witch who demanded magic create this loophole."

XXX

The group had dispersed, all having different jobs that needed to be done. Katherine and Elijah had set out to confer with Marcel. Freya was gathering Bonnie and Davina, hoping their connection with their ancestors would give them some clues. Caroline was sent back; the blonde had changed things. Mainly without the help of the ancestors. Freya was determined to get answers from them despite the doubt the younger witches held.

Sage watched as Kol and Rebekah engaged in various activities to determine who would be brave enough to tell Niklaus the plan, and the winner would then pitch it to Esther. That left her in search of her quiet lover. It took longer than the redhead wanted to admit, but in the end, her fiancée was outside staring out towards the Louisiana landscape. He had his head pressed into a tree at first, only to turn slightly towards the direction she was coming from.

"Sage."

"Why are you hiding, my love?" She questioned, touching her hand to his lower back. Sage pressed her head into his shoulder, feeling his muscles tense. Knowing how difficult it was for him to express his feelings, she allowed the minutes to pass unhurriedly. Her fingers touched the tight muscles in his back, rubbing along his spine gently.

"Freya's loss destroyed my parents," Finn started speaking softly. His ordinarily deep baritone voice was lowered to the point that even with her enhanced hearing, she struggled to hear his words. Sage remained silent; her only communication was the delicate tracing of his spine. She was rewarded by his continued speech.

"I remember my mother's desperation after Dahlia disappeared with my sister. She became obsessed with searching for them. Her stress was so high that she delivered Elijah a few weeks prematurely. Mikael was furious when he returned home. My mother made me practice the lie repeatedly until I hardly remembered the truth."

She swallowed down her anger at the Mikaelsons matriarch; after all, her own family had created their demons in attempting to survive the old world. Sage allowed Finn to grasp her hands and pressed his lips against them. The blank look in his eyes alerted her to the fact that her lover was far away.

"Losing Freya almost broke my parents. I remember how they could barely look at each other. Despite asking Dahlia for help, I don't think my mother ever forgave my father for going on that pillage and leaving her alone. And he never forgave her for not being able to save Freya."

Finn pressed his forehead into her shoulder, leaning forward. "I had my suspicions about Niklaus's parentage for years." Sage's ears perked at this; He had never shared this with her.

"My father brought us to the New World and left us a million times over once our home was built and we were ensconced into the village. Mikael was away more than he was in the village. While it certainly wasn't impossible for him to have fathered Niklaus, mother didn't realize I knew about the wolf."

"Parents so often forget that their children know far more than they would like them to," Sage replied softly, wrapping an arm around him. "You never told her."

"My mother was the kinder parent, but that was not by much," Finn admitted. "Esther was a woman who demanded loyalty and hard work. A product of not only the Viking age but the reality of being one of the villagers taken into the fold. My father demanded to see the same. Mother preferred not to hit so much as to use guilt or small amounts of magic to ensure our compliance."

"Are you afraid?"

Finn shook his head, "Not for me, but for Niklaus. You've seen the change in him. If we cannot save his children, I'm afraid of what he'll do. What, we'll be willing to do."

"You'd join in Niklaus's carnage?" Sage asked, surprised. Finn had always been the gentlest of the Mikaelsons. More a dutiful son or brother rather than a monster he claimed he was turned into.

"I will stand with my family if the worst comes to pass."

XXX

Bonnie frowned as she lit the final candle of their circle. Davina was finishing up with the chalk creating the symbols and etching them into the earth. Freya was studying the grimoires the girls had brought. Davina has been more helpful as she was an ancestral practicing witch whose spells relied on a deeper connection to her family than Bonnie's. She looked to see Davina lift her hand from the ground, "Done."

Freya nodded, closing the book shut with a soft thud. "Then we're ready to contact them."

"Don't get your hopes up," Bonnie cautioned. "The Bennett's, while willing to help, are not exactly the most welcoming."

Davina pursed her lips, "Mine will be angry as well. They were unhappy that their ritual was delayed so long. Even now, I think they're hiding something."

Freya looked at the two young women, barely holding back her irritation. "I don't care what they wish to hide so long as it's no danger to my family. We have no Mikaelson witches to call upon. We need to borrow yours."

The trio linked hands inside the circle. Freya started the chant tightening her grip on the other witches as the wind picked up. Davina winced at the grip, stuttering over the following few words of the chant before once more finding her rhythm. The wind grew more robust, and the sky darkened.

"Daughter of Esther, you dare seek our counsel? After what your family has done?" An eery voice echoed amongst the wind.

"You say that as if you had no part in my family's change of fortune," Freya hollered into the wind. "You need us to succeed, don't you?"

An almost kind voice joined, "Your siblings are a part of the natural order. We could accept one death, maybe two. Nature could recover from that, but all of them."

"Emily," Bonnie breathed, recognizing the spirit that was both a friend and foe. Her ancestor shimmered into a hazy image in front of her.

"Bonnie," The spirit greeted. "I see you're still working alongside vampires."

"Those vampires saved me from losing myself to dark magic."

The ghost's smile dropped, "We did warn you, Bonnie Bennett."

"Barely," Bonnie shook her head. "You used Caroline to do it. Now you've practically pushed her over to the Mikaelsons."

"As she was meant to be," The first voice cut in.

"But why send her back with those memories only?" Davina asked. "She's done what you've asked of her. She needs your help now. We need your help."

Emily and the unknown spirit were silent for a moment. The unformed spirit, more of a voice, seemed to have vanished, leaving only Emily. The Bennett ancestor looked towards the trio with a sad smile. "Caroline has done well. We're far from the danger we faced in the end. However, we're not out of the woods yet."

Bonnie frowned, "What does that mean?"

"It means there are forces even we ancestor's cannot foresee or stop. We only know that keeping the Mikaelsons together is the only way to keep nature in balance."

"Why are they so important?" Davina asked.

"Individually? Not very important at all. But without them, thousands of vampires will die, and seeing as how when they were reborn into vampires, fate intertwined them into the balance of things to take one out…."

"Threatens the balance of nature," Bonnie breathed. "Do you mean to tell me that fate is responsible for who becomes a vampire?"

Emily's mouth twitched, "Not in so many words. It's more of a number thing. The number of vampires in the world must be balanced with the number of werewolves and witches."

"But Marcel has killed almost an entire pack of wolves!" Bonnie exclaimed.

"The numbers even out themselves over the years. As even a young Hayley's fate was changed."

Freya's eyes widened in understanding; Emily turned to look at the Mikaelson witch almost proudly of how quickly she caught on. "Do you see now? Young Freya."

Freya's tongue ran along her lips, "My family's tragedies in the other timeline…. It was the tipping point, not the cause for your intervention."

Emily nodded, "We were reluctant to intervene sooner, but the world started to collapse…fewer vampires were making it through transition, and even fewer wolves and witches were being born with the ability to flip their supernatural heritage on."

"Magic was running out," Davina gasped.

"With the loss of so many vampires when Finn and Kol were killed, an avalanche had already started. While the sire lines eventually severed, the damage had already been done."

"Witches in sheer numbers have never been large, but she shook her head mournfully by being hunted either for another's use or in fear." The Wolves were constantly being hunted, and as a result, most were reclusive, their birth numbers slowing every decade."

"The Witches and Wolves would never have recovered," Bonnie said. Seeing the point, Emily was trying to make.

"Far too many witches have been led astray, and magic, in turn, has made fewer of them. The Wolves have always lived in seclusion, and in another hundred years or so, unless they decided to search out more packs or allow more outsiders into their gene pool, their chances of any healthy offspring have significantly dwindled."

Freya frowned, "How does this affect my family?"

"Keeping them alive helps keep nature in balance," Emily said softly. "Your next generation will play a greater part."

"Conall's wolf eyes," Bonnie muttered to herself.

"Niklaus Mikaelson fathered four children, each with the same ability to become the Tribrid or favor one gene over the other. Based on the future we avoided…the ancestors agreed that allowing the Tribrid to come to pass was dangerous."

"Isn't that affecting the order of things?" Freya asked, her eyes narrowing.

Emily shook her head, "His children will always be essentially Tribrid. However, we did manage to sway the children's magic one way or another. Conall, for example, seems to have made peace with his inner wolf. He'll make a fine pack leader one day."

"We have children, each favoring the different aspects of the Tribrid, wolf, witch, and vampire. But that still leaves out Henrik," Davina questioned.

"You could call him human, but unlike other humans, he has the blood of the tribrid. I imagine young Henrik will play a role like his namesake… a glue of sorts."

XXX

Caroline closed the door to the nursery, watching as her fiancée leaned over protectively in front of their children. The blonde didn't try to hide that she was there. She watched silently from the door as he sang in a language she had not heard before. The ease with which he sang it alerted Care to the fact that it most likely was old Norse. As Niklaus finished humming the last of the lullaby, Henrik finally closed his eyes, the last of their children to fall asleep.

"Have you calmed down now?" Caroline finally spoke, not raising her voice above a whisper. For one, there was no need to be concerned about him not hearing her. The advantages of vampirism allow them to speak at levels that would not spook their sleeping children.

"Only partially," He admitted, accepting the warmth of her head on his shoulder. Niklaus took comfort in the silent offering. "My wolf rages inside. He's unhappy about the threat to our cubs."

"You've matured," Caroline teased. "Before, you would've pulled out someone's intestines just to relieve the stress or found the nearest skirt to push against the wall."

Niklaus chuckled, "If I thought you would accept my advances in such a state, I would have."

Caroline's smile brightened, "See that, right there? That's the man I always knew you could be. Although I'm still surprised, you didn't threaten Kol's insides."

Niklaus pressed his lips to hers, sharing several kisses before he separated reluctantly. "All of my siblings have been irritatingly well-behaved."

Caroline laughed, "If it makes you feel any better, I'm sure Kol made a joke about us in bed together to get rid of stress relief."

Niklaus chortled slightly, "My brother has the right idea, irritating as it is that he even spoke of you in that way. Perhaps I'll threaten him after all."

"Wait until Dahlia is dealt with. I'll even allow you to use the dagger as a prop," Caroline promised. Niklaus smiled at the viciousness of his future bride, pulling her to his side as the two looked down at their children.

They spent the better part of an hour just staring at them, listening to their heartbeats, when the stammering of a human heart alerted them to something amiss. He gripped Caroline's hand, exiting the nursery to stand at the stairs to see his family surrounding an out-of-breath Davina.

Kol had wrapped an arm around the witch, telling the dark-haired witch to breathe. Caroline frowned as she pulled away from Nik to get closer to Davina. Marcel had just stepped into the foyer when Davina looked up, staring Caroline and Niklaus in the eye.

"The New Orleans coven is marching towards you as we speak. They've teamed up with Dahlia and have a strange man with them."

Elijah frowned, speaking up, "A man?"

Davina nodded, "I heard him call himself Mikael."

Rebekah looked towards Niklaus, and his reaction posed the most worry. Everyone watched as Niklaus tightly gripped the railing, Caroline calmly taking his hands into her own. The younger vampire turned towards the crowd, "Are you sure it was Mikael?"

Davina looked a little nervous as she answered, "He had long blonde hair; he was older than you lot in looks, but not by much, maybe twenty years? He also kept talking about hunting the boy. He was as arrogant as Klaus but held himself much like Elijah or Finn."

Kol whistled, "You just summed up my father perfectly, Sweetheart." He chuckled as he brought her closer to him, as she shuddered.

"He talked as if he was going to war," Davina muttered, glancing around the room. "Is that what this is?"

Sage rolled her eyes, "I hardly call a Mikaelson family reunion a war. A Battle, certainly, but a war?"

Katherine nodded, "These lunatics love fighting each other; even with your coven being a bunch of backstabbing bitches this won't be a full-out war."

"Even with both the vampires and werewolves on our side?" Bonnie asked skeptically. Enzo stepped on her side, nodding softly at Caroline.

"It won't get to that point" Freya shook her head. "We won't let it."

"Um…am I the only one who will point out the obvious? Mikaelsons don't exactly keep their peaceful promises," Bonnie pointed out.

"We need to meet with our mother," Finn told his siblings. "She knows our father better than we do."

Rebekah's nose twitched. "That sounds so wrong out of your lips, big brother."

It didn't take long for the Mikaelson siblings to make their way toward their mother's prison. The maid had let them in quickly enough. Esther was reading a grimoire when they stormed in, with Niklaus in the lead. Her blonde, turning silver hair was pulled back behind her ears.

"Niklaus," Esther said, surprised.

She listened to her children carefully, eyeing them all in wonder. It was a miracle that Esther thought she was with all her children for once. Every single life she had brought into this world, outside of Henrik, was in this room. She wished Niklaus had allowed the babies to come, but she had grown a tad wiser in her prison. Her son would only take her interest in his children as a threat.

Mikael was running around, once again, seeking to destroy the mistake they'd made.

Idly she wondered just what she had been thinking in agreeing to turn her husband to control their children. She listened as Niklaus raged that Mikael was again on their tail. He had allied with the New Orleans witches and partnered with her sister. Esther had to hide a smirk, knowing Dahlia must hate the situation she was most certainly in right now. Her proud sister had probably raged before agreeing to work with the man she hated the most.

Mainly because it meant she could get back at her. Esther had spent many hours locked in this gilded cage thinking about her actions and their ramifications for her family. There was only one way Esther could see defeating Dahlia for good. The best way to ensure its success would mean she would most likely have to perish alongside her sister. That may be her penance. The only way Esther could help ease the pain she has caused her children.

XXX

A.N: What do you guys think? How do you think everything will shake out?