INGRID shot forward, having fully awaken from her desiccated state. She growled lowly in an animalistic manner and sped toward the front door only for Elijah to block her path. "Move." She snarled harshly through gritted teeth, her small hands clentched in fists. When he refused to move out of her way, she narrowed her dark eyes and bellowed furiously at him. "MOVE!"

Elijah glanced at her with a stern face, refusing to back down. "You need to remain calm."

"Remain calm?" She repeated in shock then gaped at him in disbelief. "Elijah, they have Niklaus. Alaric is out there and the imbeciles of Mystic Falls have neutralized Niklaus. He is in danger! I cannot remain calm when my husband's life is at stake. The very fact that you remain unbothered at this moment is unsettling." She began to argue desperately then grew wrathful as her eyes glowed amber-gold. "If you do not move out of my way, I will make you. If you do not help me save Niklaus, I will do it myself. Your choice."

"We will save Niklaus. But we do it my way." He informed her sternly causing her to glare daggers at him.

"You have one chance. If it fails, I will do this my way." She warned him in a harsh tone. "We both know, I will not hesitate."

The Mikaelsons approached the Gilbert home and Elijah politely rang the doorbell. Elena answered it and glanced at them in surprise. Elijah requested for her permission to enter the premises and Elena reluctantly agreed as long as Ingrid be kept in checked to which both Originals swore on their word.

After being able to cross the threshold, Elijah, Ingrid, Matt, Stefan, and Elena were gathered together in the kitchen discussing a possible deal to barter back Klaus' body and take care of Alaric. However before they got started, Ingrid glared at the Donavan boy and held her hand out. "Give me my dagger."

"No, that's the only insurance we have that you won't kill us." Stefan rejected sternly and shook his head.

"No, your insurance is my husband." Ingrid snapped furiously at him then held her hand out once more in an aggressive manner. "Hand it over. This is not a request."

Elijah glanced at the group with a blank face and urged them to do as commanded.

"Why do you want it back?" Matt questioned her in confusion.

"I refuse to allow myself to be vulnerable to the lot of you ever again." She responded in an angry tone of voice, most of it directed at him. Matt sighed heavily in reluctancy but handed her the golden dagger nonetheless. Her fingers curled around the hand and a sense of relief coursed through her for a moment. She looked up and gave him the most sincere expression she could muster at that very moment. "Thank you."

The group was confused why she would want the very thing that could subdue her for the rest of eternity but Elijah knew how it felt to possess the one thing that could put her in that state. It was freeing to be able to control the daggers and along with it, their fate.

"All we need is to take that stake away from him. Once he's been disarmed, the weapon's in my possession, my family will scatter to the ends of the Earth and Alaric will follow us." Elijah informed the group, glancing at each of them.

"And you'll just run?" Stefan questioned in disbelief as he sat down next to Elena.

Elijah shrugged slightly and smiled warmly in their direction. "We've done it before. Klaus and Rebekah spent the better part of a thousand years evading my father. What's another half century while Elena is able to live out the rest of her natural life?"

"We've finally stopped him, Elijah. After everything that he's done to us, I can't just let you bring him back." Elena argued sternly causing Ingrid to growl.

Elijah shot her a warning look then turned back to the doppelgänger, giving her a serious expression. "I give you my word, Elena. I will not revive Klaus within yours nor even within your children's lifetimes. Perhaps that will finally teach him some manners."

Ingrid snorted out a laugh and covered her hand over her nose. "Good luck with that one, Elijah. Niklaus is not fond of manners."

"Why should she trust you?" Matt snapped at him, leaning forward in his seat. "All you've done is screw her over."

"And for that, I am deeply ashamed. But know this, she could have been dead the instant we walked through that door tonight. I could have allowed Ingrid to have her fun yet I swore she wouldn't." Elijah reminded him causing Ingrid to smirk devilishly in the human's direction. "So Elena, I leave it to you to make the decision whether to trust me or not."

Suddenly, Damon responded from the other line of Elena's cell phone. "Not! Hello? Did that concussion give you brain damage?! His lunatic siblings will kill you the first chance they get! Not to mention his psycho wife!"

Ingrid narrowed her dark eyes at the phone as Elijah shook his head in Elena's direction. "Rebekah and Kol will honor the terms. Ingrid has too, correct?"

"I swear on my honor and my word that as long as Niklaus remains alive I will not touch a single hair on Elena's head." The Mikaelson wife responded in a serious tone of voice, not a single hint of lying, scheming, or joking in her tone. "I do not lie."

"If you return Klaus' body to us, Elena will come to no harm." Elijah added to their agreement with a small, hopeful smile as Elena glanced over at Stefan for a hint of what to do. "Do we have a deal?"

"No! No, no, no, no! Did I mention no?" Damon snapped from the phone, hoping to persuade her toward his side.

Stefan shrugged his shoulders slightly and looked over at her with a kind and loving expression. "Elena, it's up to you."

"Oh, come on!" Damon interjected in disbelief.

Elena shifted awkwardly in her seat and glanced at the Mikaelsons in curiosity. "Why do you want Klaus' body?"

Ingrid paused for a moment to make sure that she had heard what was said correctly before giving the Gilbert an aggravated facial expression. "Is she entirely dense?" She whispered lowly to herself in Old Norse before turning to Elena again and speaking in English. "He is my husband." Then she ran her tongue across her teeth and sucked the air for a second as she processed how to approach the situation while keeping her and Elijah's word. "You would do the same in our shoes, Elena. It is not that difficult to understand why we want Niklaus back. Try to have some empathy." She mocked causing Stefan to glare at her.

Elijah rolled his eyes at his sister-in-law in subtlety and turned back to Elena with an emotional expression. "He's my brother. We remain together."

Elena sighed heavily and reluctantly agreed to them. "We have a deal."

The Mikaelsons left the Gilbert home and Ingrid spoke to Elijah as they walked down the street. "What is the plan exactly?"

"Damon and Rebekah will bring Klaus home while you and I wait here." He answered in a smooth, calm tone then continued on upon seeing her face. "They don't trust you."

"Good. They shouldn't." She answered bluntly and stormed off ahead of him, walking through the woods.

"Why must everyone fear you for you to be pleased, Ingrid?" Elijah questioned curiously as he quickly followed suit.

"If people fear me then I cannot be taken advantage of. When you are feared, people hesitate to bother you." She responded dully and stopped in her place.

He walked passed then stopped in front of her. "If you are loved, you cannot really be feared, and if you are feared, you cannot really be loved."

Ingrid scoffed and wrinkled her nose. "Did you just quote Machiavelli to me to prove a point?" She asked in amusement then flattened her lips while nodding slowly. "But since it is difficult to be both together, it is much safer to be feared than to be loved, when one of the two must be lacking." She finished the quote with a pointed expression.

"I see you're caught up." Elijah commented while making an impressed face.

She shrugged her shoulders and glanced passed him into the dark tree line before them. "As much as it pains me, I am doing my best to keep out of a coffin."

He was about to respond when Rebekah ran up to them while sobbing. The blonde glanced at her siblings in distraught causing them to spare a glance at each other. "He's gone, Elijah. There was nothing I could do to stop it."

Ingrid froze in place as her heart dropped down into her stomach as the sound of it beating flooded her ears. The sound of the world seemed millions of miles away as her lips quivered with fear and heartbreak. Tears began to pool on her dark eyes without her realizing and she gritted her teeth together. Her hands curled into fists as the shook vigorously.

Rebekah and Elijah walked toward each other and embraced tightly. Elijah stared into the darkness with a grief-stricken face and placed a hand on the back of her head. He took a moment before back away from her with a confused expression. "Tyler Lockwood is dead, but the rest survived. You said that Niklaus turned their bloodline."

"I thought he did." Rebekah answered, her face stained red with tears as her voice cracked ever so slightly.

Elijah shook his head as he processed all the new information. "It wasn't me, it wasn't Kol."

"It wasn't me, Elijah. It was Niklaus, I'm sure of it." Rebekah agrued through tears as they froze.

"Ingrid?" Elijah called out then turned to see that she was gone. "Ingrid!?"

Stefan was walking through the woods when his phone rang. He answered it without looking to see who it was. "Hello?"

"Congratulations. You live to see another miserable day." They snarled from the other end. "Seems Niklaus lied about your bloodline."

"Ingrid." He greeted her in shock and picked up the pace of his walk.

"Elijah spoke to Elena, she should be coming home any second." Ingrid responded in a calm tone of voice.

"Yeah, he told me that. He also said you three would be long gone out of town by now." Stefan replied, approaching his red Porsche off the edge of the woods.

"Elijah proposes that we run and that Alaric will follow. But that will be a problem for me. I have spent a millennia locked away, I refuse to spend any of my freedom running." She informed him, anger lacing the end of her voice.

"What are you talking about? We had a deal." Stefan paused in fear, his leafy green eyes darting back and forth.

"I specifically stated that should Niklaus remain alive, I would not harm Elena. Now, Niklaus is dead, there is no deal. There is only one way to get rid of Alaric and--" She explained but was cut off by the younger Salvatore.

"Ingrid, no!" He pleaded for her to stop.

"I will give you a chance to save her. Two minutes. Wickery Bridge. Try not to be late." Ingrid sneered before hanging up the phone abruptly.

Stefan threw his phone in anger then sped out of the woods, leaving his car behind. He arrived to Wickery Bridge to see Matt's red truck parked haphazardly with the passenger windows smashed into pieces. He stormed toward the truck to see Matt lying in the driver's seat with a bite taken out of his neck and blood running down his shirt. However, no sign of Elena. When he noticed that Matt was still breathing, he let out a small breath of relief before panicking again. He walked around the vehicle to see Ingrid standing a few feet away, holding Elena in a chokehold.

Stefan slowly approached them with his hands held up in surrender. "Let her go, Ingrid. I'm sorry about Klaus. We will help you stop Alaric. I promise but you have to let Elena go first."

"Your words mean nothing. Your promises mean nothing." Ingrid remarked in a hollow tone of voice then paused when the clock tower began to ring loudly across town. "My apologies, Stefan, but it's too late. You have run out of time."

"Stefan!!" Elena cried out to him but Ingrid bit into her own wrist and shoved it into Elena's mouth, causing the Original's blood to trickle down the doppelgänger's throat. Once, Ingrid was sure Elena had enough she placed her hands on either side of her head. Stefan ran toward them but Ingrid snapped Elena's neck before he could reach them and dropped her body harshly to the ground.

Stefan reached Elena's body before it hit the asphalt and caught her in his arms. He looked up to glare at Ingrid but she already was long gone.

Ingrid sped into the Mikaelson mansion and closed the door behind her. She walked through the foyer before screaming at the top of her lungs and smashing the table into pieces. She the proceeded to destroy the furniture in a fit of rage.

---
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