Nik and Isa had never wished for a humanity switch more than in these last few months. They wanted nothing more than to be numb, and then to stop feeling the grief and the anguish of their decisions. They wanted an end to the pain that would only end when they were finally reunited with their daughter. And as the months went on, it became harder to remember that their angry, grief-stricken, and tortured act was just an act as the emotions began to bleed over into their private life. They couldn't deal with it anymore.
Everyone but them just seemed so happy. Katherine had been ecstatic about being reunited with her long-lost daughter. The first meeting was obviously a bit awkward but once they got through it, something just clicked between mother and daughter as their subsequent conversations flowed much easier. Elijah never dropped his pretence of being happy. It was much easier for him though since his happy was spending time with Katherine and taking what little opportunities he could to rob the Guerreras of what they wanted, such as their desire to tear down one of the town's original foundries in place of a casino. He was also getting along swimmingly with Nadia. The girl had definitely been a little apprehensive of her mother's boyfriend and vice versa, but it turns out that the two of them had literature in common as they used it to bridge the gap between them.
Marcel had gone back to running his vampire faction, buckling down on them to prevent another riot, as well as recruiting seeing as the wolves were so intent on hunting down vampires, but he had procured another abode to conduct business, leaving the compound for his family to mourn. He was the only one besides Nik and Isa who wasn't happy though. With Rebekah gone now for an indefinite period of time, Marcel was also missing something inside. He occupied his spare time by sleeping with whatever girl he met, drunk or sober. Most he would end up eating, but he returned a few. He was certain that none of them would fill the aching hole where Rebekah should be.
Nik's werewolf family had gone underground. Any wolf that didn't side with Francesca was treated as a vampire sympathizer and exterminated. And since they didn't have the rings, they didn't have the strength to overpower the Guerreras. And to make matters worse, the white oak stake had been stolen the night Hope was given away.
Nik only really felt rage while Isa was trying her best to pretend that she had no emotions. But everyone had learned rather quickly not to provoke her because her angry was very different to Nik's angry. Her angry was more painful, and more unpredictable as she tested out various tricks she hadn't had the chance to try or honed her favourite tricks. Happy wasn't really something she did anymore. Her happiness seemed to have left with her daughter.
Right now though, she was sitting on the sofa in Nik's art room as she stared into space as Nik struggled to make a canvas. He yelled out in frustration as he threw the wooden frame and ripped canvas cloth across the room.
Elijah had then walked in and picked it up saying, "I suppose we shall have to call this your white period."
"I'm missing a crucial colour in my palette, that of my enemy's blood," Nik responded.
"I recommend a Venetian red with a dash of rust," Elijah suggested.
"It's been months!" Nik exploded. "I've adhered to our plan, sit here and do nothing, sell our grief. And now my child is safely away, and another full moon is upon us! Another night of pathetic weakness as the moonlight rings steal my strength!"
Isa's eyes flicked to her husband. Things had been tense between them the last few months. With their happiness drained, and anger all they felt, it didn't mean for much in a relationship. The closest they'd gotten to how they used to be was at night when one of them would undoubtedly wake from a nightmare. It would be tears or a panic attack, most often both, before the other would soothe them. They would cling to each other before sleep took them and then they'd wake in the morning as if it never happened. They hardly said two words to each other as they just didn't know how to process what they felt after giving their Hope away.
"The inertia is killing me," Nik said softly. "I need to act. I... I need to spill blood."
"You're not the only one," Isa mumbled.
"Then you shall be pleased to know, I've located the last of the 12 rings forged with your blood," Elijah informed and Isa stood.
"Then it's time," she said eagerly.
"And not a moment too soon, with both your conditions."
Isa just gave a wickedly cold grin, one worthy of the Ice Demon as she said, "Time to spill some wolf blood."
Meanwhile, Davina had been trying to figure out a way to reverse what she had done. Once she realised that Mikael had tricked her into reviving him, she sought to undo it. So far, she'd bound him to her, allowing her to control his every move until she could find a way to kill him permanently.
To make matters worse, Mikael was the one with the white oak stake and if he ever got loose, not only would he kill Nik, but he'd kill Marcel and Josh and everyone from Nik's sire line. Let's just say that she'd had to keep that leash short - very, very short.
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His son had been against fighting the werewolves head on once he'd learned of the white oak stake going missing because if Nik died then he died, but Isa figured out that the wolves didn't have the stake. They didn't have the stake because if they did, they would've made it known by now because they wouldn't have waited months to use it. So, Marcel agreed to bring his vampires to war, especially when he heard that they'd finally found the wolves that wore the twelve rings. Tonight, the Guerrera's would be exterminated.
Though, Elijah was almost exterminated before Francesca when Isa caught him dismantling her baby's crib. The 'appropriate time' he had called it. Isa had said that if he continued with his actions, she would find it the appropriate time to cut out his spleen for him to wear as a neck tie. He promptly abandoned his actions after that.
Now, they all sat in the dining room as they discussed the plan that would ensue as Nik felt his strength be stolen as the moon began to rise. They'd used one of Marcel's most trusted vampires to plant certain seeds in certain wolves' minds that would lead Francesca down a very specific path. And while Marcel, Katherine and his crew dealt with Francesca's lackeys, the other's had been tasked with retrieving the twelve moonlight rings. They needed to get those rings back fast. With the wolves looking for the stake, they'd come for Nik at his weakest, tonight, on the night of the full moon. They'd want him ready for when they did find the stake so they could kill him and secure Francesca's leadership. And even though every ring they got back would strengthen him, he would still be at a disadvantage. Which was why he was to stay inside his art room in the compound with Isa as his only line of defence. And she was their biggest advantage. She had a lot of rage to vent and a lot of tricks to use and despite the dismal state of their relationship these past few months, Isa was not going to lose the love of her life and the father of her child. These wolves weren't gonna get near Nik. That was a promise. And Isa tended to keep her promises. Just ask Genevieve.
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The plan to take down the werewolf groupies was actually rather ingenious. The seeds Marcel's people had planted had the wolves tracking Marcel to the very building that Francesca had been trying to buy but Elijah stopped her. Marcel had been stockpiling wolfsbane for months and just needed a place to stash it. And he decided that now would be the perfect time to show them his supply. So, as Josh and Thierry barred the doors, Katherine grinned down at the wolves as her deft fingers flicked open a lighter and she held it up to the sprinklers that rained down wolfsbane. And the sound of their screams was pure music as the two vampires went to work, snapping necks and chopping off fingers as they restored Nik's strength piece by piece.
As for Isa, she stood atop the third-floor balcony railing as she filed her nails, waiting for their guests to arrive. And she smelled the stench of dog before she saw them as the wolves dropped from the roof into the open courtyard or onto the stairs, whilst a group marched through the front door that had been left open for such an occasion.
"Olly, Olly, Oxen free," Isa called as she waved hello to Oliver, the leader of the assault group and Francesca's second. "I thought you guys would never get here! I was getting bored," she said as she threw her nail file onto the ground behind her.
"Bring me her head," he had said to the wolves that flanked him.
Isa's blood-red lips smiled as she jumped from the railing onto the stone floor, as she pictured her daughter atop that altar, a knife hovering above her heart, and Isa's blood boiled. Not literally, obviously. Unlike the wolves whose blood was actually being sprayed everywhere, including on her. She enjoyed the feeling, really. She relished in it. In fact, this was the most alive and the most happy she'd felt in months. Some wolves had their heads ripped off, others had their necks eaten out, and the rest and their hearts yanked out of their chests as the stone floor of the courtyard was stained with blood that pooled off the floor. And as she lay surrounded by dead bodies, her heels clicked on the stone floors as she maneouvered around them and slipped the rings off some fingers, inspecting each of them before she stuck them into her bra. And with every ring she acquired, she could feel the strength they took flow back into her husband.
Nik had also regained enough strength to kill two of the wolves who'd managed to make it to him. The suited men had entered his art room as the hybrid grinned viciously before sending the ends of two thin paintbrushes flying into their necks. Their bodies fell to the ground as Nik endevoured to drag them over to his canvas before beginning to paint with their blood.
And as Nik was struck with creative inspiration, his wife stood, her body bathed in werewolf blood, in front of the last 5 wolves that separated her from Oliver. And the most hilarious part was that she still hadn't been bitten once. "Nobody hurts a Mikaelson and lives," she snarled as she vamped her eyes before she let out a hiss as she ran at them.
Her fangs made ribbons of the remaining wolves before her fists came in contact with Oliver's face and her knee pushed it into the stone floor. "Hell hath no fury like a mother scorned," she whispered into Oliver's ear before she snapped his neck. Her slippery fingers slid off the last ring as she it away and then she headed for the front door. Now that these wolves were all dead and she had her portion of the rings, she was off to meet Elijah who had been making quick, bloody and clean work of the bodyguards that surrounded Francesca's home. Isa hoped she was in time to see the look on Francesca's face because if anyone was going to kill that wolf bitch, it was going to be her.
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The glass door to the Guerrera home flew open as a head rolled through and Elijah walked up to the threshold. "It's fine," Francesca reassured her people, smiling. "He can't come in."
"Can't I?" Elijah asked as he wiped off his bloody fingers with a handkerchief.
"Don't bluff me," Francesca warned as she took two steps towards the door. "You can't win."
"You mobsters all suffer from such hubris," Elijah laughed as he braced both his hands on the door frame, Francesca merely raising her eyebrows at him. "Did you know that Al Capone thought himself invincible back in his day, and in the end, he was sentenced to the wretched filth of Alcatraz for which of his atrocities? Anyone?" he asked the wolves who all remained silent so he answered for them. "A failure to pay his taxes. I suppose the devil's in the details, isn't it?" he asked as he began to survey the house. "My, my, what a beautiful home you have here," he commented. And Francesca was confused as he said, "I was so pleased when the city took my suggestion to protect its' heritage status, and invoke eminent domain."
Francesca's face fell and rightly so.
"So, I suppose that means, this house now belongs to the public, and as such anyone can enter," he walked across the threshold, "Without invitation."
And to prove his point, Isa dropped from where she'd been clutching the chandelier as she tore into one of Francesca's bodyguards and Elijah launched himself at the rest.
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"I'm still not a full strength. How many of the rings are unaccounted for?" Nik asked as he painted furiously, his brother taking slow steps into his art room.
"Only one. I have to say the brothers fought valiantly before Miss Guerrera escaped," Elijah answered.
"You let her get away?" Nik growled as he turned to face Elijah from where he knelt on the floor.
Elijah smiled as he said, "Not exactly. What I had in mind for Miss Guerrera was a bit more...painful, you could say."
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Like the coward she was, Francesca left her pack to fight the immortal Originals whilst she escaped. Her car raced down the dark roads, her headlights bright before she slammed her foot on the brakes. She'd glanced up at her rearview mirror for a second and when she glanced back at the road, a bloodied figure had appeared in front of her before it disappeared just as fast. Her breathing was heavy as she tried to listen for what was coming, but she wouldn't have been able to sense it as Isa ripped open the door of her car and tore the wolf from her seat.
"You helped orchestrate the MURDER OF MY BABY!" Isa screamed as she slammed a crying Francesca against her car, the collar of her shirt gripped so tightly in her fists that it threatened to rip. "You worked with the witches and SOLD HER OUT!" she screamed again as she continued to slam Francesca into her car. "You caused my husband months of agony because of YOUR STUPID RINGS!" She threw Francesca onto the asphalt.
The wolf began to whimper as she inched away. "I'm sorry. Please. You don't have to do this," she begged but that only made Isa angrier.
"Sorry doesn't bring me my baby back," Isa growled before she grabbed for Francesca's leg, flinging the wolf over her head and into the asphalt ground once more, the sound of bones breaking filling the air. "This...this is for Hope."
Ans Isa tore into Francesca's neck.
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Elijah had taken all the moonlight stones to be destroyed and Nik could feel the rings being erased from existence as he was finally himself again, finally at full strength. However, while the issue of the wolves had been resolved, that still left the issue of the witches. And naturally, Nik blamed himself for their problems.
"A thousand years and you still blame yourself on trivial matters that are no fault of yours?" Isa remarked as she walked into their bedroom, Nik sitting on the edge of their bed. "You would think you'd learn your lesson by now."
"These matters are far from trivial, and they are my fault. It is my fault that my mother is coming after us," he insisted and his wife sighed.
Isa knelt in front of him, hands on his knees, the most affection she'd shown in months. "Your mother's actions are in no way your fault. She made the choice to both create us and kill us. Do not feel guilt over things you should not feel guilt for. You have done nothing aside from trying to be a good son, a good brother, a good husband, and a good father. All things in which you have greatly succeeded at, even if others don't see it. It is not your fault, Nik," Isa promised as her hand cupped his cheek and he leaned into her touch. "What do you say we go out tonight? We haven't had a date night in a while," Isa offered and Nik smiled as he pulled his wife to her feet before sweeping her off them and pressing her lips into a long, hot kiss.
"After our win tonight, I say we deserve to have some fun."
And it would be fun indeed.