CAMI woke with a gasp and when she pulled her hand away from her throat, she found it coated in her own blood. She was absolutely horrified at the sighed then looked up to see four pairs of Mikaelson eyes staring down at her. "Klaus...?" She whispered weakly.

Klaus looked sympathetic as he realized the implications of what had happened. "Tell us what happened."

Cami's eyes widened, remembering everything from before. "Aurora." She remarked then grew more horrified when she realized what this meant. "She did this to me." She then suddenly started to sob and her voice fell weaker. "I died. I'm dead."

Ingrid had to physically stop herself from rolling her eyes and groaning loudly at the blonde's tears.

Klaus knelt down beside the transitioning vampire and placed a hand on her shoulder. "But you will not stay dead." He assured her in determination before his expression changed to fury. "She will pay for her actions, I swear to you--"

Cami interrupted him when she doubled over in pain and groaned. "Ohhh, what's happening to me?"

Klaus shot her another sympathetic look. "You're transitioning. You need to feed on blood soon, or you will die... This time, for good."

Cami whimpered in fear and exhaustion and looked up at everyone, who each wore different expressions.

A few minutes had passed since Cami's resurrection and Elijah walked into the study and stripped off his coat as he joined the hybrids company. Klaus was sitting at the bar while Ingrid was seated at Klaus' desk, tapping her fingers against the wood.

"How is she?" Elijah asked in genuine concern.

"How any transitioning vampire is." Ingrid answered dully. "Insufferable."

"She has just risen from the dead. As soon as she feeds, her mood will change for the better." Klaus walked toward Elijah and his tone turned furious as he changed the subject. "In the meantime, these attacks need to be answered! Our retribution must be swift, and it must be brutal!"

"Agreed." Elijah remarked calmly causing Ingrid to raise an eyebrow. "After the Serratura has been recovered." He then sighed in frustration and threw his coat onto the chair. "Freya's pendant is also missing."

"Of course it is." Ingrid commented in exasperation.

Klaus rolled his eyes and threw his hands up. "And Finn's mystical essence along with it. So let the imbecile stay lost! Our business for today is to finish off the de Martels!"

"While I don't disagree..." Ingrid started with a pointed look. "We need to be thorough and precise. We can't make a move without a plan. It'll make matters worse."

Elijah replied softly in an attempt to calm Klaus down. "Now, brother, think. Think. Tristan needs the most powerful witch in the city to activate that weapon. A Regent."

Klaus understood where he was heading and sneered. "Vincent." He then rushed toward the door to leave. "Who was once possessed by Finn!" He yelled while walking out of the room and eventually the compound.

Elijah looked at Ingrid, who looked far from pleased with the situation they were in, and explained his idea for a plan. Ingrid pondered it for a moment, weighing the pros and cons in her head, before agreeing to give it a shot. Relieved that she was willing to cooperate, he turned on his heels to get the plan started.

When Elijah and Vincent arrive the compound a few hours later, they found a horrified Freya, clutching her chest with one hand and a piece of parchment in another and Ingrid, staring at a small, cream-colored box placed on the table.

Elijah, immediately sensing something is wrong, rushed over to them while Vincent, not sure of what to do, hung back. "Freya?" He called out to her and when she didn't react right away, he turned to Ingrid in concern. "What's happening?"

"A messenger came. Some compelled tourist. He left this..." Freya, whose face was covered in tears, gestured toward the box on the table.

Elijah, both concerned and suspicious, gently lifted the corner of the lid to the box while Vincent watched from behind. When Elijah saw the bloody heart inside, he immediately shut the lid and took a deep breath to prepare himself for what he was about to learn. "Who?"

"Jackson Kenner." Ingrid answered in a hollow tone of voice and Elijah closed his eyes and sighed for a moment, overwhelmed by this news. "Courtesy of the Strix."

Freya help up the letter in her hand, which had a message handwritten in print. She sighed and sat back against the couch as Elijah took the letter and read its contents: "Dearest friends, please find enclosed the heart of Jackson. Hayley's will follow unless you meet me at Coltrane's Autoshop, 1268 Adderly in the ninth. Kind regards, Tristan."

"Seems we're too late. We need to play his game now." Ingrid commented in frustration and ran her hands down her face.

Elijah sighed, exhausted, and gaped at them in disbelief. "So, unless we meet their demands, Hayley will be next." He then looked furious as he began to brainstorm another plan.

Klaus walked into the courtyard and joined the group so they could begin setting up their plan of attack against the de Martels.

"Three Original vampires and two powerful witches against an army of miscreants? I'm rather looking forward to it." Klaus remarked with a wicked smirk.

Vincent shot Klaus an exasperated look. "Keep in mind that I'm mortal, and, as much as I want these guys out of my city, I like breathing. So, let me go to the covens. I can propose an alliance. They hate you guys, but if I explain what's going on..."

Elijah shook his head in rejection. "There's no time."

"There never is. But, before we rush into battle, let's keep in mind that Tristan may be the very foe to lead you to your doom. Isn't this exactly what the prophecy foretold? Rebekah's on the run. I will not lose the three of you, as well." Freya said emotional and determined.

Ingrid stood to her feet and clapped her hands loudly together in aggravation. "I am so bloody tired of this prophecy clouding every choice we make. People have always been trying to kill the Mikaelsons. We haven't let it stop us before and we shouldn't now. Let's just kill all of them. Then they stand no chance."

"Ingrid--" Freya began to argue against the hybrid.

"No." Ingrid interrupted her with a stern look. "The original plan was for them to trap the three of them--" She pointed at her husband and brother-in-law. "--together but Rebekah isn't here. I see no point in sitting around waiting for the inevitable. If we don't go to them, they're just going to come to us."

Elijah looked momentarily uncomfortable at the continous mention of Rebekah but he quickly covered it up. "Rebekah's safe." He cleared his throat and looked over at Klaus hesitantly. "Brother, perhaps you should stay..."

Klaus scoffed harshly and glared at him. "No, I have no intention of being outmaneuvered by Tristan de Martel, of all people."

"Intention's got nothing to do with it. As long as Tristan de Martel has the Serratura, the advantage is all his." Vincent pointed out.

"Well, then we should take that advantage from him." Freya remarked and turned to Klaus with a knowing smirk. "I'm gonna need something that belonged to his sister."

Klaus and Ingrid shared a look before equally smirking deviously.

Aurora was dozing in the backseat of an SUV when she suddenly stirred awake. She noticed a Strix associate of Tristan's sitting next to her but before she could ask what they were doing, they injected her in the neck with a prefilled syringe of medication causing her to become groggy and sedated. She groaned in pain and rubbed her throat before passing out again. After a moment, the Strix see that Vincent was standing in the middle of the road ahead of them.

Vincent opened his arms wide and casts a spell. "Sispann la agresè."

In the SUV, the guard turned to address the driver as he kept his eyes on Vincent. "Run him down." The driver nodded and pressed down the gas pedal, accelerating the vehicle.

After Vincent watched them for a moment, he twisted both of his wrists inward and the SUV violently flipped over and rolled down the road at least a dozen times. Once the vehicle finally lost momentum right next to where Vincent was standing, the Strix groaned in pain as they kicked open the doors to pull themselves out. They started to walk toward Vincent menacingly as they popped their broken bones back into the correct positions. However, before they could even try to lunge for Vincent, Elijah appeared out of nowhere and staked them both in the heart simultaneously.

Elijah didn't even watch as the vampires collapsed to the pavement and died, he simply shrugged and buttoned up his pea coat.

Vincent looked at him with an impressed expression. "Nice timing!"

"I'd say." Ingrid commented in amusement, walking up from behind him. "A second later and you may have well been dead."

Then a furious Klaus pulled Aurora out of the wreckage of the SUV, and she looked up at him with a smile, still high and dazed on the sedative she had been give, and was unable to stand on her own two feet. "Oh, my love. I knew you'd find me." Aurora stroked Klaus' face but he just scowled at her hatefully before dragging her away.

Ingrid began to search through the wreckage of the SUV for any clues but came up empty handed. "There's nothing in here!" She called out to Elijah with a disappointed frown and shake of her head. "Time to go to him."

Elijah, Ingrid, and Klaus were waiting inside the warehouse when a half-dozen Strix vampires sped into the room. The Mikaelsons started to walk toward them as another few dozen or so vampires joined them.

"Here they come." Klaus whispered in anticipation with a smirk.

Finally, Tristan, Aya, and Marcel stopped several feet away from the Mikaelson brothers, looking displeased as they all stared at each other.

"Mikaelsons. I wish I could say it was a pleasure." Tristan greeted in disdain.

Ingrid caught his gaze and laughed loudly. "Hello, Tristan. Still not bent out of shape about everything, are we? Oh! How's the eye?" She questioned mockingly but he didn't find amusement in this and glared in response.

Klaus nodded in acknowledgement and shot Marcel a knowing look. "Marcellus. Made your bed with the enemy, I see."

Marcel glanced between the hybrids and smiled bitterly. "Membership has its privileges."

Klaus mused to himself then looked at Tristan and smirked. "Let's get on with this, shall we?"

Tristan motioned to a tall, blonde woman and nodded. She and another vampire brought a bloodied and shackled Hayley forward. She was too weak to stand on her own, and when the vampires let go of her, she collapsed onto the floor in between the two groups as Elijah and Klaus stared at her in horror and Ingrid remained unfazed.

"Hayley Marshall-Kenner, only slightly worse for wear. You'll have to forgive her if she seems a bit off. There's enough wolfsbane in her system to kill an entire pack." Tristan explained sadistically. "However, here she is, as requested. Now, where's my sister?"

"She lives. You can thank Elijah for that." Klaus sneered and walked toward Tristan so they were standing eye-to-eye. "I wanted to flay her and hang her skin as a flag. Ingrid said it would be tacky. Anyway, enough chit-chat. Let's conclude this tedious business, shall we?"

"My sister first. And, if you're tempted to argue, consider the numbers." Tristan advised, gesturing to the vampires surrounding them.

Klaus smirked in amusement and walked even closer to him so that their noses were nearly touching, indicating that he was not threatened by his army.

Ingrid smirked at the sight as she slowly inched toward Hayley, hoping not to bring any attention to herself.

Tristan looked slightly nervous, but stood his ground. He noticed Ingrid and pointed a finger at her. "Not another step, my dear."

Ingrid held her hands up in surrender before speeding toward Hayley and punching her hand into the Cresent hybrid's chest, swiftly pulling her heart out. Hayley's skin turned grey and her eyes rolled to the back of her head. Ingrid kicked her over and the deceased hybrid fell backward against the concrete.

Ingrid held up Hayley's bloody heart in her hand and smirked darkly at Tristan. "Oops." She mused coldly, dropping the organ to the ground next to Hayley's lifeless body.

Marcel was genuinely shocked by these turn of events. Klaus was stunned silent while Elijah appeared to be on the brink of tears with a furious scowl plastered on his face. Tristan seemed impressed and simultaneously annoyed. Ingrid turned to the leader of the Strix and raised an eyebrow. "You were saying?"

"What game are you playing?" Tristan asked in amusement, walking toward her slowly.

"No game. Why? Did you want to play a game?" She chuckled at him and shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly, meeting him halfway. "Here's the deal, give us the Serratura---" She stopped in suspense then reached over and adjusted his tie with her bloody hands, getting blood on his pristine dress shirt. "---and we give you Aurora." She finished with a sultry smirk.

"We don't have it." Tristan informed her with narrowed eyes and grimacing at the blood now on his collar.

"Lies." She snarled then paused, tilting her head to the side as she laughed. "You never were a good liar."

"Neither are you." Tristan responded with a hard to read expression. His face held heartbreak, rage, and annoyance.

Snickering, Ingrid waved a finger in him. "You're just angry that you believed it. That I easily convinced you that there was a chance." She commented mockily then fake pouted. "Poor Tristan. Always rejected."

Elijah grew fed up with Ingrid's toying and walked over to a rusty green shipping container, which he opened to reveal Aurora sitting inside with a black hood over her head and her wrists bound behind her back.

Tristan, suspicious and bemused, turned to Aya. "If they try anything, attack."

Aya nodded in agreement and Tristan sped into the shipping container toward Aurora.

Ingrid turned to Elijah and held her bloodstained hands up in disbelief. "What are you doing?!"

Elijah stormed toward his sister-in-law with a look of pure rage. "You don't get to make any more choices. You're done." He snarled harshly and held a hand up when she opened her mouth to speak. "You killed Hayley without any regard whatsoever." He whispered, his voice breaking and wavering with tears. "How could you?!"

"So? We were finished with her anyway." Ingrid replied nonchalantly and shrugged her shoulders, not interested. "Jackson's gone and I doubt she would have been wiling to be cooperate with this family any longer. After all... it is our fault her husband is dead."

"I was going to kill her eventually." She added in a serious tone. "After stealing my daughter, she deserved to die. I let Niklaus have his fun with the curse but now that's over. Her time ran out."

Elijah rushed toward her aggressively but Klaus grabbed ahold of him before he could. Shooting Elijah a warning look, Klaus shook his head and tugged on his upper arm. "This isn't a war you want, brother."

Elijah glared at Ingrid in hatred and shook his head. "This is not finished."

"Oh, I'm pretty sure it is." Ingrid remarked back in a snarky tone. "What are you going to do Elijah?" She challenged, knowing that there was nothing he could to do to her. So nodding at his silence, she smirked. "Nothing. You're going to do nothing."

Tristan ripped off Aurora's hood and her head rolled on her shoulders, still sedated from the drugs earlier. Aurora woke up when Tristan started to break her bonds and smiled at him weakly. "Oh, brother, you came for me."

Tristan smiled warmly at her. "Always." He pulled Aurora to her feet and she wrapped her arms around him in a hug. "Come on. Come on."

While they were hugging, Aurora reached into Tristan's pants pocket and pulled out the Serratura. As soon as she had it, she yanked herself out of his embrace. He looked at her warily when he noticed the medallion in her hand and slowly reached out to take it from her. "Rory...? What are you doing?"

Before Tristan could react further, Aurora slammed the Serratura against the wall of the shipping container, activating its power and causing the warehouse to shake for a moment as though an earthquake had hit. The medallion remained attached to the wall and Aurora looked at him with crazed eyes as Tristan, realizing what had happened, tried to run out of the shipping container only to find out he was blocked by an invisible barrier. Tristan looked at Aurora in horror and shook his head furiously. "No... Aurora... What have you done to us?"

Aurora looked smug as she walked toward Tristan. "Not to us... To you."

Much to Tristan's horror, Aurora walked right past the barrier and joined Elijah, Klaus, and Ingrid outside of it. Aurora turned around to face Tristan, but suddenly, a magical haze covered her before it was revealed that it was actually Cami the whole time using a glamour spell to make her appear to be Aurora instead.

Tristan stared at them with a look of cold fury. "What is this?"

"You know what they say-- payback's a bitch." Cami replied with a devious smirk.

"How is this possible?" Tristan questioned in horror.

"The Serratura creates an impenetrable boundary. Nothing living or dead can pass through." Klaus explained smugly.

"And, thanks to your lunatic sister, I'm neither." Cami informed him, holding her hands out at her sides.

Tristan's eyes widened in alarm when he realized that he was truly trapped inside of the shipping container forever. "No. No. NO!" He bellowed furiously before looking to the Strix for help. "What are you waiting for? Take them! Now!"

Just as the Strix were about to obey this command, Elijah stepped forward to address them himself. "Before you rush headlong toward almost certain death... As your sire, I would like you to employ just a little bit of common sense."

Aay scoffed and rolled her eyes at him. "We are ancient vampires, Elijah-- each of us almost as strong as you."

Elijah shrugged his shoulders and challenged her thinking. "You might almost be successful in subduing us, but at what price? Most of you will die in the process, and for what? To avenge a fool marching you headlong toward your very extinction in the name of a witch's prophecy? You do realize he engineered absolutely all of this purely to satisfy some petty grievance against my family?" Elijah turned and walked toward the shipping container, smiling fakely at Tristan as he leaned against the metal door. "Tristan doesn't care for any of you."

"Stop listening to him!" Tristan yelled furiously to the Strix.

However, Elijah ignored him and continued on. "The only danger here is the choice that you must make. You see, I am not your enemy." He stopped in front of Aya and nodded in acknowledgement. "It's true, I delivered you into this existence. I can just as easily pluck you out of it. The choice is yours to make."

Aya looked torn but continued to glare at Elijah as though she was entertaining the idea of fighting them anyway.

Marcel, realizing what she was about to do, walked over and blocked her way as he whispered in her ear. "It's done. The moment has passed. Be smart, Aya. Smarter than Tristan. Don't waste any more of our guys."

Aya didn't seem pleased that Marcel was ordering her around, but after a moment, she turned back to the rest of the vampires. "Stand down."

Tristan became increasingly more furious to see that the Strix had been convinced not to avenge him. "You will not abandon me!"

Aya walked toward the shipping container and shot him a regretful look. "It's a shame it has to end like this."

"Aya, this isn't over!" He yelled at her, beyond enraged.

Aya placed her right hand over her heart in salute to her former leader while speaking coldly. "May the ghosts of our fallen keep you company."

The Strix then began to leave the warehouse with Aya and Marcel included, leaving the Mikaelsons and Cami in the warehouse alone with Tristan.

Ingrid kept her eyes on Tristan as she dismissed the blonde. "Camille, you may leave now."

Cami scoffed and rolled her eyes weakly. "No. You don't get to dismiss me like a call girl."

"While I understand your plight not to transition, unless you want your death, your permanent death, to be moved up a few hours then I suggest you leave. This is Mikaelson business now." Ingrid replied sternly, making eye contact with her finally. "Take Hayley with you, please."

Cami seemed to want to argue for a brief second but after Klaus shot her a warning look, she reluctantly did as commanded.

Once they were alone, the Mikaelson brothers walked toward Tristan, who seemed resigned to his fate. "So, this is to be my end?"

Elijah smiled at him patronizingly, and Klaus smirked, leaning against the door. "No, no. This is the very beginning! You are going to the bottom of the ocean, where you will drown in darkness again and again and again over the course of centuries." Elijah taunted gleefully. "This will be your splendidly horrific and perpetual end."

Tristan looked between them, anxiously. "What have you done with my sister?"

Klaus' smile grew wider and he chuckled darkly. "Nothing... yet. But, I assure you, her death will be spectacular."

Tristan became more worried at that statement and shook his head in denial.

While the men were speaking, Ingrid had noticed a large beam of wood that had been broken off to a slanted point. She picked it up with a raised eyebrow and weighed it in her hand. Pursing her lips and humming a melody to herself, she slowly walked toward the storage container.

Elijah and Klaus began to close the door when the beam of wood came flying by them in a blur before crashing into the back metal wall, striking Tristan through the heart. Tristan's head drooped down, heavy by gravity, as he hung on the wall like a lifeless prop.

The brothers turned toward Ingrid with surprised expressions and she shrugged simply. "Leave no open endings." She advised in a dull tone before turning on her heels and walking out of the warehouse.

---
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