In the week since Klaus had sent the girls back to school, they were trying to deal with the aftermath of everything that happened. Starting with telling Grace and Elliot the truth of what was going on, as Mira knew they couldn't keep it from them anymore. This had gone past being some scheme between her and Hope, there was a chance that their mom was in real danger. They upset they'd been lied to in the first, but that turned into worry and confusion. The twins having the same question the rest of them did.

   Who would want to hurt Audrey and Hayley? They were kind to anyone, and only showed the dangerous sides of themselves if someone hurt the people they cared about.

   Since they couldn't get the answers to that question, they were trying to focus on something they might be able to help with. So Hope and Mira had holed up inside their room, going through different books and grimoires, trying to any spell they could find that might help them breaking the cloaking spell they'd placed on their mothers in the first place. If they could break the cloaking spell, a locator spell would start working and they'd be able to find them.

   Mira sat on her bed, going back over their original spell and trying to see if they'd left open a loophole, as Hope sat on the floor looking for a different approach. It didn't take long for Grace and Elliot to join them that morning, determined to help despite how the girls assured them they'd be able to handle it. 

   "Do you think dad will come home now?" Elliot looked at Mira, causing her to look up from what she was doing in surprise. "If he knows mom is in trouble, he'd come home and help find her, right?"

   Mira bit her lip, noticing how Grace looked up at that. Hope pulled her headphones down and glanced at Mira, giving a look that asked if she needed help, but Mira gave a small shake of her head in assurance. "Um, probably not." She answered him honestly. "Dad doesn't remember any of us, mom is a stranger to him. He wouldn't come back to help find a stranger."

   "But couldn't Marcel and Vincent bring his memories back?" Grace moved to sit with her on the bed. "They helped him take them away in the first place, right? That's what mom said when she explained it all to us."

   "They are." Mira nodded. "But, guys...." She let out a sigh. "It's not safe to have dad and uncle Nik both in New Orleans. The dark magic would react to it like it has before, with the blood, the plants dying, the snakes appearing."

   "Mira's right." Hope piped up helpfully. "No one would want to risk it."

   "But he'd want to know." Elliot said, making a face. "The him that remembers. He'd want to know if mom was in trouble, because he loves her. What if something happens--"

   "Nothing is going to happen, alright?" Mira cut him off sharply, making the twins eyes widen in surprise at her sudden change in tone. She closed her eyes in regret, taking a deep breath. "Sorry." She mumbled. "Sorry. But nothing is going to happen to mom or aunt Hayley, okay? They're gonna be found, and everything is going to be okay."

   "Right." Hope pushed to her feet with nod. "Mira's right. They're going to be fine, they're going to be fine, and we're going to help find them." She nodded, trying to help them focus once more, which Mira sent her grateful look for. "So let's just keep reading, yeah?" Grace and Elliot both looked at each other, before nodding, moving back to what they were doing before. However, before they could truly get anymore work done, a knock sounded on the door. Hope froze when she opened it, a frown appearing the moment she locked eyes with their aunt Freya. "W-What happened?"

   Freya was confused a moment, before she recognized the grave looks appearing on her nieces and nephew's face, and quickly shook her head. "Uh, oh, no, nothing." She told them, which gave a little relief. "Uh, no, your... your father has search parties scouring every inch of the city. We'll find them."

   "So then what's going on?" Mira got to her feet, walking up behind where Hope stood at the door. "Why are you here?"

   "Care package." The eldest Mikaelson witch held up a familiar box. "Thought you could use a taste of home."

   "Beignets." Grace's eyes lit up knowingly.

   "So you drove all this way to bring us beignets?" Hope questioned skeptically.

   "You know, I figured with everything going on, you could use a friend." She admitted. "I thought all of you could do with a little comfort." She added softly, and Elliot ducked between Hope and Mira, wrapping his arms around their aunt without hesitation. Freya passed the box over to Mira, and bent down to hug him back, Grace running over to join the embrace. "I missed you guys too."

   Hope glanced down and they stood in silence for a moment, waiting until the twins pulled away from her to speak. "Thanks, but I'm really fine." She brushed off.

   "Yeah, um, we're managing fine." Mira nodded, clearing her throat with a discreet look toward her siblings.

   However, Freya wasn't willing to just let the older two send her away. "Mm-hmm. You know, I could be wrong, but, um, I think this is the part where you invite me in."

   Having no excuse not to, Mira and Hope moved out the way of the door, as Grace and Elliot went back to where they had been sat. "Yeah. Yeah. Yeah." Hope muttered, bending down to pick up the books they had scattered around.

   "Locator spells in ancient languages?" Freya questioned, catching a glimpse of the books they had out. "Thought you weren't allowed to do magic outside of the classroom."

   "Catch-up reading." The Mikaelson tribrid clarified, pointing between herself and Mira. "We're trying to make up for being suspended."

   "Mm-hmm." Freya hummed.

   "Grace and Elliot were just keeping us company." Mira told her, putting away the books her siblings had been reading. "We got to get back to work, aunt Freya."

   Freya took the hint, but didn't intend to follow it as she sat down and made herself comfortable on Hope's bed. "Sure. Sure, I mean, I could just leave after an excruciating 11-hour drive to see my three favorite nieces and adorable nephew." She nodded in a slightly dramatic tone, making the twins snicker.  "Or... we could get comfy, stuff our faces with deep-fried glory, and you could tell me about that cute boy you had hidden in your room last week."

   "Ooh." Grace taunted with a mischievous smirk. "It was Roman, wasn't it?"

   Hope's cheeks went red. "Grace!"

   "Roman, huh?" Freya grinned teasingly, and even Mira couldn't help but cover her mouth to stop herself laughing at this point. "Please, tell me more."

   So it appeared in that moment, their plan was on a temporary hold.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

    Freya gave Hope and Mira a chance to change out of the sweats they'd mostly been living in since they got back to school, before she convinced them to take her for a tour of the grounds around the school. The beignets now finished, and slightly hyped up on the sugar, the twins left the three to head to one of the few classes they had that day. The the three remaining Mikaelsons ended up walking around the edge of the soccer field, were a bunch of the students had gotten a shirts and skins game started up.

   A witch student uses his telekinesis to hold the ball in midair, though Roman head butts it into the goal. "So, which one is he?" Freya raised a brow to her eldest niece, as they watched the skins team celebrate.

   "The hot one that sweats diamond dust." Hope answered, ignoring the way Mira rolled her eyes beside her.

   His eyes spotting the three, Roman sent them a wave and smile, his gaze focusing on Hope. Hope, however, ducked her head to hide a bashful smile. "Oh, god. Keep-keep walking." She instructed nervously.

   Freya gave a confused, teasing smile. "Wait, you're not gonna wave back?"

   "No, pretty sure, uh, his ego can handle it." Hope shook her head.

   "Might make it a bit smaller, actually." Mira mused, smiling innocently as Hope gave her a look. "What?"

   Freya shook her head toward the two, watching them a moment as they started to bicker between themselves. Over the years, Hope and Mira had truly started to remind her of watching Klaus and Elijah together, and lately it was just becoming more obvious. She knew Audrey and Hayley had seen it too at times, just from the way the pair were so protective over one another, were always willing to back the other up. 

    "Hey, so... that stuff you were studying earlier." Both teenagers fell silently, as Freya swiftly began to change the subject. "Alchemy of the Iberian Peninsula? Magic of the Middle East?"

   "We're examining regional magic as it relates to sociopolitical and economic statuses." Hope answered with ease, and Mira couldn't help but look slightly impressed.

   That answer never would have crossed her mind. Yet, as the three came to a stop in their tracks, it was obvious that Freya didn't believe them. The look on her face said it all. "So, what exactly are the sociopolitical implications of breaking powerful cloaking spells?"

   "What do you want us to say?" Hope asked their aunt, annoyance laced in her tone. "Our moms are missing." 

   "We can't just sit here and do nothing." Mira said, shaking her head. "I refuse."

   "Trying to break every possible spell in those books by yourselves would take a thousand years." She tried to reason with them.

   "This is exactly why we didn't want to tell you." Hope told her. "And guess what? You and the witches haven't gotten anywhere. Me and Mira are coming at it from a different angle. We're the one that put the cloaking spell on them in the first place. Maybe we can find a way to lift it without being in the room with them."

   "And the fact that that's never been done in the history of witchcraft isn't going to deter you." She asked them, though the look of determination on their faces made it clear. Surprising them, she then nodded. "All right, then. Let's get to work."

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

   So they had somewhere private and away from other students to work, Hope and Mira had taken Freya out to the abandoned property in the woods. It had gained the name the old mill, and had became the place most of the students used to do the things they couldn't do in the eyes of teachers, and the location of where most of the secrets parties the upper school threw.

   "Pretty." Freya nodded, looking around as they walked inside. "In a creepy, "don't get caught alone here at night" kind of way."

   "The Saltzman twins found it, like, two years ago." Hope told their aunt. "Pretty sure it's their evil "Mean Girl" lair."

   "Stop." Mira told her flatly, kicking an empty beer bottle away from her feet.

   Freya noted that and glanced around, seeing the other empty bottles scattered around the area. "Or they share their father's love for the bottle." She offered, before changing the subject. "All right. You want to find your moms, I got to start with how they were taken in the first place."

   "I already told you, I don't know." Hope let out a sigh. "Someone followed us."

   "Or there was a problem with your cloaking spell." Hope looked less than impressed at the insinuation, Mira just keeping quiet as Freya continued. "Maybe you missed a step... left a loophole open."

   "Impossible." Mira shook her head firmly. "I've gone back over the spell, we followed all the steps exactly."

   "Fine. You were followed." Freya gave in, moving a chair and placing it in front of the girls. She then took two metal dishes, setting them down on the chair. "Then we retrace every step you took. A deconstructing spell will magnify that the cup of blood in each bowl will give us that." She told them, pulling two pocket knives from her pocket and hold one out to each of them.

   "We know how it works, aunt Freya." Hope grumbled, bending down in front of the chair to get started.

   "I hate this damn spell." Mira muttered, bending down and holding a hand over one of the bowls, before dragging the blade of the knife across her palm. She let out a hiss of pain, wincing as the blood dripped into the bowl until the cut began to heal. 

   "Don't stop." Their aunt instructed.

   Hope's palm healed too, making her snap in frustration. "Dammit."

   "It wasn't enough." Freya stated, watching with her arms crossed.

   "Really?" Mira winced as she cut her palm once again, getting as much blood out as she could before her palm healed. "We hadn't noticed."

   "It's healing faster than we're bleeding. Maybe you shouldn't have picked a spell that involved us bleeding out." A look of realization slowly appeared on Hope's face, stopping Mira as she went to try and cut her palm again. Mira furrowed her brows at her, until she saw the same evasive look on Freya's face she had, and it set in for her too. "Which you knew couldn't happen. You don't want to do this spell."

   The elder woman didn't try to deny it, frowning. "Not particularly, no."

   Hope looked at her in confusion. "Why?"

   "Because it isn't going to work." Freya told them bluntly. "If there was even a chance of it working, don't you think one of the hundred powerful New Orleans witches would have thought of it by now?"

   Mira stared at her in disbelief. "Then what is all of this really about?"

   Hope watched her a moment. "There's something you're not telling us."

   "Vincent and Ivy think they've learned something." Freya began, looking at them with a mixed look. "About you both."

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

   Before Hope was born, a witch named Sabine Laurent predicted that she would be the downfall of all witches, of all of New Orleans. Of course, none of the Mikaelson family had taken her word seriously. Hope was just a baby, and in the end, it turned out Sabine was not who they all thought she was. She had her own hidden agendas, and Sabine was merely a vessel for the spirit of Celeste Dubois to use to enact her revenge on the Mikaelsons. Now, this prediction had some back fifteen years later, this time coming from Vincent and Ivy. And this time, it involved Mira too. Ivy had done a reading, and her cards had predicted Hope and Mira Mikaelson would be their downfall.

   Night had fell while Freya had been explaining it to them, and they fell into silence for a long time after that. Both teenagers were trying to process it all.

   "So we're, like, cursed?" Hope finally broke the silence. "Predicted to be the downfall of what, our family? New Orleans? The world?"

   "I have no idea." Freya admitted to them. "But you deserve to know what's going on. And we all need to prepare for the possibility that... things might not work out the way we want them to."

   "You mean for our moms to die?"

   Mira closed her eyes at that and took a deep breath, knowing she couldn't ignore that thought anymore. She could tell Elliot and Grace it wasn't going to happen as much as she wanted, but she didn't know that. None of them had any idea what was going to happen, and it was a thought weighing heavily on her shoulders. Their mom and aunt could die, and now it seemed, they might be the reason New Orleans crumbles to its knees and takes out everyone else they love with it.

   Everything was starting to become too much.

   "For what happens inside of you any time tragedy strikes." Freya told them. "For when your emotions are tested in ways you couldn't even imagine."

   Mira opened her eyes and looked at her honestly. "How can anyone prepare for that?" She asked quietly.

   "You two aren't just anyone, guys." She said, reminding them of something Hayley and Audrey had said after they learned about Henry. "You're firstborn Mikaelson witches with... a terrifying amount of power, even without the darkness that your family is keeping you away from."

   Hope raised a brow at her. "So, what? We're so sensitive, everyone's afraid we're just gonna flip out?"

   "Well, when people like the three of us flip out, entire villages can burn." Freya told them, the faintest of smiles appearing before it faded entirely. "Look... I know what it's like to have your family thrust you into a situation where the world is on your shoulders and... you're not at all sure if you have the strength to carry it."

   "And how's that working for you?"

   Freya leaned her head back against the wall behind her. "Not well. It's why I'm not with the woman I love."

   Having heard enough, Hope shook her head and pushed herself to her feet. "So then why don't you just... go back and deal with that and leave Mira and I to go try and find our mothers." She told her, beginning to walk away in frustration.

   "Hope, stop." Freya followed behind her, Mira letting out a sigh as she watched the pair.

   "Why?" She spat. "So you can keep stalling us?"

   "You can't shut down, or it'll eat you up inside." She warned her niece gravely.

    But Hope was in nod mood to listen. "Leave me alone."

   "Hope..."

   "I said leave me alone!" Hope shouted, finally loosing her temper as she spun back around to face her, and large flames suddenly burst up, causing a fire wall between Freya Mira, and Hope.

   Mira's eyes widened in alarm as she jumped to her feet, focusing her eyes on the flame as she flicked her wrist toward them. "Adiuuatur" She chanted, putting the flames out instantly, as Hope remained frozen at what she'd done.

   Freya looked toward both of her nieces, who were shell shocked. "Are you ready to talk now?"

*   *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

   Needing time on her own to process, Mira left Hope and Freya when Freya was done talking to them. She headed up to the dorms and checked in on Elliot and Grace first, but they were both fast asleep when she got there, and she didn't have the heart to wake them up. They were lucky in the sense this curse, whatever it maybe, didn't effect them. They didn't need it have it put on their shoulders so they worried about her and Hope.

   They were dealing with enough now Audrey was missing.

   She made her way back to her and Hope's room, ready to just crawl into bed herself and try to sleep without her thoughts keeping her awake. However, she paused in surprised when she saw a familiar face stood outside door, leaving a wrapped plate and a note on the ground.

   "Josie?" She asked gently.

   The Saltzman girl turned to her, her usual gentle smile on her face. "Hey." She smiled. "I, um, thought you could use some comfort food." She nodded down to the plate she was going to leave. "Lizzie and I made you some brownies."

   "Oh." The Mikaelson girl let out, a small smile tugging at the corners of her lips. "Thanks, you didn't have to."

   "You're our best friend, of course we did." Josie told her wholeheartedly. "We know you've had a lot going on with your mom. We're here to help if you need us, you know that, right?"

   "I know." Mira assured with a nod. "But I think your dad would prefer if you guys were kept out of Mikaelson problems."

   "He also cares about you and your mom, so does our mom." Josie reminded her. "So, whatever you need, alright?"

   Her smile grew at that, as she looked at the Saltzman girl warmly. She bent down to lift up the plate, nodding. "I'll keep that in mind." She said softly, as she looked at her. "Thanks, Jo. Really."

   And for that small moment, those thoughts that had been keeping her awake vanished, and she felt good for the first time since this all started.

Mira's getting a bit stressed out, which you can't blame her for. Bad things seem to just keep piling up around her. I wanna say things will get better but...I can't. 

I hope you all enjoyed!