4x04 – Keepers of the House

Katherine received the call at about one in the morning. She was still running on New York time however, so it was… well, two o'clock for her.

"Vincent, seriously?" She answered, when she picked up the phone. "What now?"

"We got a problem," he told her. "The kids never made it home last night. The ambulance we loaded them into is missing too."

She paused, biting her lip before replying. "The Mikaelsons are landing in an hour; you better make it over to the compound. I'll find the kids."

-0-0-0-0-0-

Vincent hung up the phone and looked around the compound- the old Mikaelson home. The pride and joy of their family, now in shambles hosting nothing but a family of birds. It was nearing three when Klaus ran in carrying his little girl in his arms, followed by Elijah, Hayley and Caroline.

"I'll call him-" Caroline volunteered as they entered, but Vincent held up a hand and came into the light.

"No need, I'm already here," he said. "I kept my word. Now I hope you keep yours. I'm gonna heal your kids, but then you gotta leave the city."

"We're not going to stay, are we?" Klaus asked, sarcastically as he set Hope down on one of the old couches. "Your city has lost it's charm."

"What he means is," Hayley interrupted, ready to defuse the tension, "that we're very grateful. Just help her, and we'll be on our way. We'll do so happily if you just give us what we need."

Vincent nodded and kneeled down beside Hope, beginning to chant lowly and clapping his hands together very gently to energise his magic. Hope stirred – she'd been conscious before, but not truly awake until now.

"Mom?" She asked, turning straight to Hayley, who rushed over to give her a big kiss and a hug.

"There," Vincent said, straightening up. "Your little girl's purified."

Klaus nodded to him. "Thank you."

"The only gratitude I need from you guys is seeing you leave this city," Vincent claimed, gesturing to the door.

Hope made a move to go to Klaus, but before she could get to him, a dead crow landed between them. They kept falling, dozens of them all from the ceiling beams where they'd made their nests, all now dropping dead out of the blue.

"What is this?" Elijah asked Vincent, seething.

"I don't know," Vincent admitted.

Hope looked confused and kept turning to see the whole courtyard. "Mom, can you hear that?" She asked. "Whispers. Saying a name over and over. Kre Nah Han."

"What is that?" Caroline asked, turning from Hope to Vincent.

"It's a nearly forgotten dialect," he said, turning very grim. "It's Creole. It means the Hollow. The Hollow is coming."

By the time morning had come, they'd put Hope to bed in Hayley's old room, and Klaus had cleared away all the dead birds. Finn, Freya and Stefan, who had been waiting in Mystic Falls, all agreed to get on the next flight out.

"How is she?" Klaus asked as Hayley came back downstairs to join him and Caroline.

"The fever's back but she's not in any pain," Hayley claimed. "She's asking for you."

Klaus shrugged. "Well, make an excuse. I'd rather my daughter not know that I've gone off to murder witches. Oh don't look at me like that, how am I supposed to respond? By delegating my daughter's safety to someone else?"

"Elijah said he'll see what he can do," Caroline reminded him. "And unlike your paranoid mind suspects, I highly doubt he's just left to look for Katherine. Hope is his priority right now and you know it."

"If he won't then I will," Hayley volunteered. "Someone needs to see what that bitch is up to."

"Mm, I'll come too," Caroline said with a semi-sadistic grin.

"Leaving me to do what, exactly?" Klaus asked.

"Stay here and look after your daughter," Hayley said, as if it were obvious. "Make sure that nothing and nobody sees or touches her. Live up to that knight-in-shining-armour persona that she's gifted you."

#

Vincent spent the rest of the morning talking to the covens of panicked witches in St Anne's church. "Look guys, I know what we're up against. There's a faction of witches, our witches, who are overcome with a darkness and are attempting to make human sacrifices. This darkness is old, it's powerful, it's angry-"

"It's a force my family and I are here to erase," interrupted Elijah, who leaned against the doorframe at the back of the church. "Now, if you will all excuse us, Mr Griffith and I have a lot to discuss."

After hesitation, Vincent nodded to the witches and they got to their feet to leave, scowling at Elijah as they passed.

"Now that we've gotten rid of the unnecessary hysteria-" Elijah started.

Vincent held up his hands to stop him. "Look Elijah, I got enough on my plate as it is without you bringing me anymore trouble."

"You need me," insisted Elijah. "Unfortunately, I have a long history of removing anything undesirable from New Orleans."

Vincent nodded, faking curiosity. "I figure I'm on that list, so it's probably best for me to work alone or with the people I trust."

"Oh, Katerina, you mean?" Elijah asked. "Yes, I heard you called her for help but it seems odd to me that you'll go to her, a woman who's known for her deception and betrayal of men, instead of me, who's called noble across the world. Am I to presume that you have a little crush?"

Vincent chuckled lowly and shook his head. "Katherine Pierce utterly disgusts me," he assured Elijah. "But I need her. You and your family are tyrants, and you may be strong, but I don't know if you're strong enough for this. Katherine is. I've felt it. I've seen her power. She might not know how to use it all, and I don't know how this whole devil thing works, but I know she has it in her."

"Sure enough to sell your soul?" Elijah asked, narrowing his eyes. "Because that is what the devil will want from you. Besides, I wasn't offering. Children's lives are at risk-"

"You care about children all of a sudden? What about Davina Claire, Elijah?"

"Davina was not a child," Elijah declared, instantly. "And it's a pity you can only see me as some merciless butcher. I'll be whatever you want me to be, Vincent Griffith, I will destroy everything good under the sun if it means saving my niece. And right now, according to you, you're facing many evils. Wouldn't it be nice to have as many of those as possible by your side?"

Vincent sighed before finally relenting. "We're gonna do this my way."

"Beautiful," Elijah declared. "Your way it is."

#

Katherine walked up the steps to a back-entrance of an old-timey café and faced the witches who organized their hideously poor market in the area. "Listen up," she ordered, turning to face them all and neatening her leather jacket. "For five years I've stayed out of your business, and you have stayed out of mine. But now your problems are becoming mine and I'm bored of it. Now, someone's snatching kiddies, and while I don't have a moral bone in my body, I do have a funny thing about people hurting children. You've all seen the graffiti, and someone's got to know who's responsible. So give me a name so I won't have to kill you all. Because I may not like hurting kids but I have no problem with turning them into orphans."

The witches watched her with clear distaste and mistrust, but she didn't care. They knew she wasn't bluffing.

"We don't owe you anything," one of the older witches said, keeping her daughter close to her side. "You're no friend to witches."

Before Katherine could traumatize that daughter, two women appeared behind the crowd that made her eyes roll back into her head.

"You don't trust her," Hayley observed, moving forward and being watched by Caroline. "I don't either. But one of those kids is my daughter. She's seven. She likes to paint, catch fireflies, make up stories. Now she's sick. I don't care about Katherine's history with witches. I'm just a mom asking you to help me."

The witch hesitated before answering: "There's a girl named Lara. I saw her draw the same symbol on her window in blood."

"Where do we find this witch?" Caroline asked, stepping forward.

"She's not a witch. She's a wolf. She ran off to the bayou."

Katherine, Hayley and Caroline exchanged a look before all heading in the same direction – a silent agreement that they were on the same side.

They managed to lure Hayley all the way to the bayou before she called Klaus to check up on Hope.

"Caroline and I found Katherine, and we're following a lead to the bayou of a stray werewolf," Hayley informed him.

"A werewolf?" Klaus asked, curiously. "Involved in witch business?"

"Crazy, I know," Hayley admitted. "I want to ask her a few questions."

"Well regardless of her excuses or your loyalties, I expect you to show her the error of her ways," Klaus said.

"I'll handle it," Hayley promised. "How are things going over there?"

"She's sleeping," Klaus told her. "Freya should be here soon to stir up one of her medicinal concoctions. And Stefan arrived. He seems very chummy with our daughter."

Hayley looked awkward but remained calm. "Well, he's been her babysitter since she was three. I've done everything to establish boundaries, Klaus, don't get jealous. You gave Stefan and I your blessing."

"I'm not jealous," Klaus said. "Just informing you. Good luck on the wolf hunt."

He hung up before Hayley could say anymore and she sighed, slipping the phone into her pocket.

"So the rumours are true," Katherine singed, appearing over Hayley's shoulder. "I heard you were Stefan's latest epic love."

Hayley rolled her eyes. "There's nothing epic about it, Katherine. That's the beauty of it. Simple, new, happy, but exciting all the same. And I know about your history with him and it's not going to freak me out."

"Oh I'm not trying to freak you out," Katherine promised, cheerily. "Just reminding you that every man you meet, I've been there first. Stefan was a lot of fun but been there, done that."

"Bought the t-shirt," Caroline chimed in with a smirk.

Hayley narrowed her eyes. "I totally forgot you two dated," she admitted. "Why did you break up?"

"He got too jealous," Caroline claimed. "But I guess that was fair considering I was in love with Klaus at the time. The build up to the relationship was great though, and we were a cute couple for a bit."

Hayley nodded. "Okay, so as well as the soulmate Elena he'd probably still choose over me, I also have to compete with the two of you? Who I'm guessing are going to be hovering over us forever?"

"And Rebekah," Katherine added.

"Rebekah? When?"

"1920's," Katherine said. "Didn't he tell you?"

"And again in 2011," Caroline added. "They were Team Stebekah." She was greeted with looks of confusion so she explained. "In the hunt for the cure, we were all on a team. Team Klaus, Team Delena, Team Shane – Hayley, you remember Team Shane? And Team Stebekah. They wanted it for different reasons, but of course, we didn't know there was only one dose."

"Aren't you forgetting a team?" Katherine asked, coughing.

"Right," Caroline said. "The secret team who always seemed to be one step ahead of everyone else and was messing with all of us. Turned out it was Team Kalijah."

"Kalijah," Katherine repeated. "That's cute."

"I bet we're going to find out Freya's slept with Stefan at some point," Hayley mused.

"Who the hell cares?" Katherine asked. "Caroline's sleeping with you baby daddy. Elijah has dated both you and I. Everybody and their parents have slept with me. If you're going to spend eternity with the same people you're going to get curious."

There was a pause as they all accepted this truth and kept moving through the bayou.

"What's Elijah like?" Caroline asked after a minute.

"Oh my god, I can't have this talk," Hayley claimed. "And we don't have time. There's our girl." They came to a stop at a pier and looked out to a young brunette girl who was staring at the water's surface. "She's not going to want to talk to a vampire – I'll go."

"Last time we ran into one of The Hollow's goons, they tried to kill me," Katherine reminded her. "Just warning you."

"Clara?" Hayley asked, stepping out onto the pier. "My name's Hayley, I don't know if you-"

"I know who you are." Clara interrupted, turning around to see her. "Hayley Marshall. I know why you're here. You're here because of the children. I'm sorry, I had… They're as good as dead."

#

Keelin followed the bickering siblings into Marcel Gerard's apartment, rolling her eyes as they fought. Finn may have been in her court, but he wasn't exactly trustworthy in her books, and Freya… well she was an outright bitch.

"I cannot believe you, sister," Finn was yelling as they walked into the lounge. "To go against Elijah and I-"

"You and Elijah are not the bosses of me," she informed him. "In fact, you are my younger brothers. We all do what we think is necessary to protect this family, and I shouldn't be judged for my part. I think they'll all thank me one day."

"I admit, I'm Team Finn on this one," Keelin chimed in. Both siblings shot her an annoyed look and she shrugged, walking around the lounge to look about the luxury apartment. "Why aren't you telling the others about our little project?"

Now, this was complicated. Freya had told Finn their project was to make the Original vampires immune to Marcel, Caroline and Lucien's venom by editing their genes. What Freya and Keelin knew – and what Keelin's ring that forced her to do whatever Freya asked her to forbade her from telling Finn – was that they were actually going to disable the mega-originals ability to kill by returning them to their original state.

"I don't need to pick another fight about having you in my captivity," Freya mused. "Plus, they'd never trust me to go near Marcel."

"But neither of you care about being in trouble?" Keelin asked. She didn't get a reply, so she moved on. "Where do we look?"

Freya watched her, narrowing her eyes. "Marcel stocked up on Klaus's blood, no doubt he did the same with his own venom. You know, that ring enhances your instincts. Why don't you try using them?"

"She's a werewolf, not a damn bloodhound," Finn snapped.

Freya rolled her eyes. "Fine, we'll do it my way." She flicked her wrist and a hidden cupboard in the wall swung open to reveal a safe. She chanted a little to open it, but it wouldn't budge. "I can't open it," she narrated. "Which means it's exactly what we're looking for."

"Well, before you blow it open with a magic bomb," Keelin mused, teasingly, "just know that they'll know we were here."

"Do you have a better idea?" Freya demanded. "Because my family need me and I'm out of time for this."

"Go help your niece," Keelin suggested. "I have super duper wolf hearing, I will crack the safe and take everything we need from it."

"I can't leave you here," Freya said. "If you try to run-"

"I know, you'll turn me into a wolf, I got the threat the first time," she claimed. "Besides, Finn's still here."

"God forbid she trust me," Finn snarled. "I pray to see the day where this family regards each other with anything but contempt."

Freya growled and turned to face Finn. "If anything happens to her, I may not be able to dagger you but I will put you to sleep and lock you in a coffin for the rest of your days, mark my words." She stormed out and closed the door behind them. Keelin and Finn took a breath to let her go before moving on.

"What is this box people keep referring to?" Keelin asked, walking towards the safe.

Finn paused, leaning against the back of the couch and tapping his fingers. "It's a family tradition," he mused after a minute. "I used to be an Original, not a warlock. There were these daggers… still are somewhere, I suppose. If dipped in a certain type of ash, they could paralyse us. Put us to sleep. When they are removed, we woke, good as new. One night, our youngest sister's boyfriend put them through our hearts, and when Niklaus woke everyone up he left me. In a box. Forgotten about."

"Why?" Keelin asked.

He hesitated again, clearly not wanting to talk about it. "I was the last to abandon my humanity. My morals. The others started killing and apparently I judged them a little too harshly for it."

"They punished you for being good?" Keelin asked, her face falling. "How long?"

Finn clicked his tongue. "Nine centuries," he replied, looking down.

"And now you've just… forgiven them?"

"Now I've seen the good this family can produce," he claimed, meeting her eye. "No, I don't forgive them, and they're not sorry, but I'm tired of constantly losing and being in pain. They don't have that because they stick together as family. I'd like to try that. My life up to this point has been loss. Now I'm human and I don't have long left. Maybe I can salvage what's left by making peace with them and moving on."

Keelin nodded slightly, as if this was a sad truth. "I get it. I hope you find your peace. You seem like you deserve it."

"I think so as well," Finn admitted.

#

"Who might this be?" Elijah asked, picking up a skull that was on Vincent's alter.

Vincent, preparing ashes over some candles to perform a spell, replied: "A witch who lost his way. He might just help us find ours. This thing, the Hollow, it's magic has a very unique signature. I felt it on this witch the other day when Katherine and I took him out so if I can trace that energy back to its source-"

"You can find the rest of these fanatics," Elijah finished.

"That's right."

"So this thing that haunts my niece, has it spoken to you?"

Vincent hesitated. "It's like a broadcast. And I managed to shut it out but a lot of people have a harder time doing that."

"Like your wife?"

Vincent scowled. "You know there's a difference between what we project and what we hide in our hearts – what we have inside of our hearts – right? Now that thing took everything that was dark and twisted inside of me and it used it against me. It used it against my wife and it ended up taking everything I've ever loved away from me. Now, let's say that we run into that thing today, Elijah. It's going to take everything that you want to keep buried and make you do exactly what it wants you to do. And that's what makes you a liability to the very niece you're trying to protect.

Now Elijah hesitated, pondering this. "If… darkness if what it will use to get us to do it's bidding, why Katerina? She's worse than you seem to think. I do try to be a better person, but Katherine Pierce is relentless."

"Exactly," Vincent claimed. "She loves it. So how's it going to use it against her, hm? You, you're ashamed of your darkest parts, you can easily be ruined by them. Katherine will consider it praise."

Vincent started his spell, chanting over the ashes.

#

"We're not here to hurt you," Hayley promised, holding her hands up in a surrender.

Clara looked like this was humorous to her, but the tear stains on her cheeks and the look of hopelessness in her eyes were no laughing matter. "You can't hurt me anymore than I've hurt myself," she admitted. "I didn't know this was going to happen. I didn't know they were bringing children into it."

"It's okay," Hayley said, reassuringly. "Just tell us who they are."

"Followers of the Hollow," Clara said. "Those who serve as the blue light. I thought we were doing something good. Trying to take back our city."

"From who?" Hayley asked.

Clara looked past her to Katherine and pointed to the doppelganger with a knife. "From her. These streets have been run by the devil. She controls even the vampires, who have been terrorising this city like it's there's for five years."

"I've been keeping this city peaceful-" Katherine started.

"It's not yours to keep!" Clara exclaimed. "New Orleans belongs to all of us. And the Hollow offered us the power we needed so long as we pledged our allegiance."

"Clara, you're a crescent," Hayley reminded her. "You have the pack; you don't need this cult."

"You were gone," Clara said, disappointed. "You chose the Original family over your own kind. Don't you see? Our pack means nothing. You mean nothing."

"You're right, I was gone," Hayley admitted. "But only because I have a daughter now, and she's one of the kids in trouble. So please, help us. Help them."

Clara laughed. "You can't help them! The Hollow wants power, the kind that only comes from sacrifice. Those kids will die so it can get stronger. And it will feed and it will rise and we will all bow before it. A greater beast than all of you. My only mercy is that I won't be here to see it."

Before any of them could help her, she took her knife and plunged it into her own neck. Hayley held her as she choked on her own blood and died on the dock.

Only about a minute later, Hayley and Caroline's phone screens lit up. They were in a group chat with the Mikaelson family and Stefan, to which Elijah had just sent the message:

Bayou, immediately. Vincent's tracking Kinney to the children. All on best behaviour, please. – E

He followed that text with coordinates of where exactly to meet, and in only ten minutes, they were waiting in the spot. Klaus, Elijah and Vincent had already arrived and were chatting about the task at hand.

"Freya's with Hope," Klaus was telling them. "She's fighting it, whatever 'it' is."

"The kids are attached to that spell, if we save the kids we save your little girl," Vincent promised. "And the sooner you can all be on your way."

"Clearly we're skipping all the hugs and hellos," Hayley mused as the women met the men. "Vincent?"

"Trail leads off this way, so I guess we follow the breadcrumbs," he mused, heading west.

"We should separate and surround them," Klaus suggested. "Caroline and Katerina will go North, Hayley and Elijah go from the East, Vincent and I will head West. Divide and conquer."

"Let's go."

-0-0-0-0-0-

Caroline briefly explained Klaus's logic on the way. "You're the most powerful being we can't trust. So you're with me - the most powerful being we can. Same with Vincent, which is why he goes with the second strongest: Klaus. That leaves Elijah and Hayley."

They reached the sight of the dark magic in only half an hour and what they saw was shocking. Four bodies – small, childlike bodies – were wrapped and tied, left side-by-side on a stone platter. Five men stood around it, facing a guest as fires burned in the torches and night descended on the group. One man, who's face was painted with chalk, looked up as Detective Kinney walked towards them.

"Now that you've returned, brother, you may join us as we claim our power," the man said. "Our rightful place. And lay waste to all who would deny our master. Are you prepared to prove your loyalty to the Hollow?"

"I know what I have to do," Kinney said, bravely. "I'm not afraid."

"We should begin," the man said, pulling out a knife.

From about twenty feet away, Caroline could hear Klaus whisper to Vincent: "Enough with this circus of sadists." A wooden stake was thrown through the air, stabbing the spoken man in the heart. He fell to the ground with a cry, and the remaining men pulled out long knives to fend off the attackers.

Hayley and Vincent made a run for the kids and the others took care of the Hollow's remaining soldiers. Elijah ripped out the heart of one, Caroline drained the blood from another, Klaus tore off the head of the third, and Katherine raised her hand to touch the last one's forehead. Her eyes went black and the man dropped dead at her feet.

Kinney, while the others were distracted, chanted into a wooden pendant. Vincent pleaded with him to stop: "Will! Come on, it's over!"

"No, Vincent. It's only just beginning."

He held the pendant out to the group, and everyone fell back. Except Katherine, of course. A gust of wind blew her hair off her shoulders, but she still stood there, watching everyone around her fall. She walked towards Kinney, who's face fell in confusion. She raised both her hands to his face and held it, her eyes turning black once more before letting her drop dead to the ground. Her eyes turned back to their sparkling brown.

Klaus moved forward to collect the body, but before he could even touch it, the totems around the field sparked up and a ring of fire set ablaze around him and Katherine that Elijah could not cross. They blinked and in the second it looked like they were in another dimension.

It was blue and seemed to be snowing around them. Klaus and Katherine were kneeling side-by-side and shivering with cold. They looked up to see the totem that sucked them into that realm and the bright blue light that was cast behind it.

"Where are we?" Katherine whispered.

"Don't look into the blue light," Klaus breathed in return, slowly looking down.

"What is it?" Katherine asked, staring at it with wonder, like it was the most beautiful thing.

"No," Klaus told her. "Shut your eyes." Katherine didn't respond, and Klaus collected the energy to shout: "Look away!"

"We got it wrong," Vincent was saying. "Maybe they wanted us here. They wanted to channel your power and anchor the Hollow to the living world." He, Elijah, Hayley and Caroline determined that the kids were alive and okay, but linked to the ritual that was happening before them. "We can't wake them up unless we stop the spell."

"How do we do that?" Elijah asked.

"I don't know," Vincent admitted. "It's a sacrificial ritual. I can't break it unless I kill one of the kids."

"No way," Hayley and Caroline said at the same time. "There's something else we can do, because that's not happening," Hayley continued.

"Um…" Vincent said, thinking fast. "So these kids are powering that ritual but there might be a loophole if I link it to you." He nodded to Elijah.

Elijah raised an eyebrow. "Are you suggesting we take my life?"

"I'm suggesting that we stake you, with wood, you die (temporarily) and that might be enough to break the spell," he said, on the verge of panicking.

"Do it," Elijah allowed. He took Vincent's hand, who took the hand of one of the kids, and Vincent began chanting. Caroline picked up one of the stakes that were dangling from the trees and on Vincent's mark, she stabbed Elijah in the heart with it.

He died in Caroline's arms, the children started to wake up, and Katherine and Klaus returned to the realm of the living.

"It worked," Vincent determined with a sigh.

#

Hope woke up well and happy, the kids were all returned to their parents, and everyone was preparing to leave the city. Freya found Keelin and Finn talking in the bell tower and turned to her younger brother. "Can you give us a minute?" She requested.

Finn looked surprised by the question but agreed and stepped outside.

"Thank you for coming back," Freya said to Keelin.

"It's not like I had much of a choice," Keelin said, holding up her hand to show Freya the ring around her finger.

"You have to understand-"

"Look," Keelin interrupted. "Maybe you and yours do it differently, but where I'm from: you make a deal you keep it. And since I'm on the hit list of the guy who wants you all dead, I guess I'm Team Mikaelson whether I like it or not."

Freya paused before holding her hand out. Keelin slowly placed her own in it and Freya pulled it forward to whisper a spell into the ring. "It's done," she said, letting it go. "Keep the benefits, minus the leash."

"Is this an apology, or a thank you?" Keelin asked.

"I don't know," Freya admitted. "I'm not very good at either. But… you deserve better. And unlike Caroline, Lucien and Marcel, you're not stronger than I am. If I need to, I can beat you."

"So we're still weakening them?" Keelin asked. "You didn't do this to, like, be a better person?"

"It's not about being a good person," Freya said. "I won't be hurting them like I hurt you. It's about protecting my family. I just forgot that I'm not protecting them from you. Everything that's happened made me scared of my own shadow, but I don't need to force you into submission. The real threat is those three."

"Well, let's get started," Keelin suggested. "You know we're going to need all three present to do this?"

Freya nodded. "It's time to get Lucien Castle back in town."

#

Caroline insisted Katherine come back to the compound so they can keep an eye on her, just for a little while. They still didn't know the affects of hers and Klaus's trip into a different realm and didn't want any more surprises. Nobody complained about her joining them for a drink, and Elijah passed her a bottle of bourbon.

"I found an old friend," he mused, drinking from it. "Or enemy, I can never really tell. Is your hair shorter?"

Katherine rolled her eyes and shook her head slightly, taking the bottle from him and having a drink.

"Once Hope's awake, we'll go," Klaus declared. "I don't want to stay here any longer than we have to."

Elijah nodded and got up to join Hayley and Caroline, who were planning the route North. Klaus and Katherine exchanged a look, thinking about their shared experience in the circle, and simultaneously, their eyes glowed blue.


AN: In about two chapters I'm going to drift almost entirely from the Originals and just go my own way.

Reviiiiieeeeeewwwww! - Izzy