Hayley is sitting on a park bench at Jackson Square, watching children play nearby with a mournful expression. When Klaus appears and sits down next to her, yet it was obvious that Hayley is still deeply in grief and her voice is emotionless when she speaks to him
"Come to pay your respects?" Hayley says instead of making a snarky comment as expected, making Klaus give her a genuine smile
"It's easy to speak well of Jackson. He was a good man" Klaus says as he looks over at the baby tree several feet in front of them, "Though it is a bit macabre, isn't it? Burying his heart under a sapling?"
"At least Hope will have a place to visit him. I don't want her to forget how much she loved him" Hayley says with a sigh making Klaus give her a sympathetic look but Hayley can't meet his eyes
"I am sorry... for your loss" Klaus says
"Mmm. Everybody's sorry. Doesn't make a whole lot of difference, does it?" Hayley says tired of hearing how sorry everyone is
"Perhaps not. I've heard time heals all wounds, but that has not been my own experience. I wonder if keeping busy might help distract you from your grief?" Klaus questions making Hayley turn to look at him, part of her was curious while the other was suspicious
"You have something in mind?" Hayley asks
"Aurora's still at large. No doubt plotting her revenge. She used Camille to get to me once. She may do so again. And, Cami is rather vulnerable. I'd like to provide some safeguarding" Klaus explains with a sigh as knowing the reason why Cami wanted her dark objects and he couldn't be the one there to protect her. He knew who was up for the job
Hayley thinks about it for a moment before she responds, "Isn't that your job?"
"No. Not anymore" Klaus says with a frown making Hayley once again take a moment to consider his offer before sighing reluctantly as she needed to ask one last thing before she agrees
"Is Odette going to be helping?"
"Yes, but I am worried for her as well. I need you to keep an eye on her" Klaus says making Hayley sigh as she nods her head and say "Fine"
Klaus seems pleased by Hayley's response, but before he can say anything more, his phone buzzes in his jacket pocket and he scowls in annoyance as he stands to his feet and pulls it out to answer Elijah's call
~~
Odette walked into Cami's apartment finding the door open, and walks into the room. She finds Cami reading an old, yellowed book while an assortment of dark objects lay strewn across her coffee table. Odette stops in the doorway between the living room and the kitchen
"Did you know your downstairs doorbell is broken?" Odette says making Cami turn to face her looking unamused
"Yeah, I keep forgetting to compel the shady landlord to fix it. Next time, text" Cami replies as she shuts the book and walks towards Odette until they're face-to-face "You could get hurt, sneaking up on someone with a stockpile of dark objects"
"Was it worth it?" Odette says unamused by her threat deciding it was the right time to give Cami a piece of her mind, "Risking the lives of every vampire in existence over your petty fight with Klaus?"
Cami rolls her eyes and walks past her to put her book on the shelf, "And here I thought this was a social call"
"Cute" Odette says sarcastically "but this is a wakeup call Camille. You haven't been yourself lately and in your less-than-sane moments you have been putting the people that I care about in danger"
"See, I sort of thought I had proven myself" Cami says irritated "I did risk what was left of my life to save Hayley's. And maybe what I need is some space-- to deal with this whole... I don't know, being dead, drinking blood, living forever..."
Odette rolls her eyes even though she knew Cami had a point, and since Odette didn't speak, she did, "If you have come to lecture me, save it. I have been lecturing myself for weeks"
"No, you're right" Odette says with a deeply sigh as it was the perfect place in the conversation get the two on their way to where Hayley was. Odette turns and picks up a jacket laying over the nearest chair "This your coat?"
Cami nods her head making Odette shove her coat into Cami's chest, "You don't need a lecture, but I am gonna take your ass to school"
Odette then walks past Cami and heads out the door. Reluctantly Cami follows her as she was curious yet didn't leave the house without one of her dark objects
~~
Odette led Cami into the St. Anne's Catholic Church which was now Marcels gym, where Hayley was waiting for the two but had yet to come out of the shadows.
"So, this is you taking me to school?" Cami says making Odette scoff
"There is a fight coming, Cami. I mean it is what the prophecy says and you're not going to be much help to the home team if you're just standing around waving a bunch of antiques" Odette replies making Cami roll her eyes and scoff as she pulls out what appears to be a small wooden box
"Huh. You see this?" Cami says as she holds up the box "This will paralyze anyone who tries to attack me"
"Awesome, but then what? You do need to learn how to defend yourself because I won't always be there when witches and vampires want to hurt you" Odette says knowing that magic is not going to be enough to protect Cami, she needed to learn how to throw a punch and block a receiving hit
"Come on, Odette, everyone knows a baby vamp is borderline useless. Even Josh could wipe the floors with me. I need these"
"I'm not disagreeing with you" Odette says making Cami narrow her eyes at Odette, uncertain what she was trying to say. Odette turns around the room before getting an idea on how to talk to her, "Um, okay. So, this used to be a church, right? And then it got condemned. Meaning if Marcel hadn't seen the possibilities, someone would bulldoze it and turned it into some generic chain store. Now it's also a church but it is also something more. I'm a hybrid, but I'm also a mom. And a sister. And an Alpha. You're a psychologist. And a bartender. And yes, you have some insane family legacy that comes with a bunch of cool toys, but... If you don't start to embrace the fact that you're also a vampire, you are going to end up dead. And this time it is going to be permanent"
Cami is both annoyed and surprised by Odette's response making her say, "You know, I'm not used to being on the receiving end of solid advice"
"Well you're not the only one who's taken a phycology class" Odette says with a smile as if it was nothing
"So now what?" Cami asks as she looks around the room
"You are going to get in that ring and you're gonna try and punch a hybrid" Odette says as she walks over to where the equipment is held
"So, I'm fighting you?" Cami asks making that be Hayley's cue to walk out and join the two
"nope, you're fighting her" Odette says as she points to Hayley
"You don't want to get your hands dirty now?" Cami asks Odette making her scoff
"Oh honey, I'm always willing to but you messed with the people I love making their life be in danger. So you really don't want to be in a confined space where I have the liberty of bleeding you dry with my fists"
Hayley and Cami got into the ring with black gloves on and began to fight. Odette tried to give Cami some advice but since she was a beginner, she wanted to see her fight before giving the blonde some solid fighting advice. In between watching the fight, Odette groans in pain as she feels a sharp shooting pain flow through her shoulder. Odette composes herself as the pain soon disappeared, the girls in the ring don't notice as their fighting was taking up their focus.
Cami lunges at Hayley to punch her in the face, making Hayley dodge the first hit and block the second. Hayley then grabs Cami by the neck and lifts her up slightly from the ground, then throws the newbie vampire against the chain-link fence wall
"Again" Hayley says making Cami turn and swing at Hayley. Who once again dodges her hit before vamp speeding behind her and pinning Cami's arm behind her back, for a moment before shoving her against the ring.
"Again! Come on, post grad, you can do better than that" Hayley says making Odette chuckle as she found the words funny. Yet Hayley's words only make Cami get frustrated and aggressive, she lunges at Hayley at vampire speed and goes to punch her. Hayley swats her arm up in the air before throwing her into the wall.
Cami shouts "Ah!" Before Hayley says "Again" once more making Cami vamp speed towards Hayley, tackles her and then flips her so that Hayley is on top and then kicks her across the ring, where she's thrown against the wall and bounces down onto the floor. Rather than looks mad, Hayley actually looks impressed she wipes the blood from her mouth and the two stand to their feet to catch their breath.
"Look at you" Odette says with a smile to Cami "You have a change to be giving Josh a run for his money"
"Hey..." Cami says as she looks at Odette with a serious and appreciative look, "Thanks for coming to find me today"
"Oh, don't get all mushy on us" Hayley says as she wipes her bloody lips on her shirt sleeve
"You can thank us with a beer, after all you are a bartender"
"Deal" Cami says with a laugh, visibly happier than she was earlier
The sound of Odette's phone ringing interrupts their conversation, she takes out her phone from her back pocket to see that its Davina who's calling her. A sense of worry washes over Odette making her click the answer button as fast as possible before saying, "What's wrong?"
"Odette, Aya's witches are coming to kill you or Hayley" Davina says from the other end of the line
"What?" Odette asks confused yet before she could even process the witch's words, the doors to the gym open as the Sisters walk into the room in a single-file line. Odette turns with wide eyes to Cami and shouts "Get out of here! Now!"
The blonde pale lead witch thrusts her hand out in front of her which sends Hayley flying backwards so hard that the back wall of the ring is completely knocked down as she lands on what used to be sacristy. So while she flew backwards the witch thrusts her hand out in front of her once again, only this time it sends Odette to fly backwards to crash against a pillar
"Oww" Hayley says as she stands up with a groan and rubbing her side. The witch then repeats the movement and sends Hayley flying against the back wall of the church crashing on some gym equipment until she bounces off the wall and onto the ground.
Cami vamp speeds over to her bag as the Strix Sisters make their way towards Hayley. Cami pulls out a dark object from earlier and settles it on the ground in front of the blonde Sister. The box's lid starts to spin making the blonde witch to immediately become paralyzed, long enough for Hayley to stumble to her feet. Odette vamp speeds towards the Sister witch who makes her way towards Cami from the other side of the boxing cage. Odette quickly snaps the witches neck letting her body fall to the floor just as Hayley had let the witch, she had in a hold fall the floor with a rope around her neck.
It wasn't over as two new Sisters make their way into the church, casting a pain infliction spell on Cami that knocks her out. Then they split their attention between the two hybrids as they were only there for one of their hearts. The Sister who had her focus on Hayley, used her magic to start breaking her bones one at a time. All while the other Sister casted a boundary spell around Odette to keep her contained, yet Odette couldn't not help but to groan out in pain as she felt a ghost pain of what Hayley was going through.
Hayley starts to choke as the witches use telekinesis to try to rip Hayley's heart out. Causing a bloody stain to appear on the front of her shirt before she falls to her knees and shrieks in pain.
Odette was able to feel a pinch around her heart knowing that it was all of Hayley's pain of which she was feeling. Odette shouted louder as she felt a burning sensation around her heart that she knew wasn't coming from Hayley causing her to start coughing up blood.
The Sisters spell on Hayley continued but they did increase the potency of their spell which caused Hayley to fall to her knees after she tried to push through the pain to stand up.
"Oh... You want my heart? Then come and get it!" Hayley furiously yells at the witches who continue to break Hayley's bones to cause her debilitating pain, paying no attention to the affects that it was causing Odette
The Sisters are forced to stop their spell when they are overcome with pain just before they collapse onto the floor. Hayley and Odette turn to face each other as they gasp in relief and try to catch their breath. Yet it wasn't over for Odette as she continues to feel a burning sensation around her heart meaning that every half a minute, she continues to cough up blood.
Then it all stopped, and Odette's mind was clear making her know that Elijah, along with Klaus who no doubt in her mind was with him, was safe and alive.
Odette and Hayley make their way to each other only to hear the sound of someone walking into the Gym.
"I thought I smelled arrogance" Hayley says as she holds her hand over her heart still recovering from almost having her heart ripped out of her chest
"I think you meant confidence." Aya says as she walks towards the two Hybrids not and stepping over her unconscious witches "But I can understand how the uneducated are apt to confuse the two"
"Yeah? You want to tell me what your dead-eyed drones want with my heart?" Hayley asks as she looks around the room at all the witches in the floor
"It's nothing personal. I just value my life above yours" Aya says before she rolls up her sleeve and lunges for Hayley to rip out her heart.
Causing Hayley to spin away from Aya dodges her attack just in time and for Odette to grab Aya from behind and twists her arms before pushing her to Hayley had picked up a metal hand weight and backhands Aya across the face two times in a row with it. Aya manages to take hold of the weight before it can hit her a third time and manages to grab Hayley in a choke-hold while slamming her against the shelf of weights so hard that she's knocked out. Aya goes to rip Hayley's heart out making Odette grab her from behind and push her off an unconscious Hayley.
"You will not take her heart" Odette speaks making Aya nod her head knowing that in the past people have tried to punch her way through her chest and to her heart, only for them to fly away and even leave a wound on her yet that doesn't mean she can't try
"Then I'll just have to take yours"
"Good luck trying" Odette says with a smirk before Aya lungs towards the hybrid. Aya was able to find an opening as the two fought so she took her chance and went for Odette's heart making the two go flying apart. Aya crashes against a pillar while Odette falls on gym equipment unconscious. Aya takes the two Hybrids being unconscious as an opening to walk towards Hayley so she can rip out her heart.
Before she can do so, Marcel arrives and grabs her in a headlock while he pulls her hand away from Hayley.
"Aya, you take her heart, you start a war" Marcel states but Aya doesn't listen as she headbutts Marcel in the face and spins to get in a defensive position
"Don't let your association with werewolf trash cloud the opportunity before you." Aya remarks as she turns back to the still unconscious Hayley making Marcel grab a nearby bench-press bad and swings it at the middle of her back, knowing Aya down so hard that she collapses onto the floor
Marcel points the end of the bar at her chest while saying, "The Mikaelsons will kill us before you can even light the candles on that spell!"
Aya kicks the bar, causing it to smack Marcel in the face and give her enough time to steal it away from him. She uses it as a weapon to hit him over the head before using it to pin Marcel against the wall by the neck, "There is no alternative"
"You're wrong. Give me a few hours to set this thing straight. Or push me out of the way and condemn yourself and everyone else in the Strix to a slow and painful death. I want to be de-linked just as much as you do. Give me the chance to do it the right way." Marcel says which makes Aya show how unpleased she is by Marcels argument but knowing that he's right, she lets go of him
"Bring me a solution by midnight, or I will rip out your heart right before I come back and take hers" Aya says with a glare before vamp-speeding away
Hayley and Odette had woken up around the same time and found Cami still unconscious, so they both carried her to her house. After they had dropped the newly turned vampire off, the two hybrids went back to the compound to see Elijah and Klaus who had news. They then both shared their very eventful days, which involved Klaus and Elijah searching for Freya who was kidnapped by Aurora and buried alive. All while Aurora held a gun with white oak bullets at Klaus or Elijah at any chance she had. She then achieved to shoot Klaus in the shoulder and Elijah in his chest, just slightly missing his heart.
Klaus seated on the couch, where Odette sat at the arm of the seat with her arm resting behind Klaus. All while Hayley and Elijah pace anxiously around the room.
"The attack was about breaking the sire link. Marcel told us that Aya's witches already have a spell to do it" Hayley explains
"And how does your heart play into all of this?" Klaus asks as he looks up at Odette in concern
"Well considering there is some protective barrier around my heart. Hayley's is the only accessible un-sired vampire heart in history. Apparently, that's the key to making this work"
"And yet, Marcel neglected to mention it this morning" Klaus says annoyed making Odette roll her eyes whole Hayley shoots Klaus an irritated look
"Hey! Ease up. He saved me" Hayley remarks making Elijah look at her with worry
"But the Strix might yet come for you" Elijah says before turning towards Odette "you as well"
"Let them, we're not easy targets" Odette says not worried was she knew that for some odd reason no one was able to get their hand through her chest. Meaning it would give her the advantage which she would use to protect Hayley, that is if she didn't pass out every time she flew backwards because of her protected heart
"They'd be better off trying to find some witchy workaround" Hayley says making the Mikaelson brothers mind go towards the words she said
Elijah looks over at Klaus, who give each other a concerned look. Klaus says, "Unless they already have"
"They need my heart. Or one that's identical to it" Hayley says making both Crescents and Elijah realize what is going on
"Jackson's" Odette says in a low voice yet loud enough for everyone in the room to hear the name that left her lips
"The Unification Ceremony didn't just marry us" Hayley says as she closes her eyes and sighs deeply "it also made his heart a mirror image of mine"
"We need to dig it up" Klaus suggests making Odette and Hayley give him an exasperated look as he stands to his feet to which Odette does the same
"Klaus" Hayley protest
"Aurora's bullet very nearly killed Elijah. When she returns-- and she will-- I would prefer the vampires of New Orleans be obligated to protect us. They'll be more likely to do so if our lives remain linked to theirs" Klaus says making Odette close her eyes and sigh deeply as she knew he was right. They needed to get a hold of Jackson heart before Aurora returned or the Strix got a hold of the heart
Elijah gives Hayley a look that communicates he's not fond of the idea, but know it needs to be done. "Niklaus is right. The sire-link has to remain unbroken. We have to go"
Odette starts to walk towards the exit of the compound to follow Klaus. While Hayley looks unhappy but sighs in defeat before nodding at Elijah making the two follow in the couples lead
~~
The four had arrived at the park where Hayley had buried Jacksons heart under a sapling tree. Hayley kneels in front of the sapling where there was no only an empty box left under the tree.
"Who would steal his heart?" Hayley asks as she stands to her feet and her voice is thick with grief as she talks to the three before her. "It was the only piece of Jackson that I had left"
"We'll find who did this"
"And return the favor tenfold"
A/N: y'all next chapter has an announcement and the arrival of Stefan Salvatore to New Orleans