𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋𝙏𝙀𝙍 𝙏𝙒𝙀𝙇𝙑𝙀
ミ★ ( reign of wolves, act one ) ★彡

Rebekah Mikaelson genuinely could not believe what she was hearing. She thinks she might be hallucinating the whole ordeal because whatever he just said could not be reality—he really thought this was a good idea? He has to of gone mad. Elijah had called an emergency family meeting back at the compound to discuss his newest idea to finish the Harvest ritual after what had happened in the tombs with Sabine and Sophie. His brilliant idea was to use their mother to consecrate as a New Orleans witch to give Sophie the power to become an elder and complete the Harvest. Rebekah wants to grab him by the shoulders and shake him until he realises how much of an idiotic plan this was.

She could only dramatically roll her eyes, "It's taken one thousand years, but you've finally gone mad. Our own mother?" She asked her eldest brother. His bright idea was to consecrate Esther so the witches could use her power to become an elder witch and complete the Harvest.

"Yes, our beloved mother, who Niklaus has affectionately placed in a coffin in his basement—not daggered, but quite dead." Elijah elaborated and Klaus only smirked lightly at the mention of him storing their dead mother in the basement for her to rot. In his mind, she did try to kill them all.

Rebekah turned to Rhea, "And you agree with this?"

Rhea only exhaled deeply, "No, because she did try to kill you all, but what other choice do we have?"

"Well, I say we put her to use and put her to rest once and for all. Now, if we bury our mother on land owned by one of her descendants, she becomes a New Orleans witch, and we, as her family, share in that ancestral magic." Elijah explained.

"We're vampires, Elijah. We can't practice magic. Or own property, for that matter." Rebekah reminded him angrily.

"If we bury Esther, we can channel all her power to Sophie. Only hitch is, as conduits of Esther's magic, we need to participate in the Harvest." Rhea explained also with disinterest. She really wanted nothing to do with the ritual, knowing what would occur—she was even heavily against the ritual where Klaus broke his curse.

Elijah nodded, reaching into the drawer of his desk to pull out a signed deed to the house, "Yes. And, as for owning property, not all of our mother's descendants are dead..."

Klaus then realised, "The baby." He whispered in surprise.

The eldest Mikaelson nodded again and held up a piece of paper, "The baby. The parish Tax Assessor's office is just steps outside of the Quarter. Hayley now holds the title to the plantation. So, if we bury our mother there, and we consecrate those grounds, we can finish the Harvest ritual."

Klaus smirked and put his drink down on the table, "You're a bit of a mad genius, Elijah. Count me in." He stands up.

"Am I the only one thinking?" Rebekah snapped, "Our mother was the most powerful witch in history. If we bury her, we hand that power to our enemies to use against us."

"Given our circumstances, I hardly see that we have a choice, Rebekah." Elijah sighed.

Rebekah let out a sigh of frustration herself, "I don't know why I bother." She shakes her head, "You two will just do what you want anyway."

     "No. Our decision must be unanimous." Elijah told his sister.

     "This is not a democracy!" Klaus snapped on frustration.

"You're quite right. This is family." Elijah stated and they stopped talking when they hear the sound of a powerful rain storm starting, "Water. The next sign's begun. Rhea?" He looked at her.

Rhea sighed deeply. She knew she was going to regret her next words, but at least she will be alive to make them—she really did try to avoid this situation, but history has a knack for repeating itself and it seems she will have to take part in another ritual, "It's either her or all of New Orleans. I'm in." She nodded.

Elijah looked at Rebekah, who also sighed, "Kill a demon today, face the devil tomorrow. Count me in."

Klaus smirked at how they all reached an agreement and clapped his hands together as he stood up, "Well, this is no family reunion without our mother. I'll fetch her."

Rhea only ran a hand down her face, "I hate how I'm not vividly disturbed by this all anymore."

     Davina was laying on her cot in the storage unit while Marcel sat at her bedside, comforting her while she whimpered, the heavy rain banging against the storage unit, making the rain and thunder sound worse than it was—despite it being bad enough as it was, "If I can just wait it out a few more weeks..." She panted, her skin covered in sweat, feeling weak as she was. She looked at Marcel with hopeless eyes, "Help me, please?"

     Marcel placed a hand on her cheek, "I will, and when it's over, I'll do what I should have done—get you out of town."

     Davina smiled at him while tears gathered in her eyes, "I had a dream that Tim wasn't dead. He played a song that he wrote for me, and he kissed me, and we were just normal."

     Rebekah arrived and was standing in the doorway after she had forced Thierry to tell her where Marcel would take Davina, "That sounds like a beautiful dream." She stated.

     Marcel snapped up and stood defensively in front of Davina, "What are you doing here?" He snarled.

     Rebekah ignored his question and looked at Davina, "But, it was just a dream."

     "Get out!" Marcel yelled angrily and turned back to Davina, who whimpered out in pain before doubling over the side of the cot to vomit up water.

     "This is killing her. Your stubbornness will mean her death." Rebekah snapped at him while Davina continued to cough up water.

     "I promised her I'd fight for her. I'm not breaking that promise." Marcel refused stubbornly, just like Rebekah had said about him.

    "No one is asking you not to fight." Rebekah shook her head as Marcel placed a hand on her back, tearing up as she continued to choke up gallons of water, "You're the only family that this girl has. You owe it to her to fight for her to live."

     Marcel only looked at her and Rebekah sighed, "This is the only way she will survive. If you keep her here, she won't come back. That is you not fighting for her." Rebekah told him, "You might not think it, but my family does care about her in their own strange way. We wouldn't just hand her over to her death. She will come back."

     Rebekah then left.

     Davina started crying almost immediately after Rebekah left and Marcel held her in his arms to comfort her again.

     Marcel was absolutely devastated, he knew it in his heart that it was what they had to do but he couldn't bring himself to hand her over to die after fighting to keep her alive from it. Suddenly, Davina stopped crying, sniffling only slightly as she looked scared but determined. She pulled away from her father figure, "Marcel, it's okay."

     Marcel shook his head, "No. I failed you."

     "I'll die whether I do this or not. I mean, now the only option is—is whether I take everyone with me." She stammered, "If you look at it that way, it's kind of selfish not to do it."

     "There has to be another way. This is not how it ends." He snapped.

     Davina bit her lip, "And if it is... if this is all I have, I've had a lot. I had Monique, and I had Tim, and I had someone who fought for me from the moment you met me." She quivered.

     Marcel looked as if he was about to cry himself as he whispered, "Davina..."

     "Most people don't get that even if they live to be a hundred." The witch reminded him with another sniffle before she looked sure of herself as she said, "Marcel, I'm ready."

It was later in the night and Klaus, Rhea, Elijah, Hayley, Sophie, and Father Kieran were waiting in the backyard of the plantation house, where they had dug a grave for Esther, all standing around the casket that was in the ground under umbrellas as the rain continued to pour heavily. Rebekah joined them later, having tracked down Marcel and Davina to try to convince them to go ahead with the ritual despite the fact that no one really wanted it to happen. Davina didn't deserve to die, but at least this way she would come back rather her magic tear her apart and take everyone down with her.

Klaus looked at his sister, "Did you find them? Will he bring her?" He asked the blonde.

Rebekah nodded solemnly, "He'll bring her." She's sure of it.

Father Kieran looked at all of them, "Are you ready to do this?" He asked.

Klaus looked at his family once over before he looked back at Father Kieran, "Always and forever." He says before he took a dagger out and sliced his palm open, dripping the blood over Esther's grave.

He handed the blade to Rebekah, who does the same, along with Elijah. Elijah then handed the blade to Rhea who was underneath the same umbrella. She looked up at her soulmate, "Do I really need to be apart of this?"

The Original nodded, "You're my soulmate. We're connected, and therefore you're connected to our family by more than just my love for you. So yes, you need to." He answered and she sighed before dragging the blade over her palm, wincing at the pain and squeezed her blood into the grave before her hand healed.

She then handed Hayley the blade, who was standing in for her and the baby.

Once they had dripped their blood into the grave, Father Kieran took the knife and threw it into the grave as well, "It's done." He informed them.

The Mikaelsons, Rhea and Hayley left the plantation and joined Sophie at the cemetery, where they were waiting for Marcel and Davina to arrive to complete the Harvest. The bodies of the dead Harvest girls were laid in front of them, their throats slit from the original ritual and laid as they were meant to. Suddenly, flames start to erupt near the entrance, startling everyone.

"Fire." Sophie whispered nervously.

After a moment, Marcel appeared, carrying Davina in his arms. As he walked toward them, flames follow them in a trail that licked at Marcel's heels. Once they got to the altar, Marcel set her down, and Sophie held the ceremonial blade over the flames before she headed toward Davina.

Davina looked terrified but was trying to put on a brave face as Sophie asked, "Do you believe in the harvest?"

The Harvest witch nodded nervously as she answered in a strong but soft voice, "I believe."

Once she says the words, Sophie raised the blade and slits Davina's throat with it, Rhea closing her eyes and almost hiding her face behind Elijah. No one could watch. It was almost ironic as vampires; all of which had spilled blood in the past but none of them could watch Davina get her throat slit for the ritual. Davina gasped in shock and grabbed at her throat before she fell back. Marcel caught her and laid her down on the ground as she died. Just then, the rain stopped, and Davina's skin glowed gold as the magic left her body and flew into the earth.

Sophie looked up at the sky while Marcel paced anxiously, waiting for Davina to wake up, "After the Harvest comes the Reaping. Their sacrifices made and accepted. We call upon our Elders to resurrect the chosen ones." She says and nothing happens. The rest of them watch the girls in anticipation for one of them to move before they looked around at each other uneasily. Sophie tries again, "We call upon our Elders to resurrect the chosen ones..." Still, nothing happens. Sophie becomes flustered and is near tears, "Resurrect your chosen ones..." She says in a more forceful voice. Nothing happens and her chin wobbled as she pleaded, "Please? I beg..." When it becomes clear that something had gone wrong, Sophie fell to her knees and sobbed by Monique's body, "No!"

Sophie began to sob even harder, and both Rhea and Rebekah start to cry. Elijah and Klaus both look depressed, but not as much as Marcel, who shot Klaus a look of hatred before speeding away.

     Rhea was sat on the porch swing later that night after they had come back from the cemetery. The air was tense and no one had taken Davina's death lightly. She held a drink in her hand and she only stared into the darkness of the night, looking at the woods in front of her when Hayley joined her outside, "I knew Elijah's plan was crazy, but I really thought it would work." She said to her sadly, "I was sure Davina would survive."

Hayley smiled at her sympathetically as she sat beside her, "Yeah, she looked as if she had so much life in her." She said, placing a hand on hers comfortingly, "You seemed to really take a liking to her."

Rhea only huffed, "Yeah, I didn't know her that well but I guess she reminded me of me back in Mystic Falls. My life wasn't really my own, I was only alive to be used as a pawn in Klaus' ritual. If it wasn't for the fact that I was Elijah's soulmate, I would've been the wolf used in the sacrifice." She explained, "Tonight just brought back memories of back then. Davina was being used by her coven for more power and was being served up to die to help them. She didn't want that—she just wanted to live, and now she's dead. I just wish we didn't play a part in handing her over to her death. She didn't deserve that."

"Unfortunately, we all had a part in this all. This was just her part." Hayley responded, "But, I'm sure she knows that you cared for her." She smiled and Rhea's face couldn't bare to bring one up, "Could I ask your opinion?"

     Rhea looked at the werewolf, "What is it?"

     Hayley looked nervous as she said, "I offended Elijah—deeply. I was the one that told Sophie about Celeste's burial site because she promised to help my pack if I told her where it was." She said and Rhea's eyes widened. She knew it happened, she just didn't expect Hayley to admit it, "I don't know how to make it up to him. He won't even look at me."

     "Look, you screwed up." Rhea told her with a sigh, "Celeste is touchy subject for him and he's too proud to admit that it's uncomfortable to talk about with me around." She winced. It wasn't because he was ashamed about his past relationships, he just didn't want to make her uncomfortable talking about his previous lovers, "But, don't do what Klaus does. Just apologise, because if there is one thing that my fiancé is a master at; it's the art of forgiveness."

     "How are you so sure?" Hayley asked her, "I mean, you might be his soulmate, but how can you be sure that he'll forgive me so easily just because I ask for it?"

     "It's because I'm his soulmate that I know he will." Rhea responded, "Elijah has had to deal with Klaus' crap for a thousand years. If he didn't learn to forgive for the most heinous things, he would've lost his family a long time ago over the smallest of heartaches. In hindsight, what you did is nothing compared to what his siblings have done to him." She explained, "I mean, if he can forgive me for snapping his neck with my humanity off, he can forgive you for you trying to help your family. Just apologise."

     "Okay, I will." Hayley nodded, "Now I just need to find the power to swallow my own pride and do so."

Rhea's eyebrows furrowed as a thought came to mind at Hayley's words, "You know what I still don't understand?" She started and Hayley looked at her, "What happened to Davina's power after the ritual. Four were supposed to rise, and none did." She brought up and an uneasy feeling settled in both their stomachs as Rhea then questioned, "So, where did all that power go?"

     Meanwhile, Sabine was still in the tomb where she was completing the spell she started earlier in the day. She took a small poppet and sliced the throat open, and poured the blood within the poppet into a small goblet holding the potion from earlier in the evening. She drank it and is imbued with power.

     Suddenly, three people in various locations in the cemetery rise from their graves—the witch Bastianna, who did the first attempt at the Harvest, a red-haired female, Genevieve, dressed in a flapper dress, and a young black man, Papa Tunde, in a pinstriped suit. All three of them meet at the front gates of the cemetery, "Why are we here?" Genevieve asked, completely confused.

     "Someone brought us forth." Papa Tunde told her in realisation, "But, who?"

     Sabine then appeared before them and smiled as she said, "I did."

     "Sabine!" Bastianna's eyes widened, "What's the meaning of this?"

     Sabine chuckled in distaste, "Bastianna, I've had to endure people calling me 'Sabine' for almost a year now." She scowled before she stood a little more proudly, a smirk on her face as she said, "I'd appreciate it if you'd call me by my real name—Celeste."