𝑰𝑵𝑻𝑶𝑿𝑰𝑪𝑨𝑻𝑬𝑫 - 𝘯𝘪𝘬𝘭𝘢𝘶𝘴 𝘮𝘪𝘬𝘢𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘰𝘯

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ sɪxᴛʏ sᴇᴠᴇɴ

➳

Klaus and Elijah continue to walk endlessly through the Lafayette Cemetery maze fabricated by the witches, using a stone to mark the tombs that they pass in order to not get disoriented.

"It's ingenious." Klaus sighs, a little impressed. "I can see them, I can feel them, and yet, they are not real."

Elijah runs a hand through his hair. "There has to be a way. Even if we could just push through-" He starts to say, but Klaus cuts him off.

"What we need to do his focus." He says, a little gruffly, growling impatient.

"My only focus right now is that child and her safety, do you understand me?" Elijah snaps. "This, all of this, this is the world that you created, Niklaus."

"Brother-" Nik tries to speak, but Elijah just continues.

"All of your scheming, the enemies that you have made every single day of your miserable life - what results did you expect? That your child would be born into a happy life? That the mother would be alive to know her daughter? That we could live and thrive as some.. as some sort of family?" Elijah shoots at his brother, furious.

"That was your fantasy, brother, not mine!" Klaus shouts back.

"No, brother!" Elijah's enraged, how could Niklaus be so blind? He lost the one thing that was good about their family. The woman who could've saved them. The woman Nik is too proud to admit he loved.

"This was our hope. This was our family's hope. And now she is gone." Elijah looks at his brother, hoping his words sink in, trying desperately to break through the brick wall. "Do you understand? I let this person in. I don't let people in." His voice shakes.

Klaus' eyes darken. "She was in love with me, not you!" He snaps, feeling petty and childish, but having to say it anyway.

"Yes. She was." Elijah replies, sitting at the base of one of the tombs. Klaus watches him for a moment, he feels breathless, like his heart as been torn out yet he still breaths. He's still alive. He's heartbroken.

Sitting besides his brother, Klaus thinks of what to say. "I loved her." The words tumble from his mouth. "I loved her, Elijah. I actually thought I would be happy with her, like a fool."

"It's not foolish to love, Niklaus." Elijah tells him.

"Love makes us weak, and yet I went against every instinct of mine for a feral, werewolf, and look at us now. Defeated by a group of wayward witches." Klaus says angrily.

"Lunar was more than that, you and I both saw it in her. I admit, brother, I didn't always think you two were suited, but she brought out qualities in you I thought died a thousand years ago. Now, her daughter, your daughter, will live but a day.." Elijah says, quietly.

Klaus looks at him now. "You can tell your niece all about her mother when we save her." He grips his brothers arm in comfort, before nodding at him encouragingly.

Nik thinks of Lunar, and what the brunette would do. He knows she would probably lay waste to half of New Orleans in order to save her daughter. He almost smiles at the thought. He will do no less, if needs be, and their daughter will know just how fierce her mother truly was.

- St Anne's Church -

Lunar awakes with a gasp, a hand flying to her slit throat which has now healed. She sits up slowly, looking around the empty church, overwhelmed with the memories.

Unsure of how she's alive, Lunar's mind swirls, but that doesn't matter right now. Nor the incessant hunger at the pit of her stomach, the itching in her veins. The sun coming through the church windows tell's her it's now morning, and she fears it's too late.