ELIJAH was walking around the study and found burnt sage Esther used last night to silence her conversation between herself and Elena and furrowed his brows in confusion.

Downstairs, Rebekah entered the living room wearing the same dress from the ball and rolled her eyes when she noticed her brothers were sitting there. Klaus was sitting on the couch, sketching Ingrid, who was busy reading an updated version of The Oxford Dictionary.

"In what context would you use the word--" Ingrid began to ask as she slowly read the word out loud with a face of confusion. "YOLO?"

Klaus snickered to himself as Kol shot him an equally confused expression. "It's an acronym for you only live once."

She nodded slowly in understanding then paused for a moment. "Humans have an unnecessary need to convince themselves to do reckless things." She commented aloud in observation as Klaus chuckled at her. "Seems practically self-absorbed."

"Well, well, well, there's our girl!" Kol remarked with a teasing look, standing before Rebekah and blocking her way.

"Get out of my way, Kol." Rebekah snarled at him, not wanting to play his game at that moment.

"Out all night. What a scandal!" Kol teased relentlessly then began to guess who she had been with. "I trust you did better than that commoner? Matt, was it?"

"Who?" Ingrid asked in confusion.

"A simple and plain human boy." Kol answered with a smirk on his face.

"If you don't shut your mouth, the next thing to come out of it will be your teeth." Rebekah threatened her brother with an angry glare as Klaus grinned to himself in amusement. She turned to him with a stern face and pointed a finger at him. "Don't start, Nik!" She snapped before pushing past Kol and standing in front of him.

Klaus held his hands up in surrender while chuckling. "I didn't say anything."

Kol threw himself back onto the couch with a dramatic sigh. "I'm bored. Our sister is a strumpet, but at least she's having fun. I need entertainment."

"What are you waiting for?" Klaus questioned rhetorically then shrugged his shoulders. "Go on, have at it."

"It's not fun to go alone. Join me, Nik!" He encouraged with a grin then turned to the brunette. "Indy?"

"Who?" Ingrid questioned and turned to Klaus with a confused expression then back to Kol, pointing at herself. "Are you talking to me?"

"Yes!" Kol remarked with a smile and sat forward on the couch. "I don't like saying Ingrid. It's too formal." He answered with a teasing face of disgust and looked at Klaus with a guilt-tripping expression. "It's the least you can do after sticking a dagger in my heart."

Klaus thought it over for a moment before smirking in agreement. "Okay. Why not? I didn't have nearly enough to drink last night, what with you trying to murder Rebekah's date." He remarked while standing up and walking past Rebekah and toward Ingrid. "Care to join us, love?"

"Yes, please go, this house has enough men rolling around it in." Rebekah insulted them with a condescending smile.

Kol walked backwards toward the door and pointed at his sister. "Just like you, Bekah."

Rebekah took off one of her shoes and threw it at Kol. "Good riddance, both of you!"

Klaus laughed loudly then turned to his wife once more and held a hand out. "Joining us?"

She glanced up at him and thought about it for a moment before nodding and taking his hand. She pulled herself up off the couch and the couple walked out of the mansion together.

The trio walked into the Mystic Grill just as Alaric Saltzman and Meredith Fell were discussing the probability of Alaric's attacker from the other night being a vampire.

"Oh come on now." Klaus spoke up causing the human couple to look at them with a guarded expression. "Let's not go blaming the new family in town just because you lot have got yourselves a killer at large. Don't mind us. We're just here to let off some steam, right Kol?" He questioned with a smile, clapping his brother on the shoulder.

"Right." Kol answered while he was eyeing Meredith, who looked uncomfortable. Alaric took notice, coming to the conclusion that they seemed to know each other somehow.

The Mikaelsons sat down at the bar and ordered a round of drinks. Ingrid wasn't too sure of what was good and Klaus ordered her the same thing he was drinking, a glass of scotch on the rocks. She gave him an amused expression but trusted his judgment and expressed her gratitude.

Just then, Caroline entered the Grill wearing revealing clothing and exchanged a subtle look with Alaric.

Kol noticed her approaching them and pointing in the blonde's direction. "I remember her from last night. She looks like a tasty little thing."

Klaus growled lowly and shot a warning look his way while making a small gesture toward the woman beside him. "Say another word and I'll tear out your liver."

Ingrid chuckled in amusement and took a sip of her drink before glancing at the liquid in her glass with an impressed expression. "I praise your taste, my love."

"Well of course you do." Kol commented with a smirk. "After all, he married you."

Ingrid chuckled while giving him a wink just as Caroline stopped in front of them and crossed her arms over her chest, not in the slightest pleased to see Klaus. "Oh, it's you." She greeted him in disdain.

"Join us for a drink?" Kol kindly offered, gesturing for her to sit down next to him.

Caroline glanced over at the younger brother and scoffed. "Mmm, I'd rather die of thirst. But thanks." She snarkily responded then walked away in the same direction in which she came.

"Is she under the impression that we are supposed to worship the ground in which she walks?" Ingrid questioned in confusion and slight aggravation. "The vampire population of this town seem to have a high sense of entitlement." She remarked in a dull manner while finishing off her drink. "It's almost laughable."

The Mikaelsons were having fun drinking at the bar when Klaus gazed over at Ingrid with an affectionate look on his face. She met his glance and raised an eyebrow, intrigued. He looked over to see Kol playing pool with a group of people and nodded his head in the direction of the door. "Want to go have some real fun?"

She smiled and stood up from her seat. "Always. What do you have in mind?"

He didn't answer, simply stood up and walked out of the Grill. She pursed her lips in confusion but followed suit nonetheless. When they were outside, he continued to walk across the street and she glanced at him in confusion. She watched as he turned around and waved her over from across the asphalt. Ingrid then walked across the street and stopped in front of him. "What are we doing?"

"I just wanted to be alone with you." Klaus replied with a giddy smile causing her to raise an eyebrow. "Is it wrong of me to want to be alone with my wife?"

Ingrid let out a small laugh then held up a finger. "You are-- Give me a moment. I read a word in that book this morning that I'm trying to remember."

"Handsome? Perfect? Sexy?" He questioned with an arrogant smirk causing her to wrinkle her nose and shake her head.

She scoffed and rolled her eyes. "I'm sure you think so."

He looked offended for a moment and chuckled genuinely causing his dimples to peak out from his cheeks. Klaus was about to make a smart remark when both he and Ingrid placed hands over their hearts and groaned in pain.

"What is happening?" Ingrid questioned in a panic and looked up her husband. She growled in anger then looked down at her chest, expecting to see a golden dagger sticking through her chest.

They both realized what had happened and looked at each other with wide eyes, speaking simultaneously. "Kol!"

Outside the Grill, Alaric dragged a daggered Kol into an alleyway where Stefan and Damon were waiting for him. "Here, grab him!" Alaric demanded breathlessly, struggling to get the Original out of the doorway.

"Tell your sexy doctor "Good work"!" Damon praised with a cocky smirk.

Suddenly, Klaus and Ingrid rushed toward them. Klaus undaggered Kol and knocked Alaric against the wall. Stefan tried to attack Klaus but Ingrid held him against the wall by the neck. She flashed him her golden-amber, hybrid eyes and growled animalistically.

"There are two of them?!" Damon called out in surprise and annoyance, groaning loudly.

Klaus glared at the Salvatores in rage and took a threatening step forward. "I should have killed you months ago."

Damon stood his ground and glanced at him with narrowed eyes. "Do it. It's not going to stop Esther from killing you."

Klaus took a step toward him with a dangerous demeanor. "What did you say about my mother?"

"You didn't know I was friends with your mummy?" Damon mocked their accent and smirked. "Yeah, we have a lot in common. She hates you as much as I do."

Klaus was about to attack Damon when Elijah appeared at the top of the stairs causing the couple to look up at him. "Leave him! We still need them, Niklaus. Ingrid let Stefan go."

She let out a sarcastic chuckle and gave him a bitter smirk before snapping Stefan's neck and dropping him to the ground. "Done."

"What did mother do?" Klaus asked in fear but the noble brother didn't respond so he pressed the subject further. "What did she do, Elijah?"

Elijah still didn't answer and walked down the stairs passed his brother and toward Damon, holding his phone up. "You tell me where the witches are or I'll have my sister kill Elena right now."

Damon looked up at the clock tower and noticed that it was only eight-thirty. "You told me we had until after nine."

"I'm sure Rebekah will be more than happy to start her work early." Elijah pointed out with a condescending smile on his face.

Damon glanced at the Mikaelsons in resentment before walking toward his brother and picking him up off the ground. He then reluctantly agreed to tell them where the Bennett witches were, saving Elena from a death at Rebekah's hand.

Finn was standing in the center of a pentagram drawn on the grass. Finn turned towards Esther with a frantic expression. "They're coming, Mother!"

"No, it's too soon, the moon is not high enough. Go! Quickly!" Esther urged them strongly and the Bennett witches retreated into the house just as Kol, Elijah, Klaus, and Ingrid walked up the hill. "My children, come forward."

Finn stared at his family and held an arm out to block Esther. "Stay beside me, mother."

Esther walked into the pentagram with a smug expression while making direct eye contact with them. "It's okay. They can't enter."

Kol approached the pentagram and the torches around it flared up bright while the ground shook vigorously, driving him backwards. "That's lovely. We're stuck out here, while the favorite son plays sacrificial lamb. How pathetic you are, Finn." He sneered at his eldest brother, a scowl on his face.

"Isn't that surprising?" Ingrid remarked sarcastically and glared over at the two in the pentagram.

"Be quiet, Kol. Your brother knows virtue you cannot even imagine." Esther remarked in disgust causing Ingrid to laugh in amusement.

"Whatever you think of us, killing your own children would be an atrocity." Elijah remarked in a smooth voice with a look of betrayal across his face.

"My only regret is that I did not let you die a thousand years ago." Esther responded with a regretful face.

Klaus crossed in front of Kol and rolled his blue eyes. "Enough. All this talk is boring me. End this now, Mother, or I'll send you back to Hell." He threatened gruffly with a smile and Ingrid admitted to herself that it was  attractive to see him in such a hostile manner again.

"For a thousand years, I've been forced to watch you. Felt the pain of every victim, suffered while you shed blood. Ingrid being the worst." Esther sneered at them in disappointment. "Even you, Elijah, with your claim to nobility, you're no better. All of you. You're a curse on this Earth. Stretched out over generations. If you've come to plead for your life, I'm sorry, you've wasted your time." She informed them with tears pooling in her eyes.

"Yet you have no intention of taking responsibility." Ingrid commented with a begrudging smile. "You claim innocence when you are the very person responsible. You turned us into these so proclaimed monsters and now you cannot handle the repercussions. You're not doing this to save humanity, you're doing this to save yourself because you cannot live with your choices anymore. You are choosing to take the easy way out."

Suddenly, Esther sensed the lose of Abby's power and pleaded desperately to the spirits. "No! Sisters! Do not abandon me!"

The pentagram torches flared up and Finn grabbed Esther before it could set her ablaze. The other Mikaelsons cowered from the flames with Klaus wrapping his arms around Ingrid and placing his body between her and the fire. After a moment the torches died out and they all stood around in shock to see that Finn and Esther were gone.

Klaus was in the parlor standing at the fireplace, watching the wood burning. He sensed a presence behind him and turned to see Ingrid standing in the doorway. He held an arm out, gesturing for her to come in further.

She took a hesitant step forward and approached him with a small smile. "You protected me despite it being unnecessary. I appreciate your effort."

"I wanted to show you that I still care and I'm still in love with you." He replied with an meaningful expression. "I truly am willing to do what I have to do to show you that I want our marriage to work. I want us to work. Because we are--"

"Always and forever." She finished for him in affection and grinned happily. "That still rings-true. Even after all of this. I still love you, Niklaus. That has not changed. I just need to know that I can trust you. That you won't decide to dagger me once again and lock me away for a millennia. That's all I need. However, I would be remiss if I neglected to inform you that I am angry. Angry not being the right word... I am furious at you, Niklaus. Deep down, underneath everything, I have the slightest temptation to reach my hand in your chest and rip your heart out like you did mine. Except, this being literal instead of metaphorical."

"We were supposed to spend eternity together. Yet I have missed a millennia of it." She remarked with an emotional expression. "That is an extensive amount of time to make up for. Equally as a couple and as a ramification for your choices. I do not expect you to have your redemption in one night. Just as I hope you do not expect me to forgive you in one night. After all... we do have an eternity." She joked lightly with a small smile.

He was about to respond when Rebekah walked into the room and he turned to her with a blank face. "I thought you'd have gone by now. Elijah's leaving. Kol's fled. Esther and Finn are gone too."

Rebekah picked up one of the many drawings that were lied across the room and walked toward them. "I hated you when I learned you killed our mother. But I realize now that after a thousand years together as a family, you're the only one who never left me."

"Well, aren't we a pair." He responded with a small, amused smile.

"There's something I need you to see." Rebekah said seriously and pulled out her phone, holding it up to show them the video of Elena she took.

"Come to brag about your skills as a torturer?" He questioned sarcastically then took the phone and looked down at the screen.

"Look at the images on the wall behind Elena. The Natives told the story of our family history, look at the images on the far wall." She requested with a stern expression.

Klaus glanced at it then up at her in confusion. "What is it?"

"A Native worshipping at the Great White Oak tree." The blonde Original responded, her heart pounding away in her chest.

"And?" Klaus questioned with an uninterested face. "We burned that tree to the ground."

"Look at the markings that precede it. That's the native calendar." She stressed and pointed at the image she was referring to.

Klaus took a hard look at it then paused in fear. "This can't be right."

"A White Oak tree, three hundred years after we fled back to the Old World. There must have been a sapling, a new tree to replace the old. That tree could kill us. It's not over, Nik." She explained stressfully as the couple glanced at each other in panic.

---
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-the1andonlytifftiff