"What's this?" 

   Hayley shrugged as she glanced at Audrey, placing a grape in her mouth. "I don't know." She told her, as the two girls placed their attention to the table full of food in the courtyard. "It was just here when I came downstairs."

   The food was all served nicely on silver trays, jugs of different juice laid out, a silver tray covered by a lid in the center of the spread. Audrey raised a brow questionably at it, before giving in like the Marshall girl had beside her, picking at the different food on offer. 

   "So, which restaurant's missing a compelled chef?" Hayley asked, glancing over her shoulder at Klaus as he joined them.

   "Its certainly a card I've played in the past, but I had no hand in this..." Klaus admitted in confusion, gesturing his hand toward the table.

   "Hmm." Hayley hummed, looking at Audrey. "Well, then, I guess we have Elijah to thank."

   "This wasn't my doing." Elijah stated, all of them looking as he made his way downstairs, looking just as confused as Klaus.

   Audrey dropped the grape she'd picked up at that, frowning. "Neither of you did it?" She repeated.

   The Marshall girl frowned, as both brothers shook their heads. "Then, where did all this come from?" Before anything could be said, the tray covered by a lid began to rattle on the table, startling the twos girls. Hayley instantly jumped back, as Audrey back away into Elijah's arms, all of their eyes watching it carefully. With an uneasy look, Klaus slowly grabbed the lid and lifted up, two birds suddenly flying out from underneath it. The four ducked out of instinct, only standing again as the two birds disappeared out of the compound, leaving a folding piece of paper on the tray. "What the hell as that?" Hayley let out.

   Klaus grabbed the paper and scanned it, his expression falling into a deep frown at what he read. "An invitation from our mother." He announced, his eyes locking with Elijah's.

   "It's times like this I'm really glad I never knew my mother." Hayley muttered, the four retreating upstairs to decide what to do.

   "We have enough enemies here." Klaus said in frustration. "And now, the war for our home is to be fought against my own family."

   "Your wretched mother and her disciples tried to put a carving knife through our baby's heart." Hayley looked at him seriously. "I will happily add to the body count." 

   A smile twitched on his lips at her words, but Elijah gave the pair a look. "You will do no such thing." He told them. "Esther's a master in the art of possession. We know whose body she currently inhabits. We must decipher her intentions before she finds a new host."

   "Well, her last invitation was on all her children and your beloved." Klaus reminded him, his words making Audrey frown at the memory. "I think we can assume her intentions are decidedly foul."

   "Well, at least my family aren't trying to help her this time." Audrey muttered with a sigh, moving to sit beside Hayley.

   "Yes, always the silver lining." Klaus told her, earning an eye roll in response.

   "Well, then." Elijah shrugs. "We have--" He looks down to check his watch. "--this afternoon to prepare for the worst." He informs them, before walking out of the room, Audrey glancing at the two hybrids for a moment before she followed him.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

   With a plan on how to deal with Esther now in mind, the couple made the journey across the river once again, knowing Marcel might be able to help them get what they need. They found him sat reading in the loft, a girl Audrey didn't recognize stood reorganizing his book shelves. From the face Elijah pulled, she assumed it was Gia, the latest Marcel had turned for his vampire community. Marcel had decided to assign Elijah as her mentor, in hopes it would sway him into joining the new community that he was building. 

   Something Elijah wasn't impressed by.

   "I wondered when you'd show up." Marcel mused with a smirk, sensing them as they walked inside the loft. "Your pupil's waiting. It's not like you to shirk on your responsibilities." 

   Elijah simply sighed. "As you well know, she is not my...burden to bear." He stated, the new vampire in question looking at him in hurt. Audrey sighed, sending her a sympathetic look for his less that tactful comment. "You turned her, you teach her."

   The Gerard vampire raised a brow at him. "Why'd you come?"

   "We're looking for a cooperative witch." He answered.

   " I don't know where Davina is, and given the fact that she's got your father on a leash, I wouldn't put her in the, uh, "cooperative" category--" 

   "Not Davina." Audrey cut him off, shaking her head. "But I take you have another witch that could help."

   Marcel tilted his head. "What makes you think I got another witch?"

   "Perhaps the daylight ring on your new librarian?" Elijah shot back, pointing toward the blue stoned ring on Gia's finger.

   "Good point!" Marcel grinned. "My memory's a little shaky. Lucky for you, though, I know someone who can help! Gia?" He points over at her, and with a sigh, she reluctantly walks over to him. Marcel snaked his arm around her shoulders, directing her to face the two. "Why don't you take Elijah and Audrey to meet our friend Lenore?"

   The Mikaelson gave him a look. "If this is your idea of a joke, I can assure you I am not amused."

   "Well, there's nothing funny about what's going on. Mikael's back, witches causing chaos." Marcel listed off knowingly. "It just seems like you could use all the friends that you can get."

   Rolling his eyes, Elijah turned and walked out of the door, Audrey once again giving Gia a sympathetic look. She knew Elijah wasn't intentionally trying to be rude to her, it wasn't who he was. But his focus was on helping his family, figuring out how to deal with having both Esther and Mikael among the living once again. The last thing he wanted was a distraction of any kind, which is what he saw Marcel's new vampire as. 

   Gia looked at Marcel begrudgingly, before the two women left after Elijah. It was silent as the three made their way out onto the streets, Elijah taking the lead despite not knowing where it was they needed to go. 

   "So, you're not much of a talker, huh?" Gia asked, the first to break the silence they were walking in. Elijah just looked at her blankly, Audrey trying to hide an amused smile. "No problem. Last guy I hung out with, he wouldn't shut up, so...guess I'm due for a change--"

   "The task is to lead us to someone." He cut her off sharply. "Let's just...do that, shall we?"

   Unimpressed, Gia paused in her tracks as he continued to walk ahead, crossing her arms over her chest. "You wanna walk in silence? Cool. But, you're going the wrong way."

   Elijah stopped at that, turning to look at her in annoyance, but Audrey gave him a look. "Don't." She said, shaking her head. "She's not going to help if you keep this up."

   He took a deep breath, his annoyance still clear, but his tone more calm then it was before as he spoke. "Marcel believes I can instruct you." He informed Gia. "First lesson-- do your best not to waste my time."

   "Glad to know at least one of you is a people person." Gia muttered, turning and walking in the other direction, giving them a look to follow.

   The Gilbert girl gave her fiance a look. "Good going."

   "Well, she is now leading us in the correct direction, so I'd say it's a job well done." He muttered as he took her hand, before they followed after her. 

   When they entered the witch Lenore's shop, the woman in question was stood behind the counter, grinding down herbs with a mortar and pestle. She didn't look up when she heard the door chime, simply continuing with what she was doing. "Go away, I'm busy."

   "Yes, blatantly practicing magic, I see." Elijah mused as they approached her.

   Lenore finally looked up at them. "Herbal remedies for a neighbor who lost her insurance. But, my guess is an Original and his soulmate ain't here to talk neighborhood gossip." She guessed, her eyes glancing between Elijah and Audrey.

   "We have a favor to ask you." Audrey told her politely.

   Lenore shook her head. "Quarter's crawling with witches, go ask one of them."

   Elijah sighs impatiently and looks around at the shop. "I don't typically ask favors of my enemies." 

   "So, you come across the river to bother me?" She asked boredly.

   Elijah changes the subject as he starts wandering through the aisles of shelves full of snacks. "It's unfortunate, isn't it? Bureaucracy has not been kind to your community. Those tax incentives on local businesses have been stalling for months. Of course, a persuasive person could potentially remove any red tape." 

   The witch narrowed her gaze on him, her interest suddenly appearing at his words. "I'm listening." 

   "A certain someone-- let's say a witch-- has a troublesome tendency of jumping into other bodies." He smiles politely. "When she does so again, I would like to know into whom she jumps." He drops a coin into her coin jar near the register and looks at Lenore expectantly.

   Lenore nodded, knowing exactly what he was asking for. "Soul-branding. It's a sacrificial spell. I'm gonna need an item that's been spelled by the witch in question, and a python."

   "I shall retrieve the enchanted item. My partner will take care of the python." Elijah smiled simply, nodding over his shoulder to Gia.

   He turns to leave the store, but Gia just stops and looks at him incredulously. "Ew, what?" 

   "Second lesson of the day-- acquisition through mind compulsion." He gave her a patronizing look, before he walked out.

   Gia watched him go with a flustered expression. "How the hell do I do mind compulsion?"

   Audrey offered her a supportive smile. "I'm sure you'll figure it out." She said, opening the door to leave herself. "If not, ask Marcel. And next time, I promise he'll be in a more friendly mood." She made a face. "Depending on how tonight goes." She muttered, before leaving Gia alone with Lenore.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

   The evening fast approached, the time they had to make preparations soon drawing to a close. When they got word Lenore had been taken captive in the cemetery, Hayley and Audrey left to go rescue her and ensure she could do the spell, while Klaus and Elijah stayed behind to handle Esther. While Elijah wasn't pleased with the idea of Audrey going, the couple agreed she was probably much safer helping Hayley rescue Lenore, then she would be being so close to Esther. With Oliver's help, they managed to get Lenore out of the cemetery and back to her shop in the Algiers, Audrey leaving her with Hayley to prepare while she got the python from Gia.

   After what the Quarter witches did to her, Lenore was more willing then ever to help do the spell they needed.

   "So, will this take long?" Hayley raised a brow, the two girls watching as she set up a cauldron in the back room, the bag containing the snake beside her.

   Lenore looked up with a scoff. "You want me to soul brand the resurrected spirit of a thousand year old witch? It's best I take my time and do it right." She glanced up from her work as she went to focus again, her expression softening slightly as she looked at Hayley. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry. No one should ever have to lose a child."

   The Marshall hybrid looked down sadly. "No. No one should."

   With a bundle of sage in hand, the witch lit it and rafted the smell around the small back room. "You have the talisman?"

   "Oh." Hayley dug Klaus's old necklace from her pocket, handing it over to her. "So, how does this work? You brand Esther with this spell, and then what?"

   Lenore lay the necklace down across the rim of the cauldron. "The next time she jumps into a body, she'll be marked with a distinctive symbol on the back of her hand." Carefully, she pulled the python out of the bag. "This way, you'll always know who she is."

   "Great." Audrey nodded, letting out a sigh of frustration. "Well, that's one step in the right direction, at least."

   Hayley looked just as frustrated. "We still don't know why she's here." She raised a brow at the witch in front of them. "When Esther held you captive, did she give you any idea why she's doing all this?"

   "Love." She answered, as she laid the python around her neck.

   The Gilbert girl scoffed. "How hard did they hit you?"

   "What besides love can inspire such pain and cruelty?" She shot back, slowly removing the python from her neck and taking it's head in her hands. "And Esther?" Taking a knife, she cuts the snake straight down the middle, allowing the blood to run and drip into the cauldron. "Her love is very, very strong."

   "She has a very different definition of love to the rest of the world." Audrey muttered, looking away from the insides falling from the now dead snake.

   "But it's there." Lenore told her. "I saw it with my own eyes." Neither of the girls said anything else, and just watched quietly as Lenore began the spell. "Aux sa ah ça le vous de le vous l'inspir non do set. Aux sa ah ça le vous de le vous l'inspir non do set." She chanted over the cauldron on repeat, her eyes closed in concentration. "Aux sa ah ça le vous de le vous l'inspir non do set."

   Suddenly, her chanting stops and she stumbles forward, leaning against the cauldron to keep herself up and steady. "Woah. Are you okay?" Audrey asked her carefully.

   "Yes." Lenore answered, her face dazed.

   Hayley looked back at her warily, walking closer. "You sure?" 

   Taking a deep breath, Lenore nodded again as she gathered herself, pushing herself to stand up straight. "Just getting my bearings..." She mumbled quietly.

   Audrey opened her mouth to say something, when she felt Hayley's hand wrap around her wrist, pulling her behind her protectively. She looked at her in confusion, and followed where her eyes where looking, and finally noticed what she was seeing. On the back of Lenore's hand, the very mark Lenore had told them would appear on Esther when she jumped into a new body. 

   "The mark..." Hayley let out in slight horror. "It's you, isn't it? Esther."

   A feeling Audrey hadn't felt since the night she very first met Esther appeared, as she looked up at them with a smirk of amusement, confirming what they already knew. She felt her phone begin to ring in her pocket, and Esther gave her a nod of encouragement. "Go ahead. You can answer it."

   With no hesitation, Audrey answered it and began to talk. "Elijah? We're at Lenore's shop--"

  "That'll be enough." Using her magic, Esther cut off the call before Elijah could say anything. 

   Hayley glared at her angrily. "They're gonna come for us."

   The Mikaelson witch simply smiled. "My darlings, that's been the idea all along." She looked at the Gilbert girl, who glared back at her. "It's nice to see you again, Audrey." She nodded, before looking at Hayley. "It's so lovely to finally meet you, Hayley. Tell me, do my sons ever acknowledge the good you bring into their lives lives? Both of you? After all, it was you that gave them hope." Hayley narrowed her eyes dangerously at that, but Esther just continued to smile. "The promise of a child shows us all the possibilities of a future that could be. Children are meant to save us from the worst parts of who we are. A truth that makes my own circumstances all the more tragic, wouldn't you say?"

   Hayley rolled her eyes. "We don't pity you, Esther."

   Esther looked slightly offended but brushed it off. "It's a terrible thing, for a mother to fail her child. As you  well know." She said as she picked up the necklace, causing Hayley to look down in guilt. "But now, I offer you freedom. The gift of a new body. Freedom from being a hybrid." She offered to her, and Audrey saw the interest in Hayley's eyes she was trying to hide. "I have the ability to return to you all that you lost, Hayley. To make it so that you could have a family of your own. More children of your own. Wouldn't that be nice?"

   "Hayley." Audrey nudged her gently, snapping the hybrid from her thoughts.

   "I offer you the same thing, Audrey." Esther focused on her. "Freedom from being a doppelganger, no longer linked to my son through your bond. A new body, a new life. Freedom to have children." Her eyes fell to her stomach. "All you have to do is give up one, and you could have as many as you wanted. The perfect human life, free from all the pain of your past."

   "You're asking me to give you my baby to sacrifice!" Audrey snapped in disbelief. 

   "You don't understand yet, but you will." Esther assured her. "Soon, you will see it as a kindness to the child you currently carry."

   Suddenly, Klaus appeared behind the girls and began to rush at Esther. "I assume you've had the misfortune of speaking to my mother." He said in distaste, Esther throwing a substance at him that blocks him from reaching her, making him growl. "You hide behind your spells like a coward!"

   "I did not come here to wage war!" Grabbing another handful of the powder, she throws in the direction of the other entrance, blocking Elijah who tried to sneak up on her. 

   "Everything you do is an act of war." Elijah said, glancing at Audrey before glaring at his mother. "If you touch her, so help me--"

   "Audrey and Hayley are free to go." Esther cut him off. "I've spoken my piece, they know why I'm here. I have come to heal our family, Elijah."

   Klaus scoffed. "Well, that's a grand sentiment, coming from you." He looked at the girls. "Go, now." 

   Without argument, they both left, leaving them to handle Esther on their own.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

   "Of course she used those damn birds to make her escape!" Klaus ranted, as he paced back and forth angrily in the courtyard. 

   Esther had gotten away from them at Lenore's store, leaving the two Mikaelson men to get the details of what happened from Hayley and Audrey when they returned. So they explained to them her offer to put them in new bodies, Klaus only getting more angry toward his mother the more that he heard.

   "Besides the offer of rebirth." Elijah cut his brother off. "What else did she say?"

   "I don't know. She rambled a lot." Hayley sighed with a shrug. "She blamed the two of you for what happened to Hope, to me..."

   Klaus paused in his tracks, looking appalled as he locked eyes with Hayley. "Well, I hope you're not thinking about taking her offer?" She just looks away in guilt, making him grow frustrated. "Hayley! I'm talking to you!"

   "What do you want me to say, Klaus?" Hayley finally looks at him, looking overwhelmed as she got to her feet. "I lost my daughter. So, yeah, when your mother offers to wipe the slate clean, excuse me if I'm tempted!" And with that, she stormed off out of the compound. 

   Klaus rubbed his face in annoyance as he looked at Audrey. "I swear, if you're even contemplating it, I--"

   "What do you take me for?" She gave him a look, shaking her head. "I don't trust a word that comes out of that woman's mouth. Besides, her offer to me came with a price." She informed them, making Elijah raise a brow. "The baby."

   His face fell at her words, looking as angry as Klaus at that. "She will not lay a finger on either of you." He swore firmly, taking a deep breath. "The fact she thinks we'd ever agree to such a thing is preposterous."

   "Yeah, well, she seems to think it's the right thing to do." She said, running her fingers through her hair. "She wants the baby gone just like she wanted Hope gone."

   "I will send her screaming back to hell before she gets her hands on either of them." Klaus cut in furiously. 

   Elijah calmed himself as he gently cupped Audrey's face, kissing her forehead softly. "Go, I'll join you upstairs shortly." He promised her. "She won't hurt either of you." He told her quietly. "I gave you my word on that, and I will keep it."

   "I know you will." She softly pecked his lips, before she left the two brothers alone to talk. 

   And as she went, all she had were Esther's words floating around inside her head. "Soon, you will see it as a kindness to the child you currently carry.". If death was a kindness, there was still something Esther was keeping from all of them, and Audrey was determined to figure out what.

This was meant to be posted two days ago, but it got delayed. It turned out to be much longer than I thought it would be, and I had to prioritize university work first. But now I don't have another assignment due till the end of April, so there's going to be many updates pushed out between now and then. 

So we met Gia, and we have no issues with her. I plan to have her and Audrey become friends, as honestly, I loved Gia in the show. I loved her and Elijah together, and I was sad when they killed her off. I feel like they could have explored that so much more than they did, and just done so much more with Gia's character as a whole. We also had Esther lay out her offer to Audrey and Hayley, and Esther is offering Audrey a new body too, but at the price of the baby. So, yeah...as usual, we don't like Esther. 

I will hopefully have the next chapter up tomorrow, or Wednesday at the latest.

I hope you all enjoyed!