Klaus, Elijah, Marcel, Vincent and I were talking in the lycee about the Hollow being back.

"Impossible," Klaus told us. "Whatever those thieving acolytes are up to, they function independently of the Hollow. Hayley killed her, I saw the corpse through my own eyes."

"Her body is dead, Klaus," Vincent told him. "That's not enough."

"What are you saying?" Elijah asked.

"I'm saying that by now, the Ancestors should've been able to imprison her spirit," Vincent answered. "That didn't happen. The spirit's still out there. So she must've had a plan B."

"No doubt," Klaus told him. "Perhaps they had assistance. Tell me, were you a part of it."

"Oh, come on, man," I told him. "Hey, back off. All right, look, I trust Vincent."

"Look, I don't care if--I don't care if any of you trust me, to be perfectly honest," Vincent told us. "Because unlike any of you, I have been doing something. I've been spending the past couple of days trying to figure out a way to lock the Hollow up for good."

"And do you have any answers?" Elijah asked.

"Yes," Vincent answered. "And now. I used the book to put myself into a trance."

"Which book are you talking about?" Elijah asked.

"The book he found," I answered. "Contains the secrets of the Hollow's magic. Written in his handwriting."

"Ah, well, you can see how no part of this filled me with a modicum of confidence," Klaus told us, turning away to start pacing.

Vincent ignored him. "And while I was in that trance, I met with the spirit of Inadu's mother. From her, I was trying to get the same spell that she used 1500 years ago to put her daughter down. Now, that's when those acolytes showed up and stopped me."

Klaus turned to face him. "Well, what are you waiting for? Get back to work."

"The acolytes took the book," Marcel told them.

"I have a library full of grimoires," Klaus told us. "Take your pick."

"Klaus, I don't need your library," Vincent told him. "That book is special. That book represents an extension of the Hollow's power into this world, all right? It is just as eternal as she is. And I'm telling you right now, if I tweak that spell in just the right way, I can lock her in the book and put the Hollow down for good."

"So where is it now?" Elijah asked.

"It's still with the acolytes," Vincent answered, picking up a page from the book from the nearby table to show us. "I used this page from the book to track them to the place where she was reborn. That's where you'll find them."

Elijah took the page. "Niklaus."

Elijah and Klaus walked out of the tomb.

Marcel turned to follow. "Wait, I'm going with you."

Marcel followed Klaus and Elijah, leaving.

I turned to go with. 

Vincent stopped me. "Noah, we got something that we need to deal with."

I looked at him in confusion.

  **** 

Vincent was pouring a circle of salt on the floor of the tomb, talking to me. "So now the only way for us to trap the Hollow is to get that spell from Inadu's mother."

"You want to find a way to see her without the book?" I asked.

"Right," Vincent answered. "But the problem is, I'm not strong enough to do it on my own, so I'm gonna need to channel your power."

I saw a bloodstain on the floor next to the dead body of the witch that Vincent had killed, which was painted in the form of the Ouroboros symbol.

Vincent knew what I was worried about. "Noah, you know me. With Marcel, we've been running this city together for five years."

"Yeah, I know," I told him. "And you also told me to kill you if you ever asked for that book back."

"That's because I didn't know that I could handle it," Vincent told me. "But look at me, man. Do I look like one of those acolytes? Do I look like Kinney?"

"No," I answered, sighing, walking closer. "What do you need me to do?"

"Give me your hand," Vincent answered. He took my hand. We knelt down in the middle of the salt circle to start the spell. "Cencahua ezhuia. Cencahua ezhuia. Cencahua ezhuia. Cencahua ezhuia." Vincent sat back on the floor as if he had been pushed, letting go. "I couldn't get to her. The living aren't meant to be there."

"Okay, well, come on, let's try again," I told him.

"No," Vincent told me. "There's no point. Even with your power, it's not enough. The book was the only thing powerful enough to let me reach her."

"Okay, so where does that leave us now?" I asked.

"Leaves us with one option," Vincent told me. "I'm gonna have to be dead."

I scoffed, nodding, knowing that would have been the answer, shaking my head, looking away.

  **** 

Vincent set an hour glass on the table, holding up a vial of poison. "This is a neurotoxin. Now, it's enough to stop my heart, and it's gonna give me plenty of time to finish up my business with Inadu's mother."

"Okay, so how the hell do I bring you back?" I asked. Vincent took out a syringe of a drug to show me. I raised my eyebrows, nodding. "Huh."

Vincent handed me the syringe. "Jam it right into my heart." I placed the syringe down. "That should start things up again, but you got to do it before the last grain of sand falls in this thing. If you don't, I die, and your only chance of getting rid of that monster goes with me." Vincent walked over to the circle, sitting down inside it, raising the vial of poison in a toast. "See you soon."

Vincent drank the poison, lying down as he started to drift off.

I was listening to the sound of his heartbeat slowing, turning over the hourglass to start the timer. I looked at the syringe with the drug that would restart Vincent's heart.

    **** 

  I was pacing, waiting for the sand in the hourglass to fall and the time to go so that I could wake up Vincent after he got the answers that he needed. I heard voices outside, witches and vampires alike, sighing, knowing that I was in for a fight, rushing outside to face the crowd. "Let me guess. You're here on behalf of the Hollow. All right, then listen up. The only way you're gonna get to Vincent is over my dead body."

"That won't be a problem," a vampire told me.

Another piece of the crowd walked closer on either side of me.

I smirked, holding out my arms in a shrug. "I tried, right?"

I rushed over to rip the heart out of a vampire, letting him fall, turning to behead another vampire with my arm.

    **** 

I threw a dead vampire's body into a statue, making it break. Vampire 2 punched me in the face, trying to punch me again. I ducked, punching him in the gut, turning to kick Vampire 3 in the stomach behind me, making them both fall. Vampire 4 rushed toward me. I grabbed him, slamming him against a tomb, throwing him down, turning to punch Vampire 5 in the face behind me, so hard that I snapped his neck, letting him fall, backhand punching Vampire 6 in the face, snapping his neck, dropping him. Vampire 7 tried to grab me. I broke his arm, slamming my hand against his chest to throw him across the cemetery, making him fall.

A witch walked up from behind me, chanting a spell that brought me to my knees in agony, making my eyes bleed. "Arracher soti je. Arracher soti je. Arracher soti je."

I yelled in pain as blood continued to pour from my eyes, and the witch was trying to rip my heart out.

Marcel rushed up behind the witch, ripping out her heart from behind, letting it fall, killing her before she could kill me, looking at me. "Thank me later."

I stood, rushing into the lycee, wiping the blood off my face, seeing that the hourglass was almost empty and the time was almost up, grabbing the syringe with the drug, rushing over to Vincent, kneeling next to him to plunge the syringe into his heart, injecting the drug into his system, waiting for him to wake up. "Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on. Come on. Come on, come on, come on." Vincent gasped back to life, breathing heavily. I sighed in relief. "Welcome back. Did you get what you needed?"

"Yeah, I did," Vincent answered. "And I got some very bad news to go along with it."

    **** 

Marcel was standing over the dead bodies of the vampires and witches of the Hollow.

I helped Vincent out of the tomb. "Okay, watch your step."

"You kill all these people?" Vincent asked.

"Yeah," I answered. "Marcel helped. They were loyal to the Hollow. They got what they deserved."

Klaus and Elijah walked toward us.

"My sentiments exactly," Klaus told us. "That monstrosity has its claws into my daughter." He held the book toward Vincent. "I said I'd get you this book in exchange for your help. You're up."

I took the journal to give it to Vincent.

"I was able to wake up Sofya," Marcel told us. "She's not exactly up to fighting speed yet, but she did tell me something." He looked at Klaus. "There's something you need to know. It's about the Hollow. Sofya said that when that thing took control of her body, just as it's done to your daughter, all she wanted to do was give up, just drift into darkness and be gone forever. But she knew if she did, the Hollow would have taken her over for good. You can't let that happen to Hope. She may be strong, but she's still a child. You have to reach her, or all of this is for nothing."

Vincent took the journal from me. "This this is filled with the Hollow's magic. Hope's connected to that. She's connected to you through your blood. If I can bring all those things together, then I should be able to craft a spell that can get you to her. Then you just have to keep Hope with us."

Klaus nodded. "Let's do it."

    **** 

Elijah, Marcel, Vincent and I walked into the courtyard of the compound.

"All right, she's here," Vincent told us. "You guys know what to do."

We all split up.

    **** 

Freya and Hayley had cast a sleeping spell on Hope's body so that the Hollow couldn't use her while we were trying to save her, so the Hollow appeared outside of Hope's body as her spirit, so that we couldn't fight her, couldn't touch her, and couldn't kill her. She had already knocked Freya, Hayley and Elijah out, all in the ballroom.

Marcel and I were still in the courtyard, pacing around.

"Inadu," Marcel called. "Show yourself."

"What's the matter?" I asked. "The big, bad Hollow too scared to face us?"

Inadu walked in from behind us. "I hide from no one." Marcel and I turned to face her in annoyance. Inadu held her hand toward Marcel and me, using magic to cause us agony. "Especially not some would-be king or prince of New Orleans."

Inadu used magic to make Marcel vomit blood from his mouth. We both fell to our knees in agony, until Inadu used magic to snap our necks, letting us fall unconscious.

      **** 

When we woke up, it was to find that Vincent had almost locked Inadu in the book, but she had gotten away with Hope while possessing her. Everyone else was waking up and gathering in the courtyard, including Rebekah, Freya, Elijah, Marcel, Hayley, Vincent and me.

  Hayley walked toward us. "Where is she?"

"I couldn't save her," Vincent told us. "Hope's gone."

"What?" Hayley asked incredulously.

"She's the Hollow now," Vincent told us.

"We have to find her," Elijah told him. "Vincent, surely you can pull the Hollow out of--"

"Elijah, if it were easy enough for me to just pull her out, then I would not be standing here talking to you right now," Vincent told him. "I don't have a place to put her. The book is destroyed, all right? The book is the only thing that's powerful enough to house her eternal spirit."

"Well, there must be some other way," Rebekah told us.

Vincent looked at a loss.

I walked toward him. "Vincent?"

"I don't know any other way," Vincent told us.

Hayley shook her head, walking toward the door.

Elijah followed her. "Where are you going?"

"To find my daughter," Hayley answered.

"How are you going to do that?" Elijah asked.

"I'll figure it out," Hayley told him.

Elijah grabbed her arm to make her stop. "Let me help you."

Hayley turned to face Elijah angrily, pulling her arm away from him. "Don't touch me."

"I am on your side," Elijah told her.

Hayley shook her head in contempt. "I should never have brought her back here."

Hayley walked out, leaving.

      **** 

Everyone but Klaus and Hayley was still gathered in the courtyard of the compound, reeling from everything that had happened today.

Klaus walked in.

Everyone turned toward him.

Klaus looked at Rebekah and Elijah. "A thousand years ago, we three made an eternal vow. To protect each other, always and forever. Freya, that vow now includes you. As it includes my daughter. She is my heart and soul. Right now she's out there, alone in the darkness, fighting. We can't give up. So, I'm begging you... All of you... If there's any chance..."

"I think I know a way to save her," Vincent told us.

"Anything," Klaus told him.

Vincent looked at the Mikaelsons gravely. "If we go this route, this is gonna be the end of your family. This is gonna be the end of always and forever."

No one knew how to react to this.