"You mean the earthquake we felt today was Davina." Sophie repeated what Elijah had told her meanwhle pretending as if she wasn't the one who caused the problem in the first place.

The Mikealsons surrounded the living room with Hayley sitting on the sofa while Caroline staying inside the room closer to them, eavesdropping their conversation while checking up on Davina who was asleep on the bed.

"Yes, " Rebekah confirmed. "She shook the entire town with her magic."

Klaus sighed. "Something had triggered and right now she is exploding her magic at whatever her eyes fell at."

"Then it is a big problem." Sophie commented.

Elijah rounded at her side, coming face to face her. "How can we fix it? You're a witch. There must be a solution."

"There was," Sophie said, her tone taking a curt sound as she passed him a sharp glare. "If we could complete the harvest but guess what? You killed our last living elder."

Klaus shook his head. "You're still after Davina, isn't it?"

"You think that I am lying." Sophie spat in defense. "The earthquake you just felt today is a preview of a disaster movie that is about to hit us."

"Why should we believe you?" Elijah looked over.

"Come on! We all know Davina's story. For the past 8 months, she has been holding the power of the 3 girls sacrificed in that ritual. A force that was meant to flow through her and back to the earth. One person was never meant to hold that much power. It's tearing her apart and it will take us down with it."

There was a long silence between the siblings who exchanged knowing glances.

"If it is the only way to fix this problem," Klaus said first. "Then we have to complete the harvest."

Sophie chuckled. "Harvest ritual can be only accomplished by the hand of an elder. Thanks to your brother that he killed Agnes—"

"She came after us," Elijah interrupted. "And no one lives who hurt my family."

"So now just sit and watch the city you built turns into ashes." Sophie taunted, making Klaus furious.

"I will not let that happen again. Find something or anything," He said. "We all know that Every magic has loopholes."

"Yes. I tried." Sophie answered instantly, the crease between her brows deepened suddenly. "There might be someone who could help us."

Elijah asked first. "And that someone is?"

Sophie continued. "I did some digging on our history of all the rituals that had happened over the centuries and I found a way. If we consecrate a very powerful New Orleans witch then its power can be absorbed to make a ordinary witch a temporary elder but—"

Rebekah cut in. "There's a always a but, isn't it?"

Sophie agreed. "Yes, we do cause there's no witch whose power has not been shared with its community after the death."

"This must be my favorite part," Klaus had a wicked smile playing on his face. "Witch hunting is quite fun."

"Wait, wait, wait." Sophie was quick as she crossed her arms. "If you think you can randomly just kill a witch to consecrate then I won't let you."

"No one could ever stop me, love."

"Klaus, " It was Elijah who called out. "Listen to her first because if I'm not wrong that won't work."

"Exactly," Sophie confirmed to Elijah. "We need a powerful witch. A witch strong enough to hand me enough power to complete the ritual and that someone can't be just anyone."

"Then what we are suppose to do?" Rebekah was frustrated. "Wait five decades for someone to tick of the requirement list and complete the harvest. Wouldn't Davina be having grandchildren by then if we manage to escape the situation?"

"Actually there is one witch who would come in handy." Elijah glamced at his brother who at first was perplexed but as soon as he understood what he was suggesting, Klaus had lost him temper.

"Not our mother, Elijah." He gritted his teeth.

...

When Sophie returned to the cemetary, Valentine was standing at the entrance waiting for her. Upon seeing him and his constant distrustful face, she rolled her eyes.

"You're not gonna give it a rest, are you?"

"I don't trust you so I had to make sure you're working at the direction of the plan." Valentine stated. "Remember Sophie, if there is going to be an alliance between you and me in the future, then don't even think about betraying me."

She scoffed. "You're being paranoid. But since you came here so let me give you headlines. Everything is going on as we planned. As a matter of fact, the Mikealsons are consecrating Esther as we speak."

"That was easy." He looked down in a deep thought.

"Elijah was quick to catch what I was suggesting. They had a banter on whether to consecrate Esther or not but they all bowed down to protect the town."

"Then we're close to our success." He estimated.

Sophie smiled. "Exactly. Once I'll slit Davina's throat, Sabine will hijack her power and resurrect Esther instead of her."

...

After Mikealson and Hayley had left to bury their mother, Caroline was quick on toes and hurried upstairs to find medicine. Davina was running high on fever and since Caroline was planning to elope with her, she was packing necessary things for the run.

For what seemed like hours, she had managed to find keys to one of the cars parked in the garage.

She returned back to the room where Davina was resting and sat next to her carassing her head gently. "I won't let this happen to you."

After hearing what Klaus and his siblings had discussed, Caroline couldn't bring herself to let Davina die instead of trying to find a solution where she could be alive.

She shook Davina several times, slapping her cheeks lightly to wake her up. Time was nearing close and she wasn't sure when Klaus or anyone of them was going to appear.

"Davina!" She made her sit, and after several efforts, she opened her eyes.

"Caroline. Where am I?" She asked.

"Davina we have to get out of here. Everyone is out there to prepare for harvest ritual. They are going to complete it tonight."

"What! No." She panicked, getting off the bed and frantically strolling. "No, that can't happen. They're gonna kill me."

The wind had taken a wild turn and Caroline was tensed even more when the windows started fluttering. "Davina first control your magic. There is no way out if don't hold your magic back for some time so I could take you where nobody gets hurt."

"I don't think I can do that." Her breathing was faster.

"Just calm down. Take it easy. Everything will be fine." She tried to encourage her. "Why don't you take a slow and deep breath."

Davina nodded, taking her hands in hers and closed her eyes. As instructed, she stopped crying and sucked in a slower breath. She repeated it several times and as Caroline predicted, the windows paced down, shutting their noise completely.

"There it is." Caroline said. "Now keep doing it and lets leave before anyone comes."

Grabbing the medicine, fruits and energy bars, both woman hurried downstairs only to find Klaus standing in front of them blocking their way.

"You are not going anywhere. The world is burning down." Klaus advanced toward the witch.

Caroline came forward, standing between them and challenged him without thinking of any consequences. "Get out of the way, Klaus."

Amazed and stunned at her daring move, he gazed at her deeply. "Caroline," he took a breath to calm down his nerves. "We can debate on this topic later but first, we have to finish the harvest. There's no solution."

"There is." She spat. "Her world has turned upside down and all you are thinking is about murdering her. Let her mourn at least."

"When? After she blows the roofs off our head?"

"She is doing just fine now. Don't try to tick her off."

"How long you're gonna think she is going to hold it? The magic, it's too much for her."

"Yes I heard what Sophie said but this is not gonna happen. I won't let any of you murder her."

"It's an unfinished ritual she is unluckily a participant of." Klaus growled. "Trust me, no one wishes to harm her not even me. But there is no scenario here in which we simply wait this out. She's gonna die anyway."

Caroline scoffed. "Oh yeah, according to Sophie, right?"

"The ancestors said that Davina will be resurrected."

"They all are liars." Davina cried behind Caroline. "We can't trust them."

"Neither do I," Klaus assured. "The earthquake first I was willing to chalk up to hideous coincidence, but not these winds? If you are not sacrificed then every inch of the earth that shook, everything blowing about now will soon be drenched in water and consumed by fire."

Caroline wailed. "Then get her out of town. We will keep her thousand miles away."

"That's not gonna help her." He told her. "The destruction will follow her wherever she goes. Deep down even she knows it too. Let us help her. I'll bring her back to safety. I promise."

The winds returned and Davina fell on her knees, coughing out water relentlessly. Horrified, Caroline couldn't do anything to ease her pain. The weather turned stormy and from the window she could make out the heavy raindrops, calling out for another storm.

"This is killing her." Klaus yelled. "Your stubbornness will mean her death. If you really care for her then let us do what should be done."

"I don't trust, Sophie." Caroline declared.

"We're out of options."

Davina interrupted as soon as the water stopped coming out of her mouth."Caroline. It's okay. I can't handle this anymore. I'll die whether I do this or not. Its better I die than the whole town."

Caroline was in tears. "There has to be another way. This is not how it ends." she turned to Klaus, her voice whispering low. "She's just a kid. She doesn't deserve this life."

"And so are you," he remarked. "But it's life and nothing is fair. She'll outlive her bad circumstances too."

Her head wouldn't nod. "This harvest, what if it doesn't work?"

Klaus thought deeply but she knew there were no changing answers or options. "Let her make the choice," he jerked his chin to Davina.

Davina handled herself up, her eyes red and wet. "You'll go ahead," she told the hybrid. "We'll be there soon."

He knew she would come, so he silently vanished out, giving time to them.

"Davina, we'll find another way," she said. "I know you can control yourself like you've been keeping for months."

"After Tim, not anymore."

"I'm sorry about Tim."

Davina held her hand. "I forgive you, Caroline." She said to her. "And I also want you to know that I'm grateful for coming that day. I was angry at first but hearing you, it made me realise how similar we are and how much I needed someone other than witch or vampires. You are the most human thing I had after Tim."

Even teary-eyed, Caroline broke into small smile. "I'm grateful too for meeting you."

At last, they hugged.

************

Hours later after the harvest, Klaus found Caroline sitting by the staircase of her building, drenched in her own tears.

The wind and whispering stopped as soon as Sophie had cut open Davina's throat but Caroline's heart was still burning. She had left the cemetery right after there was no sign of Davina waking up even though the other three witches came back to life.

Klaus still remembered the disdainful look she gave him before walking away and disappearing into the crowd. Since then he had searched for her in all the possible places she could be, and at last, he found her at her building.

"Go away, Klaus." Her voice had died down.

"Caroline, I'm sorry." He sat next to her on the steps.

"You promised." She looked at him. "How could you then—"

"It was supposed to work."

"But it didn't." She spat. "You could've let us go. She would've been alive. Why didn't you?"

Klaus wanted to console her but he was helpless and no words could come out of his mouth. Even at the bottom of his cold black heart, he had his hunches for the plan to go haywire but what else could've been done if there was no world left to find?

.....

After Davina's dead body was kept safely at the back of the room and only Sabine and Sophie were left at the cemetery, the ingredients were being gathered for the next spell.

Valentine drawled inside.

The spell continued for several minutes before his eyes sparkled with every passing minute and as soon as it came to an end, there was an explosion and the wine bottle that Valentine had bought to celebrate was shattered into pieces as a counterpart.

"What was that?" He gritted, picking out the glass pieces that pierced him in the hand.

Sabine was still in a trance so Sophie answered. "She had a spell going on at the time I killed Davina to hijack the channel for her resurrection. Its time to finish it and wake Esther up in flesh and blood."

Sabine opened her eyes and pointed at the door of the room where Davina's body was placed. They all three glanced over there and wrapped in a shawl, came out the woman.

"Indeed." Valentine complimented, staring at Esther Mikealson who smiled widely and said.

"It's time to finish the unsettled business."

____________________

Updated on: 22 November 2018
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Thank you very much for reading it.
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-Anshika