#i ALSO know that this is going to make me want cami x maya things desperately but that is nothing new ... so

[angclnumber]

i'm off being silly and rewatching do revenge but i will be back later < 3

[saiilorstars]

The Girl in the Forest

Chapter 21: Better than Death

// Story Masterlist //

Fandom: The Originals

Pairings: Klaus Mikaelson x Original Female Character

Pronunciation of OC’s name: Ma-leh-nee

Requested tag: @queenmj10​

~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~

Chapter Summary: While Klaus does everything he can to find her, he's already too late. Maleny is in her own personal hell thanks to Finn. 

Because Maleny has been switched bodies once again, her temporary face claim is Adriana Louvier.

New Orleans, 1914. Christmas Eve.

Maya Sterling, was patiently waiting for the bartender to hand over her newest drink. There were too many guests for her to keep up with and since Klaus was busy tending to his wayward brother, Kol, she was left on her own once more. Just as the bartender set her glass on the counter, Maya felt a sharp pain at the side of her head.

"Ooh…" she rubbed her temple but it was no use as she began seeing one of those visions again. The more it progressed the more she became lost in it, her painful expression turning into despondence. By the time the vision ended, she was more depressed than hurt. It was so odd seeing pictures in her head of other women, and with Klaus. What was this?

There was a clearing of a throat beside her and Maya found a blonde woman there, wearing a sparkly blue dress, and with a warm smile on her face, "Are you okay?" she politely asked.

Maya considered the woman one more pesky guest but knew she had to be polite. She wouldn't hear the end of it from Klaus and she sure hated his endless scolds. She gave a small nod, "Yes. Perhaps it's the drinks finally affecting my head. I've had a few."

The blonde studied Maya momentarily, almost unbelieving what she heard. Of course the golden-chained necklace around Maya's neck urged the blonde to insist more. "Are you sure it's only that?"

Maya nervously laughed, missing the lingering eyes on her necklace, "What else could it be? It's Christmas, it's loud, it's full of bourbon. I'm probably just tired. Klaus, he's, um, he's had me looking into this party for weeks. I'm running on low sleep."

The blonde's eyes flickered to the side as the Mikaelsons' began emerging from a downstairs room. Her attention was returned to Maya upon hearing the ginger quietly groaning with her fingers rubbing circles over her temples.

"I'm sorry," Maya apologized to the blonde.

The blonde's gaze on Maya turned into a sympathetic one, "Here," she promptly turned Maya around and gently placed her fingers on Maya's temples.

Confused, and frankly alarmed, Maya asked, "Wh-what are you doing? I swear to God if you do something Klaus will have your head-"

The blonde didn't look remotely afraid of the threat and merely smiled, "Calm down, it's only to help. Now stay quiet and relax," as Maya reluctantly closed her eyes, the blonde began to mumble words - that of a witch's spell.

In less than a minute Maya felt her head free of any kind of pain that had been bothering her more often, "Wow…" she whispered in awe, the blonde smiling brightly seeing Maya at ease now, "How did you...know to do that? Why would you do that?"

"Let's just say...I feel like I already know you," the blonde answered after a moment, something about her smile making Maya curious.

"Why would you-"

"Merry Christmas, Miss Sterling," the blonde smiled warmly at her once more before taking leave.

Cami walked into the kitchen of the safe house with a freshly woken up Hope in her arms, "Hope and I agree it smells pretty good in here," she chuckled as she plopped down on a stool at the isle and watched Elijah cook breakfast over the stove, "...and Hope also said she wants to eat it now."

Elijah glanced over his shoulder and saw his niece happily playing with a small toy in hand, "Are you sure it was Hope that said all that?"

Cami's lips raised into an innocent smile, "All hers. She is the only one who actually needs to eat food after all."

"Vampires can also have a liking for meals. So are you sure it's not actually the therapist that's quite literally trained to talk ears off?"

Cami's mouth fell open in feigned offense, "Oh, so now my sessions are just me talking your ears off? You are a rude person in the mornings."

Elijah turned over with a plate holding an omelette and sarcastically sighed, "Then I suppose Hope will just have to have this instead."

"Well…" Cami eyed the meal, "...I guess I can forgive you this one time…" she flashed him a smile before she chuckled.

Elijah put the plate down before her with his own smile, "I do thank you for helping me."

"I'm glad I've been of use," Cami replied back and sighed, "I haven't exactly finished my course but it's good to know that I don't totally suck at it. I mean, if I'm able to help thousand year old vampires then I can do anything."

"Of course you can," Elijah assured and turned back to the stove to clean things up.

He had to admit while he'd been initially reluctant to speak of his tremors in his mind - especially the Red Door - Cami was able to do more than what any other therapist, psychologist in the past could do. But perhaps he was a little bias since he was closer to Cami than the others. Sharing with her his fear of having no control over himself and thus accidentally hurting those he cared for was monumentally difficult for him, but he'd done it and he'd done it thanks to Cami. Although, after his meeting with his other brothers through Finn's elaborate 'prison' things had been stirred up. He was just glad at the last moment Finn was forced to take down the spell thanks to a spell from Amarrah and Davina.

"And I meant what I said," Cami's voice brought Elijah out of his thoughts. He stopped cleaning and looked at her, "I don't think you'd hurt anyone you love," she finished her sentence, "Could you really think yourself capable of hurting this little one here?" she gestured to Hope.

"Never," he replied instantaneously.

"Then you can start to forgive yourself," she ordered gently. She knew the origin of his problem laid in the fact he'd accidentally killed his first human love, a girl by the name Tatia, as a vampire. Esther had buried the memory deep into his mind, morphing it so that he believed she'd killed him for the vampire spell.

"Yes, while I can perhaps attempt to do that how do I...lose fear of myself?" he left the cleaning to return to the isle, "How can I be sure that I won't lose control anymore?"

Cami stared at him sadly, hating that she had to be so blunt about it, "You can't be sure...because they're your instincts. But you're you, Elijah, and you don't hurt your own."

"Shall we go back to when I nearly attacked you here?"

"Shall we also remember you apologized for it?"

Elijah was in no mood for sarcasm this time and simply frowned, "This isn't just about me, Cami. I don't want to hurt anyone in this family. I don't want to hurt you."

Cami reached for his hand across the aisle and gave it a grip, "Back when you almost attacked me, you disappeared. You showed restraint. Why?" she leaned forwards and whispered as if it were a grand secret, "Because you don't hurt family. Anyone else, please, feel free to rip their heads off."

Elijah managed to smile at that last remark, "I'll be sure to think of that if the need should arise."

"Good," Cami slowly took her hand back and looked at her breakfast plate, "So, thank you for the breakfast. Hope really appreciates it," she bobbed the baby who giggled in response.

Elijah watched the two interact for a bit with a smile across his face. He couldn't see himself hurting Hope for any reason; the same applied to Cami. He would rather succumb to any other torture his mother had for him than to ever have to think about hurting her...Hope...he meant Hope…

~ 0 ~

Klaus watched over Amarrah as she tried conducting yet another locator spell that would hopefully find Maleny for them. But just as the other times, Amarrah stopped her spell as nothing on the map placed before her happened.

With another failed attempt, Klaus sucked in an angry breath, "I am fighting the big urge not to rip your heart out right now!"

Amarrah looked up at him, no more pleased than he was, "You think I'm not trying here?"

"I don't know, let's ask the dozen previous times you've done this and failed," Klaus sarcastically snapped at her. He began pacing in the compound's courtyard while Amarrah tried once more the spell, "We have been at this for an entire stupid night and we're no closer than when we started!"

"I know that! But there's not much more that I can do," Amarrah sighed, "They took her and I suppose wherever she is now it's cloaked. It's gonna take me some time to get it done."

"What if we add another witch to the spell?" Klaus had stopped pacing to face her, "Davina may detest me but her feelings for Mal are pretty honest. Even when crossed with each other Davina would help."

"Yeah," agreed Amarrah, "except she's a little tied up trying to find Marcel and his vampires, remember that?"

Klaus made a distressed gesture with his hand as he thought of the other problem that risen in the past day. As Marcel and his vampires made it perfectly through the Quarter during its festival after Finn's boundary spell had been lifted, they'd all somehow disappeared in his loft. Finnn had taken them and with no way to find them. Davina had offered herself to go find them, or at least attempt to, while Klaus and Amarrah worked on Maleny's location.

"Do the bloody spell again!" he shouted the order. Any other time Amarrah would have told him he didn't tell her what to do, but in this case they were both working to get Maleny back. Without wasting another second, she attempted the locator spell again.

~ 0 ~

Rebekah Mikaelson had been having the worst week possible. Being stuck inside a body that hadn't been intended was one thing, but to be stuck in it and inside a witches' asylum was far beyond her tolerance. She'd been trying to come up with a way to escape and she believed there perhaps was one last hope she could use. Up in the asylum's second floor was a room containing one sole coffin with a girl inside - or so she thought anyways - that emitted great levels of magic she could use. The only thing she had to do then was wait for night to fall and conduct the plan.

Coming into her room, she was surprised to find the new girl standing before the window that overlooked the near desolate street. Rebekah slowly came in, wondering if she'd made a mistake by offering her an apple earlier. Witches were dangerous as it was but what about crazy witches?

"Why are you here?" the girl, a blonde, asked Rebekah without looking away from the window.

Rebekah raised an eyebrow at her, "Um, this is my room, remember that?"

The blonde shook her head, "No, not the room. I mean here," she gestured to the place, "Why are you here? You don't look crazy."

Rebekah crossed her arms, huffing, "I was trying to help my brothers. My con artist of a blood relation Kol betrayed me, got me stuck in here. I tell you, now I know how Maleny feels."

The blonde turned around so fast it almost appeared like a blur had done it. "M-Maleny?"

Rebekah, being too focused in her own problems, failed to notice the distinct appearance of someone that knew someone else. "If she was here now I bet she could give me some pointers," Rebekah muttered.

"What happened to the ginger woman?" the blonde suddenly asked.

"Ginger woman?"

"She had pretty hair but her head hurt so much," the blonde continued like Rebekah hadn't asked, "I felt bad for her. I helped her sometimes but she never knew why it hurt so much. Then again, I did leave after a year…"

"Okay…" Rebekah slowly stepped back, "...stay in the room if you'd like. I'll just be downstairs…"

"I was right, though, wasn't I?" the blonde hurried up to Rebekah, her curious dark blue eyes searching Rebekah's newly dark brown ones, "She was cursed the one?"

At the mention of 'curse' Rebekah immediately thought of Maleny, "How could you...how do you know...no," she shook her head and dismissed any suspicious thoughts, "It's not possible."

"What's not?" the blonde repeated, looking lost.

Rebekah smiled, "Nothing. But, listen, I think I found a way out of this hell hole. If you want to come with, meet me at the front door in tonight. Either way, wish me luck," with a pat on the blonde's shoulder, Rebekah turned and walked out.

The blonde, the unknown elder sister of the Mikaelsons', Freya, watched her younger sister leave with a smirk across her face. She'd learned in the short time she'd woken up Rebekah was resilient and kind - she liked her.

~ 0 ~

It appeared Amarrah was finally managing to break through the cloaked location of Maleny as things got moving on the map before. Klaus hurried back to intently watch. However, after a few seconds, everything just...stopped.

Confused, Klaus looked up to the French witch, "What is it now?"

Amarrah blinked and seemed to be in thought, "It just...it just vanished."

"What did?"

"...Mal," Amarrah looked to the side, "It's like, when you…" she swallowed hard, "...die. When you die your body ceases to have a location anymore so-"

"DON'T!" Klaus shouted in a threatening tone, making her flinch, "She is not dead. And if you dare utter another senseless word about this I will personally rip your tongue out."

Amarrah kept a straight face, despite feeling her heart beating faster. With this sudden news she now knew there was no protection against the hybrid's radical movements. "Then why is her location no longer available?"

"Because Finn is clever and he managed to do something to make it appear like she died," Klaus wasted no time to explain. He looked down at the map and noticed where the sprinkles of Amarrah's spell had stopped, "What's that place?" he pointed to it.

"Huh?" Amarrah looked down and studied its location, "It's, um...hm," she leaned closer to the map, "Actually, it's pointing us near the entrance to the bayou."

"Excellent, then we start there," Klaus smiled widely and turned to leave.

"Start what?" Amarrah called after him as she rushed to catch up.

"The search, of course. Hayley's over there right now and better yet with her husband-to-be. They have wolves willing to help."

"We should call Davina, then," offered Amarrah, "tell her what's going on."

"No, let her continue her efforts on Marcel. That way I can find Maleny first without a problem," and with that Klaus hurried off into a quicker walk, leaving poor Amarrah to sprint after him.

~ 0 ~

"What do we do with it now?" Benson questioned Ela as Maleny's previous corpse was once again being placed into a coffin.

Ela glanced over to the corpse, uninterested, "Finn said to keep it safe. Put it back in the plot at the graveyard."

"All the way back to the cemetery?" another of the wolves gawked at such a waste of time, "He literally made us carry this damn thing for a stupid spell?"

Ela upheld an annoyed look on the wolf before grasping her hand into a fist and causing him to go down to the floor with a snapped neck, "Anyone else have something to say?" the rest of the wolves cleverly kept their mouths shut, "Good," Ela smiled and motioned for the remaining wolves to carry the corpse away.

"How do we proceed now, then?" Benson inquired once more after the corpse was gone. He was eyeing the blonde woman laying on the table – Maleny's now once more empty body.

"There's one more thing we have to do to make sure the message is sent and received," she picked up a couple of old spell pages and began to study their content.

~ 0 ~

Young, or not so young, Freya Mikaelson was secretly back in the asylum room that held her coffin. She was trying to construct a spell that would allow her to search for that ginger woman of 1914. Even if dead, she being who she was, would at least get a reading off the corpse. She'd managed to snag a map from a downstairs office and quickly brought up to use it. She then placed her necklace down on the map, ripping it's beads off. If she'd been right and the ginger woman had been under some type of spell, the necklace would equal to that of the gingers necklace. It was ridiculous, she knew, how she was spending her first moments of life again on a woman she'd only known a year. But she wasn't doing this for herself, she was doing it for him.

"C'mon, Maya," Freya whispered and closed her eyes, "Or…perhaps Maleny?" she took a breath and began to chant a spell. Slowly, the beads off her aunt's necklace began moving around the map trying to pinpoint the location of Maya.

She was not surprised to find the location ending up at the Lafayette cemetery.

"Did they kill you the way they have been for so long now?" Freya whispered to herself, swallowing hard. "But if this body's there, and everyone's here...then you have to be here too."

~ 0 ~

A brunette woman panted as she ran across the trees and grass, doing her best to not to trip over her own feet. Her long, wavy brown hair bounced side to side as she crossed. It bore several pieces of twigs and leaves, but she didn't care. Her face was a bit dirty, but even then her brilliant sea-blue eyes were visible as they flickered from side to side, searching for any way out. She knew at the rate she was going, it was only a matter of time before she was caught.

She heard nearby noises and followed them through, knowing they couldn't be of the wolves since they were behind. She slowly crept up to see a small campfire of two people, a man and a woman both in their middle ages. She then saw their campfire along with some other tools...guns. they must have been hunters. She saw the pair were happily conversing over by their tent and decided if she wanted to survive she would have to do what it took. As quietly as she could, she tiptoed to the edge of the campfire and snatched up a gun. As soon as they heard the click of the gun, the pair whirled around to see the brunette holding the gun at them, though terrified as it seemed.

"Hey, hey, hey, easy," the man stepped in front of the woman with his hands raised, "Take the gun, take what you want, but don't hurt us."

The woman's eyes were shiny with tears, "I'm sorry," her clear, American voice cracked, "I don't...I don't do this...but they're forcing me…"

The man could tell the woman was not just a regular thief, she looked scared out of her mind, "If you need help, we can help."

The woman's eyes lowered to the pair's hands and saw no moonlight rings, "If you try they'll just kill you."

"What ever it is, we can help," the man assured her but it was no use. The woman took a deep breath before she shot the man's leg and soon after the woman with them.

"I'm sorry!" the brunette cried and took off again, this time with the gun clutched in her hand. Wolves were wolves in the end. They didn't need a stake to the heart to die.

She had run a good deal away from the campfire before she was violently pushed towards a tree, "Ah!" she fell on the side of her head against the bark and cut the side of her forehead as she fell down.

"Did you really think you could escape from us?" Ela emerged across the brunette, wearing a satisfied smirk across her face as two wolves came up behind her. "Climbing out of a window, though, clever," she gave a small laugh. "Now it's time to go back."

"No!" the brunette declared, "I'd rather die."

"Unfortunately, that wouldn't do you any good because in the next minute I'm going to make it so that you can't body jump. Maleny Rowan, this is your destiny in life: never to be in your own body."

The newly transferred Maleny breathed in and bit her own tongue to prevent fresh tears spilling. She wouldn't give them the satisfaction of seeing her cry, no matter how difficult it was. "We'll see about that," she pulled out the gun from behind and fired on one of the wolves, successfully killing them.

Ela stumbled onto the other wolf from the impact of the shot but ordered in time for Maleny to be captured. Ela then fixed herself and walked up to Maleny, harshly grabbing the new brunette by the chin, "You're going to regret that, darling."

"You will!" snapped Maleny who struggled to get free.

"Hm," Ela hummed and stepped back, rubbing her hands together.

Seconds later she began to perform a spell, one Maleny couldn't quite understand. But suddenly it didn't matter what she was saying as a terrible pain surged through Maleny's blood. The wolf let Maleny go as she screamed in utter agony. Her knees buckled and she fell to the ground. She felt something burn near her collarbone. Her hands flung to the spot, her screams cut up as she tried to breathed in. It was like fire as she felt something on her skin bubble and push upwards. Through her blurry vision she could see Ela smirking while doing the spell. When it finally stopped, Maleny dropped on her side, heavily panting and her hands still over her collarbone.

Ela watched her pant on the ground for a good minute, her smirk widening, "You will die now if you try to kill yourself for the sake of returning to your body," she informed and bent down in front of Maleny, "You see, death was too easy for you. Why kill if you won't even remember it when you wake up years from now in a new body? This way, Fin takes joy in seeing you miserable in a body of a wolf. And Klaus without the faintest clue how to help you. It's all glorious and quite well thought out. The ultimate punishment for you and Klaus Mikaelson."

Maleny rolled onto her back, slowly her breathing returning to normal. The pain over her collarbone was subsiding, but very little. It was now stinging with after-effects. She let Ela laugh it out with her remaining wolf - she reached for the gun she'd dropped not too far. She shot Ela straight on the chest. The blood splattered on her clothes and face but Maleny couldn't dwell over the blood as she had to deal with the last wolf still there. She tried using the gun again but the wolf yanked it out of her hand and chucked it to the side. She was pulled up to the wolf and kept in a tight hold.

"You're coming back with us," he told her as he started turning back for the direction they'd came in through.

"No!" Maleny exclaimed, digging her nails into the man's skin.

"Sorry, your frail little nails won't do crap," the man laughed mockingly.

Maleny stopped for a moment when she saw the moonlight ring on the man's finger. With a smirk she swiftly slid off the ring and promptly put it on her finger.

"Hey!" the man called as Maleny now easily got free from him.

She punched him across the face and was glad to see her strength doubling up with the ring. It seemed for once Esther had actually helped in a way.

"Lesson number one Klaus taught me after coming back," she proudly said after seeing the good results.

"You're gonna die now, bitch!" the man forgone all the plans and torture Finn had instructed.

Maleny backed away, momentarily scared of him. He was a lot bigger than her and more muscle. She knew she would have to...kill, again, to survive. She looked around for the gun and saw it across them. With a big breath she dashed over to it but the wolf managed to snag her by the ankle and pull her down. She ignored the pain on her collarbone as the ground rubbed against it, as well as the sharp rocks underneath scraping at her thin pants.

"Give me that back!" he tried prying the ring off her finger, practically straddling her for it. He only managed to scratch her hand.

"No!" Maleny got in a punch and used the moment of surprise to push him off her. She scrambled over the remainder of the distance and retrieved the gun, using it just in time to shoot the man dead. She dropped the gun and sat up, breathing in rapidly as she took a moment to realize what she'd done.

There laid Ela and her two wolves, shot dead...shot by her. She looked down at herself to her blood covered clothes and hands. There was a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach that was terrifying her. She'd just killed three people in less than five minutes. The lump in her throat was nearing her to the brink of tears as she felt her hair - hair that wasn't even hers - that was also mildly covered in blood. But she couldn't cry then, she couldn't afford to lose time. Ela had more than two wolves and after killing her and the two it was sure to become a hunt for her.

She picked up the gun once more and pulled herself to her feet. She looked around and debated which way would lead her towards the road again. In the end, she followed the wind's direction and hoped for the best.

~ 0 ~

Klaus struggled not to leave Amarrah behind as the woman tended to a call over cellphone. They were closing in on Hayley's wolf pack yet the witch seemed to be taking her sweet time walking.

"No, that's not right," Amarrah was saying on the phone, "Mother, I don't understand."

Klaus rolled his eyes and finally stopped to address the waste of time she was causing, "Will you hang up the bloody phone already? We're on the clock and you're going slower by the second."

Amarrah raised an eyebrow at him while she continued listening in to her mother's concern, "I understand now, Mother," she continued which angered Klaus more, "We'll figure it out, I promise. Bye," she hung up and returned her phone to her pocket.

"Nice of you to remember Maleny's situation," Klaus gave her a look before continuing to walk.

"That was my mother calling in with something of Maleny's," Amarrah began to explain, "You didn't listen in, did you?"

"I tend to have no interest in conversations you have, honestly," Klaus said casually as he looked around, missing Amarrah's glare, "I tolerate you simply because Maleny has affection for you. And, because I suppose thanks to your family she was able to come back."

"Thank the people who brought her to us," Amarrah rolled her eyes. "But listen, my mother says Maleny's channel of power with our coven has stopped."

Klaus stopped to turn to her, "And what, pray tell, does that mean?"

"What I said before," Amarrah shrugged, preparing herself for another round of shouts, "Maleny is gone."

"SHE IS NOT!" Klaus roared and turned around, facing her with a furious look.

"Then what else do you think happened!?" Amarrah shouted back, though in comparison to his shouts she sounded more like a whisper.

"Finn would not kill her," Klaus said after a long moment. "I know my brother well, and he wouldn't..."

"Then what would he do?" Amarrah demanded angrily, "Your family is full of maniacs if you haven't noticed! Can you even imagine what Finn's done with her? She could be suffering right now! She could be tortured!"

"Of course I've thought of that!" Klaus shouted back at her, outraged she insinuated he was thoughtless, "You seem to forget it's been me that's protected her?"

"And how has that gone, huh!?" Amarrah leaned forwards, putting them face to face, "I love my friend but she has chosen so wrong! Look where she's at because of it?"

"It's not my fault!" Klaus furiously declared, but his face expressed honest guilt that betrayed his statement.

Amarrah calmed down as she realized he was just as terrified of Maleny's state as she was. She took a deep sigh and rubbed her temple, "Okay, okay, I'm sorry. Perhaps it's not your fault but you have to admit a lot of the dangers Maleny has faced are because of your family. If she wasn't with you, she would have been-"

"Dead," Klaus whispered, silencing Amarrah. He stepped towards her, "Without meeting me she would have been dead. Probably by the hands of her own father. So, yes, she's been in danger because of her connection with me," he started walking Amarrah backwards, "But she's been protected by me. She had a family with me, my sister, my brother - as wicked and sinister as my family was she was loved by us," he cornered Amarrah against a tree and leaned closer to her, his voice lowering, "You will do best not to question this topic again. It may not always go right but I always aim to protect Maleny. Always."

Amarrah relaxed when he stepped back and started to walk again. She didn't realize it but she found Klaus to be fear worthy. The way Maleny had described him back in France was nothing compared to what Amarrah was seeing. It was difficult to believe an actual relationship could exist between Klaus and Maleny.

~ 0 ~

Maleny swore she could begin to hear the faint noises of cars from the road. The moonlight ring had allowed her the supernatural hearing that would allow her to save her life. She'd been coming across more of Finn's wolves and was thankfully able to combat them to the point of putting them unconscious or death. Most of them she had to...put to death. Her gun had only one bullet left and was close to leaving her to defend herself with her bear hands. With each kill she acted on she felt more and more distraught. She felt awful, but it was better to feel awful or be dead.

She was not going to give them that satisfaction either.

Upon hearing crunching noises behind her she froze and turned around. There was no one to see but she could hear them coming...the wolves were coming to kill her. She swallowed hard and looked up to a tree with a loose branch. Closing her eyes and taking a breath, she decided how she would fight her last battle before she could make it home.

~ 0 ~

"No, we haven't seen anything weird," Hayley told Klaus and Amarrah after hearing the story of Maleny's kidnapping. The wolves that were no longer with Esther no longer wore the moonlight rings and therefore their hearing had been downgraded seriously. But even Hayley herself hadn't heard anything strange nearby.

"We're sure she's in the bayou," Amarrah insisted, "Before the spell was cut off the location pointed towards the bayou."

"Well maybe she's deeper," Hayley suggested, and looked at Klaus firmly, "But we'll help you find her."

"She's been gone for a near day, we haven't time to lose," Klaus frantically gestured for them to start moving.

"Now wait a minute," Hayley motioned them to stay still, "You said Mal stopped channeling magic from your coven," she looked at Amarrah.

"Yeah, my mother called in concern," Amarrah nodded.

"So that means she's either dead-"

"No," Klaus gave her a pointed look.

"What if they started the curse again and she's not even here anymore?"

Klaus refused to believe that and shook his head, "She's here, I know she is."

"Okay, but what if she's not-"

"SHE IS!" Klaus cut her off with a loud shout, his anger rising with each second that passed by, "She is still here and I will look for her through every last bloody part of this bayou until I find her - with or without you."

Hayley gave him a long look, surprised of his hope in Maleny's survival. She supposed she could be optimistic like him until they saw something that would tell them it had gone wrong.

"Or," she began anew again, about to earn another shout from Klaus when she finished with, "she could have body jumped again."

The idea left Klaus and Amarrah thinking for a minute. They hadn't even considered that idea in the whole time they'd been out searching and Hayley saw it.

"Death would be to easy of a punishment," Klaus said to himself, a smirk worming across his lips. "That would be clever-"

"That would be awful," snapped Amarrah, sending him a glare.

"But she would be alive," Klaus pointed at her, still in thought.

"Yeah, but her connection to my coven doesn't exist anymore," Amarrah needed to remind. "Even if she's switched bodies, our spell was designed to carry it out no matter what."

"What about a wolf's body, then?" Hayley finally cut in, making them both look at her oddly. "Finn wouldn't be stupid enough to put her into a vampire's body. He'd be creating someone he couldn't control. Put her into a wolf's body and you've got a ticking time bomb if she doesn't wear his moonlight rings."

The idea was even more distraught-provoking.

"If she was placed into a wolf's body then she has a better chance of surviving than if she remained in her witch's body," Hayley added then noticed Amarrah's displeased look, "No offense."

"All taken," Amarrah said nonetheless, "Witches can do a lot of things, alright? We can-"

"Spare us the lecture, Amarrah," Klaus dismissed her with a wave and turned around to the settlement of wolves, "How do we begin the search, then? Mal can literally be anyone at this point."

"Well," Hayley stepped forwards and looked at the settlement herself, "There's no one missing here and all the other wolves are with Finn so…"

"Finn used one of his own," Klaus smirked at the idea, "That's gonna cost him in the long run - as well as be incredibly useful to us later on."

"Can we ask Aiden?" Amarrah thought to ask.

"No, he's completely out," Hayley shook her head, "They just turned in all the moonlight rings earlier. Finn wouldn't tell him anything anymore."

"So then how do we look for someone we don't even know?"

"I would assume the locator spell is out of the question?"

"You would assume right," Amarrah gave Hayley a nod before looking out to Klaus, "Any ideas?"

Klaus hated his answer and the reality of their situation, "I have no idea," and he despised not knowing what to do next.

~ 0 ~

"She's around here, her scent is strong. Look close, Kenzie," a young wolf told his other friend, a young woman, as they entered a small clearing.

"Alan is right, we better find her," a second woman emerged across the small plain they were in, "She's killed five of us now."

"She's not as stupid as we thought," the first woman, Kenzie, shook her head.

Just then, a bullet rang and the second woman was shot through the chest. As she fell to the ground, Kenzie and Alan looked up into the direction the bullet had come through. Maleny shot down from the top of a tree and fell upon Alan with a piece of branch in hand. It had been fastened into a sharper object, not a stake but enough to cause damage.

"What the - get off me!"

"NO!" she furiously screamed and stabbed the shaped branch into Alan's abdomen.

"Get the hell off him!" cried Kenzie. She lunged for Maleny and knocked her to the ground. She punched Maleny on the face before Maleny kicked her off.

Maleny scrambled to her feet and breathed in heavily, her lungs hurting from all the running she'd done, "Please, just go," she motioned, "I don't...I don't want to hurt anyone else...please. Just go."

Kenzie's eyes narrowed down on the brunette, "You killed my friends and you want me to let you go? Maybe you are as stupid as we thought. I don't care what Finn said to do, you're gonna die."

Maleny tried running off but the woman tackled her to the ground. Maleny felt her cardigan and part of her blouse rip with the force of the tackle. The next thing she knew Kenzie was raising her up from the ground and throwing her against a tree. The sharp jab of the bark hitting her back made Maleny scream. She was so tired by that point she wondered if there was even a chance she could perhaps escape.

Kenzie had left her to pick up the branch Maleny had dropped in with and looked it over, "You have good wood skills," she remarked and looked up at Maleny, "I suppose you learned this in one of your past lives?"

Maleny wearily looked at the branch and felt a lump in her throat as she remembered.

The village was celebrating a festival for the Gods full of dancing and eating and games of all sorts. But while everyone was gathered at the center to celebrate, Klaus preferred to stay on the outsides on his own. He'd once again had a falling out with Mikael that ended in a near fight if Esther hadn't intervened. The last thing Klaus wanted to do was celebrate some silly festival. He preferred where he was now, calmly carving onto the piece of wood he'd snagged earlier.

"I knew I would find you here," Maleny's voice made him look up from his work. The blonde was approaching him with a smile, "I was getting lonely out there, everyone dancing...you know Mateo asked me if I wanted to dance."

Klaus watched her sternly as she took a seat beside him, "...you said no right?" his tone implied a warning for the other man's fate based on her answer.

Maleny just smirked, "You should have been there," she replied and laughed when he grumbled and returned to his carving. Maleny propped an elbow on her lap to rest her chin on her palm, "What are you doing now?" she curiously asked.

"You'll have to wait until it's finished," Klaus answered and glanced at her to see her curiosity. She always liked his little creations even when they were things he'd quite literally made up. He stopped carving for a minute and smiled, "Do you want to try?" he offered.

Maleny's half widened at the idea, "I don't know how to do that stuff. I'll just ruin it for you."

Klaus laughed and pulled her closer to him, "It's actually quite simple," he assured her as she took the tool and wood piece.

"Easy for you to say. You've been at this since you were a kid," Maleny lightly squealed as Klaus pulled her onto his lap, "Klaus, someone will see us…" she blushed.

"Nah, they're all too focused on their festival," Klaus shook his head then smirked, "Besides, you're worth the trouble."

Maleny looked at him, blushing deeper, "Am I?"

"Definitely," he promised her with a sound kiss then proceeded to guide her through the carving manners as best as he could.

Maleny scrunched her nose and acquired new motivation to keep fighting, "Klaus taught me," she leaned off the tree, "And he taught me many other things!" she growled and lunged on the Kenzie. She grabbed the branch and slammed it over Kenzie's head, "I AM NOT LOSING!" Maleny gritted her teeth as she hit harder and harder.

By the time Kenzie had fallen Maleny was sobbing. She fell back on the ground and threw the bloody branch away from her. She pulled herself up to her feet and hugged herself, though quickly felt the fresh blood on her clothes then. She ran a hand through her messy, knotted hair and looked at the newest murder scene she was responsible for. She sniffled and ran off once again, hoping to finally find her way home.

~ 0 ~

Now at night, Rebekah had put her plan to escape the witches asylum. She'd roamed the upstairs floor for her friend's, Cassie, room since they were going to be escaping together. But when she found it completely empty she grew worried and rushed down the hallway in search of her. She noticed, however, the secret room holding Freya's coffin (though Rebekah didn't know it was Freya's coffin) was opened. She stepped inside to find one of the evil witches in charge was dead on the floor, her face covered in blood. Rebekah went for the coffin and cleared off some dust to see there was no girl inside anymore!

At the sound of creaks Rebekah turned around to see her friend Cassie walking in, bearing the same type of scars as the witches in charge bore.

Rebekah blinked, "Cassie. Cassie, where the hell have you...

"I'm sorry, Rebekah, but you didn't leave me much choice," the young teen said, "I told you, there's no escape. I had to turn to the only people I knew I could trust…" behind her came a swarm of witches with canes and fireplace pokers, "And I told them that they had to deal with you. My only regret is that I didn't stop you before you killed one of our own…" Cassie gestured to the dead witch in the room, "And now you have to be punished.

Rebekah stepped back, horrified at the betrayal, "No. I didn't kill her... though, to be fair, I won't miss the ugly cow. Hrrgh…" she wasn't about to let them take her back so she began to fight. She elbowed on witch on the face and kicked another on the legs. However, one managed to get her on the head and knocked her to the floor. Rebekah fell with a thud and was about to be hit again when the witch was flung to the wall. Rebekah raised her head to see Freya at the doorway, comically bored at the scene.

"You're all so mean," she frowned, "like the mouse that torments the cat in those cartoons. I think you're the ones who need to be punished," she raised her arms up and sent the other two witches into the walls. The remaining witch, Cassie backed away, but Freya was not going to let her free, "The others were just ignorant bullies but you, you're a smart girl, powerful, and yet you still betrayed a friend," she'd walked straight up to Cassie and grabbed her head, forcing an infliction pain on her head. Cassie screamed as blood poured from her eyes and nose until she eventually fell to the floor, dead.

"I despise traitors," Freya declared in a nonchalant tone then turned to the first dead witch and snatched back her necklace that had been taken earlier.

Rebekah had watched the entire scene in silence on the floor and wondered if she was to be afraid as well. Freya noticed her sister's bandaged hand so she took it into her own hands and healed it with with a spell.

Rebekah rose to her feet and flexed her hand, "How did you do that?" Freya smiled but instead of answering she led the way out of the room.

Rebekah was stunned as they literally walked out of the asylum without a problem. Freya had used her magic to open telekinetically the doors of the place and led Rebekah down the front porch steps.

"You're her, the all-powerful girl in the coffin…" Rebekah had slowly began to realize, "That's how you did magic... But why didn't you just tell me?"

Freya stopped walking and looked back, "I'd only just woken from a century of sleep. I wanted to know you, see what you were really like, and you didn't disappoint me. There's a spark in your, Rebekah. You're willful, also kind. You're not half as bad as our brothers."

Rebekah raised her eyebrows, "What did you say?

"You're right, you know. We met once before…" Freya continued to smile, "Christmas party in 1914. I was so desperate to catch a glimpse of my family, I even made a friend. Rebekah, you know who I am."

"You're the girl in my nightmare. It really is you…" Rebekah breathed in, her eyes becoming shiny with tears, "Freya."

Freya continued walking towards the gates and gripped her hands around bars, casting a spell, "Destruccive glas enfala. Destruccive glas enfala," the spell that had been used to keep witches inside the asylum was brought down in a snap. Freya turned to Rebekah afterwards, "I slept 100 years, and now finally, I'm free. Tell our brothers I'll be coming to see them soon, and I expect nothing less than their best behavior," she telekinetically ripped the gates off their hinges and then walked out, "First, I have to pay my respects to a fallen friend at the cemetery," she said quietly and started down the sidewalk, barefoot.

Rebekah stared after her in awe and confusion. She then started on her own journey back to the compound, running as fast as she could. She had so much to tell the others and frankly she was itching to slap Kol on the face for his little prank. But when she reached the compound she was confused to find all the lights off and basically no one home.

"Nik?" she called out in the middle of the courtyard, but no one answered, "Elijah?"

Where the hell was everyone?

"Hayley!" she called again and decided to go upstairs. It was then she missed her super hearing which would save her the time of searching. Just as she was reaching the stairs, she heard low groans from the entrance of the compound. Slowly, she peered out to the entrance and saw the shadow figure of a woman leaning against a wall, using it to get herself inside.

"Klaus?" she was calling as well, her voice shaky and frankly in fear, "Klaus, where are you?"

Rebekah began walking for the woman, intrigued by the unknown woman, "Who the bloody hell are you?"

Maleny raised her head to see the dark-skinned woman with black, curly hair and frowned, "Who are you and why are you in here? What did you do to him? What did you do to Klaus?"

Rebekah could see the woman was injured and thus unable to put up any fight. Of course then she saw the moonlight ring and stepped back, "You're one of Finn's wolves, aren't you? I swear to God I'm getting Finn for this...though he may have to wait in line for Kol."

Maleny raised an eyebrow and momentarily forgone her current problem to really look at the woman in front of her, "R-Rebekah? Is that you? This is the body Kol put you in?"

Rebekah frankly didn't like seeing the strange woman know so much about her, "How do you know that?"

Maleny's eyes teared up again, "Rebekah, it's me," she gestured to herself, "It's Mal…" Rebekah's eyes widened, "Finn...he did this to me," and after such an awful day Maleny finally burst into sobs.

Rebekah caught the brunette before she fell forwards and while confused she simply held Maleny closer, feeling that the woman needed a sisterly hug.

~ 0 ~

Barefoot, Freya had found her way to the Lafayette cemetery on her own. She'd done a spell to locate her friend's gravestone but was confused to find the location being in a plot area that read 'Dawson' instead.

Stumbling back with a deep scowl, she glared at the plots. "We meet again," she muttered.

[saiilorstars]

The Girl in the Forest

Chapter 11: A Battle of the Dead

// Story Masterlist //

Fandom: The Originals

Pairings: Klaus Mikaelson x Original Female Character

Pronunciation of OC’s name: Ma-leh-nee

No real warnings for now!

Requested tag: @queenmj10​

~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~

Chapter Summary: The Quarter is submerged into a battle between the Originals and witches. And just as it comes to an end, so does Maleny...

Riley wasn't in the best moods when Cami entered the room he was forcefully trapped to. There were shackles around his wrists that prevented the use of magic from being used. One moment he was talking with Cami out in the street and the next thing he knew he was outcold. Cami had slipped in some of his own herbs to knock him out enough time for Elijah to chain him with shackles from Cami's newfound arsenal of dark objects. Cami had thought of Maleny's information on Kieran's secret apartment to be a streak of luck. The shackles were exactly what they needed to make Riley defenseless.

All that had happened three days ago.

Riley was furious with his newfound situation.

"Good morning," Cami greeted casually as she entered the room, acting as if they were sitting down for coffee. She set her laptop on the table between them along with her trusty notepad and pen.

Riley stared at her blankly, "It wouldn't be so good if you were being forced against your will," he muttered to her, "But then again, you really don't have much on your plate anymore ever since..." he swayed his head around, unable to hold the teasing smirk on his face.

Cami unintentionally gripped the edge of the table while her teeth gritted at Riley's comment, "The more you make comments like that, the less I'm inclined to defend you," she flashed a smirk of her own, though not as strong as Riley's.

"Well if we talked rationally..." Riley jingled the shackles around his wrists.

It was at that moment that Elijah came into the room, "Well if you decided to speak with honesty all of this could have been avoided," he countered the human's remark, letting the door shut behind him with a loud thud.

He'd secured a small room in the heart of the Quarter, the quote 'hidden in plain sight' never serving so true. While Maleny remained at the compound with Klaus, Elijah and Cami took it upon them selves to question Riley as much as they needed to know the truth. And, since Riley refused to do so, Elijah found it necessary to keep the man captive until he decided to cooperate.

"I don't get it," Cami said, staring at her computer screen with furrowed brows. The screen held a photograph of Riley's grandmother, "If this is your grandmother-"

"She is not my grandmother," argued Riley for the umpteenth time.

"See, it's this kind of behavior that has kept you here," Cami shot him a look.

"And it's your uncle's death that's kept you here," Riley snapped back, succeeding in silencing the blonde, "You've got nothing better to do now, right?"

"That is enough," Elijah spoke up, setting a hand on Cami's shoulder, "I wonder, how did I fall for your 'sincere' behavior around Maleny? Do you think she would appreciate you using her uncle's death as an advantage against her cousin?"

"First of all, he's not her uncle," Riley looked to the side, "And Cami is nothing of hers."

"Maleny is family," Cami clarified, slowly recomposing herself from his remark, "Just like you and this woman..." she turned around her laptop for him to see the young Emily Cordera on the screen, "...are family."

"I already told you," Riley began but Elijah intervened.

"And as we told you, we believe otherwise," a clean smirk began spreading its way over his lips, "And do you know what is the best part about keeping you here for days?"

"Oh, I know this one," Cami looked up at him with a bright smile. She cleared her throat and turned her head back to Riley, "Riley ingested vervain, meaning we couldn't force him to tell us the truth, buuuut..." she rested both her arms on the table and leaned forwards, "...since it's been days, the vervain's all gone..."

Riley seemed to have forgotten that small detail by the way he was now frantically looking around the room for a means of escape. That alone told Cami and Elijah there was something to discover.

"And since my patience is terrible nowadays," Elijah moved over to the human and compelled him, "You will answer any and all questions asked to you in pure honesty."

Cami's smile widened after that. Her hand reached for her notepad and flipped to the first page, "Your grandmother is Emily Cordera, correct?"

"Correct," Riley answered instantly.

"She killed Maya Sterling, correct?"

"Correct."

"Why?" it was Elijah who asked that time, unable to remain calm after hearing that confession. Maya had been with them for several years and Elijah recognized the woman had managed to control his brother in ways he hadn't seen for quite a while.

A sinister smile took over Riley, "Why is there always bloodshed?" he began, "For power, Elijah. People always want power. And that's exactly what my bloodline's been getting for centuries from her."

"So I was right then, the reason for the mysterious disappearances of several of Maleny's past bodies have been because of sacrifices," Cami felt her blood go cold. She knew witches did weird, sacrificial magic (like the Harvest) but somehow she still felt stunned by what measures they could reach just for...magic.

"How long has this been going without our knowledge?" Elijah demanded from Riley.

"The story goes our ancestor performed the spell when Maleny was human," Riley answered fast under the compulsion.

"The day she disappeared," Elijah realized in a whisper. He could remember that day fairly easy for it was one of the moments in which Klaus had completely lost it. He ransacked every part of the village and even the woods...but he never found Maleny. She had vanished into thin air.

"She's been jumping bodies since you were human?" Cami was staring at Elijah with shock, already making the mental calculations, "But that's like...thousands of years ago..."

Elijah shot her an unamused look but nonetheless agreed. He faced Riley who remained silent until the next question was asked, "You listen to me and listen well, you are going to tell us how to break the curse, now."

Riley languidly looked at him, "Even if you wanted to, I can't. I don't know the way - don't even know if there is a way."

And because Riley was under his compulsion, Elijah had no choice but to believe the human. Still, for Riley's sake, he better come up with something because when Klaus found out...Elijah was sure there would be no stopping his brother from cruel revenge.

~ 0 ~

Inside the compound, things were more tensed than ever - especially with one looming labor getting closer and closer. Still, Maleny thought distracting Hayley from what was approaching was a good idea.

"Check mate," the brunette happily cheered as she took Hayley's piece off the chess board. Hayley made a face and swiped all the pieces off the table, leaving Maleny to blink rapidly, startled, "You win..."

"Sorry," Hayley said after a minute, looking down at the pieces on the floor. She knew her emotions were getting the best of her and she was taking it out on anyone near her.

"It's okay," Maleny got up to pick the pieces off the floor, "You're about to pop out an actual human being - you can throw whatever you want."

"I get the feeling it would be easier if she was actually a human being," Hayley mumbled, rubbing her stomach.

Maleny chuckled and looked up, "Right - mortal, vampire, witch, wolf. Is there anything else I'm missing?"

"Shut up," Hayley nearly begged. Maleny chuckled again and put all the pieces back on their table.

"I suppose our chess game is over, then," she gave a small sigh. She should've figured a chess game wouldn't do much for them. Elijah had taught her how to play in one her past lives and she thought perhaps Hayley would like to learn.

"I'm tired," Hayley admitted and rose from her chair.

"Maybe get some rest and you'll feel better later on," Maleny suggested. She also knew part of Hayley's agitation was from the long wait they were all under. Jackson and Oliver were supposed to be coming in to hand over the stones that would enable wolves to be free of their moon curse.

"I think so," Hayley agreed and started for the threshold of the living room, "But please wake me up if anything new happens."

"Got it," Maleny gave a thumbs up as the woman left the room. She made a face afterwards and went too pick up the chess game and return it to its place. The last thing she needed was a scolding from Elijah for not putting away his game.

Once finished cleaning up, she made way for her room but before she even made it out of the living room she saw Genevieve walking by carrying a single page of what Maleny assumed was the moonlight spell. Without thinking, Maleny hurried out the living room, no idea of what she was doing when she called out, "Is that for the moonlight spell?"

Genevieve stopped at the sound of Maleny and slowly looked back, "Yes, it is. And I'll be staying around for the day so don't be too happy I'm going out for a moment."

Maleny frowned, "I don't care where you stay. I care that you're gonna perform a spell that'll help Hayley."

Genevieve let out a small laugh, "You think the spell is only for Hayley? Does Klaus tell you nothing? He has eyes on creating a whole army of wolves," Maleny blinked in shock at the news. Genevieve smirked, "Oh, he didn't tell you? I'm sure he would have...maybe..."

"Screw off," was Maleny's response, "You're just angry with me because I cut off any deal you offered. You're angry I double-crossed you."

"You made a mistake, Maleny," Genevieve shook her head, "I could've helped you. Now you'll be stuck in that body forever - well, until you're killed again, anyways."

Maleny stepped forwards, agitated the conversation had turned into that direction, "I will be free of this curse, you'll see."

"And tell me," Genevieve also took a step towards her, acting innocent, "in the meantime you're out searching for a solution, do you think Klaus is going to wait for you?" she laughed again, "Cos I think by now you've seen he hardly waits a day after you 'die' before he goes and finds himself someone new."

Maleny would not let Genevieve's taunts get to her, or she would at least try not to let it. She pursed her lips for a minute, debating how to respond, "Even if I'm dead he wouldn't go back to you."

Genevieve smirked and started backtracking, "He came to me when you were alive. Now imagine yourself dead," she gave a wave with a wiggle of her fingers and turned around, striding off triumphantly.

Unable to keep herself from feeling hurt, Maleny released a shaky breath and made way for her room in haste. She silently scolded herself when she slammed her bedroom door shut for being so...emotional. She shouldn't be feeling hurt at all. But then her mind wandered to last week when Klaus had bought her her favorite type of dessert and their moment at the park.

"I mean...do you still...feel anything?"

"That depends," Klaus perfectly evaded the question.

"On what?" Maleny whispered.

"If my answer would make any difference in your life..."

Slowly, Maleny walked away from the door and repeatedly took breaths. But no matter how much she tried to forget she could not stop thinking about that day, nor any other moment they had. It was difficult to believe what Genevieve said, as well as struggling so that it wouldn't hurt as much. There were memories of her past lives where Genevieve's words had proven to be right. Heck, there was even one moment where Klaus never even laid eyes on her in the way she would've wanted him to.

Maleny went for her window and looked out, now really wishing she could talk to someone. Hayley was probably fast asleep by now, Cami was off doing some task of her own and she hadn't really seen Riley for a couple days. Davina was way out of the question since the teen heavily disagreed with her potential love life. Maleny felt alone. Her hand slowly reached to her golden chain necklace on her neck, suddenly thinking that perhaps her mother would have been a fine person to talk to right around then. No matter how old she may really be, Maleny believed Abigail would advise her like no one else would. She wished she would at least have some place to talk to Abigail - even the Mikaelson's had a place for Esther.

On a whim of an idea, Maleny turned around and went for her bag laying near the bed. Just because her mother wasn't buried in New Orleans didn't mean she couldn't go talk to someone from the other side. The cemetery was free range by now and even she was allowed in. Besides, she was a witch in the end and not all ancestors hated her so she heard.

She had made it down the stairs and was about to finally leave the place when she heard the distinctive call, "And just where do you think you're going, Maleny?" Klaus stood upstairs leaning on the rails, curious of where Maleny had been so hasty to leave to.

Still crossed from what Genevieve had said to her earlier, Maleny was in no mood to speak to him, "Out," her cold tone rang through the courtyard, "Don't you see?"

"Oh, I see. Let me rephrase my question, then: do you not see leaving on your own can lead to your very death?"

Maleny turned around to see him, "Frankly, right now, I could care less."

"Mal, what's going on?" Klaus frowned, by now unused to hearing her so irritated with him when he was pretty sure he'd done nothing wrong so far.

"I don't know," Maleny sarcastically shrugged, "I saw Genevieve a while ago," she slowly made deeper into the courtyard, "She said some interesting things..."

"Did she do something to you?" Klaus asked, his eyes narrowing in thoughts against the ginger. He'd been very specific to stay away from Maleny in their earlier encounter.

"No, well not physically anyways," Maleny shook her head, "Now enlighten me a little bit because I'm lost, why would you tell that woman your plan when I have asked you millions of times myself and received a bare sentence?"

"Is that what this is about? You're annoyed because I told Genevieve what my plan entails?"

"She is the freaking enemy, Klaus!" Maleny exclaimed, "I think I have proven myself to be more of a friend than she has. Now I'm sorry that I don't follow your orders nor stay quiet but at least I'm not plotting revenge on you behind your back."

If Klaus didn't know it any better, he would've said he saw jealousy in the woman. Amused, he made way for the stairs to better explain himself, "Mal, believe me, if it wasn't her that was doing the spell she wouldn't know the plan either."

"Why won't you tell me, then?" Maleny frowned, further disappointed she was still no where near the people he would reveal his plan to, "It's a plan for your daughter and you know I would help if I could. Or...are you scared I'll do something against it?"

"Not in the faintest," Klaus replied as he finished down the stairs.

"Then?" Maleny released a big breath, openly displaying her pain, "Am I untrustworthy?"

"No," Klaus shook his head, "I didn't tell you because the plan also extends to you and your protection."

Maleny looked at him for a minute making a face of confusion, "Me? Why?"

"Because I don't intend on losing you again - I thought I'd made that clear long ago. The army is not only for my daughter but for you as well."

"Does Hayley know you're gonna use her pack for one of your ex's?"

"Hayley knows I'm going to use her pack to keep you safe," Klaus cleverly revised her words, "As well as Elijah and Jackson...and Oliver, even."

Still doubting, Maleny crossed her arms and shifted, "Are you telling me the truth? You're not just doing this so that I'll go on all happy on my way?"

"I'm telling you the truth," Klaus assured her, "So now, can I please know where you were headed off to?"

"I'm still crossed with you," Maleny informed him but never of the reason why, "And I was going to the cemetery to talk to someone."

"Riley?" Klaus immediately guessed and frowned.

Smirking, Maleny cheekily answered, "Well if you were talking to your wicked girlfriend why shouldn't I have some fun?"

Now Klaus knew there was nothing between Maleny and Riley but he wasn't going to risk the stupid warlock wooing Maleny. Without warning, he took hold of Maleny's hand, startling the brunette, "Can we change those plans and instead go to the park again?"

Maleny raised an eyebrow, "Um...honestly, I wasn't going to talk to Riley," she said beforehand, "In case that's the reason you wanted to accompany me."

"It's not, I assure you."

"...but what about Hayley? She's napping and-"

"Mal, if I didn't know any better I'd say you were making these excuses to get me away from you," Klaus flashed her a smirk.

"Well," Maleny crossed her arms, "I'm still crossed with you and Genevieve. Don't think I'll forget it all with some pretty words you have for me."

"Then what would you like me to do?" Klaus settled for her requests seeing her agitation was growing and without hint of why.

"Leave me alone for now," Maleny replied and went past him, making way for the street.

"I'm afraid I can't do that, love," Klaus turned and went after her. If she was going to leave the compound then he would leave with her, whether she wanted it or not.

Maleny knew he was following her down the street and groaned, "Yes, you can, actually. It's this thing where you turn around and walk back to the compound," she sped up her walking, "Quite simple if you really look at it!"

While amused, Klaus just continued to follow her until it drove her mad. That was usually how he would get her to talk in the old days.

~ 0 ~

Cami had the lovely - but not really - chance to stumble into Francesca Guerrera inside Rousseau's who was clearing out the customers with her 'brothers'. Once alone, Francesca turned directly to Cami just as the door was locked.

"Well...what's going on here?" Cami tried remaining calm and not to continuously glance back at the locked door.

"I am the new owner of this," Francesca gestured to the place, "gumbo shack. Ink's not dry on the contract, yet, but I can tell you I got it cheap. Business is not what it used to be since Sophie Deveraux kicked the bucket."

"I don't want any trouble," Cami moved over to the bar where she set down her purse and laptop.

"I don't really care what you want," Francesca snapped, "Let's talk about what I want."

"My uncle's key," Cami remembered the last time the woman had appeared to her for the same damn key. Now that she knew what that key contained she would never let anyone besides Maleny take it, "You said you were going to use it to protect the innocents of the city? Seems pretty ironic, considering your line of work."

While the statement was completely true, Francesca ignored it and walked towards Cami, "I'm a legitimate businesswoman who's never been convicted of a crime. And, as leader of the Human Faction, that key is mine. I gave you time to mourn. Now, time's up!"

"Right, the place that doesn't belong to you," Cami crossed her arms and looked to the side, still rather peeved, as Maleny, that the leadership hadn't been handed to her or Maleny since they were both O'Connell's.

"I've spoken to your cousin, and it was agreed that I would take the place-"

"No, no it wasn't," Cami corrected her, "Elijah made that decision without us. And you know what, since I'm more than capable to take over I think I'll have a word with him," and that was something Francesca did not like to hear.

The woman stepped closer to Cami intimidatingly, "My family's been in New Orleans a long time, Cami. Even longer than yours! And we've learned it's a very hard city to get by in if you don't have any friends - allies. I think you and your cousin want me to be in this position. Neither of you know what it could do to you-"

Cami raised an eyebrow, "Well, I think that's where you're wrong," it wasn't as if her uncle or twin brother had died because of the factions, not at all, "I'm done being pushed around by every damn faction. I don't have the key. And you better get ready because I will take over that position you seem to love so much."

Francesca backed away, clearly contempt, "You have until tomorrow or your 'pushing around' days are going to get a lot worse - for you and your cousin."

Cami released a breath after Francesca had left and turned to the bar to catch a break. Only a couple minutes later did Elijah come in, clearly having heard everything.

Cami glanced at him with heavy irritation, "You cannot trust that woman, and most certainly leave her in the position you gave her. I was serious, it's my rightful place."

"It would appear so," he agreed as he reached her, "And we will discuss the matters of you taking over if that is what you truly wish but for now, I think we have bigger problems. I finished talking to Riley and made him forget everything."

"Is there a way to break the curse?"

"Yes, we just have to find it."

Cami sighed, "Gee, because I hadn't thought of that one before. Is there anything useful you collected?"

Elijah excused her sarcasm for the tiredness of the day and of the death of her uncle, "There's some sort of loophole, Riley mentioned but apparently didn't know it."

"How could he not know the loophole?" Cami frowned, clearly doubting it.

"Elders are smart about these sorts of things. Riley's still young and only barely learning himself about this curse - he won't know much about its content."

"So we have to decipher the puzzle," Cami bit her lip and glanced at her shut laptop on the counter, "I have the time...do you?"

"For Maleny, I always have the time," Elijah smiled at the blonde.

"Good, just like me," content, Cami walked to retrieve her laptop to begin their work once more.

~ 0 ~

Maleny had made it just around the corner to where the cemetery was when she finally lost it as Klaus had expected and turned to him, "Are you seriously going to follow me?" she frowned at the hybrid who was slowly catching up with her.

"Well since you're going for the childish moves then I have to resort to this," Klaus gestured to their current spots.

"Maybe I just want some alone time? You know that thing where I'm...alone?" Maleny crossed her arms, "I just...want to be alone to think, okay?" her voice lowered as her eyes drifted to the near cemetery, "I came to talk to someone..."

Klaus followed her gaze to the cemetery and stared confusedly, "I don't recall you burying someone here. Perhaps Kieran..."

Maleny dropped her arms to her sides with a deep sigh, "My mother, Klaus. I came to talk to my mother. And before you say 'shes not here' I know that, okay? But this is the closest place I have and since the witches have dropped the boundary rules with me I can go in safely. I just wanted to talk."

"I'm...sorry," Klaus managed to say without one of his usual long pauses. He was never good at apologies after all, "But if you would have explained from the start then maybe none of this would have been necessary."

"You would have let me come on my own?" Maleny raised an eyebrow, doubtful of that being his point.

Her confirmation was the loud scoff given back, "Never," Klaus shook his head, "But we could have done something to help you feel closer to Abigail."

"There's not much one can do," Maleny admitted the difficulty, "My mother was buried centuries ago..."

"In the now town of Mystic Falls," Klaus finished with a smirk as Maleny processed his knowledge.

She blinked, frozen in her spot with shock, "You know where she is?" she whispered, coming back to him, "You know where her body would be now?"

"I don't know her precise location but I know our old village is the current town," Klaus clarified. He didn't want to get her hopes raised up then have to be the one to bring them down.

It still seemed to cheer Maleny up, "Is it...is it far from here?"

"A couple hours..."

"Do you think we could go? Not today I know, but...sometime?" Maleny asked, full of hope, "Or maybe you can tell me the directions and I can go or-"

Klaus raised a finger to her lips, "I can't give an exact day but maybe shortly after Hayley's given birth?" the sparkle in Maleny's eyes told him she agreed to his terms, "Now do you still want to visit the cemetery? I can wait for you out here."

"So we're still doing the 'following you' thing?" she asked in a disappointed tone.

"You're still in danger, love," he smiled at her, "You'll be within my hearing and seeing vision."

She rolled her eyes and glanced at cemetery, "I can handle the hearing thing but I'm going to have to ask for you to keep your ears out of my conversation. It's private."

Klaus could deal with that and so gave her his nod, "Fine. But don't try to escape or anything. My eyes will be glued on you."

"Whatever," she waved him off and headed for the cemetery. She didn't exactly know what she was going to do, much less who to even talk to. There was no one related to her anywhere...then she passed the O'Connell's area of plots. Out of anyone there she supposed they were the closest to what she could call a family. Quietly, she came towards the plots and sighed, "Hello," she whispered, giving a languid wave, unsure if this was really going to solve anything, "Gosh, I feel so...lost," and she gave a small, bitter laugh, "That's the understatement of the year. I've been lost for centuries now and even now I still can't find myself," she bent down in front of the plot, picking up a couple of flower pots that'd been tilted on their sides, "No matter what I do, what happens, I'm still...uncomfortable with myself. I'm lost - and confused. And I guess I'm troubling you all because I've got no where else to go. To the world, you're my family...and I could really use some advice. What do I do with him?" her voice turned into a secret for fear Klaus was breaking his promise of not eavesdropping, "I'm so confused, I'm...angry," she admitted shamefully, "And I shouldn't be because we're nothing right now. He can go to anyone who wants, do what ever he wants with them...because it's fair. But how do I make it so that it doesn't hurt? I've got no right to tell him anything and especially when I'm like..." she looked down at herself and sighed, "...this. What do I do? What can I do?"

"You shouldn't be here," a voice behind said and startled the brunette. She quickly rose to her feet and turned around to find Monique glowering at her from across.

"Genevieve has lifted the boundary rules," Maleny awkwardly said. She knew the girl was just as bad as Genevieve but the fact Monique was still just a girl made it hard to be rude, "Besides, I'm still technically a witch."

"With no power," Monique added with a smirk, "Don't forget that."

"I know," Maleny rubbed her arm, "I only came to talk, okay? I don't want any problems."

Monique raised her head as if to feel superior to the brunette, "You may be a witch but you are not one of us," she declared, "I don't care what the ancestor says you don't deserve to remain alive..." her eyes drifted past Maleny to where Klaus was coming up to them.

"What seems to be the problem?" Klaus asked the two with suspicious looks.

"Nothing," Maleny said fast before anything bad started. She'd only came in for some ventilation and that was all she intended on getting.

"Your girlfriend shouldn't be here," Monique informed in a sneer-like way, "I know she's just itching to die again but this is too much - even for our coven."

"I'm not trying to die," Maleny defensively replied.

"Hm," Monique scoffed, "And how are you doing that exactly? Oh, right, by staying with him?" she gave Klaus a once-over, "You don't get it, do you? By staying with him and his family you're signing your own death sentence."

Klaus was quick to lose his temper with the girl and made to charge for her when Maleny grabbed his arm, "Don't! That's exactly what she wants. You hurt her and Genevieve won't do the moonlight ring spell for us."

Monique smirked, half confirming Maleny's suspicions but adding the rest of the reality, "I mean what I say, regardless of what Genevieve is going to do. You're gonna die if you stay with him," she told Maleny, sounding so sure of herself it put Maleny on edge, "I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up doing it himself-"

That was the last straw for Klaus. He shook Maleny off and pinned Monique against a wall, his hand tightly clasping the girl's neck, "Watch your tongue before I tear it out," he hissed.

Monique budged under his hold but of course it was to no avail, "You can...act..." she kept gasping for air to speak, "...but...I can see it..." she smirked, "...you're afraid I'm...right..."

"Klaus, let her go!" Maleny exclaimed, panicked he'd commit a stupid act.

It was becoming difficult for Monique to keep struggling but even then she would not desist in her accusations, "Kill me, but...I'm right. She'll die...and you'll remember..."

"Klaus!" Maleny ran up to the two and tried prying the hybrid off the teen, "C'mon! It's not worth it! I don't believe her!"

Monique's eyes drifted to the brunette, "Mistake number one..."

"SHUT UP!" Maleny screamed at her in frustration while still trying to get Klaus away.

Eventually, he let the teen go and backed away with Maleny, "The only one that's going to die is you," he pointed at Monique, "If you make any other remark of yours in regards to my family."

Monique was coughing as she felt the air return to her lungs. She flashed another smirk to the pair nonetheless, "You'll remember me..."

"Let's go," Maleny nearly pleaded Klaus in the end. She just needed to get the hell out of there and forget everything said. Klaus finally listened to her and sped them out of the place.

~ 0 ~

"You're not actually going to believe what that girl said, right?" it was now Maleny who was trailing after Klaus on the streets. But with each silent response she got back she knew he already was considering the idea of it, "No, absolutely not!" she grabbed his arm and turned him around by force, "You are not gonna stand there and tell me you're actually believing what the stupid teenager is telling you?"

"It's a bit hard not to, love," Klaus admitted, his voice troubled as his mind was, "How many times have jumped bodies exactly?"

"The curse falls on me, Klaus," Maleny gestured to herself, "because I'm the one who chose this pathway. While I didn't know what exactly I was getting myself into Ichose it. No one else. Even Lilith didn't force me."

"But you cannot deny it was because of our argument that you even considered the woman's deal. I influenced you to take it without asking anyone else."

"I was angry," Maleny tried to explain coherently, "I wasn't thinking straight. I was just...sad...because you didn't want to turn me. Put yourself in my shoes. If roles were reversed and I didn't want to turn you wouldn't you try to do something yourself? Would you blame me then?"

"Of course not," Klaus mumbled under his breath, avoiding her looks at all costs.

"Then why are you doing it to yourself?" Maleny gestured to his frustrated self with a shake of her head, "We all make choices and we all have to own up to them. I'm owning up to them right now. What Monique says has no truth in it."

"Does it really, Mal?" Klaus asked, his voice turning soft, "The Mikaelsons' are cursed - anyone we happen to care for somehow always ends up...leaving."

Maleny smiled at him and stepped closer, "I'm not going anywhere. I happen to like the Quarter...and the people in it. And as long as they say I can stay, I will. Can I stay?"

It only took a minute for Klaus to cool off after seeing her honest face, "You can most definitely stay here," and surprising her, he took her head in his hands and kissed her forehead, unknowingly giving Maleny that same tingly sensation she'd felt before. For a minute she imagine what it would feel like if his kiss had been on her lips instead. And for that, she blushed red.

She smiled and looked a him with a nervous smile, only more nervous when she took notice of their closeness; her blush was truly inevitable, "Then I suppose there's no point in wasting another thought on that witch."

"Maybe just one," Klaus responded with, his common smirk plastered across his lips. He too was aware of their closeness and felt more than pleased with the situation. It was few moments like those that would remind him of their early days as humans. The only thing that would make it truly one of their moments of the past was if they shared a kiss - but of course that was out of the question...unfortunately.

Had he just thought about that?

"Who!?" Maleny nearly shouted before she realized what he meant and flushed, unknowingly bringing Klaus out of his thoughts, "Oh my God...I'm an idiot."

"Well..." Klaus began but Maleny shook a hand at him and made haste to get walking.

"Nope!"

Klaus laughed and hurried after her, easily grabbing her arm and pulling her right back to him. His arms remained around her waist to prevent her from fleeing again, "You're not going anywhere except with me back to the compound."

Maleny made no attempt to budge from her spot as she silently admitted to herself she liked it. Instead, she gave a small smile and calmly said, "Actually, I was hoping to go visit Cami instead."

"What for?"

"Haven't you noticed she's been acting a little strange lately? She's up to something and I want to know what. But don't worry, I won't need your bodyguard services there. I can make it on my own."

Klaus scoffed, "You're out of your mind if you think you're going there alone."

"Well you're not gonna eavesdrop on us either," Maleny countered, "So we can do this: you accompany me there and leave me at the house. I'm safe there."

"Mal-"

"Don't you 'Mal' me, it's either that or I stalk off on my own. Take your pick."

And on cue, Klaus' cellphone went off in his pocket. With a small sigh, he paused the conversation with Maleny to answer it. Maleny watched his facial expressions shift from irritated to mildly upset and she knew she wasn't the cause of it. After hanging up, she received a surprising agreement from Klaus.

"You stay with Cami for one hour and that's it - and you don't leave for any reason until I or Elijah come for you. Understand?"

Maleny raised her hands in agreement, "Got it. But what's wrong?"

"Jackson and Oliver are missing along with the stones for the moonlight rings."

"Oh," Maleny knew Hayley wouldn't like to hear that, "Well then go! We have to hurry!" she wouldn't have reached Cami's so quick if it hadn't been for Klaus speeding them over - he needed to know she would be out of the streets before he could focus on anything else.

~ 0 ~

Hayley was attending to a beaten Cami in the study room of the compound when Klaus returned, very much surprised to see the blonde woman in her state.

"What the hell is going on?" was his first brilliant question upon entering the room.

"Ask her," Hayley nodded to Cami as she brought over an antibacterial cloth for Cami's cuts, "She was like that when I woke up."

"Sorry," Cami apologized to her for abrupt entrance. But at that moment she didn't know what to do only to go find Elijah. Instead, she'd woken up Hayley from her nap.

"Cami?" Klaus turned to the blonde who in no mood for a questionnaire. Her head was still pounding from all the beating it received, "Mal is at your place, waiting for you I should add."

"Why?"

"She believes you've been acting strange for the past couple of days to which I agree. Of course now that I'm seeing you like this," Klaus gestured to her, "I can say she was right. What happened?"

Cami groaned and let her head rest back, her eyes closing momentarily as Hayley dabbed one of her cuts on her arms, "I pissed off Francesca Guerrera earlier so she sent one of her goons after me."

"Francesca did this?" Hayley looked at Klaus with concern.

"Well, I'm not 100% sure," Cami admitted and opened her eyes, drifting to Hayley beside her, "but I'm about 80% sure. She wants the stupid key to my family's dark objects' room, remember?"

"And who would be the other 20%?" Klaus asked.

"No idea, but I'm willing to bet it was Genevieve who also dislikes me and Maleny."

"Well regardless of what you think, I need you to be civil with Genevieve," Klaus informed, only irritating Cami more.

"What? Why?" the blonde scowled.

"She's doing the moonlight ring spell, remember?"

"Which we can't even do at the moment," Hayley reminded with a long sigh, "because said moonlight rings are gone."

"Gone?" Cami asked, remembering something about that earlier from what Elijah mentioned but her mind was too foggy to recall completely.

"Well they disappeared," Hayley sighed, "and we don't know where they could be."

"More or less," corrected Elijah as he entered the room, making all heads turn to him instantly, "I've spoken to Davina. Marcel's at the docks."

"How'd you manage that one?" asked Cami, knowing Davina's strong hatred towards the brothers.

"Charming, persuasive," Elijah dismissed as he came up to her and studied her wounds, "And you are…?"

"Better, thanks," she waved off and received a scolding from Hayley who'd been tending to a wound on the arm she chose to move.

"Don't move!"

Cami sighed and slowly sat up, "Klaus said Maleny is at my place so I should go and meet her there."

"Care to elaborate why Maleny even left the compound in the first place, brother?" Elijah turned to Klaus in genuine curiosity, "You were very adamant in keeping her locked up."

"Well I changed my mind," Klaus waved him off, preferring to leave the part out of where he followed Maleny all over the Quarter.

"Bad idea," Cami tried standing up only to feel whoozy and fell back to the couch.

"Cami, you can't go anywhere," Hayley scolded her for the abrupt movement.

"I will," Cami declared and moved to stand again when Elijah stopped her then, "Elijah, I'm going," she warned him.

Elijah merely motioned with a hand for her to wait as he went for a glass from the bar counter. Cami watched him bite his own wrist and let his blood spill into the glass. He returned for her with the glass of blood and held it out to her, "If you insist on leaving then you will only do so in a good health condition."

Cami half-smiled and took the glass from him, drinking down the entire contents. Immediately she began feeling the effects, "There," she handed back the empty glass.

"You and I will go to the docks," Klaus said to Elijah afterwards, "Cami to retrieve Maleny, Hayley will stay here-"

"And wait?" Hayley crossed her arms.

"There's not much you can do, love," Klaus reminded her of her current state, "It's agreed, then, so let's go. Time is of the essence."

~ 0 ~

Night fell but while the brothers managed to find Jackson - and learned of his friend's Olly's safety - they were incapable of retrieving their moonlight stones. Genevieve had arrived later in the day but received the news of the missing stones. Marcel had taken good prevention of that and stole them from the werewolves. His location was unknown and it would be unlikely if they learned of it before the full moon of that night. In the compound, Hayley was relieved to find Jackson safe, with minor injuries but safe. Her time alone with Genevieve had been no walk in the park and after conversing with Elijah over the phone and overhearing an explosion, her blood pressure skyrocketed. Both women had been waiting for Cami and Maleny to return since the moment Cami left the compound, but neither had returned yet.

Elijah and Klaus were not too pleased about hearing that detail either. It was simply another problem to attend to along with everything else. Fortunately, Klaus had a resolution for one problem: the moonlight rings. And luckily enough, Cami had been witness to the resolution being put to action. She had just come into the compound when she saw Francesca Guerrera and her workers having a little greeting with Klaus.

"What the hell is this woman doing here!?" she demanded of the hybrid, and everyone else with sane minds, "Did you forget there's a good chance she's the one that had me beaten up earlier?"

Francesca feigned offense at the accusation, "First of all, I did no such things," but Cami scoffed, "and second of all, you don't look that shaken up to me."

Cami angrily shook her head, "Unbelievable! What is she doing here?"

"She's my backup," Klaus announced and went up to Francesca, "Marcel stole our original moonlight rings so I asked Francesca."

"And you let her!?" Cami looked at the others.

"We didn't know," Hayley sighed, equally distraught as the blonde.

"I asked her to come," Klaus announced, "though I didn't think she'd bring company," he eyed the several men around them.

Francesca smiled fakily, "These are my brothers. I always include them in delicate business matters," she turned to her 'brothers', "Fellas, meet Mr. Mikaelson."

Klaus smirked, " Please, call me Klaus. All my friends do."

"I don't know if I'd call us friends," Francesca reached into a briefcase one of her brothers held, taking out a small black drawstring bag, "But, if you and Marcel are planning on having a little throw-down, I'd prefer my family to be on the same side as the inevitable victor."

"Then, you have what I asked for?"

Francesca turned to the hybrid holding the bag out, "Not enough for an army at such short notice, but it's a start."

"Strange, I wasn't aware that she was familiar with our plan," Elijah bitterly remarked to his brother.

"My price for doing business is full disclosure," informed Francesca, "Your brother complied"

"And what does the Human Faction stand to benefit from all of this?"

"I only want us to solidify our allegiance to the ruling class. It's good for business."

Klaus was busy studying the stones in his palm, "If only everyone shared your capacity for reason."

"Sadly, they don't. Marcel is being especially vindictive. I'm worried he might come after me, or my family, just for meeting with you. It might be in our best interests if we combine our efforts."

Klaus looked up with a wide grin, "So be it!" he declared, "The more bodies we have to defend the compound, the better. Let's get started, shall we?"

"I can't believe this," Cami declared with a shake of her head.

Klaus handed the moonstones to Genevieve and motioned for her to get a move on with the spell. Francesca and her brothers followed after the ginger without another word.

"Where is Maleny?" Klaus asked, having noticed they were short one brunette since Cami walked in.

Cami sighed and looked at them all with disappointment and concern, "I couldn't find her," she answered quietly.

"What?" Klaus frowned, "I left her at your house. I literally walked her inside and locked the door myself."

"Well it wasn't enough!" Cami exclaimed, now expressing her true panicked feelings, "I looked everywhere but she wasn't in the house. Did she leave or something?"

"No, she would've called," Klaus hook his head, "I told her she shouldn't leave the house until someone came for her. Of course I was counting on you being there."

"This is bad," Elijah recalled Riley's words from earlier, "Cami you should've called!"

"I know, but I just kept looking thinking I might find her at places we used to go to but…" Cami sighed, "...she's no where."

"We could use a locator spell," Hayley offered in hopes.

"We've already got Genevieve working and we pissed off Davina," Klaus reminded, growing frantic himself. He was now fully blaming himself for such a careless move on his part. He should've never allowed Maleny to stay on her own!

"I can go ask her," Cami offered herself up but was also shot down.

"No, it's best you all stay in here, one of us can go and convince Davina," Elijah looked at his brother for agreement.

"No, but you both need to stay here," Hayley scolded them for their lack of thoughts, "anything goes wrong and we're screwed. Genevieve only listens to Klaus and Francesca only to the leader of the head of the factions."

"We can't just sit here and do nothing," Cami sighed.

"I can do it," volunteered Jackson who'd remained quiet among the group, "This witch hasn't got any reason to hate me yet. I could go ask."

Cami soon got to considering the idea, "Well, he's not wrong. We can't call Davina over and he's the only one who can go."

"Jackson, are you sure?" Hayley seemed concern and wasn't afraid to voice it, "You literally just got back from an explosion and being kidnapped."

"So going to some witch's place to ask for a locator spell is nothing," Jackson smiled, "I can do it. Make myself useful."

Klaus wasn't going to shoot down the only opportunity to find Maleny, "You'll need something of Maleny's for the spell," and he went up to Maleny's room to retrieve an item.

As Hayley conversed with Jackson, Cami pulled Elijah to the side and quietly spoke to him, "Aren't we going to tell them what Riley said? I mean, this could be it, this could be their final move to kill her."

While Elijah knew that was very true he preferred to be optimistic, "Perhaps Mal is simply taking time for herself."

"Elijah-"

"Let's send Jackson to do the spell and if anything bad comes back then we'll tell them," Elijah suggested, "There's already many things to take care off. Why alarm them for nothing? Maleny's always escaping from Klaus' lockdown."

"Fine," Cami begrudgingly crossed her arms, "but the moment Jackson says something's up we tell them," she warned.

"Understood," Elijah agreed with a nod.

Klaus returned to the group holding one of Maleny's brushes in his hands. Jackson was given directions to Davina's and was sent off to get the locator spell done.

~ 0 ~

"Set her down there. And be careful."

Maleny felt a cold stone hit her back which served to stir her awake.

"She's awakening," someone else said.

"What do we do?" a third asked.

"Nothing, she can't leave," the first voice replied, "You, on the other hand, can. Go now."

It was then did Maleny open her eyes and see the dark crypt she was in.

"Evening, Miss Woods," spoke an elderly woman who stood beside Maleny, "I apologize for the roughness of my boys. However I doubt you'll remember your injury in this body by tomorrow."

"Where am I?" Maleny groggily asked and tried sitting up only to realize she was being tied down, "What the hell is going on?"

"What do you think is going on, my dear?" the woman lightly chuckled, "It's time to die again - for our coven."

Maleny's eyes widened and immediately starting wriggling within the ropes, "No! No! No more! I don't want to!"

"You made your choice a long time ago, says the story, so why put up a fight now?" the woman raised an eyebrow, "This is how it's been for centuries now."

Maleny saw she was on top of a ceremonial table, tied down by several ropes, "Shit," she mumbled and fiercely tried to escape, "I don't want to die! Not again! No!"

"Oh, the pleading will do you no such good," the elderly woman moved around to a small, circular table that held knives.

"Who the hell are you?" Maleny demanded, wanting to take note of who she was going to kill the moment she managed to escape, "How'd I even get here?" the last thing she remembered was being at Cami's house when someone knocked on the door, and thinking it was her cousin she'd foolishly went to go open it up.

"Cara," the woman glanced at Maleny with a crooked smile, "Cara Dawson. I presume you've met my nephew."

Maleny raised an eyebrow, "Excuse me? Nephew?" it was then that the name registered in her mind, "Hold on...Dawson?"

"She means me," Riley came into the room with a casual smile, "She's my auntie Cara, sister of my mother."

"Riley, what are you doing?" Maleny weakly asked, her eyes following the man as he went to his aunt, "She's going to kill me..."

"Hm? Oh yes, yes, I know about that," he nodded and feigned a pause, "I actually knew about this long before. Kind of my sole mission if you get what I mean. Also the reason why my family members subdued you at Cami's earlier in the day."

"No...no, this...this isn't right," Maleny shook her head slowly, "Cos you were helping me. You - you wanted to help me. They have you under a spell, Riley, fight it!"

But Riley laughed along with Cara, "Did you hear that, aunt Cara?"

"Spell?" Cara laughed again, "She's pretty but I thought she was a little more intelligent."

"Screw you!" called Maleny who continued to fight against the binds holding her down, "Riley, this isn't right! You were my friend. I trusted you - I even defended you against Klaus!"

"And I thank you for that," Riley turned to face Maleny, "I can only imagine the face he'd make if he knew he'd been right about me all along."

"Riley," Maleny whispered, completely heartbroken to see her friend...as her enemy, "All this time you've been trying to kill me? The poisoning? The knife? That was all you?"

"Oh dear, they were never attempts to kill you," Riley rolled his eyes, acting as if he were indignant of the accusations, "I'm no murderer - they were only meant to subdue you."

"Subdue me?" Maleny repeated in a shout, "YOU THREW A KNIFE AT ME!"

"It was a magical object," Riley explained calmly, "It would only leave you unconscious enough time for me and others to sneak you out of the place and bring you here. I can't kill you so simply, Maleny. There are rules. You cannot be killed unless properly sacrificed."

Maleny couldn't recognize the sinister man in front of her as the friend she thought she had in him, "I trusted you…"

"And that is what made it so much easier," Riley smirked, "I knew the day you bumped into me I'd have to worm my way into your life, earn your trust, so that we could be here today," he gestured to said room, "I should get an award because you're not an easy case to handle. I tell you, I give honest props to Klaus for having to deal with you for a lifetime."

Cara chuckled as if it were all amusing, "Oh please, your entire family's been at this for centuries now. We all deserve a damn award not just the crazy hybrid."

"Why are you doing this?" Maleny tried lifting her hands but the rope burned her skin and forced her to stay still.

"For power," Cara glanced back, "The ultimate sacrificial spell. We kill you, we harness power for our coven for the entire current generation. You jump into a new body in the future and thus begins the hunt for you again by the generation in that time."

"I'm like cattle to you people," Maleny scowled, "Something to increase your power supply, are you kidding me?"

"You signed up for this-"

"No, I didn't!" Maleny snapped, "Lilith tricked me! I thought I was going to help her and in return she'd help me but that wasn't the case at all. She found the loneliest of the village to use for her own evil purposes. She promised me eternal life so that I could spend it with-"

"With a man that can't even admit his own feelings?" Riley scoffed at the idea, "C'mon Maleny. You've been at this cycle for centuries and when exactly has Klaus Mikaelson ever declared his love for you? Hm?" he leaned forwards and put a hand behind his hear.

Maleny glared at him, gritting her teeth in frustration and anger, "You don't know anything about me nor him."

"I don't need to have known you for centuries. I learned plenty from what I saw in this short amount of time," Riley laughed to himself and straightened up, "He'll never love you again, Maleny. You will leave this place and he'll move on and find himself someone else, just like he always has in the past. Face it: you're a nuisance to him. You're the past and you should've stayed like that for him."

Maleny could feel the hot tears pricking her eyes with every word Riley uttered to her. She didn't want to believe in any of those things. If she was truly a nuisance for Klaus why would he spend so much time protecting her? Why would he offer his own home for her? She would not give Riley the satisfaction of seeing her broken down and in tears. That's exactly what he wanted.

"When Klaus realizes I'm gone and he knows it was because of you he is going to kill you," she warned in a low voice, "And I'm going to enjoy watching him do so."

Riley smirked, "Oh trust me, he'll have bigger problems to deal with than little ole you," he wondered if he should tell her as a parting gift what was about to happen to Klaus, Hayley and even poor Elijah if he got in the way.

"You're not getting away with this," Maleny repeated as she once again tried to fight the ropes.

"My dear," Cara turned around holding a very sharp, silver knife in a hand, "it's already in progress."

Maleny swallowed hard at the sight of the knife she knew was meant to plunge through her body.

~ 0 ~

Hours passed by in the compound and Genevieve seemed to be making progress on the spell. However, Francesca came rushing into the room looking panicked, "My people say Marcel is on the move, and he's bringing friends," she announced.

Klaus was still waiting to hear on Jackson so his mind barely had time to think, "Get Hayley and Cami to safety," he told Elijah before rushing off to tend to Marcel.

"Oh I am not going anywhere until I get word about my cousin," Cami raised a finger before Elijah could take a even a step towards her.

"And someone's got to watch Genevieve," Hayley moved beside Cami, both standing their ground against the Original.

"You should help Klaus," Francesca suggested to Elijah, "My brothers and their security detail won't be much against a vampire army. I'll stay with them."

"Just go," Cami sighed, "None of us are moving so don't waste time. Help your brother," Elijah had no choice but to leave them and go help Klaus. It wasn't long before they could all hear the fight going outside, "Is there reception in here?" Cami asked Hayley while frantically pacing back and forth.

"Yes," Hayley nodded, "and Jackson promised to call the moment they knew where Maleny was.

"Then why aren't they calling!?"

"Has your cousin gone missing?" Francesca asked, a hint of a smile on her face.

"Yes, got anything to do with that?" Cami turned on the woman.

"Absolutely not," Francesca shook her head, "I have no interest in that woman. She's a problem ready to happen."

"Why do you say that?" Hayley suspiciously asked.

"Because there's been several attempts of murders against her, clearly," Francesca shot her an irritated look.

Cami would've replied back if she wasn't too preoccupied thinking of Maleny's whereabouts. Hayley noticed it and moved to her side, "Cami, it's going to be okay - Maleny will come back."

But Cami had enough of just waiting around, "Riley," she spoke up, feeling her head get dizzy just at the thought of what the guy could do to her cousin. Riley had no memory of being detained by her and Elijah but it didn't mean Riley wasn't continuing with what ever plans they had.

"What is it?" Hayley raised an eyebrow.

"Riley's bad, he's very, very bad," Cami breathed rapidly, "He's going to kill her! We need to go!" but before she could make it to the door Francesca stopped her, "Let me go!"

"You go out there and you die," Francesca nodded to the ongoing fight on the other side, "or at the very least cost Elijah some injuries which will weaken him."

"I can't just stay in here when my cousin is in danger," Cami snatched her arm away from Francesca.

"But you don't know where she is either."

"The cemetery," Cami assumed and looked at Genevieve who was chanting the spell for the moonlight rings, "at a guess, anyways."

"A guess," Francesca repeated, "is not going to get your cousin back. You should wait for that call."

One of her guards entered the room, "Ms. Correa, we need to go. Your brothers are already headed out the back."

Just as Francesca turned to Genevieve, the ginger finished with the spell, "The stones are finished. I've done my part. Now, it's up to you."

Hayley took that as a go and went up to the table for the stones, "I'll get them to the Bayou."

"Actually," Francesca also moved up but with a hand held out for Genevieve, "she was talking to me."

"What's going on?" Cami knitted her brows together, "What are you-"

"Call it a side deal," Francesca shrugged as Genevieve gave her the stones,, "The point is, I'm taking the stones."

"You must be out of your mind if you think the humans will back you up against Klaus," Cami snapped.

"No," Francesca turned around and suddenly slit her guard's throat, "but I'm not human," she smirked before doubling over in pain.

Hayley recognized the symptoms and when Francesca looked up with yellow eyes and fangs, it wasn't hard to conclude, "Werewolf…"

"You've got to be kidding me," Cami blinked.

"I'm like you, Hayley. And now, I'm gonna take back my town!" Francesca laughed.

"Like hell you are!" Hayley charged for the woman but was knocked out by a spell from Genevieve's part.

"Oh my God!" Cami went up to Hayley and tried to help her but was caught by Francesca with a hand at the neck, "Let go-"

"No," Genevieve spoke up, "she's mine," she declared firmly, "Your cousin owes me and I know just how to take my revenge."

"All yours, then," Francesca dropped Cami carelessly and took the rest of the stones with her before she left.

"You've seriously lost it," Cami declared as she stood back up, angrily facing Genevieve.

However the comments didn't seem to harm Genevieve in any way, "It's a shame Maleny will never see what she caused," she slowly approached Cami.

"What do you mean?" Cami started backing away from the approaching ginger.

"I don't know anything, honest, but I'm pretty sure your cousin is either dead already or going to die," Genevieve extended a hand towards the blonde.

"Genevieve…" Cami began.

But Genevieve balled her hand into a fist and swung to the side, making Cami's neck snap and killing the blonde instantly.

~ 0 ~

Everything on the other side of the room had gone to hell. Elijah finally been overpowered by Francesca's newly triggered werewolves brothers. Klaus had inexplicably been taken down by a spell cast by Genevieve during a fight with Marcel, which then allowed for Marcel to return to the compound. All his guys who'd signed up to fight had been bitten down by Francesca and her group. He eventually found Elijah inside the side room placing down a lifeless Cami on the table.

"I would think before you step towards us," came the snarkish threat from Elijah, "Hayley is missing, care to elaborate?"

"It wasn't me," Marcel promised, "I only had interest in the moonlight stones and you know it. But Cami…" his eyes rested upon the blonde who seemed very dead, "...what...what happened?"

"I imagine it's the work of Francesca or Genevieve, doesn't matter which one because they'll both die for this."

"But she's…" Marcel finally came inside the room and stopped on the other side of the table.

"She'll be okay," Elijah whispered, "She had my blood in her system from earlier. It'll just take some time for her to wake up."

"So she'll be okay," Marcel managed or genuine smile for his innocent friend.

Elijah took a moment to study Marcel's appearance and frankly he became disappointed the man was still with a beating heart and walking, "Where is my brother?"

"I don't know, he started acting all hybrid crazy like he was in pain," Marcel shrugged, "Didn't look normal to me but I took my chance and ran."

"You will pay for this," Elijah warned as he headed out the room, "but first I must find Klaus and Hayley."

"And Cami?" Marcel came after him.

"Will wake up and realize what's going on," Elijah finished with the obvious, "I have missing family to find. You wouldn't happen to know about Maleny?"

"No, but I did hear about some sacrifice happening sometime at morning - although maybe that's for Klaus's kid."

"I've got to find them," Elijah muttered and hurried on his way.

~ 0 ~

Morning rose and the unfortunate had happened. Hayley had gone into labor and was quickly killed by Monique. All this Klaus had been forced to watch and yet unable to help neither Hayley nor his daughter. After the baby had taken, he was released from the spell keeping him away but was knocked out until Elijah found him and Hayley's corpse.

At the cemetery, sacrifices were being prepared.

"You evil bitch!" Maleny screamed as Cara dragged a knife down her arm, "I'm going to kill you!"

"It's only to begin the sacrifice," Cara was unaffected by the threats thrown at her and finished with the knife at the base of Maleny's palm, "Such a refined voice and such a foul language. Any person who knew Karina Sage would be able to tell she wasn't herself."

"Who's Karina?" Maleny raised an eyebrow, momentarily distracted from writhing pain.

"The actual owner of this body," Cara moved to the other side of the table and poked Maleny's forearm with the tip of the knife, "She's an actual - distant cousin - of the O'Connell's."

Maleny scowled at the revelation, "But I've seen the photos for myself and this body was not in any of them."

"Like I said, she was a distant cousin," Cara sighed, "Actually adopted, if you like the ironic's. But barely in touch with her family."

"And then I stole her body," Maleny said quietly, the guilt immensely rising.

"And then we found you," Cara said casually, "It's the cycle, sweetheart."

"How do you even find me?" Maleny looked around the awful room, "It's doubt some stupid spell can tell you a body's been infiltrated by another soul."

Cara lifted Maleny's golden chained necklace, "Hidden in plain sight and placed with a perception filter only our coven can detect at first glance. Every body you go into, this little thing follows. Call it a beacon if you'd like."

"So anywhere I end up, you'll find me," Maleny whispered, her eyes narrowing, "What would it take to stop it?"

Cara laughed and finally dug the knife down the surface skin of Maleny's wrist, careful not to hit any veins. Maleny screamed as the knife tore through her skin and the fouled the language escaped her lips once more.

~ 0 ~

The cemetery became center for the world of chaos and magic. The Mikaelson brothers found themselves stuck within an illusion spell making the tombs like a maze in which they would probably never get out. Their belief was the baby was the only thing left to save - Hayley was dead, and Maleny was still uncalled for. Frustration and anger were taking over when they repeatedly passed the same tombs and gravestones.

It skyrocketed when they heard the screams of Maleny echoing from the tomb room she was in.

Klaus got himself on top of a nearby tomb, overlooking the almost infinite number of tombs, "MALENY!?" he screamed in an equal volume, anxiously scanning the area.

~ 0 ~

Maleny finally stopped screaming when the knife left her shoulder, and just in time to hear Klaus's call. Cara also heard and immediately turned around to the entrance of the room.

Maleny tried fighting out of her restraints, shouting back, "Klaus! Klaus, I'm here!" she relentlessly called, "I'm here! Please, I'm here!"

Once Cara checked the immediate perimeters of the tomb, she returned with a clean smirk on her face, "He's nowhere to be seen. There's a spell in the air," she set her hands on the edges of the table and studied the oozing blood dripping from Maleny's arms, "I believe the sacrifice of Klaus Mikaelson's child is about to he begin."

"What?" Maleny frowned, "That's not possible, Hayley's not due yet."

"And yet here we are," Cara smiled wickedly, "There's a spell cast to keep unwanted visitors stuck in a maze, so the chances of being saved are very low," she had a good laugh, a sinister one at that, "Oh, if only they knew," she shook her head.

Maleny narrowed her eyes at the old woman, "Knew what?"

Cara came to a stop in front of her, "It wouldn't matter to you anymore, my darling. What I'd tell you would simply break your heart and for what? You wouldn't remember by tomorrow anyways."

Maleny let her head gently rest back on the table, no longer putting up a fight, "If the baby is here and in danger then I don't want to be saved. She's the priority."

"How heroic," Cara feigned a pout.

"Just because I probably won't be saved doesn't mean you'll get to live," Maleny informed with her own wicked smile, "because when Klaus eventually finds me, or my corpse, he'll know who to blame. And then you'll want to run. But running won't save you, none of you…" and she was 100% sure there would be revenge taken if she were to die again. She only wished she could be a part of it.

~ 0 ~

"Maleny! Mal! Maleny!" Klaus kept calling but the screams of said brunette had vanished minutes ago.

Elijah sighed, his patience barely a thin line anymore, "Klaus, stop, she obviously can't hear you."

"But she's here," Klaus dropped on his feet to the ground, "and we'll find her."

"Of course we will," came the assurance of a new voice, that of Davina, "because I know where she is," she strolled in confidently.

"How did you get in?" Elijah soon questioned the mystery and even glanced around her to see if there was a way around the maze that perhaps she'd left behind.

"I've paid my dues to the ancestors," Davina replied with hands on hips, "I can walk through the spell cast here."

"Can you undo it?"

"That is a problem I prefer not to get into, but no, I can't. But I can take care of Maleny on my own while you go to the baby," Davina assured.

"How do you plan taking down a coven bent on sacrifice?" Klaus demanded.

"I'm a Harvest Girl - with a plan," she smirked.

"Then get to it!" Klaus pointed for Davina to get a move on, "I can't possibly split myself into two and save my daughter and Maleny so I am choosing to trust you because I know your genuine care for Maleny," he also knew Maleny would never forgive him for choosing to go after her rather his own daughter. He was, unfortunately, going to follow Maleny's wishes and not put her above his daughter.

Davina gave a nod, for once on the same page with him, "Then let's split," she declared and started moving. She made it a couple steps ahead when she suddenly stopped and glanced back, "By the way, there is one loophole for this type of spell; a sire - as well as killing the witches."

"Davina this is no time to be cryptic," Elijah scolded her.

Davina just shrugged and gave a small point to something behind them. The two brothers looked back to find a very distraught and weary Hayley standing feet away from them.

"I want my daughter," she declared in a trembling voice, both of anger and tiredness. She remembered everything that happened during labor. She remembered the girls and Genevieve taking her daughter from her right before killing her without mercy. They needed to die, and they would.

"How are you here?" Elijah was baffled by the sight.

"I woke up in the church. I felt this hunger…" Hayley placed a hand over her flat stomach, "...I knew what I needed. I can feel her. She's here. I can feel my baby."

"You died with the baby's blood still in your system," Klaus began to piece the puzzle together, "She's in transition."

"Which means she has to drink the blood of the child if she is to survive," Elijah said, feeling uneasy about that idea.

"To be reborn a hybrid."

Hayley sighed, thinking all this as a waste of time, "I don't care about me. I'm gonna go find our daughter," and she went on her way before either brother could say something more.

~ 0 ~

In no time had Davina reached the Dawson's tomb property and was just in time to see the sacrifice begin, "STOP!" she yelled.

"Davina!" Maleny exclaimed, stunned to see her coming to the rescue.

The entire living Dawson bloodline stood inside the room and promptly turned their attention to the young witch interrupting their sacrifice. Riley, who stood by Cara, went around the table to greet their new visitor, "Welcome, Davina, come to see the show?"

Davina gritted her teeth angrily and balled her fists, "I knew there was something bad about you."

"You know what they say, it's always the quiet ones," Riley shrugged and flashed a brief smile.

"Davina, just go," came the pleads of Maleny from the table, "I know Klaus's baby is here too. Go help them instead. I don't want to be saved."

"Well tough," Davina straightened up, her voice firm, "because I'm here to save you whether you want to or not."

"You?" Riley lifted an eyebrow, "Against all of us?" he gestured with an arm to his entire family who stood with their hands towards Davina, prepared to battle.

"Me," Davina held her hands out towards them all, "against all of you," she declared.

"Davina," Maleny managed to get a word in before a fight sprung in the room.

~ 0 ~

As only a mother would, Hayley managed to find her newborn daughter within only minutes after arriving at the cemetery. And the moment she saw where her daughter was, her blood went cold - even if she was already technically dead, "NOO!" she screamed as Genevieve lifted a knife over the baby.

Elijah wasted no time in grabbing urn nearby which he then threw directly at Genevieve. Her hand was forced to drop the athame to the ground. The two young witches with her, Monique and Abigail, gathered together against the nearing intruders and brought in their ancestors to block the way.

"You fools!" Monique sneered, "To come against us in our place of power in our strongest hour? You don't face three, you face us all!"

The trio were able to see hundreds off the ancestors blocking their way, but it didn't discourage them from fighting against it. Klaus and Hayley took opposite directions to get near Genevieve at the altar while Elijah continued going straight against the ancestors. On her way, Hayley saw Genevieve picking up the athame again and rushed to stop her in a fist-sight. Hayley managed to win and knocked the knife out of Genevieve's hand.

On the other side, Klaus found himself cornered by the twins of Papa Tunde, the ones he himself killed so long ago. He was thrown into a tomb, shattering it to pieces, and landed on the ground.

Monique and Abigail weren't getting any weaker as they successfully blocked Klaus's and Elijah's way to the altar. Klaus had enough of the nonsense and broke off a spike from an iron fence. It was plunged through the ancestors and impaled Abigail against a tomb wall through the stomach. With the severed connection, Monique lost as well. She still attempted to get to the altar to finish the sacrifice herself when she was impaled next.

Genevieve was left.

And while she inflicted telepathic pain to Hayley, Klaus, and Elijah, she headed back for the altar to finish it once and for all.

"Nooo!" Hayley cried as Genevieve raised the athame with her free hand, ready to plunge it through the baby.

Then a gunshot was fired and Genevieve went down to the ground with a bullet through her head.

"I'm never one for revenge, but this was for my cousin," the newly transitioned Cami declared and lowered the gun she'd acquired on the streets, "and a little for myself too."

Hayley was then able to finally get to her daughter and take hold of her. Klaus went up himself to see if everything was alright with the baby, and when he was sure he was able to shift his attention to something else - someone else.

"Cami, how are you feeling?" Elijah was questioning the blonde with concern, the first thing he'd done was to check for the daylight ring she'd clearly needed to be outside.

"Well, to be frank, not very good," Cami looked around, "I woke up and none of you were there, which was to be expected since Hayley was going to be taken, but then I found Marcel and he gave me human blood...and he's pretty badly shaken, you know."

"He deserved it," Klaus declared as he joined them.

"I know, I know, but he helped me and he helped Davina get here. He also said he'd help Maleny, now that he really knows about her."

"I'm going to go find her," Klaus muttered and began his way down tombs.

"You don't even know where she is, brother," Elijah called and managed to stop Klaus, "Illusion or not, you don't know where the Dawsons reside."

"Then I will look through every damn tomb if I have to," Klaus declared and turned to start the task. Of course he would only focus in on where a fight was originating from through his hearing.

"I'll come with," Cami offered herself up fast, "I came here to help and if my cousin is still out there then I have to keep going," Klaus was in no mood to have disagreements so he simply nodded, "Be careful," Cami warned Elijah and Hayley, "Francesca is taking charge in the city and we're probably not on her good list. Plus, witches will be looking for your baby."

"We'll be fine," Elijah assured her and Klaus, "Go get Maleny."

And with that, they all split.

With the spell now broken, the cemetery was easier to navigate through. While Klaus wasn't able to tap into any loudness, he was able to pick up the scent of blood that easily led them to the correct crypt.

"Davina!" Cami called as she and Klaus went around the dead corpses on the ground of the entrance, "Maleny!"

"Maleny!" Klaus shouted and hurried down the entrance.

"Oh God," Cami saw Davina thrown on the ground, hopefully only unconscious, "Davina!" she rushed to the teenager.

"Maleny…" the name came out in a light breath from Klaus. His mouth went dry as he got view of the corpse laid over the table.

Maleny's chest was covered in dried blood, though fresh blood was still oozing out of her other cuts on her arms. It appeared a knife had gone through her chest which killed her. The rope that had once been around Maleny's body seemed to be ripped and dangled on the edges of the table.

"Davina, wake up," Cami shook Davina gently after knowing for sure the girl was still alive, "You have to tell us what happened here."

Klaus brushed a strand of hair from Maleny's face and for the first time in the day hr felt real tears welling inside his eyes. She'd come asking for his help and the one time he actually wanted to help someone...this happened. His daughter was saved, but Maleny was gone again.

"Davina, wake up, c'mon," Cami sighed as she relentlessly shook Davina.

"Forget it," snapped Klaus, taking one last look of Maleny before turning away from the table, "it's over."

"What?" Cami looked up from Davina, confused.

"Maleny's gone, the curse continued."

"No," Cami stood up and looked around, finding nearly everyone on the ground either dead or close to it, "She can't be gone. She isn't...Davina fought-"

"And she failed," Klaus interjected angrily, "I trusted the girl for once and look what she did?" he gestured to the catastrophic room, "Maleny was sacrificed and she's gone now."

"But she can't be..." Cami looked around the unconscious people on the floor, able to hear their heartbeats as proof of their life still being intact.

"Maleny was sacrificed, we lost!" Klaus shouted at her then also took a glance at the remainder of the living Dawsons, "and it's their fault..." he balled a fast.

Cami knew better than to keep arguing with Klaus when he was anger - and by now he was furious. For the first time he seemed heartbroken, and it was honestly a sight to see. In the silence, Klaus took his leave and never once looked back. But she knew what that eerie silence meant: revenge. He knew there were still people alive in the crypt and she was sure that a revenge plan was already forming in his mind. And it would be a cruel one. He would never let them die so easily.

Cami sighed and moved up to the table where her cousin laid dead. The more she looked at Maleny, the more tears pricked her eyes, "I'm so sorry, Mal," she sniffled, "I failed you," behind her, Davina began to stir awake, and overheard the words of Cami, "We should've done something more. I'm sorry. By now you're probably in the future, inhabiting some other body…"

"No…" Davina mumbled and fluttered her eyes open, "...Cami…" hearing her name, Cami turned around fast and returned to Davina, "...Cami," Davina slowly sat upright with Davina's head.

"Hey, it's alright, take it easy," Cami studied a small cut on the side of Davina's head, "What happened here?"

"I fought..." Davina let her eyes drift around the room as her memories rushed back to her mind, "...and I won."

"But Mal's dead," Cami helped her to her feet, "She was sacrificed again."

Davina went up to the table and studied the corpse of Maleny, however she didn't look sad like everyone else. Cami felt a bit indignant to see the girl smiling like nothing had happened.

"I did it," Davina proudly glanced at Cami, "I broke the curse."

"Okay, what are you talking about?" Cami demanded, "Maleny is dead. I'm looking at her right now!"

"No, you're looking at the body," Davina turned her attention back to the corpse, "Maleny Rowan, is very much alive," while Davina grinned Cami could only stare in confusion.

~ 0 ~

"You're sending her away?" Cami was in distraught watching Hayley pack clothes for her newborn daughter.

Cami brought Davina to the compound to explain what really happened. Unfortunately, Klaus was finishing up with some loose ends with Marcel and couldn't yet here the story. So, it was Elijah who was hearing what Davina had to say in the study room meanwhile Hayley took care of the baby.

"There's no other way," Hayley excused the idea everyone had agreed with earlier, "We infiltrated and we heard the remaining witches talk about the 'decree' of the sacrifice."

"So?" Cami raised an eyebrow, still not understand what possibly could take over Hayley to give up her own child.

"It was Esther," Hayley dropped a blanket to the ground as she turned to the surprised Cami, "Esther wants my baby dead and she'll have witches in the city on alert. My baby will become the prey for some ridiculous hunt game and I will not allow that!" by the time she finished there were tears in her eyes, "I grew up unloved and in a warzone. I'd rather die than let her go through the same things."

"Okay, I get it," Cami promised, "but about the 'dead' thing...did you…"

"A prick on the finger," Hayley mumbled and picked up the blanket from the ground, harshly folding it, "and a drop of blood, worst thing I had to do in my life."

"I know," Cami made a face as she thought of the first taste of human blood she had to take earlier, "not exactly the highlight of my day. But at least we're all okay now - in what fits."

"I'm sorry about Maleny," Hayley said after a moment of silence, "The little Klaus told us earlier was enough to...well…"

"Actually, there's something he really needs to know," Cami stepped forwards, "because we didn't lose."

Now it was Hayley's turn to be confused, "What? But he said she was sacrificed."

"I know, and that's what I believed in the beginning but Davina had a plan and she did it."

"Okay," Hayley sighed and placed the folded blanket on the bed, "you're going to need to explain everything."

"I think I can do a better job at it," Davina called from the doorway, still wearing her wide grin from the cemetery.

"And look who arrived," Elijah came up behind the girl with Klaus.

"I am in mood for such," Klaus declared and went on his way, "Marcel agreed to our terms, the stillborn was delivered and I healed him. Now we must give up our daughter for everyone to think she's dead-"

"You have to listen!" Davina came out of the room chasing the hybrid, "Listen!" she called but Klaus kept going, "I saved her!" she spilled there and then, "I saved Maleny, I swear I did. She's alive. I don't know where she is but she's alive."

Klaus stopped and turned around, his anger and pain still struggling to fade, "If I were you I'd watch your words because one wrong thing and I'll k-"

"And you'll kill me, yes I know," Davina let the comment pass without argument because she knew he was in actual pain, "but this is serious and I'm being honest. Maleny didn't die."

"Brother you should listen," Elijah urged from behind with the others, "I've heard what she had to say and believe me, Maleny lives."

Klaus wasn't one to listen to people a lot but if Elijah said Maleny was alive then he would trust his brother, "Talk," he told Davina.

Davina nodded, "Jackson got to me last night and told me about the disappearance. It took a while but I got the spell to work by morning. Still, I couldn't take the Dawsons without a plan so I had think - and then it was weird. It was an ancestor, she helped me. She helped me figure it all out."

"An ancestor helped you?" Klaus was beginning to lose that trust in Elijah.

"Look, I know what they did to your baby but for some reason one of them helped me figure it out. So Jackson and I got to work on it - and it worked. I went into the Dawson's tomb and went up against them all. It wasn't easy…"

"Take her down!" Riley ordered his remaining family with a scream.

Davina had managed to bring down numerous of the family members with mind pain but she knew eventually her own power would begin to fade against the entire family.

"No! No! Get away from me!" Maleny cried as she saw Cara nearing her with the knife in hand, "Get the hell away from me!" she wanted to be brave but in the end she was terrified for dear life.

Davina felt powerless against the cries of Maleny and just when someone managed to grab her arm a new sense of strength filled her surroundings. She felt an ancestor with her, not one of the Dawsons, but a very strong one - the same one who'd showed her the way. With it, Davina created a blow of powerful wind that slammed everyone against the walls - save for Cara and Riley.

"Davina!" Maleny couldn't help the cry she gave out when Cara raised the knife over her body.

"NO!" Davina screamed and thrust her hands forwards, slamming Cara had against the table which had consisted of the tools for the sacrifice. Cara's head was the first to make contact with the table making it difficult to survive the plunge.

Riley looked between his dead aunt and Davina, confused on his next moves. Davina, on the other hand, felt quite at home with her new ancestor buddy. Suddenly, Riley dashed for the fallen knife intending to finish the sacrifice himself.

"Get away!" Davina ordered and flung him to the ground, successfully knocking him out.

"Woah," Maleny studied Davina curiously, "what are you channeling?"

Davina felt the ancestor finally leave her and so hurried up to the table, ripping off the ropes with her bare hands, uncaring how many burns and pricks she received, "It's okay, I've got a plan."

"Davina what are you-"

"Davina, hey!" Jackson came running in with a young woman behind him, looking pretty lost, "I got one!"

"This is seriously not what I expected," a blonde woman gazed upon the room full of unconscious people on the floor with only mild surprise.

"Who's she?" Maleny frowned at the woman.

"We know how to break the curse," Davina declared with a wide grin, "It's more of a loophole but still a definite way to get out."

"You mean it?"

"Yes, you have to die in a human way at the hands of a human," Davina pointed at the young blonde, "and she's going to do it."

"Hi," the blonde gave a wave as she came up to the table, "You make one werewolf friend and you enter the world of magic."

"She's a good friend," Jackson assured as he ripped off the ropes binding Maleny, "and she's willing to do this for us."

"Thank you, Jackson," Davina said, "You can leave and go find your friends whom I'm sure need you a lot right now.  Hayley will be alright, I know it."

"Good luck," Jackson said to her and gave a nod to Maleny before leaving.

"Are you sure, Davina?" Maleny was sitting up facing the two women on either side of the table.

"Would you rather live in this body forever?" Davina countered with.

"No…"

"Then prepare to die," Davina motioned to the blonde to get the knife on the ground, "Now when you wake up, you'll be in your body. I have no idea where that may be but wherever you are, come home."

Maleny nodded, "Okay. And if it doesn't work-"

"It's going to-"

"But if it doesn't," Maleny raised a hand to stop Davina, "It's not your fault. It's no one's fault. It's mine for starting this stupid cycle."

"It's Klaus's fault for not turning you," Davina tried humoring through her sad smile and shiny eyes.

"I suppose, back then, he loved me too much," Maleny shook her head then paused, taking a deep sigh, "But if this doesn't work and I just...die, then when you see Klaus, tell him I...I'm glad he has his baby, because I know he'll get her back. Tell him that I'm happy for him. And..." she smiled to herself as she spoke her last words, "...I think I would've liked to have heard more of his pretty words for me..."

"But Mal-"

"One more thing," Maleny pointed at her warningly, "And this one's for you, Davina, if I do die, then consecrate this body here so that I can become an ancestor and look after Klaus' baby from beyond. She's not gonna have many ancestors on her side so I want her to have at least me."

"Mal," Davina sniffled as the woman continued to talk about such things.

"Promise me you'll tell Klaus all that I have said. Promise me."

"Okay," Davina finally agreed and nodded her head, taking a deep breath to begin their task. She looked over to Jackson's friend, "Okay, then, I'm going to chant the spell and you're going to, um, you're going to..."

"Kill me," Maleny sighed, "Yeah, get on with it."

The blonde finally picked up the knife from the ground and Maleny relaid herself back on the table. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, praying to everything she believed in that it would work. And it if it didn't, the only consolation she needed was that she would finally be free.

The blonde raised the knife while Davina fiercely chanted her Latin words, both ignoring the strong wind around them the spell caused.

The knife plunged down through the chest.

"You had some stranger murder her!?" Klaus nearly yelled at Davina, almost charging for her as well if Elijah had restrained him back.

"No!" Davina quickly interjected, "Well, yes, but...we didn't murder her, we...we broke the curse, didn't you hear? Maleny's alive."

"Don't ignore that," Cami quickly cut in, "Maleny is alive and we need to find her."

"But she could be anywhere," Hayley reminded, "How do we begin?"

"I volunteer to go," Cami quickly raised her hand, "Anywhere, I'm there."

"First we need to send the baby away," Klaus reminded, slowly recomposing himself from the story. He shook Elijah from him and started racking his mind for a perfect solution.

"Ooh, I can go," Cami blinked as if she'd just gotten an idea, "Ooh, yeah, this is good. Klaus, who were you going to call to take the baby?"

"...Rebekah," the hybrid admitted quietly, though received no complaints for the chosen.

"And I imagine she'll go somewhere far, like Europe?" Cami stepped towards him.

"I suppose so."

"Then I'll go too," Cami declared and looked back at the others who were staring at her waiting for an explanation, "Maleny can be anywhere and none of us have a way to get some spell to locate her. Rebekah will always need to be on the run which is perfect to find someone. I can go with her and look for Maleny there."

"And we can search here," Elijah was beginning to understand and agree with her.

"Here," Davina walked towards Klaus holding out Maleny's gold necklace, "I think, though I know I'm gonna regret it tomorrow, that you should hold onto this. She told me to tell you a lot of stuff in case she died but I guess now I don't need to because she'll be able to tell you herself when she comes back."

Klaus gently took the necklace into his hands and swallowed hard, "We need to get moving," he told the others and looked up, "Now," clearly he had no patience to wait for Maleny to show up and absolutely no one was going to call him out on it.

Maleny was somewhere out there and he intended to find her no matter what.

~ 0 ~

In a neatly-kept room with opened windows laid a dark brown coffin at the center. The top of the coffin was glass which allowed the viewer a clear look inside. It was there that Maleny opened her eyes in her original body. She was groggy but she saw the small, confined space she was crammed in.

She put her hands on the cover and tried pushing it up, "Hello?" she called, her voice cracked and almost a whisper from disuse. She realized the coffin was locked so she mustered enough strength to call again, "Hello!" she started hitting the glass to create noise and attention from whoever was nearby, "Someone get me out of here!" she managed to shout in a hoarse tone. She furiously hit the glass harder, "HELP ME!"

[saiilorstars]

The Girl in the Forest

Chapter 8: An Unblinking Death

// Story Masterlist //

Fandom: The Originals

Pairings: Klaus Mikaelson x Original Female Character

Pronunciation of OC’s name: Ma-leh-nee

No real warnings for now!

Requested tag: @queenmj10

~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~

Chapter Summary: Maleny and Cami must say goodbye to their uncle Kieran. Maleny also begins to remember more of her past lives.

"So you're telling me you're actually a witch stuck inside a body that's not yours?" Cami believed she'd gotten nearly everything explained to her over the couple of days she'd stayed with Maleny. Still, one had to be sure - there had been plenty of information to retain.

"Long story short, yeah," Maleny nodded. She sat on her bed, against the headboard, nervously watching her blonde cousin.

Cami had stayed for a couple days at the compound to help Maleny get through her murder attempts as well as to finally listen to the truth. After listening and listening she could finally comprehend all of Maleny's odd background.

"This is something you should mention at firsthand to family," Cami stopped her pacing to face Maleny, "Instead of letting arguments happen."

"I'm sorry," Maleny honestly said, "but at first I wasn't sure."

"That doesn't matter anymore, I guess," Cami took a moment to gather herself and think clearly, "Now we just need to find your original body and break this curse. How long do we have again?"

"I suppose until someone kills me," Maleny shrugged, preferring not to find out, "Or until I age and die."

"Well," Cami sat at the foot of the bed, "this is one hell of an opportunity to fix it. All spells have loopholes and the fact you remembered quicker than the last is a warning you need to get a move on," Cami was convinced the fact Maleny kept her original name in her current body and that she remembered far quicker of her last was some type of loophole the spell gave.

"I only have one real clue right now," Maleny admitted and quickly got Cami to listen, "Genevieve said someone named Emily Cordera was looking for Maya Sterling in 1919. What ever she needed, it's a possibility she got it."

Cami tried to recall the name of 'Maya' because she was sure she'd heard it somewhere in the past.

"The woman, Maya, she was no ordinary human…Klaus thought her to be dead," Marcel sighed, speaking to Cami sitting beside hi,, "I regained consciousness and just as I was about to leave…she gasped awake."

"She survived being hung like a prop?" Cami blinked with wide eyes, "But…but how…?"

"I have no bloody idea," Marcel honestly said, "But we got out and the more I pestered her on how she survived, the more she avoided me. I kept a close eye on her for the next couple days...but then she disappeared."

"Just like that?" Cami was now intrigued but even that wouldn't make her disbelieve in her cousin.

"I don't know…" Marcel replied in a way that let Cami know even he wasn't fully over the mystery.

Cami's eyes widened, "Oh my God, was Maya this ginger woman Klaus was with in 1919? Here, right? In the Quarter?"

"Yeah, why?" Maleny raised an eyebrow, confused as to how Cami knew all that without having been told.

Cami was reluctant to answer, nervously biting her nail, "Do you know how she died?"

"Klaus said she was killed by his father and set to hung like a play prop in the old theater."

Cami stared at Maleny for a minute in silence, understanding that not even Klaus knew what really happened to Maya. Maleny knew Cami was hiding something and another mystery she would not handle.

"What is it?" she asked the blonde.

"Um...Maya didn't, uh...didn't actually die at the theater," Cami slowly confessed.

Maleny now looked at Cami with narrowed eyes, "How would you know?"

"Because I had a witness tell me," Cami answered nervously, "Marcel."

"What?"

"He once told me that Maya woke up just like he did. The two got out but after a couple of days..Maya disappeared."

Maleny considered the possible idea on the side, "Well...I supposed she could have avoided death like me. But disappeared?" she certainly did not like that last part, "I'd like to know why so I don't repeat the same mistakes."

"Marcel never knew why," Cami promised.

"So...I disappeared again," Maleny realized with a slow breath, "Something happened...but what?"

"Well maybe it does have to do with that woman you told me about. Emily?"

"Definitely," Maleny said without a second doubt, "but how am I going to find out? Klaus already thinks it's not real so he's not going to look in that direction. What am I going to do?"

Cami smirked, "Lucky for you, I'm no Klaus. I think you're right. And, if this Emily married here then it probably means she was buried here too which would mean…?" she waited for Maleny to put the pieces together.

"There has to be a tombstone with her name on it!" Maleny grinned, "Oh, that's good!"

Cami nodded and headed for the doors to peer out, "You know, no one's home and probably won't be for another hour or so. We could easily go and-" suddenly, Maleny's cellphone went off.

"Probably Klaus," Maleny sighed as she reached for her cellphone on the nightstand, "I swear it's like he's psychic knowing I'd try to escape."

Cami rolled her eyes, "You can't listen to him all the time you know."

"It's not him," Maleny was reading off the ID. She took the call and motioned to Cami to wait, "Riley? Listen, I'm so sorry about what happened at the party but-"

"Don't worry about it, Mal, there's more important things," Riley responded with a solemn tone.

"What is it?" Maleny picked up on it fast.

"It's Kieran...and he's not doing so well anymore."

Maleny quickly straightened up, "What's happening? What's-"

"Mal, I'm going to be frank, I don't really see him going past a day anymore…"

Maleny's heart nearly stopped, her eyes landing on Cami, "We'll be right there, hold on," she quickly hung up and jumped from the bed.

Confused, Cami could only watch from the doorway as Maleny scrambled to get her bag, "What's going on? What did Riley want?"

"It's uncle Kieran," Maleny swiped off the cellphone from the bed and stuffed it in her bag, "He's not doing so hot."

"So what is it this time?" Cami blocked Maleny from the doorway, "And you better not lie, Mal. I'm sick of being lied to."

Maleny looked to the side, "...Riley says he won't make it past today," as bad as it was Cami did deserve to know what was really happening.

Cami's eyes widened and instinctively her arms dropped from the doorway, "That bad?"

Maleny sighed and went back for Cami's bag on the bed, "We have to go fast. Klaus is tricky and a liar. If he says he'll be back in three hours, he'll be back in two. We need to go," she returned and yanked Cami out of the room.

~ 0 ~

When the two women arrived at the church attic, they found Riley trying to give Kieran a glass of water. The man was sitting on a chair at the center and rambling on.

"Just drink, please," Riley was trying to say but Kieran was in a fit of delusions.

"No. Uh! I know who you are, you hateful bitch," he shook his head, "Oh, Sean, I tried to help you. I tried to save you, but this city... this city is full of monsters."

"Uh, yeah," Riley sheepishly glanced at Maleny, though seemingly happy she'd arrived, "Mal," he turned around and put the glass down before coming over to greet her.

"Riley, what is it?" Maleny swallowed hard, knowing there wouldn't be good news but she was still clinging to a little bit of hope.

"Like I said, Mal, he's getting worse," Riley sighed.

"But this can't be it," Cami declared and took steps towards Kieran, "it can't be," at the same time, Kieran began having a seizure. Cami dashed to help him but found he was too heavy, "Help me lay him on his side!"

Kieran momentarily calmed and looked at his niece, "Cami."

That sparked enough hope in Cami to believe he was still in there, "Uncle Kieran?"

But the moment didn't last long and he returned to his delusional state, "What do you want from me?" he picked himself up and backed into a corner.

"You saw that, right?" Cami glanced at the others, specifically Maleny, "Mal, you saw it. It was just for a second…"

"I...I think I did," Maleny couldn't be so sure but she wasn't going to lose hope, "How can we get him to do that again?"

"Ladies, I'm not sure it was," Riley slowly told them, seeing a new emotion in Cami's eyes which he could tell wouldn't lead to good things, "Remember, the curse is complex with many layers."

"But if the real personality is still within, no matter how deep, there's a chance to get him back," Maleny breathed, "We just have to think about a way."

"And I think I have the way," Cami announced, her hand reaching into her bag for her cellphone, "But we'll need some help."

~ 0 ~

Whilst Cami waited below the attic for the requirements of her plan to arrive, Maleny and Riley remained by the doorway of the attic. The two hadn't seen nor talked to each other since the day of the witches' festival. Needless to say, things were a bit awkward between them. It didn't help that Kieran had been restrained to a heater across the room.

"How are you feeling?" Riley asked, probably the only question that was safe for them.

"Um," Maleny crossed her arms, taking a breath before completely answering, "I suppose right now I'm a little better. You should have seen me that first night, though - I was a mess."

Riley dimly smiled, "I would have liked to help but before I knew it you were nowhere in sight at the party."

Maleny raised her eyebrows, realizing he was right, "I'm sorry. Klaus has this tendency to speed out of the room. I didn't even realize it, I'm sorry."

"No, no, it's okay. You were safe," Maleny unintentionally flinched when his hand touched her cheek, "That's all that matters."

"Th-thank you," Maleny managed a smile back, "Um," she turned her head to the side, forcing his hand away, "so listen, I don't know exactly what Klaus told you back at the party but whatever he told you I'm sorry."

Riley shrugged, apparently not as conflicted as Maleny thought, "I don't think you should be apologizing to me. He didn't say anything bad. You were on a date, nothing strange about that."

"It wasn't a real date," Maleny found herself saying before she thought.

Riley seemed to take the words in a good way judging by his smile, "Are you sure?"

"Yes, it was…" Maleny sighed, wondering if she was doing well in telling him the truth, "It was a deal I made with Klaus to get my mother's spell book back. It was just a silly thing, nothing more."

"Well, that, um...that makes things look a little better," Riley sheepishly stared at her.

Maleny thought it was best for there to be no misunderstandings between them. After all, Riley was doing everything he could to help Kieran. The least Maleny thought she should do was be honest.

"So where have you been all these days?" Riley asked, bringing her out of her thoughts.

"Oh, um," Maleny didn't know how to put 'I've been under house arrest' into words that didn't make it sound as bad as it was, "I've been...home…" that technically was not a lie.

"Home?" Riley already suspected there was more to it than he was being told.

"Yeah," Maleny sheepishly smiled, "Cami stayed with me too, to help me and stuff. And you are very welcomed to come by as well. I need to solve this curse before I'm murdered."

"Um, I don't think that's a good idea…" Riley rubbed his neck, "I get the feeling I'm not very welcomed at that place."

"You are," Maleny assured, "Stop by any time, okay?"

Riley was only able to nod when Cami arrived. Behind her was Josh the vampire, and an older man no one had ever seen before.

"What did you do?" Maleny asked Cami the moment she saw the new arrivals.

"For the record I am totally against this," informed Josh as he led the human man behind.

"Cami, I don't understand what you're trying to do here," Riley frowned, "but it's not going to end well."

Cami ignored the two and turned to Josh and the man, "He's compelled to forget everything after leaving right?" she asked Josh.

"Yeah," sighed Josh.

Cami nodded then spoke to the man, "Dr. Sheski, my uncle needs to be sedated. Something strong."

Sheski took a look at Kieran, "Sedation? He looks like he should be in an ICU," he went to get a better study.

"Um," Maleny scratched her head, "Yeah, he's kind of stuck in here."

Sheski was able to diagnose Kieran rather quickly, "This man is malnourished, severely dehydrated-"

Cami rolled her eyes, "Which is why you're here. But first- Doctor, what do you know about shock therapy?"

Maleny was stunned, "Cami!"

Cami knew what she was thinking and she was right, the method was wrong and dangerous...but it was the only option left.

Sheski seemed to agree with Maleny, "It's incredibly dangerous."

"But, it has been known to help treat cases of extreme psychosis," Cami reminded.

Seeing the doctor a bit hesitant, Josh ordered, "Answer the nice lady."

"We don't fully understand it yet, but, yes, in some patients, using electrical current to induce seizures can subvert a psychotic episode- in effect, rebooting the brain. But, only in the most extreme cases, do we even consider…"

"Cami, we can't," Maleny swallowed hard, "It's dangerous."

"Mal, time is running out. It's this or let the hex take him over," Cami sharply told her.

Maleny silently gave a nod. There was nothing left to do.

~ 0 ~

Kieran had been moved from the heater to the center of the room again, strapped and being prepped for ECT. Out of everyone Riley was the only one still continuously trying to stop it all.

"We're going to kill him," he was telling them, "Mal, you're smart, you have to stop it."

Maleny bit her lip as she looked at her uncle, "I...I think this is the only way."

"There's a special place in hell for your kind," Kieran told Josh as the teenager readied to gag him.

"Not the first time I've heard that one," he honestly said before gagging Kieran's mouth.

"Well, isn't this a gruesome little scene?" a different voice asked from the entrance of the room.

Maleny checked her watch and sighed, "Told you Cami - it's been one two hours and he said three."

Klaus was in no mood for her sarcasm, especially when she'd disobeyed his biggest order, "You were supposed to stay at the compound, Maleny," he strode in.

"And did you really expect me to listen?" Maleny raised an eyebrow, "I'm a little surprised, you're getting rusty."

Klaus harshly took her by the arm and dragged her to the side, leaving a very awkward air among the others, "You're not supposed to leave," Maleny rolled her eyes again.

"What are you doing here? How'd you even know I was here?"

"There wasn't anywhere else you'd be," but Klaus wasn't about to tell her he'd had someone do a locator spell for her - a very reluctant Davina, "We're going home."

"No, we're not," Maleny stepped away before he grabbed her again. She knew in less than a second he could have her out of the church, "We have to help uncle Kieran."

Klaus took a look at the priest and raised an eyebrow, "That's helping?"

"In a sense, yes," Maleny moved back to the others, "Look, Riley says we really don't have much time anymore."

And before he would be attacked Riley quickly defended himself, "But I also said I completely disagree with this," he gestured to the ECT preparement.

"First useful comment you can make," Klaus wasted no time to make a sarcastic remark, "But you realize you are the reason Maleny exposed herself? It will also be the reason of your demise."

"I didn't know she was under lockdown!" Riley exclaimed, huffing at the threat, "Though frankly, I can't see that working either. You can't have her locked up like some prisoner, you know-"

The words evaded Klaus' mind and instead charged for the man but Maleny quickly put herself in front of him, "No!" she pushed back with all her might, though in the back of her mind she also knew it wouldn't matter. No strength would ever outmatch Klaus', "We have to help my uncle!" she reminded him in a loud shout, "Klaus, please!"

Reluctantly, Klaus stopped and looked at Maleny, "This will not help him," he honestly told her.

"But we have to try," she weakly responded with then glanced at Cami, "Let's do it."

Cami had taken liberty of acquiring the ECT handles from the terrified doctor, "Let's," she moved to Kieran.

"We can always search for another way!" Riley insisted, "Spell books or something?"

"There isn't time," Maleny sighed.

"Maleny," Klaus took her arm again, gently making her turn, "your uncle is a good man. He shouldn't suffer."

"He's been suffering for weeks and now he's dying," Maleny took a deep breath, "This might be the only chance he's got. Don't interfere, Klaus," she warned him lastly.

Without hearing anyone else, Cami placed the electrodes against Kieran's temples, successfully shocking him. Kieran's screams were unbearable. One attempt became another, and another that moved the man to the bed for strength reasons. A heart monitor had been required as well. The last attempt knocked him out for a good while and when he woke up the first thing he saw was Cami.

"Cami," he said, sounding in relief. However, the moment lasted seconds before he returned to his agitation, "What the hell did you do to me?"

"But that was him!" Maleny blinked, rushing over to Cami's side, "It was him!"

"We have to do it again," Cami announced, surprising the others she was willing to keep going.

"You cannot be serious," Riley crossed his arms.

"He looks real bad, Cami," Josh agreed as he took a look at Kieran, "I don't think he'll last much longer if we keep it up."

"But that was something coherent. It's working," Cami snapped at both of them, only particularly caring for what her cousin had to say.

"Maybe one more might get him back," Maleny theorized but before she or Cami got a chance to head for the electrodes, Klaus blocked the way. Maleny groaned, "Oh c'mon! We have to try again!"

"Doctor, see to your patient," he ordered the human instead.

"You get away from me!" Kieran began struggling against Sheski.

"Heartbeat is irregular," he concluded and looked at the two women, "You can't keep this up. It'll kill him."

"But just one more," Maleny insisted.

"Mal," called Klaus, making her turn, "we need to have a word in private."

"No, you'll zoom be back to the compound," she stepped back, genuinely afraid he'd take her away.

"I won't," Klaus assured and took her out of the room.

"Then we're wasting time!"

"We really are," Klaus agreed though not in the way Maleny was talking about, "I think you need to prepare yourself. This story does not have a happy ending."

Maleny's eyes watered but her face stayed firm against her real emotions, "I already lost my family, my own body, I can't lose my uncle too."

"At the rate you're going you'll end up pushing him to his own death. Stop while you can and just…"

"What?" Maleny scoffed, "Let it go?" she indignantly asked, "When the hell have you let things go? You are the man that keeps rages for centuries and you're telling me to let this all go!?"

Surprisingly, Klaus remained at ease despite being yelled at, "Moving on, Maleny. That's your only and best option."

"Don't make me surrender," Maleny nearly pleaded, "That's not you - that's never you. I learned a thing or two from you and I'll put them to action. Just watch me!"

"Maleny!" they heard Cami calling from the inside, sounding terrified.

Maleny dashed back into the room, leaving Klaus no other choice but to do the same. Kieran had lashed out and bitten his own thumb off in an attempt to be free.

"We have to restrain him again, quick!" Riley motioned to the others to grab something for help.

"His wrath burns against you, demon!" Kieran shouted at them all one by one.

"Uncle Kieran, please," Maleny begged for the man to stay still and was about to ask for reinforcements when she saw Klaus attending to a cellphone call whilst actively trying to help. She'd managed to hear him say 'Hayley' giving out the identity of the caller.

"I'm in a bit of a situation here, love," he was in the middle of saying when something changed his entire expressions. It was something dangerous no doubt, "What? Where are you?"

Maleny shook her head and tried getting herself back into the prominent situation (for her anyways), "Josh, get the doctor out of here and make sure he really forgets."

"On it," Josh nodded and hurried the doctor out while the man blabbed on about the authorities and what not.

"Hayley, listen, I assure you, once I am finished here, you will have my undivided attention. In the meantime, please stay out of trouble," and with that, Klaus ended the phone call.

Maleny felt guilt rise within her just thinking that Hayley was in trouble and she needed help...yet Klaus told her to practically wait. Maleny thought his priorities were out of balance and it was all her fault.

~ 0 ~

"Are you sure there's no spell we can use anymore?" Maleny whispered to Riley, more for Kieran's sake since he'd fallen asleep and that alone was rare.

"Nothing but the boundary one," Riley gestured to the doorway, "I'm really sorry, Mal. We've done everything we can."

"But it can't end like this," Cami said from her spot beside the bed, carefully attending to her uncle, "There has to be something. Klaus? You've been alive for some time, you've had to have picked up on something about hexes?"

"If I knew something I would have done it already," Klaus said if it were obvious, "Hexes are different, each has a loophole while others...don't."

"So that's it, then?" Maleny raised an eyebrow, unable to believe the end was coming, "We just...surrender?" she rubbed her face while deeply sighing, "I can't...we can't...we-" the heart monitor began beeping in an alertive way.

"He's in cardiac arrest," Klaus moved over to Cami's side and began rolling up his sleeves, "You might want to look away."

"What are you doing?" Maleny frowned and hurried to the foot of the bed just as he dug his hand into Kieran's chest.

"Massaging his heart. His body is shutting down. Even with my help, he doesn't have much time."

Cami had been staring with a sense of awe - as well as a new spark of hope, "Your blood," she looked up at Klaus, "If you fed him your blood, he'd wake back up, right?"

"As a vampire in transition, yes. As for the hex, perhaps his death will be a mercy."

Cami glanced back at Maleny, wanting to see if they were both thinking of the same thing. Apparently, they were, because Maleny soon declared, "Then do it, Klaus. Just do it. Please."

"Mal-" Klaus reluctantly tried to argue with her.

"This isn't like my dad," she quickly interjected, "These family stories may be just a story in my head but my love for them is not. Please?" Maleny's voice unintentionally broke down.

For a minute, Klaus had to wonder if she'd been peeking into his head due to the way she'd just manipulated him to do something for her without even trying. In the old days a pair of watery, blue eyes and a sad pout got him moving in a second. Although now the eyes were chocolate brown everything still worked the same way. It was astounding to him.

Maleny had always been a mystery herself to him. She could make him nearly do anything she wanted - except to be turned - with just a snap of a finger. The story repeated itself throughout the centuries.

So now, the story repeated itself again. Klaus bit into his wrist and gave Kieran blood. After pulling out his hand from the man's chest, it was only a matter of minutes before Kieran died.

~ 0 ~

Nearly an hour had passed after Kieran's death but no one in the room dared speak for that time. It really wasn't until Maleny heard vibrations of a cellphone she knew belonged to Klaus that she broke the silence. She headed for him leaving Cami and Riley for a second.

"Hayley's in trouble, isn't she?" Maleny asked quietly.

"That may be a possibility," Klaus cleared his throat, ignoring his phone.

"Then what are you doing here?"

"You needed help-"

"Let me tell you something," Maleny stepped closer, "You will never put me before your baby, do you understand? Hayley is in trouble and you should be with her, not me."

"Elijah is with her, I know she's okay," Klaus informed, startled by her bluntness of words.

"That's not my point," Maleny shook her head, "Nothing is more important than your baby and while Hayley is still pregnant she is the top priority," she sighed, "I'm just an asset, nothing more."

Without thinking, Klaus placed a hand over her cheek, her words puncturing something within him and spurring him to make her think differently, "If that was true I would've left hours ago, don't you think?"

Half of a smile made an appearance on Maleny's face, her heart skipping a beat, "But Hayley needs-"

"I let you disappear centuries ago, I'm not letting it happen again," and that Klaus swore, determinant to stop the awful cycle someone put her under.

"Thank you," Maleny honestly said, "but I really do mean my words regarding the baby and Hayley. I would never forgive you if you put me over them, no matter how bad the situation is. So go," however that time she seemed happier which did allow Klaus some consideration about leaving, "I know well enough what happens next with uncle Kieran."

"I'll be back before then," Klaus assured, getting ready to leave.

"Don't know if it'll make any difference, honestly," Maleny sighed and turned to face her uncle across, "He'll never agree to turn."

"Turning him wasn't the goal. It was to give you a chance to say good-bye."

Maleny stiffened though wasn't surprised. She knew very well it would happen, but it didn't mean it hurt any less.

"This time, however, I only ask you don't leave the church," Klaus managed to say in in a kinder tone than previous attempts, "I'm actually leaving you in the care of that guy over there."

Riley made a face and looked at the two, "I heard that."

"Good, then also hear this, if anything happens I'll make you responsible," Klaus warned, and not lightly, "Don't mess up."

"Mal," Riley frowned, waiting for her to make some type of remark on his defense.

However Maleny seemed rather amused, "You didn't have to be rude," she told Klaus, not even scolding.

"Fear gets the point across," was all Klaus had to say before leaving.

Maleny smiled to herself, forgetting about any defenses she was supposed to be making. Later on the remaining three were gathered around Kieran's bed. Eventually, the man woke up, startled by his sudden clearness.

"Cami, Mal, what happened?" he sat upright, trying to think of the past, "The hex... I could feel it, like a living thing inside of me," he looked at his hand where the mark of the hex had been only to find it wasn't there anymore, "It's gone."

Happily, the two women hugged him from either side of the bed.

Kieran then noticed he was short one thumb, "Oh! Oh my god!"

Riley moved over, "Yes, you've had a trying day, Father. Although it appears the hex was broken by your death."

Kieran blinked, "Back up. I died? For how long?"

Maleny shifted her on feet uncomfortably, "A few hours, give or take."

"We're sorry. We just couldn't lose you, not like that," Cami shook her head, "We made Klaus give you his blood."

"I see. So the devil has a deal for me, after all," Kieran looked around, his true emotion unable to be read.

"Uncle Kieran... that hunger you feel, it'll only grow stronger," Maleny dreaded to explain.

"I know how it works."

"Then you will soon know if you do not feed, you will die," Riley slowly said, "There is always a choice."

"I know if that's the choice that I have to make, I'm dead already," Kieran declared, "Please leave me with my nieces. I'd like a private moment to talk with them."

Maleny glanced at Riley then walked over, "Thank you for everything. We can take it from here."

"I don't know…" Riley nervously admitted, "You heard Klaus. I like being alive, it don't know about you."

Maleny laughed, "I know how to control Klaus, believe me. You can go."

Seeing no way to convince her otherwise, Riley left. Maleny returned to her cousin and uncle, unsure of how they would be able to go on after what would happen to soon.

~ 0 ~

"So, you see, I'm not really your niece. I'm more of a centuries-old witch trapped in a different body," Maleny finished telling her life story in an incredible ten minutes.

Kieran was left blinking rapidly, wearing a shocked face that in any other occasion would have made Maleny laugh, "Witches are a pain," he declared, "Besides you of course."

Maleny allowed herself a small chuckle, "Thanks. I thought you should know the truth, after everything you know."

"I'm glad you did, because now I know I can count on someone to keep Cami safe."

"Definitely," Maleny nodded fast, "The memories might be false but my love for my cousins is real."

"Maleny, with what you told me I want you to find a very important key for me, okay?"

Maleny sensed this was a bit more than just a key, "Un, okay. But why didn't you ask Cami since you sent her downstairs?"

"I was, but...you're more adequate now. It's a very important key, part of the family legacy, and it needs to be in your hands, no one else's."

"Uncle Kieran, what's the key for?" Maleny sternly asked.

"For your kind, I suppose," was all he intended to say, "It should be in one of the drawers downstairs. Find it and keep it hidden."

Cami came in after a couple minutes, "Everything is where you said it would be," she tried to sound cheerful.

"Then everything is in place," Kieran concluded and gathered the two women, "Listen. I don't know how bad this is gonna get, and I don't want either of you to see it. So, in a moment, I'm gonna let go, and you're gonna turn around, and you're gonna both walk out of here without looking back. Okay, kiddos? Promise me. Without looking back."

Both nodding, Maleny and Cami walked out, holding in their tears for the moment.

As soon as they got downstairs, Maleny rushed into the small office by the altar. She wanted to find that key before Cami had the chance to spot it. If she were to share with Cami Maleny wanted to know exactly what the key was for. Eventually, Maleny found the key buried under a couple files in the bottom drawer. She stuffed it into her jeans pocket and fixed everything as Cami had left it. As far as Cami knew Maleny was only looking for her purse she'd misplaced over the day.

"Hey," she walked over to the blonde by the altar, unsure of how to even talk at the moment.

"Hey," Cami mumbled, feeling the same exact way as Maleny.

They heard footsteps coming towards them and found Kieran just at the doorway leading to the attic. The first thing Cami thought was, "Have you changed your mind?"

It was Maleny who noticed a sinister aura in Kieran first, "Uncle Kieran…" something was not right.

The man pulled out a knife from behind and sliced one of Cami's arm.

Something was definitely not right.

"Ah!" Cami stumbled back but quickly thought to run with Maleny.

"What's the matter with you!?" Maleny was being pulled by Cami but the brunette kept forcing a stop every second or so down the aisle, "It's the hex, isn't it? Death wasn't enough!"

"Time to be sacrificed again," Kieran threatened with the knife.

"Sacrificed?" Maleny was left dumbfounded momentarily.

"C'MON!" Cami shouted and finally yanked Maleny with full force down the aisle.

"But what did he mean 'sacrificed'?" Maleny was trying to think when she looked back at her chasing uncle, "What did you mean!?"

"It's not the time, Mal!" Cami scolded as they rushed up the stairs to the balcony.

Now as a full vampire, Kieran easily caught them upstairs.

Cami turned to the balcony and looked below, "Mal, that memory where you and I climbed a tree as kids...that was false wasn't it?"

Maleny saw where Cami was going with the question and sighed, "I assume so."

"Well then," Cami took Maleny's hand, "Here's to our first, real memory together."

And before Kieran could catch either woman, they leaped off the balcony. They each fell on the ground with harsh injuries but not enough to stop them. As Kieran followed down, they took refuge in between the pews.

"Don't fight it, girls," Kieran stalked after them, "In death, we are whole again."

"I disagree!" Maleny hopped to one bench behind, pulling Cami with her. While it broke her heart to think about it, Maleny began searching for something wooden to...end Kieran. But the benches were too strong for her break down.

"Maleny!" Cami shouted just as Kieran grabbed her arm.

Maleny looked back, terrified beyond belief, "No!"

However, out of the nowhere, Klaus appeared and took Kieran away from the women, "You deserved far better than this," with a makeshift stake he dug it into Kieran's heart, effectively killing him.

Maleny rushed to Cami, and although they were battered and bruised they were both alright. They slowly made their way towards Klaus.

"You knew this would happen?" Maleny asked Klaus as they gathered together. The way he had zoomed into the room like he knew there was trouble left nothing else to say.

"I'm sorry, Mal," he looked around the room and immediately remembered the person meant to be looking after her, "Where the hell is the witch I left in charge here?"

"Don't blame Riley, I told him to go," Maleny quickly said, "Can we just...can we go home please?"

Klaus had much more to say about the stupid witch but he took in Maleny's appearance and agreed it was better to get her home.

~ 0 ~

Maleny stepped out of the guest room that had been given to Cami during her stay in the compound. Klaus was waiting for her just outside. She quietly closed the door and turned to him, wearily smiling, "Well, she's asleep. That's good."

"You need to do the same," Klaus motioned for to start walking.

"I don't really know how I'll manage to do that," Maleny sighed, "It hasn't been an easy thing to do lately with everything that's happened."

"Well I could always knock you out with a little ability vampires have..."

"Don't you dare," Maleny shot him a playful look, "I'd rather not sleep."

They stopped in front of her bedroom door, "And I'd rather you did so I would do anything despite your wishes."

"One of these days you'll learn I do as I please and no one will make me do otherwise."

Klaus smirked at her, "You clearly have not remembered everything about us."

"Oh," Maleny put a hand on her hip, "So our relationships in the past only worked because I did what you said? You lucked out then because it's the modern world now," Klaus quietly chuckled, making the brunette smile herself.

However, it didn't last long as she felt a light pain on the side of her head...

A dark-haired woman laughed as she turned to lie flat on her back on a bed, "I thought you said you had work to do today," she reached for berries on bowl sitting on the nightstand.

"I changed my mind, am I not allowed?" Klaus cast her a smirk as he locked the door to their bedroom. He shook off his coat and let it drop to the floor.

"Not when your brother comes looking for you," the woman chewed on a berry as she sat up.

"He will not," Klaus assured and made his way to the bed, "The day is all ours, Victoria," he'd crawled up to her, his hand trailing down her cheek, "and what we choose to do throughout it is completely up to us."

"Well, what if I had plans of my own?" Victoria impishly smiled as she dropped a berry into her mouth, "Do not forget my family still thinks I am in this town for business with our cousins. I have to show my face a couple times in the town or people will begin to talk."

The matter didn't seem to concern Klaus in the least as he began to kiss her, "Show your face tomorrow; it's not happening today," he murmured and pulled her down so that she was underneath him.

"So that's just how it is going to be, then?" Victoria managed to pull away for a moment, struggling not to laugh again, "I'm supposed to listen to you like that?"

Klaus pushed some hair from her face, "I can promise you I would make it worthwhile..."

Victoria draped her arms around his neck, "Well I do recognize you have definitely lived up to your word in past times."

"You'll see this won't be the exception," promised Klaus with one of his usual smirks. He leaned down to continue their kissing, listening to her giggles as he left a trail down her neck.

In the present time, Maleny snapped out of her trance and immediately felt her face burn with a blush. Klaus had been looking at her for a good minute while she'd stared into space. He had assumed she was remembering something else and didn't want to interrupt until it looked like it was over.

"Did you see something?" he asked after she began shifting.

Maleny felt awkward now under his look and turned to her bedroom, opening its door, "Nope, nothing," she said and hurried on in.

"Mal-"

She turned to face him and felt like it was a grand mistake as she felt her blush only intensify, "I have to sleep. Goodnight."

Klaus frowned, "Maleny, what-"

"Goodnight," she reiterated and shut the door on him, locking it and turning to lean back on it, "Ooh I hope that doesn't happen again," she whispered to herself, shutting her eyes.

Outside, Klaus was still staring at the door, irritated with Maleny's behavior. He was pretty sure he'd done nothing wrong this time. He'd been with her nearly all day and saved her from dying. This was what he got in return?