ELIJAH, and Ingrid were talking amongst each other while Elijah looked through an old book about witches throughout the ages. "The Italians call them strega. The Yoruba of West Africa call them aje, meaning mother. Where my mother was from, they called them häxa, and here we call them witch. Over the centuries, vampires have fought them and fought beside them, bedded them and burned them. Whether adversary or ally, they have been a force to be reckoned with. Their ancestral magic anchors this city. There's never been one all-powerful witch until Davina."

"Who is now tucked in safe and sound down the hall under my protection." Klaus responded while strolling into the room. He stopped at looked at the drawings lied out on the table. "Your Celeste was quite beautiful and a portent of evil, according to our volatile artist in residence."

"Yes. Perhaps Davina's mistaken what she calls evil for power." Elijah thought as he placed his hands on his hips and looked down at the drawing. "Celeste was certainly very powerful in her day, but she's been dead for over two hundred years. I don't understand. Why all these sketches now?" He asked, unsure of how to put the pieces together, and sat down on the leather couch in front of them.

"Why does any witch do anything?" Klaus asked with a mocking smirk and sat down across from him.

"Simple." Ingrid replied from her spot across the room. "Power and greed. What else is there?"

They then listened into Davina and Marcel fighting down the hall as the brothers began themselves drinks at the bar.

"Well, that's going well." Klaus sarcastically commented and smirked condescendingly.

"Niklaus." Ingrid warned slowly, glancing at him unamused. "Maybe not at this particular moment, yes?"

"If you were trying to win the girl's trust, perhaps poisoning her one true love was not the most splendid idea." Elijah responded in a patronizing tone and narrowed his eyes at him.

"Oh. Are there any more inopportune deaths you'd like to wave in my face?" Klaus questioned him with an irritated expression.

"Give me a month. I'll get you list." Elijah replied sarcastically and Ingrid stifled out a laugh, covering her mouth with the back of her hand.

Klaus chuckled in genuine amusement until he heard a crash come from down the hall. He sighed and leaned forward in his seat. "Young, old, dead, or alive, witches are a pain in the ass."

"Agreed." Ingrid acknowledged with an annoyed glare as he stood to his feet and walked out of the room again.

Hayley, who looked guilty, walked into the room and stood in the doorway. "Elijah?" She called out to him earning a low hum of acknowledgment. "There's something you need to know." She said softly causing him to look over at her in concern.

Suddenly, the house began to shake violently, mimicking an earthquake. The glass in the room began to rattle and books started to fall off the shelves. Concerned, they walked out onto the balcony overlooking the courtyard, where they found Rebekah looking around in confusion. "What the hell is going on?"

Marcel and Klaus ran out to join them, looking grim. "Davina."

"This is madness." Klaus commented as they gathered back in the study. "How can a sixteen-year-old girl shake the entire French quarter?"

Marcel was pacing with his arms crossed over his chest. "I've seen her rock the church, but I've never seen anything like this."

"How did you control her when she was in the attic?" Klaus questioned, hoping for a logical answer.

"I didn't have to. But then, I never killed her boyfriend." Marcel responded in anger.

Klaus sighed and rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes. We've been over this part already. The point is in her present state she's useless as a tool against the witches."

"Niklaus, that is not the priority at this point in time." Ingrid remarked with an incredulous look as she cleaned up the books from the floor.

"She's not a tool. Something's wrong with her." Marcel argued, concern written all over his face.

"She has too much power that she cannot control. That much we already knew. But why is it manifesting itself in such an aggressive manner?" Elijah questioned then suddenly got an idea and got up to leave the room.

Klaus gave him a look of confusion before stopping him. "Where are you going?"

"This is witch business. Let's ask a witch." Elijah responded while buttoning up his sleeves and walking out of the room. The trio then shared odd glances before going about what they were doing.

Klaus and Ingrid were cleaning up the broken glass and putting books in neat piles to put away later after the earthquakes had stopped. Ingrid paused for a second and bit her lip, nervous to talk all of a sudden. "Niklaus, may I speak to you about something?"

He immediately set down then dust pan full of glass and turned to her with a concerned look. "Of course, my love. What is wrong?"

"It's not so much that something is wrong." She answered vaguely and picked at her nails.

He walked toward her and grabbed her hands, ending her fiddling. He then sat down on one of the couches and pulled her down next to him. "You have nothing to be afraid of. You can tell me anything."

"I know." She replied honestly and nodded her head. "It is more about my feelings..."

Klaus laughed at her facial expression and shook his head. "Ingrid, it is normal to talk about these things with your husband."

"Oh, and suddenly you're pro emotions?" She questioned incredulously with a scoff.

He laughed again and grabbed her face in his hands, squishing her cheeks into a pursed position. "For you? Always."

She laughed and pushed his hands off, intertwining their fingers. "Hmmm... okay. Lately, I have been feeling like a shell of myself. I cannot participate in the faction meetings or the physical battles. I am reduced to Niklaus' Wife and not Ingrid Mikaelson. When people look at me all they see is this." She explained, motioning to her growing baby bump. "I miss when people used to know my name. Used to hear my name and fear the very sound. Don't get me wrong I adore being your wife and you are the love of my life. But I loathe being known as just your wife and your baby mother."

"It's baby mama." He corrected with a chuckle earning an unamused expression from her. When he realized that she was about to stand up out of frustration, he quickly sobered up and pulled her back to her seat. "No. No. I'm sorry. Go on. I want to hear it because I want to fix it."

She gave him an unconvinced glare and he urged her to continue on. Sighing, Ingrid reattached their hands and began again. "I miss the fight. The feeling of having control over the situation and holding someone's life in my hands. I miss the bloodshed and the fear I used to instill into those who crossed my path. But now... now I am laughable. I am weak. Pathetic. A poor excuse for who I was. I am so terrified about anything happening to her that I have to back down when all I want to do is prove myself. I cannot risk our daughter's life for my own selfishness."

"You have proven yourself time and time again to be a strong, independent, wrathful woman." Klaus reassured her with an affectionate smile. "The people who doubt you right now are in for a rather rude awakening when you finally give birth to her. When you're finally free to do what you please." He placed a hand on her baby bump, rubbing it gently with the pad of his fingers. "She may not know it right now but you're giving her the best thing you possibly could. A safe home. She will thank you for it when she's older. It will all be worth it in the long run. This is simply temporary. When it's over, I cannot wait for you to finally join your rightful place on the throne as the Queen of New Orleans."

"Yeah?" She questioned with tears in her eyes.

"Of course. I pray for the men who cross your path in the next few months to come." He replied with a wide smirk and placed a kiss on her cheek. "You are more than my wife and my baby mama. You are Ingrid Mikaelson." He whispered in her ear causing her to close her eyes with a shiver running down her spine. "Strongest woman I know. Fiercely loyal. Cunning. Vengeful." He said individually while kissing down the side of her neck. "You take what you want when you want it without a second thought. You are merciless. Fearless. Unstoppable." He kissed down to her shoulder and looked up at her through his eyelashes. "Beautiful." He praised, leaning her head back and kissing the base of her throat. He then pulled back and rested his forehead against hers.. "You have always been and you will always be those things that I admire so much. Even with her nestled away in there. You just have to take a brief break from the bloodshed to grow a person."

She slowly opened her eyes, meeting his, and stared at him with so much love and admiration. Instead of saying anything, she crashed her lips into his passionately.

Later on, Elijah had brought Sophie back to the compound. The Mikaelson family sat around the room as the witch looked down at the drawings on the table before her.

"So you have stolen the remains of the very person that Davina's been drawing for months. Would you care to explain this startling coincidence?" Elijah questioned, pointing to the sketch of his late beloved.

Sophie shook her head and turned to him, maintaining her innocence. "I can't. I didn't even know who Celeste Dubois was until I--" She was cut off by Davina screaming and the house shaking violently, like the earthquake from earlier. Sophie looked alarmed, but the Originals seemed merely irritated.

Elijah tapped his fingertips impatiently while Klaus nonchalantly took a sip of his drink. Rebekah rolled her eyes and looked at Ingrid, who was pinching the bridge between her nose.

Once it has stopped, Sophie looked at them with wide eyes. "Was that Davina?"

"Charming little habit she's developed." Klaus responded with an annoyed smile.

"And the earthquake I felt today?" Sophie questioned in concern.

"Also Davina. And, she's taken to vomiting dirt." Rebekah answered simply.

Sophie slowly began to panic as she realized what was going on. "Oh. We have a huge problem. I thought that we had more time, but we need to complete the Harvest now."

"Said the desperate witch, conveniently." Klaus commented with a smirk and sipped his drink again.

"I'm serious! That earthquake you just felt is a preview of the disaster movie that is about to hit us." Sophie said seriously, hoping to convince them.

Elijah had his fist resting under his chin and didn't meet her gaze. "Why should we believe you?"

"You've met Davina, you know her story. For months now, she's been holding all the power of the three girls sacrificed in the Harvest ritual. A force that was meant to flow through her and back into the earth. One person was never meant to hold that much power. It's tearing her apart, and it will take us down with it." Sophie explained desperately and the siblings looked at each other in worry.

Elijah, Marcel, Sophie, and Ingrid were sitting in the living room together as Sophie explained the ritual for the Harvest.

"You've convinced my siblings. You have yet to convince us." Elijah informed her, motioning between the three vampires.

"I am on the fence." Ingrid remarked from her spot next to Marcel, glancing at Sophie with a raised eyebrow. "Why should we allow you to compete your ritual?"

Sophie gaped at them in disbelief and began to enforce her problem in a stronger manner than before. "We don't have time to waste. The first sign's already come and gone."

"So fix her." Marcel suggested in a slow, careful tone.

"She can't be fixed. She can't be saved. This will not stop at the earth sign, and if you wait it out, you immortals will be the only ones left to argue about it." She sneered at him as extremely strong winds started to blow through the Quarter, bursting many of the compound's windows open, as the wind howled around them. The lights began to flicker off and on and they glanced around in concern.

After a moment, the winds had stopped and everything had settled again. Sophie looked at them with a smug face and flattened her lips. "Convinced now?"

Sophie had left and Klaus had taken her place. Elijah was pacing the floor in front of them as he debated their choices. "We sedated her too heavily."

Klaus began cleaning up broken furniture and stormed around in frustration. "Well, if this is her sedated, I'd hate to see her otherwise. We all agreed that Davina must be sacrificed. There's no need to let her blow the roof off our heads in the meantime."

Marcel turned to him, overprotective and furious. "No way! You're not touching her!" He then punched Klaus angrily across the face.

Klaus fell to his knee, caught off guard, but stood up and rubbed his cheek in annoyance. "Okay, I'll let you have that one."

Marcel walked toward him again but Elijah placed a hand on his chest to stop him. "Marcel, no one wishes to see Davina come to harm less than I, but there is no scenario here in which we simply wait this out. She's going to die."

"According to Sophie, the witch who screwed over everybody here." Marcel snapped and shoved his hands away.

"Exactly." Ingrid remarked in agreement, pointing a finger at him. "I do not trust the witches and most of all, Sophie. How do we know she is telling the truth?"

"The Harvest was working before it was stopped." Elijah reminded both of them with a stern look. "If a nonbeliever like Sophie Deveraux can come to have faith that these girls will be resurrected, then I, also, am a believer."

Ingrid waved her hands in the air in a mocking gesture and rolled her eyes. "We have put our faith in the wrong things before."

"I saved Davina from the Harvest, and now you want me to just hand her over?" Marcel questioned in disbelief.

"Do you think that I'm happy about this?" Klaus asked as he walked toward him. "If the witches complete the Harvest, not only do they regain their power, we lose our weapon against them. The earthquake I was willing to chalk up to hideous coincidence, but these winds? If Davina is not sacrificed, then every inch of earth that shook, everything blowing about now will soon be drenched in water and consumed by fire."

"Oh! Now you care about the city." Marcel sneered at him, enraged and fearful

"We ought to. We built it." Elijah reminded him in a dry tone with his arms crossed over his chest.

"And we all saw it burnt to the ground twice. I will not let that happen again. Do I make myself clear?" Klaus questioned in a manner one would ask their child.

"Yeah. Yeah." Marcel mumbled in agreement with a nod before leaving angrily.

Elijah turned to Klaus and gave him a look. "Not a people person, are you, Niklaus?"

Klaus shook his head with a smile. "Nonsense. I love people."

"You love your wife. There is a difference." Elijah remarked with a pointed tone and she jabbed a finger at him.

"Hmm." He mused with a chuckle then walked toward the door. "Just on my way to warn a couple of prominent ones in case the weather gets out of hand. If you fancy yourself as plus diplomatique, perhaps you'd like to come along."

"No. Soon Sophie Deveraux shall be consecrating Celeste's remains, and though her actions are reprehensible, still I should pay my respects." Elijah explained with a distant look crossing his face.

Hayley hesitantly entered the room and looked straight at Elijah. "Hey. Do you have a minute?"

"Just on my way out." Elijah rejected her coldy and turned to leave.

As he walked away, Klaus shouted after him with a smirk. "Which one of us is the people person again?" He questioned as Ingrid laughed loudly.

Elijah had gathered Rebekah, Ingrid, and Klaus to the living room to discuss his newest idea to finish the Harvest ritual.

Rebekah rolled her eyes and glanced at him, unconvinced. "It's taken one thousand years, but you've finally gone mad. Our own mother?"

"Yes, our beloved mother, who Niklaus has affectionately placed in a coffin in his basement-- not daggered, but quite dead." Elijah replied, taking a jab at his brother.

Klaus shrugged his shoulders and looked at him with a smirk. "Well, she did try to kill us all."

"Yes. I remember that all too fondly." Ingrid sarcastically remarked and sunk down into her seat.

"Well, I say we put her to use and put her to rest once and for all. Now if we bury our mother on land owned by one of her descendants, she becomes a New Orleans witch, and we, as her family, share in that ancestral magic." Elijah informed them, standing in front with his hands on his hips.

"We're vampires, Elijah. We can't practice magic. Or own property, for that matter." Rebekah reminded him in a snarky manner.

"Yes. With regard to practicing magic... After we bury our mother, they can channel all her power to Sophie. As conduits of Esther's magic, we need to participate in the Harvest. And, as for owning property, not all of our mother's descendants are dead..." Elijah trailed off staring directly at Ingrid, who felt uncomfortable in that moment.

Klaus looked over at her as well, surprised. "The baby."

"The baby. The parish Tax Assessor's office is just steps outside of the Quarter." Elijah explained and showed them a deed. "Ingrid now holds the title to the plantation. So, if we bury our mother there, and we consecrate those grounds, we can finish the Harvest ritual."

"But I am dead... how does that exactly work?" Ingrid questioned in confusion, taking the paper from him.

"It's not so much as you owning it but being the place holder for the child." Elijah clarified with a determined face.

Klaus held his hand out to Ingrid, who handed the deed to him. "You're a bit of a mad genius, Elijah. Count me in."

"Am I the only one thinking?" Rebekah spoke up causing them to face her. "Our mother was the most powerful witch in history. If we bury her, we hand that power to our enemies to use against us." She brought to their attention and Ingrid pursed her lips while processing what was said.

Elijah glanced at her, unhappily. "Given our circumstances, I hardly see that we have a choice, Rebekah."

The blonde sighed in frustration and threw her hands up. "I don't know why I bother. You three will just do what you want anyway."

"No. Our decision must be unanimous." Elijah informed her, seriously.

"This is not a democracy." Klaus sneered and pointed his finger at all of them.

Elijah paused for a moment and held a finger up to him with a smile. "You're quite right. This is family." They stopped talking when they heard the sound of a powerful rain storm that began pouring down on the house. "Water. The next sign's begun. Rebekah?"

Rebekah took a deep breath and looked between her siblings. "Kill a demon today, face the devil tomorrow. Count me in."

Klaus smirked in pride and clapped his hands together. "Well, this is no family reunion without our mother. I'll fetch her." He said happily before leaving the room.

"Niklaus is a wee bit sadistic, no?" Ingrid questioned the other two causing them to give her overwhelmed looks. "I love it." She smirked to herself and looked over the deed again.

Klaus, Elijah, Ingrid, Sophie, and Father Kieran were waiting on the backyard of the plantation house, where they had dug a grave for Esther, when Rebekah arrived to join them. It was still pouring down rain, and they were all standing under umbrellas with Klaus and Ingrid sharing.

"Did you find them?" Klaus asked his sister to which she nodded. "Will he bring her?"

"He'll bring her." She replied solemnly.

"Are you ready to do this?" Father Kieran yelled over the thunder, holding a cross in his hands.

"Always and forever." Klaus took a dagger out and sliced his palm open, dripping the blood over Esther's grave. He handed the blade to Rebekah, who did the same, along with Elijah and Ingrid, who was standing in for her and Klaus' baby. Once they had all dripped their blood into the grave, Father Kieran took the knife and threw it into the grave as well. "It is done."

"So dramatic." Ingrid mumbled under her breath as they quickly made their way to the cemetery.

They joined Sophie at the cemetery, where they waited for Marcel and Davina to arrive to complete the Harvest. Suddenly, flames started to erupt near the entrance, startling everyone. Sophie looked at it in horror. "Fire."

After a moment, Marcel appeared, carrying Davina in his arms and shielding her from the rain. As he walked toward them, flames followed them in a trail that licked at Marcel's heels. Once they got to the altar, Marcel set her down and Sophie held the ceremonial athame over the flames before she walking toward Davina. "Do you believe in the harvest?"

Davina trembled in fear and nodded nervously. "I believe."

Once she said the words, Sophie raised the blade and slit Davina's throat with it. Davina gasped in shock and grabbed at her throat before she fell backwards. Rebekah squeezed her eyes shut, not able to bear witness.

Marcel caught Davina and lied her down on the ground. Just then, the rain stopped and Davina's skin glowed gold as the magic left her body and flowed into the earth.

The four Harvest girls were lying down on the cement and Sophie glanced up at the sky. "After the Harvest comes the Reaping. Their sacrifices made and accepted. We call upon our Elders to resurrect the chosen ones." Sophie said loudly but when nothing happened, they looked around at each other uneasily. Sophie began again, hopeful and desperate. "We call upon our Elders to resurrect the chosen ones..." Still, nothing happened and Sophie became flustered and was near tears. "Resurrect your chosen ones... Please? I beg..." When it became clear that something had gone wrong, Sophie fell to her knees and sobbed. "No!"

Sophie began to sob even harder and Rebekah started to cry as well. Ingrid stared ahead of her with a distant look in her eyes while Elijah and Klaus both looked depressed, but not as much as Marcel, who shot Klaus a look of hatred before speeding away.

When Klaus and Ingrid returned home, they found Marcel in the courtyard, angrily throwing furniture into the walls.

"Marcellus." Ingrid called out to him in a soft tone.

Klaus approached Marcel to try to calm him down. "That won't bring her back, you know."

Marcel spun around to face him, furiously pointing a finger at him and crying. "This is YOUR fault! I should have never let you anywhere near her!"

"Marcel." Klaus called out to him, hurt.

"This city was fine before you came. We were fine! Davina was safe, she was in control! If you hadn't gotten her worked up, if you hadn't killed that boy!" Marcel snarled through grieving tears.

"My condolences the girl is gone. But don't lose perspective. We still have our community. The vampires of this town..." Klaus began to try to reason with him but was cut off abruptly.

"I don't CARE about the vampires! She is dead! Do you hear me?!" Marcel screamed loudly and approached them.

Klaus, overwhelmed, hugged Marcel tightly as he began to sob in his arms. "I'm sorry. You may think I know nothing of your grief, but you are wrong." He said and Marcel pulled away before falling back into his arms. "In the days after I fled this city, I thought you were dead. It was years before I could speak your name, so keenly did I feel that loss. I'm sorry." He lowered his voice to a whisper. "I'm sorry."

Ingrid walked over and hesitantly placed a hand on Marcel's shoulder, rubbing it in a comforting manner. Upon feeling her touch, Marcel fell into her arms and she froze in shock. She slowly wrapped her arms around him in an awkward hug and rubbed his back up and down while he sobbed uncontrollably. "I... It is okay. I've got you."

---
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