THE next morning, Elijah began to loudly call out for Klaus from the courtyard. "Niklaus! Niklaus!"

Just then, Klaus appeared on the balcony behind him, looking unamused. "You shout loud enough to wake the dead."

Ingrid walked out behind her husband, wearing only her lace panties and a men's dress shirt lazily drapped across her bare body. "Elijah... Must we do this almost every bloody morning? Honestly..."

Elijah noticed Ingrid's apparance and gaped at them in annoyance. "Can't pick up your phone? Your sister is missing."

"Well..." an eerily familiar female voice called out from below, immediately earning the Mikaelson's attention. Ingrid growled in pure fury and Klaus placed a hand on the small of her back, a comforting motion. "She's not exactly missing. And, as long as everyone behaves themselves, you can trust me to tell you where she is." Aurora explained, walking into their view with a wide smile. "Hello, Elijah."

Elijah glared at her furiously. "Give me my sister. Or perhaps I can pay a little visit to your brother, Tristan."

At the mention of the older de Martel, Ingrid's stomach nearly rejected its contents while recalling the events from the day prior. The sound of Klaus' voice was what she needed to snap out of her own thoughts. "Elijah, please." He called out in exasperation. "Aurora and I have come to an agreement." He remarked with an odd expression before waving her off. "Go on. I need to have a word with my brother."

The Mikaelsons congregated in Ingrid's study and Elijah started to fight the couple on their plans. "Am I to assume that you've gone completely mad?" He asked incredulously, looking between them.

Klaus walked over to Elijah with two drinks in his hands and handed one to him. "You see madness, I see method!"

Elijah took the glass from him while rolling his eyes. "And that method would be what, Niklaus? To collaborate with the she-devil who took our sister?"

"You didn't seem to have a problem with it yesterday." Ingrid commented bitterly from her desk. "Now it's an issue because it's not your idea."

Klaus smirked at her then glanced at Elijah in a pointed fasion. "To be clear, The Strix took our sister. Aurora simply hijacked her. I will get Rebekah back. Trust me. Keeping Aurora close is the goodwill we need." Klaus assured him and sipped his drink.

Elijah was quiet for a moment, considering this plan. "Well, it is a bold-- if lecherous-- plan. Will you employ the same tactic when it comes time to retrieve the medallion from Lucien and Tristan?"

Klaus smirked patronizingly. "They're not really my type. So you'd have ask Ingrid to do it instead."

Elijah, thoroughly exasperated by their behavior, sighed deeply and closed his eyes for a long moment. Ingrid raised an eyebrow at this reaction before rolling her eyes and running her fingers across her temples. "Elijah..." She called out to her brother-in-law but he ignored her.

Klaus, understanding Elijah's fear, sighed as well and shook his head. "There must be another way."

"Aurora will always protect Tristan... And, given that he and Lucien are aligned, the three of them together have a distinct advantage on us." Elijah mused slowly, brainstorming a plan.

Klaus seemed intrigued by where Elijah was going with this, and Elijah suddenly got an idea. "...Unless we break that advantage."

Klaus glanced over at him, impressed. "Now there's a strategy I wholeheartedly endorse! Luckily for you, Ingrid and I already have a plan."

Elijah turned to Ingrid with a surprised look and she folded her hands together with a blank expression. "Niklaus and I have decided that we're going to try my way now." She explained calmly and Elijah was not pleased. "So... it's Thanksgiving." She pointed out with a smirk. "I have taken it upon myself to invite them each to dinner. Where we can isolate them and turn them against each other. With the wedge driven, they'll be too busy fighting one another to deal with us."

Klaus grinned devilishly at Ingrid and Elijah processed this plan for a moment. It was hard to read what he was thinking until Elijah smiled wickedly and tapped his glass against Klaus'. "I can feel the holiday spirit already!"

A formal dinner table had been set up in the courtyard and the bar was full with fancy decanters of various forms of alcohol, along with plates of grapes, cheese, and bread as hors d'oerves. Lucien was at the bar, pouring himself a glass of bourbon, when Tristan arrived with a bouquet of flowers in a large pot in his hand.

"Aw, flowers for me?" Lucien asked cheerfully. "You shouldn't have!"

Tristan rolled his eyes as he lied the pot of flowers on the other end of the bar. "They're for the lady of the house. If memory serves me right, Ingrid loves daisies. They're her favorite." He mused affectionately and Lucien rolled his eyes in disgust. "The well-mannered bring a gift when invited to dinner. I assume you brought nothing?"

Lucien popped a grape into his mouth before sitting on one of the barstools. "Nothing but my deepest respect for you." He replied in a snarky manner.

Just then, Klaus entered the room wearing a black velvet dinner jacket over his usual dark henley and jeans. "Lovely. We're all getting along!" He commented mockily with a smirk.

"Mmm, like a fuse and a match." Lucien responded sarcastically.

"I take it Aurora is on her way?" Klaus asked curiously, clapping his hands together.

At the sound of her name, Aurora waltzed into the room wearing a vintage, dark-purple velvet dress with large, puffy sleeves and smiled widely at everyone. "I'm sorry I'm late. Just freshening up. I did want to look pretty.'

Klaus smiled at in amusement and watched as she walked straight toward Lucien, who seemed to have been momentarily stricken speechless by the sight of her. "Well, well. If it isn't my old friend Lucien."

Lucien blinked rapidly and began to recover from the shock enough to reply. "Hello, Aurora. It's been ages. You look..." he trailed off, trying to find an appropriate word.

Klaus, wishing he could steer clear of Aurora all together, sighed. Part of Ingrid's plan was to keep up the ruse Elijah had started the day prior. So swallowing his pride and hesitation, he quickly walked toward Aurora and grabbed her hand in his own. "You look ravishing." He complimented softly, causing Aurora to giggle and smile up at him. Klaus kissed her hand and had to hold back his urge to crawl through his own skin and vomit.

This gesture made both Lucien and Tristan uncomfortable to witness for different reasons. However, before the three of them could start a fight, Elijah descended the staircase and joined them in the courtyard. "Welcome to our home! I do wish it was under better circumstances. We all face a common threat-- a prophecy warning that my siblings and I would all fall within a year." Elijah then paused dramatically. "I fear my sister already has."

After a moment of awkward silence, Tristan cleared his throat and spoke up. "Only as a precautionary measure, I assure you."

Lucien looked at Tristan in surprise and disapproval, and Elijah, too, did not seem pleased by this information. "Interesting. You see, I would have called it an entirely unnecessary measure." He sneered with a pointed expression.

Just then, Ingrid walked into the courtyard wearing a black formal dress with long sleeves and a modest crewneck. Both Klaus and Tristan were completely taken by the sight of her. Klaus wanted nothing more than to let go of Aurora and stroll toward his wife but he knew for the sake of their plan, he couldn't. Tristan rubbed his sweaty hands against the side of his pants and licked his lips nervously.

"My apologies for my tardiness." The female hybrid pardoned herself in a smooth manner and smiled kindly at her guests. "I ran into a snag with the staff but there shouldn't be any problems with that from this point forward."

"Ingrid..." Elijah sighed and stood in her direct eyeline. He then gestured to the corner of his lips. Nonverbally motioning that she had something on her lip. She caught on to his hint and reached up to wipe whatever it was away. Bringing her fingertips down, she looked to see that it was wet with a crimson liquid.

Smiling sheepishly, she nodded her head in appreciation. "Right."

Elijah could only imagine why she had blood on her but thought it be best not to ask.

"Thank you for hosting." Tristan expressed affectionately and handed her the flowers. "Must I say... you are the most beautiful woman here."

Klaus felt fury building up in his chest from that compliment and bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from reacting.

Ingrid was surprised to see that Tristan had brought her flowers and maintained her kind appearance, taking them from him and setting them down on the dining table. "They're lovely." She spoke through gritted teeth and fought the instinct to insult him. "Thank you."

Elijah noticed her smile faltering slightly and turned the attention away. "We need to unite to prevent the prophecy from coming to pass. And, since any alliance is impossible without honesty..." he trailed off and exchanged a quick look with Klaus before continuing. "Let us begin this evening's proceedings by formally acknowledging your clandestine alliance."

Elijah gestured at Tristan and Lucien, who both looked stunned and a little afraid by this admission so early in the evening. However, after a moment, Lucien nervously replied. "Now, before--"

Elijah quickly, and patronizingly, cut Lucien off before he could finish his sentence. "Shh, shh, shh, shh. Lucien, please. Let's not ruin the dinner before it begins. After all, Ingrid put a lot of hard work into this." He pointed out, hoping to tug at Tristan's admiration for her.

"And, do try to bear in mind, we expect an honest and productive negotiation this evening!" Klaus added with a warning look.

Tristan nodded his head warily and agreed. "Mmhmm."

"Shall we begin?" Ingrid offered with a smile.

Tristan and Lucien both sighed nervously, while Aurora just smiled, visibly amused by the drama of this conversation. Elijah extended his arm toward the table as Aurora, Tristan, and Lucien walked over to sit down. Klaus looked over at Elijah, who nodded curtly, then at Ingrid, who gave him a tight smile, before joining them all at the table.

Ingrid and Klaus were sitting at both ends of the table while Tristan and Aurora sat side-by-side on the right side, leaving Lucien and Elijah to sit on the left. The table was loaded with all manner of traditional American Thanksgiving foods.

Lucien studied the spread for a moment then raised an eyebrow. "It's a bit odd, isn't it? Celebrating an American holiday?"

"I actually like Thanksgiving." Ingrid remarked honestly and gestured with her hands while pondering her words. "It gives humans the excuse to overeat. Plus who doesn't love a family dinner." She commented bitterly toward the other Mikaelsons. "Although... I much rather have ham than turkey. But one must uphold tradition."

"Ah yes." Elijah mused in agreement. "The turkey, the cranberry sauce... The lies, the deceit, the betrayal..." he trailed off with a smirk. "Perhaps we should begin this evening's proceedings with a little confession?"

Ingrid rolled her eyes, which didn't go unnoticed by anyone, and covered it up with a warm expression, motioning in front of her. "Do help yourselves. I would hate for this to be wasted."

Aurora stuck out her bottom lip in a pout. "So, this entire dinner is meant to be some boorish inquisition? How rude."

"That wasn't my intention." Ingrid explained in honesty then shot a glare at Elijah.

Klaus knew she was getting frustrated by Elijah's attempts to overthrow her plan and quickly moved to help. He turned toward the redhead and smiled. "Nonsense, love! My brother merely wishes to make certain we're all on the same page. So, who would like to begin?"

The guests were all silent until Tristan finally spoke up. "Well, Lucien and I have always loathed each other. Had we arrived as allies with a bleak future, you would have doubted us. We sought to remove suspicion by maintaining appearances." He explained and Ingrid knew he had a good point.

Nodding her head with pursed lips, she held a hand up and shrugged in agreement. However, Elijah chuckled humorlessly and rolled his eyes. "Oh, my dear. These pathetic lies promise to be as difficult to swallow as your stuffing this year, Niklaus." Elijah mused sarcastically then sighed dramatically and lowered his voice. "Walnuts, honestly."

Ingrid ran her thumb across her bottom lip in an attempt to hide her amused smirk and glanced over at her husband. "Oh, yes. Whatever were you thinking?" She asked condescendingly, pretending to hint at something else in order to convince Tristan they were still fighting.

Klaus laughed loudly in a passive aggressive manner before Lucien jumped into the discussion. "The bottom line is, we came to protect you ourselves. We have never wavered on this point."

Klaus glanced at him skeptically. "And the bodies on my streets-- is that your protection as well?"

Lucien shrugged nonchalantly. "It's business as usual for The Strix."

"I knew the killer's style seemed more like Tristan." Ingrid commented with an amused smirk.

"An old tactic, used often and to great success. Jack the Ripper, Son of Sam..." Tristan started to explain in a simple manner. "A frightened human populace is that much easier to control. If tourism should decline, and the local vampires are deprived of fresh blood? Well, you saw how quickly Marcel joined our ranks."

Ingrid narrowed her eyes at the mention of Marcel and pointed a finger at Tristan. "Don't."

Tristan frowned at her tone and shifted in his seat. He knew Marcel was a topic Ingrid was protective over and not wanting to anger her further, nodded politely.

Klaus rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Pedestrian. I would've expected more from such gaudy theatrics."

"Well, if one wanted to obtain a certain item in, say, a private collection, but one was not invited into the home where said private collection was located, a police investigation could come in handy to remove those items as evidence." Lucien responded in a hypothetical tone.

Elijah glanced between them, unamused. "I take it you are referring to the medallion?"

Tristan and Lucien were alarmed that the Mikaelsons were aware of their plans for the Serratura, but they recovered quickly. Tristan looked at Ingrid, who kept her face blank and void of any emotions, then back to Elijah with an uncomfortable expression. "I suppose it was my sister who shared that bit of information?"

"Don't blame Aurora-- you two are hardly conspiratorial geniuses." Klaus insulted with a smirk.

Lucien, visibly unhappy about Klaus and Aurora's reconciliation, decided to try to turn them against each other. "Funny story-- it turns out, all along, that the medallion was in the hands of Nik's friend Camille, the bartender-slash-therapist." He informed the group causing Ingrid to grip her wine glass in anger. Her knuckles almost white as the glass began to slowly crack.

"Oh, Camille..." Ingrid drew out slowly in a deep, unimpressed tone. Klaus met her eyes and shot her a sympathetic look while Tristan raised an eyebrow at her. "Of course." She spat out bitterly and set her glass down on the table, the cracks of an angry and jealous woman now evident to the group.

"Had to get her arrested in order to search her goodies, so to speak. But, I would never allow any harm to come to her, knowing the great regard you hold for her." Lucien admitted.

Klaus scowled furiously Lucien and Aurora was clearly jealous about the fact that there was now two women against her odds.

Klaus smiled coldly at the Trinity and started to pry for more information. "A medallion that could lock us away hardly seems like a wise strategy for those come to protect us. Hand it over." He demanded sternly with narrowed eyes.

"And release Rebekah." Elijah added in a dark voice.

Lucien looked around the table in confusion before interrupting. "Uh, just a tick-- Aurora has Rebekah, hmm?" He asked causing Aurora to give him an offended look.

"No reason why I shouldn't be trusted with my sire's safety." Aurora argued, defending her actions.

Lucien scoffed with a harsh eye roll. "Of course... unless you were to have one of your episodes."

Tristan quickly interrupted, immediate to defend her. "Easy, Lucien. My sister sought leverage to protect herself. Who among us would do otherwise?"

Elijah was rapidly beginning to lose his patience with this conversation and growled. "Niklaus, will you politely remind me why we shouldn't just compel them all to give us what we want?"

Ingrid rolled her eyes and smirked deviously to herself. "Because that worked so well the last time." She mused sarcastically causing Tristan to smirk over at her and Aurora to burst into very loud laughter.

Klaus smiled tightly at her, also beginning to dislike their conversation. "I'm sorry, did Elijah say something amusing?"

Aurora calmed down and smiled politely. "We lost a century to compulsion, my love. And some of us lost a great deal more." She reminded him, referring to herself and her brother. "Surely you can't believe we'd allow ourselves to come here vulnerable?"

Ingrid pointed a finger at Aurora and raised an eyebrow at Elijah, signaling that the redheaded woman had a point.

Elijah smiled bitterly at them before responding. "My dearest Aurora, compulsion is not my only party trick."

"Nope." Ingrid agreed with a shake of her head. "It's also lying, manipulatation, arrogance..." She trailed off with pursed lips.

Both Lucien and Klaus were amused by her attitude but Elijah glared at her, unimpressed.

Aurora's smile fell into a scowl and she glared at the eldest Original. "I do not like these threats."

Once again, Tristan quickly jumped into the conversation to mediate. "Our continued existence depends on the Mikaelsons." Aurora rolled her eyes at her brother's diplomatic attitude but he continued on regardless. "We've known that since Finn and Kol died. Unfortunately, so does every other vampire in the world. Given that the sirelines have declared war against one another, you can imagine how many young upstarts have come to the same conclusion-- kill a Original, wipe out an entire line of rivals."

Tristan looked pointedly at them and raised an eyebrow. "Heavy burden, isn't it? The lives of thousands of sired vampires resting on your shoulders? In a perfect world, you'd allow us to seal you away forever, thus eliminating the threat."

Klaus and Elijah stared coldly at Tristan, clearly not appreciating the implications of what he was suggesting. Ingrid tapped her finger against the table, processing the events unfolding before her.

"Fortunately, the world is far from perfect." Klaus said while smiling weakly at him.

"With all the nauseating dinner theater we've endured throughout the centuries, these performances are, by far, the worst." Elijah jeered snidely.

Both Tristan and Aurora rolled their eyes and threw their heads back in identical expressions of exasperation. Ingrid wouldn't lie and say she didn't feel the exact same way as them.

"Aurora, my sister--" Elijah began again, his expression furious and impatient.

However, Klaus immediately cut him off in an attempt to keep the peace. "Aurora is quite aware of our desire to see Rebekah home, and I'm sure she'll do everything in her power to oblige."

Just then, footsteps echoed as Freya walked into the courtyard with an appalled face at the sight of their guests. "We're welcoming our enemies to the dinner table now? Convenient, given she's the one who has the answers I want." The witch remarked incredulously and gestured at Aurora.

Aurora was so offended by the accusation that she scoffed loudly and rose to her feet. "Oh, for heaven's sake! Now I have to deal with the long-lost sister?"

"Yeah, it gets exhausting." Ingrid responded in a dull tone and sipped carelessly on her wine.

Aurora turned to Klaus with a stern expression. "Nik, please spare me your family's rage and paranoia. It is exactly this kind of lunacy which led me to steal Rebekah in the first place."

"What did you do with her?" Freya demanded sternly.

Aurora turned back to face her with a scoff. "Oh, I'm sorry, love, but this prophecy has you all acting as fools. And I've no intention of risking my life to foolishness."

"Honestly, my solution was just to kill the three of you and move on." Ingrid admitted on a dry manner and sighed heavily. "Yet here we are..." she trailed off, shaking her head slowly, then looked at her family in confusion. "Why don't people listen to me? A lot of our issues can be solved by simply murdering the problem."

"That's what got us in this mess in the first place." Elijah remarked in disgust, referring to her ventures in the eleventh century. "Had you followed my lead, we'd be on a different path."

Ingrid pretended to be offended and placed a hand over her heart. "Oh, excuse me. How will I ever live with myself?"

A silence fell around the room as they all glanced at each other. No one knew the true reason why Aurora took Rebekah in the first place except for Tristan, who merely looked embarrassed by her behavior. Ingrid glanced at him with a raised eyebrow, inviting him to speak up.

However, Aurora continued on with her rant and gestured toward them. "Now, I can't trust Rebekah with any of you." She shot Tristan a pointed look. "And I certainly can't trust the silly dear to endure on her own, so I decided to put her someplace safe. Imagine a spot where no harm could come to her. Where, in fact, no one could possibly even track her down." She smiled at the rest of the room as the Mikaelsons all stared at her in bewilderment and horror. "Yes, rest assured, Rebekah is perfectly fine... at the bottom of the ocean."

Klaus narrowed his eyes in scrutiny as he examined Aurora's poker face. "You're bluffing." He rejected and Aurora simply shook her head as though she was playing dumb. Klaus began to grow even more overwhelmed with anger and shouted at her. "Tell me you're bluffing!"

Aurora scoffed at his behavior and narrowed her eyes. "Oh, you should all be thanking me. Rebekah's never been safer! She has plenty of company down there. There's all the little crabs, and octopus, and..."

Aurora made accompanying hand gestures to communicate the crabs and octopi just as Klaus angrily slammed his hands on the table and stood to his feet.

Before Klaus could react further, Tristan sped over to Freya and held a knife to her throat. "Harm my sister, and I'll be forced to return the favor."

Elijah, not to be outdone, sped over to Tristan and yanked him away from Freya, pinning him face-first against one of the support beams of the balcony.

Lucien smirked at this development and awkwardly sipped his drink before making his snarky reply. "Oh, this all escalated very quickly..."

Ingrid chuckled to herself at that comment and watched her family's reactions. Sitting back in her seat, she sucked the air from her teeth and crossed her ankles.

"Shut up, Lucien, or I'll tear your tongue from your head." Klaus irritably snapped at him.

Lucien rolled his eyes but otherwise wasn't intimidated. "Be careful with your threats, Nik. Anything should happen to me, I won't be able to protect your precious Cami."

Ingrid glared at him and Klaus shook his head quickly. Aurora's eyes flashed with jealousy and anger. "Okay, that is the second time I've heard her name! Just who is this Cami?"

Freya glared mutinously at Aurora and growled. "You have bigger problems." She thrust her hand in front of her and flicked her wrist, telekinetically snapping Aurora's neck and causing her to collapse onto the floor in a heap.

Klaus, both appalled and impressed, shouted at her. "Freya!"

"ENOUGH!" Ingrid, tired of the chaos, rose to her feet and slammed her hands against the table. The sound of glass and silverware crashing down earned their attention and they turned to see her glaring at them furiously. "Sit. Down."

Elijah dragged Tristan back to the table by the back of his neck and shoving him down onto his seat. Elijah stared at Ingrid in a passive aggressive manner before taking his seat again. Nodding in approval, Ingrid turned toward her husband. "Niklaus..." she trailed off then walked away from the table and motioned between Tristan and Lucien. "Which one of these cretins would you like to torture first?"

Lucien took a deep breath, clearly not keen to be alone with either Mikaelson brother.

Klaus shrugged nonchalantly and glanced at her. "Well, it's half a dozen of one and six of the other, isn't it?" He then walked over to Lucien and stood behind him, squeezing his shoulders tightly in mock affection before smiling devilishly at Elijah. "Why don't you take the stable boy? Tristan and I are long overdue for a good catch-up."

Lucien pursed his lips, not wanting to set either of the brothers off. Meanwhile, Freya smiled coldly down at Aurora's unconscious body, which was splayed across the rug where she fell after her neck was snapped.

In one of the other rooms, Freya was pacing back and forth with a lit sage smudge-stick, allowing the smoke to waft around the room. Aurora's body had been moved and propped up against the nearby wall. After a moment, Aurora's eyelids began to twitch, and she took a deep breath as she started to come to. When she finally opened her eyes, she hummed as she started to remember what happened.

"Took you long enough." Freya commented dully after hearing her stir.

Aurora took notice of the smudge-stick in Freya's hand and smiled in amusement. "Oh, are we to play a fun game?"

"Actually, yes." Freya held up the burning sage in her hand and smirked. "And now that my spell has made it so that no one can hear what happens..."

Ingrid then walked into the room and stared pointedly at Aurora. "We're going to have so much fun."

Aurora smiled up at the hybrid and spoke in a cheery tone. "Ingrid! I was wondering when I would get to speak with you!"

"I'm not exactly in the mood for speaking." Ingrid replied, visibly displeased but Aurora didn't seem the least bit bothered by this rejection.

"Oh, okay. So, then what, pray tell, are we doing here?" She asked the Mikaelsons curiously.

"We need you to tell us where Rebekah is." Ingrid said sternly, folding her arms over her chest.

"And if I don't?" Aurora asked, intrigued to hear the consequences.

"I'll kill you." Ingrid answered in a hollow voice then cracked a smile and laughed darkly. "I mean, technically... I'm going to kill you anyway. But if you tell me now, I don't have to drag it out."

"Oh!" Aurora chuckled in amusement as the two girls smiled smugly at her.

Ingrid began aggressively beating Aurora for the answer but to no prevail. Aurora lied on the floor in a significantly large pool of her own blood while wheezing for air. Several of her bones shattered and a paralyzed diaphragm. She barely laughed against the cold hardwood as her body slowly began to heal.

Despite being near death, Aurora still refused to give up the location so Freya, annoyed, thrusted her hand in front of her and cast a powerful pain infliction spell on Aurora, which caused her to scream in pain and clutch her head. Freya clenched her hand into a fist, which only increased the agony Aurora was experiencing.

Aurora mustered up all the energy she had and fought through the pain long enough to speed toward Freya and shove her into the nearby wall, which distracted her enough to stop the spell. Aurora then lunged for Ingrid, who effortlessly grabbed the vampire's wrist with one hand and grabbed her throat with the other.

Aurora laughed hoarsely against her grip, mocking the hybrid. Ingrid merely raised an eyebrow and tightened her grip. "When I'm done with you, I'm going after your brother next."

The smirk fell from Aurora's face as she became protective over Tristan. "No one should dare harm my brother... Seeing as you're all going to need him if you want your precious Rebekah back. You see, while I did ensure that Rebekah was dropped in the ocean, I don't know precisely where. I had some old friends do it for me... and then I killed them."

"I've procured the exact location of Rebekah's watery grave in two sealed envelopes. I've got the latitude and Tristan got the longitude. Thus, each of us has one half of the coordinates you need to find your sister. X marks the spot!" She continued with a wicked and shrill laugh, smiling smugly. "So, tell me, girls-- who has the advantage now?"

Freya rolled her eyes as Ingrid snapped Aurora's neck and carelessly dropped her body to the ground. She sighed heavily and closed her eyes before picking up a chair and tossing it at the wall with a loud roar.

Back in the courtyard, everyone gathered back around the dinner table following their individual torture sessions.

Ingrid was slumped down in her seat, exhausted, with blood stained knuckles and a glass of wine in her hand. She sat in silence, letting the recent events wash over her.

"Longitude and latitude. Lovely." Lucien commented in exasperation and sat down next to a very unhappy Freya at the table.

Tristan looked over at Aurora with a satisfied smile. "Well, despite our differences, I believe great strides were made today." He remarked and Aurora mused in a pleased motion. Tristan held up his glass toward Aurora, who lifted her own and tapped it against his in cheers for their victory in the first battle.

Elijah glanced over at Klaus, who looked very displeased and was pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance, and stood to his feet as he coldly replied to Tristan's remarks. "Tristan, I can't murder you at this very moment, but I could just as easily tear those eyeballs from your skull and feed them to your sister."

Ingrid chuckled loudly and threw her head back against her chair. Everyone turned toward her in surprise and confusion but she didn't say anything and simply sat in her chair, tapping her fingers along the bell of her glass. Her amused glance was focused on Elijah as she soaked in his hypocrisy.

Surprisingly, Klaus quickly joined the conversation in order to mediate, even though he was still visibly angry at the de Martels. "Elijah! These are our guests." He stood up from them and Freya glared at him in displeasure.

Aurora smiled widely, appreciative of this gesture. "Nik, it's so sweet of you to defend us."

Ingrid rolled her eyes and scoffed in disgust. Klaus paused for a moment before he stood to his feet. "You know, I almost doubted Ingrid's wisdom in bringing us all together today, but she was right."

"As she is always." Elijah added under his breath in exhaustion causing her to run her tongue along the corner of her lips and snicker to herself.

Aurora, amused, stared at him with an affectionate smile, and Tristan, believing that Klaus will be taking his side, looked pleased.

"We must confront the harsh realities we all face and make difficult choices to ensure our collective survival." Klaus lifted his glass in toast, and Tristan and Aurora both echoed the gesture happily.

On the other side, Freya, Lucien, Elijah, all irritated and annoyed, and Ingrid, intrigued, waited in anticipation by where Klaus seemed to be going with his speech. The four simply raised their glasses out of politeness and the fact that they were far too tired to argue with him.

Klaus took a sip from his drink before setting down his glass and walking over toward Ingrid, who threw back her drink in one gulp. "And I have every confidence that my choice... will be the right one."

Tristan glared furiously at the sight of Klaus' hand resting on Ingrid's shoulder and his eyes narrowed in jealousy.

Klaus smiled at Tristan for a moment, rubbing Ingrid's shoulder gently. All seemed well for a brief second and Tristan was so distracted by the fact that he believed Klaus to be on his side and his own jealousy that he was unable to react when Klaus sped toward him and grabbed him by the chin, snapping his neck in one swift motion.

Aurora, appalled by Klaus' actions, stood to her feet with a gasp and glared at him, clearly feeling furious and betrayed.

However Klaus just scowled at her in response. "Be grateful that we still need you. Otherwise, the servants would already be mopping your blood from the floor. If you do not bring my sister home, Tristan will die slowly, and in tremendous pain."

Aurora glared at him mutinously as her fists balled up into small fists. "You betray me after all your promises of love?"

"I lied!" He bellowed furiously and Aurora gasped in surprise. Her eyes welded with tears but he continued on with no regard for her feelings. "I never meant any of them. I played you for a fool." He then lunged for her, stopping just inches away from her face and sneering at her murderously. "Now I have your brother-- a sibling for a sibling. I want Rebekah back."

Aurora sneered back at him and leaned closer to his face to whisper in his ear. "You will regret this." She, angry beyond belief, then turned and stormed away, shoving the dinner table to the side as she did so. The table now a mess and covered in spilled food, wine, and flowers from Aurora's tantrum.

Freya looked at Klaus with incredulous anger. "After everything today, you just let her go?"

"Aurora should be easy enough to control. We have Tristan now." Elijah replied, standing over Tristan's unconscious body. "Ingrid?"

"Yeah, I'll handle it." She answered in a tired voice and rubbed her temple slowly.

Klaus turned to Lucien, who looked understandably terrified by this turn of events. "Lucien, you will surrender the medallion, or you will meet an end so cruel, the devil will weep." He snarled furiously before the two set off to get the cursed object.

Ingrid stood up from the table with a loud sigh and walked toward Tristan's body. She nudged him with her foot and he limply fell to the side. "So, here's the plan." She began to pitch to Elijah but noticed him standing there with wide eyes and raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

Elijah's eyes were wide as he stared at the table where they held their failed Thanksgiving dinner. He started looking panicked and horrified causing Ingrid to grow concerned. "Elijah!" She called out to him loudly, hoping to snap him out of his trance.

"Does this look familiar to you?" He questioned in worry, having the oddest feeling of déjà vu.

"What? The disaster?" She questioned incredulously and raised an eyebrow. "Yes. We do this all too often."

He shook his head quickly and met her eye contact. "No. Ingrid, the prophecy. Look at all of this."

She finally paid full attention to the scene and realized that the events of that day were among Alexis' visions of the prophecy just days prior. She looked down at the table, taking notice of the identical smashed wine glasses and centerpieces from the visions and grew visibly worried about their future.

---
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