No one could find the missing hybrids.
All the witches in their contacts had tried Locator Spells, given how important Hayley and Tyler were to all of them. They each came up empty handed. Hearing this, Hope offered to try one of her own.
Given what she'd witnessed with Henry's body being displayed in such an awful way, both of her parents tried to urge her not to 'overexert' herself. Hope, naturally, was as stubborn as both of them, and stated that she was going to try anyway.
"This can't be happening," she said. "It's not... working."
"It might be an entire coven that's cloaking them," said Klaus. "No singular witch is more powerful than Hope."
"What are we going to do?" asked Hope impatiently. "We have to find them!"
"We will find them, princess," said Maddy, trying her hardest to think of what they could possibly do. "I swear, we will. We'll start by questioning people. Someone has to know something."
In Tyler's case, questioning anyone was going to be very difficult. He'd been traveling alone, and aside from a few pit stops to put gas in his car, he hadn't interacted with any other people. No one knew where exactly he went missing, all Caroline could say was that at one point, when it had been more than an hour since his last text response, she tried to track him using Find My iPhone and he hadn't appeared.
With Hayley, things went only slightly better. They were able to narrow down where she'd been kidnapped from, and around what time. They placed it at just past four o'clock, in the alley behind Rousseau's. They checked the nearby cameras, and were able to catch Hayley entering the alley, but never emerging. The only problem was that no one else had entered behind her, which meant they had no leads on who the kidnapper was.
"Vincent and Marcel are questioning their communities," reported Maddy on a mass phone call with their family members. "Everyone not on the call is trying another Locator Spell on them, including Hope. Ansel and the wolves are searching the Quarter for any trace of Hayley's scent, but so far, they have nothing."
"It's been a whole day!" said Caroline weakly, her voice breaking. "Who knows what could have happened to them by now."
Maddy nodded sadly, closing her eyes. "I know, Caroline, and I'm sorry. We just have to wait for Marcel and Vincent to respond with anyone they deem suspicious."
"Alright," answered Damon. "Let's run through what we know. Day One, Hope turns Henry out of pity. Day Two, Henry gets punished and killed, Hayley disappears, Tyler disappears. Clearly, this person doesn't like hybrids."
"Marcel's entire community is anti-hybrid right now," said Maddy. "We'd need to do a head-dive on all of them to be safe."
"Then make it happen," suggested Damon. "String them all up and bleed them of vervain."
Klaus considered it. "You might be onto something. The only problem is that that would be quite inefficient. And messy. What we need is a suspect. We haven't the faintest idea who killed Henry Benoit. Elena's been searching the city cameras the entire day, but nothing has come up. We're not sure who strung him up on that balcony. I'd prefer we find that person, question them, and find out about all their associates instead of wasting time with a whole group of vampires."
"Not to mention," said Stefan reasonably from the other line, "that the vampires already hate the Mikaelsons enough. If you torture all of them at like that, given the majority may be innocent, then you're just gonna have a bigger problem on your hands."
Maddy assented. "He's right, we'd be declaring a war if we did that to all the vampires. Marcel knows his people, he'll know if someone is being suspicious."
There was a knock on the door. Klaus frowned. "Are we expecting a visitor?" he asked, raising a brow.
"No," Maddy said suspiciously. She waited a moment before heading to the door. Outside, she found a small envelope waiting. She picked it up, and brought it inside, ripping it open. "There's an address... '238 St. Philip Street Tremé.'"
"We'll check on it," offered Stefan. "Val and I are heading back to the area."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. You two need to be with your daughter. Don't let her out of your sight. Whoever is kidnapping and hurting hybrids might be next."
Maddy and Klaus weren't too happy about letting others handle it, but they decided to listen, and remained in the house with Hope, who was growing increasingly annoyed with the lack of success she was having in her Locator Spells.
"This is just—" she almost cursed, but forced it down. "I'm the tribrid, I'm supposed to be the strongest witch alive and I can't find them!"
"Sweetheart," said Klaus, "perhaps it's time to take a break. You've been at it all day."
"And I've been failing all day!" said Hope. "This is all my fault. If I hadn't turned Henry, none of this would have happened."
Maddy shook her head. "Don't do that, Hope, don't blame yourself. This is most certainly not your fault."
"But it is!" she insisted. "I turned Henry, he killed Poppy, someone got mad, and now Henry is dead, and my Aunt Hayley and Uncle Tyler— who've always loved me and helped me when I needed it— are gone and might be dead, too!"
Neither adult wanted to accept that Hayley and Tyler might not be alive anymore. "We're going to find them," promised Klaus. "Your Uncle Stefan and Aunt Valerie are following a lead as we speak. Your Uncle Elijah is rallying up old witch contacts from The Strix. Your Uncle Kol and Aunt Freya are preparing to come to the city to see what can be done."
Hope squeezed her eyes shut, shaking her head. "How could I be so stupid?"
"Princess," said Maddy firmly. "We all make dumb choices but you never could have known this would happen! None of us expected this! Please, don't blame yourself. The person who did this is someone hateful and cruel. They likely would have done it anyway. You didn't do this to them, Hope."
She sighed. "I can't sleep... I can't rest knowing they're out there, probably suffering." She looked at her mother. "What did Uncle Stefan say? What did they find?"
Maddy checked her phone. "No word yet. Come on. How about we make some calming teas, hmm? Would you like to invite Anita to spend the night again?"
Hope nodded. "Yeah... that might be nice."
The vampire cast her a reassuring smile before putting her arm around her and leading her away. Klaus went outside, presumably to call Stefan and Valerie for an update where Hope wouldn't be able to hear them.
"These people, whoever they are," murmured Hope as she sat on the counter while the water boiled, "they hate me. They're afraid of how strong I can be."
"I don't think it's just your strength," said Maddy. "Whoever took your Aunt Hayley and Uncle Tyler, whoever killed Henry, they're someone who thinks hybrids are unnatural and evil. You're a Mikaelson witch, of a major bloodline, and your grandmother and her sister were insanely powerful witches who created major spells. You were taught magic by two other Mikaelson witches, a Bennett witch, a Harvest witch, a Gemini witch, and a Heretic. You are also part werewolf, from an ancient pure wolf bloodline, with a grandfather that was an Alpha, and a father who is a legendary Original hybrid. You are considered family by the Crescent wolves, even though throughout history, their people were at war with the people your dad comes from. And to top it all off, you somehow got the vampire gene, and despite it, you are a beautiful soul, you are compassionate and selfless and sweet, you love to paint, you love horses and all other animals, and you see the good in people where others don't. These hybrid haters thrive off of cruelty, and off of division between the factions. But you hold a piece of all those factions. You could unite them, you could end all wars permanently. I think they're afraid that you can render their cause meaningless. That you will bring everyone together where they seek to tear them apart."
Hope managed a weak smile. "It makes me sound great when you say it like that, but... I don't have werewolf abilities, aside from basic agility. And I don't plan to trigger my vampire side for... awhile. Am I really so capable of that?"
"I think you're more capable than you realize. And I think," she reached for the kettle and began pouring the hot water over the tea bags, "that you are going to do great things, regardless of which parts of yourself you do and don't have access to."
Hope mulled it over for a moment. "You didn't mention yourself. When you were saying the parts of me that I have. I figured I got the vampire gene from you."
Maddy half-smiled. "Genetically, it's a complicated explanation. You once asked me why I'm not a witch. I have a dormant witch gene, from a very, very long time ago. My family is part of an ancient Traveler bloodline. It's why your Uncle Stefan is technically a doppelgänger. But we couldn't do magic, we just had the markers for it. If my mother had been a witch, then I might have been one too. In the same way, your father's witch gene was dormant, given his wolf gene overpowered it. The wolf gene, you definitely got from him. The witch gene... I could say technically because both of us had dormant witch genes, it led to you having an active one. As for the vampirism, well, it mostly makes sense that you got it from your dad given I was human when we ah... conceived you. But at the same time, I think I still had genetic markers for vampirism, so it could have been a group effort in terms of you ending up with witch and vampire aspects. The wolf part, though, you got completely from your dad."
"I look more like you," mentioned Hope. "Face shape. Lips. Nose. Eyebrows. The eyes, of course, and the complexion, is all my dad. I just know I look a lot like my cousin Sarah. And she's from your side of the family, so..."
Maddy smiled. "Yeah, Damon figured you'd look a lot like her, and he was right. The only difference, really, is that she has darker hair and darker eyes. And a slightly darker skin tone. You two could be fraternal twins."
"Would she have been my sister? If you'd raised her?"
She shook her head. "No, not quite. If I'd raised her, I would never have gone near Mystic Falls. I wouldn't have seen your dad again, and if I had... let's just say a lot of things wouldn't have happened, including the specific event that led me to become human again. If I hadn't been human, you wouldn't have been able to be created."
Hope scrunched up her nose. "Yeah, I don't want more details about that part."
"Trust me, I wasn't going to go into them. You know biology, you know how you were made. The point is that you are... incredibly special. And beautiful, and you are the greatest gift we ever could have asked for."
She half-smiled. "Is that your way of telling me I was planned?"
"You were one hundred percent planned. There was a lot of thought that went into it. We wanted you and we are proud of what we got. You are a blessing to us, Hope. I never want you to feel like anything less than that. You deserve every bit of love this gigantic family sends your way. You are worth every sacrifice and every fight. And we will fight to protect you as hard as we fight to protect the others we care about. Never forget that."
She beamed. "Always and forever, right?"
"Exactly," said Maddy, pressing her teacup against Hope's as she drank. "Which is why I'd like to remind you that you can tell me anything. Not only because of what's happening now, but also for the future, because we don't know what'll happen after this. Enemies always follow our family and it's really important that we tell people things when we notice them... even if it's something slight. There have been times when we... could have exposed an enemy sooner if we'd just been observant."
"I've mentioned everything I know," said Hope, though the way she averted her gaze suggested she was hiding something.
Maddy just nodded. "Okay. Good."
She was about to go and get some cookies for them when Hope said, "Mom?"
She stopped in her tracks and turned. "Yes?"
She wrung her hands together. "Sometimes I don't tell you things because I know you'll just tell Dad. I know you hate secrets a lot and I know there's some stuff he has to know, but... is there ever an occasion where you could keep a secret from him?"
"Is this about someone you like?"
"Maybe. What if he gets really mad?"
"You're not dating this person yet, are you?"
"Well, no..."
"Then there's nothing to worry about. If you want to explore dating, well... your dad and I both think you're still a bit young but we can be open to teaching you more about relationships when you feel you're ready for it. I'd rather you ask us, and let us give you good advice instead of you going to be reckless and getting hurt because you were too shy to ask."
Hope blushed. "What was your first kiss like?"
"Are you asking because you already had yours, or because you want to?"
"Because I want to. Sometime... maybe... with this totally hypothetical person I'm talking about."
Maddy grinned. "Well, I was your age... it was a boy from my town, back in good ol' Mystic Falls. I liked him, he liked me, I'd seen people kiss when they liked each other so we... mimicked them. And it wasn't all that special. In all honesty, sometimes first kisses are overrated. I think what's really special is the first time you share a kiss with your soulmate."
"Do you think that's actually something real? Having a soulmate?"
"I think so. Your Aunt Lexi and Aunt Elena are some of my platonic soulmates. I think, in the wise words of Lexi, we can have multiple 'ones,' just in different senses. I thoroughly believe your dad is my soulmate. The first time I met him... and then the first time I kissed him... Hell, even the first time I held his hand... it was fireworks and just that angelic music in the background. It felt so right. So, if your first kiss doesn't end up being... super romantic or even remotely enjoyable, then you don't have to let it bum you out. One day you will find someone and you will have your epic love."
Hope winced. "What about... other firsts?"
"You are definitely too young for that. And let's remember you're mortal, and therefore, likely able to procreate. But... if you truly have questions, again, I'd rather you ask me and learn things in a healthy and safe way instead of in an unsafe way. So, what are you wondering?"
"How do you know when you like someone in that way?"
"Usually, you think about them in that context."
"Okay... I don't think I think of this person like that yet. But I feel like I'm supposed to."
Maddy shrugged. "This is likely still puppy love, and with puppy love, I feel like there doesn't tend to be a lot of sexual thoughts, because it's so new and fairly innocent. Plus, there's also something called being 'demisexual' which means you won't have sexual feelings until you fully bond with that person, emotionally. For example, you may like them now, may think they're cute, but until you really start to love them, and until you can trust them fully, you won't think of them that way. Then, of course, there's being 'asexual' which is also perfectly okay. Feeling no sexual attraction at all. You don't need to feel like you have to do it or think of it just because others are. You'll know when you're ready and when your body is ready. Don't rush into it, don't push yourself into it."
"A lot of people I know have already done it, and it makes me feel... lame."
"You're a minor, honey, you should definitely not be doing it right now. I didn't do it for the first time until I was nearly twenty-one. And some people do it later in life, and that's perfectly okay. I think that the media and society makes us think we need to do it at a certain time. In my case, well... I should have already been married by sixteen and I should have been popping out children, but after my mother's passing, I was given leniency. Other girls my age weren't. A lot of my childhood friends were already mothers when I turned. Trust me, all of that, it's just a social construct. Do what you want, when you want, as long as you are ready, as long as you are safe, and as long as you are doing it with someone who will respect you. Choose wisely. Prioritize yourself. Respect your body's limitations. If it's not ready, then it's not ready. Think long and hard about these decisions, not because it's a bad thing to have sex, but because there are consequences that come with it."
Hope smiled, to show she understood. Maddy put her arm around her, kissing her forehead. "Your dad just worries about you. Neither of us want someone to hurt you in any way. You're our baby, you always will be. And he's... overprotective, he always has been. Just ask your Aunt Rebekah."
"Meanwhile," said Hope, "you've been the one with the overprotective brothers. You get it. I just wonder if he'll threaten anyone I bring home."
"Well, you can definitely expect the usual 'If you hurt my daughter, I'll make you suffer in ways you can't imagine' said to this person by the both of us... just not in those exact words. Trust me, your dad wouldn't outright eviscerate anyone you brought home. He'd likely dislike them until they prove they can be trusted. Until they prove that they will protect you and love you as you deserve to be. But he wouldn't outright kill any of your partners. Plus, if you ever want to know if someone's intentions are pure or not, just take them to your Aunt Bex. She has a gift of being able to tell when someone's lying about something, and if they pass her test, and then mine, then both of us should be able to convince your dad to leave them be."
She ruffled her hair. "I love you," she whispered, kissing her head again. "Thank you for asking me about this."
"It was awkward," admitted Hope. "But... I definitely think it was better than finding out on the internet from some random person on Reddit."
"It amazes me how you can find such things out so easily now. Back in my day... jeez, I have no clue how I even learned about all this stuff. Trial and error, I guess? That sounds terrifying in hindsight." She turned back to the door as Klaus came in, looking disappointed. "What happened? You were out there for a while."
"Stefan and Valerie were calling me while they explored the location," said Klaus gravely. "There was blood everywhere. Someone wrote 'FREAK,' 'FILTH,' and 'CROSSBREEDS' on the wall in their blood."
Hope looked scared. "Why would someone do that? Why would they torture them like that? What did Hayley and Tyler ever do to them?"
Klaus shook his head. "These people hate them for their mere existence. Simply for being hybrids." He held up his phone. "I also called Marcel and Vincent. Vincent is confident none of the witches were involved. Marcel, however, suspects a few vampires, all part of the nightwalker group. We can question them in the morning."
"Okay," replied Maddy. "We'll go and find them." She checked the time, patting Hope's shoulder. "Why don't you go and call Anita now, so she has time to pack? We can see if Elijah or Elena can come and stay here in the morning before they wake up so we can go and question the nightwalkers."
Klaus smiled at Hope as she finished her tea and walked off. As soon as she was gone, Klaus frowned. "You know what this means, don't you?"
"Yes," said Maddy in a deadly whisper. "They're going to come after her, too. And probably you, too."
"That's absurd, they won't manage to harm me."
"Well, I would have said the same thing about Hayley and Tyler. But..."
"We will protect our daughter," said Klaus firmly. "Nothing will happen to me. We will bleed out those nightwalkers and I will compel them to tell me the truth."
"Did Marcel send you a list of names for the ones we need to question?"
"Yes. Let me forward it to you." He opened his messages app and sent her the list. Once she looked at it, she groaned. "Of course Greta's name is on it."
"The same Greta you always complain about?" asked Klaus.
"Yeah. She's a bitch. We should definitely question her first..." she trailed off as she heard a knock on the door. "Um... Anita wouldn't already have gotten here..." she then recalled the knock earlier in the day, which caused the hybrid to bolt to the door immediately, hoping to catch the person this time.
There was no one there. Just a box waiting for them. He furrowed his brows and set it on the counter, which allowed Maddy to see there was a note taped on top that read, 'Per Your Request.'
The hybrid popped the lid and Maddy immediately gasped. "Oh my god," she said, seeing what was inside. "Is that—?"
Klaus nodded when he saw the bit of skin bearing the Crescent birth mark. "Hayley. Which leads me to assume the eyeball..."
"Is Tyler's," said Maddy softly. She heard Hope coming out of the room, and quickly tried to close the box, but it caused it to fall of the counter, which made a bottom compartment pop out. A coin that had been hidden inside of it clattered to the floor, rolling several times until Klaus caught it, and brought it up to eye level. His face immediately went pale.
"What?" asked Maddy. "What is it, Nik?"
He showed her the coin, which had an eagle on one side, and a very, very awful symbol on the other side. "This is a message. From enemies I thought I buried long, long ago."
A/N: I'm estimating maybe 3-5 more chapters before the end? There won't be an epilogue for this one, just the usual Final Author's Note after the last chapter. Comment for more!